Okay, well we're getting so so close to the start of the Quarter Quell and I just can't tell you how excited I am! It's all really going to kick into high gear soon and I hope you will find yourself both surprised and breathless! So stay with me because we aren't anywhere near done!

Ch. 11- The Longest Night

Peeta hobbled his way to Gale's home in the Seam on his injured ankle. Each step felt like it ignited a small fire in his ankle, but he gritted his teeth and suffered through it, knowing he had to reach the Hawthorne's. Hazelle immediately recognized something was wrong when Peeta appeared on her front door; the fear self-evident on his face.

She ushered him in and helped him to a chair. Worry creased her brow, but she knew he wasn't there for her.

"He's not back from work yet. He should be soon." Hazelle moved back to the stove and started ladling some stew. "Would you like some broth? Your nerves look like they could use some settling."

Peeta appreciated the gesture and was glad not to have to answer her questions. He was still far too shaken up by Darius' sudden reappearance. He needed to talk to Gale. He took the bowl gratefully, but found he lacked much of an appetite. He forced some of the hot broth down to appease Hazelle. She hovered about Peeta with a worried sense of air while also attending to her three youngest.

Finally, after an excruciating amount of time where everyone sat in uncomfortable silence, waiting and wondering, Gale came home. Peeta never got to see him like this—when he came home from work. He always made sure to clean up before ever coming by Peeta's so it was quite a shock to see how much Gale had hid from him. He didn't notice Peeta right away as he came in, instead hanging up his miner's hat and taking a deep breath like he was trying to restock his lungs with fresh air, not the stale and blackened air deep in the mines. He looked haggard and worn down with black soot smeared across any exposed inch of flesh. It was a disheartening sight and even more so that Gale worked to hide his misery from him.

Hazelle cleared her throat and Gale suddenly realized they had company.

"Peeta? What're you—what's wrong?" The expressions on his face quickly morphed from uneasy surprise to concentrated concern. He moved forward to Peeta and brushed off the bowl of stew offered to him by his mother.

"Can we go outside?" Peeta asked, not wanting to intrude any longer on the Hawthorne's dinner.

Gale nodded and led the way out front of their small shack. His eyes sharpened at the obvious limp in Peeta's gait, but he refrained from further questioning.

Outside, Peeta turned to face Gale and expelled all in a breathy rush of words, "Darius is back and he told me he plans to finish what he started, which I'm not sure what that means, but last time it ended with me getting shot and I don't know what to do because the Peacekeepers obviously don't care."

A dark looked overcame Gale's face for a second before it was washed from view and replaced by a cool and collected look, but Peeta could still see the small fire that burned in the back of his blue eyes, just smothered for the moment. He nodded to himself and spoke.

"I'll move in with you then."

"What? No, you don't have to do that—"

"Yes, I do. It's the only way we can guarantee he doesn't try anything."

By the firm set of Gale's jaw Peeta knew his decision was made. This was how they would handle it moving forward and Peeta best get on board with it.

"But what of your family?"

"They'll be fine. It's not like anything will really change since I'm never here anyways with work and your lessons."

"Oh," Peeta cringed internally. He hadn't realized how much time of Gale's he was sapping, but now he couldn't help but feel guilty for stealing him away from his family. They probably needed him. Peeta was being selfish in his dependency on Gale. "I can't ask you to do this. Your family needs you."

"Then why'd you come here?" Gale demanded. The fire flared behind his eyes and Peeta knew he was barely keeping it together. He shouldn't have brought this problem to Gale, but it was too late now.

"I—I didn't know who else to go to…"

Gale seemed to deflate at that and he pulled Peeta into a rough hug. He smelled of sweat and burnt wood and his chest was rock solid against Peeta's cheek. Gale's chin came to rest atop his head. Peeta settled into the hug with a sigh not having realized how much he needed the human contact. He spent too much time alone these days save for when he was with Gale on Sundays and the short visits with Prim or Haymitch. Gale cleared his throat and then pulled back.

"I'm going to clean up here and pack a few things. I want you to go straight to Haymitch's and wait for me there, okay?"

"Okay."

Peeta was reluctant to leave Gale, but he thought it best to leave him to his family. He already intruded enough and now he was stealing Gale away from them. He rushed through the streets making sure to take the long route back to Victor Row so as to avoid the Peacekeeper village. He did as he was told and went straight to Haymitch's house, which was no longer a test in endurance now that Hazelle came by once a week to clean.

"Seems like a smart deal to me. Men like Darius are cowards," Haymitch explained from his slouched arrangement on the couch. He was drinking a mixed cocktail of white liquor and some red juice that was only available in the summer months. "They rely on tricks to overpower and are never one for direct confrontation unless it's on their own terms. Having Gale staying with ya is the best deterrent to his brand of crazy."

"I know, I just wish I didn't have to drag him into this mess."

"It's too late for that. He dragged himself into it back when he found you bleeding out on the streets and took you to the Everdeen's."

"I guess."

Peeta flopped down on the couch next to Haymitch and noticed for the first time what was on the television. It was a news report on District Thirteen. Peeta immediately tuned in to what she was saying, paying close attention to the background for the mockingjay Twill had talked about. A young woman reporter stood in front of the derelict Justice building of Thirteen as she talked of a new report verifying that it was still inhospitable for human life. Just as she was about to send it back to the main desk Peeta saw it. His whole body tensed like a jolt of electricity was shot through him. A mockingjay flew by in the right hand corner of the screen. Twill had been right! But did that really mean the Capitol was lying? Was there still something in District Thirteen that the Capitol didn't want us to know about? Or were they just using stock footage because they didn't want to send a reporter all the way out there? Frustratingly there were no easy answers.

"Are ya even listening to me?"

A hand landed on Peeta's shoulder and he was jolted back to reality. He had almost forgotten he was at Haymitch's, completely absorbed in his thoughts of District Thirteen and rebellions.

"Sorry, just got caught up with that news report."

Haymitch looked up at the television and frowned. "Ah, it's always the same bullshit. Don't listen to a word they say."

"Why do you have it on then?"

"It's entertainin' to watch the Capitol idiots try to report the news with out sharing any real facts."

Peeta laughed as Haymitch threw back the rest of his drink and stood with a drawn out groan to make another. Peeta checked the clock and saw almost an hour had passed since he had been at Gale's.

"Gale should have been here by now."

Haymitch paused on his way to the kitchen and scratched at the back of his head.

"You're right, I'll go check on him. You stay here."

Peeta was on his feet in seconds.

"I'm coming with."

"Yeah I thought that might be futile, but I gave it a shot."

They both left the house and headed back towards the Seam. It was dark out now and Peeta was worried. He never should have left Gale. If something happened to him Peeta didn't know how he would handle it. He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt as he followed behind Haymitch. There was a crowd gathering in the town square when they turned the corner and knowing it to be expressly forbidden Peeta wondered what could be happening to cause people to break that rule.

"What's going on?"

Haymitch didn't respond. He moved in front of Peeta, standing on his toes to try and catch a glimpse of what was going on before his whole body went rigid. He came to a sudden halt in front of Peeta and stopped his progress.

"Go, now. I'll meet you back at my house, get out of here." He looked back at Peeta with a harsh lined face. Peeta didn't like that look or what it was withholding.

"What? No."

His worst fears now cannibalizing themselves, Peeta pushed forward into the crowd desperate for answers. What was happening that was so bad Haymitch tried to send him home? The crowd parted before Peeta, most with downcast eyes of shame and fear while others hissed warnings like 'go back,' and 'you'll only make it worse.'

Then Peeta saw it, what everyone else had gathered to witness. The whipping post was being put to use for the first time Peeta had seen. The man tied to the post was Gale. He was whipped into unconsciousness and his back looked like the raw meat of a skinned deer, flesh hung off in tattered bits and blood smeared across his back and down to stain the top of his pants. It was like standing in the center of a tornado, everything around him swirled in a blurred mess that he couldn't focus on, all he could see was the eye of the storm where Gale laid weak and beaten and Romulus Thread stood with his blood dripping whip, reeling back for another go.

"NO! STOP!"

Peeta threw himself forward. Everything in his mind screamed no. He couldn't feel anything. He couldn't think. He just acted on instinct and that instinct was telling him to protect. His body flew before Romulus and extended itself to protect Gale's crumpled form. The furious whip tore threw the air and lashed up across his bared arm at an angle, tearing into as much flesh as possible. It sliced into the flesh like the sharpened blade of a knife and if Romulus hadn't hesitated at the last second it could have cut threw to the bone. A scream slipped from Peeta's mouth before he collapsed to the ground next to Gale, but he disregarded the fire that exploded from his left arm and burned its way up to his shoulder. Instead he turned on the ground to look at Gale. He wasn't moving. He feared the worst. Then there was more yelling.

"Look what you've done! You idiot!" Haymitch was yelling. He was furious.

"Look what I did?" Romulus balked, but his shifty eyes darted over Peeta's face in recognition. His whip was raised again, ready to dispense more fiery punishment. "He's the imbecile that ran before of my whip. I'm dispensing a punishment, no one interferes!"

"He's our Victor and he's getting married at the Capitol after the reaping in a month! There's no way that's going to be healed by then." Haymitch pointed with a shaking finger at Peeta. "I'll be calling the Capitol first thing upon returning home."

Romulus pursed his lip in thought. He didn't look like the type that liked to be outmaneuvered or have his power called in to question, but he also didn't want to anger the Capitol. With a convulsive twitch of the hand the whip finally lowered and he jerked his head towards Gale. "Take him then and be glad it wasn't a death sentence."

The pain flared in Peeta's left arm like an untamed wildfire, consuming everything in its path. But Peeta fought back the pain and cradled Gale in his body after untying his wrists from the post. They were shredded too, probably from fighting against the restraints as the whip cracked against his back in unrelenting punishment. Thankfully more bodies appeared, his father and Mr. Ebsin, the man hired to fix the Everdeen's roof, moved in to help Peeta. Haymitch helped Peeta to stand and it was then that he realized he was crying. He cradled his arm carefully against his chest while the other men moved quickly to carry Gale. He still wasn't moving. He looked like a corpse and Peeta had to look away.

It was then that Peeta noticed most of the crowd had dispersed, fearful after watching such brutal punishment. He saw Romulus storming off in the direction of the Peacekeeper village and he was berating another man. It was Darius. His face was a mess. His right eye bruised a nasty shade of purple and swollen shut while his nose looked broken, there was dried blood all over his face and a few teeth seemed to be missing. His head was bowed in either silent shame or repressed anger. What had happened?

No one talked as they worked quickly and efficiently to build a gurney that could carry Gale to the Everdeen's. He needed to be lain on his stomach, which left Peeta an uninterrupted view of his shredded back. The flesh was angry and red and terribly bloody. So much blood. It radiated an almost visible heat.

As they rushed through the tight streets of the Seam to Mrs. Everdeen's Peeta's father filled him in on what happened. Apparently Gale went after Darius. He beat him pretty good before he was caught and Romulus brought down his whip. It could have easily been a death sentence, but Madge had been there to plead his case. She claimed to have witnessed Darius provoke Gale and with his past track record he couldn't argue it. Peeta wondered where she was now, but he was extremely grateful she had been there to stand up for Gale otherwise this could have gone down much worse. Either way this was his fault. He shouldn't have brought Gale into this.

Mrs. Everdeen flew into action mode once they arrived. Someone must have got to her earlier to warn her of Gale's arrival because she was prepared with a table cleared for him and supplies at the ready. It was amazing to see the seemingly meek woman transform into a fearless caregiver.

"Haymitch, do you have any ice?"

"Already going."

Haymitch took off at a sprint back to his place while Mr. Ebsin backed out and wished us well. Prim pulled Peeta to the side to examine his arm while Mrs. Everdeen worked to clean Gale's back. Peeta's dad hung in the back not wanting to get in the way, but watching with a wary eye prepared to jump in and help if needed.

"Sit." Prim tried to push Peeta down so she could work on patching up his arm, but he barely gave it notice. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Gale. He was still unconscious and he prayed he stayed that way, but he had also never wanted more than to see those blue eyes alert and trained on him at that moment.

"Fuck!" Peeta hissed and jumped back to reality before Prim. She had just applied some mint-scented cream to the gashed flesh of his arm. The cut from the whip was about ten inches long and sliced its way up from his forearm to his bicep in a curved bow shape.

"Sorry, but this will keep it from getting infected and help it heal. You're going to need a sling for that otherwise you'll tear it open every time you bend your elbow."

Peeta watched Prim with a renewed interest as she worked to place a makeshift sling around his arm. This wasn't the little girl he was used to; she was serious and quiet with a laser like focus on the task at hand. Things had changed in the last year and she was no longer the innocent younger sister of Katniss. She was forced to grow up fast as she witnessed renewed atrocities at the hands of the Capitol.

When Haymitch returned he came with a large block of ice from his freezer. It was sweating profusely from the heat of the evening and so Mrs. Everdeen sent them quick to work. Haymitch and Mr. Mellark worked with picks to crush the ice into a slushy mixture. Once it was fine and powdery like snow Mrs. Everdeen quickly mixed it with some other herbal medicines.

"Why don't you give him some of the painkillers now?" Peeta asked in a confrontational tone. They needed to do more!

"He's unconscious now. I'd rather wait to give it to him once he wakes. The pain is going to be severe no matter what we do." Mrs. Everdeen answered, unfazed by Peeta's aggressive tone.

As she applied the homemade snow coat to Gale's back he finally began to stir. A terrible whimper slipped from his chapped lips. Peeta rushed to his side and swept back the hair from his eyes. Prim gave him a cool compress to apply to his forehead and some painkillers to swallow once he fully regained consciousness. The snow sizzled like frying bacon in a pan from the heat of Gale's tormented back. The pain in Peeta's arm was like a conduit to the pain Gale must be suffering, it amplified back at Peeta ten, twenty, a thousand fold and still it never could match what Gale was to endure now. He eventually woke and was delirious with pain. Hazelle came by after getting someone to watch her children and Peeta tried to apologize, feeling this was his fault, but she barely spoke a word. Her eyes were glazed over with a vacant look, a defense mechanism to the pain she no doubt endured after the death of her husband in the mines. Mrs. Everdeen assured her he was lucky Haymitch had ice otherwise this could have been much worse for him. The summer months were the hardest to treat victims of whipping. Peeta came to understand that at one point this was a much more common occurrence and he couldn't help but think this was all ramping up again only because of him, because of the threat of rebellion.

There was a knock on the door and Prim answered it to find Madge. She seemed a nervous wreck with wild hair matted to her head with sweat and out of breath probably from running. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"I brought him some morphling, it's my mother's own private stash. She said he could have it all." She held out in her hand three small vials of a clear liquid. Morphling.

She left soon after passing it off to Prim, a stifled sob escaping her lips as she turned and ran. Peeta wondered what her relationship was to Gale, because she seemed more upset than any casual acquaintance of Gale's should be. But she didn't stick around either, which was odd. Gale had never once mentioned being friends with Madge, but then Peeta remembered the night of the Victory Tour and how he had been standing in the crowd with Madge. So they definitely knew each other. He wondered why Gale might keep this from him? A sour taste filled in the back of his mouth and he sipped on Gale's water with the hope of washing it out.

With the morphling administered, Gale visibly relaxed, the tension flooding out of him like the breaking of a dam. Peeta declined the offered snow coat for his arm; he refused to take any when Gale so desperately needed it. He sat in the same wooden chair Gale sat in while watching over Peeta when he had been shot. It was his turn to keep constant vigil next to his friend. He caused this and so he would suffer the pain of a whip lashed arm and more if needed.

"S'good stuff…" Gale mumbled, turning his head to the side to look at Peeta. There were those blue eyes, drugged and droopy, but not yet willing to give up. "M'shrry."

Taking Gale's hand in his, Peeta squeezed it tight and shushed him. "Don't. You have nothing to be sorry for. Try to rest."

Gale murmured more unintelligible things to himself, but seemed to take Peeta's word and tried to rest. His hand hung limp in Peeta's and he watched as consciousness slowly drifted from him like a boat unmoored. With nothing more left for Mrs. Everdeen to do she collapsed in her bed behind the partition, obviously exhausted by the nights events. Haymitch left along with Peeta's father, promising to check back in tomorrow with more ice. They told him to try and get some sleep too. Peeta wished he could sleep, but knew it would never come to him. Not tonight. A live wire of electricity pulsed through the center of his body with shocks of worry and fear. Everything was so fucked and nothing was getting better. Peeta didn't know what was left that could be done. It all seemed so futile.

After Prim joined her mother to sleep Peeta was left alone to care for Gale. He kept applying fresh snow coats across the mangled landscape of his back. Peeta tried to make a count of the number of times the whip had cracked across Gale's back, but it was only guesswork due to the nature of the wound. Some slashes across his back were deeper than others from where the whip had sliced into his skin more than once. Tears built in the corners of Peeta's eyes and he wiped at them furiously with his one good hand, not wanting to leave Gale's hand empty for long. Companionship was all he could offer at the moment and this display of weakness was inhibiting that. He cursed himself for being so weak when there was a sudden flash of light. The brilliance of it illuminated the night sky like the sun were rising early and speared through the windows. Then the explosive sound followed. It rattled the windows and floorboards of the house. Dogs howled in fear and Prim's cat buttercup suddenly tore out from its nest under the cabinet hissing in fear.

"What happening?" Prim screeched.

Peeta stood up—the chair knocked back by his abrupt movement—and ran to the door. Outside he looked to the west and saw a giant ball of fire mushrooming in the air before it evaporated into smoke. Lantern lights flickered into life all around as people woke and wondered out into the street looking for the source of the explosion. Peeta could tell by the direction and placement of the fire it was the hob. Someone had blown it up. Peeta had a good bet on who was the culprit. A woman's cry reached Peeta's ears and he tore off towards the fire with out thinking, disregarding Prim's call after him.

He reached the site of the Hob only to find utter destruction. Everything had been leveled by the blast, including a few of the shacks that surrounded the giant structure. Ember's filtered down from the sky like burning snowflakes turning the world into a hell like nightmare. Peeta rushed about looking for any injured. No one would have been in the Hob at night, but Peeta, soon joined by others looking to help, found a woman and her son buried beneath the rubble of her home. He tried desperately to lift a fallen beam, but his injured arm made it impossible.

"Over here! People are trapped!"

A group of men, miners by the look of them, went to quick work digging the woman and her son out of the ruins of her home. Peeta scanned the area for more possibly trapped when he noticed Romulus standing off to the side in a shadowed alleyway, a vile smile planted on his face. Things suddenly got a little fuzzy and Peeta felt faint for a moment. He was forced to take a seat on a smoldering trunk. Next thing he knew a man was in front of him asking if he was all right.

"What?"

"I asked are you okay, boy?" The gruff man asked.

Peeta took stock of his surroundings and realized he was alone again. Where had everyone gone? There had just been people here working to rescue that family.

"Yeah, sorry. Just in shock."

"Yeah, that shits been happenin'." He commented before wondering off into the wreckage of the hob, probably scouring for anything salvageable.

Back at the Everdeen's Peeta found Gale fast asleep and the snow coat melted. He wet some washcloths in the cold liquid of the melted snow coat and applied them to Gale's back. He couldn't help but trace the contours of his back with his eyes. It was terrible to think such a nice strong back would be marred forever with the scars of tonight. A permanent reminder of the cost of Peeta's friendship. Peeta shook his head of such disturbing thoughts and took his seat back by Gale's head. His hand still hung limp over the side of the table and Peeta took it in his again except this time Gale's hand reflexively tightened its hold. Peeta smiled lightly before the exhaustion hit him like a train and carried him off to the land of dreams.

He dreamt of wild things that night. Twelve was burning before him and there was nothing he could do, but watch as the flames devoured his home and everyone in it. He was at the Capitol and Cato was waiting in a blue tuxedo to marry him, except he couldn't seem to bring his feet to move toward the altar. Then District Thirteen attacked and Gale appeared from nowhere, begging Peeta to follow him. He woke to Primrose poking his shoulder.

"You were having a nightmare."

Peeta rubbed the sleepers from his eyes and thanked Prim for the milk she offered him fresh from Lady.

"How is he?" He nodded towards Gale.

Prim shrugged. "Good as can be given the circumstances. Mom went to go treat some injured by the Hob explosion last night while Gale's still sleeping. Haymitch hasn't come yet, could you maybe check on him and get the other ice block?"

"Yeah, sure."

Peeta shook his head, having a feeling he would find Haymitch comatose with an empty bottle of booze. There was no way he would have shirked his duty unless he drank himself unconscious. Once outside he noticed most of the tin roofs were layered with a fine dusting of ash, almost like an apocalyptic snow. But that wasn't the worst thing he noticed. Not only had the Hob been destroyed last night, but also the mines had been shut down. Small notices had been posted to everyone's door over the course of the night notifying them the mines would be closed indefinitely. Peeta couldn't think of a time when the mines had been shut down, but he knew it only meant bad things. People relied on the mines for their livelihood. The hours were crap, the pay terrible and the work dangerous, but it was all they had and with out it people would starve.

Then Peeta halted in his tracks, all thoughts blown from his mind as he entered the town square. Blood still stained the pavement at the base of the whipping post. Gale's blood. But that wasn't what drew Peeta's attention, what made it feel as if a ghost were reaching out and crushing his airway. No, what drew Peeta's attention where the gallows at the far end of the square. Another crowd had gathered, this time by the looks of it against their will. Peacekeepers flanked the wooden structure of the gallows with their rifles in hand and menacing looks pinned to their face. People whispered in confusion as Romulus marched two women onto the platform and placed the noose around their necks. They were gagged and bound at the hands, but silent tears streaked down their terrified faces. Peeta's vision wavered before him. This had to be a dream, a hallucination. It wasn't real. But the bile that bit at the back of his tongue tasted real enough and so was the sound of the release lever as the trap door below their feet let out. Their necks snapped with the force of the drop and echoed across the fearfully silent square like the crack of a gun. They died right before Peeta's eyes and he had to pretend he was just as confused as to whom these two girls were like the rest of the onlookers. But he knew exactly who they were because he had met them only the day before. They were the refugees from the woods yesterday afternoon, Bonnie and Twill. And now they were executed by the Capitol.