A/N: Mild sexual content and depictions of childbirth featured.
PEETA POV
Ten days after I watched Katniss get on the train to go back home from the Capitol, I finally stepped onto the platform of the District Twelve station. I hadn't given Katniss and her family a time, nor had I given them a date, and I actually had to stay in the Capitol for an extra day to have the bruises and marks that those horrible Capitol fucks had left on me so that Katniss wouldn't find out. I'll never forget the names of the ten people who took advantage of me as if I were some kind of object - Bacchus Pristine, Vesta Glass, Clio Proper, Lovejoy Hallish, Evianna Glitters, Ademar Love, Algernon Marvellous, Fabian Gold, Radcliffe Harvard and Serous Magnificent. I hoped I would never, ever hear any of those ten names again, and I hoped that Katniss would never, ever meet any of them.
The second I opened the door to mine and Katniss's home in Victors' Village, I was blinded by chocolate brown as Katniss's arms wrapped themselves tightly around my neck, and I returned her embrace firmly, holding her so tightly that we collapsed to the floor in a heap and held each other. The part of my shoulder where her face was felt wet, telling me that she was crying, and I began to firmly rub her back, reassuring both of us that we were finally together. "Shh, Katniss, shh, it's okay. See? We're together again!" I said to her.
"You're late!" she hissed at me through tears.
"I know, baby. I'm sorry," I said back to her. "But it's okay. From now on, you and I will never be separated again. I promise you that."
"We'll have to go back..."
"I know, but we'll be doing it together. Come here, Katniss." I pulled back from the embrace to take her face in my hands and finally get a look at her face, which I had missed so much. Her eyes were red and puffy and she had tear tracks all down her face, but she was still the same beautiful Katniss that she had always been - safe, unharmed and perfect. I gave her a smile, and she returned it, and then our lips started devouring each other's. We were interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing, and when Katniss and I broke our kiss, we were surprised to see Agnessa and Prim standing behind us, Prim eyeing me suspiciously. "Mrs. Everdeen! Prim!" I said, standing up and helping Katniss to stand. Evidently, we'd left the door open.
"Hello, Peeta. It's good to see you back from the Capitol," Agnessa told me, and I made sure to hug them both and kiss them both on the cheek. Prim seemed hesitant to break eye contact with me and she was giving me a strange look, but I brushed it off. "We're having dinner at our home, if you'd both like to come over. Katniss has been so unwell as of late with her pregnancy and you must be so tired, Peeta."
"Absolutely exhausted, but..." I began, and I looked at Katniss, "I thought they sent you home with medicine?"
"They did, but it only does so much. There are days when the nausea is so bad that even the pills don't work," she told me, clinging tightly to my arm. "Don't worry, Peeta, it's all right. I'll be fine, I promise." She gave me a smile and then a kiss on the cheek, and then she turned to face Agnessa. "We'd love to come over for dinner but Peeta literally just got home. We'll come over once he's settled and showered." Agnessa nodded, then nudged Prim back to their home, leaving the two of us alone. "Peeta," Katniss said once I'd closed the door behind them, and I looked at her. "What really happened in the Capitol?"
"What are you talking about, Katniss? I filmed a commercial for art supplies," I told her, trying to give her a smile.
"Your eyes say otherwise," she said to me, and I sighed. I couldn't tell her about the buyers, nor could I tell her about the fact that Snow was angry we didn't consummate our Capitol marriage, but I could tell her one thing.
"I met with President Snow," I finally told her, and I could hear a small gasp come from the back of her throat. "Honey, it's okay. Everything is okay. We did it." I took her hands in mine and smiled, then brought her hands to my lips to kiss them. "He wanted to tell me that we'd pacified the districts. Our children are safe from the reaping." It wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the whole truth. A wave of relief rushed over her face and she pulled me into another tight embrace.
"Oh, taing dhan Àigh ," she said quietly, which I could only guess was some phrase of relief. She pulled back from the embrace to kiss me again before taking my hands in hers. "Come on, then, let's go and celebrate. You still owe me a wedding night." I smiled awkwardly - I owed a lot of people that wedding night. I let her take me up the stairs, but after all I had been through in the Capitol, sex was the last thing on my mind.
"I must be tired," I told her when I couldn't get an erection, and she let out a disappointed sigh.
"It's all right, my love, it happens sometimes. Why don't we take a nap? I haven't slept properly in days and I'm dying to be in your arms again," she replied lovingly, and we did just that.
At dinner, Katniss was helping her mother cut some potatoes in the kitchen when Prim and I were ordered outside to gather some rosemary from the garden. Rosemary, evidently, grew year round, which explained why there was such an abundance of it in the Everdeens' garden. As Prim and I were bent over the rosemary bush, Prim was still eyeing me suspiciously, and I tried not to think anything of it, until she spoke. "Peeta, what's that mark on your neck?" she asked me, an accusatory tone in her voice.
"That what?" I asked, my hand moving to my neck, and my stomach dropped. The doctors who worked to hide all the marks must have missed one on my neck, and I tried to hide my shock. "Your sister must have given it to me when I got home."
"I saw it on your neck earlier, too. It looks like a bruise, a couple of days old," Prim told me, and I could see the betrayal rising in her eyes. I panicked. What could I do? To Prim, it looked like I had cheated on Katniss in the Capitol - isn't that what I had done though? Even though it had been forced on me and I was being threatened if I didn't do so, I was still intimate with other people (if one could even call it that). Katniss would be heartbroken and furious, and would likely be even more angry if I told Prim the truth. She was always trying to protect Prim and treated her like she was still a child, which, technically, she was, but so were Katniss and I, by that logic. We were still of reaping age, even though we weren't eligible for the reaping anymore. Prim was more mature than Katniss gave her credit for, and more insightful, and I knew I could trust Prim to keep my secret.
"Prim... I need you to keep a secret for me, okay? I know it looks really bad, but I promise you it's not at all what you're thinking. I need you to listen to me and to promise me that you will never, ever tell Katniss. It will destroy her if she finds out," I told Prim, but that seemed to make her even more distrustful of me. She crossed her arms and glared at me, the same way Katniss once did.
"I'm listening, but I'll decide after if I'll tell Katniss or not," she said, and I sighed.
"Fair enough, but just know that... Prim, this might be very disturbing," I told her. "When I was in the Capitol, I... I wasn't filming a commercial... The night that Katniss and I were married in the Capitol, we were expected to, well... make the marriage official. I'm sure you can guess what that means..."
"Of course, I'm not stupid," she said harshly.
"I know you're not stupid, that's why I'm trusting you with this," I told her. "Apparently..." I glanced around, noticing that there was nothing out here that could easily have a microphone connected to it, but I lowered my voice to a whisper anyway. "...the president had... sold... viewing rights of our, uh... wedding night... to ten people in the Capitol... They paid a lot of money to watch us... you know... and unfortunately, Katniss got very sick that night and we didn't do it because I wasn't going to force her. Neither of us had any idea that this was happening. Because nothing happened, the people who paid to watch us... yeah... were very upset, and the President, well... he..." I let out a sigh, then decided to just come out and say it. "He forced me to... perform... what married people do with those ten buyers... If I didn't, well... Prim, understand that Katniss has made a lot of sacrifices to protect not only you and your mother, but the baby, me, my family and the Hawthornes. If I didn't obey the president's orders... all that Katniss had done to protect everyone she loves would have been for nothing."
"He forced you to... sleep with those people?" Prim asked, now horrified. At least she didn't look as if I had betrayed her anymore. I nodded.
"Yeah..."
"Peeta... That's horrible... I... I'm so sorry..."
"Katniss can never find out. No one can ever find out. I told you because I trust you, and because I don't want you to think that I would ever willingly seek comfort from anyone else. I love Katniss more than anything in the world and I would never betray her like that. I did this to protect her and her agreement with the president. Please promise you won't tell her."
"I won't... I swear I won't."
"Thank you... Prim, thank you," I said as I pulled the girl that has become my own little sister into a hug, and she embraced me back.
"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" she asked me.
"I'm okay, I promise," I told her. "Can you help me do something about this bruise?"
"Sure I can," said Prim, and she pulled back from the embrace and took a couple of steps away from me. "Just look over there for a second." She pointed behind me in the direction of the gates to Victors' Village.
"Look over there? Why?" I asked, wondering what on Earth she had in mind.
"Just look," she told me, and I did, and I felt a surge of icy cold hit the back of my neck and I yelped in shock. The yelp I had let out evidently had been heard inside and Katniss was suddenly at the back door and coming down the steps.
"Is everything all right? What happened?" she asked.
"Peeta and I were just having a snowball fight," Prim said innocently as Katniss approached my kneeling form.
"Prim, this snow is too hard for a snowball fight!" Katniss scolded her sister, and she examined me where the ice ball had hit me. "It left a bruise! Primrose!" That kid was an absolute genius.
"I'm sorry, I thought it was softer!" Prim said innocently.
"Don't apologise to me, apologise to Peeta!" said Katniss, and I turned to look at that clever little girl.
"I'm sorry, Peeta," she told me, giving me a subtle wink. I smiled knowingly at her as I fully stood up.
"That's okay, Prim. No harm done," I said in response.
"Go on inside with the rosemary and help Agnessa with dinner," Katniss ordered her sister, and Prim obediently went inside. I then felt Katniss's fingers on my face and I looked down to meet her eyes. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Katniss. You forget, I have two older brothers, and an abusive mother. Bruises are common for me. I'll heal quickly," I told her, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. "C'mon, it's cold out here."
I was pretty confident that our troubles were over. All we had to do was maintain appearances at the Games as mentors and make sure we followed Snow's orders to have more babies, and follow whatever else the Capitol expected of us. Things were finally going to be better, now that I had secured our children's safety. At the time, I didn't realise that it was a false sense of security, and I wish now that I hadn't gotten myself used to that feeling.
KATNISS POV
It was a chilly day in February - the thirteenth of February, to be precise - when I joined Prim and Agnessa for some afternoon tea and biscuits that Peeta had made. I was now seven months pregnant and feeling every kick that mine and Peeta's little baby was giving me, and while it still unsettled me just a little, I felt safer now that I knew that Snow was going to keep up his end of the bargain, same as I had. After a couple of moments of watching the tea bag steep into the hot water that Agnessa had poured, Prim asked me a question that uprooted my very core. "So what are you getting Peeta?"
I was confused. What was I getting Peeta? Did she mean when was I getting Peeta? And why was I getting him? Being a non-native English speaker, I genuinely believed for a moment that this was the proper way to ask someone when someone else was coming home. "Um... Probably at six when he's finished helping close up the bakery?" I replied with confusion laced in my voice, and she laughed.
"No, silly. Gift! What gift are you getting Peeta?" she asked me.
"Gift? For what?" I asked back, now even more confused. Was I missing something?
"For what? Katniss, tomorrow is his birthday! Do you really mean to tell me that you had no idea that tomorrow is your husband's birthday?" Shit. I honestly had no idea that Peeta's birthday was the fourteenth of February. I'd never had a reason to know, really, and it's not like anyone ever told me, either."
"Uh..." I said, my eyes flitting around nervously. "I... It's... a... surprise! Yes, a surprise. You'll find out tomorrow when he tells you," I told her in response, but Prim was smart and knew I was bullshitting.
"You didn't even know, did you?" she asked with a smirk, and I sighed in defeat.
"No... No, I really didn't. Ugh, does that make me a bad wife?"
"I just think it's funny that you didn't-"
"AGH!" I cried out suddenly, having felt a very sharp pain in my lower back. I heard clattering by the counters followed by Agnessa's footsteps rushing over to my side and she knelt down beside me.
"Are you all right? What's the matter?" she asked me.
"Just a... false contraction..." I told her, gritting my teeth as I waited for the pain to pass. "You know, Braxton-Hicks... They start to happen around this time, generally."
"Yes, but usually not this bad this early... I think we should call one of the midwives just to be safe," Agnessa said.
"Agnessa, I'm a midwife myself. I know what Braxton-Hicks contractions are," I told her firmly.
"But you've never felt them. When I had them at seven months pregnant, they were never that bad."
"Agnessa, I've just had one. I'm probably not going to get anoth-Oh!" I groaned as I felt another pain in my back.
"I'm calling the midwife," Agnessa said, rushing out of the room.
"Agnessa, don't waste their time! There's only three of them now since I can't even fit in my uniform-" I had stood to follow her out, but found myself stopped by a rush of warm fluid that ran down my leg and formed a puddle on the floor. My eyes wide, I glanced up at Prim, who looked horrified, before I looked up at the doorway, where Agnessa stood with the phone in her hand.
"I'm calling the midwife," she repeated after a moment. "Prim, her waters have just broken. Help your sister across to her home and get her settled in a warm bath. We've got a long wait ahead of us."
"What? No!" I exclaimed as Prim stood to take my arm. "I'm only seven months, it's too early for me to go into labour!"
"Your baby has decided otherwise, dear," Agnessa told me, and then she spoke into the phone. "Yes, hello, I've got a young mother-to-be that just went into labour... Katniss Mellark... Yes, your coworker..."
"Come on, Katniss, it's okay," Prim told me, leading me out of the house and down the front steps. Of course, Haymitch was outside for his daily ten minutes of sunlight, and he glanced up at us, clearly noticing the large wet spot on the crotch of my pants.
"Afternoon, sweetheart. Have yourself a little accident?" he said with amusement, but I wasn't in the mood for jokes.
"Oh, piss off!" I snapped at him.
"Haymitch, can you go to the bakery and get Peeta? Katniss is going into labour and he needs to be here," Prim told him calmly, and he sat up straight.
"Labour? I thought you wasn't due until April?" Haymitch asked curiously.
"Yeah, I thought that too, but clearly someone had other ideas!" I hissed at him, and then I felt another contraction. I leaned against Prim and groaned through the contraction, and Haymitch jumped up and started making his way through the village.
"I'll get the boy!" he called over his shoulder. I don't think I had ever seen him run before that point.
"Well, I don't think you have to worry about getting Peeta a gift for his birthday now. You're about to give him the greatest gift that you could possibly give him!" Prim said to me as she led me inside of my home, but I was puffing my way through the tail end of the contraction still.
"I can't think about that right now, Prim," I said through gritted teeth. She was very helpful getting me into the bath and sponging my back with a sponge, but it wasn't enough to calm my nerves. The midwife in me worried about the baby coming so soon. This child was going to be two months premature and would likely be breeched and have complications, but the part of me that had never wanted children for myself was scared, so scared and so afraid of it's future. I knew that this baby was going to be safe - Snow promised that it would be - but the little voice in the back of my mind that said Snow wasn't going to keep his agreement would not silence, and I started to cry. Prim tried her best to comfort me, but it just wasn't enough. She wasn't Peeta, and I needed his firm arms around me. A bang on the lower floor startled us both.
"Katniss?" came Peeta's frightened voice, and I could hear his heavy footsteps rushing up the stairs and into our bedroom. "Katniss!"
"In here, Peeta!" Prim called to him. A fear struck me then that made me want to run so far away from this house, from giving birth, from Agnessa and Prim and even from Peeta, but I didn't have enough time to act on it, because Peeta burst through the bathroom door and ran to my side, kneeling down beside the tub in the place Prim had vacated only moments before.
"Katniss, honey, are you all right?" he asked me, his forehead pressed against mine, but I only cried more. "Prim, can you give us a minute? I've got her from here," he said to Prim, who nodded and left the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Peeta then stripped down and climbed into the bathtub behind me, sitting down and wrapping his arms around me tightly and protectively. "It's gonna be okay, Katniss. I'm here now and I'm not leaving your side, okay? I'm not leaving you, I promised I wouldn't. Remember? You're not alone. I know this is scary, but you're not alone..."
"I don't want to do this, Peeta!" I cried through tears, burying my face in my hands, and I felt him run his fingers through my hair.
"Shhh, hey... You have to do this, Katniss, because you've got no choice... but you can handle it. You've helped so many women through this exact thing countless times and you know what you're doing better than anyone. You are so strong and so brave... you're my brave girl, Katniss." He pulled me back against his chest and buried his lips in my hair. "I'm scared, too... I know this is gonna hurt you, and to think that I'm the reason for that horrifies me... But think about all we did to get here, Katniss. In a few hours, you're going to be holding our beautiful baby in your arms. Won't that be worth it?" It was true. I'd assisted countless deliveries in which almost every woman felt the same fear I had, and when it was all over - when they held their child in their arms - they all said every time that it was worth it.
"You... you always know what to say, don't you?" I asked him, sniffling and wiping away the tears.
"Only to you, because I know you," he told me, shifting his head so that it was resting on my shoulder, and he kissed my cheek. "How's the pain?"
"Not so bad now, but it will be," I told him. I placed one of my hands on his, then worked up the nerve to ask him something that suddenly came to mind. "Peeta... would you mind... touching me? Down there? It... it might help a little..." Down there? I was a midwife, for God's sake. I couldn't even say 'vagina' to my own husband, who was the only person who ever had any fun with it anyway. Well, I guess I couldn't say the only person - I'd had my way with it a couple of times, too, once I'd known the sensations that I could feel by doing so, but that was all Peeta's doing. It felt better when he did it, anyway.
"Uh... sure. Is that safe to do?" he asked me hesitantly.
"You don't have to go inside, just... you know... that one spot," I said. You mean the clitoris, Katniss. You know your own damn anatomy, you absolute fool. When I was a midwife and tended to women's healthcare, I could easily explain to a girl or a woman how the clitoris worked (if she asked), but apparently, when it came to my own husband - who again was the only person who ever got to touch it besides myself - I seized up and could barely spit out full sentences.
"Of course I can," he whispered into my ear, making me shiver ever so slightly. His hand then left my abdomen and slid its way across my skin. His fingers made contact with my thigh first, and then they continued their journey to that little bundle of nerves before gently sliding over it. I let out a gasp, then reached one arm up and around his head, my hand burying itself in his hair. He chuckled as he rubbed circles on it, and my eyes closed and my head rolled back and rested on his shoulder.
"Mmm, Peeta..." I moaned.
"Does that feel good?" he asked me, and I moaned quietly in response. A knock at the door suddenly surprised us both and he pulled his hand away from my core as if he had been burned, then brought his arm across my chest to cover my exposed breasts. As I heard the doorknob rattle, I checked to see if I needed to cover him up, but he was behind me, so I was taking care of that already. The door finally opened and my fellow coworker, Sidney Silversmith, stepped in with a charming smile on her face, her blonde hair pulled back in a neat bun and her merchant blue eyes smiling along with her.
"Hello, Katniss! Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt something!" Sidney said, blushing when she realised Peeta and I were in the tub together.
"That's okay, we'll get out and I'll get her into bed," Peeta told her, and Sidney nodded and left the bathroom. "That was very close."
"You think?" I said with a chuckle. Another contraction stopped me from getting out as he climbed out of the tub and he bent down to rub my back with his palm. When it passed, he helped out and wrapped me up in a towel. "Don't bother with underpants. She's just going to take them off anyway." He looked shocked at my words. "She has to see how dilated I am, Peeta. There's no privacy in childbirth. I'll have hands up there until the baby's born."
"Uh... oh... okay then..." Peeta said, his eyes wide with shock. He gave me the shirt he had been wearing before to wear, which was big enough to cover pretty much only my expanded abdomen, before pulling his underwear and trousers back on. He then helped me climb into bed as another contraction wracked my body and he called out to Sidney to summon her. Peeta stayed by my side for the examination, braiding my wet hair for me the way I had taught him, and he held my hand when things got uncomfortable for me.
"Now, Katniss, you know the drill. You're young and you've gone into labour early. This baby is most definitely breeched, and it's also laying against your spine, which means that labour will probably be slow. We likely won't even see this baby until tomorrow," Sidney told me, and I nodded in response. "You are definitely in labour though, your cervix is dilated about three centimetres."
"What's that mean?" Peeta asked me.
"It means the hole the baby needs to come out of is about the size of a banana slice," I told him, and his eyes widened.
"Wait, wait... Where's it come out of?" Peeta asked again, his eyebrows raised high.
"Same place you put it in. There's only one hole," I replied, and his eyes widened.
"You mean... it comes out of... that ?" he asked, now shocked.
"No, it comes out of my mouth. Yes, Peeta, it comes out of my vagina," I told him, and a frightened squeak came out of his throat in response. Sidney and I exchanged a look, and she chuckled gently.
"Men," she said, clearly amused. Much of the rest of the day was just a lot of waiting around, with me suffering the occasional contraction and Peeta tensing up every time I had one. Agnessa brought me some bread slices with strawberry jam on them, encouraging me to keep my sugar up so I would have the energy for the main event - that is, the actual birth. As the sun set and the hours creeped closer to midnight, the contractions became more intense and closer together. Peeta was by my side the entire time, sitting behind me and holding me tightly, encouraging me through every contraction.
Towards half past eleven, I was getting quite frustrated with how slowly my labour was progressing. "My god, get this thing out of me!" I hissed as I laid back against the pillows while Sidney gave me an internal exam.
"Should be soon now, dear. You're almost at nine centimetres," she told me.
"But it isn't ten!" I whined, gripping the bed sheets tightly as another contraction came over me. "God, now I'm glad I didn't know what this felt like before, otherwise I really would have never had children!" I gritted my teeth, and when Peeta reached for my hand, I pulled mine away and growled at him. "Don't touch me, you did this to me!"
"She's in a lot of pain, Mr. Mellark. She doesn't mean it," Sidney tried to say to him.
"I know she doesn't, it's okay. I still love her and I know she still loves me," Peeta replied, giving my sweaty forehead a kiss.
"Not after this, I won't! You'll be sleeping in a different bed from now on because I'm not going through this again!" I spat at him, and Sidney chuckled.
"That's what all new mothers say during childbirth, Katniss. You should know that, and you'll also know that they almost always do have another," she told me.
"Yeah, because of the bloody two-child minimum!" I snapped, and Peeta grabbed my wrist quickly, giving me a warning look.
"Katniss, just take a deep breath, okay?" he said to me. He didn't want me to say anything compromising that the microphones could pick up, so I took a deep breath that ended in yet another contraction. At five minutes shy of midnight, as I was laying back against the pillows in almost constant pain, with sweat dripping from my forehead that Peeta was mopping up with a cool wet rag, Sidney checked my cervix one more time and gave me a smile.
"Ten centimetres," she said. "Time to start pushing."
"What? Already?" I asked, delirious from pain, and Prim, who was seated on my other side on the bed, laughed.
"It's been hours since you went into labour, Katniss!" she exclaimed. "Can I help?"
"You don't want to see this, little duck. It's not pretty," I told her tiredly.
"But I do! I want to learn! You were already my age when the midwives took you on as an apprentice, so why can't I help?" Prim said to me, and I let out a sigh. It was true, I was thirteen when the midwives allowed me to apprentice, and Prim was due to be thirteen in March.
"All right, very well... But listen to Mrs. Silversmith, Primrose! The baby is breeched which means this is going to require a lot of concentration!" I said to her, and she excitedly got up from my side and joined Sidney near my legs.
"Right, let's get you to the edge of the bed. Peeta, your job is to support her upright. I need her sitting up the whole time for this," Sidney told Peeta, who was quick to position himself behind me as I moved to sit on the very edge of the bed. I was barely on the mattress, so having Peeta behind me was very helpful.
"You ready?" he asked me as he snaked his arms around my midsection, and I nodded. "We're gonna be parents soon..."
"I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier," I said suddenly, and he chuckled.
"It's okay, I'm sure I wouldn't be very happy if I were pushing a baby out of me, either," he replied sweetly, kissing my cheek. "I know you love me, and I love you." I was about to return his sentiments when I was overcome by another very strong contraction, and I moaned in pain as it wracked my whole body.
"Push with the contraction, Katniss. You know how this works," said Sidney, and I did. It was perhaps the most amount of pain I had ever been in in my entire life. Peeta held my hand the whole time while he was behind me and I pushed for about fifteen minutes before the baby actually started to come out, and the first thing to emerge was the baby's buttocks. "You're doing excellent, Katniss. I've got Baby's feet in my hands now," she said to me.
"It's a girl, Katniss!" Prim exclaimed, and I couldn't help but let out a laugh of joy.
"A girl! Peeta, it's a girl!" I said, reaching up with a hand to touch his cheek, and he kissed my palm.
"Keep going so we can hold our little girl, honey," Peeta told me. I could feel the smile on his face when he kissed my cheek.
"Now, Katniss, you know how to deliver a breeched baby, but your sister here does not. Miss Primrose, when you've got a baby that is breeched, you can't pull it out like you would normally or you could dislocate its neck, so what we're going to do is let gravity do the work for us. Once Katniss gives us one more push, we should be able to have Baby out up to her shoulders, and that's when we let gravity take over. Push with your contraction, Katniss." I did as I was told, and I could feel Sidney aiding the baby as she slid out of me. "Now, this is going to look barbaric, but we have to let her hang for just a moment - no pushing or pulling - so that she can slide out of the birth canal, but we'll keep our hands nearby with a towel ready to catch her. We can't do this for long because if she gets cold, she might gasp and start to panic. There's a lot that could go wrong with a breeched birth, which is why we have to be very careful, do you understand, Miss Primrose?"
"Yes, I do," said Prim, and she watched as Sidney did just as she described.
"Now she's slid out enough that we can pull her out, but I'll need a little assistance from you. I need you to press down on the mons pubis for me - that's just above the clitoris and it forms the top of the outer vaginal lips. Can you do that for me, Miss Primrose?" Sidney asked her.
"Is that okay, Katniss?" Prim asked me, and I nodded, just wanting this to be over, and Prim did as she was told, and Sidney finally pulled our little baby out of me and held her as she took in her first breath of air and used it to screech at the top of her lungs. I let out a happy cry of joy as I finally laid eyes on my little girl for the first time - pink and messy and so, so small, and Sidney clamped and cut her umbilical cord and bundled her up into a towel, passing her to me. I cradled my little baby in my arms as her cries finally calmed and she cooed, her sweet little eyes closed tightly and her tiny little hand up against her cheek. Peeta's hand came up under her head and held it in his palm and he wrapped his other arm around me, and I then remembered that the father of this tiny little baby was sitting behind me.
"Look at her..." I said to him. "She's perfect, isn't she?"
"She's so beautiful, just like her mama," Peeta replied. I took my eyes off of my little girl to look into the beautiful blue eyes of my husband, and he ducked his head to capture my lips in a passionate kiss.
"I love you... so, so much, Peeta," I told him, overcome by the passion I felt in that moment. I was certainly very emotional - more emotional than I had ever felt in all my life, and for good reason. "Oh, and happy birthday. I didn't get you a present, but I hope this is enough." At that, Peeta laughed.
"This is more than enough! Katniss, this little girl is the best gift you could have possibly given me," Peeta replied, kissing me again before we both looked down at our little girl again. "This is the best birthday gift I've ever gotten..." I grimaced suddenly as I felt a pain in my lower back.
"Sidney, I think the afterbirth is coming," I said to Sidney, who rushed back over to me with a bowl. I handed our daughter to her father and went about delivering the afterbirth, which was certainly no pretty sight, and Prim led me into the bathroom to help me get cleaned up. Peeta, meanwhile, was given a warm rag by Sidney to wipe up our little girl's face.
"Does she have a name? I'll have to fill out the birth certificate when I get back to the clinic," I heard her say.
"Lark!" I called from the bathroom.
"Yes, we want to call her Lark," Peeta told Sidney.
When the bed and floor were finally cleaned up, and Agnessa and Prim were situated in a couple of rooms across from mine and Peeta's, Peeta and I lay in bed, little Lark in my arms suckling peacefully from my breast. Peeta's strong arms were wrapped around me and we were both watching our sweet little girl. "She's so perfect, Katniss," Peeta whispered to me.
"We'll have to tell Effie. Snow said we're supposed to tell our escort when we're pregnant, and I'm assuming we'll have to tell her that I've had her. We were supposed to have her in the Capitol," I said, worried now that there was going to be trouble.
"It's not your fault she decided she wanted to come early, although for what it's worth, I'm glad she was born in her home," Peeta replied.
"I didn't see your family," I said suddenly.
"You kicked everyone out of here so quickly, no one else had a chance to meet Lark. Haymitch was very upset when I told him he had to go home."
"Was your family downstairs?"
"They came after they finished the bakery and had dinner. Mom wouldn't let them come earlier. Of course she wouldn't, you know how she feels about you."
"She's a mother, too, Peeta. I'm sure she knows how long it takes for a baby to come. I'm glad they weren't sitting around our house listening to me scream for hours."
"They wanna meet her tomorrow. Will that be okay or do you think we need more time?"
"Can't we have a couple of days? I'm just so tired, Peeta, and everyone's going to be coming by."
"Of course we can. I'll tell them that we'll call when they can meet her." I felt him kiss my head. "So... What did it feel like? Giving birth?"
"Like taking a massive shit," I said brashly but honestly, and Peeta laughed. "I'm serious, it felt like I was taking the biggest shit of my life and I really thought I was! I didn't, did I?"
"No," Peeta said with a chuckle. "Or at least I don't think so. I didn't see anything and I also didn't smell any shit so I think you're good."
"I smell it now, I think little miss needs a diaper change," I told him, and I glanced up at him. "You're turn, Daddy." He smiled at the title, then took our little girl to change her. A knock at the door drew my attention and I looked up to see Agnessa entering the room.
"Just checking in. Did you manage to feed her, Katniss?" she asked me kindly.
"No trouble there, she latched on perfectly," I said as I finished adjusting my shirt to cover my breast again.
"Good... She's such a bonny thing, isn't she? You know, there used to be an old rhyme that my mother used to say... She said it when my sister was born. It went, 'Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go. Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for a living, but the child that is born on the Sabbath Day is blithe and bonny and good and gay," Agnessa said, and I smiled with amusement.
"Well, I guess she has far to go, doesn't she? Born on a Thursday, same day as her daddy," I said, looking at Peeta, who smiled at me.
"Let me know if you need anything, dear. I'm just down the hall," Agnessa told me, and I nodded as she left the room again, leaving Peeta and I alone with our daughter. He cradled her in his arms and kissed her head and sat down on the bed beside me.
"I never want to put her down... I can keep her safe when I'm holding her," he said quietly, and I reached up a hand to rub his back.
"We'll keep her safe, Peeta. We've already done so much to do that... No harm is going to come to our baby," I told him.
"With you for a mother, no one would dare get within twenty feet of her," Peeta told me cheekily. "I just... can't shake the fear that something might... happen..."
"Nothing's going to happen. Not on our watch," I told him firmly. He wordlessly shifted so that he was lying down on the bed and he placed our daughter between us. While Lark slept peacefully, neither of us slept, not daring to take our eyes off of our daughter for even a moment.
PEETA POV
In the middle of the night, when Katniss finally fell fast asleep after bringing our beautiful daughter into the world, I got up from our bed and made my way over to Lark's bassinet, looking down at my beautiful little girl. She had beautiful honey golden hair and the sweetest grey eyes I had ever seen - my hair, and Katniss's eyes. Evidently, she had my face, too, according to Katniss, Prim, Agnessa and Mrs. Silversmith. I suppose I could see it. She fussed just a little, and I picked her up and cradled her in my arms.
"Shh, little one... We don't want to wake Mama, do we? She's only just gotten to sleep," I whispered to her, pressing my lips to her small pink forehead. I gave her the finger of my free hand and she grasped it tightly. "You know I'm your daddy, don't you, honey? We share a birthday you know, kiddo, you and me... Mama and Daddy love you so much, Lark... You have no idea what we've gone through to get you here... We're going to keep you safe, and we'll stop at nothing to ensure that you stay safe. You're going to have the best life imaginable." Her sweet little eyes started to close and she cooed just a little before lulling herself to sleep. I kissed her little forehead again. "I hope you have the sweetest dreams possible for a baby who's only a few hours old. I hope you never know the horrors of a nightmare, or the horrors that give you them." I lowered my sleeping little girl back into her bassinet, then kissed her head one more time before I reclaimed my spot on the bed next to Katniss. She stirred, and then I felt her hand make its way up my chest, and I covered it with mine. "Go back to sleep, Katniss," I whispered to her.
"Are you okay?" she whispered to me, and I smiled and nodded.
"Of course I'm okay. I'm more than okay. I've got a beautiful wife and a beautiful daughter. I don't think I'll ever not be okay again," I replied, settling in beside her and pulling her into my arms.
"Peeta, you know that isn't true..."
"I know, but I can pretend, can't I?" I brought her hand to my lips to kiss it.
"I'm sorry I can't give you birthday sex," she mumbled sleepily, and I chuckled.
"Trust me, what you gave me is a lot better than birthday sex. And besides, we can make up for it on your birthday." It was her turn to chuckle, and she wrapped her arm around me tightly. "My seventeenth birthday is the first day of my life where I'm not just a kid, a baker, a husband, a victor... I'm also a father. And you're the mother that made me a father."
"Mmm... I've been looking forward to seeing you as a father... You're already doing such a..." She paused to yawn. "...wonderful job..."
"Get some sleep, honey. You and I both know it won't be long before Lark needs us again."
"Mmm... okay..." I chuckled again as she snuggled into me, and I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight. "I love you, Peeta... and Lark... I love you both so much..."
"I love you too, and I know Lark loves you more than anything in the world, she's just not old enough to say it." I kissed her head again, and the two of us drifted off to sleep, only to be woken again about forty-five minutes later by a hungry infant. The lack of sleep was certainly the worst part about parenthood, but I looked forward to every second of being little Lark's daddy.
KATNISS POV
We had peace for two weeks, with Peeta and I trying our best to adapt to a new schedule with a newborn in the house. Neither of us slept much, and Peeta didn't do nearly as much baking as he used to, so I really missed his cheese buns more than anything. We'd agreed to take Lark across to my old house to allow the other to sleep for four hours in the late morning/early afternoon, and one particular morning, it was Peeta's turn, and when I brought Lark across the street, I was surprised to see a peacekeeper greet me at the door. "Mrs. Mellark," she said to me - it was the same one from the last time, and my stomach dropped. Snow wouldn't be happy that I didn't have Lark in the Capitol, where, I'd been informed, I would be watched by high-paying Capitolites. I didn't need to be told that I needed to follow this peacekeeper, and I moved to hand Lark to Agnessa. "Bring the child." I gulped nervously, but nodded, and I followed her down the hall and to the office door, stepping inside when I was ushered in. I held Lark tightly against my chest as I locked eyes with President Snow, who motioned for me to sit.
"Have a seat, Mrs. Mellark," he said to me.
"President Snow, please, I know I was supposed to have her in the Capitol, but I can't control it! I went into labour early and there wouldn't have been time-" I began at rapid fire, but Snow held up a hand to stop me.
"As much as the bidders are frustrated that they could not get what they paid for - yet again - I cannot be disappointed in what cannot be controlled. Even I have some common sense, Mrs. Mellark," he said to me.
"Of course, I didn't mean to imply... Is... Is everything all right?"
"I've just come to congratulate you and your husband on the new addition to your family."
"Sh-should I go and get Peeta? He's just resting now, we don't get a lot of sleep..."
"He does not need to be here." I nodded. "I am certain that you are aware that there was supposed to be a contest in the Capitol to decide on the name of your child?"
"No... No, I had no idea."
"Oh? Your husband was informed when he was in the Capitol, but I suppose he must have... forgotten... to mention it."
"He seemed very stressed and tired when he returned, I don't think he slept much while he was there. He just... doesn't sleep well when he isn't home. Perhaps it just slipped his mind."
"Perhaps. Regardless, Mrs. Mellark, your child has a name, and while the people of the Capitol aren't very fond of your choice, your child may keep her name. However, for your next child, there will be a list of Capitol-approved names that you and your husband will select from, and there will be a betting pool depending on which name you choose."
"That... sounds reasonable..."
"And you have two years to produce that child, Mrs. Mellark." I swallowed, but nodded. "May I hold her?" I tightened my grip on Lark, trying to quickly think of the best excuse to not let this man - no, this monster - hold my child.
"Um... She's... premature... and therefore more susceptible to illness... I've... only been letting the same... few people hold her..." I said, hoping that sounded right. It made sense, at least, and Snow knew I was a midwife.
"I can assure you, I am the last person to pass along an illness, Mrs. Mellark. And there are medicines in the Capitol that can assure she doesn't get ill." He gave me a look that told me I would be stepping out of line if I didn't let him hold Lark, so hesitantly, I stood and slowly walked around the desk, lowering my child into the arms of a mass murderer, never breaking eye contact. It was a power move; I knew that. He knew forcing me to let him hold Lark would make me squirm, but I held firm. "She very much resembles her father."
"She does indeed and I'm glad of it," I said, trying to sound as casual as possible. "I think I'd go mad if she were a smaller version of me."
"She does have your eyes, and Mr. Mellark's features."
"Hebridean eyes, yes."
"She will be immaculate. The apple of every Capitolite's eye." Like hell she will be, she's not setting foot in the Capitol. "Why did you and your husband choose the name 'Lark'?"
"Surely, you recall in the arena when Peeta said he fell in love with me when he heard me sing when we were eight, and the birds fell silent. Apparently... those birds were larks, and even the fact that his surname is 'Mellark' didn't seem to deter him. When I saw how in love he was with his choice, I, too, fell in love with it," I explained, itching to hold my daughter again.
"Hmm... You may take her back now." Trying not to pull her away from him as if I were pulling her away from fire, I took her back into my arms and took a few steps away from Snow as she fussed.
"Shh, little bird..." I said in Gàidhlig to her, the same way my mother used to say it to me. Snow stood and started towards the door, but then he stopped, not turning to face me.
"Early next month, I'll be reading the card for the Third Quarter Quell. When you come to mentor... bring the child," he said coolly, as if he'd read my mind earlier, and then he left the office. I held Lark very close against my chest wanting more than anything to protect my sweet little girl. I didn't want to take her to the Capitol, but my urge to protect her was stronger than my desire to keep her away from Snow and the Capitol. One step out of line and Snow would ensure that my beautiful blonde-haired, silver-eyed girl was sent into the arena the day she turned twelve.
A/N: Why does Snow want Katniss to bring Lark to the Games? What's going to happen during the Quarter Quell?
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