A/N: Thank you to everyone who has stuck by this story. I took a break to focus on other stories, other fanfics, and school. That also means that I'm well into the second part of this story. The next update won't take as long.

Warm Your Body

I shoot awake. I don't know why, my sleep was dreamless and my face isn't looking towards the light. Wait, where's Catnip? Did she sneak off while I was sleeping? Oh God. That injection must have been some kind of sedative to make sure that I didn't try to stop her one last time. Why would Haymitch send that? I already know the answer to that. Haymitch made sure I wouldn't succeed in convincing her to stay.

Though, I can't really blame him for that. She would've gone anyways. I just hope that she's okay. If anything happens to her...and my kid, I could never forgive myself. I'm supposed to keep her safe, I'm supposed to protect her. That's what a man is supposed to do, watch over them. But there's nothing I can do now. The only thing I can do is wait. Wait for cannons to sound or not, wait for her to come back or not. At least fate has already ensured that I'll die if she does with this wound infection.

On the bright side, my body doesn't feel like it's on fire anymore. The injection wasn't a sedative cure, but it certainly did its job in a abating my infection. My arm doesn't look nearly as necrotic as before. Maybe that's why they gave me that syringe. I may not have made it through the night otherwise. I stand up, but I still feel weaker than ever. Maybe because of hunger, maybe because of the infection, maybe because of both. Regardless, I can't just sit around.

I hear a parachute chime echoing through the cave. It's only then that I see it's silhouette right there at the entrance. How the hell did those people know I would wake up right now? Or did they wait and then send it in? I guess it doesn't matter. I manage to muster enough strength to climb up through the tunnel. I open up the case to find a closed box within it, and a note.

This was supposed to be for Rue. Thank you for watching over her. Don't blame yourself. 11.

I don't believe it. Pressure builds up behind my eyes. This has never happened before, that I know of. Districts give gifts to their tributes all the time. But they never give a gift to the tribute of another district. I want to open it, but I don't dare. I want Katniss here. She deserves this gift as much as I do. We both watched over her, we both had to feel her die.

The next thing I hear are footsteps. Running footsteps. Katniss. She's back. My heart drops to my knees in pure relief.

She quickly asks me, "What are doing?"

"I wasn't leaving. I found this parachute up here."

"We can deal with that later. I have it. The medicine. Come on, get back down there."

I manage to scurry back down, still holding the box from 11. At the bottom, I use one hand to unzip my jacket, which is all that I have on my top.

I finally notice the cut over the left side of her face. "Anything I should know about from the feast?"

She gets down and starts ruffling through the bag, which has a noticeable number 12 on it. "The girl from 2. She threw a knife at me. I'm fine. We're fine."

I told her something like that was gonna happen. "No you're not Catnip."

"Gale! I'm okay. Believe me. She's dead. And she never stabbed me, or even hit me. She didn't get the chance too. You can thank Thresh for that."

"Thresh?"

"Now's not the time Gale." She pulls out a cylindrical metal container that seems to contain some kind of skin-colored cream. She quickly takes the bandage over my shoulder off and doesn't hesitate to start rubbing it in my wound. It hurts like hell, but it's bearable. She doesn't stop until my wound is fully covered with the cream and then some.

"Okay. Your turn."

She seems a little annoyed. "Gale I'm fine."

I ignore her, and grab the container and take some of the cream and start rubbing the cream across her cut on her head. She doesn't resist physically when I do. I guess she's just humoring me, but I'm grateful for it.

We both take a moment of silence, until I break it, saying, "What happened down there, Catnip?"

She takes a breath before explaining.

"I stalked around the Cornucopia and didn't see anything or anybody nearby. I was about to make my move right when Foxface emerged from the structure and took her bag. Right afterwards, I ran towards it and grabbed our bag, before running around the Cornucopia, where Clove ambushed me. Clove dodged my arrows, and then tackled me to the ground. I put up a fight, but she pinned my arms down and held a knife to my throat."

She stops for a moment. "Katniss. I told you something like that could've happened! Hell, it's what I said would happen!"

Catnip doesn't respond to my outburst, and simply continues. "She started taunting me about you. And about Rue. How I couldn't help her, and how now I couldn't help you."

One tear after another slides down my cheek, knowing that the girl I love, and our kid, were nearly killed by a 15-year-old psychopath. "That was why I didn't want you to go. The only reason I stopped arguing was cause I knew I couldn't change your mind. I guess Haymitch knew that and gave me a sedative medicine to make sure I wouldn't try one last time when we woke up."

She looks at me with a guilt-ridden face. She doesn't say anything related to what I said. She keeps going. "She was about to start cutting up my face, starting with my lips. She said I wouldn't need them anymore since I couldn't kiss you anymore. I thought that I was dead, that you were right, and that I had just condemned myself, you," She places a hand over her stomach, "and our baby to death." She quietly cries, too.

"Thresh saved you?"

She nods. "He pulled Clove off of me. He held her by the neck against the Cornucopia. He apparently heard what she said about Rue and thought she was the one that killed her. She denied it, truthfully. But he didn't believe her, and he smashed her against the Cornucopia multiple times. Until we both saw blood splatter onto it. He looked at me menacingly and I thought he was gonna take the chance to kill me. But he looked at me and said, 'Just this time 12. For Rue.' And then he ran off."

"Seems like District 11 has made a habit out of helping District 12 this year." I take the chance to show her the box I found in the parachute. It still had the note attached. She quickly sees what the note says, and sheds a salty tear. She holds her face in her hand crying. I sit up and try to embrace her with just my right arm.

When she gathers herself a bit, she opens the box, revealing a loaf of bread. Fate must have some pretty twisted and convoluted plans for us. This feels almost exactly like the last few moments we spent before the reaping. Sitting outside the fence with a loaf of bread I got from the Mellarks. Maybe we should've run away that day. Taken our families and just went. But it's too late for that now.

Katniss takes out the loaf originally intended to feed 12-year-old Rue, and slowly tears it in two. She gives one piece to me. It feels warm, fresh. I feel guilty when I start eating it because I'm eating food that I feel I didn't deserve. What did we do to deserve this bread? We failed to protect her, we failed to protect Rue. Katniss clearly feels the same way. We reluctantly take our first bite. And then primal hunger overtakes us and we scarf down the rest of our pieces quickly. I'm grateful for this gift, but I feel like I don't deserve it. I'm certain that Catnip feels the same way.

With our stomachs practically empty, and both of us hungry, a loaf of bread is quite the meal.

Katniss speaks first. "I honestly... I don't feel good having eaten her bread."

"Nor I." I pause, and say, "What did we do to deserve this?"

Katniss just shakes her head. We both know what the people of District 11 would say. We know that they would say that it's a thank you for taking care of Rue. Ironically, that's the reason we feel so guilty.

I say, "It's my fault she's gone."

"No Gale. It's not yours. It's mine. If I had come back to the camp when I was supposed to, she wouldn't have been alone out there."

"But you didn't. With good reason. An explosion does a lot to you. You resting probably kept our kid alive. Regardless. I was alone with her, and I failed. I let her go."

"Gale. You didn't let her go. We both know that she would've gone looking for anything to help either of us. That's who she was."

"We had her. We got her out of that trap. And we were both between her and Marvel. And we failed to protect her," I tearfully say, looking at the charm she gave me.

Katniss starts crying too. She then whispers, "You were too weak from that wound to do anything. I was the one who was supposed to protect her, and I failed."

The last thing I say, letting tears fall down my cheeks, is, "We both failed her."

Katniss cups my face in her hands and kisses me deeply. I kiss her back equally forcefully, our emotions are too far gone for it to really mean anything for us.

"If...when...we make it out of here. I want to give our baby Rue's name as his middle name, or if it's a girl, her first name."

The very suggestion warms up my heart. To name our little baby after the girl who left this world too soon, and had such an impact on our lives, I could never say no. I nod my head in agreement. I move my right hand under her shirt and feel her. I feel her belly, where she carries my child. Our child. But a part of me feels apprehensive. Because to me, the name will always remind me...that I can't protect a kid. I don't know if I could look into his or her eyes and be constantly reminded of my failure to protect the very girl for whom they are named. I want to say it, but I can't bring myself to say something of that nature right now.

I didn't even realize that I fell asleep until I woke up from my dreamless sleep. The light coming in is dimmer, and orange in color. I feel far better than ever. I don't feel like the temperature outside is pulsing violently, and my head isn't throbbing. I start stirring, which apparently wakes up Catnip too. She looks right up at me. The first thing I see is that her cut is gone, it's just a scar.

I trace it and say, "Oh my God. Your head. You're so much better"

Katniss apparently feels that it's gone too. She immediately glances towards my shoulder and her jaw drops. A smile creeps across her face just the same. She touches the spot on my shoulder where the stab wound was. I feel hardly anything.

"Gale. Oh my."

We both look at each other in shock and awe, and happiness. We have a chance to make it, we have a chance to make it out of here alive, together. Me, Catnip, and our kid.

For the first time in a long time, we have hope. We can make it. Both of us. All three of us.

Song credit: Crying in the Club by Camila Cabello