Chapter 20 – Distractions
Katniss stood with the Doctor in the back corner of the room, talking in hushed voices that sounded tense. Peeta was watching Lillian closely and Finnick was trying to get Annie to fall asleep against him just for a little while, but she wasn't having any of it. The other twelve mentors had gone off to their own rooms and were bored. There really wasn't much for them to do because the boys had gotten the three of them so many supplies and they had somehow been saved by the birds. The Doctor was arguing with Katniss and Peeta didn't feel like dealing with that at the moment. He was sick of everything already, positive that Snow had planned everything to be his own personal hell.
He usually never drank, but because they had anticipated Haymitch in the mentor group, the room had been stocked with liquor of all kinds by the Gamemakers and Peeta sat with a bottle in the corner of the room. Every few seconds he'd press it to his lips and would shudder as the liquid burned its way down his throat. He could have chosen something lighter, better tasting, but he'd craved something stronger that would distract his mind from the ache in his chest. The pain was just too much in his chest and he just wanted some kind of distraction, something to numb himself just a little. The liquor at least helped when it went down and he could feel the waves of drunkenness start to gently slosh at his brain, getting ready for the full waves that were sure to come as well.
For the last few years he had struggled to come to terms with the fact that his oldest child and only daughter was dead, or so he had been told on many occasions by Katniss, the capitol and Snow. Yet standing five feet from him, flirting shamelessly with one of the mentors from four was his daughter. His daughter who had told him that she preferred someone else as her father without even knowing him. Not just anyone else though, but Gale Hawthorne of all people. It had been a low blow as far as he'd been concerned. Snow could have given his daughter to any other family in the capitol, saved anyone from twelve, but it was Gale Hawthorne he'd saved.
Peeta had never liked Gale. He'd tried to be friendly with the man when he and Katniss had started to spend more time with him. It had been a struggle not to hit the man every time they met, but he'd somehow managed. Now Peeta wanted to rip his heart out or at the very least make him feel every pain he'd ever felt because of him. Gale had always held the attention of Katniss when Peeta couldn't so much as get a quick glance. Gale had spent hours with Katniss where Peeta couldn't get two seconds in school. Gale had helped Katniss more times than Peeta could have ever hoped to. Gale had been there when Katniss had found out she was having a girl. Gale had been there for all of Katniss' sleepless nights, to watch as Leta had grown within her, felt Leta kicking in Katniss, held her hand as she'd given birth, everything Peeta had wished he could have done. Gale had now gotten to watch his daughter grow up, be there for more firsts than Peeta, held her when she had a bad dream, comfort her when she got scared and watch her grow into such a wonderful and beautiful young lady. Peeta was jealous.
Yes Peeta had gotten to experience all of that with Jay, but it had been different. Leta had been Katniss and his first child, they had done the toasting in secret because they wanted to raise their baby together, even if there was a chance it wasn't Peeta's. Gale had taken almost everything from him and had even almost managed to steal Katniss away from him. Peeta prayed very hard that he never saw Gale again because he was likely to kill the man just because he could. Even with an artificial leg, he was still faster and stronger than Gale, they had already proven that the last time they had met and Peeta and he had gotten into a very bad physical fight.
" Earth to Peeta! Come in Peeta! Mellark!" Finnick's voice snapped, pulling Peeta from his brooding.
Peeta's head snapped up in Finnick's direction with a deep scowl that would have scared any child. " What?" He demanded roughly, sure that the alcohol was starting to take its effect on him at long last.
" I was just wondering if you needed to take a walk." Finnick sighed, he looked as tense as Peeta felt and to be honest, Peeta felt he needed to get away from Lillian for a while.
" Yes, a walk would be heaven to me at this particular point in time." Peeta sighed as he stood up and set the bottle down on a table. He said nothing else until he was out in the hall and Finnick had shut the door behind him. Peeta let out and anguished yell and whirled around, punching a wall. He very rarely let his temper get in his way, but this was one of the times he was thankful to have something else to hit rather than a person.
" Alright, I can see you're having some issues and I'm guessing they stem from Lillian, I mean Leta, well you know who I mean." Finnick muttered, not really sure what to called Peeta and Katniss' daughter.
" Don't call her Lillian when Katniss isn't around. Lillian is the name that backstabbing man gave her! That is Leta Mellark in there and I'll be damned if I'm going to call her Lillian Hawthorne!" Peeta snapped as he gave Finnick a look that could have killed an elephant.
Finnick nodded and crossed his arms, walking over to sit on a bench. " That's fine by me." He agreed.
Peeta was starting to breathe heavily, his anger finally starting to really make itself known. " Lillian Hawthorne, he had the audacity to give her that ridiculous name! Katniss had to fight him for months to get the name Leta and then he turned around and changed it! He couldn't even keep the last name of Everdeen!" He exclaimed, frustrated to no end.
" Maybe it was Snow's idea." Finnick suggested, trying to stay neutral and level headed for Peeta's sake.
" My vote is no. Gale always wanted Katniss and Leta to be his, even though he didn't want to step up when Katniss first found out she was pregnant, he expected me to back down when he decided to play daddy and wanted to actually be involved. He had the guts to try and blackmail me into leaving Katniss and never having anything to do with Leta just so he could win! He never saw Katniss as anything other than a competition and something to be hunted and conquered much like his prey. He's very lucky Katniss doesn't even hate him! Had the attack on the capitol gone the way it was supposed to, his bombs idea would have killed Prim!" Peeta shouted, tugging at his hair.
Finnick was silent for a moment, but when they heard footsteps, both men's heads turned quickly to the sources direction. Finnick jumped up instantly to hold Peeta's arms as Peeta cursed loudly.
" Nice to know what you really thought of me. You were right though, it was my idea to name her Lillian Hawthorne, it should have been her name. I was supposed to marry Katniss, but then you came back from your hijacking and there went that." Gale sighed lazily as he stood in the middle of the hall with a smug look.
Peeta felt the color drain from his face. " You haven't changed a bit you prick." He snarled.
" And neither have you. I thought you would be a lot more civilized what with being a married man and having two kids." Gale countered. He smirked happily at the sight of Finnick however. " Hello there Finnick, it's good to see you again." He said chippily.
" Wish I could say the same to you Gale." Finnick replied curtly.
" Now, now Finnick, no need to be rude to me. I'm only here to help with Echo." He sighed as he waved it off carelessly.
Peeta started to say something, but Katniss swung the doors open and stormed to Peeta, not even noticing Gale. " I want Lillian gone! She was just spouting nonsense about Gale of all people!" She exclaimed.
Peeta wrapped his arms around her protectively as Gale snickered and her face snapped in his direction fiercely. Seeing him, the color drained from her face in an instant, seeming to amuse him. " Lillian gave you the message than Catnip?" He asked playfully as he folded his hands behind his back.
Katniss stammered nonsense for a few seconds before letting out a small groan and fainting in Peeta's arms. " You're in so much trouble when she wakes up…" Peeta murmured as he supported Katniss' slumped over figure.