Surprisingly, I don’t run as far as I thought I would before I see a mountain lion clawing at Rory. I’m thankful I forgot to return the bow now. I pull an arrow and carefully aim not to hit Rory. I don’t either. I hit the mountain lion right in the left eye. It falls on top of Rory. I hit him again in the back of the head and I know he is dead. I run over and push it off of Rory.
“Rory, are you okay. Please answer me Rory. Please Rory say something.” I almost shout at him because he isn’t responding. I put my ear to his chest and I can hear his heartbeat. Faint, but it’s still there. I don’t know how I manage it, but I lift him. I guess its adrenalin. I have to get him back to my house. I run to the fence and listen. Earlier I wanted there to be a hum and there wasn’t. This time I’m thankful there isn’t one. I get him under the fence and I crawl under too. I run as fast as I can across the entire District ignoring all the stares I get. I finally see Victors Village and my house. I see Katniss and Peeta in the window. I run. I must have a lot of adrenalin because I’m able to kick open the door, I think breaking it, and run to the kitchen table. I ignore Katniss and Peeta until they are behind me.
“Oh my Gosh Prim! What happened?” Katniss asks me.
“Never mind right now, I’ll explain later. Right now, I need your help. Go to the spare bedroom and get the first aid kit in the closet. Peeta, can you wash your hands and get the gloves out of the top shelf? I need to wash my hands and watch his heartbeat. Hurry!” I order them. They don’t hesitate. I put two fingers to his neck and I can feel his pulse and am thankful it’s still there. I turn to the sink and wash my hands as Peeta hands me gloves. He puts some on too after washing his hands. I cut off Rory’s shirt and see a big gash in his stomach. Peeta looks like he may puke, but stands firm. Katniss walks in with the kit and opens it. I get the rubbing alcohol and start putting it on his stomach. I get into my stage. Every time I concentrate on a patient, I’m unreachable to everyone else unless I need something. Like right now.
“Peeta, I need to inspect the wound further. Katniss get the sleep syrup. I’m giving him a big dose. Peeta, when that’s in him, I need you to open the wound. Just enough to let me see in there. If anything got damaged in there, I’m going to have to perform emergency surgery. Can you do that?” I ask him. He nods. Katniss hands me the syrup and I give him double the normal amount. It will knock him out for about over a day, and we may need more if he needs surgery.
“Katniss, we have it from here. Go to Gale’s and get him. I may need to take blood and they will more than likely have the same blood type. Don’t tell Hazel. Act normal and ask him to come with you. Don’t panic him okay?” I ask. She nods and leaves. I can tell Rory is out of it now, and Peeta reaches for the wound. He starts opening it and it makes a sick sound. I look in. I can’t see any organs, so apparently the mountain lion didn’t get in there far enough. It looks like the tissues are cut up pretty bad. I have everything here to fix that though. I go to work. Back into that special place. I move around his tissues and surprisingly am able to fix it. It takes an hour to do. I have to be very careful. Every now and then I hear him moan. I get a sharp pain that makes me feel guilty. When I finally finish, I notice Gale standing in front of us. I never heard him come in and since I haven’t needed him yet, I had no reason to snap back to reality.
“Prim, what… happened?” He asks calmly. I guess it’s time to tell them. I don’t hold back. Running to the Meadow, our argument at the fence, shooting the deer, swimming, coming back and waiting for my surprise, hearing him scream, the mountain lion, using the bow and arrows, running through the District until finally, my story is caught up to now.
“Why would you go in there without Peeta or Gale or me?” Katniss asked mad.
“Katniss, I was in the Hunger Games. I was around this stuff already and I thought I could handle it. Think how much worse it would have been if I didn’t and he went in by himself. Gale, he needs blood. What’s your type? I ask him.
“O negative, same as his.” He says.
“Good, I’m taking a pint. Let me just stitch this up though.” I finish stitching and take the blood from his arm. I get orange juice from the fridge and give him an apple.
“Eat this, I may need more blood.” I tell him and he obeys. From a distance I hadn’t noticed, but up close, I can see him crying. I pump the blood into Rory and check his head. He is starting to get a fever and I put cool rags on his head.
“By the way Prim, mom is on her way back to help. I called her when I got back with Gale. She is taking the Capitol train so she should be here about 7 tonight.” Katniss informs me. All I can do is nod. I put more rubbing alcohol on his wound and sit back.
“That’s all we can do for right now.” I sigh. “We will just have to wait.” I know it is breaking Gale to see his brother like this not knowing if he will make it. I think he will though. I don’t eat with them, but Peeta cooks while Katniss tries to comfort Gale. I think finally having her attention helps and he gradually calms down. Peeta sets out dinner for them and I stay with Rory. I refuse to leave his side until my mother gets here. She will be able to take care of him for a while, but I don’t think I will leave him anyway. She does come in at about 7 and walks straight to us. She is pleased with my work and goes over a check list of the things I needed to do. I pass the list. She nods her head in approval and checks his pulse, blood pressure, and his fever.
“Prim I’m proud of you.” She says. “He will be awake soon. You must have measured the amount of syrup wrong that you gave him because he should actually be waking anytime now.” She says. Just then, we hear him moan and I go in front of his face. His eyes slowly open and fixate on mine. I smile, relieve flooding in me.
“Rory, you’re awake. Oh thank goodness. I was so scared.” I say to him. He uses all of his strength to reach for my hand. I hold it for dear life. He tries to sit up, but screams instead. I lie him back down and whisper into his ear.
“Sh. Rory, don’t move. You will hurt yourself. Just stay still and I’ll take care of you.” I promise him with all my heart. I lean down and kiss his cheek.
“Mom, he hasn’t eaten. Should we get him something?” I ask her. She nods. I get applesauce from the fridge with a small spoon. We slowly lift him into a sitting position, careful not to hurt him or cause the wound to start bleeding. I spoon feed him like a baby and he seems okay to talk.
“Prim, what happened? I don’t remember anything.” He says.
“We were in the woods and you wanted to get me a surprise. You got attacked by a mountain lion and I carried you here.” I say putting another spoonful of applesauce into his mouth.
“Now I remember.” He says weakly. He slowly puts his hand in his shirt pocket-if you can even call it a shirt anymore after I ripped it open- and pulls out some flowers. He hands them to me.
“I saw these and thought of you, since you were named after them.” He says. I look at them closer and see they are evening primroses. The flower my father named me after. I smile.
“Thank you.” And I give him our first real kiss since he has been out of the woods. I actually think I hear Katniss and Peeta awe at us. My mother has tears in her eyes and Gale is smiling just a little. I take his hand and sit with him. That’s where we fall asleep that night.
