Chapter Ten

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This chapter is dedicated to Maddi, Eliley, SheWolf412, Quints57, KoteDiM, Jedi1, MiaBelles, xerxia31, smellysocks101, avr1432, agibson76, Lauredil, and Abi-Cadabby. Please support their work - my readers are the superstars, and I couldn't keep this updated without them!

And Chapter Ten - enjoy!

~ Peeta ~

Roland came and found me later that night. Asher was sleeping on the other side of our room, but I sat up awake, clutching my pillow close to my chest and trying to shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong.

"Peeta… you okay?" he asked from the doorway. I looked up at him. He was dressed, but his eyes were empty.

I nodded. I was okay. "Why was Mom in your room?" I asked, not sure if I really wanted to know. Roland looked away. "Why, Roland?" I pressed.

Roland sighed and squinted into the darkness, looking for Asher. "He's sleeping?"

"Yeah. Why, Roland?"

But Roland only shook his head. "Lock your door after I leave, okay?" He raised his eyebrows and waited to leave until I muttered my consent.

~X~

My mom didn't speak to me much after that. I tried not to think much of it. I didn't understand what I had seen, and I didn't want to know why it made me feel uncomfortable night after night as I lay in bed across the room from Asher and stared at the ceiling, wanting to disappear anywhere else but not even knowing where to dream.

One evening, I stayed in the kitchen late with Roland to help him finish the clean-up for the next day. He was scrubbing out the ovens, his arms deep inside as he reached for the back corners. I packaged the last of the leftover bread and pulled out a chair at the kitchen table, trying to compose the words I needed in my head.

"Go to sleep, Peeta," Roland said quietly, his voice muffled by the thick oven walls.

But I refused to leave, and instead pulled my feet up onto the edge of the chair and wrapped my arms around my knees.

"Why doesn't Mom talk to me anymore?" I asked. "She doesn't even yell. She just ignores me."

Roland withdrew from the oven and walked over to the sink to wash the soot from his arms. He glanced at me as he reached for the tap, but when he saw me staring hard at him, he averted his eyes.

"It's just your imagination, Peeta," he said finally, drying his hands on the towel that hung from the hook above the sink.

"Is it because I saw her in your room that night?" I pressed.

"You didn't see anything."

"I saw you without any clothes on."

"It was nothing, Peeta."

"Roland," I began more softly, sliding down from my chair. I walked over to him and tried to hug him, as I was still just young enough to do. "Why won't you tell me the truth?"

Roland sighed and looked down at me, then wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"The truth is a funny thing, Peeta," he said slowly, a grim smile on his face. "Sometimes, it's not cut and dry. Not just what happened, but what for."

~ Katniss ~

I wake just before we land at the Capitol hospital. Peeta is already sitting upright and sipping from a glass of water, looking vacantly toward the back of the hovercraft.

"Are you ready?" I ask gently, yawning and sliding over to sit beside him.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he replies, setting the glass down at his side.

"That's not true. You'll keep healing, a little bit every day."

Peeta shrugged. "Help me up?"

The hovercraft coasts to the ground as I steady Peeta on his crutches and hold his shoulders so that he doesn't fall when the hovercraft shudders upon landing. The swelling on his stump seems to have worsened during the overnight flight, but Peeta doesn't complain, and instead begins to maneuver himself toward the door. Haymitch waits for him with the pilot, and together they help him down the steep steps. I glance around the cabin to make sure that we haven't forgotten anything, and then follow Peeta. But before I reach the door, I hear voices rising.

"Peeta? Peeta! It's Peeta, Peeta Mellark!"

"Peeta Mellark, in the Capitol!"

"Peeta, why are you here?"

"Over here, Peeta Mellark!"

"Just a photo?"

"Where is he?"

"Peeta!"

I run for the stairs and take them as fast as I can, nearly leaping out of the hovercraft. The tall glass facade of the hospital can't be more than fifty yards ahead of me, but the street is filling with spectators. I squint past the colorful clothing and wigs, trying to make out my husband.

"Peeta!" I call, but it's a terrible mistake —I hear my own name shouted through the crowd, and a camera flashes. Suddenly, someone grabs my arm and I'm yanked forward. I'm ready to fight, but Haymitch's gruff voice stops me.

"Come on, Katniss, we've got to move."

We push through the crowd, and it's all I can do to keep forcing one foot in front of the other, plunging toward the hospital doors.

"Let's go," Haymitch urges, and I try to move faster.

Peeta needs to be in the hospital. He needs to be okay, I berate myself, wishing furiously that I hadn't made him come here, that I hadn't subjected him to this. The crowd is so excited that I can hardly hear my own thoughts, and just as I think I might never escape their shouting and cheering, I'm through the hospital doors, collapsing into Haymitch's arms in the lobby.

"Shh," he comforts me, patting my back. "Katniss, you've got to be strong right now."

"I didn't know," I gasp. "I thought—never again. Never again, Haymitch."

"Katniss, listen to me. Peeta needs you to be strong."

"Peeta," I cry, pulling away from Haymitch and drying my eyes on my sleeve. "Where is he, Haymitch? Did they hurt him?"

"No," Haymitch assures me, steering me gently toward the elevators. "Katniss, that crowd was just excited. Obnoxious? Yes. Dangerous? Not yet. Peeta's fine. Dr. Aurelius ran out to help him and probably just took him upstairs."

I push toward the elevators. "I need to be with him," I insist, but Haymitch stops me.

"Not like that. You need to take a deep breath, sweetheart. That boy needs you, but he needs you strong. He can't keep himself together right now and keep you stable."

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, forcing myself to relax my shoulders. "Okay," I confirmed after half a minute. "Let me see him."

Haymitch shook his head. "Katniss…"

"He's my husband and he needs me, Haymitch," I insisted, reaching for the elevator button myself.

"If I let you up there, you have to be reassuring, Katniss."

"Fine."

Haymitch sighs and presses the elevator button.

"You'll try?" he asks, and I nod, pulling him into the elevator with me when the doors slide open.

We rise in silence until we reach the sixth floor, and Haymitch gestures for me to step out first. Then he leads me down a hallway of closed metal doors with little windows on top, until we reach a row of offices on one side of the floor. Haymitch pushes the first door open without knocking.

"Aurelius," he says by way of greeting as he strides into the office, pulling me along with him. There's a large desk near the wall and a floor-to-ceiling window on the far side of the room. But I have eyes only for Peeta, who is sitting on the edge of a sofa in the back corner with Dr. Aurelius in the armchair beside him.

"Katniss, Haymitch," Dr. Aurelius says, rising to greet us. I brush past him and make straight for the back of the room. I can feel Haymitch and Dr. Aurelius' eyes on me when I sit down beside Peeta and immediately wrap my arms around him.

"You're safe," I breathe, but he doesn't respond. It's only when I release my grip on him just a little that I realize he's trembling with his eyes closed and his fists clenched. "Peeta, I didn't know," I plead with him, trying to bring him back to me.

"Peeta, try to remember those recentering exercises we practiced," Dr. Aurelius advises, and I hear Peeta's breathing begin to slow.

"You're okay," I assure him. "I'm here, Haymitch is here, Dr. Aurelius is here. That was the hard part. You're in the hospital now. No one can touch you."

"No one can touch me," he repeats quietly, and I nod in encouragement.

"That's right. That's right, Peeta."

I slip my hand under the hem of his shorts and lift it just a little. I press a couple of bruised spots and Peeta inhales sharply. Gingerly, I remove my finger from his skin and push his shorts up to expose the rest of the injury. Dr. Aurelius comes up beside me and kneels in front of Peeta to examine his stump.

"You were right to bring him here. We'll take another set of scans and have him in surgery in the morning. And then lots and lots of painkillers," he adds, looking up at Peeta. My husband opens his eyes and stares at the doctor for a long moment.

"Hello again," he says resignedly, and Dr. Aurelius cracks a smile.

"Well, hello. We'll take good care of you here. You have nothing to worry about."

Peeta nods, although I know he's not quite convinced.

I glance out the window behind me. It's mirrored, so I can see out but no one can see in. A news helicopter swoops past, and when I listen carefully, I can hear the lingering excitement in the streets.

"They'll leave soon, right?" I asked softly. Haymitch huffed a little, but no one replied. I leaned toward the glass and saw that the street was still full of Capitol citizens, many of whom were scanning their eyes up and down the glass facade.

I'm reminded of the revolution days, when I tried to conceal myself behind thick furs in the Capitol streets with Squad 451.

I can only hope that Peeta isn't recalling the same memories. Because I can't reassure him that they're not real.

"I'm not writing the damn press release," Haymitch finally mutters.

"Press release?" I exclaim, turning back toward him. "Who said anything about a press release?"

"Effie would," Haymitch reply curtly, glaring just past me at the helicopter lingering outside the window.

"Well Effie's not here," I shoot back, rising from the sofa. "We don't have to tell them anything. We don't owe them anything."

"Okay, Katniss," Haymitch says sardonically, crossing his arms. "So Peeta just hops out of the hovercraft, takes a stroll over to the hospital on his crutches, looks a bit like he's been through hell, a little drama with you and me and Dr. Aurelius here and maybe, maybe if we all just pretend like nothing ever happened, they'll all just go away and let you be, because it's not really all that big of a deal when—"

"Stop," Peeta whispers. "Please stop. Both of you." I look down at him, my mouth open just a little as all the words that I'd like to shoot back at Haymitch catch on my tongue. Peeta shrinks back against the sofa, and I try to soften the harshness that I figure must be written across my face. I take a deep breath and bite my lip.

"You're usually the diplomatic one," I say finally, trying to smile at him.

"I'm sorry," he says softly. "I'll write whatever we need to tell them. Just… please… not right now?"

"No," Dr. Aurelius confirms.

"No," Haymitch says firmly. "Damnit, kid. No."

"Haymitch," Dr. Aurelius cautions him, holding up his hand in a silencing gesture. "We don't need to report anything right now. Peeta, let's finish those scans so that you can rest up for surgery."

The phone rings on Dr. Aurelius' desk, and he walks over to check the caller I.D.

"Trinket?" he asks, and Haymitch groans.

"Didn't take her long," he replies, holding out his hand to take the receiver. "Effie, it's Haymitch." He pauses. "What? No. Well it's got to be because — what? … Effie. Effie. Listen. I don't know! I'm with Peeta. … Dr. Aurelius' office, yes. He's fine. Not fine. Alive. Safe. … Yes." He ends the call and tosses the receiver back onto Dr. Aurelius' desk. Crossing his arms across his chest, he looks hard at Peeta.

"Well, kid. Whole city thinks you've gone mad."