Life Will Go On - sequel to Our Love Will Remain

Chapter 12

I wake up in the middle of the night to Peeta's screaming. I turn to him immediately and I see sweat pouring down his face. He is breathing loudly and tries to get back to reality. I am now five months pregnant and Peeta is having nightmares about losing the baby he loves so incredibly. That we both love so incrediby. I put my hands on his cheeks and look him straight in the eye. He looks at me with a panicked expression and I try to calm him.

"Shhh. Shhh, Peeta, I'm here." I say and he hugs me. His eyes get filled with tears. His hand fumbles until it finds my stomach, that is now showing. When he finds it and feels the slight bump, he relaxes and I hug him tight.

"It's okay, Peeta, the baby's safe." I tell him and kiss him softly. He kisses me back, and suddenly, he thrusts his tongue into my mouth. I get a little surprised by this, but not much, since he always has this desperate need for me when he has woken up from a nightmare. So I kiss him back just as passionately and he squeezes my stomach a little. Then, his hand glides up to my breasts. They have swollen a little during the pregnancy, but not much yet. He caresses them for a while, with his hand under my nightgown. Then, he stops and puts his hand to my face instead. He looks at me.

"I love you, Katniss. And I'm sorry. Let's go to sleep." he says. I frown, and when Peeta has closed his eyes, I nudge his shoulder.

"Why did you say that?" I ask.

"What?"

"That you're sorry." I tell him.

"Oh, well, I don't know, I guess it's just that I wake up and start crying, and then two seconds later I just grab your breasts." he says and looks a little guilty. I take his hand and put it over my breasts again, just to make a point.

"Well, I'm not complaining. I like when you do that, so think of it as a favor." I say and kiss his nose. "Now, let's get to sleep. We have to be alert tomorrow." I say and we both lay our heads down on the pillow. We have gotten two extra long pillows, so that we can sleep with both of our heads on the same pillow if we want. We do that most nights, just as we do tonight. I hug him tight and he hugs me, and then we slowly drift off to sleep...

"Mommy, Daddy, wake up!" Ivy sings and runs into our room. She jumps up onto the bed and kneels down inbetween us. We yawn and sit up.

"Oh, hey, honey, did you have a good sleep?" Peeta asks her and she jumps onto his thighs. She nods.

"But, Daddy, you had a bad dream." she says with a worried voice. Peeta smiles and kisses her forehead.

"It's okay, honey, I'm okay now. Mommy helped me." he says. I remember when I used to say that. Well, I still do sometimes. When it is me who wakes up screaming in the night. But of some reason, this pregnancy makes me feel mostly comfortable. Not as frightened as my first pregnancy made me feel. But Peeta still has traumas of the miscarriage.

It is now October and Ivy has started kindergarten. She had her fifth birthday in July, so she is in the same class with other five year olds who are not to be six this year yet. She really loves going there every day, she already has a lot of new friends. Of course, the other kids are especially interested in her because she is the daughter of two Hunger Games victors, and there aren't many of us left. And we're the most memorable out of them, being the only double victors and the 'star-crossed lovers'. A lot of the kids have looked at us and pointed at us when we have gone to drop Ivy off, and we pretend not to notice. But there's one thing I am worried about. I am worried that one of Ivy's friends tell her about the Games. Because we haven't. Yet. We have talked about this and agreed to tell her soon. We don't want any school kid to carelessly throw in front of her that her parents were in a game where they were supposed to kill each other. She would probably get traumatized. We have decided to tell her this weekend. Which is tomorrow or on Sunday. We don't want to spoil a Friday night with that.