Hi! I'm so sorry for the long delay, but things at school were really hectic and I had to study a lot for my a-levels. I know it's a bad excuse for not updating in months, but I hope that I can update more often now. The next chapter should be out in a couple of days, until then: Enjoy chapter 21! It's more or less a gap-filler, but I promise that there will be a lot more action and drama in the next chapters! I hope you like it!

...

When I opened my eyes for the next time the cave was already full of light. I slowly brought myself into a sitting position. Gale was still laying next to me, tightly wrapped in the blanket. I touched his forehead but his condition hadn't gotten any better. In this moment he turned round and opened his eyes. At first he just looked around groggily, but then he realized that I was sitting next to him and smiled.

"How are you feeling?", I asked worriedly. He was still pale and there were dark circles under his eyes.

He seemed to think about that for a moment. "Tired."

I took the bowl with the soup and opened it. "Here. Haymitch sent this to you." I handed him a spoonful of soup, but Gale shook his head. "Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

"Gale, you should really eat something." Rue's voice came from the background.

"She's right", I agreed with her and gave him a stern look.

He groaned quietly. "Wow, and I always thought mum was bossy. But apparently she not half as bad as the two of you."

His sarcasm made me smile and while Gale was eating a little soup Rue's voice broke the silence again. "What's this?"

I turned round and noticed that she was staring at the piece of paper Haymitch had sent me earlier.

"Oh, that's just a message from our mentor", I replied and continued paying attention to Gale.

"Can I read it?", Rue asked.

"Sure."

A couple of seconds later she squealed in delight. "Of course, that's it!"

I gave her a confused look. "Rue?"

She was on her feet immediately and running out of the cave. "Be right back."

"RUE!", I shouted after her, but she was already gone. I absolutely didn't like the idea of her running around in the woods on her own. Rue could be caught be the careers so easily. I wanted to run after her but I had no idea where she had gone. A quiet sigh escaped my lips and I decided to go looking for her if she hadn't returned in two hours.

"Don't worry about her." Gales quiet voice brought me back to reality. "She is fast, she will be back a lot earlier than we expect her to be."

"I know. But I just can't stop worrying about her. Sometimes I think she is…", I tried to explain my bad feeling.

He raised his hand slowly, softly caressing my cheek. "You see Prim in her, don't you?"

I nodded.

"Trust me, she will be fine."

I had no idea who he really meant, Prim or Rue, but I before I had the chance to ask him, he had fallen asleep again.

...

For more than one and a half hour I was just sitting in the cave, completely scared. Gale was right. Everytime I looked into Rue's eyes, I saw her. Everytime she was speaking, she reminded me of my little sister. I didn't want her to get hurt und I would never let somebody hurt her. Ever.

In this moment Rue appeared in the entrance of the cave and I let out a sigh of relief. Thank god. She smiled at me and showed me her hand that was holding a couple dozens of green leaves.

"What are you going to do with them?", I asked and glanced at the green stuff sceptically.

"Breaking Gale's fever." Rue said that so casually as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I got the idea from you mentor."

For a moment I was speechless. What the hell had Haymitch got to do with that?

"Haymitch?"

She nodded and handed me his note. Her finger was pointing at the small drawing under his signature. I compared it to the leaves in Rue's hand. It was the same. The thought that Haymitch sent us the saving solution was even kind of…touching. In the beginning I had hated him with my whole heart because of his rough – and more importantly drunk – behaviour, but the knowledge that there was someone out there who was keeping an eye on us, even keeping us alive, made up for all this in a short second.

"You and Haymitch are really…great", I said to Rue and hoped that Haymitch could hear me as well. I wanted him to know that I was really thankful for his help. "What are we supposed to do with the leaves?"

Rue look at me, almost apologizing. "Ähm, Katniss. It could be that this whole thing is going to be a little…disgusting."

I took a look at Gale, who was shifting restlessly in his sleep, a pained expression on his face. It really hurt seeing him like this and in this moment everything else got unimportant. "Alright, what do I have to do?"

She took some of the leaves in her mouth and chewed them for a couple of minutes, then she put the green stuff on Gale's back. The leaves had changed into some kind of gooey substance. I stared at Rue sceptically. That was supposed to help Gale?

"How does it feel?", Rue asked quietly.

"Really good", I could faintly hear Gale's groggy voice. I hadn't even realized that he had woken up in the meantime. Those two words were everything I needed. I grabbed some leaves and followed Rue's lead. I could almost see Haymitch smirking. A girl that was chewing leaves for her sick boyfriend just had to be something he could sell to the sponsors. And we really needed them, for god's sake.

...

During the afternoon Rue and I repeated this action a couple of times and every single time Gale seemed to relax a little more. As the day went by I happily recognized that even his pale skin started looking much healthier than before. Before I went to sleep that night I watched Rue for a moment. Having her at my side was the best thing that could have happened to me in the arena. Without her I would have never understood Haymitch's clue about the leaves. She was the reason why Gale started becoming better again and for this alone I would never stop thanking her…