In my dream, I was back in the hospital. I was completely paralyzed, while blurry doctors above me poked around my stomach. One of them said something to the other and they left. The only doctor hovering above me now was a small man with white hair, but his face was covered up with a really big doctor's mask. He checked over his shoulder to make sure the others were gone, and then he bent over my face. Since I was paralyzed, the only thing I could do was watch him as he pulled his mask off.
President Snow.
I let out a silent scream and the last thing I saw was him as he brought down a scalpel to my heart.
I woke up in a cold sweat, sitting straight up and panting as if I had just run a mile. Peeta had his arms around my shoulders.
"President Snow…" I panted, glancing around just in case he was in here. Of course, he wasn't.
"He isn't here. You were dreaming." Peeta assured me.
I took a deep breath. "I know." Then I shivered. Just to be absolutely positive it was just a dream, I felt of the place Snow had stabbed me. Nothing but smooth nightgown material. I sighed in relief.
Peeta smiled sadly. "You should go back to sleep. It is only one in the morning."
I nodded and lowered myself back down and used Peeta's shoulder as a pillow. He reassuringly tucked the blankets under my chin and put his arm around me.
After a few seconds of silence, he laughed. "I can feel your heartbeat. It is pounding one hundred miles an hour."
"You're telling me." I laughed quietly as well. "Yours would be too if President Snow stabbed you with a scalpel."
"Is that what he did?"
I nodded. "Yup. Now my dreams are haunted by scalpels." My fists knotted in Peeta's shirt and I'm sure he felt me shiver.
Peeta turned his head towards me and smoothed my hand out on his chest. "You can sleep now. You're safe."
With my arm still draped across Peeta's chest, I closed my eyes and in five minutes, I had once again fallen into a fitful sleep.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. Loud pounding on the door woke me up. When I lifted my heavy head off of Peeta, I realized it wasn't actually loud. My head just amplified it since it woke me up.
"Doctors…" Peeta groaned. He rubbed his eyes and laughed quietly. "I wonder what they will think when they find me in here with you."
"I don't care." I sighed. "It's none of their business."As usual, getting up was awkward almost to the point of painfulness.
"Katniss Everdeen?" said the tiny nurse in the doorway once I opened the door. "Please follow me."
I reached behind me for Peeta's hand before I followed the nurse.
She led me to a room similar to the one I was in for my other tests, but instead of the little metal table being covered with needles and such, there was only a small bottle of clear liquid and one tiny needle syringe.
"Lay down on the table please, Ms. Everdeen." piped the nurse in her unusually high-pitched voice. I wonder what district she was from.
I let go of Peeta's hand and crawled up onto the paper-covered bed. Like all other hospital beds, it was hard and scratchy, but I didn't complain.
"Okay…" Said the nurse to herself. Then she pulled a starch-white blanket out of the closet and handed it to me. "You will have to undress all the way and cover yourself with this. We will leave you for that."
I assumed "we" meant her and Peeta. I felt my cheeks burn as Peeta grinned at me and followed the nurse out. Was all of this completely necessary? I thought, as I grumpily took my clothes off. I was very thankful the nice nurse gave me a blanket to cover up with, because I have never felt so naked. There was an extreme difference between this hospital and the apothecary my Mother use to run. She never made anyone feel uncomfortable, whereas in the hospital, they do everything to make you wish you hadn't come in the first place, even if you are sitting there without your arms.
Five minutes later, the nurse knocked on the door again.
Pulling the blanket securely up to my neck, I grumbled, "You can come in…"
The nurse skittered in on her high-heels, and I heard Peeta ask from the hall, "I can come in too, right? You won't be bothered that I'll see you naked?" He stifled a laugh.
"Why do you find all of this so funny? I'm wearing a blanket. Yes, you can come in, but stop cracking jokes at my expense." I said back, scowling hard at him when he walked in. I made sure to pull the blankets even higher as my eyes followed Peeta as he came around to the side of my bed smirking.
"It's kind of scary when you do that eye thing, you know that, right?" he said.
"Yes, I do know." I snapped. "And I don't exactly care."
The tiny nurse patted my shoulder sympathetically. "There, there."She piped as her stubby little fingers unwrapped the plastic-covered needle on the table.
Peeta tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, but didn't say anything. I don't see why he is still nice to me after I was snapping at him. I know if he had snapped at me, I would snap right back and things would be tense between us for a while. Peeta is so good no matter what I do, and it kind of annoyed me.
"Okay, dear. This won't hurt at all. Just a little mosquito sting." The nurse filled her needle with the clear stuff from the bottle and instinctively I took one of my arms out from under the blanket and held it out to Peeta. He took my hand and patted it comfortingly.
The very second the nurse shot the clear stuff in my arm, my eyelids began to droop. Peeta immediately blurred in front of me and a strange numbing sensation spread from my arm to my legs and head. I think I tried to say something, but before it could come out clearly, the drugs had pulled me under.