Chapter 9

Alec POV

Ever since Clove and the kids have returned to district 2 I was really happy, they were my family, I have known her since I was 8 years old and she was 7, my mother and hers were really good friends so basically we grew up together. I know everything about Clove's life, I was there when her brother died, and when we were younger she told me that she was in love with Cato, when her name was chose for the games my world fell apart but I still had faith that she would return safe home and then when she called me crying four years ago telling me that she was in district 4 it didn't took me 5 minutes to grab a train over there. There was a time when I tough I was in love with her but after a while the feeling went away I guess it was just a normal teenager thing, my relation with her is entirely a brother- like, she is my little one, I would do everything for her that's why I'm here cooking pancakes for Caden at 7:00 Monday morning.

-"Can I have whipped cream with my pancakes uncle Alec?" - Caden asked to me with a gigantic persuasive smile in his face, he was sitting in the table with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other one, I know, I know how can I give a knife to a 4 year old? Well she is Clove's son after all isn't he?

-"Yeah its okay Cade, but not too much, remember what mommy said about sugar?"- I answered to him.

About a week ago I went over to their place to check on Clove, she had been really down because of the Cato thing, honestly I'm not quite convinced about what happened between them, I had been seeing the way he looked at Clove for years, and believe me that is true love and after that she tooked care of her during the games, she saved her life when that guy from 11 almost kills her so I couldn't understand why would he do that, but well I went over there and we made the biggest mistake ever, we gave Claire and Cade banana splits with syrup and sprinkles at 9 pm, it's not surprising to say that they fall asleep until 4 am and Clove and I ended up exhausted after cleaning up their mess.

After breakfast I tooked Caden to the park and then we went to buy groceries to make food, he stayed with me today because he didn't wanted to go to the training center, so Clove left him at my place and tooked Claire with her;

-"The girls will be here to eat about at 2 pm Cade, what should we prepare?"

-"mmm, I know I know! A pizza covered with nutella and mango and gummy bears on top! And sprinkles because Claire loves them! And syrup cause mommy loves it too! And… whipped cream!"

-"Wow that is a lot of sugar kiddo! - I said laughing- how about spaghetti, hot dogs and French fries? And maybe, maybe after that mommy can make mango desert, do you like that?

- "Yes, that sounds yummy"- he said and dragged me over the store to get all the ingredients.

Once we were finished we headed back to the house to start on lunch, Cade insisted on helping me so I put him an apron and we started cooking, needless to say that the kitchen was a chaos it seemed that a gigantic tomato sauce bomb had exploded on it, at the end we were cleaned up and the meal was ready but Claire and Clove weren't here yet and it was 4 pm already. Caden was hungry so I gave him a hot dog and after eating he fell asleep in the coach, I was starting to get worried and just when I was about to call Enobaria the doorbell rang and I quickly got up to answer, when I opened the door I saw Clove, her eyes were watery and her face looked worried but what surprised me the most was the person standing behind her; it was Cato with Claire sleeping in his arms, she had a bandage in the forehead and her cheeks were wet as if she cried.

-"Clover what happened? Is she okay?" - I was worried to see them like that and overall to see Cato, what had happened? Did he know the truth?

- She tripped while she was playing in one of the center classrooms and she hitted her forehead on a table, they had to give her 5 stitches- Clove looked really scared, she was the most protective mother that I have ever seen, not over protective but she was always looking for her child not to be hurted or injured.

-"Mummy? Where are we?"- we heard Claire's sleepy voice and Cato and Clove sighted in relief- "We´re at uncle Alec's sweetie, come with me so I can take you to bed"- Clove said to her.

-"No I want Cato with me mommy"- she hugged him tightly by the neck and refused to go with her mum.

-"its okay princess, I would stay with you, Clove can you tell me where I can lay Claire? I will stay with you but you have to promise me that you are gonna get some rest okay?"- Clove guided Cato upstairs to the guest bedroom not before giving me a panic look while she walked behind them.

About fifteen minutes later Cade woke up and I told him what had happened with her sister, he wanted to see her so I tooked him upstairs and the moment he touched the ground he run to the bedroom, I leaned at the door and I saw Clove asleep by Claire side while Cato was holding the little girl's hand, when Cade saw Cato he started to talk with him.

-"You look familiar to me, who are you?"- He asked to the man that happened to be his dad, you couldn't deny the similarity between them, except for Cade's eyes that were green.

-"I'm Cato, how are you Caden?"- I could tell by the look on his eyes that he had also realized the resemblance between the kid and himself.

-"I'm fine but worried about sissy, is she going to be okay?"- Cade had that puppy like face that he does when he is sad or scared.

-" Yeah buddy she is okay, just a little tired but look at her, when she wakes up you will be able to play with her"- Cato answered him and them took him on his lap so he could be closer to his mom and sister.

They were a family, it wasn't fair that the kids weren't able to be with their dad, it was not okay that Cato didn't know about his child and he tought that Clove and I are together and on top of that it was wrong that she thinks that he doesn't loves her and he thinks that she don't loves him. I am going to find out what really happened four years ago.

-"Hello, Enobaria? Its Alec can you meet me? I'm going to need your help with something"-.