Haymitch Abernathy has just made history. His plaque in the Hall of Victory will now have two special mentions. It's been the best Hunger Games anyone in the Capitol can remember. They're already showing reruns while they fix up the victors.
Haymitch has just finished watching the amputation and cleaning of Peeta's leg. He's sitting on his hospital bed, waiting for him to wake up.
He can't believe Peeta is alive. He hadn't dared hope, not after that sword thrust, that Peeta Mellark might make it back, and here he is. Pale from blood loss, a little clammy, amputated, but here.
He watches as Peeta's eyes move restlessly beneath their lids. His head turns from side to side on the bed, as though he is searching for something.
"Katniss, Katniss," he whispers, though Haymitch is certain he's shouting in his dream, having had a few of those dreams himself.
He grabs Peeta's arm and gently shakes him.
"Peeta," he says, and watches his eyes open and register his face.
"Haymitch?" He sits up. "Is Katniss-"
"She's okay. They sedated her for a minute, but she's all right."
Peeta sinks back to his pillow. "Good. Okay. When can I see her?"
Haymitch sighs.
"They want to televise it, don't they?"
"You got it."
Peeta says nothing. "I can't believe we're alive. Out of the arena."
"Yeah. You did it, kid." He looks away and takes a deep breath. "I wanted to be the one to tell you."
Peeta looks scared.
"Katniss put a tourniquet on you, you remember?"
Peeta nods.
"It saved your life. See that blood bag? That's saving your life a little more. But they couldn't save your leg."
He twitches back the blanket so Peeta can see the stump. His face is utterly blank as he takes in the clean white bandages that are all that remain of his leg below the knee.
"Huh," he says.
"Yeah?"
"I think I know a joke about a one-legged baker."
Haymitch actually laughs. "Okay, then. You're all right, Peeta."
"Yeah." He smiles and it transforms his face from good-looking to beautiful. "I'm all right."
Just then, the door to Peeta's hospital room opens. Cinna is standing there.
"Peeta, congratulations," he says, smiling.
"Thanks, Cinna."
Haymitch follows Cinna into the hall and down toward Katniss's room.
"What is it?" he asks.
"The hospital staff. They say she's too skinny, that she will look grotesque."
"We wouldn't want that," he growls.
"It's just an excuse to augment her breasts, and if they do that, who knows what else?"
Haymitch breaks into a run and stops two doctors from leaving the area.
"Am I hearing this right? You're planning on putting breast implants on a minor from 12?"
The doctors stop and look at each other. "We're not the deciding doctor."
"Then get me the decider, goddammit."
One of them walks away, hurrying. The other says, "There's no need for that kind of language."
"Then you're really not gonna like what comes next."
The second doctor runs, and it's just him and Cinna outside Katniss's room.
Three of them return, with the deciding doctor at the front, looking determined. The one that ran away first is blushing furiously.
"You're stepping way out of your scope here. Your job is to remake her to Beauty Base One, not make her unrecognizable! She has to live the rest of her life in 12, you think any of them have augmented breasts? You're not altering her body!"
Cinna puts a restraining hand on his arm and Haymitch realizes he's shouting in their faces. He takes a step back. The emotional argument isn't doing anything anyway.
"You know how each district is allowed its own customs? Well, in 12, a person is considered a minor until they're 18. You have to have permission to alter someone from the parent. I doubt much would happen to you at first, if word got out that you're messing with minors, but eventually the word would get out. How do you see the longevity of your career?"
"I might have a solution," says Cinna.