She had been sitting by the fire, drifting in and out of sleep for two weeks, when he knocked on her door.

Sae answered and let him in, making a big fuss about his appearance and his new position in District 2.

For the first time since she'd come back to Twelve, Katniss looked up from the flames.

Gale looked good. Healthy. Well fed. His hair was a bit on the short side, but Sae was right, the dark uniform he wore suited him. The almost black fabric made his eyes pop.

Gale smiled. His gray eyes soft and worried as he took her in.

"Hey, Catnip," he whispered.

"What are you doing here?" she bit back.

"Came to see how you were doing," he explained.

Katniss looked away. She didn't want him there, bearing witness to her pain -pain he had partially caused. But she was tired and lonely.

Her mother was in Four. Her sister was dead.

Haymitch was too busy drowning his sorrow away, and Peeta… Wherever Peeta was, she hoped he was safe.

Still, she was stubborn, and she had every reason to be mad at him.

Gale was a big boy –who, apparently, had a big job in Two—he could take her anger.

"Well, you've seen me. You can go now," she instructed.

Gale nodded. "I'll let you be for now. But I'm not leaving. Not yet anyway. I'll be staying down the street, with the city planners. They're using the house that's closest to the gates. I'll be back to see you later."

With a quick goodbye to Sae, he was out the door.

Katniss released a slow, deep breath.

She closed her eyes and listened to the wood crackling in the hearth and let tears, warm and fat, stream down her cheeks.

XXXXX

True to his word, Gale came back.

His visits were never long, but hey were frequent. He didn't say much half of the time, just pulled a small stool and sat by Katniss's side to watch the fire.

These long, shared silences -so similar to the hours they'd spent while out hunting in the woods- reminded her of a different time. Of a different girl and a different boy and the special bond they'd shared.

Katniss said nothing, did nothing. She had nothing left. The darkness in her soul ran too deep.

On the third day of his trip, Gale removed the shawl covering Katniss's shoulders and pulled her up to her feet.

"What are you doing?" she grumbled.

In one swift motion, Gale wrapped her in a thick wool blanket. "I'm taking you out for a walk," he stated.

Katniss glared at him, but she didn't resist.

Gently, Gale pushed her out the door.

Cold winter air kissed her cheeks as she walked down the steps of her house. Katniss tightened her hold on the blanket, wrapping it snugly around her body to keep the biting chill at bay.

Gale placed his hands on her shoulders and slowly directed her towards the main gate.

After the months of inactivity, every step was a struggle. But the cold air filling her lungs and Gale's soft insistence kept her going.

By the time she reached Peeta's house, she was winded. She stopped and looked up. The place was as dark and empty as it had been when she'd last seen it.

"Where is he?" she asked before she could stop herself.

"The Capitol."

Katniss nodded. A moment later, she turned and headed back to her house.

The next day, Gale repeated the process. This time, Katniss made it all the way to the gates of the village before coming back.

Slowly, Katniss recovered her strength. Each day she ventured further away.

One morning, Gale offered her one of her jackets instead of the usual blanket. The sight of the beautiful garment created by Cinna's hands brought tears to her eyes.

Fueled by anger and despair, she snatched the jacket from Gale's grasp and, clutching it against her chest, went back to sit by the fire.

She didn't leave the house that day.

XXXXX

"The mayor's coming in tomorrow," Gale said one afternoon.

Intrigued, Katniss turned to look at him. "Mayor Undersee?"

Gale's face went paper white. "No. A new mayor. Mayor Undersee is-," He swallowed thickly. "He's dead. The cleanup crew found five bodies in the remains of his house."

A soft, shaky sigh escaped Katniss's lips as she considered this new information. A part of her had held on to the hope that Madge and her family were someplace safe. It was time to accept she'd been wrong.

Madge, the quiet, kind girl who had given her the pin that would turn into the rebel's emblem, was gone.

Her eyes, sharp and pained, locked with Gale's. "Did you ever thank her?"

He scrunched up his nose. "Who?"

"Madge."

He shook his head. "Thank her for what?"

"She gave you her mother's medicine," Katniss explained. "She saved your life."

Gale released all the air from his lungs and hunched forward, burying his hands in his hair, he mumbled, "I didn't know."

XXXXX

Days became longer. The snow began to melt. Gradually, Katniss remembered the person she'd once been but, with the memories came the pain, the sorrow, the acute realization of everything she had lost.

They were coming back from one of their walks when they heard Katniss's telephone ringing. It wasn't unusual, the phone rung every other day. Katniss always ignored it.

Without giving her any notice, Gale went into the study and answered the call.

The conversation was short —just a series of 'yeses' and 'nos.' When it was over, Gale stepped out of the room.

"That was Dr. Aurelius," he explained pointing at the phone.

A chill ran down Katniss's back. "What did he want?"

"He says he's been assigned to your case. He needs to talk to you once a week to fill out a report."

Katniss scowled. She remembered Doctor Aurelius and his long naps by her bedside. As far as head doctors went, he wasn't that bad. But these telephone conversations sounded like a lot of work. She didn't want to talk, she just wanted to be left alone.

"Next time the phone rings, just let it ring," she instructed.

For the first time since he'd come back, Gale's eyes darkened.

His loud, booming voice bounced off the walls. "Enough! This has got to stop!"

Katniss took a step back. Her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. Her eyes hardened.

"You need to pull yourself out of this funk!" Gale yelled. "You can't spend your life sleeping in that rocking chair and looking at the fire, eating the bare minimum and going out for short walks." He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "You need to wake up, Katniss!"

Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, "And you need to shower, you've barely changed your clothes in all the time I've been here."

"I have to wake up?" she bit back, her chest heaving and her eyes wild. "How about you? What are you even doing here, Gale? Don't you have a job back in Two?"

"Never mind about my work," he muttered. "I'm here to help you."

A dark chuckle escaped her lips. "Help me? How? By forcing me out of the house and telling me to shower? Do you think that's helping me?"

"I don't know," he admitted throwing his arms up in the air. "But I'm not going to stop trying. Whatever you need, I'll do. Just talk to me, tell me what you want and we'll figure it out together."

"You want to know what I want?"

Gale nodded.

Katniss closed her eyes and swallowed back her pain.

Her whispered words echoed in the room like a clap of thunder. "How about you give me back my sister?"

Right between the eyes.

Wasn't that how Peeta once described her archery skills? She could still see him —the shy, idealistic boy who rode with her to the Capitol— telling Haymitch about the squirrels she traded with his dad.

She had never been particularly good with words, but the hurt in Gale's face told her she'd done it again. With one clean shot, she had brought her target down.

Gale's face crumbled. His anger and frustration seeped out of him leaving nothing but a defeated, empty shell.

Without another word, Katniss ran up the stairs. The sound of her bedroom door slamming shut reverberated through the building.

XXXXX

Gale was still pacing in circles around the hallway when Katniss rushed back down the stairs with a flower vase in her hands.

Without stopping, she reached the kitchen and threw the vase's contents into the embers.

The flowers flared up. A burst of blue flame enveloped a single white rose and devoured it.

With a sharp cry, Katniss smashed the vase on the floor.

Silence followed.

"He's gone," Katniss whispered.

Gale moved to stand by her side. "Who?"

"President Snow." She pointed to the fire. "That was his last rose, his last message."

Gale nodded.

A peaceful silence settled over them as they watched the rest of the flowers go up in flames.

Looking up to find his eyes, so similar to her own, Katniss asked, "How's your family?"

He shrugged. "They're ok. My mom says Posy's going back to school in a couple of weeks."

A sad smile settled on Katniss's lips. "That's why we did it all, isn't it? That's why we went under the fence every day, why we hunted, and fought, and bled." A tear ran down her cheek, she wiped it away. "That's why I volunteered. For her. To keep her safe, to give her a shot at a better future."

With a shaky sigh, she continued, "You shouldn't be here, Gale. You should be there, with them. It may not look that way, but Rory, Vick, and Posy need you a lot more than I do. You are their brother."

Gale's voice was broken and full of sorrow. "Katniss, I-,"

"No," she interrupted, "you fought to give them a better world. You should be teaching them how to live in it."

Gale nodded. Tears streaked his cheeks, he didn't hide them from her. His pained whisper pushed the air out of her lungs. "Catnip, I'm so so-,"

"Don't!" she snapped. "Don't apologize. I know you're sorry, but I'm not ready to forgive you. I know you're in pain. I know you want to help. I appreciate what you've done, but you need to go back to your family, Gale. There's nothing left for you here."

XXXXX

The scraping of a shovel woke her up from a nightmare a couple of days later.

Dazed, she ran out the front door and around the side of her house only to stop short.

There, in front of her, was her district partner, her friend, her neighbor.

Peeta's face was flushed from digging the ground under the windows, but he looked well, thin and covered in scars –like her.

His deep blue eyes had lost the clouded, tortured look she had grown used to.

"You're back," she said.

Peeta's voice was soft and warm in the morning breeze. "Dr. Aurelius wouldn't let me leave the Capitol until yesterday," he explained. "By the way, he said to tell you he can't keep pretending he's treating you forever. You have to pick up the phone."

Katniss nodded. "I know. He left a message the other day. I'll call him back."

"He's not that bad, you know?" Peeta said digging the toe of his boot into the loose earth.

"What are you doing?" she asked, suddenly curious.

"I went to the woods this morning and dug these up," he said, pointing to a wheelbarrow loaded with scraggly bushes behind him.

Katniss looked past him. Evening primrose, she thought as soon as her eyes landed on the flowers.

"For her," Peeta added. "I thought we could plant them by the side of the house."

Without a word, Katniss closed the distance between them and threw her arms around Peeta's neck. "Thank you."

Peeta nodded. His arms wrapped around her frame and held her tight. "I'm sorry, Katniss," he whispered.

After a long moment, she pulled back. Her eyes were heavy with tears, but she smiled. "Want to come over for breakfast? Sae is cooking."

"Sure." Letting go of her, Peeta took a small step back. "I'd love to."

Katniss smiled. "See you later then," she said, before turning and making her way back into her house.

XXXXX

AN. You can also find me on Tumblr. I'm javistg over there, come and say hi!

The Hunger Games Trilogy is the property of Suzanne Collins. No money was made off of the creation of this fanwork.