Nothing ever good- Emily Silsbury (Mrs Everdeen)
Nothing good ever comes from falling for a Seam boy. The second instalment in the nothing ever good series. A one shot about Emily Silsbury and Hayden Everdeen ((Mr and Mrs Everdeen)) Second installment in the Nothing Ever Good series.
Emily Silsbury was bored to say the least. Her parents had been invited out to a dinner at the bakers, leaving Emily to care for the apocrathy, but it was late spring, which was the one time of year when the majority of people appeared to be in good health. This of course was good news, but it spelled boredom for the girl in her late teens. The only upside to her predicament was Hayden Everdeen. She had been glancing over the cover of her book from behind the till, hoping to catch a glimpse of the young man for the past hour or so. Much to Emilys delight the older boy often came and sold plants to the apocrathy every other day or so, and thanks to the abundance of plants in the springtime, these visits had become much more frequent. Her parents often smiled at her and teased her with one single line.
"If only he was a Merchant child."
This had always angered Emily, Hayden could hardly help being from Seam, it wasn't as if he chose to be there. Why on earth should this matter to her? He was strong, healthy, he could obviously hunt and gather, although where he did this she couldn't fathom. It was possible he did so in the meadow, but the plants that he brought them were such a variety, some even Emily had not seen before, only read about in books, that they could not have been from one single field. That only left sneaking outside the district. The mere thought of it sent excited, and yet fearful, shivers down her spine. The fence was supposedly electrocuted 24 hours a day, and before now, Emily had never questioned the fact that it was. But if Hayden was indeed sneaking through the fence, there wasn't a possibility of him getting through it if it was electrocuted, which begged the question, was it?
The sound of the small bell above the door pulled the girl from her musings and told her that someone had just entered the shop. She quickly placed down her book and smiled at the face of Hayden Everdeen. Emily glanced out of the window and was surprised to find the what she assumed was blue sky being replaced by a colour several shades darker than she thought it to be.
"Late back today?" she asked innocently, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as the young man placed a bag on the counter.
"Not really, just a lot of trading to do before I came up this way." He shrugged, wiping some coal dust from his cheek, but instead of getting rid of it, he just smeared it across his face. Emily suppressed a giggle as she wordlessly pulled out a cloth from the draw under the counter and leant forward to remove the coal dust.
"But the market closed hours ago." She pointed out as she pressed the material from his cheek.
"Who said I was at the market Silsbury." He smirked, not questioning why she was cleaning the coal dust from his face.
"Well that's where people trade, Everdeen." She replied, putting the cloth away as she opened the bag.
"Not all people." He replied ominously, the traces of his smirk still lingering on his lips.
"All those who have nothing to hide." Emily retorted, sifting through the plants in the bag.
"Well aren't they the lucky ones?" He asked rhetorically.
"How much for the plants?" She asked, tactfully changing the subject as she sensed the slight splash of bitterness in his tone.
"Keep 'em. There's several in there for treating flesh wounds, and trust me when I say you're going to need them after today." Hayden replied, a frown settling on his features.
"What happened?" She asked, slightly worried. She was used to him being ominous about where he traded, and where he hunted and gathered. Her parents were usually around and it was always best not to say anything in front of other customers anyway. But she could tell this was something different.
"Lets just say they're finally getting some use out of that whipping post." He sighed.
"Were you…?" She trailed off, not needing to finish her sentence to get her question across.
"Me? No, I'm a little too clever for that, but after I sold several people venison, a lot of questions cropped up asking where they got it from, which led to these several people withholding information, so next time, I'll sell them venison again if I can get it." He explained, "They started whipping people for information about ten minutes ago, in which time I made a hasty getaway so people wouldn't make eye contact."
"You brought down a deer?" Emily asked in awe before shaking it off. "Well my parents are out for the night, and I'm going to need some help if these people are going to be treated, you going to make yourself useful? Or am I going to struggle?" she asked, opening a door behind her which acted as a makeshift hospital. It had three tables with a clean cloth laying over each of them and another counter and a sink against the wall, although it only provided cold water, it was much better than nothing. There were a few cupboards above the counter, containing most of the things needed to treat the sickness they were presented with.
"Not sure how much help I'll be, but I can give it a go." He nodded, hopping over the counter and following her into the room.
"How many people do you reckon will be coming down here?" She asked, pulling out a specific set of plants from the shelf before stretching to get some bowls from the top shelf.
Hayden smirked slightly, effortlessly pulling the bowls down for her. "A lot of them will have had the sense to walk away, I'd say around 7."
Emily grimaced a little as the first casualty came through the door. "You'd better get chopping." She said to Hayden, nodding to the plants as she turned to treat them.
A few hours later Emily was sitting on the counter, and Hayden was leaning against the door to the back room. They'd sent everyone home with instructions to leave the bandages alone and come back tomorrow for fresh ones.
"Thanks for your help." She said with a small smile.
"Not a problem, you're a really gifted healer you know." He replied earnestly. Emily shrugged, a modest blush gracing her features.
"Someone has to do it."
"Why Miss Silsbury, is that a blush I see?" He teased with a smirk, taking a step closer to her.
"Why Mr Everdeen, perhaps it is. What concern is it of yours?" She teased back. Hayden laughed a little, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Expressions can give away a lot about a person. So can a blush."
"And what does this say about me?" She asked.
"I may be wrong but…" He trailed off before slowly leaning in and kissing her. Emily smiled against his lips and kissed him back willingly.
"You're not."
Almost eight years down the line Emily sat in her house in Seam, grinning with nervous anticipation as she waited for her husband to come home. Although she had now acquired the small layer of coal dust that covered everything and everyone in Seam, she was positively glowing. She sat in front of the fire, putting the kettle over it to boil. She had discovered that she was pregnant, and now she knew that everything she gave up was worth it, she knew that it was worth giving up her home, job, friends and family to marry the man she loved. Emily was surer than sure now. Her parents were wrong when they told her that nothing good ever came from falling for a Seam boy, but she was sure that her life could not be more perfect. Hayden would ensure that her child would never have to sign up for tesserae, he would make sure that the baby would be as safe from the games as any Seam child, even though that never stopped the Capitol from taking Maylisee…
Emily pushed that from her mind, her childhood friend would have been happy for her. In fact Emily was sure that Maylisee was happy, wherever she was. Haymitch survived the games, nobody else from her family had been reaped, and her friends had all made it. And now her best friend was pregnant, and married to the man of her dreams.
Her child was as safe as it could be, and that was the way it was going to stay. She had complete faith that Hayden would see to that. Plus with her small apocrathy in Seam, and Hayden working in the mines and hunting on the weekends, they were better off than most of the people in the grotty shacks around here. Emily looked down at her stomach, and thought to herself, this, this is something good, and it came from falling for a Seam boy.
Eleven years later Emily sat, staring out of the window, waiting for her husband, even though she knew, deep down, he was never going home. But he had to, he had to come, Katniss turned twelve in a few months, and Hayden had to keep her safe. He had to come home, he couldn't just leave. In the distance she could hear her daughters anguished voice, but she couldn't snap out of the worry fueled haze that had shrouded her since her husbands death. Her two wonderful daughters were facing what she herself had never had to. They faced the games with one parent, if she could pull herself back, they faced the tesserae, which she had never had to think about, they faced absolute poverty, which as a merchant child, she didn't know how to deal with. They had to face starvation, they had to face everything that Hayden had sworn to protect them from. They had to face what she couldn't protect them from. Her two wonder, beautiful, perfect daughters, having to face the world when they were only children. Katniss, who had always acted as if she was ready to take on the world. Perhaps she was ready, Emily didn't know, Hayden had always had a better connection with Katniss. He had always understood her, she just misinterpreted her actions and her words. All of this bounced around in Emilys mind, only jumbled and covered in confusion. Only one coherent thought formed in her head at this moment, maybe her parents were right, perhaps nothing good ever did come from falling for a Seam boy.
A/N Wow, that was a really nice story to write actually, the first installment was about Maylisee and Haymitch and the third and final installment will be up within a few weeks. Reviews are greatly appreciated, I love hearing from you guys :) The names for Katniss' parents are just what I thought would fit them, so yeah, headcannon. Catch you later alligators ;) x