It's early in the morning, very early, when I wake up from the phone ringing. My first thought is just to fuck it and go back to sleep, but soon after the ringing has stopped, it starts again. With a frustrated groan I roll out of bed and glance at the clock in the hallway. 5.34 am. Way too early. Especially since my night at the bar with Tyree didn't exactly end early. As I walk down the stairs and switch on the light, a pounding headache I didn't know I had comes crashing down on me in full force.

"What?" I snap at the person on the other end of the line.

"Hey, Johanna."

"Peeta? Is that you?"

I'm wide awake now, clamping my left hand over my forehead in an attempt to stop the headache so I can focus on why Peeta would be calling me at half past five in the morning.

"What's going on? Why are you calling? Is everything okay?" I ramble. I'm suddenly filled with some kind of weird, sisterly worry, afraid that something might have happened to him.

"I'm fine," he says, but I can tell from his tone that he's not. "I tried calling you yesterday but you didn't pick up."

The thought of missing Peeta's call yesterday angers me somehow, especially because I didn't even bother to look who had called me. "Then why didn't you try again an hour later? I didn't know it was you, if I had known-"

"I thought I was maybe overreacting a little so I didn't call again, but-"

"But what?"

Peeta's quiet for a moment, and I'm about to lose my calm when he finally answers. "It's Katniss."

I sigh in relief, which I know I shouldn't but I'm just happy that Peeta is okay. "What about Katniss?"

"Johanna - I think she's losing it. And I don't know what to do-"

"What do you mean she's losing it? Losing it as in having a breakdown? Nightmares?"

"No, she's not just having a breakdown. She's going full Annie here."

I close my eyes and sigh. "You should call Finnick, you know he's got more experience with stuff like that."

"I know… but I just, you kinda were the first person I thought of…"

I'm about to say that it's sweet but that I really can't help him but then I think about how much I leaned on Peeta when things got a bit rough for me during our captivity in the Capitol and how much I owe it to him to at least listen.

"Tell me what happened," I eventually say.

As Peeta starts telling me about Katniss having a little breakdown yesterday, I grab a blanket from the couch, a glass of water and an aspirin from the kitchen, and go outside to sit on the porch, looking at the ocean.

"…but then about thirty minutes ago she woke up, went downstairs and suddenly started crying and yelling and slapping herself," Peeta continues. "I tried to calm her down but I really don't know what to do."

I frown as I try to picture Katniss the way Peeta just described. "What is she doing now?"

"Still trying to hit herself, but Haymitch is holding her tight so she can't really do anything but yell."

I stay quiet for a while, thinking about what Peeta could possibly do to calm her down. I can hear the vague sounds of Katniss yelling in another room, and an occasional curse from Haymitch in between. I never knew Katniss like this, so it's very difficult for me to give Peeta, who knows her better than anyone else, advice on how to handle her.

"I don't think you can do anything, Peeta," I say after a very long time, "Really, all you can do is be there for her. Let her break down for as long as she needs to."

"You may be right," Peeta answers.

His words bring a smile to my face. "I'm always right."

I can hear Peeta chuckle lightly, and it feels so comfortable to just sit here on my porch, talking to an old friend on the phone, even if the subject of our conversation is far from comfortable.

"How are you doing, Johanna?" Peeta asks after a long time when we just listened to each other's presence.

"I'm fine," I reply, "I'm trying to get my life back."

"And how's that going?"

"Slowly," I say truthfully, pursing my lips in thought. "From the outside it looks as if I never encountered any difficulty in life, apart from the water thing, but I'm still struggling."

"Because of Annie's pregnancy?"

At first I am somewhat confused and taken aback by Peeta's question – because why the hell would Annie's pregnancy have anything to do with how my life is progressing – but then I remember that we really do know each other well, and I realize he's right. "Yeah, I suppose. I don't have Finnick to lean on anymore. And I can see he's still a bit lost too at times, but he's keeping up appearances for Annie. He has to."

"But then you're all alone out there?" Peeta says, sounding annoyed and worried by my confession.

"Not really, I'm at Finnick's house almost every day, and I have Annie's mother. And now I got myself a job –"

"A job?"

I laugh at Peeta's surprised tone. "Yes, on a fishing boat, with one of Finnick's friends, Tyree."

Peeta stays silent for a long time. So long that I'm almost certain I've lost him. "Peeta? Are you still there?"

"You're going to work on … a boat?"

Saying that he sounded puzzled would be an understatement.

"Yeah..."

"I thought you said you were slowly getting your life back, slowly adjusting to everything. Notice my emphasis on slowly!"

We both laugh but then I change the direction of our conversation to him. "So how is your life going, also slowly?"

"I guess so," Peeta says after a few deep breaths. "This was the first laugh I've had in months, so you could say very slowly."

Haymitch suddenly curses particularly loud and I frown. "He doesn't sound good," I remark.

"No, he's been drinking a lot lately. Again."

"So basically you're the only sane person in District 12?"

"Basically, yes," Peeta says.

As I listen to Peeta talk about how Katniss was when he just got back from the Capitol, and how Haymitch one day behaved like old Haymitch, and the next like District 13 Haymitch, I watch the sun rise and cast a soft glow over the beach and the water.

"She's calmed down," Peeta eventually says after what seems like an eternity and a minute at the same time.

"Well, I guess you better go check on her, see if Haymitch hasn't killed her yet."

"As if I would let him! It was nice talking to you, Johanna. I've really missed you."

A sad smile spreads across my face. "I've missed you too."

"I'll talk to you soon," Peeta promises before he hangs up to go back to Katniss.

I stay on the porch with the phone in my hand until Finnick comes to ask why I'm not at his place for breakfast yet.