Again, I'm sorry if people are still a bit confused. Reread chapter 16, then most of you already read chapter 17, so... But as promised, here's the next chapter. We finally find out what the heck happened that night.

I own nothing.

Flashback

Peeta watches Katherine go through the door. Through the haze, he manages to pull out his phone and dial Finn's number. It rings a few times then goes to voicemail.

"Finn…You asshole…pick up…I don't feel good…I think I'm dying…" He groans in pain into the speakerphone. The door to room opens, "Oh thank god you came back."

"Peeta?" He doesn't recognize the voice as everything is somewhat muffled. "Oh my…look at you!" He hears the voice exclaim. He sees the person leave and then two of them come back. Peeta feels the bed sink and then there's a body over his.

"Katniss?" Peeta's face is violently pulled at to look at the blurry figure.

"Don't you ever call me that!" She growls at him, "That bitch is going to pay tonight for stealing you from me." She takes his shirt off. "The camera ready?" Someone responds and then, "Good." Lips come crashing down on his. The feel of them is just wrong. Those lips did not belong to his Katniss. He rips his mouth from the figure.

"Stop." He replies pathetically. He sees a bright light go off a few more times. Hands are all over his chest but he can't move is hands to force the foreign contact off. He feels his pants being tugged off. His belt is undone and his legs are cold. "Finn." Peeta thinks he's screamed it but it comes out a mere whisper. "Katherine." Another whisper.

"Fantasizing about your best friend and the newbie, nice. But what about you scream my name for what I'm about to do you," The figure still blurry plays with the waistband of his boxers.

"Please! Don't!" He doesn't understand why he can only whisper and why his arms and legs feel like immovable jelly. Just when he knows the inevitable is about to happen, the room brightens up signifying the door being opened again.

"Oh, sorry. I thought I left my friend in here." The muffling cleared only slightly. It was enough for Peeta to recognize that voice. It was Katherine. He managed a strangled 'Katherine' from his lips and he hears her call out for him. "Peeta!?" He feels another weight on the bed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He sees two blurs over him. One gets the upper hand pushing the other off the bed. That blur runs out of the room.

"Peeta, are you okay?!" It was Katherine. She was by his side trying to keep him awake. His eyes felt heavier then ever. His head pulsed painfully. His breathing slowed significantly. He suddenly just wanted to sleep. He could still hear her as the darkness consumed him. "Peeta!? Oh God! Peeta please! No, no, no! Stay with me Peeta!"

There's a knock on the door. Katniss stands to answer it.

"What are you doing here?" Katniss asks.

"There's something I need to tell you." Katherine tells her. "May I come in?" Katniss widens the door enough for her to pass through. Katniss locks the door and heads for her room. Katherine follows her. When they get to her room, Katniss lays on her bed cuddling a pillow. Katherine pulls up a chair and sits next to her.

"So, you're not taking this well either?" Katniss turns away from her still cuddling the pillow.

"You wanted to tell me something…"

"It's about Peeta." Katniss stiffens.

"Get out." Katniss calmly tells her.

"Not until you hear what I have to say." Katherine waits for a rebuttal. Katniss is far too emotionally weak to say anything. "He never cheated on you."

Katherine hears Katniss chuckle, "Because you were there?" She says sarcastically.

"Actually, I was." The brief smile that graced Katniss' face was quickly replaced with a scowl. "Someone spiked his drink. He was in and out of consciousness when it all happened."

"So, that excuses his cheating?!" Katniss sits up and yells at Katherine.

"I put him in the bedroom and went out to find Finnick. I couldn't find him. I went back to the room only find Glimmer and one of her minions taking snapshots of her and Peeta." She takes another breath. "I'm pretty sure had I not got there when I did, she would have raped him." Katniss is shaking. "I didn't get a chance to confront her because Peeta was in such shitty shape. Next thing I knew, he was passed out. And then he wasn't breathing."

Katniss hadn't known about Peeta almost dying. After the pictures made their debut, Katniss shut down completely, much like she was now. Even if anyone had tried to tell her, as stubborn as she was, Katniss would have never listened once Peeta's name was mentioned. Katniss shook more at this point. She tried to control it, but her body was responding to the thought of Peeta's death. It was one thing to be broken up and have to share awkward glances every now and then, as painful as it was. Even more painful, was the thought of never seeing him again. His beautiful blue eyes rid of their usually light. His skin pale as death took him over.

Katniss wanted nothing more than believe that Katherine had told her the truth. It was a nice thought to know that Peeta didn't cheat on her, but she just didn't know.

"It's the truth Katniss!" Johanna and Finnick are standing in the doorway to her bedroom. "Finnick has the whole thing on his voicemail."

"He didn't cheat on me?"

"He loves you." Finnick states.

"Not anymore."

"Always." Finnick tells her.

"He's right. He's loved you for quite a while." Katherine seconds.

"Alright, newbie. That's out of your know zone." Johanna tells her. She couldn't possibly know.

"He never told you how we met did he?" Katherine asks Katniss. She shakes her head no.

Flashback

The sun was a beautiful pale orange as it's horizon connected with the ocean.

"You don't mind if I sit do you?" Peeta asks the girl sitting on the beach. "You're kind of in my spot." He tells her with a sad smile. When he looks over again she's crying. "Oh, I can leave if you'd like?" Peeta tells her.

"No. Please stay. It's nice to have some company." She tells him. They sit there in an awkward silence until she breaks it. "I'm Katherine." She tells him in between sniffles.

"Peeta." He extends the box of cheese puffs he has offering her one. She takes one.

"These are really good!"

"Thank you. I baked them myself."

"A boy that can bake…strange…cute, but strange." She laughs. "Well, nothing like a little comfort food when life has gone to shit." She tells him while taking a bite of the cheese puff.

"At least someone gets to enjoy them." Peeta tells her sadly.

"You want to talk about it?" Katherine asks him.

"You first?" He asks her. Katherine quickly tells him about her heartbreak. The boy she loved had broken her heart. Left her for someone who would put out. She had run and ended up weeping on the beach until Peeta had showed up.

"Now you." She coaxes.

"I've loved her since the moment I laid eyes on her." He laughs, "Is it crazy that I fell in love from first glance?" She shakes her head at him. "Anyway, I've only ever talked to her once, but that was enough." He smiles out towards the ocean. "I decided this morning, as I lay in my bed, 'I'll flip a coin. Heads, I talk to her. Tails, I don't.' I flipped that coin five times this morning. All heads. Can you believe that?" He laughs again. "So, I thought up an excuse, 'she loves cheese puffs' I thought." He points at the pastries sitting in between them. "I baked them then raced all the way to her house. It took me 15 minutes to build up the courage to knock on her door. After all that, her mom answers. She tells me Katniss is in the forest somewhere. Down by the lake." Peeta draws in the sand with his finger, "So, I get on my invisible high horse and race towards the lake. Just as I get to the clearing, I see her and him."

"Who'd you see Peeta?" Katherine asks him completely entranced with the story.

"My love, Katniss, and Gale. They were kissing." He sighs, "I thought they might have had something. Now it's confirmed. I lost my chance." He bends over clutching his chest, "My heart hurts!"

"Oh Peeta. I am so sorry." She holds him, "Seems were both destined to hurt right now." She pulls away keeping him at arms length., "But hey, maybe one day we'll both find that special someone and live happily ever after."

"That was about a year ago now." Katherine tells her. "He's loved you from the beginning."

"I remember that!" Finn tells Katherine. "He wouldn't talk to me about it. Told me he needed to be alone." Finn scratches his head, "Small world, huh?"

"I can't believe Peeta was there!" Katniss exclaims. "It meant nothing. We just kissed that's all."

"Katniss, I would love nothing more then to tell you that this is going to be as easy as 'just forgive him for the not cheating' he did." Katniss doesn't understand. "I think we've lost the old Peeta. He won't listen to reason anymore and he's prone to snapping at you. Not to mention, those things you said to him the day you broke up, he took straight to the heart."

Katniss knew she had to get Peeta back. It was more evident after everyday that passed by, that she deserved Peeta less and less. She questioned his love. A love he's had for her from the beginning. When she didn't know how to love and at a time where she had lost one of her biggest loves. Katniss couldn't allow herself to lose him for good. She would forever be in her current state of depression if she didn't act. She loved him. Katniss had never admitted it. She wasn't even sure if she had the courage to tell him out loud, but she would try. She knew that now and she only wanted to scream it from the rooftops for the world to hear. But the world didn't matter right now. The only person she needed to know she loved him was the one person she wasn't speaking to. He was losing himself in their failed relationship. She had to bring her Peeta back. It would surely kill her is she didn't.

"I have an idea." Katniss spoke up, "But I'm going to need you guys to help me."