Chapter 8.
A/N: I got the review asking for a little more of Gale's protective side. Had to add it in Chapter 9 tho. But, it'll be posted by today so you'll see it :)
As always, Please review! I love hearing your thoughts!

The days pass uneasily for Gale. Keegan, being just a baby, is none the wiser. He knows Katniss is training now, and he hopes to God that she learns something she doesn't already know. Plants, shooting a bow, snares…all of them are good, but he's seen better shooters and better snare-setters lose the games. While at work, he tries to think of what she's doing, if she's missing the two of them. He quickly stops himself—he doesn't want Katniss to be worried about anything other than killing those other 23 people in the arena.

Since he can't really sleep anymore anyway, he and Keegan start staying at his mother's house, it makes it easier since he doesn't have to drop her off anywhere. Every morning before sunrise, he feeds Keegan her bottle, kisses her forehead, hands her to Hazelle, and wakes Rory to go hunting.

It feels wrong without Katniss there, but he knows this is the best way to spend the days without her, and besides that, everybody's got to eat. The mayor has told him when the fence will go on and off every day, and he hasn't been wrong yet. Maybe he feels sorry for Gale and wants him to have an escape, maybe he hopes it will ease his guilt for Katniss being picked. Gale doesn't know, nor does he care. He's just glad to be able to go back to the woods. Gale and Rory are careful to be back every morning before the fence switches on.

After the gutting and the skinning, he washes himself of the animal blood, feeds and kisses his daughter again, and heads to the bakery. He does the most tedious of tasks with slow, accurate precision. The baker notices the way Gale is paying more attention to detail, but he decides not to speak in case Gale is doing it on purpose. He also notices the dark circles under his eyes are getting worse. He wants to give Gale a day off, but he knows that isn't what Gale needs right now.

On the third day of this routine, Gale rushes to the Everdeen house, where he knows his family and his child will be. He holds Keegan close again as they unveil the scores.

The Careers all get Career-like scores and Gale scolds himself. He should have been training Katniss for this, he should have seen this coming. His mother puts her hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

When Katniss's face comes up, the whole family holds their breath. Caesar announces an…eleven?! Gale, Keegan, and the rest of the family do dances in the living room, so excited by this news that they forget the feast waiting for them on the table. The screen flickers back to more commentators giving out comments and predictions on each tribute, but Gale doesn't care. An eleven! He makes a mental note to ask her what she did, and at Rory and Vick's encouragement, the whole family sits down to feast.

The routine starts to help Gale forget about the more pressing matters of his mind. He finds the day even passes quickly when he realizes he'll get to hear her voice at the interviews tonight. He chuckles, she hates talking to people, and talking to the whole country will likely have her strung out.

He looks at his shoes and pauses in his work. He hopes there is someone there she can talk to, someone she can pick out of the crowd and let the words come easy to. He hopes that she's thinking of him, and he swells all the love in his heart, hoping that she can feel it.

…

Katniss is nervous, so nervous she can hardly walk. She spent half the day practicing her heels with Effie, and the other half learning how to speak to people from Peeta. He keeps awkwardly grabbing her hand, trying to be smooth and comforting. If she wasn't so nervous, she'd swat him away—she is married after all. But she's so nervous about speaking in front of people and getting them to like her that she hardly notices.

By the time Cinna is ready to dress her, she's a wreck. He calms her down and soothes her worries. "It's not hard. Caesar's job is to make you look good in front of all those people—he'll help you out if you let him. When you're talking, I'll be sitting in front of you, all the way to your left. Find me if you find yourself struggling for words." He kissed her forehead and left the room. She was thankful to have a friend here that wasn't trying to break apart her marriage, like Peeta.

Katniss studied herself. She was radiant. The dress was very tight fitting—very unfitting for mother (she smiled to herself as she could almost hear her mother saying that it was too much), but since she was only 17, she decided it was okay—and bright, bright red… almost the color of…fire? She laughed and thanked Cinna in her head for playing up the Girl on Fire thing. She wondered how Gale would like the outfit. That is, if he actually took the time to look at it instead of immediately ripping it off. She blushed as Effie came through the door. "Katniss! You are perfect!" It's time for us to go though, dear!"

…

Gale settles in front of the projection screen, his daughter playing in his lap. The interviews are about to start. For the first 22 tributes, Gale just took to playing with Keegan and making her laugh. When Katniss came up, he pushes her to the screen and says, "Look honey! There's Mommy!" She was so beautiful in the dress, but he only thought about that briefly as he imagined tearing it off her in the heat of a passionate moment. He blushes a little before averting Rory's gaze.

Caesar introduced her and invited her to sit down. Katniss was nervous. "So Katniss, I've seen the reaping tape. What a brave thing you did to volunteer for your sister when your daughter isn't even six months old!"

She looked through the crowd, searching for a set of eyes. She found them and her face lit up, Gale was so happy she'd found someone she could open up to. "Yes, Caesar," she smiled. "I knew Keegan would be safe with Gale and I could trust him. I couldn't send my baby sister to the arena though. Family is everything to me, I never abandon family."

The entire Capitol audience sighed, Caesar went on. "Now your husband, Gale Hawthorne. He is a looker, huh? How'd you snag him?"

Katniss blushed deeply, "Well, our fathers were killed in the same mining accident. We became best friends and started caring for our families together. I guess we just kinda fell in love along the way!"

Caesar laughed with the Capitol audience. "That really is sweet. Now, Katniss. That outfit you wore the other night—fabulous. Where is your stylist? Where is Cinna? Ahhh, there he is! Cinna, take a bow!"

Gale realized that this Cinna was who Katniss had been looking for. He was glad she picked someone who looked like they had some common sense. Caesar and the camera turned back to Katniss, "the flames were gorgeous though! Everyone in the Capitol envies you!"

She looked to the crowd again and saw something that put a smile on her face. "Well actually, I brought them with me today, would you like to see?"

The crowd went wild as she stood up and spun around. The dress around her literally looked like it was in flames.

Gale didn't know if anyone in the Capitol could hear the buzzer go off, and he didn't care that he couldn't hear anyone on-screen screaming. He and his whole family were dancing for joy for the second night in a row. She was sure to win sponsors and get the things she needed! Gale spun his daughter around and kissed everyone in the house, giving Keegan to Mrs. Everdeen before dancing around with Prim and Posy. He was acting silly, but he didn't care one bit. Gale Hawthorne looked into Katniss's eyes on-screen. She blew him another kiss and he caught it—he smiled as he knew she was coming home.