Hehehe you guys crack me up. Anyways, one of my good old buddies helped me come up with the idea for Gale, and so thank you to her. !D I hope you people like this chapter! And yes, Peeta originally wouldn't have been so humored by Haymitch's innuendos, but it just seemed something really funny to do. Hehehe… enjoy this chapter!
"Finnick, what's wrong?" I asked him frantically as we all (me, Finnick, Peeta holding Alexis, and Prim) ran through the halls, specifically following Finnick. "What about Gale? Has something happened?"
"He was just now found by the Officials!" Finnick panted, slowing his pace only slightly to speak to me. "In abandoned room."
"Is he dead?" My heart was thumping painfully in my heaving chest, and not because of running. "Finnick, tell me!" I almost cried.
"I don't know!" He coughed dryly. "Both of his wrists were slit and he was almost drained of blood. Immediately he was wheeled to the hospital, but I haven't heard anything since."
I let out a noise like a sob. Why did this have to happen now? I felt tears like drops of ice water trickle down my face, and it was all I could to stay on my feet running. Running to Gale. "Who did it?" I growled, almost to myself. "Whoever did it I am going to kill, I swear."
The only reply I got was a high-pitched cry from Alexis. That was the first time I had heard her cry.I slowed down and looked at her, struggling around in Peeta's arms. Through all of the panting and clomping of feet, I could hear a tiny beeping.
"What is-" I was about to ask, but Peeta suddenly got a stricken face on.
"Her heart monitor!" I felt my heart skip a beat and I skidded to a stop next to Peeta. "Get her to the hospital. Now!"
"But what about-"Peeta began, but it was a mistake.
"I DON'T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT ME. GET MY DAUGHTER TO THE HOSPITAL!" I screamed at him, all of the pressure from the moment being released in one blow at Peeta.
For a second he looked hurt, but that was gone quickly as he sprinted off in the direction of the hospital.
"Prim," I turned to my little sister who looked mildly scared. "I'm sorry, but you need to go back. Find Mother or something, but I can't have you with me right now. I'm sorry!"
Prim cast me an apprehensive look before parting, too.
"Now we run like heck." I nodded to Finnick Odair and we tore through the halls once again, not slowed down by a person carrying a baby or a thirteen-year-old. I felt immensely guilty of leaving Peeta to care for Alexis, and more than anything my gut was yelling at me to save her because she was my child, and Gale was only my best friend. Twice I wanted to call this whole thing with Finnick off and follow Peeta, but this was the least I owed to Gale. I hated owing people.
"Why-aren't-we-going-to-the-hospital?" I panted heavily, clutching the stitch in my side.
Finnick, who didn't seem tired at all, turned his head to me and his sweat-dampened bronze hair bounced. "He has a private room in the emergency wards. It's off towards the edge of the hospital."
"Oh." We made a hairpin turn and all of a sudden Finnick skidded to a stop and put his hand on a doorknob, belonging to a door labeled "emergency wards". I panted to a stop and followed him in, dragging my aching feet in.
The waiting room was small, and every surface was polished metal, including the chairs, which made me wince when I sat. My legs were on fire and my lungs ached from running so hard. Finnick insisted on letting me sit while he signed us in on the visitor list.
The brown-haired lady behind the glass screen nodded to him and typed something in on her computer. "Names?"
"Finnick Odair and Katniss…" He cast an odd look back at me that clearly said which name do you go by, now? "Just Katniss."
Then she glanced up at Finnick, trying to hide the glint in her eyes (that all women got when they saw him) and said, "The doctors will be notified. You can have a seat; it will be a few minutes."
Finnick sat down heavily next to me and now all there was to do was wait. After a few moments of silence, Finnick turned to me with a slight frown on. "What do you go by?"
I only hesitated for a split second before replying. "Peeta lets me go by Everdeen because that is what we officially had down on the legal papers."
"That isn't really…fair for him, don't you think?" He had a thoughtful face on.
I blinked.
"Because he has loved you for as long as he could remember, and miraculously a reason popped up for you two to actually get married, but it wasn't good enough for you, since you don't even go by his name. It sort of seems as though…" Finnick rubbed his five-o-clock shadow on his jaw line. "…you don't love him as much as he does you. As if getting married wasn't your first choice and you only did it because it was necessary."
My mouth popped open and I stared, not only because of the casualness in his voice or how observant he was, but because the truth was so devastatingly true. Not in the since of me not loving Peeta, but because it wasn't fair. I didn't know why I hadn't seen it before. Everything Peeta was sacrificing—his painting, his cooking, his free time, his family—was for me, and I took it all for granted.
"Are you okay, Katniss?" Finnick was frowning at me, his sea-green eyes looking intently at me.
I groaned and rubbed at my temples. "Yeah, I'm fine; I just realized how selfish I have been. Dangit, I feel bad now, and I hate feeling bad. It is always so easy for Peeta to be good. I never realized what it cost him." The rubbing at my temples started to give me a headache, but I didn't care.
Finnick shrugged. "I didn't mean to make you upset. It was just an observation." He idly tapped his fingers against his blue-jeaned thighs. "I saw Peeta had a kid in his arms. I take it that was yours?"
I heaved a sigh. "It is a long story."
"We have time." Unlike his usual self, Finnick had no trace of arrogance in his voice.
I might as well make myself comfortable for the speech, or whatever you want to call it. "Well, it is longer than it seems, but in essence, while the Victory Tour was going on, at some point the Capitol managed to drug me and make me pregnant without me knowing it until just a month before. They put Peeta's DNA in it so no one would suspect President Snow of anything. She's a—Well, she is only half human, if you want to put it that way."
"That's confusing." He said mildly.
"Imagine being the one having to deal with it all…" I grumbled, sinking into the hard metal chair as best as I could.
"When we were running something started to beep, and you yelled at Peeta to take the kid to the hospital. Is it to personal to ask what the heck that was?"
It was hard to control my bitter anger for the Capitol, who destroyed my child. "Being half man-made by the Capitol has given her heart problems. The beeping starts when he heart does funny things. And it only does funny things before her heart…stops."
"Then why are you here?" Finnick's question was so straightforward it made me pause in surprise.
"I—Gale is almost dead. I can't just abandon him—"
"So you would rather put him first before your own daughter?"
Finnick was starting to annoy me; not because of his questions, but because of the truth behind him. Why wasn't I with Alexis instead of Gale?
Thankfully, I was spared the agonizing answer by the same brown-haired nurse popping her heads through a separate door and saying, "The doctor has given his authorization for visitors to come back into Mr. Hawthorne's room." She waited until me and Finnick had stood up and followed her down the brightly lit emergency wards hallways.
As we walked, I noted with dull interest that there were tabs above each of the doors, sporting numbers. We past doors labeled 1-36, and at door number 37, we stopped. My heart was jittering very fast inside my throat as the nurse lady opened the door and led us inside.
The room we entered was large, and more like a very high-tech hotel room. There was a floor-length mirror hanging on the wall opposite the large dresser. Of course, there was many different machines hanging from the walls, and in the middle of the room was a comfortable-looking bed. And on that bed, was the motionless figure of Gale.
I remember at the beginning of the year, when Gale was whipped to shreds, and we had to transport him to our house to fix it, but seeing him like this, even in care of doctors, frightened me. He was laying flat on his back, not moving at all. Even the slow rise and fall of his chest was barely visible, and that lack of movement alone made me scared. Gale's face was, literally, as white as a sheet and a grey tone was tinted on every part of him.
There was an IV bag hanging from a hook in the wall, and the tube from it ran straight from the sack and into a sharp needle in Gale's let arm. Dark red fluid was dripping from the IV and into the tube.
"Gale…" I whispered, horrified.
"He hasn't been conscious or moved at all since we found him." said the nurse. "We have done all we can and now we just have to wait."
I went over to the bed and kneeled next to him. "Gale, it's me. Can you hear me?" I was pretty sure he couldn't, but it was still comforting to talk to him as if he was awake.
Gale coughed and opened his hazy eyes. His lips formed words, but they wouldn't come out. I could tell what he was trying to say. Katniss.
"Gale, you're-" I blinked moisture out of my eyes. It wouldn't do any good to start crying now. "You're awake."
Through the slow, yet steady beeping of Gale's heart rate, he murmured, "Katniss…"
"Yes, I'm here." I reached over and gently took his hand, being careful of the bandages on his wrists. "Are you okay?"
His law trembled and I saw something flash in the back of his eyes before a flat beeping filled the room and Gale's eyelids dropped.
I know, I know. You guys are thinking "Why the heck did you kill off Gale?" but I promise you will understand later. It was so hard to write that. I love Gale so bad, even though Peeta is my favorite. Galegalegale….