DISLCAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.

A/N: I realized it has been a while since I've thanked my readers for the reviews-as always I appreciate them and keep them coming!

Chapter 81-Making Amends II

Katniss feels eyes on her as she walks into Gale's office building, most coming from the workers walking by. She has to wait in the lobby until she is told she can head up. Once she does, she quickly heads into his office, wanting to get away from all of the stares she was as receiving.

"You alright?" Gale says as he shuts the door after she bolts in, not used to seeing her move so quickly after being injured.

"Everyone is staring" she says uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry….it's because of me."

"I have a message for you."

"Oh?" he says curiously.

"I saw Dez at the coffee shop. She said she will leave by this afternoon and that your key will be left on the table."

Gale cringes hearing Dez's name, not wanting to know what else the two of them said to each other. He was not looking forward to going back to his apartment, for one of the messages he received was from an acquaintance of his-the boyfriend of Dez's best friend whose name was Tristian. Gale and he had been friendly with each other when they went out on double dates though they were not close. Needless to say he was surprised listening to his message for he never called him, let alone at work.

The message left informed him that Dez had thrown a party at his place and that Dez was seen going into his spare bedroom with another guy and that she didn't come out for a while.

"I know we are not close, but I wanted to warn you about what happened. I consider Dez a friend and while it's not my business what went down between the two of you, I think that is really messed up, her bringing another guy to your apartment" listening to the last lines Tristian says in the message.

He wasn't exactly surprised by this. He knew Dez was someone who didn't stay single for long and he figured she would be looking for a rebound guy which she could easily get. He was also not surprised that having a few friends over translated into a party, for he knows some of her friends liked to party, especially since a lot of them still lived with their parents. Gale and Dez had thrown parties at the apartment from time to time when she lived there.

He hoped that at the very least his apartment would be in decent condition when he returned.

"Thanks for letting me know" he says to Katniss in response once his thoughts returned to the present.

"Don't you want to know what else we talked about?"

"Not really. I see you look exactly the same when you left so I assume you two didn't rip each other's hair out."

"Not funny" she says with a look of disgust on her face. "She let it be known she'll be waiting for you once you see me for my true self and leave me."

"Peeta said something similar to me" Gale says shrugging.

"Peeta would never say something that hurtful!" Katniss snaps back.

"She's still hurting Katniss, Dez is…an emotional person-it is understandable she would lash out. And Peeta let it be known he wants you back. You cannot tell me you don't believe that."

"I know he does" she says looking down.

"Okay then. I'd say we are even as far as conversations with our exes go" saying it in a manner that translates the subject is closed.

He begins telling her that a hovercraft is coming to the building at noon to take her back to District 9. Katniss looks over at the clock by Gale's desk and sees it is 11 am. She also notices a picture of him and his family on his desk. It is an older picture, guessing it was taken when they first arrived in District 2 for Posy, Vick, and Rory look exactly how she last saw them in District 13. She assumes he once had a picture of him and Dez there.

She wonders if he will put a picture of the two of them on his desk. She reaches up and touches her locket, for she began wearing it after she got it back from the Jay Killers camp.

"Did you get some food at the coffee shop?" he asks breaking the silence.

"No-I didn't even really have my coffee."

"Do you want to grab some food from our cafeteria and eat it in here with me?"

"That be great" she says forming a smile. Realizing it might the last lunch they have together for a while.

She has him order for her and she waits in his office while he goes downstairs. She begins looking around while he is gone. His office is large-with a couple of windows and a huge desk area with a large computer screen. There is a table with six chairs in the room as well, assuming he uses it for small meetings.

She sees his one desk drawer is slightly ajar. She goes to close it but sees something peeking out that sparks her interest. It looks like a photograph. She knows she shouldn't, but she opens the drawer and sees it is indeed a picture. A picture of him and Dez. She pulls it out and looks at it. It is different from the one she saw in District 9's military base, this picture looking older. She sees a much healthier looking Dez standing beside Gale. Just like the other one, his arm is around her waist, holding her close. And just like the other picture, he looks happy.

She knows that this is the Dez Gale fell in love with.

She hears the doorknob turn and she quickly puts the picture back and closes the drawer, trying not to look guilty as he walks in. He looks at her curiously as he sets down their food on the medium sized table. She shrugs and says, "Just looking around."

"Not much to see" he says in response.

She quickly goes over to see what he has brought for her to eat. A strawberry salad with nuts in it. Since it is summer strawberries are more abundant in the area. She sees he has gotten a salad as well but instead of strawberries his has chicken, getting iced teas for both of them to drink.

They chat about her returning to District 9 and when she will begin looking for jobs.

"From what I was told in District 4, it is customary to begin looking for jobs two weeks before graduation." Katniss explaining that a person receives their final review one week before class ends.

She confesses to him her fear of not being offered a job in District 2.

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it-if we get to it" he says letting her know he has the utmost confidence that she will be offered a job in 2.

The time passes quickly and before she knows it, it is 11:45. Gale grabs her bag and bow, ready to carry it up to the main platform. Before they leave the privacy of his office she embraces him and gets up on her tiptoes to kiss him goodbye. He kisses her back softly. When she moves back down she smiles up at him and says, "I promise not to be…..so distant this time."

"Call me when you get to your apartment."

"I will."

He bends down and gives her a quick kiss and escorts her up to the main platform. They stand there for a few minutes and then see a small hovercraft approach.

He carries her stuff up the walkway. She turns to him as he sets her stuff down and says, "Goodbye."

She sees a look of sadness on his face as he bends down and whispers in her ear, "It hurts to be away from you."

She smiles into his shoulder suddenly grabbing him close to her, his words causing her to have butterflies in her stomach like a school girl in love.

"It will only be a few weeks" she says in response, still holding him close.

"Maybe longer than that. I have a lot of work to catch up on."

Suddenly she has an idea. "Maybe I can find an excuse to have Paylor give me access to a hovercraft to come to the Capitol."

"Well-you did demand it."

She snorts and says, "Hey-when you helped someone get into the position they are in, they sometimes owe you."

He shakes his head at her and touches her face before turning around and walking down the ramp. Katniss yells out "Gale!" before he is out of her sight.

He quickly stops and turns around, looking at her. She mouths the words "I love you" and gives him a sad smile.

He nods at her and mouths "You too" and turns around and walks down the walkway, quickly out of sight.


When Katniss arrives in District 9, she is driven to her apartment by two soldiers. She thanks them as they bring her stuff into her apartment for her and set it on her bed. Without another word they nod in response and quickly leave. She looks around and sees the place looks very tidy, realizing Gale had made the bed for her and cleaned up a little before leaving. She curses herself for leaving the way she did, knowing she is fortunate he has forgiven her so quickly. Not sure if she could have done the same if the roles had been reversed.

She walks down to the mailbox and sees quite a bit of mail, taking it upstairs and sorting through it. She then calls Gale and lets him know she is back and they chat briefly before hanging up, letting him get back to work.

She has one day to relax and run errands before she is to return to the school. She decides to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening trying to write some lesson plans, a way to show McKenna she is still committed to her teaching assignment and to make up for missed time. She knows she will need to make amends with her.

She hopes McKenna is as forgiving as Gale.


Gale arrives back at his apartment by 6 pm. A later time than usual but considering how much work he had to catch up on and the fact he started work beyond his normal start time, it was actually a shorter day for him.

He is greeted by Harper and he immediately takes him out for a brief walk. When they return he looks around his apartment. He sees overall it is in decent shape. He sees his spare key where Dez said she would put it but no note is left which doesn't surprise him. He goes into his room and sees it is in good condition and hopes that no one went into his room during the party. He then goes into the spare room and sees that the bed is made differently than usual but that it was made. He continues looking around and sees a small object on the floor by the bed. He bends down and picks up a condom wrapper, seeing it had been ripped open.

A part of him is angry that Dez had sex with another man in their apartment. Another part of him knows he shouldn't be angry, for he allowed her to stay and she did ask beforehand if she could invite people over. He knows she would not want to bring a man home to her parent's house for when they dated he never spent the night there. He also knows the feelings he is experiencing are that of jealousy, pissed that she has rebounded after only four months of breaking up. 'At least she had the decency not to do it in our room and to use protection from who knows what diseases the guy could have given her' he thinks bitterly to himself.

He then reminds himself that he had sex with Katniss a week after breaking up with her, hating the conflicting emotions he was feeling. While he knew that he wanted a future with Katniss more than anything, a part of him was still missing Dez a lot. While Katniss was definitely more affectionate now than she had been in the past, he still could not forget how she brushed him off when he tried to comfort her after River got adopted, wondering if that was the way it was going to be every time she was upset about something. Whenever Dez was upset or sad, she would grab onto him in comfort to the point she almost chocked him she was holding on so tight.

He knows he needs to stop comparing, knowing full well what he was getting into when he decided to be with Katniss. As Peeta so eloquently put it, they were two halves of the same whole. He was never able to duplicate the type of relationship he and Katniss had with anyone else and while he and Dez for the most part got along extremely well, at times he felt like an outsider when he was around her family and friends and at times with her. With Katniss those feelings were nonexistent.

He runs the sweeper in all of the rooms of his apartment and cleans the bathrooms before making himself dinner and taking Harper out one more time. When he goes to bed he allows the dog to come up on the bed and sleep beside him, not allowing the behavior since Harper was a puppy. He feels terrible for leaving him so much these past few months, hoping that this last trip was the final one he would be taking outside of his regular business trips.

Harper happily licks his face and cuddles beside him, helping him quickly drift off to sleep.


Katniss arrives back at the school early Monday morning. The school's final session starting. The wealthier Districts of Panem gave their students a longer summer break, Posy being one of the lucky kids who got a two to three month break. The poorer Districts however, required their students to attend school for longer periods of time for they were behind academically compared to the wealthier Districts. Part of PES's long term goal was to get all the Districts on the same level academically, so that a nationwide school schedule could be implemented. PES knew however that was a goal years and years in the making.

McKenna arrives late to the classroom as expected, giving herself only 15 minutes to get ready before the students arrived. She gasps seeing Katniss sitting at her desk patiently waiting for her.

"You came back" McKenna says in a cold manner.

"I did. I was told it was still okay as long as I came back by the time final session starts."

"Your boyfriend gave you the message I see."

"Yeah."

"What the hell happened to your arm?"

"I uh-fell."

McKenna snorts in response and says, "I heard you were not well." The cold tone still apparent in her voice.

"I wasn't, I haven't been for a long time. It was stupid of me to leave though."

McKenna doesn't respond and instead changes the subject by saying, "You will have to observe me today, and I expect a lesson plan from you first thing tomorrow morning."

"I actually brought some with me today" Katniss says reaching down for the papers on her desk and handing McKenna the lesson plans she wrote. "I don't know if what I came up with is too far ahead or behind what they are currently working on."

McKenna looks somewhat impressed and says, "I will take a look at them at lunch" and quickly goes to her desk getting ready for the kids to arrive.

Katniss is warmly greeted by the students, all of them showing concern asking about her injury. She assures them she is fine and that her arm didn't hurt anymore even though at times that wasn't true.

When lunchtime arrives, Katniss doesn't ask McKenna to eat with her in the teacher's lounge like they usually did. While in line to get food, McKenna immediately takes her food back to her classroom, letting the other teachers know they typically sit with that she was going to eat at her desk.

Katniss was planning to eat by herself when she is asked by one of the teachers they sit with where she was going when she walked by their table. She smiles appreciatively and sits with them, trying to dodge the questions she was getting about her arm and leg. She comes up with an excuse she hopes they believe, feeling slightly guilty for lying, but knowing she couldn't tell them the truth of how she got some of her injuries.

She leaves the lounge early to try to talk to McKenna and apologize for the way she acted when they last saw each other.

"Can we talk?" Katniss asks when she walks into the room.

She sees McKenna reading her lesson plans and sees her look up and says, "I don't know if there is much to talk about."

"I wanted to apologize, for my actions before."

"No biggie, all water under the bridge" McKenna says then turns back to reading her lesson plans.

"Why do I get the feeling you are still mad then?" Katniss asks raising her eyebrows.

McKenna sighs loudly and says, "I am not mad. I am trying to keep our relationship professional. You were right when you said I didn't really know you. I thought we were friends by the way you had told me some things about your personal life, but you ripping my head off the way you did proved to me you might not be someone I want to be friends with."

"McKenna" Katniss pleads but is interrupted by the sound of laughter as the kids arrive back from lunch.

Katniss continues to observe McKenna for the rest of the afternoon, taking diligent notes as usual. Once everyone is gone McKenna turns to Katniss and says, "Your lesson plans were pretty good. You don't need to turn in anything tomorrow, be ready to use lesson plan 3."

Katniss nods in response and says, "For what it is worth-I would like for us to try to become friends again. I only know one other person here in District 9, and that person lives a few hours away from Harvest Moon."

"We'll see" McKenna responds and she walks out before Katniss can say anything further.


Over the next few weeks, Katniss continues her efforts to get back in McKenna's good graces. While the first week continued to be a struggle, by the end of the second week they had returned to eating lunch together with the other teachers. She continued to keep busy in the evenings working on her lesson plans and spoke with Gale on the phone every night, developing a routine of him calling each night at 8 pm on the dot.

Sometimes they would talk for hours, sometimes only a few minutes depending on what each other's day was like. She also developed a routine calling her Mother, chatting with her on the weekends.

Katniss slowly began opening up to McKenna as the weeks passed, eventually confiding in her how she got injured and about the Jay Killers. McKenna completely unaware the Jay Killers existed, saying she hadn't hurt of such a group or groups in District 9. Katniss made a mental note to relay that information to Haymitch.

Once August rolls around, Katniss asks Gale when he thinks he can arrange to come see her or vice versa. He informs her that unfortunately he won't be able to see her most likely until right before her graduation, explaining that he is being sent to District 10 again for the official there is still on leave.

"I am taking Harper with me so I don't have to worry about asking my Mom or Dez." Katniss relieved to her Dez would not be returning to his apartment.

"How long will you be gone?" she asks, afraid that he will miss her graduation ceremony in the Capitol on the 31st.

"I informed the President I needed to be back by the 25th for Posy's birthday. We are doing a party at the house, I would like for you to be there."

"I think that will be fine, the students are done here on the 15th, but McKenna has till the 24th to turn my final grade into PES. I don't know if she'll still need me after the 15th."

"I thought you could-stay at my apartment the week between Posy's birthday and graduation."

"Really?" Katniss says surprised by his offer.

"Well, you might be going on job interviews in District 2 right?"

"That's the plan."

"Then that should work out good. Your Mom can stay too if she wants, I am assuming she is coming to the graduation ceremony?"

"As long as I confirmed to graduate yes, I can bring two people. I was hoping you would be my second guest."

"Of course."

She breathes a sigh of relief, fearing he would say no though she knows it was an irrational thought.

They finish their conversation, Gale telling her he will call at their usual time when he arrives in 10 tomorrow.

Once she hangs up, she realizes that while she has made amends with McKenna, there were two more people she would need to make amends with next-Hazelle and Posy, for she hasn't spoken or seen either of them since she ran away at the end of June.

She also wonders if Dez will be at Posy's party, dreading that unwanted reunion, with Gale there on top of it.