Answers

The rest of the day passed in a blur, but Katniss was finally clued in as to why. Aside from the lingering concussion, for the past four days she'd been pumped full of some chemical to keep her injuries from hurting too much while she healed. It had the lovely side effect of keeping her groggy and unable to think as clearly as she should have. The moment Gale had told her that, she vowed to herself that she wouldn't take it anymore- even if that meant constantly ripping out the needles and tubing.

But more important than that knowledge was finally finding out where she was. Her suspicions had been wrong about being captured by the Capitol. Instead, she was told they had been rescued by District Thirteen. Which wasn't quite how she'd put it- maybe it was the drugs coursing through her body or the aftershocks of the electricity but she didn't quite feel that safe.

Still- Gale was next to her and she allowed herself to bask in the fact that he was there with her; allowed herself to let it push everything else from her mind. He was strong and steady and Katniss knew, without a doubt, that she could follow his lead. She didn't leave his side, not even when she was told that she had interrupted a strategy meeting. At first she thought it might be Gale's influence that kept her there, but slowly it dawned on her that the reason might just be herself.

There were glances being cast at her, and if she managed to catch so many there must have been so many that she missed in her less lucid moments. The word rebellion didn't pass by unnoticed either, and her name being spoken was always met with a spike in her attention that didn't yield any results in terms of understanding why she was a subject of conversation, but still alerted her to the fact that she was. There was a reason they'd fished her from the arena.

Aside from Gale, Plutarch, and Plutarch's assistant Fulvia Cardew, Katniss didn't recognize any of the others present. She only committed one name and face to her already foggy memory- the tall woman with the stern features and impossibly groomed hair was Coin, president of Thirteen. She figured it would probably be important to recognize her in the future, but outside of her name Katniss could really only remember her hair- the way it fell in one single line to her shoulders, never parting, barely moving.

The words buzzed by and flew past her and it could have been minutes but was likely an hour or more when Gale gently tugged at her elbow and beckoned her to stand. The meeting was over.

The room had emptied by the time she stood, Gale supporting her at the elbow. She couldn't help but smile at familiarity of their intimacy. Katniss never quite shied away from touch- there was nothing that grounds one better than the physical reminder that touch provides- but with Gale it is different. It is line that runs through her memories and anchors her to the past. It is what has guided the both of them from the wreckage of their childhoods.

It felt like home.

He didn't say anything as they made their way to the door, and Katniss waited until the vertigo and pounding in her head dimmed to break the silence.

"So."

It's not descriptive by any means, but there are more questions in her mind than she has breath to say, and Gale has always been smart enough to understand what she means. He raises an eyebrow at her, the tiniest modicum of softness at his lips.

"Where should I start?"

He didn't mince words, not that she expected he would, and she was overwhelmingly grateful. Katniss needed something steady and straightforward to reach her through the haze.

She came up with the seemingly reasonable, "Wherever it's easiest," but he gave her a look that caused her to sigh and clarify. "You know what I mean. Wherever I can follow." Nothing was easy, she knew that, but her tongue was heavy, damn it, and he should know what to say anyway.

Mollified, he bit at his lip for a quick moment. "Well, you're in Thirteen."

"You told me that."

Gale nodded. "They got you from the Arena at the last possible second- they cut it too close in my opinion, but they did the best they could given how little a window they had."

Katniss' head was already swimming and she shot him a glare of frustration. And here she'd been counting on him to be blunt with her. "Gale- who are they?"

He didn't glance away. He never looked away from her. "There's way too many- even I don't know who all of them are. To the best of my knowledge, Plutarch Heavensbee was the means behind this. President Coin was the one who made it possible, and Haymitch was the driving force that made it all possible."

Katniss stopped dead in her tracks and Gale looked ready to ask her if she was feeling well. But leave it to Gale to understand the difference between physical distress and her reaction to a bomb of information being dropped so he waited while she gathered herself and choked out, "Haymitch was behind this?"

Gale nodded again. "Yes. He rallied everyone, made all the plans, set it all in motion. I don't think it was just him, but I know he's been a major player for a long time."

To her credit, she didn't sink to the floor even though her knees wanted to give out. For a long time meant that this was a plan. This whole thing was a scheme. He had coached her and sent her to her death and all the while he'd lied to her. She thought they had been so similar, so quiet and stubborn and stupid, but he had been pulling her strings. Just like the Capitol.

Katniss shoved her anger away, only able to do so after promising herself that the next time she saw Haymitch she'd rip his eyeballs out. The imagined blood satiated her anger and she let it melt back into the fluffy haze that made up her consciousness.

"So what's your next question?"

She blinked up at Gale muzzily, letting his words pass through the honeyed veil. Gale was patient and as they came to rest against the wall in the hallways he gently nudged her ribs with his forearm, "Think, Katnip. What's the next thing you need to ask?"

Katniss grinned when the answer came to her, though it died by the time she turned to him. "What was everyone behind? What are they planning."

For the first time since they'd laid eyes on each other, Gale pulled away. Katniss held her breath, chest feeling tight and tingly as the nervousness his silence inspired claimed her.

"It's a rebellion. The whole nation is rebelling."

After Gale's revelation, it seemed that the blows would just not stop coming. It turned out that it wasn't the entire nation that was rebelling, but the pockets of resistance were strong and growing. Even if they didn't comprise the entirety of each District there were no places in Panem that were sided with the Capitol.

Worse than the imminent threat of war was what Gale told her next, after she steadied herself and made sure to remain standing. It was necessary because after he was sure she had processed as much as she could about the fact that Panem was changing, he told her the fate of District Twelve.

The fact that there was no District Twelve anymore.

Katniss couldn't remember remember her reaction to that. There had been gagging, and a slump to the floor. Her head had spun, her thoughts reeled, and when she'd collapsed Gale had gone down with her. The space between them had been her anchor but aside from his presence beside her and her insides crumbling were the only things that stayed with her. The rest was lost to the cotton of her world.

She thought that might be better.

Safely back in her room, a private medical suite that was actually very rare in the quasi-catacombs that made up District Thirteen, Katniss glared at Gale until he sat beside her and promised not to leave. Not that he was itching to get back to Coin and the others- he revealed in an almost teasing tone that any excuse to stay away from them was welcome.

"So I'm an excuse now?"

"The best kind."

Gale's voice was softer than she remembered, but everything was different now and it was a change she could accept. Especially when he sat in the unoccupied chair beside her bed. She managed to relax back against the thin sheet and starchy pillow on her bed as long as Gale was in her sights.

There was so much to discuss that she was surprised when the conversation petered. Perhaps that was just it- they were both tired and overwhelmed and there was so much to sort through that finding somewhere to start was impossible. Especially after the revelation of what happened to their home.

"Twelve- how did you get out?"

Gale gave her a concerned look. "We don't have to talk about this anymore-"

"No. Gale I-" her voice broke a little and she cursed herself for her slip before pushing on. "I need to know. If I don't... I already have enough nightmares about the Arena. I don't need to picture you almost dying."

True to form, he understood. It didn't take much goading for the story to spill from his lips. "Right after the commotion with the- uh- the lightning thing? They cut the power. I knew what was going to happen. Prim too. Maybe not exactly, but once the lights and televisions went out we knew that there was going to be retribution. An attack. So we gathered everyone that we could and moved them out to the meadow since the fence was no longer a problem. It..." He cut off, and Katniss could see the lines of face that screamed of pain and frustration. She kept herself from reaching out, afraid that one touch might shatter the moment.

Gale continued, "It happened faster than we thought possible. Hovercrafts filled the air and they dropped bomb after bomb. About half the District was making a run for the forest when the buildings started to go up in flame."

"But you made it out." Her voice was tight with desperate need. He nodded solemnly at her.

"I made it out. Prim and your mother too."

That, of course, begged the question- "... Who didn't?"

His eyes closed but he did not stop to soften the blow. "The Undersees weren't accounted for. Most of the Hob was obliterated- Greasy Sae wasn't found. And-" His breath caught but the words forced themselves out anyway, "Hazelle."

Gale's pain was her own. Katniss shoved any reservations away and leaned over the railing to grab his hand. They sat in silence for a long time, letting the quiet of the room siphon away the hard edge of the pain and dull their senses. Only time could truly blanket the hurt, but pretending that it was possible made it just a tiny bit easier to bear.

Saying sorry, offering solace, would only make things worse. In the weeks after their fathers died they had relied on silence to keep them sane. It was what they shared- words would be a hindrance, so she simply kept a strong hold on his arm to let him know that he was not alone.

One he recovered enough of himself, Katniss was compelled to ask, "And- what about- the other tributes?"

She almost sighed at the way his face darkened. Katniss knew the subject was always touchy, but she simply didn't have time for Gale's reservations about her time in the Arena and her ties to the tributes. She had to know. In fact, she was surprised that she hadn't been aching to ask about them already- overwhelmed with seeing Gale and learning of their fate had taken precedence over everything else but with the clearing of her mind she realized that not knowing the fate of the others was an omnipresent ache.

"Gale. What happened to them?"

"Well you already ran into them, didn't you?"

Biting back a noise of indignant frustration, she replied, "Just be straight with me. Where's Finnick?"

Katniss and Gale both froze at the same time. Her lips were parted, his eyebrows were hitched high in shock. She hadn't really thought about what she was asking- she just needed to know where and how the other tributes were. The words- the name- had tumbled from her lips without thinking.

"Finnick Odair?"

"And Peeta. And Johanna, Beetee, Seeder."

There was a clear edge of hurt and annoyance in Gale's voice that made his tone sound small and petty in contrast to everything that had just happened. "Peeta's doing better than you. He said he almost didn't make it back to you, but he's mostly lucid and not too badly injured. Finnick is-" Gale broke off with a sigh and scrubbed a hand across his face. "I didn't think you'd be asking about him so I didn't check. Then again, maybe I should have expected it." Katniss nearly interrupted him but thought better of it. There were more important matters at hand.

"Well?"

"He's here."

She hadn't realized how tightly locked her muscles had been until that moment, but realizing that Finnick was here and not in the Capitol's clutches brought a swell of relief so massive that it was actually dizzying. It was tempered with guilt that she hadn't breathed such a heavy sigh of euphoria at the news of Peeta's safety as well.

The drugs. It has to be the drugs.

Gale must not have noticed her conflict because he forged on. "Well, physically at least. I don't know too much about his condition but apparently he's been mentally present a grand total of one time. When you tried to do, uh, something a few days ago. With the needle."

There was a note of amusement in Gale's tone and Katniss felt her face heat up. "I think given the circumstances it could be considered a good plan."

"Sure, sure. Nice job with that, by the way. You nailed him- excellent shot even mostly asleep."

A choked sound tangled in her throat. "I- what?"

"In the shoulder. It didn't hurt him- don't worry. And your punch didn't even leave a mark on his face. Your knee jab, on the other hand, was pretty impressive. You owe me for that, Katniss." He rubbed his hip with a drama that was clearly meant to be teasing.

Even though panic and guilt threatened to swallow her, she still made a comically disgruntled face at Gale that made him laugh.

"Yeah, well. I'm sure you've done something to earn it."

"Probably."

They lapsed back into quietness, and even though there were a million and one things to think about Katniss couldn't help but begin to nod off. Gale's hand was there, running fingers through her hair.

"Get some sleep, Katnip."

She was all too happy to oblige.

A/N: Gale you need to stop saying dramatic things that make me scene break okay. Jeez. Then again, you wouldn't be Gale if that was the case. Difficult boy.

I must say, part of me wanted to keep Finnick's fate hidden a little longer- part of the perks of being the author is being completely evil. Alas, this thing is more or less writing itself and that information could not stay down. Besides, we have to push the plot forward!

Speaking of- I did want to get that last chapter out of the way but I'm glad you all liked it regardless! After this we're back to Mondays again, unless another interlude worms its way in. I'm going to try my best to keep my chapters a bit longer now that we're going to get into the thick of things.

Thank you so much for the reviews! I look forward to them so much- I feel like we're all part of a super exclusive club or something :X You guys are the best, seriously.