"No," I whisper.

"It's okay," my father whispers back reassuringly.

But it doesn't reassure me. Tears begin to fall down my face as I worry for the fate of all of the volunteers. And worst of all my best friend and his father.

"Please be okay," Paige whispers from my left side and her hand falls to her stomach. Her gaze is focused on the screen and I am pretty positive she doesn't know that I saw the exchange. But I did. And a chill runs down my spine as I think of what it might mean.

I shake that idea out of my head as soon as I think it. Gale wouldn't be that stupid and careless, would he?

My thoughts are interrupted by the muffled sound of Commander Boggs.

"Beetee? Beetee can you hear me?" he says. The sound is muffled and scraggly but we can make out what he is saying.

"Beetee?" he continues.

"I don't think he can hear you, Boggs," Gale's voice cuts in. And a smile spreads across my face. He's alive.

"Shut it, Hawthorne and go find your tributes!" Boggs exclaims.

"Beetee?" Boggs asks again.

"Commander Boggs! Yes I'm here!" Beetee replies quickly.

"Great! Can-" there's a short pause and then his voice cuts back in. "-hear me okay?"

"Your in and out Commander."

"Well-" pause. "-better-" pause. "-nothing."

"Yes, that is better than nothing," Beetee replies. "Now go find your tributes, Commander. Save the access for if you actually need it."

"Gotcha! Over and out!" he replies. And the line is nothing but static again.

We are almost ten minutes into the rescue when Beetee exclaims.

"Oh no!"

"What?!" Paige jumps up.

"What is it?" I ask along side of her.

"I think we lost a tribute," he replies.

"How do you know?" Plutarch asks while coming up behind him.

"You see this map?" Beetee asks. Plutarch nods. "It's the same map that the soldiers have on their communicuffs. The one with the locations of the tributes. One of the dots just disappeared."

"Beetee?" Boggs suddenly interrupts. "Beetee! Come in, Beetee."

"Yes, Commander, I'm here. What's the problem?" Beetee asks, slightly panicked.

"One of the dots for one of my tributes has disappeared. Is everything okay?" Boggs asks.

"Yes, I believe that one of your tributes has died," Beetee replies slowly. "Just continue with finding the one that you have left and return to the hovercraft."

"But I didn't hear a cannon. How could they be dead?" Boggs asks.

"We still have control over the Capitol. They cannot control anything. So they cannot sound a cannon when a tribute dies. Please continue your mission, Commander. You have less than five minutes. My map shows that there are still three tributes out there. One must be yours and the other two one of your men's. The rest are at the cornucopia. Please hurry, Commander. Over and out!"

Boggs made it back to the hovercraft in less than two minutes after talking to Beetee. That left one of the men still out there. By Beetee's map it showed that there were two tributes together and it seemed like they were headed for the cornucopia.

"Who's missing?" Beetee asked Boggs when Boggs returned to the hovercraft.

Boggs was silent for a few minutes then replied, "Hawthorne." And my head went to my hands and Paige's gasps filled the room.

"He's almost here," Boggs continues. "I can see him. He's at the edge of the clearing. Come on, Gale! Get your ass in here!"

"Thirty seconds!" Beetee warns. "Boggs have the medics start taking trackers out of the other tributes!"

We can hear Boggs throwing commands around and encouraging Gale and the two tributes to run faster.

"Fifteen seconds!" Beetee exclaims.

And that's when it happens again. The line goes dead.

"No!" I scream, jumping from my seat. "No!"

I run to Beetee's side. "No! There's no way we lost it! It was working just fine."

"I'm losing it!" Beetee yells. "Plutarch get her out of my ear!"

"No!" I scream again as Plutarch and my father each take an arm. "No! Please let go! I promise! I promise I'll be good. Just let go!"

"I'm losing control!" Beetee says again. He's pressing lots of buttons and I can't keep up where his hands are going. Sweat begins to collect at his brow as he types faster at the buttons. Then, suddenly, the screen shows what the Capitol is broadcasting. It's the arena. And it's completely empty.

Beetee sighs. "I lost it. If they're not out by now, they're dead."

Beetee rolls his chair over to his headset that he was using to talk to Boggs.

"Commander?" he asks. "Commander this is Beetee! Come in Commander."

Silence. Not even static.

"Commander?"

Silence once again.

Beetee sighs then turns to me. "I'm sorry, Katniss."

And I lose conscious.

"I knew we shouldn't have let her be there," my father says. "She was still recovering."

"She's fine, honey," my mother replies. "It's not the concussion that made her faint. It was the idea that Gale might be dead."

"Still," he sighs. And, although my eyes were shut, just by the tone of his voice I could see him run his hand down his face in misery. "She wasn't strong enough to be there. We should have never even told her that Gale went."

"And what would we have told her if he never showed up to see her in hospital? Or if he died? Where would we say he went?" she asks.

"I don't know," he sighs again. "She's too young to be facing pressures like this."

"She's in love, Jacob and-"

"She's too young to be in love," he interrupts.

"But she's older for her years. She had to grow up too fast. And besides," my mother pauses and when she speaks again I can hear the smile in her voice. "How old were we when we fell in love?"

My father sighs, "Fifteen."

"Fifteen," my mother confirms. "And I had Katniss when I turned seventeen."

"It's different now," my father says.

"How is it different, Jacob?" my mother exclaims. "Katniss is nineteen years old. She'll be okay!"

"She shouldn't be in love with a twenty-two year old," dad replies.

"She's about to turn twenty. It's hardly a two year difference," my mother defends.

"But still! He's two years older than she is," my father says.

"Is this truly about her age?" my mother asks.

My father sighs, "No."

"Then what is it?" she asks.

"It's-" he pauses. "It's Gale. I just don't trust him."

"Why?" my mother asks.

"He's leading Katniss on," he replies.

"And how is he doing that?" my mother asks. By the tone of her voice I can tell that she is becoming irritated.

"I caught him and Paige Coin in a supplies closet the other day! He's leading Katniss on! And I won't have her around him if he is just going to hurt her!"

My mother sighs, "He's not leading her on. He's coping. Katniss told him the other day that she wasn't ready for a relationship with him. She admitted that she loved him. And we've known all along that he loved her. I mean it's never been a secret. He's just trying to cope with what his brain is telling him. Which is that Katniss will never love him. And that's completely ridiculous."

"But-"

"Please, Jacob," my mother interrupts. "Let her live her life. As much as I hate to admit it, the way things are going now she doesn't have much of one left."

I fell asleep after my parents conversation. I pretty sure they do not know that I was listening. They would have never said any of those things to my face.

I woke a couple hours later to a commotion outside my hospital room. When I open my eyes my room is empty so I sit up and stand from my bed.

I slowly exit and when I am standing in the doorway of my room Finnick Odair comes racing by me.

"Finnick!" I yell but my voice is hoarse from non-use.

"Finnick!" I try again and this time he hears me.

"What's going on?" I ask when he faces me.

"They're back!" is all he says to me before he takes off in a run again and speeds around the corner out of sight.

"They're back," I whisper. "Gale."