I really hope I got Peeta's view right. I'll let you guys be the judge. Happy reading.
(POV CHANGE)
Run. Run. Run. It's all that I can tell myself to ignore everything else. I can't stop to catch my breath, and my heart is beating at its max. They're after me, those mutts made to look like the dead tributes. My whole body aches with pain, but I force myself to keep going. It's funny when you're in pain; another pain makes the last one seem almost bearable. That's exactly what it feels like when a sword is punctured into my leg.
I fall to the ground. I hear the growls and moans of the mutts behind me, but that's not what keeps my attention. I look for my attacker, and instead of Cato standing over me, it's Katniss. Her face is stern and emotionless. She holds the sword above her head about to give the final blow to kill me. Time seems to freeze.
This is what she wants, for you to die. She hates you, and only wants to hurt you in every possible way. She killed your family and destroyed your home.
Time starts again. Her sword comes down, but I turn on my side, barely missing it. She pulls it out of the ground, and I get up. I limp away from her, and then I notice she's not following me, but the mutts still are. I don't know how long I continue to limp along. Soon, the mutts' moans and growls diminish and I'm left trying to catch my breath.
Just when I thought I was safe, something is stabbed right through me, and I see that's it was Katniss. I look at my chest and see the sword protruding through it. She pulls it out, and kicks me off balance. I fall backwards, watching the satisfaction in her cold gray eyes. She killed me.
I suddenly open my eyes to the lights, and immediately close them from the brightness. It gives me a headache, but I blink several times till my eyes adjust. My throat is dry and I see that from the EKG machine, my heart is still beating pretty fast. I grab the cup of water on a table beside me, and drown it all. I sit up, and in perfect timing, the doctor comes in.
"Nightmare again?" he asks.
"More like nigh terror, but I didn't kill anyone in this one," I say, my voice dry. "But she killed me."
The doctor nods. "Those thoughts shouldn't recur as much with your treatment," he says. "You haven't had an attack lately, which is a sign of improvement." He walks over beside the bed and takes a small light and shines it in my eyes. "Normal…" he looks to the EKG. "That will soon be at a normal rhythm."
"Am I going to have therapy all day, today?" I ask. I really hope not. I do want to get better, but all yesterday I didn't talk to anyone except my therapist. My therapist is a nice guy and all, but he isn't Katniss.
"You're scheduled a session between zero, nine hundred and ten hundred," he replies.
"Alright," I say. "Can I have breakfast in the dining hall?"
"Yes, but let me call a guard."
"Is it necessary?"
"We still have to be cautious," he says.
"Okay, I understand."
The doctor leaves the room, and I dress in the gray clothes. It's six AM, so there must be half of the people of 13 in the dining hall. The doctor comes back with a guard, but when the guard brings out the cuffs, the doctor waves them away. "He doesn't need them."
When I enter the dining hall, I immediately look for Katniss, but I don't see her. I grab a tray and look around again, but still no sign of her. She could be late, but I notice her mother isn't here either and she works at the hospital, so she has to eat early.
I sit at a table and slowly eat breakfast to stall the guard from telling we have to go back to the room. I scan the room for familiar faces. I don't see anyone, until Delly just so happens to be standing right behind me and shouts my name.
"Peeta!"
I turn around in my seat. "Hi Delly,"
"Did I scare you?" she asks teasingly.
"I've seen a lot of scary stuff, you'll have to better than that."
"Don't worry, next time I'll get you," she says. She takes a seat opposite of me with her tray. "So how have you been feeling?"
"Okay. How are you, Delly?"
"I'm pretty good. My brother and I help out in the Agriculture Room, and it really beautiful there. They grow all type of vegetable plants that flower, and well you know. I think it's beautiful."
"Sounds great," I say
"It's hard work, but we haven't been pushed too hard recently, because of the shipments."
"So you just work there because you want to?"
"Well yes! I lo-" she stops speaking and her smile dims down. I'm about to ask what's wrong, when a stiff hand grabs one of my shoulders. I turn around and see Haymitch.
"Long time no se-" I begin.
"Hold the pleasant talk for later, we need you in Command," he says.
"What's going on? Why do they want me in Command?" I ask.
"Well if you go, then you'll find out," he says.
I turn toward Delly, and see she looks concerned. I get up and grab my tray. "I'll talk to you later Delly." She nods and gives me a small smile. I return my tray. Haymitch walks oddly beside me. "What about the guard?" I ask.
"Don't worry about him. He knows," Haymitch replies.
"And I don't."
"You'll see when you get there," he says again. The tone of his voice has some urgency and anxiety in it. Whatever it is, it's not good. The first thing that comes up in my mind; it has something to do with Katniss.
"What am I walking into, Haymitch? I'd like to not walk in blind folded, if you know what I mean."
He sighs gruffly. "Katniss, that's what it's about." That's all he says, so I'm left to think what it could be. Did she get into trouble? Is she hurt? Why am I being brought to Command? I wasn't part of any of the missions and meetings she was in. I haven't done anything since I got here.
We enter Command, and we take seats at a large table. Some of these people I don't recognize. All I know is Beetee. I look to the expression of the people here for clues of what's going on. They all seem to know, except me.
In enters President Coin with a man and a woman who appear to be generals of the rebellion army, and then Ms. Everdeen follows in. She looks me in the eyes and then looks away. From the hurt in her eyes, I can see she's clearly upset. This isn't good.
President Coin takes a seat at the head of the table. Ms. Everdeen sits in the seat opposite of me.
"We're all here because of the disappearance of Katniss Everdeen." President Coin starts.
"Disappearance?" I say apprehensively. I look to Haymitch and then to Ms. Everdeen, who returns a sad look to me.
Coin continues. "Around eleven hundred hours last night, unidentified persons broke into Ms. Everdeen's boarding cell, and abducted Katniss. She appeared to have taken some pills that were thought to be for her health, but were actually later indentified to be a strong type of sleep syrup. The group was armed. They took one of the unauthorized hovercrafts and left District 13 with the help of a traitor. We have our list of suspects: one of our pilots, Keeve Salves; technician specialist, Hennie Erodes; soldiers Tyre Mills, and Eko Mills; and Dr. Quiri Odessa, who happens to be Katniss' doctor."
"I was well acquainted with her. She didn't seem like that kind of person. She was a very caring doctor. How couldn't I see she was a spy?" Ms. Everdeen mumbles dismally.
"It alright Ms. Everdeen, we had no knowledge that she was working for the Capitol. Many of our suspects have been citizens of District 13 for many years. This was obviously set up very long ago. The Capitol suspected our plan of rebellion. It's good that none of them were in our confidential planning."
I can tell by the look of Ms. Everdeen's look of slight irritation, she doesn't like President Coin. Wasn't she the one that told Kantiss to go on those missions?
"Do we know where they took her?" I ask.
"All of our hovercrafts have tracking devices, so yes, we do know. It's easy to suspect that she's being held in Snow's Mansion."
I feel absolute dread. They took her. They took her there. I don't want to imagine what they could they possibly doing to her right now. She's the symbol of a rebellion that they want to put an end to. Those endless days of being tortured by them was a nightmare, but knowing what they could do to her, it's a like a worst fear coming to life. What makes it all worse is that she's in an extremely fragile condition. She can't fight for herself like before. I can't stand the thought.
I run a hand through my hair. I look to Haymitch, and he looks discouraged. He knows there's little hope. I can't be like that. I'm not going to let the feelings of possibly losing her getting in the way of getting her back.
"What is our plan?" I ask assuredly.
Coin puts her hands together on the table. "We'll put together a team for the rescue, but we won't act until we know what Snow plans to do with her."
"What? We're just going to wait?"
"If you had control of the rebellion symbol, you wouldn't want to kill her immediately," Coin adds. "They'll want to use her first, and so she'll have to be kept alive."
"What if you're wrong? What if Snow wants to just televise her execution, like what they did to Portia and the other stylists?" I immediately feel bad about saying that in front of Ms. Everdeen. I quickly mouth an apology, but she just shakes her head.
"Don't worry about it," she says softly on the brink of tears.
"No, Snow is smarter than that. He would make sure that he lets everyone know he has Katniss Everdeen held captive," she answers back.
Beetee has a hand to his chin. "Snow would keep her alive, or else he wouldn't have any hold on the rebellion," he says. "He wants to use her for something, or he wouldn't have gotten into the trouble of taking her there."
That may be true, but that doesn't mean they won't hurt her in the meantime. They probably think she is completely informed of what District 13's plans are. They'll hurt her to get intel.
"Even if he is, he could still be trying to get information out her." I say.
"What about we just assemble a team first," Coin says. "Then there will be further discussion of what to do."
"Alright, put me on the team," I say. Haymitch grips my arm and looks at me questionably.
"I'm afraid not. You're doctor has informed me that you're not in a stable condition," says Coin.
"I'm good enough," I reply.
"There is no reason for you to go. We could assemble some soldiers already in the Capitol," the general to Coin's left speaks.
"Let me join them. I've been there before. I've been in the dungeons for weeks and I have a good idea of the layout of the bottom floors."
"We could use a Holo," says Coin.
"Actually," says the other general. "The Holo only lays out the streets of the Capitol and the active pods. The only other way of finding our way in the Mansion, would be communicating with our spies, but I'm afraid we haven't had much contact with them."
"Please, I'm your best asset. The doctor told me I'm improving and that I could be out of the hospital within just a few days." I say.
I can tell Coin doesn't like to compromise, but she agrees to it. She tells me for the next two days I'll be given longer sessions of therapy and training.
Coin dismisses everyone and walks out of the room along with the generals.
"You just don't stop, do you?" says Haymitch. "But eh, how could've I suspected something different?"
"Stop what? Protecting her?" I ask. This oddly irritates me. I don't know why.
"It's a remarkable what you do for her, but it could be used against you. You know you're not as well as you used to be."
"I understand that,"
"I'd hate to see you both gone… but no matter what, you're still going, right?"
"Of course,"
"Right, you always will." He smiles sadly and then walks out.
Ms. Everdeen walks up along with Beetee. "Oh Peeta. Never did I doubt that you would do all that you could to keep her safe. I just hope you truly understand everything that could happen."
I feel sad to see her even consider that. "I know, but I wouldn't want to think about it now. Not when I'm concentrating on bringing her back." I say in a low tone. "I will bring her back. I promise."
It looks like her eyes are watering. She hugs me, and then walks down the hall toward the hospital. I think that may be the first time Ms. Everdeen showed any type of real faith in the relationship I have with Katniss. It's not just a televised show, or some kind of forced relationship we have to play along with. It's not even forced because we're having a baby. It was never forced, well, from my side it wasn't.
"You are very brave and selfless," says Beetee. "You've always been. I have total confidence that you could do it. No doubt." He says.
"Thanks Beetee."
"Have you seen the Meadow?" he asks.
That's pretty random. "Yes, Katniss showed it to me."
"I see, and pretty remarkable isn't it?"
"Yeah, looks just like the one in 12." I don't understand why he's asking me this.
"Yes. Well, I've got to go back to work. You stop by whenever you like," he says.
"Alright," I say. We walk in opposite directions, and then find Haymitch at the end of the hall, because he has to walk me back to the hospital room. A letter from Coin and a plea from me, convinces the doctor that I'm alright enough to go on the mission. In return he lengthens my therapy session for today. Good, I'll get better sooner.
After two and half hours, I'm given lunch. The portions are slightly bigger, since I won't be in a room all day. After that, I go to training.
There aren't many people, and the trainer seems out of it. He tells us what to do, and I do it with as much enthusiasm that I can. I start realize how weak I've become, and that I'm not as fast as I used to be. I lift weights and then run around a track, holding a gun. I can run pretty close to perfect with my bionic leg. Everyone watches a trainer properly dress a wound, and then a siren to announce the end of the period, sounds.
Back in the room, I sit on the bed and take the instructions on "how to properly wash your hands". I flip it over and take the pencil from its hiding place from under the pillow. Katniss, please be okay. I begin to draw. I start with shading the background of the drawing, and even though dandelions are drawn in black pencil, I can almost see the golden-yellow color of their petals. I'm drawing entirely from what I see in my head, and I distinctly remember the dandelion she picked up, that one day after school.
There's a knock on the door. I hide the pencil and the guard from earlier comes in.
"I'm here to escort you to Command," he says.
So soon. We were just there this morning. "Alright," I say. I put away the paper, and follow the guard out. I know it's no use asking him what's going on. It could be news of what's happening in the Capitol. I'm hoping it's good, or maybe I should at least be hoping it's not too bad.
The door slides open, with a scanner that identifies the guard. There's Coin at the head of the table. Ms. Everdeen, Haymitch, and Beetee look to see me come in, and then move their attention back to a screen. "What's going on?" I ask.
"Your girlfriend is on television," says Haymitch.
There just isn't enough Delly, but sadly, she's not that important. Peeta is still "sick", but right now he's pretty much off the phase of trying kill Katniss. Next chapter, televised showing with Katniss. Thanks for any feedback you might leave. Oh yeah, and happy Valentine's Day.
-cheezebuns