Always

Come Back To Me

A.N. Make sure you read the authors note down below, I have a challenge with a prize for y'all!

When I hear the door shut behind me I somehow mange the courage to not cry. Even though my husband, the man I'm in love with, just threw me out of his room. Instead of breaking all over again, I make my way towards an old friend, or at least someone I could call an ally. Room number 35 holds the woman with the most spunk of all.

Joanna Mason

However, when I reach her door, my hand pauses on the doorknob; fear stopping me from going in. I'm afraid of what I'll see. Johanna Mason seemed to carry an air of invincibility. So much fire and determination. It is hard to believe that I might find her broken.

Finding courage, I twist the knob and step into the room. Immediately, chocolate brown eyes lock on me, analyzing my every feature. So critical is her gaze, that I don't know whether to be embarrassed or afraid. I slowly walk further into the room, and Johanna's gaze never falters in its intensity. When I'm a few feet from the bed, I stop.

Johanna looks tiny, the small hospital bed threatens to swallow her. She's wrapped in a cocoon of blankets, but she's still shivering. Her short brown hair is gone, having been shaved off by the Capitol. Her cheeks are hollow and her lips are chapped. Her eyes are sunken and red.

"You look awful."

"You're so fat, you could be mistaken for a whale."

For a second neither of us so much as breathes . . . and then the corners of Johanna's lips twitch upward in a smile. "Never thought I'd say it, but it's good to see you."

"Likewise," I reply as I pull up a chair to sit down. "I won't ask you how you are. We both know the answer to that already."

"Good, skip the pleasantries. I always thought they were a waste of time."

It's the perfect opening to begin my questioning, but I can't make myself take it. Johanna just escaped Capitol torture. The last thing she probably wants to do is talk about it. However, before I can think of something else to say, Johanna beats me to it.

"How's Golden Boy?" she asks. "You seen him yet?"

I drop my gaze to the floor and my shoulders slouch. "I've seen him."

She looks at me with a scowl and an attitude towards my response. "You've seen him?" She replies sarcastically. "Honestly I expected more from you, fire ball. I really thought you would be jumping up and down now that your star crossed lover is back."

I shake my head and frown. "He doesn't want me around, Joanna. The Peeta that I fell in love with, he's gone. And I don't know what they did to y'all in the Capitol, but I do know that the man in the hospital bed door next door is not the person I married."

She laughs and for a second I think the old Joanna has returned, but then her eyes go dark almost as if she is reliving her nightmares. "They did things unimaginable to us, things you don't want to know about. And I don't know what type of love you and lover boy share, but I do know that when he was yelling for you every night, that had to of meant something. That has to fall in to you're crazy idea of what love is." I stare at her and she smirks before showing me her missing teeth.

"They really messed you up in there." I comment and she stares me in the eyes.

"More than you could ever know."

Dr. Hodgens is waiting for me in the hallway when I close Joanna's door behind me. "We need to talk."

We need to talk. Those words are ones you never really want to hear, you spend your whole life trying to avoid them because we all know they only bring bad things. Never good.