Two weeks later, Rory shows up at Primrose's clinic. He walks in, closes the door and leans up against the door dramatically and says, "I just had to get out of there."
Primrose doesn't catch on immediately. "Out of where?"
Rory stifles a smile. "The house. I just couldn't stand it anymore. It was just awful."
Primrose looks at him strangely and then it hits her. It wasn't that long ago, she was the one moaning these pathetic words at his house. "Noisy neighbors?"
"Oh, yeah." They both laugh and sit down on the couch.
"Sorry, no sympathy here. I've taken to sleeping on the couch downstairs so I don't have to listen."
"Well, I don't have a downstairs to go to!"
"They'll be out soon. Miss Silveria says she has contacts in the Hall of Justice. Whoever it is, is getting them a house soon. She says she owes me a big one."
"Does she owe you for helping her girls or for turning Katniss into a noisy neighbor?" He asks with a grin.
"Both!"
Rory glances over and sees a couple of boxes in the corner. The top one is open and has baby clothes in it. "What's all that?"
"I've been going around to mothers who've told me they don't plan on having any more children and asked for their outgrown items. Everyone usually gives me at least one thing."
"I got old man Turner to agree to take on Vick if we can figure out a way to get him the tools he needs. I just don't have the money. I'm not sure what to do. I tried to talk Larazo into springing for them but he still really mad at both of them."
"He'll probably come around after the baby is born. I've seen it before. Grandchildren tend to soften parental anger."
"You're probably right. I know my mom isn't going to be able to stay away."
"What about Gale?" Primrose says quietly.
"What about Gale?" Rory asks with surprise.
"He's got money. He doesn't have a wife or heavy financial commitments. He could afford to do this for Vick. I know he is the reason why your family survived after your father died but he certainly hasn't been there for him since the rebellion began. His military commitments have always been more important."
"Well, I don't think he'll come through if I ask or if Vick asks."
"How about me?"
Rory is stunned by this. "You're going to call him and speak to him? Really?"
Rory sees the pain on her face. "I don't know if I can speak to him but I certainly could write him a letter."
"You don't have to do this."
"I want to. I adore Trixa. She's only been here a few weeks but we become best of friends. She lost her mom about the same age I lost my dad."
Rory remembers back when they spoke about loneliness. Rory gently pulls Primrose's head down onto his shoulder and then takes her hand. They just sit quietly for a while.
Finally Primrose says, "They're getting married on the day they get their house. I'm going to ask Peeta to make a cake."
"What about us?" Rory asks tentatively
"What about us?"
"When are we going to get married?" Rory has broached this topic before but Primrose always puts him off. It's obvious they are in love. He doesn't see any reason to wait any longer.
Primrose doesn't answer right away. This is crushing for him.
"I, I….I was just hoping Katniss and Peeta would get married first."
"What if Katniss never agrees? I know you love her but you shouldn't put your life on hold for her. You already lost a year of your life being a coma and not having your memory." Rory is upset now.
"I'll think about it. I promise we'll talk about it after Vick and Trixia get married."
"Promise?" Rory is not very hopeful.
"Promise." She says firmly.
They just sit in silence for a while. Rory tries to think of anything except his frustration, but he is not very successful. Shortly, a patient arrives and that's Rory's cue to leave. He's not in the mood to kiss her goodbye and doesn't.
Rory starts to trudge home disappointed. He has a sudden change of heart and he changes course. He ends up at Katniss' door. He knocks hard. Hopefully she's not out hunting. He knows she doesn't usually answer the door so he decides to walk in.
"Katniss," he yells a little more forcefully that he intended. But he continues, "Katniss? Katniss, are you home? I need to speak you. Now."
Katniss appears at the top of the stairs. Rory doesn't wait for her to speak. "Katniss, I need to talk to you."
She comes down and sits down. "So talk already."
"I need you to do something for me – and for Primrose." She doesn't say anything so he continues. "I've asked your sister to marry me several times. She keeps putting me off. You want to know why?"
"Why?"
"You."
"What about me?"
"She says she won't marry me until you marry Peeta."
"Oh, for God's sake. That's ridiculous. Me not marrying Peeta is no reason to stop her."
Rory doesn't say anything for a while and neither does Katniss.
"Katniss, Peeta and Primrose are the two people who love you the most. They don't ask much from you. Can't you give both of them this one thing? Please?"
Katniss doesn't say anything. Rory listens to the clock ticking. He's going to wait her out. After 15 minutes, Katniss suddenly jumps up. "Come on." She says. Rory is not sure what is going to happen next. He follows her out the door and down to the bakery.
"Peeta." Katniss yells when they enter. Peeta peeks his head out of the kitchen, flour on his cheek and flecks of chocolate frosting in his hair. His eyes light up when he sees her. Rory is still in awe of how much that man loves this woman.
"Hey, Katniss, what do you need?" His tone is so loving. Rory takes note.
"Can you come with me?"
"Sure, where are we going?"
"It's a surprise."
"Ok." He takes off his apron and tells his workers that he is leaving.
She takes his hand and leads him next door. She asks Primrose to come with her as well. Rory has no idea what Katniss is up to but decides to trust her.
Katniss leads to way down the block turning at the main intersection. Rory and Primrose follow behind. Primrose whispers to Rory, "Where are we going?" He shrugs. He really has no idea.
They end up in front of the Hall of Justice. Rory can't believe it. She's going to do it! Right here, right now. Not very romantic but it's a huge step for her. He's a little choked up.
Peeta and Primrose haven't quite caught on yet. After she looks up at the building for a moment Katniss says, "Come on." She leads them up the steps. They end up standing outside the license office. Peeta is grinning. Rory becomes even more choked up over Peeta's happiness. But Primrose is still in the dark. She asks, "What's going on? Why are we here?"
Katniss responds, "You're my witness."
"Witness?" Rory and Peeta are amused by her denseness.
"Silly girl. My marriage witness."
Primrose almost tackles Katniss. Katniss tolerates this for about 30 seconds but gruffly exclaims, "If you don't calm down, I'm leaving without doing this."
Primrose lets go and hugs Peeta instead. The staff quickly prepares the appropriate form and they both sign it and Rory and Primrose sign as witnesses. It's done. Rory can't believe it. She's had so many breakthroughs in the last few months. But this has to be one of the biggest.
Katniss turns around and looks at Primrose. "Now, what about you?"
Rory immediately knows what she means but Primrose is clueless. "Me?"
"You were my witness. I'll be yours."
Rory looks expectantly at Primrose but she doesn't say anything. Rory was hoping she would jump at the chance. He's a little disappointed. But Peeta comes to the rescue.
"You know, Primrose, if you want to wear a nice dress, get some flowers and have other witnesses and have a party, you and Rory can do this another day. You and Katniss can plan it all out."
Primrose looks back and forth at her sister, Peeta and Rory. Rory decides to let her have some think time. Maybe she really wants the party and pretty dress. That's not an unreasonable thing for a girl to ask for on her wedding day.
Finally, she says, "No."
Rory is crestfallen. Primrose sees his expression and grabs his hand and exclaims, "I meant, no, I don't want the dress and the party. Let's do it right now."
The actual signings are a blur.
Rory has been on a roller coaster of emotions all day. Irritation at his brother's intrusions on his life, frustration over Primrose's continued refusals of marriage, anger at Katniss for begin the cause of the refusals, confusion over Katniss' reaction to his anger, happiness for Peeta who finally got his wish, that momentary sadness when he thought Primrose was refusing him again and now, finally, joy.
On the way out of the building, Primrose stops at the postal box and pulls a letter out of her bag. Before she can put it in the slot, Rory grabs her hand. "Are you sure?" Primrose just looks at the letter and nods solemnly. But before she puts it in the slot, she digs around in her bag and finds a pen. She scratches out the name Everdeen on the returned address and writes in Hawthorne.
Primrose Hawthorne! That makes Rory's heart sing. She firmly pushes the envelope through the slot and she grabs Rory's hand as they leave
The four of them walk back down to Katniss's and Peeta's street. They pass some kids playing and Katniss stops dead in the middle of the road. The other three stop to see what's going on. Katniss just slows looks back and forth at her house on one side of the street and Peeta's on the other.
"What's the matter?" Peeta asks.
Katniss doesn't answer so Peeta patiently waits.
During the quiet, Primrose puts her arms around Rory's neck and quietly asks , "Now what?"
It's only two words but they are powerful. Are they going to spend their wedding night together? – If so, where? Where are they going to live? And so many more questions. Right now, the more important question is the wedding night one. This is a no- win situation for Rory.
"I have to go back to the farm to do my evening chores," he responds simply.
"And you have to be up early to do the morning ones." Primrose acknowledges.
"You could come over to my house," Rory suggests lamely. He knows that's not the answer.
"Trixa is as big as a house. She needs to be in the bed, not on the couch. And, and….I don't want to be the noisy neighbor."
"Noisy neighbor?" Peeta and Katniss repeat in unison. Obviously, they've overheard. Peeta adds, "What the hell is a noisy neighbor?"
Rory and Primrose start laughing at their inside joke. Rory finally says, "We're not telling." The laughter relieves much of the tension of his emotional day and even the dilemma of the moment.
"Well, let us know when you two figure out what you're going to do. We're going inside." Peeta reaches for Katniss' hand. She grabs on but they start pulling in opposite directions and lose their grip. Rory could tell that Peeta was heading towards Katniss' house but Katniss was heading towards Peeta's. He looks at her. She just points her shoulder towards his house. He doesn't say anything. He just grabs her hand and walks up the steps with her.
Peeta stops at the top and whispers something to Katniss. She nods and goes inside. He looks through his pockets and finds a recipe notepad and tears on a slip and runs back down to the street . "Primrose, I saw you with a pen earlier. Can I borrow it?"
"Probably." She digs around and quickly comes up with it.
"Turn around," he orders Rory. Rory does as requested and he can feel Peeta writing a note on the paper on his back.
When he is finished, he whistles to the kids down the street and asks them to come over. He hands them each a coin from his pocket. "You can have this money and all the cookies you can eat at my bakery tomorrow if you will go down to the end of Miller's Creek Road and deliver this note to the man who is staying there."
The two boys think this is a great deal and take off before Rory can stop them. "Peeta, what did the note say?"
"Vick, do the evening and morning chores. Rory will back tomorrow. You owe him." Short, and to the point.
Primrose laughs. "Well, he does owe you – he owes you a lot!"
Rory is hesitant. Vick hasn't taken well to the farm chores but he knows basically what to do and how to do it. Trixa enjoys milking the goats and has been doing the evening milkings for a few weeks. She's been bottle feeding the orphan kids since she arrived.
"Ok." But he is suddenly nervous. This is his wedding night!
Primrose seems very calm about it all. She suggests making dinner and they do. She eats with gusto but Rory doesn't have much of an appetite.
They have a long discussion about whether they should sleep in her little twin bed or the large bed in Katniss' room. Primrose thinks Katniss' bed is the better choice but Rory feels weird about it. They compromise by bringing the other twin bed from the guest bedroom into Primrose's room and pushing them together and putting a big comforter over both.
It's so strange. He's the one who's been pushing for the marriage and now that it has finally happened, she seems to be the one who is more sanguine about it.
But a couple of hours later, they are laying quietly in bed in each other's arms. Rory is stroking his wife's hair. He has trouble thinking of a word that describes how he feels. The best he can come up with is content.
He dozes off. But he awakens a while later and is a little disoriented. He then he remembers that he is in Primrose's room. Primrose! Where is she?
He notices that the curtains are open. They weren't open when he went to bed. He gets up to close them and looks out and to see Katniss sitting on the swing on Peeta's front porch. He sees Primrose walking across the street in her fluffy bathrobe and slippers. She sits down next to Katniss and pulls her feet up and scrunches into her older sister. Katniss puts her arm around Primrose's shoulder and they swing and talk. He looks at Primrose's face and the word he would use to describe her right now is content as well.
He opens the window to call out to her but Peeta steps out onto the porch at the moment. The girls squeal "No boys allowed. Girls only!" They laugh and Peeta makes a silly pouting face.
So Rory yells out, "come on over Peeta, I'll talk to you." He laughs.
Peeta walks across the street as Rory struggles to put his dirty work pants and shirt back on. He has nothing else to wear here. By the time he gets downstairs, Peeta has found himself something to drink in Katniss' kitchen and offers Rory one. He accepts and they go out to sit on the swing on Katniss' porch.
"To marriage," Peeta says he holds out his bottle towards Rory. Rory clinks the bottom edge of his bottle onto Peeta's.
"To marriage," he responds.
After their impromptu toast, the two sit in silence as they gaze over at their wives, talking and laughing across the street.
"You stink." Peeta says after a while.
Rory looks at his work clothes and says, "I know."
Peeta then says, "How did you do it?"
Rory is confused. He hopes Peeta isn't asking about what just went on in the bedroom.
"Do what?"
"Get Katniss to marry me."
Rory feels like this is a loaded question but he decides to play it straight. "I just told her the truth – that Rosie wouldn't marry me unless she married you."
Peeta puts his bottle down and puts his head between his knees. Oh, uh. Rory realizes he probably said the wrong thing - but it's the truth.
"She did it for Prim but not for me. That's my life – two steps forward and one step back."
Rory understands how Peeta must feel and thinks over the day's events. He comes to a startling conclusion.
"Peeta the most important thing that happened today wasn't what happened at the Hall of Justice."
"It wasn't?"
"No! The most important thing that happened today is what happened right out there in the middle of that street." Rory gestures with his bottle to the spot they stopped at when they came home today.
"I don't understand."
"She had a choice when she came home. Her house or your house." Rory pauses for moment to let this sink in. "She chose yours."
Peeta slowly raises his head and leans back into his seat to consider this. After a minute or so, he whispers to himself, "She chose mine."
Rory says, "When the bigwigs at the Hall of Justice figure out that you two are married, they 're going to make one of you give up your house. She just told you right then and there, that she's giving up hers and moving in with you. That piece of paper at the courthouse was just a piece of paper to her but out on the street she made a commitment – a commitment to you."
Rory looks over and sees Peeta's eyes looking watery.
Rory continues, "It'll be a fresh start. Maybe she can even leave some of her ghosts here in this house."
Peeta just nods.