DISCLAIMER: HG CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME
She figures out that 'production' meant that she and Gale would be going to District 12 today to shoot another propo. Still refusing to speak to each other, she figures out Gale has not told Coin and the others that she is angry at them about Peeta. She notices Haymitch is not on the hovercraft and when she asks Heavesbee about it his response is, "I believe the exact words were, that he couldn't face it without a bottle."
She is mad at Haymitch, and out of patience with her former mentor, but not even five minutes after arriving in District 12 she wishes she had a bottle herself. Lucky for her, Cressida spends all her time interviewing Gale, and he loses the ability to speak after a while. As they walk amongst the destruction, they end up at the lake, she looks at Gale, and she sees in his eyes that he's thinking back to the last time the two of them were here, in this spot. They had fought over whether to run away, she begins wondering, if they had, would District 12 had burned to the ground? Would her Mother and Prim be safe? Would Peeta be here with her now?
'Would he and I have ever?' she pushes the thought from her mind as they continue walking. Eventually Cressida begins interviewing her and somehow, she is asked to sing, and she ends up singing the Hanging Tree for the group. As usual, everyone goes silent as she sings, but the silence comforts her.
As they leave, she and Gale both notice their old hunting grounds, and Cressida asks to see it, though Gale tried to tell her there was nothing to see, she insists they show them their spot. She begins thinking about how it was the only place in District 12 where she was happy.
She suddenly has a feeling of intense sadness, for she realizes as they walk towards the woods that she is on the verge of losing Gale. A place that had bonded them so tightly together was melting away. She thinks to herself, 'how can today of all days, we are too angry to even speak to each other?'
She is still angry that he lied to her, she feels it is unacceptable, they told each other everything and they never ever lied to each other. But his apology seemed genuine, and yet she threw it back in his face. 'What is happening to us? Why are we always at odds now?' she wonders. She begins thinking if perhaps it is because of Peeta, she knows he thinks it is, but deep down, she knows for her, the real culprit is Alma Coin.
'Do I really want to drive him away?' she thinks as she watches him walk along beside Castor, staying as far away from her as possible.
Thinking over what that would mean if he is no longer a part of her life, she abruptly stops, and the filming crew stop with her, looking at her in anticipation. She takes a blackberry and says, "and may the odds" and tosses it high into the air right at Gale.
He catches the blackberry and holds it in his fingers. He pauses a moment before saying, "be ever in your favor" in Effie's Capitol accent and places the berry in his mouth.
They look into each other's eyes and smile. The rest of the crew not following what just happened but knowing that it meant something to the two of them, Cressida makes Katniss and Gale sit down for an interview. They talk about hunting, and sitting so close together, they are forced to touch each other, but it is not unwelcomed. Once the interview is done, the crew gets up to stretch their legs and Gale whispers, "long overdue."
She resists the urge to lean forward and kiss him, knowing she must wait until they are alone. As they begin leaving the area, Cressida out of the blue asks if either of them have ever been tortured. Without a word, Gale takes his shirt off and turns around. Katniss stares at his muscled back and the memory of that day comes flooding back to her as she stares at the scars from the lashes. Suddenly, she remembers being back in in the square, the sound of the whip, his unconscious bloody body and she shouts, "I'm done" and begins walking away.
When she hears Heavensbee call out to her, she does not turn around and shouts, "I'll meet all of you at the Victor's Village, I just remembered I need to pick up supplies for my Mother."
She does not remember walking to her former home, but the next thing she remembers is sitting in front of her kitchen cabinets. Theorizing she must have had another panic attack; she gets up and quickly begins packing items into a box. When she rises, she sees Gale standing by the kitchen table, quietly materializing as he always does.
He leans on the table and says, "Remember this is where you kissed me?"
"I didn't think you'd remember that."
"Have to be dead to forget it, maybe not even then."
She places the box on the table in front of him. She sees he has tears in his eyes, and she is shocked, for she had never seen him cry before. "Maybe I'll be like that man in the hanging tree, still waiting for an answer."
Not bearing the thought of seeing the tears spill over, she gently touches his face, and says, "Gale" softly.
"Don't worry Katniss, it'll pass" and he takes the box and begins walking away.
"Can you imagine? Having technology like that? Oh, the possibilities!" Heavensbee says with awe. Katniss sits beside him, only half paying attention as the former head gamemaker talks her ear off. He has been talking the entire time about the advanced technology before the dark days, technology that is now long gone.
She is curled up in a ball in her seat. She looks over and sees Gale who was sitting across from her. She sees that he continues to avoid her gaze. Exhausted, she just wants to get back to her compartment and lay down.
One Month Later
Katniss heads straight to the tree and takes off her communicator and places it in the crevice. She then turns and jogs towards the place she has found solace in for the past month.
The day after their trip to District 12 to film the propo, she went hunting alone, Gale still avoiding her and off with Beetee. While walking along the river in the opposite direction from her usual path, she comes across a steep cliff. Looking down, she sees a small cabin at the bottom, near the edge of a large lake. Knowing she needed to come back with game, she turns around and heads back, and comes across three turkeys that she brings back to the fence.
The next day, she takes nets for fishing and explains that she will need extra time to hunt for she found a lake. When she arrives at the cliff, she sees an area off to the side that she can safely climb down and once she reaches the cabin, she draws an arrow, ready to shoot. Once she enters, she sees the cabin is deserted. She figures the cabin must have somehow survived the bombing from the first rebellion. It has a damp and musky smell. It is one room, and she sees an old bed inside with a kitchen and an attached bathroom.
Not wanting to see if the bathroom still works, she sets her bow and arrows down and heads outside to set up the nets in the lake. She goes back in and opens the windows, attempting to air out the cabin. She hauls the bed's mattress outside and sets it on fire, as she watches the mattress burn, she begins thinking about how she wishes the cabin could be her new home. An idea then forms into her head, if she somehow can convince Coin that she needs more time to hunt, then she would have more time to come here. She could make a new mattress with animal feathers, this could be a safe place, that is just hers, and most importantly, is above ground.
When she returned to 13, it was not hard for her to convince Heavensbee and Coin to give her extended hunting time. For one, they understood Gale was spending time with Beetee, and with it just being her, she would need the extra time to hunt. Second, after she had returned with enough fish that each resident got their own small piece of fish for dinner that night, Coin agreed to let Katniss hunt for four hours each day once she finished her morning training session as long as a propo was not scheduled.
So, each day she worked bit by bit on the cabin. She had hunted enough birds and turkeys to gather the feathers needed for her mattress, and she snuck sheets, a pillow, and blankets from the laundry. She managed to sow the sheets together to construct the mattress, and once finished, it was the softest mattress she ever sat on.
While not the best, it made do. She enjoyed relaxing on the new bed, the must smell still lingered but was much better since she had left the windows open. Though it was now October, she knows soon she would have to start gathering wood for the fireplace, hoping it would still work after all these years.
As she lays staring up at the wood ceiling, her thoughts turn to Gale. While she had managed to keep this cabin a secret, it caused her pain to keep the cabin a secret from him. But she was still hurt over his betrayal regarding Coin, and she was afraid if she told him about the cabin, that Coin would somehow find out about it. She knows it is irrational, but she cannot help but worry. After all, she never thought Gale would lie to her, but he did, and she was tired of people lying to her for her own good.
Since coming to the cabin, she no longer needed to hide in the supply closet. No longer had to repeat who she was over and over again. The cabin brought comfort, if it somehow was taken away from her, she fears she will end up in 13's psychiatric ward.
She wishes things between her and Gale were not strained. While they were on speaking terms, things were not back to normal. When he wasn't training, he was spending his time with Beetee in weapons, sometimes she wouldn't even see him at lunch. For dinner, their families continued to sit together, so they spoke in group discussions, never individually.
She was spending more time with Prim which also brought her comfort. Her little Sister continuing to excel in her training. And she got to spend more time with Finnick.
After she had returned to 13 with the usual large bag of fish over her shoulder, she sees everyone huddled by the TV screens. She runs over and sees Peeta on the screen. Her eyes glued to the screen, she does not notice Finnick come up beside her and gently place a hand on her shoulder. She looks over to him and says, "he looks worse."
Finnick gives her a sympathetic nod and turns his attention back to the screen. Peeta begins talking about a cease fire, then suddenly the footage from District 12 propo comes on, and Katniss sees herself on the screen. Remembering that Gale had mentioned that Beetee was working on finding a way to interrupt the Capitol's broadcast, the screen flickers again and Peeta is back with President Snow.
"Do you have any parting thoughts for Katniss Everdeen?" Snow asks Peeta.
She watches as his face changes at the mention of her name. "Katniss…how do you think this will end? What will be left? No one is safe. Not in the Capitol, not in the Districts. Not even you in District 13." She watches as he inhales deeply, as if he is fighting for air. He has an insane look in his eyes as he says, "dead by morning!"
Snow cuts the feed but Beetee continues to interrupt the broadcast by placing more still shots of Katniss from the District 8 propo, but she continues to watch in horror as the camera is knocked over and she sees Peeta's blood on the white tile floor as she hears his cries of pain.
"The boy's telling us we are about to be attacked, this is not some big mystery!" Haymitch yells.
"How would he have that information?" Coin says.
"Why should we trust him?" Boggs pipes in.
"They're beating him to a bloody pulp as we speak. Katniss help me out here" Haymitch says in frustration.
Forcing herself out of the daze she was in, she says, "Haymitch is right. I don't know how Peeta knows, or if it is true, but he believes it. And now they're-" and she cannot say aloud what Snow is doing to him.
"Get your people ready" Haymitch says to Coin.
Coin says in a calm manner that she will not release a nuclear missile, but that they will begin lockdown protocol. Katniss hears a mechanical voice over the loud siren, and Boggs escorts her, Finnick, and Haymitch out of the control room as they begin the descent downstairs. She runs into Heavensbee, who tells her to "keep up the good work" and called the horrific events that happened to Peeta a "setback", but she manages to get to the supply station to grab packs for her, her Mom, and Prim. Once in the bunker, she begins setting up and once finished, waits. When she sees her Mother arrive, she frantically looks behind her and does not see Prim.
"Where's Prim?"
"She's not here? She was supposed to come straight from the hospital."
Katniss closes her eyes, thinking over possible scenarios where Prim could have gone, her eyes then fly open and she raises her voice and says, "the cat!"
Katniss and her Mother go running towards the front of the bunker entrance, pushing their way through the incoming crowd. Katniss knows once the large metal doors are closed, they will not be re-opened.
"Open it! Let me out! she cries as she reaches the front door, stopping the guards from closing the door by placing her arm in the space that was about to close it. The guards halt to a stop.
She hears her Mother plead with the guards as she calls out "Prim!" over and over.
A few seconds later she hears the sound of footsteps on the stairs, followed by Prim's voice shouting, "We're coming." She then hears Gale shout, "hold the door."
"They're coming!" I tell the guards. The guards slide the door, making room. She remains in place, fearful they will lock them out, only moving once Prim appears, with Buttercup in her arms. Katniss pulls her inside and Gale follows behind, with an armload of baggage.
Katniss hears the metal doors clank shut as she shouts angrily, "What were you thinking?" then hugs Prim in response, squashing Buttercup between them.
"I couldn't leave him Katniss, not twice! You should have seen him pacing the room."
"Okay" Katniss says, trying to calm herself down. She thinks to herself she should have drowned Buttercup back in the Seam when she had the chance. She tells Prim where their stuff is and Prim hurries off with Buttercup still in her arms.
She then turns to Gale and sees he is holding the box of supplies she had brought to her Mother when they were last in District 12. She notices her game bag is slung across his shoulder.
"If Peeta's right, these didn't stand a chance" he says.
"Thanks for…..everything" she says as she takes her stuff. "What were you doing up in our room?"
"Just double-checking, I had a feeling….she'd go back for him."
She nods, trying not to let her anger rise.
"We are in section 47 if you need me" he says as he turns to leave.
Knowing he still feels uneasy around her, she turns and walks to her area. She sees about five hundred people in the bunker and notices a lot of them staring at her. She knows they think she is nuts by the way she was frantically running towards the door.
She sees Buttercup wrapped in a blanket, with only his head poking out. She sits on the floor to see what Gale managed to place in her hunting bag. She sees her plant book, hunting jacket, her parents wedding photo, along with the personal contents in her drawer including her locket and Peeta's pearl.
She takes the pearl and holds it close, thankful that she still has it. She places the pearl inside the locket to keep it safe.
She then hears the bombs begin to fall.
4 Days Later
Katniss stands in the shower, letting the water continue to fall. They have just been released from the bunker, and the first thing she decides to do once placed in their new compartment is take a long shower for as expected, hygiene activities were heavily monitored while in lockdown.
She thinks about her conversation with Prim the first night of the bombs. How Prim told her that President Snow will do whatever it takes to break her to Peeta. How Finnick told her that he realized she loved Peeta the day he hit the force field during the Quarter Quell.
"I misjudged you. You do love him. I'm not saying in what way, maybe you don't know yourself. But anyone paying attention could see how much you care about him" Finnick's words replaying in her mind.
Snow had made her convince him that she loved Peeta, and in doing so, she gave him the weapon he needed to try to break her.
But will it? She cannot get Finnick's words out her mind. She wonders if it is possible to love more than one person. She loves Gale, though she cannot say the words to him, especially now. But does she love Peeta?
Once she is dressed, she heads towards the cafeteria. She knows the conversation she is about to have with Gale is long overdue.
She sees him sitting alone, surprised no one is with him. She quickly grabs her breakfast tray and goes over to him and says, "mind if I take a seat?"
He motions for her to sit, but his look is not a friendly one.
"Where is everyone?" she asks timidly.
"Sleeping in. My Mom says she plans to shower until all of the hot water is gone."
She forms a small smile. Today was the one day she will probably ever see 13 not have a daily schedule planned for everyone. Boggs had informed her and Gale that tomorrow, they are to be suited up and ready to go to above ground to film, informing Panem that the Mockingjay is alive and well. They had planned to do it today, but Heavensbee somehow convinced Coin and Boggs to wait, most likely because he himself looked like he had not slept in days, which she thinks, he probably hasn't.
"What are your plans for today?" she asks.
He shrugs then says, "Maybe work with Beetee."
She tries to hide the displeasure from her face. As she begins eating, she says, "I was wondering…if you will come hunting with me."
"Will Finnick be joining us?" he says curtly.
"Finnick? Why would he be-" then she pauses, realizing why he has made the snide comment. The other night while she went to visit Finnick in his area, she passed the Hawthorne's area. Realizing he is hurt that she sought out Finnick's company instead of his she says, "No, I want to show you something…in private."
He stares at her for a moment before saying "How do you plan to get them to allow us to hunt?"
"You'll see" she says.
"That's a great idea. With both of you out there, you think you can bring back enough meat to last us through the rest of the week?" Heavensbee asks.
"Absolutely, but, with hunting, you never know how long it can take. Would it be okay if it is arranged for us to return by 4 pm?" Katniss says.
"I think I can convince the President, but only for today."
"Of course" Katniss says with a forced grin.
Once Heavensbee leaves Gale says, "Well played."
"I'm going to need for you to be ready to quickly set up the snare line and bring whatever nets you can find."
"You want me to take off my communicuff? Gale asks.
"Yes."
"Katniss" he says with unease.
"Take it off Gale" she says angrily.
He frowns at her as he removes the communicuff and places it in the crevice of the tree beside her communicator. She then silently motions for him to follow her. Twenty minutes later, they arrive in front of the cabin.
She sets up the fishing nets as he sets up the snare line near the top of the cliff. Once he returns, he sees her sitting by the lake. He takes a seat beside her.
"How did you find this place?"
"Came across it while looking for new areas to hunt."
"Do you think they know about it?"
"I don't know, I don't think so. I think somehow, the bombs must have missed it, since it is hidden down here."
She begins telling him about how she has fixed the cabin up as much as she could. She then tells him what she knows she should have told him four days ago.
"I never truly thanked you, for saving Prim. I've been so wrapped up in my own problems I've neglected the people who matter the most to me. I'm sorry."
"You didn't come see me when we were in the bunker."
"I know. I just…Peeta was on my mind and talking to Finnick helps."
She sees the look of hurt flash across his face at the mention of Peeta's name. She knows he was hoping after he had retrieved her things, including Peeta's pearl, that she would have come to his area to thank him, that it was his way of trying to make amends for what happened with Coin.
"Prim doesn't think Snow will kill Peeta. She believes Snow will keep Peeta alive to do whatever it takes to break me. But what Snow doesn't know is…..he can't break me, what is most important is here with me in District 13."
"Prim" he says without hesitation.
She nods then places her hand on his face and says, "and you."
He pulls away in anger and says, "you love Peeta, don't deny it."
"I do. But Finnick made me realize, we can love people in all different sorts of ways. I care about Finnick, and Haymitch. I told you once that if I wasn't caught up in the Capitol and the games, that things could be different, that maybe I could be different. Well, we are currently in the middle of a second rebellion but…I am for once in a…semi secure place far away from Snow."
"What are you saying?"
"I'll never stop worrying about Peeta until he is safe with us here in 13. But just because I care about him as much as I do doesn't mean my feelings for you ever changed. I feel these last two months we've become strangers."
She sees a look of guilt form on his face. "I never should have lied to you about Peeta's interview."
"I should have accepted your apology sooner."
He leans in and begins kissing her, desperation in his movements as he brings her body closer to his.
Katniss looks up at the wood ceiling. She can tell by the light coming into the cabin that is around 3 pm. Knowing they will have to get ready to leave soon, she looks over at Gale as he sleeps in the feathered bed beside her.
She looks down at the dried blood between her legs. Knowing she will probably have to jump into the lake to wash off, she tries to will herself to get up, but she remains firmly planted to the bed.
A year and a half ago, she never thought her life would be where it is now. In that short period of time, she has been in the arena twice, has killed others and has seen others killed. Now part of the 2nd rebellion, has witnessed bombings, survived three days of continuous bombs in a bunker and today lost her virginity to her best friend.