*Drum roll* So here it is. Still a little undecisive on this chapter, but it should still follow this story okay.

Chapter 11

The next morning I find Haymitch. He looks a bit grouchy this morning, but when is it that he's in a super good mood? The withdrawal from his alcohol probably causes it, but it's been a really long time, so… I don't know.

"Haymitch, did they leave already?"

"How about a "good morning" first, Sweetheart?" he says.

"Yeah, um, good morning. Did they already leave for the Capitol?"

"They're boarding right now…" I'm about to walk off, till Haymitch grabs my shoulder. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I got to go." I say.

"Oh, no. You're staying here because the state you're in." It probably freaks him out a little to recognize it as a baby growing inside my abdomen.

"But I have to help save them. Gale is probably not going and…"

"He's going."

"He is? He's still going?"

"Why would he change his mind?" Haymitch asks then his face changes with his new comprehension of I don't care, I'll stay out of that. "Never mind, but he's going, and so is Finnick, Boggs and the assigned soldiers that volunteered to go, which does not include you." He says "you" with emphasis.

"I guess if Boggs is going that's a plus, but I hate to stay here, useless and waiting."

"Yeah well, here I am too. Just be thankful Boggs is leading it. It was all volunteers, but Boggs pretended not to notice me when I raised my hand. See? He's got good judgment." He says.

I sigh. "By the end of the day they'll be either with us or dead. I guess that's more that we could ever hope for." I say.

At 15:00, the designated hour, we stand tense in the room where Beetee and his team try to dominate the airwaves. My part does not show that much. But they tried very hard to get most of Finnick's airing in the Capitol. Most of it is seen. Beetee is getting better at this, or maybe the Capitol really intent on seeing Finnick tell secrets of President Snow. They actually keep the entire attack on Snow on.

"Done!" Beetee says, and it goes back to the original Capitol airing. "That should have given them enough time. They should be out by now, or they're dead." Boggs plan was supposed to be really good, though. It was hard for me to follow, so it will be hard for the enemy. Beetee leads me and Haymitch into another room and he explains the plan with maps and a screen.

"It's like your electricity trap in the arena?" I ask.

"Exactly. And see how well that worked out?" says Beetee.

Huh.

I stay in Command with Haymitch, hoping to hear news. Hours pass by, and still nothing. At dinner time, Haymitch goes, but I stay. I'm asked to wait somewhere else, because serious war business stuff is being carried out. So, I wait in the Hummingbird Room (or the Meadow), and try not to think about Gale or Peeta. The thought of them both not coming back is eating me up. I distract myself with tying knots and then trying to catch a humming bird with my hands. Yes, it's impossible, but it keeps me busy. Prim waits with me for awhile, and we talk about birds and different types of plants. It gets late and I tell Prim to go ahead and go to sleep in the boarding cell. She tells me she wants to stay, but she's falling asleep, so I urge her to go.

It's midnight, the next day, when Haymitch comes into the room and says "They're back," I'm frozen for a second, making sure I heard him right, then I run past him and go to the hospital ward. The hospital is in a frantic with doctors shouting orders and the wounded being transported to the rooms. I see Johanna Mason unconscious on a gurney. She's covered with bruises and cuts. Her hair looks like it was shaved off. Poor Johanna. She knew rebel secrets and she was hurt like this.

I see Gale through a doorway and see the doctor taking something out of his shoulder. I'm happy to see him here. I call his name, but a nurse pushes me into the hallway and shuts the door. I see Finnick and Annie in another room together. Even though Finnick is injured, he looks completely happy with Annie. Happiness can make pain seem like it's not even there. Haymitch catches up to me and Boggs walks toward us only slightly injured.

"We got them all out, except Enbaoria. But since she's from Two, we doubt she's being held anyway. Peeta's at the end of the hall. The effects of the gas are just wearing off. You should be there when he wakes."

Peeta.

He's alive, away from Snow, and with us. Haymitch smiles at me. "Come on, then" he says. He's here, finally. I walk in a quick pace. I'm so giddy that I can barely keep my balance. I'm so overjoyed, and I think the hormones level it even higher. I don't know what to say when I see him. Who cares what I say. I'm just so happy to have him back. When we reach his room he's already awake. Doctors are checking his pulse, looking at his pupils. I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't the first one he saw when he woke up, but I don't care anymore. I walk closer to him. My cheeks hurt from smiling. He looks like he is in disbelief. He gets up and walks toward me. I hold my arms up to hug him, but he pushes me away.

"Katniss, get out of here! It's for your own safety."

"Wha..?" I'm confused.

"Just get out of here! You have to stay away from me!" He says with urgency. He begins to tense up and grabs onto the bed rail. His pupils dilate and he shaking with adrenaline.

"Peeta!" I say helplessly. The doctors circle around him. He suddenly grasps out and reaches for me with clenching hands, but the doctors keep hold of him. Peeta's expression is something I don't recognize. One of the doctors asks me to leave. Well, he pushed me out, because I just stood there, in dismay and bewilderment. Whatever was causing this was because of me, according to Peeta. I'm causing it. I'm the cause for thousands of people getting hurt, aren't I?

Haymitch pulls my arm into the hallway. I'm so deeply confused. I want to yell, but I don't. Haymitch's expression is as confused as I am.

"What could they have done to him?" I say softly. Haymitch doesn't say anything. I know Snow is behind this, but what cruel, evil thing did he do to make Peeta like this? He's finally here, but whatever Snow did, is still disrupting his homecoming. I hate Snow… I hate him with a passion.

That evening I'm in the Hummingbird Room. I avoided seeing my mother or Prim. I just want to be alone. I'm tying a knot, then I mess up. It gets tangled around my finger and I try to shake it off. It doesn't come off! I grunt in frustration and give up. I put my head on my knees. I give out a short sob, and burry my face in my hands. Calm down, calm down. I try to steady my breathing, but my sobs choke me. Beetee rolls over in his wheelchair to where I sit in the fake meadow.

"Katniss, they got news for you at the hospital ward." He looks slightly optimistic, but I shouldn't hope too much, or I'll get let down, so I just hope whatever it is, it won't make me go insane. "He's alive, Katniss, and you should be happy about that." He says.

"I'm glad he's alive," I say. I get up from the ground. "Let's just hope it's worth living." I muffle as I walk away.

Beetee and I go to the hospital ward. Plutarch comes with Haymitch and we all go into a small waiting area. Before Plutarch speaks of the words I'm dreading to hear, Prim comes running.

"Prim, what are you doing here?" I ask.

"I want to be here with you. I heard what happened."

"I think you should really go." Says Plutarch.

"No. I want to stay with her." She says.

"Let her stay, she's in on everything already." I say.

Plutarch nods, because there's no use to keep fighting. "Well then. We believe that Peeta has been hijacked in way."

"Hijacked?"

"Beetee, please explain." Plutarchs says.

"It's a very secretive form of torture of the Capitol. I'm afraid we don't know a lot about it but it mostly consists of fear conditioning. They use tracker jacker venom, a small dose while they make him replay the memory in his mind, by verbal expression or a tape of that event. This alters the memory and is stored as long term memory."

When I got stung, it was pretty much the worst experience of my life. Now there are more bad experiences, but it was terrible. The venom targets the place in the brain that houses fear. That's what they did to Peeta. I put my face in my hands.

"Now we believe that they altered Peeta's thoughts and memories of you. Whenever he sees you, he goes into an unpredictable rage and will try to hurt you. It seems that they didn't dose him enough to have only rage when he comes into contact with you. He saw you, acted normal for a moment, and then began to go into the effects of the venom."

That, I did notice. He warned me to stay away from him, so he did have some kind of control. It wasn't much, at least there's still al little of him I know he's in there. He has to be. I put my knees up to my chin. Prim asks the question that's on my mind.

"Is there a way to reverse this?"

"There isn't a whole lot of information on that. Even if there was an attempt at hijacking rehabilitation, we have no access to those records."

"You're going to try aren't you?" She persists. "You're not going to lock him up in a padded room and leave him to suffer?"

"Of course we'll try. It's just we don't know if we'll succeed. We could succeed in some degree." Beetee says.

"We're putting together a team of mental health and military professionals to form a counterattack. I feel he'll make a full recovery." Plutarch states.

"Haymitch, what do you think?" asks Prim.

Haymitch looks tired and discouraged. "I think Peeta will probably get somewhat better, but I don't think he'll be the same."

Now I feel discouraged. He'll never be the same. We were never the same after the Games, after witnessing so many people die, losing our home. It just all leads up to losing our sanity.

"At least he's alive." Says Plutarch. "Snow executed his stylists on national television, and we don't know what became of Effie. Peeta might be damaged, but he is alive, with us. That's a definite improvement from twenty hours ago. Let's keep that in mind, alright?"

Backfire. Plutarch's attempt of cheering me up just made me feel worst. The stylists, and possibly Effie, are all dead.

Prim and I walk around aimlessly the next morning. I'm excused from my schedule for psychological reasons. I asked for Prim to be excused as well. We go to the hummingbird room and just lay there.

"I know you feel terrible of what happened to Peeta, but remember, Snow has had him for weeks. We just got him, and we already have a plan on helping him. There's a chance that Peeta will become his old self. Don't give up on him."

"I won't." I say. The situation is breaking me, but there's no way I can just forget about him. I still want him part of my life. We're having a baby. We've been through so much, and we can get through this. It might not be a perfect outcome, but we will.

She leaves after an hour, because of her hospital duties. About thirty minutes later, I'm called into Dr. Odessa's office. I walk there very slowly. I think I can get away with it, because I'm mentally disoriented. Still. I go into the room and take a seat.

"Katniss, how are you doing?" she says. She's a little more cheery than the last time I saw her, but she looks tired. I'd expect her to be grouchy, but she isn't. She tries to keep liveliness so her patients feel at home. She's an admirable doctor, but she must be putting a lot of hours in.

"I'm fine." I say emotionlessly.

"Are you sure? No cramping, pains, splotching…?"

"Uh…nope."

"We'll get right to the ultrasound." She says. As she makes preparations, to do it herself, I start to think if I should tell her about the fluttering.

"There is something, but it probably not bad," She stops and listens. "I've been feeling… fluttering." I say.

She gives a tiny smile. "Yes, that's perfectly normal. Is that all you've been feeling? What about mood swings?"

I think to myself; depression maybe, but I know that doesn't have anything to do with the pregnancy. She puts the goo, puts the device to my stomach. She tells me everything looks fine. She wipes off the goo, and before I leave, she hands me a picture.

"This is for you to take." She says. I take it and put it in my pants' pocket. I walk out of the room and sit on a bench in the hallway. I take out the picture and rotate it till I have it right side up. I'll probably show my mother and Prim the picture. Ha, I laugh at the thought of my mother being a grandmother, with a cane and all. I look at the picture. It looks like an alien, but it's my alien. I love my alien, but I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't really know how to be a mother. I hope I can learn something from my mother, but I think she's not the best mentor. There will probably be help, right? Oh, I don't know.

I trace the distinct outline of the baby on the picture. I probably won't ever show this to Peeta.

Peeta. If he wasn't damaged, he might have been, even a little, happy. He would have probably been a good father, and would marry me on the spot when I told him. He was the one who wanted children, the one who started the lie about me being pregnant to further make the Capitol look evil. Oddly it turned out be the truth.

Sadly getting married and raising our kid is probably not going to happen. He's been hijacked. The work put into reversing it, may not work and he'll have to stay away from me for the rest of my life. He'll never know I'm pregnant and he might never see his kid. Well, it's me he can't see, so maybe our baby won't cause him to go into a complete rage. It would probably be best if our kid stayed with him, but then again, who knows about his damaged predicament. He would never hurt his own kid. He'll raise our son or daughter. Imagining them, makes me smile. The baby will probably stay with me for a year, then he or she will be with Peeta. He'll be the best father in the world and they'll live happily, and nothing will hurt them. Where will I be? It doesn't matter, as long as they're happy.

Sad, isn't it? (almost cried)I found the hijacking to be important, because it shows how she and Peeta carefully mend back their relationship. I hope you're relieved that Peeta didn't strangle her. Also, Peeta isn't fully hijacked. It's like a on and off thing. When will she break the news? Sadly, not any time soon. Thanks for reading.

-cheezebuns