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Chapter Forty-Five: The Results of an Erroneous Women's Social

I don't know whose terrible idea it was for me to go to the Capitol's equivalent of a "mom's club", but somehow I ended up sitting amongst many gregarious women as we sipped lemon water and barely even touched our salads. This certainly did not mean that I was pleased with not eating anything because the hormones in this pregnancy were making me want to eat everything on the menu, but I certainly did not wish to look like the behemoth, morbid woman amongst these chic women.

The only reason I have not completely oppressed this memory from my head is because of the timing at which this incredibly awkward event took place. It was only hours before Obadiah's birth.

"Mrs. Crane, we must say that it is an honor to have your presence amongst us this afternoon," The woman whom I presumed to be "in charge" stated warmly; I tried to focus, but I couldn't get past how long her turquoise eyelashes were.

Looking around the table, there were eight to ten women packed around this table in one of the finest restaurants in the Capitol. Comparing myself to them, I was very vanilla, to put it bluntly. Some of them had hair so tall that I wondered how it stood free without any support. Purple, orange, lime green, yellow, and of course, turquoise, these women's clothing literally spelled out nearly every shade of the rainbow. Not only were the colors bright, but the clothing was much too…provocative for a group of mothers to be wearing, in my opinion. I never wished to see that much of any of those women, but it certainly wasn't my place to tell them it was inappropriate for their upper thighs to be showing or for their chests to be falling out of their shirts.

"Well, I am honored to be in your presence. Thank you for inviting me," I smiled as I crossed my legs and leaned back in the chair.

"Can I say that we've been eagerly anticipating this, ladies? You truly are amazing with everything you've been juggling," Another one of the leaders spoke up, she had rather large eyes and did not blink very often. I found her to be especially odd.

"Oh, it's not that impressive, ladies," I answered smiling, slightly uncomfortably.

They all laughed at this before the one with the long, turquoise eyelashes exclaimed," Dear, you're pregnant, you're a department chair of the intelligence department of the Capitol, your husband is a Gamemaker, mind me, Head Gamemaker, and you're juggling all of this without much of a family dear. We all hope to have as much stamina as you."

"When I was pregnant, I could barely leave my home looking much better than the dead. Therefore, you're already a saint in my book," Another one chipped in, initiating another round of laughter.

"Amen to that! In addition, I had so many weird cravings during my first pregnancy," A third lady spoke, twirling a strand of her hair as she did so. "I couldn't seem to get enough of banana-passion fruit-flavored cashews."

Mentally, I gagged because these sounded like the absolute strangest nut I had ever heard of. Nevertheless, I kept quiet and allowed these women to continue on with their conversation as I pretended to actually eat my salad. All of them listed off various foods that they simply could not be without while with child.

That was…until one of the women took an entirely different route with the cravings discussion.

"You know another thing I wanted more than ever while I was pregnant?" The woman with the turquoise eyelashes asked the ladies dramatically. "Sex. I begged Steele for it nearly every night."

Literally, the parcels of salad nearly spewed out of my mouth as she so boldly proclaimed this. As if this were not bad enough, they all began freely discussing their personal lives with their presumable husbands or boyfriends. I wasn't listening closely enough to make the distinction, but, quite frankly, being the private person that I am; I wanted nothing more than to slink away.

And then the situation, believe it or not, became even more awkward.

"What about you, Savera? Are you begging Seneca for-"

Before she could finish the statement, I was already shaking my head as I felt heat rushing to my cheeks.

"No, I can't say that's one of my cravings," I answered meekly, tucking my hair behind my ear.

One of the women chuckled heartily," Debra, dear, I think you've scared her. Clearly, she doesn't wish to discuss such topics with a bunch of women she hardly knows. We're basically strangers."

Whoever this lady was, I immediately liked her.

"Roberta, I simply want to be relatable. From the pictures from the photo shoot a couple weeks ago, anyone would have thought that Seneca and Savera Crane must have had the most marvelous nightlife…even with her pregnant…if you know what I mean," Debra, aka turquoise eyelashes, answered with a wink, pulling out the professional quality photos printed in one of the Capitol publications just days before.

I wanted to groan at the sight of those images. The photographer wanted a "sleek, sexy shoot" while Seneca ensured me before that it would be nothing that uncomfortable. Thank goodness we were able to reign in some of that photographer's ridiculous ideas. Still, the black and white stills of my husband and I were not ones I would be placing on the mantelpiece any time soon. It didn't help that they were endorsed by President Snow, meaning that they were really paid for entirely by him and we had no choice in the matter.

As they spewed off on another tangent about the photos, I grabbed my coat off the back of my chair and began to gingerly slide it over my shoulders. I had taken about as much as I could handle of these women and truly was receiving little to no benefit from sitting her listening to them coo over our photos.

"Ladies," I said firmly, but no one seemed to listen. "Ladies!"

Suddenly, all of them shot me a look as I stood from my chair," If there are no further questions for me, then I will be heading home. My aid is at home finishing our child's room today and-"

I couldn't finish my sentence for…I felt something wet spilling from inside of me. As disgusting as this is to describe, it was equally so to feel. How embarrassing it was to be standing in front of this group of ladies, whom I truly did not know, and literally have water gorging out of my body.

"Savera is something-"

Instantly, I grabbed Debra by the arm," You really want to make this a positive experience for me?"

I felt a short, sharp pain pinching through my midsection. Grimacing, I looked straight into her eyes and said sternly," Get me to the nearest hospital, Debra, and I will be so incredibly pleased with all of you."

It didn't take long for all of the women to understand precisely what was going on. Seeing as they all had been in the same situation at some point in their lives, they immediately went into high gear and all I remember is being efficiently transported to a much safer place for a child to be born. Debra, Roberta, and all the other women may not have been my favorite company, but they never left my side until absolutely necessary. In fact, I don't really know how I would have made it to the hospital in one piece without their help. In the end, they were helpful….even if they were unreserved. They even took the time to call Seneca to inform him of my relatively early labor.

Of course, we were expecting the labor soon, but not this soon. I hoped that my worry was for naught because child birth was not something I wished to have complications in. Though the labor was early, we were later informed that it was nothing that their staff couldn't handle. By the time that Seneca arrived at the hospital, I was already contracting heavily, but the medicines used in the Capitol made the experience much less excruciating.

After greeting me, clad in one of the medical sanitary suits, he whispered to me as I felt another intense wave of pain coming," So this is the effect the women's group had on you, eh?"

At this point, I was already distracted enough that his subtle humor made my blood boil. Over the nine-month-course, there were plenty of times that I despised him, but hardly any of them surpassed that moment. Of course he didn't mean anything by it and was simply trying to lighten the mood, but I was in the process of having a child push its way out of me. That certainly was not the time for humor.

"Seneca, please," I groaned, shooting him a glare as he smirked.

"Only kidding, dear," He answered, taking a seat next to me.

I don't want to go into much more detail even though the Capitol's medical staff is flawless when it comes to keeping the blood loss and pain to a minimal. The moral of the story for that day was that an event I had no desire going to turned out to be a blessing in disguise for both me and Seneca. Had those women not been present on the day I went into labor, the gift of our sweet little boy, Obadiah, may not have gone near as smoothly.

There are two moments in my life where I have felt someone take my heart.

The first was when Seneca asked me to marry him.

And the second was when I heard our baby's cries fill the air before having the little miracle placed in my arms.


Never were there more nights when I felt more tired. Never were there more mornings when I wished I could have just a few more minutes of sleep. Never was there a time when I was more tired, yet completely blissful.

For several weeks, I was given time off from work for maternity leave and thankfully, right around the time Obadiah was born, the Games were coming to a close and he was much more flexible with being able to come home. In some ways, Obadiah couldn't have been more of a blessing to us because Seneca and I spent countless hours up tending to him, but in this time we were able to catch up on conversation with one another that we had missed in our working lives.

There were also many times that I remember rocking the stubborn child until he had cried all he could cry before finally surrendering to almighty slumber. However, during these times, Seneca and I found ourselves trading off shifts to stay up with our sweet little boy who seemed to be more active at night than during the day. Several months passed and as Obadiah grew older, he became less and less rowdy at night, much to Seneca and I's delight.

Crystal was still at our home frequently, but at this point, she acted more as an observant and to become comfortable with Obadiah before both Seneca and I would be gone to our jobs.

It was amazing to watch our child grow more and more every day. And as the days, weeks, months, passed, he was looking more and more like Seneca. He certainly had the dark hair and the by the time he was several months old, his eyes were just as piercing as his father's. Many joked that the child looked so little like me that he certainly wasn't even my child. However, I had the stretch marks and permanent bags under my eyes from staying up with this child to prove my worth to him.

There was a brief time when it was just the three of us together nearly all the time just like a normal family.

That time ended when my maternity leave (twelve weeks that seemed to fly) ended and I was required back at work. However, it was not entirely sad because by this point…I had grown to trust Crystal a little more than before.

He had just mastered being able to lift his own head when someone holds him. He certainly was responding to the world around him much more than before. Being under a time crunch that first morning was hard as I was not used to being in much of a schedule. In fact, I was probably more adjusted to Obadiah's schedule than he was.

Just as I was pulling on my jacket, throwing my bag over my shoulder, and heading for the door, I remember looking up to see Obadiah playing with his multi-colored toys in the middle of the living room.

"Remember, he has to take a nap-"I started, but Crystal just put an arm on my shoulder.

"Please, Savera. You've told me twice and you wrote it down for me. I think I can manage; you need to go before you're late for work!" She urged thrusting my purse into my arms before I tossed this bag over my shoulder amongst the others already there.

"Sorry Crystal," I said, shaking my head as I checked my appearance in the mirror one last time before sliding my shoes on at the door.

At this point, Crystal had picked up Obadiah and perched him on her hip. I looked at the sweet child and saw him smiling at me. Before I could leave, I grabbed his tiny hand in mine and kissed his chubby cheeks.

"Bye, Obie," I whispered as he kept on grinning from ear to ear.

As I pulled to turn away, I looked to Crystal one last time and just as I was about to lecture her again…I remembered that she knew what she was doing and I was just worrying too much. I shook off the overprotective mother-bear feelings bubbling up and pulled the front door open.

"I'll see you both later," I said, smiling as Obie let out one of those toddler cackles that light up a room, but make no coherent sense.

"Bye momma," Crystal mimicked Obie's voice, pulling up one of his hands to wave by.

As precious as this moment was, it was equally bitter. This would be the first of many times to come that I would be forced to leave my child at home with someone other than his parent to watch him, but for the most part, we were there for Obadiah. For that first year and a half, it truly was bliss and we were under the impression that the Capitol was of no threat to me or Seneca.

That all changed in Seneca's third year as Head Gamemaker, months before Obie's second birth day.

A/N: As you can predict, we are drawing closer to some major conflict. I don't want to give away too much yet so I won't say anything, but PLEASE review and let me know what you think. Thanks to those who have already.