Chapter Text
Chapter 1
“What’s wrong with her?”
Haymitch Abernathy heard the question before he looked at the monitor showing the feeds for his Tributes. It had only been four short hours since the Bloodbath, and many had died, though none from their alliance. Ignoring the plump Capitol man’s stare on the side of his head, Haymitch focused in on what was happening, trying to puzzle why he was asking in the first place.
Katniss had stopped to rest against a tree. Haymitch didn’t think much of it. Everything seemed fine–the rest of her group continued on ahead, with Mags and Finnick in the middle and Peeta bringing up the front, cutting away vines with his knife. Katniss had chosen to take the rear. Haymitch assumed in a few seconds, Katniss would either join them again or call for a time out. She was just catching her breath.
However, she did neither. And what Haymitch saw next confirmed to him that the Capitol man was right: something was wrong.
Just like the rest of her group, Katniss was sweating. But now, as the camera panned to a close up of her face, Haymitch could see how much. She was dripping buckets! It reminded him of how he had felt after she’d dumped the water pitcher over his head at the start of the Victory Tour; though it had been the middle of winter then and he was shivering, his teeth chattering, his clothes and hair had plastered to him until he peeled them off to take a shower. Katniss looked just as uncomfortable now.
But Haymitch knew it wasn’t prevalent hypothermia causing this. It was something else.
“I don’t know,” he said in answer to the Capitol man, who grunted. They both turned their attention back to the feed.
Katniss was panting heavily. She braced her hand against the tree trunk, swaying as though if she let go she might fall. When Haymitch saw how dazed and fluttery her eyes were, he believed it was the truth.
What was wrong with her? He wondered. She looked as though she was about to pass out. And that wasn’t good. Not with all the plans in place.
“Katniss?” Finnick had noticed the absence of her footsteps behind him. He called out to her.
Katniss answered with a dry, “Back here!”
The Capitol man stepped closer to the monitor. “She was tougher than this in her last arena.”
“She’s pregnant,” Haymitch fired back, without thinking or without pause. A lie–a good one, full of opportunity. Haymitch could use this, even if he suspected it wasn’t the real reason Katniss was acting this way. He could see it in her eyes, she was confused, too. She didn’t know what was happening. But the Capitol man had a point.
“How long do you think the baby’ll last in these conditions?” the Capitol man asked. “Mom’s not looking so great.”
“If they don’t get water soon…” Haymitch shrugged. He was still trying to figure that out, too. He didn’t have a lot of enticing information to tell the potential sponsor.
The Capitol man grunted again, and turned to walk away. Haymitch let him. He didn’t need money right now anyway, he needed to know what was going on. He looked back to the monitor.
On the screen, Finnick, Mags, and Peeta crashed back into the spot where Katniss was. When he saw her, Peeta rushed over, wrapping an arm around Katniss’s waist to steady her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concerned and confused. He rubbed a spot on her back.
Katniss shook her head. “I need to sit down.”
“Okay.” Peeta slid down the tree with her, then directed his next words to Mags and Finnick: “We’re taking a break.”
Finnick’s eyebrows rose, and he spun his trident over his shoulder, giving a glance that said he didn’t agree. But then he looked down at Mags and exchanged a look with her.
“Guess we’re taking a break,” he said. He set Mags up on a log a few feet away while he went to search for water.
Meanwhile, Katniss leaned against Peeta. Her head found his shoulder, and he asked what happened.
“I’ve had a headache all afternoon,” she explained, lifting her head. “I thought it was just the sun getting to me or a thick pocket of humidity, so I stopped to catch my breath. But then I felt really, really warm, and everything went fuzzy, I felt lightheaded, even nauseous for a second, and then… Well, then Finnick called my name and you guys came back. And I feel fine now.”
“It’s probably the heat,” Peeta said. “It’s getting to all of us.” He reached to press the back of his hand to her cheek. “You do feel kind of hot, though.”
Katniss nodded. She let her head fall back on Peeta’s shoulder.
“We need water,” she said, and coughed.
“I know.” He leaned his head on hers for a second, and she smiled slightly. “We all do.” Then he put his hand on her stomach. It was a nice touch.
If Haymitch weren’t so curious about what was really going on, he’d bet the audience was eating this up with silver spoons.