Haymitch pulled Katniss out of the room, where loud arguments were already erupting. He led her down the corridor into her apartment. But as he tugged her out, she caught a shot of Saffra, who, incredibly, was still alive. She looked hopeful, and unbelieving. Some of the fresh innocence all young children have was restored. And that made it all worthwhile.

"Why the hell did you do that!" demanded Haymitch, shoving Katniss up against the wall the moment they were in the private apartment. "The only thing you've done is show up the government. Again! Why do you have such a problem with authority?"

Katniss choked as Haymitch increased his grip.

"I don't know. Prim...Saffra...Rue..." a fat tear rolled down her cheek, and Haymitch relented a little, loosening his grip. Tears continued to cascade down Katniss's face, and Haymitch stepped back, rubbing his eyes with his hands wearily. Katniss sank down to the floor.

"I couldn't let Saffra die. Not again. Not like Prim and Rue." Suddenly the memories of Rue, the tiny girl she had befriended in her first Hunger Games, flooded over her. And with these memories came memories of Prim, which hit her like a tsunami, smashing at her heart. Lady, Prim's goat, taking Prim to school, the tiny cheeses that Prim left on the table for Katniss's breakfast. Brushing out Prim's hair, watching as Prim stroked Buttercup in front of the fire while her freshly washed hair dried. Taking Prim firmly by the hand and leading her up the steps of the Justice building to collect an award for her Father's bravery. Promising Prim that she would try and win. Promising Prim that normality could return to life.

Haymitch sank down next to her.

"What you did was stupid. Really stupid. But maybe it was the right thing."

Katniss tried to smile through her tears. She thought she had recovered as much as she could from Prim's death, but evidently she was wrong.

"Prim..." She whispered.

"I know. I know. Oh Katniss I know." Haymitch soothed, and they sat there, side by side, crying for their families who had been torn apart by the Capitol, late into the night.

Katniss awoke with a stiff neck as the first drops of new light trickled through the open window. She was still curled up in a tight ball. Next to her Haymitch was still fast asleep.
Katniss stood up quietly, trying not to disturb him, and headed for the door. She needed to find out what was going on. She felt sick with cowardice. Last night she should have finished the problem that she started, and ensured that the tributes were safely extracted from the arena before returning to her room and breaking down. The door to the control room was open, and Katniss could hear Theer and Plutarch quietly talking within.

"We need to get rid of her." Katniss already knew who they were talking about.

"We can't. It will anger the people. And the rebellion was about new times, not just falling back into the Capitol's bloodthirsty rut."

"She's a danger to all of us. She will topple this government and continue to do so. She's a liability that we can't afford at the moment."

"We can find her a job. Send her to do some task no one really needs doing."

Katniss could see Theer nodding in the thin slit of open door. She had heard enough, so she slipped in to the control room. When Theer turned round Katniss could see exhaustion ingrained in her every feature. Plutarch also looked tired, but he never seemed to be ruffled by anything, an important quality for someone leading a rebellion.

Theer looked up as Katniss entered.

"The Hunger Games are off. Are you happy now?" She said it stonily, and her eyes and mouth were unforgiving.

"I'm sorry." Katniss had always found this term difficult, but sometimes it was better to just grovel, especially for something as important as this. "I didn't mean to cause trouble."

Theer raised an eyebrow in doubt. "Well you did."

Katniss ignored her and continued. "Last night, when I was being recorded, I had a flashback. Of Prim." Ignoring Theer's look, she continued. "Prim was murdered by the rebels. They were trying to frame President Snow. I'm not going to do that to another child. They're only twelve or thirteen. They have no idea what's going on, yet people like you are using them like a pawn in your giant game of chess. First Rue, then Prim and now this." Katniss gestured to the whole room. "There are better things we need to spend our money on. There are more important things for us to achieve if we want to create a Panem for our grand-children. But I only realised that last night. And I'm sorry."

Theer was nodding slowly, processing the information in her tactical brain.

"You are in no way forgiven, but you can start to amend your crimes." Theer said. "We'll film you doing that speech and televise it to the whole of Panem. Maybe then people will understand."

Katniss nodded. She hated being filmed, and cameras made her nervous, but at least Theer had show mercy to her.

"We'll schedule the broadcast in let's say..." Theer checked her watch. "30 minutes?" Plutarch nodded silently beside her, and Katniss tried not to panic. People whirled round her, pulling her into a black all in one suit, hastily applying makeup and brushing her hair into a reasonable state. Peeta entered half way through, took one look and left. Katniss wanted to call after him, but she was being pulled in front of the camera. Although there were only a handful of people in the room, she knew her words were televised in front of millions of people.

"Try to make it sound less apologetic. And don't mention a bad word against the rebels." Theer prompted from the side. "Otherwise, just say what you said to me."

The familiar countdown was shouted, a red light flashed, and Katniss began to talk. She tweaked her speech slightly, simply saying that Prim was murdered, that it was unfair that children were being used as pawns and that we needed to work together, not against each other if we had any hope of rebuilding Panem. She added some other stuff too, trying hard to mimic what Peeta sounded like when he addressed crowds. Peeta was good at this sort of thing. When she finished there was an eerie silence. Katniss turned to Plutarch, confused, and saw tears running down his face. Theer too, who was usually protected by her hard emotional shell, looked affected by the speech, and glancing round the room Katniss saw glistening eyes and grim expressions. And in the doorway, Peeta stood. Tears ran down his face, and he looked sadly at Katniss.

"Finally you opened up. Just why you had to do it in front of millions of viewers instead of me, I don't know." He said quietly, turning away. This comment was so unfair that Katniss wanted to go after him. Didn't he know how difficult it was? Every night her dreams were haunted by nightmares of the arena and her family. The Capitol had botched her life like a large ugly ink blot, spreading over her hopes and aspirations. She didn't want the ink of pain to run into her relationship with Peeta. The Capitol had tried to separate them before. They weren't going to do it again. Katniss wanted to go after him, but she was tugged into a stream of compliments. Even Theer gave her silent nod of approval. Haymitch, who must have woken up, hugged her roughly and Annie embraced her tightly whispering "I know it was hard for you Katniss," into her ear.

But Katniss felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Talking about Prim was like finally destroying a dam, and suddenly torrents of emotion were pouring from her like thick hot magma. She needed to find Peeta.

Pushing away from the cameramen in the pretence of needing some air, she knocked on Peeta's door. With no reply, she pushed the door open. He was sitting on the plush velvet sofa, staring at his hands.

"Do you love me?" he asked abruptly.

"What! How can you ask such a thing?" Katniss stammered.

"I said do you love me?" He cut across harshly.

"Peeta." Katniss sat down next to him. "I wanted to tell you tonight, but this got in the way. I'm pregnant. We're having a baby."