DISCLAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.
A/N: About the name I picked out for Katniss/Gale's son-Jackson is actually a character mentioned way back in Chapter 13-Rain's boyfriend. Rain and Jackson had a similar relationship to Katniss and Gale. Originally I wasn't planning on having their son be named Jackson, but I was struggling coming up with names and decided quite a while ago that's what the name would be. There's another name I played around with, but I think I'm going to save it for my next Galeniss story, which won't be coming until this one is finished. Thanks as always for the reviews.
Chapter 120-First Move
March 9
"I'm bored, I don't want to be here anymore!" Sienna shouts in defiance as Gale tried to get his oldest daughter to get into her clothes.
"Sienna-stop complaining, this trip isn't all about you. This village is important to your Mom. The people here have been nothing but kind to you" Gale says in an irritated tone.
"Why can't Avie and I stay at Grammie's?"
"I already told you, we need to be together as a family."
Katniss looks down at her son nursing while she pulls the blanket up higher to hide the view from Avery who was sitting right beside her, already dressed and ready for breakfast. Katniss knows Gale saying that they had to be together as a family was a cover up for the real reason all of them were together in the wild territory. While Katniss didn't want to take Sienna out of pre-school at the daycare, it was decided during a heated argument between the two of them that it was safer for all of them to be together. While Gale could have arranged security at Hazelle's, he had argued to Katniss that if the worst happened, his Mom would not be able to protect Sienna and Avery the way they both could because his Mom was not a fighter. Knowing that her children's safety came before anything else, she relented and agreed to Gale's request that they all travel to the wild territory together. Katniss knew though, that eventually the downtime there would make Sienna and Avery restless, for back home they could watch TV as well as play with all of their toys. Here they were limited to a small bag of toys and books.
"I want to play with the other kids" Avery says looking up at Katniss.
"After you finish breakfast" Katniss says.
"Are you going to play with the other kids too? Or are you going to sit in here and pout?" Gale asks giving Sienna a look.
"I don't know what they are saying" Sienna says, her tone indicating the real reason why she didn't like being there.
"You know some of the words, I know you do. I can teach you some more at breakfast okay?" Katniss says encouragingly to her daughter.
Sienna nods and lets Gale help her finish getting dressed while Katniss finishes nursing Jackson and places him on her shoulder, patting his back gently. They exit their large teepee and head to the center of the village for breakfast. Katniss teaches Sienna some simple words in Sioux as Avery sits in Gale's lap eating her food happily. Avery liked being in the wild territory more than Sienna because the kids here had really different toys, and was fine getting by with only the few words Katniss taught her in Sioux.
After they finish breakfast Gale takes Sienna and Avery over to the area of the village where all the children play. While it was still winter, spring was approaching, the sun was out and the snow was softening, the river and lakes free from the ice. Katniss talks with Morning Sun as she watches them from a distance, Morning Sun telling Katniss that Jackson's dreamcatcher would be done by this afternoon, just in time for they would be leaving tomorrow, a hovercraft ready to pick them up at the usual location.
Katniss tells Gale she will be heading back to the teepee to try to get some sleep between feedings, and asked if he wouldn't mind watching the girls and giving Jackson a bottle while she goes on a late afternoon hunt with Red Bear and a few others. Gale gives her a quick kiss saying he doesn't mind and that he hopes she can get some sleep, for he knows how little sleep his wife has had in the last three months.
When Katniss arrives back in their teepee, she is greeted by a slightly strange smell. Telling herself it was her imagination, she sits down in the center of the teepee after putting Jackson in his portable crib and takes out the pump machine in her bag and begins pumping in order to get a couple of bottles ready for Gale. Once finished she puts the bottles by Jackson's bag and then goes over and looks down at her sleeping son, smiling at him. Now almost three months old, Jackson was much bigger than Sienna and Avery were at that age and Katniss knows most likely he will take after his Father in height. She feels her eyes start to get heavy and goes and lays down, her eyes closing before her head even hits the ground. Knowing that her son will wake her when he's hungry, she falls asleep before she can even think about pulling the blankets up to cover herself.
When Katniss wakes, she hears nothing but silence in the teepee. Knowing that she got decent sleep she looks at her distress watch and sees that it is 2 pm, alarmed that she had slept for four hours. Surprised that Jackson didn't wake her to feed she goes over to his crib and stares down in shock, blinking a few times for she was unable to believe what she was seeing.
He was gone, he was not in his crib. Katniss reaches down and touches the soft surface, moving her hand around and not feeling him there. She looks around the teepee frantically and sees that his bag and bottles are gone, and sees a small object and a note in its place instead.
She breathes heavily as she picks up the object and stares at it, recognizing what it is immediately. It was the dried up primrose that Peeta had given her when she first came to the wild territory, the primrose hidden in her journal. The journal that had been missing for over six years, along with the map to this very location.
She holds back her tears as she picks up the note and unfolds it, reading the eloquent lettering inside:
'I'll be waiting on the other side of the river, come alone, or else you will find your son's neck snapped-if you ever find him.'
Katniss grabs her jacket, bow, grabs extra arrows and takes Gale's large hunting knife. She bolts out of the teepee and begins running into the woods and down the hill. Her heart pounding as she runs as fast as she can.
