They have kept me waiting for half an hour now. I feel like I want to rip my head off. Why can't they just let me in to Katniss!? I am sitting outside the room Katniss is in and I am breathing loudly. What if she is in huge pain? If she is, there is no way to help her now. Just when I am about to knock on the door, it opens and Lacey comes out.
"You can come in now, the testing is done. She won't be giving birth yet, but you can come in now." she says. Before she is done, I am already up and almost running into the room. I find Katniss on a hospital bed. She is sweating a little, but I know this is nothing compared to the buckets she will be sweating in a few hours. I take a chair and pull it beside the bed, and sit down on it. I take her hand and stroke her forehead.
"Honey, are you okay? Is there anything you would want me to get you?" I ask with a gentle voice.
"Of course I'm not okay. I'm having contractions!" she growls at me. The second she has done it she seems to regret it. "I'm sorry, my hormones are making me feel really weird, I hate this feeling." she moans.
"It's okay, you can say nasty things to me if it helps. I'm sorry for saying that." I say and smile. She smiles too.
"Right now I feel like screaming." she says. She closes her eyes tightly and moans.
"You can do that if you like." I say, and as soon as I have said that, she screams a piercing scream that makes you get goosebumps. Lacey runs inside.
"What happened? Are you experiencing any foreign pain?" she asks, worried.
"Nooooo.... Just... contractions..." Katniss moans and I wipe the sweat out of her forehead.
"Katniss, you can do this, it's only a few hours left. Then the pain will be gone in two seconds." she says, but this seems to have done it for Katniss.
"I KNOW THAT THE PAIN WILL GO AWAY IN A FEW HOURS, BUT THAT DOESN'T HELP ME RIGHT NOW, DOES IT!" she shouts and moans as she gets another contraction. Lacey doesn't look scared, she must be used to this kind of stuff. I get up and kiss Katniss' forehead.
"I love you. You are the strongest person I know, you can do this." I tell her with a determined voice. She nods and closes her eyes. I stay with her for a few hours, wiping the sweat off her forehead and telling het to drink periodically, and when we have waited for four hours, Lacey tells her that she can start delivering now. She makes everything ready, and then she tells Katniss to start pushing. I onlt see Katniss, nothing else, and soothe her and tell her that it will soon be over. I seem unseeing towards all the blood and mess, I only concentrate on Katniss. She screams and lets out a lot of crazy sounds.
"Aaarrrgghh!!" she screams.
"Just one more Katniss! You have enough strength for one more!" I tell her.
"It's always one more!" she screams and pushes one more time. Then, we hear a baby's scream. I sigh in relief.
"You were amazing." I tell Katniss and kiss her head.
Katniss
That was awful. One of the worst pains I have ever experienced. But not the worst one. I an sweating buckets, and I feel like a total mess, both mentally and physically. But there is only one thing that I want right now, and that's to hold my baby. My own baby, that no one can ever take away from me. I look for her. I see Lacey cleaning her, and then she turns around.
"I...want...her..." I manage to say and Lacey hands her to me. She is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. The most beautiful baby and child I have ever seen. I see that her hair is dark, much like mine, although it is still covered in something from my uterus. I don't even feel disgusted. I just want to kiss her, and that's what I do. Her forehead feels warm under my lips. She whimpers, but otherwise is pretty quiet. Peeta puts his hand on mine, and when I look up at him, I see that he has tears in his eyes. I hand our daughter to him, and when he is holding her, he actually starts crying. Tears of joy. He is careful so that the tears don't land on her, and dries his nose on his sleeve.
"She is so beautiful." he says. The man of a thousand words has become the man of taciturnity. Usually, when something big happens, he speaks way more than this. I stroke his hair. Then, I feel a small tear run down my cheek. I am crying too.
"Our daughter." I say, and then Peeta hands her to me, although I know how much she really wants to hold her. After all, it is me who have been hurting for like five hours now. I look at her, and when she opens her eyes, I feel like my tears start running three times faster. I look at Peeta as if to check if it is true. Yes, her eyes are the exact shade of blue as Peeta's are. I feel so happy about this. I would not want my daughter to look like a mini-me. Peeta sees the floods streaming down my face and puts a finger under my chin. He lifts it up.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asks with a sweet voice.
"Oh, nothing's wrong. Everything's perfect. Look at her eyes." I tell him with a voice filled with tears. He strokes his finger gently over her cheek.
"I love you." he says to her and kisses her forehead carefully. He turns to me and tells me the same. We share the first kiss since the birth. I feel his happiness and urge, he wants me as much as I want him right now. But our baby makes us break away. She whimpers, and I start rocking her in my arms.
"What should we name her?" Peeta asks me. I think about it. Then I remember. When we were in the meadow a few years ago, Peeta told me something.
"You can't catch me!" I shout at Peeta, and start running towards the woods. We are on the meadow, a sunset lighting up the scene.
"Watch me." he says, and takes off towards me. He catches up soon, I let him. When he has his arms around my waist, his prosthetic leg gives in and he falls to the ground, but turns in the air so he won't fall onto me. The next second I am laying on his chest and we are laughing our lungs out. Peeta kisses me and I kiss him back. Then, he turns his head to the left, and sees a flower on the ground. It is an evergreen flower, so it is attached to a vine that is twisted around an oak tree. He picks it and holds it in front of me.
"Ivy." he says, and puts it behind my ear. I don't know why, but the flower never left my mind.
I know exactly what to name her.
"Ivy." I say. "Her name is Ivy." Peeta's face lights up, and he kisses me.
"My beautiful Ivy, I love you." he says, and kisses her again. I do the same. I have stopped crying, and so has Peeta. Now I only feel pure joy and happiness. This girl will be in my life forever. She will be my daughter forever. When I finally realise that, the tears start streaming again.
"Oh, Katniss, it's okay." Peeta says
"No, it's just that now, when I have finally realised that I get to keep her, I feel so relieved." I say, and kiss Peeta hard. Then, Lacey comes inside and we break away.
"I would like to do some testing on her and check for sure that everything's okay. There have been no problems at all during the pregnancy, so I don't think that you will have to worry. Just to be sure." she says. I nod, and give Ivy to her although I would want nothing less right now. But we have to check if she's okay.
"Bye, Ivy." Peeta says, and kisses her forehead once again. Lacey smiles.
"So her name is Ivy? Oh hello, Ivy. What a beautiful girl you are. You will see your parents soon, we'll just test you quickly." she says with a sweet voice you only use when talking to babies.
"I love you." I say, just when Lacey leaves the room. Peeta comes up to me and hugs me hard, but not hard enough to make me feel umcomfortable.
"You were absolutely incredible. I can't believe how amazing you were. And you weren't too rude to me." he says with a smile.
"Oh, I was. I told you once that if you want more children, you'll have to find another wife." I laugh. How stupid of me. The pain and suffering has paid off a million times in the past few minutes. And it will pay off even more in the next few years. Peeta laughs too.
"Yeah, but you didn't mean that." he says, and I shake my head and kiss him. Then Mother comes in. She runs up to me and encloses my face in a tight grip, and kisses my both cheeks.
"Oh, Katniss, I'm so happy for you! I heard that you were amazing." she says. I laugh.
"Yeah, I heard that too." I say, and squeeze Peeta's hand. Then Mother seems to have noticed Peeta and kisses his both cheeks too. He looks a little taken aback but soon smiles again.
"I am so happy for both of you. And I must admit, I am enormously happy myself." she says, and then Lacey comes inside with Ivy. I find myself reaching my arms towards her, like an impatient child. But I can't be away from her any longer. Lacey hands her to me and I instantly start rocking her gently back and forth. She whimpers, and Lacey stands forward.
"I think she might be hungry." she says. I get the tip. I lift her a little more up, and reveal my one breast. She starts sucking on my nipple, but I don't feel embarassed. This only feels natural. When she is done, I put her over my shoulder and burp her. Peeta looks at her with such a longing look that I just have to give her to him. He rocks her for a while, just looking into her eyes. Then, he gives her to Mother. We tell her what we have named her and she tells us that it fits her perfectly. She leaves to talk to some doctors, and we are left alone.
"My girls. I love you so much." Peeta says, and kisses us both.
"I love you too." I say, and we take in the newborn happiness and joy of our life.