Happy 60th chapter! Anyways, I know you guys are, like, dying right now, so I'm going to cut to the chase and write.

My body flooded with cold. "Gale?" I choked, taking my hand from his and putting it against his cold cheek. "Gale!" I choked and made a sudden move to wrap my arms around him, but a sudden abundance of doctors rushed into the room and pushed me and Finnick out. I screamed his name, feeling hot tears on my face.

Finnick's arm went around my shoulder to comfort me, but I buckled against him and buried my face in his chest. Of course, I would rather it be Peeta, but the thought didn't concentrate on my mind too much. All I could hear in my head was the last word Gale uttered. My name was all that lingered on his dead lips now.

"Katniss, you need to straighten up, now." Finnick's voice wasn't demanding or rude, but concerned. "Peeta and your daughter need you."

I sobbed again and pulled myself away from Finnick, shaking all over. "But Gale…" I wiped my eyes with the back of my right hand. "Oh, dangit." I burst into tears again and I put my hands up to cover my face.

"Come on," Finnick gently took my arm by right above the elbow and steered back out of the hallway. I followed blindly, stumbling along behind him with a horrible crushing feeling in my chest. It was as though someone had put two super-strength magnets on either side of me and I was slowly imploding. It's a funny feeling, imploding is. My heart was just a dead weight, making it even harder to walk due to the heaviness in my chest.

We walked for some time (I didn't know how long) until I felt Finnick guide me to a stop and I heard talking.

"…Mellark. Yes, Peeta. Next to twenty-four? Thank you…"

I corner and once again set out through a long hallway, my feet trailing unwillingly behind.

Gale's gone. My thoughts kept repeating over and over. Gale's gone forever. There was a quite buzzing noise in my ears, accompanying the wet tears on my face.

Don't ever give up Katniss. You fight. Gale's words before the Hunger Games echoed dully through my head; words of an unwanted memory being repeated for me to cry over. I don't want to lose you as well… My neck snapped up. Those last words were never spoken to me, by Gale or anyone else I knew, but what was strange was that they seemed spoken in my head, loud and clear. I knew I didn't think them, but I didn't dwell on that thought too much.

I took a ragged breath. I promise, Gale.

"What was that?" Finnick inclined his head towards me, a little line appearing between his eyebrows.

With embarrassment, I realized I had said those words aloud. "Nothing." My voice cracked.

"Oh." He was silent for a few more seconds, but then we came to a stop. "Here we are."

I coughed as another tear forced itself out of my left eye and I blinked through it to see where we were.

I was in a dingy waiting room, only holding one person. A lean body sat hunched over in a corner, blond hair spilling over his hands, which covered his face. When hearing Finnick speak, he glanced up and started. "Katniss." Peeta stood up and came over to me with a fretful look on.

My heart did an uneven thump and I threw myself into him and sobbed on his chest. Peeta's arms went around me and he cupped my head to his shoulder, rocking me gently back and forth as though I were a small child. I could feel his fingers winding through the hair on the back of my head, holding me yet closer to him as I cried.

After a while, my tears started to dry up and be replaced by a horrible case of hiccups. My fingers held tightly to the material of Peeta's shirt because I was afraid I would collapse onto the ground if he let go.

"Its okay, Katniss. You'll be fine…" He pressed his cheek to the top of my head.

"No, it's-it's not." I hiccupped; face still hidden from the view. "I can't believe he just-just-" I bit my tongue and tasted blood in my mouth. I couldn't bring myself to say it, I just couldn't. Died. The unspoken word lay still on my trembling lips.

"Here…" Peeta led us over to a nearby couch (which looked like it was made out of stone) and I collapsed onto it, no longer able to shed tears, but to just lay there felling as if I died. The crushing feeling was gone from my chest, but it now felt as though I was completely empty. I couldn't even feel my own heartbeat through the unimpressionable sorrow.

Peeta sat down carefully next to me and pulled my head onto his lap, smoothing back my hair, not saying anything at all.

It was for a while we sat there, unmoving, until I found my voice again. My throat was all dried up and aching from all of the crying. "How is Alexis?"

"She is fine." Peeta continued to stroke my hair as he spoke. "Her heart begun to slow down once we neared the hospital, but I took her in anyways. She is back there-" He pointed to a set of ominous-looking double doors I hadn't noticed before. In big, red letter on it were the words "AUTHORIZED ENTRANCE ONLY; CARDIOVASCULAR LAB."

I paused for a second to let that soak in. Then I said, "I take it that we don't get to take her for tonight, then?"

"No, we don't. They won't even let us see her tonight. I was only in here because I was waiting for you."

I sat up with difficultly. "Then there is no need to be here. Let's go back before I have another meltdown."

Peeta frowned at this, confused at my sudden urgency to abandon my daughter and get back to my room. It wasn't abandonment, though. I did not want to waste any more time wishing for something you know you can't get. Wish in one hand and spit in the other. Which one fills up faster? Once again, strange words echoed through my head, but this time I recognized them as being some that my best friend had spoken two years after we had met.

My lip began trembling again and I willed myself not to cry. Crying was not only unnecessary and embarrassing, but it was also made things worse. It only made you remember what you were crying for, made you cling onto what you couldn't have and only made you yearn for more. We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it. And my life had already been taken the moment Gale said my name.

*sniff* that chapter made me cry just writing it. Not only because of the sadness of Gale's death, but because Katniss realized that she actually love Gale as well as Peeta. …So sad…. Anyways, please review!