AN: Hi everyone! I haven't updated this story in like two months, I'm sorry about that! I promise I will be updating it more frequently in the future :) As always, please favorite/follow and review the story, it makes me smile when I see an email telling me someone has reviewed or favorited or followed the story!
The impact of the bomb rattles me to my core. I lay on the floor for a minute, not daring to move, until I hear Peeta call my name. I try to sit up, but I'm pinned down under a large piece of wood. "Peeta!" I yell to him "I can't move"
"I'll come get you out" he says. I hear Effie's voice
"Is everyone else alright?" Other than Peeta and I, no one answers. I hear Peeta stand up and brush off his pants. I hear him saying "oh my god" He lifts the piece of wood off of me, and I stand up too, but I'm not prepared for what I see.
Effie is sitting up against a wall, looking shaken but still in one piece. Peeta's head is bleeding slightly, but he seems okay too. But Haymitch, who lies in a heap diagnal to Effie, is unconsious. I run up to him and roll him onto his back. I put my fingers to the base of his throat, where I should feel his heartbeat. Instead I feel nothing.
My eyes go wide and I'm too stunned to move. I can feel my breath tightening in my chest, my lungs constricting until it's hard to push the air through. The sounds around me grow louder and louder, until they blend together. I can hear Peeta on the phone with someone, probably the medics, and I can hear sirens, but all I'm thinking about is Haymitch. He can't be dead. Haymitch, the man who would have sacrificed his life to save Peeta and I. Haymitch, the man who, in a roundabout way, always showed love and compassion for Peeta and I. Haymitch, the man who helped keep Peeta and I alive countless times during the games, and after.
I'm pulled out of a daze when a medic pulls the plank of wood off of my legs and gently places her hand on my arm.
"Ms. Everdeen" she says "Are you alright?"
I nod my head and attempt to stand up. She helps me to my feet, and I scan the room for Peeta. He's leaning up against a wall with a gauze pad pressed to his head. He crosses the room and wraps an arm around my neck. I throw my hands around him, shaking.
"Are you alright?" he asks me
"I'm fine. Are you alright?" I say
"I just got a scrape. Not a big deal."
I pull away from him and look around the room again.
"Where are Haymitch and Effie?"
Peeta starts to answer, but he's interrupted by a male medic who introduces himself by the name of Justin. He tells us Haymitch and Effie were taken to a larger medical facility, and he is there to escort us there too.
He turns to walk out of the room and Peeta and I follow him down the hallway and out into a car. Peeta and I sit in the back, and the medic sits in the front with the driver.
We pull up to a white brick building. We exit the car and are greeted by a sea of reporters and cameras. I'm blinded by the flashbulbs, and I cling to Peeta's arm as he pulls me along towards the entrance.
We get into the building and follow the medic down a maze of hallways, until we come to a pair of doors with the words "Intensive Care Unit" stamped onto them. I look at Peeta, worried, and lace his fingers through mine as we walk through the doors.
The first thing I see is Effie. She's sitting in a chair looking down at the ruffles of her shirt, repeatedly smoothing the fabric with her shaking hands.
"Effie" Peeta says quietly and she looks up at us.
"Where's Haymitch?" I ask.
"He's having surgery. The bomb-he got-he didn't-"she chokes out before her voice begins to break, and her eyes fill with tears. Peeta walks over and takes her hand, and I stand there awkwardly trying to figure out what to say to Effie.
When she calms down a bit, Peeta and I sit on either sides of her and hold her hands.
"They said he might not wake up" she whispers and a single tear rolls down her face. She closes her eyes and breathes in softly.
"There are just so many thing I didn't get to tell him. There were so many thing I had planned"
Peeta and I just nod. I had no idea Effie cared about Haymitch so much. Maybe they were falling in love just like Peeta and I.
"Effie" Peeta says and she looks at him "He'll wake up. I promise you he will. The doctors here are the best doctors in the world. They'll take good care of him. They won't let him go."
My worried eyes find his. He swallows and nods slightly at me. He's telling me without using words that it will be okay.
A couple hours pass in what seems like days. Peeta and I take turns checking the front desk to see if Haymitch is out of surgery. After 6 hours of sitting and waiting, a doctor comes over and tells us to follow him to his office.
The three of us rise from our plastic seats along the wall. Peeta and I each stand on one side of Effie as we walk down the hallway towards the doctor's office.
We sit down and the doctor says "You all are friends of Mr. Abernathy?"
Peeta clears his throat. "Yes, we are" he says.
"I am very sorry to have to deliver this news to you all. We preformed surgery on Mr. Abernathy. We had to reconstruct the lower half of his left leg, but we didn't have to remove it. We had to give him so medicine to help speed up the healing of his concussion, but as of right now, although he is breathing, he is unconscious. We don't know the exact damage done to his brain. If he wakes up, we don't know if he will still be the same Haymitch. But, like I said, he may not wake up. But I promise you, we're doing everything we can to save him."
The doctor's words send shivers up and down my arms. I look over at Effie and her face is frozen, but she's not crying. The doctor continues to speak.
"If you wish, you can go into his room to see him now."