Author's Note: Hi again. So my last chapter didn't receive many reviews ): I'm sorry if you guys didn't like it, I will try to improve my writing. One of my favorite readers mentioned that this story should pick up the pace, so back to action. Let's solve this Katniss/Gale situation and start a new era. Please reviews You can say whatever is on your mind, if you like it or hate it. I spend hours of my time writing it and I would appreciate if you guys at least let me know if I'm doing okay. Enjoy
I don't own The Hunger Games
Chapter 14
Katniss's POV
They are taking so long. What is happening? Is Peeta still lost in his dark world? I'm so lost with my thoughts that I barely notice the front door opening. They are back. I try to run for the door but the burning pain doesn't let me. Seconds later Peeta comes to the living room with Haymitch. He looks tired and sweaty but his sky like blue eyes shine when he looks at me. I can't contain the smile that leaves my lips, my first true smile in weeks. Peeta runs in my direction and takes me in his strong arms.
"Are you okay? I'm so sorry I didn't mean to scare you. Everything is okay now, I promise." I hug him as tight as I can. Once again I could've lost my dandelion but he found his way back to me. He pulls my face close to his and kisses me. Peeta never kissed me like this before. He is passionate but at the same time it seems like he trying to possess me. We pull away and look into each other's eyes, his eyes show me he is worried about me as much as I'm worried about him.
"Do you guys want me to go to town and get you something to eat? I can bring something from the Hob." Haymitch asks, both Peeta and I nod our heads. Before he leaves, Haymitch looks at Peeta like he is trying to say something to him, from the corner of my eye I see Peeta nod. What could they be thinking about?
Once Haymitch leaves Peeta faces me and takes a deep breath. "I was talking to Haymitch about you this morning and he wants to know what happened between you and Gale. I know you don't want anybody to know but he is just trying to help you. I said that I was going to talk to you before I gave him any explanations." I don't know what to answer. They can't help me, nobody can. I'm so tired of feeling pain, but I don't know what to do to stop it.
"I promise he will only know what you want him to know." Once again I don't answer him. What am I supposed to say? I don't want anyone else to know about it. I look around the room like it will give me some kind of answer. "Hey, hey baby look at me." Peeta brings his hand up to caress my cheek and slowly turns my face towards his. "We need to get some help. Katniss I won't let you keep feeling this pain. You are suffering and the only way to end it is to get someone to help you." The only problem is I don't want anyone to help me.
Suddenly Haymitch comes running thorough the door. Both me and Peeta jump, the memories from out games still fresh in our minds, our survival instinct kicks in. "I swear I didn't ask her to come her. It was probably Greasy Sae. Before you shoot an arrow through her head remind yourself that she was just trying to help." Haymitch says while trying to catch his breath. "What the hell are you talking about Haymitch?" says Peeta. Haymitch sits on the opposite couch and looks straight at me. "Sweetheart, your mother is here."
Peeta's POV
I can't believe what I just heard from Haymitch. , here in district 12. I turn my head to look at Katniss. She is pale like a ghost and she doesn't seem to be breathing. "Katniss" I try, she won't answer me. She isn't blinking or even moving an inch. "Katniss, Katniss please talk to me. It's okay love." Tears start to roll down her face, but she won't move. I try pulling her to me but she pulls away. Strange sounds are coming out of her mouth, like she is sobbing and screaming from inside. "Please Katniss calm down." That's when I hear someone knocking on the door. I look at Haymitch and he looks back at me. "Answer the door and don't let her come upstairs" I say while picking Katniss up and carrying her to Haymitch's bedroom. comes in barely greeting Haymitch or asking for permission. I can hear her voice asking if he has seen her daughter. How dare her to come here after leaving her daughter, twice, to survive by herself. I feel so mad at her for being here but at the same time I feel relieved. Mr. Everdeen was known as one of the best healers in this district, maybe she can help Katniss.
I run upstairs as fast as my still healing broken ribs would let me, I hope she didn't see us. I open the door to the bedroom and lay Katniss on the bed. Haymitch's bedroom is not the best place to try to calm yourself down since the smell of alcohol makes you dizzy. I sit on the bed and look down at Katniss. Her eyes are blank and wet with tears. "Can you please look at me." To my surprise she actually does. I try pulling her to me again and this time she hugs me tight. I feel so scared every time her mind shuts down like that.
"W-why is s-she h-here?" her voice is shaking and I can barely understand what she is saying. "I don't know Katniss. Baby, she is your mom, you should trust her. She can help you." I say while caressing her hair. "N-no Peeta. S-s-he wouldn't understand. S-she is probably going to b-blame it on me." I know that by the sound of her voice she is finally calming down. I kiss her forehead and pull away from our hug. "How can you be so sure? If you don't want to see a doctor then you will have to let her help you." I see in her eyes that she is tired of this situation. She looks so sad and it breaks my heart to see her like this. "I'm going downstairs and I will talk to her." I leave the bedroom before she can argue with my decision.
Haymitch and are talking in the living room. "Afternoon ." She turns her head in my direction and gives me a small smile. "Hi Peeta. How have you been?" I don't know why but I feel like I was the last person she wanted to see right now. "Actually I would like to talk to you and Haymitch about Katniss." I say ignoring her question. They both look at each other and than back at me. I take a deep breath. It's now or never. I have to tell them. "So as I suppose you two must know Gale came back to twelve to take care of Katniss. I was not allowed to come back until Dr. Aurelius was sure I wasn't dangerous. So when I came back Katniss seemed so depressed, she wasn't okay at all and I wanted to do something to help her. We grew back together and I went to her house everyday to bring her some fresh bread." They both wait for me to continue. Here comes the worse part. "One day I went to her house to bring her some cheese buns and she was worse than ever. She wouldn't stop crying and she wouldn't let anybody touch her, well except me. I went looking for Gale to ask him what happened and…he told me that…" The words are stuck in my throat. I watch their reaction to everything I said so far. Haymitch already knows half of it but seems surprise and worried. I squeeze my eyes shut. "Gale raped her" I say as fast as I can. There, I said it.
"What the heck are you talking about" I hear Haymitch say. "This is an absurd. Gale would never do that." Ms. Everdeen yells. I can't believe she is defending him. "He was the only who told me that." I say. She looks completely desperate. "Did you bring her to a doctor? Where is she? I want to see her." She looks worried and for the first time I can see how much she cares for her daughter.
"No, she doesn't want to go see a doctor. Can you help her?" I say, my voice sounding hoarse. "Of course I can. Where is she?" asks looking around. "Upstairs" I answer. She stares at Haymitch "I thought you said you didn't know where she was." Haymitch stares at me. "Can we just go?" I say. They both follow me upstairs.
I open the door to Haymitch's bathroom and see Katniss curled in the fetal position. She looks so small and fragile. "Kat?" I say. She turns around and looks at me. Her eyes are wet with tears and she looks scared to death. "Hey, it's okay now, your mom is here and she is going to take care of you." I look from Katniss to . She looks shocked, like she just saw a ghost. I can't imagine what's going on in her head right now.
"Darling everything will be okay. I'm going to help you. I need to examine you. I'm going to prepare everything. Haymitch can you get me some towels and warm water. I'm going to get some of the things I need from our house. Peeta you stay here and look after her." Before anyone has a change to say anything she is out the door.
"P-P-Peeta" Katniss whispers. Her voice is shaking and she is even more pale. I sit on the bed next to her and wrap my arms around her. "It's okay, don't be afraid. She is just going to help you and then this pain is going to go away. I promise." I can feel her tears on my neck and her entire body is shaking. "Shhhhh, it's okay." We stay in each other's arms until I hear the front door open. Ms. Everdeen half walks, half runs through the bedroom door and towards the bed. Haymitch comes right after holding a bowl with water and clean towels.
"Okay, now I need you both to leave." She says, I feel Katniss hold to me even tighter "No. No please, Peeta stay with me. Please don't leave me." She whimpers, I can barely understand what she is saying since her voice is shaking and small sobs are leaving her mouth. I look up at Ms. Everdeen, asking for permission to stay. She looks from me to Katniss, I can clearly read her expression and she doesn't want me to stay. "I don't think it's a good idea. I need to talk to you Katniss and I would feel more comfortable if we were alone." I can't leave her.
"N-N-No. P-Please." Painful sobs make her body shake. "Shhhh, it's okay. I would never leave you." I don't care what Ms. Everdeen thinks about my presence here. Katniss is the only thing that matter. "Okay, Katniss I need you to lay on your back and spread your legs." Katniss won't move. Ms. Everdeen tries to force her to open her legs. "I got it, I got it." I say to her, I can't let anybody hurt my Katniss again.
"Hey, hey can you do this for me? I'm going to be here by your side the entire time, don't worry about anything." Slowly I position her the way Ms. Everdeen ordered. We don't break eye contact and tears won't stop falling her beautiful face.
"I will have to touch you." Ms. Everdeen says as she removes Katniss pants. I can't contain the knot that forms in my stomach when I see her panties colored with blood. She was bleeding this entire time and she didn't tell me. She didn't tell anybody. I can't even bring myself to think that I was letting Katniss bleed to death.
"Your are still bleeding a lot.." Ms. Everdeen says, I can see that she is probably thinking the same as me, how can someone be cruel enough to do something like this? Gale will pay for this, I promise. Ms. Everdeen presses a wet towel between Katniss legs gaining a sob from her. Tears start to stream down my face, I can't see her in so much pain. I caress her cheek and whisper soothing words in her ear, but I just wish right now that I could take all this pain from her.
"Darling I'm afraid you will need some stitches." This makes Katniss cry harder. I hold her to me and keep caressing her face. I don't know what else to do. I feel completely useless. "I need you to think about something else right now. Maybe tell me something, anything you want. What about something you like to do?" I see Ms. Everdeen has a syringe in her hand, probably some kind of anesthetic. She stares at me as if saying "hold her please." Without thinking twice I bring my lips to Katniss's and I only feel when her entire body tenses and she tries to scream against my lips.
"Shhh, I'm sorry baby. I'm so sorry." I say as I keep kissing her cheeks, forehead and lips. Terrible sobs are freely leaving her mouth now and her face is soaked with tears. "It's okay now darling, you can relax. You won't feel anything." I watch as Ms. Everdeen works and Katniss's body starts to relax a little. I can only hope that all of this will be over soon and we can resume our lives the best way we can.
I count the seconds until Ms. Everdeen finally looks up and smiles. "I'm done here, I will apply some healing herbs, which you will have to apply every time you take a shower, and make sure you two don't do anything you are not supposed to. I know you know what I'm talking about." Great, now she thinks that we do more than just sleep during the night, I couldn't even think about something like that while Katniss is hurt.
"Peeta can you make me a favor and get her one of your pants since I couldn't get in her room, it's locked for some reason and I couldn't find the key." I look at Katniss, who is still crying but she looks much more relieved now, kiss her forehead and go to my closet. I choose of my old sweatpants, the smallest I have, and give them to Ms. Everdeen. She hands them to Katniss, grab her things and kisses Katniss's cheek. "We will talk when you feel a little better. It's okay now, you will heal sooner than you think." She leaves the room without another word.
I help Katniss to get dressed and carry her to one of the chairs while I change the sheets of Haytmich's bed, since they are soaked with blood, tears and sweat. She hasn't stopped crying and I know that even though she knows that it is all over, she is still scared. Her face is still pale and wet with tears. I walk to her and carry her back to the bed, where we lay down and I hold her close to my chest. "It's over baby, you will be okay now. We are going to start again and I promise that I will do whatever is possible to make you happy again." I wipe her cheeks and kiss both of them. Finally I kiss her soft lips and I feel her kissing me back. For the first time since that terrible night I feel something I thought we would never feel again. We will start a new chapter from now on. I will make sure Gale pays for what he did and I will also make sure that nobody in this world will ever hurt my Katniss again. I want her to feel what I'm feeling right now. I will be her dandelion. I will make sure that she sees an open door. I will make sure she feels hope again. Hope for a better future. Hope for happiness. Hope.
So my last chapter only received one review. That made me cry. I know there are more people reading this story, so please leave me your thoughts. If you don't like something I will fix it. Katniss is finally walking down the recovery path. But what about Gale? Will he pay for what he has done or it is already too late? I probably won't be able to update soon become I have to take the SAT this Wednesday so I need to study for it. I love my readers, especially those who care about my story. See you guys soon.