Chapter 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've always adored American Civil War AUs for The Hunger Games (that and the Olympics are literally the most perfect AUs for this series) and now I've finally written my own. I'd recommend the fantastic Knot Your Fingers Through Mine by monroeslittle if you want another Everlark American Civil War AU.

The title is from "Sound the Bugle" by Bryan Adams in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

This is it. This is how he will die.

Captain Peeta Mellark blinks blearily in the fog-streaked dawn, unwillingly dragged back into consciousness by the pain gripping his shattered left knee. The smell of death nearly overwhelms him as blood drips from his temple into his hair, his kepi cap lost hours before in the battle. In the light of the rising sun through the thick mist, he can make out the shapes of his comrades' bodies in the mud and snow beside him, and he turns his head only to look into the blank eyes of Finnick O'Dair, the friendly Irish major's throat slashed open.

Peeta almost retches then and there, but he hears a twig snap and immediately closes his eyes, breathing as shallowly as he can. His hometown is not a mile through the woods in which he lays, and he knows being recognized wearing a Union uniform in Panem, Georgia is almost more dangerous than being discovered by Confederates in any other state while in blue. Because these people, above all others, see him as betraying not only the South, but his neighbors as well, and they won't treat him kindly for it.

But he only hears the light footsteps of one person, not the heavy footfalls of soldiers. There's a curious part of him that wants to know why a Confederate is walking among the Union dead, but knows opening his eyes will surely end his life. The footsteps get closer, and he relaxes every muscle in his body as he hears the person start to go through Finnick's uniform, pulling his canteen from his body and his Springfield rifle from his stiff fingers. Disgusted, Peeta lays in the mud in silence until a female voice gasps his name.

He almost, almost opens his eyes, but tries to lay as still as possible as the woman scrambles through the snow and mud towards him. She kneels beside him, calloused fingertips finding the pulse on his neck, and her vaguely familiar voice breathes his name again. As she checks the cut on his forehead with a gentle hand, he realizes who the voice belongs to. This time he can't help but open his eyes; it's been three years since he's heard her speak, and if he's going to die, he wants to see her one last time.

"Miss Everdeen?" he croaks.

Katniss stares back at him in shock.

"Mr. Mellark?" she repeats, as if saying his name over and over will confirm that he is not a figment of her imagination.

He manages a smile. "This is not how I hoped to see you again after so long."

"You are with the Union," she says, looking down at his uniform, but her voice holds no disdain. He hears even a faint hint of wonder in her tone, and he finds himself pondering if she won't call someone to shoot him after all. She starts to say something else, but they both look up as arguing carries through the thick trees; Peeta instinctively knows the owners of those voices will not be so kind to him.

Setting her jaw, Katniss whispers, "Take off your coat."

"What?"

"If you want to live," she hisses, "take off your coat."

Peeta manages to get a sitting position, vision blurring from the pain in even the smallest movement of his left leg, as she goes to the closest Confederate corpse and, with no minor difficulty, strips the body of its gray coat. Peeta, his ears ringing as his mutilated left knee burns, pull off his canteen strap from across his chest, peels off his soaked blue coat, and throws on the garment Katniss thrusts at him. She grabs an Enfield rifle without a bayonet from another Confederate corpse and shoves it in his hands as the bushes and trees reveal two gray-clad soldiers.

"What do we have here?" the younger man with broad shoulders asks in the familiar drawl of Peeta's home state.

"Good evening," says the taller and older man with a close-cropped black beard, touching the brim of his gray kepi.

"Good evening, gentlemen," Peeta replies as evenly as he can manage.

"Your leg looks pretty busted," the younger man comments.

"It is, sir." Peeta nods grimly. "All because of those Billy Yanks." The younger Confederate standing over him spits into the snow at the mention of Northerners.

"Well, First Lieutenant Cato," the dark-haired man says after a moment, "we can't let an honest Southern boy who served his country lay in the mud, can we?"

"No, Colonel Crane."

"Help him stand."

"Yes, sir."

As Cato roughly hauls Peeta up, Crane holds out a hand to Katniss. "If I may say so, ma'am," he begins as he helps her stand, "you are a testament to the strength of Southern women in this great Confederacy of ours."

Katniss manages a smile. "Thank you, sir."

"You are very brave to come to find your husband in a battlefield."

"I wrote to her, sir," Peeta manages as he tries to rest all of his weight on his good leg, using the Enfield rifle as a crutch. "I told her I was going to be in the area, and when I didn't come home after the fighting stopped, she came looking for me."

Crane smiles. "What's your name, son?"

"Major Finnick O'Dair."

"Well, Major O'Dair," Crane says, "let's get you to a hospital."

"That's not necessary," Katniss interjects. "My mother is a nurse. She can look at my husband's wound." Crane exchanges a glance with Cato, and Katniss adds, "The doctors at the hospital are busy enough as it is."

"If you say so, Mrs. O'Dair," the colonel finally says, and offers his arm to Katniss. "Don't be too rough, lieutenant," he tells Cato. "His leg can't-" Crane stops, staring at Peeta's injury. "Major, may I ask why you are wearing Union trousers?"

"I stole them from a Union soldier's corpse, sir," Peeta invents quickly. "My old Confederate trousers were torn, and it takes too long to order a new pair from the supply trains."

"I have heard of soldiers stealing a dead man's boots, but never trousers." Crane gives Peeta a hard look. "You don't look Irish, Major O'Dair."

"Not every Irishman has red hair, sir."

Cato glares at Peeta. "You don't sound Irish, either."

"My family has been in Georgia ever since the turn of the century."

"There's something not right here, Major O'Dair," Crane says, and Peeta glances at Katniss.

As Crane raises his pistol, Katniss lunges forward as Peeta shoves the muzzle of the Enfield under Cato's jaw and fires.

As Peeta and a dead Cato collapse, Katniss pushes Crane's pistol aside, and the bullet hits a tree. She knees Crane in the groin, and he doubles over as she tries to wrestle the gun from him. Knee twisted even further, Peeta grits his teeth and scrambles to aim the Enfield as a red-faced Crane grabs Katniss by the hair. When the colonel aims his pistol at her temple as she claws at his face, Peeta prays the rifle has one more bullet and shoots the Confederate in the neck. Katniss steps back as Crane falls in a twitching heap. Before Peeta can move, she takes the pistol from Crane's limp hand and shoots the colonel between the eyes.

Katniss' chest is heaving beneath her dress, dark hair falling in her face as she lowers Crane's pistol. "We should go before someone investigates."

She helps Peeta stand, letting him lean on her as he uses the Enfield as a crutch. He hobbles with her through the thick trees for what feels like an eternity, drawing in ragged gasps as they finally reach the back door of what Peeta recognizes as the Everdeen house. It looks even more rundown than when he had last seen it three years prior, the roof sagging with windows cracked and bullet holes peppering the walls.

"Lean here," Katniss says under her breath. Peeta complies as she knocks quietly on the door, but no one answers. She raps again on the wood, more insistently, and calls out as loudly as she dares. "Mother! Prim!"

Just as Peeta thinks he might pass out right then and there, they hear the deadbolt clatter and the door finally opens to reveal Mrs. Everdeen. Without a word, she helps her daughter assist Peeta over the threshold.

"Mr. Mellark!" Primrose says from the stairs, and follows them as her mother and sister help Peeta onto the kitchen table.

"Bring the lantern over, Prim," Katniss says, and the fair-haired girl obeys.

"He may have frostbite," Mrs. Everdeen says after inspecting the wound. "And that knee does not look good."

"Can you save my leg?" Peeta asks in a strained voice.

Mrs. Everdeen pauses. "Prim, get the bottle of whiskey." As Prim hurries off, Mrs. Everdeen avoids eye contact with Peeta.

"Katniss, find your father's axe."