Sprinting to the Hawthrone's home, Katniss burst through the door to find Hazelle and her mother huddled in the kitchen with tea clutched in their hands, tears flowing quietly down Hazelle's face. Instantly, Katniss felt the last shred of hope and life leave her. She was too late, Gale had already died, she was too late.
"Did you get it?" Her mother asked hopefully. Dumbly, Katniss pulled the bottle from her pocket handing it to her mother. Hazelle's face instantly brightened with hope as she followed Mrs. Everdeen into the bedroom only Gale now occupied. A wave of relief crashed over Katniss as she saw Gale's form struggling, but still breathing, form.
"Gale," Mrs. Everdeen was instructing softly attempting to push the large pill into his mouth, "I need you to swallow this."
Gale grunted his response, but still obeyed opening his mouth slightly to accept the pill and allowing Mrs. Everdeen to chase the medicine with a long drink of tea, most of it, Katniss noticed, spilled to the mattress.
"We have to give him one in another 12 hours, but we should be seeing him perk up considerably before that." Mrs. Everdeen told the room as she continued a quick inspection of Gale's breathing, pulse and temperature.
"Thank you," Hazelle threw her arms around Katniss pulling her into a hug so tight Katniss was sure could suffocate her. But in this moment, Katniss returned the embrace and found herself joining Hazelle as fresh tears streamed down her face.
Gale's going to be ok, Gale's going to be ok.
The next day found Katniss forcing herself to hunt, leaving the two families huddled in the Hawthrone's home awaiting Gale's return to coherency. She had battled with herself, but finally realizing she was not going to be helping him get better faster by staying at the house, found herself checking the snare line praying something would be caught. Her efforts were rewarding in finding a large racoon and two skinny rabbits to take home. Excited to have something to bring home, Katniss returned quickly to the home.
Relief began washing over Katniss once again as she realized for the first time in the past week, Gale was going to be fine, Hazelle still wore her ring proudly (Katniss had told Hazelle she bartered with an old customer of hers with the promise of fresh meat for the next month), and she had enough in her bag to fill the bellies of all eight members of their families.
Posy excitedly met Katniss at the door colliding into her side with screams of "Gwales awake!" In confirmation of the child's words, Gale, dressed in a fresh set of pajamas, leaned against the door frame, obviously too weak still to hold himself upright for long. But there he was, Gale, her hunting partner, standing upright with a lopsided grin on his face and a familiar twinkle in his eye, and suddenly Katniss knew she would happily repeat the entirety of her efforts to ensure she could see that face smiling at her again.
"You're up." Katniss whispered as if she couldn't believe it herself. If she, or Gale, had been paying attention to anything else in the room, they would have seen their mothers beaming brightly with knowing smiles or Rory and Prim sharing an inside joke at teen's expense. However Katniss couldn't find herself to pay attention to any of them and quickly walked into her partner's open arms.
"I'm ok." Gale whispered into her hair as he held her tightly into his arms.
"No, you're not." Katniss hissed back, laughing out a strangled sob.
"Thank you." Gale mumbled and Katniss felt herself nod into his shoulder.
"I should go skin the meat." Katniss told Gale's sweater not trusting herself to look at him, "You should go get some rest." Not trusting herself, Katniss quickly grabbed her game bag and rushed out the door.
"I bet she's going to go cry again." Rory told the house loudly, and then towards Gale, "She cries like everyday, but she doesn't think we know."
"Rory," Hazelle reprimanded, "be nice. Gale, go lie down."