A/N: I hope you guys liked what I did with the last chapter. A huge thanks to brand new beta Emily Ellis for helping me with these chapters onwards.

And even better news, after the other fics are published, I will make one final fic. I will write this fic again, but this time, from Katniss's perspective.

With the competition I started in Chapter 19, you still have until the 29th to send me an email with the four images. I hoped you guys would be more willing to take me up on it. Look at Chapter 19 for more details.

Hide the Truth

What did she just say? Did she just say that she's... Katniss reads my face well. She says, "Yes. I am."

I say the first thing that pops into my head. "How long...have you known?"

She wipes tears from her eyes. "Remember the night you woke up from a nightmare? And you started yelling for me?"

I think back to that night. I remember the violent nightmare I had one night. I woke up and she came running from the bathroom. "Yes."

She says, "I confirmed it that night. Not with a test, but just thinking back several weeks. I realized that my last period was in May."

So that was why she was in the bathroom so late into the night. Through my labored breathing, I ask, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I...because...because I couldn't put you through that pain. Of losing more than just me. Back when only one of us could make it out, I thought it'd be better if you didn't know to begin with. I'm sorry. I know I should've told you."

I don't feel angry, not at all. She's right to have had that fear. "When do you think it happened?"

She smiles tearfully, and lifts her shirt and places my hand against her belly. "I'm pretty sure it's from my birthday."

It makes sense, she said something to the effect of two months. The only time we had sex at that time was that picnic on her birthday. I can't believe it. That night, her birthday. It meant so much to both of us, finally losing our virginity. And now, to know that night gave us a kid... It means so much more.

If anybody says that her pregnancy doesn't change anything, than they are true monsters. I used to think the deaths of children as young as Rue and Prim was the worst that the Capitol could do, but now I've just found something far worse. Katniss will make it. Even if I don't make it, she has to make it out of here. For her family, for our kid.

Before I can say anything, Katniss seems to read my mind. She says, "I'm not gonna leave you. You're gonna make it. You and I. We're gonna get out of here, and you're gonna get to hold your baby." She lowers her face and gives me a passionate kiss, a passion I've been yearning for for several days now. She rests my head down on a soft bag and rests herself on my much larger frame, her legs intertwined with mine and her head right over my heart. A familiar position, just like her birthday, a happier day. I remember what she said that day so clearly, how she was afraid of what could happen. She was right, too right. As always, if something could get worse, it will.

We just lay here together, seemingly alone. Katniss seems to be sleeping. I think about our baby, and what this world will do to it. Katniss and I both know that I'm not gonna make it. It's up to her to protect it just the same way she did Prim. Katniss's mother will as well. I look around the cave, and find an odd spot close to the floor, it seems to be moving. I think it's a camera. I look at the ceiling again. Thank you mom. Thank you for telling me to at least try to have a relationship with Katniss. I was too much of a chicken to actually try my luck with her, but it was because of you that I wasn't apprehensive at having a relationship with her. Thank you mom.

As it turns out, Katniss isn't sleeping. She rouses and looks at me. She says, "I should also tell you, that nobody knew. Not Prim, not my mom, not Haymitch or Effie, not even Cinna. No one knew. It was something I kept from everyone...except for Rue."

"When did you tell her?"

She looks down sheepishly, "During the last day of training. You chose to stay on your own at the survival skills one last time, and I went with her to the crafting area. I confided it in her. I needed to get it off my chest."

I don't feel anger at her keeping this from me. "Why did you feel like you had to hide it from me? From everyone else, even Prim?"

Catnip answers, "I don't even fully know. I guess, I was just afraid. I've never been pregnant before, and I didn't know how you'd react. I didn't know if it would be good for you to know, it'd just cause more pain...if you lost me. But after losing Rue, I realized...I couldn't keep it from you anymore. With everyone else, I don't really know why. I honestly can't answer that."

I try to make light of our situation, "Well. In that case. I think you stopped the heart of Panem when you said that I'm gonna be a daddy."

She gives a slight chuckle. "I guess Seneca Crane was right when he said that this...us...would make these games really interesting."

"He even went as far as giving us both a chance to walk out of this arena alive." Though not really, since I may as well be dead already. I think Catnip feels the same way. I slap myself mentally, berating myself for even letting my hopes start to rise.

"I love you, Gale."

"I love you too, Catnip."

I have to tell her. "Katniss. No matter what happens to me, you have to make it out of here. You have to live. For our kid. Just like Rue said. Promise me that you'll make it out of here."

She sits up. "I'm not gonna promise you that. Because you're gonna make it too. We both are."

Okay. It's not worth it to try and convince her otherwise. I'll leave her to her beliefs and wishes. She goes back to cuddling me. I change the subject. "That explosion, yesterday, what was that?"

"That was me. At the careers' camp. They had all their stuff in a pile. First thing I saw was the new guy they had with them, the boy from 3. I saw him running off with the others to the first fire. I noticed all these piles of dirt around the pedestals we came off of when we got here. At first I wasn't certain about what that meant. Until I saw Foxface. She came in and started jumping around the area. I realized that they must have used the guy from 3 to reactivate the mines that Haymitch mentioned. I shot at a bag of apples, and they all went off at once, destroying the pile, and my hearing in my left ear."

Her ear concerns me, but I'm more worried about something else. "Katniss. Are you sure the baby's alright?"

She confidently responds, "Yes. I'm pretty sure that I would know if the explosion did anything to hurt it."

"I hope so."

She massages my abs a little and reassures me the baby's fine. I know she'd tell me otherwise, but I still am just worried. Something comes into my mind. "Katniss, so when you were reluctant to go through with this plan, it wasn't because you were reluctant to hurt others was it?"

She says, "That was a small part of it. But yeah, it was mostly because I had known by then that I was pregnant."

We spend what feels like forever with Catnip laying against my weakening and sickly body. Out of the blue, I ask her, "What do you think would've happened? If our fathers were still alive?"

She sits up a bit and faces me, instantly understanding what I mean. "I honestly…I don't know. I would love to think that we would've found each other."

I'm surprised she didn't ask me why I was asking. But I guess she knew we would have this talk at some point. I ask, "If you had the choice, to choose a life with your father, what would you choose?"

Catnip sighs, and opens her mouth to say something, but doesn't. It's too deep of a question to really ask, but I'm certain we both know the answer to it. We both know ourselves well enough to know that we would likely choose our fathers. Neither of us admit it to one another. I'm willing to bet we don't even admit it to ourselves. I know I'm not admitting it to myself.

Katniss finally says, "It doesn't really matter what we would choose now. Fate already chose it for us. But to answer your question. I wouldn't change a thing if I knew I would have you in my life." Too bad you won't have me in your life much longer. I realize too late that I just thought aloud when I look at Catnip's despondent expression. She quietly whispers, "Stop thinking that way. You're gonna make it."

"Catnip. At this point, we have to be real. We both know that I'm not gonna make it, unless we get some kind of miracle."

"Well then we'll just have to make one."

Attention tributes. Attention. Tomorrow at dawn, we, being the generous hosts that we are, will hold a feast at the Cornucopia.

Feasts. Yeah fucking right. These are just ploys to get the tributes back together to try and get the games to get more exciting for a moment. It's to create another bloodbath between the remaining tributes. Too bad neither me nor Katniss will fall into their trap. We don't need a stale loaf of bread to keep either of us alive.

Some of you may wish to decline our invitation. But this is no ordinary feast. This is a very special occasion. Each of you needs something desperately. For some of you, this will be your last chance.

Katniss immediately looks at me, and I know what she wants to do. I know it because it's what I would do. I need medicine to treat whatever's happening to me, which I'm gambling is blood poisoning.

"Catnip, no," I say weakly

"I don't have a choice, Gale. I already told you, I'm not letting you die."

"And I'm not letting you fall into that death trap." I grab her with a surprising amount of force considering my current state of weakness. "I won't let you go."

"You can't stop me, and I'm not gonna let the father of my baby die!"

I desperately yell, "If you go and you die, so will I, and so will our kid! If you don't then you and our baby definitely can and will make it."

She doesn't respond, but I know that she's not having it with me fighting against her. She turns her head away. "Gale. You know that I'm going to go anyways. You can't stop me, and you can barely move. You won't last much longer. You need the medicine, and no matter what you say, I'm going to get it."

I know that I can't stop her, but I could never live with myself if I didn't make some attempt at stopping her. "I know I can't stop you. But will you at least take some of my knives?"

She looks down at the pile of sickly flesh that is me, and she bends down at takes a couple of sharp, but easily concealable knives.

"Thank you, Catnip." I make one last desperate plea, "Please don't go. Please, choose yourself. For our kid."

She doesn't say anything else, she simply turns away from me and droops her head down for a few moments. She says, "I could never live with myself knowing that I simply let you die. And I could never look this baby, our baby, in the eyes, and tell him or her one die that their father died because I didn't take the chance to save his life. I will never just stand by and let you die. You know that. So stop trying to stop me."

I finally concede. "Okay." She comes back to me, and cuddles me again. And I hold her close to me.

"I love you Gale."

"I love you Catnip."

The loud ringing noise of a sponsor gift parachute rings out through the cave. Katniss immediately perches up, and goes outside to find it. She comes back in holding a small unopened case.

"What gift could help us now?" I say sarcastically.

Katniss opens it and shows off a metal syringe filled with a dark green liquid, and an elastic band. The note reads:

Congratulations on the baby. Stay alive. This will keep him alive until the morning. H.

Catnip looks up and repeatedly thanks Haymitch from afar. I offer her my injured left arm. It's the first time I get to see how bad I really look. My skin is all slightly discolored with the veins almost black in appearance. I'm surprised I have feeling and can even move it. It looks like my arm is just rotting away. I can imagine that this probably reaches into my torso as well. Katniss wraps my arm with the band to bulge the veins and gives me an injection. It takes a few moments for the liquid to fully drain from the syringe into my body, but I can already see some revitalizing effects on me, the veins start losing their discoloration all throughout my arm. It's slow, but I imagine it's a good sign. I hope I don't lose it if I make it out of here.

Katniss takes the band off, and says, "See. I told you not to give up. You're gonna be okay."

I look up and start thanking Haymitch, much as Katniss did earlier. Maybe it is worthwhile to hope for the best.

Song credit: Demons by Imagine Dragons