What If

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Katniss

"We need to get out of this hospital," Johanna decided a few days after the wedding. She was currently in my hospital room, my morphling drip in her arm. This was a ritual of ours that had been doing for a while now.

I nodded and pulled the tube out of her arm, causing her to jolt.

"Hey!" she yelled as she scrambled to grab the tube back from me.

I shook my head and stuck the tube under my pillow. Her eyes were fixated on it. "This is the way to get out, Johanna."

Johanna sulked a few more minutes before leaving, finally realizing that I wasn't going to cave and give her the morphling back.

I quickly forgot about our conversation until I heard a distinct sound of yelling I knew to be Johanna.

"This is bullshit!" she yelled as the door to my room opened. The familiar face of a doctor was clearly Johanna's new victim of her rage. He closed the door on her, slipping into my room.

"What's going on?" I asked as I sat up, Johanna stomping her foot so loudly I could hear it through the door.

"Johanna would like to move out of the hospital. She told me that you'd like that as well," they said. I frowned. I hadn't thought that Johanna was being serious, at least not so serious that she'd ask her doctor, who she called a range of curse words to me on a daily basis.

I nodded. "Okay, yeah—that'd be great. I can move back in with my mother and Prim. Johanna can live across from us."

The doctor shook their head. "No, Johanna isn't stable enough to live alone yet."

"I have ears!" Johanna protested as she whipped open the door, her arms crossed angrily.

"I'll live with her," I volunteered. A small smile appeared on Johanna's face.

The doctor frowned. "Are you sure, Ms. Everdeen?"

I nodded. "Yes, I'm sure my mother and Prim won't mind."

In fact, I think it would be better this way. Back when I lived with Prim and my mother in Thirteen (which was very briefly), Prim and my mother had had to share a bed due to my thrashing and nightmares. I'd also wake them a lot, too, with my screams of terror. Johanna would understand these things, she could relate to them.

The doctor looked from me to Johanna and sighed. "Alright, then. I'll go get you two a compartment."

The two of us spent the rest of the day packing our belongings, which wasn't much. In fact, Johanna had none at all.

Then we were dressed and escorted to a compartment right across from my mother and Prim's. The two were ecstatic to see me out of the hospital and they promised the doctors they'd watch out for us.

Our compartment was nearly identical to my old one. It had two small beds, two identical dressers, and a small table with two wooden chairs. I claimed the bed closest to the door and started to unpack my things into a drawer of the dresser.

Once I finished I sat back down and examined the room. Johanna had finished unpacking as she'd just transported her clothes. She marched over to my dresser and opened my top drawer.

"Do they have any other clothes here? The gray jumpsuit is so depressing. Is your mockingjay suit in here?" she asked. Then she opened another drawer and saw my personal belongings. She quickly shut the drawer. "Oh, sorry."

"No, it's okay," I told her. She raised an eyebrow. "You can look through my stuff, I don't mind."

Johanna hesitated before rifling through my drawer. She pulled out the locket and admired the pictures before setting it back down. Then she picked up the spile and laughed.