The Reaper | F. Odair

Twenty-five

A few weeks had gone by since Aaron's first (positive) encounter with Haymitch. She'd wake up every morning with either Prim by her side trying to help, or by Haymitch coming inside with her food, taking the time to sit down once in a while and speak to her. After a few days of Aaron realizing Prim meant no harm, the girl became the first one actually capable of touching Aaron without freaking out, blood draws and injections no longer becoming 'knock her out and hope' sort of problems.
Aaron became fond of Prim, the girl so oddly similar to her sister, besides the young looking face, it gave her an odd sense of peace. The only difference that she could point out blindly was Molly had shorter hair, hair to her shoulders at most and her skin much more tan than pale. Aaron found it odd that Prim was even related to Katniss, surprised that this was the same scared girl in the 74th's reaping -- she didn't seem like that scared girl that she saw on TV. Aaron was even more surprised when Prim had told her Katniss hoped her recovery would go well.

Even with Dr Aurelius's worry, they began the same therapy on Aaron as they had been doing with Peeta -- showing her videos of her past, videos of her in the Capitol and anything else they could scrounge up to remind her of the good things. The only people in 13 who knew Aaron were people she was never close with, instead just a few old classmates who'd once bullied her years and years prior, so all she had was mostly the footage of herself in the Capitol looking pretty and happy. Dr Aurelius chose not to show her, her games from the panic she gave at the thought of seeing them once again -- unaware of what she went through in the Capitol.

Aaron didn't exactly find it odd that a thirteen year old was the one basically caring for her. It made more sense if anything, the girl wasn't as judgemental as the other nurses, and with her being in training it just simply meant that one day these sorts of things wouldn't bother her; she'd know what to do. Prim helped her practically bathe or eat, being the one to remind her to do it -- Prim was surprised to learn that the three at the Capitol never really bathed. Some nights they'd sleep in their bloody clothes, others they slept in freezing wet clothes from boeing doused in ice water hours before.

"I got used to the smell of blood..." Aaron explained quietly at the time, not noticing the horrified expression on Prim's face as she continued, "are you scared of blood?"

Prim shook her head as she helped the girl into her bed, "no, but Katniss doesn't like it."

"Surprising since she hunted animals." Aaron murmured.

Prim smiled softly, "so blood bothers you?"

"Animal blood doesn't... human blood is sort of... different." Aaron mumbled, her head fuzzed as she struggled to recall her memories, "I was covered in blood for hours the first day of my games and it didn't... it didn't bother me, I don't think."

"Does it bother you now?" Prim asked quietly, not exactly understanding what she was trying to say.

Aaron blinked, her eyes drifting down to her hands as she did. A soft sigh came out as she said, "...I don't know."

Their conversation ended at that.

Aaron would sit motionlessly for most of these days, her mind swirling around with a mix of memories and thoughts, both good and bad, real or fake. She'd be in a sort of daze when they'd find another photo of her or video, showing her seemed to do nothing but later she'd ask about it once it set in. Prim continued to ask her innocent questions about her life, what occurred to her in the Capitol and what she did and didn't remember. As she did slowly recall it all, she'd notice no one speaking about two people around her -- the nurses who took care of her, (and who already seemed to avoid her), seemed to ever answer anything related to two people, avoiding the topic entirely. No one spoke of Alexander Smith, or Finnick Odair around her.
Aaron would stare at them, watch their faces distort or their eyes go wide or dark, either glare at her or immediately turn away anytime she asked. Aaron quickly learned that many of the nurses actually despised her and she couldn't understand or figure out why -- she'd only hurt one nurse, not all of them. Prim didn't seem to understand why either at first, until learning what they actually thought of Aaron -- the girl was horrified, and despite her attempts to tell the men and women off, they didn't care. Prim was just a child.
Even if she was a child, it was oddly impressive how good the thirteen year old was with needles. Aaron was terrified of them, but now she was staring as Prim drew her blood, not feeling freaked out.