THE MAN IN THE HANGING TREE | Gale Hawthorne

THIRTY EIGHT - My Reason For Existence

GALE'S POINT OF VIEW

I can't believe it, here she is after months apart-- alive.

I have to keep touching her in some way, in fears if I depart from her again she will be gone for good this time. An arm around her waist, a hand on her hip, fingers latched to hers, lips locked on her mouth. All in fear that this is all just a dream.

Hell, if this is a dream, I don't want to wake up. Ever.

(Y/n) is quite tolerant of my clingy-ness, though perhaps it goes both ways. She too seems to reach for me, as if I might run away, as if I might leave her to peacekeepers like she told me to only months before.

But it still surprises me, right after (Y/n) tells us the startling realization that this is the 76th annual Hunger Games, that she immediately starts patting me down.

"What are you doing?" I ask her, amused as she crouches in front of me. "I'm not carrying a bomb or anything."

She doesn't pay me attention for a moment as she passes her warm hands lightly down my sides, down my legs and to my ankles, crouching down to check my boots. Then she stands up wordlessly,  patting my shoulders and my chest until she reaches a removable strap of my bullet proof vest. She pulls it up as I watch her curiously, and she at last pulls out a tiny disk that was hidden behind it.

(Y/n) lifts it up so everyone can see, meeting my gaze with a fearful look. "The Capitol has a spy in the rebellion, someone put trackers on you all."

My eyes widen as she passes the tracker to me, moving to help the others find theirs. I hadn't even noticed, and probably never would have if (Y/n) didn't say anything.  

The Capitol knowing we're here is probably worst case scenario right now. This won't be as easy of a task as Coin made it look.

"We have to destroy them." Jackson, Boggs' second, says earnestly. She puts it on the ground to smash it, but (Y/n) stops her.

"No!" She says frantically, eyes wide. "If you destroy it he'll know I'm helping you, though I think he must already suspect it. We have to leave them here, make him think I completed my task."

Katniss and I share a look, and Katniss asks what we're both thinking. "What task?"

(Y/n) turns to us, and for a moment I don't even recognize the girl in front of me. The girl that sung to me in the meadow, the shy girl that kissed me in the streets of Twelve, the girl who cared for me when it seemed no one else did-- is now gone, replaced by a woman that has seen things, been through hell and back. A woman who has blood tainting her once pure hands, with eyes that pierce with unshaking ghosts. 

I realize, in this moment, it is my turn to take care of her.

(Y/n) pushes on though, and with a haunting voice answers. "I was sent to kill you all."

She continues as Katniss and I share another look, (Y/n) really has been through hell. Though we all have at this point.

(Y/n) walks over to Finnick, who is having issues locating his tracker, and finds it easily for him before continuing. "Snow just set me with a map that was tracking you, and told me to shoot you down." She moves back to my side. "He told me you were a group of rouge Capitol, and when I peered down my scope the first time, you appeared to be, so I shot."

She gestures over to Cressida at this, who indeed looks very Capitol.

"Sorry about that." (Y/n) apologizes, her hand finding my own. "I never imagined in my wildest dreams it would be you, until Katniss almost fried me with an arrow." She smirks, finding humor in the most dire of situations.