Previously in An Unexpected Occurrence: Gale professes his love for Katniss while angry over her act with Peeta. Katniss, thinking the act with Peeta might be real, realizes her heart lies with Gale. She gets pregnant from their afternoon of passion. Mrs. Everdeen, Prim, Gale and Peeta all take the news very well, and the guys pass along their families' reactions. Katniss and the others start to discuss plans for the Victory Tour.
Chapter
I would still visit the woods for as long as I'm able to. With my victor winnings and Parcel Day, it was less necessary to go hunting these days. However, in these past few years it had gone even beyond needing the food, even beyond spending time with Gale. Speaking of him, he was waiting just inside the fence, and said "We needed the food and I still need you, but these trips into the woods have become even more than that. Though I'm old enough for the mines now, I just couldn't do it. I'd make a few more coins by trading heaven for hell, but you have more money than we'll ever need. You've given me life in so many ways."
"I know the feeling; we're almost always on the same page, after all," I replied.
"And of course, I can't risk having our kid end up like Posy, a father stolen by the mines even before birth. That kid will not have to live the hard life we did," he said, burning with even higher than usual intensity.
"If the odds permit. If being a Victor turns out to actually be the prize that the Capitol wants us to think it is," I mused.
We eventually got down to business, and what good business it was. This was a day when we had time to go far afield, and it was worth it. Gale's snares were full, and I managed to land arrows in much of the small game that had avoided them.
We turned around at a lake deep into the woods, and Gale called out "I found you!" I looked in the direction of his voice to notice green arrowhead leaves and triple-petal white flowers with a purple center. The katniss plant I was named after. Very funny, Gale, I thought, but I really did smile. That plant also had edible blue roots – as my father had said, find yourself and you'll never starve. I handed Gale my forage bag, which already had a few berries and some medicinal herbs. He stuffed it full of those blue potatoes.
We still weren't done – we ran across a flock of wild turkeys and I hit one in the neck as the rest ran away. What's that, a deer? The game is just getting bigger. Gale instinctively got especially still and quiet as I lined up for the kill. The air was still, so I didn't need to throw a clump of dirt into the air to gauge the direction of the nonexistent breeze. The buck was running away from us at an angle. It was the graceful motion of a beautiful creature. Even imbued with necessity, even after killing people, I still didn't like doing this. It turned, exposing its side for a shot right in the middle. We ran up to the kill, my bow going up and down in my hand like a baton. Gale reached the body at about the same time I did. "Such a beautiful shot from such a beautiful lady," he said and I smiled. What part of the compliment was I responding to?
This was a lot of meat, but thanks to the Capitol refrigerator and freezer in my Victors Village house, we wouldn't have to rush to get rid of it. We didn't mind working with Rooba the butcher, but although she made reasonable deals, she refused to haggle. We figured we might as well bide our time.
"I know why you really want Prim and Ingrid on the Victory Tour," he said while we were walking.
Very well, then. I explained that "Mother has been coming out of her depressive shell…and…well, I'm scared and by definition she's done this before. Also, everyone else's excitement is helping calm me down, including you, but also including the aunt-to-be."
"That's clear enough, but everybody will see what the Capitol tried to take away. Everybody in Twelve loves Prim," he said quite truthfully. "Now the whole country will. And it will all be cloaked in family togetherness or perhaps jealousy of the relatively lucky ones."
While continuing our walk back, Gale led us past a familiar spot, the place where we had met about four years ago. There were still traps there, although maybe not the same exact ones I stumbled across that fateful day. He knelt down, but checking the snares isn't what he had in mind. "Will you marry me?" he said.
Most girls would be squealing right now. However, I was not 'most girls', and he loved me all the more for it. The act with Peeta had led him to declare his love sooner than expected, and I wondered if this very real situation had inspired too soon of a proposal. "Gale, you don't have to do this," I stammered.
"It's not just about the baby. It's about you. I already loved you. I knew you were the one since just a few months after we met. But it wasn't the right time and I didn't know how to say it until after the Games – and, boy, did we say it. We already shared everything but the physical, and adding that blew my mind," he said with the confidence I had long since expected from him, someone else who would dare head beyond the fence. I was in for a wild ride with this charmer, and I know I'm going to like it. I never thought I was susceptible to that, but I've been hit with a lot of surprises these past several weeks. His reply perfectly assuaged my fears. We had learned to completely fit each other in our years working together; in retrospect, it seemed odd that this particular fit had eluded us until just recently.
"Yes." This was the statement of a confident young woman, not a girl who was too scared to speak her name clearly.
I dragged the loaded bags back to Victors Village. "This was no ordinary hunting trip," I said while announcing my arrival.
"I can see that," Mother replied while gesturing to the haul.
"Not only that. Gale popped the question," I clarified.
"And?" Mother was somewhat bemused.
When I told Mother the news, I passed along none of the doubt and hesitation that had been running through my own head at the time. "Of course I said yes. I'm in love and don't care what other people think. You would understand."
"Yes I do, dear. But although those were some amazing years I did pay for it," he said.
"But what about the Capitol and Peeta?" Prim interjected. There you are, Little Duck.
"I know we can't make it official," I said to state the obvious. "Peeta knows he isn't my real star-crossed lover, but I want to keep this quiet from him at least for now. Gale proposed at the very spot where we met, so of course we'd go through the ritual there," I continued.
Mother offered confident confirmation. "I'll be there. I won't skip my daughter's wedding…but I haven't been in the woods since I was dating your father." Also, I could tell Prim was excited, although this wedding would be simple even by District Twelve standards.
We generally couldn't make two trips into the woods on the same day, so the wedding was set for tomorrow if Gale got the message, which of course he would.
As I met up with Gale in the meadow the next day, he was walking with just Rory and their mother. Prim and Mother were right behind me and he saw them. I asked, "Where are your other siblings?"
"This wedding party is large enough. Vick can be left alone with Posy for at least a little while without too much incident," he explained. "Also, the wedding reception menu will be whatever we catch after the ceremony." That's Gale, never one to pass up a hunting opportunity.
We all had relatively nice clothes on under a layer of street clothes. We snuck into the woods in waves, then changed. We gathered and started walking deeper into the forest. I pointed out our grove and we walked to it in formation – backed by our siblings, flanked by our mothers. The ritual statements were second nature to our mothers, and they read them together. It ended with "Will you honor and cherish the one you've chosen, throughout all the highs and lows this life presents you with?"
We responded in unison: "I will."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Prim wave to Rory. As I was kissed for the first time as a wife, she was kissed for the first time at all.
I smiled as I said "I see what you did there, Little Duck!"
She was brimming with cheer as she said "He is cute … and nice … and I see why you love Gale so much."
I explained "If he's anything like his brother, watch out for a wild ride. Somebody's got a crush, and somebody didn't wait 11 years to do something about it."
Prim needled Gale with "Or four for that matter."
Gale grudgingly admitted "You have a point" and then spoke to his little brother.
"Little Man, I always wanted to make sure you behaved around the ladies when the time came, but especially this one, got it? I know what's most important to my significant other – the person that is now your significant other. Well, if Prim is anything like her sister, you aren't going to be able to think of anything else."
"Not only that, but me and the little angel wanted to join our big siblings in secret," Rory explained.
"That's the sweetest thing I ever heard. Apparently, my sister is just as charmed as I am," I chimed in.
Game moved on to the next event on the schedule. "We'll see about that, but I think that's a game we'll all win. Now, my wife, we aren't really unofficially married until that bread gets warmed up."
I explained that tradition for the benefit of Prim and Rory. "My husband, you're right. We all know no one in District Twelve really feels married until the toasting, the newlyweds breaking bread over a fire in their new home. These woods are what really feel like our home, not the shacks in the Seam or the mansions in Victors Village."
He agreed with my closing thought. "Absolutely…now, I think that spot over there would make a good fire pit." Far enough away from anything else that would catch, while also able to hide the smoke. He built up a pile of wood shavings and laid some twigs against each other on top of the pile. I rubbed two pieces of wood against each other to generate a spark for it. The fire gradually came to life. This was an important lesson for Prim and Rory in outdoor skills, even without being part of their siblings' wedding – granted, the significance of the occasion helped them get the point. The bread was in my bag – though I could now afford the good stuff, we made it from my last remaining heaps of low-quality tessera grain.
"Tesserae loaves?" Gale said, surprised by my menu planning.
I explained to my actual lover my sympathy for my supposed lover. "Yeah, the point is, made by someone besides Peeta Mellark. The kid's being cuckolded enough as is. I have no doubt that I love you, but I don't want to hurt him any more than necessary."
He blew the wood dust off his knife and began to slice the bread with it. Only the couple has their bread toasted, so he handed plain slices to the other members of the wedding party. It was a little fire, but our bread crisped quickly enough. These feelings were the best way to make that tessera trash taste good, and we did need that bread as a reminder of where we've been.
In a way, everything had changed this day in the woods. On the other hand, maybe nothing had changed, and October 7th just recognized the way things had been all along.
