Katniss and Peeta's future

Come back

Chapter 67:

The hospital had allowed me to stay until Peeta's surgery was over, but they didn't let me go and see him. All I could do was stare through a window to see him in the intensive care unit.

He was hooked onto so many machines and he seemed to have lost weight. I was still shaken up after what had happened so my breathing was uneven. I wrapped my arms around myself to try to keep myself warm. Everything around me was silent, and I stared at Peeta. A surgeon came out of the room and looked at me with a sad smile. "Want to go in?" he asked. I nodded and pushed past him through the door. "Oh Peeta," I sat down on a chair beside the bed and sighed.

"Happy birthday," I said softly and softly put the box on his bed. Before I could go back in the waiting room I had rushed to get the box back. "I'll open it for you," I took the lid off and reached my hand in.

"It's a photo album," I picked it up and showed it to his closed eyes. For the next hour I looked through all the photos I had put together since everything went back to normal. I stopped at the last photo which was one of Peeta sitting down on our sofa back at home. He was staring at the camera and his smile was that of surprise, as if he didn't expect me to take that picture. At the bottom of the page it said 'I love you' in my best hand writing, and at that I closed the album. "If only you could wake up," I took a hold of his hand and looked at it. I was now used to him not responding so I stayed quite for a while. Suddenly the doctor stormed in and said, "I'm afraid you must leave now,"

I nodded at her and told her to give me a minute. I looked through the photos one more time, except this time I held on to Peeta's hand. When I finished I whispered in his ear, "I love you, Peeta Mellark," and at that my heart thudded in surprise, because I felt his hand get a grip on mine.