Previously in The Road Most Traveled: Ingrid Kolster falls in love with Jacob Everdeen, but eventually turns him down, not wanting to move to the bad part of town with him or disappoint her family by doing so. Phillip Mellark proves to be an excellent second choice, and she marries her new man the same day Jacob marries his new woman. Her and Phillip are incredibly happy together. However, they're all shaken by watching the brutality of that year's Games.

A/N

I fixed a grammatically incorrect comma after a quote ending in an exclamation mark. That and a typo correction were my only edits since posting Chapter 4.

Chapter

On our wedding night, we had thought of children as something in our future. Evidently that future was coming sooner than we thought. I'm not sure where we got our baby enthusiasm from, but we definitely had it. Perhaps it came from being with our nephews, the cutest human beings ever of course. Maybe it spread from the other August newlyweds starting families right away – including but hardly limited to the Everdeen and Adams couples. Jackie said she and Jacob had wasted no time. "I had always seen the mother in me, and he had always seen the father in him. You know his father – he wants to be that kind of man himself. And I know how much his mother loves her three boys."

"Yeah, and with your two brothers, the kid will certainly have plenty of uncles," I responded. David and Stephen O'Neill were no Adam and Daniel Everdeen, but they weren't male versions of Priscilla Kolster either. My mother had warmed up to me with a son-in-law she liked better, and my father hadn't been that bad to begin with, but my sister still couldn't stand me. I think it was jealousy. I had attracted two wonderful men in Jacob and Phillip while she remained single, and with good reason.

.

I kept on wanting children more and more, so I told Phillip "You'd be a wonderful father; the world would be a better place with more gentle men like you in it".

"And with more caring ladies such as yourself," he responded without missing a beat, his thoughts and mine perfectly synchronized.

"My birth control will wear off soon," I said hopefully.

"There's something else that could also be off soon," he said while winking at me and tugging at my clothes. Oh yes, that's for sure. I returned the favor. It was rather sloppy for us, the mess of clothes all over the floor, and the scraps that still remained on our bodies, but it turns out I rather liked it this way. He merely pushed aside my panties, instead of them coming all the way off, and he entered me that way. It meant he was inside me sooner, and I loved the feeling of part of his sack slapping against cotton while the other part hit right on my tender skin. As I felt his seed pump into my body, I hoped it fertilized me, but baby or not, he was welcome to treat me like that most anytime.

I lost track of all the times and ways we made love. Sometimes he found me in bed completely naked. Other times I lay there with nothing on under my dress, and he always took it as a pleasant surprise when he caressed me and found only one layer of fabric separating us – that layer was always quickly discarded, since it was the only thing between us and our desire. One time he saw me get out of the bathtub and we had each other while still standing.

Eventually I did not bleed and thus knew I was pregnant. "Our love bears fruit!" I announced joyously. He looked like the happiest man in the world and I felt like the happiest woman in the world. The sickness, the kicking, and the awkward movement to situate my growing belly all caused my enthusiasm to fade, yet I still couldn't wait to hold our little one.

We found out it was a girl. "Ceres, goddess of grain," Phillip suggested as he tenderly stroked my hair with one hand and patted the baby bump with the other. "It's from an old book I found," he explained, "suitable for heavenly creatures like yourself and our daughter."

I agreed by saying "and for you too, Bread Man". That must have been his dual intention, but he was too humble to admit it, bless him.

Hazelle was a few months ahead of me and kept showing more and more. For a few weeks in late winter she'd have to stop taking laundry. I had made the Hawthornes aware that midwifery was one of my skills, so now I'd be visiting her for work at some point. Thomas came running on March 3rd – it was a very gloomy evening. I ran back with him, and right after we got back inside the Hawthorne shack, a nasty storm broke out. The only other person there was Thomas' mother Rose. The four of us were about to become five, and we could barely hear each other over the racket outside. I couldn't spare any morphling, but Hazelle was grateful for the painkiller herbs I could provide. As I continued filling out the birth certificate, I asked "What was the name again?"

"Gale, g-a-l-e. He'll become as strong as the wind that blows this night," Thomas answered. I thought it was odd but poetic, and the mother and grandmother seemed to agree. "Thomas is the middle name, a Thomas II might have been confusing anyway."

I was barely able to assist Jacqueline when Andrew was born, because my own child was imminent. However, as with Hazelle, even a hobbled midwife visiting the shack was more than most Seam women got. Another child was born under very different conditions the next day, the new victor's new son. Julius still had novelty value as the most recent victor, was still young and strong unlike many previous winners, and the pregnancy announcement had been the key part of his homecoming. The news was the major event on the Capitol TV show Where Are They Now?

I was relatively immobilized at eight months pregnant and ended up watching the broadcast.

Julius Adams was in District Two's hospital, a hospital mind you, shocking to someone used to working with herbal potions in run-down settings. Was the Capitol oblivious or were they trying to stir up jealously? Julius strode purposefully out of the maternity ward, him and a doctor flanking mother and child on a gurney. His grandfather was elsewhere in the building, exiting the world as his son was entering it. The old man was the newborn's namesake. Grandson, granddaughter in law and great-grandson were the first to his bedside since they were already at the hospital. Teresa seemed clear-minded, neither writhing in pain nor doped up on painkillers. So did the old man – age apparently had harmed his body but not his mind. He leaned up from his hospital bed to say "So, grandson, that's the baby boy you were going to name after me? I thought that beautiful wife of yours was almost due."

"Yes, exactly," Julius answered.

"I'm glad I lived long enough to see it, just long enough, apparently. So proud of you. My son-in-law is a Peacekeeper veteran just like me, his son's a Victor which is even better, and now that man has a son of his own," the old man continued.

Teresa handed the baby from bed to bed. The elder Cato held the baby's left arm awkwardly in his frail hands. The baby smiled as he brushed up against the old man's cheek. Teresa cradled her newborn again. The old man's last words were "Gonna be a big strong handsome boy like his dad".

When Ceres came four weeks later, I was in a haze from the pain my herbs barely touched. There was no painkiller like watching Phillip hold our child and then taking her in my arms and putting her to the breast.

Soon enough, it was time for another Games. No one knew the girl, an orphan from the community home, but it seems we all knew the boy. "Daniel Everdeen," the Capitol representative trilled. He was Jacob's younger brother, the one who had complimented me when I went to meet the Everdeens. The words rang in my head again: So this is the legendary Ingrid Kolster – Jake wasn't kidding. He can't stop talking about you, and I understand why. Many tried to care about all the tributes, but were especially concerned with the ones they knew. I was no different. My first year as Ingrid Mellark did not end so well as it had begun.