After leaving the woods with only one skinny rabbit, Katniss returned home with her head hung low. This was the third day in a row she had caught nearly nothing. The Hawthorne's and Everdeen's had hardly eaten the last few days, opting to make a large stew with whatever Katniss caught and was bought with Gale's earnings. Eight stomachs were hard to fill, and nothing was in her game bag to fill them.

"Oh, good you're here." Prim smiled at her sister as she walked into the house. "I need you to take this to the Hawthorne's."

"What is it?" Katniss looked at the package, it looked like a salve in a tin jar and some other herbs were wrapped in a cloth.

"Its medicine for Gale," Prim answered easily, "He was sent home today, the foreman said he was too sick to work."

"Gale's sick?" Katniss asked shocked. She hadn't seen Gale the last few days, but this was unnerving news to her. In all the years she had hunted with Gale, he had only gotten a chest cold once that was enough to keep him home, but at that he gave her a weary smile from his bed when she brought him herbs from her mother, but never something enough to warrant him to take a day off from work.

"Yes," Prim sighed, "And he needs that salve. The salve gets rubbed into his chest, and the herbs should be soaked into a tea."

"Are the others sick?"

"Not that I know of, but Mom suggested they stay here for a while until Gale gets better. Hazelle kicked Rory and Vick out of his room as soon as he started coughing."

"That's smart of her."

"Katniss?" Prim asked her sister with an unrecognizable tone to her voice.

"Hm?"

"I think Gale is really sick."

Panic and worry pushed Katniss across the Seam in record time. She didn't bother to knock on the Hawthorne's back door, not that she needed to, before entering the small house. The usual dash of children rushing about didn't greet the teen, and the silence met Katniss like a blow to the stomach.

"Hazelle?" Katniss called out into the small house.

"She's not here," Gale's muffled voice called from the bedroom. She heard the groan of his old mattress springs tell her he was getting out of bed.

"Lay back down, I'm coming." Katniss ordered pulling her boots off before heading to his room. When she entered his room, he was laying against his pillow, a light sheen of sweat across his face, but looking pleasant from under the blankets.

"Hey you." A crooked grin met her.

"Hey you," Katniss offered soothingly before handing off the small jar, her voice returning to business, "I brought you something. Prim sent it over with strict instructions to stay in bed and rest."

"Thanks," Gale held up the jar in clarity. "And don't worry, I'll be bouncing back to myself by tomorrow. I really didn't need to be sent home, it was all in semantics."

"Ok, whatever you say tough guy." Katniss rolled her eyes before sliding onto the bed next to Gale leaning her upper body against the wall. "But, please, rest up. I need my hunting partner back soon."

"Uh oh," Gale placed the back of his palm to his forehead. Katniss immediately jumped to attention worriedly, "I think I'm hallucinating."

"What?" Katniss asked quickly, worry controlling her emotions as she shifted to see his face clearly, "What are you seeing? Should I get Prim?"

"I just heard you say you need help… Prim's right, I really must be sick!" Gale chuckled while Katniss punched his shoulder, hard.

"Bastard." Katniss sank back into the wall. "But how have you been feeling, really?"

"Not bad, just tired. It's that time of year again, but I've got a job this year, we're brining in money, you're still hunting, we're going to be ok. I promise." Gale assured. Katniss, not entirely convinced, nodded and allowed her head to drop to his shoulder. Softly, Gale pulled an arm around her pulling her closer to himself. In the years that he had known his hunting partner, she rarely did anything intimate with him, but on those rare occasions where she hugged him, leaned into him, grabbed his arm while walking, those were moments he cherished, but knew they were moments she needed most. They were the moments that she depended on him emotionally.

Gale knew he was sick, he had watched two of his co-workers die of this illness. But they didn't have Prim to help them he had told himself. Besides, he had his family and Katniss' to take care of. He couldn't give up on them. If there was one thing Gale was, he was a stubborn man, and his stubbornness held more than anything else in his life.

Two days later Katniss found herself in the woods desperately trying to find something to bring home. She had been out in the freezing wind for most of the day with nothing to show for herself. Gale, getting progressively worse in his illness, could now only sit up long enough to drink the bitter tea Mrs. Everdeen had made to ease the symptoms. Last night the two households had eaten the last of their dried fruit and rabbit only leaving tesserary grain and herbs for tea left. Now, the only thing Katniss could think of as she hiked back to the district was 'Gale is going to die'.

The Capital had sent medicine to the district yesterday, but in a capital fashion, set the price too high for either family to scrape the money together for a full dose. Completely distraught, tears began to leak from her eyes and she collapsed in the snow, emotionally and physically drained.