A/N: Features lyrics from 'Thug Mi Gaol' by Grainne Holland. Mild sexual content featured.

KATNISS POV

It was late March now, and Lark was about six weeks old now. Early spring was always one of my favourite times of the year because of the rebirth of the world as it came back to life after the icy grip of winter finally loosened. Peeta and I were enjoying a warm day with Lark seated on a swinging bench in front of our home, Lark nestled in the crook of my arm as my fingers brushed her sweet honey golden hair. She had a lot of hair for a newborn, and I knew that she was going to grow up with that thick, wild hair that Peeta and I both had - a trademark of Hebridean genes. Peeta's arm was draped around my shoulders, glad that we could find a moment of peace, and I rested my head on his shoulder as we both looked down at the sleeping face of our daughter.

"I want to take her to the meadow soon, when it gets warm enough," I told him, breaking the serene silence. It was warm on that sunny early spring day, but the breeze still had a biting chill about it.

"I think she'd love that," Peeta replied, resting his head on top of mine. "Katniss... I was wondering... Have you seen Gale at all?" I was surprised by this question, and I picked up my head to look at him, wondering if he was trying to imply something, but all I saw was genuine curiosity in his eyes.

"Not since before the Victory Tour," I told him. It felt so long ago now, the Victory Tour, but it had only been almost three months before. Having a baby really did warp one's concept of time. Peeta nodded, then raised a hand to rub his thumb gently on Lark's velvet cheek. "Why did you ask me that?"

"I was just wondering, 's all. You and him used to be so close and now... now you don't even talk about him, and I know it's because of me. I just feel bad that I ruined your friendship."

"You didn't do anything to our friendship, Peeta. He ruined it. He couldn't accept the fact that I didn't choose him." Peeta let out a sigh. "What?"

"I want to tell you to try and patch things up with him, but if he doesn't respect you and your choices then he doesn't deserve you or your friendship. But if he really cares about you, he'll apologise."

"I don't think I want him to, Peeta. I have a child now, I don't have time for that kind of behaviour anymore, and if that's how he's going to behave then I certainly don't want him around Lark." At my raised tone, Lark began to fuss, having woken up from her nap. "Oh, sweetie, Mummy's sorry, little bird..." She continued to fuss despite both Peeta's and my attempts at calming her.

"Lark, honey," Peeta said, giving her one of his fingers, but she wouldn't take it. "Katniss, why don't you sing to her? You've sang to me before, when I've had nightmares... It might calm her."

"We're trying to calm her, Peeta, not scare her," I told him.

"You're telling the guy who fell in love with you over your singing that you can't sing?" he asked me, and I looked up at him. "You have a beautiful voice... Sing to her." I looked back down at Lark, who continued to fuss and cry, and I let out a sigh and cleared my throat, singing an old Gàidhlig tune that I had once sung to Peeta a long time ago.

Thug mi gaol, thug mi gaol,

Thug mi gaol do'n fhear bhàn,

Agus gealladh dhutsa luaidh

O cha dual dhomh bhi slàn...

Chaidh am bàta troimh'n a' chaol

Leis na daoine DiMàirt,

'S misa phàigh am faradh daor

Bha mo ghaol air a clàr...

Peeta and I were entranced by the calming effect my singing seemed to have on our daughter, who stopped fussing and watched me with her beautiful Hebridean storm grey eyes. So entranced, in fact, that we didn't hear the footsteps that approached us until a second voice joined mine on the refrain.

Thug mi gaol, thug mi gaol,

Thug mi gaol do'n fhear bhàn...

I looked up and met the same Hebridean storm grey eyes of Mellie Mellark, who had joined me on the chorus of the song.

Agus gealladh dhutsa luaidh

O cha dual dhomh bhi slàn...

"My mother used to sing that song to me when I was little," she said after a moment.

"She was Hebridean," I said, and Mellie nodded. Peeta stiffened beside me.

"How'd you find that out?" she asked.

"Your sister told me," I replied.

"It isn't her business to go around telling people things about me," Mellie said somewhat bitterly.

"She didn't specifically say your mother was Hebridean, she said her mother was Hebridean, and you are her sister, so I drew my own conclusions," I replied. Mellie nodded, and then looked at her son, who seemed very guarded beside me.

"I used to sing that song to you, too, Peeta," she said suddenly, and Peeta's eyes widened. "When you were just a baby, and late at night, when your brothers and your father were asleep..."

"When we were alone," Peeta said neutrally, and she nodded.

"The song in English is called 'I Gave My Love To The Fair One'," she told her son. "I know no amount of apologies will ever make up for how I treated you. There's no excuse for any of it..."

"Hold on, just a moment, Mellie," I said, interrupting her, and then I stood up and turned to face my husband. "I'm going to go inside, you and your mother need to have this talk alone."

"Katniss, no. Anything she has to say to me can and will be said in front of you," Peeta said sternly, also standing, but I shook my head.

"People hold back when there's someone else around," I told him, and I stood on my toes to give him a kiss. "I'll just be inside, all right?" He sighed, then nodded.

"Can I have her?" he asked, referring to the baby.

"Of course you can," I told him, and I passed Lark into his arms and then gave him a reassuring smile. "You'll be okay. I love you, all right? I'll be inside if you need me." I glanced at Mellie, who seemed to thank me with her eyes, and then went inside to give mother and son some privacy.

PEETA POV

I didn't want to talk to my mother alone, but she seemed determined to speak to me, and Katniss seemed determined to give us time to speak, so I accepted my defeat and agreed to hear my mother out. "Wanna... sit down?" I asked her once Katniss had gone inside, and she nodded, sitting down on the bench and motioning for me to sit down beside her. I hesitated for a moment before joining her on the bench, holding Lark tightly and securely. Mom hadn't come to see Lark yet, but I hadn't told Katniss that. She thought that Mom was downstairs the day Lark was born, but really, she didn't come, and Dad said it was because she didn't feel right going. Lark was now six weeks old, and she still hadn't met her paternal grandmother. I'd brought her to the bakery, but every time I had, Mom locked herself in her bedroom claiming she had a headache. This was the first time she'd ever seen Lark, and even now, she wasn't looking at her granddaughter.

"I know you're upset I didn't come when she was born," she began.

"Dad said you didn't feel right coming. Is it because Katniss is from the Seam? Or because she's a refugee, or both?" I said, and she was quiet for a moment. "How can you hate your own kind? You're half Hebridean, Mom, and all my life, you've hated refugees. Why?"

"I'll get to that part, Peeta... I didn't come not because Katniss is Seam or a refugee... I didn't come because I didn't think you would want me there," she confessed, and I looked at her with surprise, and also anger for assuming things about me.

"Mom, why the hell would I not want you there? You're my mother, and this is your granddaughter! Of course I wanted you there and I was very upset that you weren't!" I told her, probably too harshly, and she sighed.

"I wasn't the best mother to you, Peeta. I wasn't a mother at all to you, or to your brothers. I've had this talk with them already - after you got reaped for the Games - and now it's time I had it with you," she said, and then she looked up at me. "I hurt you, Peeta. I hit you and beat you and insulted you and berated you and I don't deserve you as a son. Your brothers... they're not like you. Chris is quiet and more cynical, while Rye can be outright obnoxious and brash... but you, Peeta... You've always been so kind to everyone, no matter who they were. You wanted to be everybody's friend and to you, there was no divide between Seam and merchant. You loved so unconditionally, even when the person didn't deserve it... just like your father. I used to tell him he was weak for loving so freely and unconditionally, and it wasn't until I watched you in the Games that I realised I had allowed my biggest fear to come true."

"What are you talking about?" Mom looked away from me, shame dropping from her eyes.

"I became my father..." I'd never met my maternal grandfather. I knew he was alive when I was young, but he died when I was thirteen. Mom seemed unphased by his death emotionally but she went through the motions like a good merchant woman ought to when her father passed away. I'd thought she was cold and heartless for not caring about her father's death - at least, I did until this moment.

"Elaborate... please." I didn't want to demand an explanation from my mother, but it was clear that there was something about her that I didn't know. After the hell of a childhood she put me through, I deserved an explanation. She looked up at me

"I want you to understand that there is no excuse for my behaviour towards you, Peeta. I know that. And I know I've never really showed it, and I know I always said how I wished you'd been a girl... but I do love you, Peeta. So much. You're everything I'd always wanted to be when I was a little girl, but I suppose I couldn't be." She paused for a moment, then looked back at the ground. "My mother died when I was nine years old. Maidie was eleven, about to turn twelve. It was the year of her first reaping. My father... he'd always been a cold man, but after my mother died, he was worse. He'd hit us occasionally, when my mother wasn't around, but when she died, there was nothing holding him back. He was abusive, both physically and mentally, and... sexually, too..." I sucked in a small gasp.

"That's why you looked relieved when he died..."

"Yes... I was finally free of him, completely. At least, I thought I was. He still had his iron grip on me, and that showed when I was raising you and your brothers. I should have fought against it... I should have seen it, seen that I was turning into him. I would never, ever touch any of you the way he touched me and your Aunt Maidie. But I still hit you, all of you... and I can only tell you how sorry I am and beg for your forgiveness."

"I always thought you hated us, and your life... I know you weren't Dad's first choice."

"That had something to do with my bitterness, yes... and he wasn't mine either. Trapped in a loveless marriage, silently begging your father to show me even an ounce of the love he held for Agnessa Everdeen... I felt so alone, and then I just kept pushing you and your brothers away... I don't want to do that anymore, Peeta. I've finally recognised who I've become and that is not the person that I want to be." She looked up at me, tears threatening her silver eyes. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"Mom..." I said, seeing for the first time the love in her eyes that I had only ever wished to see as her son, surrounded by the regret she held for never showing it before. "Of course I will. You're my mother and you always will be."

"Your brothers can't..."

"I'm not either one of them." Cognisant of the sleeping infant in my arms, I scooted closer to my mother on the bench and wrapped my free arm around her, and her arms wrapped tightly around me in a way that I had never known before.

"I'm so sorry, my darling boy... I'm so sorry I was never there," she muttered through tears into my shoulder.

"It's okay, Mama. You're here now, and that's what's important," I told her. When she pulled back to wipe her eyes, I looked down first at Lark in my arms, and then back at my mother. "Do you want to hold your granddaughter?" She smiled and nodded, and I carefully shifted Lark to her waiting arms, and she held my daughter expertly, as only a mother would know how.

"She's so beautiful, sweetie," she said to me, looking down at Lark's beautiful sleeping face. "She looks so much like you." She looked up at me. "I'm ashamed to say I had my doubts... I know she was always close with the Hawthorne boy... When your father told me she was pregnant, my first thoughts were, 'it's not Peeta's. She doesn't really love him, she's only doing this to survive'. But now I know that I was wrong, and I'm glad that I was wrong. I'm sorry I made such an assumption."

"You weren't the only one," I confessed, embarrassed to say I had also thought the same thing when she first told me, until I remembered she had confessed that I was her first. The night Katniss and I got together, after we had made love for the first time, she bled quite a bit, confirming her statement that I had been her first.

"We were both wrong about her, weren't we?" she asked me, and I nodded. "You did good... I'm glad you've found someone that makes you happy. And you're going to be an excellent father." She smiled up at me, then looked back down at Lark. "And you, little one, are the luckiest little girl in the world." Little Lark made a small noise, and Mom and I both shared a chuckle, and then Mom started to sing, picking up where Katniss had left off before. I didn't realise it, but my mother had a beautiful singing voice, too.

'S tacain mu'n do laid a'ghrian

Bha mi fiannuis mo ghràidh,

Tha e nis an grùnnd a' chuain

O, gur fuar àite tàmh.

Thug mi gaol, thug mi gaol,

Thug mi gaol do'n fhear bhàn

Agus gealladh dhutsa luaidh

O cha dual dhomh bhi slàn...

"Mom... Who was your first love? Before Dad?" I asked her suddenly, breaking her attention from the song. She glanced down at the bed.

"August Douglas," she replied. "He... He was Seam, and a refugee. My father hated people from the Seam and he hated refugees... He married my mother because he'd gotten her pregnant with Maidie. He was abusive towards her, too... Because of him, I didn't pursue anything with August Douglas. Instead, I... chased him away..." She was silent for a moment. "I don't regret it, though. If I had run off with him, you wouldn't be here, and neither would your beautiful daughter."

"Is he still alive?" I asked.

"Yeah... Rarely, I'll see him, but... I know he's alive. A widower, with three daughters. His oldest daughter is married, and this year will be his second daughter's final reaping. His youngest is your age."

"Ailsa Douglas?" I asked her, and she nodded. She looked back down at Lark as more silence passed between us. I felt then that I understood my mother better now than I ever had before. Would I excuse her abusive behaviour? Of course not, not ever - but I understood it. We had both been abused by parental figures, and we had both fallen in love with a refugee from the Seam. Another thing we had in common was that we both had been sexually assaulted, but I would never tell her that. After a moment, she began to sing again.

Bha mi 'bruadar an raoir

A bhi 'n caoimhneas mo ghràidh

'S nuair a thug e rium a chùl

Thuit mo shùilean gu làr...

Thug mi gaol, thug mi gaol

Thug mi gaol do' fhear bhàn,

Agus gealladh dhutsa luaidh

O cha dual dhomh bhi slàn...

I sat outside listening to my mother sing to both myself and Lark when she finally had to return back to the bakery for the lunch rush. She gave me a tight hug and promised to come back and visit soon, then gave me a kiss on the cheek and bid me farewell. I went back inside, Lark nestled securely in my arms, and must have startled Katniss, who was sitting on the couch looking flushed with one of the large couch pillows over her lap. Underneath the other large couch pillow, a cloth that looked the colour of the pants she had been wearing poked out. "You okay?" I asked her, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah! How was the talk with your mother?" she asked me, a quick pace to her tone. I smiled cheekily as I realised what I had almost walked in on her doing and chuckled gently.

"Good. I'll tell you more later," I told her. "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm perfectly fine," she said, her cheeks red from embarrassment.

"I guess one would be after having an orgasm," I said, teasing her, and her eyes went wide.

"Peeta!" she hissed, humiliated at having been caught, and then she looked away and lowered her tone. "I didn't even get to that point..."

"You want help?"

"...it'd be nice... We haven't been... together... since before Lark was born..." It was true. The last time we had been even remotely sexually intimate was when we were in the bathtub together when she had gone into labour, and that only lasted for about twenty seconds before we were interrupted.

"Then we should do something about that. Let me go put Lark down in her room. Meet me in the bedroom?" She nodded, and I then made my way upstairs to put Lark down in her crib in her room. When I went into mine and Katniss's bedroom, I found it empty. "Katniss?" I called.

"Come back downstairs, Peeta!" I heard Katniss call out to me. Confused, I followed her voice into the kitchen, and I nearly came in my pants at the sight that met me. On the counter, partially covered in flour, was Katniss fully nude. My jaw fell to the floor and my pants tightened immensely at the sight, and she chuckled seductively, beckoning me to come towards her with her finger. I did as I was told, my eyes still as wide as they were when I first saw her.

"You... holy shit..." I muttered, my hands twitching, unsure of where to touch her first.

"You haven't baked anything in awhile... Why don't you put those baker's hands to work, Mr. Mellark?" she said to me, and then she scrunched up her face. "Peeta... If I call you 'Mr. Mellark' when we're fucking in flour, I can't help but think about your father." I let out a laugh, and then I took her face in my hands and captured her lips in a passionate kiss.

"Are you sure it's not still too soon?" I asked her quietly, moving my lips to her neck to kiss it.

"Mmm... positive... Believe me, I tested my theory and it doesn't hurt to put anything in there anymore," she told me.

"How long have you been testing this theory?" I asked her, now kissing her behind her ear.

"Too long..." she said breathlessly. "Enough talk, Peeta. I want you to make love to me." I chuckled, then kissed my way back to her lips.

"Gladly," I whispered, and we both shelled off my clothes and I took her right there on the counter, the two of us covered in flour.

KATNISS POV

The first day of April was the day that President Snow would read the card that would announce the Third Quarter Quell. Every Quell, there was some twist to the Games that made them even more sick, more violent and a deeper cut in the backs of the districts. The First Quarter Quell, in 2110, the twist was that the districts had to vote who their tributes would be. The tributes from District Twelve that year were Sade Holland and Evie Pierce, both from the Seam, and the Victor that year had been District Three's Cormac Roche, who was still alive. The Second Quarter Quell, in 2135, the twist had been that each district would send four tributes instead of two. The tributes from twelve had been Flint Darwin, Terra Callaghan, Maysilee Donner and Haymitch, and Haymitch had been the victor. This year, we couldn't even imagine the sick twist that would plague the districts yet again.

It was six in the evening when Peeta and I were seated in the living room, Peeta sketching away and I feeding Lark from my breast, when the television came on, and both Peeta and I turned our attention to it. I grabbed a blanket to cover myself up, not wanting my breast or my child exposed when President Snow's image appeared on the screen.

"Ladies and gentleman," the President began, quieting the rowdy crowd of Capitolites that cheered as he approached the podium. "This is the seventy-fifth year... of the Hunger Games." Another cheer from the crowd, only quieter. "It was written in the charter of the Games that every twenty-five years, there would be a Quarter Quell, to keep fresh, for each new generation, the memory of those who died in the uprising against the Capitol. Each Quarter Quell is distinguished by Games of a special significance. And now, on this day, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the defeat of the rebellion, we celebrate the Third Quarter Quell." There was another cheer, and Peeta and I exchanged a look before turning our attention back to the screen. "As a reminder of the importance of producing offspring to serve as tributes in future Hunger Games, for the Third Quarter Quell Games, the male and female tributes... are to be accompanied by their mothers in the arena." I let out a gasp, covering my mouth in shock and disturbing Lark, who unlatched from my breast and began to cry. Peeta looked at me, then dropped his sketchbook and left his chair to sit beside me and pull me into his arms. "Like always, there will be one victor, whether it be mother or child." I felt tears streaming down my cheeks at the thought of this - this was personal, a warning to remind me that I would always be under Snow's thumb. I wasn't going into the arena, but I would have four tributes - a mother and her daughter, and a mother and her son.

"This is sick," Peeta whispered. "How could they do this?" I didn't answer him. Instead, I held Lark tightly against my chest as she cried. Peeta held us both tightly, pressing his lips to my temple. The television automatically went off when the announcement was over and Peeta and I sat in silence for a long while, until a knock sounded at our door. Peeta stood up to get it while I shifted Lark and fixed my shirt to cover my exposed breast, and then both Peeta and Haymitch entered the living room.

"So... First year of mentorin' is a Quarter Quell. How's that feel?" Haymitch asked us, but neither of us answered him. He plopped down in our armchair and Peeta resumed his spot beside me.

"How can they pit mothers and children against each other, Haymitch?" Peeta asked suddenly.

"How can they do anything they've done in the last seventy-five years, boy?" Haymitch asked him, and Peeta silenced.

"How do we get through this?" he asked instead.

"You just do. Accept the fact that your tributes ain't comin' back and get ready to do it all over again," said Haymitch, taking a sip from his flask. "Try not to think about the fact that they're just kids..."

"How do we face the families of children that we don't bring home?" I chimed in, the first I'd spoken since the Quell was announced.

"They don't blame you. They can't. They know how mentorin' works. They know the mentors can't do nothin' for their kids without sponsorships and they know sponsors don't sponsor kids from the higher districts," said Haymitch. "Didn't you take Hunger Games 101? Ain't it a requirement in school? They explain all that shit so everyone knows the drill."

"We take it the year we turn twelve, Haymitch," Peeta told him.

"Snow wants me to bring Lark to the Capitol," I suddenly said, and Haymitch and Peeta both looked at me.

"He what? " Peeta asked me, having not known this information. I didn't tell him that Snow had visited. "When did he tell you this?"

"He came to visit, shortly after she was born," I told him.

"And you didn't think to tell me this? Katniss, she's my daughter, too. I want to protect her just as much as you do!" Peeta snapped at me, angry I'd kept that information from him. "What else did he tell you?"

"That we have to have another baby within two years," I replied.

"That's kind of something I need to know, Katniss! You need me to make that baby," he said sternly, and he let go of me and stood, stalking off to the kitchen. I didn't say a word; I only sat in silence.

"Anythin' else, sweetheart?" Haymitch asked me, and I glanced up at him.

"That the Capitol is going to select a list of names that we have to choose from to name our next child," I replied. "Nothing else."

"So we don't even get to choose our child's name!" I heard Peeta shout from the kitchen, and I closed my eyes, trying to stop the tears from falling.

"I'm sorry, Peeta! Please stop yelling at me!" I shouted back, the tears now evident in the crack in my voice. Peeta re-emerged, standing in the doorway to the living room.

"No, I'm sorry that I'm upset that you don't trust me enough to mention any of that to me," he told me bitterly.

"That's not the reason at all, Peeta! It just slipped my mind! Peeta, I'm so tired all of the time, I was going to tell you but I just forgot! Peeta, please!" I reached out to him with my free hand, and he let out a sigh, the anger in his eyes dissipating as he took my hand and rejoined me on the couch. "I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay," he said back, not wrapping an arm around me but not letting go of my hand either.

"This little spat over?" Haymitch asked us, and Peeta nodded. "Right. Y'all got different expectations on you than the rest of us mentors got. I need a few days to figure 'em out, and when I do, I'll let y'all know. In the meantime, have fun bein' parents to kiddo, here." We watched as he took another swig of his flask, and then he sauntered out, leaving the door wide open and letting in the chill. Peeta huffed irritably and got up to close the door, and then he stood in the doorway to the living room.

"Guess I'll start dinner," he said neutrally, and then he disappeared into the kitchen.

PEETA POV

That night, as we lay in bed, Katniss and I lay on our backs not saying a word to each other. We didn't speak through dinner, and we said goodnight to Lark separately before we climbed into our own bed. Every so often, I heard a quiet whimper come from Katniss's direction, as if she were trying not to cry, and I sighed and turned my head to look at her. "It's going to be all right, Katniss... We'll get through this. We have each other," I told her, and she turned her head to look at me, her eyes glistening in the moonlight.

"Are we okay?" she whispered to me, and I gave her a soft smile.

"Of course we are. I'm not upset. I was supposed to tell you about the Capitol wanting to name Lark, too, but I forgot. I'm sorry I wasn't there when Snow summoned you," I told her.

"You were here asleep, I didn't want to wake you..." She looked back at the ceiling. "I don't think I can do this, Peeta."

"We have to, Katniss. We don't have a choice." I heard her sniffle, so I shifted onto my side and pulled her close against my chest, and she wrapped her arms around me tightly and buried her face into my chest.

"I can't kill anymore children..."

"You're not the one killing them. You're not the one sending them into the arena. Honey, none of this is you... You're just the one with experience who's going to try your best to bring one of those kids home. And we will. We're going to give all of our tributes every opportunity we can give them until we have one left, and then we'll work like hell to bring them home."

"But we'll have to choose... Haymitch had to choose, every year..."

"He chose you, yes." She raised her head to look at me.

"But... but he liked you better..."

"But he knew you could actually win, and you did. You're a survivor, Katniss, and he could recognise that immediately. I told him to pick you."

"Peeta..."

"Don't get upset with me, Katniss. We both ended up winning and there's nothing we can do to change the past now. We're together, we're in love, we have a beautiful daughter, and we're safe from the arena." She sniffled, then nestled into my chest once again.

"Are we?"

"I hope so..." I kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back gently, then she picked her head up again.

"Peeta... can we... take our clothes off?" she asked me, and I let out a sigh.

"If I'm being honest, the Quarter Quell announcement has ruined my sex drive for the night," I replied, running my fingers through her hair.

"Not for sex... for comfort... One of the things we tell new mothers to do for their newborns is to do skin-to-skin contact. You know, the baby wearing nothing but a diaper on the mother's bare chest... It's very comforting, and good for bonding," she told me, and I nodded.

"Okay. We can do that," I replied, and at a regular pace, we both removed our clothes until I was fully nude and she was still in her underwear, which I eyed curiously.

"I... I'm still bleeding, just a little... It happens after childbirth. It's called lochia." My eyes went wide. "Only a little, I'm spotting just a little, although... I am due to... bleed regularly... again very soon..." My eyes were still wide, and she gave me a gentle smile. "It's normal, love, and happens to every woman. It'll happen to Lark someday, too."

"I don't want to think of that!" I exclaimed, closing my eyes, and I heard Katniss laugh. "She's only six weeks old, I don't want my little girl growing up too fast."

"Don't worry, she'll still be living with us when she's thirty, thanks to our experiences," she told me, and she curled up in my arms again, our bare chests pressing against each other. I ran a finger down her bare back, and I sighed in content.

"You're right... this is extremely comforting..." I mumbled peacefully. I felt her kiss my collarbone and she tightened her grip on me, and she managed to fall into a rather light sleep. I, on the other hand, struggled to fall asleep, but I didn't move in fear of waking her. She slept so little with the baby, so I stroked her bare skin with my fingers. It was nice, actually, to sleep in the nude with her. She was certainly right about this skin-to-skin contact thing. There was nothing sexual about it, just intimacy, and being intimate in a way with her in which we just held each other close was something that I, being a teenage boy, didn't think would be possible. I didn't have an erection, and I doubt she was aroused, either. It was like sitting on the porch listening to the rain fall - a gentle pitter-patter on the ground, with low rumbling thunder off in the distance, the smell of the rain falling in the woods overtaking the atmosphere. Or even like sitting on the beach listening to the waves crash onto the shore, the smell of salt permeating the air. It was soothing to lie there nude and in the arms of the love of my life, who was also nude. I smiled to myself, then kissed the top of her head and closed my eyes to fall asleep.

Until Lark's cries cut the silence and woke up both Katniss and me.

EPSILON POV

We were in another meeting, but this time, on the screen was Theta, who was using signal blockers that Iota had given him - this way, the Capitol couldn't spy on our meeting and find out what we were really up to. On a separate screen was Beta, who was currently in the Capitol undercover. "What's the status update for the Mockingjay?" Alpha asked Theta.

"She had the kid," he said. "She's protectin' that thing like it's a bag of glass." I looked over at Eta, who was watching Theta on the screen. I hadn't realised how similar they looked until I observed her.

"So she's useless to us," said Alpha.

"No, she ain't useless, she's scared for the life of her kid. Mothers will do a whole lot to keep their kid safe. You won't believe the amount of times I've been begged by mothers to keep their kid alive. Bribed, offered sex... the list goes on. The Mockingjay will still be the Mockingjay, but we gotta give her a reason to fight," said Theta.

"So killing President Snow won't be enough for her?" said Alpha coldly, and Theta sighed.

"I don't think this one's a killer, but she's a fighter. The shit she's done for this kid... Hell, the shit both of 'em have done for this kid." He let out a sigh. "We'll think of somethin'. I'll be seein' Iota and Kappa soon, and until then, we'll keep on plannin'."

"We have to find a way to show her that winning this fight, in the long run, will be worth fighting for more than it's worth it to bow down to Snow's every whim. She's very clever and she's very stubborn. I know when she's been beaten down. Zeta and I can both tell you that," I chimed in, and Zeta nodded along with me. Alpha let out a frustrated huff.

"Figure it out soon. I wanted this war to end a long time ago," she said coldly.

"The people of the districts are still following her. I know, I've been out there. They know she's been beaten down. It's obvious, isn't it? She was pregnant on the Tour. Everyone in the districts saw it. Everyone in the districts knows what it's like to fear the reaping and knows what it's like to fear the reaping for your child. They'll never believe that her fires have fully gone out," I said back to her rather boldly.

"I don't think her fires have gone out," said Eta. "She's just subdued. Beaten down by Snow."

"Thank you, Eta. We'll figure something out, even if I have to infiltrate the district and tell her myself," I said.

I hoped I didn't have to do that, as it was extremely risky. I knew that Katniss was being very closely watched, because Snow feared her. He feared her fires, which was why he tried to quell them, but Katniss was stubborn as hell, and Snow recognised that. "You can't come to Twelve, boy! Snow's got very close eyes on that girl! I'll be in touch with Kappa, you know that kid's got a way with words. He and the boy will chat it up good and he'll plant seeds in the boy's head. The boy's the one that we have to rely on to feed them fires you're talkin' about. He's the only one she'll ever listen to, and even that's barely. I've had these blockers on too long, I gotta go before they figure something's up." With that said, Theta left the meeting, and Alpha eyed me suspiciously.

"I hope you're not letting your feelings get in the way of the mission," she said to me.

"Of course not. I know she's got fight left in her. She's who you want. When she speaks, even the birds stop to listen to her," I told Alpha.

"Mum always said it was like she was one of the birds, and the birds would always listen to her as if she were their leader," Zeta chimed in. "Trust us, she's the one you want."

"Very well, but my patience is wearing thin," said Alpha, and once again, the meeting was concluded.

A/N: If you were Peeta, would you forgive Mellie? How will this sick twist affect Katniss? Will Peeta and Katniss find conflicting ways of trying to protect Lark?

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