Gale's POV:
I watch as the snow falls, taking Snowden from me in the form of a squad of Peacekeepers. What could Thread possibly want with her? Something is wrong. She sensed it. Whatever she had been trying to tell me, it got her into this trouble. Can I get her out? Honor a hero. That has to refer to when she saved Greasy Sae. That bastard. I have to save her. The only problem is that my bow is in the woods that is now guarded from us by electricity. Oh well, I'll kill the man with my own hands. He's a threat to Snowden and the family that we plan to have together.
A door slams. It is mine, slamming behind me. At least that is what I think until I walk into a window. I look around, my head clearing. The room I am in is dark. Where am I? I am forced into a chair and then I hear someone starting a fire. As it blazes to life, I see that it is Haymitch. He grabs one of his last bottles of liquor and pours me a glass and hands it to me. I don't touch it. Snowden would be pissed if I did. Snowden!
I stand up and walk to the door. Haymitch grabs me and forces me back into the chair and forces the glass into my hand.
"Drink." He grunts as he sits down next to me. I don't listen and put the glass down on the table next to me. Haymitch watches me.
"We can't let her go to him. He'll kill her." I say.
"He won't do that. He would have to explain the sudden disappearance of the female victor of District Twelve. He won't kill her. But if he suspects that she is not from here…it still doesn't make any sense. Why would he invite her alone? And what did he mean by honor a hero?" He looks at me as he asks this last question.
"We were walking to visit Katniss when we saw the smoke. The Hob was on fire. We heard someone inside and Snowden jumped in to save them. Snowden talked them out of an arrest. At least I thought she had." I answer and drink the liquor and enjoy the burning as it goes down my throat. I need to get to Snowden. That's all there is for it. I have to save her from Thread. I look at my mentor. He got us through the Games. I can't help but wonder who he would have chosen if he had been forced to make a choice. I would like to think it was me. But Snowden has more fight in her. She is hiding something that she feels like she can't tell me yet. She's tried. That much is obvious. What is she into that she can't tell me anything? "What are we going to do, Haymitch?"
"We are not going to do anything. I am going to make a call. I need to push back the shoot. You are going to go and be with your family. They are going to need you and you are going to need them. I will keep an eye for Snowden. If they are telling the truth, she should be back by the morning, late afternoon at the latest." He looks like he is about to say more, but he doesn't. I scowl and finish my drink. I have half a mind to take the rest of his bottle and hide in Snowden's house. But he is right. Posy especially is going to need me. She formed a strong bond with Snowden over the past nine months. I wish it didn't have to be like this at all. I wish that Snowden wasn't the target of Snow's wrath. But she is. She started yelling at the Gamemakers first. She is the one who pulled out the berries. She is the one Snow went to when the Districts needed to be quelled. To them, she is the trouble maker, the one that has a lesson to learn. If we are not careful, we can lose her. The people here will believe that she couldn't take the nightmares and that she killed herself. The only ones who wouldn't would be me and Haymitch. I wouldn't be able to tell Katniss for fear that she would be pulled into something that she can't handle.
"Go home." Haymitch says. "And be glad they didn't take you as well." He mumbles as he stands, grabs the bottle, and walks away. I sit in his kitchen for a moment longer before getting up and walking back to my house. Mom is waiting for me when I walk into the kitchen. I look at the table, where an untouched bowl of stew sits, a discarded spoon next to it. Snowden dropped the spoon when the invitation was announced. I turn around and walk right back out of the house. I can't stay here.
Haymitch, Four Weeks Later:
He watched the darkness, watching for Snowden. They were all worried for her. Hazelle had visited twice to see if she had returned and to see if Haymitch knew where Gale had been. She hadn't seen him since Snowden disappeared. Haymitch had gone looking for the young man and found him in his old house with Katniss for company. Gale hadn't told her where Snowden was and so Haymitch told her that she was deathly ill and that it would be best to let doctors from the Capitol take care of her. The story was able to explain the sudden appearance of Thirteen's medical squad and Boggs. Gale had asked that Hazelle not know where he was and that he would return to Victor's village once Snowden was well again. Haymitch hadn't argued and returned home.
Behind him, Boggs paced the floor. He was worried about Snowden. He had told Haymitch that Thread enjoyed mixing chemicals to create drugs of all sorts. His favorite concoction was tracker venom with a pain killer, typically morphling. He generally got the answers he wanted when he used it.
"Boggs, you're going to wear a rut in my floor." Haymitch growled to the man. Boggs stopped a moment and then sat at the table.
"I taught her everything she knows, everything she needs to know. But I was never able to prepare her for this. I never prepared her for having to hide in plain sight as a high profile target. The longest assignment she's ever had is when she was assigned to Thread, to gather information on him. But he had never had reason to suspect her before. She had been insignificant in his eyes then. Now, she is high profile. She is a victor. Coin wasn't happy when Snowden decided to make sure both of them survived. She thinks that Snowden should have just killed Gale and gotten it over with. None of this romance. But I can see it. Those two love each other. She keeps saying that she wants to tell Gale about Thirteen, but I know she hasn't. She cares about him too much."
"She wanted to run." Haymitch said. "She wanted to go back to Thirteen and start fighting. But she couldn't. Thread turned back on the electricity." Haymitch remained looking out the window. Boggs joined him. Neither man said anything as they watched the snow start falling. Behind them, the doctors were waiting for their cue to begin. But they couldn't do anything until Snowden showed up. Haymitch rubbed his eyes and saw a flash of movement. He looked closer. He saw it again. A figure stumbling through the snow. The person looked female. Before Boggs could be sure, the two men were out the door and racing to the figure who was making their way to Snowden's house. She collapsed in the snow as they reached her. Haymitch removed his coat and wrapped her in it. He pressed his lips into a thin line when he saw that it was Snowden and she was badly beaten. Rope burns on her wrist showed that she had been tied. She was mumbling something about being sorry that she failed. Boggs picked her up and returned to the house. Snow began falling and Haymitch couldn't help but think that it was beginning to be a bad omen.
Snowden's POV:
I am cold. That's all I know. Why cold? Cold and snow. They go hand in hand I guess. Snow is cold. He sent Thread here. I should have known that he would have recognized me. Snow. But why? Haymitch said that he had reversed the second rule change. Did he do that only to torture me later? Did they suspect all along that I am a rebel spy?
Who am I?
I am Snowden Caltrit. Female Victor of District Twelve of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. I am married to Gale Hawthorne. I love him. Maybe too much to tell him that I am a rebel spy. Telling Gale would destroy this life that I've created with him. We agreed not to have children to save them from the Games. But I want them. Didn't realize that until now. But I am too cold for them. I would only hurt them…and their father.
Snow is cold. I have snow in my name. I must be cold as well.
Boggs's POV:
He looked at Snowden as she slowly regained consciousness. She was shivering violently and no matter how many blankets they piled on top of her, she would continue to shake. Whatever Thread had done to her, it was taking its toll on her. She hadn't woken since he and Haymitch had found her in the snow a couple of days ago. A doctor came in with another dose of the antidote for the tracker venom. It took the doctors all of an hour to determine that she had been heavily dosed with morphling and tracker jacker venom. It would take months to ween her off the medication as they were giving her more morphling along with the antidote for the venom. But it seemed more potent than normal. Boggs guessed that Thread had used a higher dosage on Snowden. It meant that he suspected her.
Snowden's eyes opened and her eyes fell on the syringe in the doctor's hand.
"Please no, I'll tell you about Thirteen and the rebellion. Please, don't stick that in me." Snowden sobbed as the doctor moved closer. "Please, I'll tell you. Just no more. It hurts." The doctor injected the medicine and Snowden continued to sob, mumbling something about promising to tell if he just stopped. Boggs kept himself from taking her hand and holding it. She had been hijacked and now he didn't know if she had told anything to Thread while his captive. From her reaction, he hoped that wasn't the case.
The doctor gave Snowden some more pain medication and some sleeping medicine before pulling Boggs out of the room. She sighed as she removed her gloves and threw them away. Haymitch walked up to them from the stairs. They were in his house in Victor's Village. It was too dangerous for her to be in her own home. Boggs had sent for a technical team to sweep the house for bugs. They had yet to arrive.
"Well?" Haymitch asked.
"It's hard to say here." The doctor said. "She's been hijacked by the venom. She thought I was Thread when I showed up to administer the medicine. She is sleeping now. We have better facilities in Thirteen. She would be better off there until she heals." The doctor said this more to Boggs than to Haymitch, but the old victor answered.
"That won't work." He said. "She needs to be here. What's going to happen if she is still incapacitated when Thread comes to call and she is not even here? What about when she is needed to make an appearance at the Reaping? If she can't be found here, people will start asking questions. Especially Gale. All he knows is that she was summoned by Thread and that she has been missing for the past month. I haven't been able to go to him to tell him that she showed up the other night. He doesn't know about Thirteen. She hasn't told him."
"We don't have the equipment necessary to keep her stable here." The doctor protested. "She would be better off in Thirteen. She may recover quicker."
"I understand that." Haymitch said. "But she is needed here. The people here think that you are doctors from the Capitol. Gale will believe that as well. He doesn't have to know that she was hijacked. But she needs him. He may be able to bring her out of the venom's influence. Just don't tell him it's an antidote. And put her under when you give it to her. She wants to tell him about Thirteen, but not like this. I'll give him the story to give her, that he'll believe."
"And if he doesn't believe it?" Boggs asked, looking at Snowden's bedroom door. "What then?"
"He knows some of the truth. He knows that she is a target. I'll tell him what I suspect and that I called on a favor to take care of her. Thirteen's secret is safe." Boggs nodded and returned to Snowden's room. He knew he should report to Coin on Snowden's condition, but she would order Snowden pulled back to Thirteen and Haymitch was right. If she disappeared now, there would be questions and no one would be safe.
Gale's POV:
I watch the fire Katniss made for me before she left for school this morning. She's not yet eighteen, like me and Snow. She still has to attend school. She'll be working soon enough. As what, I'm not sure. I never asked Mom what she did before she started washing people's laundry.
I look out the window and watch as the snow falls. Now I understand why Snowden didn't think the snow brought anything good. It's brought this District sickness and death. It took Snow from me in the form of Peacekeepers. I know Mom is worried about me, and so are the kids. I can't tell them that Snowden is suspected of inciting rebellion. But that is the truth of it. There is nothing else I can do. I just hope she is okay. She is different than the girls here, including Katniss. The way she killed in the Arena isn't something she learned from the trainers. And then during the tour, she heard the gun click. A girl here would have thought it was a camera. But Snow recognized it as a gun and pulled me out of the way. She is not from Twelve. But where is she from?
That doesn't matter anymore! She is my wife. I love her. I will be there for her in her darkest hour, even if she never tells me the truth about herself.
"I love her!"
"Good to know, Boy. She needs you." Haymitch's gruff voice reaches me. I turn to the door and see him standing there. There is no bottle in his hand, only my jacket which I had left by the door.
"You found her?"
"Come on." He says. I put out the fire, grab my jacket and follow him. We walk quickly through the streets. No one looks at us. I think I hear someone call my name, but I ignore it. Snowden is found. I doubt she came back the same as when she left. As we enter the village, I veer towards her house. Haymitch pulls me towards his. I follow. He told Katniss that she was deathly ill. I wonder how much of that was truth. We enter the house and I smell the powerful scent of the hospital. Haymitch's house has been sterilized, for Snow.
"Where is she?" I ask, eager to see my wife. Haymitch pulls me into the kitchen.
"Listen," he says and my heart sinks. "I'm not sure what happened to her or where she was for the past month. We found her in the snow the other night. We have agreed that it would be best that she remain here while she heals." He pauses, as if he doesn't want to tell me something. "I shouldn't be telling you this, but I am going to. During the Dark Days, the Capitol created the tracker jackers." I nod. "There was a form of torture called hijacking. A person suspected of being a rebel would be injected with the venom and it would attack their mind and they would either give up secrets or be turned to fight for the Capitol. I think Thread did this to Snowden, to see if she was a rebel, bred by her parents and grandparents to fight against the Capitol. I've called on a few favors to get her the help that she needs, but she was his prisoner for a month. I'm hoping it will help if you are there when she comes to again. Maybe seeing you, her rock, will help her heal faster." I try to take all of this in, but it seems too much. I don't even want to question how he even knows all this information, but I don't really care. All that matters is Snow. If she is "hijacked" like Haymitch says, then she does need me. I am the only constant for her, I hope. I look at Haymitch and nod. He stands up and leads me upstairs to a bedroom farthest from the stairs. I open the door. Snowden is pale and I can barely see her against the while sheets. The only way I know she is there is her black hair. A doctor stands straight, an empty syringe in hand. They nod at me and I walk farther into the room and take Snowden's hand and squeeze. There is a slight squeeze in return, at least I think there is.
"We are going to keep her sedated for now." The doctor says. "She'll heal better that way." I can only nod. All I know is that I can't lose her.
There is more than likely going to be a time jump to the spring time in the next chapter. Thinking of having her sane then, just in time for her shoot. Thanks for reading and please review.