"Why don't they call you the boy on fire?"

"Huh?" Peeta turned to look at Taiya. She'd gotten out of surgery the previous evening. It'd been a rough 24 hours. The rebels had won the war. Everything was in chaos.

Prim had died. The Capitol had killed her. In their desperation to hold back the rebels, they'd dropped bombs on everyone gathered outside the mansion. This included the Capitol's own children. It was beyond cruel. Prim had got caught up in the bombing. Prim was gone.

"Boy on fire. I'm talking about double standards, Peeta," Taiya murmured, her words slurry by the cocktail and medicine and morphling coursing through her veins. The doctors had given her medication to speed up the healing process, but it was tremendously painful, so they'd also put her on a very high dose of morphling to counteract it. "We have to talk about it. Katniss wasn't the only one on fire. You were too. And people always forget that. You were the boy on fire."

Peeta bit his lip at the mention of Katniss being the girl on fire. Taiya had no idea the irony of what she was saying. Katniss had been caught up in the bombing at the mansion as well. She was in surgery right now. She had third-degree burns all over her body that the doctors were working tirelessly to repair. She really had become the girl on fire.

"You're on some strong meds," he remarked gently, he didn't want her to know how worried he was.

"Yes I am," Taiya acknowledged with a dopey smile. "But that doesn't change my point. I think we should make flyers. 'Justice for the bread boy on fire. Because he was also on fire.' I think that should get the message across perfectly."

"I love it," Peeta agreed. He was doing his best to be cheerful for her, but it was hard. Tigris had been sent to help stitch up wounds in the street, she was no doctor, but she was a seamstress which had been deemed good enough, so Taiya had no one else. Delly assured Peeta she'd sent word to District 13 that Taiya was in the hospital, but it could be a while until Tyler got there. So he had to stay with her. It also meant he was able to regularly get updates on Katniss, he really didn't mind staying with Taiya.

"Doesn't it make you angry? We as a society should do better. You were set on fire twice, Peeta."

"I wasn't really… set on fire." Peeta chuckled. It was fake flames on a costume.

"You became one with the fire, Peeta. You were the fire. The fire was you," Taiya drunkenly insisted.

"How much of this stuff are they giving you?" Peeta frowned as he looked at the IV bag of morphling. He'd seen people on morphling before, but they'd never spoken as much rubbish as Taiya had been doing for the last twenty minutes.

"You want to know what's also an injustice?" Taiya continued, her thoughts switching to a new topic. "I've never tried your bread. You're bread boy. But you've never made me bread."

"I decorated a cake for you?"

"But you're not cake boy. You're bread boy. Buck is the cake boy. Where is Buck?" Taiya's train of thought deviated again to a topic Peeta didn't want to discuss out of fear of upsetting her.

"I'm sure he's on the way," Peeta reassured.

"You have the power of the bread," Taiya declared with a giggle, immediately recoiling when she felt an agonising pain in her chest.

"They messed us up pretty good, didn't they?" Peeta remarked with a sigh.

Taiya was not amused though. "What… what do you mean by that? I'm doing fine. I'm not like you with all the 'oh I must kill Muttniss' talk," she mimicked his voice.

"Muttniss?"

"Yeah, Muttniss Everdeen," Taiya affirmed. "That was Jo's joke by the way. I was told to never repeat it to you."

"You just did repeat it, Tay," Peeta pointed out with a chuckle.

Taiya stared into the air for a second as she processed her slip-up. "Oh crap."

Peeta couldn't help but grin at her delirious state, then he reached for the rope he'd placed on her bedside table. He'd managed to track one down with Delly's help while she'd been in surgery. "Tie some knots, Tay." He really thought this suggestion would help and would give him a break from the rambling.

But it only made her frustration flare as she snatched the rope from him. "Stupid rope. You want me to sit in this silly hospital, tying silly knots in a silly piece of rope so I don't have a stupid silly meltdown. It won't work, Peeta! You can't fool me, I will not be so easily distracted! Can you get my stress ball?"

"I don't know where it is, Tay. It wasn't in your pockets or anything."

"No stress ball? What is this!" she exclaimed, tossing the rope across the room before clutching her chest in pain. "No movement. Movement hurts."

"Come on, relax," Peeta urged, rising from his chair to gently restrain her arms. She needed to calm down.

"I can't relax. I need answers to all my questions," she sulked.

"I am answering your questions, Taiya," Peeta gently pointed out. "You just have a lot of them."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Peeta huffed as he sat back down in his chair.

"Did you get butterflies when you kissed my husband?" she turned her head to look at him, catching him completely off guard with her question.

"Huh? I have never kissed Finnick, Tay."

"Yes you did!" she retorted childishly.

"No, I didn't."

"Yes. You did!"

"When?"

"In the Quarter Quell, duh."

"What are you talking about?"

"After you bounced off the forcefield like a pinball," she rolled her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"… When I was dead?"

"Yeah."

"Taiya, that wasn't a kiss. That was CPR."

"I'm just saying," she sulked. "It looked like you were into it."

"I was dead!"

"But I'm asking, like when you woke up and were like 'Oh wow, Mr Sexy Beach Chick is kissing me' did you get butterflies?"

"No…" Peeta shook his head, the line of questioning was getting more bizarre by the moment.

"I get butterflies when he kisses me. So you should get butterflies. He's a very pretty man, and you'd be lucky to have him."

"Are you trying to set me up with your husband?" Peeta joked.

"I wouldn't stand in the way of true love," Taiya shrugged. "I would cry though."

Peeta just chuckled. "You are so high. Go to sleep, Taiya."

"Peeta! Peeta! Peeta!" Taiya whined, her voice piercing through the quiet of the night. "Bread boy!" she snapped, jolting Peeta from his sleep.

"What, what, what, what?" Peeta groggily sat up. It was the middle of the night and he'd been dead asleep. He was exhausted

"Did you know Gale shot me?"

"Oh god, Taiya," he slumped back down into his chair with his eyes closed. The doctors had assured him they'd dosed her up enough to keep her asleep, and therefore silent, for the whole night. Mission failed. "Yeah. I did know that. I watched it happen remember? Can I get some sleep now?"

"Do you want to help me plan revenge?" Taiya's tone shifted. Peeta cracked one eye open to look at her, she was smirking, her mind racing with different ideas for vengeance.

"Taiya, revenge is probably not a good idea," he cautioned, but he knew his warning would fall on deaf ears.

"It's a good idea," she shut him down. "I've been waiting for an excuse to strike Dale down, and now I have it. Little bitch shot me."

"You did run right in front of where he was shooting…"

"Dale should have enough training to be a better marksman than that. I'd never mess up that badly," Taiya countered. "I always assume everyone is my enemy until they become my friend. Dale never became my friend, therefore he is my enemy. Come on, it'll be fun, help me!"

"What's that?" Peeta's attention snapped to a sound in the hallway, his senses turning on to high alert.

"Did you get an idea? Is it good? Will Dale suffer?"

"No, no, Tay, please be quiet."

"Hey, you can't tell me to be quiet. The only one allowed to do that is Tyler, and that's only if I'm in trouble for doing something he told me not to do."

"Shh, Taiya, please!" he hushed her. He could hear thundering footsteps storming down the hall.

"No, no, no," Peeta's heart raced as he moved towards Taiya's belt of knives that was sat on the side and pulled two out, holding them up threateningly in the direction of the door.

Maybe the Capitol was staging a last resurgence?

It was very hard for Peeta to concentrate with Taiya humming the District 4 wedding song behind him. How could he protect her when she was completely defenceless?

"TAIYA!" someone yelled from the hallway.

"Hey!" Taiya's face lit up with recognition. "It's my bestie Tyler. Yoohoo!" she called out, but her voice was strained, yelling would aggravate her chest.

Peeta's shoulders instantly relaxed. Thank goodness. "I'll get him," Peeta assured Taiya, tucking the knives into his belt just in case, before sticking his head out into the hallway.

"Peeta?" Tyler's voice was laced with urgency as he saw the boy.

"She's in here," Peeta gestured towards Taiya's room.

Tyler took off into a sprint. Gloss and Buck were right behind him.

Tyler felt like he couldn't breathe.

Hearing the news that Taiya and Finnick were dead… was agonising. He felt a storm come over him. It was a gale-force rush of despair, anger, guilt and regret. But it was just pain on pain. He'd only felt that hopeless once before in his life. He'd felt the air rush out of his lungs like he'd been attacked. Buck had been slapping his back, trying to help him get air back into his chest as he gasped like a fish out of water. Upon hearing the news, all the light left in his world had instantly been sucked out. It had left him feeling nothing but grey. Guilt had been eating at him, tearing at his very soul as it wrapped its tendrils around his heart with icy chains. He blamed himself. He should never have let Finnick go in the first place. He should have told Taiya the truth. Maybe then he'd be able to convince them both to stay in the relative safety of District 13. Where he could protect them. Instead, he'd let them go out, out beyond the reach of his protection, and they'd died. He failed them just like he failed Aila. They needed him, and he wasn't there. He felt like his chest was being crushed with an anvil of failures, pinning him to the bottom of the sea and letting him drown.

He didn't even remember what he'd done to get thrown into isolation, Gloss had called it an 'epic meltdown'. When Plutarch came into his cell and told him he had word from Delly that the star squad was alive, he couldn't bring himself to believe it. It was probably another of Snow's twisted games. That old man had eaten up the latter part of all their childhoods, and he'd torn into their lives with absolutely no care or shame. Hope flickered back into his heart briefly, before he quickly shut it down. He'd learnt his lesson by now. Hope always led to disappointment and despair, it was best to snuff it out. Buck and Gloss had seemed much more optimistic when they boarded the hovercraft to the Capitol. Plutarch had put them on the second flight out of there. He tried to suppress his emotions, but hope had snuck in after seeing those two's joy. But he stayed firmly put in his sombre demeanour. He wouldn't allow himself to feel any form of relief until he laid eyes on the couple himself. He'd trapped himself in a web of anxious uncertainty.

He nearly collided with Peeta in his haste to get through the hospital door.

"No freakin way!" Taiya laughed. "Look, Peeta! It's Tyler. He's like my boss."

"Taiya," Tyler felt his legs tremble beneath him as he beheld the sight of the bandaged girl lying on the bed. His heart was swirling with emotion. Fear, relief and pure joy.

"Don't be sad, I meant it in a good way. You're like a cool boss. "

"Oh my god," he rushed towards her, enveloping her in a hug.

"AH!" she instantly cried in pain, causing him to recoil, his eyes wide with concern. He hadn't considered her injuries when he'd grabbed her.

"What happened, honey?" he asked gently, running his hand down her hair as he looked her over. She looked so small lying in that bed. He could see the bandages wrapped around her chest. No one would tell him what happened.

"You'll never believe it," Taiya shook her head. "And I'll get to say I told you so. Because I did. Dale's a dick."

Peeta felt like he had to step out. He could see her bottom lip wobbling. High on morphling or not, he knew she'd been deflecting her worries and fears using humour, it was what she did to cope. So he stepped into the hallway and noticed Buck and Gloss lingering.

"You should go in," he nodded at Buck.

The man didn't need to be told twice, he was rushing in.

"'Sup?" Gloss awkwardly greeted Peeta.

Peeta remained silent, simply staring at the man. He really wasn't sure why Taiya liked him. No one except Taiya had the answer to that.

"Tell me what happened," Gloss requested. That was probably the most words he'd ever spoken to Peeta. Peeta had always known Gloss cared deeply for Taiya, that much was evident, but the fact he was engaging in conversation with Peeta really drove that point home.

"She got shot," Peeta answered quietly. He hadn't even processed the rapid events of the past few days. It had gone from bad, to very bad, to awful, to catastrophic so quickly. "We were underground in the sewer system to avoid detection. Snow sent the lizard mutts in after us - the ones from the Capitol."

Gloss' eyes widened in recognition. He knew exactly which mutts Peeta was referring to - the ones that left Taiya near-catatonic after a session with them when they were being held captive. She would have lost her mind down there.

"Gloss," Peeta stepped closer so he could whisper. "The mutts didn't attack her. They didn't attack Finnick either. They just ran past them. Left them alone." He didn't know if any microphones were listening in, but he definitely didn't want this being spread around until he knew what the reason was. He was worried some of the more radical rebels would twist it as if Taiya was involved.

Gloss turned to Peeta with a frown. "But it attacked her in the Capitol? It hurt her leg, why would it leave her now?"

"I don't know," Peeta shook his head.

"How did she get shot?"

Peeta swallowed as he looked up at Gloss. "Gale shot her. It was an accident…"

"Well he's dead," Gloss remarked, his tone casual He looked over at Peeta who was staring at him in shock. "Well, I'm not gonna kill him. She will. I'm not taking that away from her," he laughed. "Oh man, I can't wait. Where's Fish Face 1?"

"Who?" Peeta frowned.

"Fish Face 1? Finnick."

"Are you trying to do Johanna's nickname?" Peeta tilted his head and Gloss just nodded. "It's Fishstick 2. Not Fish Face 1…"

"Close enough," Gloss shrugged. "Where is that peacock?"

"He's still underground," Peeta muttered, his gaze dropping to the ground. "He got stuck down there. We had to separate."

"Wait a second. The nutcase was shot, and the man who follows her around like a lost puppy split? What the hell happened!"

"We had to cause an explosion. The mutts… there were too many of them. We couldn't take them. He was still underground; we'd all climbed up, he told us to blow them up and he'd run."

Gloss didn't say anything, he just bolted over to the nurse's station and rolled a nurse who was sitting in her chair away.

"Hey!" she protested.

"You got a map?" the towering man asked her as he rifled through drawers.

"A map?"

"Of the city. Something the soldiers were using, I don't care."

"Alright!" the nurse snapped as she retrieved a map from her dropped rucksack in the corner. "Here," she held it out and looked up, catching her first glimpse of Gloss' face. "Oh," she giggled, tucking her hair behind her ear, but Gloss was already striding back toward Peeta, the map and a pen in hand.

"We're going to map it out," Gloss crouched down, spreading the map out of the ground. "Where'd you go into the sewer?"

"I'm not sure exactly."

Gloss slowly turned to look at Peeta, disbelief evident on his face. "You're not sure?"

"Do you know where Taiya lived with Seneca Crane?" Peeta glared. If Finnick hadn't recognised the place immediately, there was no way Gloss would know.

"Of course I know where Crane's penthouse is," Gloss circled the block on the map. "At least give me a hard question if you're gonna give me attitude. Ok, so you went in there. Do you know where you came out?"

"The subway station is right around the corner from Tigris' shop. Tigris is…"

"I know who Tigris is," Gloss cut him off, circling the correct station. "You realise I've known that fish brain since she was 16, right?"

Peeta just nodded, satisfying Gloss. He wasn't about to get into an argument over something so pointless with the man.

"Ok, so how far away from the station do you reckon you dropped your explosion?"

"It was just under the station."

Gloss turned to look at the boy. "So you abandoned Finnick in the sewer under the station?" he asked and Peeta nodded. "Well, that's pretty easy to track him down then," Gloss folded the map up and put it in his pocket. "I thought you were going to say you left him in the middle. That would've been harder," he stood up and started walking down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Peeta raced after him.

"To get trident boy," Gloss answered, not slowing down his pace. "Taiya's been hurt; he's probably bawling his eyes out like a sook underground. Plus, leave her without him for too long and she'll probably gouge someone's eyes out because the voices told her to."

"Good point," Peeta agreed. She's been unconscious for so long and half-dead, it had to have at least slowed down her breakdown.

"I'll be back soon."

"You're going to need some weapons. And there are pods out there!" Peeta warned.

"Plutarch already deactivated the pods," Gloss shook his head. "And this hospital is swarming with soldiers; I'll just take some of their weapons. Don't stress, bread man. I'll get fish breath and bring him back."

Peeta didn't follow the man anymore; he let him go. Gloss was really bad at nicknames, none of those had been good. Peeta turned back around and headed towards Taiya's room to see how the District 4 team was doing.

When he walked in, he noticed both Taiya and Tyler asleep. Tyler was lying on the bed with Taiya, holding her against him as they both slept. It looked like a parent holding their child.

"How's it going?" Buck asked quietly, pulling the boy's attention to him.

"Been better," Peeta nodded.

"Thank you for looking after her. She needed a friend like you."

"She has plenty of friends," Peeta frowned.

"She does," Buck admitted. "But in those friendships, it's always her that needs the most help, whether she'll admit it or not. It's nice for her to be able to help someone for a change."

Peeta frowned as he processed that. It seemed like a very backhanded compliment. "Thanks?"

"Don't overthink it."

"I won't," Peeta reclaimed his chair. "She's going to kill Gale."

Buck just smirked. "Probably."

"She'll get in trouble. Things will be different when Coin's in charge."

"I know," Buck agreed. "But if you tell her she can't do something, it'll just make her want to do it more. Where's 1?" he looked at the doorway. "That nutter's been hanging out with me since she left, I didn't agree to be his friend. That man has a few screws loose."

"Probably the same screws Taiya has loose," Peeta smiled.

"Good point."

"He went to look for Finnick."

"On his own?" Buck frowned. That didn't seem smart.

"He said she'd need Finnick. And Finnick would need her."

"He's right. He's not smart, but he's right," Buck admitted.

"Did she tell you much?"

"Not really. She just wanted to hug Tyler. She did tell us twice about how Gale shot her before she passed out. Used some colourful language, so it's probably a good thing you left the room. Wouldn't want to hurt your little ears."

"I know swear words!" Peeta protested.

"Not these ones, 12… not these ones."

ShiaraS46: when I saw your first comment about the doctor I was like hehe, she's gonna dislike him now! Tyler and Gale... I can't wait for that convo!