I came up with two ideas for ending this story, one "fluffy" and one serious. This is the "fluffy" one. If you skipped chapter 16, I strongly recommend going back and reading it first.

The wedding of Gale Hawthorne and Johanna Mason was supposed to be a small affair. Peeta performed the ceremony at his guest house. Gale's family was there, with Haymitch and Victoria, and Jan Donner took Johanna's arm as she and Gale signed a paper and gave the ritual pledge. But when they came out, five hundred people were in the Victory Village square. "See," Haymitch said, "this is what happens when you leave a thousand people without enough to do."

The first to meet the bride and groom was President Paylor. She and Gale went back into the house for a private meeting, while the rest of the party went forward to meet the well-wishers. "Citizen Hawthorne, I wish to congratulate you, but I also wish to express certain... concerns," she said. "It is strange that you and five people should disappear for a week and return without one of your party and with four hundred previously unsuspected survivors of Twelve in tow, professing no recollection of what happened. Some might be considered strange enough that you made arrangements to marry your former fiancee the next day. But nothing seems as strange to me as the fact that you immediately applied for a petition to grant your missing companion, Romulus Thread, consideration for a pardon for, in your words, `heroic and sacrificial service for Panem and District 12'. A very generous thing to say about the man who planned the murder of your district, especially regarding events you claim to have no memory of."

"I get flashes... pictures," Gale said. "Most of them are about Jo, or him. I remember him fighting to protect us, from some kind of Mutt. I think he gave his life for us. I should think the shovel is evidence enough... Frankly, what is the problem? Are you questioning my story, or my request?"

"I am asking you to consider the ramifications," Paylor said. "The legal status and treatment of Confessors and the much larger population of Restorers has been increasingly controversial. It has been kept quiet, but tensions are especially accute here in 12, where almost 20% of the current inhabitants are conscripted laborers. Even a review of Thread's case could cause unrest from both sides."

"Then respectfully, that is the best reason to have the hearing," Gale said. "Maybe we need to think about how to build a government on law, not vengeance. Maybe we just need to remember that even someone like Thread was still human. I think that was all he wanted, and it's one thing I'm sure he deserves."

They walked back out, and Paylor promptly headed for the train. Gale found Johanna talking to Peeta, and laughing loudly while he blushed. Jealousy was rising in Gale's face when Peeta turned and shook his hand. "You know how this is going to go: All over town, all day, all night, and probably some of tomorrow. I made arrangements for you to go somewhere more private when you're ready," Peeta said. "I was planning on stepping out myself. We're all happy for you... not just this, but for finding a life for yourself outside of Twelve. Nobody is expecting you to give that up. Just keep in touch. Katniss sends her regards." He gave Gale a last handshake and walked away.

Gale looked at Johanna. She was smirking. "All right, what were you talking about?" he said.

"Oh, just catching up a little," she said coyly, then laughed as he started to scowl. "All right, not about you! Actually, he wanted to talk to me about Katniss. Short story, they're working some things out, and while everybody in town's busy celebrating us, they decided to go out to the woods to work on it some more." Gale laughed himself.

Dilly Cartwright was among the first to meet Gale in the Village square. She hugged him, with Johanna looking at her the way a lion would at a jackal. "I'm so happy for you!" she squealed in her usual gush. Then she said, "I want to thank you... for speaking up for Thread. Don't listen to anyone who says he didn't deserve it. Even if they're right, it's hope for a lot of people." Gale looked after her as she walked away, long enough to draw a cool, questioning glance from his bride, but she saw what his eyes fixed on: Dilly walking into the midst of a crew of Restorers, and discretely taking the hand of one of them.

Gale was jolted by the sound of Victoria's voice. "Every society sets up barriers," she said, "especially to marriage and child-bearing with those outside itself. The Ancients, evidently, were stricter than most. By all accounts, they utterly forbade any semblance of fraternization with the general population. Yet, the very lengths they went to to enforce their taboos is the most compelling evidence that interbreeding could happen, and that they were not a discrete species. It appears that eventually, even they lowered their barriers."

Gale nodded, though he had no idea where this was supposed to be going or coming from. "Right, there's stories about that," he said. "It goes that the Ancients used to marry people from the mountains, or at least drop in to sow the oats. The offspring were called hob-children."

"I've noticed something about how you look, and Katniss too," Victoria said, continuing on her seemingly disjointed way as her voice lowered toward a whisper. "Haymitch says it's just the `Seam look'. I remember thinking, when we looked in that pod... the Ancient looked like you."

"I thought it looked like you," Gale said, "except for the skin."

As Peeta had said, the wedding celebration spread out all over the settlement, and promised to continue into the hours of the morning. The bride and groom moved about, mingling, and Gale seriously considered remaining for the duration. But it didn't take long for Johanna to go from interest to indulgence to open impatience. By 4 in the afternoon, she was chewing on his ear, and he was convinced it was time to go. A cooperative crew assigned by Peeta made every effort to keep their exit discrete, but a generous crowd was waiting to cheer the couple as they boarded a tractor outbound for the woods.

"Aw, no," Johanna said, "we aren't going...?" But they were. There was the lake ahead, and the cabin.

"I guess Katniss and Peeta have a new place," Gale said as they disembarked Johanna looked around once they were inside. "Well, at least it has a TV. Hey, what are you doing?"

Gale had started a fire, and he was getting out a loaf of bread. "Come on," he said, "we have to do this. It's tradition." With only moderate snarking, Johanna accepted a piece of bread and a long fork to hold it with. He put an arm around her, and showed her how to hold the bread just the right way for it to brown gradually. "Johanna, I've been thinking... about the Place."

She groaned. "I'm thinking it's bad enough you're making me wait to burn a piece of bread without bringing up how you thought you were married to another woman."

"I wasn't, Jo," Gale said, "it's just, I think about how we got out, and I can't help thinking of something I heard a screenwriter talk about once... Deus Ex Machina, `God from the machine', where the resolution's so contrived there's no way to believe it's real. Really, what else do you call the things that happened? The way the force field fried fake-Dad and blew the field genetators out; the way the Prim-clone pulled the lever; and then the way the Ancient basically shot himself... The Place might as well have been trying to shut itself down."

Johanna mustered a look of thoughtful interest. "Maybe it was," she said. "Maybe the AI recognized that it was doing harm and no good, but couldn't shut down. That, or the guy in the control room kept it running. Or, here's another idea... Maybe we didn't get out. Maybe I'm not really Johanna Mason. Maybe I'm a Mutt who wants to hold you hostage... Oh, but maybe you're a Mutt, maybe you're such a perfect copy you think you're Gale Hawthorne..."

"Jo. You're on fire."

"Hells, am I..."

"No, seriously, your toast is on fire!" Johanna gave a surprised shriek as her bread burst into flame, setting a good part of Gale's alight in the process. She dropped her fork right in the fire. He took a look at his blazing piece and shook it loose.

"I know how to know if this place is real," Johanna said as they scrambled into a bed fit for one and a half. She kissed, and then bit.

"Ow," Gale said in mild complaint, "that hurt."

"Exactly. I wouldn't do that if I was a Mutt, would I?"

"Hey, I'm bleeding!"

"Then bite back, Mama's boy." He did.

The TV came to life. "Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne," Snow said sternly. "`Playful' use of force is a perfectly acceptable means to facilitate catharsis. But this is taking the exercise entirely too far..."

Gale started to lift his head. "That didn't just happen, did it?"

"No," Johanna said, "that definitely didn't happen."

"What didn't happen?"

"Exactly..."

From the screen, Snow watched for a few moments, looking vaguely bemused. Then he flared his nostrils in a last sardonic snort and lifted a remote. At the push of a button, the screen went dark.