Word quickly spread of Katniss's activities that day. Over twenty-five refugees came forward the next day, saying they could hunt, gather herbs, roots, fruit. Katniss didn't even need to go out with them and instead she began lobbying to get more of them processed, cleared, and admitted into Thirteen.
She got Prim and her mother to get their friends from the hospital to volunteer so all the people could be more quickly screened. Katniss also made sure that enough food was getting to them, and then went to work trying to find every one housing. She finally had to ask Coin to ask if the people of Thirteen would be willing to downside and condense; if extended families would be willing to move in together.
Coin had been busy and distracted with the rebellion, and Katniss was shocked when she agreed to help. Coin turned out to be a surprising ally in her efforts. She approved of a plan to update and restore some of the old housing quarters and came forward and asked her people to help accommodate all the refugees—something not all citizens of Thirteen were happy about. But Gale pointed out that Coin was probably thinking big picture and long term.
"She wants to be the next president of Panem," he told Katniss in their room one night. "It's more important now that people from all the districts like her, not just Thirteen."
The process was still slow and difficult, and more refugees were pouring in each day, but Katniss liked talking to them, helping them. She, her mother, and Prim went to work with them almost every day while Gale was busy helping Beetee and the generals with the rebellion.
Katniss enjoyed talking the people, hearing their thanks, their appreciation. She liked knowing that everything they were doing – everything she had done – was worth it. Even though most of the people who arrived were poor, tired, cold, and hungry, even though most of them had lost their homes and even some of their loved ones, every single one said thank you.
Thank you for helping us! Thank you for showing us we could fight! Thank you for giving us hope! Thank you for giving us a future!
It was hard for Katniss not to get emotional about it, hard for her not to get attached, and it renewed her efforts to help these people. She started spending more of her time going to meetings with the Health and Safety Advisory, the Food Production Committee, the Food Service Alliance, the Council of Doctors, the Board of Education… Every time she reached a bureaucratic wall or dead end or hiccup, she remembered all those people saying thank you, not asking for more, and resolved to work harder.
Almost a month had passed since she started working, and things were finally looking up. Things were starting to look up for the rebellion too. Gale still spent almost every day locking in the lab with Beetee, but Thirteen was able to send out several more troops of soldiers, and Four – which was now back under a recovering Lagan Corsair's command – was making incredible progress. After the attack, Three became an unstoppable force, and they mercilessly overthrew the Peacekeepers in Four and Three.
Haymitch's men had also joined with General Ore's army, and they'd overtaken Five, which quickly surrendered wanting to secure stability. Ore established relative control in Five and Six, and life in those Districts was beginning to return to normal. Coin ordered Haymitch to try and do the same in Seven and Eight, but he was having less luck.
"Goddammit, Madam President, have you ever met any of this people!?" He screamed at her in frustration one day when she asked why his districts were still experiencing such turbulence when the Peacekeepers had been shut out for almost a month.
Coin wanted Haymitch to establish stability in Seven and Eight at least partially to curb the streams of refugees who were still fleeing for Thirteen.
"Why don't you just send Johanna back here and let her deal with her people," he grumbled.
"I'm not leaving my Laggie!" Johanna screamed from her screen. "He's still weak from the attack and he needs me!"
Lagan Corsair's expression didn't indicate whether or not that was actually true.
The success the rebels had met from Three to Eight, however, wasn't being seen in Nine, Ten, or Eleven.
Beetee finally cracked the code of the transmission he'd received – and it did turn out to be the most impressive piece of coding he'd ever seen. It was coming from a man in Eleven who was not only a genius when it came to devices but a rebel leader. He and Beetee started communicating regularly, planning for Eleven to officially rebel, and Beetee was the happiest anyone had ever seen him marveling at that man's code.
"Oh, this is just delightful! Really!" he'd exclaim to anyone who would listen. "Look at how he inverted these matrices…"
But the Capitol somehow got ahold of their transmissions, and the entire district was attacked with chemical gas. Every man, woman, child and even animal fell dead, and the Capitol broadcast the results live, their cameras hovering over as the gas clouds dissipated, revealing rows and rows of people who'd fallen dead in the streets, trying to run away from the poison that'd killed them.
A heavily accented Capitol reporter narrated that this was what had to happen to the rebels and the "insidious evil" they threatened the Capitol with, unforgivably threatening to jeopardize their food. The camera footage stopped on a mass of people who'd died trying to climb the fence. Katniss felt sick when she saw a young father who'd died trying to lift his child to safety. He'd failed and the little boy lay dead next to him. Ten, the face of a young, blonde woman with bloodstained eyes and greening skin.
Katniss threw up when she realized it was the face of her good friend Madge Undersee, who'd been sent to work in Eleven with the rest of her family when the Rebellion erupted in Twelve, and now lie dead in its streets.
That night, Gale vowed to take down the Nut—The Capitol's base in Two where the poisonous bombs had come from, and the next day, Katniss suited up in her Mockingjay uniform and stood next to Coin as she announced that Ore's army was going to advance towards those districts and liberate them.
Beetee broadcast Coin's message not only throughout all of districts, but on all the Capitol TVs as well – he's spent two days not sleeping, working harder than he ever had, to hack their system as his own personal revenge – and he broke into the network, signaling every device in the city to turn on and broadcast Coin's promise.
"We're coming," Coin promised the people with cold, steely resolve as she stood next to Katniss's fiery gaze, "and nothing will stop us."
When Katniss wasn't helping the refugees or worrying about the rebellion, she was becoming increasingly focused on choosing a name for their baby.
At first, Gale thought it was cute. He liked seeing her interested in their child, her growing motherly concern, but as the weeks passed, she was becoming obsessed.
She made lists and lists of names, and she'd talked about it with Gale for hours and hours. He'd said he liked at least a dozen of the names she'd proposed, but Katniss couldn't decide. Sometimes, she was upset that he had an opinion; other times, she was upset he didn't have enough of one.
"What do you think of these names?" she asked Gale one day at dinner when she pushed a list of the top eight names she liked in front of him.
"Those are all good names," he said, looking it over and wondering why she had a top eight.
"But which one do you like best?"
"I like Robin."
Katniss immediately scowled. "You don't like Ivy?"
"I like Ivy too."
Katniss's mood immediately turned sour.
"Do you even care what we name our child?"
"Of course I care," he said, quickly taking a big bite of food to give himself a minute to figure out why Katniss had suddenly become so upset.
"She's only going to have this name for the rest of her life!"
"I know…"
"Then, maybe you could try to have a real opinion on it."
Gale didn't know why what he'd said earlier hadn't counted as a real opinion, but he promised he'd do better and eventually agreed to produce a list of names himself.
When he finally got around to writing it, Katniss stared at it for a minute and then tossed it aside.
"I don't like any of those," she said, "what do you think of this one…."
.
This night, Gale'd gotten off early from work and when he walked in the door, Katniss was laying in the bed with a book propped open on her exposed belly. The button down shirt she was wearing was no longer able to contain it and it was only fastened over her breasts.
"Hey there," Gale said, sliding onto the bed with her and pulling her legs over his. He ran his hands up and down her smooth skin, leaning in to touch her stomach and kiss her knee.
"What do you think of the name Artemis?" Katniss asked, not looking up from the pages. She'd recently discovered a library, and had gotten several books help her find what she was now calling the perfect name.
The one she was currently looking at was called European Myths. She gotten it after talking to Cinna and his partner about how they named their children, and he'd told her they'd selected all theirs from Greek mythology.
Katniss didn't know what Greek mythology was at that time, but this day, she'd become an expert.
"Artemis?" Gale pulled his head up from her skin and frowned.
"Yeah, she's the goddess of the hunt and she has a bow. And I really like how it ends in an S sound, like my name…" Katniss said, setting the book down and seeing Gale's scowl. "What? You don't like it?"
"It just…it sounds like a Capitol name to me."
Katniss grumbled and tossed the book aside. He was right. "Why is this so hard?"
Gale rubbed her legs consolingly and leaned in to kiss her knee again. "Don't worry about it," he told her, his kisses traveling up her thigh and hands caressing.
Katniss smiled and let her hand run through Gale's hair. She liked the way that felt, and realized Gale was in the mood to talk about baby names.
"What do you think you're doing?" she said with a laugh as Gale climbed on top of her and kissed her chest.
Gale mumbled something incoherent into her breast and lightly kissed her nipples which hardened at his touch and sent a shiver of pleasure through her.
"But Gale, what we going to name our baby?" she said, trying not to get distracted.
"Let's name her Artemis," he said, his voice deep with desire.
"I thought you didn't like that name."
"No," he said between more kisses, "it's a great name."
"Gale…"
"Hmmm?"
"Don't agree to a baby name just so you can get laid."
Gale looked up at her and laughed. "What about that other one you liked? Tansy?"
Katniss tensed and looked at Gale pointedly. He sensed her body's reaction and looked up at her.
It was her mother that suggested the name Tansy, and Katniss had hated it, he now remembered.
"You weren't even paying attention were you?" she said, sounding a little hurt.
Gale had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "Yes I was," he said, taking her hand and kissing it gently. "I meant to say Bryony, that was the name you liked, right?" Gale began sucking her fingers.
"Yeah…" Katniss said with a pleasured gasp. "But that's a poisonous plant…"
"Mmmhmmm," Gale said, kissing her inner wrist now and letting one of his hands slide across her chest, softly touching her skin, and tracing a circle around her nipple which instantly grew hard.
"You know, we aren't going to be able to do this much longer," Katniss said, giving in to Gale as she took Gale's head in her hands and brought him up to kiss her lips and realized just how difficult and awkward it was to move around her belly.
"I know," Gale said with a laugh as he resumed kissing her chest.
Katniss suddenly realized that Gale knew very well that they wouldn't be able to do this for much longer…and that perhaps was what was driving his desire to be intimate now. Now that Katniss thought about it, she realized they'd been more intimate than normal over the past week. She'd thought it was just because they had more regular schedules as the situation was relaxing with the rebellion and refugees, but now she suspected that Gale was just eager to enjoy each other as much as possible before the baby came. And Katniss didn't know how long it'd be before they could do so again.
She began to moan as Gale's hot breath stirred pleasure with in her and one of his hands slide up her legs. She quickly helped him take off the pair of shorts she was wearing and began unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off, running her hands up and down his hard muscles as they resumed their positions in bed and he began stroking her clit.
Then, Gale's communicuff beeped.
"Don't stop," Katniss said, her voice a mix of wanting and warning.
Gale chuckled complied, but it beeped again and again.
"Damn it," he said, finally getting up to see what it said.
"Ohh," Katniss sighed, savoring his last touch as he stepped away.
"Damn it," he said again as he read it.
"What?"
"We have to go to a meeting."
"What?"
"They need us in the conference room," Gale said as be bent down to get his shirt.
"You're not leaving till you finish what you started, Gale Hawthorne."
"Katniss, they want us there now…"
"Well, then you better be quick," she told him.
He looked at her and laughed, a big smile breaking across his face. He thought it was sexy when she was bossy, and he didn't want to disappoint her.
Thirty minutes later, the couple arrived in the meeting room, a bit out of breath and hair slightly out of place. Kantiss was still smoothing hers as she took a seat with Coin, Cinna, Beetee, Cressida, and a woman Katniss had never met before.
Plutarch was pacing the room huffily, and both Gale and Katniss noticed that none of the military people were there.
"Finally!" Plutarch said, throwing his hands in the air.
"What?" Katniss said, wondering what had gotten him so upset and why Pierce and the other military advisors weren't there. "What's going on?"
"I should be asking you the very same question!" he said, pointing one of his chubby fingers at her.
"Ummm…" Katniss looked to Gale and then the others at the table. She didn't know what to say and was beginning to wonder if he was upset at her for being late, or why she was late…
"Do you have any idea how much work I do, Miss Everdeen?"
"Yeah…" Katniss muttered unconvincingly. She didn't actually have any idea what kind of work Plutarch did these days.
"How much time, how much effort I put into…Do you have any idea how important it is?"
"Yeah," she said more strongly this time, though only to appease him. She still didn't have any idea what he was talking about.
"Then why, please tell me, did you do this?" he said accusingly, dramatically pointing to the screen behind him.
Everyone stared at it for a moment – waiting – when Beetee realized it was supposed to turn it on.
"Oh, right," he said, flipping it on as Cressida tried to hide her laughter as Plutarch stomped his foot impatiently.
On the screen before them, a roughly shot video began to play. It was filmed by one of the refugees, and the man on it talked about what life was like for him. He talked about his journey all the way from Six, all the troubles and dangers he'd faced, and the ones he faced now trying to get into Thirteen.
"Get to the important part," Plutarch huffed.
Beetee sped the video forward.
"There isn't much in this world that gives me hope," the man on the video said, "but I guess I shouldn't be surprised to learn that the one thing here that does is Katniss Everdeen."
The screen suddenly switched to an image of Katniss walking among the refugees from days before.
The man spoke over a scene of Katniss giving food to a mother, her kids, and their grandmother.
"We all know here as the Girl on Fire, and I can still remember watching her in the Games, in the arena, fierce, brave, and, of course, in love."
In the video, Katniss now walked away from the mother and her children, and as she turned to help the old lady, her very visible, very pregnant stomach showed.
Katniss swallowed hard and looked worriedly at Gale. He grabbed her hand and looked at her reassuringly.
"You're pregnant, aren't you?" an old woman asked Katniss in the video.
Katniss looked down at her stomach. "Yeah," she admitted. "I am."
At that time, she figured there was no point in trying to hide it. And also, she was still riding her "just be myself" high and had decided to embrace the truth in that moment.
"You're going to have a baby!" one kid exclaimed.
Another piped up, "but where's Peeta?"
Katniss blushed and shook her head. "The baby isn't Peeta's," she said, ladling some stew into a bowl for the old woman.
"But don't you love him?" another child asked.
"I do," Katniss said as she tore pieces of bread for them. "But everything's changed since the Rebellion started." All the children nodded; this they could understand. "And Peeta and I, well, we've gone our separate ways."
"You must be so sad!" one of the kids said.
"What Peeta and I had was intense, but it was only for a moment. Now," she said, smiling at the children, "I'm with my best friend, the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, the love of my life, and we're going to start a new, better life together for people like you and this little one in here."
The camera froze on an image of Katniss smiling down at her stomach, a decided motherly glow about her, and an image of happiness and contentment.
Plutarch looked like it made him sick.
The man on the video began to speak again. "She was the symbol of our hope in the rebellion, showing us we could fight, giving us the courage and strength we needed, and now, she's the symbol of our hope again, showing us not only that we can fight, but that we can live and love again. That we can have a future."
The video ended there, and Katniss was actually getting misty eyed. She blamed the hormones, but hearing that meant a lot to her.
But only for a moment though. Plutarch's cutting tone quickly killed the moment.
"We can live and love again," he said in a mock, whiny voice. "Do you know what they're calling you now?"
Katniss quickly wiped her eyes and stared at Plutarch defiantly. "No."
"The Mother of Hope." He said it like he was saying something disgusting.
"Come down, Heavensbee, and get your panties out of a bunch," Cressida said.
"What? NO! She's on record admitting she's pregnant with someone else's child!"
"What was I supposed to do? Tell them I'd just been eating a lot of cake?"
A few people in the room laughed at Katniss's comment.
Plutarch glared at her. "Do you have any idea how much work went into to your story? Your public image? It is a carefully crafted, brilliantly executed…Do you have any idea how much is riding on…"
"Alright, Heavensbee, knock it off," Cressida barked. "That world is over and you know it."
He looked at her like she'd just punched him in the gut.
"No one cares if Katniss is with Peeta anymore."
"That's not true! The people in District 1, 2 and the Capitol, the Districts with populations we still need to influence…"
A few people in the room nodded at Plutarch's point, and Katniss suddenly felt guilty.
"Those aren't the only Districts we need to influence. Look at these numbers," Cressida said, tossing a repot at him. "The people who've seen that video, the people here and in the Rebellion, they not only don't care she isn't with Peeta, they're exciting she's having a baby."
Katniss suddenly blushed—she wasn't sure how she felt about people caring so much about her personal life.
"It's giving them—"
"So help me if I have to hear the word hope one more time."
"Jeez, Heavensbee, you got a problem with optimists?"
"Yes, actually, I do. I think they're bad for business."
Cressida scoffed and President Coin finally stepped in. "Ms. Fields," she said to the woman Katniss had never met before, "can you please appraise us of this situation?"
"Of course, Madam President," the woman said. She had neatly trimmed brown hair and thick glasses. Katniss got the impression she was someone of importance. "Our research indicates that Katniss's popularity has done a lot of boost morale here in Thirteen, especially among the refugee populations, but also among our own people."
A good portion of the people of Thirteen were infertile due to an illness that had hit them a generation back. They were very excited when someone got pregnant.
"I'd honestly say it's entirely possible Katniss is more popular now that ever. She's showing them we can move on and trust in a better tomorrow. Honestly, I don't know if we could have planned anything better."
Plutarch's face was still burning, but Katniss realized that it was actually with jealous and not anger. He was just upset he hadn't come up with this himself.
"Almost everyone in the Rebellion's seen Peeta's videos with Snow…he's not very popular at all. I think what we have here is a moment to run with this new story, show the people that Katniss has been able to move on, that's she's ready to start a new life. I think it will help inspire the people do so as well."
Katniss realized this Ms. Fields must be Thirteen's own version of Plutarch.
"Mmmhmm," Coin said through pursed lips. Her expression was inscrutable, but she really wasn't excited with Katniss's growing popularity. As Coin was positioning herself to be the next President of Panem, she knew Katniss's voice was probably the only one strong enough to sway the people, and that meant she needed to keep Katniss on her side. Additionally, now that so many refugees had come in and were starting to gain a voice, Coin wanted to keep it focused on something like Katniss so no one dug up any other issues that might prove to be damaging distractions to her while she focused on the war.
"Well," Coin continued, "as this is boosting morale at the moment, I don't think this is a problem."
"But Madame President!" Plutarch roared.
"Yes?"
"'The Mother of Hope' is a horrible title!" he fussed, realizing he had no other ground to stand on.
"Why don't you see if you can come up with something better," Coin said dismissively to Plutarch as she got up to leave.
"Fine. I'll see what I can do. But it's going to be hard to spin this story when most of the people in this country still believe she's in love with Peeta…" Plutarch bemoaned.
"Why don't you start by explaining that Katniss's first priority was the rebellion, and when Peeta sided with Snow, that made her see things differently."
Plutarch looked at Coin like she was suggesting the ridiculous. "They'll think she's a liar."
"Then why don't you make it about how we all deserve a second chance, a fresh start," Coin said looking at Plutarch severely. "I think that's a good message for our world right now, don't you?"
Everyone in the room, including Plutarch, nodded.
"Good." And with that, Coin left.
Katniss still wasn't sure what to make of that woman, but she had to admit, it was hard not to be impressed with her sometimes.
"We'll have to do an official interview, or something," Plutarch told her, sounding crestfallen.
"Okay…" Katniss said.
"And we'll probably have to do something on you too," he said, flopping his hand towards Gale.
"We can probably spin Gale's work as a soldier as some sort of propaganda, encourage more people to our fight," Ms. Fields said.
Plutarch rolled his eyes and moaned; not because it wasn't a good idea, but because it was very good and he didn't come up with it.
Gale just nodded. He didn't like the idea of being in the spotlight, but he had to admit, he was pretty happy at the prospect of openly being with Katniss and acknowledging their pregnancy.
"If it makes you feel any better," Katniss said, trying to console Plutarch, "I was at least smart enough to not tell anyone how pregnant I was."
"Well, that's something…"
Katniss smiled at him, but he still looked pitiful. Cinna noticed her, however, and he returned her glance.
He excused Katniss while he, Plutarch, Fields, and Cressida talked about what they needed to do to keep this story working in their favor.
"So…I'm the love of your life?" Gale said with a big grin on his face as he and Katniss headed back to their room.
She rolled her eyes. She wouldn't have been so gushy if she'd known someone was recording her. "Well, yeah. I mean, you're going to be, right?" She suddenly looked up at Gale with an expression of worry.
Gale looped his arm around her and pulled her tightly to him. "I'm not going anywhere," said leaning in to kiss her fully and deeply on the lips.
Katniss grabbed his shirt tightly and responded in kind, and the couple had barely made it into their room before they were tearing their clothes off each other.
. . .
"You said you weren't going anywhere!" Katniss screamed at Gale a week later.
He'd just told her that he and Beetee had finally come up with a plan to take down the Nut—and that he'd agreed to lead the mission to do it.
"No, Gale, absolutely not! You're not going!"
"Katniss…" He said patiently for about the dozenth time.
"NO!" tears were spilling down her face now, and Gale felt like he'd been stabbed in his heart.
He, of course, didn't want to cause Katniss pain. And he also didn't want to leave her, especially not when she was seven months pregnant. But he'd designed the plan to take down the Nut, nobody knew it better than him, and Thirteen's army was stretched pretty thin. There weren't that many other qualified people who could lead this mission, and there wasn't the time to train someone else for the mission. And, if they didn't take down the Nut soon, the Capitol could bomb another district like they'd done to Eleven.
Gale feared the next district they might bomb would be Thirteen.
"It's what I'd do," he'd told Beetee when they simulated battle plans in the lab.
Beetee gravely nodded. He knew they had to put the Nut out of commission as well.
Gale tried to explain this to Katniss, but she wouldn't listen.
"What if something happens to you? What if you get shot again? What if you die?"
"Katniss…"
"No, Gale! There's a war going on out there and you want to go right into it? Are you crazy? If you think I'm going to support you on this, you're wrong!"
"Katniss!" he finally said, taking her face in his hands and staring at her deep in the eyes. It was only then that she saw how he was breaking. "I have to," he said with labored breath. Gale felt that if he didn't, if he didn't leave to do this, then he was practically allowing Snow to come and attack Thirteen. And Gale wasn't going to let that happen, not while his family was there, not while Katniss and their child…
Katniss suddenly remembered how, when she'd volunteered for her sister, he'd looked at her with that same expression. It'd only flashed for the briefest of moments then before he was able to get himself under control. But she'd seen it. As pure and painful as it was now.
She didn't argue anymore, but only threw her arms around him, desperate to hold him to her, to support him in his need to leave.
"You come back to me."
"I will," he promised her. "I will."
She kissed him fully on the lips. "You come back to us."
"I will."
She watched him pack his few items – his boots, his socks, his shirts – and say goodbye to his family. Hazelle and Posy had cried, Rory acted like he didn't care, and Vick gave him a big, long hug. Gale said goodbye to all of them, told them all he loved them, that he'd be back soon.
"Whatever," Rory huffed, turning and marching away at that.
"Don't mind him, dear," Hazelle said, seeing the pained look in her son's eyes. "He's just a teenager…"
But Gale knew how Rory felt, he just didn't know how to fix it.
"We'll see you when you get back, okay?" Hazelle said, wiping another tear from her eye.
"You bet," he told her and hugged her again.
Hazelle kissed him on the cheek and then led Posy and Vick away, giving Gale and Katniss some time alone.
"I love you," she said, trying not to be to cry, remembering how strong he'd been for her when she had to volunteer, remembering how much that meant to her. The least she could do was be strong for him now.
"Catnip, I'm coming back."
"I know," she said, not quite able to look him in the eye.
"And I'll be back soon," he said, taking her hand in his.
"You know, I'm trying really hard to be strong for you right now…" she said with a smile as she began to cry, "and you're making it really hard."
Gale chuckled and kissed her and held her tightly to his chest. "Alright, I have to go," he said after a few minutes had passed.
"Okay."
He took her face in his hands, brushing the stream of tears away with his thumb and leaned in to kiss her on the forehead. "Remember I love you, okay?"
And then he had to go. Katniss loosened her arms from around his frame and kissed him quickly and watched him leave.
Gale grabbed his bag, kissed her one more time, his hand trailing from her face to her stomach, and then he turned to go.
Katniss watched him climb onto the hovercraft with the select other soldiers who'd been chosen for this mission. He waved to her as the doors closed and the engine flared.
And then he was gone.
Katniss walked back to her room in a daze. She felt almost drunk, or high, in some sort of haze unable to quite process reality. But when she made it to her room, it hit her clearly—she was all alone and Gale had gone into war and it was entirely possible he'd never come back.
She fell to her knees in tears when she realized. She cried until all her body hurt and then she cried some more until she didn't feel anything at all.
And then she picked herself up, cleaned herself up, and got back to work. Because that's what she and Gale did.
A/N: Hello Lovely Readers...we'll almost at the end! I hope you're enjoying this ride and I'm really going to try to get this finished before the movies come out. As always, i'd love to know what you think, so leave me a little review if you can 3
