Everything felt so foreign. The plain white sheets, the almost transparent white walls, the slow drip, drip, drip of the medicine needle plunged deep into my arm… it all felt out of place. Not like home.

That's when I remembered. I wasn't home. I was in the Quarter Quell.

No. I shook my groggy head. I was safe. Safe. Safe for the moment, but where was I?

I heard a scream coming from the outside of the large room I was laying in. The scream came again, and I knew who the voice belonged to.

Peeta.

The thought of him being hurt sent me into a panic. I tried desperately to get off the bed, but as soon as I raised my head, the room spun. Trying to raise my arms, I realized they, along with the rest of me, were restrained, not allowing me to move anything but my throbbing head.

The morpheling going through my veins coaxed my eyes shut again. But I resisted. Peeta's safety was more important.

"Peeta!" I shouted as loudly as I could. "Peeta!"

The sliding door leading to my room opened, and I fully expected the foul stench of blood to reach my nose, to indicate that my life was over.

Instead, I saw my perfectly sober mentor in front of me. "Haymitch?" I whispered, my body slumping back to the mattress. Maybe I was safe.

"Nice to see you awake, sweetheart."

I struggled to see past him. Plutarch sat at a wide table, talking to someone sitting across from him. What was going on?

"Where's Peeta?" I asked, even more harshly than I wanted too.

"He's fine. A little beat up. Better than you, though I guess that's not saying much."

"Where's Peeta?" I repeated, nearly growling at him.

Haymitch sighed and my stomach plunged. He had to be here, I heard him. But something was wrong. Something was defiantly wrong.

"He's here, he's in another room getting treated. The treatment's just not going as easy as it did with you. He wants to see you."

"Why'd I hear him scream?"

"Those screams were for you…"

My heart leaped.

No Katniss. I argued with myself. Focus on one thing at a time.

"What?" I choked out. Haymitch patiently told me that the doctors wouldn't let him see me until we had both recovered significantly. Apparently, Peeta didn't like that very much.

"I don't blame him," I said, angrily. "I want to see him too. And I want to know what the hell is going on. Why are we both not dead?"

Haymitch just smiled at me. "As soon as the two of you are able to keep your eyes open for more than five minutes, we'll explain everything."

My eyes fell shut as he stalked out of the room. The last thought in my head before I fell asleep was Peeta….

When I woke up again, the restraints had been undone. The small medicine drip had been pushed to the side of the room, and the pounding in my head was down to a slight thump against my forehead.

Sitting up slowly, I got used to moving my body again. The gash Johanna had cut in my upper arm was now completely healed. I could tell I was not nearly as hungry or thirsty as I was before. Before what? Before Haymitch had rescued us? I still wasn't sure if rescued was the right word.

I touched my feet to the ground, raising myself up carefully. My thoughts were solely on Peeta, and trying to reach him before Haymitch or… I shivered, Plutarch, could stop me.

I pressed a small red button that sent the door flying open. On the other side Haymitch, Plutarch, Johanna, and Finnick all sat around the table I had seen earlier. Four sets of eyes turned to look at me and they all smiled.

"Morning sunshine," Johanna smiled, the closest to a nice thing I'd ever heard her say.

I barely even acknowledged that she had spoken. My eyes searched the room, but the four in front of me where the only beings present.

Haymitch politely asked me to sit. As soon as I did, the four lunged in to a plan of rebellion. How everything starting in the arena had been part of this plan that only Peeta and I were unaware of. That was why Plutarch, as the head gamemaker, had allowed victors to go back in the arena. He knew we would be able to carry out the plan, even without knowing it. They then explained that District 12 was destroyed, along with others. And that we were all going to the underground District 13.

I stared at my hands, nodding occasionally to indicate that I heard them.

"We want you to be our 'Mockingjay'."

My head shot up. What? I was to be their what?

Plutarch launched their latest ideas about me staring in propaganda films, no fighting. I nodded, in a haze. What else would I do anyways? I might as well be a prop in the Rebellion. I wanted Snow dead more than anything.

"Wait!" I said, finally breaking my silence. "What about my mother and… and Prim?" My eyes watered. "Did they…?"

Johanna nodded in a hurry. "Don't worry, Katniss. Gale, his family, and yours made it out in time."

I released a breath of air. "Peeta's?"

Finnick slowly shook his head and my heart took that plunge again. Oh Peeta. I stood up abruptly. "I need to see him." Since when did you 'need' Peeta, Katniss?

Plutarch arched his eyebrows and Haymitch nodded. "Come with me then, girl on fire." Plutarch sighed, beckoning me into another room off of this main hall.

I almost spit. "Girl on fire" was Cinna's nickname for me. Maybe even Haymitch's. But NOT Plutrach's.

My thoughts disappeared when I saw Peeta, his eyes wide open, grinning at me. I threw a look at my tour guide, and Plutarch had the good graces to go back into the room we had come from. My feet somehow led me to Peeta's bed.

"Hi," I choked out. I reached out a hand to stroke his cheek, as smooth and familiar as ever.

"Katniss," he smiled, tears in his bright blue eyes. All I wanted to do was cuddle up next to him. To have everything else go away, and for once be able to be truly happy while with Peeta.

His hand, over mine on his cheek brought me back to reality. He was safe. That's all that mattered right now. "Are you okay?" he whispered.

Tears had started forming in my eyes as my head started to pound again, and I took in the thought of losing him. I nodded quickly, trying to cover up the tears in my eyes. "No… Yea, I'm fine. I…I just…" I couldn't finish. The thought of us both surviving and being here, together…

He shifted to the right side of his bed. He patted the open spot next to him, smiling.

I responded immediately, climbing up next to him. I breathed in his scent. The scent that had comforted me in the cave during our first Hunger Games. The scent that surrounded me after a horrible nightmare. Peeta's scent.

I suddenly realized that everything I had to do to keep us alive during the Games was what I still needed to live. Being in love with Peeta was not something I could just turn off and on. It was real. So, so, so real.

So real that I started sobbing. My whole body shook as Peeta's arm wrapped around my shoulders.

"Katniss…" he whispered. "It's okay…we're here now. We're alive."

I shook my head, trying to indicate I was crying for a whole different reason. For the reason that I was going to have to break his heart. Because I couldn't get married. I couldn't have children. Could I? But I couldn't hide it from him either. He'd figure it out.

"No!" I cried, ashamed at how much he was having an effect on me. "Peeta… I…"

His arm tightened. "What is it, Kat?" he whispered, his breath hot against my ear. Everything in me tingled. "What's wrong?"

I buried my face in his chest. Gathering up the courage from his occasional strokes in my hair, I looked up. "Peeta… I… I'm so sorry. For everything I put you through after the first Games. I was afraid. And… I…I'm still afraid."

After I didn't elaborate, Peter pulled away from me just enough to look into my eyes. "Afraid of what, Katniss? Of Snow?" I shook my head. "The Games?" No. "Haymitch? Plutarch?" Again I shook his guesses away.

"Of you," I whispered.

The hurt in his eyes killed me. His arms came off of me faster than I could shoot an arrow.

"No! No!" I almost laughed. "Peeta, no. That came out wrong, I'm sorry. I'm not afraid of YOU. I… I'm afraid of US." His confused expression asked for an explanation. "I'm afraid because…Because I love you."

Peeta's eyes lit up. Suddenly his lips were on mine. This was a kiss I'd never experienced before. This kiss wasn't for the cameras. This kiss was for me and Peeta. His arms were around me again and I smiled, genuinely for the first time. I pulled away and felt a hot liquid on my face. I knew it wasn't my tears this time. "Peeta?"

His eyes opened, tears spilling over. "You're all I have left, Katniss." I nodded, indicating that he didn't have to explain. His family hadn't made it. "And I never thought… I mean, I sorta thought you'd be with Gale after this… That I was just a hindrance because the Capitol MADE us be together…"

I shook my head hard, kissing at his tears. "No, Peeta. I want you…I, I wouldn't be able to move on if anything ever happened to you. I can't survive without you." My words again seemed to fail in telling him how much he meant to me, but he understood. His face nuzzled against my neck, what I know were happy tears flowing down our cheeks, and I sighed. This. This was perfect. I loved him, and I knew, without a doubt he'd wait until I was ready to get married.