After the Delly experiment, they send the Mockingjay to Two. There are a lot of meetings in Command about Peeta. No one wants to admit the Capitol has tortured someone so important to the point of insanity. They keep hoping he'll be lucid enough for a propo, and get frustrated when the doctors have no good news. Haymitch just hopes, one day, Peeta will be allowed to leave the hospital.
Haymitch practically lives there now himself. They've stopped trying to kick him out. He catches naps once in a while, when the doctors examine Peeta or Johanna.
Johanna's in bad shape. One subluxated rib, three broken ones, a pelvic fracture they say was the result of stomping, bruised lungs, internal damage from multiple beatings and shocks. Every time she wakes up, she wakes up screaming before crying herself back to sleep.
He sits beside her bed whenever he's not watching Peeta, or meeting with Beetee and Plutarch.
He's napping in a chair by Johanna's bed when Beetee wakes him up.
Haymitch startles awake, his feet swinging down from Johanna's bed and hitting the hospital floor with a loud smack. His fist is flying before he realizes where he is, and sees Beetee had backed up right after touching his shoulder.
He runs a hand across his brow. He looks at Johanna. She's so pale. Her cheekbones are so prominent, and the cheeks beneath are hollow and sunken. They had shaved her head. Her fingers look like knobbly twigs.
"Sorry, Beetee. What's up?"
Beetee waves away the apology.
"Primrose has an idea. We're wanted in Command. How is she?" He's looking at Johanna.
Haymitch takes her hand in his, and runs a hand over the prickly stubble starting to grow back in.
"Severely malnourished. The doctors say if we hadn't rescued her when we did, she might have starved to death within the day. She's recovering from the beatings, but it will take a lot of time for her to be back to normal."
He leans down, kisses her forehead, and follows Beetee out of the hospital. He pushes Beetee's chair to the elevator and then to Command.
Primrose is at the table, between Alma Coin and Plutarch. Haymitch pushes Beetee up to the table and sits next to him. The doctor in charge of Peeta's medical team comes in and sits down.
President Coin smiles kindly at Prim. "Primrose had an idea about Peeta Mellark. Go ahead. I'd like to hear what the doctor and Beetee have to say."
Primrose looks nervous.
"Well, I thought…" she clears her throat. Her hands are twisting together in her lap. "I thought if the Capitol made him look at scary things, and gave him tracker jacker poison, maybe we could show him memories that made him happy, and give him a happy drug."
"A happy drug?" Plutarch asks, and looks at the doctor.
Haymitch thinks of that stuff Finnick had during the 73rd, but it's next to impossible he has any here. Does Thirteen even allow the manufacture of something that might be termed a "happy drug"?
The doctor is frowning, and looking at Primrose.
"We don't have a happy drug." Primrose's shoulders slump, and she looks at the table. Haymitch feels disappointed too, and not just for Peeta. "But morphling is known for its calming effects. Perhaps it will at least allow him to remember his time in the arena with a clear, or calm mind. That could be instrumental in contextualizing his trauma."
They all look at each other around the table, waiting for someone to disagree, point out a problem.
Plutarch breaks the quiet. "Let's try it."
The doctor starts talking logistics. They all agree to meet in his hospital room at 1500 the following day.
Haymitch is exhausted. He decides to check in on Finnick and Annie before trying to take a nap.
He knocks on their compartment door. Technically, they each have their own, as only married couples and families with young children are allowed to live together. (Haymitch has wondered more than once if married couples have their sexual relations scheduled.) Annie and Finnick haven't separated since her rescue.
Finnick answers the door. He's grinning from ear to ear, and looks radiant.
"Haymitch! Come in!"
He does. Annie is sitting on a cot bed, knitting a blanket. She smiles shyly at Haymitch, then looks sad and confused, as she returns her attention to her knitting needles. When Finnick, still smiling, sits beside her, her confusion seems to lift, and the shy smile returns.
"Hello, Annie," Haymitch says.
Annie blushes, but doesn't look at him.
Haymitch looks at Finnick. He's looking at Annie like she's a rare treasure he's found in his fishing net, and he can't believe his luck.
"How's Peeta?" he asks, looking at Haymitch after a pause that's just a beat too long.
Haymitch sighs and leans back in his chair. His hands are resting on the tops of his thighs.
"Not good. I would have thought if there was going to be improvement, we would have seen it by now."
Annie laughs.
"But Katniss's sister's come up with a possible treatment. We're trying tomorrow."
"And Johanna?"
The confusion returns to Annie's face.
Haymitch looks at her, then pointedly at Finnick. Can she handle hearing this stuff?
Finnick is too busy gazing adoringly at Annie to notice Haymitch's concern. He almost laughs himself. Seeing the boy look like a puppy in love is rewarding after seeing him so miserable in the hands of Snow for so long. If only his Capitol lovers could see him now! And yes, he's a little jealous too, but even he knows it's more because the two are so happy together, and he's so lonely, and used to the condition, than because he wants to be in this compartment with Finnick.
"Johanna is improving. They're going to start cutting back her morphling tomorrow."
This causes Finnick to frown, and he looks away from Annie. "Cutting back? She looks like she's been through a giant can opener."
Haymitch shrugs. "They say she's been on too long, had too much. They had to, so she wouldn't die of shock. But they're afraid she'll become addicted if they don't back off soon."
"If it were me, I'd want to take my chances with addiction."
Haymitch can't help but laugh a little at that. "We probably all would."
They talk about the fight in Two. Annie says they haven't figured out how to break into the military control rooms, although they have everything else under rebel control. Haymitch heard that too, and they all guess President Coin will make an announcement if anything changes.
Haymitch sighs. "I better go. I might be able to sleep, if I lie down now."
"Why don't you sleep here?" Annie asks, and she smiles at him so sweetly, that Haymitch says yes without realizing he's spoken.
He looks quickly at Finnick. "I won't be intruding?"
Finnick shakes his head. "Go on. We'll take first watch."
That makes Haymitch smile. He lies down on the other cot bed and falls asleep listening to Annie tell Finnick a story about a seal king who lives beneath the ocean, and the man who would marry the king's daughter. It's a good story. He hopes it ends well.