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The walk to the Healer is slow, and doesn't help Katniss's anxiety about Peeta. She can see the sun beginning to move into afternoon as she makes her way towards the mills, where she vaguely knew the temporary clinic to be, Haymitch limping along slowly beside her. They don't speak anymore — it feels like the moment is over, now that they're out in the open.
Finally, about fifteen minutes later, she sees it: a sign painted on a wooden fence, 'clinic, this way'. It looks fresh. She follows it along and comes to a building with another new sign indicating that it is the clinic, and enters. Inside, she sees Poppy, along with one of the military Healers. The name stitched on the front of her uniform is Shaver.
"Can I help you?" Shaver asks. She is pretty, tall with dark skin and perfect posture, and she reminds Katniss of Enobaria. Katniss wants to ask if she knows Enobaria, except that it's a stupid question. There are thousands of people in District 2, and even if she did know Enobaria, because she was famous, as a victor, so what? Katniss didn't even particularly like her. She just feels so unmoored, so lost in this post-war Panem that any familiarity seems good, really.
"Please help him, he's been assaulted," Katniss manages, her response a bit delayed.
Shaver helps Haymitch to a cot, easing the liquor out of his fingers. "You can have that back later," she says, "But I need to take a look at you first. And liquor and pain meds aren't a good combination."
"Then you should know he's had two glasses already," Katniss says.
"Who assaulted him?" Poppy asks. Shaver has turned to Haymitch, apparently deciding it's not her purview to care how this beating happened.
"The soldiers in the Victor's Village," Katniss says. "They arrested Johanna, and Peeta is there too. Can you tell me where the jail is?"
Poppy shakes her head, as if she's disappointed but not surprised. But it's Shaver who replies first. "I'll be glad when they're out of here," she says, "Less messes for us to clean up." She turns to Poppy. "Now don't you go anywhere, your work is here, remember."
Poppy seems to remember this and nods, steadying herself. "It's a block over. Behind this building, then turn back towards the square. Dull, red building. The sign says 'OPK' for Office of the Peacekeepers."
"Ok, thanks." Katniss turns away to go, but a man across the way catches her eye. It's the man from the night before, the one who was dragged out of the square after a soldier beat him up. He's waving at her, his entire face in bandages.
"Hey!" he calls, somewhat weakly.
She moves closer, somewhat on edge.
"Listen," he says. "You're with the negotiators, from the Capitol, right?"
She nods. "I am. It's almost finished."
He seems to try to nod, but can't manage with his injuries. She sees a pitcher of water beside him with a long, long straw so that he doesn't need to pick it up. "The reason they beat me is because I figured it out," he says. "They… the barons, they will give the soldiers a bonus if they manage to incite something that cancels the deal. Some of the soldiers resisted… honor of District 2 and all that. But some of them are desperate, they want the cash. And if there's a riot, violence or whatever, then the deal is off, the military comes here, and the barons stay rich with unchecked law-breaking."
She takes a moment to comprehend this, and even considers if he's lying, but quickly dismisses this, because what does he have to lose? "So you're saying that there's men here with guns who are being paid to start a riot?"
He widens his eyes to emphasize this. "If I were them, I'd wait til the train gets here tonight. When the inspectors and the other Capitol people are here to witness it. So everyone can see the violence of District 7."
She leaves the infirmary with the sense of foreboding that what he is saying makes logical sense, and might be very, very possible. But before she can talk to Acer or Hudson or Mayellen about it, she needs to see Peeta. She follows Poppy's instructions and ends up at the jail within a few minutes, and bursts in almost out of breath. But the room she walks into is thick with silence, Peeta and a guard staring each other down.
"What's going on?" she asks, her voice sounding too loud in this space, even though she is in a waiting room, a place where she should be able to speak at a normal volume. The desk in unmanned, and all the other seats are empty. The blinds are drawn. There is just Peeta, sitting in the seat closest the door to the back rooms, and the guard, sitting in a chair in front of that door, and a horrible pressure between them.
"What's going on is that he has received my warning that if he speaks one more word, I will put him under arrest," the guard says. Katniss can see the club on his belt loop, and the pistol on the other side. She's nervous to even approach, but she grabs onto Peeta's hand and pulls him outside onto the front steps of the building. His hands are cold and clammy, and his entire posture is stiff.
"Hey, hey, look at me!"
He does, after a short delay, his eyes a little unfocused. He turns out, towards the street, then up at the sky, and then he sits down on the steps, and for the first time in months, Peeta begins to cry.
The door is shut behind them, so she can no longer see into the building, and there isn't anyone out on the street, so she comes to sit beside him. "Peeta! Peeta? What is it?" His hands are covering his face, and he's leaning down over his knees, but she can hear his sobs, a horrible, rending noise that she isn't sure she's ever heard before.
"It's alright," he says, nodding a little, but still not looking up. "I'm ok." She realizes he's confirming this to himself, not to her. She sits down beside him and reaches out and puts her arm around him, and she can feel him trembling a little, despite the summer heat.
"Peeta, talk to me, you're scaring me." She had a bad feeling, it's why she came, but she hadn't been expecting this. This was Peeta, who was always composed, always helping everyone else. She had forgotten, of course, what he was like back then, right after the rescue.
"I… I had forgotten, what it was like," he says slowly. "I mean… I had a feeling, it's why I came, but… worrying about it and being in it," he shakes his head, not bothering to finish the sentence.
She thinks she can understand, at least a little. Worrying about the arena was nothing like being in the arena. Worrying about her friends and family dying was nothing like when it actually happened. But right now, she can't think about that. She needs to focus on him. "Did they hurt you? What happened?"
He sighs, putting his face in his hands again for a few seconds before he answers. "I thought it would be different. I don't know. But when we got here, they took Jo back for 'interrogation'," here he pauses, almost choking on the word, "And that was it, I haven't seen her since. I kept insisting she has rights, that I have rights, that the war is over, but it's different in there. It was just me and that guard, and his gun. And as I was waiting and waiting, I was going crazy, Katniss. It was like I was back there, in that prison. I kept forgetting where I was, and why I was there. I kept thinking I was the prisoner, and I was the one being held."
When he finishes, she is silent for a moment. She has a little more context for the scene she walked into, of Peeta legitimately believing himself to be held against his will, and she is at a loss for what to say. She wishes the Quarter Quell didn't end the way it did. She wishes his family was alive. She wishes she had more capacity to help him when he really needed her, instead of needing to rely on him like she did. But that isn't the way things worked out. She swallows down these thoughts, and tries to focus on the here and now. "You don't have to go back in there. He can't hurt you," she assures Peeta. "I'm sorry it took me so long to come."
"It's fine, Katniss. I should be able to do this on my own."
She can hear the frustration in his voice, irritation at his weakness, that he cannot even sit in a waiting room without nearly panicking. "Peeta," she waits until he turns to look at her before she continues. "You were drugged in a prison. They tortured you. You weren't allowed to leave. I was overwhelmed this morning and wasn't thinking straight, or else I would have come instead."
Peeta glances behind himself, at the closed door to the building. "They tortured Jo too," he says. "I gotta help her."
Katniss sighs. "Listen, I have a plan, but it involves us going back to the square. We have to leave Johanna just for a few more hours."
"Tell me what's going on."
As they walk, she explains about Haymitch, and about the other man she saw at the infirmary. "So it's a bribe?" he asks.
She nods. The sun is high overhead now, mid-afternoon, and she knows she needs to act now if she wants even a chance. She looks for the commanding officers. She sees two in the square, based on the differences in their uniforms. Both look stern, but one reminds her a little of Boggs, and this is what makes her approach him. "Can I have a word, please?" she asks.
"Captain Fraser, how can I help you?" he asks, stepping aside from where he had been standing, beside the tavern.
"Captain, thank you, my name is Katniss Everdeen." She's sure he knows who she is, but he's polite enough not to say anything. Up close she can see he's older than Boggs, older than all of the other soldiers here, probably, with lines next to his eyes and mouth, and gray coloring some of his buzzed black hair peeking out from his cap. "I was informed this morning of a plot, of the affluent barons who run the mills bribing the soldiers to provoke a conflict before the new deal can be struck. If there's bloodshed, the men get a bonus."
The Captain purses his lips, considering this. "Is this a legitimate source?" he asks. He gazes out on the square, surveying both his men and the residents.
"I believe so. It was from the man who was beaten last night. He claims he overheard this being discussed, and when he brought it up to the soldiers, they beat him. I believe this was also why Johanna Mason has been arrested with false charges, and Haymitch Abernathy has been assaulted."
The Captain sighs. "You're implying there's to be something more coming?"
Peeta steps forward, even though Katniss hadn't prepped him at all for this conversation. "If it was me, sir, I would plan something right when the people from the Capitol arrive, so they could see just how violent the people of District 7 are." She's shocked that Peeta has come to the same conclusion as the man in the infirmary.
"You're accusing my men of conspiracy."
Katniss nods. "We can offer a similar bonus for information leading to the arrest of the barons, if your men can write statements about how they were bribed and by whom. But that only works if no one incites a riot tonight." Truly, she has no idea if she has the authority to offer the soldiers a bonus, but she thinks in this case it's alright to bluff. Peeta and Plutarch arranged the deal, Johanna organized District 7, she was going to ensure it wasn't ruined at the last minute.
She can see the Captain straighten up with perfect posture, as if she somehow insulted his pride. Perhaps she did. "My men would never incite a riot. But to be sure, I will discuss what we spoke about with them. I will collect their statements, and try to bring you names, if any exist. They would be desperate for bonuses, many of their homes were destroyed in the war, they need anything they can get."
She shouldn't feel bad for the soldiers. The men who waved their guns in Johanna's face, who beat Haymitch, who made Peeta flashback to the worst time in his life. But somehow, a little bit, she does. Because she's spent a year in District 12, she knows what it's like to have nothing. It must be torture for them, in a way, to see the lumber that would help them rebuild, and have to 'keep the peace' about negotiations for starting trade again. She thanks the Captain and leaves, hoping desperately that this conversation will be enough.
She does the same with the mayor, explaining how the bribes worked. Mayellen is not so optimistic. "These people have had it up to here," she says. "They've shown immense patience, but I think a lit fuse will start the whole thing into a riot."
And so there's not much for Katniss to do but to wait. She and Peeta go to the Canteen for an early dinner, and then get an extra meal and bring it to the infirmary. Haymitch looks much better than he did that morning, sitting fully upright, and the swelling in his face much improved. "The rib isn't broken," he says, as if there's something to celebrate in a rib he had suspected was broken. She thinks of the doctors in the Capitol, in their ability to heal broken bones nearly instantly, in how they could put together a broken person perfectly, and she's upset, because how could the military have less than that? How could District 7 have absolutely nothing? And District 12 too, she supposes. They had her mother, but she is gone now….
She sits on an empty chair by the bed, heels perched up on the edge, her knees to her chest. Peeta is stiff too, she can tell, and she thinks he probably is considering going back to the jail, despite everything. "We did what we could," she says, both to him, and to herself.
"Hey, Poppy, can I get out of here?" Haymitch asks.
"Why? Gotta get to the tavern?" Poppy calls back, from where she's adjusting the dressings on the other man. There's a curtain, so Katniss can't see his wounds, but she can imagine they're bad, from the beating he took the night before.
"Yeah, might have time to stop in before the train comes."
Poppy pushes her head around the curtain as if startled. "Oh, it's almost evening! And you're… on the negotiating team! Yes, um… go, well, wait. Let me finish here and I'll get you a few more doses of the painkillers. You're to go very easy on the alcohol until you finish the course, got it?"
"Yes, doctor."
Poppy rolls her eyes and turns back to finish with the bandages, and a few minutes later Haymitch is ready to go, a packet of painkillers in hand. They take the short walk back to the square, a little slower than usual, since Haymitch is still limping a bit. He skips the tavern, keeping his promise to the healers, and they go up to the station platform. Katniss sees Hudson and Acer in the crowd, but it's Captain Fraser who seeks her out first. He nods at her and Peeta and Haymitch, and she steps aside with him.
"I'm sorry to say that your claims turned out to be accurate," he says. "I did not want to believe my own men could be bought, but at least five of them attested to what you said. I am confident there will be no riot tonight, but we will have to organize our evidence to get Billups and the others arrested."
"Thank you, Captain, for taking this seriously." She means it, too. There's more than a little of Boggs in him, and it makes her heart ache. "Can you please see to it that Johanna is released?"
"Yes, of course."
"And I will do my part to commend you and your men with President Paylor for responding so quickly."
His eyebrows shoot up, perhaps not realizing that Katniss was directly reporting to the President. He turns away, calling out to one of his men. "Lister, go to the jail, now. Tell the boys to release anyone held there, and come on back and report to me."
Katniss wants to watch them go, or perhaps go with them. She considers it, but she can hear it, just then, the sound of a train pulling in. It's still hidden by the trees, but there's the distinctive chug of a locomotive, and she strains to see it emerge, and then pull up beside the train that's been resting on the tracks since the soldiers arrived. This one is longer than the other: an engine, a passenger car, and a dozen or so trailers, ready to be loaded with lumber. The train stops with the squeal of brakes and the hiss of the engine, and everyone in the square and on the platform seems to wait. The soldiers are still, eyes on the crowd and hands on their weapons. The residents are waiting to see who emerges. And Katniss feels like she's being torn apart, like too much is riding on this single moment.
From out of the passenger car comes several men and women in blazers, with neat haircuts, carrying small suitcases. Katniss guesses these are the inspectors. There's another man who comes after, tall with spectacles, without a bag. Perhaps he's there to make the deal over the lumber and leave with it. And following them all is President Paylor's assistant, Chambray.