Defenders: The Fighters of 13. Pt 1

Chapter 3

Jace POV

"Yeah, I'm alright." I tell Collin. He's a good guy; this is the third or fourth time I've talked to him since the games. "They still have me bed ridden and on soft foods."

"That's to be expected, they take a lot of precautions here."He tells me, sitting beside my bed.

The room is adjoining to Jem's, and they let her come see me whenever one of us needs a friend. Collin tried to see her before me, but for some reason it didn't go well. She freaked out and started calling him a mutt. It's hard to tell how he's taking it. "I get that, and respect it, but I would like to walk around and have more than just jello and pudding as a snack."

He chuckles "Yeah. Luckily I recover quickly from injuries."

"I forgot to ask, how's your arm and side doing?"

He shrugs a bit "It's alright, I can't train for a few weeks but they said as long as I take it easy and don't fuck around I'll be fine. What did they say about your leg?"

"They said it's a small fracture, should be healed up in 6 weeks, but I'll need crutches for a while." I tell him, and he nods.

"I had to be on crutches for a few weeks after the games. I couldn't really get used to it but it wasn't too bad." Collin looks around and glances at the camera in the corner of the room. He quietly gets up and wanders over to it; he calmly presses a button on the side. "You wanna get out of here?"

I flip the sheets off myself and sit up "Dude you have no idea."

He chuckles and grabs the wheelchair, pulling it beside the bed. He helps me into it and wheels me out of the room. No one pays much attention to us, but we have to sneak past a few nurses. He takes us down a few small halls and through the mess hall.

"Where are we going?"

"Training." He says with a smile.

"Yeah but I can't train." I say knocking on the cast over my leg.

"Who says we're gunna train?"

"Then what are we doing?" The training area is almost completely deserted except for Beetee Latier who is in his own wheelchair on the other end of the room, leaned over a desk working on something.

"Finn and I were going to do this when I was in a wheelchair but we got caught."

"What is it?"

Collin grabs a few spears, ropes, a sword, some adhesive tape, and warped, dented armor that were to be scrapped. "We're making it so you can train....kinda."

After about thirty minutes of taping, tying, and twisting the metal and the chair, we have created something like a tank. It's a miracle no one came in and Beetee couldn't hear us, or just chose to ignore us. I hold the sword looking at what the chair has become "Dude...this is awesome!"

"I know! Let's go show Finn! He's wanted to do this for ages." He wheels me around and we head out the door. I take the spears up so they don't hit anyone as we race down the hall. We get a lot of odd looks. We stop at their compartment but he's not there. Collin begins to back me out of the compartment "Shit!"

He quickly wheels us back in "What is it??"

"Finn, but he's with Gale!"

"Hide me!" Collin picks me up and shoves me under his bed "Ow! Be careful!" He hides the wheelchair under Finn's bed and then quickly flops down onto his own bed.

"I don't care Gale, this isn't like that!" Finn says to Gale in a hushed tone outside the door.

"Finnick, you need to face the facts." They must be arguing about something. "Even if she gets through this, she'll never be able to fully love you because you will never understand what happened to her, in the arena, in the capitol."

"She's not Katniss, and he's not Peeta." Wait, are they arguing about me and Jem? "And I'm not you. I'm not going to give up on her!"

"If you're going to be serious about this war then you have to let her go. The council will never allow her on the battlefield again. She's too much of a risk to herself and the rest of you."

"But Gale, she's only just gotten back!" Finn protests "The council can't make a decision like that so soon!"

"I'm just trying to help you Finn. I know how tough this is for you, and I don't want you to be disappointed or distracted."

"If this is your idea of help then stop." The door opens and Finn walks in clearly enraged. He grabs the pillow off his bed and throws it across the small room. It's a moment before he notices Collin. "Oh...hey..."

"Hey...are you alright?"

"I'm fine." He grumbles, and I hear the squeaking springs of Finn's bed as he sits.

"Okay, so I was talking to Jace earlier.."

"What were you doing with him?" Finn asks a bit sharply. Is he jealous or something?

"We were both bored so we snuck into training and made your wheelchair idea."

The bed squeaks again as he stands "Wait, you took Jace and my idea and created my bad ass wheelchair tank??"

"Yeah..."

"Are you kidding me?? That was my idea! And you went with Jace of all people and did it!" The bed above me shifts as Collin stands.

"Dude chill. We were just bored." He goes over to Finn's bed and pulls out my modified wheelchair.

Finn looks it over "Woah...dude....wait, if this is here, where's Jace?"

I hesitantly poke my head out from under Collin's bed "Hi!"

"What the fuck!?" Finn jumps when he sees me. Collin laughs and high fives me.

He helps me get out from under the bed and I sit at the side of his bed. Finn stares at us then heads to the door muttering slightly under his breath "first he takes Jem...now my best friend...asshole..."

"What did you just say?" I ask him and he turns around at the door.

"It's none of your concern."

"I seriously doubt that seeing as you and Gale were arguing about it."

Finn looks at me and Collin "You heard that?"

"I heard enough. So what's going on?" Finn shrugs and walks out without answering. I look to Collin "What's his problem?"

"I don't know..." but his tone says otherwise. "Let's get you back to the hospital, they'll figure out you're gone soon.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

He helps me back into the armored wheelchair and takes me out of his compartment, back to mine where Mrs. Everdeen stands waiting with an angry looking Meg.

"Oh shit..." We both say and Meg smirks like she's going to kill us.

So Collin turns the chair and runs, pushing me with him.