Author's Note: Ari does get sad, but right now is not the time…well almost…she's a bit more level headed than our Mokingjay isn't she?

Thanks go to my reviewers: JB, EWD, DAK and HL

Chapter 58

Not to Worry

Peeta looks like he has been starved. The clothing is hanging off him much too loosely, and there is something more. Something that is concerning me more than the malnourished look of him. He's trembling, his hands have a nervous twitch and he looks exhausted.

I can see Maverick in my periphery as I go to the largest screen.

What are they doing to you? I ask silently, "tape this" I tell Ziggy who has already pressed a button.

He is pleading for Katniss to see sense, to think for herself. That all this will end badly.

He's scared! They have been beating him for sure because when he does move he winces badly.

I don't go to see Gale but he finds me. Maverick had dropped me off not long after the airing of that Capitol special.

"Did you see him?" he asks and I nod, my hands are trembling as bad as Peeta's were but it's not from being in physical pain. No this is a completely different discomfort. This is worry and I don't have a handle on it.

Gale comes over and I enter his arms and cry. Softly, because I don't want attention.

"Can you do me a favor?" he asks, he probably knows if he tries to console me I might get even more upset, "I was supposed to go hunting with Katniss but I can't Beetee wants to me to help with some ideas he has. Can you go?"

"Me hunt with Everdeen?" I choke out a laugh, "you're not scared I'll shoot her?"

He chuckles, "no, just don't be surprised if she starts arguing" he wipes the tears away, "get in the fresh air okay? We'll talk later"

I meet Everdeen by the fence line at our exit into the woods. Beetee was nice enough to create an atlatl for me and he has a series of spears with different functions even poison tipped ones. I refuse all but the regular no frill variety I am used to. Why shoot a poison dart if a regular one kills just as easily?

When we are at least several meters out Katniss ditches her earpiece and motions me to do the same. I'm reluctant because we are on borrowed time out here but I think she's done this enough with Gale and they haven't gotten into trouble yet.

We bag a few rabbits and I get a deer before she can draw. As we are cleaning our kills she looks at me, I'm busying myself I know. All I see is Peeta, my little brother beaten and more than likely bruised and broken under that ill fitting suit.

"You saw him too" she says as she strips a rabbit of its fur, it's the first thing she says to me, "how come you didn't see Gale, or me?"

"Gale found me last night, and if I went to see you Katniss they would know" I look at her, "Peeta is right you have to know who you can trust and in any man made structure trust is a commodity we don't have a lot of."

"I don't trust anyone" she says, "maybe Gale, not Haymitch or Plutarch or Coin"

"Wise" I say, I don't ask about me and my team because she's not in our circle, "we recorded his message"

"Why?" she asks as I return to my skinning

"We have to know both sides if we want to have clear heads, Plutarch is right they won't kill any of them but they won't treat them like the victors they were now, they are fodder you realize" I rip off the skin then wrap the young buck back in it for now, "they are going to use them as bait to try and pull us out, make us make mistakes"

"Would they?" she asks and I nod, "it's been done before?" I nod, "to who?"

"Me Katniss" I look at her again, "Peeta never told you?" she shakes her head, "look basics are this, Snow knows your weakness, so does Coin. They will twist you and pull you until you have to do a desperate act to get away" I roll up my sleeve to show her my tracking scar, "it was done to me when I was sixteen by district Thirteen with Plutarch helping out and Makenzie and a machine Ziggy made. They had taken my stylist, my mentor and then finally my brother. I died that day in their eyes, that's why I'm a ghost"

"That's why you don't want the camera on you" Katniss says and I nod, "they would use Peeta on me?"

"That's not what you have to think about, you love him?" she doesn't respond, "he loves you y'know, and he's still trying to protect you, he's warning you to tread lightly, like when you hunt. But now you're the buck and Coin and Snow are the hunters"

"You don't trust Coin either" she now realizes it, "that why the codes haven't been given"

"You know what the price would be if we told them?" I bag the rabbits as I get her to stand, she shakes her head, "lets just say if the capitol knew what I found out and the district this battle would be a lot more bloody, Coin would run headlong and probably kill everyone knowing her. That's why I haven't given the codes yet"

Katniss is quiet, I don't bother starting conversations with the kid, she does though, "I'm sorry" she says quietly

"'bout what?" I seriously don't know why she's apologizing

"That you lost your family" she looks at me I catch it in my peripheral vision, "I…I made a mockup of Seneca dangling from a noose then threw red berry juice at it, they gave me a twelve"

I'm sure she thinks I would be upset but I start laughing, "ah kid you would have made Seneca proud" I pat her shoulder and pass her the rabbits to carry, "just remember what Peeta was telling you what I told you and you'll be okay"

"But he won't" she stops, "Ariana…can we get him?"

I shake my head, "Coin won't budge and she has the winning hand right now, Peeta will come back into our circle" I put a hand on her shoulder, "trust me okay? We will see him again"

She seems to take me at my word and we drop the game with one of the guard stating we need to shower. And we do, we have animal blood on our precious grey uniforms.

"To be all honest about these" I pull at my shirt as we get in the elevator, "I prefer district eight colors"

"How did you know Commander Paylor?" she asks

"That's a story for another hunting jaunt kid" I nudge her and she smirks, I think she likes me now.