Johanna met Gale with a kiss, just outside the decontamination room. Romulus trudged by, carrying his shovel. "Why is he allowed to take the shovel inside?" Gale muttered. "If there's really radioactive contamination out there, that thing should be hot as all Hells but one!"

"Hush," Johanna whispered. "You aren't supposed to be asking questions."

"He shot the Mutt," Romulus said around a mouthful of flavorless rations. "But the Mutt cannot be hurt by bullets. Only by this shovel, because it is a magic shovel." He waved the weapon with his free hand. Gale said nothing. He was struggling to remember what had happened himself.

"Rosanna was a good girl today," Prim said. "We were in the library, and she was learning to count from the page numbers in the old books. She also told me the names of birds."

"Yes," President Snow said, "I was perfectly charmed myself. Mr. Hawthorne, you might be interested to know that Johanna dropped in. She is clearly quite taken with Rosanna, and the feeling seems to be quite mutual." Rosanna giggled, and Peeta managed a smile. Johanna just blushed.

Gale looked at Haymitch. "What did you do today?"

"Victoria and I were looking at the machinery in the utility room," he said. "We also talked to Snow. He actually gave us some help. I guess those cameras pick up a lot, and he's been nice. He could almost pass as human."

"High praise, under the circumstances," Snow said. "But I was simply doing my part for out common interest. I am, after all, as dependent on this shelter's systems as you are."

People left by ones and twos. Thread went to the storage room next door, and they heard banging and the hiss of a welding torch. Prim took Rosanna to bed, and Peeta left soon after. Haymitch rose, chivalrously offered her his hand and escorted her back to the ladies' room. When they were alone, with Thread still working, doing something with a chain, they rose and went back to the bedroom. They climbed onto the bed, without undressing, and spent a while looking awkwardly at each other.

Can you read lips? Gale mouthed. Johanna nodded. We both know why we're here. We're being punished, for wanted to go back where we belong. It's like solitary in a prison, or a quiet room at a preschool.

There's something else, Johanna mouthed back. In here, it feels real. Like, the machines in the utility room looked like a real generator and life support machinery. Kiss me. Make some extra noise. Start taking my clothes off.

Gale complied. Then what we want to find is somewhere else, he said. Then he spoke aloud, just a whisper: "Snow. Can you hear me?"

The screen came on. "Of course," Snow said.

"How about you play that recording you mentioned?"

"I would be happy too... just in your room, of course."

"Of. Course." Gale drew closer to Johanna, and she started to remove his clothes. Soft sounds came from the speaker, kissing, sighing and murmuring, then a gasp from Johanna.

"Just hold me, Gale," her voice spoke from the intercom. "Just hold me, and I'll know who I am." In the flesh, Johanna blushed. "Tell me who I am, Gale. Tell me who I am to you."

Gale's voice said in reply: "I think... you're the only woman I ever loved."

Johanna's laugh came in stereo, from the intercom and from the bed. "Gale, that's the most pathetically hyperventilated line a guy's ever said to me," she said in the recording. "Try to convince me it's true. Oh, how about you tell me how we met? I was too out of it to remember anything for sure, but I get flashes, especially... I didn't think this was real, but I have this picture of you, leaning right over me, and above you it's the ceiling of my cell... Were you in there?"

"Yeah, I went in myself while the team was taking care of Peeta. I was taking a good look to be sure it was you. Hells, I was ready to double check that you were a woman. Then you looked at me and said my name, and... you kissed me. Oh, and then somebody shot me."

"Ouch. You know why I knew your name? You were the item all over the Capitol. Seriously. I know for me it was crush at first sight. So then we end up in the same hospital, and you were dropping in, and as soon as I could get up, I was trailing you all over... Oh, and do you remember the first time Katniss saw us together? I was visiting her when she got her spleen shot out, and you dropped in, and I got up and got a feel for the goods on the way out... I swear, I thought she was going to try to kill me! Seriously, what was the real deal with her? A girl's got to have the dish on her competition."

"Well, what really brought us together was that neither of us ever wanted to get married. She had her reasons, and you've seen mine. That made us feel safe opening up to each other. After she went to the Games, that changed, and I thought it meant she wanted more from me. What it came down to was that I felt like I owed her something, and I could only see two ways to balance things out: marry her or die for her. When the war ended, and Paylor was elected peacefully, the only thing I could think was, I had missed my only real chance- to die doing something good instead of turning into my Dad. I only took the job in Two because I had nowhere else to go, unless it was home."

"But I was in Two. I got you that offer."

"Yeah, I knew it, and I thought that was my best reason not to go. I was more scared of you than I've ever been of anyone. At first, I thought I was just fresh meat to you, and that was bad enough. But when you kept at it, all the times you followed me or pulled a favor to get me to come to you, I knew there was more to it, and I couldn't understand what else someone like you would want from me. I finally gave in because I hoped I could figure you out. But I don't think I ever did."

Johanna laughed again. "Well, I guess you could say, what I really wanted you for was... breeding stock. Oh, not like that, though I can't say it didn't cross my mind. Up till I met you, I did treat men like fresh meat, and that was because the only thing I had to aim for was living to see the next morning. But with you, I got to thinking about the day after that. So I gave up on everything else, just to set you up in a pasture. You gave me the happiest three months of my life. But then you jumped the fence, and it broke my heart, but by then, I loved you too much not to let you go. I let you move on, but I didn't."

"Seriously? I left because I thought you didn't want us to tie each other down!"

There was the sounds of tears and laughter simultaneously, mixed with more than a few kisses. "I didn't, Gale. I admit it. But I was wrong. I hurt myself, and I can see now, I hurt you even more. I'm sorry." There was the sound of a long kiss, then many more.

"You realize... they won't let us remember this. They're just playing with us, maybe letting us improv while they come up with a new script."

"Well then, we're going to have to do something really hard to forget..."

Gale gave a wordless cry of pleasure, but then shouted in anger: "No! This is just playing into their game. They want us to feel like we belong together, because we will remember that feeling even if they don't let us remember anything else. Then they can make us feel like we belong in whatever script they put in front of us, just by putting us together every time."

Johanna said through tears: "But it's a real feeling, Gale! I always felt it. Don't tell me you don't feel it too! And haven't you asked yourself, what if they want this because it really is what's best for us? What if they they saw something we've been denying to ourselves, and brought us here just to show it to us? Maybe, if we show them we understand, they will let us go!"

"Maybe. But we can't let them call the shots, and we can't think only of ourselves. You were right the first time. Just hold on, and we can remember..."

The recording trailed off in a few sighs and then breathing, heavy at first but quickly softening into restful sleep. Johanna reached for Gale. "I do remember it, all of it," Johanna said. "You do too. Tell me you remember. Tell me it's real."

He sprang up in sudden anger. "You bastards! You're doing it again! You're letting us remember, just to make us more confused the next time you make us forget!" He sprang for the door, but a force field hurled him back with an electric shock. He looked up, as the door opened.

"I'll grant you this, boy," Ligeus Hawthorne said. "You figure things out fast enough."