DISCLAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.

A/N: So, I am back from vacation, probably will not be away that long again for a couple of months so there shouldn't be as long as a break in the future. As always thanks for the reviews and keep them coming!

Chapter 68-River

Katniss wakes up at 5 am the next morning, seeing that she was still wearing her clothes from the day before. She's surprised that she passed out so quickly after taking the morphling pills, not expecting them to take effect that fast. She regrets taking three of them at once but acted in haste due to her severe headache. She felt good now though and quickly got up and strips off her clothes and heads into the shower. Once showered and dressed for class, she fixes herself breakfast and sees that she missed three phone calls from Gale.

She contemplates calling him back, thanking him for thinking of her on her birthday, but since she didn't get a chance to prep the night before for today she decides to head to the school early to help prepare.

Her second day goes even better than the first, with McKenna giving her an assignment she wants her to work on for the rest of the week and into the weekend. McKenna had given Katniss a week's worth of lesson plans, the assignment was for Katniss to write all the lesson plans for next week, with McKenna reviewing them before Katniss uses them. Which meant her first lesson plan had to be turned into McKenna by Friday. Katniss worked diligently on it for the next two nights, not getting a chance to call Gale back.

It's not that she doesn't want to talk to him, but she is so focused on her assignment she has no time for anything else. A part of her knows she is trying to put off the difficult conversation she knows she has to have with him. Concerning the truth about her morphling use.

She calls him Saturday morning, after taking her final morphling pill. They have a good conversation, even though he has become aware of the second Panem Daily article. They both agree that they need to keep their private life as private as they can, which means no more trips to District 2 or 4, at least for a while. They agree him coming to District 9 might be their best option.

Over the next few weeks she becomes more and more comfortable in the classroom, working on her lesson plans and interacting with the children has eased her anxiety, though it still lingers. She does well at first no longer taking the pills, but then as the weeks pass, she starts to feel the anxiety within her start to surface. She notices it is especially bad when she speaks with Gale, though she figures now that she is no longer taking the pills she doesn't have to confess anything to him. She is unsure why talking to him is causing her to feel this way, but she doesn't want to go without talking to him either, so her solution was to make their phone calls as brief as possible.

After their slight spat about him making all the phone calls in the future so her phone bill doesn't get too high (which was in excuse on her part), she realizes she can't avoid him forever. Until she figures out what is making her feel this way she decides she needs to have another prescription written for the pills. While at dinner with McKenna on Friday night after class, she asks McKenna about any local doctors in the area she could go see. McKenna gives her the name and number of a well-known doctor in the area who she thinks can help.

When Katniss goes to see the doctor, she lies and says she needs the pills because she is experiencing severe headaches daily, he decides to do some testing but also agrees to write one prescription for the time being. He says he will wait until her test results come back to see if additional medication is needed or a change in medication, explaining that he is hesitant to write an ongoing prescription for morphling pills due to people's tendency to become addicted. She was very aware of this, having become dependent upon it again, the first time after the war and now again after being tortured. She tells herself she was weaned off of it once, she could do it again, and that she just wasn't ready yet. She feels bad about lying, but knows she cannot tell the doctor the truth, for if she does he would force her to enter treatment.

When she begins taking the pills again, she no longer feels anxiety talking to Gale and they fall into a regular routine of communication-until the unexpected happens.

One day while arriving to work ahead of her start time as usual, Katniss spots a small object right outside the side door where the teachers and staff enter the school. She quickly approaches the object and sees it is small basket, with a baby inside. She recoils back in shock, the last thing she expected to see in the basket. She couldn't help but notice how perfectly the small human being fit inside, sleeping soundly. She quickly picks the basket up as gently as she can, and takes the baby inside to McKenna's classroom. She hopes McKenna gets here soon, for she has no idea what to do. She's relieved the baby is still sleeping, appearing not to be aware that anything was wrong. She wonders how long he had been sitting out there, for she sees he was wrapped in a blue blanket so she assumes the baby is a boy.

When McKenna arrives she reacts in a way Katniss was not expecting. "Oh no, another one?" McKenna says in annoyance.

"You mean this has happened before?" Katniss asks in confusion.

"Yeah, locals tend to drop unwanted babies off here because they know a staff member here will take care of it. I sometimes wish we had never taken care of the first one who was dropped off because when we did word started traveling through the town. While District 9 was never as impoverished as your District, we have our share of poor townspeople as well. You've heard of the area called The Downs right?"

Katniss had heard of the area called The Downs. She had been told by another teacher that The Downs was an area down by the river where the poorest residents of Harvest Moon lived. It sounded like the equivalent of the Seam. About a fourth of the children in McKenna's classroom were from The Downs.

"Yes, I've heard of it" she responds.

McKenna nods and says, "Most likely this baby came from there. Before the rebellion, no one gave their baby up, for there was nowhere else for the baby to go. Families had more and more children, despite the fact that some didn't want so many children. Our District being the District that produces food, it wasn't a matter of having enough food to feed a child. The reason a lot of families didn't want to have so many children was due to the fact that their lives had such limited options, you either got reaped for the games, or you became a farmer, a plower, a cropper, a sower, or a harvester. Not many opportunities, and if you are from the Downs, pretty much all you can be is a plower which of course is one of the most dangerous jobs in the district. Since the rebellion, we've seen a lot of infant boys given up, the mother's dropping them off here at the school."

"Where do you take them?"

"To the main town, we have someone who works for the Capitol who arranges adoption with other families. It can be anywhere in Panem, from the Capitol to District 12 though I heard no baby has ever gone to District 12."

Katniss is not surprised by this in the least. District 12 still being so removed from everyone and everything. No wonder she has never heard of Panem having an adoption program.

McKenna goes on to explain that most of the families that adopt the children given up are first time parents, unable to have children of their own, though some of the adoptions were families that already had children who wanted to help a child less fortunate.

Right before the students come in, Katniss hears the baby start to stir and goes over to him, picking him up out of basket and gently rocking him. He looks at Katniss with his blue eyes and smiles, causing her to instinctively smile back.

McKenna comes over and smiles and says, "Looks like you are a natural."

Katniss gives McKenna a look and says, "Me? Hardly. I just, holding a baby like this makes me realize I haven't held one in a long, long time."

"Your sister?"

"No, Gale's sister. She had just been born when I first became friends with him. She is technically the last baby I held, and she is now 13."

McKenna laughs and says, "Well, it looks like you haven't lost your touch. So, since I can't leave you unattended in the classroom, I am going to need you to take the baby downtown."

"What?" Katniss says, breaking her stare at the baby to look up at McKenna.

"I need you to go downtown and take the baby to Child Services, you know how to get downtown by train right?"

Katniss was familiar how to get to District 9's downtown area, for that is where her new doctor is located. It is about a 40 minute train ride from Harvest Moon.

Katniss stays to say good morning to the children before leaving, some of the little girls gushing at how cute the baby is who feel asleep again in Katniss's arms. She then puts the baby back in the basket and heads to the train station.

When she arrives at Child Services, they inform her that it will take at least a week or two for them to find a suitable family. They take down information on where the baby was dropped off at and write down Katniss's address, explaining that they will be sending baby clothes, formula, and a crib to her apartment.

"Excuse me?" Katniss says in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have anyone who can keep the baby until we finalize the adoption, all of our staff and volunteers who help with that currently have other children they are caring for or are out of town" the staff woman says to Katniss stiffly.

"But I have a class to teach! I'm doing my teaching assignment in Harvest Moon."

"You can bring the child to class, some of the other teachers from Harvest Moon have done that. If the school causes a problem call our office. Like I said, it will only be two weeks at most. You will get paid for your troubles."

Katniss didn't care about the money, though she could definitely use some extra money right now. She was more shocked about the fact that by trying to do the right thing she somehow gets the burden of taking care of a child.

When she tells McKenna how she feels McKenna responds by saying, "A lot of people in the District look to teachers to help. Unfortunately it is part of the job sometimes. Usually they have volunteers who can care for the children, but they only have so many. Don't worry, the school will have no problem allowing you to bring him here. We can take turns when he starts to fuss."

Katniss feels better after hearing McKenna is willing to help her. She was given some formula by Child Services when she left and was able to feed him when he fussed after she returned to the school. When she gets back to her apartment before dinner, she sees the boxes of items that had been delivered as promised.

She unpacks everything and gets the crib set up in her bedroom. Child Services also sent baby items such as clothes, powder, diapers, toys, everything a baby needs. She was told by the center's doctor on staff that the baby is six months old. And while being examined Katniss sees that he is indeed a boy.

She feeds the baby before cooking her own dinner, not eating until almost 8 pm after giving him a bath and holding him until he fell asleep. She works a little on her lesson plan before going to bed, thankful that tonight Gale would not be calling because he was out of town for a couple of days.

The baby wakes her up twice that night. The first time he screamed because he was hungry, the second, she figured out after a few moments of frustration that all he wanted was to be held, falling back asleep after a few moments of Katniss gently rocking him.

The next day she decides to go to the store after class and buys him a rocking machine, it cost more than she wanted to spend, but she figured out that he really liked being rocked and she felt whatever family he ended up with could use it. She holds onto the receipt in case the District is willing to pay her back later. At night it made taking care of him so much easier. There were times when she had to call her Mother for advice, explaining the situation. She had not told Gale about the child, for when he called she quickly got off the phone making excuses that she was too busy to talk. She only called her Mother because she needed help, she didn't want anyone else to know about the child-not even Gale. She knew it wasn't rational, but she wanted something that was just hers. She had become so protective of the baby she didn't even want McKenna taking care of him when he fussed, asking instead for McKenna to teach for her when she had to leave the room to attend to the child's needs. She secretly gave him a name-calling him River since he was most likely from the area. She didn't even tell McKenna she had named him for she knew that McKenna would lecture her about becoming too attached to him.

Six days went without a single phone call to Gale. She knew she was being a horrible girlfriend but she couldn't bring herself to tell him the truth. She was so focused on River, she quit taking the morphling pills. Between that and teaching, her days were so packed she had time for nothing else.

The next day Katniss received a call early in the morning from Mrs. Gray, the woman from Child Services that Katniss had been in contact with that they found an adoptive family, a young couple out of District 3 that they think would be a good match. Mrs. Gray informed Katniss that she was to bring River to Child Services next Monday morning at 8 am. Today was Thursday, which meant she only had three more days left with him after today.

While she sounded composed and spoke with little emotion, she was devastated when she got off the phone, breaking down in tears realizing the implications of what was about to happen. After she is done crying, she knows she needs to be heading over to the school, but instead she picks up the phone and calls Gale's office, figuring he'd be there since he likes to try to get off early on Friday's, for he usually starts work earlier than most.

When he answers she quickly tells him about River and that taking care of him has made her realize that she does want children, and that she wants to have a baby with him as soon as possible.

Needless to say his reaction to her request was not what she expected. "Gale-are you there?" she says after hearing nothing but silence on the other end.

"I'm here."

"Well-will you come? Can you come this weekend?" she asks eagerly.

"Katniss-we need to talk about this. You don't answer my calls for days and we haven't spoken for almost a week. I was about to come to District 9 to find out what was going on with you. I was getting worried and now I find out you are taking care of a baby, a baby you failed to tell me about."

She hears the anger in his voice, upset that she has kept this from him. She tries to smooth things over by saying, "I know, I should have told you. I just-I became so busy."

"Bullshit. You could have picked up the phone. You just said he is the perfect baby, surely he sleeps?"

"Yes."

"Then you could have called me" he says angrily.

"Will you come? Please-I know I need to talk to you-about a lot of things."

She hears him sigh heavily into the phone and says, "I can get off work at noon, I will take Harper to my Mom's then head over to the train station, I will probably be in District 9 by tomorrow evening."

She quickly thanks him and tells him she loves him before hanging up the phone, not even waiting to see if he says it back. She then rushes over the school, arriving late for the first time since she began her teaching assignment.

McKenna smirks when she sees Katniss rushing in with the baby in her arms and says, "Did he keep you up last night?"

"A little, but the reason I was late was because I got a call from Child Services."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, they found a potential family that will adopt him. A young couple from District 3, I am to bring him to Child Services on Monday at 8, so I will be late."

"That's fine. This is good news!" McKenna says brightly.

"Yeah" Katniss says sadly.

"Why do you sound sad?"

"I just-I'm really going to miss him."

"I know you will. You've become really protective of the little guy, and he pretty much only wants you to hold him now. I know it is hard but it is for the best."

"Is it though?" Katniss says looking at him while he plays with a large key toy in his basket.

"What do you mean?" McKenna says looking at Katniss in shock.

"I'm thinking about adopting him myself."

"WHAT? Are you mad?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but, Gale and I-we could do it. Gale has money you know."

"I know very well that government officials make excellent money. It is probably one of the best if not the best job to have in Panem now. If you don't work for the Capitol that is."

"Then you know we can afford to take care of him."

"Katniss, I think you are thinking with your heart instead of your head. It is not about the money or resources, sure, you could adopt him, put him in daycare while you finish teaching, if you still plan on finishing that is."

"Of course I plan on finishing" Katniss says defensively.

"But you won't get to spend as much time with him if you do that. Plus if you get a teaching job, you'll have even less time to spend with him."

Katniss ponders McKenna's words, she didn't look at it that way, suddenly not liking the thought of being away from him so much. But giving up what she has been pursuing for over a year is unthinkable. In anger she says, "I won't give him up. River needs me."

"River? You gave him a name? Katniss-"but before McKenna could finish Katniss snaps back and says, "Of course I named him! I have been taking care of him day in, day out for eight days now. Not you-me! I was tired of calling him little guy, he needed a name and I gave him one. Who knows what his real name is."

McKenna's look softens, she lays a hand on Katniss's shoulder and says, "You're right. I am sorry. I should have been the one to take care of him."

"No! I love taking care of him, it made me realize, I do want children-I want to be a mother."

"You'll be an excellent mother someday."

Katniss declines to tell McKenna that she hopes to be a mother sooner rather than later, deciding to keep her desire to become pregnant with Gale's baby to herself.

"Thanks" she says in response instead.

"Do you want me to go with you on Monday? I think I can arrange for someone to cover for us in the morning?"

"That's okay, I think Gale will come with me. He's coming into town tomorrow."

"That's good. I know this is beyond difficult, but you know it is the right thing to do. Child Services doesn't just place a child with anyone. They do their research."

"I know. I know there is a family out there who wants him just as much as I do."

"I think you'll get to meet them on Monday, see for yourself. You are good are reading people, if they seem off, don't hesitate to tell Mrs. Gray."

Katniss nods in response, taking the suggestion into consideration.


When Katniss arrives home after school, Gale calls informing her that the train from District 2 leaves at 7 and that he will be in District 9 by 5 tomorrow. She tells him she will meet him at the train station with River.

"Is it okay if I stay at your place?" he asks.

"Yes, thanks again for coming."

"I love you" he says in a tone she can't decipher.

"I love you too, I can't wait for you to meet him."

He doesn't respond and hangs up. She realizes that he is still angry at her. She knows she has some serious explaining to do when he gets here, but she figures by him wanting to stay with her at her place means he can't be too mad, and that hopefully he will agree to begin trying for a baby.

On Friday Katniss gets tearful as she sees the kids say goodbye to River. She begins openly crying when McKenna says goodbye, not wanting the weekend to begin because it will mean once it ends that she has to say her goodbye.

The only thing that makes her not so sad is the fact that Gale is coming. When he arrives at the train station, she goes over to him with River in arms and hugs him.

Gale looks down at Katniss and sees the look of happiness on her face while holding the baby. He is conflicted. While seeing her happy makes him happy, he's still angry at the fact that she kept him in the dark when she began caring for him. They make small chat during the train ride to Harvest Moon while Gale holds River on his lap. He can't deny that he is a good baby, and watches the baby laugh while Katniss makes funny faces at him while Gale continued to bounce him on his lap.

When they get to Katniss's apartment, she quickly shows him around and fixes a bottle while Gale continues to bond with River, holding him in the small kitchen area as Katniss hands Gale his bottle.

Once River falls asleep after his bottle, Gale puts him in his crib and he closes the door and sits down beside Katniss on the couch.

"He's great Katniss, I'm sorry that you have to say goodbye to him."

She looks down and tries not to cry. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to do it."

He puts his hand on her shoulders and forces her to look at him as he says, "I'll be with you."

She kisses him in gratitude. After their kiss ends she hugs him and says, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

He breaks away from her embrace and says, "What is going on with you? You are distancing yourself from me."

His look is intense, but he doesn't look angry, she realizes he is looking at her with concern.

She takes a deep breath and says, "I've been lying to you."

"About what" he says cautiously.

"I'm still taking the morphling pills, at least I was until I started taking care of River."

She sees the look of anger form on his face, but he says calmly, "Why are you still taking the pills? Your body has healed."

"For my anxiety."

"Anxiety? About what?" his look of anger now turning to confusion.

"Everything. Will I be captured again? Will I finish my teaching certificate? Will you and I be together? Will Peeta ever be able to forgive me? Will I be tortured again? I try not to think about it, but what Geffen did to me, you have no idea Gale."

"You wouldn't tell me" he says softly, not harshly.

She feels the tears run down her face. "I couldn't, by talking about it, means I had to face it."

"It's okay" he says as he takes her in his arms. She begins telling him all of the horrid details of that night, still ingrained in her memory as if it was yesterday. She tells him about Magnus, about her hesitation about going on the boat, about the brutal punches she endured to her face over and over. And finally, about how they sexually assaulted her, and the types of objects they used.

"I'm such a fool. I should have listened to my gut" she says between her sobs.

He pulls back and brings her tearful eyes up to his, seeing tears have formed in his eyes as well. "You are not a fool. I'm the fool for cutting you off the way I did."

"You did it for Dez."

"Yeah."

"I know you did. It's okay, she was your fiancé, you didn't want to hurt her."

"But I did anyway."

"This is another reason I am taking the pills, to take my mind off the guilt I have about hurting the people we loved."

"I think it is something we will just have to live with. I love you too much to just forget again. We need each other right?"

"Right." she says forming a smile.

"We are still working on getting information about what is happening with Geffen's group. It is just-taking a lot longer than I expected. I wonder if some of them have gone to the wild territory to hide."

"I can try to find out when I go see the tribe."

"That's what you are going to do during your break?"

"Yeah, I am going to visit Jocelyn first then head up to see them."

"I don't think you should be doing that hike alone. I am going to talk to the President about seeing if a hovercraft can drop you off."

"Okay" before she can say anything else in response they hear River start to cry. She shifts to go to him when Gale stops her and says, "I'll go check on him" and he gives her a quick kiss before getting up and heading into her room.

He comes out a few minutes later and says, "Just a diaper change, no worries."

She grins at him and says, "You still remember how to do one?"

"Yeah, I mean, Posy is not THAT old, not yet anyway."

"I realized before River, Posy was the last baby I held."

He smiles at her, remembering those days when they first became friends.

The mention of Posy being a baby reminds him though of the memories of his Mother not getting much sleep back then, coming to terms with losing her husband and having a newborn. And the thought of his Mother made him remember another reason for his visit.

"Katniss, are you still serious about us having a baby?"

"Definitely. I figured if I get my birth control implant removed I can probably be pregnant by fall, which is perfect because graduation will be over and hopefully I will be at my new job."

"A job we don't even know where yet" he says pointedly.

"So? What does it matter as long as we are together."

"Uh, quite a few things matter" he says in disbelief. "We need to get a house, we need to get married, and not to mention the fact that I told you I am not leaving my job or my family in District 2."

"We don't need to get married Gale."

"I want to."

"I want that as well."

"Then why did you just say that?"

"I am just saying we don't have to rush a wedding that's all. We can wait until after the baby comes."

"Katniss, I am not comfortable with the idea of us being apart if you get pregnant. I need to take care of you, I don't know how I am going to be able to maintain my job if I end up buying a house in another district."

She becomes angry and says, "I don't NEED you to take care of me!"

"So you only want a baby then? Admit it, this is all about the fact that River is leaving to go to District 3. You want a distraction."

"How dare you. I want to have your child! For years Peeta begged me to get married, have a baby and do the whole-live happily ever after crap. I denied him that because I didn't want it-any of it. I wasn't happy with him, I wasn't going to have a child and be miserable watching them play on a graveyard. With you-I want the happily ever after. I thought for sure we'd be married with a house, but being with River made me realize I can be a mother. I thought you wanted this too?"

His look softens, touched by her words. But reality takes over and he says, "Of course I do. I want nothing more than to give you a baby, but Katniss, the timing is just not right. I want us to be married, I want it to be just you and me. I want us to be stable with a house before we fill it up with children. We haven't even been together for four months. Can we re-visit this conversation in one year please?"

She inhales deeply, thinking over his request. One year is not unreasonable, and she knows if this relationship is going to work she needs to learn to compromise, knowing she can't always have it her way.

"Okay, next June we can see where we are at and decide."

He is taken aback by how quickly she relented. He pulls her into his arms and says, "Thank you."

She leans up and kisses him deeply longing for his touch. He obliges her and before she knows it they are making out on the couch when their stomach start to growl with hunger. "I guess we better get food" Katniss says grinning while fixing her bra back in place before getting up.

He comes up behind her wrapping his arms around her and says, "How about I make you something?"

"That sounds good, but I will admit, I don't have a lot of food here."

He goes into the kitchen and sees she hardly has anything. He goes to the corner store and comes back with two big grocery bags in his arms and says, "This should last us for the weekend, maybe longer once I leave."

He fixes a pasta dinner for them and they enjoy it while River sleeps in his rocker, having woken up while Gale was out and Katniss bringing him into the living room. Despite the impending goodbye, they manage to have a great weekend together, just the three of them in Katniss's apartment. She worked on her lesson plans while Gale took care of River. Going out for walks with him in the small stroller that Katniss was given. Gale quickly becomes attached, and on Sunday night right before Katniss puts him to bed, the three of them lay there on the bed. Watching as River tries to crawl on the bed.

He watches Katniss as she rocks him to sleep and puts him in his crib. When she gets back into the bed he gets on top of her and begins kissing her passionately. For the first time that weekend they make love quietly, trying not to wake him. She moves on top of him, moving up and down while he runs his hands over the curves of her body, she's becoming more and more relaxed with him in the bedroom and she tells him she is getting close, he then reaches over and begins rubbing her clit, helping her to orgasm faster, and she begins moaning. Fearing that they will wake the baby, Katniss bites her lip hard as she comes. She feels her lip start to bleed after as Gale sits up and begins kissing her neck as she sits in his lap and wraps her legs around his waist. She rests her head on his shoulder as they rub each other's backs. Suddenly out of nowhere she hears Gale say, "We could adopt him you know, he could be our son."

She pulls back and looks at him in shock. "But our discussion earlier-you said we needed to be more stable?"

"I know what I said, but the three of us together like this, it's wonderful."

Katniss smiles at him. Their weekend together was wonderful, but Katniss hasn't forgotten what McKenna said about the demands of teaching the first year and what it entails.

"It is. But-this family in District 3 apparently have been waiting to adopt for a long time, Letting them adopt him is the right thing to do."

"If you change your mind, I'd be okay with it. We'll work it out, I'll figure out something."

She smiles at him in appreciation and says, "I love you."

He doesn't respond and instead kisses her, pulling her down with him and rolling her over while he kisses her body, working his way down to her thighs. She grabs a pillow to stifle her cries as she orgasms for a second time as he goes down on her.


The next morning, they bring River to Child Services, Mrs. Gray introducing Katniss and Gale to the young couple from District 3. They both looked to be in their early 30's and informed Katniss they were both engineers. She knows this couple can give River a good life and she hands him over without hesitation. He starts to fuss and begins looking back at Katniss and Gale, crying that he has been separated from them. He reaches his small arms out for them as Katniss's heart starts to break. Mrs. Gray tries to usher the couple into another room to help ease the sadness of the moment when Katniss quickly walks over to River and places her hand on his cheek and says, "Goodbye, I'll miss you." The tears started to roll down her face furiously as reaches up and touches her face, she feels Gale pull her back as the couple looks on in sadness as the baby begins to scream again. Just as they are about to leave the room Katniss calls out, "Stop!"

They both turn and look at her, afraid of what she is going to say. She swallows and says, "I named him River. After the area of town we think he was born in. I'm sure you already have a name picked out for him, but I just wanted you to know."

The couple look at each other and then the wife says, "We had a few names in mind but nothing set in stone. We didn't want to get our hopes up. River is a great name for him though." The woman then comes over and places him in Katniss arms. Katniss is able to get him to go to sleep, rocking him the way she knows will settle him down quickly. Once he is asleep Katniss hands him back, kissing him on the forehead one last time. Gale reaches down and kisses him as well, Katniss sees he is trying as hard as he can not to cry.

Once the couple leaves Mrs. Gray informs Katniss that someone from the center will be by to pick up the rest of the baby stuff at her apartment. Gale informs her he will be there for the rest of the day while Katniss goes back to the school.

Once Mrs. Gray leaves Katniss collapses in Gale's arms, sobbing uncontrollably while he holds her, tears falling down his face as well.