A/N: Last Chapter :( I hope you liked the ending of the story! Review and let me know, should I continue on with this series? I have some ideas for what happens after for Katniss and Peeta, so let me know!
Chapter 28
He leads us through a set of double doors, which enters us into a long hallway. A dingy yellow light flows from the ceiling, flickering occasionally. It's giving me a headache. A left, a right, two lefts, and we're to the hospital. Peeta and Beetee are being brought in for their injuries.
Peeta's foot was actually fine other than the cut. The wound cream Haymitch sent worked perfectly fine in fixing it. The problem was his hand. Apparently they couldn't save whatever internal damage the knife inflicted on his hand, and he'll always feel numb in his hand.
"I'm so sorry Peeta," I whisper when they tell him that he has to learn how to use his hand without being able to feel it.
"It's alright Katniss, I'm just glad to be alive and with my girls," he says, motioning towards me, Prim, and my mother. I swear my mother looks like she's going to cry.
"Thank you Mrs. Everdeen and thank you Prim for fixing me up before I got here," Peeta says sincerely.
"Peeta, I think it's time I stopped being Mrs. Everdeen to you and started being Mom, if you would like that," my mother says. Now I'm about to cry.
"Yes, I would love that," Peeta says with tears in his eyes. "Mom."
When my mother and I step into the hallway of his hospital room, I ask her what she meant.
"Did you mean it?" I ask. "Can he really call you Mom?"
"He's been apart of this family for a long time Katniss. I think it's about time he had a mother who loved him," she says.
"Thank you," I say as I hug her tightly and sob into her shirt. "You have no idea what time means to Peeta."
"You really love him, don't you Katniss?" she asks.
"Yes Mom, I really do. I love him so much," I whisper.
"Then if you want, he can live with us if you're okay with it. Haymitch told me we got our own three room living compartment, which means that I get a room, Prim gets a room, and you and Peeta gets a room," she says.
"Really?" I ask excitedly. "Thank you. So much," I quietly say. "And Mom?"
"Yes Katniss?" she asks.
"I forgive you. For leaving us all of those years ago," I say. "I- I almost did the same thing. In the arena with him, I almost left because I didn't want to live without him. And I think I understand why you did what you did."
"Thank you," she says with tears in her eyes. We hold each other for five minutes before going back into Peeta's room.
"Hey Peeta," I say excitedly. "My mom- No, not my Mom, just Mom said that if you want, you can live with us," I say smiling. The matching grin he's giving me almost makes me laugh.
"Really? You mean it?" Peeta asks. I nod. "Well what are we waiting for, let's go!"
"You have to stay here for another four hou-," the nurse says but Peeta's already limping out of the door.
Haymitch leads us to the Living Compartments, where Annie, Finnick, and Johanna are already at. We're neighbors to them. I cannot wait to hear how annoying Finnick and Annie are to Johanna. I don't think I'm going to hate this place.
The living quarters are like tiny houses. Well, tiny isn't a good word. Tiny was my house in the Seam. But since seeing some of the Capitol homes, this is tiny.
My living quarters has three bedrooms. Prim gets one, my mother gets one, and Peeta and I get one. There's a small kitchen with plenty of food, a nice bathroom outside of the bedrooms and one inside my room. A nice living room area with a television, and a closet. Overall, it's nice, and I'm excited to live with Peeta and my family.
"Haymitch, where's Gale? And Beetee, I haven't seen them," Peeta asks.
"Gale was sent to District 13. Well, not sent there, he requested to go there. He wanted to fight, and Beetee is there too, building different things over there to help fight Snow," Haymitch says.
"So they aren't coming here?" I ask.
"No, this is a hideout for the Victors. It's been agreed that we've been through enough hell as it is, and we don't need to get involved in a war," Haymitch answers.
Peeta hugs me and whispers things like "I'm sorry you can't see Gale" and "I know you're going to miss Beetee a lot," which earns him a playful punch.
We settle in first, unpacking all of our items. I put my pearl from Peeta in my nightstand, Peeta does the same with his necklace. We put our clothes in our closet, and make our bed with the sheets we got from Haymitch.
Haymitch explained that it's just going to be Victors living here, and some random people important to the Victors. I was confused at first, but he explained that there was no reason to get anybody else from the Districts here unless they were in danger, which they weren't.
We had the Victor's trackers destroyed and removed in the hovercraft, and made a quick stop in the middle of the woods to throw them out. Nobody would be able to find us. Thankfully, we did this before Snow got his backup power supply running.
There's a small training room for us to work out in, with minimal weapons. All of the weapons are in a controlled room, so you can't exit the room with a weapon in hand. Somehow, Beetee designed it so that the weapons get stuck in the doorway.
"Can I see your necklace Peeta?" Prim asks as she walks into our living compartment the first night we got here. She is a nurse along with my mother, so her hours sometimes get pushed back. It's not the hardest job for her here, because of how small the amount of people is here.
Peeta goes into our room to get it. Prim opens it and looks inside, and starts crying. "It's beautiful Peeta, thank you," she says.
Haymitch explained that not many Victors were able to make it out of the Capitol. We were the lucky ones, along with Chaff, Mags, and another Victor I don't remember. Other than that, they saved Annie and Wiress, but the rest were quickly killed by Snow when he found out Haymitch and I escaped. Basically, the only remaining Victors are me, Haymitch, Peeta, Johanna, Finnick, Annie, Mags, Wiress, Beetee, Chaff, and the one I don't remember. Only ten of us left.
Haymitch hasn't been around much. He's been working with the District 13 officials to help end the war. They want us to fight along with them, but Haymitch is very adamant on us staying away from this war. I'm thankful for Haymitch protecting us because I can't imagine Peeta fighting again. I don't want to fight, and I'm positive Peeta doesn't either.
There's too many people in my life to leave again. I've left once already, destined to die. I couldn't put my mother, Prim, Gale and his family, and Peeta through that again. I couldn't put Haymitch through that again. I know he loves us. If he didn't, he wouldn't have stopped drinking for Peeta in the arena, or saved me the first time around. He's grown to love us, and I think Peeta and I can both say that Haymitch is basically our father figure in our lives.
Life has been honestly perfect for Peeta and I. Living together has been great, and I know Prim really enjoys having an older brother around. They're always laughing and joking, and I can see that Peeta's brought out a side of Prim I never could. I realize that I treated Prim more like a mother, while Peeta treats her like a sister.
My mother and sister left for District 13 under a special assignment that they were recruited for. Apparently District 13 needs nurses for the wounded soldiers.
Over the following weeks, Haymitch has been grumpier. He won't tell us anything, but I suspect District 13 is giving him a hard time about us not fighting again. President Coin, District 13's president, is not really growing on me. For her to force us to fight in a war we've been in the center of twice, would be wrong, and for her to ask that of us makes me feel like she doesn't believe she's in the wrong. Just like today. He's been on the phone with her for ten minutes arguing. The second he hangs up, he looks at us.
"Gale's in trouble," he says. "He's stuck in the Capitol, under a woman's shop. He's been there for two days, and Coin doesn't want to send anyone in to save him. She is willing to let him die. So, it's up to you what you do, but Plutarch can get us guns tonight, and send you two tomorrow. I already talked to Johanna and Finnick, and they said they're willing to fight if you guys are," Haymitch says.
We can't go back, but we can't just leave Gale. We have to go back to the Capitol.
"I'm in," Peeta says, and I nod my head.
"Great. Get some rest and meet me tomorrow at my compartment," Haymitch says.
He leaves, and Peeta and I look at each other. "Welcome to the 76th Hunger Games," Peeta says.
That night is a fitful sleep. Peeta does his best to help me, but it isn't enough. He holds me and whispers in my ear, kisses me and rocks me, and yet I still can't get the nightmares out of my head. The last time I was in the Capitol, Peeta got stabbed twice.
We meet with Haymitch, Johanna and Finnick in the morning, and he gives us our gear. Our outfits are all black military grade pants and shirts. Our combat boots and perfect for running. Our guns are lightweight and easy to carry.
We board the hovercraft early in the morning. Haymitch hands us our headsets so we can communicate when we're in there. Our mission is to retrieve Gale and get out.
We fly low towards the outskirts of the Capitol, and I notice how different it looks. It's deserted, like nobody is living here at all.
Haymitch drops us off outside of the walls, and leads us in. He stops once we're inside and hugs us both.
"Good luck," he says. "And remember. Stay alive."
"Thanks Haymitch, you too," Peeta says.
Haymitch leaves to go back to the hovercraft. I can hear Claudius Templesmith in my head saying, "Let the Games begin!"
We are given directions of where to go by Haymitch, and follow his steps thoroughly. Finnick and Johanna have been training in the Colosseum, so they keep up with Peeta and I just fine.
We near the block where Gale's at without any mishaps. People crowd the streets in front of us, yelling things at President Snow. I hear over the loudspeakers of his mansion that he's inviting everyone inside his mansion, starting with children and women first.
Sneaky, Snow. He's using the children as a shield.
We sneak around the side of the building Gale is under, and prepare to run inside. As long as we get inside fast, we should have no mess ups. Nobody will notice us if we're fast.
"Come on," I whisper to the three Victors behind me. "Now's our chance."
We run into the building, and as soon as we're inside, close the door behind us and lock it. I notice a woman at first, dressed as a tiger. Body modifications all over her to make her look like one.
"He's down here," she purrs. She even sounds like a tiger.
She leads us to a clothing rack and moves it to show us an opening in the wall that leads to a staircase. We slip inside and hear her move the clothing rack back.
"Gale?" I whisper into the darkness.
"Catnip?" he calls back.
We turn on our flashlights and see him sitting in the corner. He looks terrible, like he hasn't slept in days.
"What happened?" Peeta asks.
"My squad got killed. Every last one of them. I'm the only one who survived because I was stubborn. They wanted to use the sewers to get close to Snow's mansion, but I refused. I snuck around until I found Tigris's shop, and Plutarch said she was a rebel too, so I went in. She hid me while I called for back up," he says.
"Well, back up is here. Let's get you home," Peeta says.
"No! We can win, right now! Snow has deactivated all of the pods left. All of his traps are offline so people can enter his mansion. This is our chance," he says.
"Gale, we need to go back. We can't afford to go near Snow's mansion," Finnick says.
"No. We can, and we will. My squad didn't die for me to run away. I'm going, whether you're with me or not," he says.
"I'd love to get my hands on Snow," Johanna says.
"Fine, but we run at the first sign of trouble," I say.
"If we leave in an hour, we'll blend in with the crowd. Tigris can apply our makeup so we look different," Gale says.
Tigris changes all of our appearances in an hour, and we prepare to go in. Haymitch is screaming in my ear how dumb this plan is, but I remove the ear piece because he's annoying me.
"Let's go," Gale says.
He leads us around the block towards the mansion. We blend in with the crowd well, and nobody seems to notice us.
When we make it to the side of Snow's mansion, Gale signals for us to stop. "Finnick, Johanna, and I will go in and look for Snow. You two stay out here and keep watch for any peacekeepers trying to get in this door. Also, stay away from the parachutes. Don't try to come in for us, Snow will know if you're in there, even with our disguises," Gale says.
Finnick, Johanna and Gale enter the side building through a window Gale cut open, and disappear.
"What do you think he means by 'stay away from the parachutes'?" Peeta asks. I just shrug.
"Oh my God," Peeta says, looking around frantically.
"What Peeta?" I yell.
"They're bombs," Peeta whispers.
We look around for ten minutes, watching children be moved to the front lines of the crowd so they can be put inside first, when I catch sight of the first parachute.
"No," Peeta gasps as it lands, and a small child picks it up and holds it with a smile. They think something good is inside. They think it's a care package.
I watch as it blows up. The children scream, but it's too late. They all die. Blood is everywhere, and young kids scream and cry as they watch their brothers and sisters be killed.
What I see next disturbs me even more. Medics flood the area, some young girls the age of Prim, and others older, the age of me and Peeta. They're tending to the wounded, and I cry knowing what's going to happen next.
But Peeta starts running towards the area, shoving me down so I can't catch him in time. I watch as he barrels towards the children and medics, all while parachutes are dropped from another District 13 hovercraft.
"Peeta!" I scream.
I try to get up and chase him but it's too late. He's already almost there now.
That's when I notice it. The medics are from District 13. They have the same uniform Prim and my mother had on in the hovercraft.
"Prim!" Peeta yells, and I see a little girl look up. My blood goes cold. It's Prim.
Prim is going to die. She's going to be blown up. So is Peeta. My two favorite people in the world are about to die. And I have to watch.
"Peeta?" she asks as he reaches her, and yanks her away. "Peeta, I have to help them!"
I chase him but I'm not fast enough to save him. I'm never fast enough to save him. He'll always be just out of my reach.
He runs with her in his arms, as the parachutes hit the ground. I watch my world go red. Peeta drops to the ground on top of Prim, covering her body and protecting her as best he can. I watch debris fly on top of his body.
They're both dead. Neither are moving at all.
"Katniss!" I hear Gale yell. But I can't look away from Peeta. "Katniss!"
I see him run towards Prim and Peeta, and pull Prim out from under Peeta. He grabs Prim and hugs her, then leads her to me. She looks fine other than a slight limp and some burns. But Peeta's dead, and that's all that matters to me right now. Prim's alive, but Peeta's dead.
I run over to Gale and start beating his chest with my fists. "You killed him! You killed him!" I cry. When he tries to hold me, I yell at him. "Don't touch me!"
Finnick and Johanna both help put out the fire on Peeta's clothes and move the fallen debris that landed on Peeta's leg. "Prim! We need help!"
Prim runs over to Peeta and looks at him, feeling his neck and wrist. "He's alive!" she calls out.
"His leg! Look at it!" Johanna yells.
His leg is destroyed. It's bloody and crushed, I see bone sticking out of places that shouldn't have bones, and blood oozing out of his leg. He's bleeding profusely.
"I need to do a tourniquet!" Prim screams as she begins running through her supplies in her medic bag. She begins wrapping his leg in the tourniquet to stop the bleeding. He's going to lose his leg or his life.
I hear a hovercraft above us, but I don't care. I need to be with Peeta. Fire and debris surround us, smoke billowing into the air. The scene is fitting for me. The Girl on Fire.
"Get him in!" Gale yells as he helps Finnick lift Peeta into the hovercraft, then boards himself. Finnick drags Prim and me in, and Johanna gets in last.
Prim keeps working on Peeta, trying to keep him alive until we can reach the Colosseum and they can take over. But it's taking too long to get there.
"Step on it!" I yell at the pilot.
I go back to holding Peeta's hand, trying to give him the strength to fight for his life. Please Peeta, don't die. You can't die. You can't leave me like this.
I cry and cry over Peeta's lifeless body. He doesn't move at all, but I can feel his heart beating slowly under my forehead. Please live Peeta. Please.
Nobody says a word as we fly towards the Colosseum. When we get there, Gale and Finnick carry Peeta to the hospital so my mother and Prim can save him. Or try to.
"Mom!" I yell as we get closer. She's standing by the door, waiting for us. "Please save him," I whisper as I get close to her.
"I will," she says determinedly. "Our boy isn't dying on us today."
They take Peeta to a room in the back of the hospital and kick me out. I scream and cry, getting flashbacks of our first arena, and how they locked me out while they stabbed him with tubes and wires.
Gale grabs me and tries to pull me back, but I yell at him. "Don't touch me!" I turn around and slap him in the face, angry that he'd try to keep me from Peeta like this.
"Come on Katniss, let's go back to your room," Finnick says as he steps between Gale and me. "They'll let you know when he's done in there."
"No! I need to stay with him! He needs me!" I scream. I can't leave him. I've left him before, and I'll never do it again.
Finnick throws me over his shoulder and carries me to my compartment. Fine, you want me in my room so bad? I won't leave until Peeta's awake.
Finnick just hugs me when we get inside, but I fight him for a little bit until I finally relent and hug him back. It's not Peeta's frame though, which only makes me cry more.
I cry for hours. I don't know if he's alive or if he's dead, if he'll ever be the same. I don't know anything.
Eventually, Prim and my mother get back from the hospital and say I'm allowed to come. I practically run to the hospital, not waiting for my family to sprint into his room.
He's connected to wires and still asleep, but he's done surgery. My Mom and Prim walk in after a minute. I guess I didn't realize how fast I ran.
"We had to amputate his leg," my mother says with tears in her eyes. Tears flow out of my eyes too.
"He wouldn't want you to cry, Katniss," Prim says.
"I know, I'm just over- overwhelmed," I say between sobs.
Prim hugs me and holds me for what seems like hours more.
The next couple days are terrible. I sit by Peeta's bed and watch him as he sleeps. He only woke up once and they put him back to sleep almost immediately.
Today, they're going to ease him off of the morphling and allow him to wake up. I can't wait, but I'm scared. What if he's mad at me? For letting him run after Prim? No, Peeta would never be mad at me for that.
When I come back from my thoughts, I see a light pair of blue eyes land on my gray ones. It almost startles me, seeing him awake.
"Katniss?" he asks. I brush his hair out of his face and kiss his forehead.
"Peeta," I whisper, happy to see him. My tears are of joy, not pain.
He starts looking around frantically, trying to get up from the bed. "Prim? Where is she? Did I save her?" he starts practically screaming that Prim's not here.
"Peeta, you saved her," I say. "You saved her from the explosion. Thank you," I cry into his chest.
"Hey, don't cry," he whispers. "She's still alive. Be happy," he laughs.
"I almost lost you! I can't lose you Peeta, I just can't," I whisper.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he says as he kisses my forehead. "I just couldn't let Prim die. I couldn't."
"I know," I whisper. We hug for a while, and eventually he invited me into his bed. I am extra careful with where his leg was, and curl up into him.
My dream is weird. I dreamt of Peeta and me, maybe ten years from now, with a little boy who looked like Peeta and a little girl who looked like me, running around in the meadow. When I woke up, the dream was fresh in my mind, but I didn't mind it. It was a good dream, and one I want in the future with Peeta.
Being with Peeta made me realize how much I never imagined I'd want. I wrote off love, and yet, love never wrote me off. And now, Peeta and I are in love, and I never want to stop. I always want to be by his side.
After two weeks, Haymitch comes into the hospital and tells Peeta he can leave now. I'm confused, because he has something behind his back, but not a wheelchair is in sight.
"How?" Peeta asks as he sits up.
"Beetee," is Haymitch's answer as he hands Peeta a fake leg. "It's designed to connect to your nerves and such when it's on your leg. It automatically senses your leg is in it and holds itself in place. You'll barely notice it."
Peeta excitedly puts it on and starts walking around the room, happily smiling. "Wow, it really does feel like my own leg," he says laughing.
Haymitch hands him something that I don't get to see, and leaves.
I get up and together, we walk to our living quarters. Prim and my mother should already be there.
Everyone is there. Haymitch, Finnick, Annie, Johanna, Prim and my mother are all there. Noticeably, Gale is missing. The first person to greet Peeta is my mother, surprisingly.
"Thank you so much Peeta," she says as she hugs him. "Thank you for protecting my girls when I couldn't."
She doesn't just mean protecting Prim from the explosion. She means giving me the bread in that terrible winter, and saving me from Cato in the arena twice. She means saving me from Clove's knife. She means pushing me down to run after Prim so I couldn't chase him. She means all of it.
"It was nothing, Mom," he says smiling. "I love you and your girls. I'd do anything for them."
"And that's why my answer to you is yes," she says and pulls away. "I give you my blessing."
Your blessing? What is she talking about?
Peeta turns around, gets down on one knee, and pulls a ring out of his hospital gown.
"Katniss Everdeen, I've loved you for my entire life. I've loved how protective you are. I've loved how brave you are. I've loved how unselfish you are. I've loved how loyal you are," he says. "I love you. I will always love you. And I want to show you how much I love you. I want you to be the first person I see in the morning, and the last person I see at night. I want you to be the reason I come home every day. You're the reason I still want to fight. We've both been through a lot of pain. But in the end, all of that pain was worth it, because I found you. I know you never wanted love, or to get married, but the world is changing. It isn't all so bad anymore," he says. " So Katniss Everdeen, will you marry me."
"Yes," I say as I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him. When we pull away, he slips the ring on my finger, and I get a good look at it. It's the pearl he gave me on the beach in District 4. "Oh Peeta," I say.
"You told me once that you kept that pearl in your pocket everyday, and any time you felt stressed or sad, you'd hold the pearl and it would remind you of me," he says. "Well, that's what this ring should do too. It should remind you that I'm always here for you, whether you're angry at me or I'm angry at you. Whether I'm gone or you're gone, I'll always be there for you."
"Thank you," I say as I hug him again. This has been the best day of my entire life. This wedding isn't for the Capitol or for Snow. It's for us.
When I pull away, Prim runs to Peeta and hugs him. "Welcome to the family big brother," she says. The smile on his face tells me he's never felt more loved than in this moment right here.
"How'd you get the pearl? I normally keep it in my nightstand," I say.
"Well, I asked your mother to get it from your nightstand a week ago. I actually already had the band for you, so Haymitch just had to find someone in the Colosseum that knew how to make the ring. It was hard trying to do it behind your back, but I had him give it to me when he told me I could leave," he says.
Haymitch announces to everyone that we can all head back to our own District's now, and that Snow has been killed. There will be an election next month to find out who our next president will be.
We all boarded the hovercraft the next day. We dropped off each Victor to their respective district with their families. District 4 was hard, leaving Finnick and Annie, but they promised to come see us for our wedding.
District 7 was easier than I thought. Johanna told us that she wasn't getting off and they couldn't make her. We were confused at first until she said she's moving into District 12 to hang out with us for a couple months.
"Wow, you really can't resist Cinnamon Buns, huh?" I joke with her.
At night time, we are finally dropped off at District 12, our home. Being back in my old house is weird, but comforting at the same time. Being in Peeta's house is familiar, like I belong there.
Johanna moved in next door to me. She and Haymitch regularly have dinner with us. My mother thinks Johanna's jokes are hilarious but she hates hearing them because she never has any filter around Prim. I'm pretty sure Prim has heard more about Peeta's "buns" from Johanna than from me. It's weird at first but you get used to her.
I tend to let Johanna say what she wants after I heard about what happened to her. President Snow tried to auction off her body, and she refused, so he killed her family. She made it into a joke, but I can tell it still pains her to this day. So if making inappropriate jokes helps her, who am I to judge? Plus, they are usually very funny.
Gale and I had a talk because of Peeta's insistence that I make up with my best friend. "Make up, not make out," he said with a laugh. I don't know if I can forgive him for what he did. He built the bombs that were used to murder innocent children. It was his traps from hunting, turned into bombs used for killing kids. How can I accept that?
I don't hate Gale. But I explained to him that I can't be his best friend anymore. I can't help but see Prim and Peeta about to die from his bombs when I look at him. I can't look at Peeta's leg and not think of Gale's bomb that blew up the piece of building that crushed his leg. Maybe one day I can, but today isn't that day.
The night after we elected President Paylor from District 8, Peeta looks like he wants to say something but can't find the words.
"What?" I ask.
"It's just… I'm happy, Katniss. I never thought Snow's rule would end, but it did. And I just can't stop being happy. I'm so happy that we can start the next chapter of our lives," he says.
I just nod my head and rest back against his chest. Thinking about it now is weird. There's no more Games, no more starvation. It's such a weird feeling.
I look at my mother and thank Peeta in my head for bringing her back to me. If it weren't for him, I would've never forgiven her.
I look at Prim and thank Peeta in my head for bringing her back to me. If it weren't for him, Prim would've starved or been blown up that day.
And I look at myself in the mirror of our bathroom and thank Peeta in my head for bringing myself back to me. If it weren't for him, I'd be lonely and bitter for the rest of my life.
He saved my mother. He saved Prim. He saved me.
He saved us.
A/N: So, that was the last chapter :( Review if you'd like an epilogue or even a brand new story for what happens to Katniss and Peeta now. I'll be taking a short break to think of some new ideas for a new story, so don't forget about me! Please give me some reviews, I'd like to know if you loved it, hated it? Anyway, I'll see you guys when I start a new story!