Author's Note: Quick one today, Thanks to my reviewers JB and DAK

ONWARD! (told you it was quick =P )

Chapter 63

Heroes Return?

We don't go to supper all three of our loved ones are huge question marks that we can't answer right now, food is the last thing on any of our minds.

"Hey Ari?" Katniss asks, I think to keep her mind occupied she's ready and willing to ask anything. I'm lying on my back looking up at the painted ceiling as the birds dart by, "back in Twelve when we were sparring…that time with Gale" she says, "what was that?"

I sigh, "one of my less stellar moments" I reply, "I didn't want to hurt him" I close my eyes, "I have a very strong instinct to defend myself when I'm cornered, I have no flight response"

"That's why in your arena you ran back to fight Jade?" Finnick asks and I shrug

"No that's because she was stubborn, but I know what she's getting at" Maverick replies, he's laying in the grass with me

"Don't Mav" I warn

This gets Katniss and Finnicks attention at least they are distracted but its embarrassing me…stalwart soldier of fortune.

"The first guy she got kissed by got nailed in the groin" Maverick informs them.

Both Finnick and Katniss start snickering

"Yeah you laugh" I snap at them, "you laugh but you don't know me, you might know me better than these two!" I point at Finnick then at Katniss and Maverick

"What does she mean?" Katniss asks

Finnick realizes and stops laughing, "sorry Ari got caught up"

"Ariana?" Katniss looks at me

"When I was fifteen, or on my birthday when I turned fifteen Snow decided to play the same deal as he had done Finn" I say covering my eyes with an arm as I lay back down, "it's was the first sign of trouble and when I lost Hellen"

"Sorry" Katniss says, "guess you have been on the defensive ever since"

"Hence why I ran that day" I tell Katniss, "because as much I care for Gale I didn't know how to tell him…still don't"

"You can't say it?" Katniss says and I shake my head

"I had that problem too" Finnick says, "winning young is no picnic, it will pass though"

"He said he loved me" I sit back up, "he said it and all I could say was for him to come back"

Katniss clams up but Finnick says the same as Haymitch, 'it was better than nothing'.

It's almost a quarter to eleven when my communicator goes off.

'ER ML AC!' Makenzie is used to using our initial it means one thing, they need all hands, even those retired.

"Mav" I show him my communicator. "guys get to the communication lab and stay with Ziggy, we'll message her as soon as you guys can come" I get up fully and help Mav to his chair after giving that cryptic message to Katniss and Finnick. They follow behind to the lab and Maverick and I go past them to the internal entrance to the hospital.

Someone tosses our labcoats to us as Makenzie comes over.

"They're on their way back we have to go over some things" she says

"Is Gale okay?" I ask

"We don't know who has what injury dear, we have a list of what we are expecting, one death" Makenzie says.

I reach out for Maverick, who takes my hand and gives it a squeeze. All the doctors are looking at the list of patients:

- Glossectomy (turning someone into an avox), severe malnourishment (that's a prisoner)

- Shrapnel right scapular, contusions, concussion, unconscious

- Concussion, minor cuts

- Electric burns, malnourishment (one of the prisoners)

- Malnourishment, disassociation (Peeta for sure)

- Disassociation (probably Annie)

- Burns, and broken arm

- Severe shrapnel damage, possible deafness

- Head injury, unconscious, internal contusions

Out of the fourteen that went, one dead and nine injured two unconscious…dunno if that's a good thing or not.

"Alright people we have a lot of injured coming in, and in different states" Makenzie talks us up like a coach of a baseball game, "we have to work together, everyone take a station, the most severe will be coming in we are going in triage priority"

Maverick and I are given the patient with the shoulder injury; we get a suture kit ready and sterile instruments to dig out the pieces of metal.

I'm scared and my hands are sweating. I hop on the balls of my feet, trying to feel less nervous, less out of place. I was running around this medical ward not long ago. Now I wish I was still in the hummingbird enclosure being teased.

"Sorry for telling them about Ken" Maverick says, "I thought it would loosen you up"

"I'm praying Gale isn't the one dead" I tell him, "I have to tell him Maverick"

"I know and you will" he says, "he will be back trust me"

Sure enough the team returns. Ken, Johanna, Tracker and one of the soldiers are rushed to surgery. Tracker has severely dried lips, he looks as skinny as I can get only not in a healthy way. Could he have had his tongue removed? Would they do that to him? Johanna has burns on her skin and her hair was shaved short. Ken just looks pale, really pale.

"Incoming!" an orderly rushed a man on a gurney towards us, our patient.

Our patient is Gale. His clothing is torn as they have covered his shoulder in thick gauze.

'You can do this Ari' I try and talk myself up but my hands are shaking as I get my stuff ready. I look at his face, how it's warped in pain, much like in Twelve when his back had opened up. I worked on him back then, but now that I realize how much I care for him…

"I can't" I look at Maverick

"Yes you can" he says

I start on his back, but like I had said and known my hands aren't steady I'm working on a person I really care about and all I want to do is collapse on him and cry and him hold me. Saying he's okay but he's not. He's not okay.

"How is it going?" Makenzie says coming over. She sees me shaking and comes over, "I'll take over" she says gently as she takes the forceps from me, "Boggs is okay I gave him some gauze and ointments for his cuts and sewed him up relatively fast I can take Gale"

I run out of our corner. Just to see in one of the room Peeta being examined. I go over and watch as two doctors are talking to him shinning a light in his eyes. When he turns and sees me though his face is confused.

I hear the back entry doors open. I turn and Haymitch is leading Finnick and Katniss in, Ziggy following behind them.

I then hear a shriek of recognition and this young woman, with messy dark hair is standing not that far from the doorway I am standing at.

"Annie!" Finnick runs and they crash in a hug so reminiscent of when I got back to Thirteen and saw Maverick and Ziggy for the first time in two years. They are crying softly and kissing, you can't help but feel their love for each other.

Katniss runs up to me, she looks in and the doctors are just finishing up. She goes in and Peeta is looking at her. She's about to say his name as he brushes a hand on her face but then his hands are wrapping around her neck.

"You mutt!" he cries in alarm, "Mutt! You tried to kill me!"

"Peeta!" I cry in shock but he's not reacting, I can see Katniss grasping his wrists but she's flailing and if something isn't done…

I see a guard, I grab his gun and go over, I hit Peeta in the temple really hard with the butt of the rifle.

Both drop like sacks of potatoes Katniss is coughing and orderlies strap Peeta to his bed and race him to the psyche ward while other doctors race to help Katniss.

"Ariana?" Makenzie says, "you just saved her" she smiles but I'm just looking at the rifle

"What did they do to him?" I ask

"We'll find out and fix it trust me" she says, "Gale is coming around"

I race to his side. He's on his stomach.

"Gale?" I touch his face and he opens his eyes, he gives me a small weak smile.

"Hey beautiful" he says and I loose composure, I start crying from relief and he shushes me, "Ariana it's alright" I shake my head, "okay it's not alright but I'm here, don't cry"

I finally manage to say "you came back," and he chuckles

"I missed you too" he smirks and wipes my face, "how is Peeta? He was acting odd"

"He tried to choke Katniss" I explain and tell him what he did, we look grim

"Ariana Gale has to rest" Makenzie says, "you can come back later" she adds when I give her a look saying I don't want to leave his side.

We get to the psyche ward as they are working on Peeta, they had taken a blood sample not long since he came and Maverick is waiting on the results. I pace with Makenzie watching, Dr Aurelius is watching as well. Haymitch shows up and I glare at him, because it's his fault and Plutarch, and lo! Here comes the pompous man now.

"See what you did!" I snap, my emotions are running full whack now because my boyfriend is badly hurt, Katniss was almost chocked to death, Tracker is in surgery for god knows what and now they have done something to the one person I consider my little brother.

"He's alive isn't he?" Plutarch says and it takes Haymitch and Makenzie to keep me from doing to Plutarch what Peeta did to Katniss.

"You arrogant pompous piece of work!" I snarl, "look what they did to him! He's not okay, he almost killed the girl he loves! And you try and see the glass as half full?! Let me go! Lemme at him!" I finally swing and Haymitch catches my fist.

"Settle down!" he snaps at me, "or if ya gotta swing we'll take you to the dojo and you won't be let back in"

"You have no jurisdiction here Abernathy" Makenzie's word are forceful and very clipped, she comes in front of me and holds my face in her hands, that moment just before Peeta started choking Katniss he was searching her eyes like Makenzie is doing to me now.

"I know they did wrong" she says, "and although pummeling would make you feel better, it's not going to help Peeta, Katniss or Gale if you aren't here"

She's right I'm the only one other than Haymitch that is still standing from our little circle, I have to calm down.

"Get them outta my sight" I tell her feeling my words shake as they come out with the anguish I feel at the moment, she nods, goes out and returns with two burly orderlies.

"You have a choice gentlemen" she says and they don't need any more convincing they both leave.

Dr Aurelius is pacing. "I have an idea but I want to wait for the blood work up"

Maverick comes in an hour later, he has the folder in multiple copies.

"Tracker venom?" I look at them, I remember reading something in my files about this, "they were brainwashing him"

"Worse" the psyche doctor says, "hijacking, it's worse than brainwashing" he says, "they can distort memories with this stuff, even create psychosis" he looks thru the window at my unconscious friend.

"That's why he was confused seeing me" I say, "he didn't recognize me?"

"That's a possibility, we won't know until he regains consciousness, I don't approve of hitting him in the head but at least Everdeen is alive" he notes

"I had no choice" I said, "it was the only thing I could think of at the time" I sit down and Maverick comes over. He touches my hand as I reach to flip a page in the report.

"He's gonna be okay y'know" he says to me, trying to bring up my spirits. I fear it's a lost cause right now.

"I don't know" I say sadly, "that's the problem."