Katniss had woken not long after they had taken Effie. She paced her cell, desperate to help the woman yet unable to get to her. She wasn't sure how long it had been when the screaming started. She could hear Effie calling for her, could tell she was in pain. She began clawing and banging at the door, frantic to get it open.

Unbeknownst to her, a small camera was recording her reaction and streaming the video directly to Snow. He grinned as an idea popped into his mind. Why not use them as weapons against each other? If they were foolish enough to show their love, he would be smart enough to use it against them.

Katniss, after bloodying her hands, sank onto the floor sobbing. It sounded like they were killing her, and for all she knew they were. Time was beyond her grasp as she cried, surrounded by the screams of the woman she loved. She had spent the night puzzling out her feelings, and by the time the guards came for Effie she had realized she loved her. And if she was correct, the feeling had been there for a while, buried under more consuming emotions such as fear, anger, and perhaps even jealously.

Without warning, the screaming stopped. She lifted her head, a spark of hope lighting in her heart. The silence meant one of two things. One, they decided to leave Effie alone for the time being. Two, they had killed her.

She didn't think they would kill her so soon, especially since they thought she knew something. She heard footsteps in the hall and scrambled away from the door. It opened, and Effie was pushed through. She was covered with blood and her face was streaked with tears. Katniss went to her as soon as the door closed, and kissed her.

Not on top of the head or on the cheek, but on the mouth. She had decided that Effie deserved to know her feelings before they died. Shocked at the sudden kiss, Effie didn't respond for a few seconds. But when it occurred to her that Katniss was actually kissing her, she responded passionately. They each put their feelings into the kiss, and as a result realized how much one loved the other.

Breaking the kiss, they rested their foreheads together. Gray eyes gazed into blue, and it felt as though they had come home.

"I didn't know you felt that way," Effie whispered, the first to break the silence.

"I didn't know you did either," Katniss replied. "Come on, let me look at those cuts."

She examined the cuts carefully, wiping away blood when she could. Effie winced, some of them still bleeding. She was still slightly rattled from the jabberjays, but her fear took a backseat to the joy she was now experiencing. When Katniss was satisfied that most of the cuts wouldn't scar too badly, she allowed the older woman to check her hands and ribs.

"What did you do to your hands?" Effie asked as she gently cleaned away the dried blood.

"I could hear you screaming. I tried to break down the door to get to you, but obviously that didn't work."

Effie stopped what she was doing to look the girl in the eyes.

"You did this to your hands trying to help me? Why would you do that?"

"I thought we were on the same page after the kiss, Effie. Obviously I was wrong," Katniss said, hurt.

Perhaps what she had seen in the older woman's eyes wasn't love, but lust or a form of gratitude. She jerked her hands away and spun around, angry and hurt that Effie didn't feel the same way. She gasped as her ribs protested, obviously more damaged than she thought. Her arm wrapped around her waist and she doubled over.

"Katniss! What's wrong?"

"Ribs," she grit out through her pain.

"Here, here, lie down. That's it, slowly," the older woman coaxed as she helped Katniss lie down. "And Katniss, you weren't wrong. I do feel the same way. I'm just not used to having someone care for me so deeply that they put themselves in harms way for my wellbeing. Now," she pulled the girl's tank top up, "where does it hurt?"

Blushing deeply, both from embarrassment and shame, she guided the older woman's hands to the source of her pain. Bruising was already apparent, her side marred with ugly dark black and blue spots. The older woman gently pressed and fingered the area that was bruised, apologizing profusely when the girl yelped or winced. She felt her stomach churn when she found the break, the bone sitting slightly higher on one side. All in all, there were two cracks and a break.

Katniss hissed in pain as Effie pulled her tank top down. She hadn't noticed the pain earlier in the morning while she was so panicked, but it was extremely evident now that she was still.

"You know," Katniss quipped, "somehow when I pictured the first time you saw me with my shirt off it was always more romantic."

Effie couldn't help but chuckle at the girl's attempt at a joke. She ran a hand through her hair, smiling lovingly. The girl grasped her hand as it left her hair, pressing a kiss to the back of it. As they sat, or in Katniss' case lay there, they both had the same thought:

Maybe this could work.