Well, based on the reactions I have been getting, you all liked that chapter. I am so glad to hear that! I didn't want to make you wait any longer for another chapter, so I am writing another one. It will not be nearly as long as the previous chapter, but I am hoping that it will still be alright. You'll have to review and let me know if it is good or not. Alright, on with the story! Have fun reading!

I examine the blood on my hands. How did I get to this point? I had never done anything like this to anyone, not even when I was in the Hunger Games. I had never hurt anyone like this-I wouldn't lay a hand on another person in intention to injure them, let alone punch someone hard enough and enough times to make them bleed like this. My hands are stained red, and I have a feeling even if I wash it away, the stain will not go away.

My name is Luke Mellark. I am a son, a boyfriend, a boy, and now, I can add almost murderer to my list of rankings as well.

Today I almost killed Cato Hirsch.

Oh no. No no no no no. You're thinking I'm a terrible person. Well, before you go and pretend like you know everything about me, and you think that this is something I just lashed out and did, you should at least allow me to give you an update on what is going on. Why I did what I did. Why my father in law is in the hospital now in a room a few rooms down the hall from his daughter.

It was 6 hours ago. Cato had rushed Liz to the hospital after her head wound, Clove had tried to reassure me that everything would be alright, and she told me that I couldn't talk about this unless I wanted Liz's injury to be in the news. But you knew all of that. Now here's what happened after…

2 Hours Earlier

"What happened to Liz?" I ask for the fiftieth time in the past 3 minutes.

"I don't know, honey." My mom says, stroking my hair and she moves my head into her lap. I am laying on my side in the fetal position as she sits criss-crossed.

"I'm scared." I say, looking up at her.

"Imagine how she's feeling." My father pipes up dryly.

"I don't want to imagine what she's going through right now." I say.

My mother nods sympathetically and strokes my hair again.

"Go in and see her, honey. I'm sure Liz will want some support."

"Maybe you can hold her hand while she gets her stitches."

I wordlessly get up and go into the hospital room, seeing my sweet Liz in a bed, hooked up to all sorts of machines and wires and things. One it beeping quietly, indicating that she is still breathing. Another is connected to a clear wire that is feeding clear liquid into her system poking in a vein in her arm. Morphling. I know that Liz hates the idea of using an addictive drug for pain relief, even if it makes her feel better. I can already see her waking up and screaming about it. I wish that she was awake right now, but I am not going to wake her up for that. She'll need her sleep, and I'm sure she'll be exhausted when she wakes up, no matter what she is doing.

A woman in a pair of white scrubs strides over to me, smiling, her ocean blue skin stretching.

"Well well well. I was wondering when you were going to show up. I am so happy that you are here. Your fiancée here has been murmuring your name in her sleep for the past hour."

She holds up a needle and flesh colored thread, smiling.

"I was about to put in her stitches." She says.

I can see now that on Liz's head there is a white bandage, stained red with blood in a spot.

"I see." I say stupidly.

"Want to hold her hand?" She asks, her mouth turning into another little smile.

I nod and walk to one side of the bed as the doctor walks to the other, and I take one of Liz's hands in my own, feeling it colder than usual. I put my other hand on hers and rub, trying to put some warmth back into her. When that doesn't work, I kiss her knuckles, even though she isn't awake to see or feel it.

The doctor laughs and moves the bandage off Liz's head. Instantly a bead of red blood comes to the surface of the gash.

"Here," the doctor says, handing me a cotton swab.

"Hold that over the blood for me, sweetie."

I do as she says, knowing that it is going to help Liz.

"Press a little harder." She says, offering me an encouraging expression.

I must have frowned at her or done something to make me look like I didn't want to do it. "It's going to help her. I am going to promise you that this is for the best, and even if it seems like it's going to hurt her, it will do more good than harm for her, and I would never do anything that could harm her. It'll stop the blood from leaking out after this. And besides, she's unconscious with morphling running through her system. It's not like she can actually feel you pressing on her."

I take that as another reassurance and press a little bit harder, even though I can't help thinking that this would actually be extremely painful is Liz was awake.

The doctor threads the needle. "I'm Dr. Mars by the way." She says.

"Nice to meet you." I mutter.

She clicks her tongue as she puts down the spool of thread on the little bedside table.

"No need to be mean, dearie."

I can feel my cheeks glowing red and hot as I continue to press the cotton swab on Liz's forehead.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be mean." I say, pulling away the swab, seeing it stained in blood, but not seeing anything else leaking out.

"Perfect. Now I can disinfect and stitch it up."

I frown again, knowing I'll have to leave Liz's bedside now.

"Want to stay and watch me while I'm working, son? Make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to and not leaking any of this to the press? I know how this is all supposed to be on the quiet side of things. I promise, I won't tell anyone about this, no matter how much I want to." Dr. Mars adds.

"Please. I want to….hold her hand. Or something. I don't know. I just don't want to leave her."

Dr. Mars' smiles and she wipes a Q-Tip soaked in something along the gash.

"That would sting her skin a lot if she was awake, I'm sure. She doesn't seem like someone who has a very high tolerance for pain." The doctor comments.

I look into her eyes for a second, thinking about what I know about Liz to try and continue with this conversation.

"No. She doesn't have a huge tolerance for pain. She pretends to, because that is kind of what she is supposed to do, and what her parents have both trained into her since her birth practically, but she fakes it completely, and I don't comment on it. I don't want to make it seem like she is doing anything wrong. That would make her embarrassed, and really upset too. She just….she doesn't like to be anything other then what people expect her to be."

Mr. Mellark, Luke if your aright with me calling you that, you are…..you're so affectionate about Liz here. I mean more than any of the adults I've taken care of. It's very….admirable. Very admirable indeed."

"Am I? I thought I was just being normal." I reply.

"You are. It's beautiful to see someone so young as you acting the way you are. And it seems like you know so much about her. It's so romantic, and so…..I didn't expect you to know her like that and say what you just said, let's put it that way."

I watch as Dr. Mars starts stitching up the wound, pulling the thread through with tenderness, but yet tight enough that you can't see anything underneath. That's finished in about a half hour, and the entire time I watch without saying a word.

Finally Dr. Mars speaks up, breaking the silence and causing me to flinch back in my seat at the sudden sound of noise after the long silence.

"Want to do me a favor?" She asks, her eyes twinkling.

"Sure. Anything you need me to do." I reply automatically, looking at Liz again.

She hands me a container of some sort of Capitol ointment.

"Put this on over the stitches. " She commands, and then she walks out of the room.

I twist the cap open, smelling something minty. It's cool to the touch as my fingertips skim the top of it. I put a decent amount on my fingertips before setting the container down on the table and spreading it over the head wound. I reapply the ointment to my fingers again, spreading it over a little bit more of the area. I hear laughing behind me, and when I turn around, I see Haymitch.

"You a doctor now, punk?" He asks.

I smirk and look at him before turning around and putting a little more ointment on Liz's forehead.

"Of course! Didn't you know I graduated from medical school a few months ago?" I chuckle.

Haymitch laughs with me. "Well, I figured, since you were rubbing that on Liz. It was either that, or you were just being really strange and grope inclined on her."

"Her doctor stepped out for a minute and left me to do this." I continue.

Haymitch nods his understanding and sits down on the other side of the bed, giving me a sad look.

"Her doctor told me to come in and talk to you, actually. Said it was very important that you hear what I am about to say, and that it should come from someone who you will respect hearing it from. Your father was going to do it, but then he….well, he couldn't bear to say this to you, and neither could your mother, or Cato and Clove…..or Effie. None of them knew how to say it, so it fell to my part to be the bringer of the bad news."

I look at him; turning away from Liz's sleeping body, twisting the cap on the ointment container.

"Bad news? What bad news?" I ask.

"It's about Liz….she was coughing up blood, as you know. It was…..her dress was so tight that it caused her internal bleeding, which is very very deadly. It could kill her. And there isn't really anything they can do to fix it unless they can have her in bed for a few weeks to recuperate. But….your wedding is in three weeks. And Dr. Mars said if they do the procedure to make her better, she'll need to be on bed rest for at least 8 weeks."

"Then we'll postpone the ceremony!" I cry out.

"Snow…..he….he won't let you. He knows about what happened. Christopher was there at the shoot and saw Cato carrying her out, and he's required to tell Snow everything that happened at the shoot. He knows about this, and he doesn't want the wedding postponed. Probably to keep the two of you kids bullied into actually marrying each other and following out his pregnancy plans and such."

"Snow….won't let her?" I ask, tears forming at the corner of my eyes.

Haymitch shakes his head, and I get up, throwing the ointment down on the bed and walking out.

"-if not in a few weeks, then we'll shut it down. There's only so much morphling she can take before she dies on her own." I hear Cato talking into his phone. To who, I really am not sure, but whoever it is must be someone Cato can discuss his daughters possible death with.

As soon as Cato sees me he hangs up his phone.

"Why were you saying that?" I ask.

His eyes go wide. "Say what? He asks, playing dumb.

"About turning off the machines! That will kill her, because she can't wake up yet. Her systems aren't strong enough, she's internally bleeding, and she has a head wound." I snap.

"Why'd she have to hit her head? God, she's so stupid sometimes." Cato mumbles.

He seems to forget that I am there, and I lash out at him.

"STUPID? Liz is NOT stupid! She's the most intelligent woman I know!"

Cato chuckles. "She did something stupid that caused her to get to this point."

I punch him then, right in the jaw. I don't hear anything crack or snap or anything, but he does stumble back a little bit. I punch him again, in the nose this time, hearing a crack and feeling satisfied. But I don't stop there.

I tackle the older man, and he's so caught off guard that I can manage to pin him, my knees on his shoulders, punching him repeatedly everywhere and anywhere I can get my hands on. Over and over and over again until I feel better, and even then I don't truly feel better.

Blood is covering Cato from his hairline to his neck, and it's still dripping everywhere, but I don't stop. I lash out and lash out and get my anger out. I don't know why he isn't resisting any of it, but he doesn't. He screams and moans and groans and even sheds a slight tear, but he doesn't get me off of him, even though he knows that he could in a heartbeat.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Clove runs up behind me as I continue to assault her husband, though within 20 seconds of seeing me she pulls me off of him, pushing me against a wall by the collar of my shirt.

"Nurse! Nurse! I need a nurse right now!" She screams, and two white uniformed nurses with green and pink streaked hair come down the hall, gasping as they see Cato. One grabs a stretcher from a room across the hallway, and together both nurses carefully lift Cato's body onto it as he moans. They wheel him into a wall down the hallway, but Clove keeps me pinned.

"I…I…" Her fist connects with my windpipe and I can't speak.

"Why?" She says simply.

I don't have time to answer before a scream comes from Liz's room. Immediately Clove lets go of me and leaves me able to speak, and then she runs into Liz's room. I can hear the two of them.

"Shhhh….shhhh….Liz baby, honey, shhh. It's alright. You're ok now. It was just a nightmare." Clove says. I walk to the door and peek inside, careful not to allow either one of them to see me.

"I want daddy." Liz says.

"Why? I can stay here with you, sweetie." Clove says gently, stroking her daughter's hair.

"No….I need daddy. The nightmare….it was about him…..and Peeta….and I…I…."

"Shhhhhhh. Don't speak. It's alright. It was just a nightmare. You're alright now. You're safe."

"I want dad." Liz cries, tears running down her face.

Clove climbs into the bed next to her daughter . "He can't come right now." Clove says gently.

"Why?" Liz sobs.

"He's….not able to come. He's in another room."

"Why?" Liz asks again.

"He…got beat up in the hallway."

Liz tries to sit up. "No. Stay laying down, Lizzie. Just….it's going to be ok. Your dad is fine. How are you?"

"I'm alright."

I move out of the doorway, but in the reflection of the glass on the door, I see Clove look from the door to her daughter three times.

"Go be with daddy." Liz says, and Clove kisses her on the forehead. Liz winces.

"Sorry honey. I'll leave before I can leave you in anymore pain."

Clove shuffles out and I walk in.

Liz looks at me with tired eyes.

"How are you?" I ask her.

"Sleepy." She answers, laughing just a tiny bit.

"Alright. And is there anything you need?" I ask her.

"No. I'm alright. I just want you to come lay down with me." She says.

I walk over to the bed and climb in next to her, wrapping my hands around her waist. She looks down at them and gasps.

"My dad got beat up in the hallway." She says quietly.

I play dumb, pretending I don't know what she is talking about….or at the very least, I pretend I don't know who did it.

"I heard about that." I say.

She moves my hands off her. "There's blood on your hands, Luke. You beat my father up, didn't you?"

I didn't notice the blood on my hands until now. I really didn't. But now, as Liz points it out, I see it all too clearly. Bright red, staining my entire hand from fingertips to wrist on both hands.

"I…no, I…"

"Didn't you?" She shrieks.

I get out of her bed. "Yes." I say quietly.

"That would hurt him. That would hurt so much. To just get pummeled. You must have hurt him a lot for all the blood on your hands." She says.

"I-"

"Even I haven't had that much blood on my before from one of my victims. And I am supposedly a trained killer that enjoys killing people."

"Liz, please-"

"I've never done anything like what you have just done, Luke Mellark."

Her lips are pulled tight into a line, her face pale and stretched thin. The stitches in her head are moving.

I'm so mad, and I can't even say anything! Liz keeps cutting me off! I can't get in a single word because she won't stop running her mouth!

"You know," I yell. "If you can't get over the slightest bit of pain, you are going to be the worst mother in the f***ing world!"

Liz's expression tells me she wasn't expecting that. "Luke….I would be able to handle it….I would make myself handle it…..I would try….I promise you Luke, I would try." She says, and her voice is trembling.

"It won't matter though! Because you could die before we even get the chance to see how you'll handle that. You could die in the next minute, and neither one of us would be able to do a damn thing about it!"

Liz is gasping again, hands over her heart.

"Luke….I can't…can't….."

"Can't WHAT? Take the pain of the truth? Huh?"

"…..breathe." She finishes.

She falls over onto the bed and the machine that was beeping to show she was alive goes nuts.

Nurses and doctors rush in, pushing me out of the way as they scream things to each other.

"-HEART ATTACK!"

"SHE HAS NO PULSE!"

"GET SOME ELECTRICITY THROUGH HER!"

And that's where we are now-where I left you at the beginning of this.

I feel terrible for what I have just said to Liz. And now, I might not even get the chance to tell her I was sorry for it.

I can still hear the doctors and nurses screaming inside the room, but I tune them out completely.

I sit down in the hallway outside Liz's door, and I start sobbing into my hands. Red lines of Cato's blood and my tears drip down my arms and onto my shirt and pants. Blood. So much blood….