Hey my beautiful readers! I have to say I missed you all so very much. So I was going to post this chapter yesterday but i re-read it and it was so choppy and not well written and I had to fix it up quite a bit. Most of this was written in rehab while I had free time and just tagged onto the end of each time that I had stopped writing so I had to fix a lot of things. I hope ya'll like it!

Missed you guys a lot and am glad to be back. I am going to Boston tomorrow so that I can have minor surgery on my ear so the next post will be either next Monday or next Friday.


Chapter 11

I wake up to my husband giving me soft kisses up and down my neck. I open my eyes to see him hovering over me with a stupid smile on his face and his blond curls sticking out in every direction.

"Good morning Mrs. Mellark." He breaths. I smile back at him, it's hard not to smile at such an adorable man. He leans down and touches his lips to mine and I wrap my arms around his neck. In one fluid motion I kick my leg over him and push; we role over so now I'm straddling him, never breaking the kiss.

"Good morning Mr. Mellark." I giggle once we finally come up for air. He settles his hands on my waist and looks me up and down.

"Can we wake up every morning like this?" he smiles.

"If your good." I laugh and role off of him. He pouts but I don't care, I need to stretch and get ready for the day.

Peeta gets up and takes a shower but I stay put, not wanting to leave the warmth and comfort of the bed. I lay there, trying to get another few minutes of shut eye but the conversation Peeta and eye had last night keeps poking at the back of my brain, demanding my attention.

A few minutes later, Peeta emerges from the bathroom, his hair still damp but for the most part dry and in only a pair of low hanging blue jeans. The way they cut right under his waist and lets you see just enough...

"Are you checking me out?" Peeta asks. "I have got to say I am loving your pregnancy hormones these days." He jumps on the bed and gives me a peck on the cheek, then lies down and stares at the ceiling.

"So Peeta," I call his attention, "what we were discussing last night..."

"Katniss!" he groans and roles to bury his face in the crook of my neck. "Can't we talk about this later?" he whines as he places a kiss on my shoulder.

"No Peeta," I say firmly, "we need to talk about this now."

"Why is this so important to you?" he asks while propping himself up on one elbow to look me in the eye.

"Because," I begin, "he's my best friend, or at least he was my best friend until what happened. But the point is that Gale wouldn't have just dismissed us and let me go so easily, I know Gale. So whatever you said to him must have been a big deal or else he wouldn't have acted like that. Now will you please answer my question and tell me what you said to him!"

Peeta sighs and looks down, trying to collect his thoughts. He knows not to mess with me when I'm this adamant on knowing something.

"I told him..."

"Get your lazy asses out of bed right now you two! Breakfast!" Haymitch's voice bellows as he bangs rapidly on the door.

I groan and bury my face in the pillow. Peeta laughs and jumps off the bed and grabs a shirt.

"This is not over!" I yell as he kisses me on the cheek and bounds out of the room.

I stand and stretch. Haymitch is still standing in the door frame that Peeta had left open on his way out with a smug grin on his face. He took a bight out of the apple in his hand and continued to look at me.

"Did I interrupt something?" he mumbles.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." I scold and go to the suitcase to change.

"What was it?" Haymitch asks again, walking into the room and plopping down on the bed.

"None of your damn business." I retort. A grab a pair of blue jeans and a dark green t-shirt and head towards the bathroom to get changed. Before I shut the door I turn to Haymitch. "Haymitch, feel free to leave."

I can hear him laughing through the door as he makes his way out. Scowling I quickly change and throw the door open and make my way to the dinning car. No matter how mad at anyone I am, I'm always hungry.

Upon arrival I see that I am the last one to arrive, Effie and Haymitch are talking quietly to one another and Peeta is sitting on the other side of the table with a huge smile on his face. I scowl at him and that only makes his smile grow as I make my way over to the seat next to him. He stands and pulls the chair out for me and Haymitch laughs as he sees the looks on both our faces.

"What the hell were you two talking about anyways?" He persists.

"Oh nothing." Peeta replies as he takes his seat. "Katniss is just a little grumpy this morning."

I whack him in the arm and he pretends he didn't feel a thing. I snicker when he winces as Haymitch looks away to find another drink. He puts his arm around the back of my chair and leans back.

I try not to engage anyone in conversation the whole time we eat. Haymitch tried to throw a few comments about how much I ate but I would just look at him and he would shut up. He should know not to mess with a pregnant woman. On the other hand, most of what he was saying was very true. I ate about half of what was set on the table, usually Peeta ate twice as much as I did, now I eat more than him. I don't know who told the chefs my craving for pickles but there were boatloads. Full pickles, sliced pickles, pickle chips, and even fried pickles. I had a feeling that Peeta was behind this but since I was still mad at him for ducking out of our conversation this morning I decided not to ask him.

"So kids." Effie addresses us. "We will be arriving in the Capitol around noon tomorrow."

"Thanks for the reminder." I mumble.

"We will be taken by car to the hotel from the train station upon arrival. The interview will be tomorrow night around eight o'clock so that gives you about six hours before you have to be there at seven."

"We already know all of this Effie." Peeta says.

"I know, I know, I just want you to be prepared. Now what I am concerned about is that neither of you have had a proper interview in a few years, let alone been on camera..."

"what are you trying to say?" I ask, "We arn't ready for it?"

"No, no!" she replies, "Not at all! I'm just saying, maybe we should practice."

"For gods sake Eff!" Haymitch says harshly. "We are on a damn tribute train, going to the one place neither of these kids wanted to go back to and now you want to stir up memories by making them practice for an interview that they are going to have, just like before the games?"

"It was just a suggestion." Effie sniffs.

"We appreciate it Effie." Peeta tries to sooth. "I just think that we are all on edge right now and practicing for an interview is not the best thing at the moment. Maybe some other time."

Effie nods her head and looks down in defeat.

"Oh don't do that Eff." Haymitch groaned/ moaned.

"Do what?"

"The whole 'poor little old me' pout you got going on." He retorted. "It gets old."

"Well then." Effie says, clearly hurt.

The rest of breakfast was awkward. No one was really in the mood for conversation, personally I think we were all still in the mindset that we were being watched by the Capitol even though that isn't even a possibility anymore. I finished my third plate of food and stood looking at Peeta expectantly. He met my gaze and opened his mouth to say something but he must see something in my expression to know that I am not in the mood for games. He nods, says goodbye to Effie and Haymitch and turned toward me. I turn my back on him and walk to our room, expecting my to follow.

"Wonder what's up with those two." I hear Haymitch snicker to his finance and I throw a menacing look over my shoulder. He puts his hands in the air in defense and I continue to the room.

Once inside the suite and the door locked, I finally turn to Peeta.

"You are going to tell me everything. Right here, right now. I am not playing anymore games Peeta Mellark." I say with a little more vice than intended, but right now I really don't care. He looks me in the eye and nods his head. I sit down on the bed and watch him pace as he collects his thoughts.

"Katniss, what you have to understand before I say anything is that I was only trying to protect you." Peeta starts. "I never want you to feel hurt or upset so naturally I would do anything to keep you safe from knowledge that could potentially cause you pain. I was never meaning to keep this from you but you got pregnant and I had only found out a little while before that this information was true. What I said to Gale was I kn..."

"Mr. and Mrs. Mellark?" a womans voice squeaks through the door.

"For the love of... WHAT?" I yell back. Peeta takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his hair and goes back to pacing.

"Um... it's time for your on-board check up." The woman replies back timidly. I groan and stand. I can feel Peeta's eyes on my back as I cross the room and open the door.

"Is there any way we can do this, I don't know, later?" I ask, trying to keep my patience but it is wearing very thin.

"I'm sorry Ms. But we have a tight schedule and can't reschedule this appointment." She says. I turn and scowl at Peeta as if some how this is his fault when subconsciously I know it's not. He just shrugs his shoulders and makes his way over to my side.

"If you would please follow me." The woman quietly says and turns toward the hall. We follow her to a car in the far back end of the train, a place which I have never been but obviously Peeta has, guessing by the way his body tenses when we enter the room.

I look at him to see if he will explain his sudden frozen state but he just shakes his head and continues on into the room. Inside looks like a full doctors office. It had a bed with the scratchy film cover over it which I go over and sit on and a chair beside it for Peeta. A small sink sat in the corner and an ultrasound machine is on the other side of my bed. The woman who I now realize is a nurse hands me a gown and asks me to change. I do as I'm told, the whole time keeping my eyes on Peeta, who's shoulders haven't completely relaxed yet and his eyes were flitting from one corner of the room to the other.

"The doctor will be with you in a bit. She is quite busy today so it may be a while. Please, make yourself comfortable." the nurse says. I nod and she smiles and walks out of the room.

"Alright," I say as I sit down on the bed, "tell me." He looks at me in confusion and I role my eyes.

"Peeta, if you don't think I can tell when you are feeling uneasy you are sadly mistaken, now tell me, what's it about this room?"

"It's," he sighs, "It's my prep room. Portia was kidnapped in a room just like this before our second games."

I stare at him in confusion for a while. I hadn't realized Portia was taken, not necessarily like Cinna but she was taken none the less.

"But wasn't she around when we were in the Capitol the whole time?" I ask. I could have sworn I saw her when we were at the chariots at the least.

"Yes." Peeta replies as he looks into his lap and starts wringing his hands.

"I don't understand." I admit. This doesn't make any sense.

"Katniss, this is not the time or place to be talking about this." he sighs.

"You heard the nurse. It's going to be a while. And since I'm not going to get you to tell me what you said to Gale in here then what else do we have to talk about? Come on, Peeta. Please?"

He takes a deep breath and looks straight at the wall in front of him.

"They made her an avox, or something like it. She had no tongue." he says coldly. "She showed me when she got back and told me not to tell anyone. She was so ashamed of it. She kept saying she lost her voice but I knew that wasn't true. I didn't even see it coming, one minute we were talking the next she's got a bag over her head and a peacekeeper is telling me to keep my mouth shut.

Without hesitating I stand from the bed and make my way over to where my husband was sitting. I take his face in my hands and he settles his on my waist.

"I'm sorry." I whisper. He nods his head and I give him a lingering kiss on his lips. He smiles up at me and I smile back. He settles one hand on my now a little more noticeable bump. It is amazing to see how much it's grown in only the last few weeks.

"Let's focus on this little one right now. Not me." he says.

"Okay." I agree and peck him once more before I got to sit back on the crinkly papered bed and reach my hand out for Peeta to take my hand, and he does. A few minutes later a tall strawberry blond woman with a white coat enters the room.

"Hello," she says, "Mr. and Mrs?" she looks down at her clipboard and does a double take. She must look back and forth between me and Peeta and our linked hands ten times before she says another word. "Mellark. It is an honor to meet you two. A true honor. I had no idea you were this appointment, I would have put you in our luxury cart!"

"It's fine. We don't want any special treatment." Peeta says to her. She smiles at him and I immediately don't like her. She is gorgeous and blond and blue eyed and her voice sounded like a bunch of twinkly friken stars. She is the kind of girl I always imagined someone like Peeta with and it makes my blood boil. She should not be smiling at my husband like that.

"Well, I'm doctor Shirley, but you can call me Valerie, and I just need to check to make sure you have all your medications for your stay, along with making sure your little one is adjusting well to the travel." During her whole introduction she made eye contact with Peeta, looking at me only momentarily.

"Let's get this over with." I mumble and Peeta squeezes my hand. The doctor asked a few routine questions, gave me some medication and vitamins that would last me until I got home after our stay. She pulled out the blue goo and put back my bed so that I am laying down. This is when a smile tugs at the corner of my mouth, I always love seeing my baby and hearing it's heart beat.

"How many weeks are you Mrs. Mellark?" the doctor asks me.

"Nineteen."

She nods and squirts the goo all over my stomach and starts to wave the wand over it. The monitor hums to life and a black and gray image is shown. She tells us that our baby is in perfect health and that it's growing steadily. Turning around I see her press a button on the machine and immediately the sweet sound of my babies heart beat fills the room with it's steady rhythm.

"Perfect." the doctor chirps and I smile. "Now, I don't know if you have been asked this yet but do you want to know the sex?"

I look to Peeta who is still holding my hand but is now standing to get a better view of the screen. He shrugs his shoulders and says, "It's up to you."

I look at the monitor and listen to the sound of the heart beat and relish in the fact that I am having a baby, that I was given this chance. I know my answer.

"No." I say. "I'm just glad we are having a baby, I want it to be a surprise, just like it was when we found out we were having it."

Peeta nods and smiles at me and kisses my hand. The doctor wipes the goo off of me and puts all the equipment away and gives my husband her card before she leaves so that I can call her if I have any questions, but mostly she seemed as if she was hoping Peeta would call her. I quickly change and practically drag Peeta out of the room and to the dinning car.

"Not going back to the room?" Peeta asks amused.

"Oh we are." I retort. "I'm just grabbing the food and going. I'm pregnant Peeta, that means hungry every two hours. I need a snack to handle all this stress."

He doesn't argue and waits outside the car as I load up on muffins to take back to the room. He smiles at me when I come out carrying seven muffins in my arms. He takes some of them for me and leads us back to our room.

"Okay," I say when he shuts the door. I go over and sit down on the bed and start unwrapping a muffin. "Cut the bull. Just say it, I can't take it anymore the suspense is killing me."

"Are you sure?" Peeta asks.

"Yes Peeta! Spit it out!" I groan.

"Okay, okay." he sighs. "I told him, I know what you did to her."

"Her?" I ask with my mouth full of muffin. "Who's her? Me? You already know what happened in the woods, that's not really news."

"No." he says. "No, Katniss, it's not you."

"Then who?" I say as I take another bight. I am so confused, what 'her' matters?

"I don't know about this Katniss..."

"Peeta just tell me!" I swallow.

"Don't get all worked up, it's not good for you..."

"For the love of... Peeta just spit it out, who!?"

"Prim."


Hope you liked it! I hope I will update by Monday!

Quote for next chapter comes from... Plutarch!

"Welcome to the Capitol!"