Fic a Day, Day 19 - When The Dust Settles
Aug. 19th, 2020 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grundyscribblingTitle: When The Dust Settles
Rating: FR13
Crossover: Hunger Games
Summary: Now that things in the Capital are calmer, Dawn's got itchy feet.
Word Count: 885
“Wanna go somewhere?”
Spike raised an eyebrow.
He somehow doubted Dawn was talking about going to the pictures or walking around any of the public gardens that have been restored to their full glory.
Five years on, the Capital’s scars were fading.
The prohibition on travel lifted, there were just as many District citizens as Capitals around these days. For most of the folks who had started their lives in Districts, being able to make things truly nice for the first time ever was such a novelty that plenty had been willing to cram tenement style into apartments they couldn’t have afforded on their own when they first arrived.
Cream rises to the top, they used to say, and it certainly had. District talent finally got a chance to express itself in less destructive ways than being forced to prop up Snow’s regime, and many had leapt at it. Much as the old guard might hate to admit it – and there was still plenty of sniffing about arriviste and upjumped District peasants – anyone with eyes could see the Capital had gained from the influx of spirited new citizens.
There’d been a minor explosion in the arts. The university was at capacity and considering which District could support a new campus. (There was a hot rivalry between the old alliance of 1 and 2 and the ‘upstart’ rival bloc of 3, 4, and 8.)
Personally, Spike found the most reassuring part of the renaissance taking place was that he had fewer patients every day. The worst physical damage from the uprising had been dealt with, and those that had survived were now stable and nearly all transitioned to long-term care. He’d be able to think about laying down the weary burden soon.
“Where’d you have in mind, Bit?”
“Well…I haven’t seen any of my Victors in a while.”
They might talk on the phone with Annie, Johanna, and little Finn, but they haven't seen any of them in person. Not since the Mellark boy was cleared to return home. Which was four years ago now.
Drop in the bucket for either him or Dawn in the grand scheme of things, but he understood why she wanted to look in on what little she had left. She’d lost all of her Capital brood by the time Snow was done. When push came to shove, it turned out a Summers was a Summers, no matter how cosseted and sheltered. They’d all gone down swinging, from the stylist on, but they’d gone down just the same.
When your years stretched out to who knows when, you needed something to anchor you to the world. Something to remind you why you were fighting the good fight, that kept you going despite the cost.
For him, it was her. Had been for a while now. She might not have noticed yet, but she’d get there eventually.
But for Dawn, it was the people she cared about and took care of. Always had been. Without her grandkids and great-grands to look out for, all she had left were her surviving Victors – and whether they knew it or not, most of them were family, one way or another. Some of them had been born family, others had been adopted somewhere along the line.
“I hope you’re going to blow some of that stash of yours so we can travel in style,” he said. “I’ve hitched rides in enough goods trains to know they’re not how I want to get to District 12.”
“You poor baby,” she shot back, with no sympathy whatsoever. “At least you got to see something outside of this funhouse for the last several decades. You’re really up for it? I don’t want to drag you along if all you’re going to do is whine.”
Spike shrugged.
“Sure, why not? I’m supposedly still treating your Mockingjay. Might be a novelty to actually see her in person. Maybe it’ll be easier to get her to answer.”
Dawn snickered. Spike had fallen asleep on multiple occasions waiting for Katniss Everdeen to answer a question – and that was once he’d cajoled her into actually answering the phone when he called.
“You could set up a practice there. District 12 could probably use a good therapist.”
It was one of the farther districts from the Capital, and thus where the ones who trusted the Capital the least or had seen the most in the war had gravitated. Last he’d heard, there were enough newcomers there that the district was nearly back to its pre-Quarter Quell population.
“One thing at a time,” he snorted. “First let’s see how long your Capital-coddled sensibilities can hold out in a district. We may all be citizens now, but conditions in the districts are still below what everyone is used to here.”
There was an element of genuine outrage in the glare she shot him, but he could see she was also calling up the travel kiosk on her tablet to book tickets.
“Keep it up, Doc, and see where it gets you.”
“Go on, tell me what you can come up with that’s more remote and uncomfortable than 12. Bearing in mind that you said we were travelling together.”
He grinned and dodged the apple she launched at his head.
“Go pack,” she ordered. “We’re on the sleeper train tonight.”
Rating: FR13
Crossover: Hunger Games
Summary: Now that things in the Capital are calmer, Dawn's got itchy feet.
Word Count: 885
“Wanna go somewhere?”
Spike raised an eyebrow.
He somehow doubted Dawn was talking about going to the pictures or walking around any of the public gardens that have been restored to their full glory.
Five years on, the Capital’s scars were fading.
The prohibition on travel lifted, there were just as many District citizens as Capitals around these days. For most of the folks who had started their lives in Districts, being able to make things truly nice for the first time ever was such a novelty that plenty had been willing to cram tenement style into apartments they couldn’t have afforded on their own when they first arrived.
Cream rises to the top, they used to say, and it certainly had. District talent finally got a chance to express itself in less destructive ways than being forced to prop up Snow’s regime, and many had leapt at it. Much as the old guard might hate to admit it – and there was still plenty of sniffing about arriviste and upjumped District peasants – anyone with eyes could see the Capital had gained from the influx of spirited new citizens.
There’d been a minor explosion in the arts. The university was at capacity and considering which District could support a new campus. (There was a hot rivalry between the old alliance of 1 and 2 and the ‘upstart’ rival bloc of 3, 4, and 8.)
Personally, Spike found the most reassuring part of the renaissance taking place was that he had fewer patients every day. The worst physical damage from the uprising had been dealt with, and those that had survived were now stable and nearly all transitioned to long-term care. He’d be able to think about laying down the weary burden soon.
“Where’d you have in mind, Bit?”
“Well…I haven’t seen any of my Victors in a while.”
They might talk on the phone with Annie, Johanna, and little Finn, but they haven't seen any of them in person. Not since the Mellark boy was cleared to return home. Which was four years ago now.
Drop in the bucket for either him or Dawn in the grand scheme of things, but he understood why she wanted to look in on what little she had left. She’d lost all of her Capital brood by the time Snow was done. When push came to shove, it turned out a Summers was a Summers, no matter how cosseted and sheltered. They’d all gone down swinging, from the stylist on, but they’d gone down just the same.
When your years stretched out to who knows when, you needed something to anchor you to the world. Something to remind you why you were fighting the good fight, that kept you going despite the cost.
For him, it was her. Had been for a while now. She might not have noticed yet, but she’d get there eventually.
But for Dawn, it was the people she cared about and took care of. Always had been. Without her grandkids and great-grands to look out for, all she had left were her surviving Victors – and whether they knew it or not, most of them were family, one way or another. Some of them had been born family, others had been adopted somewhere along the line.
“I hope you’re going to blow some of that stash of yours so we can travel in style,” he said. “I’ve hitched rides in enough goods trains to know they’re not how I want to get to District 12.”
“You poor baby,” she shot back, with no sympathy whatsoever. “At least you got to see something outside of this funhouse for the last several decades. You’re really up for it? I don’t want to drag you along if all you’re going to do is whine.”
Spike shrugged.
“Sure, why not? I’m supposedly still treating your Mockingjay. Might be a novelty to actually see her in person. Maybe it’ll be easier to get her to answer.”
Dawn snickered. Spike had fallen asleep on multiple occasions waiting for Katniss Everdeen to answer a question – and that was once he’d cajoled her into actually answering the phone when he called.
“You could set up a practice there. District 12 could probably use a good therapist.”
It was one of the farther districts from the Capital, and thus where the ones who trusted the Capital the least or had seen the most in the war had gravitated. Last he’d heard, there were enough newcomers there that the district was nearly back to its pre-Quarter Quell population.
“One thing at a time,” he snorted. “First let’s see how long your Capital-coddled sensibilities can hold out in a district. We may all be citizens now, but conditions in the districts are still below what everyone is used to here.”
There was an element of genuine outrage in the glare she shot him, but he could see she was also calling up the travel kiosk on her tablet to book tickets.
“Keep it up, Doc, and see where it gets you.”
“Go on, tell me what you can come up with that’s more remote and uncomfortable than 12. Bearing in mind that you said we were travelling together.”
He grinned and dodged the apple she launched at his head.
“Go pack,” she ordered. “We’re on the sleeper train tonight.”
no subject
Date: 2020-08-24 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-02 01:23 am (UTC)Spike's already Katniss' doctor, so he should be well placed to help her. Especially when they're right there so she can't not answer the phone or hang up on him...