Darker And Colder

3.13: Hospital Rooms

Chapter 45
Haymitch's POV

I have to calm her down several times as she tries to tell me what happened. It's fair enough, what he did must be so traumatising to anyone, never mind Katniss.

"I swear I'm going to punch that guy..." I say under my breath, before telling her, "Look, we have to report this."

"No, I... they won't believe me." She shakes a lot.

"Katniss, we have to say something. There's laws against that kind of thing."

"Yeah, but I was the one who followed him there."

I sigh. "You didn't know that's what was going to happen. It's not your fault."

"It is!" She yells. "I never wanted to trust him, but I did! Why? What did I get from that?"

"No it isn't. I promise. We have to tell someone."

She shakes her head. Tears run from her already bloodshot eyes. I never really liked Gale, but I didn't think he was capable of doing something this devastating.

"I'm going to. And you can come if you want, but if you are uncomfortable doing so, you can stay here. Do you want to stay?" She nods. "Okay."

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"Plutarch!" I yell after him. I swear he's either half deaf or just hates me. Probably the latter. After calling several times he finally turns.

"Haymitch, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"If I was to report an assault, where and who would I go to?" I ask.

He shrugs, "Anyone really. Me, for instance. Anyone in a position of some kind of power." Great. I'm not reporting this to Plutarch. "Why?"

"Uh," I scratch the back of my neck, "doesn't matter. Thanks."

"Okay then," he replies walking off. Now all I have to do is find someone in a position of authority. That isn't biased against Katniss.

I walk around and eventually decide Boggs or the hospital would be 2 good places to go; though the hospital probably can't do much, I go there first.

A doctor sees me wandering around aimlessly and asks what the problem is. I try to divert her off to the side and say quietly, "Is there anywhere around here where I would be able to report sexual assault?"

Her eyes widen. "Follow me, sir." And I do. I follow her to a bright white room, which is like a massive booth. There is a long seat on each wall, and a table that runs in between them. There are multiple doors to the room, some very well kept plants. It seems like the most vibrant part of thirteen. The doctor asks me to stay where I am as she gets the appropriate people. It seems surprising that the hospital is the place best suited to dealing with this sort of issue. Maybe 13's government is so corrupt that they can't have any kind of police force of authority that could deal with this.

She comes back with another doctor, someone who looks like some kind of lawyer, and someone who I can't quite tell what they do. For some reason, the first thing that springs into my head is "Be careful, I'm a lawyer." I don't know if that is an important thing or just something some person said once as some kind of weird joke, but I'm sure I will be careful.

"So, Mr. Abernathy, is it? Please note everything you say will go on record- this is a serious matter. Please tell us what you know."

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Once I have told them and they have run through some procedures, they ask if I know where Katniss is so they can get the full story and so they can stop her from being in any more danger.