DISCLAIMER: HG Characters do not belong to me.

A/N: Well, looks like I've done it again! Disappointed some of my lovely readers *sad face*. So, I hope you give me another chance, because if anyone thinks everything is going to be rainbows and roses for Gale/Katniss think again, there will be SERIOUS consequences for what they have done (and I don't mean pregnancy!) I have plans for Dez and Peeta so they are not going away for Dez fans, which, I have to say, I'm surprised some people ended up liking Dez. That was not my intention, but I wasn't going to make her a bad person, it actually gives me more confidence in my storytelling since some found her to be likable. As for Katniss and Gale being together too soon, it was a risk I knew I was taking with this story, but Katniss always struck me as someone wants to be distracted to not deal with things that cause her grief (ex. her making out with Gale in Mockingjay to forget Peeta *angry face*) so, having sex with Gale was a distraction. But as you will see, she will be pretty messed up while she comes to terms with it, she hadn't come to terms with it for the 6 days she was with Gale. So yes, my one reviewer did the math right, it was almost a week between when Katniss was rescued and having sex with Gale for the first time.

Chapter 57-Unknown Beginnings

Katniss ended up spending the night in Gale's hotel room, for she cried for hours in Gale's arms, just letting it all out. She didn't talk and he didn't press her to speak, just continuing to hold her in support. She ends up falling asleep and not waking up until almost 7 pm. They were starving by then and Gale ordered food in for them. After they eat Katniss takes a shower, Gale taking one earlier while she was sleeping. She knows if she goes home, she would be alone for her Mother is working tonight, and that is the last thing she wants.

While sleeping with Gale's arms around her, she has a nightmare and wakes up screaming. She hasn't had a nightmare since having her dreamcatcher, her screams waking Gale up immediately.

"It's okay, you're okay," Gale says trying to comfort her.

"No Gale it's not okay!" she says screaming at him, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I need my dreamcatcher, it is the only way I'll be able to sleep!"

It is 3 am and all Gale wants to do is go back to bed, but instead he says to her, "Where is it?"

"At my Mom's apartment where do you think!" Katniss snaps back at him.

"Where are your keys? I will go and get it for you" and Gale quickly gets up and throws his clothes on and grabs her keys and heads out the door, for he doesn't want to hear anymore of her wrath.

He tries not get annoyed while riding in a taxi to Mrs. Everdeen's apartment. He knows she has been through a traumatic experience and needs to be supportive. He wonders if Peeta had to endure that all the years they were together.

When he enters the apartment, he goes into the room she is staying in and sees the object hanging by the window, he looks at it, remembering how he inspected it back in the Sioux village in her tepee. He gently touches the object, wondering how something as simple as this could help her so much. When he first heard about the object, he was skeptical, but if Katniss's nightmares are controlled by it; that worked for him; otherwise he would have to endure hearing her terrified screams each night. Even though he knows it safe in the hotel room he was still on high alert, waking immediately when she started to stir in his arms.

He gently takes the object down and takes another taxi back, not wanting to wait for the train. When he gets back to the hotel room he sees Katniss is reading a magazine, lighting up when she sees him walk in. She gets up and runs to him, jumping into his arms. He is surprised by this behavior and has to react quickly, bringing his arms up to support her weight. She is heavier than Dez, not thinking in the slightest that was a bad thing, but he had to get used to holding the extra weight. "You're back sooner than I thought" she says leaning in to kiss him.

"I took a taxi" he says after their kiss ends. He sets her back down on her feet and takes out the dreamcatcher from the inside pocket of his jacket and says, "Here."

"Thank you!" Katniss says appreciatively and walks over to the window, beginning to hang it. He notices how she is wearing one of his shirts, it is so long on her it looks almost like a dress.

He strips down to his boxers and climbs into bed. Once the dreamcatcher is hanged she gets in next to him, kissing his cheek and saying, "You've always been the best, I'm sorry I never told you how much I appreciated you before."

"You seem to be in a better mood?" he says questioningly. Before the war, he was used to her mood swings, especially once Peeta came into her life. Since reuniting with her last year though, he noticed her mood swings had died down, minus her meltdown at him when they first saw each other. It made becoming friends with her again a lot easier, for she was a more calm person than before.

"I am. I feel a lot better, I took some of my morphling pills."

"How many?" he says, becoming concerned.

"Oh I don't know-three pills maybe" she says shrugging.

"Katniss-should you be taking that many at once?"

"It's fine Gale" she says dismissively. "We probably shouldn't have made love, it ended up being painful."

"You didn't tell me" he says defensively, raising his voice.

"I wanted to have sex! Don't tell me you didn't either."

"Of course I did but that's not the point, I told you to let me know if anything hurt, I would have stopped."

"I didn't want you to stop! I needed to feel you inside me, keep in mind I've been in the arena twice Gale, painful sex is nothing is compared to being burned and almost killing yourself blowing up the arena."

"I wanted you to enjoy it" he says, still defensive.

"I did enjoy it, just not in the typical way. I really enjoyed the second half of it" she says grinning.

He can't help but smile back and says, "Did you?" raising his eyebrows.

"Mmmhmmm" she says and leans in kissing him deeply. Once the kiss ends she yawns and snuggles up next to him, falling asleep quickly.

He watches her for a few moments, making sure she is sound asleep. Once he is sure she is he gently moves out from under her and goes into her purse, looking for her morphling pills. He reads the bottle and sees she was supposed to only take 1 every 12 hours.

He scolds himself for being so selfish and letting his hormones take over. He breaks up with Dez out of the blue and not even a week later he is having sex with someone who was brutally beaten and raped. He feels like a complete jerk. He's 28, not 17, he knows he has more self-control than that. But he also knows at this point, all he wants to do is make Katniss happy, and the expressions on her face never lie. She was looking at him with a sense of urgency when she showed him with her eyes what she needed. The last thing he wanted to do was deny her that. It was more than just sex, it was in all sense of the word-love. He knows there is only two people in his life he has made love to as opposed to just having sex with, Dez was the first, Katniss the second. Thinking of Dez makes him wonder how she is doing. He knows he will have to talk to her again, to discuss the cancelation of the wedding. He hates himself for hurting her the way he did, thinking whatever punishment is in store for him will be well deserved.

Katniss slept soundly for the rest of the night, not waking once. When she wakes up the next morning, she sees Gale is dressed and is sitting at the desk, drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. He looks over and sees she is awake and says, "Sleep good?"

"Yeah, almost forgot where I was."

He smiles and comes over to the bed, bending down giving her a quick kiss. He then asks her what she wants to do today, for today is his last day in District 4 and he has to leave tomorrow morning, a train ticket already purchased in advance.

He sees the sadness in her face as she realizes he will be leaving and she says, "How about the beach?"

"That sounds good, how about we go to your Mother's apartment first?"

Katniss knows she needs to change clothes, she figures she can pack a bag for tonight, if Gale allows her to stay. She changes into her clothes from yesterday and takes another two morphling pills. She notices Gale watching her as she swallows the pills and washes them down with a glass of water. After she is finished getting ready and braiding her hair as best she can they head to the train station. Once she arrives at her Mother's she immediately goes into her room and strips off her clothes. She doesn't close the door and sees Gale lingering outside, not coming in. She appreciates him being a gentleman, though she is surprised given the intimate things he had done to her yesterday. She changes into a light green shirt and dark green shorts, for it is quite hot today. Gale himself wearing cargo shorts and a button down shirt sleeve shirt. They never wore shorts while in District 12. For one they couldn't afford it, the second reason being wearing shorts was impracticable out in the woods. She asks him to come in and he stands by the door, still refusing to come in.

"Should I—pack a bag for tonight?"

"You can stay if you want, but-I am having dinner with Rory tonight. I arranged it earlier in the week, he told me tonight would be the best day."

"Oh-okay. Well, I can just hang out in your room while you are gone right?"

"Sure, but I don't know how late I will be."

"That's alright, I can watch TV or start to prepare for my interviews next week" Katniss says happily getting her green beaded necklace on. She was released by the hospital doctor to return to her dorm next week, ready to travel to the Capitol to interview for her teaching assignment.

She leaves a note for her Mother saying she will be with Gale until tomorrow and leaves it on the kitchen table. She knows her Mother is sleeping right now and doesn't want to wake her. Once they leave the apartment with Katniss's backpack in tow, Gale treats her to breakfast. They eat outside at a small diner right by the beach, taking in the ocean air. While eating Gale says to her, "Wow, you can't beat these views, no wonder my brother won't come back to District 2."

"It will be hard for me to leave here. I definitely plan on seeing if I can do my teaching assignment here, so I can stay a little longer."

Gale is relieved to hear that District 4 was at the top of her list for her teaching assignments. While he hates the thought of being separated from her again, being in District 2 with him wouldn't be ideal given the circumstances of their new relationship.

Once they finish eating they spend the rest of the day at the beach. Taking long walks along the shore, sitting by the water, and getting in the water up to their knees. While she wants to be affectionate with him for all of Panem to see, they agreed beforehand to keep their relationship a secret as best they could for now. Besides Dez, Hazelle, and Katniss's Mother, no else knows they are together. Gale plans to tell Rory tonight and he assumes Vick and Posy know. They try to act as casual as they can, resisting the urge to kiss and walking with distance between them, as friends would.

At 4 pm they head back to his hotel room. She works on preparing for her interview while he gets ready for dinner with Rory. He kisses her on the cheek goodbye not wanting to distract her from her intense reading, for she is reading a self-help book on how to interview.

At 6 pm Katniss finishes her reading and orders take in. She watches TV on the bed as she eats, scrolling through the TV channels. She continues watching TV until 7:30 pm when Gale comes back.

"Hey, how was dinner with Rory?" she says getting up off the bed and reaching up for a kiss.

After he pulls away he says, "It went-decent."

"Decent?" Katniss asks confused by his choice of words.

"Well, I haven't seen Rory since Posy's party, so it is always good to catch up with him. But, he wasn't pleased to hear about you and me."

Katniss is not at all surprised by this, for Rory has not been especially friendly to her. She knows he has reservations about her commitment to Gale. She knows he would be harder to win over then Hazelle.

"I'm sorry" she says, not sure what else to say.

"He will accept it-in time. He was supposed to be in my wedding and I think he's a little sad about that. He, Vick, and Posy."

Katniss is surprised he is talking the wedding that is now off. The last thing she wants to do is talk about Dez but she finds herself asking, "You were going to have people in your wedding?"

"Yeah, having a formal wedding with a wedding party is common in District 2. Dez's sister was going to be the maid of honor, Rory my best man. And Posy was going to be one of Dez's bridesmaids along with her best friend. Vick and Dez's brother were going to be the other groomsmen."

She wonders how much money Gale is going to lose now that the wedding is off. She doesn't ask, not wanting to upset him further. She can tell he is sad thinking about what he has done to Dez. To try to cheer him up she suggests they get ice cream, if he isn't completely full from dinner. He happily accepts saying that the place they went to didn't have the best food, so ice cream sounded good right about now.

They eat their ice cream by the beach, watching the waves in the dark. They are still in their clothes from earlier for it is still hot, though now it is breezy. Since it is dark they are sitting a little closer to each other than they normally would. She wishes he could put his arm around her, but she knows she needs to be patient.

Once they get back to the hotel, Katniss begins kissing him passionately, reaching down to remove his clothes. He stops her and says, "We are not having sex tonight Katniss, I won't have you taking any more of those morphling pills you are allotted."

She opens her mouth in response, but pauses and closes it. She doesn't want to fight with him after the wonderful day they had together. And, she noticed that she didn't have many pills left and knows if she makes love to him, she would most likely run out of pills by tomorrow. She knows tomorrow she will need to talk to her Mom about having another prescription written for her.

She nods in agreement in response and moves away from him, heading to the bed and sitting down. Gale sits down beside her and leans forward and says seductively in her ear, "How about you take a bath with me instead?"

She turns her head sideways and grins at him and gets up off the bed and pulls him into the bathroom. His hotel room has a large round tub and a stand up shower. She figures this hotel must have been used by Capitol residents before the rebellion, for it was right on the beach and had balcony's overlooking the ocean. She quickly gets the water going as they strip off their clothes. She removes her bandages with Gale's help, each day the cuts looking more and more healed. She gently removes the bandages from her chest and looks at herself in the mirror. She wonders if District 4 has the same technology now that the Capitol did in regards to scar removal. She notices Gale standing behind her looking at her reflection as well. He continues looking at her in the mirror and bends down and says in her ear, "You are the strongest person I know, that's why I love you so much."

She feels tears start to form in her eyes and he tilts her head up to him and kisses her. After a few minutes she pulls back and says, "I think the tub is ready."

Gale gets in first and helps Katniss in after. She leans back against him and submerges her body in the water. They just sit for a few minutes, enjoying the warm water. Eventually she feels Gale pull her closer to him and he begins rubbing her shoulders and then begins massaging her neck. She closes her eyes savoring the sensation of what he is doing. After he is finished and rests his head on her shoulder and says, "I loved being with you like that last night, I'm sorry that you were in pain."

"I know I shouldn't have rushed it, I just….I wanted to be with you so badly."

"I did too."

She leans her head up and kisses him. The kiss lingers but is sweet and gentle, once the kiss breaks she leans forward again and gives him a quick kiss before leaning back on him again. After their bodies are washed and dried, they get dressed and head back to the bed. Katniss hanging her dreamcatcher back up before climbing into his arms for the night.

She sleeps soundly and doesn't remember her dreams when she wakes up. She is up early the next morning for Gale has to leave the hotel by 9 am. She is all packed and ready to go by 8:30 so the two of them can go down to the lobby to grab food before heading to the train station. While eating her breakfast she reaches into her purse and takes two more morphling pills while Gale is at the front desk checking out, hiding her actions from him.

She tells herself when she is healed she will no longer need the pills.

Katniss walks with Gale to his departure gate at the train station. There are a lot of people waiting at the gate, so they are squeezed in beside each other on the bench. They are able to hold hands under his bag that is sitting on his lap. She is happy to have this last bit of contact with him before he leaves. Once the train pulls up to the station they quickly pull their hands away and stand up.

"I will try call you as much I can" he says to her while getting his bag over his shoulder.

"Me too" she says.

Not wanting to risk letting her emotions take over, she quickly reaches up and hugs him for a final time. She whispers into his ear, "I love you."

She hears him whisper back, "I know."

She pulls back and smiles at him, realizing his trick of reversing her words. He gets on the train and takes his seat and looks out the window and sees her waving goodbye at him and smiling.

Once she is out of view he leans back in his seat, dreading his return to District 2, for numerous reasons. His unknown fate regarding Geffen's murder, facing Dez and her family, and finally, being away from Katniss for an unknown period of time.