Embers

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

I wake up and Peeta is awake staring into my eyes. “hey sweetie good morning”, he says as I rub my eyes. I hug him and I go take a shower. The pulsing water feels good on my aching body. I get out of the shower and I leave my hair down. I put on my favorite pair of jeans and my new t-shirt. Peeta passes me and kisses me on the cheek and he takes a shower. I hear him get out of the shower and he walks by me. He takes my hand and leads me to our room. “What are you doing”, I ask. He just smiles and says,” here is the first of your 4 gifts.” I open it and it is a large frame.

Inside the frame is a picture of me holding Rue, him holding Fin, and us holding hands. I remember when this picture was taken. It was when Rue was 4 and Finnick was 1. I fall to my knees holding the picture frame. He picks me off my feet and puts his hands around my waist. Jordan walks in and says,” meeting now!” We walk into the meeting room. “Katniss and Peeta sit down”, Grayson says. “Okay, you two need to listen”, Grayson says. “We need to place cameras in your house to keep an eye on you. We are keeping track of how many episodes you guys have”, Jordan says. Peeta and I get up and he sees me shaking. He knows I’m about to have an episode. He picks me up and carries me to our room.

He cuffs my hands and I start to calm down after about 15 minutes. He uncuffs me and wraps his arms around my waist. He kisses me and picks me up. He spins me around for 2 minutes and he sets me down. “I’m very dizzy”, I say as I fall to the floor. He picks me up and we arrive in district 7. Johanna and Janey hug me and then they get off the train.  I grab my crutches and I walk into Bobby’s room. He is talking to Grayson. I set my crutches down and I sit down. “ hey Katniss, what’s up”, Bobby asks me while helping Grayson with a new pair of cuffs. “ nothing much, just want to get home. My body is aching.” Grayson hands me a pair of handcuffs and says,” here, try these on.” I slap the cuffs on my wrist and they are more comfortable than the other ones. Grayson uncuffs me and hands them to me. “ take these to Peeta”, he says.

I pick my crutches up and I walk to my room. I hand the cuffs to Peeta. He looks at me with a angry expression on his face. “ What’s wrong”, I ask him. “ I’m mad at you. You’re walking around too much. You just had knee surgery Katniss.” He picks me up and lays me down on my bed. He kisses me on the cheek and I fall asleep. I wake up and I realize were in district 8.

I see Grayson and Jordan talking and I wonder what they will do. We just ignore this district because Jordan and Grayson are moving into my old house which is next to Peeta’s. I sit up and I don’t see Peeta. I pick up my crutches and I start walking around the train. I find Peeta talking to Rue and it looks like Rue is in trouble. I take a seat and Peeta turns to me and says,” You are not going to believe what she did.” I look at Rue and say,” Rue, what you did?” I can tell she is afraid of telling us. She then says,” I ran off in district 4 and almost got hurt.” “ rue well be right back. I limp into the other room and Peeta follows. “ So, what should we do”, he asks. “ I mean we really can’t do anything right now but she will be grounded when we get back to district 12.”, I say. “ Yeah I guess that is right”, he says.

We arrive in district 9. I can’t believe how fast the train is going. Kelly says goodbye and the train starts toward district 12. Bobby is staying in the victor’s village as well. I can’t wait to be back home. To see my son and just rest. I’m pretty sure that the doctor is going to tell me to that anyway.  I just think of this whole adventure. I can’t hold my tears back any longer and I’m crying like a baby girl. Peeta comes in and wipes the tears off my face. I finally stop crying and he holds me. I am motionless until he does something that shocks me. He puts my hair up and kisses me passionately. After that, he pulls my shirt up and massages my back making me fall asleep in his arms.