Chapter 2
I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, and sat straight up in bed. What had awoken me so quickly? That's when I felt it again; the uneasiness of my stomach. I put my hand to my forehead and felt it drenched in sweat. The room spun in the darkness for a minute before I bolted towards the bathroom, making it just in time to crouched over the toilet, vomiting violently. The relief from the nausea was instant, but I carried on being sick. It wasn't until I felt a cool hand on my back that I realized I must have woken Peeta up. He sat down next to me on the tiles.
"Katniss?" He asked concerned, rubbing small circles on my upper back but for some reason I didn't want to be touched. I shrugged out of it as I sat up from the toilet, leaning against the wall to face him.
"Go away," I whispered in a hoarse voice. I hated when Peeta saw me like this. His eyes, though sleepy, looked full of worry. His blond hair was ruffled, and he wore a t-shirt and black shorts. I looked up at him, wiping my mouth with a bit of toilet paper. "Are you okay?" He asked ignoring my request for him to leave. For a minute I thought of snapping something back but then realized it was just the lack of sleep and feeling sick that would make me say something sarcastic. I decided against it and nodded my head a little; he was just trying to help. I could feel my eyes watering from the force of being sick.
"Guess its just morning sickness." I murmured, my mouth suddenly feeling dry. Trying to stand up to get to the sink and wash it out with water, I felt the motion unsettle my stomach again. Peeta's hands went out to help me as I leaned back over the toilet, heaving. His fingers gently held back my hair to keep it out of my face; though this time he refrained from stroking my back, guessing I wanted to be left alone. When it was over he flushed the toilet, and grabbed a glass from the bedroom to fill it with water and let me drink. I started to chug it down appreciatively, feeling miles better now it was out of my system. He sat closer to me this time, against the wall too, and grabbed the glass out of my hand.
"Sip it Katniss. You don't want to get sick again." Peeta said and carefully handed it back to me. I did as he told me to, even though I really did feel okay. He watched me and put it on the side when I was finished. My hands were pressed to the floor either side of me; longing for the coldness of the hard tiles against my flushed body. I felt bad for waking him up. He was still going through a patch of nightmares at the moment and was frequently awake in the night, even if he thought I didn't hear him stir. Peeta put his hand on my knee and I instinctively leaned into him, placing my head on his muscular shoulder. His hand moved to circle around me, knowing now it was okay to touch me. I cradled into him more, suddenly wanting to be as close as I could to him, to let him protect me. We sat there for a little while. He rested his head on the top of mine and occasionally he bent down to press his lips to my forehead. I had a feeling he was just trying to do regular checks of my temperature. He held me there making no move to let go of me, or me let go of him. His arms tightened around me affectionately, his way of telling me it would all be okay without any words.
"I'm sorry Katniss. I wish I could do more to help you." He muttered, looking off to the other side of the bathroom. His eyes looked wide-awake now. I could feel mine already beginning to close again, tiredness taking over.
"It's fine." I said, rubbing a hand on his chest. "Nothing I can't handle." He laughed a little at this.
"True."
"Hopefully this isn't a regular thing." I added, trying to make him feel better. One way or another, I knew whatever I did, I was causing him pain when I suffered myself. I had to make light of this situation, to help Peeta.
"Hopefully," He replied, placing his hand on my stomach and lowered his head slightly to it. "Why are you making your mother sick?" He whispered, while tracing his finger in delicate patterns on it. Despite his weary tone, I could tell that behind it, was this undying love for our unborn child. A love I did not know could exist until three days ago when we found out that I was pregnant.
"Sorry for waking you Peeta." I murmured, unsure whether or not I was still awake. My eyes were heavily now, and I could still feel the warmth of Peeta's hand radiating through my thin shirt to my stomach.
"Don't be sorry. I would rather be here with you then sleeping," he said in a soft voice.
After another minute, I felt a sudden rush of air and I was no longer pressed against the cold floor. I gathered that Peeta must be carrying me back to the bedroom, but I was long gone before my head could even hit the pillow.
. . . .
It was a few hours later that I woke up again. This time it was naturally, and more peaceful. I sighed contentedly as I stretched my arms out. They immediately found what I was looking for . . . Peeta. He rolled over to face me, clearly already awake himself.
"Morning." He said before moving closer to me and leaning in for a kiss. I remembered what had happened last night and held out a hand to stop him, taking him off guard. He looked at me questioningly. Running my tongue around my teeth, I could feel the horrible aftertaste still. I got out of bed and almost fell. Thank goodness Peeta was there to catch me just as I was about to fall.
"Whoo," I said as I planted my feet in the ground to steady myself.
"You okay?" Peeta questioned.
"Yeah, I must have stood up to quickly," I said as I headed to bathroom. "You don't want to kiss me with this breath." Quickly running a toothbrush around my mouth.
Considering my stomach for a moment, I decided that it was back to normal for now. It had come and gone so sporadically. I climbed back into bed with Peeta, his arm already out to allow him to hold me. I gratefully obliged and leant my head against his chest, listening to his rhythmical heartbeat. He pulled the covers back up around me, and hugged me close.
"Did you get back to sleep okay last night?" I asked him, knowing he would probably lie anyway.
"Yeah. I stayed awake for a while watching you, to make sure you were alright and that you weren't going to have another repeat." He whispered into my hair, his hot breath tickling my scalp.
I rolled my eyes. "Peeta I'm fine, I'm not the first pregnant woman in the world." I said flippantly, but burrowed closer to him, if that were possible, to let him know that I wasn't actually angry. I felt him breathe a laugh.
I pulled my head up to look at his face. "What?" I asked.
He smiled wider and shook his head. "Nothing. I just . . . I love hearing you say that. It's still so strange."
"I know," I replied.
"No matter how many times you've said it in the last week, I just still can't believe that we're actually having a baby. I love hearing you talk about it. For so long, I thought it was never going to happen, but here we are. I love my life right here in this moment, right now." He explained, his words flowing so beautifully off his tongue.
I let the words sink in. His last sentence took me back to the time on the roof before our second Hunger Games. When he told me he wanted to freeze that moment. I thought both of us could never be as happy as we were in that fraction of a second, forgetting about what was about to happen, and what had happened. Yet here we were again, completely blissfully united. I considered my next words carefully, not wanting to insult him or make a mistake after all the nice things he'd just said. I didn't want to taint the memory of this moment. I wasn't good with words like Peeta
"I never thought I'd be pregnant. I always wrote off having kids because of where we lived, and whom we were controlled by. I didn't want to bring someone else who had to suffer the way we all did, into this world." My voice was a little shaky and I couldn't figure out why.
I'd never really explained this to anyone before except for Gale that time on Reaping day. Even he didn't get it. And Peeta couldn't see at first why I was so opposed to having children. I think eventually he thought I would never change my mind, and that I was so scarred from the games and everything else, that I would never be able to emotionally handle the change.
Peeta didn't say anything, and I pulled away from him completely now so that I just lay beside him, staring into his eyes.
"But I couldn't imagine anything more perfect than this now. I didn't think I was ever going to be ready, but I don't think they'll ever be a time when I truly feel I am. It feels right now that it's happened. Everything feels right." I said, my voice sinking quieter as a small smile spread across my lips as he pulled me in for the long-awaited kiss. His tongue melted into my mouth and I instantly wanted more. He smoothed his fingers through my hair, pulling me closer, and I longingly responded, entwining myself into him. Suddenly a thought popped into my head. One I hadn't really considered until now. I pulled away again, and Peeta sighed at the loss of my lips on his. "Did you call the Doctor?"
"Yeah, we have an appointment with Doctor Kaye today at five. We are his last appointment of the day," Peeta exclaimed. There were only two in our district at the moment. There used to be a third, but she had left for a better job in District Four. Peeta must have told him about me being pregnant. We frequently get calls from the doctor to make sure we are doing all right from what happened in our past and all the trauma we went through. We don't go to the makeshift clinic because of all the times we have had to be in the hospital, we try to avoid them. But for this . . . we would have to go. I looked away from him, and down at my hands. He caught my chin in his hand and forced me to look at him.
"I promise you that everything is going to be okay."
