"She is not ready for service, I'm sorry Private." Coin's voice was harsh yet hard to hear through the heavy tent.
"Sir, with all due respect, she is not a machine. Besides, she is the face of this rebellion. If she doesn't fight, they'll think she gave up and give up also." Gale replied.
"Like you said, she is not a machine. She cannot pickup where she left off with broken parts." Coin answered.
"So she tripped. Everyone trips."
"She is blind, Hawthorne. Blind. That explosion took her vision and who knows when it will come back. My answer is no, and that's final."
"Alma. Please." Gale begged.
"She's going to get herself killed. I know Prim was close to you, do you really want her dead too?" Coin asked.
Prim, dead? No, Gale said she was safe. Not dead. I must have heard wrong. I'm sure. Not Prim. Dear sweet Prim.
"No. No Sir." Gale answered in defeat.
"I expect you to tell her when she wakes. Until then, prepare you unit." Coin ordered.
"Thank you, Sir. Good day, Sir." Gale answered.
"And you too, Hawthorne." Alma replied before I heard footsteps leaving the tent.
Prims not dead. Gale would have told me. I reasoned.
"Hey Catnip, how are you feeling?" Gale asked making me jump in my cot.
"Geeze, bother knocking much?" I cursed.
"Well it is a tent." Gale replied, a smile creeping in his voice.
"Where's Prim?" I asked bluntly.
"You over heard us, didn't you?" Gale asked his voice becoming graver than it had in the last year, if possible.
"Gale, where is she?" I asked again, anger burning at me.
"She. I tried, honestly I did. She was like a sister to me. I wasn't quick enough." Gale's voice cracked, the first time I had heard him cry since his father died. Instantly I knew what happened to her, my worst fear. Everything I had done previously, in vain. I felt tears flooded my body.
"I'm so sorry Catnip. I- I. I should have saved her. And I didn't." Gale sobbed, his voice father away than before.
"The second one." I whispered remembering the white packages, bombs; the bombs that killed Prim.
"Yeah." Gale confirmed.
"Were they yours?" I asked dreading the answer. They seemed too much like something he had described to me multiple times in the woods.
"I. I was angry, and mad out of my mind. So I drew them. I created them… I kept them locked up. Only Coin and I knew they even existed. And I kept them locked up so securely. Mother didn't even know about them.
When I came back from our last hunting trip, I noticed they were missing. Nobody knew where I put them. I searched everywhere. Then I found them under the spring of my bed again. I though I just skipped past them. I was so stupid." Gale answered.
I didn't console him. I didn't tell him it wasn't his fault. I just cried and let him leave. Leave me.