Thank-you for the reviews. I had thought about doing a one-shot and done; but, after finishing Mockingjay, I felt there was room for an alternate view. So, venturing on…

Katniss -

When we return to District 12, the snow has really begun to fall. There's a weeks' worth of celebration to conclude the tour from which I cannot get a moment to myself. I'm still in the spotlight with Peeta at my side, still playing up our love-affair - though, I'll admit that it's less playing now than reality. Still, I am not entirely happy to be home.

There are new complications. I failed Snow's directive. He always knew I would. It was a pointless mission, one he put in front of me to taunt me, to make it all my fault. I may have been the spark, but the Districts were well on their way to revolting long before I stepped into the Arena. I was just the straw that broke the people's back. But there is one thing that's my fault and I have no wish to deny or erase it. Still, I owe Gale an explanation.

He's absent from the festivities and I'm stuck inside until the cameras leave along with the entourage from the Capitol. I'm home for two weeks before I can finally slip away into the woods without anyone noticing, and even now I'm not certain Gale will come. It's Sunday, we always hunt on Sundays. But I know he must be angry with me. If our roles were reversed, I'm sure that I'd feel the same way. Betrayed. Not once, but twice and now I've stuck my foot in so deep that there's no turning around.

I have a plan, though. Haymitch is right; there aren't enough people in District 12 to rally a revolt. We have no hope of fighting against the Capitol as they are already doing in District Eight. There is only one thing on our side. We can run.

Gale asked me to go with him once before and I refused. I couldn't. But now I see the sense of it all. Peeta and I survived the Hunger Games; but, now we'll be expected to watch other children go to their deaths. We'll be their mentors, trying to keep them alive in a game that is never in their favor. I can't do it.

It's almost high noon when Gale finds his way to me through the forest to the house by the lake. No one besides Gale would have been able to track me. I knew he would. I'm also not surprised that he looks livid.

"You can give these back to your fiancé," he snarls as he chucks Cinna's gloves onto the concrete floor at my feet.

At least he has the guts to look sheepish when I tell him they aren't Peeta's. He even looks a bit pleased by the present as he slips them onto his hands. That pleasure doesn't last long.

He's not reacting at all the way I'd hoped. Gale doesn't want to run. He wants to fight. The men in his crew are already talking rebellion. The news of the revolt in eight has only encouraged him.

"But you didn't come here just to ask me to run away." He knows I'm holding back. I've been holding back this moment as long as possible because he's already upset by my desire to flee, I know how he will take the next news.

"I slept with Peeta."

The words hang in the air between us like a thick fog. Gale's jaw has dropped open and his eyes search my face for the hint of a joke. When he doesn't see it, he tosses the gloves back at my feet.

"You can run away with your fiancé, Katniss, but it isn't going to change a damn thing," Gale snarls at me. I've never seen him so angry and I can't help taking a step back away from him. "You may survive in the woods on your own, but what of the rest of Panem? What of the people in the Districts who can't run away? What happens to them?"

I grit my teeth, my jaw clenching tightly. "I can't save everyone, Gale."

"No, but you can give them hope!" Gale snarls at me and I'm ashamed. "But go. Go live your life with Peeta hiding in the woods like the coward you clearly are. I thought you were braver than that."

I hate him. And I love him.

I watch him go without saying a word to defend myself because, deep inside, I know he's right. How many more people will die because the Capitol must keep its hold over the Districts? How many more children will be led to the games to die as an example? How many will starve while the Capitol wallows in excess?

I was their Spark and I'm running for the woods. I'm abandoning them. I feel so much shame.

When I get back to town, my feet lead me right to Peeta's door. He's the only one who I can talk to about what's going on and who will understand. He's heading for his parents house and I offer to walk with him.

I spill my heart out to him as we walk. I tell him I'm a coward and he stops in his tracks.

"You? A coward?" Peeta snorts derisively. He brushes his hand through my hair. "I've never met anyone so brave in all my life."

There's a crowd forming at the center of town and Peeta withdraws from me to climb a box to see above the crowd. When he tells me to go home, I know something isn't right. His tone tells me he's scared. For me.

I push through the crowd against his demands and then I see it. A post has been erected in the center of town square and there's a man bent against it, his hands tied around it and a turkey is staked to the top. I know that man.

I can't help running for him. I hear his anguished screams as the Peacekeeper brings down his whip. I do the stupidest thing possible, I step between them and I take a lash on the face, sparring Gale another beating.

If not for Haymitch and Peeta, I would be the crazed Peacekeeper's next target. As it is, they get him to back off, chiding him for injuring the Capitol's Darling before her big Wedding Day. He's angry, but he lets us go.

I spend the week at Gale's side as he lays on my kitchen table. His back is flayed meat, but my mother and Prim have stitched back what they can and applied medicine to the rest. Still, he's in and out of consciousness.

Peeta takes the afternoon shifts while I sleep fitfully up in my room. I can't be away from Gale long before the nightmares consume me. But I try to sleep and to work through all the thoughts in my head.

If I run, Gale will be dead in a matter of weeks. They've already beaten him near death for poaching. If they knew what he was planning, he'd be shot in the head. And what of everyone else? If I run, what message does it send to them? There is no hope.

It's Prim who brings me back to my senses. While we're out collecting snow for Gale's medicinal coat, she tells me that she finally sees a life for herself. Because of me. I'm her hope. That clinches it for me. I have to stay.

The matter is settled and Gale slowly mends. One evening, I'm holding his hand in mine when he wakes from his morphling sleep.

"Hey, Catnip," he whispers.

"Hey," I smile down at him.

"You're still here."

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay and cause all kinds of trouble.