A/N: Hey, so like I said, I'm on a binge and this chapter was soon to follow the first. To those who have read the first chapter so far, I would love to hear feedback and know if this is a story worth continuing. This chapter is about double what the first one was and the next one will continue where this one leaves off. Characters are a bit OOC to fit the story, but then again the whole story is an A/U so I feel this is ok. I hope you enjoy! Peeta will be making an appearance soon enough too. Chapter will be edited as I go along. Sorry for the mistakes, I tend to type faster when I'm excited about an idea and don't notice the mistakes until I reread the chapter, though I am already going to be starting chapter three while the idea is fresh in my head.

Being Katniss

Chapter 2- C-C-Changes

I let out a gasp before I even open my eyes. I don't want to open them. The last thing I remember was falling from the bridge onto the high way, which means I'm probably dead. So where was I? I chance a peek, opening one eye just a little to see where I was. I open both eyes to see I'm in what looks like an office. Ok, now this is getting bizarre. I look around and see the room decked out in sleek wooden furniture. It looks a bit retro, like what my grandparents' house used to look like. So where was I? I don't think this is heaven… and I imagined hell being a little warmer.

"Ah, glad to see you've woken up Sweetheart." I stiffen as the voice enters the room, the sound of a door closing closely following it. I hear the footsteps approach the desk in front of me and I'm greeted with the man I saw at the bridge, only he's cleaned up. Hair gelled back and now clothed in a black suit with a purple dress shirt underneath. He certainly doesn't look homeless any more.

"Where am I?" I watch him take a seat behind the desk and rest his elbows on the surface, studying me with those same blue eyes that watched me on the bridge. I want to shrink back at his intense gaze.

"Well, you're in my office. Just in time I think too. Now we have more time to talk." He sits back in his chair and folds his arms over his chest, his gaze never leaving me.

"Why am I here? How did I get here?" He chuckles at my questions and I can feel anger boiling up inside of me. How is this funny?

"Well for starters honey, I brought you here before you made a big mistake. You're here so we could talk about the offer I gave you."

I remember his words clearly and it's obvious that the confusion I felt at his words shows clear as day on my face. He speaks before I can say anything.

"So, as I said I'm a doctor. I'm here to help you." I laugh at this.

"What kind of doctor?"

"A therapist of sorts, to say the least." I shake my head. I don't need a doctor, I need some good luck thrown my way.

"I don't need a doctor, I was just having a bad day. I never really was going to jump. I got too much here that I can't leave behind." Prim comes to mind instantly and I know I could never leave her. I could never do to her what Gale had done to us, even if it was an accident.

He leans forward again, pausing as he studies me as if he's gauging what he's going to say next.

"Well, tell me if I'm getting warm, okay? It's not just that today was bad, it's every day.
It's the feeling that nothing seems to work out for you. Still single. All your successful married friends feeling bad for you. Am I getting warm?" I sit stunned in silence. How did he know all this?

"Who are you?" It's no more than a whisper as it leaves my lips.

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. Albert Einstein. Well you think about it.
And if you're interested, you can give me a call Sweetheart. Here's my card." He hands me a card, gets up from his desk and is leading me towards the door. I leave and am thrown back into my room the moment I step out. What the hell just happened? I shake my head and clear my head of everything that just happened. I look at the card that is still in my hand. It bold lettering it reads 'Dr. Haymitch. The Answer to your Problems.' Really? What does that even mean?

I set it on my bed and begin to get changed. Coming here was a bad idea and I needed to leave so I figure out what I needed to do now. I sit the card in my back pocket of my jeans and head back downstairs where my sister and mom are talking. Prim must have just came. I go to the kitchen where they are seated at the island and stand the end.

"Don't you have work today Little Duck?" It's a nickname I've had for her since she was a baby. Even though we're only three years apart I've always taken my role as big sister seriously. Being the middle child growing up was not always easy.

"I could ask you the same thing Kat. So what happened?"

"Oh Prim, what's done is done. Katniss, do you know what you're going to do now? Are there any jobs hiring right now? Do you have enough money to get by until you find one? You're father and I can help-" I stop my mom from her rambling, glancing at Prim before looking back at our mother. It amazed me how much Prim looked like her, golden blonde hair, eyes blue as the sky, and petite figures that anyone would be envious of. I looked more like our dad. Smoky grey eyes and hair almost dark as night. I was a bit broader and taller than Prim but I didn't mind.

"It's ok, I'll figure it out like I always do."

"Katniss, you know your Aunt Effie needs some help at her bridal boutique. I can talk to her and see if you can work there for now, it's not much but at least it pays and Effie would love having you there." She'd rather Prim there since she was the ball of sunshine I wasn't. How can I refuse my mom though when she is looking at me with such intensity? I know she's just trying to help, but I really don't want to put up with Effie. The longer she looks at me with that look the more I know I have to accept. I nod as my resolve dissolves. Prim gives me that knowing grin and pats my shoulder.

"Effie will be so, so, so happy!" She mocks Effie's high pitched voice as our mother sips her tea once more. Great… just what I needed.

Three days later I am following around our eccentric aunt as she shows me around the store and telling me what I'll be doing. I'm there to do bookings and manage the counter while she works in the back. Another mindless job. I'm happy when the day is over and I'm heading back to my apartment. I have to find a new place soon. I give in to my mom helping me though it'll be for a down payment for first and last on a new place. My current place is a dump anyways and I've been wanting to get out of here since I moved in. I get in and set my bag down at the kitchen counter and toe off my shoes. I look around and see the card I received three days ago sitting on the counter.

I pick it up and look at it again. It all still seemed like a joke. Tossing the card back on the counter I head over to my bathroom, opening the door I'm suddenly emerging into a waiting area of an office. Uh-

"Dr. Haymitch will be with you shortly, he's just with another patient." I look around the sterile while room. A receptionist sits at the large white desk behind a computer. I see some chairs and a coffee table with pamphlets laying on it and go sit down. Could this get any weirder? How did I end up here now? I pick up one of the pamphlets and read the title. 'Ten ways to improve your self-esteem.' I cock an eye brow at it and begin to open it when the lady at the desk speaks again. "He's ready for you now. Just head in through that door." She points to the door on her left and goes back to whatever it is she's doing on her computer. I set down the pamphlet and stand up, making my way to the door. Behind the door I am greeted with the same retro room I saw those few fateful days ago and see Haymitch standing by a window on the opposite end of the room, his back to me. Didn't the woman say he was with a patient? Where did they leave because this looks like the only door in the room?

"I'm glad to see you back Katniss. I knew you would be. You must be wondering how this whole thing works." He turns around to look at me finally and goes to take his seat behind his desk.

"Well kinda. Yeah." I don't know what else to say so I go sit in the chair across from him.

"Full disclosure: My brand of therapy is not traditional. I don't claim to have a lot of letters after my name, but what I will say is this, whatever it is that you are unhappy about, I can fix it. And all I ask from you is that you make a commitment. Now I'm not really interested in working with fence-sitters. You're gonna have to agree to see things through to the very end. And I-" He points to himself before continuing."-for my part, will promise you that you'll emerge from therapy with your problems solved."

"That seems like an awful lot of pressure on you, doesn't it?"

"'Pressure makes diamonds'. General George ." I shake my head at another quote he gives me. "It's not really about me, is it? It's about you. So what seems to be the problem?"

"What?" I question him. I don't know what he is asking.

"Why are you here?" He asks.

"I don't know?" I throw my hands in the air in frustration. "I just… I didn't think I'd end up where I am now. I keep thinking things weren't supposed to turn out this way." The words are tumbling out of my mouth. Years of pent up anger spilling forth without a moment to consider what I am saying. Years of denial showing it's ugly face. "I always thought I'd grow up, get an awesome career and I'd meet a great guy and just have the perfect life and-"

"What happened to that?" Haymitch cuts me off and I seal my lips together. I know the answer.

"I-I blew it. I had everything going for me, life was in my favour, and I just screwed it all up!" The realization nearly blows me away as I say the words out loud, words I have kept to myself for so long.

"How?" It's such a simple question and yet many answers come to mind. So many regrets.

"I made bad choices." I feel like I can tell him anything, things I haven't even admitted to my own family, though I've been close many times.

"You know Katniss, most people have a few regrets."

"Yeah well, I've got a lot. There's so many things I would have done differently, especially knowing what I know now."

"Oh? Like what?" I raise a questioning eyebrow at him.

"Like what?" I repeat his question, asking for further explanation.

"What are they? These bad choices, these regrets of yours?" Where do I begin to answer such a question?

"Well, like I said, there's a lot of them. Would you like me to pick one?" I know my biggest regret that I would change.

"OK, well you know what? Why don't you write them down?" He grabs a pad of paper, a pen, and pushes them towards me.

"Are you being serious right now?"

"Oh darling, I never joke about these things. Just point form is fine." I laugh again at this.

"Alright, how much time do ya got?" He gives me a glare to say that he is not in a joking mood so I grab the paper and pen. "It was just a joke."

I begin to list each regret I have, in point form of course, glancing up at Dr. Haymitch every so often to see that he's still there, waiting patiently for me to finish my list. When I finally finish I hand the pad back to him and let him look it over.

"I told you it was quite a bit."

"Well a bit more than average but that's ok, we can work with this." He runs his finger down the list until it stops in the middle of the page. I wrote down nearly thirty regrets.

"I wrote the ones that keep me up at night still. The ones that worry me the most."

"Alright, so tell me about this one. Fall formal. Why that one?" He shows me my writing and I nod.

"Well uh- it's weird because it uh, happened in grade 11 at the fall formal. It's the biggest formal of the year and it was going to be the best night ever. I was finally going to make out with Thom and just dance the night away with him and my friends. Instead my friends and I got some rum. We went to the locker room and drank it; I drank the most and an hour later, on the dance floor, I could barely stand. My friends pretty much thought it was hilarious until I completely crumbled. I passed out on the dance floor, puked my guts out and was convulsing. It was truly a nightmare. After that I landed in the hospital with alcohol poisoning, Thom broke up with me and all the kids in school talked about it for ages; about how I was this big tramp and ruined the dance for everyone." I feel like the memory happened only yesterday and the anxiety of it all haunts me as I remember walking those halls two days after the dance, after I was released from the hospital. "My parents were furious with me, not because I drank but because of how irresponsible I was with my life. I know it sounds like a stupid high school thing, but it changed me. It changed the way people at school saw me, it changed the way I saw myself, and it was another reason for my parents to argue. It sucked." I know my parents love each other, but the fighting has always been an issue between them which has always strained our home life.

"Hm, interesting. Well it's been informative, but, unfortunately, until you're ready to make a decision there's not much I can do for you." I sit up a bit straighter at this, my eyes widening a bit.

"A decision? You mean I have to decide right now?"

"Yeah, I mean you need to decide. Do you wanna jump off that bridge? Do you want to fix your life or not? You need to decide now." His eyes hold no humour in them and I know he means business. Was this a mistake?

"You know what? I'm beginning to feel like this was another bad decision, coming here and all."

"Oh come on Sweetheart, what's one more to add the list then?" He gives me a humourless smile, arms folded on his desk.

"I won't give you an answer right now so that means you can't even tell me what you'll do. Damn you haven't even told me how much this therapy is going to cost me!" I stand up, fed up with this nonsense.

"When did I even mention money Katniss?" I think back. He didn't ever say there was a cost but something like this much cost a fortune. A fortune I don't have.

"No. No you didn't." I admit.

"I asked you a simple question. Do you wanna fix your problems or not? Yes or no?" He seems to be losing his patience with me now.

"Fine, yes! Yes I want to fix them!" I stay where I am standing, studying him as he shifts in his seat, seeming satisfied with my answer now.

"Good. Okay, then answer me this." He stands up and moves around his desk. "If you could go back to that day and do it over, what would you do differently?" I falter in my spot. I've thought about this so many times. The things I could have done to change that night.

"Um- uh- I-I'd uh would make that night what I had been expecting, what it should have been, you know, the best night of that year. I'd not drink, I'd tell them all that it wasn't a good idea." He nods at my words. A shiver goes down my spine and I feel suddenly colder than I did before. "Is there a window open in here? It-it's uh really cold in here. Wait, what's going on? Help me!" I fall to the ground, hands and knees meeting wood floor.

"Jeez Kat, be careful!" I look up to meet brown eyes and very bright red hair. Johanna? I get myself off the floor and look around. I'm at a dress shop with… my eyes widen when I finally look at Johanna and… Madge? Both of whom are no more than sixteen years old. How did I get here? I turn to find a mirror and look at myself. My sixteen years old self stares back at me. "Kat? Kat? KATNISS! Jeez girl, snap out of it and get over here. Madge is trying on her dress." I'm still shocked. Did Dr. Haymitch do this? What was he? Oh god, how do I get back?