Broken Pieces: Part 1

Chapter 15: Peeta's POV:

I'm going to do it. I'm going to visit Peeta today. I still have trouble talking since my vocal chords were damaged when Peeta strangled me. A tear runs down my cheek just thinking about it. My feet echo as I walk down the silent hallway. There are no doctors on duty since it is so late at night. I look at each room as I pass it, looking for Peeta's number. 4038, 4039, 4040. I finally come across his number halfway down the hallway, 4060 is in big black ink numbers beside his door with the words "mentally unstable" underneath it. I take a deep breath and wiggle the handle to his room and it silently opens and I step inside. His room is a little dark with only a few night lights to see with. I see him asleep on his bed and he looks peaceful, unlike the last time I saw him. Besides the scratches and bruises, he looks ok. I let go of the handle to the door and it creaks. I go to grab the handle again, but it's to late. I wiggle it to find it locked. "Who's there?" I turn around and see him sit up. He looked a lot better when he was asleep. His eyes are bloodshot and each move he makes causes him pain, I can tell. "Umm..." I can't tell him it's me, he might try and kill me again. So I make something up. "It's your doctor. I'm just checking in on you." I say in a slightly masked voice. It must have worked because he relaxes a little. "Oh..ok." He sounds disappointed. I quickly grab one of the doctor's hats that they wear so I can cover up my face. He looks at me a moment and then shakes his head. "What?" I say. He shifts slightly and winces again. I look away from him, I can't see him like this. "Sorry, I was just hoping you would be someone else." He replies. His voice is horse and I can barely understand him. "Oh, um, I'm sorry." "No! No....don't be." He interrupts. He smiles and almost looks like his old self for a moment. I look away and my cheek becomes wet with tears. I can't cry, not now. I pull myself together and walk over besides his bed to look at the machines. I may as well look like I know what I'm doing. I glance over at him and he is shaking slightly and looks scared to death. He tugs at one of the bracelets around his arm. It looks way to tight and there is a small amount of blood around the edges of it. My heart breaks. "Are you ok?" I ask. He looks up at me with a wild look in his eyes and then looks back down. "Yeah...no...it's just this bracelet is driving me crazy. It has a needle in it that injects stuff into my arm when I go....crazy, and it makes me pass out so I don't hurt anyone." He tugs at it again when he stops talking. "Here." I whisper. I reach my hand to his arm and goosebumps go through my whole body. I take a very sharp pair of scissors and cut it off. The needle falls out and his wrist starts bleeding. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." I grab some of the bandages and wrap up his wrist as best as I can. I step away so he can look at my terrible job. "Sorry it isn't the best job ever, I'm....new." I stutter. He looks at his wrist and then looks at me. For a minute, I think he recognizes me, but then he starts talking again. "No...it's good. Thank you, um...are you even aloud to do that? I mean, take the bracelet off?" He asks. I smile as best as I can. "We can keep it our little secret." I say. I look into his eyes, his gorgeously blue eyes and he looks into mine. We stare at each other, until I force myself to look away. "What's your name?" He asks. Oh no. "Um...you can call me Dr. Pineburough." I say. "Well, it was nice....to meet you." He stutters. He smiles at me and then I turn and walk out before I do anything stupid like cry.