5.

Haymitch's hands were shaking but he wasn't going to drink.

He paced the length of the kitchen, staring at the phone when he wasn't staring at the clock or at the half-full bottles of moonshine lining the counter.

She should have been back by now. Or she should have called.

He shouldn't have sent her out there alone. She wasn't ready.

But they were never ready. And he had always had troubles letting them head into danger alone. He didn't believe in patting his Slayer's back and shoving her in the direction of danger. He believed in having her back, in being out there with her, in keeping them as safe as he could…

But he couldn't hold her hand forever and it was a simple enough mission. Go to a party, kill a few lone vampires who would inevitably be attracted by the young and excited teenagers… It wasn't that dangerous. She was capable of doing it. He knew she was. Just like she could have taken over patrolling on her own by now.

He was training her, he had taught her the basics, it was time to give her some leeway, to let her fly…

But some baby birds needed more time than others and what if…

He stared at the phone, willing it to ring and dreading it in the same breath. The Council would call if another Slayer awoke somewhere else. At least if it was one of the known Potentials, if it was a rogue one it might take longer to figure it out. Coin in person would tell him because the Head of The Council always informed the Watcher. Out of courtesy. It would only be the sixth time that happened in twenty years. No biggie.

And it wasn't like he really cared about the kid.

He had known her two weeks. No time to get attached at all. She was irritating anyway, not at all lovable. Not like Annie. Not like Cecelia. Not even like Jo because Jo's punk attitude had been endearing somehow. Katniss was annoying and self-centered – or sister-centered rather – and brash and reckless and he wasn't attached to her at all.

No, he wasn't.

Fuck it all.

He stopped pacing and headed straight for the trunk full of good weapons he kept in the living-room – he kept one in every room, really, even the bathroom because there was nothing more awkward than demons attacking the house when you were busy in there; true story, Jo had laughed at him for hours afterwards. He would go to The Capitol and he would test the water. If he found his missing Slayer, he would kill her himself. If he didn't, he would look for her until he found her and then could kill her himself.

The noise of an engine coming down the street made him switch targets fast. His hand flew to the hilt of the knife he always kept at the small of his back and he marched toward the front door.

Nobody ever came up here unless they had business with him. Or unless they were demons. He wasn't in the mood for demons.

By the time he had tossed the front door open, the car was lining up the curb in front of his house. The headlights blinded him and he lifted his hand to shield his eyes. Then, of course, he caught sight of Katniss' familiar figure hopping out of the SUV and he finally allowed himself to breathe.

She almost ran all the way up to the door and he could tell she was spooked by something but his eyes soon darted to the boy hesitantly trailing after her. A boy who looked like he had been in some brawl and who had a distinctive wound on his neck.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess you've blown rule number two." he sneered at her.

She sneered right back but it was lacking her usual fire. She looked tired and frightened. Small. There was an impressive bruise forming on her cheek and she was holding her left arm close to her body. He gripped her chin between his fingers, ignoring her instinctive flinch, and tilted her head to the side so he could see better in the dim light coming from inside. Whatever had happened, it had been a bad fight. He brushed his fingers against the bruise in something that wasn't an affectionate gesture because he didn't care about her at all.

"Good job at following rule number one." he whispered with far less casualness than he would have liked.

He stepped aside to let her in and then gestured at the boy to follow her in with a sharp jerk of his chin. The kid didn't look any better than his Slayer did.

He sat them down in the kitchen and got the first aid kit out while they told him what had happened. The boy – Peeta, as the kid helpfully reminded him even though he had been sitting in his class for two weeks – did most of the talking, he couldn't help but notice as he cleaned and bandaged the puncture wounds on his neck.

He was taking the whole vampire thing pretty well all things considered.

Haymitch decided he could take care of the various scrapes on his face and hands himself and turned to Katniss to take care of her own injuries. The girl had curled up on one of the kitchen chairs, legs hugged tight to her chest with her good arm, with a forlorn expression on her face. She didn't fight him off when he started smearing some cream on her cheek. The bone might have been broken, he wasn't sure. She would heal more quickly than a normal human though so it didn't warrant a trip to the ER.

He had been more focused on her injury than on the detailed tale of her apparently epic battle with that missing-kid-turned-vampire – the boy clearly had a bad case of hero worship and/or a deep crush on her. Then Peeta mentioned a blond woman who gave him the creep. And Katniss flinched.

"What?" he asked her.

Katniss' face hardened into her usual stubbornness before suddenly deflating into something a lot more fragile. "I think she was a Master."

"There are no more Masters in this part of the country." he countered. "The last one was banished to a hell dimension after… Well, he was banished. I was there. If there was a Master around, we'd know, sweetheart, trust me. They're not subtle with the I want to destroy the world every other Sunday routine."

She shook her head. "She was old, Haymitch. And… She was powerful. I didn't even fight her and I know that she could have killed me without breaking a sweat."

He took that in strides. "Old doesn't mean she's a Master. Masters were born directly from the old demons. Sure, she could have been sired by a Master but…"

"You keep telling me to listen to my instinct. I'm telling you." she cut him off. "That one's dangerous."

"Okay." he said quietly. "Okay. I believe you. It doesn't mean we can't kill her, it just means we have to be careful about it. If she's old, she's probably mentioned somewhere in the Watchers journals. Did you get a name or something that could help identify her?"

She shook her head no. "She knew I was the Slayer."

"Most vampires who weren't born yesterday would recognize a Slayer on sight, sweetheart." he commented. "But that does tend to prove she knows her stuff."

"You don't have your happy teacher face on." Peeta pointed out. "How bad can it get?"

"Haymitch doesn't have a happy teacher face." Katniss grumbled. "And I told you in the car you should just go home and forget everything."

"I do have a happy teacher face. Students who confuse World War One and World War Two just don't get to see it." Haymitch argued with a pointed look.

She rolled her eyes. "You can't expect me to pass a test when you keep me up until two am to chase vampires through a cemetery the night before."

He elected to ignore that to address the main problem. "She's right, kid. You should go home and forget."

Peeta, not entirely unexpectedly, frowned. "But I want to help."

"It's too dangerous." Haymitch declared firmly. "Look, I know…"

"No, you don't." the boy cut him off. "If you think I will let Katniss risk her life alone, you're wrong. I can be useful."

"Unless you've got magic powers or supernatural strength you didn't tell us about…" he mocked.

"How about a picture of that vampire?" Peeta retorted.

Haymitch opened his mouth and then closed it. "Did you take a picture of that vampire?"

He couldn't imagine anyone being that stupid in the middle of a fight but in this era of cell phones and selfies and what not, he wouldn't have sworn it was impossible. Although it was unlikely given the way Katniss was looking at the other kid.

"No." Peeta answered with a touch of smugness. "But I can draw her. And I can help you look afterwards."

Three people wouldn't be too few to go through all the journals… And there was no harm in letting him do that, he supposed. As long as the boy didn't get involved in anything more physical…

"Fine." he spat, fetching a notepad from one of the kitchen drawer and tossing it on the table. "Turn around and start drawing. And, Katniss, take that shirt off so I can check your shoulder." He glared at the boy. "I catch you peeking, you're gonna be sorry that vampire didn't finish you off, we're clear?"

"I wouldn't!" Peeta scoffed, clearly offended by the very notion.

"Draw. Then we hit the library." he grumbled.

"You have a library?" she frowned. And he figured he had never showed her the room full of old volumes that would have been enough to give anyone nightmares. Some of them were from his own collection, others he had inherited along with the house…

Katniss tried to slip her shirt off with difficulties – and it was a good thing she was wearing a sport bra or it would have made it more awkward for both of them – and that was when the pin caught his eyes. For a second, the kitchen seemed to spin under his feet.

"Where did you get that?" he barked, reaching for the familiar golden bird.

Katniss recoiled, pressing a hand over the pin so he couldn't grab it. "It was a gift. What's your problem?"

A gift?

A coincidence, he told himself. Just a coincidence. There were probably a lot of those pins around. It might not be the same one. His memories might not even be that reliable. It had been twenty years ago, after all.

But the mention of a Master vampire and now that pin? The last time he had seen it, it had been tainted rusty with blood.

A coincidence. Just a coincidence.

"Nothing." he grumbled. He glanced at Peeta whose back was still turned to them. "Hurry up with that drawing, boy."

"You can't rush an artist." the kid replied.

Katniss was still watching him with mistrust but she finally freed her injured shoulder from her shirt and let him probe and poke at the ugly bruise forming underneath. It wasn't dislocated, which was good, but it was swollen, which wasn't. Thattrip to the ER might not have been off the table after all.

"We'll figure it out." He applied a generous amount of cream on the bruises and hoped for the best. If it wasn't better in a couple of hours, he would take her to the hospital. "It will be fine, sweetheart."

"You're the one always saying I should be ready to die." she pointed out. She forced her arm back into the sleeve of the shirt with clenched teeth. "Now I get why." She shot him a glare. "But if I die you can't forget your promise. You said you would…"

He barely registered the sound of breaking glass but shielding her with his body was instinctive. It turned out not to have been such a bad idea because a paving stone bounced not too far from them, leaving a dent on the wood of the kitchen table. And a draft through the broken window Peeta immediately rushed to.

"Don't get too close!" Haymitch ordered, already reaching for the stock of stakes he kept in one of the drawers. Katniss had drawn the one she had on her but she was also inspecting the projectile.

Peeta took a few precipitated steps back. "Katniss said they couldn't come in unless you invite them in!"

"Doesn't mean they can't grab you and drag you out." he deadpanned, carefully nearing the window. He couldn't see anything outside. Nothing was moving. Not that it meant anything.

"Haymitch." Katniss' voice was frail.

By the time he turned around, Peeta had already crossed the room to her side to place a supportive hand on her shoulder. She was holding a crumpled paper stained with blood that had probably be wrapped around the stone.

There were the kids with their selfies and there were the vampires with their archaic methods.

"I have the thing you love most." she read out loud. "Midnight at the Hanging Tree."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Peeta frowned.

"Prim…" she breathed out and, before Haymitch could do anything to stop her, she was rushing out of the kitchen. Peeta grabbed her around the waist just before she reached the front door. "Let me go!"

The hit on his kidney couldn't have been anything but painful and the boy did let her go but Haymitch was right there this time, bodily blocking her path.

"Stop and think, sweetheart." he urged her. "That might be their plan. Maybe they're out there, waiting for you to come out so they can jump on you."

"Or maybe they've got Prim." she hissed.

She took a step closer to the door, he lifted both hands in front of him as much to keep her at a distance as to put another obstacle between her and the outside world. Ridiculous as it was. Nothing would stop a Slayer who wanted out of a room.

"How?" he insisted. "You came straight here. They followed you here. They've got no clue where you live." He was finally getting to her, he could see it. Realization was dawning in her eyes as the tension slowly left her shoulders. "They've got zero clue you've got a sister. All they know about you is that you're the Slayer. You're…"

Peeta made a strangled noise and they both turned to look at him, tension rising another notch. "You said when you become a vampire you keep your memories? So… They're the same people?"

"They lose their souls." Haymitch explained, taking pain to keep his voice patient because it wouldn't take much to make Katniss explode and he was a little too scared of what would happen when she did. "They're demons in your friends or your family's bodies. But, yeah, they remember when they were human, they just don't care. Yeah."

"Okay, so…" Peeta winced. "Cato… He knows about Katniss… And Prim… Because… We were good friends and…"

And the kid had a crush on the girl, which meant he had talked about her at length with him.

"Shit." he spat, his eyes darting back to Katniss. "Okay. Okay. We go to your place but we're clever about it, sweetheart. You follow my lead."

"Not anymore." she hissed.

And with that ominous statement, she was out the door. She took off at a run and nothing attacked her but he still cursed and forgot about even trying to grab more weapons before following.

Peeta was already running to his car so Haymitch followed. They caught up with her as she was about to exit the ghost village he lived in. She climbed in the car without a word but glared at Peeta so hard the poor boy flinched and sped up.

"It's not his fault." Haymitch said quietly, his voice breaking the tense silence in the car.

"If they found Prim because of him, it is." she snapped.

"There are plenty of people who know about your situation, Katniss." he pointed out. "Cato could have directed that vampire toward any of them and the end result would have been the same. You want to blame someone, blame the vampires."

"I'm sorry." Peeta added pitifully and he did sound sorry. "I didn't know…"

"No way you could have known." Haymitch sighed. "This ain't on you, kid."

Katniss was biting down on her nails by the time they reached the trailer park. It really was the most miserable part of town. Upturned garbage bins spilling their contents on the streets, sketchy people lurking in the shadows – and not the fangy sort of lurkers either – trailers and little shacks that were barely decent…

He was going to have to do something about that eventually. He had known it was bad from what she wasn't telling him, he hadn't known it was that bad.

Katniss jumped out of the car before Peeta had even stopped it properly. Nothing really set the Everdeen's trailer apart from all the others around it. It looked just as small and in bad shape.

Haymitch was too old and too sober to run after kids with superhuman stamina. He was out of breath by the time he passed the threshold in her wake. The room was small and, aside for a ginger cat that hissed at him, absolutely empty. Katniss had already moved on to the next room, her and her sister's bedroom, he figured.

"Prim!"

The despair was clear in her voice and Haymitch remained close to the entrance, out of the way. Peeta wisely stayed back too, watching the girl run around the trailer as if her sister was going to jump out of a cupboard screaming surprise.

"There's no trace of a fight." he pointed out between two calls of her sister's name. "Either they didn't grab her here or…"

Katniss considered this and then marched into what must have been the other bedroom. This time, Haymitch followed because there was a murderous glint in his Slayer's eyes. The bedroom was small and there wasn't much to see aside for a woman asleep in the middle of the bed, clutching the picture of a man he supposed to be Katniss' father. It wasn't the way he had been planning on meeting the girl's mother.

"Mom!" she called, brutally shaking her awake. "Mom! Where's Prim? What happened here? Mom!"

It took a long time to rouse her and when she did wake up, it was with heavy fluttering eyelids.

Haymitch's eyes darted to the bedside table and wasn't surprised to find a collection of pills bottles. Sleeping pills or something equivalent.

"Katniss, you're back…" the woman muttered in a sluggish tone. "Your friend was looking for you…"

"What friend?" she asked, shaking her some more. "Where's Prim?"

Haymitch placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She wasn't controlling herself and he was afraid she would hurt the woman. She glared at him but let her mother go. He didn't take his hand away.

"He was so polite… He asked if I minded if he waited inside…" Aster mumbled. "Prim said she'd keep him company. I was so tired… My headaches…"

"You let him in?" Katniss screeched.

The woman finally seemed to pick up that something wasn't right. "What's wrong?" And then she spotted him and she frowned. "Who are you?"

"A friend." he answered. "Everything's fine. Go back to sleep."

It would have been harder for her to wake up completely than to follow that order and he didn't wait around to see which way she would choose to do it. He guided Katniss back into the main room, squeezing her shoulder when she leaned a little against him.

"She let him in…" she whispered. "She let him in."

"She didn't know." he tempered.

"She hardly ever gets up. And the only time she does…" she insisted.

"Katniss." he said firmly, forcing her to look at him. "Prim is still alive. She's their hostage."

And it was a miracle their mother was still alive.

"They want to kill me, why would they keep her alive?" she retorted and then her eyes grew wide. "What if they turn her? I can't… I can't…"

He wasn't equipped to deal with crying teenagers so he did the only thing he could think of: he hugged her tight and met Peeta's desperate gaze over her shoulder.

"You need to finish the drawing and we need to figure out who this vampire is." he declared. "Once we know who she is, we can figure out how to operate. And you…" He drew Katniss away from him so he could look her in the eyes. "You need to calm down. Your sister ain't dead until we see a body, yeah?"

Her lips were wobbling and she was sniffing but she made an effort to jerk her chin up. "Yeah."

Now to the battle plan…

Being a Watcher is hard, people. And now Prim is misssssssing. Will they find her in time? Let me know your thoughts!