I love The Parent Trap and I also love Hayffie hence this fic happened. I hope you will love it too! I changed a lot of things by the way. I only followed the concept of The Parent Trap (i.e. the summary above). The characters' ages are changed. You'll see the changes along the way.

Disclaimer: THG isn't mine. The Parent Trap isn't mine. And this disclaimer is applicable to all the succeeding chapters.

Reminder: This is a post-MJ story. The Games happened. The Rebellion happened, etc.

Prologue

The entire house was dim and dirty which was unusual because ever since Effie lived with him a year ago, she made it sure that the house stayed perfectly clean and habitable. The only aroma that circulated the house was the stench of his liquor and only his nightmare-induced screams filled the emptiness of the house ever since she and the twins left.

He knew that he had been drinking too much. The walls swayed every time he opened his eyes. Every object that his eyes laid upon seemed to turn into two. He shut off his eyes and pressed his palms against it. It only made his vision worse. With a bottle of bourbon in hand, he stumbled his way to reach the couch and gracelessly slumped on it. He kept drinking until he passed out and the bottle of the amber liquid fell from his grip and smashed into tiny pieces.

He wasn't usually like his old self when Effie was in Twelve actually and he hadn't even drunk at least half a bottle ever since the twins were born. But the thing was, Effie wasn't there and so were the twins. He asked her to take the kids somewhere else so that he could have an alone time with a bottle of whiskey. She hesitated of course and told him to fight off his need to drink but he won in the end when he told her what that day really was.

That day was the day they were murdered.

She understood in the end. Though they had been living together for a year after the war, he had never told her anything about what happened to his family and his girl. She didn't push him, knowing that it will only drive him away.

She took the kids to the Capitol to visit her father since her father hadn't seen them personally though the twins were already three months old. Katniss helped her to get the kids in the train but she couldn't come with them. She never stepped her foot inside the city where her sister died after she returned in Twelve with Haymitch as her guardian.

Effie knew that it wasn't a good idea to travel alone with two babies but she was somehow relieved when her father met her at the short pit stop in Seven. The girls were in the Capitol for three days. Meanwhile in those three long days in Twelve, Haymitch locked himself in a solitary confinement with his bottle of alcohol. Everything went south after a bottle of liquor.

He felt like he was a single man again without her and the children. It reminded him of his dark years before the end of the Games. Time seemed so long as he grieved. His nightmares seemed so real and his family wasn't the only ones who were murdered in his mind anymore. Effie and the twins were also brutally killed in his nightmares and it scared him more, feeling that he couldn't protect them though Snow was already dead for four years. Time stretched out when he was living in his nightmares yet, it also seemed so short that he didn't notice that the girls were back.

As soon as the girls arrived in Twelve, Effie asked Katniss to watch over the twins while she figure out if it was safe for the twins to go home with her because as soon as she saw Katniss at the train station, she knew something horrible had happened to him while she and their kids were gone.

When she pushed the door open, the foul odor welcomed her and as well as the bottles of whiskey. She turned the lights on and heard him stir in the living area. She walked over to him and assessed his sobriety. She shook her head when she saw him because based on his history of drunkenness, he will mostly like be asleep throughout the whole day and probably wake up later at night.

By noon, the house was all clean and polished. She only stopped to check on her babies and feed them. It was a good thing that they took the first train to the Districts at the break of dawn so she could whip the house back into a habitable child-proof environment before the day ended. She released Katniss from her godmother duties when the sun was starting to set.

She made sure that the two would be sleeping for at least three hours when she went down to wake up Haymitch. She knew that he would complain non-stop tomorrow about his back if he would continue sleeping there in a very uncomfortable position. Though he was only in his early thirties, he always complained whenever she punished him to sleep on the couch because that couch was too small for his tall figure.

He was sleeping on his belly and his shins were dangling at the end of the couch. She approached him quietly, careful not to make a sound because she knew that if he woke up with a noise in this state of drunkenness, he might hit her, thinking that she was a tribute in his Games.

After all the years of knowing him, she mastered waking him up slowly without him being aggressive. She squatted down to his eyelevel and pushed the strands of dirty blonde hair from his face. She leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Haymitch, wake up." Her voice was as sweet as honey when she spoke without her Capitol accent. She nudged his shoulder slightly so he wouldn't think that she was a threat.

He turned at the sound of her voice so he was facing her now. She repeated what she said earlier and she saw his eyes moving underneath his eyelids. He groaned and knitted his eyebrows together. His eyes were moving rapidly underneath his eyelids. At that moment she knew that he was in the middle of a nightmare and it wouldn't be good for both of them if she woke him up.

She was pulling her hand back from his shoulder but she was completely frozen when one of the twins bellied out a loud cry.

All of a sudden, his eyes shot open and slashed the opponent in front of him with his knife that he was holding underneath the throw pillow. In his mind she was a tribute who was trying to kill him while somebody out there was trying to hurt his children. Unbeknownst to him, he cut the mother of his children.

The injury wasn't that bad but it was deep enough for the blood to ooze out of her skin. She was completely shaken, of course. She started to tremble. It was a small cut but it was enough to trigger her memories in the prison. She knew that he would never hurt her intentionally but it happened.

His vision was blurry. He could only see a quivering lean woman in front of him and his mind told him that she wasn't a threat. He tried to blink his dizziness and sat up on the couch but when he sat up, he just felt worse. His nausea got worse and so he put his elbows on his knees and steadied his head in his hands.

There was a loud shrilling noise in the background and he figured that somebody was trying to kill his children. He wanted the cries to stop. He needed to be there for his children. In his drunken state of mind, he didn't comprehend that he might only do harm because of his condition. The ear-piercing wailing was making his head hurt so badly and his heart clenched at the sound of his children's misery. He felt that the blood flowing in his brain was boiling so hot and it was making his face turned into a deep shade of red. He crashed a lamp in the process of standing upright from the couch. He staggered as he followed the noise upstairs. He almost reached the knob of the room where the screams of his children came from but a firm grip on his arm stopped him and because of his drunkenness, he swayed back.

Effie was in the middle of her episode but she slowly got out of it when she heard a loud crash. When her consciousness returned, she saw the empty couch and the shards of the lamp. Her eyes quickly searched for him but her ears heard his heavy footsteps at the stairs instead. She hastily followed him and grabbed his arm with her better hand when she saw that he was going to enter in the nursery.

He leaned back on the wall to steady himself. "Haymitch!" he heard her shrill voice laced with her thick Capitol accent. With that voice, he knew that it was her, not a tribute nor any opponent that would cause harm to his – no, their – children. Her blue eyes raged in anger as her maternal instincts kicked in. "You will not go near my children when you're drunk," she hissed and went in the nursery.

He pushed himself off the wall and tried to enter the nursery. He was turning the knob but the door won't budge. He was pounding the door and yelling for her to let him in. He was in complete hysterics. He just wanted t help.

When she went in the room, both of her daughters were crying very loud and their faces were turning red. She reached for the nearest one and cradled her in her arms. "Shhh," she whispered with her shaky voice. She was bouncing her baby lightly to make her stop crying. She already fed them, burped them and changed their diapers not so long ago. She couldn't find any reason for them to cry any more.

She heard him pounding the door and calling her name but she ignored it. She had no idea how quickly everything spiraled out of her control. She didn't realize that her tears were falling from her eyes until her vision became blurry. "Please," she begged as if the three month old can understand her, "please stop crying." She looked at her other daughter in the crib and she was also throwing a fit.

Her hands were trembling and she felt like she couldn't be brave anymore for them, for her children, for Haymitch and even for her own sake. She placed the daughter in her arms back in the crib because she was afraid that her daughter might fell from her grip. The tremble of her hands grew stronger as she watched her crying infant in the crib. The crimson blood against the white blankets of the crib triggered something inside her.

Her whole body was shaking. She looked at her hands in front of her and saw the dried blood and the fresh ones. She had completely forgotten that the cut on her arm was still bleeding. She didn't feel the pain in her arm. She became numb right after her episode in the living room and she still can't feel anything. Her legs were shaking so badly to the point that she dropped to the floor. She pulled her knees up and rested her forehead on it as she put her hands against her ears.

She just wanted everything to stop for a moment so she could pull herself together. Her blood, their cries and his pounding and yells became all too much. The unfortunate scenario was eerily familiar. She just sat there on the floor against the wall with her body swaying to and fro.

"This is not real. Not real," she murmured like a mantra.

She remembered that this scenario was familiar because the Capitol already implanted this moment in her brain before. She was gripping her blonde locks, "not real... not real..." she kept on repeating, knowing that she was just in the middle of an episode and that she will wake up soon with a sober Haymitch and sleeping daughters.

Katniss didn't know how long had the chaos started but she knew it was more than a while. She dropped the bags of food at the street when she heard the shrieking of the twins. She quickly sprint towards the house and kicked the door open after finding out that the door was locked.

She ran straight to the nursery and found Haymitch slumped on the door. His head was resting on the door frame while he was still knocking and calling out for Effie and the kids. She didn't have to ask him if he was drunk. The fetor around him was enough as an answer. She pulled him up by the arm and told him to go down. He refused to do it, of course so she took advantage of his so-far-from-sober state and locked him up in their bedroom by using a chair propped against the doorknob.

She tried to knock and call for Effie but the door didn't open too. She didn't want to do it but she had to kick the door open to get inside. The two sisters were crying out louder when she forced herself in. Effie was looking at her on the floor as if she was a Peacekeeper. Nobody told her what happened but she already had an idea in mind. One look in her former Escort's eyes was enough to know the older woman was having an episode.

She hated that there was no one else to help them. She couldn't go out of the Victor's Village to ask for help and leave the crying children behind. The stress was building inside of her so she needed to think quickly before she joined Effie with one of her own episodes.

She chose to go to the babies first and saw that one of them had dried blood all over the blankets and her body. She checked if the baby had any injuries. She released a heavy sigh when she found none. She was carrying the baby with blood while she went to the other one and rubbed its back. She tried to stop them from crying but her actions didn't do anything to soothe the situation. They must've known that she wasn't their mother.

She put the baby back into her crib and walked to Effie. She didn't know what to do, exactly. She rarely faced someone in the middle of an episode before. She tried to be gentle at coaxing the other woman to consciousness but it also didn't work so she just grabbed the lithe shaky hands of the woman in front of her. She waited for Effie to look at her before speaking, "I know you're in there, Effie." She glanced quickly at the cribs then looked again at the older woman, "your daughters need you."

She heard her murmur, "not real... not real..." She gripped the trembling hands harder, "No," she said firmly. "This is real. You need to wake up, Effie. They've been crying non-stop," she reasoned but the woman just stared at her and kept on repeating the mantra of not real.

Her patience was wearing thin and it wouldn't be long for her to join the crew of misfit adults so she did the first thing that entered her mind to get Effie out of it. She slapped her... hard.

Her cheek was stinging so her hand immediately touched her cheek. She looked at her surroundings and saw that Katniss was kneeling in front of her. "Katniss," she whimpered.

"We need to get you out of here," she pulled Effie by the arm without the cut and tugged her to the crib. "You're staying in my house for the night," Katniss said while giving Effie the child with the dried blood.

Effie held the baby in her arms, "What if I dropped her or –"

"No you won't," Katniss said with certainty. "She's your daughter. You will not hurt her," Katniss was moving quickly. She just wanted to get things done already because the longer they stayed, the faster she will have an episode. She carried the other baby in her arms and slung the diaper bag on her shoulder.

She led Effie out of the nursery but Effie stopped at the hallway, "Haymitch?" They heard his shouts through the cemented walls. "He'll be okay," she shrugged and adjusted the bag on her shoulder.

Effie still seemed so lost in her own thoughts when they got inside Katniss' house. They managed to stop the cries of the twins after an hour. Effie was still out of it when Katniss asked for her father's number. She informed the twins' grandfather that he had to – no, needed to – catch the earliest train ride and go there in Twelve tomorrow.

Katniss left Effie and the twins in her house while she went to their house. The house was quiet and dark. She made a beeline to where she locked Haymitch and silently pulled the chair out of the knob. She stealthily walked in and saw him sprawled on the bed. She ignored him and find Effie's suitcase and packed the essentials in Effie's list.

She was almost out of the door when she heard her former Mentor's voice. "She's leaving?" he was sober enough now and he looked like a person who was tired of mourning. His face was full of grief. He must've remembered at least some of the things that he did earlier.

She just nodded.

"They're okay?" he looked tired as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Yeah," she nodded again.

He was about to get up but she stopped him. "Don't," she warned. "You're not going there. You're going to fix this," she pointed all of him. "You will not see them until you're sober."

"'M sober enough," he cut off.

Her voice was firm and final, "No. You'll pull your shit together or else today will be the last time you saw them."

He didn't wavered when she cursed. He was used to her cursing. He shook his head at her little speech, "You don't get to make decisions here, sweetheart." He said sarcastically. He pulled himself up and walked towards her.

She put a hand on his chest to stop him from getting out of the room. "You're right. It wasn't my decision to make."

He made a move to his left but she blocked him. He finally understood what she meant, "Effie wanted this?" he didn't want to look like he was hurt but his voice betrayed him. She didn't answer. Well, she didn't have to. It was plainly obvious. He just didn't think that Effie would make a decision like this. He knew that what happened earlier escalated into something that they both couldn't control but he didn't thought that she would go away with the twins.

She didn't stop glaring at him, "Get yourself together, Haymitch... if you want them back." With that, he left him in the middle of the bedroom. She wanted to throw to his face that they're dead and Effie and their children weren't. She wanted to tell him that he was a fool to drink again but she would be out of line. She learned how to pick her battles in a most painful way and this wasn't her battle. She just loved those girls hence, she was talking to him.

When she came back with Effie and the twins' stuff, she headed for the guest room. She watched from the door frame as Effie was cradling her child in her arm while she rubbed the back of her other daughter with her bandaged arm.

As Katniss looked back from what had happened today, she was somehow relieved that she and Peeta didn't get together after all that happened between them. She realized that he made the right decision to stay at the mental facility in the Capitol. For all she knew, it could be her and Peeta having kids instead of Effie and Haymitch. It would've been worse if this happened to them. They were only seventeen when the rebellion happened and they were only twenty one now. Haymitch was nine years older than them and yet the remnants of the Games were still fresh in his mind. She also knew that Effie didn't survive the Rebellion unscathed. The episode earlier was a proof to that. It had been four years since the Rebellion but the memories were still fresh and it left them the scars that haunted them for life.

He had a restless night, thinking about his family next door. He managed to get some sleep for a few hours and he bolted up when he heard the rooster's cocka-doodle-doo. He ran to Katniss' house to bid goodbye to his girls before they left or maybe even beg her to stay. He had been knocking on the door but there was no reply. He looked in the window but no one was inside so he ran to the train station as fast as he can.

His chest was burning and he felt like his lungs were going to collapse but that didn't stop him from running to his girls. As he ran, he really regretted sending the girls away few days ago. It was really stupid of him. He gasped for air when he reached the station but before he could start walking again, the train started to move.

"No. No!" he broke into a sprint again and followed the train as much as he could. He knew it was a lost cause and when he can't run anymore, he just watched train until it disappeared from his sight. He slumped beside the track and he didn't remember how long he sat there.

Tired and hungry, he trekked back to the Victor's Village and didn't care about all the looks that he received. He bumped into someone and ignored the person too.

"Haymitch!" she hissed. "Where've you been?" she asked as she adjusted the dead rabbit that she was holding.

"Effie..." he was really really tired with all that running to make a coherent sentence. He realized that he needed to get back his muscular shape. He didn't another word after that besides, he didn't owe her an explanation.

When she looked at him at him, she figured what he did that morning. "You were at the station?" He glared but she ignored it and rolled her eyes. "Her father picked them up last night. They boarded the final train last night."

Another reminder: I will emphasize that Haymitch and Effie are younger in this. He had been mentoring for eight years before he met Katniss and Peeta. He was still a bit new compared to the twenty-four years of mentoring that he had in the books. And, the events in the book and movies happened here except for a few things in Mockingjay.

Since they were both damaged because of the Games, I think that would be the best reason why they separated here.

I won't write a very long A/N next time, promise!

Oh, and for the next chapter, the twins are ten year old kids already. I posted a snippet about them yesterday so if you want to read more, you can read the First Day of Summer. I hope you'll love this Parent Trap universe. Believe me, I'm in love with this universe already! ;)

Thanks for reading everyone! It means a lot!

.Elle.