Chapter 9

Katniss' POV"Katniss?"

A body is hovering over me, but I don't look up. I can't quite place the voice, because I can almost only hear my sobs.

"Katniss."

The time the voice is less shaky and more persistent. The person that owns the voice wants me to look up and answer.But I don't. I can't.

"Katniss."

It shivers down my spine when a shaking hand touches my shoulder. It's almost not even touching me, more hovering over me. But I can still feel it shaking.I know who it is now.

"Peeta.. Im.. sorry.. I shouldn't have come he-here.." I mumble inbetween my sobs.

I look up fromm my hands, and he looks like he just saw a ghost. Or a mutt, for that matter. He kind of looks like when I first saw him after the rescuing. All bruised up. Completely torn.

"Wait, you broke every bone in your body. How are you able to stand?" His whole body isn't bandaged up anymore. Just most of it.

He removes his scared hand from my shoulder and says: "It's the Capitol. They gave me some sort of medicine to help my bones heal quicker. They used bigger amounts where I needed it more, like my ribs and my spine. And I can only stand on my fake leg." realize that is only standing on one leg.

"Okay," I nod. I don't know what else to say. I'm sitting in a little corner in his room, crying like a baby over myself. He hates me, most of his bones are broken, yet his first instinct is still to stand up and comfort me, even though I'm the one to blame for all of this. For everything.

I owe him the whole world, and he doesn't owe me anything, yet it is still him that keeps on giving and giving and giving. And as greedy as I am, I take it all without even hesitating. And I don't even give anything in return.

He sits down next to me. I can tell that he is trying to hold himself back from strangling me, which is good.

"The doctors told me that they are going to give my fake leg some sort of cell operation. I'll be able to control it with my brain, and there is going to me some wires that will run through my boy, inside of me and stuff. It's complicated to explain, but hopefully it'll work like a normal leg," he tells me.

I wipe my tears with the back of my hand, and say: "That's great Peeta! That's incredible!" I lean in for a hug, but then I remember that he doesn't want our bodies to be intertwined.

"Why are you even here?" He asks, looking at me.

I debate on whether I should tell him about Gale or not. It'll probably be a bad idea for him to know that Gale is wandering around these halls. But, then again, if I lie to him, and he finds out, he'll probably not trust me ever again, snce now I don''t have to do a lot to lose the little trust I have already earned.

"Some things happend, and I wasn't able to be in my own room," I say, shrugging.

"What happend?" He asks curiously.

"It.. I.. He.. Um.." I try to find a way to tell him, without him going crazy, but it's almost impossible.

"It is something that is going to make me act differently?" He says in a hurt voice. He is debating whether he wants to hear it or not.

"I.. I don't know," I answer truthfully. Would he? I remember the talk he had with Gale, on the mission to kill President Snow. They actually acted like friends.

"Has it something to do with Gale?"

"How did you know?"

"When you came in, I wasn't in a coma. I was sleeping, but I woke up, when I could hear Gale yelling from outside," he says.

"He is visiting to make things alright."

"Is it working?" Peeta's voice is shaking. I can't tell if it's because he is thinking that he is going to lose me, or he is turning into a mutt.

"No, it isn't. He knew that Prim would die, and he didn't even warn her. And then, like a coward, he just runs off to District 2, because he was scared of me. And now he just shows up, and thinks that everything is going to be all good and perfect again!" I try to catch my breath after that.

Peeta shifts uncomrtably, probably because he is thinking of me as a thread, since I was practically yelling at him, because of how mad Gale made me.

And then something unexpected happens.

Peeta hugs me.

His strong arms snake around my waist, and pulls me close into his strong body.The warmth of him makes me forget all my problems, and I just enjoy finally being so close to him again.

After what seems like forever, I finally wrap my arms around his neck. I can feel him freeze for a second, and I loosen my grip a bit, before resting my head on his shoulder. He relaxes again.

The hug is intimate and I feel so safe here in Peeta's arms.

"Katniss? Ya in here?" l look up to see Haymitch sending us a weird look, that's like a mix between confusion, horror, (probably because he is scared that Peeta is going to strangle me) and eternal happiness. It's a weird, but cute look.

"Katniss, we have the, umm, footage, umm, just come out when you're, um, done." Haymitch quickly runs out of the room, ruining the moment.

Peeta begins to laugh, and I join in. We don't let go of each other for a long time while laughing, but when we do, we're still laughing.Crazy how quickly you can become happy if you're with the right person.

As cramps start to fill up our stomachs, our laughter ware off. Peeta is fiddling with the tips of my hair, lust like he used to when it was braided.

"Was that footage Haymitch was talking about important?" He asks, without looking up.

"Kind of," I answer.

"What was it about?" This time he is looking up.

"I actually don't know," I answer. It's not comepletely true, but not completely false, either.

"Okay. You think that you should get going? Haymitch is probably tired of waiting," he says with a half smile.

"Yeah, I probably should," I say, as I stand up, heading towards the door.

"Could you stop by later?" Peeta asks, also standing up, walking towards me.

I stop up, turn to him and say: "Yeah, unless it's too late. But then agan, this is the only place I can avoid Gale," I laugh.

"Yeah, it can be pretty boring in here, when you're not allowed to leave," he tries to laugh it off. But I can'r help but think that I am to blame for this. If only I had insisted on us leaving the group in the Quell, he might have never been hijacked in the first place.

And like he can read my mind, he says: "It's not your fault, you know."

"But it is, if I had never-"

"It's not. If you had never pulled out those berries, the Games would still exist. And I would be dead. It was my fault for sticking with our allies in the Quell, and not following you."

"You're the last one to blame for all of this," I tell him. I can't do this. Can't take this fight. I'm so tired of fighting.

"Just get out to Haymitch, and if it's nnot too late or Gale is bugging you, you can stop by," he says, lightly pushing me towards the door.

I walk out to find Haymitch passed out on the floor. He doesn't smell like alchol, so he's probably just hungover.

"Haymitch?" There's nothing to pour over him, so I'm hoping that he'll hear me.

Of course he doesn't wake up. I kick him in the side and he sits up.

"I'm ready to go, Haymitch."

"That's not a very nice way to greet an old friend," Haymitch sniffles.

I help him up on his feet, and we start to walk.

"What was this whole thing that I walked in on about?" Haymitch says in a curious tone.

"Progress, Haymitch. Progress," I answer.

"So what exactly is this footage involving?" I ask him.

"It's what Peeta said before he jumped off the balcony."

"Why do I have to hear it?"

"He talks about some stuff about the Games, that weren't showed on-screen," Haymitch explains.

We walk down into a basement, where you can clearly see that Beetee has his nest. Wires and electronics are everywhere and there's an endless beeping from the many machines. We walk through a door with a sign on it.It says 'The Machine' in gold letters.

"We're here!" Haymitch says, before dumping down on a brown leather couch placed in one of the corners.The room is dark with wood flooring and concrete walls. On one of the walls there is a wall light highlighting a collage of sketches for The Machine.

I turn to Beetee to see a little control panel. There's a couple different monitors showing different videos from different cameras, attached to The Machine. On the desk in front of Beetee, is a mircophone and some headphones.

"Ready to hear what Peeta has to say to you?" He asks.

I nod and walk over him, placing the headphones on my ears.