Author's Note:

This is it! The final chapter.

This has been so much fun to write. I want to thank each and every one of you for reading, so much. Biggest thank you ever to all the favorites/follows/reviews I've received. It's been very cool for me to see people enjoying this story and sharing their thoughts about it. And especially cool getting requests for a sequel! :D

I started this when I kept thinking that if Peeta had been rescued instead of Katniss, it would have been a disaster for the revolution. The fact that she was left behind would have made him completely uncooperative with the people who left her behind, he would have refused to be the symbol of the revolution, and they would have worked so much harder to try to get Katniss out of the Capital that there wouldn't have been time to hijack her the way Peeta was. I also couldn't help imagining that Katniss would have gotten her stuff together and realized she loved him without all the added drama of him nearly choking her to death. I wanted to write a story where Prim and Finnick are fine, and Peeta and Katniss didn't have to grow back together, because they are never truly apart.

I hope you all enjoy, and thank you for taking this journey with me!

Epilogue: Peeta

My children have no idea they play on a graveyard.

Katniss has given me three beautiful children, with another on the way. The girls both have dark hair like Katniss, and my blue eyes. They dance so freely, because neither has ever truly had a care in the world. He is much more serious. From the moment he was born we knew that his temperament was much closer to Katniss. He has her beautiful eyes, but every other physical feature he got from me. I can't wait to see what our new little one will be like.

We are in the meadow, having a family picnic. The closest people to us are here. Haymitch, Effie, Darius, Johanna. Prim, who returned to us once her training was finished. Even Finnick, Annie, and their two boys are visiting from District 4.

Katniss' mother has never been back, though she occasionally writes us letters updating us on the life she has made for herself in District 4. She even occasionally updates us about Gale, who is in District 2 training new recruits. Katniss never pays attention to those particular details. I know that Katniss misses her mother sometimes, but her mother hasn't really been present since her father died. Haymitch and Effie have filled parental roles for both Katniss and I, and they have made amazing grandparents for our children. So Katniss is comfortable with how things are, even if she feels sad sometimes.

My boy is toddling near Haymitch, picking dandelions and giving them to Effie. It's difficult for any woman not to fall for those gray eyes, that light hair, and that wonderful smile he's flashing at her now. I look at my family, Katniss smiles at me knowingly, and we laugh when Haymitch tells our boy to stop showing him up by giving his girl such beautiful flowers.

Haymitch even smiles now. He smiles at Effie. At my kids that call him 'papa.' And even occasionally at Katniss and I. Especially every time we've we let him know there is going to be a new baby.

My girls are skipping and holding hands. They sing as beautifully as their mother, and she's taught them every song she knows. Right now, even the birds have stopped to listen.

My children have never known true fear. My girls know about the war and that Katniss and I played a part in it. We've been open and honest with the questions they have come to us with. About The Hunger Games, and what lead the people in the districts to start a revolution. Someday my son will know. So far, we've been able to avoid revealing some of the more gruesome details, but I worry every day about the time they will ask about our nightmares and I will have to explain in more detail than I ever have why they came. Why they won't ever really go away. Katniss is always there to assure me that it will be alright. We will tell them in a way that makes them braver.

It's taken years to rebuild 12. Only a few hundred from the district returned, but many of them brought newcomers. It didn't take long after we returned to 12 to decide to rebuild the bakery. It took about six months to construct, and our eldest daughter decided to surprise us and was born the day of the grand opening. Katniss and the kids can be found at the bakery helping me most days. We've kept ourselves busy. She hunts. I bake. We teach the children how to do both. We prepare for the new baby that will make their way into the world in the next month or so. Shockingly, Haymitch only drinks on special occasions. And Effie is there is oversee it all.

Katniss can usually be found by my side, smiling, holding my hand. It's been 10 years since the end of the war, and we still hold hands as if we are afraid someone or something will separate us. We have been able to live our lives in relative peace. Our names are now included in history books, but we've never again been called upon to be symbols for a cause. There are no more interviews. No more expectation that we parade our romance around. And never once has anyone dared ask us to show our children to the world.

When I have particularly difficult moments, I play a game in my head. I look at my family and think of all the moments each one has ever made me smile. It's a game that I play when I think too hard about my children playing on a graveyard, when my wife wakes up screaming after a nightmare, when I think about the family I lost here. But Katniss, our children, and our family have given me countless reasons to smile. This game I play gets to be time consuming after all these years, given how often they've all given me reasons to smile. But there are much worse games to play.