Thank you to all of the readers who have stuck with this fic, we promise we're going to spend the next few weeks making sure it finally gets finished. We really appreciate all of your reviews, and we're glad you're enjoying the story.
Unfortunately, this now brings us on to another subject - bitter little trolls. First of all, flames will be deleted. End of. We have made it very clear that this fic is AU, it's a Katniss/Gale pairing, and it's not Peeta friendly. If you're too stupid to know, as a rabid Peeta fan, that this may not be the fic for you? Tough luck. You can scroll on by. In short, we love this story, we love Gale/Katniss, and your childish comments will not make us stop writing it. In fact, it makes us want to write more. So, suck it up buttercup.
Chapter Ten
The entire room was in uproar, all thanks to the appearance of one small child, who had yet again managed to give her designated babysitter the slip.
Gale's arms tightened instinctively around Briar's body and the little girl misinterpreted his almost primal reaction of fear for her father simply being pleased to see her. She flung both chubby arms around his neck and squeezed in return, her smile still wide and beaming. Sensing the fury radiating in waves off Katniss' body, Gale spun Briar around and headed to the door, which she had neglected to close in her wake.
"Come on, let's go find Grandma," Gale muttered, ducking his head as he passed under the doorframe.
Katniss spun towards the nearest body, flinging her bow to the ground and seizing the startled woman around the neck. She had crossed the room in just a handful of strides, the woman still in her vice-like grip, where she coughed, wriggled, and choked out her surprise.
"Who the hell forgot to lock the door?" Katniss demanded, throwing the unfamiliar soldier against the nearby wall with more force than necessary.
"I'm sorry, we… I… I don't know…I…" the woman choked, her hands immediately wrapping protectively around her throat the second Katniss flung her away.
Pushing through the crowd that had assembled inside the studio, President Coin made her way over to the evidently furious young woman and held her hands up in an attempt to placate her.
"Katniss… it's going to be okay…" she began, her eyes widening with the force of the Mockingjay's response.
"Okay? It's gonna be okay? The Capitol just saw my daughter… the whole country saw my daughter. Peeta saw my daughter! Exactly what part of that is 'okay'?" she yelled, not looking up from the president's face even when Gale strode back into the room and dismissed the growing throng of bodies with a growl that dared to be defied.
"It was less than three seconds. She was in shot for less than three seconds…" Coin assured them both, her eyes darting between the couple, who stood elbow to elbow. "I've got my team working on it as we speak, we're going to send out a message to the districts saying the broadcast was interrupted by one of Gale's siblings…"
Pursing his lips, looking as equally bemused as he did angered, Gale folded his arms across his chest as he retorted, "My father's been dead for twelve years. I'm willing to bet even the Capitol can do the math."
Coin faltered, the set of her lips almost desperate as she peered at the two faces turned towards her.
"Well, we can… we can say…" she stammered, licking her dry lips and running a hand through her hair, "we can say that the child is family but… a niece, perhaps? You have brothers, right Gale? Katniss herself has a sister so it's not completely beyond the realms of possibility."
His expression stony, Gale nodded his head whilst reaching out at his side blindly for Katniss' hand. She slid her palm against his in response and Gale could feel the tremble that had set into her limbs.
"I guess it's the best we got right now," he allowed, although his tone conveyed that he was hardly assuaged by the suggestion.
Katniss remained silent, gnawing on her bottom lip so hard that beads of blood began to form beneath the edges of her front teeth. She shook her head hard, everything in her demeanour desperate.
"It's not enough," she insisted, feeling nausea almost overwhelm her where she stood, "he'll know. He's going to know she's ours and… what have we done, Gale? He's going to… we can't protect her…"
"Yes, we can," he promised, drawing his wife into his chest and shooting Coin a scowl so scathing that she hurried back to join her PR team, who were themselves near hysterical at the impromptu appearance of the little Miss. Hawthorne.
Releasing a weary sigh, Gale wrapped his arms around Katniss, his chin resting on the top of her head.
"No… no. He won't stop, he won't stop until…" she shook her head ruefully, averting her teary gaze as she added in a whisper, "we should never have had a child. It was stupid and selfish… to bring her into this. We should have… I should have…"
Unable to finish her sentence, Katniss swallowed hard and blinked through an onslaught of further tears.
To say that Briar's arrival had been a surprise would be an understatement. After two years of marriage and, having taken the necessary precautions to avoid such a situation, an unplanned pregnancy in the middle of war had not been a happy accident for Katniss. Her position as leader of the Rebellion didn't exactly lend itself to motherhood, and she'd agonised for days over how fair it was to bring a child into such an uncertain, grim future. But it had been their child, and she had quickly realised that the alternative wasn't something she would willingly contemplate. The baby was a part of them both, and already her urge to protect it overpowered even her better judgement.
His brow furrowed, Gale reached out and tilted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Now I know you don't mean that."
All Katniss could do was shake her head, swallowing large gulps of air as she attempted to stem the flow of her tears. Gale remained quiet, sweeping teardrops from her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs as he waited for her to calm down. Several seconds passed and the couple remained pressed close together, their fear for the safety of their daughter entirely equal, but their hope for maintaining her safety far from it.
"I don't," Katniss managed, a final deep breath steadying her, "I don't mean it. I just couldn't stand to have her hurt because of me. I brought all this on us, Gale. If Peeta… if he tries to get to Briar, it's on me."
Gale scoffed at her summation, both eyebrows raised pointedly, "This is not your fault, Katniss. Whatever Peeta has become, that's all on him. You were his friend, you saved his life back in the Games… and I damn well nearly lost mine trying to keep his ass alive. You're stronger than this, Catnip. We're stronger than this."
His reassurances reminded her of those few stolen moments together all those years ago, back when she had volunteered to take her sister's place and inadvertently fanned the flames of a Rebellion.
"You're right," she nodded her agreement, as though affirming it to Gale before she could change her own mind, "this isn't on us. But keeping Briar safe is."
"I know, and we will," he promised, cupping her cheek and pressing a kiss to her forehead, "Coin is gonna run damage control and in the meantime we don't let Briar out of our sight. If I hadn't… If I'd been firmer with her about busting in here when I'm working…"
Katniss smiled softly, shaking her head to deter him from his own path of self-blame. "She'd still have come running in here just the same."
"Maybe if we had better babysitters," Gale added under his breath, his voice a low grumble. Despite the situation, despite herself, Katniss laughed.
"You know that kid is far too much like both of us," she soothed as she stroked down the lapels of Gale's uniform, flattening them against his chest from where Briar's little fingers had mussed them, "it's not the babysitter's that are the problem."
Gale found himself returning Katniss' smile, although he couldn't hide the shadow of worry in his eyes from her. They had been to Hell and back together, perhaps several times over the years, and there was very little either could successfully keep from the other.
"You said it would be okay," Katniss murmured, reminding Gale of his earlier vow, which seemed to clear up the last vestiges of concern that lined his usually smooth features.
"It will," he reiterated, clasping both of Katniss' hands to his chest, "we will. Don't make me repeat myself, Mrs. Hawthorne."
Glancing back over to President Coin and the assembled District 13 propo team, who were still in the midst of deep and rather frenzied conversation, Katniss let loose a sigh.
"I guess we should go read the kid the riot act," she declared, frowning at the prospect. There was nothing Katniss loathed more than seeing her daughter's chin wobble as she chastised her, which didn't happen quite as often as it perhaps ought to given the aforementioned point.
Gale nodded sagely, "You take Briar, I'll take my mom?"
Katniss shrugged in agreement, realising her husband was perhaps better placed to 'discuss' the untimely escape of the four year old with his mother than she was. In truth, it was only Prim whom she trusted implicitly to watch her daughter in her and Gale's absence; and she had to admit that that was mostly due to the little girl's wilful nature being so very like her own, that only her sister knew how to deal with the toddler's adventurous streak.
Pausing to exchange a kiss, the couple parted ways, and Katniss began to navigate the hallways of the underground bunker with her heart hammering precariously in her throat. Despite Coin's reassurances, she was terrified that Peeta had already connected the pieces of the puzzle. If he had known only one thing about Katniss back when they had been friends, it was that her family meant everything to her. That had been the very reason she'd found herself in the Games, and was the reason now that she fought so tirelessly to protect them and to secure a better future for them all. It was the promise of family at home – kept safe by Gale – that had brought her through the very darkest times in the arena.
Touching a hand absently to the chain around her neck, she fished out the locket that she had shown him all those years ago; the grainy black and white images of her mother, Prim, and Gale stared back at her, along with another image she had tucked inside the frame. A little dark haired baby, her eyes the mirror image of the man whose photograph rested beside hers.
Stealing herself for a moment, Katniss gathered her resolve and opened the door to their quarters, unsurprised to find Briar playing merrily with paper and homemade crayons whilst Effie and Haymitch both stood guard over her.
"Oh Katniss!" Effie immediately set upon her, seizing both her hands and gripping them tight enough to compromise her circulation. "Whatever are we going to do?"
Her eyes were huge, seeming even wider somehow given the absence of her old, over the top Capitol make up. Katniss could clearly see the genuine concern within them, which was no great surprise to her given Effie's feelings towards the Hawthorne child, who she often proclaimed to be the only light in the darkness of the District 13 underground tunnels. Children were still somewhat of a rarity in 13, due to the pox outbreak that had rendered many of the original inhabitants infertile, and so Briar's arrival had been viewed with a general sense of awe by most of the population. They often proclaimed how good it was to once again hear a child's laughter ringing out through the bunker, and since Briar's birth a handful of other infants had been born to former District 12 refugees. Far from being concerned by the additions to her populace, and just how they were to both house and feed them in the midst of a war, President Coin seemed delighted by the arrivals; she was no fool, and she knew that these successful live births gave hope to the residents of 13 for a brighter future. In short, the children gave them all something to fight for when sometimes spirits were low.
"Alma is handling it… or at least I hope she is," Katniss replied, reluctant to say more when Briar was listening, which of course she was. The little girl had managed to accidentally overhear many important titbits over the years when the adults around her had simply presumed that she was too immersed in her own childish world to pay much mind to what they were saying or doing. Katniss' mother had been quick to warn both she and Gale that small children were often prone to eavesdropping at the most inopportune moments, and so it was a mistake they rarely made these days, although the same couldn't be said for others.
"Of course she is," Haymitch stated, his voice ringing with confidence and authority, which somehow automatically made Katniss feel just a little better. "She's no fool. She'll see that everything is smoothed over."
"Mommy!" Briar cried, finally flinging down her crayons and bounding over to Katniss. She held aloft a scrap of paper, upon which her childish scrawl could be seen in muted greens and browns.
"I drawded you and Daddy in the forest," she thrust the paper up to her mother, bouncing up and down in her excitement, "see? Effie said it's real good!"
Trying to ignore the beaming smile on her daughter's face, Katniss attempted her most stern look and sat down on the couch, patting the seat beside her.
"Briar, I need to talk to you."
Effie nodded in understanding at the younger woman and grasped Haymitch's sleeve to lead him towards the door.
The little girl watched them go and offered them a carefree wave, before ignoring her mother's apparent attempt to get her to sit beside her and instead clambering up happily onto her knee. Unable to resist the warm little body, Katniss wrapped her arms around Briar, still besieged with fear and grateful just to be able to hold her child close.
"What's the matter, Momma?" Briar frowned at finding her mother's expression to be one of clear displeasure. The toddler's brows knitted together as she looked up at Katniss expectantly with wide, grey eyes.
"What have Daddy and I told you about running away from Grandma Hazel, and Grandma, and Aunt Prim, and Effie, and Haymitch?" Katniss coached, feeling at once ridiculous and like the worst parent in the world as she rattled off the long list of babysitters Briar had successfully evaded.
Briar looked down at her lap, her little rosebud lips pursing thoughtfully as she reached her fingers up to play with the end of her braid. Sweeping her daughter's face with her gaze, Katniss felt her heart constrict as she looked upon her child. She had to consciously bite back the smile that tugged at her lips each time she gazed at the beautiful little girl.
"Briar? I'm waiting…"
"You said… not ta…" Briar mumbled, fingers still stroking her own hair until Katniss gently but firmly disentangled them in order to gather the smaller hands in her own.
"That's right," Katniss continued, a cold feeling growing in the pit of her stomach as her mind naturally wandered to the possible consequences of Briar's disobedience. "Daddy and I have told you so many times to stay with the grown up who's taking care of you."
"Cos you have 'portant work?" Briar queried, tipping her head as she peered up at her mother, whose expression grew exasperated at once.
"No," Katniss protested, vehemently shaking her head, "no Briar, there is nothing more important to Daddy and me than you. You have to stay where we tell you to because otherwise you could get hurt… you can't keep running off like this, little duck… it's got nothing to do with… work isn't the most important thing. Keeping you safe is."
Briar screwed up her face, clearly not comprehending much of what Katniss was telling her beyond the fact that she had done wrong.
"Are you mad, momma?" Briar asked, perhaps a little more subdued than usual all of a sudden.
"Yes, I'm mad, Briar. Because I want you to be safe…" Katniss began, looking up as Gale walked in then closed the door behind him.
Staring up fearfully at her parents, Briar began to toy with the buttons on Katniss' blouse. "Because of the bad man?"
Glancing towards her husband as he took a seat beside her, Katniss placed her hand to the little girl's cheek, stroking her thumb over baby soft skin. "What bad man, little duck?"
Shrugging as she felt the weight of both of her parents' stares upon her, Briar lifted her uncertain gaze to her mother.
"The bad man… on the TV," she explained, her voice high-pitched and infantile, and wholly unaware of the weight of her words.
Gale stared straight ahead, his expression betraying his anger and also heartbreak that his daughter should ever know fear.
Swallowing hard, Katniss gathered the toddler to her chest, wrapping her in a hug that was almost constrictive. Pressing kisses to Briar's hair, she rocked her slowly in her arms, just as she had done to Prim all those years before.
"Nobody will ever hurt you, Briar. Daddy and I will never, ever let anybody hurt you." Suddenly remembering the reason for their talk, Katniss added, "But you need to stop running off like you did today. Okay?"
Briar's nod was fast and comically animated, her eyes wide to emphasise her point.
"Okay," Briar readily agreed, although it was a vow both Katniss and Gale had heard before. "I pwomise!"
Frowning, Gale held up his pinkie finger before extending it to the child, his expression serious and almost stern.
"You can't break a promise, Briar, remember when I told you that?" he encouraged, managing to thwart the urge to smile when Briar wrapped her own tiny pinkie finger around his, "your word is your bond, kid. If you promise something to me or Mommy or Auntie Prim or anyone else, you have to follow through."
Briar continued to nod but curiousity had begun to overwhelm her features, and she nibbled on her lip as she obviously considered her impending question.
"What if…if I don't?" she demanded, swinging her legs as they dangled over the side of her mother's lap. Resisting the urge to groan in frustration, Gale ensured that the set of his mouth and the stare he levelled his daughter with did not brook even the slightest rebellion.
"No dessert for three whole months," he supplied quickly, thinking on his feet, as he had learned to do where parenting a headstrong and highly inquisitive child was concerned.
Katniss bit her bottom lip to conceal her smile of amusement, as Briar's eyes grew wide as saucers and she began to nod solemnly. "I not run off, I pwomise, Daddy. Nope. I pwomise."
"Okay," Gale nodded sagely, adding with a sigh, "but you've promised now, Ladybug, you remember that."
Nodding emphatically, Briar's incredibly serious expression made Katniss' heart swell, and she cuddled the little girl close despite the situation at hand. "Alright, now. You go play."
Briar beamed as her mother scattered kisses playfully across her chubby cheeks, and she giggled as gentle hands tickled her.
Waiting until her laughter had subsided, Katniss stared down at the impossibly perfect face before her. She leant down until she could bump her nose against Briar's, feeling Gale's stare upon them without even needing to look up.
"I love you so much, little one."
Briar grinned, already more than certain of her parents' adoration, and wholly oblivious to the tears that welled in her mother's eyes as she curled miniature fingers around Katniss' wrist.
Gale placed his arm around his wife, drawing her closer and reaching out to brush away an errant tear with the pad of his thumb.
"I made you sad, Momma?" Briar looked crestfallen at the prospect.
Shaking her head hurriedly, Katniss mustered a smile despite the terror that was clawing at her insides. "No, baby. You make me happy, every single second of every single day."
"Grandma said you drew her a picture," Gale stated, turning his attention to Briar for a moment, "why don't you go get it so I can take a look?"
Momentarily forgetting her mother's unexplained sorrow, Briar shuffled off Katniss' lap and hurried to the door, which slid open with just a little difficulty. She had escaped into the hallway within seconds and set off in search of her Grandma Hazel, who still held the piece of artwork in question.
Finding themselves alone, if only for just a few minutes until Briar's return, Katniss and Gale gravitated closer to each other. Their hands interlinked and Katniss rested her head on Gale's shoulder; a position which allowed for him to drop a single kiss to the top of her head.
"He doesn't know," Gale repeated firmly, not needing to elaborate further for Katniss to understand his meaning. "Soon Coin will hear back from the other districts and we'll know if they bought it."
"They have to," Katniss muttered, rubbing at her stinging eyes with the back of her hand. She was exhausted and the day had not yet even begun to draw to an end.
"They will," insisted Gale, his tone as firm as it had been when he had been dealing with Briar's misdemeanour minutes before.
Schooling his expression into one of surprise, Gale opened his arms out to Briar as she came hurtling back into the room, and almost immediately began chattering away about the picture she held aloft. Gale nodded at her explanation as if he understood her masterpiece, his arm tightly encircled around her as he hoisted her up onto his knee. Briar pointed and gestured to the indecipherable swirls and figures on the paper, and Gale uttered his best assurances of how smart and talented she was in the way only devoted fathers can.
Katniss leaned her elbow on the back of the threadbare couch as she watched them, her smile growing wider by the second. The mutual adoration that so clearly existed between father and daughter was palpable, not just visible.
Deciding not to let her maudlin thoughts ruin the memory she had a chance to create, Katniss shook off her fears for that moment and became immersed in the love of the family she had created.
x-x-x
The president seldom ventured to the Capitol laboratories but when he did, the workers could be certain that something of the utmost importance was to be required of them.
Walking between the rows upon rows of pristine metal tables with his hands clasped behind his back, Peeta allowed the inane chatter of the scientist by his side to wash over him. He did not comment, he did not react - he only made sure to maintain the careful air of indifference that he preferred to cultivate.
"And so you see, President Mellark," the tall, lean, middle aged man at his elbow was declaring, his hands rubbing together as he stammered on, "we really have made enormous strides in…"
"Yes, yes, yes, let's stop pretending for just a moment that I'm interested in any of that," interjected Peeta, staring down the scientist until he gulped hard and fell quiet. A smirk ghosted across Peeta's lips and he allowed it to linger for just a second before he dismissed it.
"Tell me how our other project is going," he insisted, pronouncing each word slowly and pointedly.
Seeming suddenly distracted, Peeta swept his gaze around the lab, noting with some satisfaction how the doctor followed his line of sight to the cabinet furthest across the room. Multiple locks and security pads lined the sides, and the hazard signs attached to the door hinted at the ominous contents.
"Tell me, how far into development did you get before Snow's spineless interior minister closed the program?"
The doctor swallowed hard with an audible gulp. Looking at the newly sworn in president with obvious concern, he cleared his throat.
"To the trial stage… sir."
Peeta nodded, apparently pleased with this revelation. "Huh. Good. That's very good."
With his hands behind his back, he began to once again pace the laboratory, his lips pursed as he pondered the plan unfolding in his mind.
"Have the 'product' finished by tomorrow. I'll see that a test subject is brought to you by morning."
"Tomorrow? Sir, with all due respect, I…" the scientist began, beads of sweat beginning to form on his upper lip.
Peeta's head whipped around and the smirk that formed on his face all but dared the doctor to continue.
"With all due respect, doctor, if you finish that sentence, I'm certain I won't have any issues in encouraging your replacement to meet my deadline."
"My… re… replacement?" the man repeated, his face paling significantly, which almost made Peeta chuckle. He kept his expression stoic though as he nodded his head gravely.
"Now you see the quandary we're in, don't you?" sighed Peeta, beginning to stroll back towards the doorway, running his fingertips over stainless steel benches as he went.
Pausing suddenly, Peeta turned and captured the doctor in an unwavering stare that made the scientist visibly tremble. As volatile as Snow had been at times, his behaviour had been nowhere near as unpredictable as his young successor.
"We have the vaccine, yes?"
"Yes, sir." The scientist nodded dutifully, already climbing to his feet as he considered the mammoth task before him.
Peeta allowed a beat before he added, "And the cure… we know it works?"
Despite the insidious nature of his plan, elements of it perhaps scared him, and Peeta was certain that if one was considering biological warfare as a tactic then one should probably prepare for all elements of potential fall-out. Casualties within the military or among the Capitol residents would be disastrous for his career. Not to mention, of course, that the presence of a vaccine and cure would make excellent bargaining chips when addressing the leaders of more rebellious districts. Perhaps it might even induce them to hand over the Mockingjay herself.
The fall of Katniss Everdeen, (or was it Hawthorne?), was all that mattered now – of that President Mellark was confident. Snuff out the fire that burned within her and the flames of the Rebellion itself would dwindle then die also.
Peeta had quickly come to realize that he had been going about everything all wrong, which was a sort of clarity that he had to thank a tiny dark haired child for bringing to light.
After all, there was more than one way to skin a Mockingjay.