Panem

by gethsemane342

It is the people who make the country and thus it is the people who should be examined. A series of 44 oneshots, featuring most names on the character list plus a few extras. Would be every name but it was written before the list updated.

30. Mr Everdeen: Guilt

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.

A/n: I have run out of things to say except i'm sick of reading law books and i hope you enjoy this one ;)

30) Mr Everdeen – Guilt

Most fathers want to protect their children from harm and the realities of life. In many ways, it is a natural instinct. There are, of course, some fathers who do not care about their children but they are not relevant at this moment in time.

The strange thing is that most of the time that Garner Everdeen does inadvertently reveal the harsh ways of the world to Katniss, he does not feel guilty. For example, when he first took her out hunting and shot an animal in front of her. She didn't seem upset by the sudden death of this living creature so he didn't feel guilty about teaching her how to do it. And when he sang The Hanging Tree and caused her to sing along and make rope nooses, he did not feel guilty that he was exposing her to such depressing songs.

From telling her things about the Hunger Games to introducing her to the people from the Hob, Garner Everdeen justified every action and told himself that he was protecting her from any harms that would seriously hurt her by getting her accustomed to them now. She would grow up better for knowing some realities from such a young age.

Yet even Garner Everdeen knows there is one harm he could ever willingly expose her to and now that he is, the guilt he feels is tremendous. Katniss has never had anyone she, personally, knows die. She has never had to deal with the grief and the sense of loss. She has seen people who have lost older siblings to the Hunger Games but that is nowhere near the same intensity. No one who has never lost someone they love can know how painful it feels.

But as he sees the canary, lying dead, and realises that the entrance is too far away to run to, Garner Everdeen knows that this is one reality of life he will be exposing Katniss to whether he wants to or not. He will be making her grow up even more. And considering how old his daughter already seems, he wonders whether that will be a good thing. He doubts it.

As the air around him explodes, he thinks of his family and feels guilty that, the one time there was an unjustified harm affecting them, he's the one causing it, rather than stopping it.