I hope you all enjoy this one…it's a bit slow, heavy on the story telling I think. But don't worry I have not forgotten about Annie's baby, Effie's romance or Gale.

Peeta and I are dressed to Effie's standards and are waiting by the doors when the train slowly pulls into the station. The crowd to meet up here is smaller, District Two was the most aligned with the Capital and the death toll from the rebellion was particularly high here because of the Nut. Effie had warned us that there were people here who still mourn the fall of the previous regime and who may not be very welcoming to us. But I think, after surviving the Games and then the war, that I should be able to handle some hostility.

The train finally comes to a stop and the doors open, Effie escorts us out into the platform where a photographer is waiting to take our picture. As I turn towards the camera I spot someone familiar off in the corner looking at us. My face registers shock as I realize it is Enobaria. We'd not heard from her since that last meeting with Coin…sitting around the table and having a vote on having a final Game with the children from the Capital. She must have been sitting near the other tributes watching as I assassinated Coin, but after that I had no idea where she had gone and what became of her.

After a few minutes in front of the photographer Effie led us to the side of the platform to Enobaria and my nerves begin to act up. During the Quell she had been in the process of trying to kill me when we were rescued, I wonder what she thinks about me and Peeta now. I don't have too long to think this over as Effie is walking at top speed, in more of a hurry than usual.

"Well….isn't it nice to see our little Mockingjay again?" Enobaria chuckles lightly but sounds more or less friendly. "No really, good to see you both. We thought you might stay with me while you're here. How about that?"

Peeta steps in for the both of us, "Sounds good to me… it's been too long really, I had no idea you were back in the district."

During this exchange Effie has been ushering the three of us over to the road where a car was waiting for us, the three of us piled into the back seat and Effie sat with the driver in the front.

"Yea, I came back here. Really I had nowhere else to go and I couldn't stomach the thought of staying in 13 for a moment longer than I needed to. All those long tunnels, so deep under the ground… it was suffocating to me. I need to be out here…in the fresh air, the sunlight, and all of that."

I nod and understand completely, living in 13 was odd; it was so far underground that at times it reminded me of the mines where my father had worked and eventually died, I didn't need the constant reminder, I hoped that when this little adventure was over we'd never move permanently back there again, I also needed the fresh air.

We ride the rest of the way to their Victor's Village in silence, the homes are even grander than those in District 1 and the streets are paved with some type of material that seems to sparkle as we drive past. When we are in front of Enobaria's the driver open the doors for us but Effie stays in the car. "I have some things to attend to… I will be by tomorrow morning, first time. You have a big day!" Peeta shoots her a questioning look, but she doesn't elaborate further and is driven off before anything else can be said.

Enobaria leads us into her house, and we all sit awkwardly in the living room. "Welcome to my home" she starts, the aggression I had known her for seems to be gone. "When I heard the two of you were coming…I thought it might be nice to have you stay with me. The last time I saw you…it wasn't…well we were all not doing our best."

I laugh, almost snorting at her statement, "Well that's saying it lightly. Last I remember we were voting on a final games, but I suppose you were there when I….well killed the wrong president?" I decide to put it out there, no sense in beating around the bush with her. Peeta takes my hand in his and gives me a squeeze.

"Oh yes! God how I am glad that bitch is dead. I wanted that one last game when she first brought up, wanted it badly." She settles further into the couch, clearly ready to talk for awhile. "I wanted revenge, for everything that I had gone through, for everything we all had gone through. Worse of all, for all the people that went through so much but didn't survive to tell the tale. I wondered how the citizens of the Capital would feel if it were their own precious children going into the Games and dying for the entertainment of others."

"I trained my entire life for the games, around here it was an honor to have your name drawn and there were no shortage of volunteers to take your place if you weren't willing. But… that is crazy now that I think of it. Why were parents so eager to train their own children to die? There could be only one winner, well except for you two, so it was almost certain death for someone heading into the arena. Still, it made my parents so brought that I went. If I had died they would have been sad, but beaming with pride at how I went down. That is so sick."

"When I was little I always knew that I would end up a tribute. In school our physical education program was geared towards the skills needed in the arena. After I got out of class each day my father would take me to the gym to practice my skills more." She shakes her head sadly, remembering her parents. "And all for what? I almost think it would have been better to die in the arena than to deal with what you have to deal with as a Victor. I thought life would be so nice as a Victor, they were like celebrities around here, they seemed to get so many special favors from the Capital."

:But little did I know… no one could have known, we Victors were threatened into silence, breathing one word of our treatment to others would be a guaranteed way for our families to suffer and our loved ones to be killed or tortured." She paused for a long time looking down at her hands before looking back up at me.

"Katniss, I think your fate would have been a lot like mine. They waited until I was no longer a minor, apparently they had some decency. But as soon as I was 18 I went to the Capital and was sold to whoever would pay the highest sum. It was…humiliating…degrading…horrible. Those men, old and disgusting, had no respect for me or my body, they didn't give a fuck about me." Towards the end her voice raised in anger and her eyes revealed a rage that was still burning fresh in her mind.

"Being with a Victor was such an honor I guess…but I was never given a choice. If I didn't go along with it and even pretend to enjoy it my parents and siblings would have been killed. It makes me sick that I had to play along like I liked what was happening to me…so the people who bought me needed to get a good value for their money, apparently being with someone who was crying and shaking made them feel bad, I had to be charming and open to them for….their enjoyment."

She stopped talking, drained emotionally from sharing her experience with us. "Did it happen to all of the Victors?" I asked, thinking of Haymitch and whether people paid to sleep with him as well.

She shakes her head, "No… not all of us… most of the women, as male victors were much more common. For the guys… the more attractive the more likely he was to be sold. It was really dependant on who was willing to buy what and at what price. Finnick was sold often, it really killed him because his heart was with Annie. Others, those who were unattractive were generally not used for those purposes. The Capitol still found ways to keep them under their thumb, but different ways."

Peeta had been quite in all of this but had been thinking of Haymitch as well it seems, "What about….Haymitch? He spent so much of his time drunk and dirty that I can't imagine…" he trails off not wanting to finish the sentence.

She laughs, "He is quite the mess now… has been for years. It was before my time but the rumors were that he was used that way for a number of years but eventually he began to drank, stopped bathing, and he basically made himself someone no one wanted to sleep with. It was a way of protecting himself they told me when I asked about him after my Games." She shakes her head sadly "but it seems to have ruined him anyhow. He didn't have to do those things anymore, but he was in his own personal hell anyhow it would seem."

Peeta nodded, "Thank you for sharing that with us. When we found out what was happening it was shocking, all those years we'd all thought of Finnick as the playboy of the Victors but in reality…" he didn't finish his sentence and his face flushed with embarrassment. "I guess in that way we were lucky the rebellion came when it did."

I nod along with him, and think about what it would have been like, my first time with some disgusting stranger who had paid for me and I shiver at the thought. "I am so sorry that happened to you, I…I can't even imagine what it must have been like. I guess now I can see why so many Victor's developed a drug or alcohol problem… it was one way to deal with the things that were happening."

Enobaria smiled sadly, "Yes you were lucky…as pretty as you and as handsome as Peeta you would have spent at least a decade in service, as the Capital called it. I thought as a Victor I would be free to anything I wanted, but in reality we were not free at all."

Peeta decided to press on with another difficult discussion topic, "So talking about the rebellion, how was that on you and on the people of this District? We were warned that sympathizers of the past regime still exist here…" he didn't finish his thought but we all knew where he was headed with it. I slid slightly closer to him on the couch and turned my attention back to Enobaria, still surprised at her calm demeanor and candor with us.

"Ah the rebellion. Well, at first I was against it, after all I was freed when you were broken out of the arena. The Capital used me, but they still trusted District 2 the most, we were all so loyal they never thought I would join in with the rebels. I guess I was so good at being their little puppet they figured I had no thoughts of my own, able only to spit back what they had indoctrinated me with." She shook her head and looked back at the two of us before continuing. "I decided to join towards the end, victory for the rebels seemed sure to me, the whole country was so sick of being under Snow's crushing rule that I had to listen, to stop repeating what the Capital forced down my throat and think of the others, those outside of 2, people who lived horrible lives and had to send their children to their death. Even people whose children I had killed back then."

"Around the District joining the rebels was not done lightly, joining them meant moving out of the District because of the high number of Peacekeepers and military members here. More than half the people in the town were working for snow and the army, more than enough people to quash any bit of rebellion. People who were suspected of people Rebel sympathizers were dragged out of their houses and publically punished and killed. It was horrible, no one said a word about anything to do with the rebellion out of fear of being accused of being a rebel."

It is hard to envision such violence in a District that was so aligned with the Capital. But before I could ask any questions she continued. "Well...after all the other Districts joined in the rebellion and the Rebels had made it here and bombed the Nut there was no choice, the District had to go with the Rebels, most of the people who were Rebel sympathizers had already made their way out of the District and to 13. After the bombing I came back with the Rebels, fought in the last battle against the Capital…and well you know the rest."

Peeta speaks first, "Did you want to join in, or did you feel like you had no choice." He said it so bluntly I wondered if Enobaria would take offense, but looking over at her it doesn't seem so.

"At first no…I thought life would be even worse for me without the Capital at least providing for me and my family. You see…while the other Districts were often oppressed and had shortages of supplies we had so many military and government members living here that for the most part, it was second only to being in the Capital for quality of life and the freedoms most people had. But after seeing what was happening to people thought to be sympathizers I thought more about the way of life in Panem, and the premise of the Games and I began to find it wrong, to wish for something different. But as a Victor, the only one who escaped torture after being captured by the Capital I was too afraid to do anything until the Rebels came to the District." She shakes her head "I am so disappointed in myself… I was so brave and fearless during the Games and the Quell, but I chickened out here. I knew what was right and I didn't stand up for it. I will live with the guilt forever."

Seeing her this upset with herself makes me feel very badly for her, I have a lot of guilt around the rebellion as well, a lot of things I did that I regret, things I did not do out of fear. "What's done is done" I say quietly "No one could blame you for that." I continue, I want to make her stop feeling guilty, but I know she never will.

"My mother and father… they joined the Capital forces, and they were killed." She lets out a long sigh "My little brother, an adult now made it over to 13 with me, now he's living there still. But my parents and everyone else fighting for the Capital is hated now…I have to say I wish they hadn't joined the fight at all, but the two of them were never ones to back down from a conflict, and they died not backing down. It was for nothing though, the wrong side."

Peeta nodded, "That must be so hard, not to have them around, and to have people think badly of them. I understand why they joined with the Capital, they weren't the only ones. Maybe if we had grown up in 2 things would be different, we wouldn't have such a strong drive to rebel."

She locks eyes with him, "My parents were good people…they were good people. This is the way of life they knew, they had no idea what the Capital was doing to me, no idea about the blackmailing and constant threats to their lives. If they knew it would have been different." She chuckled darkly "At least that's what I tell myself."

I want to change the subject, it is hard to think about people actually wanting the old Capital regime to conquer, the Capital was so corrupt and unjust, it is so obvious to me, I can't see past that to understand her parents at all. "So…what have you been doing since you left 13?"

Enobaria shakes the dark look off of her face, "Well, I came back here because at least I would have a home. Being a Victor doesn't get you nearly what it did before. People still respect the few remaining Victors but gone are the days where I was sent money and food on a regular basis. So now I write a newspaper column and I am working on a book of my experiences, all of them. I want people to know the truth." She laughs "Imagine that! Me… a writer! But it passes the day, and really there is something soothing about getting everything out, telling the truth about how things used to be, hopefully we will never go back there!."

I let out an involuntary yawn and Peeta glanced at the large clock in the room. "Time for bed Katniss?" he asks me and I nod, wanting to talk to Enobaria more, but needing sleep to be up for Effie tomorrow morning.

Enobaria shows us upstairs to the bedrooms, "So… one bedroom or two?" She is grinning, and her smile widens when she sees the red creeping over my cheeks. "Well let's just say there are four bedrooms up here, you can take whichever one or ones you want." With that she turned heel and heeded back downstairs yelling a loud, "good night!" behind her.

Peeta looks over at me, "So… do you have a preference?" I point to the room on the left. "OK… looks good to me" he takes my hand and leads me towards it, bringing in the bags that were piled at the top of the stairs.

"Peeta…" I don't know where I am going with this, I want to be close to him, hearing the story of how District 2 joined with the rebels had drained me slightly, filled me with a lot of negative emotion, and I wanted comfort, more than that I want Peeta. I crawl into bed and hold out my arms. "Will you…stay with me?"

Peeta looks up in surprise; he had been taking some clothing out of the luggage. "Of course I will, I always will, you never even need to ask, I am here." He moves to the bed, "Sleepy?" I shake my head "Tired?" again I shake my head. "Then what's going on?"

I smile and say in an a barely audible voice, "I just need you next to me now…"

That's all Peeta needed as he climbs in bed next to me and turns off the light. Instantly I have my head on his chest and my arms wrapped around him. "Peeta…" I whisper "I love you" with that I sigh and bury myself in him…the rhythmic beating of his heart beginning to lull me into sleep.

"Katniss…I love you too…and I love to hear you say that." And then in a quieter voice that I am not sure was part of a dream of reality, "and J can't wait to ask you to be mine forever."