We Didn't Start The Fire
by FanficAllergy & RoseFyre

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Chapter Eleven: Stairway To Heaven

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Last Time in We Didn't Start The Fire:

"We would appreciate any aid you can give us, Madam President," I say before Katniss or Gale can say anything. "After all, we're all on the same side. The same team. It's important we present a united front."

"Exactly, Peeta. I'm glad you understand."

I don't understand, but I'm not about to tell her that. I don't trust her. The offer is too suspicious. I don't know what game she's playing, but I know she's playing one.

oOo

The three of us head out for Reflection as soon as we leave Coin's office. We'd already gotten the proper clearances to spend the hour of free time outside and today I'm glad we had the forethought to do so. We need to get away from Thirteen and the rest of the world. Even though Katniss and Gale bring their bows, they have no intention of actually hunting. First off, I'm with them, but secondly, we have more important things to talk about.

When we reach our spot by the stream, Gale flops down on a patch of moss next to the bank. "That was weird. What's Coin playing at?"

"I don't know," I admit. "I'm guessing we've become more popular now and she's decided she needs us."

Gale rolls over onto his side and looks up at me. "Does she need us? Does she really need us?"

I give my husband a look, sitting down next to him. "What are you trying to say, Gale?" I ask him, hoping I'm wrong.

Sighing, Gale looks up at our wife, who's standing guard. "I don't know. It's just… what with the Mayor and everything, Madge would make a much better Mockingjay." He doesn't mention aloud that Katniss isn't the real rebellious graffiti artist because he's not stupid. For all we think we're safe out here in the woods, we might not be.

Katniss frowns. "So you want Madge to be the Mockingjay? I thought you wanted this." She puts extra emphasis on the word 'you,' making it clear that she never did.

"I did," Gale says quickly. "I do. It's just, this isn't what I was… envisioning."

"I don't think this is what any of us were envisioning," I try to soothe. "But we can't do that to Madge."

"Why not? She's the Mayor's daughter. She's a much better symbol of rebellion. She's a better speaker than you," Gale motions to Katniss, "and she's prettier than either of us."

"Gee thanks," I tease.

"Well, she is. It's just… we've got a family now. And this whole thing feels like it's one big giant plot to split us up." I can tell Gale's frustrated with all of the politics. I don't blame him.

"We won't let that happen," Katniss says. She bites her lower lip. "And as much as I hate it here, we can't just dump our responsibilities on Madge."

"Katniss is right, Gale. The Mayor might've been a good symbol, better than us even, but there's no way he's gonna make it out of that Arena alive." I let that sink in. "And Madge… well, you saw how she reacted when her father was Reaped. How do you think she's going to handle it when he dies? She may seem like her father, but she's a lot more like her mother than I think either of you realize." I think back to Madge's mother, the frail, fragile woman who never got over her twin sister's death, with some sadness. I'd liked Mrs. Undersee, even though she rarely came out of her bedroom some days.

"No, I get it," Katniss says thoughtfully. "You forget that Madge was my only other friend in Twelve."

She's right. I did.

"Madge was always quiet," Katniss continues. "I know she was your friend, Peeta, but she didn't like the crowds of merchant kids vying for her attention. She said that all of their chatter gave her a headache."

I didn't know that. I always figured Madge sat with Katniss because she was trying to get to know the girl I had a crush on for me. But now that I think back on it, she always liked doing things in small groups more than the large get-togethers that Delly seemed to favor. Madge only spent time with me and Delly when it was just us three.

Gale groans. "So you're saying Madge will break if she's the Mockingjay."

"I know it," Katniss says.

I nod my head. "I'm sorry, man. I know we all just want to go home." I miss the cave and our woods. Life was hard, but it was simpler. Happier.

"Not like we could," Gale says wryly. "I guess I'm a bit surprised. I would've thought that you, Katniss, would've been the first to dump this responsibility onto someone else."

"If it were somebody who could handle it? I would. In a heartbeat." Katniss shrugs. "But Madge can't, and sadly, I don't think any one person could."

"But three of us can."

"Right. I may not have wanted to come here, but now that we're in this fight, we need to see it through to the end."

oOo

Prim is in a state when we get to breakfast the following morning. Rory is doing his best to try to comfort her, but she's worked herself up into a fit. It may be because she's tired, her training has her shadowing the medics on the night shift, but somehow I don't think that's all of it.

Katniss pushes her way past our brother-in-law to take her sister into her arms. "What's wrong, Little Duck?"

"These Games! They're horrible!" Prim sobs into Katniss's shoulder.

Katniss strokes Prim's hair for a bit, letting her cry.

None of us have paid much attention to the Games since our meeting with Coin. In fact, we've been avoiding them. There's no point in staying up 'til all hours watching every gruesome detail when we can get the gist of what happened during the mandatory daily recap. But it looks like Prim hasn't been able to avoid watching them. They have the Games on in the Medical Center, something Katniss has complained about when she's had to go down and feed Rain. There's not a lot we can do other than try to ignore them, but when you're a thirteen year old girl with nothing else to do, they're a little hard to ignore.

When Prim settles down a little, Katniss asks, "What happened?"

"Pacifica! She… she… she's dead!"

My heart clenches at the thought of the bright four year old talking about the gong game.

"Prim, it'll be alright," Katniss tries to soothe.

But Prim's having none of it. "No! No it won't!" She struggles to pull away, but Katniss refuses to let her go. Finally she slumps against her sister's chest and starts to speak. "It was so horrible! First Valli died, and nobody was paying attention to Pacifica, and… and she saw this light out on the water." She takes a deep breath. "I guess it looked like something she knew back in Four cause she said 'Daddy, Daddy' and started running down the beach towards it. She waded into the water after the light and then this horrible mutt-turtle-like-thing reared out of the water! It had this dangling white thing coming from off of its head, and the beast just chomped her right in half! Nobody in the group even knew she was gone until they heard the cannon!"

"I'm sorry, Prim," Katniss murmurs.

"She shouldn't have been there!" Prim cries. "She never should have been in there!"

I don't know what to say. She's not wrong. No child should be in the Games. No one should be in the Games.

Katniss looks up and meets my eyes. I can see that she's struggling to keep it together for Prim, but she's affected by Pacifica's death too. The little girl was adorable, and I suspect she reminds Katniss of Prim at that age.

I glance around the cafeteria. People are staring at us, probably because of Prim's outburst, and I know Katniss and Prim wouldn't be happy to be the object of so much attention. We haven't eaten breakfast, but I don't think anybody will object if we take our food and go someplace else. We're the Mockingjays, dammit. We deserve some consideration.

I pack the stale rolls and hard boiled eggs into my pocket. We don't try to take anything extra, just what our allotment is, and I see Rory hastily shoving spoonfuls of the mush they serve into his mouth. Gale notices what I'm doing and does the same before taking the rest of what we haven't eaten to the kitchen crew and talking to them earnestly.

I glance at the schedule on my wrist. We're supposed to have a rehearsal with Cressida and her group after breakfast while Katniss feeds Rain, but I don't think Cressida will mind if we don't show up. It's not like we're really doing anything right now, and besides, Prim's more important.

I turn to Prim. "What do you have after breakfast?"

She checks her wrist. "Reflection, then lights out."

"Why don't we get out of here for a bit, go outside. Do you think that would make you feel better?"

She nods her head.

Katniss looks up at me gratefully and I snag our guide Neil to start making the arrangements. Neil scurries off to let Boggs and Coin know while I notify Cressida that we're not going to be meeting with her. As I expected, she waves it off and asks instead to join us. "That's not up to me," I tell her. "If Prim's okay with it, I'm okay with it."

I ask Prim if she's okay with Cressida joining us and she shrugs her shoulders. "So long as it's not for a propo, sure. I just…" She trails off.

Katniss rubs her back. "You don't want to be filmed."

The girl shakes her head. "I'm not brave like you."

"I'm not brave like me either."

Cressida is happy to just join us without the camera. She's become a friend. Something we don't have many of here in Thirteen.

Katniss can't skip feeding Rain, but he's getting old enough that they're starting to allow him to leave the nursery, so long as he's with a member of the medical personnel. Thankfully, Katniss's mother counts.

The nursery staff pack up a huge bag of supplies for us, although I'm not quite sure what we're going to do with the portable enema kit, but apparently it is of dire medical importance, so it goes. But if it means we get to spend an hour or so with our family unmonitored, it's worth lugging around a twenty pound bag full of random crap.

Neil's made the arrangements for us to go outside and he and our other escort/guard, Bart Ashley, have a few bows waiting for us, which Gale and Rory take. Katniss's arms are full of the baby and Prim's in no condition to shoot. The Thirteen soldiers accompany us, but they trail far enough behind that they won't overhear our conversation. This is as alone as we can get in Thirteen while we've got the baby with us.

We find a spot along the stream where part of a house used to be and sit down. Katniss undoes her coverall and puts our son to her breast. She starts humming under her breath, an old lullaby, and I admit I fall in love with her all over again.

It's an intimate moment, one that we rarely get nowadays, and it makes it all the more special.

"That's a beautiful song, Katniss," Cressida says. "What's it called?"

"It's called 'Hush Little Baby,'" my wife replies, stroking our son's light blonde hair. "My father used to sing it to Prim when she had trouble sleeping."

I glance over to my sister-in-law and note that Prim seems to be settling down. The girl is calmer listening to Katniss, laying with her head in Rory's lap.

Gale gets up and starts roaming the area, picking flowers until his arms are full.

I smile.

Violet, for her part, doesn't do much of anything. I think she enjoys the quiet. I know I would. There aren't that many babies in the nursery, but one of them always seems to be crying, which usually sets off the others. I'm sure she's grateful to hear the tweeting birds, the buzzing insects, and the burbling stream.

It reminds me of home. Not Twelve, but our cave.

Gale returns and sets the flowers down next to Rory before sitting down himself.

Eventually, after Rain has finished nursing, we invite the two Thirteen soldiers to join us. They do, however I note they never fully relax their guard. Conversation is light. What we're doing in Thirteen, foods we miss, things we wish we could be doing. All the while Rory and Gale's hands are fashioning various accessories out of the flowers.

Rory finishes his first, a crown made out of primroses and dandelions, and places it on Prim's head. "For you, my lady," he says extravagantly.

She smiles up at him. "Thank you, my prince."

I can't keep the smile from my face. The two are just so cute together, and I don't think they've even progressed past the handholding stage, although I suspect that will change soon.

"What is it with you Hawthorne boys and flower crowns?" I tease.

Rory looks up at me, flushing slightly. "I just wanted to make Prim something pretty!"

"Don't tease him, Mellark," Gale says, standing up and walking over to Katniss and me. He places a crown of wild carrot on my head carefully, then does the same to Katniss. "Besides, you love it."

I laugh and stand up to wrap my arms around him. "You're right. I do."

oOo

When we get back inside, Cressida stops us. "Don't bring Rain back to the nursery just yet, we're wondering if you could maybe do a propo talking about how the deaths of those children affects you as new parents. Having Rain in the propo… I think it would add emphasis to your words."

All three of us exchange a look. "I'm not sure now's a good time," Katniss says. "He's just been fed, and that typically means he's going to get a bit stinky in a little bit. I'm not sure poopy diaper is the look you're going for."

Cressida makes a face. "No, no, you're right. When would be a better time?"

Katniss shifts the baby against her shoulder and looks at the schedule on her wrist. "Um… how about six o'clock? That's about an hour before his evening feeding and he's usually pretty quiet around then. Awake, but quiet."

"Yes, yes, that would be much better, thank you. I'll make the arrangements," Cressida says, scurrying off.

"Is that true?" Rory asks.

He gets his answer with the sound from Rain himself, who lets out a loud fart then immediately starts crying.

"That would be a yes," Gale answers, chuckling.

"I'll take him," I say, holding my hands out.

"How'd we get so lucky?" Gale asks as Katniss hands the baby to me.

"I don't know, but if he wants to change the dirty diapers, I'm gonna let him."

I cuddle my stinky son to my chest. "It's not so bad, at least we don't have to wash diapers here!"

Gale nods his head emphatically. "Yeah, I always hated it when Mom took on customers with babies. The smell of week-old diapers is not one I want to remember."

We split off to our separate tasks. After taking care of Rain, I meet up with Gale and Katniss a little later for our next appointment. Thirteen's been bringing us up to speed on all of the atrocities the Capitol has committed across Panem over the years, and not just in District Twelve. It's essentially a history class with we three as students. The teacher, an extremely short woman, shorter than Katniss, with dark red hair and the same pale skin found in all of Thirteen, does her best to try to keep it interesting. But history's never been my favorite subject, and hearing over and over that the Capitol values x item more than human lives… it gets repetitive after a while.

While the Games are on, our instructor uses them as an opportunity to teach us about various key points in the previous seventy four years of the Hunger Games. She skips Finnick Odair's year, all of us know what happened in those Games, but we finally get to see Haymitch Abernathy's. My respect for the drunk increases, as does Gale's and Katniss's. He was a cocky kid, and clever.

When he teams up with the girl from Twelve, Katniss draws in a breath. "That's Madge's aunt. She's the one who owned the mockingjay pin." She fingers the brooch she's wearing.

I wonder how Maysilee's family got it back. We all know that there's only one winner of the Hunger Games, and since Haymitch won, Maysilee couldn't have. We get our answer a little bit later. We only notice Haymitch remove her pin because we're looking for it. Trophy-taking is frowned upon, and while we know that he ended up giving the pin back to Maysilee's family, there's no way for the Capitol or people watching to have known that.

"Poor Maysilee," Katniss says.

"It might interest you to note," our teacher interjects. "That much like her brother-in-law, Wexler Undersee, she too was Reaped to punish her family."

"What?" all three of us ask in identical tones of disbelief.

"Oh yes," the woman says a bit smugly. "Her paternal uncle, Jimson Donner, escaped District Twelve prior to the first Hunger Games, along with his girlfriend, Lorelei Leigh. Lorelei's sister was Reaped in the Second Games for her family's betrayal, but the Donners avoided that fate until the Fiftieth Games. Jimson's elder brother, Maysilee's father, married late in life and his twin daughters were his only issue. He'd probably hoped the Capitol had forgotten by then. They hadn't."

I finger my own pin, wondering what happened to Jimson and Lorelei. Did they make it, like we did? Or did the raiders kill them? I suppose it's possible they went on to found the group which attacked us a year ago, but it seems unlikely. It's more plausible that the two died of exposure or animal attack and a group of raiders stumbled across their corpses and looted the bodies. There's really no way for us to know.

We finish watching the Fiftieth Games and our instructor turns on the Seventy Fifth. The garishly dressed announcers are chattering passionately. Another tribute, Prisca, has died. Apparently, she was hiding in the forest when a deadly fog blew across the wedge she was in, burning her skin until she couldn't move. It didn't take her long to die.

Then the announcers exclaim excitedly. There's something going on. The cameras switch to show Adad, the man from Five, napping in the forest. There's a picture in picture, like they do when two tributes are getting close together, and then Serge from Eight literally stumbles across him.

The silent old man puts up one hell of a fight, belying his score of one. Serge only manages to win when Adad stumbles over a root, allowing her to stab him deep in the gut. A few moments later, Serge narrowly manages to avoid dying herself. There's a group of monkeys gathering, and they can't be friendly. They're staring at her in a very creepy manner, and it's as obvious to her as it is to me that they're about to attack.

She quickly retreats down one of the sand spurs and hides in the empty Cornucopia nursing a wounded arm, Adad's final gift to her.

The announcers note that, with Adad's death, half the tributes have perished this year. It seems fast, although I know from this history class we're being forced to take that previous years' Hunger Games have sometimes had more people die in the bloodbath.

The action shifts from the announcers to the Mayor's alliance. Someone is being sent a sponsorship gift, the second we've seen this group receive.

The little silver parachute lands in front of the girl from Three, Error. "It's for me? But… I have sponsors?" Twelve year olds almost never get sponsorship gifts, they're considered too much of a longshot in most years, so Error's confusion is warranted.

"It's a weird Games, girl," Chaff says. "Go on. Open it."

She does. Inside is a pocket watch with a smiling cartoon mouse wearing little red shorts and yellow shoes painted on the watch face. The mouse's arms are the hands of the clock. Around the edge are the numbers one through twelve, and over them the numbers thirteen through twenty four.

"A watch?" Error asks. "Why'd Wiress send me a watch?"

"You'd know better than us, girl. Ain't nobody can understand Nuts 'cept Volts, and even then it's a crapshoot."

The girl gives Chaff a look full of confusion. "Nuts?"

"Just a friendly nickname. Johanna coined it."

Error holds up the watch. "What should I do with it?"

"Wear it? Tell time?" Chaff shrugs. "Wiress sent it to you for a reason, you just gotta use that noggin of yours to figure it out."

oOo

The next time we check in with the Games, during the recap, I'm surprised to see nothing else of interest has happened since Error received her sponsorship gift. The only deaths are the ones we've heard about or seen. Watching Pacifica die is even worse than what Prim described and I wish I hadn't seen it.

After the recap finishes, I rush to the nursery to hold Rain, even though he's probably already asleep. I need to feel something good, innocent. I need something to give me hope again. Remind me why I'm fighting. I want to give my son a better world than the one I was born into.

When I get back to our quarters, I find Gale and Katniss waiting for me. Katniss wraps her arms around me and Gale enfolds both of us in his embrace. The tears I'd been holding back flow freely. I should be embarrassed. I'm stronger than this. My mother always told me that real men aren't supposed to cry so I've always tried to contain my emotions, even when they threaten to overwhelm me. But my spouses don't say anything. They let me know through their actions that they love me and I can be weak with them because together the three of us are strong.

I sleep deeply that night, oddly free of nightmares. I know it's because of Gale and Katniss. I have no idea how I'd be able to handle this without them. I'm just glad I don't have to.

We wake up early and take our time getting ready, touching and kissing but ultimately leading to nothing. I'm beginning to miss intimacy with Katniss and Gale, but Katniss hasn't been cleared for sex yet and even if she were, I'm not certain she'd want to right away. Gale and I haven't reached that stage in our relationship and there's no guarantee we ever will. I'm willing to wait. I'd wait forever, if that's what it took. But that doesn't mean that I'm not starting to miss making love.

We stop at the nursery for Rain's feeding before heading to the commissary for breakfast. The Games are on in the cafeteria like they always are, and it's hard to ignore what's going on. There's been another death. Bran, the senile old man from District Nine, wandered into the alliance camp during the night and started attacking people, screaming, "What'd you do to my wife? What'd you do to her? Where's my wife?"

The group tried not to hurt him, but Henry pushed him away a little too vigorously and the old man fell, hitting his head on a rock. The young man was inconsolable, as this was his first kill: a senile old man who thought they'd done something to his beloved wife. I feel sorry for the man and the announcers calling it a 'stirring victory' grates on my nerves.

"I wish they'd turn that thing off," Katniss grumbles under her breath. "Everywhere you go you can't escape the damned Games."

"Thirteen is supposed to be different," Gale says, his eyes showing the signs of disillusionment. "But they're just as engrossed in the Games as the Capitol."

"In some ways it's even worse," I say. "At least the Capitol roots for people to win and tries to help them along. Thirteen just watches and gloats."

Messalla joins us, setting down his tray across from Katniss. "I'd watch what you say in public if I were you," he cautions quietly. "There are ears everywhere."

I flush at the warning. He's right. Just because we don't have to worry about the Capitol anymore doesn't mean that we can say whatever we please. I nod my head in thanks.

Messalla nods at me. "So what are your feelings on the upcoming election?" he asks, changing the subject.

"Election?" Katniss asks.

"I guess they haven't told you yet. I'm not surprised. But Thirteen's elections take place in January and Coin's up for reelection."

I meet Katniss's eyes. For once, we're able to share the same level of understanding that I typically have with Gale. It makes Coin's bid to befriend us make a whole lot more sense.

We don't get much of a chance to enjoy our colorless Thirteen breakfast when the crowd in the cafeteria stirs, clamoring to get a better view of the action on the monitors. Something's happening.

Rising from the depths of the central pond, a large mutt appears in front of the Mayor's alliance. The mutt is huge, terrifying, with feet-like pectoral fins and a huge mouth of gaping triangular teeth.

Messalla stares at the thing before asking, "Is that supposed to be a shark?"

It's not like any I've ever seen in the Games before. They've had sharks or muttations of sharks in several Games. They were especially popular in Finnick Odair's year. The tribute from Four actually killed one that attacked the Career pack and I've heard the teeth from the mutt were sold to several of Finnick's admirers. I remember Caesar Flickerman mentioning that he actually owns three of the Finnick Odair shark teeth.

Onscreen, the shark muttation is charging the group, who are scrambling to get to the relative safety of the jungle. They tried escaping by running down the beach only to find their way barred by forcefields. Darting toward the jungle, Chaff covers Error while Henry flanks them, with Chevy and the Mayor guarding their rear.

Chevy shoots several arrows into the beast, but the muttation just shrugs them off, its hide too thick to even notice the arrows. The Mayor stabs at the beast with his spear and has slightly better success. Thin rivulets of dark red blood trickle down the gray and white beast's hide, staining the sand under it.

The shark roars, sounding like that weird reptilian monster out of one of those old Capitol movies.

"Do sharks even have vocal chords?" Messalla asks rhetorically.

"Apparently this one does," Gale replies.

Katniss glares at the two of them and the two men wisely fall silent.

The five tributes run further into the forest, with the muttation snarling at their heels. It knocks down trees, trampling the foliage underneath its huge body. A tree crashes to the ground right in front of Error and Chaff. They skid to a halt, their way suddenly blocked.

The shark roars again.

The Mayor leaps forward, thrusting his spear up into the pink fleshy part of the mutt's mouth. I can see that he's trying to do what Katniss did with the bear mutt along our journey, but unlike Katniss who could shoot from a relatively safe distance, the Mayor has to get up close and personal to even make the attempt.

It's the last thing he ever does.

The beast lunges. Snapping its mouth around the Mayor and his spear, it slices Madge's father in half and, ultimately, seals its own fate. The weapon lodges in the mutt's brain, killing it. Letting out one final cry, it collapses on what's left of Mr. Undersee.

The battle is over.

I'm staring in shock at what I see. The Mayor is dead, and what's more, he died valiantly, protecting his group.

From beside me, Katniss whispers, "Where's Madge?"

Oh fuck.

oOo

AN:
Written: 4/21/15
Revised: 8/17/15
Revised 2: 9/1/15

The title of this chapter comes from Led Zepplin's song "Stairway to Heaven."

The Quell needed a shark… so we totally gave them a shark. It's in the 8 O'Clock zone for those of you keeping score at home. We do know what every zone is in the Arena just in case we wanted to use them. Some of the zones we'll see more of than others.

Things We Randomized:

- The order in which the tributes perished and what days they died.

Thanks for reading! We hope you're enjoying!