Here's the next chapter! Enjoy! I do not own Catching Fire, any direct quotes will be in italics.


Ch. 52

It's hectic as I guide Katniss to the elevator and I wonder just what all of us angry victors had just done. I know hoping that the Games will be ended is pointless. Snow may be a coward in my eyes, but he will not back down when it comes to the Games.

I try to will words to come out of my mouth as we shoot up to our room, but none fall out. All I can think of is that really in my heart of hearts I wish Katniss really was pregnant. I wish that even though I was going to die Katniss could still have a part of me that she can love and hold onto forever.

Then I remember last year, Katniss was angry, really angry because of what I had said, so when we step out of the elevator I grab her shoulder and say, "There isn't much time, so tell me. Is there anything I have to apologize for?"

Her eyes search my face and it takes everything in me to not lean in and kiss her right here and now before our time is over for that. But I don't because I know that any second Haymitch will walk through that door and he'll talk to us, then we'll go to bed, and maybe then I'll get my final kiss. "Nothing." She says, the word is sure and firm and I know she knows what I have done by making the people believe this.

We wait in silence for the elevator to empty and our team to walk out, but when it does only Haymitch walks in. There is no Effie, there is no Cinna, and there is no Portia. Only him. We wait with open ears for him to tell us what is going on. "It's madness out there. Everyone's been sent home and they've canceled the recap of the interviews on television."

Katniss and I hurry over to the window to see the tiny people below us hustling home. Some seem angry as they walk through the streets, others frightened, there is no doubt this night caused a great deal of emotions.

I wonder if they'll take action, if they'll try to end these horrible Games by themselves. "What are they saying? Are they asking the president to stop the Games?" My words are too hopeful, even I know as they fall out of my mouth that they are not true.

"I don't think they know themselves what to ask. The whole situation is unprecedented. Even the idea of opposing the Capitol's agenda is a source of confusion for the people here," He pauses, looking down the side of the building with us, "But there's no way Snow would cancel the Games. You know that, right?" He seems not only to be insuring us, but himself as well. Really we know it would never happen, but there was still that small hope.

Neither Katniss nor I answer his lingering question, instead for a couple seconds we stand in complete silence. "The other's went home?" asks Katniss as the sun begins to go down outside the window.

"They were ordered to. I don't know how much luck they're having getting through the mob," says Haymitch. I know I'll see Portia tomorrow; she's the last person I'll see outside of the arena, but Effie; we will never see again. I can't help, but be sad from this realization. I had grown to like her.

"Then we'll never see Effie again." I look to Haymitch, "You'll give her our thanks." It's more of a statement than a question, but really it's the least he could do.

"More than that." Says Katniss, "Really make it special. It's Effie, after all. Tell her how appreciative we are and how she was the best escort ever and tell her…tell her we send her our love." Katniss's words couldn't have been truer. There really was a person behind Effie and I had grown to love that person, I'll miss her, and I know she'll miss us.

We stand waiting for the next words to be spoken. No one wants to say them. No one wants to admit that this is right where our team ends; this is where we say goodbye to Haymitch. I thought I was sad last year saying goodbye, but that was an understatement for how I felt now. Haymitch was Haymitch and he had helped us through a lot and we had grown together as a team. It saddened me to know that at the end of the Games only two-thirds of us will be left and I'll be the one-third that is gone, but Haymitch and Katniss could make it out together. They could be there for the other even though I won't be there to help.

Finally as we sit and wait for the inevitable Haymitch speaks up, "I guess this is where we say our good-byes as well."

I hold back my tears as I say, "Any last words of advice?"

"Stay alive." All three of us smile as he let's out those two words, but really what else could we do when surely the Capitol was plotting our deaths? He gives us both hugs that aren't long enough and says, "Go to bed. You need your rest."

I know I must say something else; those can't be the last words ever spoken between us. I look to Katniss to see if she has anything to say, but I see she holds back tears as well, although she hides it very nicely.

I can't let out some long speech about how I'll miss Haymitch and how great he was and how internally grateful I would be to him, because in the end that's not how our group functioned. Something simple, that's all we needed, "You take care, Haymitch." I say.

We begin to leave to our room and it has a sense of finality to it. Haymitch stops us for one more second just to give Katniss some advice. I look back one more time at him as we disappear down the hall. I'll really miss him.


I hope you liked it! Don't forget to REVIEW on the way out! Thanks! ~boywithbreadlover