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The echoes of bullets and warbling mimicry of her own voice were all Lucy Gray Baird heard as she dashed away from the lake, tears stinging her eyes along with fear and anger in her gut. It was all she could do to not collapse and wait until she was to be found and shot by someone she had trusted. Lucy Gray’s legs were aching but she could not stop running. Not until she was sure that she would never be found again.
If he wanted to kill her, Lucy Gray could never go back home. He would kill her Covey, her Maude Ivory, her Barb Azure, her Tam Amber and her Clerk Carmine. She wouldn’t do that to her family. He would leave them alone as if she never existed if she didn’t return. Lucy Gray would have to disappear just like her namesake had before her.
When all Lucy Gray could hear was her own gasping breath and when she could no longer recognize the trees that hid her from the monster she had once loved she finally stopped running. She crumpled to the forest floor and folded her knees to her chest and held on tight as if that would prevent her from shaking.
Her mind raced, her hands trembled and her breathing was irregular. Lucy Gray was tearing at the seams, trying not to completely fall to pieces as she processed the death of yet another version of herself. The one that was closest to who she really was as that Capitol boy had really snuck up on her. Lucy Gray may have claimed to have trusted him, had spared a few words and written a song for him but she wasn’t stupid. She could see all those schemes behind his eyes. All the honeyed words he had fed to everyone with that serpent's tongue. Coriolanus Snow may have thought he was so smart, but Lucy Gray knew a performance when she saw one.
But what does it matter now? She could never go back and she would never allow herself to end it now. Lucy Gray hadn’t given up during the Games and she wouldn’t let something as predictable as a conniving Capitol boy be her end.
Lucy Gray steadied herself with a deep breath and ran her hands through her tangled hair, rocking back and forth to some rhythm only she could hear. It was okay. She was okay. For now at least, she held herself together. Lucy Gray pulled herself up to stand on shaky legs and wiped the remaining tears off her face. She could do this. She would not let that stupid man be her downfall.
There was a crack of a branch breaking behind her and Lucy Gray spun around to see a young girl staring back at her, with a clumsy nocked arrow just waiting to be shot.
Could..? Could Lucy Gray have made it to where Billy Taupe always monologued about?
The girl had olive skin streaked with coal dust and thick dark hair pulled back into a side braid that reached her waist. But the most shocking thing about her was that she was a girl. Lucy Gray would assume she was six at the most but she also knew malnutrition stunted a child so there really was no telling.
The girl’s eyes widened and she called out behind her. “Daddy! Dad!”
Lucy Gray shuddered, reminded of someone's certain third dead man’s similar call that still haunted her thoughts when she let it.
A man came from behind the girl holding a hunting knife not unlike the one Lucy Gray had lost in her vanishing act. The man quickly pushed the girl behind him. He was clearly related to the girl, presumably her father, with the same dark skin and hair and even the same puzzled expression as the two gazed upon her.
“Are you alright?” The man asked, a rich baritone voice that Lucy Gray immediately knew must sound heavenly if he sang.
“I’m not hurt, if that’s what you mean,” Lucy Gray responded, clutching her hands together to try and control the quivering. “Just a little shook up is all.”
The girl poked her head out from behind her father’s legs. “Why are your arms bleeding?”
“Oh,” Lucy Gray laughed a little shakily. She looked down and her arms must have been scratched up by thorns and rough bark as she ran. She hadn’t even noticed. “I guess they are.”
“My wife is a healer,” The man spoke slowly. “Would you like to get those cleaned up?”
Lucy Gray shrugged, still not sure these people were entirely real. Maybe she wasn’t the real one.
As the girl with the bow led the way, the man helped Lucy Gray walk through her fatigue. She was so tired it wasn’t until she saw the familiar meadow that she began to shake once again and swiftly pulled away from the father and daughter.
“You’re trying to take me back to him,” She whispered, trembling.
“Who’s him?” The girl asked, head tilted and eyes filled with a naive light that made Lucy Gray’s heart throb. She looked just like Maude Ivory.
“Coriolanus Snow.”
The name fell off her lips and she saw the man stiffen at the words.
“So you are!” Lucy Gray cried, pulling her arms to her chest and trembled.
“No, no we aren’t.” The man shook his head and pulled his daughter. “Just… Why would the president be looking for a nobody in the backwoods?”
Lucy Gray blinked. President…? Well, she knew Coriolanus was ambitious but even he could not become president in the quick few hours since she had last seen him.
“How old is the president, if you don’t mind me asking,” She asked, tucking her hands behind her back to steady herself.
“Mid-seventies,” The girl’s father responded after a moment, not knowing he just shocked Lucy Gray’s world view. And Lucy Gray responded the way she knew how to.
She began to laugh. It started with a slip of a giggle then it fell into a steady laugh until it morphed into a hysterical cackle that sounded desperate even to her own ears.
She was in the future. Snow had landed on top. She was dead if he ever found out about her. She bet he had killed off what was left of her Covey and she was alone. Lucy Gray was alone. And she was in the future.
“Miss?” The girl approached her, much to her father’s obvious concern. “Can you take a deep breath for me?”
All Lucy Gray could hear was Maude Ivory. And she could only do what her baby cousin told her. She took a breath.
“Good, good,” The girl breathed with her. “That’s it, miss. Just like that.”
“Lucy Gray,” Lucy Gray rasped. “My name, it’s Lucy Gray.”
The girl smiled as her father’s eyes went wide.
“Lucy Gray,” The girl murmured. “My name is Katniss.”
“Lucy Gray,” The father spoke, clearly knowing something about her. “You’re the one who Old Miss Baird speaks of. The victor. But…how? You’re so-”
“Young?” Lucy Gray smiled weakly. “By all accounts I should be closer to Snow’s age, I know. I don’t know what happened, all I know is that he just tried to kill me so bare with me if I am a bit jumpy.”
“Daddy, we still need to get Lucy Gray to Mama,” Katniss tugged on her father’s hunting jacket.
“Yes, yes sweetheart,” The man scooped up Katniss on his hip and held his other hand out to Lucy Gray. She took his hand slowly.
“What can I call you?” Lucy Gray asked.
“Name’s Valerian Everdeen. Most just call me Val,” Val smiled warmly and squeezed her hand. “C’mon, Clara is waiting.”
-|-
Turns out Clara was just like her daughter in that she was endlessly kind. If Katniss reminded Lucy Gray of Maude Ivory, Clara Everdeen reminded her of Barb Azure. If Lucy Gray closed her eyes she could almost picture she was back home.
Clara had set eyes on her and immediately took out rubbing alcohol and a worn out rag and got to work. During her mother’s inspection, Katniss cleaned her father’s hunting knife carefully, humming sweet meadow songs her father always hummed under his own breath. The soothing mixture of care and song calmed Lucy Gray and she shut her eyes until Clara was done with her, and the crying started.
“Who is that?” Lucy Gray asked Katniss as Clara hurried over to the next small room tucked in the corner of the home.
“That’s Prim, my younger sister,” Katniss answered nonchalantly. “She’s still a bit small and she doesn’t like it when me and Daddy are away so that’s when Mama puts her down for her nap.”
Clara strolled back into the room with a small blonde rubbing her eyes sleepily in her arms. “Kat, please take your father his knife, we don’t want Primrose to get to it do we?”
Katniss hurried in wrapping the blade in the cloth she used to polish it and scampered outside to where Val was cutting wood. Clara chuckled and shifted who Lucy Gray assumed was Primrose Everdeen.
“Hi, Miss Primrose,” Lucy Gray whispered, wagging her fingers crookedly to see the small child smile brightly and reach for her. “Oh, can I hold her, Mrs. Everdeen?”
“Oh, just call me Clara,” The mother laughed warmly. “Of course you can hold her, but only if you sit down. You still haven’t recovered your full strength.”
And so Lucy Gray sat on the floor in front of her and received a lapful of a beautiful, glowing child who seemed like Lucy Gray’s own sun as she smiled and hugged the older girl. Lucy Gray let herself cry as she wrapped her arms around the little girl who looked so much at Maude Ivory. Looked as much Maude Ivory as Katniss acted like her. She barely even realized Val and Katniss had made their way back inside and along with Clara they had joined Primrose in embracing her.
They stayed like that for a while.
She ate dinner with them that night. Lucy Gray ate amongst Everdeen’s and was almost impressed with their blend of Town and Seam. Val was obviously a canary in that coal mine he worked in. His spirit shone brightly just like his daughters and his voice was just as Lucy Gray had imagined when she first heard him speak. Clara had the gentle warmness that backed up her husband’s fierce spark. It was obvious that she cared about every living thing and that all Clara wanted to do was protect her family and keep them safe. Katniss had the same spark and protectiveness her parents passed to her yet she made it all her own. She was a girl of little words yet she was full of song. Katniss was always humming or mumbling a song under her breath and it put Lucy Gray at such ease. Little Primrose was more difficult to decipher a personality at such a young age. She was warm and bright and all her father’s bright smiles and her mother’s warmth. Lucy Gray adored her immediately.
Maybe being in the future wouldn’t be too bad. Not if she could stay with the Everdeens.