Katniss reaches the fence expecting to slip back into District 12, only to find it newly electrified. Afraid Thread may know she went into the woods, Katniss hides, watches for Peacekeepers, and decides she has only one option: climb a tree and jump over the fence without touching it. Katniss makes the dangerous jump, lands hard, and injures her left heel and tailbone, but forces herself to keep moving so no one will know where she has been.

On the way home, Katniss buys bandage cloth and peppermints to support a false story that she spent the day in town. When Katniss reaches the house, two Peacekeepers are waiting, clearly surprised that she has returned at all. With quick help from Prim, Haymitch, and Peeta, Katniss improvises an argument about looking for the goat man, turning the scene into a believable family misunderstanding. The female Peacekeeper delivers Thread's message that the fence will now carry electricity all day and pointedly tells Katniss to inform Gale, showing that the authorities are tightening control and watching her circle closely.

After the Peacekeepers leave, Katniss admits only that she fell, because she assumes the house is bugged. Katniss's mother treats the injured heel and bruised tailbone, and Katniss eats while worrying about Bonnie and Twill, hoping the snow has hidden her tracks. Drugged with sleep syrup, Katniss asks Peeta to stay until she falls asleep. Peeta also reveals that, when she was late, he feared Katniss had run away without telling him, showing both his anxiety and the fragile state of their relationship.

The next day Katniss is ordered to remain in bed for a week. While confined, Katniss worries about whether Thread will discover how she got back inside the fence and whether President Snow is directing events in District 12. No arrest comes. Peeta later reports that work crews are securing the fence base, which suggests Thread wrongly believes Katniss crawled under it. As Katniss recovers, Peeta visits daily with cheese buns and helps her add plant knowledge to the family herb book by drawing precise illustrations. The shared work gives Katniss a rare sense of normal life with Peeta and deepens her attention to him.

Each afternoon Katniss watches television because Bonnie and Twill's story has given new meaning to the mockingjay. Katniss first notices a mockingjay in old footage of District 13's ruins, which proves nothing. Later, however, a supposedly live report from District 13 uses the same ruined Justice Building footage, complete with the same flash of a mockingjay's wing. Because the Capitol has passed off old footage as current news, Katniss concludes the official story about District 13 is false, and the possibility that District 13 still exists becomes far more real.