The Year Lucy Gray won, 65 years before Katniss
As the young man who would one day become the dreaded President Snow limped back to District 12, sore and emotionally damaged by the sudden and tragic events of the day, Lucy Gray Baird hid in the hollow of a dead tree, biting her lip to avoid making a sound, clutching a bullet wound in her shoulder, another in her leg, and fighting back tears, she would carry far more immediate emotional scars than the boy she had thought loved her only this morning.
She waited until she was SURE that he was gone, her emotions burning. She was Lucy Gray, winner and sole survivor of the 10th Hunger Games, she had beaten foes bigger and stronger by being smarter, and she would NOT die here, not now. Oh no, she wasn't done. She would find her former lover, on her own terms. She wouldn't kill Coriolanus, not immediately. She would DESTROY him first. He would see snakes and hear birds in places they could not be. He would hear her songs, she would become a vengeful ghost. How could he DO this to her? Only this morning, he had pretended like he loved her, that he would run away….
As her heart stopped racing, as her mind understood that she was safe for now, Lucy Gray took a deep breath, the red haze of vicious, cruel revenge fell away, for now. She had other problems.
She took another deep breath, and another, and the sweet Covey girl, who had just wanted to sing and be free, cried under that tree. She cried for all she had lost, and the horrors that were still to come in the name of retribution.
Lucy Gray shook her head, trying to focus. She could work through her feelings later. For now, she was shot, it was starting to rain, and she didn't know how much food she might have easy access to. Painfully, slowly, she felt her injuries. She felt exit wounds, which she knew from the war was a good thing, no bullets left inside of her.
Using the tree for support, Lucy stood and made her way to a thicket she had noticed months ago, with a very special growth on the trees. The Covey elders called it peat moss, the Peacekeepers called it something boring and scientific. By any name, anyone who sent much time living in the woods knew that it was able to help stop bleeding and prevent infection.
Lucy Gray found a tree with good clean patches of moss growing on the side and pulled two chunks from the trunk, being careful not to take it all, so it could grow back. Using fishing line from the small pack she somehow hadn't dropped in her escape, she packed the moss down and tied it tight over both injuries.
Her most immediate problem solved, Lucy Gray limped along the area she and Coryo had battled in until she found both of their packs. He had dropped his when he left to go back to 12. Lucy Gray consolidated the contents of both into one pack. By now it was raining hard, and she was exhausted and in pain. It would take time for them to come searching for her, she could lie down in the hollow of the tree, close her eyes and….
It was after dark when Lucy Gray woke. She had a moment of panic, wondering if the sounds of the woods were Peacekeepers coming to arrest or kill her...but after a minute, she figured that she wasn't in IMMEDIATE danger. Regardless, she had slept too long, they could be on her at any time. There was a chance that Coriolanus thought she was dead and nobody was coming after her, but in the last month, Lucy Gray had been nearly killed by Billy Taupe, then taken in the Hunger Games, been involved in two murders and been attacked by another boyfriend, she wasn't going to bet her life on an unlikely bit of luck NOW.
She got up, still fuming, her mind still full of violence, punishment. She walked back along the trail for about 20 minutes before she stopped dead. What was she doing? She couldn't go back to 12, there were too many Peacekeepers, and she would be found and killed within a day. And if she killed him there, then what? Even if she got away, the Covey would almost certainly be among those killed in the immediate retaliation, they were not loved in the districts.
She couldn't go to a district, and she couldn't survive very long in the wild, much less get her revenge, which only left…..Hell on Earth, the one place Lucy Gray had hoped never to see again. She knew of a few safe places, maybe. She would gather information, lead any pursuit AWAY from her family. And if she had to wait 20 years to have her revenge, until he left the Peacekeepers, she would do it. She had nothing else left, the snow falling on her life had seen to that.
THREE MONTHS LATER, THE CAPITOL
With the proceeds from a few well placed bets on the Games, and Lucy Gray having boosted interest in music in the city, not to mention his own interest in living at all, Pluribus Bell had reopened his club. Usually he played something himself, or they played recorded music. It wasn't a HUGE hit because aside from a picture of him with Lucy Gray, there really wasn't a special draw to this specific club, but it had been a modest success so far. Pluribus missed Lucy, and when young Snow had come back to town, he was a changed man, he didn't visit like he used to, so Pluribus missed him as well, but overall, he had more enthusiasm to get out of bed each morning than he'd had since at LEAST before the war.
The club hours of operation were also very clearly posted, so after Cyrus had gone to bed and Pluribus was savoring one glass of wine before bed, the knock on the door surprised him. Probably some drunk patron insisting that the club couldn't be closed yet, he was supposed to meet someone here, or he had left something, anything to get inside and try to talk to the owner about some friend they were SO sure was good enough to perform here, how they absolutely deserved a chance.
Pluribus rolled his eyes, but the knock came again and probably wouldn't stop until he dealt with it. He set his glass down and walked to the door, pulling it open "Can you not read? The club is clo…..". It was fortunate that he had left his glass on the table, or it surely would have been dropped and broken at that moment. She was even skinnier than before, in worse shape than at the end of the Games, dusted with snow and shivering, but he recognized Lucy Gray on the spot.
He looked at her in shock, she had been sent back to her district after the Games, which was what always happened. He had MEANT it about calling in favors to bring her here to earn good money at his club, but when he had tried reaching out to his contacts just a couple weeks after her departure, when he started bringing in money for bribes, an official had reached out, informing him very bluntly that there was no record of a girl by that name in 12, and he was to drop any further inquiry into her. There had been no room to argue. And now, here she was, looking like she hadn't hardly eaten or slept since the last time they saw each other.
He hurried her inside, peeking around the street. Cameras had not been set up in this area since the war, and nobody seemed to be awake to watch. Pluribus did right by the people in his neighborhood, kept crime out of his club, provided jobs, and was always ready to help a friend in need, they would ignore a stranger being let in, no questions asked. He knew that whatever had happened, Lucy Gray was almost CERTAINLY not supposed to be here, but as he let her in, informed Cyrus that they would have a guest, and lay her on the couch, he didn't care, the government had not made a friend to him.
He went to fetch her some soup, but as he came back, he saw that the poor child, more exhausted than hungry, had fallen asleep almost immediately on the couch. Pluribus smiled sadly, left some water in place of his wine, and went to bed. They could talk when she had rested.
Lucy Gray slept through most of the next day, half waking a couple of times to drain a glass of water that seemed almost magically full each time she woke. Less magic than Pluribus taking good care of the girl who had stolen his heart along with those of half the city.
When she finally woke properly, the sun was already headed down. Lucy Gray sat up painfully, feeling all of her many injuries from the journey here...but with a clearer head than she'd had in weeks. She had reached the Capitol before winter truly set in through sheer will, but it had taken a toll. She had obviously eaten and slept since escaping Snow, but those first flakes in the mountains had been four days ago, and knowing that she would absolutely die if she did not reach shelter before the first blizzard, Lucy Gray had not allowed herself to stop for any reason in the last 3 days. She had not been killed by Snow, she would be damned if she was going to die from simple snow.
She slowly sat up and saw Pluribus on the phone, and it all came back to her. Sneaking through the bombed out gate not repaired since the war, evading Peacekeepers, and wandering the city, afraid to ask for directions until she saw the club Coriolanus had told her about. She was kicking herself, Pluribus was a good man, and his kindness had helped her before, but she had no right to COME her, to put him in danger like this.
Pluribus ended his call, and seeing that the former Tribute was awake, hurried over, taking her hand and adjusting the pillows behind her. "Hey there sleepy, don't get up, just….there we go, that's better." He left her side and came back with a bowl of soup. "You eat up. Things have gotten a lot better in the Capitol recently, there's plenty more where that came from." He sat back in a chair facing her "So, clearly I missed some things, want to tell me about it?"
Lucy Gray fought back tears from the kindness this near stranger showed her. "I'm so sorry, I made a mistake coming here, I put you in danger, and I need to leave". She (with some hesitation) set the bowl down and tried to stand.
Pluribus was up in a flash, and for an older and physically unremarkable man, he was surprisingly strong, at least in the eyes of the severely weakened teenager. He kept her on the couch with minimal trouble. "Sit" he insisted. When she stopped fighting, he returned to his seat. "Now young lady, I feel pretty safe in guessing that you are a fugitive from the Capitol, but I was told by a very irritated official that you do not officially exist. I have enough contacts within the government that I do not CARE what danger you might bring. Cyrus and I had a long chat last night, and we agreed that if they want to pretend that you do not exist, or you are dead, the risk to giving you shelter is low enough to accept. But I DO want answers, that was quite the surprise last night."
Lucy Gray WANTED to get up and hug him, but she was too sore. So she thanked him with tears in her eyes, then told him her story. How Coriolanus had come to District 12 after his expulsion from school How they had been happy for a short time, and then she told him, in a voice kept from breaking from sheer will learned on her long trek, how he had betrayed Sejanus, how he had PLANNED to run away with her, and how the weapons in the shed had changed his heart and he had betrayed her. She ended on leaving that place with murder in her heart, plotting revenge. She stopped there...the fall months had been hard, she wasn't ready to talk about them just yet.
At the end, Pluribus was stunned. "He tried to KILL you? I mean, it would be good if he and the rest assume you are already dead, but...I'm so sorry Lucy Gray. Although as much as you deserve your revenge, as FAIR as it would be, I can't advise going up against the people who have wronged you. They are too powerful, nothing has TRULY changed since the Games, if they found you out, they would still kill you, and strike back against everyone you love. If you were caught, even if you killed everyone who has ALREADY wronged you, the next wave would be the same, and you could find yourself the last of the Covey, they…..you've been in the Games, you know how cruel they can be".
Lucy Gray paused for a long moment, then nodded. She had thought about that last day a LOT on her walk over miles and miles and MILES of hostile territory. She had a lot of thoughts on the topic, but those words were not for Pluribus. With any luck, Lucy Gray would never get the chance to share them in her life. But the end result was the same. She nodded "You're right. I have a lot of bad blood against a lot of people, it will never go away, but I abandoned those dreams several districts ago. I don't want to pursue them, I just….not here, I'll leave….I just want to start over, live without fear".
Pluribus nodded "I understand that..and I'm glad to hear it. Well, I would think you had plenty of time to think about things on the walk over….did you give any thought to what you want that future to look like?"
Lucy Gray shrugged "Really, even during the Games I loved singing, performing, making people happy. Back home, music was my life...but I guess I can't really perform here…." her face sank, her vibrant energy, which had been visible even in her condition, faded. "I guess I just had this idea of music, but my image was of getting here, then I would be safe. I was on television….I can't even sing on the street corner". She looked so sad.
Pluribus thought for a moment, then smiled. He'd been thinking while she slept, he just wanted to be sure he presented it right, he never wanted the girl to look back and feel tricked. "So, you would have to trust me. It might not feel 'right' in your heart, at least at first...and it will hurt…."
TWO MONTHS LATER
Lucy Gray looked in the mirror, examining her scars from this angle and that, fretting. Not about the faded lines, but…."I look too much like myself" she told Pluribus. "My nose is different, my eyes and cheeks are a bit different, but anyone who saw me on the street would say 'hey, you look a lot like that singing girl from 12!' and then I'm caught, and dead. I still look like the old Lucy Gray".
Pluribus sighed and explained it one more time. "That's the entire POINT. You aren't supposed to look nothing like Lucy Gray Baird. If you were trying NOT to look like her, that would stand out more. Ever since the Games, impersonators have popped up, tribute acts they call themselves. Some of them get surgery to look as much like the old you as possible. You aren't trying NOT to look like the old you, you're trying to look like someone who is TRYING to look like the old you. You go up on stage, introduce yourself as a tribute to the original, Lucille Graybird, you laugh with the crowd about TRYING to be the girl who won, and then you sing. You sound like the original because that is what 'Lucille' is trying to do".
She took a deep breath and nodded "I know, I'm sorry. Your surgeon really did a very good job. I was worried after what...he...told me about the Capitol that the surgeon would just be a butcher, carving at me to beat cameras when they come back".
Pluribus laughed "Oh no, some of the old life has been coming back. It's not as easy to arrange things like that as it would have been, but I'm an old man who has collected a lot of favors, that surgeon was glad to have us squared, I've been holding that table fire at my party over his head since BEFORE the war". The old man chuckled.
Cyrus came backstage "Well it worked dear. Advertising one of the best Lucy Gray impersonators in town and no cover charge...the place is packed and everyone has a drink!" He looked at the nervous teen "Are you ready dear?"
Lucy...no, Lucille now, she was going to think of herself that way until she didn't slip up...braced herself and nodded. "I'm ready". She hugged both of them "I can never thank you two enough, for everything…." she wiped a tear "Let's give them a show". She picked up the guitar and headed onstage.
As she walked onstage, she heard whispers from the crowd "oh she's good!' 'Aww, so cute' 'meh, she looks nothing like the real deal' 'wait, IS that the real one?' 'No, her nose is all wrong' and plenty of others. But nobody called her out directly as actual Lucy Gray, and nobody booed her, so far so good.
She walked up to the microphone, seeming a little uncertain, but she had rehearsed her lines hundreds of times during recovery, she was feeling better, she could do this.
"Hey folks, how are we all doing tonight? My...well at least my stage name is Lucille Graybird, and like a lot of people, I found the Hunger Games VERY interesting this year, as you can probably tell". There was a scattered bit of laughter. "Anyway, this is my first performance in any setting even a LITTLE bit like this, so I hope I'm not awful…" she winked "And if you think I am, Cyrus back at the bar can help you drink until I sound better". THAT got some honest laughter, none of it seemed hostile, and a few people did buy drinks before the show started.
Lucy..Lucille set the guitar case on the stage in front of her audience, she didn't necessarily expect much tipping her in the Capitol, but Pluribus assured her that it was a tradition to at least put it out there, same as in 12.
Then she started to play, and as soon as her fingers touched those strings, she was transformed. Not into the girl she had been, that girl had died the day of the reaping, and those bullets in the forest HAD killed the girl who had replaced her. But the girl who had arrived in the Capitol as it started to snow, sick and exhausted and sad and angry and afraid….she didn't die, not like the rest, she was still in there, but she disappeared, faded away and was replaced with someone else entirely.
As her fingers plucked those strings, 'Lucille' smiled and weight fell off of her shoulders. She felt herself breathe more easily than she had in...too long, probably since before her short and ill-advised romance with Billy Taupe. This, she missed the Covey, wished they were here, but as she started to sing, all the strangeness of this place and these people fell away, and it was just another stage, another party. Lucille didn't try to tell an immediately relevant story, nothing about her trials, not today...not intentionally. She sang about spring and new life and clear skies and beauty and the feel of grass, and a dozen other happy things, and before long, she had the crowd singing along.
She loved to sing, to entertain, it made her so happy...but whatever Lucille Graybird was, Lucy Gray had grown up where it wasn't a punishment but a simple fact of life, and a life she wouldn't have given up for anything less than survival, that she was playing for her dinner. There had been lean times, especially during the war, when the Covey couldn't part the people from their coins, no matter how sweet the music and they had been reduced to foraging. So Lucy Gray had LEARNED to play not only a guitar but a crowd.
Once she made them happy, had them warm up to her, smile WITH her smile with her song of spring, she picked up the tempo, and with no actual break or announcement, transitioned into an old District 7 drinking song. Part of the advantage of being Covey was that songs from across Panem had worked their way into the culture Lucy Gray had been born into. But it wasn't a distinctly Covey song. So she sang about drinking and dancing and lewd acts between drunken lumberjacks and nobody would have any reason to wonder any more about her past.
Her strategy worked, apparently it was a song that at least a version had made it to the Capitol, the patrons sang along and laughed for the chorus, and before long, Cyrus had his hands full accepting money from people who felt it was wrong to listen to such songs with ALL of their wits intact. And it wasn't just Cyrus, bills and coins fell into the guitar case.
As that song was winding down, a large man with a drink in his hand tossed a pretty good tip in the case and made a request for the next song. Lucille knew the song, so she smiled and blew him a kiss "You got it handsome!"
She moved smoothly into that song, and the next, and a few hours later, when they closed, they had laughed and cried together, and Lucille was smiling and hugging people, promising to perform again soon. "And bring your friends next time!"
Pluribus and Cyrus were laughing and smiling as they closed up, it had been a very good night, and the next one promised to be better. Lucille, as she had said the name so many times tonight, it was getting easier to think of herself that way, retrieved the guitar case full of tips and tried to turn it over to Pluribus.
"Absolutely not" the old man said with a smile but a firm tone. "The deal for a performer is always that they get people inside and get them drinking, but the tips, those are your money, yours to keep young lady". Lucille had expected this, Pluribus was a good man, so was Cyrus, they wouldn't expect her tips, and had always been likely to resist.
She nodded and started counting it out. "My money? To do as I like with it?" she set the money into two equal stacks and put one in his hands. "If it's my money to do as I please, I want to pay rent. I doubt I can pay a fair rate, not yet at least, but you have sheltered me from the Capitol, fed and clothed me for two months, gotten me SURGERY on your dime, nursed me back to health, and I can NEVER repay you, no matter how much I make, so I INSIST that you let me at least chip in Pluribus, I'm STILL putting away more to save just tonight than I have ever held in my life".
Reluctantly, seeing that she wouldn't back down, and figuring that after her trials, this sweet girl MUST have a stronger will than he did, Pluribus accepted the money. He pledged to himself that every dime of HER money would go into things that would help her long term.
And so they went for several happy years. Lucille played and Cyrus bartended and Pluribus kept anyone from asking too many questions. The club gleamed at night, full of music and joy, and the neighborhood became as good a place to live as it had been before the war. Eventually the name Lucy Gray Baird was forgotten, some might remember the girl vaguely, but fewer and more faintly as time went on. Lucille Graybird stopped being an impersonator of some winner of a poorly viewed Games and started being a celebrated performer in her own right. People from all walks of life came to see her perform, and for a time she wore more makeup to discourage recognition, but eventually it was clear that people weren't looking for her or thinking very deeply about this new girl, and she stopped.
Lucille and her adopted family were happy, they made arrangements to send money to the Covey in District 12, although eventually rumor reached them that the nomads had slipped the fences and returned to their wandering ways and the Capitol seemed to just ignore them, they weren't a threat. Lucy Gray had never been much for prayer, but after the horrors she had seen, Lucille prayed that they made it to safety. She still had no faith, but it couldn't hurt. She also kept an eye on her one time lover, seeing him return to public life and rise through the ranks, making a name for himself. They didn't discuss him in this home.
They were happy...until one night, almost exactly 11 years after the freezing, starving girl had showed up at his doorstep, Pluribus passed away. It was a good death, but sudden. Lucille had performed, they drank, they hugged and went to bed, all happy and feeling the strong love of a real family that they had become. And Pluribus simply hadn't woken up. Lucille had been heartbroken, Cyrus had just been...tired. He slowed down, he still smiled and laughed, Pluribus had been old, Cyrus had been more prepared, but he laughed less, sang less eagerly. But he had Lucille at his side in those following weeks, she held his hand as he stopped getting out of bed, and before winter ended, he joined Pluribus in the cemetery.
Lucille was nearly broken. The wills had been read, and the pair left her everything. Lucy hired a loyal patron to bartend and do much of the club management, and she kept performing, because she still loved it, she didn't have much left, and she was DETERMINED not to lose it.
25 Years after the death of Pluribus, 35 years after Lucy Gray won, 30 years before Katniss.
Lucille Graybird, now in her early 50s, moved around the club she had owned and maintained for decades now, with a happy smile. She dusted and adjusted the pictures of Cyrus and Pluribus hanging on the wall, and the one of Pluribus with the girl who had died in that forest so many years before. At the funerals, she had been approached by many friends of the old men, many who had guessed at who she was, although she never confirmed it. As far as many of them were concerned, the favors Pluribus had never cashed with them transferred to the young woman he loved like a daughter. The same for Cyrus at his passing.
Not all, some favors died with her adopted fathers, which suited her fine, she hadn't initially been comfortable cashing favors she had not earned, but when a small fire had damaged her stage and a carpenter she had halfheartedly called had been glad to fix it 'in memory of friends moved on' she had gotten more comfortable with it. She had tried to never abuse the kindness of these friends, but when the Covey from 12 had surfaced some years before, she HAD gotten them new lives, and sent a few letters. They knew she was alive, and they still loved her, even if the Capitol was a step too far and she would never see them again.
As she dusted and prepared for a hopefully busy night to come, she noticed that her bartender was taking an awfully long time to get a new jar of olives from the pantry. That wasn't like him, Todd was usually a very reliable, efficient worker, he didn't even drink until after his shift, which for all his good traits, had NOT been true of Cyrus, his ability to mix a complex drink had always declined as the night went on.
She was just about to go check on him when she heard a door open and close. "Finally!" she exclaimed, walking that way. "What took you so…" she stopped. Instincts earned and not entirely lost from years of fending for herself kept her from dropping the feather duster, she flipped it in her hand to serve as a very poor weapon. Even after all these years, she knew that face. His hair was somewhat faded by time, but the rings were the same. And his eyes. She would never, ever forget those eyes that had loved her, then tried to kill her. And if she had not recognized him from back then, it was hard not to recognize the man who had been President of Panem for the last 5 years.
"Hello Lucy Gray, it's been a long time". Coriolanus Snow smiled at her.
Lucille stood frozen for several long moments. "Lucy Gray? Mr. President, you must have some bad information, I'm just...I was an impersonator. I..."
Snow shook his head "Stop" he said firmly. "You know I have always hated being lied to. I'd recognize you even after all this time. Even if it hadn't been a pretty open secret in the government, for those who care enough".
Lucille, she couldn't even think of herself by the old name anymore, nodded. "Hello Coryo, it's been…..well, obviously not 'too long', but a long time. I suppose you're here to kill me? Did you kill Todd?" after all these years of hiding, of lying, she felt the fear she had held onto slip away. She had lived a good life, the end didn't hold the same power in her mind that it used to.
He laughed a little "Coryo, now there's a name I don't hear much anymore, only from Tigris. And no, if I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead. Your bartender is fine, we grabbed him quietly, I wanted to speak to you, and then you can have him back, unharmed, and with your patrons knowing nothing.
I won't apologize for what happened last time we saw each other Lucy Gray. Knowing only what I knew then, I would do it again. Knowing only what I knew then, I really should have made completely sure that you were dead. But I will say, knowing what I know now, if I could go back, I would have talked to you, explained why I couldn't leave, and parted on friendlier terms. Oh the difference more than three decades can make."
Lucille nodded slowly, not sure what to do with that. "How long have you known that I was here? That I was alive"
Snow laughed "Oh my dear sweet Lucy Gray, we have known since you came back to the Capitol, we just never cared very much, as long as you didn't cause trouble. Initially I thought you HAD died in those woods. But a few months after our parting, Dr Gaul called me to see some captured security footage. One of the great strengths of the Capitol is that nobody knows how powerful we actually are, we've been putting in new cameras since the day the war ended, ESPECIALLY at every gate to the city, one caught you sneaking in. Dr Gaul wanted ME to decide how to handle you. Asked if I wanted to send a squad of Peacekeepers to finish you off. I declined, asked to see what you would do next. If I had ever seen you as a threat, this whole block would have disappeared, but you started over, never even TRIED to get revenge. I was almost...disappointed, somehow I thought you would hate me...not that I'm complaining".
Lucille let out a sad, bitter laugh. "If I had been in the Capitol a week after it happened, you and I would both have died if I had to burn the city down. I walked for SO many miles before I thought of anything but your painful death. But eventually I realized something. I didn't hate you".
She should have been afraid, this was the most powerful, most dangerous person in the entire world. She should have been afraid, should have lied to keep from angering him. But Coriolanus had only lied to her once when they were young, when he said he just wanted to talk. He had valued honesty, and planning. If he was going to kill her, he had already made that choice. But sine he said he hadn't, she would be honest, speak the words she had not spoken to Pluribus, because they had only ever been meant for the man standing in front of her.
"When we...parted ways, I hated you. I wanted you to die much more than I wanted to live. But I walked here from 12. I walked Coryo. And that gave me time to think. You betrayed me as soon as you got one extra push with those guns. And if you had JUST left, I'd still have taken those secrets to my grave. I knew it was a lot to ask for you to leave the life you knew, even if you were in danger, even for me. I would have just been sad, not angry.
But as I walked, I realized it hadn't all been a lie. You DID run away with me, we'd have made it far away and been together if not for those guns, they scared you. You weren't trying to be cruel, you were just scared and stupid. And I can never truly forgive you, I haven't seen my family in decades because of you, but I left my hatred a few districts away from here".
Coriolanus sat at the bar, deep in thought. And he nodded "Thank you Lucy Gray. I won't apologize, I won't ask you to forgive me, I have too many sins you don't even know about to be forgiven, and I have made my peace with that. I am not the adult I once hoped to be any more than you are. But in a way, I still ended up achieving almost everything I thought I wanted before we met." He paused "Are you happy, Lucy Gray?"
She thought about it, and nodded "I have more secrets and old sadness than I would have liked, but I'm happy. I made a good life here".
He nodded "And since I know you, even if you don't actively hate me, I can assume that if something happened to you, some punishment would come my way?"
She didn't blink, she hadn't expected this day to come, not in many years, but she HAD prepared. She nodded "It would, you know me, always hoping to avoid trouble, but never unprepared".
He laughed, knowing that she had a plan to strike back against him didn't bother or offend him one bit. "I'd have expected no less". He reached across the bar and poured himself a drink, raining it in a toast. "To Pluribus Bell. He was my friend as well at one point. Missing the funeral is one of my few regrets. Regardless, I'm glad you are happy. We will likely never see each other again, but I leave you with this. Lucy Gray Baird is listed as dead and can never surface again….but Lucille Graybird has nothing to fear from my government, if you catch my meaning".
She did, she could just keep living the life of more than half her years. A nod "Thank you, President Snow". He finished his drink, Lucille hadn't expected him to pay, but he pulled out some money, paying for his drink and leaving a generous tip before standing. "Good day, Miss Graybird" and then he was gone. A few minutes later, Todd came in, confused and a bit shaken, but unharmed. "Boss, what was that? Everything okay?"
Lucille nodded, taking his hand "Oh yes Todd, everything is fine, I'm sorry for you being treated that way. President Snow wanted to talk about a..mutual acquaintance, from many years ago, and isn't very subtle. But everything is fine, and will STAY fine. It was, I imagine, the closest he has had to a friendly visit in quite a while". The young man was satisfied and finished setting up for tonight, not commenting as Lucille drank several drinks more than her normal before a show.
The rest of the night went well, no signs of trouble, no cause for concern. But Lucille Graybird still had trouble getting to sleep that night.
66 Years after Lucy Gray won, 1 Year After Katniss Everdeen Won
Lucille Graybird sat in her chair, sipping a drink and watching the news. Her heart hurt, and she was out of tears. The war was over, the second rebellion in her lifetime, and the districts had won. Lucille did not hate the rebels, she would have joined them at one time. She was even glad that they had won...she just wished there hadn't been so much suffering to get here. District 12, her old home, no longer existed, bombed out of existence, with too many still trapped inside. And then the war had come here, to her replacement home. So much of the city had been ruined, and so many had died….some guilty of all of the sins of the city, some innocent...and too many friends. But Lucille knew what the rebels would do. They would have free and fair elections, the wealth would be shared more fairly, the suffering and cruelty in the district would be lifted, and the Games...those damned blasted Hunger Games would END.
Lucille just wished that she hadn't lived to see the suffering that brought the change at last, and wished she didn't feel so much guilt, right at the end. Because she was more than eighty years old, Lucille knew her end was coming. That didn't bother her, she had lived a long, good, happy life, filled with more loved ones than she ever could have deserved. Her affairs were in order, Todd had retired and his son worked the club now, as sweet and loyal a young man as Lucille could ask for. The club was left to him upon her death. After all these years, she was prepared for it, not like that poor girl so many years before. She would meet it without fear or complaint...but not without regret.
In the years since their last meeting, Coriolanus had changed for the worse. When they last met, he had been somewhat cold, ruthless, self-serving...but Coryo hadn't been entirely dead. He had still smiled that she was happy, still laughed at things that weren't cruel. But in the long years since that day, he had become crueler, more vengeful, especially against the districts. More like Dr Gaul, who he had once feared so much. And Lucille hated not even him, but herself. She'd had hope, he hadn't been so far gone last time they met. If she had known, she'd have offered him a drink from the 'special' bottle and been rid of him, damn the consequences.
But it was only dreams of what she SHOULD have done. Fate had provided the chance only once, and never again. Coriolanus had spoken truly, they had never seen each other again, despite Lucille making up her mind and sending a letter asking to see him again about 15 years earlier. It had been ignored, and she hadn't gotten the chance to end their story together.
It didn't matter now, that was the news, President Snow was dead from years of drinking poisons to get rid of enemies. Lucille was glad that the monster who replaced her old friend was finally gone, but she would never forgive herself for not killing him, the same way she never fully forgave him for trying to kill her. She just hoped, if her worldview built over the years of past selves dying and being replaced was true, that the kind boy who had saved her so many times in the arena was not judged after this life the same as the man he had become was judged, if there was judgement at all. Lucille hoped that there wasn't. When she left this world, she wanted it to be over, she was tired.
A short time later, as the sun was setting, Lucille went to her bed and laid down, getting off of sore joints. She closed her eyes, and she dreamed.
In her dream, the old woman split into a dozen selves, all the selves she had been in her life. As they went on, more and more loved ones were waiting for her. Friends from the city, from 12, and to her great joy, a young Coriolanus was waiting for one of them, with Covey long missed, he looked not like the Peacekeeper who had come to be with her in 12, but exactly like the boy she had shared lunch with in that zoo. Lucille Graybird shrugged off the world that night, never to sing in her club again, but she and Lucy Gray Baird walked away from regrets, and rejoined so many friends, in eternal peace.
Coriolanus Snow, as his selves got older, was greeted by fewer and fewer people. Really, for the self who had betrayed Lucy Gray, there was Tigris, when she arrived, but the ones that followed, they were alone. But sometimes, in a memory that was not his own, the older ones saw younger selves with loved ones, with Lucy Gray, and he was grateful, it was more than he knew he deserved. He made his peace, until in a final mercy, he WAS allowed to sleep.