DISCLAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.

Chapter 86-Unexpected News

Katniss lies awake in bed, unable to sleep. She sits up and looks over and sees Gale sleeping soundly. She can't sleep because her mind's racing. Thinking about what happened with Gale earlier and worrying about the fact that Hazelle and Posy were arriving in the morning to visit for the next two days. It was the first official visit from a family member, for her Mother wouldn't be able to come out until the end of the year. She had not seen Hazelle or Posy since Posy's party. While both had been pleasant to her the last time she saw them, neither one had extended an invitation for Katniss to come back to the townhouse since.

They were coming to see the cottage, and to celebrate Gale's birthday. Katniss assumed Hazelle would be bringing a cake, hence the reason she got a very small cake at the restaurant she took him to.

She begins thinking about what she and Gale had done earlier that night. How it didn't go as she had imagined it would. In a lot of ways, it reminded her of her first time having sex with Peeta. They were both 19, roughly ten months after they both returned to District 12. When Peeta first returned, they assumed their familiar routine of sleeping in the same bed, with nothing more happening. He would comfort her with his hands, then over time hands became lips, then eventually, she was ready to take the next step in their relationship.

Peeta had tried to make the evening as romantic as possible. Lighting candles and cutting roses and placing them in a vase in their bedroom. Unfortunately, the intimate décor did nothing to calm her nerves, or make the intensity of losing her virginity any better. While the pain wasn't as intense then what she just experienced with Gale, due to the two of them not knowing what to do, the act itself ended up being underwhelming. She remembers thinking to herself after, 'that's it?' totally disappointed in what she had long heard was supposed to be a mind blowing experience. Over time however, they both got more comfortable with each other and once they both learned what to do, it became pleasurable.

This time, having a different type of sexual experience with someone who knew what to do made her less nervous, though the minute he slowly entered her anxiety rose tenfold and she started sweating and gasping. He wanted to stop, but she insisted they keep going, eventually getting to the point he was fully in and beginning a rhythm. As before with Peeta, she was underwhelmed and this time turned off by the experience, unsure if she would even consider doing it again. But she didn't regret what she did and felt she had taken a major step in her relationship with Gale. Asking him to have sex with her that way after being assaulted was something she couldn't imagine doing with anyone else but him. Not even Peeta as much as it hurt to admit it.

She looks over and sees him continuing to sleep, Harper on the other side of him. While she wasn't thrilled having the dog with them in the bed each night, she knew it made Gale happy and was willing to tolerate things she hadn't before in order to make the two of them living in Silver Lake together work. Her thoughts turn to how he protectively held her in his arms after, making sure she was alright. She realized after they had reconnected as friends how much she missed his hands and his touch. How she longed for his affections while he was still engaged to Dez.

She reaches over and strokes his hair, moving it over to the side. She sees him begin to stir and quickly leans back down and rests her head on his shoulder.

"Catnip, everything alright?" she hears him mumble.

"Yes Gale, everything's fine. Go back to sleep."

"Okay….love you" she hears him say sleepily before turning to his side and quickly falling back asleep.

Each day before he leaves for work he kisses her goodbye and tells her he loves her. Usually doing this while she is getting ready for work and on sometimes, doing this before she is even awake on the days he has to go to the Capitol. The train that goes from Silver Lake straight to the Capitol only has two routes, one that leaves daily at 6 am and another that leaves at noon. Two routes come back each day as well, one arriving at 8 am and the other at 5 pm.

She makes a point each day to say she loves him back. It was something she had to get used to doing, for she didn't exchange the words with Peeta as often. While she didn't say the words as often as he did, it was a significant improvement when it came to expressing her feelings.

She looks at him lovingly one last time before repositioning herself and repeating Sioux words in her head, sleep eventually overtaking her.


The visit with Hazelle and Posy goes better than Katniss expected. Katniss had stayed behind while Gale met them at the train station. Once all three entered the cottage Posy immediately hugs Katniss and tells her their home is lovely.

"I love the front porch" Posy says.

"Yes, it's nice to sit on the swing after we are finished with dinner" Katniss says. The front porch is as wide as the house, and has a white swing that she and Gale sat on at night when the weather was nice, usually waiting until dark so that they could cuddle and kiss without the prying eyes of the neighbors for the houses were pretty far apart. During the daytime it was much easier to see what each neighbor was up to, but at night, with no street lights what so ever on the road, it was much harder to see.

Gale gives Hazelle and Posy a quick tour while Katniss takes Harper out in the back. Once she returns she sees Gale helping Posy and Hazelle take their bags into the spare bedroom.

Once settled in, they eat a small lunch, Hazelle asking Katniss how teaching was going and what she thought of Silver Lake. Hazelle does not seem surprised when Katniss tells her how closed off the community is and says, "I experienced something similar when I first came to 2 as well. Most of my friends are not from the area either."

"I am okay with it though. I have Livia and Kimber, and most importantly, I have Gale" she says as she reaches over and takes his hand, watching him smile back at her while he chews his food.

After lunch Gale takes them out for a walk around the village, Katniss decides to stay behind and clean up despite Hazelle's protests. Once they return they sit out on the front porch while Katniss attempts to prepare a salad and heat up the food Gale had cooked earlier for them to eat.

While mixing the salad around in the large bowl, she suddenly sees Posy enter the kitchen.

"Need any help?" she asks sweetly.

"Um….if you don't mind setting the table that be great" Katniss says appreciatively.

"Sure" and once shown where the dinner plates and silverware are she quickly gets to work setting the table.

After she is finished she approaches Katniss and says, "I was wondering when you were planning to come back to visit us? You and I still need to go to RAVE."

"You still haven't gone yet?" Katniss asks in disbelief.

"No. I did go on the tour though. Your friend Effie is nice, I apologized to her for not remembering her when we were in 13."

"Well, you were 5, I'm sure she understood."

"The tour was really neat though. One of my friends from school came with me. But I thought….we should go to RAVE together, just you and me."

"I'd like that" Katniss says softly.

"You make my brother happy. I see it in the way he looks at you, and when he comes to the house to visit us I can tell he's sad being away from you."

"You know I love him right?" Katniss says suddenly feeling the need to prove to her that she reciprocates the same feelings.

"Gale told me you wrote him some kind of letter months before he broke up with Dez. He said after he read the letter he knew that you loved him, that he no longer doubted how you truly felt about him. He never showed it to me though."

Katniss nods in response, she never asked Gale what he did with the letter she wrote him but assumed he had gotten rid of it, not wanting to risk Dez reading it.

"I'm not mad at the two of you anymore, I haven't been for a while. I know you...belong together. I just still feel bad for Dez."

"Do you still see her?"

"Not as often since Gale moved out here. I think she's figuring out that he's not going to leave you and go back to her."

"I'm sorry" Katniss says sincerely.

"It's fine. It's not like she won't take my calls like before, she just seems pretty busy with Atticus, spending pretty much all of her time with him. And now that I'm back in school I'm pretty busy myself."

Before Katniss can ask if Gale knows that Dez is still seeing Atticus she hears Gale and Hazelle come inside, Hazelle quickly coming over and offering to help. This time Katniss accepts her offer and she helps get the rest of the food ready.

After dinner Hazelle gets out his cake, it is medium sized and says, "Happy Birthday Gale" on it in red lettering. Katniss, Posy, and Hazelle sing to him and watch as he blows out his candles.

Later on that evening, Katniss accidently overhears Hazelle speak with Gale about their relationship.

"That's got to be such a long commute for you, have you not considered at least moving to a village that is half way for you and her?" Hazelle says, concern evident in her voice.

"I said I'd stay here with her while she finishes her first year. The ride can be long, but it actually helps me unwind and relax, especially at the end of the day. But the President says in a few months I can be at home two days a week. She told me she will slowly let me increase working remotely from home and seeing how it goes before allowing the other government officials to do it too."

"I hope she appreciates you being here, that she doesn't take for granted the fact that you continue to sacrifice things for her. That you cook all of your meals for the week on the weekends because you are too tired to cook when you get home."

"She's learning to cook, you know why she never cooked for herself before."

"When I helped her in the kitchen she looked…..lost."

"So she might not ever be that good in the kitchen, I don't care about that. All that I care about, is her happiness. Despite the fact that this town has given her the cold shoulder, she likes her job and she spends time with her new friends outside of work. They've come over to the house a few times and she goes out to lunch and dinner with them a lot."

"I'm glad honey, I really am. Katniss doesn't deserve to be treated like an outcast. I just-miss that you are not close by anymore."

"Well, you and Posy are more than welcome to come to Silver Lake" Gale says teasingly.

"I think I will stay put, I can't imagine many families here are looking for a housekeeper."

Katniss overhears Gale laugh at his Mother's comment. Silver Lake was a village that experienced more hardships than other areas of District 2. While it wasn't nearly as disadvantaged as District 12 the people here worked hard, especially the quarry workers. Most of the families were not able to afford a housekeeper and many of the women were homemakers.

Katniss wonders after if perhaps they should move to a town that is half way. A place where the commute would be 45 minutes each way for both of them. The only thing that concerned her was that a lot of the smaller villages here did not have train service that ran as often as the more urban areas, for she could not chance being late to work due to the nature of her job.

The next day when Hazelle and Posy get ready to leave, Posy asks Katniss to come visit once she is on break next month. Katniss has Friday and Monday off in the middle of the month, her first break since starting. She tells Posy if she doesn't go to District 9 she would come. And that if she does go to District 9; that for sure she will come the following weekend so that they can go to RAVE.

She didn't tell Posy that the trip to District 9 would be brief, for the real reason she was heading to that area was to take a hovercraft up north to see the tribe after visiting McKenna and Jocelyn. The plan was if Katniss can gain access to a hovercraft, she could go to the Cheyenne tribe and get the map of where the Sioux are now living.

She was originally told to come in a couple of months, by the time she gets to the Cheyenne tribe it will have been four months later, but her break in November was the soonest she would be able to have enough time to make the trip without having to miss work. And missing work was out of the question, even for the tribe.

She only hopes they are still at their new location by the time she gets there.


Later on that night, while getting ready for bed, Katniss hears the phone ring. Gale quickly heads downstairs for the phone in their room was his work phone which was a different line.

She hears him say, "This can't wait until tomorrow?" after answering, annoyance apparent in his voice.

Just as she is about to head downstairs to see who was calling she hears him shout, "Katniss-it's for you."

Once downstairs she takes the phone from his hands, seeing a look of irritation on his face.

"Hello?" she says wondering who would be calling so late.

"Hey there sweetheart."

"Haymitch! How are you?"

"I've been better. I have some news about the Jay Killers, Enobaria has finally gotten information about what they've been up to. But that's not why I called. It's Peeta-he's in the Capitol….he's in the hospital Katniss."

She's unable to speak, for her throat has tightened up, too fearful to ask what has happened.