Hello guys, baby's name will be revealed in this chapter so I hope you all voted !
I am woken up by someone gently shaking my shoulder. I try to sit up and then moan with pain because of the stitches. I open my eyes and see all of my family. Mother, Rory, Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch and Effie. They all look so happy, I wonder why and then remember, My babies.
"Morning sweetheart, or afternoon, I should say," chuckles Haymitch.
"Mm ?" I say, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
"It's three' o' clock in the afternoon." Mother explains.
I don't answer, just let my eyes travel to Rory who's holding our two beautiful girls. They are so adorable that I don't want to take my eyes off them. Then I remember, it's Katniss's birthday today.
"Happy birthday," I say, "Sorry the twins were born on your birthday."
"There's no need to be sorry. I like it. At least this way everyone will stop going on about my birthday." she smiles, directing a warning glance at Peeta. He takes the hint and doesn't mention what happened yesterday. I wouldn't either.
I hold out my arms for my two children. I can't stop looking at them. I settle back against the bed covers, looking at how far I've come in nine months.
"Prim, I have some news for you," says my mother and I can tell from her face and tone of voice that it won't be good.
"Well, because of the burns you sustained in the rebellion, and of the scar tissue. I'm afraid you can't breastfeed. I'm so sorry Prim." She says gravely, her eyes full of sorrow.
This doesn't hurt me as much as I thought it would. True, I had always wanted to nurse them myself, breast milk is healthy and makes them stronger. But now I have the twins in my arms I find that I don't really care. It just makes me feel the tiniest bit sad that I won't be the only one who will be able to feed them. Someone else will be able to.
"May I hold one of them?" asks Effie, surprisingly quiet. I think somebody's told her that you need to be quiet in a hospital. I hand over my beautiful baby girl. She's so tiny, she's not even twenty four hours old yet.
"Hello baby, I'm your Auntie Effie." She whispers, her eyes full of tears. I almost tear up seeing her and Haymitch bond over my little girl. It reaffirms the idea in my mind that her and Haymitch would be great parents. Not that you'd catch me telling them that.
"Right, I think we should leave Prim and Rory alone now." says Katniss, her voice leaving no room for argument. It always amazes me how she can do that ; make people do things without making her tone of voice sound stern or annoyed. It's strange and wonderful.
Effie hand the baby back reluctantly and trails after Haymitch out the door. The moment it clicks I let out a sigh, peace at last.
"What do you think we should call them?" whispers Rory, sitting down on the chair that's beside my bed.
"I liked that name you said, Ava. I like that it means "Breath of life" it's quite a fitting name."
"What one should we call Ava?"
"I don't know, they both look the same. They both have blue eyes at the moment," all of a sudden, one lifts up her little fist and taps me on the arm.
"Aw Rory, I think she like that name." I coo, laughing a little.
"I think you're right. Let's write her name on her tag." he says and does so. They both have this little band around their wrist. It will help us know which one is which until they start changing. Ava. She suits that name.
"What should we call her sister?" I say, I can't have Ava having a name for too long without her sister having one. It's just not right.
"How about one that means 'Peace' ? I think that would be good, after everything that's happened," suggests Rory, stroking her soft baby cheek.
" I like that," I say softly, "how about 'Serena' ? I know for sure that means peace."
"That's a beautiful name. Welcome to the world Ava and Serena."
It's a further two days before we are allowed home. The moment I step through my front door with one car-seat in my hand I sense that everything will be different. Here comes the sleepless nights, the 2am feeds. But also here comes first smiles, first words, first laughs and first looks.
Rory comes in after me, holding Serena's car-seat. He sets it down beside Ava's and kisses me on the cheek. Then he kneels beside the twins and whispers, "welcome home."
We get to work straight to work. Sorting out baby clothes, the twins' room. Effie and Haymitch gave us a two lovely mahogany cradles with doves carved along the side. We got Peeta to paint the room which is a lovely cream colour with a border of teddy bears halfway up the wall. We have two changing tables, two wardrobes, two sets of drawers, two baby baths. Essentially two of everything.
It's not just the spare room which has changed, the whole house has. The cradles are in our room for the moment. The living room has two more cradles - though these are ones Rory made from pine at the wood-shop. The kitchen has almost thirty bottles on the work tops, two bottle sterilisers and ten boxes of baby formula. The bathroom is full of rubber duckies and baby shampoo, baby soap and the softest sponges you could ever imagine.
"Rory, wake up. The twins need fed." I moan tiredly, it's his turn. I was up last night with them.
"Wha- . No Prim, you do it, I need to sleep," he groans, still half asleep.
"I need to sleep too," I hiss into his ear but I get out of bed anyway and head over to the twins' cot. "Hello my sweet girls. It's okay, I'll feed you. You're daddy obviously doesn't love you enough," I soothe and pad downstairs to the kitchen to heat up two bottles. I could really use Rory's help - I'll have to feed them one at a time which is a lot harder than it sounds.
By the time the twins have been fed and changed it's three o' clock in the morning. It has taken an hour. I am too exhausted to sleep. I just lie there staring up at the white ceiling, waiting for the six' o'clock feed..
It's a bright May Thursday morning, the 15th, the twins are exactly one week old. Katniss and I are sitting in the living room, talking about sleepless nights. Michael is on his play mat, surrounded by bright shapes and colours. Ava and Serena are sleeping in their cradles at the window. Yesterday I got one tiny smile from each of them. From the way I carried on you would have thought that I had just won a ton of money.
There is a knock at the door. Katniss shouts, "Come in!" and Effie totters in, trying to walk in a dignified way with her ten inch heels.
I'm not surprised Effie is here. She has tried to visit as much as she can over the past week, unable to stay away from the babies.
"Hello Effie," I say politely, trying to stifle a laugh because of her new wig colour. White, because I told her that she couldn't visit the twins with shocking pink hair. She would make them have a hear attack, or at the very least a panic attack.
"Hello my dears. I was just popping in to see the children, I hope you don't mind." I don't even have time to say anything before she's right over at the cradles, cooing and stroking their hair. There's something wrong with Effie, she seems so much quieter and - I hate to say it - nervous. Effie ? Nervous?
"Effie, come and sit down. Have some lemonade, the weather is so hot," I say, trying to act nonchalant. Katniss just sniggers and rolls her eyes. I'm obviously not very good at faking nonchalance.
"Yes, thank you. I also came over to tell you something. Something, that has… left me rather confused." She says, her eyes darting from left to right.
"What is it Effie ?" Katniss and I say in unison, both dying to know what she has to say.
"Haymitch," she takes a deep breath, "Haymitch Proposed."
Hope you like this chapter. Sorry it's not very good and sorry it's so short, I am actually terrible at writing fluff. Byee!