DISCLAIMER: HG CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME

Chapter 146-The Room II

February 5 (Two Years Later)

Gale brings Juniper's cake over to her as he hears all his children continue to erupt in laughter. They are in the Capitol, and today is Juniper's 15th birthday. Even though it is Thursday and a school night, Gale agreed to let Juniper miss school tomorrow and celebrate her birthday in the Capitol. She asked to go to a restaurant that she liked near the Capitol square and Gale had rented a private room for the five of them in the back. It was easier for all of them to meet in the Capitol, for Avery was now living in the Capitol along with Sienna.

Sienna now 24, was in her final year of medical training and would be graduating in June as an official medical doctor. She would then begin residency training in District 10, before moving on to another rotation in District 7, then District 4 and finishing in District 12. Each rotation was for 3 months so the total residency was 12 months.

Avery now 22, had moved to the Capitol in September after finishing fashion school in District 8. She had gotten a job as a fashion consultant and designer for a large fashion retail store in the Capitol. She and Sienna had gotten an apartment together, Sienna moving out of the medical school's housing her final year. However, due to the fact they got a large 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment, and given the fact Sienna had no income, they were not able to make the rental payments on Avery's salary alone. So, Gale agreed to cover the rest of their rent. With Sienna moving out of the apartment in June, Gale had agreed to still cover Avery's rent until the lease was up on the apartment in the fall. The plan was she would then move into a smaller 1-bedroom apartment for herself.

Jack now 20, was in school in District 3 studying informational technology. After the war, while a lot of District 3's residents were engineers, they no longer just worked in large factories making and manufacturing computers, televisions, and other electronics, they also created and piloted the technology as well. A lot of people wanting to study and work in technology programs studied at the schools in this district. Finally figuring since he liked computers he might as well pursue a job in it, Jack had decided a few months before graduation that he wanted to apply to the schools there. He got into one of them and was accepted into their information technology program on a probationary basis. Since his grades had declined his senior year due to Katniss's death, the school agreed to admit him on a probationary basis after one of his teacher's wrote an exceptional recommendation letter. But the agreement was he had to keep his grades up or he would be dismissed the second year. Not only did he keep his grades up, he was able to pull himself out of his deep depression over his Mother's death while in District 3. Finding a new purpose for himself, once he was away from Silver Lake, he was able to regain focus. Now in his second year, he has a new roommate this year, his cousin and best friend Taran who has also come to the same school to study electrical engineering. Vick's oldest son was one year younger than Jack, but the two had remained close, Taran being the only person Jack talked in his depressive state. Gale was relieved that his son had chosen a career path, for he knew Katniss was concerned about his future.

Juniper was still her usual super sweet and super kind self. Still the baby of the family, her siblings and Gale were still extremely protective of her, their feeling of protectiveness heightened since their Mother died. She still had her cat that she loved, and Gale was amazed how much his daughter had Prim's personality though she continued to look more and more like his sister. Like Prim, she loved animals and hated hunting unlike his other three children who enjoyed it. While she did not mind fishing, her rationale was the fish could be put back into the lake and not harmed.

Gale watches as she blows out the candle on her cake, her blue eyes staring into their gray ones once she looks up. He sees a look of happiness on her face, it makes him happy, for he did not see that look on her face last year for her birthday, or the year before.

He continues to watch as she opens her gifts from Sienna, Avery, and Jack. Once it is Gale's turn, he hands her a birthday card. She opens the card and reads it aloud, squealing when she reads what his gift is to her.

"I can get another cat?" she says excitedly.

"Well, you have been asking for another cat since you got the first one."

"Can we go tomorrow? Since I don't have to go to school?"

"We can if you want to cancel your sleepover on Saturday with your friends for your birthday" Gale says jokingly.

"I'll wait" Juniper says laughing.

Tomorrow she would be spending the day with her Grandmother and spending the night at her townhouse. While Gale's Mom was in her mid-70's and was in decent health, she did not do well traveling outside of District 2's downtown area where her townhouse was located not far from.

"Wow Dad, another cat? I never thought growing up the Hawthorne household would have one cat, let alone two" Avery says.

Gale shrugs and says, "I know, I too always thought we'd be a dog household. But I will admit, at times cats are easier."

"I hope I can find a kitten who will sit on my lap more than Jade. The best cats are the big, fluffy, floppy ones" Juniper says.

"Just remember Mom's rule on the name!" Jack reminds her.

The five of them laugh as Gale begins cutting into the chocolate cake and telling his children about his earliest memories of Buttercup the cat.


Friday (the next day)

After Gale is finished with dinner with his Mom and Juniper after coming back to the townhouse after work, he says goodbye to them and heads to the train station. Once he dropped Juniper off at his Mom's in the morning, he went into the office. Usually working from home now almost full time, he comes into the office three times a month. And he does military duty with Panem's army every three months for one week.

He knows his Mom and Juniper think he is going back to Silver Lake, but what they did not know, was that he is heading to the Capitol. Forty minutes later once he gets off and leaves the station, he begins heading to the area southwest of the Capitol's main square. As with most areas of the Capitol, he is in a bustling city area, with tall buildings, bright lights, and tons of people and nightlife. He heads to a newly constructed apartment building and takes out an electronic key from his coat pocket and heads inside and up to the 46th floor. He goes to apartment number 89 and heads inside.

The apartment is dark and empty inside, as it usually is considering it is his place. No one knows about this place, not even Vick. It is far enough away from the area Sienna and Avery live in, and far enough away from the main square and the President's mansion. He is renting the apartment, and it had come furnished.

It is one bedroom but has two bathrooms. A bathroom is attached to the bedroom and there is large living room area with an open floor plan with the kitchen area attached. A half bath is near the main hallway by the door.

He goes into the bedroom and takes off his jacket and his shoes. He has very few clothes here, it is mostly work clothes and some causal clothes with only one extra pair of shoes. He looks at the time and sees it is 8:45 pm. He knows she should be arriving soon.

He had sent her a message on his phone on the train ride telling her to arrive at 9 pm.

He sits down on the large king bed in the bedroom. He runs his hand through his hair and rubs his eyes before getting up and going into the bathroom. He has just enough time to shave before his company arrives.

Once he comes out of the bathroom, he hears the buzzing on his phone letting him know she is downstairs waiting to be let in. He goes into the living room to the intercom to buzz her in and then a few moments later he goes to door waiting for her to arrive.

He sees her long blonde hair sticking out from her black coat. She has high heels on, he is not sure why considering it is supposed to snow tonight. Once she is in front of the door, he moves to the side to let her in and closes it without saying a word.

"Hello" he says, sounding tired.

"Hello to you" she says taking off her jacket. He sees she is wearing a black mini dress. Again, he is not sure why she has dressed up, she knows what she is here for.

"You look very beautiful" he says to her, for he cannot deny she does indeed look beautiful.

"Thank you" she says sweetly. He can tell she is happy that he has acknowledged she looks beautiful. "You look, very nice as well" she says seductively as she comes closer to him.

Now 55, he looks better than most men his age, for he is still physically fit as he is still an active member of Panem's military even though it is on a very part time basis. His hair still black, he is beginning to gray a bit on the sides though it not noticeable. No longer having facial hair, he looks younger than he is due to the fact he is clean shaven.

He knows that is how someone so much younger could possibly be attracted to him.

She is a fashion model here in the Capitol, they met when he was attending a fashion show that Avery's retail store hosted, Avery designing a lot of the clothes worn by the models. She had approached him in the outside garden once the show was over. He brushed off her flirtation, pointing over at Avery and saying, "Do you see that young woman over there in the bright yellow outfit? That is my daughter. I am too old for you."

She told him she preferred the company of older men and slipped her number into his pocket before turning around and leaving.

Later, he points to Avery the woman in the garden and says, "That model over there, you designed the outfit she wore right?"

"Yep."

He does not ask any more questions and the next day he pulls out the number and sees the name Cassandra Rawlings written above the number. He looks the name up in the registry of citizens and sees the following:

Cassandra Rawlings-Birthplace District 5-Current Residence-The Capitol-Occupation-Fashion Model

He sees reading further that she is 33 years old. She was older than she looked. He then pulled out his phone and called her.

She was surprised to hear from him, telling him she thought he would have thrown the number away.

"You don't strike me as someone who is used to guys throwing your number away" Gale says to her.

"No" she says bluntly.

They meet three days later at a coffee shop in the Capitol. He gets to know her, she tells him about how she has been living in the Capitol since she was 18, how it was hard at first trying to establish herself as a model but that she has made a decent living off of it. She does runway shows like the show he met her at, and she also does photography shoots for advertisements. She tells him she would like to keep working as a model as long as she can even though she is getting older.

She tells him she knows who is, and that she knew who he was the day she approached him.

"That is why I thought you'd throw my number away."

"What do mean?" he says, not understanding.

She shrugs and says, "Most successful men look at models as gold diggers."

"I told you before, I am too old for you, I'm old enough to be your Father. That's why I brushed you off."

"Yet you called me."

He looks down and nods. He is still unsure why he was here with her now, in the coffee shop. He knows part of it is loneliness, wanting to connect with another person again. He has not had that since Katniss died.

"What can I say? You intrigued me. And when I looked you up and saw that you were not 25, I thought, okay, I'll see if she is serious about this."

She tells him she is serious, that she always preferred the company of older men, now more so than ever.

"Why is that?" he asks.

"You'll have to gain my trust in order to hear that story someday."

He nods, not pressing further then says, "Look, I like you. You are gorgeous. But-I cannot be in the type of relationship you want or deserve from me. I have a fourteen-year-old daughter and she is my priority. As you know, I also have three other kids, they are all doing their own thing. But two of them are here in the Capitol. I cannot be seen with you here. It would be too scandalous. I won't subject my kids to that."

She shocks him by telling him she is okay with having strictly a sexual relationship.

He takes her to a hotel later that night. While sitting on the bed he says to her, "If we begin this-whatever this ends up being-I have rules."

She looks at him pointedly and says, "Such as?"

"We can't be seen together in public."

"We just had coffee this afternoon and dinner tonight, we practically spent the whole day together."

"Only because I wanted to see what you wanted or would be willing to accept from me."

She inhales, trying to hold back her irritation and says, "What else?"

"There will be no schedule, like I said, my daughter comes first. I'll call you when I am in The Capitol."

"Okay."

"You can't get attached. I can't-love you the way you might want me to someday."

"Slow your roll. I never said anything about love, we just met."

"I know, I'm just saying, I can't be your boyfriend. Someday you might want marriage, and children, and I cannot give that to you."

She nods in understanding and says, "I know" and leans forward to kiss him, but he pulls away and says, "No kissing on the mouth-not yet."

She pulls back in anger, about to say what good is this arrangement at all when suddenly he grabs her forcefully and lifts her off the bed and sets her down by the window. He stands behind her while she faces the window. They are on the 200th floor of the hotel, no one below can see them up there. He begins kissing her neck as his hand moves down the front of her shirt and the other goes up under her dress. He begins stroking her and fondling her breast, eliciting sharp moans from her in response. They have sex against the sliding glass window shortly after then move onto the bed going at it again. She realizes his refusal to kiss her on the mouth is something she can live with, especially after her gave her an explosive orgasm the next morning when he went down on her.

A few weeks later he decides to find a place to rent in The Capitol. Now three months later, their arrangement is still working out well, and one month ago he let up one rule. He kisses her on the mouth now.

He embraces her as she comes to him, feeling her long blonde hair underneath his arms.

"How was your day?" he asks.

"Fine. I had to do a shoot for a beauty magazine. My day ended early."

"Did you go out with friends tonight?"

"No, why?"

"Just wondering why you are dressed up" he says flatly.

She shrugs and says, "I always want to look my best for you" and she leans in to kiss him hungrily.

While kissing her he begins to feel uneasy. He wonders if she is starting to get attached.

She senses his uneasiness and pulls away, eyeing him curiously.

"Sorry, long day at work, then I had dinner with my Mom and Juniper."

"Well, we better not waste anymore time then" she says as she begins taking off her shoes.

Wanting to remind her of their agreement, he forcefully but seductively takes off her clothes and pushes her onto the bed. He then removes his clothes and climbs on top of her. Their movements become rough and hard, animalistic in nature. He will not let her kiss him until they have finished, her breathing heavy and her face flushed he begins trailing kisses up her neck and onto her face before his lips are on hers.

She lights a cigarette after, his arm on the back of the headboard as she leans on him. She offers him one but as usual he declines.

"What time do you have to leave tomorrow?" she asks.

"Around 11 am-that should give me enough time to get to my Mom's."

He sees the slight look of sadness on her face, knowing he will not be here much longer.

A/N: So, I am ready for some dissatisfied readers, but I am also betting some people thought it was Dez at first. You will see more in the coming chapter's Gale's relationship with this new character and how the kids will react. Keep in mind his behavior with her might be harsh, but he does it because he is still missing Katniss but longs for comfort.