Disclaimer: As you all know, these characters aren't mine. They belong to Dick Wolf and NBC.

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Day 41: Olivia Comes Home – a direct continuation of Day 40

Universe: Present Day (The Hunger Games universe)

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They don't do a full-body polish on Olivia, so when she steps off of the train and into Alex's arms she is still covered in blood and sweat and dirt. She has a limp caused by the boy wrapping his hand around her ankle and ripping her from the tree, and the knife wound in her stomach sears with pain every time she moves.

("Battle wounds," her mentor had said with a smirk.)

But she's alive and she knows that's what matters.

Alex wraps her arm around Olivia's waist and Olivia wraps her arm around Alex's shoulders and they start the long walk back to the Victors' Village.

District Eight citizens line the street, watching her with a kind of solemnity Olivia forgot people were capable of, but no one approaches her and she thinks she'll be grateful for that until the day she dies.

Olivia doesn't care about the house – she supposes she may in the morning, but right now all she cares about is getting out of her disgusting clothes and into the shower.

She stands stock-still, not even moving a single muscle, while Alex carefully removes each piece of clothing and inspects each individual physical wound on Olivia's body. Inspection finally complete, she allows Olivia to step into the shower.

They don't speak until long after Olivia is out of the shower and they're curled up on the couch in the living room. Some movie they've both seen a hundred times plays on the television, but neither of them are paying attention to it.

Olivia rests her head on Alex's thigh and turns so she is looking up at her. "I thought about you a lot in there," she says.

Alex looks down, running her hand through Olivia's hair. "You did?"

"I didn't get to say goodbye to you properly, and I couldn't die knowing you were waiting for me to come home."

"I'm really glad you didn't die. That would've really ruined our plans."

"Yeah," Olivia says, "I'm really glad too."

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