Ah, I am so very glad that my return to this story was well-received! Thank you very much for still expressing an interest in this story :)))

Chapter 3

Haymitch twirled the now creased piece of paper between his fingers, staring at it like he had been staring for the past three days. By now, he had already long memorized the number. He could put it to the flames and still, he would have no difficulties dialing the person to whom the number belonged to.

Haymitch grabbed the bottle and took a swig from it, letting the liquid burn down his throat. His fingers twitched, itching to pick up the phone. His eyes cut to the wall where the phone was calling out to him yet, he remained where he was with a drink in hand.

He couldn't shake Effie Trinket from his mind. He had been thinking about her; her situation, her pregnancy and the desperation she must have felt that compel her to resort to surrogacy.

Effie didn't ask for his help but a part of him felt that he should do something, that there was something he could do. Didn't he owe her… something?

He had not told the kids about crossing paths with her either. If he did, they would most certainly ask after her well-being. A question be couldn't give an honest answer to because he didn't know if she was doing well given her circumstances. They would want to know about her and he didn't want to lie to them about her, just like he didn't want to betray her after promising to keep her condition quiet.

Haymitch fell asleep with Effie on his mind.

When he woke up the next day with a crick in his neck and the bottle rolling on the floor, it was already mid-day. The sun was glaring brightly outside and the geese were making a racket. Haymitch ambled over to the window and pulled the blinders down slightly. Squinting, he could make Katniss coming back from the woods, game in hand. She would clean up and join Peeta at the bakery. It was routine and he knew it well enough by now.

He kicked the empty bottle of whiskey aside. That was all he allowed himself nowadays - one bottle a day, at the very most. Crossing the room to the kitchen, he grumbled at the sight of the papers strewn all over the floor and the fax machine. Plutarch had given him a facsimile machine so that it was easier for him to send over documents and he must have send documents at night while he was still asleep.

He gathered the papers and glanced over them, noting the heading at the top of the document. It was the Avox Rehabilitation Program that the Council had been debating back and forth for the past two months. President Paylor and Plutarch, mostly Plutarch, had brought him in on it.

Peeta had left him a loaf of banana bread in his kitchen. The sight of it made his stomach grumbled. He grabbed a piece and picked up the phone, intending to call Plutarch. Instead, his fingers dialed someone else's number, a number he had been staring at for days.

The phone kept ringing and he was about to hang up when she answered.

"Effie Trinket speaking," she said.

"Sweetheart," he chewed on the bread.

"Oh, Haymitch, how rude," she cluck her tongue, disapprovingly. "Do swallow your food first."

"Good that you know it's me but what took you so long to answer the damn phone?"

"I just got home. I was at the doctor's."

"Why?" he took another bite from the bread. "Everything okay?"

"Yes," she answered. He could hear the clinks of spoon against a cup in the background. "Just a normal check-up to make sure everything is as it should be. The baby's healthy."

"And you?"

He placed the papers down. He would look through it later.

"My doctor said that I need to gain more weight. He's giving me a month to put on some."

Haymitch scoffed at that.

"Yeah, sweetheart, no kidding. I don't need to be a doctor to tell you that either. A little bit of fillin' out will do you some good."

"I know. I'm trying. The agency isn't too happy. The baby's healthy and all but … It's not good enough for them. Anyway, you never told me what you were doing at the Capitol when we cross paths," she was quick to change the subject. "I was very surprised to see you at the Capitol of all places, did you know?"

"Business," Haymitch answered, indulging her. If she didn't want to talk about it, fine, then he wouldn't press her.

"What kind?"

"Helping President Paylor – not my idea. Plutarch thinks it's a shame to let my mind go to waste and since I've got the time… Well, why the hell not. There's not much to do here."

"That's good that you're doing something. That's really good. So you're at the Capitol often, then?"

"Why, sweetheart, miss me already?" he teased and he wondered if he had gone too far because she was quiet all of a sudden.

He could still hear her breathing over the phone which meant she was still there.

"Said something wrong, did I?"

"No, no, you didn't," she spoke softly and he could almost see her with a small smile on her face. "You're the first familiar face I met since the war," she admitted. "I didn't know I miss it until now. I thought of you and the children often."

Haymitch rubbed the back of his neck. His eyes flitted to the papers on the table.

"I … I could visit," he suggested cautiously. "I'm at the Capitol every other month for a day or two. I ain't due to be there till a couple of weeks from now but I could… I've got some things I need to discuss with Plutarch anyway. He just sent them over documents yesterday night. Besides, the booze's great over there and the train won't be here till next week. I can use the chance to restock."

"And…?"

He clenched his jaws at the teasing tone in her voice. She would make him say it, he was sure. She wouldn't make the first move.

"You want to meet me or what?"

She laughed. "That would be lovely."

XxX

Katniss crossed her arms and frowned at him. "You just got back two weeks ago. It was last two weeks, wasn't it, Peeta?"

The boy nodded. Even he was curious now.

"So what now? You're keeping tabs when I come and go?"

"That's not what Katniss meant. We're just curious is all…" Peeta shrugged. "Everything alright at the Capitol?"

"It's the Avox situation," he told them which happened to be the truth since he did intend on meeting Plutarch to discuss the matter. "Paylor wants it to be expedited – thing's been on the table for months now and we ain't moving forward much."

What he didn't tell them was that he had been talking to Effie every day since that phone call. Except, most of the time now, it was Effie who would call him. He got a distinct feeling that she was lonely and now that they had 'reconnected' – a term he used lightly – she latched on the connection; to him, someone she knew from her past.

Their conversations centered on safe topics; the situation in the Capitol, the state in District Twelve, news on people they used to know like Annie, Finn and Johanna and in that particular instance, he was the one doing the updating since Effie was completely out of touch with them.

On his part, he learnt that she picked up knitting as a hobby. She grew very bored at the facility and devoured magazines like a hungry man would devour food. She couldn't work because being a surrogate was her job and if she intended to go out, she would have to report to the facility manager.

"Sounds like a damn prison," he had mumbled under his breath.

During the rare moments when she did talk about her pregnancy, Haymitch learnt that she was carrying a baby girl and that she found listening to her heart beat soothing and calming to her nerves. She was given a copy of the sonogram video and she admitted, reluctantly that she listened to it at night.

Haymitch was so close to telling her that she shouldn't get so attached but bit his tongue at the very last minute. He remembered her hanging up on him in tears after he said something particularly calloused – something about her diet. Where the Effie Trinket he knew would have cut him down with a scathing remark, this one was much more emotional in her pregnancy.

"Tomorrow is the day, then?"

"Yeah," he muttered gruffly. "See you tomorrow, stranger."

She laughed lightly and he figured that she must have remembered how he had called her that when he first met her at the traffic junction after six years.

"We won't be strangers anymore," she insisted. "We won't be. We've never been."

I think Haymitch misses her more than he realised. He did look for her that six years that she disappeared off the face of the earth, and he still felt like he owed her for her capture.

Is Effie getting a little bit attached to the baby?