I have been waiting so long for this chapter! BWAHAHAHA! Wait—no, not this chapter. Well, sort of but… never mind. So this one is dedicated to my very amazing, beautiful friend Rachel and her insane obsession with grape juice. Love you Rachel! Hehehe…I'm going to be quite and let you people read. *sigh* Wait! One more thing—Peeta's nightmare scene will be important later on, so keep that stored in the back of your brain for later usage, okay?

oOo

I dreamt for the first time in quite a while. I was back in District 12, and everything was back to the way it was. Brilliant golden stars twinkled at me from their seats in the sky, illuminating the treetops surrounding the Victors Village. Everything was quiet, so I assumed Katniss was just inside, sleeping.

The electric fence that used to line the perimeter of 12 was gone. Now, our little town was open to the black forest. My dream self blinked into the woods and began walking in that direction. Something pulled me to it, though I didn't know what.

As I walked, I could see a shape, about a hundred feet in. It was big, too big to be anything alive. Inching closer in, I could tell it as something like a metal bunker. No signs of activity were anywhere, and judging by the vines creeping up the edges, I'd say no one has been here for a long time.

Suddenly, through the dark of the night, an eerie cry echoed off the undergrowth. It was long, pained, and definitely human. I began walking cautiously towards the sound, hoping I was just imagining it. My feet shuffled loudly in the leaves as I inched closer towards thee sound. But unfortunately, my toe got caught on something, and I stumbled, cursing silently.

Click.

I froze, knowing that sound. Very slowly I turned back around to the bunker and saw, to my surprise, Katniss standing there with her bow in her hands, drawn back and aiming at something I couldn't see. The tip of her arrow was crackling with white flame. She was still wearing a clean white nightdress, as if she had gotten up out of bed to come here.

"Katniss?" I reached forwards, and tried to call her name, but no sound came out. She ignored me.

There was a sound, kind of like a distant gunshot, and Katniss' eyes flew wide. She snapped her fingers open and released the arrow into the woods behind the bunker.

Then, everything happened in slow motion. At first, it was just fire that erupted from the target area, sending licks of heat stretching the night sky. But there was a second click, and a series of clicks getting louder, than the world exploded.

Flames burst forth 50 feet, a hundred, stretching all directions as pieces of things rained down upon my shoulders.

I was yelling, though no sound came out still.

The earth rumbled for a few more minutes, then stillness. I opened my eyes. The woods around me was scorched, tree stumps blacked with soot lay shattered on the ground, still on fire. Everything around within a 150 foot radius was destroyed. Miraculously, I was still standing exactly where I was when I watched Katniss release the arrow.

Katniss.

I ran around in the wreckage, feet catching on bits of burnt wood, looking for Katniss. My eyes flicked back and forth from trees, to the singed bunker, to the black sky, hoping to find her. No answer came.

I was just about to get frantic, when something caught my eye; a splash of red on white, laying a ways away, unmoving on the rubble. With a small cry, I tripped over my feet, running for her.

My heart jammed up into my throat when I came to a stop next to the motionless body of Katniss. Her body was black from the soot, and in several places, burns adored her skin, along with part where her skin was peeled off completely, exposing bone.

Fighting off the urge to pass out, I dropped to my knees next to Katniss. Blood soaked through her white nightgown like an apron, filling the air with a stench like copper and ash. I swallowed down the bile that rose up in my throat. How could this happen? What did she shoot? Why did it explode?

I pulled Katniss onto my lap and cradled her head to me, getting my clothes soaked with her still-running blood. No, no, no….

"Peeta Mellark."

A voice from behind me rang through the silence, startling me. With tears still streaking down my face, I flicked my eyes towards the visitor. And let out a yell.

President Snow, dressed in a clean white dress suit was standing not five feet behind me, holding a gun. He smiled, pale lips stretching over his face like a snake. He pointed the tip of the rifle at me. "I'm sorry, Peeta. I wish it didn't have to end this way. Honestly. But sometimes, you just can't win. Sometimes," He cocked the gun. "there are no happy endings."

And when the bang sounded all around me, white filled the insides of my eyelids and I woke up.

My eyes shot open and I sat straight up, frantic. I had slept. I was sleeping, curled up under the covers while Katniss was in surgery. I scrabbled around on the bad hysterically, trying to sit up with vertigo gripping my head. When I finally managed to sit straight and look at the clock, I sighed with relief. It was only 4:00 in the morning. It was never too early to get up and go to the hospital.

Heart pounding from the leftover nightmare, I got up and breathed a little sigh of relief. Katniss wasn't dead. But I had to go to the hospital and see her just to make sure…

After a 30 second shower, I quickly pulled on a pair of pants. As I was tugging a T-shirt over my still-wet hair, I opened the door and received a shock. Primrose was standing not a foot away, in a set of casual garments. I knew she hadn't just woken up.

She looked slightly guilty, and stepped away. "I-I'm sorry if this is too early, Peeta. I just woke up an hour ago and thought maybe we could go check on Katniss together."

Was her knocking on the door what woke me up? I frowned, and then my face went back to normal. "No, it's fine. Honestly. Is your mother awake?" I peered curiously down the hall to the closed door of Ms. Everdeens' room.

Primrose shook her head, making blond waves bounce around her head. "Nope. Just me. Do you have the…pearl thingy?"

Oops. No, I had forgotten. I held my finger up to Primrose, signaling for her to wait while I went and got the treasure from my bedside table. A second later, I skidded back to a halt in front of Prim, clutching the pearl in my fist. "I'm ready now."

Prim cocked her head slightly to the left and without even hesitation, she took the hand not holding the pearl and we began walking. Honestly I was glad to have her at my side, gripping my hand. If she wasn't there, I probably would have tipped over sideways and needed a crane to get me back upright.

Adrenaline was still pulsing through my veins like blood, and my stomach felt sick. It was an odd combination of feelings. I wondered if the surgery was done. Maybe Katniss was sleeping soundly in her cozy little hospital bed. Maybe her head was already taped up, and she was back to normal. Well, mostly normal.

My heart thudded even fiercely at the mere thought of it already being over. Now all it came to was when she opened her eyes. Would she be like, "Oh, yeah, I remember everything. Awesome."? Or would she opened her eyes and completely go mad? Will the doctors have to pin her down onto the bed and pump fluid into her arms to make her sedated like a dog? Would we have to sit at her bedside and tell her everything?

"Peeta?" Primrose's soft voice made me look down at her and realized we had stopped. And it was my feet that were glued to the floor.

With an apologetic duck of my head, I made them to go again. It was slow, but nonetheless progress.

Miraculously, I made it to the hospital's front desk without passing out. Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head high, and forced myself to be the adult that I was.

The mean secretary lady was back. She raised her penciled-in eyebrows at us. "May I help you?"

I wasn't quite sure what to say. I was pretty much a regular here with Katniss and all, but I couldn't exactly just waltz right past the desk and invite myself into Katniss' room. That would be highly rude. I cleared my throat. "We're here for Katniss, of course."

"Do you know where the room is?" The lady looked down her thin nose at the papers on her desk.

"Yes." My palms were getting sweaty, and I inwardly apologized to Primrose for her having to hold a clammy hand.

Without saying anything, the secretary waved us on, and went back to typing unusually fast on her computer.

Prim and I exchanged nervous glances, and I tugged her gently towards the wing of the hospital where I knew Katniss' room was.

We walked slowly; inescapably afraid of what will happen when Katniss opens her eyes. Primrose didn't let go of my hand the whole way, and when we got to the door of her newly prepared hospital room, neither one of us made a move to turn the handle.

We stood there for about two minutes, until I cleared my throat. "I'll get it." Letting go of Prim's hand, I reached out and turned the doorknob. I braced myself for some type of giant man-eating monster to come out and gobble us down. Instead, the door swung open to a room that was clean, bright, and most certainly unoccupied.

Primrose breathed a sigh of relief. "She isn't back yet."

"Ms. Everdeen just got out of surgery." The deep voice of Dr. Tyrwhitt announced behind us. "She is getting fixed up in a separate room before being transferred to this one."

I couldn't help but sigh with relief as well. We still had a little time.

"You two are up awful early." The doctor blinked at us, not accusingly. "Here to catch the first rays of dawn, eh?" He chuckled, which sounded an octave higher than his voice.

What's with his jovial attitude? I eyed him suspiciously. "Katniss hasn't woken up yet, has she?"

"Not yet. " He caught on to what I was saying. "We don't know if her memory is normal or not, Mr. Mellark. We will have to wait until she is conscious to do that."

I nodded, lips tightening. The anticipation was killing me. Clenching a fist around the pearl in my left hand, I looked back up at the doctor. "Can we wait in her room?" We, meaning Primrose and I, of course.

For a second Dr. Tyrwhitt stared at us unnervingly, and smiled comfortingly. "Fine with me. We should be done in about thirty minutes, so make sure you are out of the way so there is room to wheel her bed back." And with a friendly little wave, he was off walking in the opposite direction, ruffling through some papers in his hand.

After glancing quickly at Prim, who shrugged, we went into Katniss' clean hospital room. Sure enough, there wasn't a bed in there. They probably used it for transporting her or something.

Primrose and I sat down in the two available seats in the corner, waiting for Katniss. Anxiety and adrenaline ran between us like waves, bouncing off the ceiling and delicate instruments.

Finally, the fourteen-year-old broke the silence by mumbling, "Mother promised to be there when Katniss got back."

I tried to reassure her, when I didn't feel so reassured myself. "I'm sure it isn't intentional. She works here now, right? I'm sure she just had a stressful day yesterday and needs sleep."

Prim looked better after that.

It was fifteen minutes later when I heard a sharp rap on the door, accompanied by a few muffled voices. MY heart sped up to five-hundred beats a minute. They were fast. They still had ten minutes to go! I was still freaking out when Prim let go of my hand, letting me stand up to answer the door.

The second I turned the knob, the door was pushed gently open and the bed wheeled in. Three doctors accompanied it, one on the front, one on the back, and one on the side. They were talking quietly amongst themselves. Above the metal railing of the hospital bed, I saw a spill of black hair.

Once the bed was locked into its place in the middle of the room, two of the doctor left, leaving only Dr. Tyrwhitt behind in his blue scrubs. He was busy with adjusting a tube of clear liquid into the needle in Katniss' arm.

I let my eyes wander down to Katniss, sleeping peacefully in the bed. Her black hair was held back by a stretchy plastic band, and there was a large patch of bandages on the head, covering from her hairline, to her cheekbone, to her ear. The flicker of her eyelids suggested she was dreaming. I hoped it wasn't bad.

When the IV was screwed securely in, Dr. Tyrwhitt turned to Primrose and I. "We'll be monitoring her vitals from the computer room, so just in case anything bad happens. When she wakes up, call the nurse." And with a quick glance at the screen, he began to leave.

I stopped him, confused. "Katniss just got out of a major surgery, and you're just going to…leave?"

Dr. Tyrwhitt stood patiently and explained. "When nurses stay, they do it to observe how the patient is fairing, and if they need any further treatment. This room is part of the most-monitored section in the hospital. Unless something major happens, like her pulse going haywire or her oxygen levels going down, there is no need for nurses to be here constantly."

I didn't like the way this doctor thought; Katniss should get the best possible medical treatment. Not be watched through cameras directly after a vital operation. But I didn't have time to be any more annoyed because Dr. Tyrwhitt nodded politely to us and left.

Right as the door swung closed, there were voices outside and it reopened.

Ms. Everdeen walked briskly in, looked concerned. When she saw us, her face melted into an apologetic look. "I'm sorry for being late." She said, coming up to Prim to hug her. "She just got here, I take it?"

Prim hugged her mother back and nodded. "Just a few seconds. She hasn't…woken up or anything."

"Ah." Ms. Everdeen let go of her youngest daughter and bent over Katniss with a tender look on. "I hope it went well… I'm so worried." She smiled sadly, but her eyes were anxious like the rest of us.

I went to stand on the other side of the bed, gazing down at the sleeping figure of Katniss. "We all are…"

The soft blue eyes of Prim's mother met mine. "Prim and I could go if you want, Peeta."

I could tell she was only asking that to be nice. The worry in her eyes clearly stated that she wanted to be right next to Katniss when she woke up. I shook my head. "No, it's fine. It's probably better if you stay just in case…" I trailed off, trying not to be sad.

"Okay." Ms. Everdeen didn't seem to notice my look of anxiety. She slipped her hand into Katniss' free one, and looked at her forlornly.

We stood there for a while, gazing down at Katniss' sleeping form, and the ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room. It was about 7:00, when I began to notice the hollow ach in my stomach. I had barely eaten a dinner last night, and I had no breakfast.

Primrose (who had Katniss' other hand in hers) looked up at me. "You can go and ha—" But her words were immediately cut off by a surprised squeal.

My heart thumped loudly, once, and I stared at Primrose. "What?"

Prim held her breath for a second, and let it out slowly. "She just moved. Her hand tightened."

We all bent over further on the bed, standing as still as stone. Then I could see it. The muscles on Katniss' left hand tightened almost invisibly. Her chest rose once with a deep breath and she exhaled.

"Katniss?" Ms. Everdeen cupped her creased hand on her daughters' cheek. "Katniss, can you hear us?"

She stayed still, but mumbled something we couldn't understand. Everyone bit closer. Our faces seemed only a foot from the covers stretching over Katniss.

She mumbled something else, and we could tell they were words, but couldn't understand which ones.

"Katniss, speak up, hon. We can't understand you." Ms. Everdeen used a quiet voice.

To my surprise, Katniss' head actually rolled onto her other shoulder and her eyes opened. I could tell it took a lot of effort, but I didn't care right then. My heart was slamming its way out of my chest and the lump was back in my throat.

Katniss blinked once, slowly, and mumbled something again, but this time, we understood. "Peeta…"