Spoilers: Major spoilers for Catching Fire.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games, or Katniss and Peeta. Considering their fates in some of my Hunger Games fics, maybe that's a good thing. ;)

A/N: This one-shot has been floating around on my computer for a while. It's only a short scene, a glimpse into a moment of "might have been." But, the idea just wouldn't leave me alone, and I finally decided to go ahead and post it. :)

As always, I thank my Lord Jesus Christ for his incredible mercy and grace and his many blessings. I would be utterly lost without him.

I hope you enjoy this, and please let me know what you think!

Extinguished

Haymitch feels it when Peeta hits that force field.

That should be impossible, but a sharp, stabbing, electric jolt rips through his chest anyway. Shock, guilt, and grief. He'd thought he was numb to all those things after twenty-some odd years of constant exposure, but it turns out he's not.

The boy is tossed through the air and lands in a limp heap, unmoving. Totally unmoving. Peeta's chest is still too, and Haymitch doesn't have to look at the boy's vital stats to know that his heart isn't beating.

That's another punch to the gut, and Haymitch is reaching out before he can even think about it, grabbing the glass Effie had given him before she left to try to charm a few more sponsors. He throws that glass at the nearest wall, and it shatters violently, sending fragments raining around the room. Haymitch feels a sting on his hand that suggests one of the shards caught him, but he doesn't care.

He slumps down in his chair, eyes still locked on the screen in front of him.

This is his fault.

He should have fought harder to make sure the boy was protected. Maybe he should have even insisted on going in there himself.

Katniss is crying Peeta's name, begging him open his eyes, to wake up. Finnick pushes Katniss aside and starts chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth, trying to pump some life back into the boy's body.

Katniss must think it's some sort of attack at first because she's suddenly got an arrow in her hand and she's taking aim. Eventually, though, she seems to realize what Finnick is trying to do, and she slowly lowers the bow, a hopeful expression on her face.

That expression crumples as the minutes pass - minutes that seem to last forever and yet not long enough - and the bow and arrow both slip from her hands, dropping into the dirt.

Finnick is still working, but the boy hasn't shown any signs of life, and Haymitch's eyes lock onto that perpetually flat line on the stats screen, silently willing it to move.

It doesn't, and when Finnick finally gives up, a look of defeat on his face, Peeta's cannon sounds.

Katniss starts screaming…screaming like she'll never stop.

But they're in the arena, and someone is bound to hear her. So, Finnick, now looking grim and apologetic, reaches down to scoop her up, clamping a hand over her mouth and carrying her away.

She fights him. She fights him like a banshee, shrieking and clawing and tearing at him until he has no choice but to let her go again.

She scrambles back to Peeta's side and immediately dissolves into tears. She isn't screaming now, just rocking back and forth, sobs wracking her frame.

Mags is sitting a few feet away, regarding the scene with sad eyes, and Finnick is standing behind her, deep red scratches covering his face and neck, his shoulders slumped. He's watching Katniss with a look of terrible, horrible recognition because Katniss sounds a lot like Annie did when she lost her mind in that flooded arena.

Plutarch is probably already thinking about how they can spin this, how they make Peeta a martyr for the cause and Katniss the bereaved, tragic widow, but Haymitch just keeps staring at the screen.

He knows with cold certainty that they won't be able to spin this, no matter what Plutarch says. Katniss had needed Peeta more than any of them had realized…more than she'd realized herself.

She's not confused about her feelings anymore, for all the good it does.

Peeta's gone.

And the flames around their Girl on Fire are flickering and dying right along with him.

Fin

A/N: Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you think!

Take care and God bless!

Ani-maniac494 :)