DISCLAIMER: HG CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME, BUT OC ONES DO
Chapter 154-Last Chance
He walks among the ruins, sees the dead bodies everywhere. Knowing that he should not be here, that he should be in the hands of peacekeepers, he sees the blood still oozing out from the lifeless bodies. He looks further down, and sees the other street spilt open, still hearing the screams of the people who perished falling to their death. As he continues to walk, he finds himself outside of Snow's mansion. He sees the huge crowd of children, then sees the hovercraft begin to fly in overhead. He then sees a figure in black amongst the children, sees her shorter frame, her black hair and olive skin.
He begins walking faster, trying to get to her as fast as he can, realizing he is 20 again, he starts sprinting. As he nears, he shouts, "Katniss!" and she turns and looks at him, "Gale" she says confused that he is running towards her. He sees the small object descend and before any words can escape from his mouth, he sees her body explode, the bomb going off right behind her.
He awakens before he can scream, feeling the sweat on his brow, he sits up and takes a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He looks over and sees Cassandra asleep on the edge of the bed. Fully clothed, he gets out of her bed and heads into her living room, opening the sliding glass door.
Even though it is freezing outside he needs fresh air. Not one to let dreams bother him, when the dream involves Katniss, he cannot help but be bothered, especially when the dream involved being back in the Capitol on that fateful day.
He stays out there until his hands and feet go numb then goes back inside and closes the sliding door. Still shaken, he gets himself a glass of water and as he drinks, sees the pack of cigarettes still sitting on her countertop. After her long story concerning her past, she had come into the kitchen frantically looking for a cigarette to smoke. Knowing he had interrupted her search, he had fallen to his knees in front of her, as if he was begging for her forgiveness. He had never done such a thing before, for if there was ever a moment he should have fallen to his knees begging for forgiveness, he should have done it when he saw Katniss after Prim died. But he did not, because he knew it would not have made a difference, her mind was made up about him before he entered the room that day. The entire time he fought in the rebellion, he looked at Snow as the number one enemy, never realizing another enemy just as dangerous was the one leading the rebellion.
He does not regret falling to his knees and crying in front of Cassandra, for he felt in a strange way, the moment brought the two of them closer together. Moved and horrified by her story, he felt he had to show her in that moment, that he did care about her, that he always had. Feeling terrible the past four months about what happened between her and Avery, and knowing that Avery was responsible for her termination, he has been at a loss at how he can right this wrong. But he knows he needs to try, and one way of doing that is by finally allowing her to be his. He also knows that he needs to have a serious conversation with his son the next time he sees him, to ensure that his son is treating the women he meets respectfully, so that Jackson never becomes the type of men Cassandra has come across. Gale was not overly concerned that his son would do to a woman what had been done to Cassandra, he was more concerned that his son would be in a situation where someone else was doing something, and while he believes his son would intervene, he needs to have that talk with him, nonetheless.
He continues to stand in her kitchen, for he still needed to clear his thoughts. He then hears the door open and hears her call out to him.
After they had finished embracing on the floor of her kitchen, they had slowly risen to their feet and she told him she needed a cigarette. Once she found them, she went outside and quickly smoked it. When she came back inside, they sit at her small table for a few moments, staring at each other. Deciding to break the silence, he says to her, "Things will be different this time, you have my word."
She looks down at the table, contemplating her response, she wants desperately to believe him, to believe that he wants more than just an escape from the pain and loss of losing his wife. But she is not sure if she can. She thinks back to the first time they were together. How he had taken her to a hotel. How he had pushed her up against the sliding glass door and the feel of his hands all over her body, how her body had responded to it. Remembering how he began kissing her neck, his hand fondling her breast while the other reached up between her legs. She remembers she can only moan in response when he asked her, "Do you want this?"
She frantically moves his hand up higher, for his hand was between her thighs, silently giving him her consent to keep going. He begins stroking her clit, a sharp moan escaping from her mouth. A few moments later he pulls his hands away and her dress up higher so that it is around her waist and he reaches down and pulls her heels off, along with her underwear. She looks over her shoulder as she sees him unzip his pants, entering her from behind, she remembers how they have sex against the sliding glass door, at times her body pushed up against the glass as his movements continued. She remembers once they had finished, she turned her head and looked up at him, and saw the look on his face. It was pained look, a look of guilt almost. As if he could not believe he had done such a thing. She was not sure if he was feeling guilty due to the age difference or if it was the first time had been with a woman since his wife died or both. Suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable, she is not sure if she should leave, she is frozen in place as she stares at him, and then she sees his face change. The look of pain turns to a hardened stare. She pulls her dress back down and begins to collect her shoes and underwear thinking perhaps she should leave when he takes her by the arm and leads her to the bed. Giving her a gentler look, she lets her shoes and underwear fall to the ground as he begins removing her clothes. She sees the look in his eyes that he wants to see her, all of her. Allowing him to take control, she finds herself lying completely naked on the bed while he leans down above her. A look of lust in his eyes, he begins removing his clothes as well then begins kissing her body, kissing her everywhere, but not on the mouth, true to his word. They then touch each other until their bodies are ready for each other again, and once they are finished the second time, she no longer sees that look of guilt on his face. Thinking he obviously got over whatever emotions he was feeling earlier. She remembers how the next morning, he had gone down on her, leaving her spent as he slipped into the shower after. She remembers how she wished she could have stayed longer but he told her they had to leave within the hour, barely giving herself enough time to get a shower in before they leave the hotel.
She knew he began having sex with her out of loneliness, and that over time, he did develop feelings. And that even though what they have is completely different than what he had with wife; she still wants that part of him that Katniss had. Even if she can only have a fraction of it.
But will things really be different? Can he really make room for her in his life?
She tells herself this is the last chance she is giving him. That if she does not become a part of his life by the New Year, she is finished.
She only nods in response, refraining from telling him he has a deadline date to prove to her he means it.
Cassandra rouses from sleep, yawning, she reaches over for Gale but does not feel anyone there. Turning around, she sees that the other side of her bed is empty. She sits up, alarmed. She turns on the lamp beside her bed and goes over to see if he in the bathroom. Seeing his bag still in the room, she sighs in relief, knowing he has not left without saying goodbye. After she silently decided she would give him one month to prove to her things between them would finally change, they headed into her room to change into their sleep clothes and went to bed. Realizing one thing that has changed, this was the first time they had gotten into a bed without sleeping together first. It was a welcomed change.
She opens the door and heads into the living room, seeing nothing but darkness before her she says, "Gale?"
"Over here" she hears him say from her kitchen.
Her eyes now adjusted to the darkness; she sees him standing near her refrigerator. She goes over to him and asks, "You coming back to bed?" as she turns on the light.
"Yes, I just….needed to clear my head."
"Why?"
"I had a dream, well, a nightmare really."
"About what?"
"I was back in the Capitol right at the end of the war, I was with Katniss again, I saw her explode right in front of me."
She reaches up and touches his face gently, she sees his eyes close in response. "It was just a dream" she says.
He tells her how the events that happened that day were not a dream, how he and Katniss were walking the streets of the Capitol after being separated from the group, how they had seen people fall victim to the Capitol and been killed. How one of the streets caved in and people perished, how they saw people bleed to death from their orifices. How even though it was not Katniss, he had seen people explode into pieces. How when he was captured, he had shouted at Katniss to kill him, and that she had an arrow raised, but could not release it.
"I cannot imagine what that must have been like, but you know she could not kill you because she loved you."
She sees him chuckle softly as he says, "Things were more complicated back then between us."
"Well, I am really glad she didn't release that arrow" and leans in to kiss him.
The next morning, she awakens to find him missing from the bed again. This time when she goes out to the living room, she sees him in her kitchen making breakfast, telling her he was going to surprise her by serving her breakfast in bed. She laughs and tells him he will just have to surprise her next time.
Once they have eaten and are both showered and dressed, she sees it is shortly after 10 am. He tells her he needs to head to the train station to return home. Saddened that he is leaving but understanding that he needs to get back home, she decides to stay back and not go with him to the train station to say goodbye, for her face was still bruised and she did not want anyone jumping to the wrong conclusions about him should they observe the two of them at the station. She had seen some of the looks they had gotten on the short walk over here from Avery's apartment, though she had hoped some of it was due to the fact he was walking down the street without a coat on.
As they say their goodbyes, she asks him, "When will I see you again?"
"I'm not sure, I wish I could say this weekend but, Juniper keeps me pretty busy on Saturday's though the horseback riding will be easing up for a bit come January. I'll look at my work schedule and let you know."
She nods in response and he leans in and kisses her goodbye. The kiss is long, passionate, and lingers for a few seconds before they pull away.
"Bye" she says with a smile.
"I love you" he says with a serious look on his face in response.
"Love you too" she says, and he gives her one last quick kiss then picks up his bag and walks out.
December 13 (Sunday)
Cassandra looked at herself one last time before putting her compact mirror back in her purse. The train she was on was about to pull into the station. She was heading into District 2; Gale was meeting her at the main entrance. This was her first time in District 2, for it was not a place she vacationed, the only District she had visited purely for leisure was District 4.
She was nervous, for today she was meeting his Mother for lunch. She had purchased flowers on the train, a small bouquet of pink and red carnations, she walked with the flowers in hand as she exited the train. Wearing a long black sweater, she has black leggings on and a black scarf with a winter animal print under her long black coat and hat. She is also wearing her black fur boots to match the look.
When Gale approaches, he smiles brightly at her and says, "Hey" as he hugs her.
Her hair recently re-dyed, the holographic highlights have a notable shimmer against her dark coat. While he still prefers her natural hair color, he has gotten used to the current look. As she had predicted, the man who had assaulted her, the Brother of the owner of her new employer had pretended like that night never happened, and she returned to her job with no further questions. While he wished she would find a new job, he knew her job was important to her, so he tried to remain supportive, and stayed out of it like she asked.
They walk to his Mother's townhouse, Gale asking her how her train ride was. Once they are halfway to his Mom's place, Gale tells her that Juniper is at the townhouse as well, and that she will be joining them for lunch.
"What? You didn't tell me! I don't have a gift for her."
"I wasn't sure if she was going to come, I left it up to her. But she decided this morning to come with me to my Mom's. She does not need a gift…trust me."
He takes her hand as they continue to walk to help ease her nerves. She looks around and sees that District 2 does not look that much different than the Capitol, the main difference being that the District is not as high in the mountains as the Capitol. Once they turn down his Mother's street he releases her hand and says, "I hope you understand I can't….be my usual self with you….not today."
Knowing that he can't be affectionate in front of his Mom and Daughter, she nods her head in response as they begin walking up the steps of his Mom's townhouse. She sees that that the home is located among a long row of connected homes, with a small staircase leading up to the front door.
Before Gale is able to get his key out to open the door, she sees the door open and sees a young girl with dark curly hair appear in the doorway, giving her a suspicious look.
A/N: I see there has been some inquiry about when my other story will be updated, it will, but I am giving this story first priority since it was on hiatus for so long.
