A/N (Authors Note): Thanks to everyone for reading (and reviewing)! Thanks to Belle453 for the Beta and to anwesha. guha. 50 for the initial idea.
The boys bring the news of the viewing home from school today. Preparing dinner, Hazelle worries over their meager supplies, which seem to be dwindling far too quickly now that the woods are truly off-limits. They wait until Gale is home to start in on the stew and the bread made from Rory's tesserae, so Hazelle and Vick have barely cleared the dishes when the broadcast begins.
Caeser Flickerman opens the broadcast. The Hawthornes are taken aback to find it's all about the district 12 victors' upcoming wedding, which is apparently as popular as ever in the Capitol. Despite Katniss' insistence that the engagement is an act, President Snow has other plans. The broadcast turns out to be part of some sort of competition for what dress Katniss Everdeen will wear to her wedding.
Hazelle keeps one eye on the broadcast and one on her children. Posy doesn't understand the significance of Katniss' pretty dresses, and neither Hazelle nor Gale is going to spell it out for her right now. The young girl watches pieces of the broadcast, but gets bored with the commentary and climbs from Gale to Hazelle in search of attention. Hazelle does her best to keep Posy entertained and distracted. Vick is already grumbling about the broadcast.
Hazelle watches Gale wearily, waiting for an outburst, as Katniss' stylist Cinna and the flamboyant host review a myriad of dress designs and accessories, talking in detail about each dress and the Capitol audience's votes. No outburst comes. At first, Gale tries to join in as Rory cracks jokes about the Capitol audience, but it's halfhearted at best. He becomes more lost in silent thoughts as the broadcast airs. Eventually Katniss is shown wearing each of the six "finalist" dresses before the Capitol audience gets their final vote. As she models them for the audience, twirling stiffly in the elaborate gowns, tears well in Gale's eyes and slip down his face. Even if the dresses are far too elaborate and fancy, the image of Katniss in a wedding dress at all stabs Gale in the heart.
As the broadcast ends, Hazelle lets Posy down off her lap to dance around the room, chattering aimlessly about what her wedding dress will look like. Gale is rubbing his sleeve across his face, trying to regain some composure in front of his little brothers. Instead of the signal cutting out, Ceasar Flickerman is instructing everyone to stay tuned, reminding the audience cheerily, "it's time for our third Quarter Quell!"
"Oh," Hazelle exclaims, her face turning pale as her children look toward her.
Reluctantly she explains, "They're going to announce the .. ehm, theme. It's different for every quell."
"What kind of theme?" asks Rory. All the children's attention is turned to their mother. Posy has stopped spinning, and even Gale watches her darkly from the table.
"I don't know, sweetheart," Hazelle answers. "There's always something different, with the tributes. But I guess we're going to find out. This must be the announcement." Seeing the attentive eyes of her boys on her, she continues somberly, "I remember the last time, it was that there would be four tributes from each district." She stops short there, looking at her son who will be in the Quell's reaping. She can't say it in front of him, how everyone had been scared to death that spring, knowing they had twice the chance of being reaped.
On screen, President Snow and a young boy walk out onto a broad, empty stage as the Panem national anthem plays in the background. Soon the President is pompously reciting the history of the Dark Days and the Hunger Games, laying out how the games are the righteous response to the districts' rebellion and how every twenty five years there will be a Quarter Quell to remind the districts of their treasonous past.
The boys' attention is fully on the screen now. Hazelle pulls Posy back onto her lap, to distract the young girl from whatever is coming. Posy might not follow it anyway, but with the boys so clearly interested, Hazelle doesn't want to take the chance.
Keeping her attention on Posy, Hazelle still hears every word of President Snow's speech. "On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it. On the fiftieth anniversary, as a reminder that two rebels died for each Capitol citizen, every district was required to send twice as many tributes."
Hazelle remembers that reaping like it was her own. It was her second year in the reapings, but she had taken out tesserae and the possibility of being reaped, of certain death, terrified her. It was the year Haymitch won. Nobody expected a tribute from district 12 to win the games, yet two had made it to the final five. Out of the unending litany of games and tribute deaths she's seen, she will always remember that final scene, of how that axe came flying back out of the chasm and into Haymitchs' final enemy. She shudders at the image while President Snow's voice drones on.
The carved wooden box is open, the same unending line of envelopes that must have been in the broadcast twenty five years ago on display. There are enough envelopes lined up in the box to last a thousand years and then some.
It's Vick who puts voice to what they must all be thinking. "How many are there?" he asks with a strangled voice.
The envelope drawn from the box is marked only with a large, plainly written "75." President Snow reads from a small slip of paper, "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors."
For the briefest of moments, nothing happens. Nobody moves, nobody makes a sound.
Gale is the first to react, anger spewing forth from him as he screams, "WHAT?"
The other boys look in confusion between Gale and the broadcast. Then before Hazelle can even say his name, the door bangs shut in Gale's wake as he storms out the door.
Posy startles at the sound and Hazelle instantly moves to soothe her. Vick is staring at the door in consternation. He asks plaintively, "What? Existing victors? What's that mean?"
Rory looks wide-eyed to Hazelle, asking frantically, "It's Katniss isn't it? That's what it means, right Ma? Katniss and ... and Peeta? or Haymitch? They're going back? They have to go back?"
For a moment Hazelle sits, silent and still, registering everything that's just happened. She's dreaded something like this. Will this be what sends Gale over the edge? After everything else, losing Katniss yet again?
"Mama, what's wrong?" Posy asks.
Her voice shakes as she answers her son, while soothing Posy. "Yes. Yes, Sweetheart. I'm afraid that's what it means."
It's impossible, absolutely impossible that the Quell theme just happens to guarantee that Katniss, the new victor who has shown such a rebellious nature, will be back in the arena, this time facing experienced killers, many of whom have been studying the games and training tributes for years.
Hazelle knows this is what Gale is thinking, and she knows he is right. She says a silent prayer for his safety tonight. When the children are in bed, she pours a mug of tea and begins her silent vigil, waiting for his return.