DISCLAIMER: HG CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME

Dark Heart

Part III

Two Weeks Later

Katniss sits in the dark cave as she warms herself by the fire. Having recently finished dinner, she ate late due to her visit helping the wounded at the makeshift tent about a ten-minute walk away.

Since she arrived in District 2, she tries to keep busy by visiting the wounded, taping short propos with her camera crew, and participating in the meetings with the rebel leaders. She is not allowed to participant in actual combat, but she feels more a part of the rebellion now than she did when living in 13. Having more freedom, no tattooed schedule on her arm, fewer demands of her time, and most importantly, living above ground. She is moved around frequently for safety concerns, either living in one of the rebel villages or in a surrounding cave. Today she was relocated to a new location and told the soldiers she would stay in the cave. She can hunt during the day if a guard goes with her. She has gained trust with her guards and can go off by herself if she does not go too far and wears her communicator, for which she has complied.

With a lot of time to herself, she has had a lot of opportunity to reflect. Often thinking about Peeta, she realizes Snow has stolen him from her. A part of her wonders if perhaps death would have been kinder, instead of the re-programmed weapon the Capitol has turned him into to kill their biggest threat. She appreciates now more than ever, the person he was, for the kind heart is now replaced with a dark heart, at least when it came to the name Katniss Everdeen.

Heavensbee informs her on the phone of Peeta's progress. Even though she has not asked, he cheerfully informs her of the small steps in his rehabilitation. While she knows Heavensbee is trying to help, the news does not lift her spirits.

She also talks regularly to Haymitch, who informed her that a team was arriving tomorrow to help with the problem on the mountain.

Heavensbee had told Katniss the mountain was a "Tough nut to crack" and when she arrived in 2, she started calling it the nut to the rebel leaders and the name stuck. The nut was the heart of the Capitol's military. It was their military base, and the only part of the District that had not been occupied by the rebellion.

She sees the next morning while checking in with the rebel leaders for a morning briefing that Beetee and Gale would be arriving, for they were part of the team that had been selected. Boggs, who has been with her these past two weeks, had mentioned that Beetee had been chosen due to his technical expertise. Katniss knew however, that Gale was chosen by Beetee to help come up with a plan to ensnare the mountain.

While she had been depressed over losing Peeta, her depression was even worse when her thoughts turned to Gale. Besides her Mother and Prim, she knows Gale is the only other person who loves her unconditionally. She thought perhaps at one time Peeta did, but she also thought, did Peeta truly know her as well as Gale did?

Gale accepted all her flaws, yet she still cannot get past the cruelty of his methods when it came to this war. To know he was coming to 2 to help destroy the nut, caused anxiety. What would she say to him? Had his heart become even darker than Peeta's? Or is this aspect of him his true self and she had just never seen it until now?

She begins to wonder as she hears the rebel leaders talk, that perhaps, she should try to accept his flaws, but the unease in her heart still lingered.

She couldn't deny however, that she had missed him. A few times since arriving in 2, at night, when she was alone either in a secured room or in a cave, she would reach down and touch herself, thinking about the feel of his lips on hers that day in the cabin until she orgasmed.

It was something she had never done before, for while she had intense feelings after kissing Peeta, she realizes, perhaps since she is breathing in mountain air instead of 13's underground recycled air and her thoughts are clearer, that her desire to be physically intimate, is due in part to Gale.

The next day she is moved to the other side of the mountain, and she finds another cave to occupy while the rest of the team stay in the rebel village. Gale finds her late that afternoon, as she sits on a log outside the cave, plucking a goose. She had hunted twelve geese earlier, for flocks of them had been migrating through the area. Without a word, he sits down beside her and picks up a goose and begins plucking away.

As they are halfway through the pile of birds he asks, "Any chance we'll get to eat these?"

"Yeah. Most go to the camp kitchen, but they let me keep one or two sometimes. If I stay with someone in their home, I am expected to give my game to them, for letting me stay."

They continue to pluck in silence for a while until he says, "I saw Peeta yesterday, through the glass."

"What did you think?"

"Something selfish."

"That you don't have to be jealous of him anymore?" A gust of wind blows, and a cloud of feathers floats down around them.

"That if his mind hadn't been hijacked by the Capitol, that he'd be jealous of me. That it would have crushed him to know that I've…been with you."

She remains silent as she continues plucking.

"But I don't stand a chance if he doesn't get better" he says as he pulls a feather out of her hair.

She stops plucking but stares straight ahead, refusing to meet his gaze.

"You'll never be able to let him go; you'll always feel wrong about being with me."

His comment causes her to turn her head in response and say, "The way I always felt wrong kissing him because of you."

"If I thought that was true, I could almost live with the fact that you didn't want me to come here."

"It is true" she says with anger in her voice.

"But you still can't let him go."

"I have, but what would you know about it? You are right I do feel wrong about being with you, but not for the reasons you think."

And with that she gets up and angrily picks up the birds from off the ground, slamming them into her game bag and storms off towards the village.

After Katniss had taken the birds back to the village, she tells the team she will go into the woods to gather kindling for the fire. Once she returns, she takes a shower and brushes her teeth at the host home she is assigned to stay in, and then thanks them with two birds then retreats to the cave for the night.

Once the fire has been lit in the cave, she gets into her sleeping bag. Now November, it is quite cold at night, but the fire and the heavily insulated sleeping bag keep her warm. Unable to sleep, she stares at the cave's wall. She lays staring for she is not sure how long before she hears footsteps outside.

Grabbing her bow, she readies an arrow as she sees the tall figure come into view. She hears Gale call out, "It's me" as she lowers her bow.

Once she sees his face in the light of the fire, she sees the pain in his eyes. She motions for him to sit, both sitting on opposite sides of the fire.

He asks if they can talk about what happened earlier. She tells him about her unease of him working with Beetee, and the brutality of the weapons they are designing.

He tells her the only way to win this war, is to be as ruthless and as brutal as the Capitol has been to the Districts.

"What's going on in your head?" he asks.

She gives him a hard stare then says, "It's that kind of talk, that pushes me away from you."

She sees the hurt mixed with anger on his face, and he makes a sound of exasperation as he says, "You think I'm heartless?"

"I know you're not."

"I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

"Of what would happen if they captured you."

She pauses, thinking over what he has said. She then says, "I'd just have to take my nightlock pill, though to be honest I don't think they'd do a public execution, they would not want that footage-they'd torture me behind closed doors instead until I died a slow death."

He nods in agreement. "When I think about it, it causes me to come up with a new weapon design."

She thinks of all the designs she saw scattered about the room, realizing what it all meant.

She gets up and comes over to him. She gently touches his face and watches as he closes his eyes, the look of pain returning.

She is not sure if what she does next is because she has been desperately lonely the last two weeks, or because she has a new perspective of his recent actions or both, but she leans forward and hugs him tight. His arms tightly wrap around her, and she feels his lips brushing the faded bruises on her neck, working their way to her mouth.

Before she knows it, they are inside her sleeping bag. As they pull their clothes off each other, she realizes her body longs for his touch, and it is a welcome feeling. Their clothes off to the side in a pile, she lies down and spreads her legs for him, closing her eyes, happy to lose herself to him.

But to her surprise he pulls away slightly, and she opens her eyes and moves forward to bring him back to her, but she feels his hand under her chin.

"Katniss."

"What?"

"I love you, I don't want-I want this…..to mean something."

Though she still cannot say the words back, she looks at him tenderly and says, "It does-now kiss me."

His lips are on hers in an instant, and she finds herself yet again spreading her legs for him as he pushes inside of her. Bracing herself for the pain she felt last time, she breathes a sigh of relief as she quickly learns it is different this time, as he glides in and out with ease.

He gently rolls her over on her side and then continues his movements, pushing her into the inside of the sleeping bag while his body was just outside of it. His one hand on her hip and the other wrapped around the front of her body, he kisses her neck briefly, then lifts his head as he continues pumping in and out. As she begins to feel the pleasure building, she turns her head and kisses him, her breathing becoming so labored that her mouth remains open, unable to continue kissing him as she finds herself moaning in response to the sensation her body was feeling, as he began to go even faster.

Just as her body began to shake, he abruptly pulls away as he did before. Only this time, he quickly bolts up and scatters off, crouching down near the fire. She hears him grunt softly as he finishes.

She watches him as he puts his gray boxers back on before getting back into the sleeping bag with her, zipping it up and enclosing them inside.

She curls up beside him as he lays on his back, he in turn wrapping his arm around her. As they sit in silence, she rolls forward on top of him. She gives him a quick kiss before her head rests on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He traces circles along her back until sleep overcomes them.

Katniss stares at Gale in shock as he suggests blowing up the nut, not caring if the people trapped inside die.

"The majority of the workers are citizens from 2" Beetee says.

"So? We'll never be able to trust them again" Gale says in response.

"They should at least have a chance to surrender" a rebel leader from 2 says.

"Well, that's a luxury we weren't given when they fire bombed 12, but you are all so much cozier with the Capitol here" he says angrily.

Katniss watches as the rebel leader gives him a look that could kill. She then hears Gale shout, "I had to watch children burn to death and there was nothing I could do!"

Katniss closes her eyes, the image of his words playing through her mind. In that moment, she too wants everyone in that mountain dead, but then she realizes, she is not Snow, and she cannot condemn someone to death as Gale's suggested.

She leans closer to him, taking his hand she softly says, "Gale" not caring if anyone else sees the intimate gesture. "The nut's an old mine, it be like causing a massive coal mining accident."

"But not so quick as the one that killed our Fathers" he retorts. She sees that he has more to say, but he refrains, squeezing her hand instead, keeping her close to him. She leans in even closer, and he wraps his arm around her as she buries herself into his side, Gale giving Boggs a pointed looked as he looked at them in confusion.

She scans the eyes of everyone in the room, seeing some of them look as confused as Boggs by their blatant intimacy, she can tell, that some of them are not fazed, obviously never buying her romance with Peeta. Some however, have a look of complete bewilderment, mixed with a sudden realization, that perhaps she was in fact pregnant in the arena-but with someone else's child.

Wanting to tell them, 'I was never pregnant and he's not my cousin!' her thoughts are interrupted by Boggs saying they will go with Gale's original suggestion of flushing them out and suggests trying to avalanche the mountain.

After, she stares in horror as she sees that the plan worked-a little too well.

She asks Gale not to go with the rebel soldiers, but he tells her that he wants to help fight. They come to a compromise that he will join the battle if reinforcements are needed. And he is called to help as the gunfire begins to pick up hours later.

After Gale leaves, she begins a communication line with Haymitch who convinces her to use the opportunity to film a propo. And she finds herself giving a speech at the Justice Building trying to call for unity when she suddenly sees herself get shot on the TV screen.

The next day, Katniss wakes up in a hospital bed. She recognizes where she is immediately. Upset that she has returned to 13, she tries to sit up, but cries out in pain instead.

Suddenly the white curtain that divides her bed from the patient next to hers whips back, and she sees Johanna Mason staring down at her, with a very unfriendly look on her face.