It seems as though almost everyone is very confused about the prep team. But don't worry: I haven't forgotten about them. After I read some of the reviews, I made an edit to the last chapter saying it, but to those of you who had already read the last chapter before it was edited, I have a very special surprise for you people about the team. Hehehe… This chapter was originally this one plus the next, but I had to cut it into two parts. So brace yourselves, good citizens! But anyways; here is Chapter 66.
Lunch ended and our depressing group parted ways. Mother kissed me on the forehead, and Prim hugged me tightly before they tearfully left. I took a shaky breath and turned to Peeta.
"We should probably go…" I held tightly onto his hand and leaned heavily against his chest, partly out of tiredness, partly out of the energy that was drained from all the crying, but mostly because I really needed someone to hold me. Gale has been permanently wiped out from my life and it was my fault. "Things could have been different." I contorted my face against Peeta's shoulder. "If I hadn't wanted to see Haymitch, we could have gotten there sooner. I could have saved him."
""Katniss E-Mellark!" Peeta scolded, holding me at arm's length. I noted without much interest that he was about to use my maiden name. "Don't you dare even think that what just happened was your fault. Don't you dare blame yourself!"
"Or what?" Salty tears were spilling down my face, obstructing my vision. Hysteria was slowly building in my chest. "Karma will find me and I'll drown in the bathtub? Or I'll get murdered like Gale?" I spat out the word 'murdered'. "There was something I could have done! I could have saved him!" My voice rose to a scream. Tearing from Peeta's arms, I bolted from the cafeteria, leaving people staring after me.
I raced through the hallways, pushing aside the few people that passed me. Rounding a corner, I could see my sector of rooms coming up. From there, no one else was in my way, so I was free to run straight into my room and close the door. Throwing myself down onto my bed, I shoved my head under my fresh white pillow and screamed as loud as I possibly could.
That only lasted about five minutes until my throat grew scratchy and hoarse. Then I just let my tears soak through the sheets that were pressed stiflingly against my face. Though it wasn't at all cold in the room, my whole body shivered violently as the entire weight of the realization crushed down on me. It was as if someone had taken a rusty dagger and cut a ragged circle from my chest. Except what was weird, was that when I should be feeling like an empty shell, it was as if something was in its place; pain, like acid, yet it weighed a million pounds. Something hot and unknown boiled inside of me, stronger than any hate I have felt, fierier than any passion I have ever felt. That feeling inside of me was loathing. Pure loathing, rising up in my throat. My fingers itched to hold my bow again, to draw back an arrow, to feel the blood of my enemy pooling at my feet.
I laid there for a long time, just inhaling and exhaling the scent of my newly washed bed sheets, mingled with the smell of dried salt from my tears. Only the quiet ticking of the clock disturbed my hour of heart wrenching silence. I longed for Peeta's arms to be around me, to have him brush back my hair while I was crying, but I haven't seen him since I screamed at him and ran from the cafeteria like a madman.
With nothing better to do, I peeled myself (literally) from the bed and dragged my numb body into the shower. I turned on the spray and just lay motionless in the tub, fully-clothed, letting the cool water make my skin all soggy.
After only about half an hour of decomposing in the bathtub, there was a gently knock on the bathroom door. "Katniss, love, are you in here?"
I sniffled, breathing in a bit of water in the process. "Yeah. You can come in."
The bathroom door opened noiselessly, and I watched trough blurry, narrowed eyes as Peeta cautiously came in, holding a familiar-looking bundle of pink blankets. He sat down on the tiled floor next to me and said, "I brought you someone to see."
I reached over and turned the shower off. "Great. We can be babies together." Peeta handed me my daughter wrapped in her blankets, and I cradled her to me.
"She's still sleeping, so it might be best not to wake her." Peeta brushed a thin wisp of black hair out of Alexis' perfect face.
I was careful not to let any water dripping from my hair get on my baby. And I whispered, "Sorry, Alexis—" But I stopped, when I saw that her eyes had flown wide. But they weren't her eyes. Black from the pupils had swallowed up the brilliant blue irises, and now there were just heavy black orbs shining in my daughters' eyes.
Everything was still for a moment, and I was about to turn to Peeta with a question both of us wanted to know the answer to, when Alexis began to cry. Okay, "cry" was putting it mildly. Alexis was screaming bloody murder. The scariest thing, though, was that her whole body remained completely still. It was as if she was just dreaming, but I knew better.
"Shh, Alexis, you're alright." Despite the panic rising in my chest, I attempted to remain calm, rocking my screaming child back and forth in an attempt to soothe her. The screaming just got louder.
"What's wrong, Katniss?" Peeta was also panicking, judging by the tone of his voice.
"I-I don't know!" Now I was just scared. Scared for my daughters' life more than I have ever been scared. "What's wrong with her?"
"Is she hungry? Or-or did she go to the bathroom?" Poor Peeta. I bet he didn't feel very much like being a father now.
"Of course she hasn't!" I yelled in frustration, more to myself than to anybody. "Something is wrong with her!"
For a split second more, Peeta just sat there, wild-eyed, but then he stood up and held his hand out to me. "Come on, Katniss."
Together we hastily strode back down the halls, and as we walked, the horrid screams attracted unwanted attention.
"I hope she isn't sick…" I fretted to Peeta on the way, sloshing around in my wet clothes. "Too many people I knew have died from some type of illness…"
"Almost there." He was ignoring me. Instead of reacting to my panic, he gently took Alexis and held her to him, as if reassuring himself that nothing was wrong. But in truth, I knew I was about to learn something that would change my outlook on everything.
In roughly two minutes flat, we made it to the hospital and soon after we were jogging behind a small medical bed holding my baby in it. The nurse pushing the bed knew exactly where she was going, as if they knew something like this would happen. Close by, there was a large room that we were ushered into, and after us came Dr. Longarden.
"Pardon me, Mr. Mellark, Ms. Everdeen." He snapped on his doctor mask professionally and pulled out a needle-syringe from inside his long doctor coat.
"Mrs. Mellark." I said behind gritted teeth, but that was the least of my worries. My baby daughter was just about to be shot with some type of clear liquid that I didn't know what the heck it was.
A minute passed since the doctor shot the liquid into Alexis' arm and she immediately went into her usual quiet-baby mode. With a sigh, Dr. Longarden pulled off his mask and turned to us. "We need to have a little chat, you two and I."
"Heck yeah we do." I said again with clenched teeth.
Both Peeta and Doctor Longarden stared at me.
"But that will have to wait half an hour." He dropped our gaze and went scrub down his hands. "The medicine will need to take full effect on your daughter before we can talk."
"Half an hour?" I snarled. "You owe us an explanation! I don't want to wait half an hour!"
"Katniss." Peeta took my hand. "It's only thirty minutes. And besides," He smiled sadly at me. "You need to get dry clothes on."
My rush of anger fizzled away, leaving me feeling stupid. "Oh, yeah."
"Let's go." Peeta tugged me towards the exit and called over his shoulder, "We'll see you in half an hour, Doctor!"
Back in my room, I stood in front of my open closet, debating on what to wear. I liked my current outfit, but seeing as how it looked like I was just out for a nice swim in the ocean, I couldn't stick with it.
"How come it takes so long for girls to choose their clothing?" Peeta complained in jest.
"How many girls have been put to the test, Peeta?" I joked back dryly. Finally I just had to settle with a normal red T-Shirt and jeans.
"Hey!" He frowned at me. "You know very well that you are the only girl I have ever been with. Dating or for real."
"I know that." With my bundle of dry clothes, I scooted into the bathroom, put my clothes on the counter, and stared at myself in the mirror for the billionth time this week. Like always, I looked like a mess. And, like always, Peeta appeared at my side in the mirror. "It doesn't look all that bad."
"After seeing me all the different ways that you have this week, I would say the same." Rolling my eyes, I picked at the sticky material of my shirt, pasted to my torso.
I was either about to giggle and blush like a lunatic, or snort and shove Peeta off of me. Instead, I just roll my eyes and side-step away from him.
Immediately he was worried. "Did I insult you? I didn't mean anything inappropriate or some…thing…" His words trailed off and I turned my back to him and slipped my soaked shirt off, tank-top and all.
Boys, I thought to myself. "Hey, can you hand me my shirt from the countertop?"
Wordlessly, Peeta took my tank-top and handed it to me.
"Thanks." With the clean shirt in one hand, I awkwardly shucked off my undershirt. I was just about to pull the new one over my head, when I felt the hairs on the back of neck gently stand up. I sighed. "Peeta, would you stop staring at my back? You're making me feel self-conscious."
"Oh." I heard the blush in his voice. Then he mumbled, "At least you don't have to worry about size," as if he didn't want me to hear.
"What did you just say?" I tugged the shirt over my stomach and turned to look at Peeta.
"Nothing…" Once again I heard the embarrassment in his voice. "I was just thinking you don't have to worry about size—"
"Well, neither do you, so shut up. I don't feel like talking about that." With a funny look in Peeta's direction, I grabbed the rest of my clothes from the counter. "Now turn around. Or close your eyes or something."
Peeta obeyed, but while he was turned around and had his eyes closed, he inquired, "Why don't you just shoo me from the bathroom? I can go out…"
"No!" I frantically stopped attempting to get my sopping pants off and whipped my head towards Peeta, but quickly resumed my previous attitude. "I-I don't want you to leave me. Stay."
Peeta's head cocked from behind. "I'll never leave you. But I just find this odd…. Never mind though."
I finished getting my dry clothes on and then stood up again.
"You done?" Peeta risked a peek behind him and look slightly relived. "Good. Has it been thirty minutes yet?"
"I hesitated, and then admitted bleakly, "Yeah, it has actually been thirty-five."
"You look upset." Peeta took my hand comfortingly.
I bit my lip. "I just have a really bad feeling about what we're about to learn, that's all."
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine." He kissed me on the forehead as if I were small.
Okay, that might have been a weensy bit more inappropriate than I had intended, but hopefully you all will overlook that. Along with overlooking the whole "enemies' blood pooling at Katniss' feet" and such. That was a bit too much as well. I haven't been getting many reviews lately, it's weird. "Not many" meaning only about three per chapter. So, if it isn't too hard to ask, I am going to request just a tad more. :3 thanks, guys. It really does help. Really. And if the person who had the idea of Finnick's kid kindly let me know, I can post the kid's name up sooner before- oh, but I can't tell you… Hehe I have a really good idea for the next few chapters…But yeah… Read and review!