Please note that Mrs. Everdeen is completely out of character on purpose I am aware she is not as vile and cruel as I am making her out to be, sometimes you got to be a little creative with the characters that you are given to play with, now Gale I hate him to me he is that bad haha, enjoy the chapter. Ps. sorry for the mistakes.

Chapter 21

Mine, Hers and Ours

(Peeta's POV)

Effie's large luxurious home stood on the outskirts of The Capitol overlooking the deep forest. One might think that this colorful building was too much space for just a single woman, that she would often get lonely. I knew this place inside and out, so it was no surprise to Effie that once the car pulled up to the front gate and came to a complete stop I cradled my daughter, shielding her once again from the cold and made my way up the steps into the large living room. As soon as I entered the living room Effie's household roommates all greeted me, offering to take the child upstairs for a nap, but I refused to let go of Willow even though she was getting fussy and squirming around. I moved past the houseguests and climbed three flight of stairs stopping at the entrance to my old room, pushing the door open I was shocked to see that Effie had the crib set up next to my bed, a fancy pink changing table in the far corner by the closest and stacks upon stacks of diapers. She really outdone herself, this was all way too much and I felt deep down like I owed her something. The clicking of high heels indicated she was right outside the door. I slowly turned around and greeted her with a smile.

"This is too much" I said quietly " I don't know how I'll ever repay you for what you have done for me"

"Oh Peeta, my dear, dear boy you are like the son that I have always wanted. You, Haymitch, Katniss and I are a team and now we got little Willow." She slowly moves across the room and opens her arms for the baby and I gently hand Willow over to her. She squeaks and starts to whimper in protest, but Effie coos her and the baby soon relaxes.

"Look how beautiful she is."

"I don't want Lynn and Gale around her" I suddenly blurt out.

Effie moves across the room again and places the baby inside the crib, that's what Willow and I both need; a good nights sleep in an actual bed. I haven't had one of those in at least three weeks since her birth. It's hard to believe that she was three weeks old already and that its almost been a month since Katniss fell into the coma after giving birth. I was ready for her to wake up I honestly didn't want to wait anymore.

"I know you don't want them near her, Lynn has issues to take care of. Who would of thought that she would try and take this little baby off of her mother and father. I just don't get it. She's more concerned for this child then her own daughter who is fighting for to wake from a coma."

"Exactly and you know what I am grateful that Katniss didn't give birth in 12 because honestly its living conditions are horrifying. Lynn could of called District 4 hovercraft system instead of The Capitols. She knew that once we made an appearance here cameras would be all over us, Katniss would be in question about why she has violated her banishment. Lynn knows it would be way too much for us to handle and our instability would be just what she needs to legally take Willow from her unfit parents."

Effie looks at me sadly "You two been through so much together. you guys at least deserve some bit of happiness. I'll help as much as I can I promise you Peeta." She takes me in her loving arms and gives me a gentle hug which I return, not even my own mother has hugged me like this, in fact I couldn't think of a time where mother hugged me at all. My mother would hate the fact that I was a father. I could hear her now bitching about how I chose a seam-slut and produced with her. She would definitely have nothing to do with Willow.

Effie leaves Willow and I to rest and its not long before the both of us have fallen into a deep sleep. I sleep for three solid hours until a loud shrilling cry wakes me out of a dead of sleep. I leap to my feet and go to her, examining every inch of her, making sure she isn't the slightest bit hurt.

"What's wrong baby?"

She continues to thrash and cry and that's when I smell the stench coming from her diaper. I bit my lip, the first diaper change is mine and all I did was gag through the entire thing while Willow cried and made it difficult for me to clean her up, but once it was done and dirty diaper was disposed of I carried her to the bed and rocked her back and forth.

" I cant wait for you mother to wake up and see how beautiful you are. She is going to be so excited once she sees you for the first time. I hope I do well in raising you, I'll try my very best, but I know I'm not going to be the perfect father. Nobody is going to take you from us. I'm going to give you everything I have. You and your mother are my life." I kiss her tiny little head and put her back in her crib as soon as she fell back asleep.

"That was beautiful, Peeta" Came the soft recognizable voice of Katniss's darling mother Lynn. I cringed as her footsteps echoed the room and sore if she woke the baby up I was going to make her pay dearly. She shut the door behind her gently and quietly, at least she did have enough respect for the sleeping child to keep it down. Now I only hope she can agree to harass me about Willow outside this room.

"Can we talk?" She asks calmly.

"In the hallway so we don't wake Willow up."

She agrees and slowly disappears out of the room without a second glance in my direction. I linger for a couple seconds, bend over my child and give her a small kiss, promising her that I'll be back before she knew it. I meet Lynn in the hallway, eyeing her suspiciously, not really wanting to sit here and listen to her go on and on about how Kat and I should give up the baby because we are too unstable, because we have been through some serious shit. I'm not having any of her shit today. I'm tired and actually want to sleep in a real bed, plus I had to prepare myself mentally for the nightmares that would plague my mind tonight. My heart went out to Katniss who was probably stuck in an endless sea of nightmares. The urge to go back to the hospital and comfort her overtakes me, but I stand my ground and face Lynn instead.

"I"m not a bad person, Peeta, all I want to do is the right thing. I love my daughter I truly do, Peeta and what she went through nobody her ages should have ever gone through that, but she did it out of love for her sister. Everything I did, tried to do was for my daughter. I know I was hard on her while she was pregnant and for that I'm sorry, so very sorry that she is in a coma because of me, bringing her here saved her life, if she would of given birth to that baby in 12 she'd be dead right now. See everything I do and plan to do is for her, to make her life comfortable and easy."

I laugh without much humor to the chuckle " You left her and Prim to starve because you decided to withdrawal and leave two little helpless girls to fend for themselves, you call that parenting? You thing your more fit to raise my daughter with that kind of history in your past? I'm s sorry to speak to you like this Mrs. Everdeen, but you can go to hell if you think for one second that you are going to raise our little girl. She is mine and hers, she is ours and ours alone. Do you understand me?"

Lynn frowns and looks slightly offended by my statement "Now your being the selfish one Peeta. Think of what's best for that girl. How are the two of you going to be able to take care of a child when you cant even take care of yourselves? She couldn't take care of herself while she was pregnant, if it hadn't been for Gale keeping her alive and motivated then she probably would of miscarried and not to sound rude Peeta, but your head isn't exactly normal all the time and I have seen the violence you have possessed, and its threatening and terrifying and out of control."

"You don't know shit about me or my condition" I raise my voice slightly to warn her if she continues with this conversation I just may lose my temper and that's the last thing I want to do if go off on her because if I do it would give her ammo to use against me later.

"I know you were violent towards my daughter and god only knows what your capable of doing to my granddaughter."

That's all it took to make me snap at her. I raise my voice to a max level and scream "I WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING TO HURT A CHILD."

Lynn takes a step back from me obviously afraid that I might attack her and for a second I thought about it in a normal state of mine that's how much she is pissing me off right. She takes two more steps back from me putting a good distance between us. She doesn't know when to quit.

"This right here is the behavior that I'm talking about. The lashing out, the foul language, this is not how a father should be behaving."

Effie picks that particular moment to bolt in between us before I can fire a comeback at Lynn. She places her hand on my shoulder in a calming way and ushers me back into the baby's room, making sure Lynn is completely blocked from my sight and good thing too because I'm pissed and seeing red, but all the soon vanishes as my blue eyes lock on the tiny pink crib. I make my way over to Willow who is fast asleep, and I cant believe how incredibly tiny she is. Anger soon turn to sadness as I gaze into the crib at the small child and soon tears are running softly down my cheeks. I sob quietly, still gazing down at my daughter through my blurred vision. I needed Katniss now more than ever, I never needed or wanted someone as much as I needed and wanted her.

"I need you Katniss" I whisper into the air " I love you and need you to help me with this so much. Willow needs you too. Please come back to us."

To be continued...