Chapter One-Hundred-and-Thirty-Six; Late Night Phone-Calls

It was a dream. She knew it was a dream. But still the fear spiralled through her like a tornado, tearing her apart from the inside out.

She was sitting at the head of a table that stretched on endlessly and at her left side was Seneca and at her right Haymitch.

They weren't eating anything though. Seneca and Haymitch were arguing across the table, yet although they were shouting at deafening volumes, Stephanie couldn't seem to grasp what they were saying.

It was at that moment that she felt a tap on her knee and looking down she lifted the tablecloth to look under it.

Electra and Frenkin were huddled under the table. Electra asked her if she had a boat, to which Stephanie replied it sunk, and then suddenly a hand was under the table grasping and groping.

Frenkin screamed a horrible scream as he was yanked out from under his cover, and Stephanie tried to stop it but it was too late. Seneca had already plunged the knife again and again into Frenkin and the knife belonged to Electra.

Stephanie turned to Haymitch then, tears streaming down her face, but he barely seemed to notice she was there. His eyes were bloodshot and he reeked of alcohol in a way he had never before. Stephanie shook his shoulders frantically, screaming at him and finally his bleary eyes looked at her. "But you're dead," he said childishly.

Stephanie felt the piercing pain in her abdomen then, knowing without having to look that it was Electra's knife that had stabbed her. But when Stephanie looked down she screamed at the sight. Her niece Eldi looked up at her, small hands coated in her crimson blood and half her face completely macerated.

Stephanie woke up screaming, tangled within the bedclothes as she sweated profusely. And though it made Stephanie feel guilty to think it; it most certainly didn't help that the first face Stephanie saw was Electra's hovering over her.

"Damn, you scream like a siren," Electra muttered after she had ascertained that Stephanie was well and truly awake.

"Why didn't you wake me?" Stephanie snapped, digging the heels of her palms into her eyes, trying desperately to erase that harrowing last image of Eldi.

"I didn't want to get a punch in the face. You also jump about like a fish out of water," Electra retorted.

"Well then what are you here for?" Stephanie sniped, "or did you just want to watch me having a nightmare?"

Electra smirked faintly, "don't flatter yourself," she drawled sardonically. "But I do have to admit, you have impeccable timing."

For the first time Stephanie noticed the phone Electra had in her hand, the little red flashing light showing how a call was connected and that someone was waiting on the other side of that line.

Stephanie frowned, her brows furrowing. "Is that call for me?" she asked incredulously, glancing at the alarm clock at her bedside briefly, and cursing colourfully when she noticed the rather outrageous time at night.

"Direct for you," Electra confirmed, passing her the phone with a smirk.

Stephanie glanced at the screen, noting the absent caller ID and feeling immediately uneasy.

"Who's phone is this?" Stephanie asked.

Electra smirked, "mine."

Stephanie's shocked gaze snapped up to the blue-haired woman but Electra was already standing, ambling over to the door.

"I'll give you some privacy, shall I?" she drawled casually, exiting the room before Stephanie could even reply.

Stephanie frowned as she looked once more down at the phone and it's flashing red light that seemed to scream danger at her.

Sighing and sitting up straighter in her bed Stephanie pressed the answer button and raised the phone warily to her ear.

"Why were you screaming like that for?"

Stephanie almost threw the phone across the room.

Seneca.

"Nightmare," Stephanie answered absently, "why the hell are you calling me for?"

"I had an idea."

"At four in the morning?!"

Seneca ignored her less than pleased tone as he spoke on, but Stephanie could almost imagine she heard just a little scratchiness to his tone, as though he too were only awakened.

"I was thinking about what we were talking about before," he began.

Stephanie's eyes narrowed, "you better not have called me just to talk…" Stephanie began warningly when Seneca cut across her.

"Listen," he commanded. "Before when you mentioned you fell in the river; the one that is saturated with chemicals. Did you swallow any water?"

"What?!"

"Just…answer my questions and I'll explain."

"Yes I swallowed a lot of water."

"Where you ill for a while afterwards?"

"Yes," Stephanie answered more slowly as she begun to catch on and a thoughtful look grew on her face.

"When did you first start fainting?"

Stephanie inhaled sharply, "when I was eight. The months directly after I fell in the river were the worst," she answered quietly.

Seneca seemed to breathe a sigh of relief then. "Well at last, there is progress," he muttered slightly sarcastically, and Stephanie was sure then of the weariness tingeing his voice.

She pulled the sheet closer around herself as she strangled a yawn, not bothering to consider the absurd situations her life had become a string of.

"You're tired."

Seneca's voice was laced with amusement and she could almost imagine his smirking face. She scowled, even though it would be impossible for him to see her.

"It's four in the morning, what do you expect?" she grumbled sardonically, "and you don't sound too awake yourself," she sniped.

Seneca chuckled quietly, "I've been awake all night," he confessed. "You really are difficult; even your test results refused to make much sense to begin with."

Stephanie frowned slightly; her senses and thoughts wrapped in a sleepy haze.

"Do you really think falling in that river is what is causing my fainting now?" she asked sceptically.

Seneca sighed lightly. "By the scan it is clear you have something abnormal in your body. It seems a likely explanation that whatever chemicals you ingested that day are what caused the abnormality."

Stephanie tugged thoughtfully at a strand of her hair, considering Seneca's words. She managed to smother another yawn; her exhausted thoughts tripping over one another unhelpfully.

"It seems very extreme," she finally mused.

"You didn't get the correct and needed treatment afterwards. You're lucky you didn't suddenly start growing mutations or – "

"Ugh! Stop! – I've already had one nightmare tonight!" Stephanie interrupted him, groaning.

Seneca chuckled again under his breath, "fine then," he relented.

"So what exactly is this abnormality in me?" she queried.

It felt strange to have an answer after so many years, for her pesky fainting at the worst of times. Her fainting had always been troublesome and irksome and she despised it, but her mother and father had just said it was because she was sensitive or had a weak stomach. They never considered that it might possibly be something more serious, afterall she had only been fainting. Rather more often than was perhaps normal, true – but it wasn't exactly like you could run to the doctor's with every little complaint. That cost money – money her family didn't have or couldn't afford to spare on a problem, that while bothersome, didn't seem particularly serious.

"It's very technical," Seneca replied.

Stephanie frowned, "of course, silly little me," she muttered bitterly.

Seneca scoffed on the other side of the line, "it's an abnormality to your nervous system," he began before she heard the smirk in his voice. "I'll explain it to you in terms you're probably familiar with."

Stephanie blinked, readying to ask him what he meant by that when Seneca spoke on and her face smoothed to an expression of surprise.

"When you are making circuit boards at your factory you incorporate a safety mechanism in case of emergency, correct?"

"Yes, in case the device overheats or starts to perform in a way it shouldn't. The safety mechanism kicks in and it will automatically short-circuit."

"And what happens when it short-circuits?"

"The flow of electricity is interrupted and the device is immediately useless. It shuts down…" Stephanie trailed off, feeling utterly at odds.

Never would she have thought she would be discussing factory work with Seneca Crane of all people. She knew of course, that Seneca had to be skilled at things like that to create his harrowing arenas, but it was something Stephanie didn't like to dwell on.

"Well you're like a device that keeps short-circuiting far too early," Seneca explained and Stephanie could definitely hear the smirk in his voice.

She rolled her eyes slightly, feeling a smile tug stubbornly at her lips that unsettled her more than anything else about receiving a phone-call at four in the morning from Seneca Crane.

"Well, what's the solution?" she asked tiredly.

She heard Seneca chuckle infuriatingly again. "Go to sleep Stephanie. I will call you again later, on this phone," he assured her.

Stephanie's eyes snapped open at that and she frowned as a sudden thought occurred to her.

"This is someone else's phone, not mine," Stephanie began to protest when Seneca cut across her.

"Not anymore," he refuted, "it's yours."

Stephanie's mouth fell open in shock as she gaped in silence for a few flabbergasted moments.

"What?" she finally managed to blurt out.

"Things have been explained to Miss Hocol and she is perfectly fine with you taking ownership of her phone. Of course, I'll be the only one possibly ringing you – " Seneca began to explain casually.

"Wait just a minute!" Stephanie cried, feeling the sleepy haze of her thoughts clear slightly.

"How do you know Electra?" Stephanie demanded.

Stephanie gritted her teeth as Seneca chuckled throatily. "Why, are you very jealous?" he murmured silkily.

Stephanie rolled her eyes as she scoffed, scrubbing a hand over her face wearily, "just answer the damn question Seneca."

"Our paths crossed years before rather…unpleasantly," Seneca explained carefully.

Stephanie frowned, "is it even remotely possible to get a straight answer here in the Capitol?" she muttered sarcastically.

Seneca laughed slightly, "you can trust Miss Hocol."

Stephanie dropped the phone from her ear as she glowered at the ceiling for a moment of exasperation.

Haymitch had told her to trust Seneca so she had.

Now Seneca was telling her to trust Electra – did she? But hadn't Haymitch sent Electra to the penthouse in the first place?

"And what exactly would I be trusting her with?" Stephanie questioned shrewdly as she raised the phone once more.

"With whatever you feel is necessary," Seneca said, "I told you I would never force you to do anything. If you don't trust my word and decide to tell Miss Hocol nothing – that is entirely your decision."

Stephanie could hear the smirk in his voice as she sighed heavily. It was so much harder to be angry and argue with the blue-eyed Gamemaker when he was being so annoyingly reasonable.

"Fine," Stephanie ground out, "can I get back to sleep now?" she grumbled.

"Pleasant dreams," Seneca murmured.

Stephanie scowled as she ended the call and flopped forcibly back onto her pillows, knowing it would be an absolute miracle if she managed to get another wink of sleep that night.

Thanks to girlworthfightingfor for the review; I'm glad you're liking Electra and - Poor Haymitch! :P Haha; I hope you liked this S/S moment then :P