Mockingjay: The New Story

Chapter Nine

Gale’s POV

She is curled up on the floor when I find her. Her eyes are closed, her hands roam her stomach to try and control herself. Her bag has been tossed to the side and left be, Buttercup irritated he has been left in a bag with no way out until we release him, growling and moaning in the quiet space. I go to Katniss’s side and help her up, but she pushes away from me and hits a shelf behind her. I wouldn’t have known what fell if it weren’t for the light coming through the crack in the door that I left open. The window is smudgy whereas you cannot see through it.

Boxes of chalk lay beside Katniss as she sits motionless against the shelf. I slide beside her and stay quiet, moving the boxes aside to sit, letting her mind calm until she is able to talk or at least wants to.

“What happened?” she asks. It takes me a moment to register why she asked, but then I feel the warmth on my upper lip.

“I got in Boggs’s way,” I answer with a shrug. She uses her shirt sleeve to wipe at my nose but I push her away. “Watch it!”

She comes gentler, patting not wiping. “Which one is he?” she asks. Katniss has met Boggs, he is her bodyguard in a way. I guess she just forgot who he was at the moment is all, especially with everything that happened.

“You know. Coin’s right-hand lackey. The one who grabbed you.” I push her hand away, I know she is just trying to help by her motherly instincts, but I do not need it now and it seems to make it worse. “Quit! You’ll bleed me to death.”

“I’m sorry,” whispers Katniss. I hear her sniff and hope she doesn’t start crying. “You fought Boggs?”

“No,” I answer, thankful she had moved on from the stream of blood rolling out of my nose. Madge will have a fit at Boggs if she sees this. “Just stopped him from following you. His fist caught my nose.”

That gets a laugh out of Katniss, at least a chuckle, something other than the misery she holds with her daily. “They’ll punish you.”

“Already have.” I hold out my bare wrist. She looks at it at sea. “Coin took back my communicuff.”

Katniss bites her lip, tears brim her eyes. I wouldn’t blame her for crying now. So much has happened in the past three hours, she probably has all this emotion built up in her waiting to pour out. “I’m sorry, Soldier Gale Hawthorne.”

“Don’t be, Soldier Katniss Everdeen.” I grin. She laughs again, losing the shine in her eyes with a sparkle in replace. “I felt like a jerk walking around with it anyway.” We both start laugh, Katniss holding onto her stomach to keep steady. “I think it was quite a downgrade.”

Katniss too soon stops and leans her head against my shoulder. She has kept a bolted hold on me, having Peeta away I am the only person who could keep her at a steady enough level while she was in the hospital. Getting out was a benefit for Katniss’s mental state. Everyone still thinks she is mad, crazy and ticking as to when she will blow, but Katniss thinks not as much. She knows she’s been put on the spot as crazy, yet she continues to surprise me.

“Who are these people?” asked Katniss.

And again she comes to me when she has some question about anything. “These people are us, only if we had nukes instead of clumps of coal in our hands.”

She doesn’t continue on, only stares ahead into the dark closet. Tears fill her eyes again, this time she lets them fall onto my shoulder. I wrap my arm around her and let her fall into my chest and sit on my lap. I let her break, she had held on for so long, through the whole interview and through Coin pestering her to her limit, through seeing Twelve after being blown to ashes. It was about time too, Katniss wouldn’t have made it the rest of the day with a million ideas of what Snow could be doing to Peeta now. The interview has helped none of her problems, worsened them actually.