How To Cook A Bean

Haymitch had never been afraid of storms but he had to admit, it took efforts not to flinch with every new flash of lightning. The corridors of the Presidential Mansion were desert, only the emergency core staff had remained behind, and, despite the heavy footsteps of Boggs shadowing him a few feet behind, it was easy to feel like he was the last man on Earth.

He briefly paused at a window to assess the damages… It was early still, barely half past four, and yet the sky was pitch black outside with swirling dark clouds. Lightning struck regularly enough accompanied by deafening booms of thunder that he was desperately trying not to associate to the sounds of bombs being dropped… More worrying, half the city was in the dark due to a blackout, which would be bad on any other day but might not be too catastrophic because only idiots would step out in that storm… According to their analysts, there was a risk the rest of the city would also lose electricity before long so unless people had private generators… The Mansion would be safe because they had two emergency generators for that reason alone and a secret bunker ready to accommodate him if they did lose electricity and security was, as a consequence, compromised.

None of those were cheery thoughts.

He glanced over his shoulder at his bodyguard. "Your wife and son are okay?"

"Yes, Sir." Boggs nodded. "I managed to get them on the phone before it got really bad. Maryse promised she would lock all the doors and stay inside."

He almost asked if the Head Peacekeeper wanted to go home anyway but swallowed the question back so he wouldn't embarrass them both. Boggs wouldn't leave if there was any doubt security might be breached before dawn and, in any case, it wouldn't be very safe for anyone to try and go out right now. It was why he had let all non-essential staff go an hour earlier when it had truly started getting bad. He had been forced to forcefully escort Katniss and Peeta out the door because they were both adamant they could camp out in Effie's office if need be.

Need didn't be, as far as he was concerned.

It was a storm, it would pass.

They had people working on restoring electricity as quickly as possible and there was nothing they could do in the meantime. The Capitol was at a stop.

Even Effie had let herself be convinced to abandon the depressingly empty open office to go upstairs… As Haymitch had said, they might as well keep working in a comfortable environment. He still had papers to review but he could do that in his favorite armchair and in his pajamas.

The lights flickered when they reached the residential floor and Boggs groaned behind him, clearly tense.

"Be advised if we lose power, we will move you to the bunker, Sir." his bodyguard cautioned as they were reaching the door to the Presidential suite. "I wouldn't engage in any… engrossing activity."

"Is that what the kids are calling it those days?" he mocked with a snort. "No engrossing activity. Got it."

"I've also tightened security, which means we've got Peacekeepers around who aren't as used as we are to the Mansion's ways, so make sure Miss Trinket has her badge if she wanders out of the suite, please, Mr President." Boggs added, his face blank. "We don't want a repeat of what happened with Head Peacekeeper Thread."

"No, we don't." he confirmed with another snort. "Hope the man enjoys the dead end of Seven." He had had him stationed in the most isolated Peacekeeper station, in an almost deserted town at the peak of a cold mountain. He would stay there for a few years. That should teach him. "Anything else?"

Boggs shook his head. "No, Sir. Enjoy your evening."

"I'd say you too but I'm not sure what there's to enjoy standing guard in a corridor…" he joked. "Get yourself something hot to drink, at least, that's an order."

He walked into the suite, closed the door behind him and it was only at that moment that he remembered that damn cat…

"Effie, you've got Rascal?" he called, his hand still on the handle, ready to go back down and search for the lazy monster – because he knew there was no way she would sleep if the cat wasn't safely shut in with them during such a big storm.

"He never moved from the bedroom today!" came the amused reply from somewhere deeper in the suite.

Haymitch rolled his eyes and let go of the door to walk into the sitting-room, not surprised at all by that piece of news. The cat was probably on his pillow. He had a passion for pillows that didn't belong to him.

He stopped on the threshold, surprised by the dimmed lights. She hadn't turned on the overhead lights but had switched on various lamps around the room that they never usually bother with because… Well, their lightning was shit. They were more decorative than anything else he had figured…

But they did make for a romantic setting with the storm as a backdrop, he determined quickly, as he spotted Effie nervously standing next to the coffee table, a flute of something in each hand. She was wearing an electric blue short dress that clung to her curves…

He quickly forgot any advice Boggs may have given him about engrossing activities. He could be very quick about engrossing activities. And surely the Mansion wasn't about to fall to an imaginary mob so…

"Won't lie… Thought I'd find you working." He smirked, dropping the satchel full of folders he had been carrying on a nearby table and stepping closer to her to accept the flute. "I like this better…"

"We are celebrating." she informed him.

A glance at the flute told him there was no alcohol in there – obviously, she wouldn't risk his sobriety like that.

"With sparkling water?" he teased. He found it cute. There was no proper celebration without bubbles in her opinion. If she couldn't have champagne, she would settle on sparkling water. It wasn't the first time they did that and it wasn't the first time he made fun of her for it.

"With sparkling water." she confirmed, her lips pursed with a touch of annoyance.

He shrugged, never one to pass on a good celebration. All the more so if he could get sex out of it at the end of the night. "What's the occasion?"

A flash of uncertainty passed on her face and he wondered if he had put his foot in his mouth, if he should have just accepted the excuse for a quiet romantic night and moved on.

The last few weeks had been difficult. The whole Crane thing, the unsatisfying resolution to the investigation – there were no tangible proof he hadn't killed himself but the Peacekeepers were certain he had been forced into it, there just was no to prove it – the impressive funerals that Haymitch hadn't attended even though he would have preferred to be able to hold her hand like she needed him to… All that had taken its toll on her. She excelled at keeping up a good front but he could see it. The grief, the worry, the stress…

She went to bed earlier, she slept like a log when she was usually a light sleeper, she didn't fight as much when he tried to feed her more than she would by herself…

Maybe she just wanted to put all that firmly behind them and he couldn't say he would be unhappy about that.

She took a deep breath. She was nervously turning her engagement ring around her finger with her thumb and she was clenching the flute in her other hand in a less than graceful way. That wasn't like her.

"We are cooking." she blurted out and it was underwhelming.

He lifted his eyebrows, glancing at the big windows that showed no signs of the storm abating any time soon. "Ain't sure it's the best night for it, sweetheart… Besides, I'm pretty sure Boggs put us on lockdown. He made it clear he wants us to stay in here…"

And, truth be told, he didn't really fancy a trek down to the kitchens only to be told Presidents shouldn't have to cook because they have a staff to do it for them so just order through the phone like any normal President would, thank you, Sir. His chef was a cranky one.

"No, that's not…" She faltered, cleared her throat and offered him a small trembling smile. "We are cooking, Haymitch." He searched her gaze, trying to get her meaning but honestly coming up blank. It had been a long day. Hell, it had been a long couple of months since their holidays and… "Oh, for…" She cut herself before she actually cursed but she clearly was a little aggravated. "You are the one who kept using that metaphor, truly! Could you get a hint already!"

And that was when it dawned on him what he had used cooking as an euphemism for.

He stared at her, his gaze slowly traveling down to her flat stomach, and…

He didn't consciously dropped into the armchair behind him. It was more that his legs refused to keep working and he felt the urgent need to sit down.

"You're…" he muttered. "Really? Wow, that's… Wow."

She watched him with obvious uncertainty for several minutes.

When he didn't say anything more, too busy staring at her stomach with a mix of panic, awe and, yeah, maybe some horror because shit if his insecurities weren't all coming back running, her face fell. "I thought you would be more pleased. If you have changed your mind…"

She was doing a good job at sounding neutral but he caught the pain underneath, he caught the fear.

"No." he promised quickly, looking up, meeting her gaze, reaching for her wrist and tugging her closer. She reluctantly stepped forward and let him pull her on his lap. "No, it's just…" It was scary as hell, that was what it was. But it was also… "Wow."

A small hesitant smile played on her lips. "So you are happy, then?"

"We're having a baby…" he scoffed, just to hear himself say it out loud. "Fuck yeah, I'm happy…" They had been trying for months. He had had ample time to change his mind, he reminded himself, and this was a good thing. Nothing bad would happen. Nothing. He was the most powerful man in the world, he could protect that child and its mother. He could. "You're sure? I mean really, really sure?"

"I am really, really sure." She chuckled, her tensed muscles relaxing as she snuggled into his chest, resting her head on his shoulder. "I didn't realize immediately because of… of Seneca." Her voice dimmed a little with sorrow but it quickly got his thrill back. "I did several tests last week and they were all positive…"

He frowned, a bit hurt. "Last week?"

"I wanted to be sure before I told you, I did not want to give you false hope. I went to the clinic and got a blood test to confirm it." she explained. "So… Yes… We are pregnant. Four weeks."

"Four weeks…" he whispered, hesitantly sliding a hand on her stomach.

It was flat and he couldn't feel anything at all out of the ordinary obviously but the knowledge that there was a small life in there, a life he had helped create... The excitement won over the fear. "Boy or girl?"

She laughed outright then, covering his hand with her own. "It is barely a bean, Haymitch…"

"A bean…" He snorted, his lips stretching into a stupid goofy smile. "My little bean…"

"Are you going to repeat everything I say tonight?" she teased.

He tore his eyes away from their hands and back up to her eyes. "I love you."

He wasn't sure he had ever worded it as plainly before. He shied away from those words usually but…

It was worth it if only to see her eyes welling up with tears that she didn't quite manage to blink away. "I am full of hormones, you know, you should not…"

But he didn't let her finish that excuse, he cupped her cheek and pulled her into a kiss. He had meant for it to be sweet but it turned hard very fast, not that he really was that surprised by that… When they broke it off, desperate for air, he bowed down until he could press another long kiss on her stomach.

She ran her fingers in his hair.

"It's early days yet…" she cautioned. "We shouldn't… We should keep our expectations in check. I cannot guarantee it will stick."

"You've been to your doctor?" he asked with a frown.

"Yes, and everything seems normal. He will monitor me closely." she said with a small wince. "He told me to rest as much as possible, which means I might need to cut down a little on overwork…"

"Peeta will pick up the slack." he dismissed. "I can hire you another assistant if it's too much for just one guy. Anything you need."

She bit down on her bottom lip, her fingers still soothingly running in his hair. "What I need right now is for us to keep the secret a little longer. If I… If I lose the baby it will be crushing. I do not want to have to deal with everyone knowing about it on top of it."

"You shouldn't be thinking like this, sweetheart." he chided, not unkindly. His hand landed back on her stomach. "The bean's here to stay."

A soft smile stretched her lips. "I do hope so. But it is early days. I want to wait until at least the first ultrasound… Maybe a little bit longer? And that's for close friends and family, do we agree? We won't go public until we can't help it…"

In case some people demanded her resignation, he figured and he had a moment of doubt about this being a good idea because if she lost her job over it… But she wouldn't. It was the exact same game they had been playing for almost four years. It would work out perfectly well in the end.

"Yeah." he agreed. "The kids, your sister, Chaff and Plutarch… That's the short list."

"And Portia." she amended. "I am not hiding it from Portia. She is trustworthy."

"Okay." He shrugged. He had liked her best friend instantly and he didn't like a lot of people in general. "What about your parents?"

"Absolutely not." She snorted. "They are not trustworthy. Besides, I would rather do without Mother's comments about having a child out of wedlock as long as possible, thank you very much."

He nuzzled that soft spot between her neck and her ear. "So we keep it to ourselves for now…"

"We keep it to ourselves." she confirmed, rubbing her stomach with a small content smile. "Our little secret bean…"

Needless to say, he didn't take Boggs up on his interdiction for engrossing activities.

Lucky for them, the storm eventually passed without the Mansion losing power.

In retrospect though, he mused the next morning, he wasn't sure how he had missed the signs. He had been waking up before her for days and that had never happened before in all their years together. She was sleeping like the dead – so much so that he actually checked she had a pulse. He pressed a kiss on her shoulder and let her sleep. He silently slipped out of bed. Promise to keep it to themselves or not, he had some things to take care off.

Effie woke up alone and much later than she was used to.

Well… It was barely six-thirty but for her, on a weekday, that was almost late. She didn't rush to bolt out of bed though, feeling warm and content and… Her hand found the place she had been incredulously touching more and more in the last week…

"Good morning, little bean…" she whispered, feeling a bit silly for talking to her stomach but… Well. She rolled around, hoping to get a hint Haymitch was in the bathroom but the suite was too silent and the sheets on his side of the bed were cold. Rascal was sprawled on Haymitch's apparently long vacated pillow. "You should have woken me up, darling. I will be late now."

The General of the Cat Patrol was entirely unsympathetic to her plight.

She wasn't exactly worried about Haymitch's early disappearance – given the storm and its consequences the previous night she was certain there were plenty of things to be handled downstairs – but it felt good when she discovered the post-it stuck to the mirror in the bathroom ordering her to have breakfast before leaving the suite. It proved he cared.

So she obeyed and actually had a healthy breakfast while checking her emails and the news. She had always been good at multitasking, after all.

By the time she was dressed, had done her hair and make-up and was ready to go downstairs, her pink travel cup full of tea since she would have to pass on coffee for the foreseeable future, there was a strange Peacekeeper waiting for her in the corridor.

He was young, early twenties, with sea green eyes and a wolfish grin. Very handsome.

It made her frown though because Gale usually met her in the corridor in the morning and if it was his day off and she wasn't scheduled to leave the Mansion, Boggs usually assigned her Jackson.

"Hello." she hesitated.

"Hi." The Peacekeeper's grin was impish and his eyes were sparkling with amusement. "My name's Finnick. I will be your main bodyguard from now on."

Her eyebrows shot up. "What happened to Gale?"

She and Gale may not be friends but they had their routine by now. And he wasn't the worst, really…

"He's been transferred to Eight early this morning." Finnick told her. "He's joining Patina Paylor's security detail. It's a good promotion for a Peacekeeper in training, really."

An awfully sudden promotion.

"I see." she hummed. Her bodyguard politely gestured at her to walk ahead. So walk she did, clutching her travel cup and studying the young man. "I am going to go out on a limb here and assume you are not a Peacekeeper in training…"

Finnick made a small face. "I have been with Four's representative for close to three years now."

"Which does not make this new arrangement a promotion…" she remarked.

"Oh, I don't know…" Finnick dismissed with another shrug. "My wife's pregnant and they have better doctors in the city so when the offer came this morning… Besides, it came with an apartment, a car and a sweet bonus so…"

"I also assume it came with a NDA." she casually commented.

"Yeah. But I'm cool with that." He chuckled. "I couldn't pass on the opportunity, really. I've been having a crush on you for years. You're on my free pass celebrity list, you know."

"What an inappropriate thing to say…" She couldn't help but chuckle too, though. His good humor was communicative and, so far, it seemed like she would get along with him a lot more than she got along with Gale.

"Annie is okay with it." he teased as they were reaching the stairs.

"Your wife?" At his nod, she smiled. "She is very generous but I would not let the President hear you say that though. If you wish to keep your job, that is."

Finnick placed a hand over his heart, looking terribly wounded. "Ours will have to be a tragic love story, then…"

She laughed. She couldn't help it really.

That boy was ridiculous. Endearingly so.

Still, by the time she reached the bottom of the stairs she was a little more serious. "What exactly are your orders?"

He frowned, as if confused by the question. "Protect you? Shadow you if you go out. The usual. Why? Is there something I should know?"

He seemed genuine enough. And serious.

Clearly, this Peacekeeper was a lot more experienced than Gale.

"Your wife is pregnant? How far along?" she asked politely.

If Finnick was still suspicious she was keeping something from him, he didn't hold a grudge. And he seemed really happy to talk about his Annie and their future child. She learned more about him in ten minutes than she had about Gale in years.

She decided the change wouldn't be a bad one.

But she still cornered Haymitch about it once the mid-morning senior staff briefing was over, closing the door behind Plutarch loud enough that Haymitch's head jerked up from the paper he was studying. He watched her a bit warily when she made her way back to the presidential desk.

He didn't pretend not to understand why she was glaring at him, though.

"You like the new bodyguard so far?" he chanced.

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. "I thought we were not telling people just yet."

"Haven't told anyone." he protested defensively. "I just made it clear to Boggs I wanted the best Peacekeeper we could discreetly get for your security from now on. I wanted to assign him to you but he wouldn't go for it…" He made a face. "He said he knew a guy so…" He shrugged. "Look, like it or not, the bean makes you a bigger target."

"Nobody knows." she argued.

"That doctor knows." he countered. "And you've done tests so there must be a paper trail…"

Paranoia, she mused, wishing she didn't understand the urge.

"I made the professor sign so many law-biding non-disclosure agreements he is not even able to utter my name in public anymore. And there won't be any paper trail because all the tests have been filed under Lyssa's name. And then shredded." she huffed. "Give me some credits. I am a professional fixer."

He seemed a little surprised and impressed, which was honestly insulting.

She had proven enough times that she was beyond excellent at her job…

"Oh." He made a face. "Fine, I should have known you'd take care of it but… Still." He scoffed. "Look, Gale's a good soldier and a nice kid but… He looked down on that whole assignment and… I just need to know you're safe, alright? Now even more than before. I need to know your bodyguard's taking it seriously. You want Gale back you can have him in nine months. We can keep the new guy for the bean. Boggs says he's one of the best he's worked with."

"Yes. He has a wife who is also pregnant and who also happens to be a professional nanny who worked for Four's Representative before, which means she's been thoroughly vetted and I could potentially hire her, assuming I like her." she deadpanned. "Is that a coincidence?"

Haymitch opened and closed his mouth a few times like a fish out of water. Then he spluttered. "He didn't tell me any of that." He lifted his hands in a helpless gesture. "I didn't say anything to Boggs, sweetheart, I swear."

She rolled her eyes. "You did not need to. The sudden request was enough to tip him off, probably. It isn't like he didn't know where I was going when I was at the clinic… Besides, you've looked half-shocked and half-panicked all morning…"

"Haven't!" he scoffed.

She shook her head, her annoyance fading into fondness. "I have to go back to work, Mr President. Try to look a little less spooked so you do not tip off Plutarch…"

"Maybe you should try to stop beaming." he grumbled, pouting like a scolded little boy.

It took no imagination at all to picture a smaller version of him and…

Her hand flew to her stomach…

"Might want not to do that, either…" he taunted with a smirk. "Ain't the one who's gonna spill the bean…"

Happy with his joke, he chuckled.

She rolled her eyes and left him to it, but she wasn't able to curb the small happy smile off her lips.

They're coooooooking! It wasn't the holidays though but they did make it haha. And Finnick's heeeere! I HAD to bring him along, ok. He had to make an appearance... And Effie needs a commited bodyguard so that works out ;)

How long do we think they can keep the secret?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Pleaaaase let me know!