Chapter one: Baby
It's been two years since the rebellion ended. Two years with no Hunger Games and no worries. Except those of my two year old son and my pregnant wife. My son, Cile Odair, is every bit my child. His favorite thing to do is drive his mother more insane than she already is.
"Look mommy!" he says in his child like voice. Annie, being very pregnant, sighs with annoyance as she pushes her sunglasses to the top of her head. He toddles over to where Annie and I are lounging under an umbrella on the beach, holding a fish in his chubby hands. Being pregnant has given Annie an aversion to live fish lately, and Cile knows this.
"Don't put that on mommy. Throw it back." I tell him before he has the chance to touch her with it.
"Thank you," she says as soon as he's out of ear shot. She puts the sunglasses back on her face and closes her eyes. I see the hint of nausea on her face.
"Are you sure you're alright?" I ask concerned. Cile wanted to come out to the beach today and though I know she wasn't feeling well, Annie insisted that she would feel better if she got out of the house.
"As long as he keeps the fish in the ocean," she replies. I give her one of my looks that says I'm concerned, but she doesn't see it.
"I'll go keep him occupied then. We won't go far." I kiss her cheek and then move to kiss her large, round stomach. "Be nice little one," I say to her stomach. Annie thinks that it'll be another boy. I'm convinced it's a girl. I know she loves Cile just as much as she loves me, but I'm not sure how well she'd handle another son.
Hesitantly, I leave Annie's side and sneak up on my two year old who's sitting in the sand with his back toward us. When I get close enough, I see that he's burying the fish in the sand.
"Cile, I told you to throw the fish back in the water." I say.
"Dead." He announces with a toothy smile.
"Well now it is," I sigh as I pick him up and place him on my shoulders and then unbury the fish and throw it back anyways. I glance toward Annie and see that she's absentmindedly rubbing her stomach. She seems to be alright for now, so I wade out into the water up to my waist.
"Look daddy!" Cile says. I look to see he's pointing to a far off boat.
"Someone's gone fishing out there," I say as I lift him from my shoulders and dangle his feet in the water. I've been trying to teach him how to swim, but he's as stubborn as Annie was when I taught her to swim when we were kids. Stubbornness is one of the few things he inherited from her.
"No daddy!" Cile kicks and tries to get away from me.
"Son, if I let you down right here, the bottom is a long way." I tell him. "I'm not going to drop you." He continues to squirm until I turn him around in my arms so that he's facing me. With his arms locked around my neck, and his lets wrapped as far around my waist as they can reach, I start out further into the water. With each step, he holds on tighter.
"Are you afraid?" I ask him. He nods his head quickly. "There's nothing to be afraid of." Just as I say that, I hear Annie calling me, and the tone of voice she's using is one of panic. Nothing to be afraid of, except that. I turn quickly, accidentally splashing Cile in the face. By now, we're up to my chest in the water, and the fastest way back is to swim. I move Cile around to my back.
"Hold on really tightly," I tell him. "Close your eyes too." I know he hates being splashed in the face. To the best of my ability with a two year old on my back, I'm able to swim most of the way back in a timely manner. Without stopping to let him off, I continue my way over to Annie. One of her friends, Rose Saunders, is sitting with her. As I sink to my knees in the sand beside Annie, I feel Rose lift Cile off my back.
"What's wrong Annie?" I ask taking her hand. She says nothing as I watch her face contort in pain, and then feel it reflected in the grip she suddenly has on my hand. I look up at Rose who has wrapped Cile in his towel and is standing on the other side of Annie holding him.
"I think you should take her on to the hospital." Rose says. "I'll take care of Cile for you." I nod my head. Annie begins to whimper, and tears begin to fall down her face as I scoop her up into my arms. It's only difficult because her stomach doesn't allow her to bring her knees in very close anymore. She wraps her arms around my neck and buries her head in my shoulder.
"It's alright Annie," I tell her as I kiss the top of her head. The hospital is a five minute walk from our home in Victors Village. Victors Village is just on the other side of the road from the beach. Rose packs up our things and follows behind us.
When we were all younger, Rose was Annie's best friend. She was like all other girls, and had a crush on me. When Annie and I became friends, I wasn't very fond of Rose. It wasn't but a few weeks after Annie and I had been playing together that Annie straightened Rose out somehow. She became a lot less annoying as we grew older, and especially after Annie's Hunger Games. After the rebellion, she was there for Annie when I couldn't be. She was there when Cile was born, and though I never thought I'd consider her my friend, I really owed her.
"What's wrong?" I hear Cile ask.
"It's alright Cile, mommy's okay," I tell him.
The walk to the hospital is one of the longest walks of my life. When we passed by our house, Rose threw my towel over my other shoulder.
"You might want this. I'm going to take him on home." She says. "I'll bring him up in a few hours." She was right about needing the towel. When we were within sight of the hospital, I felt a warm liquid run down Annie's legs and my arm. Her water broke. My heart stops for a moment as I realize what this really means. In just a few hours, Annie and I will welcome the newest member of our family into this world.
~HG~HG~HG~
At ten thirty-eight, five hours after we arrived, the cry of a newborn life enters the room. Finally, it's over.
"You did it Annie," I whisper, stroking her hair. I kiss her cheek.
"Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Odair. It's a girl!" the doctors announce as they take the baby and clean her and wrap her in a blanket. By the time they place her in Annie's arms, she's quieted down. The moment I lay eyes on my daughter, all the tears I had been fighting suddenly over power me. They allow Annie to hold her for a few minutes before they ask that I take the baby so they can get Annie transferred into another room.
Carefully, she's placed in my arms, and it's all I can do to hold onto her. My heart aches because I missed this with Cile, but most of my heart is exploding with the amount of love I have for my wife and my little girl.
"I'm going to see if Rose and Cile are here," I find myself saying. I follow the doctors and Annie to her new room so I know where to find them, and then I continue to make my way to the waiting room. I don't know if they're going to be here or not. Cile's bedtime is around eight and he's usually long asleep by this hour. I find that he is in fact asleep, in the floor of all places, in front of the chair where Rose is sitting.
"He tried to stay awake." She says when she sees me smirk at the sight of my son sprawled out in the floor. "Do you want me to wake him?"
"Not yet," I say. I sit down in the chair beside her. "It's a girl," I say, looking at the tiny face in my arms.
"You must be so proud. I bet you Annie's secretly relieved that you and Cile are still the only two boys she'll have to take care of." Rose smiles at me. "How is she? Better than she was with Cile I hope."
"She's alright. It took a lot out of her, but she's alright."
"I wish I could have said that for her last time. She fought the doctors when she found they wanted to put her out and take him, but we finally calmed her down enough so they didn't have to do that." I nod my head only half listening to her.
"Will you wake him up now? He'll want to see at least me before he'll need to go home. Thank you, by the way." I say.
"You're welcome. Are you going to stay overnight?" she asks, as she bends down and picks Cile up out of the floor.
"Probably. I don't think he'll be able to come back and see Annie tonight though since it's so late." Slowly, the two sleepy green eyes belonging to my son are open and focused on me.
"Hey buddy," I say to him.
"Daddy," he tries to climb in my lap and gets mad when Rose won't let him.
"Look," I say to him as I move the baby where he can see her. "This is your sister. You can't climb in my lap. You're alright where you're at."
"Sister?" he asks sleepily.
"Have you picked out names yet?" Rose asks.
"Cali Rose." I say proudly. "If she had been a boy, we were going to name him Aiden Samuel."
"Can you say Cali?" Rose asks Cile. He tries, but pronounces it more like "cawy" Cali stirs in my arms.
"I probably better take her back to Annie now," I say. I lean over and kiss Cile's head. "You be good for Miss Rose alright?" I tell him. "You can see mommy tomorrow. Goodnight son. I love you."
"Night daddy. Love you." He says, and then yawns.
"Thank you again," I tell Rose.
"You're welcome. We'll see you in the morning." She and Cile disappear down one hallway, as I make my way back to Annie's room.