I don't own the Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay or any of their inhabitants.

Storm Clouds

I heard Gale hang up the phone. After a few minutes, when he still hadn't come out, I decided to go see what was taking him so long.

At first I thought he wasn't in the kitchen. Then I saw him, sitting on the floor by the cabinets, his head on his knees, his hands clutching his hair. My heart froze.

"Gale, what happened?" I asked, as I sank to my knees next to him.

He gave a huge sigh and lifted his head as though it took enormous effort. "That was Captain Brighton. I have to go back. Right away. Tonight."

I sat down next to him. I took his hand and interlaced our fingers. "I thought someone had died," I said, breathing deeply to get my heart rate down again.

"I guess it's not as bad as that," he said, but his voice was faint. "I just . . . it's only . . . it's Wednesday. I'm supposed to be here until Saturday."

I sat with him in silence for a while. Then I asked "When do you have to leave?"

"There's a train that leaves at 6:30. I have to be on it."

"Why? What's going on?"

"He was kind of mysterious. He said that there is a special mission of a highly classified nature that has come up in just the last couple of days. My squad has been assigned and he wants me there." Gale's voice sounded like a machine, just repeating the words he had heard over the phone. "There's something else."

"What?"

"He doesn't want anyone to know that he called me and asked me to come back. He wants me to act like I just came back on my own." This seemed to make him as miserable as any of the rest of it.

"So? What difference does that make?"

He turned his face towards me. "It means we have to start out with lies. I have to let them think things did not go well with you and me. Otherwise I'd never have left early."

"Oh," I said. "Well, how long do you have to keep that up?"

"Only until the mission's over. Four days."

"What if you said no?" I asked without thinking.

"Technically he could order me to come back. Then I'd be arrested if I didn't. But he didn't make it an order. He just asked me if I would."

"And you can't say no." I knew he couldn't.

"Not to Captain Brighton. I owe him a lot, Katniss. I have to go."

I leaned back against the cabinets and tried to think of some way to keep him from going. I knew I was being irrational but . . . .

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"It's just that I feel like . . . like you are being reaped."

"No. It's not like that. It's just unexpected, that's all. But I signed up to be in the army; I get to go work with my squad; I was going to go back on Saturday anyway. And it's not like we have to fight to the death or anything. It's totally different."

I laid my head on his shoulder. "I don't suppose I could come with you?"

"I just have a few more weeks. Not even time for the army to process your paperwork if you wanted to re-up."

"You're right." I needed to calm down about this. "So what do you want to do for our last few hours?"

"We'd better go talk to Annie. There's still a lot that needs to be done for tomorrow." He stood up and offered me a hand.

I didn't protest because I knew Annie would agree with me. Gale was not going to spend his last few hours of vacation working for a party he wouldn't get to go to.

Annie and the others quickly assured us that there was nothing they couldn't get done on their own. It was one o'clock and since Gale didn't have to leave until almost six, we had the whole afternoon to ourselves.

"Do you want to go swimming?" I asked.

"Maybe, but first let's go back to the forest."

"You want to grab a rabbit to go?" I teased.

He gave me a slight smile. That was progress. "Maybe. Or maybe some blackberries. Wait a minute. I need to grab something inside."

Hmm. That was mysterious. He already had his knife with him. I reached into the kitchen for my bow and quiver.

"Annie," said Gale as he came back into the kitchen. "We are going into the woods for a bit. Do you need anything else?"

This boy needed to learn how to relax. "If you see any sage it would go well with the beast. But I already have rosemary and thyme from the garden so don't knock yourselves out." Annie gave us a flour- coated wave.

We held hands as we walked to the forest. Gale was silent, brooding.

"So what did you have to go back into the house for?" I asked, mainly because the quiet was bugging me.

"What?" Gale looked at me with a start, as though he had forgotten I was there.

"Nothing."

The forest's cool embrace was welcoming since even I was warm enough this afternoon. There were some storm clouds approaching. I hoped they wouldn't ruin Gale's last chance for an ocean swim, but knowing him, he would just go anyway.

We checked the snares, nothing, but it had only been a few hours since we had cleared them this morning. "Remember to check these, okay?" reminded Gale. Not like I would forget.

We found a blackberry bush and filled our bags. At least he could take some blackberries with. I didn't even try to make conversation. He seemed to have already checked out of District 4. Then he took my hand and led me back to the tree where we had kissed just yesterday. We both sat down, leaning against the great oak. He put his arm around me and I leaned back against his chest.

"It's so unfair that you have to miss the party," I said. "Maybe we should carve off a hunk of meat and cook it for you. You earned it."

"That's okay. I don't want to mess up Mr. Ugly. We'll just have to come back up here and bag another one some time." He took my hand and began to idly trace the outline with one of his fingers. He was just fidgeting, but his gentle touch sent shivers up my arm.

"There's one good thing about having to go back early. Captain Brighton seemed to feel real bad about the whole thing. So he said he would give me another whole week off to make it up to me."

"Really? That's great," I said. "How soon can you use it?"

"I'm not sure. It'll probably be at least a month before I can set it up. I had an idea though."

"What?"

"What if you took the train down and met me in District 12?" Now he began to trace the lines on my palm. Why was such a simple thing making it so hard for me to put a sentence together?

"When was the last time you were back?" I managed to ask.

"It's been a long time. My mom has been bugging me to come visit."

"That'd be great. You know, it's beautiful here, but I miss home."

"Does it feel like home again?" he asked.

"Parts of it do. The woods are the same. Our rock is still there. Some of the people have come back: Greasy Sae, Bristel, Thom."

"Are you sure you are ready for all of that?" He traced the veins in my wrist.

"What do you mean? All of what?" Had I missed something? I was having trouble focusing.

"This is the thing. If we go out in public together, sooner or later some photographer will snap a picture, and we'll end up on the cover of some magazine."

"I don't care about that. They don't get a vote in my life."

"Are you sure? They might not be very nice about it." Gale didn't seem to want to look at me while he said that.

"They're never nice. All they do is lie."

"So you'd be okay with headlines about the recently widowed Mockingjay dating her own cousin?" he asked.

I let out a huge sigh. "I wouldn't like it, but who would it hurt? We make sure Posy doesn't get her hands on any of that and no one else we care about would care."

"It could get worse than that." I couldn't figure out why Gale sounded so grim. "There's something I need to warn you about."

I took my hand away from him. If he wanted to have a serious conversation, he couldn't keep distracting me like that. So, of course, he grabbed a stick and began to draw in the dirt.

"I thought you said all those stories about you weren't true?" I was just teasing. Mostly.

"No, it's not that. Remember I told you about the Commission I'm on, the one to draft a new Code of War Conduct?"

"Yeah, the one Brighton put you on." He'd mentioned the Commission yesterday, and I had thought it sounded like a good idea.

"Besides the Code, there are also going to be some trials, war crimes trials." His voice had dropped and something about his tone made me nervous.

"So? What does that have to do with us?"

"I'm probably going to be charged."

Suddenly, I was cold. I shivered and Gale pulled me closer. "With what?"

"If anyone should know, it would be you." He stopped. He sounded too tired to go on, but after a moment he said "They are calling them 'crimes against humanity,' things that anyone should have known better than to do."

"And rebels can get charged, too?" My voice sounded small.

"Some people think it should only be about the Capitol. Beetee was frantic with me about it. But that doesn't make sense. If anyone can tell these things were wrong, that has to apply to all of us."

I didn't know what to say. His voice was resigned, but my mind was reeling. Then I thought of something so horrible . . .

"What are the penalties?"

"That's not settled yet. They are still debating whether the death penalty should apply to any of it. I think it is mostly going to be prison terms."

"But they wouldn't . . ." I couldn't pull my thoughts together. We were silent together.

"If you think the other headlines would be nasty . . . . I don't know if I can put you through all of that." Even in the quiet of the forest I could barely hear his voice.

"What do you mean?" My stomach was churning.

"Maybe . . . maybe, we should wait. Wait to be together until we find out where all of this is going."

I couldn't believe he would say that. I pulled away and sat back on my knees, facing him.

"Are you saying . . . Do you think . . . You want me to sit up here and watch you on T.V. and hide because I'm afraid of what some damned headline will say?" I was trying to stay calm, but I couldn't keep my voice down.

"I don't want all of this to hurt you." He was looking off into the woods.

"It's going to hurt me. If it hurts you, it hurts me. But if you think I would ever just hide away and let you go through something like that alone . . . . Do you even know me at all?" He sucked in his breath and looked at me. He looked like I had slapped him and my heart clenched. I threw my arms around his neck and held him as tightly as I could. His arms went around me, but they were gentle. I spoke into his chest. "I would never, ever, let you go through something like that alone."

"Katniss . . . ." His voice broke. I looked at him and for the first time I could remember I saw tears in his eyes. All the anger had left me. I wanted to take his hurt away, to heal him. I took his face in my hands and kissed his eyes one at a time, then I found that I was kissing his face, over and over again. I paused when I reached his lips. I realized that I was shaking. I touched my lips to his, trying to tell him that I would never leave him.

He put his hand behind my neck, his fingers reaching up under my braid, and deepened the kiss. I tilted my head and let my thoughts slip away. I couldn't help but smile when I noticed that this time he tasted like blackberries, too. His other hand slid under me and lifted me up so that I was sitting in his lap. One of my hands was in his hair, the other traced his scars through the thin cotton of his t-shirt.

"Katniss, wait," he whispered. He leaned his face against mine, our foreheads and noses touching. "I have to talk to you about this."

I closed my eyes and tried to focus. "Okay, but don't ask me not to be with you."

He leaned his head back against the tree. "There are people who are going to be hurt. Your mom, Rory, anyone who lost a child that day."

"What do you mean?" This whole thing seemed unreal to me, like another one of my nightmares.

"Think about it. A headline that says 'Mockingjay Stands by her Sister's Murderer.'" He turned his head away from me, his eyes still closed, as if he couldn't bear to look at me.

I felt a clutching in my chest. I had to remind myself to breathe. I leaned my head against his chest and stared out into the trees, seeing nothing. Thoughts flew through my mind too quickly for me to grab them. I took a deep breath and replayed his words in my head. Something had been strange there.

"Rory?" I asked. That was it. Why would Rory be especially hurt?

"Did you know that he had a thing for Prim?" At last he turned back a little and glanced at me.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I think I almost caught them kissing in our room in District 13."

"You didn't tell me!"

"You were in the hospital. It was right after . . . right after the rescue mission to the Capitol." I could tell he didn't want to say why I had been in the hospital, that it had been after Peeta tried to kill me. "By the time you were better, there was so much going on that I forgot all about it."

He let out a shuddering sigh. "Rory still doesn't know about the bombs, that I helped design them. No one in my family knows that. I don't know if Rory'll ever forgive me when he finds out."

I lay my head back against his chest. He had already paid such a high price for his error. When would it stop? It was my turn to fidget. I traced the lines on his arm up onto his neck. He was so tense that the tendons in his neck were easy to find. I was trying to piece together how I could love Gale despite what he had done with how others would see things if there was a trial.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be like that," I said.

He had tilted his head back against the tree so that I could reach his neck. Apparently it was my turn to make it difficult for him to think. I wasn't sure if he had even heard me, until he asked "What do you mean?"

"Well, part of the whole point of your commission is to help our country figure things out, figure out a way to go forward that is better than the old way."

"I know. But there may be some casualties along the way. There were things that were done that can't go unpunished." There was so much pain in his voice. I kept slowly moving my finger down his neck and down his arm to his hand. I wanted to give him something soothing to focus on, let him know I was on his side.

"It's kind of like the difference between people who wanted to have new Games, to punish the Capitol even more and people who wanted to have a country where the Districts and the Capitol didn't hate each other anymore."

"You mean like people who were willing to assassinate a president to stop any more Games?" he asked. For the first time since we started this conversation I saw a sparkle in his eye.

"Exactly. Maybe if I can show that I know about what you did, but you are sorry and I forgive you, maybe that can be a way to show people that we can forgive each other, that our country doesn't have to be about hating each other anymore."

"Rory won't see it that way," he said.

"I bet my mom will. You should talk to Rory. He'll probably hate you for a while, but you got me to come around, so anything is possible." I took my finger and began to trace the lines on his face, so that he closed his eyes and just felt my touch. I wished I had some artistic talent and could draw him, but this was the closest I could come.

"Don't despair. We've gotten through worse things than this. We'll get through this too, somehow," I whispered just before I kissed him again. He had seemed as though he was almost asleep, but as soon as my lips touched his I knew that he was very much awake. His tongue met mine. It stroked through my mouth, as though he was trying to memorize me. Then he shifted. His lips pulled away and kissed the scar on the side of my face. He began to draw a line of small kisses down my cheek, beneath my ear, and then down my neck. I felt a thrill that began at my neck and reached all the way down to my toes. I made some sort of a noise in the back of my throat.

He laughed and came back up to press his nose against mine. "I love it when you do that," he said. He kissed my nose, then said "What would I do without you? I don't deserve you."

That annoyed me. "Don't say that. Of course, you do."

"No, actually I have this theory. I don't think anyone can really deserve another person. A person is a gift that you can't deserve, but you just have to accept and do the best you can for them."

"When did you get so deep?" I asked with a smile.

"I always was. You just didn't ask the right questions." He was teasing me.

"So you are saying that I don't deserve you either." I wanted to see how serious he was about this.

"Exactly. You can't. It's not because there's anything wrong with you. It's because it can't be done. Oh, but that reminds me there is something that you do deserve." Gale reached into his bag and pulled out something wrapped in white tissue and tied with a red ribbon.

"Oops," I said. "I didn't know we were doing gifts."

"It's just something I thought would come in handy when I was gone."

I unwrapped it and saw a beautiful hunting knife in a sculpted leather sheath. I pulled it out and examined it. It had a razor edge and a handle inlaid with mother-of-pearl. I slipped it back into the holster. "It's beautiful." I laughed. "Only you would get a girl a hunting knife."

"Does that mean you don't already have a pile of these that your other boyfriends have given you?"

"No, I lost my old knife and I haven't had one at all here. That's why I keep having to borrow yours."

"I know. That's why I wanted to get you one. But still, be careful when you are hunting by yourself. Maybe we should spend the rest of the afternoon hunting down any wild boars that are still lurking around."

"No way. Then I would have to go through that whole gutting thing again. That was unbelievable." I shuddered just remembering how exhausting that had been.

"I guess the boars are safe for now, then."

"We really should head back if you want to have time for a swim."

"Sure." Gale looked at me with a sly grin on his face. "Just as long as you will help me put my sunblock on."

"We might not have time for a swim after all."

When we got back to the beach I ran up to the house to get into my borrowed swimsuit and to grab the sunblock. Would sunblock always make me blush almost as much as blackberries?

The clock in the kitchen said that it was already 3:15. Gale still had to get back to the boys' house and gather his stuff. Plus we should grab some dinner. But that still left time for a swim. Outside Jonah and Davy were just about to put the boar onto the spit. Davy was holding the beast and Jonah was trying to force the spit in, but it was obviously hard to do. Gale was down at the beach, letting the surf lap his feet. When he looked up to the house at me I signaled with my arm for him to come up. I walked down to meet him halfway.

"They seem to be having a lot of trouble with Mr. Ugly. Do you have a minute to help them get him on the spit?"

"Sure. Then I can earn my swim." Would we ever get over the Seam way of thinking that everything had to be earned?

Annie and I sat on the stairs, Annie holding a squirming Finnie. He wanted to go see what they were doing with the boar, but we didn't think he would be much help. Annie managed to distract him with some toys on the porch, while the two of us made sure to block any escape route down the stairs.

Gale and Jonah were now holding the boar which seemed hard to do since it didn't really come with handles. Davy was making slow progress getting the spit in. He was laughing about something, but Gale was scowling. He really didn't like Davy much. Funny how the two brothers could be so different.

"Is Finnie due for a nap?" I asked Annie.

"Almost," she said. "But he's not acting very tired."

"You should bring him down for a swim."

"You don't mind? I thought you two would want to be alone."

"No. It's a big ocean. We'll share." I didn't think Gale would mind. And Davy and Jonah looked like they were going to seriously need a swim, too.

Annie caught her breath. "Katniss, look." She pointed to Finnie. He had been standing, holding onto the porch railing. He was studying the boys and the boar intently. He didn't even seem to be aware that he had let go of the railing and was now taking slow steps down the porch to get a better look. One step, two, three, four, five . . . .

"Hey guys," Annie called in a soft voice, "Look at Finnie." All three boys turned and saw Finnie walking toward them, a surprised smile on his face. He now seemed to have realized what he was doing.

"Go Finnie," said Jonah. Finnie started to clap his own hands, but the extra movement was too much and he fell back, with a thud that was padded by his diaper.

Annie jumped up and grabbed him and swung him in the air. "Yeah, Finnie!" she said kissing him.

"I think he earned a swim, don't you?" I said.

Once Mr. Ugly was on the spit we headed down to the beach. Davy and Jonah said that they would join us after they got the engine Jonah had rigged up to turn the spit going. The coals were already hot.

I made a deal with Gale. We would each do our own sunblock as much as we could, then help each other with our backs. "On one condition," Gale said with a mischievous twinkle as he spread lotion on his arms. "Someday I want a replay of the other day and you have to do all of my sunblock. I'd be happy to do the same for you."

I could tell I was blushing, but I just said "When did you become such a flirt?"

"The army offered a class on it," he said.

"Since there aren't any girls on your squad I find that troubling."

"Wouldn't it be more troubling if there were some girls?"

I smeared a huge glob of block onto his nose. "Definitely." Then I offered him the bottle. "Ready to do my back?"

We splashed around in the shallows for a while, then swam out to the sand bar.

"I'm seriously going to miss the ocean," Gale said as he leaned back to absorb the warm sun.

"It's amazing to be able to take a swim anytime you want."

"Hey, sorry for being such a sulk today. It's just that the last few days have been like this fantastic bubble. As soon as I talked to Captain Brighton all the rest of life seemed to come crashing back in on me. I hadn't even thought about the . . . trials or the Nut or any of that for days. Now, it's all back."

"You don't like the Nut?"

"No. I like my squad. I like being busy and feeling like we are doing something useful. But the Nut is an old mine. The deeper we go the more it feels like being back in the mines. And it messes with my head. I can't stop thinking about how many people died, how it is all my fault. I guess it is good to help clean up the mess, but I can't wait until it's done."

"Is your new mission, the mysterious secret one, going to be in the Nut?" I didn't remember what exactly he had said about it.

"It must be, otherwise why would they want my squad?"

Thanks for beta'ing IrishLuck19! One whole chapter with no tense glitches.

Thanks for reading to everyone and thanks for reading and reviewing to all you wonderful reviewers. BTW - my Review Reply isn't working. Anyone else having trouble with theirs or is it just me?

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