A/N: I don't think I'm getting the hang of this "posting chapters quick" thing. Ah, well. It is longer though! Here's chapter five, and I know some people have been saying it needs more action, well, here it is. Sort of. The beginning of action is at the very end of the chapter. Gotta love irony. Hope you enjoy!

"Who? Who are you talking about?" I repeat, when Peeta doesn't answer. He can't possibly mean who I think he means, can he?

He looks at me, scanning me with those lake-blue eyes as if he's deciding something. "Delly. Delly Cartwright. He," Peeta gives a jerky nod indicating Gale, "said that he thought you saw her." He's looking at me carefully, making sure I understand. Of course, I do.

"Delly, right. She's here then?" my voice is remarkably unpanicked, though inside there's a whirlwind of questions. What is she doing here? How did she get out of the capitol? When will they realize she's gone, and what happens then?

"She's got to be, we all saw her." Peeta says.

"Gale didn't."

"Yes, I did. She was still in the alleyway after you left." Gale informs me. "I only saw her for a second."

"Wait, hang on. Alleyway? What were you doing alone in an alleyway?" Peeta inserts almost angrily, raising his eyebrows at Gale.\

"Nothing you need to know about." Gale replies coolly, crossing his arms over his chest.

At the same time, I say hastily, "Apparently we weren't alone. We need to know what she's doing here."

"There's no way we can find out." Peeta takes a step closer to me, lowering his voice. He puts his lips to my ear, so they can't be seen. "You know we're being tracked. Always." He leans away again, and there is a second of silence.

"I'm not." Gale says after a moment. I'm surprised he even heard what Peeta was saying. "I'm not being watched. Why would I be? I'm just some lowly kid from the Seam." he chuckles humorlessly. "I'm not even eligible for the reaping anymore." "I can look for her."

"And what happens when you get caught sneaking around after and Avox?"

"I won't get caught." He replies with an easy confidence. "What's an Avox?" he asks, turning to me.

"Traitor. They take them to the Capitol and cut out their tongues; make them servants. For the rest of their lives." I say bluntly. "There is no way she could have gotten this far without being caught."

"Obviously she did, though." Gale lowers his voice to a near whisper. "You don't think there's anyone with her?"

I haven't even considered this idea. "Maybe. There was last time."

"When you saw her in the woods?" This from Peeta.

"Yes," I answer.

"You told him about that?" Gale demands, looking sort of astonished.

"Yes; I had to."

"You trust him that much? He could turn you in to the Capitol, Katniss! He could get you killed!" Gale exclaims, his voice getting dangerously loud.

"Gale, anything he says puts him in as much danger as me!" I whisper fiercely, shushing him. "I trust him." My eyes are trained at my feet, and for the second time today, I feel my cheeks flame up. It's true – obviously I trust Peeta with my life. He and Gale are perhaps the two people in the world I would trust with that.

The silence that follows my unexpected statement seems to stretch out unbearably long, an unbroken thread pulled too tight, until finally, Gale's voice breaks through. "Well, then." I glance up at him. He's utterly emotionless, a blank face, but I can see – more than that I can feel – that I've crossed some sort of line.

"Gale – " I begin.

" – I should go."

"Don't." It's all I can say. With Gale, the best thing to do is to just let him go steam in the woods. Better he do it there than in the middle of the square, cameras pointed in every direction.

"Katniss." He shakes his head once. A sarcastic smile twists his mouth. "You two just figure it out." His voice is biting. "Let me know when you do." Gale shakes his head again and turns to go, running a hand through his messy, black hair.

I stand there, feeling as totally helpless as I have in a long while. "Katniss, he'll…Gale will come around." Peeta says almost unwillingly, like he's really wishing that it wasn't true. He sounds different though, than when he was talking to me before. Less mad, more confused. My trusting his probably took him by surprise. I guess realizing that I was lying to him half the time in the arena didn't exactly lead him to think I would trust him.

As I'm watching Gale disappear through the crowd, Peeta comes to stand at my side. He twines his fingers through mine, and for once it feels natural, comforting. Not staged for the crowd and the reporters.

"Katniss, I –" Peeta begins, but suddenly his voice stops, because from just to the right of where we're standing, there's a huge, echoing bang, followed by a flare of red and gold flames. Screams and cries echo throughout the square, as it fills with heavy black smoke, blocking out everything. Everything, except for the briefest glimpse of two people, one, I notice, with red hair, running through the crowd, out of the square towards Seam, and farther out, the woods.

I can't see anything at all, then, except for vague, smoky figures, like shadows moving all around me. Peeta's hand clutches tightly to mine, a lifeline in this suddenly dark, hazy world. "Katniss," Peeta shouts through the din. "Hang on!"