Chapter 4
A knock at the door? Gale thinks, it's after eight o'clock. He briefly wonders who could possibly have anything to say this late in the evening when Posy answers the door to a panting Katniss. He looks at her, color drained from her face, hair still wet after her bath. It's almost winter, for crying out loud, surely she knows running around with wet hair in the cold is a recipe for sickness?

He quickly invites her in, eyes searching hers. Something is wrong, he realizes. He takes her back to the room he shares with his brothers, grabbing a warm towel to put around her. "Okay, Catnip. What's so damn important that you had to come running through the freezing ass November cold to tell me?"

His coarse words hurt her feelings, as everything has been for the past few weeks. He had been ignoring it, on his mother's advice. Something about being a woman is taxing on the feelings or something stupid like that.

Tears well up in her eyes and she bites her lips. Normally, Gale hurting her feelings just makes her angry. He kneels before her, taking her hands and looking directly into her eyes. He kisses her cheek before sitting back. He asks again, "What's going on?"

"Gale… do you remember how you said you wanted to start a family together? With.. w-with me?"

Ahh, Gale thinks back to the day he asked her to run away with him, telling her that she would be all he needed forever. He chuckles, "Yes Catnip, I remember."

She opens her mouth to speak and quickly closes it. She does this about three times before Gale realizes he can't stand not knowing anymore. "Katniss, what is it?!"

"I think I'm… well, I'm not completely sure… but I might be…p-p-pregnant."

The bombshell hits him like a ton of bricks, this wasn't anything he had expected before.

Well, that isn't true. He did expect this, but years from now. Not now, with Katniss still eligible for reaping and no home for them. But as he looks into her eyes, he knows she is expecting him to be strong, to find a way out for the two of them. He smiles as he looks into her eyes, "I love you. And I told you I would love you no matter what. Well, this is the no matter what part. And I'm not going anywhere."

His words soothe her as she melts into his arms and spends the night at his side. Once again, his presence is what saves her from the doom of the future.

Eventually, they tell Mrs. Everdeen and Mrs. Hawthorne. The mothers are surprised at the timing, but each admits that it wasn't anything they didn't see coming. Mrs. Everdeen just gives her decree to wait until Katniss is finished with school before they marry, a reasonable request.

Her mother checks Katniss out, determining that she's been pregnant three months, and Gale counts backwards to the beginning of September, the heat of their passion just before school started. His body quivers, remembering the heat of the nights and quickly pushes the thought from his mind. He is a man after all, it's only natural to have such thoughts. It isn't natural to act on them in front of people.

Katniss continues going to school, hunting when she can. Gale works for the baker, doubling his shifts. He knows he will need the extra money for whenever Katniss can no longer hunt.

He begins to train Rory for hunting as well, even though Gale was 14 when he started and Rory is only 13. Katniss argues that she was 12 when she started, so Gale admits defeat and begins to teach Rory everything he knows.

Those few hours in between school letting out and Gale clocking out from work, Katniss takes Rory into the woods and shows him what she knows. She's better with a bow, even while four and a half months pregnant. She teaches him the art of silence in the woods, how to determine animal trails, and her specialty, shooting animals through the eyes.

She is easily winded these days by carrying game, so Rory carries most of it for her. She is grateful and easily agitated with herself for being so weak.

By January, Gale and Katniss begin to spend more and more time together whenever he is off work. Most of the time, he spends the night at her house, cradling her to sleep in his arms. For some reason that she's never been able to explain, she has always felt safe in the arms of the boy with the snares. Most nights are spent discussing names and dreams of what will happen after May. But every night, Gale goes out of his way to talk to his child before bed.

At first, Katniss was embarrassed when Gale would put his face to her slightly protruding tummy. But as time went on, she got used to it and began to look forward to it. Every night, he would start the talk the same way, "Hello pretty baby Hawthorne. This is your daddy speaking." Katniss would giggle and giggle over Gale's baby talk. He would coo and tickle and go on and on about his day.

The first time she feels the baby move, Gale has his hands on her stomach telling her about some customer that came in today. He cuts off his sentence and looks into her eyes. Her grey eyes dance as they both start exclaiming and calling for Prim and Mrs. Everdeen.

As the four of them put their hands on the tiny baby and begin talking in excited voices, Katniss finally puts to bed all of her worries. Her baby is healthy, and he is half of Gale. She finally lets go of her fears and begins to accept the beautiful being that is growing within her as a blessing.

February comes and goes, with the whispers at school getting louder. To the untrained eye, Katniss has merely put on weight under her loose clothes, and the school is buzzing about which Peacekeeper she had to sleep with to get so much food. She considers letting it slip to some loudmouth that she is pregnant with a Hawthorne child, but she doesn't want it to negatively reflect on Gale either. Children out of wedlock is not uncommon in the district, with birth control being so expensive, but she knows she must make it to May before she can stop going to school and get married.

By the first of March, Gale has enough money saved, the product of 40 hour weeks for seven months, that he can keep Katniss when she becomes too big to hunt, which should be any time. Gale scoffs, his definition of 'too big to hunt,' and Katniss's are completely opposite. While she thinks hunting at seven months is acceptable, Gale only worries about her doing something damaging to herself or the baby. Rory is becoming well trained in the art of being a predator as well, so he accompanies her every day to keep her out of trouble.

Midway through March nearing the beginning of her eighth month, Katniss realizes she can't squeeze through the fence anymore. To Rory's displeasure, she sits down and starts crying. Being a boy of only 13, Rory looks around for some kind of answer before holding Katniss till she cries herself out. He walks her home and hunts by himself, bringing in his biggest haul yet.