Chapter 1-Katniss's POV
I was running. I heard a cold, evil laughter echoing behind me. A carpet was beneath my feet and there was decorative wallpaper on both sides of me, I knew I was in a hallway. I came to a dead end a blank wall stood in front of me and I wouldn't dare turn around, or at least, that's what I thought. I felt a cold and stiff hand being placed on my shoulder. The hand slowly pulled my shoulder back, forcing me to turn around. I could smell blood and roses, that sickening odor that leaves me scarred forever. Snow was facing me with a bundle in one of his arms. It was something wrapped in a soft blanket. He slowly peeled away a part of the blanket and revealed a face, a small, adorable face. I knew the face belonged to a girl, a baby girl. Her eyes blinked open. They were a warm shade of blue, like Peeta's eyes. I noticed a small wisp of hair, dark hair. Her facial features seemed familiar. Snow was staring at the baby. My and reached out to caress the sweet baby's face. Before I could touch her Snow's head snapped up and I could see the baby's face losing its color, her eyes silently closed. I pulled my hand back, but Snow pulled it forward, forcing me to feel the baby's face. It was cold and hard as rock. I sank to my knees and cried. My eyes snapped open and I realized it was all a dream. I also realized that I was sitting upright in bed and a scream was escaping my mouth. I was breathing heavily and tears sprouted in the corners of my eyes. I felt movement besides me and immediately Peeta was soothing me and rubbing my back. I calmed down and looked at him. "It was horrible." I whispered. He already knew what the dream was about. I've been having the same dream for a week now, each night in a different location. This was the eighth night now. The first scene was in the mines, the second was in my old house, the third was in the woods, the fourth was in the hunger games arena, the fifth was in the quarter quell arena, the sixth was in district thirteenth, the seventh was during the war and this one was the worse, in Snow's mansion.
"Katniss, do you think, that these dreams mean something?" Peeta asked me.
"I don't know." I whispered. Just then a wave of nausea rolled over me.
"What if it means something good? What if it's trying to show you that that won't happen? What if you do whatever these dreams are trying to show you, and only then they will stop?" Peeta suggests but I barely listen to him because of the extreme pains in my stomach. I clutch my stomach and slowly stand up. "Katniss, what's wrong?" Peeta asks.
"I-"I stop; I know that if I open my mouth, last night's dinner will come back up. I run to the bathroom and my head hovers over the toilet bowl. I open my mouth and, just as I thought, last night's dinner comes back up. Peeta comes in and holds my hair back while rubbing my back. After a couple of minutes a pull back, wash out my mouth and brush my teeth.
"Katniss, I think you should get back in bed." Peeta noted.
"No, I am going downstairs." I told him.
"Katniss, I think you should rest." Peeta argued.
"I feel fine now, really." I pleaded.
"Fine, but you are to rest on the couch and drink the tea that I'm going to give you." Peeta ordered.
"Alright then." I gave in and we walked hand in hand downstairs. We both sat down on the couch and I stared at him. He stared back at me, both our faces with blank expressions. Out of nowhere, Peeta gave me a cheesy smile and I cracked up laughing, Peeta joined in on the laughter. When we were finally done laughing, Peeta got up and walked into the kitchen. He soon came out holding a tea cup in his hand, with steam rising up from it.
"Be careful, it's hot." He warned me and handed me the warm cup. I drank it but it didn't affect me much. Peeta sat down next to me after putting the cup back in the kitchen. "Did it help?" He asked.
"It tasted good, but it didn't help much." I told him and a frown took over his face. His hand reached up and he felt my forehead.
"No fever." He mumbled.
"Peeta, what time is it?" I asked him. He looked at his wrist, but soon realized his watch was not surrounding it. He stood up, walked into the hallway and walked back to me.
"It's 6:32 am." He told me.
"No point in going to sleep." I mumbled.
"Yup, I'll have to get to the bakery in a couple of hours…" He started.
"Can I come?" I interrupted him.
"Yeah, I guess. You don't seem sick." Peeta shrugged and hugged me. "Let's go get ready, or have breakfast. Which one first?" He asked.
"Breakfast, I'm starving." I told him. We had breakfast and got ready. By the time we were both ready to go, it was time to go to the bakery. We stepped outside, it was June, so there were clear skies and the sun was shining down on us. The grass was green, flowers were in bloom and you could hear the faint buzz of the insects all around. We were walking peacefully towards the bakery when we past a house. The moment we passed that house we could hear a scream echoing throughout it. We stopped and stared at the house. Soon a little girl ran out and her eyes darted to us. She ran up to us and pulled on my sleeve. She was cute; she obviously didn't look like a seam girl. She had blonde hair that was braided in two braids down her back. She had green eyes that sparkled in the sun. She was wearing a t-shirt and a ruffled skirt, nothing too fancy. I looked down at her. "What's wrong?" I asked and kneeled down so I could face her (face-to-face).
"Mommy fell." She looked like she was about to cry.
"Where's your daddy?" I asked her calmly.
"Daddy dead!" She exclaimed, she couldn't be older than two years old. Good thing she knew to get help. She grabbed my hand in hers and led me towards the house. She opened the door; the doorknob was just above her head. She took me to a room that looked like a living room and pointed at the woman on the floor.
"Peeta, go get a someone from the hospital." I said and he nodded and ran out the door. I knelt beside the woman and gently brushed her hair aside. I grabbed her wrist and checked for a pulse, nothing. The girl was now sitting quietly on a couch. I put my head to the woman's chest and didn't hear a beating. "Honey." I said to the little girl, she looked up at me. "Can you explain to me how your mommy fell?" I asked her and she nodded.
"Mommy came in room. She opened mouth but closed it. She put hand to chest and fell on knees. She screamed and fell on back; I ran outside and saw you. Now we're here." The girl explained, missing some words probably because she hasn't learned how to properly speak yet.
"Do you have any siblings?" I asked. She cocked her head and looked at me strangely. "Do you have a brother or sister?" I rephrased my question and the girl shook her head. Just then Peeta, two nurses and a doctor barged inside the house. The nurses and doctor rushed to the dead woman and I sat next to the little girl. "She's dead." I told them before they could do anything.
"How do you know?" A nurse asked.
"No pulse, no heartbeat." I explained. The doctor checked for a pulse or heartbeat.
"She's correct, this woman is indeed dead. Does she have any family?" He asked obviously unaware of the girl sitting beside me.
"She only has a daughter, no husband or other children." I said and nodded my head in the girl's direction. "The girl said that her mom walked in the room and opened her mouth to say something, but soon closed it. The woman put her hand to her chest and sank to her knees. One scream escaped her mouth and she fell, dead." I explained how the woman died. The nurses put the woman on a stretcher.
"We'll have to find new parents for this fine little girl." The doctor said.
"We'll take her." Peeta and I said at the same time.
"You'll have to choose which one will take her, you can't have her both." The doctor said.
"Actually, we're a married couple." Peeta says.
"Oh, then you've got yourself a daughter, we will just need you to sign some papers and she's all yours." The doctor smiled at us.
"What's your name?" I asked the girl.
"Mallory." She replied.
"I like your name Mallory." I told her and she smiled. "Mallory, I'm really sorry to tell you this but your mommy died. Is it okay if you come live with Peeta and me? I am Katniss." I explained. I could see tears form in her eyes and she hugged me tightly while nodding her head. I hugged her back and picked her up. "You can call me mom, or Katniss, whichever you like. That is Peeta; he is your new daddy. Again, you can call him Peeta, or dad, your choice." I explained. She looked up at me.
"I love you mommy." She said smiling widely at me and hugged me again.
"What about me?" Peeta asked, pretending to be offended.
"I love you too daddy." She smiled and went into Peeta's hands.
"Now we have a use for one of the extra rooms." I said to Peeta and he nodded.
"We will have someone bring anything that Mallory will need to your house, is there anything else I need to know about?" The doctor asked.
"Actually, doctor. My wife's dinner came up this morning, if you understand what I mean; can you take a look at her?" Peeta asked and I looked at him.
"Yes of course, but I suggest that we go back to my office to check this out." The doctor said.
"Take Mallory with you to the bakery, I'll tell you what's wrong after the checkup." I told Peeta and I followed the doctor outside while Peeta headed in the direction of the bakery.
Peeta's POV
I soon reached the bakery with Mallory in my hands. "I bake cookies, cakes, breads and other things like that. DO you want to learn how to decorate cookies?" I asked her.
"Yeah!" She exclaimed enthusiastically. I walked inside the bakery and walked towards the back.
"Who's this?" Darwin asked. He was one of my employees, he didn't want to go to the mines and he proved to be a pretty good baker so I hired him. He was twenty, only a year younger than me.
"I'm Mallory!" Mallory exclaimed.
"She's my new daughter." I told him proudly.
"When did this happen?" Darwin asked.
"This morning, we adopted her. That's also why I was late. Her mom died, we were the only ones around." I explained. Darwin already knew that "we" was Katniss and I.
"So where's Katniss?" He asked.
"She's at the doctor, wasn't feeling too well this morning and I insisted she go." I explained.
"Oh." Darwin said and got back to baking. I went to the icing corner as we liked to call it. There were racks full of cookies and cakes that I needed to decorate, they were split into two groups. One group with the one's that I can go freestyle with, and the other group was the ones that were personally ordered and I have to ice them according to the photo that should be provided. I knew that the personally ordered ones were due at the least in two weeks, so I decided to go with freestyle. I grabbed a pan of cookies from the racks and set it down on the icing table, which was basically an ordinary table with a table cover made out of napkin material, so you could throw it away after icing something and making a mess. I sit on the bench and Mallory sits right next to me. I place a sugar cookie in front of her and one in front of me.
"First, I'll show you how to make a basic, the flower." I explain and pulled forward the tray with all of the star tipped colors of icing. I pick the color yellow. "What color do you want to be the middle of your flower?" I ask her.
"Orange." She replies cheerily.
"That's my favorite color, what's yours?" I ask as I hand her the orange icing.
"My favorite color is green, and pink, can I have two favorite colors?" She asks.
"You certainly can." I tell her and we both smile. "So first, hold the tip of the icing bag to the middle of the cookie." I explain as we both place the tip of the bags to the middle of the cookie. "Make sure you hole the bag in between your thumb and index finger above the icing in the bag." I say and she fixes her hand position. "Now squeeze the bag for five seconds." I say and start squeezing the bag.
"One, two, three, four, five!" Mallory exclaims and we both pull our bags straight up. This forms a little star in the center of the cookie. I take her icing bag and put both mine and hers back in the tray. I push that tray back and bring out the regular tipped icing colors. I hand her the orange and take the yellow. "We're going to be using the same colors for this part." I explain and she nods. Hold it the same way and hold the tip close to the star, so it is barely touching it." I say and we both do as I said. "Now squeeze the bag while dragging the bag/tip in circles around the star creating three layers." I explain and we both do that. "Good." I say and she shows me her tiny teeth in a wide smile. I put both icing bags back and push the tray back too. I pull up the flat tipped icings and take the red. "What color do you want?" I ask her.
"Pink." She tells me hand I hand her the pink.
"Now put it so the tip is flat against the cookie slightly touching a part of the middle circle. Pull the bag back while squeezing it and slightly curve it at the end of the cookie." I say and we both do that. "Now fill in that space with four more lines and end it with the fifth line and a slight curve at the end, fill in any extra space inside the petal." I explain and we both follow my orders. "Now do the exact same thing leaving space in between each petal." I say and we soon finish all of the petals. I put back both colors and take out two different shades of green from the regular tipped tray. "Which one do you want?" I ask her and she points to the lighter shade. I show her how to create the leaves in between the petals and she does, we both finish our cookie and displayed them to each other. Just then Katniss appeared behind us, she kissed me and hugged Mallory. Her eyes moved to the cookies.
"These look wonderful Peeta." She smiled.
"I only made that one." I replied and pointed to the red flower.
"Then who made that one?" She asked while pointing to the pink flower.
"I did!" Mallory piped up.
"That…that's beautiful!" She exclaimed.
"I know, especially for a…" I started
"Two in a half year old!" Mallory finished. I handed Mallory another cookie and she started decorating another flower. I stood up in front of Katniss.
"What did the doctor say?" I asked her.
"I'll tell you at home, not here, not now." She said and I nodded. The day went by quickly. Mallory and I decorated, Mallory stuck with the flowers and I created other decorations and Katniss just watched us or went to talk with the customers. We finally got home with Mallory in my hands. Katniss and I took Mallory to what would be her room.
"This is going to be your room." I tell her.
"For now, you'll sleep in our room, until we get your room set up." Katniss told her. Katniss turned the TV on for Mallory and we both headed to the kitchen. We sat facing each other at the kitchen table.
"So, what did the doctor say?" I asked her. A grin spread out on her face.
"Peeta, I'm pregnant." She said. And I felt a grin spread on my face too. So, Mallory's gonna be a big sister?" I asked.
"Well, if she's legally our daughter then yeah." Katniss replied and I kissed her.
"We need to tell Mallory." I exclaimed.
"Not yet, soon." Katniss told me and I nodded my head.
