Without further ado, I present to you the final chapter of I am the Mockingjay. (All lines written by Suzanne Collins were written by Suzanne Collins)

As the days started to stream past, we kept stumbling through the forest towards our final destination. Haymitch was slowly healing. We were happy. We were together. There were only four more left to die.

It was a strange thing, knowing you were going to die. But I was sure that if I had to live my last few days, I was glad Haymitch could be there.

"How are you feeling?" I looked at Haymitch as we traipsed through the tangled roots.

"I'm not sure. Physically I'm fine, but I'm not perfect mentally. It's an odd feeling." He sighed

"So it is." I whispered, "So it is."

And it was. Although we had moved past the initial awkwardness of our new friendship, there was always the unspoken truth hanging about us.

"Do you want me to take a look at your back?"

He stopped and sat down on a stump. "Sure. May as well eat while we're here too."

We sat down in silence and I began to unwrap his back. Where there had once been deep gashes there were now only bright pink patches of skin.

"You're almost good to go." I wrapped his back up once again and patted him to let him know he could turn around.

"Thanks, sweetheart." He grimaced.

"My pleasure. They're almost ready to come off." I smiled sweetly.

Once we had finished we stood up and once again started to move. We hadn't gone far before I stumbled over a root and flailed a bit, grabbing Haymitch's arm on the way down.

We crashed into a huge bush, him pinning me down. I looked up and was surprised to see that the bush seemed almost hollowed out and left enough room for us both to sit comfortably. I looked back at Haymitch, only to see him staring at my chest.

I loosened my arm from underneath him and smacked him across the head. "Ew! You stupid perv."

He looked up. "What? Oh. Sorry. I was just wondering..."

"Wondering..."

"Where did your pin go?"

"My pin?"

"Yeah, sweetheart, the mockingjay one."

"Oh. THAT pin." I reached behind his back and unpinned the pin, slowly unthreading it from the bandages before I showed it to him. "It's right here. It was holding your bandages, but they're about ready to come off now."

"Makes sense." He rolled off me and sat up, leaning his back against the cocoon of branches that enveloped us.

For a silent moment I turned the pin over in my hand, contemplating. Then I surprised myself by grabbing his hand. I unfurled it and gently laid the gold pin in his hand before closing his fingers over it. All was quiet for one moment while my hands still rested on his, but when I pulled away he stared at me.

"I can't take this." His voice was surprisingly quiet.

"Please. For me?"

"Why?" The one silent word broke my heart.

"Because you're going to go home. You'll beat the odds. You're not a mockingjay, but you'll live." I smiled as a tear slipped down my face. "Me? I'll... I am the mockingjay. We all are. The thing is, we're the lucky ones. You, you'll have to go home, grow up, watch more kids die, but me? And Helena? We don't have to. We won't have to see our kids get reaped and watch them die. We're the lucky ones who get to escape the Capitol, just like they did." I gestured to the pin. "But hopefully you'll remember me, and you'll be able to keep on living for all of the people who have to die. And someday I know you're going to change it, because you can stand up."

We lapsed into silence, then he broke it. "I wish we could both go home."

I leaned over and wrapped my arms around him. "Either way we are."

After a while I pulled back. "You'll be fine, I promise."

I was only met with silence.

"Can you promise me something Haymitch?"

"Anything sweetheart."

"Don't forget about me."

Suddenly, he grabbed my hand. "I couldn't if I tried."

We both smiled.

"Can you give the pin to my sister? I didn't even get to say goodbye to her, and... And... And..." I couldn't finish.

"I will."

"Thank you Haymitch."

We sat for what seemed like hours before Haymitch made his way out of the bush.

"We need to keep going."

I crawled out as well. "Right."

He started walking and I trailed after him, wondering exactly how the day would unfold.

...

"Haymitch?"

"Yeah."

"What do you think you'd miss the most?"

He looked sideways at me. "If I died?"

"Yeah." I shrugged.

He pondered for a moment. "My brother. Hunting. My mom. Greasy Sae." I smiled at that one. "And you."

"Me?" I was honestly shocked.

"Yeah, sweetheart, you're my girl." He chuckled. "You sound surprised."

"Never in a million years did I think I would ever hear you say that to a girl, Haymitch Abernathy." I teased

"Well I wouldn't exactly be saying that to a guy now would I. Then it'd be my boy." He joked back and I laughed.

"In all seriousness though, you'd actually miss me?"

"Of course." He stopped. "What about you?"

I started walking again. "My sister. My parents. Aurelia. You." I paused. "And, as bad as District 12 would be, I think I would miss having the chance to grow up, you know? The chance to get married and have kids, or see my sister's kids. It sucks that I'm never going to see how everyone is going to turn out."

Haymitch slung his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close.

Our conversation was cut short as we stepped out of the trees and into broad daylight. In a clearing we had already passed through three times.

"Haymitch, explain where we are going, NOW." I stop and he stared at me. "I said now. I'm not going anywhere else until you tell me why we are walking in a straight line."

"Fine." He relents with a sigh. "Because it has to end somewhere, right?" I stare at him, puzzled. "The arena can't go on forever."

I was absolutely stumped. Why on earth would he want to find the end of the arena? "What do you expect to find?"

He shrugged. "What do you expect to find?"

"I don't know. But maybe there's something we can use."

Finally I relented and we kept walking in our straight line, off into the distance.

...

As the hours passed and we kept walking and talking a nagging feeling started prodding me. Although we hadn't heard any cannons, we could have easily missed them, lost in a racket of birds, or the bubbling of the stream.

When we finally broke through the last barrier separating us from the end of the arena and I found myself staring at a dry flat piece of earth ending in a cliff I knew what I had to do. One look on Haymitch's face told me he did too. As we peered over the cliff into the murky blackness below I took a deep breath and started to speak.

"That's all there is Haymitch. Let's go back."

He looked at me with a hard determined look on his face. "No." He said simply. "I'm staying here." The unspoken invitation hung heavily in the air.

I knew what I had to do, and quickly resigned myself to it. "All right. There's only five of us left. May as well say goodbye now, anyway." I tried to sound nonchalant but quickly cracked. Quietly I finished. "I don't want it to come down to you and me."

"Okay." He agreed, and I waited for him to say goodbye, say anything, but the silence just hung there. Finally, when he wouldn't even look at me anymore I turned around and walked away, no looking back.

I walk for merely minutes before I stopped in a clearing, hopelessly lost, to watch the sun, the trees and the birds perched all around me.

I was calm.

Then it began.

The birds swooped down and swirled around me and I screamed in absolute terror. I knew he wouldn't come.

But he did, and just as he caught sight of me a horrible pain rippled through my body, and I was horrified to feel myself crumple to the ground. Detachedly I watched as the birds flew off and Haymitch rushed over to me and collapsed at my side.

"Haymitch." I whispered. "You came back for me."

"Of course I did. Just hold on, you'll be fine." He tried to smile, but we both knew he was lying.

"Haymitch, remember what you promised me."

"Don't talk Maysilee." He leaned over me and I felt him grab my hand.

"Haymitch." I could barely speak.

"What?" He looked into my eyes one last time.

I whispered, quietly enough that I knew the microphones would miss it, and he would be the only person to ever hear it.

"I love you."

And so, with Haymitch holding my hand and my eyes locked on his, the world slowly faded to black.

...

Quick Author's Note! Thank you to everyone who read this story, and to SkyWriter9 and KoalaKoala9836 who helped me so much with this story. I'm sorry it couldn't end on a happier note, but so went the story. So, I will leave you, and I truly jope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also, I hope you're actually reading this so I don't look dumb for writing it. And as always... Review!