Gale's POV
I did my best to keep busy, to keep my mind off of the commotose girl in the med bay. I threw myself into my tasks until they were finished, then I threw myself into dinner with my family and putting the kids to bed. Then, and only then, did I let my mind whirl with thoughts of her as I strode down the halls to the med bay.
Tonight was no different, up until I rounded the corner to the hall her room was on and heard the screaming.
Aces.
I took off down the hall and flung the door open, pulling my gun out and sweeping the area. The bathroom door was cracked open, and I caught sight of a pale arm flailing. I marched to the door and pushed inside, gun still raised.
One of the nurses caught sight of me and opened her mouth to yell something, but gasped instead as she caught an elbow to the face. I gaped and immediately holstered my gun. For a moment I watched in shock as the nurse clutched her jaw and went down, leaving the second nurse to try and restrain Smith. A very naked Smith.
"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help?" The second nurse shrieked, dodging a flying fist.
Snapping back to my sense, I darted forward and grabbed Smith's arms, pinning them to her sides by wrapping my arms around her frail body. The nurse steps carefully around me, muttering something about a sedative before rushing off. Smith struggles vainly in my arms, trying to wrap a leg around my ankle so I lifted her off the ground.
"NO!" She shrieked as her feet left the tile. "I won't go back! I won't go back! No! Nooooo!" Her legs kicked wildly, and the nurse on the floor hurriedly skitters back out of reach.
"Go back where?" I huffed, tightening my grip.
"We were just trying to give her a bath..." The nurse said, voice wavering. I shot her a look and she shrank back.
Smith was babbling what sounded like nonsense under her breath, head jerking from side to side.
"Relax, Smith. I'm not gonna put you in the tub. Stop fighting."
While this is all very worrying, it's only the second time she's spoken, and at least this time we got a little bit of a better understanding of what they did to her in the Capitol. I carried her out of the bathroom and set her on her feet in the middle of the room, raising my hands in a show of surrender. She spun around to keep her wild eyes on me. The second nurse reentered, but I motioned for her to stay back.
Smith backed away, looking between me and the two nurses who had crept back in to see what would happen next.
"Go back where, Smith?" I asked softly.
Her lip curled in a weak sneer, the expression foreign on her face. "You're not real."
I raised my brows. "How do you know that?"
"Because the Gale I know hates me. And he's dead."
"What did they do to you?" I whispered.
She shook her head, backing into the far corner and sliding down the wall. "It's not real, it's not real..." She muttered.
I glanced at the nurses. "Go back where?" I tried again.
"No more water. Won't go back. You can't make me."
"Okay, I won't. It's okay. You're safe here," I said in as soothing a voice as I could manage.
She shook her head again, a tear sliding over the apple of her cheek. "Never safe," she breathed.
I clenched my jaw and nodded, ushering the nurses out of the room. I took one last sad look at Smith before closing the door behind me.
Smith didn't do much for the next couple of weeks. Everytime I visited her room and stood on the other side of the one way glass, she was sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, staring out at nothing. Or worse, eyes darting around frantically. It was hard for the nurses to get her to eat or drink anything, and I was told she slept very little.
They hadn't tried to bathe her again outside of a lightly dampened washcloth.
So when a nurse burst into the armory one day, panting and demanding I hurry to Smith's room, I expected the worst.
I dropped whatever it was I had been holding and rushed up a flight of stairs and through a lot of halls as fast as I could. I burst into the observation room, taking note of the three doctors and Haymitch standing around silently. I looked past them and saw Smith laying on the floor, arms splayed out in a T.
"-I know you're not really here, because you left, and who knows where you went, and I've been seeing all kinds of things lately. I must've been in here so long... I think my brain's given up, and that's why it thinks we've been rescued. I've been rescued? No, Peeta's here, too. Because that's better than floating in this tank for God knows how long."
I turned wide eyes to the others. "What is she-"
"Sh!" I reared back and pulled a face.
"But I wish you had been there, Dad. I could have made you proud, you know. Did you hear I won the Hunger Games?" She tsked. "It's how I got here, though, so I guess it just makes me a fool, huh? That's alright; being a fool is better than being aware anymore. At least now I can see him, even though I know he's gone. And I can see you, and Mama, and Grandma. I see Peeta, too, so maybe he's dead as well. Which really sucks, 'cause that means I stayed behind for nothing."
She rolled her head back and forth for a moment before continuing. "I wonder sometimes what you would have thought. If you would have hated him because he's rude and sometimes cruel to me. Or if you would have been angry with me for falling in love with a Seam boy." She tsked again. "Doesn't matter now.
"I can't even tell when they take me out now. Everything feels so real, and I'm going crazy. I wish it would just stop, you know? How long will this go on?"
She fell silent and this time she stayed silent. Just continued to lay there like a starfish on the cold linoleum.
I was at a loss. What the hell was all that? And was she really in love with me? This whole time, and even now?
Haymitch ran a hand down his face, catching my attention. "Please tell me you all came up with something from that."
"How long was she going on for?" I asked, eyes dragging back to her.
"About half an hour."
I cursed. It must have taken that nurse a while to find me.
"Well," one of the doctors looked at the others. "To me, it sounds like some kind of sensory deprivation torture tactic. They must have kept her in long enough for hallucinations to take root. My guess is they got so bad, she can't determine them from reality."
"Great," Haymitch snapped. He shook his head and sighed. "How do we convince her she's not hallucinating?"
The doctor looked at Smith sadly. "I'm not sure yet. We might not be able to."
I furrowed my brow with a huff and pushed past them, opening the door and walking in. Smith didn't even bother to look my way as I walked over and stood above her.
"Smith." No answer. "Don't ignore me." Not even a flicker in her eyes that stared steadfastly at the ceiling. I sighed and rolled my eyes up as well, as if asking for patience. I bent down and grabbed her, hefting her to her feet and gripping her shoulders to force her to face me.
"Aces, stop moping around and snap out of it. This is real; you're not in the Capitol anymore. You've really been rescued, along with Peeta, and Annie, and Johanna." The feel of her name on my lips seemed to settle into me, but I couldn't focus on that right now.
Aces shook her head and clenched her eyes shut. "You're all dead."
"They told you they bombed Twelve, right?" I asked. "Well, that's true. But some of us were lucky enough to get out in time, thanks to Darius and Purnia." Aces just continued to shake her head, trying to pull away from me weakly. I shook her and stepped closer. "Look at me. Aces, look at me. Does any of this feel fake?" I let go with one hand and grasped hers, bringing it up to my face. "I'm really here."
She slowly opened her eyes to look at me, tears wavering on her waterline. Her lip wobbled. "N-No..."
"Why don't you want to believe me? We can't help you if you don't want to help yourself, damnit."
A couple drops welled over and rolled down her cheeks. "Because when I start to believe it, you'll all disappear and go back to being nothing more than a memory," she murmured, tugging at the hand still in my grip.
"You're too scared to face the truth. If you won't believe us, you'll keep on living this sad, miserable life until you waste away."
"How am I supposed to believe you?" She snapped suddenly. "This is all too insane. Too good to be true."
I hung my head, taking a calming breath. "What do we have to do to convince you?" I said between clenched teeth. I was sick of this. I wasn't mad at her, no, this wasn't her fault. I was mad at Snow for what he had done to her. For what he had taken from her; from me. Her kind warmth towards Posy. Her helpful nature with my mother. Her stubborn pushiness with me.
"I- I don't know," she whispered finally.
My fingers tightened around her thin wrist and arm. What if she was a lost cause? What is she never came back to her senses? I didn't think I could handle it is she spent the rest of her life laying on the floor talking to dead people.
I raised my head and met her eyes again. Letting go of where I'd been holding her, I reached up and cradled her cheeks in my large hands. Aces gasped as I leaned in and tried to wriggle free, but I closed the distance and brought my lips to hers. She stiffened under my hands and then went slack.
I pulled away and waited for her to open her eyes. "We need you back."
To my dismay, tears spilled from her eyes with vigor. "I start to believe you, and then you do something like that. The Gale I knew hated me. You'd never really do that," her voice cracked and weakened.
I swiped my thumbs across her cheeks to wipe away the tears. "Yeah, well... Things change."
"I wasn't even around-"
"That was the problem. I guess I started to expect you everywhere I turned, and just never appreciated it until you were gone. I need someone around to keep my ass in line, you know? I need someone who- who loves me even though I'm a dick. I need someone to remind me that not everyone is an enemy.
"I need you."
She swallowed thickly. "You're really here?" She whispered.
"Yes. We're all here, Aces."
She crashed into my chest and silently sobbed. I held her tight and ran my hand through her hair over and over until the tears subsided.
"It's alright. You're safe now. It's all okay."
Wooooahhh, it's been so long. I'm so sorry... I'll try to be better, no promises, though.
Hope you enjoyed!
