A/N: Here it is you guys. The tragic end to the life of young Rue.

Reminder of the small contest for cover art for this story and the next three. Details are in the previous chapter. I hope that you guys will take me up on my offer to you guys.

Find Your Peace

Rue. She pulls the spear from her body, blood spilling rapidly from her wound. The look on her face torments me. One of horror and resignation. She knows, Katniss knows, I know, we all know, that her time has run out. Katniss quickly runs to her as she begins collapsing. Her petite frame fits into Catnip's arms as well as Prim's would.

I quickly pull myself to my feet, forgetting about my prior pain, fighting through it to get to Rue. I manage to get next to Katniss and we jointly cradle little Rue, tears rapidly filling our eyes and her.

Katniss vainly says, "You're gonna be okay." Her voice makes it obvious she doesn't feel what she says.

Rue doesn't visually or verbally respond. Her only words are, "Did you blow up the food?"

"Yes," she says, "every bit of it." That explosion was her destroying the careers's supplies. It worked after all.

"Good."

I croak through my tears, "I'm sorry Rue."

She quickly wipes away the tears from my eyes. She grabs her token, her little flower-shaped wooden charm. She removes it, and gives it to me. "You have nothing to be sorry for. Thank you."

I place a shaky and unstable hand under her head and wipe the tear from her cheek. This is all my fault. "You have to win.", she says to Catnip. I agree with you Rue. I will make sure of it. "Can you sing?"

Katniss nods. And she tearfully sings. A song that she's always sang to Prim whenever she had a nightmare or was sick.

Deep in the meadow, under the willow

A bed of grass, a soft green pillow

Rue's eyes stare blankly off into space.

Lay down your head, and close your eyes

And when you awake, the sun will rise

And then her eyes stop moving. Her chest stops rising and falling. And then a cannon fires. She's gone. I feel beyond horrible, I feel like a failure. I let this little innocent girl go, I shouldn't have let her leave for my sake. Katniss doesn't fail to notice the lifelessness of Rue. She closes the little girl's eyes, so she may sleep peacefully.

We both rapidly descend into an ennui born of our shared guilt for not being able to save this little girl. I simply cradle her lifeless body, but Katniss suffers a far more explosive onset of emotion. She grabs Marvel's spear and throws it away in anger, wailing loudly. Neither of us care about how sounds attract things, this is all wrong. This little girl deserved better than this, she never should've been here. She was so young, so innocent, she had a life ahead of herself.

I finally let go of the hand she used to give me her charm. But I can't bear to just leave Rue here. I place my arms under her knees and shoulder blades. I use every ounce of my being to pick her up, because I wish to bring her to the place where she truly belongs. My wounded shoulder isn't impeding this luckily.

Katniss quickly asks, "What are you doing?" I don't answer. I just start walking in a familiar direction. I hear Katniss slowly follow me, still wailing, but now a little more quietly.

Finally, I reach it. The first clearing in the forest I came across. Katniss finally understands what I was doing. I brought Rue to the field full of the beautiful purple flowers for which she was named. She deserves this at least. I know that a hovercraft will take her away, but at least I can do this to ease my mind. Katniss seems more at ease, too.

I move to a spot where a ray of sunshine beams down. I place Rue gently on the ground, and I give her one last gift. I kiss my three middle fingers, and raise them to honor her. Katniss follows suit. My eyes are churning out tears. This girl, is now gone. I can only hope that her family may be at peace, having seen our relationship with her. I cradle her, and tearfully say, "I'm so sorry. Please find it in yourself to forgive me. Forgive me for failing you. Rest in peace, little Rue." I finally retreat from her, and I reposition her to how I had her before. I move back and I finally notice that Katniss is carrying several of the rue flowers in a bouquet-like fashion. Once I move back from Rue, Katniss goes down to her and places the flowers in her hands, before mumbling something tearfully to the lifeless little girl. I'm too caught up in my own emotions to hear her words.

The next thing I realize, I'm falling down on the ground, my body unable to stand or do anything else. The last thing I remember, I hear Katniss screaming my name in desperation before everything goes dark.

I wake up, barely able to make out where I am. I can't see anything. I look around, until I see a beam of light coming from somewhere above me. I'm not blind, I'm not dead, I'm in a cave. I think. The orange color of the light outside makes it clear that it's around the afternoon. I hear my name being called, before I see Katniss throw herself on top of me. She looks and sounds relieved that I'm awake.

I simply say, "Hey, Catnip."

She says with several breaths of relief, "Gale, you scared me to death."

"What happened? Where are we?"

She says, "You just passed out." She feels my head. "You're worse now."

Rue would've noticed. That must have been why she left. She left for me. To help me. Katniss cradles my head in her lap. I ask her where we are.

Catnip says, "In a cave, by the river."

I start thinking about why I passed out. "My wound, it's bad isn't it?"

She doesn't say anything. She normally does that when she means yes, but doesn't want to say it. She only tries to reassure me that I'll be okay, in a tone that makes it obvious she feels this as much as she felt it when she said the same to Rue.

"You never were good at lying to me."

At that, Katniss gives a slight smile. She stretches out, and uses her backpack as a pillow for me. She rests her head on my chest, rubbing soothing patterns through the fabric.

I have to say this now, "Catnip. Go."

She looks up at me incredulously, "What?"

It's better if she leaves me. She has to live, for Prim. "Go. We both know what's gonna happen pretty soon if we stay together."

She lays her head back down on me. "No, it's not gonna happen."

Attention, tributes, attention. The announcer's voice echoes loudly through the cave. The regulations requiring a single victor have been, suspended. From now on, two victors may be crowned if they both originate from the same district. This will be the only announcement.

Oh my God, can this be? Katniss looks at me with absolute shock and elation in her eyes. Maybe we can go home together after all. She dives her lips onto mine, an explosion of passion born not of need to unite because of dread, but because of renewed hope.

Katniss pulls away with a smile on her face.

"Gale, we can go home."

I return her smile, but I don't speak my thoughts. How am I gonna be able to go home, unless Haymitch gets us something that can help me through my infection. I won't last much longer with how I am.

Katniss places her hand over my head again, whispering something I can't understand. I'm about to ask her what she said when we hear the trademark chime of the sponsor parachutes. Katniss quickly goes to find it.

I want to follow her, but I can barely stand, let alone move. I see Catnip ominously disappear into the orange light shining through the cave entrance, like her soul just moved on. She comes back in with the parachute's container. Inside it, as another large grey container, that had soup in it. The small note inside read, Don't give up Gale. E.

I'm surprised, I thought that only Haymitch could send us sponsor gifts. Maybe he did, but gave us, or at least me, Effie's message.

Katniss begins feeding me the soup. The warmth of the soup feels soothing to my stomach. The flavor is better than anything I've eaten in the past week.

"You need some of this too, Catnip."

She quickly brushes me off, telling me that she can hunt for her own food. I know she can, but I don't feel good knowing that she's not feeding herself. However, knowing that she'll shove the soup down my throat if she needed, I don't protest further.

I say, "I feel like you're mothering me Catnip," in an attempt to make humor of the situation. She simply scoffs lightly, but does smile. It's not long before the soup is gone.

Katniss rests her hand on my head, and asks, "How are you feeling?"

"A little better." I say. It's the truth. "My head isn't throbbing as much anymore."

"Good." She takes a sleeping bag and wraps the both of us in it, and rests her head on my chest. I wrap my arms around her, and hold her to me, never wanting to let go of what I can't live without, the woman I love. She's meant everything to me for what feels like forever, a forever I don't ever want to end. My memories of Katniss, our firsts and our precious moments reverberate in my head as sleep takes me away.

I'm stirred awake by the sudden bright light in front of my eyes. God almighty, my body. I feel like something is ravaging my body, liquefying me. I keep trying to move, but I can only move my arms. My vision slowly returns to me. I feel Katniss stir next to me. If I know her well enough, she'll have already been awake for a while now. She quickly looks at me, her face melting into sheer horror. She quickly rests her hand on my head, before saying, "Jesus Christ. You're fucking on fire." Ironic she says that, since I feel like I'm gonna freeze. Also because of our collective nickname. It feels so cold, at least to me. I say, "Katniss, please just-"

Katniss anticipates my words, "No." I'm no good to her, nor will I live through this. Effie and Haymitch may not want me to give up, but...I have to be real. I can't survive this infection. I'd have a hard time surviving it even with available treatments.

Katniss continues, "We've come this far, we're not giving up now."

"Catnip, we both know I won't make it." I can barely speak. It feels like I'm losing myself to this infection. Not just my life, but everything that I am. I feel like my entire person is fading from me.

Katniss, she's desperate. She quietly cries out, "You don't know that." I understand her, she lost a girl she cared for so much, and now she's losing me.

I say, "Yes. We both do Katniss."

Her face melts into absolute fury, and she practically screams in tears, "Don't you do that to me! Don't you fucking dare give up on me! You can't!" She recoils away from me in a barrage of sobs.

I whimper, "I'm sorry Catnip." As bad as this is for me, she has to sit and watch as I wither away.

She comes back and lifts my upper half and rests it on her legs. She tearfully says, "You can't give up. I won't let you give up." She pulls my head up to look at her directly, a tear falling from her eye onto my face. She closes her eyes in pure despair. "Cause you're gonna be a daddy."

Song credit: Praying by Kesha