I stood out in the woods in the sweltering July heat where the Hoovvercraft landing spot was. Purnia stood with me and several other soldiers dressed in our uniforms and vests with our rifles. Whenever we had rescues coming, we came out here, armed, just in case they were followed by someone.

My brother and some of the others in our unit had left three days ago to prepare for the extraction, they weren't dressed in camo because they didn't want to stand out, and give away where they were coming from. Plutarch's crew had extracted the victors in the arena yesterday, at the same time my brother's team had extracted people from the Capitol's dungeons. I had been a nervous wreck all day, but we had finally got word an hour ago that they had been an hour out.

I had to force myself to keep my composure. It wasn't long before we caught sight of the hoovercraft. Once they landed, the doors opened, and I caught sight of Vitus and another soldier, whom had someone propped up between them, and upon further inspection, I realized it was Darius! I gasped a bit, because I had truly almost not recognized him.

"Hey sis!" Vitus and the other solider walked down with Darius. "When we got there, he uh, they were in the middle of torturing him. You need to get him to the hospital, now, so they can reattach his fingers."

I was confused for a moment, staring at my brother like he had two heads, before I noticed Darius's left hand. They had cloth wrapped around it, and it was bloodied. Oh my God, what had they done to him?

My brother gestured me to come get him, I looked over to Purnia and she nodded. We walked over to where my brother was, and I left my rifle hand on the right side of me, and went to take my brother's place, supporting Darius's right side. Together, Purnia and I supported his weight, which frighteningly, wasn't much, and it worried me. Vitus handed Purnia a cooler. "That has to go with him."

We walked him to a Humvee, and got him in, we got him buckled in and then ourselves, before motioning the driver to go on. I glanced over at Darius. He was pale, paler than usual, and his once lively green eyes were dull and almost lifeless. For a moment, I wondered if he was even aware of what was going on. But then he lightly squeezed my hand with his good hand and I knew. He was still in there, and I had to fight the tears, but I managed to keep my composure. I shifted my gaze to him. "We're almost there, you'll get help. You're safe now." I murmured, upon seeing tears running down his face. It killed me to see him like that, it literally broke my heart. I don't even think that I had ever seen him cry before.

We arrived at the hospital 15 minutes later, and we got him out of the Humvee, and into the hospital where the surgeon was waiting for him, as we had called ahead. We sat him carefully down on the stretcher that they had ready. The doctor got him laid down and then looked over to us. "Is there anything we need to know about him, medically wise?"

"He's allergic to penicillin." I told the doctor, Dr. Andrews.

"Oh." Purnia held up the cooler. "You may need this."

He nodded and took it and placed it on the stretcher. I looked over at the doctor. "I know he's in good hands, but-" I broke off, not able to find the words that could express my emotions.

"We will take the best possible care of him." He studied me for a moment, "What exactly is your relationship to him, may I ask?"

"He's-" I realized that I didn't really have a word for it. 'Boyfriend' didn't seem like a strong enough term. "He's the father of my child." I finally settled with.

He gave me an understanding smile. "I'll be sure to keep you updated."

"Thank you." I nodded. As I watched them go, the tears started falling then, I had been strong up until that point, but after that, I didn't have a reason to be.

"It'll be okay. He will be fine. He's safe and in good hands." Purnia said, putting an arm around my shoulder.

"Could one of you fill this out?" A nurse came over with paperwork, which I knew was for Darius.

"I'll take it." I held my hand out for the clipboard. I probably knew the answers to these questions better than anyone except for Darius himself. As part of our training as peacekeepers, we had to know whatever we could about our partners whenever medical stuff was concerned, in emergencies in the event that your partner was unconscious and couldn't answer the questions themselves.

We walked over to the waiting room and I unbuckled the chin strap of my helmet and took it off and took my rifle over my shoulder, and leaned it where it was out of the way. I then went over the forms and paperwork and filled it out and signed what I had to sign before I took it back up.

Darius's surgery went well, but because his body had went through so much trauma, that he was still out, he didn't wake up an hour or so after surgery like most people would have, but he needed it, it was the only way that he would heal. During the two hour surgery, Purnia had went to pick up Hera for me, offering to keep her while I was at the hospital with Darius and brought me a change of clothes, and I was glad to get out of my uniform and into a pair of shorts and a tank top, because it was just hot and humid outside.

"Hey." I heard Purnia's voice from the doorway and I looked over to her from where I sat. "Any change?"

I shook my head. "No. The doctor does say that his hand is looking how he wants it to look, so he is on the path of healing. Though it will take a while, because he also has bruised ribs, and apparently something about the ligaments in his legs."

She nodded, then tilted her head. "When he's released, he's going to need clothes, I can go and get some so you don't have to leave him." She said. "But what size does he wear?"

I stared at her. "Damn. Hell, I don't even know." I glanced over to him. "He's lost so much weight. They weighed him after he was done in surgery. He weighs a 110 pounds." My average weight for my height of 5'6 was 120 pounds, he weighed less than I did. "He's 6'5, his average weight is 185."

"Damn." She shook her head.

"I would say, maybe a small?" He normally wore an extra large.

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks." I sat back and pushed my white blonde hair out of my face.

He woke up an hour later. I glanced over when I noticed him stirring out of the corner of my eye. "Hey." I murmured. "Do you want to sit up?" I asked him. At his nod, I stood up and went over to press a button on his bed that would lift him to a sitting position. I made sure he was comfortable and had a dry erase board and marker nearby. "How are you feeling?" I asked as I sat back down.

He wrote something down on the board before showing it to me. 'Sore.'

I nodded. "You've been out for three days." He nodded and leaned his head back against the pillows. After a moment, he held out his hand for me, and I got up and took it before I gently hugged him. "For a moment there, I thought I almost lost you." I murmured. I could hear him sniffle and put his forehead on my shoulder as he wrapped his right arm around me.