A/N :
So, yeah, I'm sorry. I started a new job, moved, my computer crashed (along with all my drafts), and I had a bit of writer's block.
I have no idea how often I'll be updating, but I'm certainly getting back into writing now that my life is a little more settled.
I apologize for being out of the loop, and I want to thank everyone who PMd me for their concern and encouragement. It means a lot.
For those of you who also have read my 'Chuck' fics, I've finally come up with a few ideas and started putting them down on paper. So don't be surprised if you see one of those stories get updated sometime in the near future.
Anyways, I know it's a few months late, but enjoy the next chapter of 'Not All Who Wander Are Lost'.
Katniss
The tension level skyrockets. We're way out in the woods, at least three to four miles from anything resembling civilization. I could scream at the top of my lungs and chances are nobody would hear it.
My skin crawls as the men continue ogling me openly, and I struggle to contain my disgust. No point in riling them up further.
I hear my husband sigh heavily. I feel the same way.
"Look," Peeta tentatively starts, "my wife and I are just out here enjoying the outdoors. You're welcome to use any another platform, but please just leave us be."
All three men snort derisively and laugh in his face.
"There's three of us," the leader smirks, "and we need some entertainment for the evening."
Now I'm starting to get frightened. It's easy to discern what he means by 'entertainment'.
It's not that I don't have faith in Peeta, which I do, but we're outnumbered.
Peeta turns his head to glance at me and that's when it happens.
The leader's fist connects with Peeta's head. He took a cheap shot while my husband wasn't looking. I gasp and it feels like slow motion as Peeta collapses onto the wood planks. I try to catch him and arrest his fall but he's too heavy.
"Peeta!" I scream.
I quickly kneel by his side to check on him.
It doesn't last long. I feel one of the men roughly grabbing me from behind and tearing me away from Peeta.
If I'm yelling even semi-coherent words I'll never know. I kick and scream and struggle but they easily overpower me.
"We'll wait til he wakes up," I hear the leader say, "I want him to watch what we do to you."
I fight the urge to give up. I keep my eyes glued on my husband as the three men taunt both of us with crude and vulgar words.
The leaders squats in front of me, grinning victoriously.
"You're going to enjoy this," he sneers.
I spit in his face.
He slaps me across mine.
"Bitch," he grunts. "You really need to be taught a lesson."
I watch in sheer horror as he has his friends restrain me even more while he slowly reaches towards my chest. I shut my eyes and pray this is all a fucked up dream, that I'm really at home in bed with Peeta, having a terrible nightmare.
Suddenly everything goes quiet. My eyes are still closed, so I have no idea what's happening.
That is, until I hear the greatest sound in the world.
"Don't you dare lay a finger on my wife."
I snap my eyes open and I see Peeta standing behind the leader, awake, alert, and angrier than I could ever fathom him being.
"Last chance scumbag," Peeta warns.
"Fuck you," the leader snivels.
"Have it your way."
I've never seen my husband this confident, determined. The fact that it's because he's defending me only adds to the fuel in the fire that's heating up in my core.
The leader rolls his eyes sarcastically. He instructs his friends to keep holding me as he stands up and faces Peeta.
The drunkard reaches into his pocket and pulls out a switchblade, opening it dramatically.
Peeta just laughs, perplexing everyone.
"You think it's funny I'm going to kill you in front of your whore with my knife?"
"You call that a knife?" Peeta grins. He reaches around to his back and my heart swells with pride when I figure out what he's doing.
When he brings his hand back around, he's holding his Gerber blade that matches my own. We keep them razor sharp and they have fairly intimidating blades.
"Now that's a knife," Peeta smiles.
The man takes the bait. He lunges in attack, trying a wide, sloppy attempt to stab Peeta.
With his free hand, Peeta grabs his wrist before it's even close. Using the hard butt of his knife, he slams into the man's arm at the precise angle to make him involuntarily release his grip on the switchblade. It falls and clangs on the wood.
Peeta ever so slyly winks at me, and I somehow know exactly what's about to happen.
He sweeps his foot out and kicks the switchblade right towards me. At the same time, I use every ounce of willpower and strength I have and wrestle my right arm free. Our timing is perfect. I grab the switchblade and twist out of the other man's grasp, standing up quickly.
I keep my hand with the knife extended towards the two men who a moment ago were restraining me as I back up towards Peeta.
"Now what?" I whisper when I'm next to him.
"Take out your cell," he instructs calmly. I reach into my cargo pocket and retrieve it. "Call Eric."
I nod and dial Eric's cell phone number.
Peeta
They're finally gone. Once Katniss got ahold of Eric, it was just a matter of waiting for the authorities to arrive. The three men were 'escorted' off the mountain by Eric and a Maine state trooper.
Once we're alone again, and the adrenaline begins to wear off, we both sit down and lean into each other, more for moral support than physical.
"Thank you," Kantiss eventually whispers.
"For what?"
"You saved me," she simply shrugs. "Again."
"I'd die before I'd let anything happen to you," I sincerely reply.
"I know," she nods, giving me a peck on the cheek.
Silence falls over us again as we watch the sunset.
"I was terrified," I hear Katniss almost whimper. "I thought they were going to rape me and then you'd never want to be with me again."
Oh my god.
What do I say in this situation? How would I actually feel if my wife was raped? Would I be able to be intimate with her afterwards? Would either of us ever be emotionally ready for that?
"Peeta?" She timidly asks. I realize I've been silent since she spoke a minute ago.
"Hmm?"
"Would you still love me if they'd gone through with it?"
My chest constricts and my heart literally hurts me. Her voice is so unlike her normal one. She sounds like a terrified little girl, petrified of her own shadow, scared that she's somehow done something wrong.
I turn to look at her and almost break down myself at the look on her face. Sheer terror.
I reach up slowly and gently cup her face. Our eyes lock and I'd do anything to take away how she feels right now. Anything.
I lean in and kiss her as lightly as I can, not wanting to scare her or startle her.
"Kat," I whisper as our foreheads touch, "I will always love you no matter what."
She nods slightly but I can easily tell she's still reticent.
"I'm so sorry," she sobs. "Please don't hate me."
"What? Why would I hate you?"
"I - I - I don't think I can have sex tonight," she says so softly I barely hear it. She breaks eye contact and looks down, ashamed and embarrassed.
"Oh baby don't worry about that right now," I coax. "You have nothing to be sorry for."
"Our night's ruined," she laments.
"Not in the least," I protest. To her questioning look, I continue. "I'm in one of the most beautiful places on earth with my wife, who is certainly the most beautiful woman on earth. Just the fact that she's here with me makes this the greatest night of my life."
"Never leave me," she begs. "Please. I can't live without you."
"Well that works out perfectly," I smile, finally getting a small one in return. "Because I can't live without you either."
"Do you think that, um, we could go lie down and you could hold me?"
"There's nothing I want more in this world."
Instead of letting her stand, I dart up and scoop her into my arms. Even though we're only ten feet from the tent, she doesn't protest.
"There is one thing I want more than you holding me," she quietly tells me as I lay her down gently.
"What's that?"
"A baby. Your baby. Our baby."
As we snuggle in, I make sure to set my alarm so we can hike up to the summit to watch the sunrise. Katniss has an almost death grip on me, but I don't mind in the slightest.
Just before I slip into slumber, I hear her whisper one last thing.
"Don't worry baby. You'll get your knight-in-shining-armor reward tomorrow. I promise."
Katniss
The alarm jolts us awake at the same time. I'm attached to him like a barnacle to the hull of a boat.
"Good morning beautiful," he smiles after he turns the alarm off.
"Good morning baby," I whisper, trying to rid myself of residual sleepiness.
"We can go back to sleep if you want," he offers after he sees me heave a rather large yawn.
I shake my head.
"No. We came up here to see the sunrise and that's exactly what we're going to do." I punctuate my statement with a charged kiss.
"I was hoping you'd say that," he grins.
We somehow disentangle and get ready. While Peeta makes some oatmeal, I pack up all our gear. Once again, I finish and he's still working, so I sit next to him and lean my head on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" He quietly asks. I don't need clarification as to what he's referring.
"To be honest I don't really know."
"Well when you're ready, I'm here to help."
"I know," I nod and softly kiss his cheek. "Just you being here with me helps me more than anything."
That gets me the huge smile I love so much.
As we quickly scarf down breakfast, the mood gets lighter and lighter. The breaking point is when I playfully flick a spoonful of oatmeal right onto his face. I burst out laughing and he playfully pouts.
"Sorry," I manage between laughs, "couldn't help it."
"Very funny Mrs. Mellark," he tries to keep a straight face. It just makes me laugh harder.
Before I can react, Peeta's tickling my sides. He's the only person in the whole world who knows just how ticklish I am. I writhe and laugh and beg him to stop.
"Peeta! Please baby! Ha ha ha! Stop! Ha ha ha ha!"
"I'll stop if you help clean my face of this oatmeal," he smirks.
"Gladly," I smirk back.
He leans down and kisses me hard. I give it back as best I can, then use my tongue to tantalizingly clean his chin and cheeks and nose.
"Better?"
"Mmmm, much," he grins and gives me another kiss. "Come on, I don't want to miss the sunrise."
The hike to the summit is much shorter than I remember. We hold hands the whole way up, and before I know it we're approaching the west summit. So far, the sky is perfectly clear, and is beginning to gradually fade from black to that almost frosted blue that appears just before the sun peeks over the distant horizon.
"Looks like we picked the right day," Peeta breaks the silence.
"Mmhmm," I mumble, still admiring the view.
The summit is how I remember it. It's small, and there's a sing with the name of the mountain and the elevation. We find a large rock facing east and sit down, my back pressed up against his chest, the exact same position we were in when he asked me to marry him.
"Perfect," I sigh quietly.
The only agreement I get from my husband is a featherlight kiss on the nape of my neck, giving me a small shiver.
"Quick, Kat," he says after a moment. "Turn and look west for a sec."
I heed his suggestion and we both turn to look west, towards New Hampshire. I see why he wanted me to. The sun is illuminating the very tip top of Mt. Washington in the White Mountains. Washington is the highest mountain in New England. While it's small in comparison to say the Rockies, it's notorious for it's unpredictable, violent, and sometimes fatal weather patterns. While in the summer thousands of people drive their cars right up to the summit, in the winter, experienced climbers use the mountain to prepare themselves for Alpine weather conditions. For a long time, the highest recorded windspeed of all time belonged to Washington, well over three hundred miles an hour.
"Whoa," I mutter.
"I know, right?"
We both just enjoy the view and the company as the sky gets brighter and brighter. It's going to be a beautiful day in the State of Maine.
I look down at Flagstaff lake, which is directly north of the Bigelows. The Bigelows actually constitute most of the southern shore of the lake.
"Peeta! Look! You can almost see our house!"
While most of it is hidden, I recognize the small cove we live on, and can make out the general shape of our home thought the thick forest surrounding it.
Peeta just chuckles and kisses the top of my head.
"Baby why are you being so quiet?" I finally blurt out.
I feel him shrug.
"No reason," he tries.
"Bullshit," I call his bluff. "Tell me what's wrong. Right now."
"I failed you," he quietly whispers, the pain evident in his tone. "I failed you and you almost paid for it."
Oh my poor, poor Peeta. He's only focusing on the first part of the encounter, when he got knocked down. It's like he doesn't remember saving me, or he thinks it wasn't enough. What do is say to him? How can I show him how grateful I am for his actions, but even more how I'm grateful for him?
"Stop being an idiot," I blurt out, regretting my harsh tone immediately. I take a deep breath and calm myself. "You saved me Peeta, more times than I can count." He tries to respond but I cut him off. "I'm not really done yet. I'm not talking just about the bread when we were kids or defending me from Gale. You've changed me, honey, and I will always be grateful. I was headed down a path before I met you that I honestly never want to step foot on ever again. I was lonely, angry, and sad. Then you came along."
I need to look into his eyes, so I slide off his lap and sit next to him.
"Look at me," I order. He does, and the look in his eyes almost causes me to scream in frustration and remorse. I steel my already shot nerves and continue. "Every single morning when I wake up, and I look at you, I get terrified. Terrified that one day I will wake up and find out that this was all a dream. But when I see your face in the morning light, when you smile and we kiss for the first time that day, I'm reminded how truly lucky I am. How blessed I am to have you, that you actually want to spend your life with me. Don't get me wrong. I'm so incredibly proud of you for all the times you've physically saved me, like when I almost fell on our descent on Everest. But that pales in comparison to how I feel when I look down and see my wedding ring."
He doesn't look convinced yet. I let out a sigh and grasp his hand.
"Feel," I instruct, placing his hand directly over my heart. "My heart beats every day because of you." That sounded a lot less sappy in my head, but I could care less at the moment. "We're alive, Peeta. We're together. We're a family."
There's only one thing left to do, and that's kiss him. He meets me halfway and by the time we finish, I know he feels better.
The comfortable silence between us returns, and we enjoy it holding hands tightly.
"Oh I'm sorry, we didn't realize anyone was up here," I hear a voice behind us.
Both Peeta and I whip our heads around and see two people, a man and a woman, on the summit with us.
"No worries," I smile warmly. "There's plenty of room up here."
We stand up and approach them to introduce ourselves. For once, I preempt Peeta.
"Good morning," I smile again. "My name is Katniss Mellark and this is my husband Peeta. Pleasure to meet you."
"Wait, are you the Katniss and Peeta?" The woman asks excitedly.
"Um, I guess?" I give a confused answer.
"Oh my god it's them Chris!"
"Sorry, how do you know who we are?" Peeta asks.
"You two are the talk of the whole climbing community," she explains. "Oh! Sorry! My name is Jenn and this is my husband Chris."
There's warm handshakes all around and we eventually sit down in a school circle.
"Everyone's heard about your story," Jenn goes on. "How you reconnected and fell in love. I have to admit, it sounds like a fairy tale."
"That's exactly what it is," I nod happily.
"Some people thought it was a hoax. That you did it for publicity. But they're obviously wrong," Chris says.
"How so?" I want to know.
"Really?" Jenn chuckles. "If we couldn't tell from the picture of you two on the altar, anyone who spends a minute with you can see how fiercely you're in love."
For some reason, this relative stranger's validation makes me swell with pride and love.
"Do you think I could take a picture with you Katniss?" Jenn nervously asks.
"Um, I guess," I shrug, not really knowing why she would want her picture taken with me.
We stand up and pose, and the beaming smile on her face makes me smile as well. Peeta even snaps a quick picture of us.
Eventually, we tell them it's time for us to move on. Finnick, Annie, Prim, Peeta's brothers, and Alice are coming up in a couple days and we need to start planning and preparing.
"That was cool," Peeta grins as we start our trek back down to our car.
"It's kind of weird that people we don't know recognize us," I reply, taking his hand in mine as the trail widens.
"You know, it's only going to get worse after Jon's article about us comes out," he correctly deduces.
"I know," I sigh, shrugging my shoulders a little helplessly. "Can we just hole up at home and refuse to answer the door or pick up the phone?"
"I guess we could," he chuckles. "But I thought there were a couple things we wanted to do. You know, like plan our second wedding and go on our road trip."
I smile instantly at the mention of our plans.
"Don't forget getting me knocked up," I tease, "but technically we can do that pretty much anywhere."
"I know it might sound juvenile, but I kind of want us to have our first child before Nan and Alice," he quietly tells me. I easily detect the hint of nervousness in his tone.
"I'm fairly certain you can count on that happening," I assure him. "Ever since we agreed to really try, you've barely let me get dressed at all."
"Whoa whoa whoa," he says with mock-seriousness as our car finally comes into view. "I think that's a two-way street and you know it, Mrs. Mellark."
"Fair enough," I smile as we toss our backpacks in the back of the Range Rover. "But I'm driving." I snatch the keys out of his hands and dart around to the driver's side, Peeta frozen momentarily in shock.
"It is your car," he smiles as he clambers into the passenger seat. "And you look so hot driving it," his smile turns into a saucy smirk.
Suddenly I have the innate urge to ignore any and all traffic laws in my haste to drag my husband into our bed.
"Don't forget we have to stop at the Sherrif's to give our official statements," he reminds me. I huff and pout and he just laughs.
"It's not funny," I try to sound serious but he just laughs harder.
"Okay, okay," he says between chuckles, "I'm sure it won't take that long."
I think it over, and my decision comes easily. We're still way off the beaten track, thick forests surrounding the dirt road that we're traveling down.
I pull off the road and carefully drive fifty or so yards into the woods. I turn the engine off and silence drapes over both of us.
"Um, Kat, are you lost or something? The road's back that-a-way."
"Nope, not lost," I shake my head. He still looks confused, adorably confused. I roll my eyes.
"Ooh okay," he says unsurely.
"I guess I have to explain it to you. Let's get started on beating Nan and Alice. Right. Now."
His eyes widen and his smile grows. We're going to be late for our appointment with Eric. Who cares. «»