a/n: I couldn't have written this chapter (or the next, and final, one) without Court81981's amazing advice and guidance. Court, you are the world's best sounding board.
Your thoughtful reviews, and all of your follows and favorites, mean so much to me. Thank you for reading along.
Peeta wakes up when Katniss' phone starts vibrating loudly on the bedside table.
He glances at the clock on the other side of their motel room. It reads 3:14 a.m.
"Katniss," he murmurs into her ear. "Hey. Wake up."
She stirs a little in his arms.
"Hm?" she mumbles, still sleeping. She snuggles closer to him and burrows her face into his neck.
After another moment the phone stops buzzing. Peeta pulls her closer to him, closes his eyes and tries to go back to sleep.
But the phone buzzes again, and then again, and then a fourth time. And now Peeta is fully awake.
He gently rolls Katniss over and gets out of bed.
Scratching his stomach and yawning, Peeta walks over to the table so he can shut the phone off himself.
He picks it up and blearily searches for the power button. He sees Katniss just missed four calls and has three voicemails. All from an area code he doesn't recognize.
He turns off the phone and bites his bottom lip.
He lies awake for a long time after that, listening to Katniss' deep even breaths and staring at the ceiling.
Peeta wakes up again a few hours later, the spot next to him in bed empty and cold.
He feels a momentary stab of panic, but hears the shower running in the bathroom before it can take root.
Breathing a small sigh of relief, Peeta sits up, stretches, and turns on the ancient TV.
There are only a few channels to choose from. He flips between them absently as he waits for Katniss to come back.
He finally settles on The Weather Channel. They'll be driving a lot today, and they might as well see what the weather is supposed to be like so they can plan their route.
Katniss comes out of the bathroom a moment later, one towel wrapped around her body and another around her head.
"Hey," he says to her, grinning. "Good morning."
"Morning," she says in response. She walks hurriedly to her suitcase, and bends at the waist as she rifles through it. Her short towel rides up, exposing her bare ass.
Peeta watches her. He thinks about how she rode him last night in this hotel room, straddling his lap, her tits in his face and her hands in his hair.
He starts getting hard inside his boxers.
"C'mere, Katniss," he tells her. Maybe she'll do that to him again, right now, if he asks nicely. He leans back against the headboard and reaches out to her. "Come back to bed."
"I can't," she tells him. She pulls out the clothes she was apparently looking for and starts dressing. "I need to call my dad."
Peeta drops his arm. "What?"
Katniss nods. "He left a bunch of messages overnight. Said it was an emergency and I needed to call right away." She looks at him. Her eyes are wide, terrified. "He never calls me, Peeta."
She finishes dressing and grabs her phone. She sits on the bed next to him and dials her father's number.
As Katniss waits for him to pick up, Peeta puts his hand on her arm. He hopes the gesture reassures her. Reminds her that he's there for her, the way she's been there for him.
He tries to ignore the feeling in the pit of his stomach that tells him his world is about to fall to pieces.
But Katniss can't reach her father. She tries calling her mother at home, but the phone just rings and rings.
Everyone tries to distract her over breakfast at the Denny's in North Platte.
"Oooh, blueberry pancakes!" Annie says, loudly, as she flips through the menu. "I'm totally getting that. And an omelet too, I think."
The waitress pours coffee for everyone. When she puts the bowl of creamers on the table, Johanna teaches Katniss a two-person diner game she claims, boastfully, that she invented last summer.
She calls it "Mini-Moo Toss."
"One person holds a fork, like so," she demonstrates, pointing the tines of her fork at Finnick. "The other person throws a Mini-Moo half-and-half from across the table and tries to impale it on the fork. Whoever ends up with the most half-and-half on their shirt at the end of the meal loses."
"And I never lose," Finnick says, a determined look on his face.
"There's not much to do in Iowa," Annie tells Peeta apologetically, as if this explains everything.
Katniss says she'd like to play, and she smiles at them. But it's a fake smile, Peeta can tell right away. He knows all her smiles now. The smile doesn't reach her eyes, and she's trying, but it's not real.
Either way, Katniss demolishes her competition. Finnick's shirt is so soaked with cream by the end of breakfast that he needs to change before they hit the road again.
Peeta and Annie quietly agree to leave the waitress a generous tip.
Breakfast eaten, Peeta encourages their new friends to just go on ahead without them.
He looks over his shoulder and sees Katniss pacing the opposite end of the Denny's parking lot, holding her phone like like a lifeline.
Katniss won't be okay again until she reaches her father, Peeta explains quietly. They'll just stay here, in this little town, maybe hang out in a coffee shop or something, until she can find out what's going on.
Finnick claps Peeta on the back.
"We'll see you in Iowa City, Peeta," Annie says, sympathetically.
Johanna, to his surprise, pulls him into a bear hug.
Peeta watches them drive off, and then walks over to where Katniss is pacing.
"Can I drive?" he asks her, gently.
Her eyes are unfocused and she's shaking a little. Clearly, she's in no shape to drive.
She nods, and smiles wanly at him, and climbs into the passenger's seat of the truck without another word.
They drive around town for a while.
To Peeta's great disappointment, there isn't much to North Platte, and it doesn't take long for them to see everything there is to see. A few restaurants, a couple of rundown shops, a school, and then suddenly they're out of the town and into the country.
Peeta pulls the truck over when the road ends, frustrated that North Platte wasn't the distraction he'd hoped it would be.
"Let's explore," he suggests, desperately. He knows she's terrified. He tries to ignore the fact that he is, too.
He gets out of the truck and opens the passenger's side door and extends his hand.
To his relief, she takes it.
An hour later, they're lying next to each other in a field of grass, his hand tracing lazy patterns on her arm.
Peeta is just about to let the heat of the noon sun lull him to sleep when Katniss' phone buzzes to life again at last, startling them both.
She sits bolt upright and holds her phone to her ear.
"Hello?" Katniss practically shouts. "Dad? Dad?"
She's silent for a long time after that, listening. Peeta can hear her father's muffled words through the phone, but he cannot make out what he's saying.
Katniss raises her hand to her mouth as she listens. Her eyes are glassy with tears.
Peeta feels helpless. He starts rubbing her back, gently, as she listens. He doesn't know what else to do.
"I'm not sure," she says eventually. "Omaha, I think." She puts the phone down. "Peeta, where's the roadmap?"
He gets it out of the glove compartment of the truck and brings it to her. She unfolds it on the grass and traces Interstate 80 with her finger.
"Omaha or Denver," she tells her father. "Probably more direct flights to the west coast from Denver, I'd guess."
At her words, Peeta closes his eyes and lies back down on the grass. Wishing that he could freeze this moment in time and live in it forever. Knowing that he can't.
He lets his mind wander. He forces himself to think about Annie and Jo and Finnick. He wonders what their drive has been like so far today.
He doesn't want to listen to Katniss' half of the conversation anymore.
"Here's what happened," she says to him, finally off the phone. Her eyes are red and puffy from crying.
Her mother was in a car accident last night. A bad one. She was unconscious by the time she arrived at Sutter General Hospital by ambulance.
It had been so long since Alma Everdeen had been to the hospital that Katniss' father was still listed as her emergency contact. They called him at one in the morning to let him know, even though he now lives in Merced and hasn't spoken with Katniss' mother in three years.
And he, in turn, called Katniss.
And now, he's paying for Katniss to fly home so she can be with her mother.
"Because driving home will take too long," Peeta says, flatly. It isn't a question.
"Right," Katniss says. She wipes her nose on her sleeve.
"So… when do you leave?" Peeta asks, focusing all his attention on the blade of grass he's twirling between his fingers. He can't look her in the eye right now. He doesn't want this to happen. His insides are heaving.
Peeta knows he's being selfish right now, and that that makes him an asshole. He doesn't care.
"Tonight," she tells him quietly, and his heart shatters into a thousand brittle pieces. "There's a flight leaving Denver at 10 p.m. that flies direct into Oakland. Dad bought the ticket for me while we were on the phone."
Peeta nods wordlessly.
"Peeta…" she begins, and then trails off.
She touches him on the shoulder, gently. Giving in, he turns to look at her.
"So… I guess I'll meet up with you in Cali in a few days," he says, trying to sound calm, and feeling anything but. "It'll take me longer to drive home since I'll be by myself, but—"
She presses her finger to his lips. He stops talking.
"I think you should still go to Iowa City," she whispers.
Peeta grabs her hand, a little roughly, and pulls it away from his face. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demands.
"There's nothing for you in California," she tells him, slowly. "I mean, you can't go back to your parents' house. And—"
She doesn't finish her sentence. She leans forward and kisses his cheek. He closes his eyes.
"And what?" he asks, hoarsely.
Katniss doesn't answer.
"Katniss," Peeta finally says, breaking the silence. This is ridiculous. Can't she see that? "I'm not going to Iowa City by myself and live with people I just met. I'm going back to California," he tells her emphatically. "If you have to go back, then I'm coming too." Anything else is unthinkable.
She tries to protest some more. But he kisses her and kisses her and kisses her, and finally she stops fighting him. She throws her arms around him as he lies her gently on the grass.
"I'll live with my brother," Peeta tells her as he kisses down her throat. He has no idea if his brother will let him move in with him. It doesn't matter.
She closes her eyes and whimpers as he slowly unbuttons her shirt.
"I'll live on the street if I have to," he says, his mouth hovering over her breasts as he pulls her shirt from her body.
"Peeta, stop," she says suddenly.
He does. His eyes snap to hers.
She shakes her head from side to side.
"Even if you docome back to California… there won't be room for this." She gestures to him, and then to herself.
Peeta still isn't clear on exactly what he's become to her over the past week. Regardless, there's no doubt in Peeta's mind what "this" refers to.
"I won't have room for this. Not with my mom sick, Peeta. Not anymore."
"Katniss…" he begins, his voice strangled. "Please…"
Katniss pushes him aside abruptly and stands up. She walks over to the truck, buttoning her shirt as she goes. She yanks open the door and climbs inside.
When Peeta returns to the truck fifteen minutes later, he finds her sitting in the driver's seat, her head buried in her hands.