I did so enjoy the reviews I got for the last chapter… Wonderful! Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, or even just liked my story. I have BIG plans for this chapter! Thanks to PureblueSkies, who gave me the coolest idea! (And I apologize beforehand if my writing is a little "high" today. I'm feeling quite giddy for no apparent reason. You can see how your emotions affect your writing)

I woke up in Peeta's arms. It was lovely to be close to him again. The past few days have been challenging, staying in the hospital, keeping him so upset all the time, and such. At least I couldn't feel my shoulder pain any more.

What surprised me when I opened my eyes was that I actually wasn't in the hospital. I was back in Peeta's room, judging by the countless pictures of me hanging all over the walls. I looked lazily around for a second, when another painting caught my eye. It was brightly colored, with intricate patterns clearly meant for a young child. I recognized it as the one that previously hung on the wall in the old nursery before the ceiling got smashed to bits.

I was just about to swing my legs off the side of the bed and get up, but Peeta stirred next to me.

"Katniss?" I mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

My heart dissolve at the sight of my disheveled husband. His blond hair was sticking up in every which way, and there was a faint pink line across his cheek where he had slept on the seam of the pillow. But he was nothing less than perfect.

I don't know what made me so pleased, but it didn't matter why. I settled back down next to Peeta and snuggled into his chest. Little things like this are what make life nice.

Peeta turned his head to look at me. "Are you awake?" He whispered.

"Mmhm..." I smiled serenely. "Wide awake."

The twinkle in Peeta's eyes faded away, and was replaced with distress. "Katniss Everdeen you are in so much trouble."

I frowned, deflated. "What?"

"You left me sitting in the waiting room while you made a daring escape out of the hospital to hunt down three deadly Capitol spies without me. Do you know how worried sick I was?" He moaned. "A doctor came into the waiting room and said you had escaped, but with you running off to God-knows-where I couldn't follow you or help you! What if something had happened to you? What if you had gotten killed?"

"But I didn't." It was a lame argument, but it was all I had. "I'm back here, safe and sound."

"If Finnick hadn't been with you, you would have been dead by now." Peeta looked overcome with worry.

Well, it was obvious we wouldn't agree on anything, so I just let him win to get it over with. I put my good arm around Peeta and kissed his neck. "I'm sorry that I caused you so much worry."

He couldn't argue with me any more over that. "I just don't know what I would have done I you had hurt yourself."

"Stayed with me in the hospital, like always." I shrugged.

"I mean worse than hurt." Peeta brushed his nose against my temple.

"Oh…" I didn't feel like talking about 'what ifs' any more. "Oh well."

Peeta sighed at my stubbornness. But if he was upset or had anything else to say about, his mouth didn't open. He put his lips to my forehead.

It felt good to be alone with Peeta, finally. I didn't realize how much I had missed every gentle touch, every kiss until I got one. Sure, for the past week we have exchanged little ones in public, to get across not-so-important messages such as "see you later" or "I'm sorry". It had been too long since there was an actual "I love you" kiss between us.

He cupped his hand on my neck and just barely kissed my lips. But something boiled up within my chest, and without warning it to burst. I reached up and wound my working arm around Peeta's neck and pulled him on top of me.

I have to admit he looked pretty surprised. But he didn't pull away. Instead, he just went with it and pressed my body down with his, not bothering to be careful. Thankfully the doctors made it so where my arm didn't hurt at all. Sure, there wasn't any feeling in it at all, but nothing was better than bad.

Peeta made it to a record fifteen seconds before his shirt went off. I almost laughed. He's such a boy.

The moment didn't last too long, because Peeta groaned and rolled off of me.

"What?" I frowned, trying to shake all of the cotton out of my head. "What's wrong?"

To my amusement, Peeta was panting quietly. "The doctors told me not to let you…overexert yourself."

I blinked, a smile playing on my lips. "Well, darn it. I guess that means we can't—"

He interrupted me, laughing. "Katniss…" He said warningly.

"Hey!" Now we were both laughing like loonies. "I was actually going to say 'go bowling' but obviously you had something else in mind."

Peeta laughed and poked me in the ribs.

Why were we acting so giddy? It was as if all of the woe and all the crap in our lives are nonexistent. But I know that will only be for today. Just one day off in the rest of our lives where we can be together. No rules or boundaries, no expectations or audiences, no one to tell us if what were are doing was right. For just one day we can be ourselves the way we want.

I went along with the happiness of the moment and giggled. Peeta took that as permission to tickle me some more. I have never been ticklish, so it was new to me. This went on for a while, poking each other back and forth, laughing our butts off. Peeta looked happier than he had in many days. I felt happy, too, which I'll probably be punished for later, ignoring important stuff I should tend to.

Finally, when both of us got too tired to move any more, we just collapsed onto the bed, laughing. Peeta wound his fingers in mine. "So much for not exerting yourself."

"Screw the doctors. That was fun." I giggled quietly once more and sighed. "Does that mean we have to act like adults now?"

"We aren't, though! Well…" He thought about it. "I guess we are, but teenagers don't count. We are not adults yet, so there."

"Then we are not-adults with a baby girl that needs tending to." I sat up and let the last bit of laughter leak out with a weak chuckle.

Peeta's mood seemed to deflate when I said that. "Yeah… Okay." He stood up and offered me his hand, which I accepted.

"The next week is going to be hard." I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes. "But we'll get through it."

"That's the spirit." With his finger, Peeta toyed with my bottom lip, making it hard to think straight. "Just keep telling yourself that."

I found myself subconsciously reaching up on my tippy-toes, but I stopped myself. "Come on, Peeta. Let's go." I took his hand and pulled him out of the room, but not before I saw the grin light up his face.

We walked casually to the hospital together, swinging our hands back and forth. Despite the small feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach, things were relatively calm. I knew at one point I would have to face the doctors about Alexis' fate. I had made up my mind, though; I wanted to keep her and do everything possible to let her lead a normal life without the pressure of Panem's future in her hands. The doctors wouldn't be too happy about that, but who gives a crap?

A nice brown-skinned lady was sitting at the front desk. When she saw us coming, she perked up. "How are we today, Mrs. And Mr. Mellark? No trouble with the arm? It should return back to normal in a few days, don't worry." She gave a nice smile to me. "What can I help you with today?"

I stepped up slightly in front of Peeta. "We are here to see our daughter."

The ladies' smile wavered. "Name? Your daughter's, I mean."

"Alexis Primrose Mellark,"

"Let's see…" She shuffled through a pile of papers in a drawer and after a few minutes, she came back up, frowning. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Mellark, but we have no record of an 'Alexis Primrose Mellark' in our files today."

I felt a feeling of fright forming in my gut. "Excuse me?"

"There is no record of her." The secretary did a double check, but there still wasn't any record.

"What exactly does that mean?" Peeta looked worried as well. In fact, I had the small sense that he already figured it out.

"It means that your daughter is no longer using our resources. She is not in this hospital." The nurse looked sympathetic. "Perhaps you would like to speak to someone?"

"Dr. Longarden, please." I clenched my fists. I think I know just what happened to Alexis, and I was on the brink of breaking something valuable.

The secretary called him and in a few short moments, he appeared behind us, looking nervous and sweaty. "May I help you two?"

I faced him with a look of pure loathing. "My baby daughter. Where is she?"

He shifted his feet. "I did what I had to, Katniss. For the better of Panem, I took the liberty in—"

But I didn't hear the rest of his excuse. Grabbing a sharpened pencil on the desk, I launched myself at Dr. Longarden with a shrill screech. When I made contact with him, I clung on tightly to his clothing and swing my fist, still holding the pencil, at his head.

Peeta looked too shocked to move.

The doctor ducked his head, avoiding getting stabbed. "Security!" He cried, ducking again.

Well, the pencil wasn't working so I dropped it and just wrapped my arms tightly around his throat, cutting off air supply. The doctor chocked and gagged, stumbling around blindly. But before any real harm could be done to him, a wave of security guards, doctors, and other such people flooded the room and it was chaos.

I was being yanked away from the doctor's neck by at least three pairs of hands. Another pair jabbed a needle into my arm, sedating me. I screamed and thrashed around, desperate to get a hold of Dr. Longarden again.

"Strap her down and take her to the MI wards."

"Get her arms!"

"Take Mr. Mellark as well."

Voices shouted back and forth across the room as my muscles slowly stopped working. So much for the pleasant time with Peeta. This was just not my day.

Wooo! Thanks again to PureblueSkies for the awesome idea! Things were going to be different but… never mind. I am expecting at least ten reviews, people. Hope you liked it!