Morning brought Effie a headache and with her eyes opening she became familiar with her surroundings. She was definitely not in her room. Haymitch was snoring into his pillow and Effie was lacking all of her clothes. Shame flushed across her face, oh how could she have done this?

Images of the night played in her mind. She rubbed her forehead and slid out of bed. Holding her breath and pulling on her slip. Effie you absolute monster! You've pushed Seneca into a three week break and you go and… sleep with Haymitch Abernathy! She berated herself internally. She bunched her clothes together and stilled when Haymitch spoke.

"Sneaking out?" He said stiffly as he yawned. He looked at her with a peculiar look.

Effie frowned and looked at him, "I don't know what to say.. Haymitch this was not supposed to happen."

"But it did."

Effie bit her lip. His words rang loud and clear inside her aching head. She felt his eyes on her. "I can't think when you're looking at me like… like…" like you've come to know every inch of my body. The words couldn't come out.

Haymitch laughed, "You're worried about modesty when you've let me do much more than look at you last night."

Effie flamed red, "Close your eyes!" She pleaded, to which he shrugged and shut his eyes. Effie scrambled into her crumpled dress and bunched the rest of her things under her arm. She stepped toward the door, as quietly as she could manage.

"I can still hear you Effie." Haymitch opened his eyes, watching her freeze on the spot. There was a wild, sort of fear in her eyes. Behind the confusion he knew there was some feeling in her toward him. Her blue eyes snapped on him.

Her chest fluttered with quick breaths, "This didn't happen." She told him. You did not sleep with Haymitch. Not hours after agreeing to wait things out with Seneca. She had Seneca waiting on the sidelines for her to show up in 3 weeks. This is how she repaid Seneca for his patience? She cheated. The words alone made her feel like getting sick.

Haymitch was out of his bed and pulling on flannel pants, "Words rarely erase actions, Effie."

He felt mildly guilty for creating such an emotional turmoil for her. He knew she'd just relish in quiet chaos over it for months. That's just who he had learned she was. But he found her so alluring and transfixing. He once thought her shallow and tangled in Capitol politics. But now he saw her. A beautiful woman, who loves too fiercely and cares too much for others. Too good for the job that's crushing her.

Effie lowered her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not saying that to try and undo what we've done." She said softly. Shame and guilt eating at her. "I have a boyfr.." She started and stopped. "Seneca." She finished.

"Seneca's hardly paid any attention to you since the game started." Haymitch countered. "You deserve more than him."

"He's a Head Gamemaker. He doesn't have free time." Effie stated quickly, looking up as Haymitch neared her.

"He'd make time for you if he really cared, Effie." Haymitch offered. Effie would have none of it.

"Don't." She sighed, "You don't know him. Not like I do. He does care. You just can't see that. It's like you don't want to see it!"

Haymitch found himself getting fed up with her excuses. Last night there were feelings, and words she said to him. She couldn't deny them now in the light of day.

"Do you know him like you know me?" He asked so very cautiously knowing how she could take the words and run with them. He closed the distance between them, proximity forced her to look up at him.

Effie was crumbling under the weight of his words, her actions and the circumstances. She felt the tingling flush of red on her worried cheeks and the twisted guilt in her stomach. Two men she had slept with. One of them should have never happened. Her mind ran with his question. Planting the seeds of doubt. Haymitch versus Seneca. She stood rooted to the spot and did the unthinkable. Compared them in her head. The raw emotion and feeling she felt with Haymitch compared to the sincere, slow burn with Seneca.

"What are you trying to prove?" She demanded, back against the wall. His body blocking her from the clear exit out of the room. Nowhere to run but to stand and face her feelings.

"Nothing." He said calmly. There he could see it. The way her eyes darted like a startled animal. She was like a bird, ready to flee. Effie had always been good at making an entrance and just as well, storming an exit. She was slipping through his efforts to make her stay. They only had hours before he was on a train home and she would be left here with Seneca Crane for a long year in the glamour Capitol spotlight.

"There's always a motive with you." Effie breathed shallowly. "Your actions spell out plans, Haymitch. What has happened has no immediate consequence for you. But what about me?" Effie's voiced trailed higher. "What I've done can ruin me. It could rain fallout on you. Seneca is a powerful man who I have wronged. Above all he's human. Prone to emotions and what will come of this when he finds out!"

Haymitch watched her brush at tears in her eyes. Panic was rolling off her in waves. Her tears made him uncomfortable. They confused him, as women and their emotions always did. Which led to him always saying the wrong thing. "You assume I'd run off and try to tarnish your image with scandal. Why? Why would I do that?" His voice rose. "I've nothing to gain from ruining you."

"Please don't yell." Effie whispered, her head throbbed with anxiety.

Haymitch was frustrated with her denial of his comment. "I had no motive. For once in your whole time here you were honest with your feelings. You said what was on your mind and this happened. It happened, Effie."

"I was drunk, Haymitch." Effie pushed past him and reached the door.

"That only proves how you feel. Take it from a drunk. Alcohol numbs the pain but the truth is set free." He fired back at her as she opened the door. Her intentions set on leaving. "This is how you want to leave this?"

"What choice do I have?" Effie turned back. "You want me to choose a side. I can't. I can't do this."

His words were quick and he had them prepared. "You were the first one to say 'choice', I never asked you to choose anything."

Effie stared at him for a long time. "But you have. You don't realize it." Her eyes said goodbye. Haymitch stood there behind the door she shut and shook his head. Another game come to a dramatic end.

Effie didn't emerge from her room until she was absolutely sure the train had left with Haymitch on it. Facing him again was something she couldn't handle at the moment.