A/N: Soon after Gale and the other survivors arrive in 13 ...
There's a district 13.
There's a DISTRICT 13! And I'm there! Here. I can't believe it.
They're on our side. They're helping the rebellion. It's a real rebellion now, just like I've hoped for, and now I'm going to get to join the fight. After my run in with Thread, and the added security, it had been hard to imagine anything happening in district twelve. Still the idea of uprisings in other districts tormented me. I wanted badly to find out what was happening, but there was no way to know.
They rescued Katniss, too. She's alive. She's HERE.
When the hovercraft appeared in the woods, I was terrified. I remembered that day long ago when Katniss and I saw the Capitol hovercraft take that boy and girl, unable to do anything to help them. The boy killed.
But it wasn't like that. For one thing, the hovercraft had no Capitol emblem. It landed and armed guards had escorted out Haymitch. Haymitch! And the armed guards weren't Peacekeepers, their uniforms were completely foreign to me.
Haymitch started talking with some of the older men who had immediately gone to confront the people coming from the hovercraft. Soon other hovercrafts were brought in, and we were all directed on to them. Obediently Ma and I herded the kids on board. Vick followed orders to a T, doing his best to set an example for Rory and Prim on the hovercraft. I don't think I've ever seen him sit still for so long without complaint. I'd let him help me when we were all in the woods, with snares and fishing. I'd always intended on him learning to hunt, and we needed all the help we could get with so many of us stranded in the woods.
The flight was disconcerting. If I hadn't walked aboard the hovercraft myself, I never would have believed we were flying. It's foreign to travel with such little indication; there was no sensation of movement at all, except a faint vertigo during take off and landing.
District 13 quickly organized our ragtag group of survivors. Medics were brought in to tend our injuries. My body has been bandaged, my arm put in a sling. We were fed and sent to our assigned housing units. I don't like this feeling of being underground, but I'm not about to complain. Anyway it's not as bad as the mines.
Posy was glued to Ma's side the entire time, eyes wide, taking in all the strange people and places. We were "processed" - people entered into the army or assigned jobs in 13. The kids were registered into district 13's schools. Like others my age, I was given the entry level admittance into the military and I have a new title, "Soldier Hawthorne." The district President even spoke to us, welcoming us to the district. She says they will train us to join the rebellion. My family will be safe here.
Immediately after I received my assignment, Haymitch Abernathy pulled me from the group and took me to a meeting with Plutarch Heavensbee.
Haymitch just stared at me, shaking his head, for a long few minutes. Before Katniss became a victor, I'd just thought of him as someone wasting away his life as a drunk. I didn't understand him, or even try to.
Now, his face is marred by long scratch marks, an eye patch covers one eye.
Haymitch explained to me about Katniss, about how she and the some of the other victors were broken out of the arena, the conspiracy with other districts. How they couldn't get to Peeta. That was when I learned that Haymitch has been involved in the rebellion all along.
We'd had no way to know what happened after the explosions began in the arena, after the broadcast cut out so abruptly. We knew it was big. Katniss may not have known about the rebel plans, but I'm sure she knew what she was doing when she shot that arrow into the force field. I could almost see her connecting the dots of what Beetee intended with his ingenious trap, in that final moment of the broadcast. Changing the rules on the Capitol yet again.
Haymitch explains that Katniss is in the hospital and is refusing to eat or drink. She didn't know about the rebels' plans. She still doesn't know about the bombings. And he wants me to try to talk to her.
I wasn't sure I would want to see her, not after watching her snuggling up to Peeta in the arena all over again. She was willing to give her life for him. But the instant I hear she is here, I know I will do anything for her. I can't give up on her now.
I still can't believe I'm going to see her. I don't think I'll believe it until she's really in front of me. It's not exactly how I imagined our reunion. Neither of us is in good shape right now. One side of my face is burned, my arm in a sling. I've been bandaged up, though I'm still in my miner's shirt.
When Haymitch takes me to her room in the hospital, she's asleep - drugged on painkillers, he told me to expect that. I can't believe she's really here in front of me, my Catnip, this beautiful brave woman. I stand at her bedside, gazing down at her weakened body, her sweet face. The wound on her arm is heavily bandaged. My fingers delicately trace the lines of her small, strong hand. I want to take her in my arms, to kiss away her pain. I know I can't, that she's not ready for that. But we're alive. Despite everything the Capitol has thrown at us, we're still here. I'm alive, in district 13. I have my Catnip, and we have a rebellion to win. Together. Right now that seems like more than I could have dreamed.
Then her eyes open and slowly focus on my face. And she whispers my name.