kill for your love - the hunger games

(076) but really, does one ever win in war?

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KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act three.

(chapter seventy-six, but really, does one ever win in war?)

command / hospital ward, 75 ADD.

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JUNIPER HALE TAPPED HER fingers against the cool metal of the armrest that belonged to the chair she was sitting in. Her leg bounced up and down, the thudding of her boots echoing slightly throughout Command. Blood was rushing through her ears, soaring like waves. Her eyes latched onto the middle-aged woman at the end of the table, narrowed as she waited for Coin to finish reading the notes the doctors' had given her. 

Beside the Victor, Dr. Aurelius sat as he fiddled with his fingers. He was fidgety as he played with the clip on his ID card, which he had removed from his breast pocket. Juniper could see that his nails were bitten down to stubs, that his face was no longer clean shaven. Stubble caressed his wrinkles and his eyes were lulling downwards with every passing moment. 

Sighing, the Hale woman turned her attention to Lucy Stevens and Haymitch Abernathy. They both sat to the right of Juniper, on the other side of the table. The former was eyeing the one of the electronic maps that showed troop movement whilst the latter had his eyes squinted at President Coin, who seemed to be stuck on one single paragraph that the doctors' had given her. 

Next to her, who was also shuffling in his seat uncomfortably, was Plutarch. The man kept trying to look at the notes in-front of the President, but his swollen eyelids couldn't seem to make out a single word from that distance and so, he ended up staring at the floor, his own boots jumping up and down with anticipation. 

And then next to him, sitting quite calmly in his seat with his hands tucked underneath his chin, was Orion Hale. He wasn't fidgeting or staring at something to pass the time. His eyes were closed as if he were asleep and was merely waiting for Coin to make an assumption. Juniper could feel her heart racing as she stared at her father, undeniable rage coursing through her heart, but with one look at Dr. Aurelius, she tried to quell it. 

"So..." President Coin drawled, causing everyone to snap to her attention, all eyes on her. "These notes are very vague..." 

"What do you mean vague?" Juniper scoffed. "I've been talking to that kid nearly every hour for the past three days." 

After the Hale woman's first session with Peeta Mellark, Coin decided it would have been a good idea to make it so that she saw him every morning, afternoon, and evening. Juniper barely got any time to herself and there wasn't even enough room for her to even attempt to see Johanna, who was still stuck in the hospital ward. Juniper's days consisted of waking up alone in her compartment, eating breakfast, seeing Peeta, eating lunch, seeing Peeta, eating dinner, seeing Peeta, sleeping, repeating. And yet, the notes that the doctors' had given Coin about Mellark's progress were vague. 

"But that doesn't mean any progress has been made," the grey-haired woman spoke. "He seems to be obsessed with some... District Ten prayer? How is that relevant?" 

Orion Hale now fidgeted in his seat as his daughter snapped, "It's obviously important to him." 

"And the doctors' say he has memory loss?" Coin read from the notes. "How major is it? What has he forgotten?"