Thank you for reading my version of Haymitch's story, every time someone logs on to read I get a huge smile across my face! I hope you enjoy this chapter and all reviews are welcome.

I do not own The Hunger Games nor its characters.

Chapter Sixty-Three

The following evening we're all called in to Command but no one tells me why, I'm guessing it's to view the latest footage that Katniss shot in 12 but Plutarch quickly states that he's not exactly sure what's going on either.

"Beetee thinks he's found a way to break into the feed nationwide," says Finnick as I sit down at the table. "So that our propos will air in the Capitol, too. He's down working on it in Special Defense now. There's live programming tonight. Snow's making an appearance or something. I think it's starting."

The Capitol seal appears on the screen followed by our beloved President. The camera zooms out to reveal a boy that looks like Peeta but I can't believe it's him; there's an anger in his eyes that is so unusual for him.

He starts to talk about the need for a cease-fire and the damages that have occurred in the Districts all thanks to the rebels. I find myself breathing in deeply as he speaks, worried about what the rebels will do to him if we do win. Somehow I'm convinced that Coin isn't a woman of her word if the timing doesn't suit her.

Suddenly an image of Katniss appears, standing on a pile of rubble.

"He did it!" Shouts Plutarch, "Beetee broke in!"

Almost everyone in the room cheers before the screen switches back to Peeta, who now looks dumbfounded. Clearly he's just seen Katniss on a monitor. He starts talking about the war again but his image is soon replaced by a picture of Rue with Finnick talking over it. This toing and froing goes on for a good ten minutes with Plutarch beside himself with happiness.

My eyes meet Katniss' and I can tell that we're both thinking the same thing. Peeta is going to pay for this.

Eventually the Capitol seal resides once more over the screen and Snow is threatening the rebels but no one cares. He turns to Peeta and asks him if he has a final comment for Katniss.

"Katniss…how do you think this will end? What will be left?" Says Peeta, straining to say the words. "No one is safe. Not in the Capitol. Not in the districts. And you…in Thirteen…" He takes a deep breath, "Dead by morning!"

"End it!" Snow screams off camera and Beetee attacks again, placing an image of Katniss on the screen. But it doesn't matter, we can see exactly what's going on as Peeta is beaten to a pulp and his blood stains the camera lense.

The whole room erupts in to a frenzy with everyone questioning Peeta's words and I have to stop myself from punching them all in frustration.

"Shut up!" I yell as loudly as I can. "It's not some big mystery! The boy's telling us we're about to be attacked. Here. In Thirteen."

"How would he have that information?" Someone asks, followed by more inane questions.

"They're beating him bloody while we speak. What more do you need? Katniss, help me out here!" I shout in response.

"Haymitch's right. I don't know where Peeta got the information. Or if it's true. But he believes it is. And they're…."

"You don't know him," I interrupt to save Katniss' explanation and time. "We do. Get your people ready."

Coin doesn't even flinch as she looks at one of the control boards in front of her. We could all be dead in minutes and she's acting as if she's deciding what to have for her dinner.

"Of course, we have prepared for such a scenario. Although we have decades of support for the assumption that further direct attacks on Thirteen would be counterproductive to the Capitol's cause." She says, "Nuclear missiles would release radiation into the atmosphere, with incalculable environmental results. Even routine bombing could badly damage our military compound, which we know they hope to regain. And, of course, they invite a counterstrike. It is conceivable that, given our current alliance with the rebels, those would be viewed as acceptable risks."

"You think so?" I say, sarcastically but Coin doesn't get it.

"I do. At any rate, we're overdue for a Level Five security drill," says Coin. "Let's proceed with the lockdown." She types something in to the keyboard and immediately a loud siren begins to sound.

One of Coin's guards grabs me by the arm and walks me out of Command but I quickly shake him off. Apparently he's leading me to my designated area but he doesn't need to be quite so brutal. As we're walking, well marching, there everyone in 13 is hurriedly making their way to their compartments.

When I finally arrive I can see that there is a queue forming to collect some sort of package from an attendant so I join the back and I'm soon handed a pack filled with basic bedding and clothes. I head for my compartment, make the bed and wait for something to happen, although I'm not sure what exactly.

I can just about hear the banging on my door over the noise of the siren and when I open it I can see Vieve holding one of the packs with a worried look on her face.

"Get your things, you're staying with us," she says.

"What? Don't-"

"Katniss isn't in this compartment and I'm not letting you or the kids out of my sight until this is over! Now stop messing around and get your things! We're in thirty-two."

She storms off in the direction of her compartment and I know that if I want to live to see tomorrow I'd better do as she says and unmake my bed. It doesn't take me long and I'm soon laying down a mattress on the cramped room of thirty-two.

The siren suddenly stops and Coin's voice cuts across the air, congratulating everyone on their impeccable evacuation and informing that this isn't a drill. Peeta Mellark has hinted that there may be an attack tonight and could have saved all of our lives.

Before I'm given a chance to revel in Coin's words the room shakes as a bomb hits overhead. Melia shrieks and runs to her mother who wraps her arms around both of her children. The lights flicker before leaving us in darkness and I, too, am scrambling around in the dark for Vieve.

I hate the dark. This is when horrors come to life.

As if knowing my thoughts Vieve's hand catches mine and squeezes tight. "We're going to be okay," she says.

We all stay like this, in a mess of shaking limbs, in silence until Coin's voice returns. The missile wasn't nuclear but still powerful, if it wasn't for Peeta who knows where we'd be. I try not to dwell on it too much.

It takes another ten minutes for our lights to come back on but even then none of us move. It's only when I truly take in the scene before me; Vieve caring for her children that I move away. I still feel like I'm intruding on another man's life.

"Come on, let's get to bed," says Vieve and the three of them get in to their bunks while I sleep on the mattress. I don't mind, though, it may be torture being this close to Vieve and not really being with her but after being separated for so long it's nice knowing that I can see that she's safe.

I stay in my assigned area for three days while the bombs are being dropped, which means that I spend most of my time with Vieve and her kids, learning about their dad and their life in 12.

To my surprise I don't hate Addison as much as I thought I did. I hated that he was Vieve's legitimate husband but I don't hate him; Vieve never went without and it's clear that he adored her. Even though she didn't love him he still died making sure she and the kids got out, how can I hate a man that brave? How can I hate him when he reminds me so much of Peeta?

"Sorry," says Melia after she's finished telling me about the time her dad taught her to varnish a table. "I'm sure you don't want to hear about this."

There are tears forming in her eyes and I can see Vieve shift uncomfortably on her bed.

"Look, if my dad was half the man that yours was I'd be talking about him all the time," I say and this seems to make her smile for a moment. "I understand what you're going through…losing someone you love…." I can't finish my sentence because all I can see is my mother, Layle and Tilly. I haven't thought about them in a while but their deaths have never left me and I'm sure they never will. What I wouldn't give for one last conversation with them all.

"Well we just have to hope that once this war is over things will be better. There'll be no more unnecessary loss," says Vieve and I hope for all our sake's that she's right.

The next day Boggs comes to retrieve me, apparently they now deem me worthy enough of helping. When I reach Command Plutarch, Cressida, Coin and Fulvia are all sitting around a table drinking coffee while Plutarch witters on about something. Eventually Finnick, Gale and Katniss join us and the four of us are instructed to go outside and get as much footage of the bombings we can. We need to show Snow that 13 is still functioning and still a part of the war.

After Katniss is made over and put in her Mockingjay outfit I dare to ask Boggs how much of an edge Peeta's warning gave them.

"About ten minutes before our own systems would've detected the missiles," says Boggs.

"But it did help, right?" Katniss asks.

"Absolutely," says Boggs, "Civilian evacuation was completed. Seconds count when you're under attack. Ten minutes meant lives saved."

Hopefully the higher ups here in 13 won't forget what Peeta has done for them and, no doubt, the price he is paying right now. There's not a day goes by in this place where I don't think about him, Annie and Johanna. All of them scarred by the Games. All of them scarred again by their capture.

Cressida wants to film Katniss outside the old Justice Building, which is ironic when you think that the Capitol has been using it as backdrop for decades to show that 13 doesn't exist. However, when we get there the ground in front is covered with hundreds of roses.

"Don't touch them!" Screams Katniss, "They're for me!"

We all stop but there doesn't seem to be anything harmful about the roses, they're just used to unnerve Katniss. She explains that Snow left one in her house after the bombings, knowing she'd go back there. That's one of the many things I hate about Snow; he's not just a cruel, vicious and vile dictator but he knows how to get inside your head and make you suffer in a way you never thought possible.

The whole thing clearly shakes Katniss as she keeps messing up her lines and her concentration keeps slipping. I can see Cressida getting annoyed with her but I'm silently begging her not to reprimand Katniss. I can only imagine what's going on in her head right now.

"Cut," says Cressida after Katniss begins to cry.

"What's wrong with her?" Plutarch says to no one in particular.

"She's figured out how Snow's using Peeta," says Finnick.

I let out a long sigh. I honestly thought she would have had some idea about that before now. I suppose seeing him on the screen the other day made her question what was going on.

Everyone seems to descend on her to embrace her but I can hear her softly calling out my name and everyone moves away, allowing me to sit next to her and hold her. In all the time I've known her this is the only time I've seen her broken and on the edge of giving up. It's so easy to forget that she's just a girl, not a warrior. A teenage girl.

"I can't do this anymore," She sobs.

"I know," I reply..

"All I can think of is…what he's going to do to Peeta…because I'm the Mockingjay!"

"I know," I repeat and tighten my arm around her. What else is there to do other than listen?

"Did you see? How weird he acted? What are they…doing to him? It's my fault!"

She starts wailing and thrashing around in my arms and she almost has me in tears but I can't let her see me like that. I wave over Boggs and tell him to drug her, which he quickly does. She goes limp in my arms and I refuse to let anyone else take her to the hospital wing other than me. There are only a handful of people I trust with Katniss and I'm top of the list.

Finnick starts having a panic attack, screaming out for Annie, but before I can turn back to see if he's okay Boggs has knocked him out, too, and we're all on our way to the hospital.

"We have to sort this," says Boggs once we've laid our patients down on their beds. "I'm going to see Coin now."

I almost raise my eyebrows as he leaves. I don't think I've seen him try and tell Coin what to do. I wonder how well that one will go.

I sit with Katniss for an hour before Plutarch visits and tells me I have to go back to Command. I groan as I follow him, I swear I'm going to blow up that room before I leave.

Everyone who's involved in the war effort is there, sitting around the table and awaiting Coin's words.

"It has become apparent that Soldier Everdeen is unable to continue her duties as the Mockingjay without the fear that Snow will harm Peeta Mellark," begins Coin. "So I think we can all agree that the time has come to rescue Mr. Mellark."

"That seems like a huge waste of resources. People could die, covers could be blown just to get him out," says a solider who I've not noticed before.

"People are dying everyday!" I snap, "And that boy SAVED this district from annihilation, if you remember."

The soldier gives me a look of disdain before turning back to his esteemed leader.

"Quite," says Coin, ignoring my tirade. "Anyway, Plutarch assures me that he has enough people in the Capitol and enough intel to get Peeta out safely."

"We're also going to retrieve Annie and Johanna," says Boggs. "Now, this mission is volunteer only, no one will be forced to go and I'll be leading it. Are there any volunteers?"

"Me," says Gale straight away and my eyes fall on his, pleading for him to change his mind. It will break Katniss if he doesn't come back.

I put my hand in the air but Boggs just glances over me, pretending I'm not there. I should be offended but I'm not, I wouldn't even want me if I was conducting a rescue mission.

Once the meeting is over everyone who is going on the mission is sent to Special Defense but I go straight back to the hospital wing and wait for Katniss to wake up.

When she does I can already see the panic in her eyes. I reach over to her and squeeze her shoulder. "It's all right. We're going to try to get Peeta out."

"What?" She says.

"Plutarch's sending in a rescue team. He has people on the inside. He thinks we can get Peeta back alive," he says.

"Why didn't we before?" .

"Because it's costly. But everyone agrees this is the thing to do. It's the same choice we made in the arena. To do whatever it takes to keep you going. We can't lose the Mockingjay now. And you can't perform unless you know Snow can't take it out on Peeta." I hand her a glass of water. "Here, drink something."

She slowly sips. "What do you mean, costly?"

"Covers will be blown. People may die. But keep in mind that they're dying every day. And it's not just Peeta; we're getting Annie out for Finnick, too."

"Where is he?"

"Behind that screen, sleeping his sedative off. He lost it right after we knocked you out. Yeah, it was a really excellent shoot. You two cracked up and Boggs left to arrange the mission to get Peeta. We're officially in reruns."

"Well, if Boggs is leading it, that's a plus."

"Oh, he's on top of it. It was volunteer only, but he pretended not to notice me waving my hand in the air," I say, trying to maintain some sort of lightness. I don't want to tell her about Gale. "See? He's already demonstrated good judgment."

"So who else volunteered?"

"I think there were seven altogether," I say, looking away from her.

"Who else, Haymitch?"

I sigh,"You know who else, Katniss. You know who stepped up first."