A/N- Okay, so yup, I wrote chapter 7... (well, no shit sherlock)

And I would quickly like to take this oppertunity to thank everyone who's been reading (cuz I know mannnyy of you have, thanks to the traffic stats) and an extra special thanks to annabeth sapphirekatnissgalerue (there's no space, but it wouldn't let me keep her full name...) for promoting me in one of her fics! So I am returning the favour by syaing to the world: READ HER FICS TOO AS THEY ARE REALLY GOOD! Yay.

So yup, here is chapter 7...

The sun has started to set by the time I spot the familiar gates of District 12. The tall, wired gate that runs around the outline of the town still stands, seeming exactly the same as it always has been. And the town seems it's dull self, grey and dusty from the mines. It doesn't look like much from here, but it's still home. My home.

"Hey, we're almost there" I whisper in Ethan's ear. "I can see the gates just ahead of us"

"Great" He murmurs back, his voice full of pain.

It's about time too. We've been walking at snail's pace for hours, having to stop every few minutes for Ethan. Most of the time, he's been leaning on me just to keep his balance. His head injury keeps catching up with him and sending dizzy spells to his head. He's virtually passed out a few times, most probably from blood loss. I had wrapped my overshirt around his head to try to stop the flow, it worked well for a short while, but now there's not much space left in the material to absorb any more of the crimson liquid. And if that's not bad enough, he's still in tremendous pain from his collar bone.

If his life didn't depend on me right now, I would cry so hard. Seeing him like this is just devastating and I feel useless to stop the pain. The only thing I can do, is get him to twelve as quickly as possible. And I almost have got him there, maybe not as fast as I hoped, but he's still breathing and that's the most important thing.

After telling him that District 12 is in eye view, our speed seems to have increased quite a bit. He seems even more determined to reach our goal than before, when he was almost weak enough to give up. But now, knowing that we've almost made it, he's plucked up his strength and courage, and is really making a difference.

"That's it" I say to him, smiling. "Keep at this speed and we'll be there in minutes"

He doesn't reply, but gives a brief nod. I turn my head to stare ahead and smile. We're going to make it.

The hole in the fence is still there. Plenty big enough for a person to fit through and it's our only way in without attracting any unwanted attention from Peacekeepers.

"Right, so this is our only way in" I tell Ethan. "Think you can make it through alright?"

He takes a wobbly step towards the gate. "Of course. I'm a ninja"

I give a soft laugh, "Yup, a ninja with a broken collar bone and a bleeding head. Perfect"

I gesture for Ethan to duck under first, pulling the wire a little further out to extend the hole for extra room. The signs indicate that the fence is electric, but it's never on though and still isn't today. There's no sound of low buzzing, so we're safe.

Ethan slowly bends his body, wincing from the pain in his collar and just manages to get through the gate. His current condition isn't the easiest to move around with, but I'm just glad that we got here in the first place. It's given me a lot of hope for a full recovery and now we've arrived, he'll be treated within minutes.

It's my turn next. So, I bend a lot lower than Ethan did and easily slip under the fence, adjusting the gap to how it was before, so no-one will notice any difference. As I'm fixing the wired material, I call over to Ethan.

"This gap's been here for years, you know. Gale showed it to me when we used to hang out" I say cheerfully. "The Peacekeepers haven't even noticed, well mind you, they don't even have the gate turned on. Talk about lazy security, right?"

But there's no response. Confused, I turn my head around to Ethan. He's still on the grass where he was before I ducked under the fence, except he's not sitting. He's lying on his back, not moving.

"Ethan?" I call to him, a hint of panic in my tone.

When he doesn't respond, I fall to my knees by his side. Looking at his face, his eyes are closed softly and there's no sound of his breaths. No sound of the air moving in and coming back out. I push his fringe from his face and place the back of my palm on his forehead. His cold, still forehead.

"Ethan, talk to me" I say to him, tapping his cheek gently. "It's just me, Zinny"

Alas, his lips don't move and the panic starts to rise within me. I check the shirt wrapped around his head wound. It's drowned in a rich, dark blood. Lifting it up slightly, I peer at the wound and small trickles of blood still sprouts from the gash. A cold chill rushes through my blood, I'm too late.

"No, it's not too late. It's not too late, he's fine" I tell myself firmly. "He's just pretending. It's all just a practical joke"

But I don't even believe myself. I know he's not pretending. This isn't a practical joke. It's reality and I just don't want to admit it.

"Come on Ethan, wake up" I plead to his still body. "Please, please, please"

Tears start to form in my eyes, welling up fast and breaking down my face. A few tears fall from my chin and drip onto his face, forming ant size puddles on his cheeks.

"Ethan please, I'm begging you. Come back to me" I say through my sobs. "I need you, so, so much"

I grab his hand and lock my fingers in his and press it to my lips. His hand doesn't feel like it belongs to the same person. Not the person who used to wind me up constantly, with is cheeky jokes and sarcastic comments. Not the person who always had a mischievous look in his eyes and who was often getting himself into trouble. Not the person who has done so much for me these past few months. This hand doesn't belong to the Ethan I know.

I close my eyes tightly and rest my head on his shoulder, just like I did on that sunny afternoon only about a week ago. But now, there's no sun in the sky and Ethan isn't laughing with me. I keep my eyes firmly shut and try to imagine myself back to that afternoon, when everything was different and everything was perfect...

A small cough stirs me from my thoughts.

"Ethan?" I whisper automatically. "Ethan, can you hear me"

He coughs again and a small grin forms on his lips. "Yup, just about"

"Oh my god, Ethan! I thought you were dead... again" I cry out.

"Well, you haven't got rid of me quite yet, I'm sorry" He jokes.

Tears start to stream down my face again and I can't make them stop. They just keep coming, one after another, after another, after another.

"What are you crying about now?" Ethan asks.

"It doesn't matter right now" I reply. "But what does matter, is getting you some medical attention"

"I think I agree with you there"

I quickly jump to my feet and help Ethan up, holding most of his weight as he struggles to his feet. He's a lot worse than before; he can't take a step on his own, so I support pretty much his whole body and walk him into the main town.

People stare at us as we stumble through the district. Unfortunately, I recognise almost every single one of the faces that watch us. I can see they're all whispering to each other, pointing at me and then looking at Ethan. Personally, I don't care. They can say all they want about me, but what really surprises me is the ignorance they have towards Ethan. They can see that he's injured badly, but only one person comes over.

Gale.

As soon as he approaches us, I can see that he's shocked to see me. Especially with Ethan.

"Zinny? Where exactly have you been for the past, well almost, year?" He demands. "And who's this with you?"

"That's irrelevant right now, Gale. What matters is that we get Ethan to Mrs Everdeen - now" I reply.

"Yup, I think you're right" He says, taking support of Ethan's other side.

"Careful of his collar bone" I point out quickly.

"Kay. So... what happened to him?" He asks, as we walk towards the Victor's Village.

"He gashed his head on a rock and damaged his collar bone" I tell him.

"How...?"

"When we jumped out of the train"

"You did what?"

"Irrelevant right now"

"Right... of course. Well, we're almost there anyway"

As we enter the Victors' Village, I'm shocked. I've never seen this part of the district, with there only being one Victor living here currently, and it's completely different to the rest of the dusty atmosphere. The air seems cleaner and the ground feels softer to walk on. There's not much of the constant smell of burning and coal here either. It's as if we've just walked into a new world or something.

A group of large houses stand, but only three are in use; the others sit and wait for another Victor... not that we get many though.

Gale takes us to one of the houses, pushes open the gate and we walk down the path to the door. It's not the front door, but instead, he shows us to a side door and knocks on the bare wood. The door soon swings open and Prim stands in the doorway, her hair neatly braided in her usual style. She looks much more mature than the last time I saw here, standing taller in her white shirt and knee length skirt. She smiles at Gale, then looks towards Ethan and I.

"Oh my gosh, Zinny?" She questions, seeming shocked with my arrival.

"Yeah, hi Prim. Sorry to sound rude, but is your Mom in?" I glance at Ethan. "My friend here needs medical attention"

"Yes, she is" She replies, ushering us inside. "Just this way"

Gale and I help Ethan down the corridor as we follow Prim. She leads us into another small room, which must be a mini clinic or something. In the centre of the room stands a tall bed, covered in crisp white sheets. Around the sides of the room are various different medicines, tablets and every other medical related object I can think of.

We lift Ethan onto the bed, carefully avoiding causing any more pain. Once he's on, I adjust the cushion under his head to make sure he's as comfortable as possible. Not that he can get very comfortable though.

Mrs Everdeen enters the room and also seems surprised with my return, but doesn't say anything. She automatically walks over to Ethan, quickly examines his condition and turns to me.

"What happened?" She asks me.

"I'm not exactly sure, but he gashed his head on a rock and I think he's broken his collar bone" I explain. "And he keeps passing in and out of consciousness"

"Right, ok then" She says, nodding her head slowly. "If you could just wait in the lounge while I do a full examination..."

"Oh, yeah, sure" I say, hurrying out of the room.

Gale follows me and closes the door behind him.

We both sit down on opposite sofas, neither saying a word for the first few minutes. The silence feels awkward, but Gale soon fills it.

"So... you're into dangerous stunts now?" He asks, frowning.

I shake my head. "God, no. That wasn't really out of choice. It was more like a necessity"

"You call jumping out of a moving train a necessity?"

"This one time, yes. It was the only way to get back here, I suppose"

"Why couldn't you just have gotten off at the station, like normal people do?"

"Well... because it wasn't an average train; it was a goods transporter" I explain. "We smuggled ourselves onto it"

"Why?"

"As I said; so we could get here. I needed to see Peeta before the Quell and Ethan knew about the trains, so it seemed the best way out of the Capitol"

"So are you an Ethan... like, together?"

I sigh. "Sort of, yes. We got really close when I was in the Capitol"

"Oh right... well, good for you"

We collapse into another state of silence. I watch the hand of the clock ticking, seeming slower and slower with every second. I can't hear what's going on in the other room, but there's no shrieks of pain, so I guess it must be going well.

"What was it like?" Gale suddenly asks.

"What?"

"The Capitol"

"Oh... um... different I guess" I shrug. "A lot fancier, cleaner and very, very big. Everyone looks as weird as Effie; covered in dramatic make up and wearing every shade of every colour..."

"What about Snow? What was he like?"

"Hmm... very powerful, I've got to admit. But also, very dangerous and sly if you get on the wrong side of him. He could do pretty much anything he wanted to you..."

"Avoxes" Gale mumbles under his breath, but I still hear him.

"Exactly"

"Yeah, but what I don't get is why he didn't make you into an Avox. Isn't that what they do to anyone who gets arrested?"

"Well I'm not just anyone..." I murmur quietly. Unfortunately, Gale hears every word.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Um... well, he found out that I was related to... um..." I gulp. "One of his friends"

Without warning, the door swings open and Prim walks in.

"Who found out you were related to who?" She asks.

"Um, President Snow found out that I was related to Peeta" I say hurriedly. "That's why I'm not an Avox"

Gale looks at me and I shoot him a glare to say, 'don't you dare say anything'. He seems to get the hint and keeps his mouth shut, much to my relief.

"Oh, well that's good then" Prim says, smiling. "My mother wishes to see you"

"Of course" I reply, following her out of the room and ignoring Gale's looks.

Let's just hope she has some good news...

A/N- Okay... I was sooo close to killing off Ethan in this chapter... but I couldn't bring myself to let him go now, I'm just not ready yet :( Also, I have an idea that involves him being alive, so yeah... But! If you love Ethan, I just want to say now, that he still might not be safe and may die some time in the future, but you need to keep reading to find out!

Oh, and out of all the many hundreds of you that read this, I would really like to know what you think of part 2 so far! Please, it won't take long and it will be really helpful and kind!

Thanks, FireflyLlama x