Okay guys, second time I am writing this authors note because I am an idiot and accidentally pressed the x button while I was responding to reviews... merr... (I need to go in and rewrite all my responses too, so sorry if they are kind of choppy...) Anyway, here is the next chapter! Yay! But, here is another thing. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Mark your calendars! On Thanksgiving, Mikey Jacquez (my amazing friend and an incredibly talented fanfiction author) are publishing a trailer/ sneak peek to our newest story which will be published December 14! The story will be published 12 days before Christmas (12 days of Christmas) and will be a Christmas story! Hope you all will read it :)

TheWomanWhoCodesAndWrites: Finnick is an idiot... And I really appreciate your thoughts. It means a lot. I will certainly keep that in mind for future chapters! And no way did you sound harsh :)

Catching Fireflies: Tell me your ideas and we will see where they go :)

MeaganOneDirection: I am very glad you liked it! I love your reviews, by the way! They are always so happy and fun! :D

Mikey Jacquez: Dang school! Merrrrrrr. At least we are on Thanksgiving break and can write :)

MiaBelles: DID YOU LOVE THE MOVIE! OMG OMG OMG!

TARDISRose: HAPPY 50TH! (lateish...) 10 is my favorite! I lvoe him so much!

MewWinx96: Don't regret yelling. Finnick is an idiot. We should make an entire story devoted to fun and creative ways of you killing off my characters :)

ForeverYoung362: Dang it, real life! Why can I not live on my bed and the movie theatre? Life would be good then :) Wait... Add Starbucks to the list. Life would be good.

Buttons301: Finnick is an idiot...

IAmSoRandomItScaresMe: Faster(ish) update at least :)

Daniela2Moshi: I'm glad you like it! :)

pumpkinking5: We will see if they do run in this chapter :)

SugarCakes123: I hope things end well too...

Katnissannie7124: Okie dokie! Sounds fun!

Katnissannie7124: You could just pm a link to me or say what it is called and the youtube user name in a PM. Either one would work! Cannot wait :)

indelibilities: I like your new user! It is nice! 9 chapters?! Wow that was months ago (back when I had time to update daily...) The 10th Doctor is my favorite Doctor. I love him! Happy 50th, by the way!

Mollimoo123: Thank you very much :)

LSU Sarah: I'm glad you loved it! Please don't cry though! (I cried through the entire movie though... who am I to judge...?)

billieRueXSmurf: I wrote more of the other couples just for you :) Thanks for the cookies! They were yummy and tasted like magic :)

Chapter 5- Strong

Peeta

Cops were all over the place. They were looking everywhere for a hint of somewhere they could have gone. Finnick and Annie. They have been gone for four days. There was no warning. It was so sudden. Their clothes, cell phones, chargers, laptops and the cans of food were taken from the pantry. All that was left was a note from Finnick.

We're sorry we have to go. Annie's mom is coming back and I have some personal issues that needed to be taken care of. We will call you when we can. We love you all.

I was the one to find the note. Why did it have to be me? Why on earth did it have to be me? Katniss comes up from behind me and maneuvers into a hug. "They're safe, Peeta. You don't need to worry." I nod and hold her as close as I can, ignoring the smell of cigarette smoke on her breath. I can address that later. Cigarette smoke. Cops are searching the house. As if on cue a cop comes down holding a bag with the box of cigarette's and Katniss' drugs.

"What is this?" He says, his voice booming through the home. Effie looks mortified. Haymitch, drinking a beer, looks indifferent and shrugs. This seems to anger the cop. "You find this funny? Kids hiding drugs?"

Haymitch puts his bottle down and goes to the man. "Listen, Brutus, I hate the idea of drugs in the house. I hate it with a passion, but these kids have been through everything. I've never seen the drugs before and there is a possibility they were hooked onto them before they even came here. Just give me those drugs and those cigarettes and I'll see that they get thrown away. We have a slightly bigger issue right now though. We have two missing teenagers who are going to hear it from me when we find out where they are."

Katniss has no additional emotion on her face as Haymitch tosses the drugs, but her eyes show the slightest panic. I grab her hand and lead her outside where we go stand on the beach. After a moment of nothing, Katniss picks up a seashell and chunks it as far as she can manage and lets out a scream. "Why did they have to run? That was a pretty selfish and dick move on their part! Why did they run, huh? I guess they don't realize what running away entails! They don't know what it is like to be on your own with no one and nothing to depend on except the shirt off of your freaking back and the little bit of money you pick pocketed from strangers? They don't know. They don't know!" She kicks up some dirt and throws four or five more seashells. "They probably learned about the drugs. They wanted to get the cops here. They wanted to have it all taken away from me." She flips off the sky and collapses into the sand. I gingerly put my arms around her.

After her steady stream of crying and tears turns into periodic sobs and hiccups, I start talking. "You don't believe that, do you? I mean, you don't really think Finnick and Annie left because they found out you had a stash of drugs and wanted o get you busted? No, no Katniss. Don't believe that for a second. Finnick and Annie loved you. Neither one of them had a past involving drugs. None of us really did, except for Gale. Neither one of them knew what it would do to you to have them taken away from you and have you cut off cold turkey. I doubt they even knew you had them."

She looks up at me with her beautiful gray eyes rimmed red with tears. "I bet they did. Everyone probably knew."

I shake my head. "There was no way the could have found out. I never told anyone and you were always so careful. It took me a while to even discover them." She sniffs and lays her head on my shoulder. "I'm not going to lie to you, Katniss. I'm glad they are gone. It means we can get you all fixed up." I kiss the top of her head and start to stand up. She stands up too and we wipe the sand off one another. "Want to take a nap?"

Katniss nods. "Yeah. That would be great actually."

We go back into the house and Katniss heads straight up to the room Johanna and her share. In the living room on the ground floor though, Eloise and Daisy are crying.

I walk over to them and sit between them, letting them cry on me. Eloise is the one who speaks first. "Peeta, why did Finnick leave us?"

I shake my head like I don't know. I let them keep on hugging me until I realize why he left. "Finnick wouldn't leave unless someone he loved was in danger. He loves you two and Annie more than anyone else in the world. He only would ever leave one of you, or two of you in this case, behind because you were in danger."

Daisy looks up at me confused at this point. "Why would any of us be in danger. We're safe here in Graceland. We have always been safe here."

I bite my lower lip. They must not know the extent of Annie's situation. That can be the only possible reason Finnick left with Annie. Annie's mom. "Well, Finnick doesn't want Annie to go back to her mom. That is the only thing I can think of."

They look at me in confusion. "What's wrong with Annie's mom?"

They must not know the story. They must not know what happened with her eyes. "Annie was born with green eyes. Annie's mom was crazy. She did operations on Annie, attempted to make her eyes blue, but just put her through a lot of pain and made her eyes brown. It's Annie's story to tell. Ask her when she gets back, because, trust me, she will be back."

Johanna

This doctors appointment could not have been at a worse time. Gale and I were leaving the house just as cops were arriving to investigate the disappearance of Finnick and Annie. Gale knows exactly what happened to them. It isn't a mystery. Even Hunter could figure it out. They ran away. The note simply confirmed that. Finnick is an idiot. It had to have been his idea. He is stupid enough to come up with an idea like that and Annie is just naive enough to think something like that would work. Maybe my first hint that they were gone should have been the lack of screaming in the morning. Nope. I was one of the last people to find out because no one wanted to stress me out and hurt the baby. It just now became public news.

At school, people assume the kid is Gale's. I want to punch them when they say it is. People give me such accusing looks. I didn't d anything. At the same time though, I want to punch anyone who says otherwise. The only people who know the truth are the actors in Les Miserables that night. They know what happened. They won't tell a soul.

When we get to the doctors office where the checkup will be, there are women in their early thirties, late twenties, even early to mid twenties, but I am obviously the youngest one there. Some women look at my with sympathy. This red headed woman who can't be much more pregnant than I am smiles at me while holding her husbands hand. This uppity black haired woman in her early thirties looks at me with a cold stare in her blue eyes. "Well, guess who couldn't keep it in the condom." She says with a smirk on her face.

My jaw drops. Most of the women in the clinic look shocked. I say nothing. Gale comes to my rescue. "You don't know anything, do you?"

She keeps on smiling. She is here alone, but she does have a wedding ring on her finger. Her belly is swollen, but not like she is about to pop. I'd say she is probably about seven months along. "I don't know anything, but I can take a guess. You two are madly hopelessly in love teenagers who had sex one too many times at the drive in or in the back of someone's truck and either forgot the condom or it broke. This girl probably has a reputation for being a slut at your school. She must be pretty good in bed if you're still with her, huh?"

Something in Gale snapped, and I'm glad it did. I have never seen him so angry and terrifying. It was horrifying to look at, but he was admittedly still very hot. "Yeah, I am her boyfriend! We've been dating a while now. No, this is not my biological kid. No, she is not a slut. She was raped. You like the sound of that? This girl, the most beautiful girl in the world, in my eyes and many other people's as well, got raped because her sick, deadbeat father wanted to have a little bit of revenge on her for running away. He got one of his sick, deadbeat friends to come rape her in the middle of a show we were doing. We, our fiends and I, didn't know what was happening until he had already gotten away! I hate myself everyday because of that. I am not going to blame this kid, though. I am going to love it like I was their dad. It did nothing. Miss, are you having a girl?" The way the woman looks at her stomach and back up to Gale within a moment confirms she is. Gale sees it too. "I pray she doesn't become the kind of woman you just predicted my girlfriend was."

He comes back over and sits beside me. The red headed woman and her husband look at Gale in shock and look at me with sadness. Everyone in the clinic is looking at us in a very similar fashion. Gale did nothing that would get us kicked out, fortunately. Effie would have had a fit. Gale never raised his voice too loud, yet the entire clinic was quiet enough to hear him. It made him seem even more terrifyingly beautiful. After a moment the woman holds out her hand. "I'm Cecelia. This is my husband, Will."

I hold out mine and let her shake it. "Nice to meet you. I'm Johanna and this is Gale."

Cecelia smiles and passes me a card. "I'm sorry to hear all that happened to you, Johanna. This is my third pregnancy, so if you ever need any advice or anything at all, do not hesitate to call me." She smiles and looks down at her stomach. "I know I cannot know for sure yet, but I feel like I'm having a boy. I can only hope he is a brave and moral as you are Gale."

Gale looks taken aback, but there is a smile on his face. "Th- thanks. I mean, umm-"

Will smiles and shakes his head. "Don't worry, son. I'm sure you'll be a great dad to your girlfriend's kid. It seems like you two care about one another a lot. How long have you been together?"

I do the math in my head. Gale and I really don't keep track. "About four months, I think."

The couple look shocked. "No! Only that long? The way you two look and act around one another and the way he went to protect you I would have thought you had been dating a year!" Cecelia says.

I shrug. "We both had rough childhoods. We live at Graceland, that huge foster home on the beach. We know who we can trust and have learned to cling to them because you can't trust everyone."

Will nods. "I'm sorry you two have to live there. I hear it is nice, but only the worst childhoods typically get to go there."

I nod and shrug. "Well, this kid isn't going to have a rough childhood." I smile because I know it is true.

Ok so thanks to all of you! You are all amazing! Thanks to my 99 faves (OCD is going crazy!) and 125 followers! You are all wonderful!

-Juliet