Chapter 26

They quickly spit out the berries and rinse their mouths out. They are lifted into a hovercraft where doctors take Peeta away to begin working on him and Katniss is put in a separate room where she watches the doctor restart Peeta’s heart twice. She starts throwing herself against the glass to get to him and the people on board inject her with a sedative.

She wakes up restrained in a recovery room where she is completely healed and clean, with only faint scars and restored hearing. The redheaded Avox comes to help feed her and nods when Katniss asks if Peeta was alive. She slips back into unconsciousness and continues to eat and sleep for what feels like a long time. At one point she wakes up unrestrained and gets up. She looks in the mirror and realizes that all her scars are gone. She immediately dresses and leaves her room.

In the hall she sees Effie, Haymitch and Cinna. She runs and hugs Haymitch who tells her what a great job she did. She hugs the rest and Cinna tells her that she will reunite with Peeta at the closing ceremony. He takes her to be dressed and prepped while Cinna explains to her that he chose a simple dress to make her look young and innocent but warns her that the dress will be padded with curves since she lost so much weight. He tells her that the Capitol wanted to surgically alter her but he wouldn’t let them, much to Katniss’ relief. Katniss suspects that Cinna has some other reason for dressing her up to look innocent but he either can’t or won’t fill her in and just states that he thought Peeta would like it. She meets up with Haymitch, who hugs her and whispers to her that she is in danger. The Capitol is furious at the stunt she pulled saving Peeta and considers what she did rebellious. He urges her that her only real defense is that she was madly in love with Peeta and she has to keep that act up. She asks if Peeta knows this and he replies that Peeta is already there and doesn’t need to be told that. She prepares to go on stage while worrying that she has put everyone she loves in danger.

Notes:
Cinna once again helps Katniss portray the image that will help her survive which is now an innocent young girl who was so love struck that she defied the Gamemakers. Katniss is reminded just how dangerous her actions were and steels herself to start acting in the way that will most appeal to the audience.