The Hunger Games: Heirs

Chapter Six

Could I endure frequent hijacked episodes from Peeta if it means getting to talk to Gale? It's a hard decision, and Katniss doesn't have any idea who to choose. If she wants to choose either of them. Aren't these the same men who talked about her like she was an object? What she desperately wants is to be able to call Gale and still be able to maintain her love for Peeta. Is it possible, though? If she calls Gale and doesn't tell Peeta, it would work for a little while, but Peeta would eventually find out, and what would he do then? Be heartbroken and never love her again? Go mutt and kill her? Kill Prim and Finnick? No, she mustn't think about that. It's embarrassing to admit, but something that Katniss wants desperately is to be able to show any kind of physical love to Peeta without a trace of the dread that he might have a hijacking episode. She does want to go back to sleep, and feel his arms around her preventing the nightmares. She smiles at Peeta, and walks him down the hallway to the guest bedroom. Whatever goes through his mind after a hijacking episode, she has no way of knowing, but all she wants to do right now is go back to sleep.

Out of nowhere, Peeta picks her up and carries her to the bed. She is so tired, and is incredibly thankful to Peeta because she lacks both the strength and the will to walk. If she could, she would fall over and sleep on the floor, but Peeta is too sweet and caring to let her sleep in such lack of comfort. He kisses her forehead gently, and she is asleep before his lips leave her.

Katniss wakes up trapped in Peeta's arms. Not trapped, exactly. It isn't an alarming feeling, but he has his arms around her so tightly that she has to wake him to be able to get up. One of his hands is around her stomach and the other is across her torso gripping her shoulder.

"Peeta," she says, "Peeta!" When he wakes, she pulls his arms off her and gently pushes him on his back while she leaves the room to make breakfast.

"Gale?" She whispers as she dials his phone number, "Gale, pick up!"

"What? Katniss, please, I need to keep this quick. Maya's going into labor!" Katniss gasps and apologizes, "It's okay, I just need to go. Now."

"Congratulations?" Katniss half shouts as he hangs up the phone. Gale is gone, already holding Maya's hand as she gives birth to not two, but one living baby. It is a terrible moment for the Hawthornes, and in it, Gale would like nothing more than to have kept Katniss on the phone and to have her experience the moment with him. Maya won't stop crying at the sight of her stillborn baby, and the healthy little girl next to him. To draw her away from the crying, Gale asks her about baby names for the girl. She cries harder and denies remembering any on their list, and suggests rather harshly that Gale should call someone and ask. Gale calls Hazelle, but she doesn't pick up. Figures, it's 6 am and she usually gets up at 7:30. He calls Katniss, but it's Peeta who picks up because Katniss is making breakfast. When Peeta hears the news, he doesn't make a sound but cries silently. Gale is fairly annoyed that Katniss didn't pick up the phone, but it turns out that Peeta's sentiment and way with words is better than he could have hoped for with Katniss. Peeta suggests a gender-neutral name, because it would be nice to "name your little baby girl for the both of them" and tells of names like Adrian, Logan, and Dakota. Maya settles on Logan Skylar Hawthorne, and Peeta speaks with her quietly as to stop her from crying. Instead of telling her how it will be okay, how she will be able to forgive the universe for taking her baby away, whose name would have been Skylar, he tries a different approach.

"I can't tell you how sorry I am for your loss. A mother should never live longer than their children. I've had so many memories with Prim and Finnick, and I wouldn't trade them for the world."

Maya is so stricken with grief, she barely manages to croak out the sentence, "Please, Peeta, tell me about them."

"Of course," he replies, then racks his brains for his finest memories with his children, for whom he would gladly be captured by the Capitol and tortured all over again, "Prim, I can't even begin to tell you how amazing she is. She is the brightest in her class, as beautiful as her mother, and she makes me smile every day. My favorite memory of her is when she was just two years old, and she helped Katniss and I decorate our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. She wanted to bake cookies that night, and of course Katniss and I obliged. She wanted to help with everything, except put them in the oven. Even Katniss had her burn memories, you watched her in the arena I assume?" After a murmur of assent from Maya, he continues. "I put the cookies in, and Prim decorated them with red, green, and white icing and too many sprinkles. Her hair was in two ribbons, and I had done Katniss' hair to match. Katniss had Prim on her lap while she was decorating cookies, babbling about what she wanted for Christmas, and how we should leave some of the cookies for Santa Claus, and then she went into her room and came out in her red dress with white fluffy lining and the Santa Claus belt, her Christmas dress, and said 'Peekaboo!' That night, both Katniss and I lay in bed with her, and read her stories until she fell asleep. You should have seen her face in the morning, Maya. It made me feel like the luckiest father in the world." Maya has closed her eyes, trying to get a picture when Katniss says into the phone,

"I'm so, so sorry about Skylar. I hope your life with Logan can be lived for both of them." Katniss has been listening to Peeta, Gale, and Maya talk, and is crying, too, half because of Gale's baby and half because this is when she knows for sure. This is why she loves Peeta.

Katniss tells Maya about how much of a joy Finnick was and still is, and how his first word was 'Prim' and how he once put a marshmallow on Katniss' mockingjay pin so she wouldn't prick herself. "He is such a thoughtful and loving boy, I couldn't have asked for a better son. I hope you have memories as good as ours with River and Logan. Tell Gale I miss him, and I would love to meet you." There's a pause while Maya speaks. "Yes, I do know Annie," replies Katniss, "She's my friend." Maya speaks the words quietly: "Annie is a traitor."