A/N: Canon-typical violence depicted.
PEETA POV
Damn right I was going to see Gale and I didn't care if Katniss didn't speak to me for weeks after this. Twice now, he's hit her and gotten away with it unscathed, but I was about to change that. Katniss didn't put up with this kind of shit from anyone so I had no idea why she let him bat her around like this - maybe she thought she owed him for all his help over the years with feeding her family? I'd never understand it. All I knew was that Gale Hawthorne was an asshole and he deserved no part of Katniss, not her heart, not her friendship, not even to be in the same damn room as her. Not only that, but he killed my child, a child that was both mine and wasn't mine, that evidently 'belonged to the Capitol' according to that horrible Capitol official. She was pissed at me for not alerting the Capitol sooner - I'd called Effie two days after the incident, being more worried about keeping my wife alive than alerting the Capitol that they'd lost their next toy.
"We could have saved it if we had been alerted right away, Mr. Mellark," I had been warned by that Capitol strumpet, Ms. Stargazer. Well, excuse me for being worried sick out of my mind and not thinking straight.
I went immediately to the home where I knew Gale was living with his wife, Leevy, and their son. Gale had married Leevy Turner in the first place because he'd gotten her pregnant, but she lost the baby. Their son was their second pregnancy. I knocked on the door, trying not to sound too brash so as not to frighten Leevy or their son, and Leevy answered the door. "Good evening, Leevy," I said to her as kindly as I could.
"Good evening, Peeta. What brings you here?" she asked me, rather confused by my presence.
"I'd like to speak to your husband, please. Don't tell him who it is," I replied. She nodded, seeming to have some sort of understanding, and she went back inside. When Gale emerged a couple of minutes later, the first thing I did was slug the absolute shit out of his face, forcing him to stumble backwards and into the outer wall of the house.
"Who the fuck-" Gale said out of surprise, and as he held his hand to his now bloodied nose, he looked up and registered who his attacker was.
"That's for the hell you've put Katniss through, asshole!" I shouted at him as he reoriented himself, and he only smirked at me.
"She told you, huh?" he asked me.
"She didn't have to. She didn't say a word, actually. She didn't openly tell me you hit her last year on the train platform, but I'm no idiot. I knew it was you. She didn't tell me that you were the one that killed our child, either, but I know only one person jealous and angry enough to do such a horrible thing," I hissed back at him. "For some fucking reason, she's protecting you, so you know what that means I have to do?"
"Kick my ass and beat me to a pulp? Good luck with that, Mellark. I don't care if you won the Games or were on the wrestling team-"
"It means I have to protect her, which in turn means I have to protect you ." He stared at me for a moment, then broke out into a laugh.
"The hell is wrong with you, Mellark?"
"I love Katniss more than anything in the world and I know it would tear her apart if anything happened to you or your family, so I'm telling you now that Snow knows. I don't know how, but he knows it was you that attacked her. Even if it wasn't you, he'd still go after you because you're viewed as a threat to our image in the Capitol."
"I thought your stupid little family wasn't an act? That's what Katniss always says."
"It's not, but we have to maintain a public persona and you're a threat to that."
"So what are you telling me to do?"
"Leave the district. Get out of here, fast. You're a coal miner, it'll be easy for Snow to arrange for an accident to happen. It's not so easy for him to arrange an accident for your mother, but he can rig the reaping to reap your brother and sister. Gale, you have to take them and run. Head north."
"Why north? There's nothing out there." I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away from the house, stopping him in a big open area where there were no microphones.
"Head north and you'll run into District Thirteen in about a week. I'll get word ahead so they know to look for you."
"District Thirteen? Mellark, what the hell are you talking about? District Thirteen was bombed years ago, it's a nuclear wasteland!"
"Shh! Lower your fucking voice!" I hissed at him, then spoke in a hushed whisper. "District Thirteen was bombed, yes, but it's not a nuclear wasteland. The people went underground and they've been thriving. Gale, District Thirteen has been plotting with various victors of other districts for years now... There's going to be a rebellion." Gale's eyes went wide. I was risking a lot telling him all this, but I really needed him to trust me and believe me so that he could run while he still could.
"And you... You're a part of it?"
"Yes, I've been an active participant for the last two years," I told him.
"Does Katniss know?"
"No, and I'd like to keep it that way. She's under a lot of pressure with Snow, I didn't want to risk anything happening to her. But do you believe me now? You have to leave the district, you can't stay here. It's not safe, for you or your family." The other man was silent for a moment as he contemplated my words.
"Why are you telling me all this?"
"Because unlike you, I'm not an asshole. Katniss would want you to run, so go. Don't wait another minute. Leave tonight because I'm almost certain that tomorrow, things are going to change and you're going to lose your chance to save yourself and your family." He seemed hesitant to believe me, but he nodded.
"You must really love Katniss a lot..."
"I do," I told him. I knew that if our roles were reversed - that if I were Gale and he were me, Gale would let me and my family be killed, but I could never do that. Not when I know enough to get him out. "Give me your word that you will leave tonight - the sooner, the better - and I'll get word to Thirteen to look for you."
"Thank you," Gale told me, and then he was off. No apology for what he did to Katniss, no remorse for his actions, just a simple 'thanks' for the warning of the fate that awaited him if he stayed. I stalked back to my own home, my hands shoved into my pockets against the cold. I was still upset that Katniss wouldn't tell me that it was Gale who attacked her, but I know exactly why she didn't. She still cared for him, despite everything he'd done to her, and even though I was the one who had her heart, it still hurt just a little to know that he meant this much to her. When I finally got back to the Village, Haymitch's rough voice startled me from my thoughts.
"Boy, what are you up to?" he called from the front of his house, causing me to jump. I let out an irritated huff.
"I wanted to do my own investigation into who attacked Katniss," I lied.
"Any luck?" Haymitch asked, mostly for the microphones that were clearly listening - he knew, and my bloodied fist surely gave it away.
"No," I replied. "Mind if I come in for a drink?"
"C'mon in, and we'll get that injury tended, too. What I tell you about punchin' trees, boy?" Haymitch led me inside, and I grabbed an old notepad and scribbled a message on it to Haymitch.
Tell Thirteen to expect a family in about a weeks' time.
Haymitch raised an eyebrow at me, then scribbled back to me on the notepad while I took a long sip from the glass of white liquor he'd handed me.
Gale? was all his note had said, and I nodded. Haymitch tore the piece of paper up and angrily crumpled it up, then threw it in the middle of the flames in his hearth, watching the evidence burn up into ashes. When I finished my drink, I left Haymitch's house and returned to my own, where Katniss was still waiting for me in the living room. She looked up at me as I walked into the foyer, but I didn't say a word as I pulled off my coat and boots.
"Where did you go?" she asked after a minute of silence.
"For a walk, to clear my head," I told her.
"Is... is everything okay?" she asked me, knowing very well where I was.
"Everything's fine," I told her, giving her a subtle smile. "It's getting late, I'm gonna take the girls to bed. If you want to wait up, I can make us a couple of mugs of hot chocolate, otherwise I can carry you upstairs so you can get ready for bed."
"I can wait," she replied. I let her say goodnight to the girls before I led them upstairs and got them ready for bed, then I tucked them in and kissed them goodnight and rejoined my wife downstairs. She had moved to the hearth, stoking the fire to warm up the house, and I went into the kitchen to prepare two mugs of hot chocolate. I sat down beside her on the floor and passed her one, then took a sip from my own. "What are we going to do? Snow wanted us to have this baby..."
"Well... you heard the Capitol doctor that assessed you last week. No babies for a while... This isn't your fault, Katniss. You didn't do this. He can't blame you for that," I told her.
"He's going to find some way to blame me, to punish us and then we'll have to do something else terrible," she whispered to me, then she set down her mug and crawled into my lap, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck.
"It's gonna be okay," I whispered into her ear. "I won't let anything happen to you, or the girls... We're going to get through this."
"You keep saying that, but nothing about our situation is getting better. Everything's gotten worse! Everything would have been so much easier if I had just swallowed those damn berries..."
"No, Katniss, don't say that. That's not true. I want to say that it would be easier if I had swallowed them, but then I couldn't be here to protect you..." If I hadn't been here, Snow would have had her exploited like I had been, and I couldn't have that.
"Then maybe it would have been easier if we'd both swallowed them..."
"Maybe," I whispered back, kissing the side of her head. "But we didn't, and we're here... and we've got two beautiful daughters who will never know the horrors we've had to endure."
"That might not last forever." I knew for a fact that it wouldn't last forever. I held Katniss in my arms until she fell asleep, and then I carried her up the stairs and tucked her into bed before I once again slipped out of the house to meet with Haymitch. We checked in with Gale, but he was already gone, and so was his mother, his surviving brother and his little sister. Leevy, on the other hand, opted to stay behind, refusing to leave, and Gale simply left her and his child behind.
In the following weeks, things in District Twelve became a lot stricter. At first, we thought the increase in peacekeepers and the constant electrification of the fence were meant for the Victory Tour, which would come in about a week's time - the second week of the year 2163. Freya Deshannon of District Two arrived to give her speech to the people of District Twelve and we were to show her around the mines and the district. As we stood on the stage behind Freya, framed by the Justice Building, I saw her do something that I wish I had done now three years ago - she put down her cards.
"Odysseus was my half-brother," she began. "I cared for him deeply, and he cared for your tribute, Lucy Greyson. I couldn't blame him... she was charming, funny, and certainly very pretty, and the fact that Odysseus loved and trusted her enough to die for her told me that she deserved the sacrifice. I was willing to give up my life to bring her home, but I became distracted... and in turn, lost her. So I live my life for Lucy and Odysseus... Forbidden lovers in every right, who are now united in the stars above us. Her death won't be in vain." At Freya's last words, she raised her hand in the District Twelve salute, a sign of respect that she had learned from Katniss in our own Games, soon to be four years ago, and soon, every hand in the crowd followed to mimic hers. Katniss glanced at me first, her eyes worried and fearsome, but behind the fear, I could see the flicker of rebellion starting to catch fire, and together, we raised our hands in salute.
Freya Deshannon was more than a Victor - she was a fighter and a rebellious dissenter, the very same that Snow had warned us about when Katniss was attacked in November. It became clear that Freya planned to use her victor status to ignite rebellion, something I only wished I had been brave enough to do. Didn't she have a family that she feared would suffer the consequences of her actions? Possibly not, if she did this so fearlessly. Snow would have to think of a creative way to get back at her, and he most certainly did. On the way to District Nine, Freya's train derailed. Three mentors from District Two had accompanied her on her train - Milla Darwin, Reglin Grigg and Cyrus Tyranny - and two of them, Milla and Reglin, were killed in the derailment, along with their Capitol escort, while Cyrus was seriously injured. Freya, on the other hand, was never found, and the Victory Tour for the 77th Hunger Games was over, but Snow wasn't done yet - Freya wasn't the only victor with an aura of rebellion.
The first week of February, there was a mandatory viewing at six o'clock, and our little family gathered around the television - Lark, now mere days away from being three, and Maevis, now fourteen months old, sitting on our laps as we waited for the program. At six o'clock on the dot, the television screen popped up and as the Capitol seal spun on the screen, the anthem played, until it faded into a rather glorious scene similar to that of the reading of the card from the Quarter Quell.
"Citizens of Panem," the president began as the applause began to die down. "This year will be the first centennial of the birth of Panem. Long ago, when the Old World perished in devastating storms, wars and viral pandemics... societies crumbled, and the world was thrust into chaos for many years. And then, in the year 2063, Panem rose from the ashes of the Old World and with it came the Capitol and the Districts. The Hunger Games are not as old as the glorious history of Panem, as the earliest days of Panem... are now referred to as the 'Dark Days'. For many years, Panem struggled against itself, until, in the year 2085, the Panem we know today emerged victoriously, thus beginning the Hunger Games the following summer, in 2086. This year, the year of the 78th Hunger Games, in celebration of the first centennial of Panem... there will be a... special... Games, as the districts are, evidently, in need of yet another reminder of the sins of the past." He smiled menacingly, seeming to stare right at us, as he raised a notecard, and his eyes shifted to it. "As a reminder... that even the strongest cannot overcome the power of the Capitol... on this, the 78th Hunger Games, the male and female tributes are to be reaped... from the existing pool of victors in each district."
"No..." I heard myself whisper, my eyes wide with shock at what President Snow had just announced. I looked at Katniss, who sat with Maevis on her lap and her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and glassy as tears threatened her eyes. She slowly turned her head to look at me, our eyes meeting. We knew what this meant - Snow had had enough of toying with us. We had outlived our usefulness, and now, he was going to get rid of us by throwing us back into the arena.
"Peeta..." she whispered behind her hand.
"Katniss... it... it's gonna be okay..." I said, trying quickly to pull myself from my own shock before hers engulfed her.
"It wasn't enough... Nothing was enough..." she said, turning her head to look back at the television screen, where Snow seemed to gloat at his victory over us, over Freya, over Finnick and Haymitch and Beetee and Glitter and every victor who had ever shown any deviation from what was expected of a victor from their district. I realised then that I knew exactly who I was going to see in the arena... I knew the names of victors who were in cahoots with District Thirteen, and I knew that Snow likely had a rough idea. This was personal, and Snow was going to get rid of his little problem in the most spectacular way possible - by killing as many rebellious victors as he possibly could in one spectacularly unheard of Hunger Games.
Katniss quickly set Maevis down on the couch and ran for the front door in her stockinged feet, and it took me a second to register what had happened before I, in my bare feet, had set Lark down and ran after her. "Katniss!" I called, ignoring the coldness of my feet as I ran after her. "Katniss, wait!" She was running towards the end of Victors' Village, where a fence separated the cliff below. She collapsed on the ground and I fell to my knees beside her moments after she did, trying to pull her into my arms as she fought to pull away from me.
"We've done nothing! We've failed! " she cried when she finally stopped fighting and I had her by the wrists.
"This isn't over yet, don't give up now!" I said to her firmly, and she tried to pull away from me again, but I wouldn't let her, instead pulling her into my arms and holding her tight against my chest as she sobbed into my shoulder.
"He's going to kill us... Peeta, he's not going to let either of us survive the arena. You know that! Our girls will have no one!" she cried.
"Shh, shh, no they won't. You're going to win and you're going to come home and raise our daughters-"
"Absolutely not. You're going to win and you're going to come home and raise our daughters. Peeta, you're the one who deserves to live! I can't give them the life and the love that you do!" I should have known this argument was coming.
"Katniss, I am not having this argument with you. You are their mother and they need you, they don't need me. Nobody does, not my brothers or my parents or you."
"You shut your fucking mouth right now." She pulled herself from my arms and stood up, glaring up at me with fury in her eyes. "If you think for a second that I will stand here and let you sacrifice yourself for-" I stood up to now tower over her.
"If you think that I am going to stand here and let you sacrifice yourself-"
"Peeta, stop talking! Just stop!"
"You are getting out of that arena and you are going to raise our children and I will not take no for an answer-"
"Will the two of you SHUT UP!" A loud and gruff voice startled the both of us into silence and we looked up to see Haymitch, who must have stumbled out of the house when he heard us yelling at each other. "I'll make a decision for ya both right fuckin' now. The girl's gotta go in the arena no matter what, we ain't got another female victor. But we got two male victors, so I'm goin' into the arena, gettin' sweetheart here out and then you both can live your long happy lives raisin' your damn kids together. Happy now? Now shut the fuck up and let a man have some peace with his drink!"
We both stared at Haymitch as he sauntered off, and when he was back in his house, I turned to look at Katniss, who was still staring off in Haymitch's direction. "I don't wanna fight... not tonight," I told her, and she turned to look at me. "I love you more than anything in the whole world, Katniss... and now... who knows how much time we have left together..."
"I love you, too," she whispered to me, tears threatening her eyes. "I just... I just wish we'd had more time..."
"I know, baby," I whispered to her, pulling her into my arms and holding her tightly. "Let's not think about this anymore... Let's go back home to our daughters - who, by the way, we left unsupervised on the couch - and spend as much time as we can making sure they know how loved they are." Before I could lead her back to our home, Katniss grabbed my face in both of her hands and fiercely pressed her lips against mine, kissing me with a hunger that I knew she'd demand I satisfy later that evening.
I wasn't going to let Haymitch volunteer for me to go into the arena, and I wasn't going to let him even go in with Katniss. There was no way I could trust him to protect her the way that I could. He was older, weaker, and wrecked by alcoholism and that wouldn't benefit him in the arena at all. Of course, if he volunteered for me, realistically, I knew I couldn't stop him, but I'd speak to him about that later. Snow gave us plenty of time to talk. In his efforts to exercise his power and instill fear in all those involved in the rebellion, he made one very grave mistake: he gave us time to plan an uprising.
Finally, for the first time, we were one step ahead of Snow.
A/N: How will the rebels plot an uprising with Snow so closely watching them? Did Gale make it to District Thirteen?
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