KATNISS' POV

In my room I showered and changed into a loose deer-skin vest and pants. Well, the vest was suppose to be loose but nothing is when you're pregnant.

Before I went back to Peeta, there was something I wanted to do. As I quickly finished braiding my wet hair, I walked down the hall. When I got to my mothers' door, I stopped. Maybe it would be better to wait until the marriage papers were signed before I told her the news. I skipped my mother's room and the next stop happened to be Gale. I knocked on his door and waited awkwardly until he answered.

"Hey, Catnip!" Gale opened the door and smiled at me.

"Gale." I nodded at him, "Can I come in? I need to talk to you." I hoped against all hope that my words would actually come out in an order that he understood and didn't make him totally freak out.

"Sure." Gale looked at me cautiously as he swung the door wide to let me come in to his room. I made myself comfortable on his bed, knowing that he wouldn't mind me invading his room. "Hold on. Let me get my thoughts together,"

"Okay." Gale situated himself next to me and waited patiently.

After a few seconds, I took a deep breath. "You know what? I'm not going to cut any corners or 'sum it up'." I decided.

"Okay." Gale said again, but this time he held out his hand and I took it.

"Thanks. Alright, let's start off from the other day. I went to the doctors because of a headache and I came out with something completely different wrong with me."

Gale listened intently, absently rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb.

"It's not very easy to be subtle or not-straightforward about this next part so I am going to be blunt and truthful instead; I'm pregnant."

Whatever Gale expected, it wasn't that. All of the color left his face and I could literally feel his heart skip a beat though his hand that I was holding.

"Er… wow, that's, uh… *ahem* Wow." Gale sputtered and choked. Once upon a time I would have been glad that I wasn't the only person in this world to have problems with her speech, but it happened to slip my mind.

"Take your time," I told him quietly. He nodded in response.

Ten deep breaths and a bit of color returning to Gale's face later, he cleared his throat and said, "Go on."

"Thank you. So… oh yeah. Peeta and I think we should probably have an official marriage so it won't be a shock to my mother when she learns I'm actually pregnant. Though the part of the baby not actually being Peeta's might not be as easy to—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Gale interrupted me with a confused look on." The baby isn't his? So whose is it?"

My face dropped and I looked down at my hand. "Well... Yours, actually,"

"Oh," Whatever color that had returned to Gale's face left again. "Look, I need to know that I am really, really sorry about that. I thought you—"

"I know you are sorry Gale, and I am too. There is time for apologies alter," It was my turn to interrupt him. "But I wasn't finished."

"Oh. Sorry, go on."

"Thank you. We can't exactly tell everyone that the baby is yours, so we are just going to pretend it is his and everything will be fine and dandy because we would be happily married with a baby on the way and no one would question—" My words were rudely interrupted by loud gurgling sounds coming from my stomach. "–that. Right. I am a bit hungry as you can tell, so…"

"No, you can go to lunch. I need time for this to soak in." Gale's face was continuing to be as pale as ever.

Before leaving the room, I gave Gale a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm sorry."

Peeta was still in his room, bent over a small ringed sketchbook. When I came in, he closed it and looked up. "Hi, Katniss."

"Sorry I took so long," My voice must have been gloomy or anything less than happy, because Peeta cocked his head.

"You talked to Gale." It wasn't a question, but a fact. I shrugged moodily and went to sit by him. Peeta patted me kindly on the shoulder. "How did he take it?"

"He was… shocked. I left him and his thoughts alone so he could slowly die in peace."

"Hm. That bad, huh? Did you—"Peeta began, but stopped when a muted growling cut off his words.

I sighed heavily. "That is also why I left."

"Lunchtime?" Peeta laughed.

"Lunchtime."