Chapter 48: The End

They play in the Meadow. The grey-eyed, dark-haired boy running to keep up with his blonde-haired, blue-eyed older sister on chubby legs. From where I am nestled in my husband's arms on the picnic blanket, we watch dotingly as our grandchildren leap into their father's arms. Peeta picks up little Haymitch and spins him around, Gilla prancing at his feet and demanding in her prissy voice to be picked up too.

Seated next to us, the skirts of her sundress fanned out around her, Katniss smiles soflty as she bounces her baby boy – Beech – in her arms. All at once, a cry splits the air as the babe awakes.

"Oh, sssh…. Sssh….." Katniss tickles him with her finger. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Over on a tree swing at the far end of the Meadow, I observe Belle's golden curls – graying slightly now – whip behind her like a banner as her husband, Proximo, pushes her jovially. They were married soon after Katniss and Peeta had their first child, Katniss giving her mother happily away so that she and her new husband could Toast the bread. At the base of that tree's trunk, Prim, now a gorgeous young woman, has her head resting in Rory Hawthorne's lap, a book lying open on her chest. Glancing up to him, she and Rory steal a kiss; they'll be married in the fall.

Back beside me, Katniss is still talking to her littlest one. "I have nightmares too. Someday I'll explain it to you – why they came. Why they won't ever go away…." She leans in close, like she's going to tell baby Beech a secret. "But I'll tell you how I survive it. I make a list in my head, of all the good things I've seen someone do…. Every little thing I can remember. It's like a game: I do it over and over. Gets a little tedious after all these years, but…. there are much worse Games to play."

I smile at her proudly, giggling when Danny gets into my line of vision to steal a kiss from my lips. Giggling, I pull him close and kiss him back, savoring this moment. Wishing I could freeze it right now, and live in it forever. In this promise that life can go on, despite all that came before. This is the true glory with honor that Brutus once spoke of (in a way, he was right all along), and I aim to hold onto it.

For what my goddaughter, my daughter-in-law, says is all too true: there really are much worse Games to play.


A/N: And that's it, folks. I started writing this on December 3rd, 2020. Wow, has it been a journey - the longest fic I have written ever (both in word count and in chapter count). 222 pages in Word. But Maysilee was worth it. She was worth getting this story right. To all my readers and reviewers, thank you, and I now bid you adieu. Glory with honor.