betaread by gkmoberg1

Girl with One Eye by Florence + the Machine

I said, hey, girl with one eye

Get your filthy fingers out of my pie

I said, hey, girl with one eye

I'll cut your little heart out cause you made me cry

Chapter 18

Lines taken straight from Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games are italicized.

The Careers were on the hunt again. Winnow found it tedious – hiking through the woods and looking for tributes to kill. She was of the opinion that the longer the Career pack waited it out by the Cornucopia, the more desperate the others would be for food, supplies, whatever. They would come to the Cornucopia – and the Careers would be well-rested, well-fed and waiting for them.

Clove, Marvel, Shit-brain, Peeta and even Cato would have been doing as Winnow wanted – if Cato hadn't wanted to find Fire Bitch so badly. This morning he had informed Peeta that he wanted to find Katniss today. Peeta had agreed - reluctantly, of course.

Cato was eager to get rid of Katniss – as if she was the only real threat in the arena. Winnow agreed, but she wasn't so impatient to face down this supposed nemesis. Winnow wanted Fire Bitch to come down to the Cornucopia, starved and desperate – only to meet Winnow's trident.

Winnow hung towards the back of the pack, Marvel sticking close to her. She was starting to think the District 1 male either liked her or was eager to kill her. But he was far too earnest to trick Winnow, so she was leaning towards the former. It was alright – Winnow liked him too, he was funny, level-headed, and scared shitless of her.

Peeta led the pack with Cato close on his heels. Winnow doubted they would find Katniss by hiking through the woods – and had shared that thought with Cato. He had in turn reminded her of what she had said the first night in the arena – that Peeta just might unwittingly lead them to her. And Winnow couldn't argue with herself, now could she?

So she was surprised when Peeta had actually led them to Fire-Bitch. They had come over a ridge towards a pond, the stupid twit was just sitting in the water. Peeta had stopped dead at the sight of her, while the Careers picked up and ran.

Like a startled rabbit, Katniss had dashed from the water and ran for it – getting a hell of a head start. Winnow shouldered past Glimmer roughly to reach the front of the pack with Cato, who hardly spared a glance in her direction as he pursued the tribute.

Fire Bitch led them on quite the merry chase before scurrying up a tree. Cato and Winnow skidded to a stop beneath, glaring up into the branches. Katniss climbed up higher and higher. Cato glanced to Winnow, only to earn a snort of derision. "Fuck, no. I'm no tree-climber." She refused.

The others joined them a moment later, Peeta looking rather relieved. A glare from Winnow found him schooling his expression into one more fitting of his role. "How's everything with you?" Katniss called down cheerily.

Winnow's jaw dropped and she traded a look of shock with Cato. "Well enough," Cato managed to respond. "Yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste," Fire Bitch responded. Winnow gritted her teeth, gripping her trident tighter. She hated Katniss, this she truly knew. Her very voice grated on Winnow's nerves. "The air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?" she mocked.

"Think I will," Cato responded, sheathing his sword on his back. He moved towards the tree only for Winnow to catch his arm.

"What are you thinking? There's no way any of those branches will bear your weight. Fire Bitch is only up that far because she's half-starved." Winnow said scathingly. Cato grimaced at her, taking a few steps back.

"Glimmer, shoot her." Cato ordered, glancing upwards to catch the look of surprise on Katniss' face.

So she had been expecting us to be hot-headed and impatient... Winnow thought, narrowing her eyes at the girl in the trees. The others stepped back as Glimmer set up her shot. It was immediately evident that she was completely incompetent with a bow – as her arrow embedded in the branch above Katniss.

The girl snatched the arrow from the branch, waving it teasingly at them. Cato marched forward, seizing the bow from Glimmer and trying to make the shot himself – missing, unfortunately. Impatient and bloodthirsty, Cato tried to scale the tree, only getting a few feet up before he fell and hit the ground hard.

Winnow smirked and held in a chuckle as Cato got to his feet, swearing like a fiend. "Why don't you just throw the sword?" Katniss called down mockingly.

Cato bristled with anger, glaring up at the girl and taking a step towards the tree again. "Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We can wait her out," Peeta suggested. Cato glanced around and found the others nodding, so he agreed reluctantly.

They settled at the base of the tree – Glimmer, Peeta and Marvel setting up camp. Nightfall followed the campfire they lit – bringing the group to gather around the fire. Cato and Winnow sat together, with Glimmer on Cato's other side. Clove and Marvel sat on the other side of the camp-fire, while Peeta sat a little bit away from them - not included in their group

It had gotten late and they had all grown bored. Cato had put the tip of his sword into the fire – only drawing it out once the metal was red-hot. He spat on the tip, coaxing a hiss from the saliva reacting with the hot metal. Glimmer giggled at his action, "Boys." She cooed in a flirty tone.

Cato glanced to the blonde with raised eyebrows, a grin forming on his lips. Winnow pursed her lips from her seat beside him. She couldn't believe the nerve of the girl – flirting with Cato when Winnow had so clearly claimed him.

Cato looked towards Winnow and saw how amused she wasn't. The grin didn't disappear from his lips as he placed his sword down, and brought his arm around Winnow's shoulders, tugging her a little closer to his warm body.

Of course, the egocentric Career would enjoy Glimmer's attention and Winnow's jealousy. But he knew he had to tread carefully – Winnow would not take anything she construed as betrayal lightly.

Winnow smirked when she saw Glimmer's face drop. Could the girl truly like Cato? Winnow doubted it – she figured the girl only wanted to get close to the person she felt had the greatest chance to win. Cato would never be so stupid to take Glimmer up on her clear offer. She knew he would enjoy Glimmer's attention, but if he ever took her up on her proposition, he had to know that Winnow would try to kill him.

But how could Glimmer ever consider that her flirtations would succeed when Winnow was right there? Did she really think that she was worth so much, that if Cato glanced from her to Winnow, he would choose her? The only chance Glimmer would have was if Winnow was absent – and Winnow had sufficient faith in Cato to know he would not be so stupid.

After hours of watching Fire Bitch, most of the Careers went to sleep – Glimmer being put on watch, to Winnow's chagrin. Cato and Winnow had put a few feet between themselves and the fire before curling up on the hard ground.

They had been unprepared to spend the night out here – their bedrolls were still at their camp. Winnow lay beside Cato, using one muscular arm as her pillow, the other wrapped around her waist.

First she fell into an uneasy doze – she was unhappy and distrustful with leaving Glimmer on watch. Winnow eventually fell asleep – warm and curled up against Cato with his breath fanning against her neck.

The Careers' peaceful sleep was disturbed as something smashed down onto the ground near them. Then a sudden, stinging, excruciating pain hit them and most of the Careers were up and bolting. Cato was gone before Winnow had even realized what had happened.

Another sting hit her neck, and she slapped at the insect that did it. Trackerjackers! She realized – hearing Glimmer scream in terror and pain. Suddenly Winnow was on her feet – running and stumbling, despite a cloud of trackerjackers that pursued and stung her all the same.

Soon the poison from the stings slowed Winnow – her limbs going wobbly and she was suddenly light-headed. She pushed through her disorientation as best she could and kept moving. Winnow could hear water nearby, but she didn't know if she was already hallucinating from the trackerjacker venom, or if the water was truly there. Winnow just knew it was her only chance – slim as it was – to escape the trackerjackers that still stung her.

Soon Winnow came upon a pond. Without a moment of hesitation, she jumped in – one last trackerjacker stinging her spitefully before the water swallowed her.

Winnow stayed under as long as she could – short as a time as that was, with poison running through her veins. She gasped for air as she broke the surface – relief fleetingly overcoming her as no immediate stings were rained down upon her already welted, swelling flesh.

She slowly moved towards the shore – concentrating only on moving her hands and feet. Anything else was too much for Winnow's befuddled, poisoned mind to consider.

Without warning, Winnow was hauled from the water by her collar. She let out a cry of shock and pain – briefly registering an unfamiliar face before hers. The hand that she had initially thought was trying to help her instead pushed her hard to the ground.

The only thing Winnow could do was scream. And she did.

"Winnow!" was the answering shout from someone far away.

Winnow tried to fight off the tribute atop her – scratching at his face and kicking at him. Her fighting grew weaker the more reality began to slip away. Then her opponent grabbed hold of the chain around her neck and pulled.

Seeing how Winnow's neck and head had jerked at his hard tug, the boy twisted the long chain around his hand – tightening the chain until she could no longer breathe and continuing to twist. "Winnow!" the call came again – nearer – but not quite near enough.

Winnow gasped and fought hard for breath, raising one hand and somehow managing to slip it underneath the chain and find a breath. Her attacker responded simply by twisting the chain harder – her fingers forced together and breaking under the pressure. Winnow let out a strangled, raspy cry – unable to catch enough breath to make much noise.

With her other hand, she searched for something – anything that might suffice as a weapon. Winnow's fingers closed around a rock roughly the size of her fist after a few seconds of searching.

She brought up her weapon hard against the tribute's skull – earning herself another moment of breath as his grip loosened. With her short moment of mobility, Winnow was able to draw a knife from her boot.

Snaking her hand back up towards her attacker – Winnow rammed her knife up through his jaw. His grip jerked at the chain one last time – breaking it - before blood poured from his mouth onto Winnow's face beneath him.

Then the boy collapsed atop her, fingers still curled around the chain. A cannon's boom cracked through the air as Winnow's eyes fluttered shut. "WINNOW!" a desperate voice yelled.

Cato came upon the scene at the pond, breathing hard and terror shooting through his heart and limbs. He could hardly see Winnow laying beneath the motionless tribute. He paused momentarily before lunging forward and trying to throw the corpse off of her – only to find stiffening fingers still wrapped around the chain around Winnow's neck.

Cato broke the corpse's fingers in his haste to get him off of her. He slapped her face lightly, trying to wake her. Winnow was unresponsive – her eyelids fluttering a little – but she did not wake.

Pressing a hand to her swollen forehead, Cato could feel heat rolling off of her. The poison from the trackerjackers had taken hold – and if he didn't do something about it, she might die.

The thought was a sobering one – Cato had always thought he and Winnow were capable enough separate, near invincible combined. He had only suffered one bad sting beneath his left eye. Winnow had swollen stings from head to toe.

Guilt washed over Cato – a wholly unfamiliar feeling. He had cut and run the moment he had realized trackerjackers were attacking – leaving Winnow to fend for herself. As a result – she had nearly died – and wasn't out of danger yet.

Cato scooped the girl up in his arms, coaxing a groan of pain from Winnow's lips. Above his head, he could hear the motors of a hovercraft nearing. Cato then knew he had to get Winnow out of there – before they picked up 10's body and perhaps even decided to take Winnow when she was so far gone.

The blond Career moved as quickly as he could – though the trackerjackers' poison did affect him too, as well as the weight of the muscular girl in his arms. He didn't get far. Following along a stream that had connected to the pond where he had found Winnow, Cato found a larger pond with a waterfall that fed into it.

Hiking cautiously through the rocky path – there was a cramped cave behind the waterfall that would yield sufficient shelter for the pair of them. It was dry, shielded from the wind, and just big enough for the two tributes to lay down in.

Cato carefully laid Winnow down on the uneven floor of the cave – racking his brain for how to treat her wounds. Kai would have known what to do, Cato thought with a bitter edge. Gently poking at the edge of a sting on Winnow's arm, the flesh around the stinger began to ooze. The stingers have to come out, he realized in horror.

Cato raised a hand to his face and carefully felt his own sting – immediately grateful that he felt no stinger on his own wound. With a grimace, Cato looked back down to Winnow and began to squeeze out the stingers. To his relief, she was so deep in the throes of the poison that she did not seem to notice the pain of it.

Once removing a stinger, Cato continued to squeeze each sting, letting a terrible green ooze drain from the wound. Tirelessly, he repeated this process for every sting he found – even disrobing Winnow to make sure he didn't miss any. Once he had finished, Cato began to rip the hem of his shirt into strips and then he washed Winnow's wounds as best he could.

It was as he washed a sting on Winnow's left hand that Cato noticed the condition of her fingers. Swollen and bruised, Winnow's fingers seemed to be pulsing with heat. The blond tribute heaved a sigh at the sight of another injury on his partner before ripping a few more cloth strips from his shirt and moving towards the mouth of the cave.

Cato held the fabric strips under the waterfall's downpour for a moment and then turned back towards the cave. He twisted the cloth, ringing out every drop of water before settling at Winnow's side again. Cato tied the cool fabric around the unconscious girl's fingers – splinted with the aid of a few twigs he'd found lying around.

Cato sat back on his heels once he had ascertained that every one of Winnow's stings had been cleaned, and her other injuries addressed. Pressing a finger to the fleshy, bruised area of her neck to check her pulse. Cato was pleased to feel a strong but slow heartbeat beneath his fingers, as well as a physical response from Winnow.

The girl let out a groan of pain from the pressure of Cato's fingers on her tender neck. He drew his fingers back at once, a grin crossing his lips. Any response was far better than no response – because no response meant that Winnow had no strength to fight against the poison in her veins.

A faint metallic chime made its way into the cave, making Cato's head jerk towards the entrance. With a furtive glance towards his patient, the blond made his way outside. A sponsor gift had landed halfway down the rocky path – the digital display flashing a four.

Medicine! Cato started towards the silver canister full-throttle, stumbling through the stony path. Heseized hold of the sponsor gift and rushed back. Finnick was overly attached to Winnow in Cato's opinion - but that worked out just fine for Winnow and Cato. Because that meant Finnick would not - could not - fail her.

Cato flashed a look up towards the sky – his quick guess for where a camera would find him. "Odair…you're starting to come in handy," he remarked – the only thanks the pretty boy would get from Cato.

The blond opened the canister quickly once he reached Winnow, finding a jar with a thick, green paste inside the package. A little slip of paper on the jar had the same handwriting as the note from Winnow's other sponsor gift.

Apply generously to stings.

-F

Cato hastily unscrewed the top of the medicine and began to administer it to the many stings that decorated Winnow's unconscious form. He applied the paste generously to each sting, seeing an instant reaction - the swelling on each sting immediately shrunk. He could see beneath the paste that the stings were still quite red, but they weren't quite so angry-looking.

Once Cato had slathered every single sting of Winnow's with the medicine, he took the one last swipe of green paste and applied it to the sting below his left eye. He let out a sigh of relief at the cooling sensation – Cato could feel it working and only hoped it was working that well on Winnow's stings.

As he set aside the empty canister, Winnow began to shiver and Cato noticed a sudden chill in the air. He shouldered out of his jacket and lay it over her prone form. Winnow's own jacket was soaking wet and lay off to the side – and Cato didn't dare try to put it over her for fear it would make her colder still. Cato plucked the jacket from the ground and hung it precariously near the entrance to the cave – where the wind could still hit it and hopefully make it dry out faster.

Evening arrived. The darker it became, the colder the air became and Cato was forced to pull Winnow's body to his in order to preserve body heat for the both of them. The dark-haired tribute whined in protest of the movement at first, but she settled in his arms easily enough – curling her body against his. Cato draped his jacket over them both – a minor improvement.

It was as Cato sat against the wall of the cave, Winnow cradled against him, that he contemplated his situation. He had never been so terrified as the moment when he had heard Winnow scream.

Cato had just come upon Peeta urging Katniss to escape – and was so filled with anger he had decided to kill Lover-boy right then and there. He had struck Peeta in the thigh to prevent him from running – Cato had intended to draw out his death for betraying them.

But then Winnow had screamed. Winnow had screamed and Cato forgot all about Peeta and ran in the direction he had heard the cry come from. And when he had heard the cannon before reaching her – Cato's heart had contracted painfully and he had been so sure she was dead.

It was almost laughable. Even out of her mind with pain and trackerjacker poison, Winnow had been able to kill her attacker with a knife no longer than Cato's thumb as the boy had tried to strangle her to death.

Another moment of irony. Winnow had nearly died because of the chain around her neck. The chain that held Cato's token. The token he had given her nearly killed her.

Cato had never considered that anything like this would happen. He had never imagined that concern over another tribute would affect him so much – and he had never thought Winnow would be in that situation.

The Winnow Cato had first met… she had seemed so powerful. And she had proved herself to be ruthless during the bloodbath – Cato couldn't have been more pleased. When he had watched the Reapings on the train, he had seen the moment of Winnow's reaping. From her reaction there, he knew that she would be someone he would want to know.

And that hadn't changed. Cato still wanted to know her. And every time Winnow divulged something to him, he just wanted to know more. There were so many facets to Winnow in the simplest, most relaxed moment. Cato had a feeling that he could spend the rest of his life studying Winnow and still know nothing.

That was why Cato considered if it had been a mistake to sleep with her. How could he not? The most important thing he had been taught at the Academy was that love was foolish. That it was something to avoid at all costs – especially if you were going to enter the Hunger Games.

Love was dangerous on its own. But to enter the complicated situation of the Hunger Games – where they were expected to kill each other? Love was a downright disaster. Cato knew if he won, there would always be a part of him that would be thinking of Winnow. And if he were the one to kill her… how could he live with himself?

And that was why Cato considered it may have been a mistake to sleep with Winnow. He hadn't known how much it would complicate things. But he did know one thing for sure. Cato didn't regret what he had done – and was doing. He wouldn't change it. But he knew, realistically, that perhaps it hadn't been the smartest decision for the both of them. For two people who just wanted to survive.

In the middle of the night, another sponsor gift arrived – for Cato. He had torn himself away from Winnow reluctantly and emerged from the cave to find a larger package waiting. He brought it back into the cave quickly, opening it to find a thermal blanket inside. The note inside was from Enobaria.

Your sappiness is making me sick.

But the sponsors are loving it.

Keep it up.

Enobaria

Cato let out a short laugh as he crumpled up the note. Of course Enobaria hated his behavior – but she wouldn't mind as long as it yielded sponsors. And it had, for both of them. He leaned against the cavern wall, pulling Winnow back into his arms and then draped the blanket over them.

The blanket instantly trapped the heat around them and concentrated it. After a short time, Cato felt almost too warm, but he knew it had to be good for Winnow. Careful to keep the blanket tucked around her, Cato shifted his hand from Winnow's back to her forehead.

While not as hot it had been a few hours ago, Winnow still had a high fever. Cato knew it was probably for the best that he kept her warm. While it was uncomfortable, it would help her sweat out the poison in her body.

Cato even managed to doze off for a little while, comforted by the fact that Winnow was not in such a dire state. While she wasn't as healthy as he would like, she was no longer in danger – at least, from her current injuries. It was time Winnow needed – to rest and let her fever break, and Cato would make sure she had that.

Cato's thoughts turned to his other allies. He knew Clove and Marvel were alright - they had escaped the attack with only a few stings - and Cato had ordered them to stay back at camp to take care of themselves.

When Cato had followed Peeta - he had found Glimmer's body. Grotesque and swollen - he couldn't believe what had happened to her. Glimmer was his teammate - and he would have revenge.

I want to thank gkmoberg1 and Emmeline's Embers for beta-reading. Their endless patience for my wheedling is appreciated.

I also want to say how thankful I am for the reviews last chapter. All it takes is a few simple words to make me happy - and those of you who reviewed, I thank you.

And again... please review.