After everything that had happened in the first couple of days of my being back home, it was unanimously decided (behind my back might I add) that I be put on bed rest until my ribs and other wounds healed. They figured that the best person to take care of me would be my mother, so about four days after I arrived, so did she. My father stayed in the house he had been using and made sure not to show his face around her until it was certain I was healed so that my mother could deal with one ordeal at a time. After all, she was still depressed from Prim and was just finding out that her only living daughter had been abused ruthlessly for almost three years.
It took almost three months of physical therapy and help, but eventually my mother decided that I was good enough to get around.
"How you made it all the way over here and managed to get around at all amazes me child. Three broken ribs, a broken wrist, a concussion, a fractured ankle, and some minor internal bleeding, and you were walking around like it was nothing," she said one day after I had told her I was fine and that she should just let me go.
"It was nothing though. I've had worse without medical treatment other than my own home remedies, and I did fine," I said, rolling my eyes.
"You shouldn't be able to say that dammit! No daughter of mine should ever have had to go through such a thing and then be able to honestly say that," she said with that fire in her eyes that I had missed so much."How were you not in agonizing pain this whole time though?" she asked with a curious glance.
" To be honest, I've been so used to all of this, that I grew used to the pain. Sure, it hurt a bit, but nothing I haven't felt a million times before," I said, not beating around the bush at the subject. She flinched. She walked out of the room grumbling something about getting a hold of that Hawthorne boy. I almost felt bad for Gale if/when he showed his face around here.
"You're cleared, but if you feel ANY more pain, you need to rest okay?" she said over her shoulder as she left.
"Okay!" I shouted to her with a grin
"Hey,can I come in?" Peeta's voice reached me as he poked his head into the room.
"It's your room too, you know. You don't have to ask permission to enter," I said, not used to people actually asking me for permission for anything, even something as simple as entering our room.
"Just making sure babe, didn't want to just barge in," he said with a slight smile.
" Well okay then, but no more asking to come into your own room anymore. Got it?"
"Yes ma'am," the smartass said, standing up straight and saluting me.
"Smartass."
"Duh"
"Well now that that's settled, can we please go out today? It's so boring just sitting around the house," I said with a pout that I knew would win him over.
"Well, it depends, are you cleared?"
"yes," I said with a big smile.
"Well okay then, well where would you like to go?"
"Can we go hunting or something in the woods? I kinda want to see if my dad can sneak out with us so I can actually spend sometime with the men in my life."
"I'll head over and see what he thinks, I'm sure he'll go for it. Wanna get ready while I head over?" He asked, pulling on a jacket.
"Yeah sure, if my mom asks, I'll tell her we're on a date or something."
"Got it. Be back in a bit," he said, reaching over and giving my a gentle kiss. "I love you Katniss."
"I love you Peeta."
And then he was out the door heading over to talk to my dad as I got my hunting jacket and one of the bows my dad had made. I figured I could show him how good I was now, since he hadn't seen me shoot since I was a child.
"So Mr. Everdeen, you must be an amazing shot at a bow if you're the one that taught Katniss," Peeta said as we walked through the forest looking for some good game.
"I was a good hunter, but not nearly as good as she is now," he said with a look of pride in his voice as he carried the six rabbits I had already shot. He was especially impressed I got anything with Peeta's heavy footfalls scaring away anything really good.
"Dad, what a lie, you were amazing. I bet if you tried again, it would just take a little while to get back in the hang of everything, then you'd be a pro again," I said nudging his shoulder.
"Well that might be true, but it would sure take some time. You may be a tiny bit rusty after three years, which I highly doubt with how well you're doing right now, but I haven't hunted in eleven years, It would take quite a while for me to get back to how I used to be."
"You'll never know until you try," Peeta said, handing him the extra bow I had grabbed from one of my old weapon stashing areas.
"I guess we'll know soon then," my father laughed as he took the bow with his expert hands, and aimed for a nearby bird. He readied the arrow, and took a calming breath as he pulled his shoulders together as the bow string pulled back. He stood up straight, closed one eye and took aim. He took one more calming breath then held the air in his lungs to stop the bow from moving as he breathed. Then he let the arrow fly. The arrow missed by about three inches and the bird took flight in fear.
"It's okay dad, that was pretty good after so long of no practice," I said, setting off to retrieve the arrow.
"Yeah Mr. Everdeen, better luck next time," Peeta said with a supportive smile.
Later on that day, we sat there, gutting our kill as we talked about what to do about my mother. We were talking about how to let her know he was still alive without giving her an anxiety attack, but what we didn't account for was that she would come looking for us and find the lights to my father's house on.
"Katniss, Peeta? What are you guys doing in he-" she stopped dead in her tracks as she realized who else was in the room. "wha- ho- whe-" she stuttered in absolute confusion.
"Mom, we have some things to explain, and we need you to sit down for this. Please. Hear him out. I know it's hard, and I'm so sorry about not telling you, but I wanted you to go through one ordeal at a time," I struggled to find the words as I realized how she may take this news. What I really didn't expect was for her to slowly walk up to him, reach out to make sure he was really there, and then embrace him like nothing bad had happened and it had just been a while since they last saw each other. Which I guess was partly true.
We spent the next four hours talking and trying to find out as much info about everyone as we could in such a little time before we all decided to go to our respective houses- my mother would be staying with my dad and me and Peeta went home holding hands, tired as hell, but happy that my parents were finally together again. Maybe things wouldn't be too bad after all...
AN: Thanx so much for reading this far! I'm really trying so hard to update as much as possible, especially now that I have someone I personally know encouraging me to write more.
[GRAYBIEL] (lolz, just re-saying it, so that you guys might check it out, I don't usually read stories like this, but this one "bloodbath" is freaking awesome! ) It's been allot easier to write more lately now that I'm not as depressed as I was last year, and I'm still sooo sorry for that long gap of no writing, but everything had gotten to me, and I couldn't find inspiration until now. Now I need some idea on what to do about the Gale situation guys! any ideas helpe! I haven't quite figured out how to plan this out, so I really need some help! I have one idea, but I need some more, because it's just sooo overdone and stupid, so please help!
