Thank you everyone for the reviews! Here is the reunion chapter...Enjoy!
Chapter 5
When I reach the clearing, I see her, sitting on the rock where we used to meet…our rock. I keep myself hidden, walking a little in from the tree line to get a better look at her. I stop when I am as close as I can get without blowing my cover.
The Katniss I see before me is not the same girl I left behind five years ago. Her vacant stare and somber expression overwhelm me and I begin to wonder what has happened to her since I've been gone. These woods used to revitalize her from the bitter reality of District 12. If she is this emotionally dead out here in the place where we used to smile and laugh, I fear to think about how she is faring inside the limits of her district.
She brings her hands to her face wiping away what has to be tears, and then pulls an arrow from her sheath, using the tip to scratch something into the rock in front of her. I take a deep breath and begin to walk towards her, unsure of what I'll possible say or do once I reach her. My presence seems to go unnoticed as she continues to move the arrowhead against the stone. It's not until I'm about 10 feet to her that she quickly picks up her bow next to her, loading it with arrow in her hand and aiming it straight in my direction. It seems the hunter in her hasn't left completely. Her muscles tense and her mouth drops open when she sees me standing there, only a few feet of space between us. I advance towards her and she takes a few steps back, her arrow pulled taut against the bow. I start to think that she's questioning my existence, wondering I'm real or just memory, a ghost walking among her. I take longer strides, closing the gap between us and knock the bow and arrow out of her hands. Before she can get too far, I take her right hand and place it over my heart, letting her feel it beating in my chest, showing her I'm really here. I study her face, and can hear soft, steady breaths escaping her mouth. She then starts groping my body as if to check that I'm real, not some figment of her imagination. Once she is convinced, she buries her face into the center of my chest, letting out a cry of relief. My arms immediately wrap around her, keeping her close to me. Her breath permeates through the fabric of my shirt, warming my skin with each exhale. That yearning sensation returns, attacking my heart with each passing second. God, how I've missed her.
"I thought you were dead." she murmurs into me, the vibrations sending shivers down my spine.
"That was the point." I say quietly.
"So you left?"
"Just like I said I would." I respond, reminding her of all the times I talked about leaving. She pushes away from me turns away from me, taking a few steps forward. I stay where I am, waiting for what comes next. She clasps her hand over her mouth and a gurgling sound escapes her followed by a high-pitched gasp. Whatever she is thinking is clearly upsetting her.
"Katniss." I gently call out, wanting to make sure she is ok. She turns to face me her face emanating hurt and betrayal.
"You were supposed to take me with you!" she exclaims, pushing me backwards. Tears falls down her face as she pushes me again. I lose my footing on the sloping hill and fall to the ground, my heart pounding out my chest. This was not the reunion I was expecting.
"You left me here!" she gasps, falling to her knee, covering her face.
"Catnip." I mutter, crawling closer to her. She doesn't respond or even acknowledge that I'm there. I repeat my nickname for her again, burying my face to hair falling down the side of her face.
"You said I could come with you. All those time, you said 'we'." she wails.
"I didn't think you would want to come." I said.
"Why not?" she says, turning her head so her face is a mere inch from mine. I lower my gaze, focusing on the ground below us.
"I thought you were happy." I say, playing with a patch of grass between us.
"Why would you think that?" she asked, demanding an answer.
"I saw you with him…and the interviews after. You looked happy."
"You of all people should have known that it was all just a lie. You can see through anything in the drop of a hat."
"Everyone said you were in love." I say, defending my judgment.
"And when did you start listening to what everyone says." Katniss says, standing up and walking back to the rock. Not even I have an answer for that. I've always had my own opinions, never relying of the views of others. How could I have been so wrong about something so important?
"So you're not with him?" I ask cynically as I approach her. I'm not sure which answer I want to hear from her. If she answers no, then I am right about everything. If she answers yes, then she is free. Maybe I could finally have a chance. Screw it; of course I want her to say yes. Why should I let my pride get in the way of that?
"I'm still with Peeta." she says glaring back at me, knowing I asked that question in spite of her.
"I think I've proved my point." I say before I start walking away from her back into the woods. I expect her to come after me, shouting fiery words at me like she always did when I made her mad. She must be planning a more stealthy attack because it's difficult for even me to feel her presence around me. When I reach the tree line I whip around to take her by surprise but I she's not even remotely close to me. She's back on our rock, staring out into the valley, just as she had been when I first saw her.
I can feel the rage racing through my veins, igniting my whole being. What the hell could make her lose her fighting edge? She'd always been a fighter, always resilient when faced with adversity. How could one little comment crumble her into this fragile shell of a person? I stride across the distance between us, my jaw clenched in reaction to the emotions held inside of me. I don't wait for her to react or even acknowledge me before I start my rant.
"Wake up! This isn't you!" I shout at her, getting right into her line of vision so there is no way she can ignore me. Her eyebrows raise and it's evident by looking in her eyes that I have scared her with my tone. I doubt that anyone has spoken to her like this in the time since I've left. It wouldn't surprise me if her mother was still too concerned in dealing with the loss of her husband to notice anything wrong with Katniss and Prim is too gentle to ever raise her voice. Maybe yelling isn't the best approach but I am not going to baby her either. I sit down beside her in the space I always used to occupy when we'd meet each other all those years ago. I look over to find her looking back at me. Perhaps I finally got through to her.
"What happened?" I whisper, nervous about what she is going to tell me. She looks up at me with tears in her eyes. I reach over and take her hand to know I'm here for her. She tells me about how her mentor, Haymitch, convinced her to feign her love for Peeta as a way to get sponsors. After the Games were over, Katniss and Peeta were forced to stay together to appease the President after they pulled that stunt with the berries. He didn't want the citizens to get the wrong idea about why they did this. Some people saw it as an act of rebellion.
She then tells me about how taken the citizens were with their relationship and how the country came to take a real interest in the star-crossed lovers, even in the years following their victory. About 3 years ago, they were forced to get engaged and were married, with a lavish wedding thrown in the Capitol that was televised throughout the country. After hearing this explanation, it's easy to see why she's so unhappy. She's trapped in a marriage with a man she has no romantic feeling for. She also has to mentor tributes from our district and watch them as they meet their death by the hands of other tributes in the Games. I now have a better idea about what her life has been like over the past 5 years but I cannot say I fully understand it. The information she has divulged is only the tip of the iceberg, with many other experiences she has yet to tell me.
Katniss turns away for me looking up the sky, for some reason unbeknownst to me. When she faces me, her expression is a lot more somber.
"I should be getting back." she says letting her legs fall down the edge of the rock. I can tell by the way she grips onto the edge with hands that she doesn't really want to leave. I slide my body off the large piece of stone and stand in front of her, pressing the front of my legs into her shins to prevent her from leaving too abruptly. She leans towards me, and I do the same until our foreheads are resting against each others.
"Come with me." I whisper my plea. She's silent for a while and I am beginning to think that maybe she is considering my offer. Her hands leave the rock and she braces my shoulders. I can't help but notice the way her hands are trembling.
"I can't." she whispers back.
"Katniss, I already messed up. I'm not going to make the same mistake again." My words seem to only upset her more. Her breath hovers up and down trying to control the tears that are now falling down her cheeks.
"I wish I could Gale, really I do." she stammers out.
"Give me one good reason why you can't come with me." I ask as I too try to control my emotions. Her hands slide from my shoulders to my chest creating two rivers of electricity running through me before gently parting me from her. She turns her arm over, palm up and then takes my hand, moving my fingers over her skin until I feel her soft, delicate skin replaced with a solid square shaped patch under her flesh. I think I have a pretty good idea of what this is but I ask her anyway.
"What is this?"
"It's a tracker."
"Why do you have it?" I ask with anger. The Games are over. Why on Earth would she still need to have this in her arm?
"A few victors were plotting a rebellion and the Capitol found out. They inserted these into all of our arms to keep tabs on all of us…make sure it doesn't happen again."
"So they know you come out here?" I ask with worry. The woods are prohibited. "Katniss you can't do this, it isn't safe." I say clutching her arms. "If they found you out here—"
"Relax, Gale. I have permission to be out here now…as far as the lake house. One hundred feet past there and my tracker alerts them. The Peacekeepers will track me down and arrest me. That's why I cannot go with you. They'd find you and your family. I couldn't have that." she said, her voice wavering.
"I can't leave you, Katniss." I sputter out, burying my face into her shoulder, relying on the fabric of her shirt to soak up my tears. I feel her arms wrap around my torso, comforting me as it finally strikes me that there is no way I can save her.
"You have to." she says, as if she has accepted it already.
"What if we could find someone to remove it." I think out loud.
"They'll know if it has been tampered with. Even if we could, there's another reason why I can't go with you." She releases me from her embrace and digs her hand into her pocket. She pulls out a small rectangular piece of paper and hands it to me. I turn it over and discover it's a photograph of a little boy who couldn't be more than a year old. Once I figure out why I am holding this, I drop to the ground. The boy has both his parent's features, perfectly represented: Peeta's blonde locks, Katniss' eyes and nose. This child is a product of Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen.
"No." I whisper, still in shock.
"I named him after you." she tells me which makes my heart sear even more.
"You didn't want children." I say, still baffled as to why she had kid in the first place.
"I know." she says sitting next to me with a frown. "That decision wasn't up to me."
"Peeta?"
"No, President Snow." she says, taking the photo back from me. "Gale, Peeta would never force me into that." This makes me regret my accusations. I listen as she continues to speak.
"It's funny though, how your mind can change. When I was first pregnant I convinced myself that this was just to keep the peace. I promised myself that I wouldn't get too connected…that he was just another Capitol creation. Things changed though as I got bigger and I could feel him inside of me. I knew that I'd loved him before he even arrived in this world." she says with a small smile.
"He's beautiful." I say wrapping my arm around her shoulder.
"I worry about him…about his future…about what they might do to him."
"The reaping?" I ask.
"That or something worse.
"What does Peeta think of this?"
"He worries too, sometimes. He tells me not to let it consume my life though."
"That's good advice." I watch as she wistfully looks out into the woods. I can tell she longs for them and the freedom that is found there. She's trapped though and there is nothing I can do about it. She rises from the ground and mumbles something about having to go. She quickly collects her things and runs towards the woods. I gather my belongings and run toward the trees she just passed. I run our usual route but she is nowhere to be found.
"Katniss!" I shout out into the forest. There is no response. Defeated, I start for the lake house where I'll be staying the night. I'll leave tomorrow. There is no reason for me to stay here any longer.
When I reach the lake, I strip my clothing and dive into the water. The cold liquid penetrates every pore, rousing my senses. It's still late spring and the water temperature shows. After a minute, my body adjusts to the water and it feels refreshing. I swim a few laps and then have a floating contest with myself. I look up at the sky and the treetops that frame the lake. We don't have anything like this in our part of the woods, just a small stream. I had forgotten how much I've missed this place and the memories it holds. I wouldn't even know how to swim had it not been for Katniss. I laugh when I think about how stupid I must have looked when she started with me, a tall and lanky boy of 13. She teased me about how I looked more like I was drowning than swimming when I swam my first lap on my own.
When my body tires of swimming, I leave the water and decide to catch some dinner for the night. I manage to snag two fish on my line and then cook them above a small fire in the fireplace. I spend the rest of the night thinking about her, coming up with ways to save her and thinking about what I should have done long ago. I could kick myself for not hearing her side of The Hunger Games before I escaped to the woods with my family. When I've exhausted every option, I extinguish the candles on the stone mantel and lay on the mattress that rests by the wall. I cover myself with my blanket and close my eyes, hoping she'll stay out of my dreams. I need a break from her, if only for one night.
Intense chapter, wasn't it? Lots of angst! I know you are probably wondering where it can go from here but I have plans ;)
Would love to know what you thought of this chapter. I spent a lot of time figuring out how their meeting would go down and the things they would say to each other.
Review ;)
