I love the Plain White T's. They are an awesome band.

"What?" It felt as though a boulder had been dropped down my throat and is now sitting my stomach. "He's dead?"

The lady hastily wiped her eyes and took a deep breath, as if trying to not let anyone know how much it affected her. "Aden had a heart problem. He was tending the stall when he had a heart attack. He might have…" She sobbed. "He might have lived if I hadn't asked him to watch the stall. I am closing it down."

"I'm so sorry." I didn't know what else to say.

"That morning he told me you came to his stall to buy baby clothes. I hadn't believed him because you're… well… famous." Her face contorted in pain and she hugged his frail arms around herself.

I looked down at Alexis, who had fallen asleep, then back up at the woman. "Would you like to hold her?"

She hesitated, not making eye contact with anyone, as if she was ashamed. "I don't know. Babies are so…delicate and I am old. I might drop him."

I insisted. "Her name is Alexis." I walked close to the woman and set my baby carefully in her arms.

"Alexis…" The old woman wiped off a tear that was sliding down her face and held Alexis so gingerly. "You're famous. Everyone knows you."

"They know Alexis?" I exchanged surprised looks with Peeta, who looked just as shocked as I felt.

"Of course. Katniss Everdeen, the savior of Panem, has a child. Everyone knows that. You announced it before the Quell, didn't you?"

I made a face, and once again cast a glance towards Peeta. He shrugged and nodded almost unnoticeably.

"Oh, that's right." I turned back to the lady and pretended as though I had forgotten. "… It has really gone by fast for me."

"Yes, well…" The woman pursed her lips and handed Alexis back to me. "Is there something you needed?"

It was obvious I had somehow insulted her. "Yes. I had bought..."-with one hand I took the sack of clothes from Peeta and held it out to her. "… some baby clothes from—a… um… few days ago, but they were for a boy. I was hoping to exchange them for girls' clothes."

The woman took a shaky breath and turned her head away from us. "Yes, hold on…" She dragged herself out of the chair and I noticed what state she was in. Pencil-thin and boney, the woman was about 5'4, with very long, scraggly grey hair that hung loosely from a badly done bun. She looked poor and sick.

"I really am sorry about the boy—Aden, wasn't it?" I tried my best to act polite and sympathetic, but it wasn't exactly my thing.

The lady burst out in wet tears and clutched her chest, as if literally falling apart. "He was my little boy. Only fourteen years old! It was my fault, my fault…"

I hastily handed Alexis to Peeta, and put my hand on the lady's shoulder. "It couldn't have been. He was such a gentleman. You couldn't have done anything wrong."

"How do you know?" she cried, attracting attention from the nearby stalls. "I asked him if he could run the stall for the day! If I hadn't, he wouldn't have been so far from the hospital… He would have lived…"

Alexis had woken up, and now she was whimpering in Peeta's arms. He shushed her and tried to calm her down by rocking his arms back and forth slowly.

"It was a medical condition. There was nothing you could have done." It was somewhat exasperating, attempting to convince a loss-driven mother that her son's death wasn't her own fault.

The woman grabbed a box stacked away in the corner and shoved it into my arms. "Take this, as a gift from me. Take it and go away." She sobbed, and dropped onto her knees. "Leave me alone."

I opened my mouth to give thanks to the heartbroken lady, but Prim's hand on my arm stopped me. She shook her head soundlessly and led me away from the stall belonging to the brown-haired boy.

Guys, I'm really, really, really sorry that this chapter was so very, very incredibly short, but it was the perfect place to end it. I hope you don't hate me. Jeez, there are a lot of reason to hate me, isn't there? At the end of, like, every other chapter I beg you guys not to hate me for one reason or another. Oh, well. Ahh! I had the awesomest idea last night! Okay, you know how you guys liked the twins idea I had? Well, the other baby, the boy, can actually be GALE'S! Oh, that it such an awesome idea, because if it looked identical to Gale, people would be like "holy crud, Katniss you naughty lady, you" because she is married to Peeta and all. Anyways, I am done with my freak-out moment. Tell me if you guys like that idea! TheSoggyBug