At the hospital, Dr. Longarden welcomed me back. "Well, Katniss, nice to see you again! Just couldn't stay away, huh?" the doctor chuckled.
"I need something for my headache." I said to him. "It is excruciating."
"Certainly. And while we are at it, a checkup won't hurt, now will it?" Dr. Longarden motioned for me to sit down on the table while he got some medicine. Peeta leaned against the wall, waiting patiently.
"Ah, here we are!" the doctor placed two small pills in one of my hands and a glass of water in the other. I took the medicine and the doctor wheeled his little stool over to me. "Are you feeling okay other than the head pain?" He asked, looking at my arm scar.
"Not really. My whole dinner came up this morning."
"I see…" Dr. Longarden hummed to himself as he checked my temperature. When the thermometer beeped twice, the doctor looked at it. He clicked his tongue. "You seem to be having a tiny fever. Lie down, miss Everdeen. I would like to check the rest of your body for any other signs of illness."
I obeyed him and laid flat on my back. Dr. Longarden pressed his fingers under my jaw and in the crook of my elbow, all the while muttering to himself. "That seems okay…" he mumbled, and kept going with the examination.
When he pressed his expert fingers on my midriff, his eyebrows shot up, then wrinkled together. "Perhaps today you are feeling…. bloated?"
I felt myself blush madly. I could see Peeta turning his head away as if he were embarrassed too. "No, I don't. Why? Is there something wrong?"
"Just some swelling in your abdomen. I am going to give you a pill to help that and if it doesn't go away in three hours, come back and see me again." The doctor handed me a pill and waved me off with a sad sort of expression on.
Peeta's arm encircled me as we walked out. His face was a look of deep concentration. I was about to ask him what he was thinking about when his eyes went wide.
"What is it? Did you have another epiphany?" I asked him, cocking my head to the side.
"No, no. It's nothing. I am just freaking out, that's all," Peeta shook his head and smiled at me. "You probably just have some rare disease."
"Oh," I smiled back at him. "If that is all."
"Let's go exploring today! Maybe we could even go outside!" Peeta looked intent on not letting anything trouble him.
"Sure!"
It turned out that the Guards wouldn't let us outside, so we contented ourselves in staying in the giant greenhouse at the east end. There were hundreds of different types of flowers and shrubs that smelled so good; I could have stayed inside there forever.
But it all ended too soon when I realized three hours were up. Peeta tried to hide his nervousness when he reminded me, but tried to keep it at a minimum. "Has the um… swelling gone down?" he asked, plucking a leaf off of a nearby branch.
"I don't know." I pushed my shirt up a few inches and twisted so I could check to see if it had. Sure enough, Dr. Longarden was right; a small bump was jutting out defiantly from in between my hips. I didn't feel sick or anything, and if I didn't see a bump, I would think nothing at all was going on abnormally in my body. "Hmm… I wonder what it could be…" I said in bewilderment, pulling my shirt back down over the bump.
"Let's get you to the doctors." Peeta took my hand and once again (this is starting to get tiring) led me to the doctors'/
"Back again, huh? I take it the pill didn't work." Dr. Longarden put a hand on my shoulder and directed me to the examination table. "I hope you don't mind, but Peeta will have to step out for a moment," Everyone knew our names (big surprise there) so I wasn't at all fazed when the doctor talked to Peeta so casually.
Peeta ducked through the door and closed it behind him.
Dr. Longarden watched him go. "Okay, Katniss. You will have to put this gown on, I'm afraid. I am sorry they are so uncomfortable," The doctor handed me a scratchy hospital gown and pointed to a door on his right. "There is the bathroom."
Once I put the gown and laid flat on my back on the examination table, Dr. Longarden pulled a complicated piece of machinery from the ceiling. He placed it directly over my abdomen, and the machine made a few loud "clicks.
"Okay… Let's see now…" The doctor went over to his computer on a desk behind us. He typed on it for about fifteen minutes. Then he turned around to face me with a frown on his face. ""Katniss, you had better see this."
I hopped off the table and bent over to look at the screen. On it had a selection of fuzzy pictures, but something was visible in each of them. It was very small and oddly misshapen… Something like a potato with legs… No, there is a head… and arms… and- Oh my God.
I gasped loudly and was thankful the doctor was there to make sure I didn't collapse onto the floor.
"Maybe you should lie down," He suggested, and he guided me to the table, where I curled up and started crying. Not loud, wet tears, but dry hiccupy sobs that came to me when something happened that was almost too much for crying. Like when I found out I was going to the Quell. "No, no, no. Can't be possible," I choked on my tears. The doctor didn't say anything as I took deep breaths to calm myself. Slowly, I slid off the table and stood upright.
"Are you sure, Miss Everdeen? Can you walk alright?" the doctor was already at my side, holding my arm.
"I am fine, thank you, Doctor. I will be leaving now." My voice sounded oddly formal as I made my way to the door.
Peeta was there, leaning impatiently against the wall. When he saw me, he said immediately, "Katniss, what's going on? Did he find out what's wrong?"
I nodded, tears threatening to form again on my puffy face. "I-I'm pregnant with Gale's child,"