Peeta

I really do have an awesome wife. We're nestled in the sleeping bag. My feet are still firmly tucked into hers, and I can tell they're still nice and warm. While one of my hands is still down the front of her pants, my other one has drifted north and is firmly grasped onto her breast. Her head is tucked into my neck, and I can feel her breath tickle my skin.

I think again how dumb I was. If Katniss hadn't noticed my hands and feet getting cold, I could easily have gotten frostbite. That's a big enough problem on a normal expedition. Stuck in this tent by ourselves, it would have been a disaster.

She was absolutely right to get pissed at me. I'm actually still pretty pissed at myself.

"Mmm," Katniss moans softly.

I grin and kiss her on the ear.

"I don't remember putting your hand there," she whispers without moving, her eyes still shut.

"Can't help it," I whisper back. "Remember when you got pregnant?"

"I don't think I'll ever forget that," she grins, backing her head up a couple inches so she can look at me. She steals a quick kiss.

"No, I mean your boobs," I clarify, fondling her a little bit for emphasis.

"Oh, you mean how I had to buy all new bras?" She huffs. "I remember, Peeta."

"Sorry," I shrug, not meaning it at all.

She just laughs and kisses my cheek.

Both of us notice that there seems to be a little more sunlight penetrating the tent. While the wind hasn't died down yet, maybe the storm has abated a bit. Katniss peeks her head out the door for just a second.

"It's a lull," she confirms. "Should we go for it? Do you feel up to it?"

"I know it might sound cliche, but I think it's now or never Kat."

She nods and we go to work. We're going to need fuel for our bodies, so while I start packing and preparing our gear, she makes us some hot tea. We drink it and eat a couple PowerBars we'd been saving. She also melts some snow so we can have at least a little water. We don't know where or when we'll stop. We don't use too much gas, we have to conserve that.

Finally it's time to gear up. We put on all the warm clothes we need, including warm wool hats and multiple mitten layers. The last items we don are our harnesses. I check hers to make sure it's tight, double-backed, and safe. She looks over mine in turn.

We decide to use a short rope while we try to hike. We're going into unknown terrain – sure, we have a map, but that only gives us elevation and topography. I'm not taking any chances with Katniss. We'll only have about ten feet between us, but even that makes me a little apprehensive.

Eventually we're ready to step outside and pack the tent up, the last thing we need to do before we leave. There's still cloud cover, but it's not as dark and gloomy as it's been the last few days. The wind is still a huge factor. It bites at any exposed skin. We quickly realize this and don our balaclavas. Once we put our goggles over our eyes, our faces will be entirely covered. We put our helmets on, tightening down the chin straps.

"We're going to have to use hand signals," I tell Katniss while we finish packing up the tent into our bags. I almost have to yell even though I'm right next to her. We sling our packs on and I grab the rope. We tie in using figure eight follows through knots. Once again, we check each other's knots, harnesses and gear thoroughly. We make sure our ice axes' leashes are firmly around our wrists.

We're ready. I look at my wife and pray silently that my plan will actually get us out of here.

Katniss

It's cold. Fuck, it's cold. At least the tent gave us some shelter, and having two people in our sleeping bag kept us fairly warm. Now we're completely exposed.

After he tells me he loves me, Peeta turns and begins kicking steps into the fresh, untouched snow. I stare at his retreating form for a few moments until I begin to follow. I notice he's taking extra care with the steps, not making them too far apart. His legs are longer than mine.

I can't even imagine what it would be like if I had to do this without him. I'd be terrified. I am scared, of course, but I also know that he will do anything it takes to get us home to our daughter. I inherently understand that he would gladly sacrifice his life for me if it came down to it. In our situation, it's not that far fetched of an idea. One of us could fall, potentially taking the other one along for the ride. There are deep crevasses we could fall into. Right now, they're mostly hidden by the deep layer of snow. There are cliffs. There's always the possibility of avalanches.

I shake my head. I can't think about that right now. We will survive. We have the best motivation of all waiting for us.

"Daddy, stop!"

Cam's sweet voice drifts up from the surf. I lift my head up off the sand and squint. Peeta is chasing her, telling her he's going to dunk her in the water.

We're on the beach on Peak's Island, which is about a twenty minute ferry ride from Portland. We drove down early this morning from Panem for a family day. Prim is lying to my left, and Alice is to the left of her. Nan and Rye went to get us some drinks from the local convenience store up the street.

"She's getting so big so fast," Prim notices. I know she doesn't get to see her niece as much as she'd like.

"I know," I smile, not taking my eyes off my baby. "Now I've got two toddlers on my hands."

Prim snorts, and Alice outright laughs. Peeta freezes, Cam upside down above his head, and looks up the beach at us.

"What's so funny?" He asks.

"Nothing sweetie," I grin. "Just commenting on my babies."

He cocks an eyebrow at 'babies' plural. He brings Cam down, propping her on his shoulder, and whispers conspiratorially with her. She smiles and nods enthusiastically. Next thing I know, Peeta jogs a little bit into the water before dunking them both under the cool Atlantic water. Walking out of the ocean, he strides casually towards us, Cam failing to hide her smirk.

"We need to dry off, right Cam?" Peeta asks as they near.

"Yup. Mommy! We need help!"

Before I can react, they've reached me, and Peeta promptly places/drops Cam right onto me, both of them soaking me immediately.

"Peeta!" I almost scream in surprise. "That's cold!"

"Sorry ,mommy," Cam says, sitting atop me, triumphant.

"No you're not," I accuse with a matching grin. "And you," I point up at my guilty husband. "You're in trouble, mister."

Cam claps, always ecstatic when her parents are acting goofy, which is admittedly a lot of the time.

"Cam, go get your Aunt Prim wet," I ask politely.

"Kat," Peeta tries.

Cam eagerly vacates my lap and almost tumbles over onto her aunt. As soon as I can, I hop up off my towel. Peeta, easily reading my plan, has already started in a sprint towards the water.

"You'll never catch me!" He yells over his shoulder.

"Who's going to win, Cam?" I hear Prim ask her as I run after my husband.

"Mommy!" Cam answers right away. "Mommy always wins!"

That's my girl, I think to myself as my feet touch the water.

That memory feels like a lifetime ago. I concentrate on every step, never setting foot where Peeta already hasn't. Even though we're trying to just survive, I take a moment to marvel again at how good of a team we make.

Suddenly Peeta raises his fist in the air, signaling me to stop. After a moment, he waves me forward. It only takes me a few seconds to reach him.

"What is it?" I ask.

He just points, and I gasp.

Directly in our path is about a hundred foot drop. We saw that there was a steep elevation change on the map, but we had no idea it was a sheer cliff. Peeta struggles to take out the map and look at it. There's really no way around it if we want to stick to the plan, which we had agreed was our only option.

"Get the rope out of your bag," he says after a minute.

He doesn't need to tell me anything else.

We're about to repel down this icy, snowy, cliff, in forty mile-an-hour gusts.

A/N: So, they've began their journey home. I really enjoy doing the flashbacks, so if anyone has any ideas of a scene they'd like to see, PLEASE let me know!

I've only had to use a short rope a few times, and it's always a bit unnerving. Usually, when I've mountaineered, rope teams consists of four people. Having only two people requires a ton of trust. If one person goes down, it's up to the other one to save them. Whenever I've been on a four person rope team, we used hand signals. There's usually about thirty feet of rope between us, so the last person on the rope is ninety feet away from the first. Instead of yelling, it's just easier to use your arms and hands to communicate.

Please read and review! In the meantime, I'm going to go eat some hummus, tahini and pita. Be well.