Chapter 14. Broken

Katniss's breath caught in her throat and she ran straight up the stairs. She burst into the room. Inside stood Peeta, arms covered in scratch marks and his right eye beginning to swell. He was in a trance-like state of shock as he stood over his mother, who laid on the ground with blood escaping the shot wound in her forehead. Between her and Peeta laid the gun he had taken from Peacekeeper Thread.

Katniss gasped, her eyes shooting from Peeta to his mother prone on the floor. She put a hand over her mouth. "Peeta, what have you done?"

Peeta at this point couldn't even speak coherant sentences. Slowly he backed up until his back was up against the wall and slid down it to a sit, his eyes starting to gloss over.

"I-I didn't... she was... Dad..."

She watched him and slowly lowered her hand. She walked over to him and kneeled in front of him, touching his bruised eye gently. "Peeta, it's okay. It's not your fault. Look at your face..."

He shook his head furiously before putting his face in her hands. She gripped his shoulders tightly, concerned. "Come on, Peeta. Come on, you need to get out of this room."

"H-he left us - Just a note." Peeta murmured, refusing to move or look at her. "S-she couldn't - she shot - I can't leave her." He wasn't even making sense anymore.

Katniss paused for a brief second before wrapping her arms around him. "Peeta, please."

Peeta winced at the sudden contact and almost went to push her away. Instead though, he gripped her shoulders tightly and buried his face in her shoulder, a few stray tears starting to fall from his cheeks.

His father was gone and his mother was dead. He never felt so useless, alone, and unstable before.

Katniss stroked his hair softly and kissed his temple. "It's okay, Peeta, I'm here. We'll just sit here for a while, okay? Until you're ready."

Peeta just nodded slowly as he continued to cling to her, almost like a lost child. It was exactly what he felt like. "I-I can't believe she..."

Katniss continued to stroke his hair and rock him gently, like she had done with Prim after the news about their mother. "I know. Just try to calm down. Focus on my voice. I'm here, Peeta, and everything's going to be okay."

Peeta just nodded and remained quiet, trying to take everything in and find a way to deal with it. The fact that Katniss was here did comfort him a great deal, but the impact of everything was still crushing him.

After some time - a half hour, maybe full hour - Peeta slowly lifted his head from Katniss's shoulder and stared up at her. "I-I need to get out of this room."

Katniss looked down at him and nodded, setting her hands gently on his shoulders before standing up. "Alright. Let's go."

Peeta pushed his back against the wall to try and hoist himself up. Once on his feet, he took a very wobbly step forward and nearly fell over. He was still too shaken to be moving on his own, but he knew he needed to get out. To get away from his mother. To wake up from this nightmare to his mom and dad bickering back at the bakery about how the pie crusts are too thick.

Katniss moved forward quickly and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Peeta, just lean on me, okay? We need to get to Haymitch's to figure out what to do." She was avoiding looking in the direction where Peeta's mother was still laying.

He looked up at her, nodding as he tried to straighten up. Suddenly, he reached down and gripped her hand. "Please don't leave me too."

She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him for a moment before gently kissing his forehead. "Peeta, I'm not going to."

"Y-You promise?"

"I promise, Peeta. Why would you even say something like that?"

"I just - it doesn't seem I have many people left..."

She squeezed his hand tightly. "We stuck together through the Games and we'll stick together now. Forever, okay?"

"Forever?" he asked, needing reassurance. "This i-isn't another act?"

She frowned, unsure if he really thought that lowly of her. "There's no one to act for here, Peeta."

He nodded as he forced out a small, empty smile. "Forever. T-thanks, Katniss."

She smiled at him reassuringly and tightened her arm around his waist before leading him from the room. Peeta followed, still a little zombie-like. However, he seemed the tiniest bit better which was still a plus, all things considered. He lifted his head slightly as he followed. "Where are we going?"

Katniss helped him out of the house and smoothed his hair back from his face a little. "Haymitch's."

"Why? Can't we just stay here… in case she wakes up."

She closed her eyes briefly and shook her head, forcing a smile. "Peeta, she - I need to speak with Effie and Haymitch. And I'm not leaving you. We'll come back, okay?"

"Okay," he muttered, dropping his head again. Katniss held him close, feeling her heart break further. She pressed her mouth against his temple again, and walked into Haymitch's house.

Inside, the only person in the living room left was Prim. Passing through, she was carrying a bucket of water with a blood stained rag inside of it which she had been using to clean Haymitch's wound. When the door opened, she stopped, looked over, and smiled. "Welcome back, Katniss. Peeta."

Katniss smiled, slightly strained, at Prim. "Hi, Prim. Where are Haymitch and Effie?"

"Haymitch's room. He's still resting, I just finished putting bandages on him. Effie and Gale are talking to him."

She nodded a little. "If you're finished, do you think you could sit down here with Peeta while I talk with them?"

Prim blinked, looking at Peeta then back at Katniss. "Is everything okay?"

She smiled reassuringly at both Peeta and Prim, sitting Peeta down in a chair. "Of course."

Prim nodded before putting the bucket down and sitting by Peeta. "Okay. Knock before you go in though, they said it was private."

She nodded a little and rubbed Peeta's shoulder gently before heading upstairs. She stopped outside Haymitch's door and knocked.

"We're almost done, Prim," Effie called back towards the door.

"It's Katniss."

There was a quiet pause before the door opened, but Effie didn't answer. Gale stood on the other side, holding the door open for her. "Hey, how was Madge?"

She shook her head quickly, stepping in. "I didn't see Madge. I saw Peeta and this is an emergency."

"Emergency? Dear Lord, what on earth happened now?" Effie groaned from her chair she was sitting at next to Haymitch's bed.

Haymitch sat up slightly in his bed to look at Katniss while she searched for the words before sighing. "I think he killed his mother."

There was a very long and awkward pause as everybody just stared at her in disbelief. Leave it to Effie Trinket to be the first to speak.

"WHAT? What do you mean 'killed his mother'? How? Why?"

"She," Katniss sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Well, you know she was a bit on the angry side. I've heard it before, her hitting him. She freaked out when she found out Mr. Mellark was gone and I think Peeta shot her in the head. I guess he took Thread's gun and - I didn't know what to do."

Haymitch continued staring at her for a long time before falling back on his pillows, groaning.

"Where is he now?" Gale asked, looking like he was ready to rush out and find him.

"Downstairs with Prim. He wanted to stay with his. He still thinks she's going to wake up." She bit her bottom lip and looked up at him. Gale froze on the spot before staring at Katniss with strong disbelief.

"Peeta just murdered his mother and you think it's a good idea to leave him alone with Prim?"

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Why is it a bad idea to leave him with Prim? I couldn't bring him up here, he can't listen to this."

"He just murdered somebody, Katniss. His mother, none the less! He's obviously not mentally stable!"

She frowned. "He's fine! I sat with him for almost an hour and he's fine. Don't call him mentally unstable."

"Katniss, you said it himself. He murdered his mother. What if Prim says the wrong thing to him that sets him off again? How can you be calm about this?"

She just stood there a moment, her face going from indignant at Gale to slowly horrified. Oh god, what is wrong with me? She turned and ran back down the stairs, unsure why she didn't even think twice before leaving her sister with Peeta. Close on her heels, Gale ran down after her, leaving behind a very concerned and slightly freaked out Effie to tend to the wounded Haymitch.

Haymitch sighed. "Everything always has to happen in the same day, doesn't it?"

Katniss ran into the living room and looked at Peeta and Prim. Much to Katniss and Gale's relief, Prim was completely fine. In fact, she had somehow moved Peeta from the chair to sitting next to her on the couch. Prim had also introduced Buttercup to the conversation, who was curled up on Prim's lap but had his head resting on Peeta's leg.

She stopped when she saw Katniss and smiled at her and Gale. "Katniss! You're done talking to Haymitch and Effie already?"

Katniss panted slightly, watching them for a second, before turning and glaring at Gale. Gale stared at the two before turning back to the glaring huntress beside him. "What?"

She put her hands on her hips. "You made me panic for no reason!"

"You act like I knew for certain! I was only concerned. It's obvious I wouldn't have known everything would be okay!"

"I'm just saying you said..."

She trailed off, glancing at Peeta and Prim. She was afraid Peeta was too fragile to hear much of anything right now, so she took Gale's sleeve and headed back upstairs. Gale let out a heavy sigh before following her back to the room. Upon re-entry, Effie looked at the two.

"Is Prim okay? Even if she isn't, just tell me yes otherwise I'm going to hop over that fence and run myself back to the Capitol to get away from all this chaos."

Katniss sighed and glared at Gale again before looking back at Effie. "She's fine, Gale's just being paranoid. Now, what am I supposed to do with the dead body in my house?"

"We can call Darius. Tell him she killed herself after finding out her husband helped the 'traitor' escape," Gale suggested, making the quotation symbols with his fingers over the word traitor.

Katniss paused and then looked at him. "I hadn't thought of that. It does look kind of self inflicted."

"Are you sure it wasn't?" Effie asked, a little hopeful.

"I-I don't know. Maybe," she pondered before shaking her head. "I'll go find Darius again."

Gale nodded towards her. Effie however, crossed her arms. "Is there anything else while we're all here? Anyone else arrested, died, or anything of that sort? Now would be the best time, I can't get any more frenzied then I am now."

Katniss narrowed her eyes a bit before Haymitch set his hand on Effie's arm. "It's been a hard day. Katniss, just get your house situation settled and we can all try to relax. Right, Effie?"

Effie just huffed, saying nothing more. Katniss nodded and walked back downstairs, Gale close behind. Haymitch looked at Effie pointedly. "Now, was that so hard?"

"This is all so crazy," she muttered, pushing his hand off her arm.

He set his hand flat on the bed and frowned. "It would be less crazy if the littlest Everdeen would bring me my damn white liquor."

"That only helps your case," she spat, looking at him. "Which, in the long term, is going to kill you. Maybe that's why the little medic is refusing to give you any."

Haymitch glared at her. "Yeah, well, stress is going to kill you, so we're in the same boat, Trinket."

Effie bit her bottom lip before speaking without much thought behind it. "Well, perhaps I'd be less stressed if I didn't have to juggle responsibility over two of the most unexpectedly difficult Victors in Hunger Games history and an irresponsible, careless drunk I wouldn't be so stressed."

Haymitch looked at her for a second before setting his head back down on his pillow. "Well, if that's how you feel, how about you leave me alone? Go brush your hair or something, you self-centered, Capitol-bred princess."

Effie's eyes flared suddenly at his words before standing up to leave. "Better that then to drown my sorrows uncontrollably through alcohol! At least I try to actually do something!"

Haymitch sat up and looked at her through narrowed eyes, ignoring the pain that shot up his left side. "Yeah, well, I'd rather be a 'drunk' than be a selfish prude who thinks she's above everyone else!"

"SELFISH? You may be older than me, but I never thought you were so senile! My entire career is dedicated to Katniss and Peeta now and I even helped with this entire Iris ordeal! But no, apparently I'm self-centered and selfish? Lay down before you hurt yourself and keep crying over the fact that your liver isn't dying fast enough!"

He scowled. "Oh, I know your job is so hard! Helping take children and teach them how to be well-mannered before they die!"

"At least I manage to successfully accomplish my job! Unlike yours which you have the option to choose if you feel like trusting in the child entrusted to you, I don't have that luxury! I have to slave over every little detail right down to what their diets should consist of! I have to fully immerse myself in these children, while you just sit back and could not care any less!"

"I couldn't care less? Am I not the one who just got SHOT protecting someone very important to Katniss? Effie, you're a rookie. You haven't had to see kid after kid come through here and die. It doesn't matter to you. You'll never understand it because you're a Capitol pawn. You've never had it like Katniss or Prim or Gale or myself and you never will.

"You give food to these kids who have never tasted anything like the gourmet food you're shoving down their throats and then you judge them for not having proper table manners. You're disgusting. You can try to pretend to care, but we all know you'd rather be in the Capitol, going to fancy parties that celebrate the deaths of innocent children, instead of sitting here, in peasant District 12."

Effie couldn't take it anymore. Injured or otherwise, she didn't care what condition Haymitch was in. She promptly took a step forward before bringing her hand up and smacking him with as much strength as she could muster across the face.

Haymitch's head snapped to the side. He chuckled before wiping a small amount of blood from his lip. "If you can't handle the truth, don't start things you can't finish, Effie."

"You - You're the disgusting one, Abernathy. You don't understand me and you never will."

"Ditto, sweetheart."

"Don't give me one of your stupid pet names," she spat before turning and storming out the door. However, it wasn't her room she turned to. Instead, she marched down the stairs and into the kitchen, making certain to break the first bottle of alcohol she found as loudly as possible.

He winced and just fell back against his pillows, crossing his arms.

"I can't believe I almost..."

He trailed off and turned onto his good side.