Author's Note-
I know it's been forever and I am so sorry. Two months. I've started writing my first for real story and I got caught up between that and making a new fanfic with someone. I hope you will actually appreciate this chapter, it's different. This whole chapter of 11k words is about how Mandy and Wayne came to be. How they had personal connections with Katniss and Peeta before the Games and before they were connected to them because of Mandy working in the bakery. Please give it a go! I've changed some of the events from The Hunger Games books to fit it in my way and I hope you don't hate me for that. Please give it ago, because the next chapter will be half of Mandy's POV and Jo's/Gale's POV.
Chapter 29-
Mandy's POV
I met Wayne while I was travelling to 6 with a friend for a holiday away from home. I had quit my job in 9 as a shop attendant in an attempt to get back to my true home in 12. I left because I needed some time away from the coal and I found myself in 9 before I could do anything else. We were in a bar just having a fun drink when I looked over my shoulder and saw him sitting in a booth alone. He was holding a glass of whisky and he was staring at me, his face was almost expressionless before he smiled and took a sip of his whiskey. That night he came up to me and he started talking to me, we ended up retreating to the booth I first saw him in and we laughed almost the whole night.
My friend and I left that bar, Wayne with my number so we could arrange another meeting. It was only a few minutes after we got back to our room when the phone rang and Wayne was on the line. We ended up talking for almost the whole night. He promised to show my friend and I around 6 that following day. At first my friend, Oryna said that someone so persistent probably meant trouble, but I didn't believe her for a second. I already felt those fireworks which scared me and I wasn't going to let Oryna stop me from at least getting to know him more before finding out that he is some psycho killer. He seemed to genuine to be a psycho killer, his morals were too high and real. When I look back on how I felt when I talked to him that night, I could only know I was already in love with him. We covered almost every topic on my trip to 6.
Seven days after meeting Wayne, I had to come back to 12. The only train was leaving and I had a job lined up in 12 to get to. I cried on that train. I didn't want to leave him after such little time. Before I boarded, he gave me a kiss on the cheek and gave me a hug before promising that he would find me in 12 eventually. With his job as a teacher in 6, he had resources to connect with the other Districts to find citizens and children. So, as soon as I got back to 12, my mother gave me the number that Wayne called from. She asked me all about him and I told her everything. Within many phone calls, we fell in love within the different Districts. Soon it came to be the end of the year. The 69th Hunger Games had commenced and both out Districts lost again. When Christmas came, we shared our small gifts which we could afford whilst having the money that we did. I had a pretty good job working in the Hall of Justice up until the 75th Hunger Games, it wasn't the worst thing I could have done, but still wasn't the easiest.
The day after Christmas, I called Wayne but he didn't pick up. I got worried. He always answered my calls, even if it was on the last ring. It didn't seem right when he didn't pick up. I tried to think nothing of it and then I went for a walk. I headed into the town and watch the children fighting for food scraps on the street. It made me sad and I wished to give them food, but I realised I had no money. So, I had to walk on. The train station was one of the best looking places in 12. It was always new and had a nice long strip of beautiful concreate which had glass roofs and walls which walked through the woods. I walked a lap of that before coming back up to the stations platform.
A train had come in and I was hoping the ingredients I had ordered would be on their along with some passengers. I had ordered things to bake with. I had realised that it was something I would do if the District 12 bakery wasn't only family owned by the Mellark's, so I had to deal with making it for myself and my mother. I walked past the people coming off when I saw a head above all else's. I called out him name before I could even process it. The head whipped around and those green eyes captured mine. A smile came across his face and it mirrored mine. I ran and caught up with him, he kissed my fore head and both my cheeks. I stared up into his eyes and I was in awe. I couldn't believe that Wayne had come to 12. He wanted to when I did, be because of his class, he couldn't. I asked him why he was here and it was because he had managed to get a job here in 12 at the school. He had come here to live for the next year, hopefully even the next. I was so happy that I didn't even think when I leaned up and kissed him.
It was a rash move, but I couldn't help it. It had been something that I had been wanting to do for ages now and he didn't seem to hate it. He accepted it and didn't do anything to push me away. After we broke away, he smiled down at me and grabbed my hand. We walked into 12 and I showed him everything, even if there wasn't much to see. I was luckier than most, with my job I managed to live in the Merchant side of town with my mother. We had always been on the brink of Seam and Merchant, but we weren't really fussy with anything like that. As long as we lived through the chances of being picked for the Games and had a shelter over our head, we didn't care where we lived.
We got back to my house and my mother and father welcomed Wayne straight away. She was always like that, accepting people when they knew if they were a good one or not. It took my father more of him to warm up to him, but Wayne had the kind of affect one someone when trying to get them to warm to him. God knows he warmed me to him the first moment I saw him. My mother invited him to live with us, even though I was going to do that anyways. From that night on, everything fell into place. We began to fall even more for each other now we were seeing each other face to face. When I wasn't at work, I was looking over Wayne whilst he prepared for the school year ahead, even helping with it.
I loved watching him create such fun and important things which he would teach the children in the year ahead. He always loved teaching children things that they would take with them for the rest of their lives. Since he teaches grade sevens and eights, that's when they start getting picked for the reaping. So, he like to make it as calm of an environment as he can before they could possibly be going into a Games where they are killed on-screen for the world to see. He has seen some of his best students leave to get slaughtered in the Hunger Games and that's what makes his working life just that little bit harder. But, it doesn't stop him from trying to make their school lives fun even if they are sent to the Hunger Games.
From then on, Wayne started teaching and I kept going to work. We managed to keep a relationship going whilst in the confides of a home with my mother. She's caught us a few times just making out, but she doesn't make anything of it. She knows that she used to be like that and that we are of legal age to mess around and make our own choices, so she doesn't make anything of it. She brushes it off because she knows that her and my father used to do the same things. It's always been lucky that she has caught us and not my father, he wouldn't have appreciated that. It got to the summer when Wayne started getting distant with the reaping of the 70th Hunger Games drawing near. I knew it was because he could possibly lose one of his students. I tried to comfort him the best I could, but it didn't stop anything. When the reaping came and none of his students were picked, he was extremely happy. So were his students. They all got another year to live. Wayne got myself to bake some things for him to take in as a feast for getting through this year's Hunger Games.
Summer break came when Wayne wanted me to meet his parents, so we travelled up to 6 on the train. He had his own house there as he was a part of a wealthy family. His father was an owner of an important group of transportation and his father bought him his own house since he was proud of his one and only child. So, for once since getting together we had time alone together. At this stage in time, we had never made love because of my mother and father always seeming to be at home. I think we both realised that it was going to happen on this trip. And I wasn't the least bit scared for it. If anything I had been wanting it. Wayne and I knew that it was something that the other wants. It's not something that was holding our relationship back, it was something to hold onto to get us through until it would happen. It had been ages since I slept with another. There was one fling on the my final reaping, even then it wasn't even sex. It was just messing around. I know that love making isn't everything in a relationship, but Wayne and I had dealt with everything else in relationship. Making love was just something that would come before a marriage proposal, considering neither of us are what some people would call Christians from a time before these Games. So, I was giddy with wonder about what could come.
When I met Wayne's parents, I was welcomed instantly. For those who are claimed wealthy for people in 6, they were lovely and they seemed to love me straight away. Wayne must have talked about me in ways that no one else had before. But, I wouldn't think that he would do anything less. Wayne is a sweetheart and I loved him. That night we left late from his parent's house that when we got back to his house, we fell to sleep straight away. It wasn't like I was expecting it that night, I was just waiting for the right moment. The next few days passed and Wayne introduced me back to the place where he lived. He showed me everything, putting a place to go with the descriptions he's given me since we met. It came to the third day we were in 6 when everything hit the fan. Wayne and I had, had fights but they were resolved before it was an extreme issue. Wayne was showing me all the places that his family owned and was talking about how wealthy his family had been whilst living in 6, that's when I lost it and couldn't take it anymore.
I yelled at him, saying that I didn't care how much money they had or how many places that his family owned. I didn't care for anything like that, I was sick of him saying how much his family had when all I could think was my family were next to nothing broke. Aside from my job and my father's where he worked distributing rations to the people of 12, we had nothing. I got paid more than anyone else in my family, yet it still wasn't enough to keep me in a stable financial position. At that stage since he had been talking about that for ages, I was ready to jump on a train and go back to 12 without him, since I was so mad. I ended up storming away in my fury and going back to his house, even then I didn't want to be there since it was owned by his family even though he didn't even live in 6 anymore. It was just a house sitting alone until someone would come back home and treat it as a home again. But, before I could even pack any bags, Wayne was back home.
He started telling me that he didn't even like the fact that his family had all this money. It was only useful to him when he needed transportation things like that, but apparently he was going to say later on that he hated it. He was always marked as a snob at school and all through his studies in order to become a teacher. He kept listing these things until I walked out of the room, ending up in the bedroom, co-incidentally. The next thing I know, my body is being turned around and I am greeted with Wayne's lips. I don't bother fighting with him, I just lean into the kiss. It seems like forever since we shared contact with each other. Wayne's hands slide from my cheeks down my arms, resting on my hips. My grip is on his biceps, my nails almost breaking the surface of his skin. I tip my head back as he slips his tongue through my lips.
After that, everything starts to get even more heated. Our kisses begin to get slopping as we are both now breathing heavily. I sigh as his lips leave my lips and trail down my jaw to my neck. I breathe heavily, holding onto him for dear life. I feel a fire within my body and it begins to scream out for attention, but my guilt of myself yelling at his is more powerful. I begin to apologise profusely and then he shushes me before i can explain my actions. The love in his eyes was so prominent as we just stared at each other, breathing deeply to come back from our sudden high of need. He then pushes me back slowly before the backs of my knees touch the bed and he gently settles me onto the bed behind us.
Everything after that blurred together and as long as I would live, I would never forget that day. We got back to 12 a few days later after making love every day since the first. Coming back home to a place where we couldn't, it was hard at first. But, Wayne managed to get my parents out of the house a couple of times after the next few months. Those nights were fantastic, every night being spent with him was fantastic. When Wayne started work again, that's when the nights together got lesser and lesser, as he started putting all his effort in to his school work. Not that I ever complained, I know how much he loves making his schooling for his kids the best thing that he could possibly do. So, I forgive him for that. Eventually, we started to get that time together back.
As the summer came that year, so did another Reaping and Hunger Games. Again, none of Wayne's children got picked for the Hunger Games and we all rejoiced. We all had a feast just like the previous year. The winner was someone that everyone would remember the name of. Johanna Mason from District 7. She went in with sarcasm filling her voice and came out vicious and even more sarcastic but extremely venomous. It was hard to believe that someone who looked innocent at first glance would be as vicious and dangerous as someone who had been training for their whole life, like a career.
I think that from all of the death she faced and also caused, the strong and venomous person that she appeared was just all an act. Which made her seem even more vulnerable in the world of what happens to the loved Victor's. Just like Finnick Odair. Won his Games at 14, youngest ever, but he has more charm than anyone else. You can't help but think how much he must cope with just from being a Victor that everyone loves. But, Johanna Mason won her Games by killing all her opponents with a spear. When the others came to s feast which occurred at the end of the Games, she killed them all with nothing holding her back. No one would ever mess with her after a performace like that. But, I bet Snow tried to push those limits.
It's when thee holiday's came that everything started to fall into place. I saw my father make more opportunities to talk with Wayne. My mother and father also started leaving us alone more. The next thing I knew, my mother was making the fuss out of pretty much nothing and everything. I was starting to get concerned and worried about why they were acting this way. I had no idea what was going on. I even asked her about it but she denied everything. It was the second off August when my mother and father both left the house for the whole day to go and see some family friends when things started getting even weirder. Wayne and I spent the whole morning in bed and not just resting or sleeping either. We got dressed around two in the afternoon and before we left the house. We walked through the Hob together and he bought some squirrel from a Seam man who had a girl around ten or eleven years old by his side. When we got back to the house, everything was still silent yet the atmosphere was different. Wayne had been fidgeting all the way back home and he was now constantly rubbing his hand down his pant leg.
He kissed me on the forehead before covering my eyes as we entered the house. I was very confused and that's when I started putting all the pieces together. I almost fainted at the thought of it. It couldn't have been true or real. He pressed his hands to my shoulders but I didn't open my eyes. I couldn't. They were glued shut. And it wasn't until Wayne's hands moved away from my shoulders and his steps growing further away that I opened them. My hands flew to my mouth as soon as I saw everything. There was a fire burning in the fireplace and a rug laid out with cushions from the couch and beds spread over it. As well as a plate of bread laying on the ground with a bowl of fruit surrounding another plate also sitting with the bread plate. Wayne grabbed my hands and he looked me dead in the eyes and said- Marry me.
I couldn't get the words out. So, instead I started nodding my head and crying pathetically. He kissed my lips and brought me into the biggest hug I could have ever want. We sat down on the mat and had our toasting, something I could have only dreamed about. Wayne then pulled out a small jewellery box from the top of the fire place. He pulled out a simple gold wedding band and said that it was his grandmothers. He slid it onto my finger and I kissed him with as much passion as I could possibly give back to him. We made love for hours and all I could think is I had finally got what I truly desired. A man to live by my side and to love me for the remainders of my days.
The following day, Wayne and I told my parents and they weren't as excited as I thought that they would be. I realised that they knew the whole time and that's why they were acting so strangely since the start of the holidays. We went to the Hall of Justice and got a marriage licensed signed and documented with my parents being the witnesses of the marriage signing. From that day on, I wouldn't be known as Miss Mandy Rosner, I would be known as Mrs Mandy Anderson.
After that, I also found out that Wayne had spoken to his parents and they sent us some money for our marriage to start off. The amount was obscene, but apparently Wayne already said that it was too much for us. They wouldn't take it back. So, Wayne bought us a house with that money. A beautiful old cottage on the outlines of the District which had been disowned and left for years on end without any love given to it. It was perfect for us. Something that we could build up together and make our own. We started making plans for it that very next day.
The new year approached and Wayne and I were so happy to be married. We had finished the renovations on our house and we were moved into it. It's a long walk into town and it would never not impress. Wayne and I walk into town every day so he gets to work at the right time and I get to work early. This year for Wayne, another new batch of kids for his year. Although, two of the students that he would have for the rest of this year would be known all around Panem within the next few years. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark make themselves into Wayne's class. Katniss Everdeen being the little girl who was with her father in the Hob who Wayne bought the herbs from on the day we got engaged. As soon as he came back that first day, he saw how the youngest Mellark was making googly eyes at the oldest Everdeen girl all day and not paying attention to his lessons. Wayne couldn't help but feel for the small boy who had a crush on the miners daughter.
It was a month into the school year came the tragic accident that caused almost the whole town to fall into a colossal heap of despair. The mining accident didn't just kill little Katniss's father leaving her mother a widow, but it also claimed my father. I heard from the girls at work. They said that there was a huge mining accident and that everyone was killed. I left work as soon as I could and I ran home. I couldn't see the last few minutes of running as my eyes were filled with tears. I burst inside and I broke down in the doorway of the lounge room. I couldn't breathe from my run back here and from not being able to hold my tears back for the loss of my father. I was so upset that I had lost him. He was the best father I could have asked for. He appreciated my decisions and he loved me for me and never asked too much of me.
Wayne found me in the same place I collapsed around half an hour later. He didn't say anything, he just wrapped his arms around me and allowed me to breakdown. Him holding me made everything even more worse, it made me feel even less strong than I was before. That never stopped him from saying that I was so strong. Wayne and I left the house a few hours after I had finished crying. We went to the mining sight where all the other families were waiting just encase there was any survivors to be pulled from the rubble. Wayne and I both stood with my trembling and heartbroken mother. Every time the people came back up, we all held our breath, hoping that it would be the person that we love to come out of that hole that is now in the ground. But, every time, we got let down. We got handed a hot drink as we waited as the day grew darker and so did our hearts.
Wayne started walking around to talk to the families because he was a very friendly person towards the others that are here in 12. From being a teacher, he knows a lot of children and their families. And after Wayne and I got married, he would let me come in and help out with the children on some days. He managed to get at allowed by the people who run the school. I would help read with them and I grew friendships with them. So, I said my condolences to some of the children and their parents that I came across during walking around the site where we were all gathered. I soon found some very familiar faces who had familiar stories.
I called the Everdeen girl and I saw her face filled with despair. I can't help but feel for her situation I know exactly how she feels as I just lost my father and so has she. I comment her on this and I see her start to cry. I can't help it when I bring the little girl into my arms and also start to cry. I'm surprised she would even allow this. We only know each other from my weekly reading with her class and from seeing her every so often in the Hob with her father. But, considering her father that I loved to buy good game from is now gone. She is obviously feeling extremely vulnerable and she must just want the comfort because I look over her shoulder and see her mother sitting there stunned and not moving a single muscle. Frozen in the spot and not watching her children at all, just the dead air between her and the mining accident. That was the first real encounter with Katniss Everdeen and it was something that I couldn't ever forget.
We held a funeral for my father a couple of days after that and then Wayne and myself went back to live with her as we needed to be with her just as much as she needed us to be. It was a few week before we all got back on our feet, but Wayne was there for all of the families in his class who lost a loved one. After my encounter with Katniss Everdeen, I never saw her vulnerable again. She sat and didn't communicate with anyone. I saw little Peeta Mellark with the most upset expression across his face as he watched her when I came in. I never saw him look so upset because he was always so cheery and making time happy. I started watching Katniss grow thinner and her clothes to become even more baggy than they were before. I watched her starved body as she hopelessly moved around the classroom and school yard. I wanted to do something, but Wayne said that we had no authority to do so and it made me so mad.
One day out of the blue, Wayne came home and he said that Peeta had come to school with a huge bruise on his face. I felt a pang in my chest after I heard this, I know he has come to school before with bruises, scratches and black eyes on his face. He is a child of parental abuse and that's pretty obvious. So, hearing this made me feel even worse. But apparently Peeta told Wayne how his mother hit him because he threw purposely burnt bread to Katniss who was dying outside of his home. I smile at how much Peeta would take just to make Katniss happy and alive. I couldn't believe someone so young would have such a huge heart for a girl that has never said a word to him. But, after that day, Wayne saw the difference in Katniss. She started to be more energetic and she would have the ability to smile every so often. I couldn't believe that Peeta Mellark saved her life. But, no one would realise that it was going start a chain of events leading to the safety of our country.
As the 72nd reaping drew close, I felt more for the children who were in Wayne's class. I had grown to them just as much as Wayne did. The pain that he felt every year I was now experiencing for the first time and it was horrible. As the reaping came, I couldn't help but pay attention for the first time in forever since my own reaping days. As the first name was called, nothing but happiness that every little girl we knew was safe for another year. Yet, I was feeling for the little merchant girl which had been reaped to fight to the death. But, when the boy was called a hand flew to Wayne's mouth and he grabbed onto my hand tightly.
I found out later that day that the boy that was reaped was one of the students that Wayne had when being here in 12. His name was Eliah Addamson and he was one of Wayne's most accomplished students in his class. Always paying attention, even if the other students in the class were extremely rude. He did all of the work and was one of the best students behaved in that year. Wayne cried at the thought of Eliah dying, but I couldn't do anything except also feel his pain, but just not in the same context. I knew that he was one of Wayne's best students just from him saying his name. I knew it straight away and I was heartbroken for my husband and what he could be feeling. I know I lost my father earlier on in the year, but I couldn't do anything more but wish that this couldn't be happening.
It was then that we both realise that within the years to come after this one, any one of Wayne's students could be in the Games. With the stakes and the possibilities being even higher. Eliah was fourteen when we went into the Games. He was still fourteen when he was lifted from the arena the second night after the Games began.
The winner was a poor young boy from District 11, which no one saw to win. The people who knew him apparently knew everything he had held back which he used as an advantage. His Victory interview was astonishing. The brave face that he had before he went in had gone completely and everyone could see how much the Games changed him. If only Snow realised how much those Games can do to another. If only children could be born and know that they wouldn't have to go into the Games before they even mature.
Wayne wasn't the same after seeing the little boy's death. I think a little part inside him died a little, but I couldn't do anything to help mend it. It was that moment that I wished that the year would finally be over because I had had enough of everything bad happening to everyone we knew that year. I wanted it over, I had enough of everything that year.
The year finally drew to a close and we said goodbye to Wayne's students with another party before waving them away to head up a level in school. We said goodbye to Katniss and Peeta and I just wished that they would be without the Games for the rest of their lives. I also hoped that little Mr Mellark would hurry up and talk to Katniss. I saw him constantly looking over her, but never did he utter a word. As we left school that last day, I knew that something would happen with those the youngest Mellark and the oldest Everdeen child, I just didn't know what. Never would I ever think that they would be the cause of the freedom of the country from the deadly grips of President Snow.
A new year came and so did a new batch of students. We were visited by Wayne's parents for the first time during the first couple of weeks. They stayed for a few weeks before being asked back home for a work emergency. The year flew by quickly and nothing bad happened. It was great for the pair of us considering how much we lost that year before. None of Wayne's children got picked and none of our family members died. It was just too much luck that we had that year which caused the fall of our lives within the following year. The year was that of the 74th Hunger Games and the reaping caused us to all feel for the people. Little Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark were put up to face the horrendous Games that Snow made every living child knew the pain of.
Wayne and I went home and mourned. Just like the families that Wayne knew from parent teacher interview and seeing the other members of their families around the yard. I knew that it would be shameful of us not to give something to the families that have just lost someone that they loved. When we found out about Eliah, we took some food that we had made, truly from the heart. We made some stew from the ingredients from our garden and some meat that Wayne had actually got from Katniss earlier on in the week. We packed it away and set off. We watched other people having feasts and smiling knowing that their children had go through another round of the Hunger Games. I could do nothing but hold onto Wayne's hand even tighter.
We arrived at the Everdeen's small house in the Seam first. It was quiet inside and when the door opened, it was a tall Seam young man with sorrow filling his features. He announced he was Gale Hawthorne and that he was helping to look after the Everdeen family. He was the one who dragged Primrose Everdeen away from her sister after she volunteered. After we announced ourselves, he took the gift from us and called for Mrs Everdeen. She came to the door and she thanked us softly as she looked… dead inside is the only way to describe how she looked. As we left that house, a little girl that Wayne also taught came to the doors. The Mayor's daughter, Madge Undersee. Wayne smiled at her and said hello before we continued on her journey as she did on hers towards the Everdeen's household.
When we arrived at the Mellark Bakery, we were greeted with the yells of Mrs Mellark. When we knocked, she came to the door. She has fury in her eyes and it was nothing like the sadness which loomed over Mrs Everdeen. She dismissed us instantly after Wayne introduced himself as Peeta's previous teacher. She scoffed, murmured some things under her breath and went back inside. The doorway was the occupied with Mr Mellark who recognised us straight away. The pain that was present in his eyes was undeniable. It's obvious which one of Peeta's parents was the abusive one. He took our gift and shook his head with tear in his eyes. He said that at least Peeta would get some time with the girl that he loved before he was brutally murdered in these preposterous Games. When we left the bakery, I had tears in my eyes.
We watched the Games and we cheered on for them as they both made it through to the last ten. That's when everything started getting interesting. Katniss and Peeta both found each as Peeta was on the brink of his death. All I could think, was that Katniss was repaying the favour that he made to her all those years earlier. When they announced that two tributes could be crowned Victor's and Katniss screamed out Peeta's name, I knew. I knew that at that moment whether she knew it yet or not, she loved him. I couldn't help but pray to the God's above that they would make it out. They had too. After the brutal end of Cato when they announced that only one could be crowned. I cried out and so did Wayne. Everyone had grown to love the pair from 12. I saw the look in Peeta's eyes that he was so willing to let himself die in order to let her win. The look in her eyes was even more saddening as she didn't want him to die. So, the trick with nightlock was what brought them the title of Victor's. We all cheered and shed tears for their victory.
Wayne and I didn't see them when they came back. He also figured it would be good to just leave them alone. They needed their privacy more than ever before. So, we just kept on with our lives after that. Wayne's kids got swapped over for another year and the same things happened. Only thing is that this year, is that I had a pregnancy scare. I missed my period and I started vomiting over a few days. I will filled with happiness from the thought of being able to carry a child. I was so convinced that I was pregnant that I scared myself. I forgot about the Games and how much they played a part in the sadness which fills Wayne and I. Just from how we acted from his students getting into the Games, I couldn't image how it would be to put our own child into the Hunger Games reaping bowl. I didn't tell Wayne that I missed my period so he only thought I was getting the flu. I knew that if I told him without knowing for sure that either he would be so excited or he would be concerned about the possibility of a baby. So, when it came to be a week of throwing up, I finally told Wayne that I had also missed my period.
I couldn't tell what he was first thinking when I said those words. Shock crossed his face, his eyes went wide and I could almost feel his heart swell a million more times the size. He ended up being happy and he made me cry from being so happy for it. When I whispered about it only possibly being a baby and he didn't care. He was too happy to care. When I then whispered about the Games, he shuttered. It mustn't have crossed his mind before that moment then. When he shook his head and said it didn't matter, that the baby would be fine. I felt a little sad, but I couldn't let it take over the thought that I was pregnant. We organised a doctor's appointment that next afternoon.
I was leaving the house to go to work when it happened. I was able to get a sleep in because I got the day off. So, I only left the house to get to the school to then head to the doctor's with Wayne. By doctor's, I mean a trained unemployed merchant who had the skills of pregnancy and childbirth like it was a language in itself. Anyone who had that little bit more of money went to her other than Mrs Everdeen. It was just going to be weird to go to her. That and she was only a healer. I got in sight of the school when it happened. I missed my step when climbing up a set of stairs when I tripped. I fell onto the steps in front of me and the most painful one was the one which slammed straight into my stomach. I got pain instantly and it was hard not to cry out. I bit down on my lip so much that it bled. It was a throbbing sensation that I would never not remember. The pain was excruciating and it hurt just as much to get up. I managed to get to Wayne's empty class with the pain still throbbing. When Wayne saw me, his eyes went from my face to my legs in an instant. His eyes grew wide and there was pain in his voice as he asked why there was blood on my pants. That moment, I knew I had just lost our baby.
It was confirmed by a doctor that Wayne had flown in- thanks to his parents all the way from the Capitol who was an expert- that we had lost a baby that was in the extremely early stages from development. Wayne and I had never cried so hard. And it was all just from my missed step. Wayne couldn't say anything which would make me think that it wasn't my fault, because it was. Wayne and I seemed to be closer even though I told him to go away from me because I killed his child. He never left my side. He took days off work to be with me as I healed from the accident as I tore the tissues inside my body from the fall. I had never cried so much. My father's death hurt me in many ways, but it wasn't myself responsible. It was just a mining explosion which took his life. Nothing could compare to the thoughts that someone had lost their child to their own misfortune. It was one of the worst moments of my life.
With the 75th Games approaching, we could all sense the rebellion as it grew closer. Especially when there was the uprising in 8 when Peeta and Katniss were on their Victory Tour. Every day we kept getting messages and calls from Wayne's parents who had the inside story to what was happening in all of the Districts and it was frightening. They had built some kind of thing underground just encase something would happen to within their District. They think that something would happen to everyone because some are rebelling against the Capitol. It's making Wayne's family concerned about what could happen to themselves and their District also on 12. Considering that Katniss and Peeta were what started this rebellion to unfold. And I am so happy that they did. This may bring around the collapse of the Capitol that would mean the saviour of the rest of our children in these Districts.
The Quell came around and we cried again as Katniss and Peeta were the people to get stuck in there again. Now grown up Peeta volunteered to take mentor, Haymitch Abernathy's place in the Hunger Games. He has grown up into such a man since his win in the Hunger Games the previous year. Katniss showed some of this too, but not as much as a change as Peeta, but you can see it. I wished that it wouldn't have to be this way, but they weren't going to get out of it this easy from what they pulled last year. The calls got even more recent and it was almost coming to be ridiculous. As the Games commenced, everything started to get worse. Things here in 12 started to get worse and I was thinking that we should head towards 6 when it got to the second day that the Quell had been on.
Katniss started throwing up in the arena, but that was something that everyone just assumed was stress and from a baby that her and Peeta created. At that I was so shocked. I knew that they loved each other, but I didn't realise that it was some kind of sham in the beginning. My mother pointed that out. She had been a lie detector in a previous life I was convinced. She always knew when I was lying and she definitely knew what was going on during those interviews. But, from what she saw, she thought that it could have been true. But, Katniss wasn't showing any signs of being pregnant other than the vomiting, so it could have just been stress. I had no idea that the pregnancy was real and neither did Peeta. When it came to the final plan, that's when I realised that things were going to go down. I walked out of the room for a little while, leaving Wayne there and I packed a bag just encase. I made sure that I had some belongings that I would never want to lose, even if nothing was going to happen. I left it by the door and went back in and watched it all play out.
When Katniss hit the force field, I knew that I had some the correct thing in packing my bag. District 12 went quiet and I knew something was going to happen. Especially when the trucks roared past our house, taking all the peacekeepers with them. The bombs hit not long after that and we ran. We ran out with the rest of the people that made it out. We got burned and we lost our breath quickly as the air filled with ash and the towns yelled in terror about what was happening. We found a group being led by Gale Hawthorne and he took us out of town and into the woods. It became daylight too soon and we knew that everyone that was with us was all that was left from 12. Maybe another group, but that is only a few hundred compared to the thousand that lived there. After asking around in the crowd, I realised that my mother hadn't gone with us. And I knew that I should have taken her with us as we raced through town. I couldn't give up hope now, she could be with another group of people.
We were picked up by 13 and were transported to the District that everyone thought was extinct. We found out that there was another group, but my mother wasn't in there. After being appointed rooms and schedules, I allowed myself to mourn over the last of my family to be killed by Snow. This death was no accident though. Never would it be an accident. For the next few months, we did as we were told and then we were called upon Wayne's family to come to 6 with them. So, we left 13 and joined the remainder of family that we had left. It was better now that it wasn't just grey. There was colour in their little shelter and there was the allowance of being able to go up to ground without being made not to with stupid rules that no one would ever listen too. It was better being with family. Or, so I thought it would be. Turned out that Wayne's sister had gotten herself pregnant and that just made it hard on myself considering that we lost a child of ours already. We couldn't take her anywhere when she went into labour, so we had to listen to her screams as they filled the room. It was then that Wayne and I decided that no matter how horrible childbirth sounded, they wanted to try for another baby after the revolution was over. Wayne's sister birthed a healthy little boy in the undergrounds of 6 that night.
When the revolution ended, we heard that there was another baby that the world would be rooting for. Willow Mellark was the first Everdeen-Mellark child and I heard things saying that she was beautiful and quite a lovely being. It was hard to imagine that Katniss and Peeta, two children just years earlier, were now parents to a little girl. That was something that I never saw coming. But, at least it told the world and showed that Katniss loved Peeta. Otherwise she wouldn't have slept with him in order to create the baby. I knew that Katniss would be just as genuine as Peeta was. She wouldn't just give herself away for nothing, the same as myself. We were taken back at 12 and we saw how horrible it was for the first time aside from some propos being filmed here before Katniss's return to 13. We found out our house was bombed and I was happy that I had saved all of the things which meant so much to myself. We managed to find some things in the rubble, but nothing of much value to us. We got builders back within those next few weeks to rebuild our house and to help rebuild the District that we called home.
It took a few months for the house to get rebuilt, but we were fine with that. There top priority was first building shops and rebuilding some parts of the town and that was fine with us. As the town was being rebuilt, we were getting our town back. Everyone was finally getting the lives that they have always wanted and deserved. It gave me hope, especially considering that Wayne and I were going to start trying for a baby. Now there was now no Games to take them away from us. When our house got rebuilt, we began trying for a baby. Pretty much straight away. As we moved back to 12, many from other Districts where they had been after the war started coming back to their newly built home. A few weeks later, Katniss and Peeta came back to 12, bringing their little girl with them. Again, we refrained from going and seeing them, welcoming them back to 12. By this stage, we didn't even know if they still knew who we were after all these years. But, we wouldn't be able to let them slip from our grips that easily. We would make them aware that we have known them through the whole time that they have been in such horrible situations. It would just take time, most-likely.
Slowly more people started coming back to the once deserted town and it was great to see everyone coming back. Everyone started helping with rebuilding the District. Wayne and I started helping rebuild houses in all the parts of 12. There was no merchant part of town and no Seam part of town. Everyone had the same kind of house with the same kinds of things for each house. We were finally free to have the right things and for everything to be equal and fair for everyone. Panem was finally something that everyone could be happy living in, with nothing hanging over their heads. Wayne and I could finally have a child and their be nothing in the way of that anymore. They would be able to live and not worry about going to the reaping for six years of their life. Also being able to have everything that a child should. It made making a baby so much more excited.
Wayne and I got jobs helping around the town to bring our town back to what it should be., Wayne started helping build more things here in 12 and I started working back in a small already built office, making deals to new people who come into town and need homes and directions for what is out of bounds because it's being built. It was a good way to meet new people and help welcome them back to 12. But, I wasn't as happy as I should have been. I wanted to be cooking somewhere. I wanted to bake for real. I wanted to have everything I couldn't before. Like a baby. And there being the possibly of having a job as a baker. It would start to look up for everyone here in 12, as well as everyone in Panem.
Within the next year, everything we ever wanted came true, well close enough to true that we could. Peeta started looking for people to help him work in his bakery. In the memory of his family, he named his bakery-Mellark Family Bakery. Which would mean as his family which have passed and his new family which he was creating with Katniss. I applied immediately and had job interview straight away. I was worried that he wouldn't recognise me after the years which had passed since the last time I spoke to the him as well as Katniss. But Wayne said that it would be very unlikely that they would. So, I went into the bakery for my job interview and I was almost knocked off my feet. There was a little girl- who couldn't be any older than two- struggling to run out from behind the counter and the owner of the bakery running after her. He caught her before I she could run into me or out of the door. When he looked up at me and put the little girl on his hip, he smiled and welcomed me to the bakery.
He was so mature now. Even more than after the Quell. I suppose having a child would do that to you, since you would have to be a role model to more than just the whole of Panem, but mostly for your child. His hair was a crazy mess atop of his head, blue eyes vibrantly gleaming as he looked between myself and the little girl in his arms. His face showed nothing but happiness, a smile which he used to have upon his face for days on end when in Wayne's class. He was tall, almost towering over me. He used to be small for his age, but not anymore. He had finally grown up, maybe a little bit more than what the average eighteen year old should, but he was happy and you could see that. He had been help in bringing Panem back to a new world which everyone was happy.
He looked at me, as if he knew me. I was hoping that something would click inside that head of his, so he knew that I wasn't just someone random from the streets or another District. But, I was someone from his past that helped him in school some days. He continued to stare at me, wondering who I was. I said that I was here for the job interview and he realised why I was here and not just here for the goodies. I said 'hello' to the little girl and he introduced me to his daughter. Little Willow Mellark buried her head into her father's shoulder. She was the cutest thing I had ever seen. She had both Katniss and Peeta's features. Parading around with her father's smile, blue eyes and pale skin and everything else being just like her mother's. She was adorable.
Just before he took me into his office, the bakery door opened and we all turned around. The little girl who was in Peeta's arms started to jump around and squeal at the person who came into the door. Katniss Everdeen was just as excited to see the daughter in her fiancées arms. She still looked the same as she did when she was a young girl, only older and she was more happy these days. Just as everyone is with the rebellion over. She introduced herself and she didn't recognise me either. I was kidding myself if I thought that they were going to remember me. I wasn't even their teacher. I was just the wife of a teacher, a helper is what they are called. I set it aside and went into the meeting with Peeta as Katniss took little Willow back home. I got the job as soon as I he saw me bake the thing he asked me too wth such ease. I was over the moon. Maybe one say I could tell Peeta that I knew him as a child. But, all of that came later.
After I finally had a steady job with a good paying income coming in every week, Wayne and I looked into having a baby with even more commitment than we ever had before. We got some tips from doctors in the Capitol about the things we could do to help the possibilities of getting pregnant. We did everything that they said and we got so excited for the possibility of getting pregnant. Months began to go by and everything was wrong. Nothing said that we were getting pregnant. Nothing like before after I accidently got pregnant before I lost it. No morning sickness. Nothing. I started to get more and more worried that something may be wrong. I could sense that Wayne was thinking the same thing, but he never said anything. He just kept trying to make me happy and making the whole thing better. It got to over a year and nothing happened with having a baby. That's when I got so worried and so did Wayne and it started to show in his actions too. Wayne and I went to the Capitol to get the answers which we desperately craved.
We found out on the second day being in the Capitol that I was barren, unable to bare children, ever. I didn't talk for days and either did Wayne. I didn't do anything. Especially when I learnt that I couldn't have children the same way as I lost my previous one. I had torn some of the tissue on my vaginal wall and it caused my baby to die and then there were complications following, making it completely impossible to have a child. Wayne kept saying that it was okay, but I knew that it wasn't. It would never be okay. I was the reason that we couldn't have a child. And that would hang over me for the rest of my life. It hurt knowing that Wayne and I would never be able to have a little boy or a little girl with our genetics, our own blood, something that we could call ours forever.
They mentioned adoption, but it wouldn't be the same. Wayne kept saying that it would be good to adopt a child. It would be even better than having our own child. We could be able to help a child who was abandoned by their own parents and to be able to give them the life that they truly deserved. But, at that moment in time, I didn't want to adopt. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and never see another child again. But, I knew that would never happen. Working for Peeta would mean that I would be seeing little Willow pretty much every day. And then there was our little nephew to look out for. But, that was just something I had to live with. Wayne and I caught the next train home after the third day of being in the Capitol. I took the rest of the week off, for illness. But, if I could have been able to get the days off to mend my broken heart, I would have said so. Wayne and I wanted to keep the trying for a baby a secret, so we didn't need to let down more hopes. So, we just went to our separate works that following week and we said nothing about our loss.
Three weeks later from our incident, Wayne came into the bakery and that's when their memories snapped back. I was out putting in more sweets as I watched it all happen. Peeta's eyes widened and he addressed Wayne as Mr Armstrong. He remembered him straight away, it was when Wayne said that he was coming to see his wife that it clicked for Peeta who I was. He said I always looked familiar, but he could never remember from where. Apparently Katniss thought the same thing. But, after that when he finally realised who we were, everything fell into place. He apologised for not realising who I was and the whole thing that I had wanted for months. Peeta was very pleased to see his teacher for the first time in forever and I know that Wayne was very much happy about that. Before I realised what was going on, we were all seated in one of the booths and we were talking about all the things we have been meaning to for the last few years. It was great to be able to finally talk to him about all of these things for the first time. I was glad that this day had finally come.
Everything after that incident started falling into place. Katniss and Peeta invited us to their wedding, Katniss them got kidnapped which everyone hated and cried over, especially Peeta. He closed the bakery for as long as it took to get Katniss back. Even after that, it stayed shut until they could get her back home and safe. Which was another few weeks, months even. It was hard to believe that someone was capable of such horrid things. Then little Willow came down with Whooping Cough, Prim and Finnick Odair died and the whole District and Panem mourned their deaths. Katniss and Peeta lost their twins, I couldn't help but just wish that they would be okay, but Katniss would never forgive herself for that. The same as I would never forgive myself for my accident causing me to become barren and unable to conceive children. Things seemed to only turn even worse after that, not just for them but for us as well. We didn't get accepted into any adoption agencies and that made our lives turn upside down. We had forms out in every District and so many in the Capitol. I couldn't believe that it wasn't happening for us. We didn't even get asked to come and have an interview so that we could get into the listing for a possible adoption. We couldn't even get that far.
That is what made Wayne and I drift apart. We tried to hang on, saying that we didn't need a child to be happy. But, it was no use. At that moment for a good solid four months, everything was hopeless. Wayne tried everything to try and help us stay together, but everything was falling apart for us and I just couldn't handle how much this was effecting us from that moment on. Wayne and I couldn't look each other in the eye. We couldn't talk about anything other than what sort of day we had. Wayne managed to get placement into the school as soon as it was rebuilt, so he was instantly back into working to make his students happy. Even if that meant that we weren't happy. I didn't go to see him at work, the same as he didn't for me.
We slept on opposite sides of the bed and we hadn't made love for so long I almost forgot how much I loved it. Wayne and I didn't kiss. We were pretty much only together to live under the same house, just like people who hated each other. It was the worst thing that I could have experienced. I felt like our lives were over. Then he left to visit in parents in 6 and I didn't go with him. I cried the whole time and I had never felt so alone. I felt abandoned. I felt that we should have just gotten a divorce to go our separate ways. Wayne could love someone who could give him a million children and I could just be alone forever. The thought of that made me lock myself in the bedroom all day whilst Wayne was to work. The next day Katniss came into the bakery with Indigo. And our lives changed forever.
She had ginger red hair which flowed down past her shoulders with the odd little natural ringlets in some places. Her eyes were wide, green and looking around everywhere taking in the naturalness around her. She was so happy with a smile wide on her face as she followed Willow who was running around yelling things about fairy princesses. I felt a pang in my chest as I saw them but I couldn't let it stop my work. Willow asked where her Daddy was and I pointed and I heard them giggling back down the hallway towards his study. Katniss came in asking where they were before I could think about crying. When she came back out, I broke and told them everything. And then I met Indigo and got promised that if Indigo wanted, she could become Wayne's and my daughter. Since they could get the confirmation that we truly needed. That night when I told Wayne, we cried together at that possible opportunity. Then we made love for hours, saying that we were sorry for letting a child get in between our love. But, a child may be what we were about to get. Finally.
Indigo, Willow and Katniss came over the following day and we all spent the day admiring Indigo as she played with Willow. We talked to her, but she was so shy but that made Wayne and I love her just as much. As the days and weeks followed we spent most of our time with her. It was the best thing that we had done and all three of us were so happy to be able to do that. After the our outing around 12 with everyone when we went to the lake and the park, I knew that it would be impossible for Indigo not to come with us. I saw her little face before we came and it lit up as soon as she saw us and then for the whole day. Wayne and I loved her. Indigo was our saviour and it seemed as though we were hers as well. Especially when we got the call in the middle of the night saying that Indigo wanted her 'Mum'. I lost it just hearing that Indigo called me 'Mum' from Peeta. We left as soon as she said that and I was in tears almost the whole way there.
When I saw her helplessly holding onto Katniss, I started crying instantly. Indigo reached out for me and I took Katniss's place on the bed, holding onto her and letting her cry. Wayne came over as soon as he heard me choke out a sob. We were left alone and I just felt for the little girl who already calls me her mother. Now I just want the confirmation saying that we can actually adopt her, because if she still doesn't want to be our daughter after this, I don't know what we could have possibly done for her to think differently. If she didn't still want us around, I don't think that I could stay here in 12. I would have to leave and make another life, try and find another child to love. But, I don't think that I could. I already love Indigo so much. I told her this as she fell asleep in my arms after Wayne walked back downstairs to the others, thanking them for getting us. I thought that she didn't hear me, then I heard her whisper- 'I love you too.'. I went to sleep holding onto her with all my might and I could have cried myself to sleep, but with happiness and not sadness. That's where I still was when the sun came through the windows at seven the next morning. And that's where our lives changed forever, officially. This is where the day begins.
Author's Note-
Please tell me how you liked it. How you appreciated the connections between them and Katniss. Everything that was in there. Was it a good idea to change around the time lines of the THG books and my fanfic to fit my needs for the story? Did I fit it together well? I tried to get everything into it! Review please guys! I love you, everlark4ever75 xx
