DISLCAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.
Chapter 104-Punished
Katniss is numb while she processes what Gale has just told her. That the Capitol has in their possession a pill made from herbs from the wild territory that can erase a person's memory. And how Peeta was given the pill from Paylor to use if he wishes.
'Peeta' she thinks to herself. She begins thinking about how the Capitol could have given him the pill when he was captured, how everything would be so different if that had happened. He wouldn't have been a threat, he wouldn't have tried to save her from killing herself, and he wouldn't have been able to bring her out of her despair after Prim's death.
She knows Snow would never have given him the pill, for he wanted Katniss and him to suffer. And he wanted Peeta to hate her and damaged him in the worst way possible by messing with his mind.
And now Peeta wants the pill for himself. To forget about her forever.
She lifts the covers off her body and gets up off the bed. Naked, she heads for the nightstand and begins taking out clothes to put on. Gale observing what she is doing says, "Where do you think you are going?"
"Where do you think I'm going" she says irritated as she sits down and begins putting on her clothes.
"It's after 10 pm. You can't leave Silver Lake at this hour!"
"I'll call a cab to take me to the Capitol."
"No."
"Excuse me" she says giving him a hard scowl.
"You're almost nine months pregnant. You think I am going to let you travel to District 12 by yourself! What if you go into labor on the train?"
"I won't go into labor it's too soon."
"You are not going to 12."
"Like hell I'm not! You don't tell me what to do, no one does." She's fully dressed now and stands up, heading for the stairs.
Gale bolts past her and stands by the door, blocking her way.
She gives him another scowl and says, "Move."
He stands his ground and gives her a hard look, letting her know he is not moving without saying a word.
"MOVE" she says roaring.
"Katniss" he says almost whispering. "You have to let him go."
She doesn't answer and moves towards him, trying to push him out of the way, he grabs her arms and gently pushes her back. She begins hitting him screaming, "Let go of me."
She hears Harper begin whimpering, and pushes the dog out of her way for he began butting her leg with his head, trying to get her to stop hitting Gale.
Becoming frustrated with her behavior and not wanting to do this but having no choice, he forcefully moves her flailing arms and bends down and slides his arm under her butt, lifting her off her feet and carrying her to the bed. Used to the extra weight, he had no problems lifting her for he had done it multiple times before when they were intimate.
He leans over her holding her arms as he yells, "He was given the pill yesterday, most likely he took it last night. It might be too late."
"No!" she continues screaming, though no longer fighting him. She releases from his grip on her arms and slams her fists into the bed. Her shouts of anger becoming cries as she breaks down, devastated with the fact that it probably is too late.
He pulls her to him, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight. She cries into his bare chest as he feels her tears warm on his skin.
"I'm sorry" he says softly. While he never harbored any hard feelings against Peeta despite everything that had happened between the three of them, he vehemently disagreed with this decision. It showed cowardice, it was what a privileged person from the Capitol did, not what someone from 12 did.
Then again, he knows Peeta never faced the hardships he and Katniss did.
Gale knows he is a good person, and knows most likely he did it help improve his relationship with Delly, but he still didn't respect it. Just like he never respected Peeta for submitting to the Capitol and saying what they wanted him to on TV when imprisoned.
He continues to hold her while she cries. Finally when she calms down she looks up at him and says, "Why would Paylor give it to him? Why would she still keep those pills after all this time?"
"She must have had her reasons. It took her a long time to agree to give it to him."
"What? What do you mean?"
He tells her about how he had been approached by Haymitch over a year ago and how Peeta had asked Paylor for the pill after they got married.
"I think….when he found out about the baby he asked her again" Gale says.
She becomes angry hearing that he had kept this from her. She asks him to leave her alone for the night and sleep downstairs.
Not wanting their argument to escalate further, he gives in to her wishes and goes downstairs, taking Harper with him. He goes into the spare room and lays down on the bed. The room was currently a combination of a nursey and guest room. A crib in the corner of the room along with a rocking chair.
The next morning he goes back upstairs, for he had to get ready to head into the office. He doesn't knock on the door when he goes in, not wanting to disturb her from sleep for she usually didn't wake up for another hour. He is surprised when he sees her in the claw tub. Her rounded stomach and breasts visible while the rest of her body was concealed by bubbles.
Her breasts now double in size and her nipples darker, he feels himself get hard while looking at her, for he loved seeing how her body was ready for the baby. He had told her almost daily that she was beautiful despite the fact that she hated how her body ached and that she was having a hard time breathing.
She looks at him while he stares at her. Turning her head to look out the window she says, "Come here."
Without hesitation he goes to her and kneels down beside the tub. She turns her head back to look at him and says, "I could hardly sleep last night."
"Me either" he says.
"But I couldn't ask you to come back up."
"Because you're stubborn."
"I needed to be by myself. I needed time to think."
"And?"
"It hurts, it hurts so much. To know that he…..had to do this. To know that I caused him so much pain he felt he had no choice but to forget about me."
"Everyone has hard choices they have to make in life Katniss. I made a choice that broke Dez's heart. It is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life. Look how she didn't even show to Posy's party last month, I know it is because of me…because of us. The news of the baby hurt her just as much as it did Peeta. She chose to cut herself off completely in order to deal with it. Even Posy understands that though she is sad about it. You made a choice to leave District 12, to pursue becoming a teacher and…you choose to end it with him. You choose to be with me here in 2 and start a new life. It was what you had to do to find happiness. I guess, in Peeta's mind, this was the only way for him to find peace. I hope it brings him happiness. But to say he had no choice is not true, he had a choice. In my opinion he chose the easy way out."
She is not surprised by his words. She knows there is no convincing him to see another point of view when he has a strong opinion on something.
His words resonate with her, for it reminds her of why she left District 12 four years ago. She needed to find peace, to help move on from the past. Maybe this is what Peeta needs for him to find peace from his pain.
As Gale said, everyone has a choice. She had made hers, Gale had made his, both of them making choices that hurt the ones they loved.
But she didn't regret it. And she knows he doesn't either.
She sometimes wondered if she would be punished for wanting more, for wanting Gale instead of Peeta. For enjoying sex with Gale ten times more than she did with Peeta. For loving her teaching job as opposed to looking at her work at the bakery and making medicine as just a job to do.
She now realizes, she has been punished. The person who saved her in every way possible will no longer remember her, no longer remember everything they had been through together. She would have the burden of remembering their hardships, alone.
She leans in and kisses him, wrapping her wet arms around him and pulling him close. He pulls back and quickly pulls of his boxers and gets in the tub with her. She climbs into his lap as he kisses her frantically, needing to feel her close.
"I love you" she says between kisses, one of the few times she has said it first. He knows it was her way of saying she was sorry.
September 30
Katniss walks with Gale to the front of their new house. She sees it has sandstone brown siding and has forest green shudders, the front door the same shade of green to match. Now complete, Gale takes her inside and shows her the finished product. The kitchen and sun room have hardwood floors along with the dining room. His office, the living room, family room, and bedrooms upstairs all have carpet. He surprises her by taking her into the nursey. She gasps when she sees the room has been painted a light shade of green and sees the crib and rocking chair they bought in the room, along with a changing table, dresser, and bookshelf.
The room was not decorated however, telling her he was leaving it up to her what decorations she wanted.
"I guess I better head downtown to go shopping with Hazelle and Posy then" she says smiling. For Hazelle and Posy have been nagging her to go shopping for baby things more and more these last few weeks.
She sees another room is painted yellow, with most of the rooms painted either light brown or light blue. Their room is painted a slightly darker shade of green than the nursey.
She asks him why the one room is painted yellow and he shrugs and says, "For baby number two."
She laughs and says, "Let's just try to get through baby number one first" and hugs him telling him everything was perfect.
He ends the tour by showing her the basement. A third of it finished with an attached bathroom.
She asks when they can move in and he tells her everything will be wrapped up in about five days and they can move in after.
She rubs her stomach and tells her baby girl to hold on just a little bit longer.
October 16
Katniss breathes heavily while sitting up in a hospital bed. She is in the downtown area of District 2. She, her Mother, Gale, and Harper had been staying with Hazelle for the past three days. Her doctor had decided that if she did not give birth by October 15 they would induce labor.
She arrived at 7 am, it was now 3 pm. Her Mother, Posy, and Hazelle were waiting in the visitor's lounge while Gale stayed with her in the room.
She had considered having her Mother in the room with her, but decided in the end she only wanted Gale with her when she began experiencing contractions.
Feeling another contraction, she squeezes his hand while she braces through the pain. She was awaiting for the nurse to come in to give her a medication that was supposed to numb her from the chest down. She had been told she could not have the medication until she was 5 centimeters dilated which she now was.
Twenty minutes later she feels more relaxed, the medication taking effect. No longer squeezing the life out of Gale's hand, she is told she needs to wait until she is almost 10 centimeters dilated to begin pushing.
An hour and a half goes by before it begins. The pain more bearable, she feels pressure as she begins pushing, Gale using one of his hands to hold hers while the other grabs onto her knee.
"Katniss-you are doing great, but I need another big push" the doctor says to a grunting Katniss.
Her body covered in sweat, the hair around her head soaked and beginning to feel nauseous, she manages to push as hard as she can and suddenly hears Gale cry out, "I see the top of her head!"
She continues pushing until her baby's head has emerged and she is given a mirror to catch a glimpse. Gale now crying, he kisses her forehead as she looks at her baby. She sees a little bit of black hair on the top of her head. She hears him whisper, "Almost there Catnip" as she begins pushing again as she grunts even louder.
Finally after three more intense pushes she feels her baby emerge and sees the doctor and nurse move away after a few moments. She doesn't hear her baby cry and begins to panic as she sees Gale get up and walk over to them.
"Gale!" she manages to choke out, fearing that the worst has happened.
A few moments later though it felt like an eternity, she hears a loud cry. She begins crying in relief and closes her eyes. When she opens them, she sees Gale walking towards her with the baby in his arms. Wrapped in a pink blanket, he hands the baby to her.
Katniss continues to cry as she cradles her baby in arms. Gale wiping the tears from his face says, "She just had a little trouble taking her first breath."
"She's perfect" Katniss says as her baby continues to cry in her arms. She begins to sing softly to help soothe the upset infant. The baby begins to settle down as she stares at Katniss, Katniss noticing that the baby has her and Gale's gray eyes. The signature eye color of the people from the Seam.
A half hour later Mrs. Everdeen, Posy, and Hazelle walk into the delivery room and see Katniss cradling an alert baby in her arms.
Gale picks the baby up from Katniss's arms and brings her closer to them, Mrs. Everdeen holding back her tears as Gale gently places the baby in her arms.
"Hello there" Mrs. Everdeen says to the black haired gray eyed baby.
She then passes the baby to Hazelle, who is unable to control her tears. Hazelle holds the baby for a few minutes before placing the baby gently in Posy's arms. Posy in awe at the sight of her.
"So what's her name?" she asks as Gale takes the baby from her arms.
Katniss looks at Gale and smiles as he places their daughter back in her arms, she nods her head at him and he turns to them and says, "Sienna Rose."
A/N: So Katniss and Gale's baby is here! And more to come with what happens regarding Peeta. Thanks as always for the reviews!
