In the pit of her stomach, Katniss knew this coming winter would be hard. It always was, but there was something aboutthiswinter she just had a sinking feeling about. Gale had started working in the mines that year. While that gave financial relief to his family (Katniss refused to let him help her family with his earnings no matter how hard he had argued his side), worries about his well-being loomed heavily over the two families. Now that Gale was working in the mines, Katniss's family had been over for dinner at the Hawthorne's house several nights a week, a solution Gale had pushed for instead of giving Katniss food directly.

Her mind was lost in thought as the children ran about the living room in a game Katniss was sure she had seen before, but had yet to figure out the objective, and was only pulled back to reality by Gale rubbing his knee against her own underneath the kitchen table. Looking questioningly at her hunting partner, Katniss snapped her attention to Gale.

"What'cha thinking about?" Gale asked quietly, though he did not need to. With all the commotion the children were making in the living room, their mothers could not hear a single word from their occupants on the porch.

"Oh, uh," Katniss attempted to gather her thoughts, "nothing." Gale arched an eyebrow in question, obviously not believing her. "I was just thinking about what preparations I – we should make for winter."

"We'll be fine," Gale smiled softly, "We've made it every year, and now we've got some extra help since I'm working."

"Please don't remind me." Katniss sighed leaning back into her chair and allowing her head to drop backward.

"Hey," Gale ran a finger lightly along her upper arm, "We'll be fine, stop worrying."

January hit, and Katniss' worries were not in vain. Animals became scarce, work weighed more on Gale, the children began feeling hungrier and Katniss could not keep enough food on the table to feed everyone. As it was, Hazelle and Mrs. Everdeen were eating hardly enough to satisfy their hunger insisting the younger ones eat a fair share. Soon enough sickness hit the district, as it usually did this time of year. Mrs. Everdeen and Prim were now spending their days caring for the ill, and as fevers spiked, the animals seemed to disappear leaving Katniss distraught.

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.

"It's 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. 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 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, 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 tostay in bedand 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 on 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 bringing 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 when 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 themhe 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.