Compassion
District 13 immediately began to send medical teams to the female refugee floor the next morning. Katniss and Prim woke to the sound of knocking on the door and quietly endured having their blood drawn, their throats and noses swabbed and even the more intimate procedures of checking every part of their bodies for any sign of infection or disease. Katniss stayed close to Prim the whole time and they both breathed a sigh of relief once the team of three women finally left them. Before they did however, one of the women gave them instructions to head to the dining hall for first meal, as they called it. It didn't take the sisters long to find their destination, Katniss already having familiarized herself with the route the night before. They weren't the first to arrive but very nearly.
It was explained to them by another District 13 woman that everyone was given specific portions according to their age and height. Katniss and Prim took their food without complaint but a few of the woman grumbled about it, though only women from the Capitol or District 2. The only one to loudly voice her irritation about the arrangement was Enobaria, the District 2 career victor of the 62nd Hunger Games. The thirty-year-old woman who was nearly six feet tall and heavily muscled, wanted at least double what she had been given. She complained that she'd maintained her physique in order to fight this war and if she didn't get more food, they'd be the ones losing out when she couldn't perform properly due to starvation. Katniss looked at the portions the big woman had been given and was certain it was more food than her entire family would consume in several days back in 12.
She didn't feel any sympathy for the vicious looking victor but she didn't make her disgust known. No one did. Who would argue with the powerful woman who'd had her teeth filed to sharp points and tipped in gold? Though they didn't often show the footage, it only took one viewing in order to never forget what she'd looked like after she'd ripped out the other tribute's throat with those now modified teeth. Despite her protests, she wasn't given any extra food by the cafeteria staff. Instead, Miss Snow gave her a portion from her tray in order to calm down the high-strung woman. Though Katniss was fairly certain it wasn't the extra food Lachrimae gave her that finally made her back down but the pale hand that had slowly rubbed up and down the woman's thick arm. Her wild eyes softened at the contact and the two women walked off and sat down next to one another at a far table.
Soon, Miss Snow was surrounded by at least half of the other female victors. Snow's posse, Katniss silently dubbed them, looked like they were ready to begin this war right after breakfast. Of the ten that surrounded Snow, Katniss recognized that almost half of them were from District 2, the rest hailing from various other districts. It wasn't hard to discern from the way they spoke, moved and acted that these women had known about the plans for rebellion far before their arrival here. Then there were the women that Katniss knew, simply by looking at them, that they were Capitol born. They too seemed to hover around the President's daughter though more at the fringes of Lachrimae's growing entourage. This was the central pack around which the rest of the women in the cafeteria formed smaller groups and kept to themselves. These were the ones that still didn't know what to think of their current situation These were the ones whose eyes darted nervously around the room, who never allowed their backs to face Lachrimae and her people and who looked as though they hadn't slept well at all. These were Katniss's people.
There seemed to be far more of the latter kind but what advantage they had in numbers, they were severely disadvantaged by their fragmentation. It was easy to see different women from different districts gathering around one another as well as the few that came from the Capitol. They didn't mix, they didn't speak with one another and they didn't form a massive group that declared their power and position simply by sitting around one another. Katniss sighed. She felt like she was in the arena again and, yet again, she was worrying about the careers in the room while the rest sat around scared and suspicious.
"So you know her?" Prim spoke up next to her, pointing at Miss Snow with her eyes and not her hands. Katniss just nodded. She didn't really feel like talking about that woman right now, not after their conversation the night before. "I saw her in the training center a few times. She would walk around and just watch us."
"I won't let her hurt you." Katniss forced another bite of food into her mouth. She needed to stay strong if she was going to heed Lachrimae's warning despite that every bite she forced down made her want to retch.
"Hurt me? She's the reason I got a seven." Prim was looking at Katniss now, an earnest expression on her delicate features. Katniss almost choked on a spoonful of mashed food.
"She what? Why… how did she do that?" Prim handed her a glass of water as Katniss started to cough on the small particles of food she'd accidentally inhaled. Prim lowered her voice even further, now no more than a whisper. Katniss looked up to the career pack and saw Miss Snow looking at her thoughtfully as she continued to cough between swallows of water.
"She showed me how to set up this booby trap using some wire, some sticks and some rocks. It was really easy to learn and set up and she only showed it to me." Katniss tore her eyes away from Snow to look back at the unappetizing food on her plate. Prim took another small bite from her own.
"You got a seven with a booby trap?" Her little sister nodded.
"I'm glad I didn't have to use it. It would have been awful." Prim took out the elastic band that was holding her hair back and set it on the table. Then she pressed her thumb and pinky to the table inside the loop of the band, then she pulled back on one side. She stretched it as far as the elastic would allow before letting go, the band snapping back into place. "It cut the training dummies in half." Prim pulled her hair back again and replaced the band before she took another bite of food.
Katniss was stunned. Miss Snow knew that the tributes would not be making it into the games so why show prim such a deadly weapon?
"She said that since I barely had any skill with weapons and that since I was so small, this would be the best way to…" she leaned in closer, her voice wavering for the first time, "eliminate other tributes. She said that she thought I had potential… that while I wouldn't be able to kill someone with my hands, that I probably could handle it if I did it from afar, like you." Katniss barely heard the last words her sister said, either from how quiet she'd become or from the barely contained rage that was now pulsing in her ears.
Her eyes shot back up to find Lachrimae speaking conspiratorially with Lyme, the middle aged victor, also from District 2. She seemed to feel Katniss's hot stare bearing down on her because she casually glanced up. The moment she saw the expression on the District 12 girl's face, she smiled, allowing her gaze to flick to Prim for just a moment and then back again. It took everything for Katniss to remain in her seat. What was Lachrimae's game? Her sister was not a killer. Not an up close and personal one like Enobaria and not a remotely placed one like Katniss could be if needed. Prim was sweet, kind and caring. She was everything that Katniss knew she never could be. Somehow, she felt like she'd failed Prim. All she wanted was to protect her sister, protect her from President Snow, and protect her from the games but now… How did she protect her now? How did she protect her from all of this, from Miss Snow and from this war they were supposed to fight?
"I don't know if I could have actually done it though." Prim said quietly. Without warning, Katniss pulled Prim into her and held her tightly.
"You never have to know little duck." She whispered into her sister's ear. She pulled away and started smoothing her sister's hair away from her face. "You're like Mom, you're good at helping people, not hurting them." Katniss saw Prim's lips quirk up into a small smile and she nodded lightly.
"And you're like Dad, right?" Katniss pulled her sister back for another hug.
"Yeah, I guess so."
Everyone in the room stopped their individual conversations at the sound of a tray of food crashing loudly to the ground. All eyes were quick to focus on the sound and its cause. Katniss recognized her immediately, Lorry, Ansel Averys' widow. Suddenly the vision of his corpse in a pool of his own blood filled Katniss's mind. She squeezed her eyes shut at the thought and took a deep breath, trying to push the disturbing image away. When she opened them again, Prim was gone and for a split second, Katniss panicked, a surge of adrenaline made her heart feel as though it were going to explode. A fraction of a second later, she saw her sister and where she was headed. Katniss was right, her sister was like her mother as she watched the young blonde quickly but non threateningly move over to the other girl. Lorry looked terrified and her line of sight quickly told Katniss why. She was looking right at Lachrimae.
The moment her focus landed on the President's daughter, Lachrimae looked away from the Averys' wife, her brow furrowed. It was an expression that Katniss had never seen on the woman's face. She looked like she was in pain. A second later, that look disappeared under a mask of cold indifference as she turned back to her crowd of victors. Katniss abandoned Snow and she looked back to her sister who was speaking quietly to the widow. Lorry took her eyes off of Snow after several tries by Prim to get her attention. When she finally did, the scared-animal-look didn't leave her eyes but she smiled weakly at whatever it was that Prim was saying to her. She nodded, helped Prim recover her tray from the floor and moved with her compassionate sister back to the window originally provided them with their meal. Prim spent several minutes obviously trying to convince whoever was behind there to give Lorry a new tray. She knew her sister was successful the moment her face broke into a big smile and Lorry's donned a shy one. Prim scooped up the tray herself and just kept speaking to the young woman. A moment later, Prim was seating the timid little thing across from them so that Lorry's back was to Snow. Her sister gave her a quick but knowing look and Katniss couldn't help but be thoroughly impressed by her sister's quick compassion and easy manner with this woman who was obviously damaged and scared.
"Lorry, this is my sister Katniss. Katniss, this is Lorry." Prim introduced quite properly.
"We've met." Lorry's tiny voice spoke, though she didn't look up from her tray of food. Prim's eyes widened slightly and Katniss was quick to answer the question they held.
"At a party in the Capitol." Prim didn't need to know about the last time they'd met, the night this woman's husband died. Her sister just nodded and began some idle, non-threatening chitchat with their newest dining companion. Katniss listened and added comments here and there, smiling as sweetly as she could for the woman. Every couple of minutes, Katniss would chance a look up at Snow and each time, she caught the woman looking their way. She remembered the way she'd handled Lorry on the day of their escape. They way she'd drugged her, was it a way to shield the woman from her husband's upcoming murder? The way she'd gently lowered her to the floor, kissing her forehead, did she care for her? She'd made it clear that she would eviscerate Gale if he allowed any harm to come to her. What was Lorry Averys to Lachrimae Snow? If it weren't for the frail looking creature sitting across from her, Katniss would easily believe that Miss Snow was incapable of compassion for anyone but herself but even as she chanced a glance in the woman's direction again, she could see it. Miss Snow cared about this girl. But why? Also, why then, out of everyone in this room, did it seem that Lachrimae was the only person to inspire terror in the girl?
Katniss was pulled from her thoughts when two new women entering the dining hall caught her attention. What she saw made her heart skip a beat. She saw Annie Cresta and Effie Trinket enter the dining hall and right behind them followed Portia, Peeta's stylist for the 74th Hunger Games. And if Portia was here…
OoOoO
AN: HOE LEIGH SHE IT! Where have I been? Whew… crazy shit, that's where I've been. First off, rumors of my illness were greatly exaggerated. I was sick at the beginning of my absence, the worst cold I've ever had… but no hospitalization. I just couldn't look at computer screens without getting a splitting headache. I recovered from that and just didn't feeling like writing for a couple days. Then the shit really did hit the fan. My husband got a bad pain in his abdomen so we make a doc appointment, the next day our doc says, go the ER. Long story short, my hubby no longer has an appendix. So yeah, that's where I've been, a strange sickness/lazy/surgery combo lead to a two week hiatus. Also, this chapter was actually a bitch to write. Not due to content but because I had to take a few hours to figure out where and when all the victors from the past 75 years are. We only know of some of them and the ones we do know about, we don't always know exactly what games they played in. Also, there had to be at least one male/female from each district… which I always found unlikely with the idea of career districts usually winning, how could there possibly have been at least one male and female from each on? Seemed awfully convenient. Oh well, that's just semantics but it took me a bit to figure out, had to write a chart out and everything. Ok, sorry for the long AN but I just wanted to give you guys a heads up. Also, thank you for all the sympathy, I just transferred the feelings to my husband since I didn't deserve them. Big Bear J… you are an ass (only reader I know in real life… a prankster if you will). Everyone feel free to ridicule him.
I'm going to skip review responses this time just because that AN was huge and the chapter was not. Just know that I love you guys for taking the time to review and I love hearing your theories and questions. If you have burning questions that I didn't answer, just pose them again and I'll get to you in the next chap. Love you guys and thanks for sticking in there with me!
And finally, expect updates to be a little shoddy over the next week as I nurse my enfeebled baby back into health.
