Chapter 34: Bran Ivy-Fonio

The Single-Year Presidency hadn't gone well for the Victor family spread across two districts. It was looking up now, but only after Dell and Acacia had gone through the biggest 'for worst' that parents can ever face: coming close to watching their only son die.

When Bran had been born, Acacia had insisted on giving him a District 9 name, to honor his father and keep him close while the boy stayed to be raised by his mother in Seven. Despite being separated, Bran and his famous father were close, and he had learned about the Hunger Games while sitting at his parents' knees. He'd been in Control Central, a little boy of six, when his father finally saw another Victor from the land of Grains in his Auntie Garner. Bran's first Reaping was memorable in that it was the year District 7 notched its third Victor in Leif Sequoia.

Despite these happy memories, morbidly tinged as they were, Dell wasn't exactly looking to go into the family business. His plans were more practical – sail through his last two Reapings, then get a job working in the lumberyards… and finally work up the nerve to tell his parents about that boy he'd been discreetly seeing in school. Mom and Dad would accept him and Ash, he was sure of it, all the more so once they saw how the boyfriend had a steady-paying job lined up after graduation.

But then Eulalie Mackecknie (now Eulalie Mackecknie-Shinn) said one name at the Reaping and it all came crashing down.

"You can't do this!" his mother had screamed, trying to fight her way into his holding room in the Justice Building and asking to see him as her son, not as her tribute! But unfair advantages couldn't be risked.

"You can't do this!" Dell had hissed in the cameramen's faces when they asked him for a quick reaction shot while boarding the train with Garner.

Even dear old Uncle Guernsey was dragged into the mix, when the question was posed to the simpleton and Viscera discreetly whispered something in his ear, just to mess with the Capitolites, before she innocently sat back and let the echolalia do its work. "Can't do this! Can't do this! Can't do this, OK, OK!" The adorable man chanted.

Those four days of Training and interviews had been agony. Dell had practically washed his hands of his own tributes and split time between floors of the Training Center once again, leaving Garner to take on double the load. Meanwhile, his wife and Leif were putting their heads together on how best to see Bran through alive, while poor Rowan Palmer was sidelined to try and coach the girl, in a strange reversal of common practice. Victors mentored by gender, when they could afford to. Occasionally, Guernsey would sometimes abruptly wander in from the elevator, reminiscent of that character Kramer in the classic old States sitcom Seinfeld. Then Dell would get on the phone and politely yell at either Viscera or Lamb – he didn't care who – to please come down and get Guernsey, because the simpleton knew damn well what was going on and it was starting to get him agitated. Floor 7 had never been so busy during Games season.

The offspring of two of the Games' earliest and most legendary Victors, Bran got close to a monopoly of airtime, prompting Hippolyta, Mags and some of the other Career mentors to go on TV and complain, essentially, that "he's taking away all of our stuff!" The Capitol didn't care, and President Chiron Udall allowed the favoritism to happen, probably because he felt bad about the whole thing. No one knew that this was to be the only Victor crowned in his presidency.

Head Gamemaker Coriolanus Snow and his team weren't about to make it easy for the son of Victors, however, no matter what the biased media wanted. They were going to, and did, make Bran work for it.

But Bran went in prepared. He had been throwing axes when other kids had been sucking on rattles, and he ran just as fast, if not faster, than his mother had in her heyday.

He butchered through a quarter of the field by himself at the Bloodbath, then later, half of the Career pack, leaving the injured remainder for dead to be taken away by the elements. It would turn out to be the longest Games ever (a length that would never be surpassed in the following forty years), but after six and a half grueling weeks, the Crown was his.

Dell and Acacia wept with relief. Their child was alive. Weak, perhaps, but alive.

Three Victors in one family was all that anyone in the Capitol would talk about for days. A huge party was thrown for the proud parents down at Samson's, the Capitol's exclusive, glitziest nightclub that only Victors and their closest associates had access to. The Ivy-Fonios treated it like the date night it was, leaving their son and Guernsey to baby-sit…. well, each other. The Victor of the 5th Games and close family friend had been offloaded onto them when Lamb and Viscera requested their own alone time.

"Remember: Kermit's…"

"… in his bed," Bran finished.

"And his medicine's…"

"… on the bathroom sink." Bran smiled wanly. "Go on, Dad! We've got each other's backs, eh, Uncle G?"

"Backs, backs, OK, OK, sweets!" Guernsey yipped, eyes glued to four dancing… alien creatures who kept blabbering about 'Tinkie Winkie.'

Dell smiled in amusement. "All right. You can call my holophone if you need anything. Good night." He took the arm of his wife, looking resplendent in a red party dress and they disappeared into the elevator.

Alone in their quarters on Floor 7, Guernsey showed laser focus on the kiddie's TV show… to the point where he grew very quiet and calm. Bran was glad for it – Guernsey usually spent much of his waking hours uttering a steady stream of babble, and his brain always needed the rest. His uncle's peaceful contentment permitted Bran to twink off a little…

… until he heard a weird choking sound. The latest Victor turned his head.

"Guernsey?"

Guernsey was rigid while sitting up on the couch and Bran had to lean off the cushions to get a better look at his face. When he did –

"UNCLE GUERNSEY!"

Guernsey was foaming at the mouth, in the throws of what Capitol doctors would have diagnosed as a grand mal seizure. Panicking, Bran dove for the phone, dialing the first number he could think of. It wasn't his dad's. It was instead three floors up, jolting Viscera and Lamp out of a deep sleep.

"Viscera? Lamb? Get down here, quick!"

Samson's nightclub was pulsing, the mosh pit shaking to the steady rhythm of N*TUNE, the Capitol's leading boy band performing their newest hit single.

"Do you ever wonder why this music gets you high? It takes you on a ride! You feel it when your body starts to rock! And you can't stop! And the music's all you got! This – must – be – POP!"

Down on the floor, Dell was twirling and twisting Acacia about, sending her into a dip that made her laugh with pleased shock.

"For a guy who has to dance with crutches, you sure have some moves!"

Dell accepted the flirting. "Nice to know there isn't a curve." He held her close and they swayed to the beat, their hips locking a sultry dance only they knew. Acacia beamed.

"You're my one and only, Dell…"

"That's great, because where District 9 Victors are concerned, I'm only one of two, and I know you're not making eyes at Garner."

His wife looked at him, sighing. "You mean three Victors from District 9. Dell… we talked about this…"

"Acacia:" he cupped her cheek. "Our son was born in Seven. He represented Seven in the Games. Seven should get credit for the win. Four Victors already! – nab a couple more and you'll be chomping at Career status!"

Acacia winced, but accepted her husband's kiss.

Behind them, near the front doors, Viscera Holstein was flashing her Victor's card at the bouncers and pushing her way through the crowd, searching for her friends.

"DELL! DELL!" Dell and Acacia broke apart, their arms still around each other, giving the Victor from 10 bemused frowns.

Viscera just broke down and got out, "It's Guernsey!" before all three were running for the doors.

Squad cars and an ambulance were surrounding the Training Center. Even though they were Victors, Viscera and the Ivy-Fonios still had to fight with Gerard Kelly, Captain of the Capitol City Police, to get in and be hustled up to the tenth floor.

Lamb met her girlfriend with a deep and distressed kiss at the elevator doors.

"Viscy! Viscy, honey, we had to move him to the roof… the hospital bed wouldn't fit through any of the bedroom doors…"

Acacia froze, glancing nervously to her husband's crutches as a crowd was starting to fill the District 10 delegation's living area: nearly all of the 34 Victors were assembled here, even the Careers, which just showed you how far love and respect for Guernsey extended.

"The…. the roof of the Training Center only has stair access…" Acacia whimpered weakly.

Her husband was already doing an about-face back into the elevator and slamming his fist on the Floor 12 button. "Anyone who's coming, get in!"

Maximus looked unsure. "Dell… it might not be wise…"

"Max:" Dell's warning growl brokered no room for argument. "I am getting up on that roof if I have to hitch a ride like a Snowdamn hermit crab on one of y'all's backs! Now get me the fuck up to that roof!"

The first Victor from District 9 could not be reasoned with, not even by his wife of seventeen years. It took the combined strength of Maximus, Hero, Vulcan and Poseidon to carry him up the stairs.

Bran and a nurse met the whole horde of Victors when they arrived out in the open air. Guernsey was lying comfortably in a hospital bed, complete with a crudely-implemented IV stand and the whole apparatus plugged into a wall socket on the side of the building.

"Why isn't he in Victors' Mercy?" Dell demanded of the nurse. "He's a Victor; he should be nursed and treated as such!"

"Mr. Fonio, Mr. Hyde was too heavy for transport. We could only manage to get him this far with the help of the firefighters and the supplies, we brought to him…"

"Where's the President? Get Udall on the phone! What happened?"

Bran spoke up meekly. "I…. I sensed him go stiff all of a sudden… and then he was frothing at the mouth…."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL ME?!" Dell actually yelled at his son.

"I panicked, OK? Auntie Viscera's number was the only one I could think of…!"

"Mr. Hyde suffered a grand mal seizure…" the nurse explained patiently. "We're scanning his brain waves for clues and to assess the damage – as you know, he has a neuroatypical mind, so his response to such strong stimuli is something we'll be very interested in studying."

"Screw the studying! Is he going to make it?!" Acacia demanded, Dell nodding fervently at her side, almost fearing the answer.

"He will. He's alive, and alert. But… I don't have to look at the CAT-SCANS to know his physiological make-up might experience a regression."

The Ivy-Fonios and most of the Victors shared concerned looks. To think that Guernsey might not be… Guernsey when he woke up….

Dell used the last of his strength to hobble with his crutches over to the hospital stretcher containing his best friend and he perched on the metallic edge, reaching for his hand.

It was like magic. At his touch, Guernsey awakened and stirred. "Dell…. Hi, OK, OK, sweets…" Then the large man rolled over like a content baby and fell back to sleep.

Dell could only manage a watery smile. "He's still in there… He's still Guernsey… You gave us quite a scare there, buddy!"

Behind them, Acacia was holding her son tightly, tears of relief streaming down her cheeks.