Chapter 19: Peeta Awakes, Cato Proposes
He’s not sure how he got here. The last thing he remembers is seeing Peeta being taken out of the hovercraft under a sheet. Peeta’s face was really pale and his hair, normally curly against his forehead, was lying flat and wet looking. Cato vaguely remembers Gale, or was it Rie, calling out his name before everything went black. Damn, his head really hurts.
He takes a moment to look around. He’s lying on a bed, but the room isn’t his and Peeta’s. The small room is white but the only rooms in District 13 that are white are … in the hospital. He’s in the hospital! Wait, why is he in the hospital? Before he has a chance to figure it out, the door to his room opens and Dr. Aurelius enters.
“Ah Cato, you’re awake!” he says joyfully, walking over to the bed. “The others will be happy to know that. How are you feeling?”
“I’m good I guess. My head hurts. What happened?” Cato asks.
“From what I understand from Gale and Rie, who brought you in by the way, you had gone to the hangar to greet the returning team. Apparently, when the stretchers came out, you passed out and hit your head,” Dr. Aurelius explains. “With your previous head injury, I had you put in this room for monitoring,”
“I see,” Cato says. “How’s Peeta? He was on one of the stretchers, right?”
“Peeta is a very lucky young man. The bullet fragmented of the bulletproofing of his uniform. Several pieces of that fragmentation entered his body, barely missing his left kidney and the spinal cord. Unfortunately, one piece did nick the renal artery causing some heavy bleeding. If Finnick hadn’t been there to apply pressure, Peeta may well not be here today,” Dr. Aurelius explains. “Due to the time it would take to get him to proper medical attention, a medic on board the hovercraft that picked him up put him in a medically induced coma. He was hoping to slow down the bleeding until he arrived here and I could take care of him. Peeta is in the room next door, recovering from surgery, under watch for infections. If you’d like to see him, I’ll take you there in a moment.”
Cato listens to Dr. Aurelius explain about Peeta’s injuries as tears slowly fall down his face. When he offers to take Cato to see Peeta, Cato jumps at the chance. “Please, yes, I want to see him,” Cato says.
Dr. Aurelius helps Cato off the bed and the leave the room together. The hall is filled with Mentors, Tributes, and families. Cato gives them all a small smile as he is led to Peeta’s door. Cato opens the door to see Fennel sitting in a chair next to Peeta’s bed. When he sees Cato, he stands up and leans over Peeta. “Cato’s here now son. I’ll be back later,” he whispers as he kisses Peeta’s forehead. As Fennel leaves the room, he places a hand on Cato’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you up and walking around again,” he says before walking out the door.
Cato walks over to Peeta’s bed and sits down in the chair just vacated by Fennel. He leans forward and takes Peeta’s hand in his own. “Oh Peeta, this is not how I pictured your homecoming – you shot and me knocking myself out fainting,” he says sadly. “Then again, I didn’t imagine telling you I loved you by blurting it out the way I did either.”
