Chapter 11: Epilogue

There's some Capitol tradition that says you should give your spouse a gift made out of wood on your fifth anniversary. That's why I tell myself I'm carving this bow for him, a replica of one of my father's on a somewhat larger scale. But truthfully I'd probably have chosen it regardless. I know that I'll want to teach the children to shoot someday and I want Peeta to share in that.

Peeta thinks I don't know about the rocking chair that he's made for me but he went to Johanna for advice and she hasn't gotten any better when it comes to keeping her mouth shut.

Saeth watches me from his crib with curious grey eyes. His gaze never wavers from the stained wood as I put the finishing touches on it. His sister, Willow, is "helping" her father at the bakery this morning. Despite her blue eyes and pale skin, when she gazes up adoringly at him, I know exactly how I must have looked at her age.

It amuses me to think that Peeta and I probably conceived her life on a night that we thought we'd lose our own. But even in 13, few people could bear the thought of executing the Star-Crossed Lovers of District 12. At our trial, Dr. Aurelius made a convincing case that we'd been traumatized by our two trips into the arena and went mad at the thought of the games being held again. It became a moot point after an emergency meeting declared Paylor president; she had no interest in continuing the games. We were quietly shipped back to District 12 to recover from our "episode of temporary insanity" under the care of my mother and Prim. Haymitch joined us for the trip back. His only explanation when I asked him why was to mutter "They couldn't find a place for me in the Capitol either."

Our wounds have faded, inside and out. I still have nightmares and Peeta still has times when he has to grip the back of a chair to hold onto reality, but we comfort each other. Peeta has rebuilt his family's bakery and I have reclaimed my father's woods. Haymitch drinks, raises geese and complains about how infrequent the supply trains are. The mines have closed and District 12 now houses factories that, under my mother's direction, use plants from our woods and imported ingredients from the other districts to produce medicine for the whole country, not just the Capitol. Prim has largely taken over and expanded my mother's practice and runs a clinic now. It's a strange blessing, but Prim's artificial hand is steadier than any flesh and blood, adding to her natural talent to make her an incomparable surgeon.

They still live in my house in Victor's Village, just three doors down. I moved in with Peeta as soon as I stepped off the hovercraft. It's nice to have them so close by; the children love their aunt and grandmother. And I know my mother is glad to have Prim so close as well. Even five years after we nearly lost her, my mother is a nervous wreck about the prospect of Prim moving out, though she still teases Prim constantly about the parade of suitors on the front porch.

For a time, there weren't many of us. Thom led a rebuilding crew composed largely of survivors from 12, tearing down ruined buildings and placing our dead in a mass grave in the meadow. Greasy Sae and a few others returned to help feed them. But over time, more and more people from 13 came looking for a place to live above ground. Much of the district has been rebuilt now, though it's still smaller than it was. There's no fence to separate us from the forest any longer and slowly, the meadow has become green again.

Just as I finish stringing the bow, I hear the door open downstairs and I hide it in the closet before I pick up Saeth and walk downstairs. I'm greeted by Willow at the staircase when she runs up to me holding a cookie and shouting "Mommy! Mommy! Look what I made for you!"

I take a sugar cookie from her hand and see that it's frosted with a green arrow-shaped katniss leaf, not as finely-proportioned as something made by Peeta's hand, but amazing for a four-year old. When I stare up at Peeta, open-mouthed, he just shrugs. "She got her grandmother's hands, better than I was at her age."

We tidy up the house a little in preparation for our visitors. Annie's coming all the way from 4 and bringing her son. She found out only days before Finnick died. Strangely it held her together, the knowledge that she had something to live for, that part of Finnick would live on. Phineas has his father's face but he's colored like his mother, dark hair and green eyes.

The trip will be shorter for Gale and Johanna. At Peeta's urging, he became District 12's first "Sheriff", a kinder, gentler version of our old head Peacekeeper. I didn't have an easy time forgiving him, but Prim didn't leave me much choice.

Prim appears in our living room as if my thoughts have summoned her. But rationally I know that she's here because we arranged for her to watch the children while we go down to the train station to meet Annie and Phin. Willow dances around her, tugging on her untucked shirttail in a desperate bid for attention as Prim cradles Saeth against her chest.

Prim smiles and mouths "Go" as Peeta and I step out the door. Small patches of snow still cling to themselves in shady spots. But they're only delaying the inevitable, spring is coming. I can already see a few Dandelions shooting up through the grass. I grip Peeta's fingers in mine as we walk.

I don't mean to, but I catch a glimpse of a television screen through someone's window, just enough to see Alma Coin's face and remember what this day is to everyone else; the day the Star-Crossed Lovers of District 12 went mad and killed the President. I glance up and see Peeta's jaw locked.

"Does it bother you?" I ask softly.

He nods and concedes "A little." Then he smiles before continuing "But I've never felt as lucky as I did that day. Not even when Willow was born."

I stare up at him incredulously. "Lucky? You felt lucky to be shot in the hand, arrested and hauled back to the Training Center?"

"I felt lucky that after everything, all those times I tried to die for you, you trying to die for me in the Quell, me trying to kill you, being forced into the act twice, somehow, that little boy's dream came true, he got to marry the girl in the red dress."

I don't want to have this conversation at the Train Station, so I tug on his jacket to stop him and stare directly into his eyes before I say "Luck had nothing to do with it. Nothing could have kept you from coming back to me. I didn't know, not until that night, until we were together like that, but we were always going to make it here. Without Coin, without Snow, without the Games, without… the accident; it would have happened anyway. My father would have loved you Peeta. I know he would have been so happy to give you his blessing."

Has he gathers me in his arms, he leans down and whispers "Now who would have guessed that the famously level-headed girl, who swore she'd never marry, believed in True Love?"

I shove him playfully. "Well it took someone with a silver tongue to talk me into it. And it's you, us that I believe in. All it took to end the games and overthrow the Capitol was putting us in the games together. The rings and vows are just frills. Before we ever spoke, there was a chain between us that couldn't be broken."

Peeta's lips curl into a smile as he says "You're starting to sound like me. What happened to my taciturn huntress?"

I roll my eyes. "You made me Katniss Mellark and Mellarks talk too much."

But he cures that with a kiss. And then another. And we finally come up for air when we hear the whistle of the train arriving.

fin

Notes:

I don't think I've gone over as many possibilities for any part of this story as I did for the names of the three kids. In the end, Phineas is just a way of avoiding Finnick jr. Women from the Seam all seem to have plant names so Willow wasn't that tough but I really scratched my head about the boy. The fact that Peeta rhymes with Pita kinda sorta maybe implies that men from town have names that match their professions which is why Peeta's brothers always get bread names. But giving his son another bread name is boring and I already used up all the good ones. Since his mother also has a profession, I think Silvercistern nailed it with "Fletcher" but her work is so good, her characterization of him so detailed that I'd feel like I was stealing her whole character if I stole the name. Saeth is my best alternative as it purportedly means "arrow" in Welsh.

It's been a great ride. Thanks for reading.