DISCLAIMER: HG CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME
"Don't leave my side" Katniss says to Gale as they begin walking into the hospital. They are in District 8, about to film a propo.
"I'm right here" he says, his voice low enough that only she can hear. They are with the rest of the filming crew, which includes Cressida, Pollux, and Castor. Boggs and some of the other soldiers outside standing guard.
At first, she walks around unnoticed, Castor filming her every move. When a young girl recognizes her, the questions begin pouring in. An older woman asks what happened to the baby, "I lost it" she quickly replies. Another asking when they will save Peeta, "soon, I hope". A teenage girl asking her if she still loved Peeta.
She nods and says without hesitation, "always". Her eyes move to Gale and sees his face go stone cold in response. Her eyes turn back to the girl and sees a big smile form on her face, still caught up in their romance.
"Isn't that your cousin?" another young girl asks looking over at Gale, more and more people getting the courage to speak.
"Uh-yeah" she says looking down. Feeling she has no choice but to keep up with the Capitol's lie.
She sees Gale begin to back away as more and more people come up to her, the older and younger women embracing her. But she notices he is not far, and it gives her a sense of relief.
Once she is finished visiting the people in the hospital, Cressida tells her that the residents of District 8 seeing her alive gives them hope and inspiration as Castor films her reaction. She knows her response was not the one they were hoping for.
She asks if they can take a break from filming, and she walks over to a deserted area. After a few moments, Gale silently appears before her. She sees the cold look has returned.
"What was I supposed to say? That it is all a lie? They would have been crushed."
"I think your response concerning Peeta is the truth."
She gives him a look of confusion. "Have you forgotten the things we've done on the stairwell? Peeta has never kissed me as many times as you have you know that."
"Doesn't mean you don't love him."
"Don't forget what I told you shortly after we arrived here."
"You still refuse to acknowledge our existence. You won't even try going to the events."
"No."
"Then how are we going to see each other?"
"I told you, I'll find a way. I'll refuse to put on this suit if I have to. Will you just….trust me please?"
"You could try asking for your own compartment."
"I thought about that, but I'll be away from Prim and-I can't trust it. What if Coin does something to her?"
She knows him too well to know when he is doubtful of something, and she can tell by the look on his face in response that her concern is not valid, but he keeps his opinion to himself and says, "Okay. Rory and Vick would end up doing something to each other if left by themselves and I'd never hear the end of it anyway."
"Besides, I-don't want…..to…..be with you….in that hellhole."
She sees his face change and for a moment, she sees a look of tenderness in his eyes mixed with complete surprise by her admission. He quickly changes the subject, "I can't believe you let a bunch of people touch you."
She smiles and says, "Neither can I."
She moves around the corner of the dilapidated building, ensuring more privacy. He follows her. Once she knows they are completely out of sight, she leans up to kiss him when suddenly, an alarm goes off. Knowing they are about to be attacked, they both run full speed around the corner towards the hospital.
"Fire is catching, if we burn, you burn with us!"
"That is perfect! Just what we need" Heavensbee says to Katniss as he looks at Castor's footage on the screen as they head back to 13 in the hovercraft.
Katniss remains silent. She is still trying to calm down after what happened. Right before she was about to kiss Gale, they heard the alarm. While running towards the hospital, Boggs warns them Capitol jets would be arriving in less than 30 seconds. Their orders were to return to the hovercraft, but she and Gale disobeyed those orders and went to the hospital to try to save as many people as they could. Tragically, the hospital was bombed, and she realized in that moment, that Gale never underestimated the cruelty of others and this realization motivated her fire is catching speech.
She is nervous; she and Gale went against Boggs' direct orders. Will they be punished? She begins to think her plan to demand to Coin to allow her and Gale to spend time together will backfire.
Once they arrive back in 13, she notices once they get off the hovercraft, that Gale immediately begins speaking to Coin. She also notices, how chummy the two of them looked as they talked.
Once Coin and Heavensbee leave, she walks up to him and asks, "Making new friends?"
"One of us has to be accessible" he says. She notices he has a look of concern on his face as he sees the bruises on her face that have begun to form. Not caring if anyone sees, he reaches up and begins touching her face. She leans her face into his hand, and softly kisses his calloused hand in response.
"I don't think anyone has ratted us out" he says as he pulls his hand away.
She nods in relief.
Later that night, she sees Peeta on the TV screen doing another interview. He says that District 13 is using her to turn her into a weapon and not to trust anyone. While she knows the Capitol is torturing him and making him say things that are not true, she cannot help but wonder, if perhaps he may be right.
Katniss stares at herself in the mirror. She is in her Mockingjay suit, about to shoot another propo. Gale will not be with her today, for she knows he was working with Beetee doing something with weapons, not sure exactly what.
Finnick however would be part of the propo, and that she was looking forward to, for she had not spent much time with him since arriving in 13. Once the propo was finished, they head outside, Katniss telling the guard they were going out to hunt. They take off their communicators and hide them in the crevice of a tree and walk towards a river she is familiar with so they can talk privately. They begin talking about Peeta, and Finnick asks her if she was told beforehand about Peeta's interview. She tells him no and he then says, "not even Gale?"
She pauses, desperately hoping that Gale did not know about Peeta's message, deep down she had a bad feeling he did know something. Seeing the conflict on her face, Finnick responds by saying, "maybe he's trying to find a time to tell you privately."
"Maybe" and she tries to tell herself that is what it is, for they have not been able to talk in private in a long time. Only talking briefly while in District 8 right before they got attacked.
Suddenly, she sees a buck come into view and she kills it easily. Finnick hauls the buck back to the fence and for dinner a minced venison is in the stew. After dinner, she tells Gale to wait for her as she heads to the back of the kitchen and tells Greasy Sae that the stew was delicious.
"Was it yours or Gale's?" Sae asks.
"Mine."
Sae gives a smug smile and returns to work as Katniss leaves. As Gale walks her back to her compartment, she asks him what is going on with Coin's inner circle. There is no mention of Peeta in his response.
That night, she clutches Peeta's pearl in her hands after Prim and her Mother have gone to sleep. She cannot sleep, and Peeta's warning keeps repeating in her mind over and over. A few weeks ago, she would have gotten up and gone to Gale, but she cannot do that now, and a part of her does not want to, for she feels she cannot trust him, and it hurts her beyond belief. Peeta's warning not to trust people and to find out what's going on refuses to leave her mind, but she knows the real reason for her distress is due to Peeta. 'What is happening to him?' she thinks to herself all night long.
The next day, her tattoo tells her she is scheduled for production first thing in the morning. At breakfast, she notices Gale's communicuff is back on his wrist.
"When did you get that back soldier Hawthorne?"
"Yesterday, they thought if I'm going to be in the field with you, it could be a backup system of communication."
She is furious. No one has offered her a communicuff, instead she is now given a communicator instead of a tracking device every time she goes outside to hunt, never mind the fact that each time she comes back, she brings enough food to feed everyone down here.
"Well, I guess one of us has to be accessible" she says in a flat tone.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, just repeating what you said." She knows she is furious with him as well, but she does not care. "I just hope I still have access to you as well, but I agree the accessible one should be you, after all, no one down here likes me."
"Katniss-" his tone implying his guilt.
She glares at him as she gets up and takes her tray over the dish rack and slams it down. She then proceeds down the hall not bothering to look back to see if he is following her. She is halfway down the hall when he catches up to her and grabs her arm and says, "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Why didn't I? Why didn't you Gale! And I did when I asked what was going on yesterday."
"I'm sorry alright! I didn't know what to do. I wanted to tell you, but everyone was afraid that seeing Peeta's propo would make you sick."
She laughs in a mocking tone at him. "They were right. But not quite as sick as you lying to me for Coin!"
Before he can respond his communicuff begins beeping. "There she is! Better go. You have important things to tell her."
Genuine hurt shows on his face, as quickly as it formed, she sees the hurt turn to that cold look she saw in District 8. He turns around and leaves without another word.
A/N: In case anyone reading this has not read the books, this last part at breakfast is real dialogue exchange from the book (a lot of this chapter has exchanges from the book), but I changed some wording around and added some things, but this is a scene I wish had been put in the movie. As I comb through the book again, I am trying to find book exchanges that I think will fit into this story's narrative. But it is one of the reasons it takes a while to update-because I have to read, take notes, then write.