Chapter 6: Deep in the Meadow

Katniss is unaware of any of the horror as she waits on her bedroom balcony for Peeta to come back and report that the rumble has been averted. Perhaps then they can spend their wedding night in private and in peace. She smiles dreamily to think of it, so lost in her thoughts of love that she doesn't hear the door bang open to reveal Thom Borden, ashen as a cadaver.

"Katniss, come inside where it's safe!"

She smirks at him in bemusement. "I'll be fine, Thom. It's not cold."

"Now," Thom pleads in a piteous whine. "The Peacekeepers will be here soon. With the rumble…"

"Oh, there was no rumble!" Katniss trills out a happy laugh.

"Yes, there was." The exhaustion in Thom's voice makes her falter, pull up short. "There was, Katty! Nobody meant for it to happen!"

She studies his face for any teasing. But Thom has never been one to make light jokes.

"Tell me."

"… It is bad…"

"How bad? Very?"

Thom glumly nods. "There was…. there was a fight. And Gale…" A wounded sob tears from his lips and Katniss's heart drops like a stone at the thought of her cousin hurt.

"There was a knife… and somehow… Gale and someone…"

"Peeta…" Katniss breathes. "What happened to Peeta? Is Peeta all right?!"

Thom twists away from her, rage and disgust on his face before he blasts: "HE KILLED YOUR COUSIN!"

He turns and flees down the stairs ahead of Katniss's wail. The young Seam woman throws herself into her room upon hearing her aunt's anguished cry from downstairs. The observance of religion is expressly forbidden in Panem, but Katniss kneels at her bedside to pray anyway, begging, "Oh, Mother of God, please let it not be true… Please let it not be true!" More silent words, a silent rosary pass from her lips, only trailing off when she sees the reflection of someone stealing into her window from the balcony. His clothes are in tatters and there is blood on his face, but one look in his eyes and she would know her husband anywhere.

Emotionally adrift, Katniss launches herself at the man she married in a blind rage. "KILLER! KILLER! KILL-ER….." she pounds on his chest with her fists, sobbing as she sinks to the floor. Peeta gathers her in his arms, rocks her into his lap.

"I tried to stop it…" he pleads, and she believes him, how can she not, but… "But… Rye was my brother and when Gale shanked him, I couldn't…"

"The Peacekeepers…"

"… will have to arrest me…"

"No, stay! Don't leave me!" Katniss weeps.

"Whatever you want, I'll do."

"Hold me!"

"Forever. Everything will be all right, Katty girl; we're really together now."

"But… it's not us," Katniss sniffles. "It's everything around us."

"Then, we'll run away, where nothing can get to us! Not anyone, or anything! People have always said you could live in the woods!"

She allows herself the briefest of smiles at that before a new wave of fear takes over. "P-Prim…"

"We can take Prim with us!"

Katniss pulls back to gaze at him in wonderment. "You would do that?"

"If it made you happy, yes," Peeta states without hesitation.

She launches herself at him then and kisses him, his willingness to protect her precious sister making her fall in love with him all over again. He kisses her back, dazed with wonder and then she is pushing the blue skirts of her Reaping dress up over her hips as they fall back onto her bed and she moves to straddle him. Katniss cries out when she feels him push inside of her virginity, but she rides him through the pain, clutching, sweating, gasping, moaning. Her knuckles turn white fisting the bedsheets as she bounces on Peeta quietly, and they spend the next several hours making sweet love. And when she cums all around him with a cry, his lips and his tongue in her mouth swallow her shouts whole.

"Huhhh…. Uhhhh…. HMMMMMM! MMMMM! MMMMMM!"

The moon is still high when there is a knock on Katniss's bedroom door. She stirs, shifting against her husband's bare chest, and she and Peeta sit up together, sharing an intimate glance. The intimate glance of two people who have already shared everything with each other.

"Katty, dear? Are you awake?"

Peeta and Katniss scramble to redress, Peeta stepping halfway out her window and flinching when he hears the locked door handle jiggle.

"Katniss?"

"One moment, Aunt Hazelle!" His wife turns back to him and hisses in a whisper. "Hurry!"

They steal one last kiss. "Sneak out with Prim and come to Haymitch's place, in the Victors' Village. I'll be waiting there."

"What if he doesn't let me in?"

"He will. Trust me. Haymitch can get us over the fence. Then we'll run."

"Katty, is someone there?"

"One moment, Auntie!" She mashes Peeta's face in her hands and kisses him deeply once, for luck, finally releasing him to slip out the window and off the balcony. Checking to make sure her nightdress is appropriately adjusted, Katniss finally unlocks her door to her Aunt, who looks stone-faced.

It takes quite a lot to fool a practical woman like Hazelle Hawthorne, and Katniss cringes when her aunt makes right for the window and peers out. When she turns back, the older woman is positively brimming with rage. Katniss holds her head high, drawing her nightgown tighter around herself.

"All right," she concedes bravely. "Now you know."

"And you still don't know…. He is one of THEM!"

"No, Auntie….!"

"YES! A boy like that, who killed your cousin! He murdered my son! My son! A boy who kills cannot love, can't have a heart, yet you want him! Very smart, Katty girl, very smart!"

Katniss's eyes fill with tears. "I love him," she breathes helplessly. "Right or wrong, it can't be helped, Auntie Hazelle. What else can I do?"

Hazelle gazes at her niece for a moment, bewildered, unsure what to make of Katniss's words. Finally, the older woman drains of all energy and wraps Katniss in a hug.

"Thom has a bow. One of Gale's longbows. He aims to go after the Mellark boy with it."

Katniss is appalled. "But Thom doesn't know how to shoot!" Even then, it might not matter – an incompetent hunter like Thom is still a danger to her Peeta, but also to himself. She just has to hope they don't encounter each other.

All at once, there is a firm knock on the door. When Hazelle answers it, Head Peacekeeper Thread is there.

"Good evening, ladies. I'm here seeking information about a scrap that is said to have taken place by the railway bridge. Would either of you know anything about that?"

"You may speak to my aunt, sir, for I'm about to go out. I'm expecting a package courtesy of the Victor, if it's all the same to you…" Katniss tries to leave discreetly, but Thread blocks her path.

"Actually, my dear, I'd prefer to speak with you first."

Katniss does her best to conceal her panic as she looks to her aunt for help. "I understand, Officer, but I really must get this package personally…"

"Your aunt can get it for you," Thread counters. He looks over Katniss's shoulder. "Come right back here, and then you and she can cycle off for questioning."

Katniss has no choice, nodding to her aunt, who nods back imperceptibly. Understanding passes with no words. "Tell Haymitch I've been detained."

Hazelle nods again and meekly bustles out past Thread without a word. Thread's grin is like that of a snake.

"That's better. Now: a couple of nights ago, you were allegedly seen consorting with a boy. Who was the boy?"

Katniss refrains from biting her lip, her mind racing. She will never give her Peeta up for anything, so she says the name of the first Seam boy who pops into her head:

"Billy. Billy Caramel Chute."