"We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Katniss, while you live, the revolution lives." Says Plutarch.
The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion.
"Peeta." I whisper his name and feel an ill twist in my stomach. "Peeta is he alright?" I ask looking first to Haymitch and then to Plutarch. Then I see as they look between themselves.
"The others kept Peeta alive because if he died, we knew there'd be no keeping you in an alliance, and we couldn't risk leaving you unprotected." Haymitch's words are matter of fact, his expression unchanged, but he can't hide the tinge of gray that colors his face.
"Damn you, where is he?" I hiss at him as the rage starts to build. "He was picked up by the Capitol along with Johanna. Enobaria's dead." Haymitch finally he has the decency to drop his gaze.
It overflows, the anger now an inferno of pure rage. "You...no good...low life...drunk...son of a bitch." I launch myself at him and rake my nails across his face, drawing blood and causing damage to one of his eyes. "We had a deal."
I feel Finnick's arms lock around me, pulling me away from Haymitch. "Let me go Odair." I hiss and another hands grab at me and talk me back to the padded bed.
"Katniss you have to stay calm." Finnick's voice is soothing and calming, like a ripple on the water.
"He lied to us, he betrayed us Finnick, we trusted him and..." He stops me with a finger to my lips.
"Katniss, please you have to think about the..." He bites his lip and seems to be debating something in his mind.
"Katniss..." He places his hand over my belly button. "You need to stay calm for her sake..."
I shake my head and the tears start flowing. "She's not real...I wish she was but I'm not..."
"Katniss!" His voice is firm and it snaps me out of my thoughts. His hand stays on my stomach and rubs gentle circles. "I hate to be the one to tell you this, it should be your mother doing this...Peeta said she was a healer but..." He smiles and it's a warm genuine smile that lights up his sea green eyes.
"The doctor ran some test and maybe he knew your secret before you did, but you are pregnant Katniss."
The tears start to flow again. "Please Finn...hold me please."
"Promise not to claw my beautiful face and we have a deal." I nod my head and he unties my cuffs and I sit up slowly. He sits next to me and wraps an arm around my waist. I rest my head in the crook of his neck and I take a deep breath.
"You smell like the sea...it's nice." He laughs and I smile.
"You smell like pine and sunshine."
"She's real?" I ask once more wanting to convince myself that she is. For a moment I think of a boy but the image seems so very wrong. I remember my mother with Prim, she was always so sure that she was a girl. I heard the same from Hazelle about each of her kids.
"Well she might not be a she but yes...you are pregnant Katniss. The doctor said two months along."
I place my hand protectivly over my stomach. "Peeta and I both saw the same girl so I think that's what she is...my little flower."
"Flower?" Finnick raises an eyebrow. "Please tell me that's not going to be her name."
I find myself giggling. "No. My mother, sister, and myself are all named after flowers. Violet, Katniss, and Primrose so Peeta wanted a flower name."
"Did you pick one yet?"
I shake my head and for the first time I say it. "Peeta and I had come up with a list but I won't let any name be said aloud until I knew I was pregnant. So we would cross off the ones we didn't like and circle the ones we did. In the end I like the one he picked. They where his favorite flowers from our Victory Tour. So her name will be Evansia Iris Mellark."
"It's beautiful Katniss...just like her mother."
He gives me a squeeze and it's oddly comforting. "Finnick...what's she like? Your one true love." I see the sad smile come to his face and I almost regret asking him.
"Annie Cresta..." Her name is a whispered prayer on his lips. "I was her mentor, before the Games she was just a sweet sixteen year old girl who wouldn't harm a fly. I tried to work with her bit she was just so pure. I was sure she was going to die in the arena but she didn't, she stayed alive but when she was broken. He died right in front of her. Watching his killed like that broke something in her."
"Did you always love her Finnick?"
"No she crept up on me. Thet put her in the house next to mine. I would hear her crying and screaming through the open window. So one day I went over and she was curled up on the floor fighting something that wasn't there. I started going over there everyday and one day she laughted at something I said and that's when I realized it was the most amazing sound. I wanted to make her do it over and over again. After awhile she came to stay with me and she's been my heart since that day."
I wipe the tears from my eyes and sniff. "That's kind of what happened with me and Peeta. He's loved me forever and it just took me almost losing him in the first Games for the promise to become real." I pause and he questions me about it.
"You remember my first interview dress, the red feathered one that caught fire when I twirled?" He nods his head.
"Well the secret is the feathers where a silk paint that Cinna and Portia created. Peeta painted each one onto my body...the swirls of fire on my arms and legs too."
"Another si ret is he told me he loved me before the interview. He asked me to promise to love him for as long as we had left to live...it was an easy promise because I thought we'd both die in the bloodbath."
"But you didn't die in that arena Katniss and you kept him alive too." Finnicks serms to be thinking about what to say next.
"You didn't believe me? During the Games, I mean the first games, you didn't believe that I really loved him?" I ask as the thought hits me.
"Not then no...but I do now. We'll get them back Katniss. Peeta, Johanna, and...Annie." I take his hand in mine and squeeze it.
