Katniss and Peeta weren't the only ones just drifting off to sleep in the hotel.

Poor Gale had been up for a long time after the wedding reception, just thinking about things. He kept thinking back to the dance he had shared with Katniss tonight... how she had looked so beautiful in her wedding dress, how warm and soft the bare skin of her upper back had felt under his hand when he held her close. He wished that it had been their wedding. He had always just sort of assumed that they would end up together, but then Peeta came along, and he missed his chance at that future.

Oh well, too late now. Gale thought to himself, as he sighed and turned over, feeling very alone in his bed.

He closed his eyes and remembered the other night... how wonderful it had felt to fall asleep spooned up close to Katniss, his body wrapped around hers, her hand holding his, pressed up against her chest. He thought about the next morning, when he had woken up to her snuggled against him, her leg draped over his in an intimate embrace. It had been the best morning of his life...he would have given anything to be able to share a bed with her like that all the time.

It was the moments like these, usually when he was lying in bed and feeling lonely, that he most envied Peeta. Right now he was feeling especially envious, because he figured that it was a pretty safe bet that Peeta was probably doing what Gale wished that he was doing... making love with Katniss and then falling asleep with her in his arms.

Gale drifted off to sleep with all these thoughts in his head, and they carried over to his unconscious mind.

He dreamed about their dance at the reception, but this time it was their wedding, and she was his wife. During the dance, he kissed her lips, he kissed her neck. She looked up at him with happy, sparkling eyes... the familiar eyes of his best friend, those gray eyes that looked so much like his own.

Then he brought her back to his room and took that pretty dress off of her, traced his fingers down her womanly curves... she undressed him and ran her hands all over his muscular physique, both of them delighting in their exploration of each others bodies.

In his dream, just as in real life, they had never been intimate together before, and now, their wedding night would be their first time.

"You are so beautiful, Mrs. Hawthorne." he breathed in her ear. "I love you and I want you so much."

"Take me to bed, Gale." Katniss told him.

Gale picked her up, carried her across the bedroom to his bed, and he lay her down with her head on the pillows. He got up on the bed with her and positioned himself above her. He felt her arms wrap around his back, pulling him closer.

He slowly moved himself inside of her, and began to make love to her. She felt so good all around him, as they moved together as one. Gale moaned softly with his enjoyment of finally being intimate with the only girl he'd ever truly loved.

"I always knew we would end up like this." Gale said softly into her ear. "I always knew I would marry my best friend."

He put one hand on the side of her face, and gazed into her eyes.

She looked up at him and said, "Once I began to see how much you cared about me, I couldn't help falling in love with you too."

Gale felt so happy that she finally understood how much he loved her, and that she felt the same way.

Katniss continued speaking softly to him as he made love to her. "It was like we were always meant to be, you just saw it before I did..."

She was speaking these beautiful words...words he should want to hear, but something about it wasn't right...something about those words sounded familiar to Gale. He searched his head, trying to put his finger on exactly what it was.

Then, suddenly, it struck him like lightning, and his heart broke with the devastating realization.

The words she said to him were the same words she had said in her wedding vows to Peeta.

Even in his dream, Katniss was looking up at Gale with soft, loving eyes, but she was talking about Peeta. Not even in his own fantasy could he escape the fact that for as much as Katniss cared about him, she would never look at him the same way she looked at Peeta.

Gale woke up in the quiet darkness of his room, disappointed once again. He had been enjoying the dream up until the end. He got up out of bed, walked over to the window and stood there with both hands on the sides of the window frame wearing nothing but his boxers, his tall, hunter's body bathed in pale moonlight. He looked out over the expanse of the capitol below. He wondered...of all the millions of people out there, why did he have to be in love with the one person he couldn't have?

Gale ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He was going to have to make some decisions about things today or he was going to end up driving himself crazy. He expected that he would probably see Katniss at some point today, but not right away. She'd most likely want to sleep in after what he could only assume had been a late wedding night. Gale yawned, realizing that he needed to sleep too, so he returned to his bed, pulled up the covers and drifted off. Fortunately, the rest of his night was dreamless.

Later that morning after the sun had been up for a while, in the marriage bed, Peeta woke up alone too. When he reached for Katniss and found that she wasn't there, he sat up quickly. She hardly ever got out of bed before he did, and he especially wouldn't have expected it on the morning after their wedding, so it made him worry.

When he looked around the room, he saw her sitting in a chair in front of the window in her bathrobe with her knees pulled up in front of her, looking outside, and she was holding her wildflower bouquet.

Peeta found his boxers on the floor from last night, pulled them on and walked over to the window, kneeling down next to her.

"Katniss, are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, smiling softly at him and leaning over to give him a kiss. "I'm sorry if I worried you. I was just awake, and I didn't want to wake you. You looked so peaceful."

He took her hand and squeezed it, thankful that nothing was wrong.

"You looked deep in thought." Peeta observed. "What were you thinking about?"

"Home." she answered wistfully. "I was thinking that it was funny, how last night we could look out this window in the dark and we could imagine that we were home... that out there was nothing but woods and fireflies, and when you described it to me and told me to imagine it, I could see it Peeta, I could really see it, like we were back home. But then in the light of day, I look out this same window, and it's gone. We are still here in the capitol and we are so far from district 12, and I just want to go home with you. Can we please go home today?"

"Of course." he told her. "I would love to bring you home today, and just start our nice, quiet life together."

She smiled at him and leaned her head on his shoulder. They sat in comfortable silence like that for a minute.

Finally Katniss broke their silence, as she touched some of the flowers in the bouquet on her lap, and said, "My flowers are starting to wilt. I wish I could take them home with us and save them forever, but by the time we get home, they'll all be dead."

"That's okay." Peeta replied. "You'll have plenty of wildflowers back home that you can pick whenever you want to."

She pulled a limp, wilted yellow primrose out of her bouquet and held it in her hand.

"It feels weird, knowing that it will just be you and me and Gale going home, and not Prim." she said quietly.

"Come here." Peeta said gently to her, as he stood up, took the flowers from her and set them aside, then pulled her up out of her chair and into his arms. "I know how much you miss Prim, and it will be hard for you to learn to live without her, but remember that I will be right here with you to help you through it."

"Thank you." she whispered, trying to hold back her tears. She didn't want to cry any more.

He just held her tight for a while, until she let go of him when she was ready.

Only then did Peeta speak again.

"Why don't you start packing up your stuff. The sooner we are all packed, the sooner we can get on that train and I can take you home. Okay?"

She nodded her head and smiled gratefully, then set to work picking up their clothes all around the room and piling them on the bed to pack. She figured that once she got her clothes in here all packed, she would go across the hall to her suite and get the rest of her stuff, and then they'd be just about done.

Later that afternoon, after she and Peeta had both showered and they'd had lunch together and they were mostly packed up and ready to go, she told Peeta that she was going to see Gale and find out if he would be coming home with them today or if he would catch the next train back tomorrow. She assumed that Gale was probably dying to get the hell out of the capitol just as much as she was.

Katniss walked towards Gale's room and was surprised to see him returning to his own door at the same time.

"Oh, hey Gale. I was just coming to talk to you. Where are you coming from?"

"I had some stuff I needed to take care of." he told her. "Come on in, I wanted to talk to you too."

He let her in the room, then he followed her in and shut the door behind them. As she walked into Gale's room, she noticed right away that he hadn't picked anything up yet. All his clothes were still out, his bed was unmade.

"Gale, why haven't you started packing your stuff yet? I figured you'd be the first one ready to leave! I was coming over to see if you were taking the train back with us today, but you don't look like you'll be ready in time."

Gale sighed.

"Come here, sit down with me." he instructed, patting the bed next to him where he wanted her to sit.

She obediently sat down and looked up at him.

Gale took a deep breath, then started.

"Katniss, I'm not going home with you."

"Oh... are you coming tomorrow then?" she asked.

"No. Not tomorrow either." he paused. "Not ever. I'm staying here."

She stood up quickly.

"What?" she cried. "What the hell are you talking about Gale? You hate the capitol! Why would you stay here?"

Gale tried to stay calm, and tried to calm her down too.

"Please just sit down and listen to me." he pleaded.

She sat back down, but her eyes were a mixture of anger and sadness and confusion.

Gale took both of her hands in his.

"I am so sorry, Katniss, but I can't go back with you. I can't live there in the Victor's Village with you and Peeta and watch you live your happy married life and pretend that I'm okay with it. I'm happy for you that you have the life that you want, but I am only so strong, and I just can't watch you live it every day, when it's not the life that I want."

Her eyes started to fill with tears at what he was saying.

"But Gale, you're my best friend. I need you! I want you to come home!"

"Katniss, it's not right to covet another man's wife, and that is what I would be feeling all the time. It's not fair to Peeta, and it's not fair to you or to me. I need some time and some distance, so I can go back to being your best friend, because right now I can't be a good friend to you like this."

Now the tears freely fell from her eyes, and she leaned into Gale, holding onto him tightly.

"I'm so sorry Gale!" she sobbed. "I hate that you are hurting so much, and it's my fault!"

"Shhh. It's no one's fault. It just is what it is. One day, you and I will be fine... we'll still be best friends, but we won't be hurting each other. We just need to get through some changes, that's all."

"What are you going to do Gale?" she asked, between her gasps as she cried.

"I knew I couldn't just go home and sit around with nothing to do, I'd go crazy. At your wedding reception, I had a good conversation with your friend Mr. Harrington, and he offered me a job here. At first I didn't take the offer very seriously, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like I should take him up on his offer."

"Doing what? I don't even know what he does here."

"Mr. Harrington is in charge of all the imports and exports between all the districts and the capitol. He and I had gotten to talking about how he walked you down the aisle, and he asked how you had lost your father. I explained to him how we had both lost our fathers in the mine explosion. That led to a discussion of how I felt that working conditions in our district are unsafe and poorly managed, and he was very receptive. He said he could use someone to go out to all the districts and assess the working conditions in the various mines and mills and factories and report back to him if there are changes that can be made, to make things safer and more efficient. After all, better safety and efficiency means more workers and more money for the capitol. So that's where I was this morning. I went to see Mr. Harrington and talk some more about his offer."

"So you'll be traveling between the districts all the time?" she asked.

"Well, a lot of the time, yes. I'll even be in district 12 sometimes."

"Is this really what you want to do Gale?"

"This is my chance to do something good, Katniss, and I can help make sure that what happened to us doesn't happen to someone else's family."

She started crying again, partly because she was proud of Gale, but mostly because she selfishly didn't want him away from her.

"When will I see you again?" she asked.

"I don't know for sure, but it won't be too long." he assured her, as he held her close and rubbed her back. "I'll be there sometimes for work, and I'll be home sometimes to see my family, and I'll have my house in the Village if I want to come visit, and of course there are all the things that I'm obligated to, just like you... the Victory Tour, the reaping, mentoring... so you'll see me plenty."

She stayed with her head on his shoulder, weeping as he held her.

"I'm proud of you, but I'll miss you so much. Today was already going to be hard enough for me, having to go home without Prim, but now, I have to go home without you too... I don't know if I can do it Gale!"

"Of course you can." Gale soothed her, stroking her hair. "You are the strongest person I know. You're an Everdeen, right?" he asked her with a soft smile.

She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked in his familiar gray eyes.

"So are you, Gale, remember?" she said, placing her hand on his heart and smiling at their little inside joke about being cousins. He moved one of his hands on top of hers as it rested there on his chest.

"There will always be some Everdeen in my heart." he whispered back to her.

With his other hand that wasn't holding hers, he reached up to her face and softly wiped away the tears that had left wet streaks down her cheeks.

"Please don't cry for me Katniss. I'll be fine and so will you. This isn't goodbye forever, it's just a change... something I need to do for myself, that's all."

She nodded, but she knew that this was more than just a bittersweet goodbye or a new adventure. This was a huge shift in the dynamic of their relationship.

A few more silent tears fell from her eyes, and Gale wiped them away, then left his hand there, cupping her face, only a few inches from his own.

"Gale...oh, Gale..." she whispered sadly, unable to think of anything else to say.

The sound of her sighing his name like that made Gale want desperately to kiss her right now, but he wasn't going to ask for it. She was married now, and he wasn't going to ask her to do anything that she might regret later.

He watched as Katniss took hold of his hand that rested on her cheek, and just as she had the other morning in bed, she brought Gale's hand to her mouth and she kissed his palm. Only this time she did want him to feel her love for him. She suddenly wished that she could give him the one thing he had asked her for the other day...that she could kiss his mouth, to show him how much she cared about him, how much she would miss him, but she couldn't. So she did the only thing she could, by kissing the scars on his palm, and then kissed him again on the inside of his wrist.

She heard Gale's breath quicken a little from the feel of her mouth on his skin, and he closed his eyes.

Her heart pounded with a thousand different emotions, but most of all, she was overcome by her realization of how much she was going to miss her best friend. She had always felt safe knowing that Gale was never far away from her, but now he wouldn't be there anymore.

She moved both of her hands up to the sides of Gale's face. He opened his eyes and looked at her with that look...dark, smoldering, pleading. She felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him as they sat together on his bed.

They leaned in towards each other, as if they were being pulled by some magnetic force, until their foreheads were touching and they were nose to nose. Her hands trembled with her indecision. She wanted to kiss him goodbye, but she knew she shouldn't.

Gale could feel her hands shaking as she held them to his face. He swallowed, then he moved his hands from around her waist and brought them up to grasp both of her wrists gently.

"Don't." he whispered.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Don't kiss me Katniss. You'll regret it the minute you walk out that door."

"I won't regret it." she whispered, barely audible, her face still touching his.

"Yes you will." Gale said softly. "Believe me, I want you to kiss me more than I've ever wanted anything, but I know you. If you do it, you will feel guilty, you'll tell Peeta, he will be hurt and angry with both of us... I can't let you live with that. Just hug me goodbye instead, okay? It's enough for me to know that you wanted to."

Gale stared into her eyes as held onto her wrists. This was exactly why he needed to do what he was doing by staying behind. It had taken every ounce of restraint in his body to resist pulling her face those last few millimeters closer and passionately delving into her mouth with his tongue, crossing that fine line between loving her as his best friend and loving her in the sexual way. There was just too much temptation when he was close to her. He didn't want to keep putting her in the position where she might be tempted to be unfaithful to the man she loved and had just married. Gale wanted to be a better person than that, and he knew that Katniss wanted that for herself too.

She threw her arms around his shoulders and buried her face into the side of his neck. She ran her fingers through his hair with one hand. She never wanted to forget what Gale felt like, what he smelled like. She considered that this could have been her future, if she hadn't fallen in love with Peeta.

She stayed there for a minute with her face pressed against his skin, breathing in his scent. She could feel Gale's pulse in the side of his neck where her face was touching. Finally, she lifted her head a little, so that they were cheek to cheek and her mouth was next to his ear.

"Goodbye Gale." she whispered hoarsely. "I have to go now."

She let go of him and pulled away from his embrace so fast, that when it happened, Gale couldn't even be certain that it had really happened or if it was just his imagination... but as she pulled her face away from his, Gale was sure that he'd felt her lips brush across his ever so slightly for just one fraction of a second before she turned and rushed out the door, shutting it quickly behind her.

Katniss ran back to her own suite across the hall from where Peeta was waiting for her to return. She needed a few minutes alone to pull herself together. She didn't want him to see her bawling her eyes out over Gale. She went into her room, shut and locked the door, then slid her back down the door and sat down leaning against it. She let herself cry for a few minutes until her little emotional storm had passed. She felt better afterward. She went into her bathroom and splashed some cool water on her face, then took a few deep, cleansing breaths.

She hated to admit it, but Gale was right. They needed some separation, if she wanted to keep both her marriage and her friendship intact.

When she felt calm and ready, she took one more look around her suite to make sure she had gotten everything she'd brought with her, then she left the room to return to Peeta's. When she opened the door, Peeta had his back to her, zipping his suit and her wedding dress into a garment bag that was hanging on the closet door.

"Hey, baby!" he greeted her, without turning around. "Gale ready to go?"

"No. He's not coming." she replied quietly.

Peeta turned around and noticed right away that her eyes were all red, like she'd been crying. He rushed to her side and took her in his arms.

"Is everything okay?" he asked worriedly.

"He said... he just can't go back." she answered. "He doesn't want to live in the Village with us."

She went on to explain how Gale would be staying behind and starting a new job working for Mr. Harrington, and how Gale had said that this was just something he needed to do for himself. She left out the part about how the biggest reason he needed to do this was because of his feelings for her, and how he just couldn't watch them be happily married every day. She figured that Peeta could probably fill in the blanks himself if he thought about it.

And he did. He knew exactly what Gale's motives were with this decision. Peeta smiled softly at Katniss.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I am finally starting to see the greatness in Gale that you've seen all along."

"What do you mean?" she asked, totally confused. How could Peeta be admiring a man who was in love with his wife?

"I always thought that Gale was kind of arrogant...like he felt that you were his property and I was stealing something that belonged to him. But lately, I've seen that Gale is a lot more selfless than I've given him credit for. He's made no secret of how much he loves you, and I will be honest and admit that sometimes it has bothered me, like when I watch the two of you with your own unspoken language. You probably don't even realize that you do it, but you two have this ability to communicate without even speaking. It's remarkable, really. It used to bother me, but now I've sort of gotten used to it, that it's just a part of who you are."

Katniss hadn't really ever thought about it, but it was probably true. She and Gale used to hunt for hours in total sync with each other, but never having to speak a word.

Peeta continued his explanation.

"Gale gained my respect when I watched him with Prim, and it was so obvious that he really would have sacrificed his life for you if he could have, so you could have your sister back. And now, don't you see what he's doing, Katniss? This is his way of giving you up. He is letting you go so that you can have a life with me, and he is spared the pain of watching you be happy with someone other than himself. I hope that Gale is able to find happiness here, I really do. He deserves it."

Katniss nodded, then hugged him tightly, amazed by how intuitive and understanding Peeta always was.

"I hope so too." she agreed.

"Come on, let's head for the train station so we can go home." Peeta said.

When they arrived at the station with their suitcases, there were many people they knew who would also be making the trip home with them- Katniss' mother, Peeta's parents, Gale's family, Haymitch, Madge Undersee and her father the mayor. There were also a few who were staying behind but had gathered there to say goodbye. She hugged Effie and Cinna and Portia, then at the very end, she got to Gale and Mr. Harrington. She was trying hard not to cry.

She hugged Mr. Harrington first.

"Goodbye, and thank you for everything." she told him. "Please take care of Gale for me."

"I will, darling. Don't worry about Gale. Your dear friend is destined to do great things."

Katniss looked at him quizzically. She wondered how he knew that they weren't really related.

Mr. Harrington spoke very quietly to her.

"I know he's not your cousin, dear. I see how he looks at you. But he is very much like you, and that is how I know that he will be successful. He is going to make life better for other people. You should be proud of him."

"I am. Gale always stands up for what he believes in." she answered.

"Just like you, Katniss. Now you go home and have a happy life with your husband! I'll look forward to the next time you lovebirds are in the capitol!" His eyes crinkled as he smiled at her.

She hugged him one more time before moving on to Gale for one last goodbye.

There was so much she wanted to say, but words seemed to escape her at the moment.

She just held out her arms and Gale pulled her in for a big, warm hug.

"Take care of yourself Gale. I'll look after your family while you're not there."

"Thank you, I appreciate that. Have a safe trip home. I'll see you soon, I promise." he told her, as he released her from his arms.

Peeta approached Gale next, and shook his hand.

"Good luck Gale. And thank you for everything you've done for her... for both of us."

"You're welcome." Gale said. "Just take good care of her. She loves you."

"I will." Peeta promised.

He let go of Gale's hand, and walked back over to Katniss who was thanking Cinna one last time. Peeta put his arm around her back.

"Come on," he said softly. "It's time."

He led her onto the train and they sat down. Katniss sat next to the window so she could look out and wave goodbye. It was such a bittersweet moment for her. She was so happy to be going home with Peeta, but so sad to be leaving behind so many people she cared about, most of all Gale.

As the train started to pull away, she stayed focused on Gale. She kissed her fingertips, then raised her hand to the window, as if blowing him a kiss. He did the same in return. She watched him until they rounded the bend and he was out of sight.

Then she snuggled down into the crook of Peeta's arm, with her head on his shoulder.

He kissed the side of her forehead.

"Let's go home." he said, leaning his head against hers.