Hey guys! Peeta Pov in this chapter! No more songs in this chapter I'm afraid but maybe in the next chapter! We left it when Katniss began her trek through Denver to San Francisco. Now it's a week later. As always read & review!

MrsMellark78

Peeta POV

It's been a week since Katniss went missing, it's all over the news, they don't know where she's gone or why she left, some are even predicting she might've been kidnapped. The thing that annoys me most though is that I can't help with the search, all I can do is keep working at the bakery constantly watching the news. Mom doesn't really help though, she keeps on saying that she hopes that she has been kidnapped and murdered, I nearly threw a knife at her yesterday but it narrowly missed her ear.

I've spoken to Prim and she said that if she hears anything or if Katniss comes back she'll ask for some Cheese Buns because we stopped selling them. I couldn't see them on the shelf knowing that Katniss wouldn't come and get one every day, I still talk to Gale and Finnick but Marvel has gone off with Cato now so none of us can stand him. Gale is still with Madge and Finnick and Annie are together but I try and avoid seeing them together because it just reminds me of Katniss and me, the couple that will never happen again.

Right now, I'm in the bakery and I'm icing a load of cakes, I spend all my time in the bakery except from when I'm at school, I can't believe they forced us to go back to school. Delly keeps on trying to get back with me but every time I refuse her, she spoilt my chance with Katniss when we were younger and I'm not going to let her get in the way of anything ever again.

"Peeta, can you make three batches of cheese buns for Prim, she is demanding them and she doesn't seem to be in the type of mood where you want to refuse her," I look up quickly and see my dad standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "Sorry, but you can try and refuse to her yourself but she really wants cheese buns."

"No, it's fine, honestly," I say leaving the cakes half done and moving towards some dough which Wheat has just made and I add in some cheese. Wheat makes three more batches of dough and I add cheese to each one and within about half an hour of us working fast they are all done and put in a box. "Dad, can I have my lunch break?"

"Okay, if you want to," he calls a little puzzled. I've not had a lunch break since Katniss left, I wouldn't know what to do with myself I'd just be walking around looking like a lost sheep.

I take off my apron and carry the box out to Prim and her eyes light up when she sees me, all she does is nod and starts running out the bakery door, I follow her and we get into my car and start driving. We don't say a word to each other, Prim just looks overly excited and I'm sure that Katniss is back.

I park outside Prim's house and Prim grabs the box of cheese buns and runs to the door, she kicks it open with her feet and runs inside, I laugh a little and slowly walk up to the door, I open it and I can hear her voice for the first time in a whole year. I silently close the front door and listen at the kitchen door to what Prim says to Katniss.

"I thought I'd buy three batches since you are a stick, how on earth did you manage for a whole week without any food?" Prim asks which makes me shocked, I hear Katniss mumble something and Prim replies, "Yes, I did, we all thought you'd been kidnapped. And anyway Peeta has been missing you so much he even stopped selling these even though they were the most popular thing in the bakery. And he told me yesterday he narrowly missed his mom's ear with a knife because she was hoping you'd been kidnapped and murdered."

"Well, I don't really care because no one should care about me. No one should ever have cared about me. I would've thought you'd all be glad and celebrating the fact that I might be dead because I don't care if that's what you were doing." Katniss answers which angers me, "You know you don't have to lie to me."

"What are you talking about?" I say bursting into the kitchen, "Of course we bloody missed you, how could we not? You left alone, Haymitch explained that you didn't have a choice but to leave with that other band. We don't blame you, we care about you, how can you say you expect us to be celebrating that your dead?"

She just stares at me shocked and I can tell she's not eaten in a week, she is all skin and bones, she looks like she might faint from exhaustion any minute now. She looks stressed and cold and everything that she shouldn't be. She gets up and goes to leave but I rush over to her and stop her, "Why did you come back? I thought music was your life."

"Yeah, well things happened and I just got fed up," she says trying to avoid me and get out of the kitchen. "And now I'm back.

"What things?" I say still blocking the door, I'm determined to find out what happened and why she thinks everyone should be celebrating that she's dead.

"Why do you care?" She asks, I'm about to answer but she cuts me off, "You know what, I don't care, I don't give a damn about anything or anyone and I'm just fed up with life altogether."

"Katniss," says Mrs Everdeen who has come into the kitchen, I still stare at her, I know there's something wrong but I can't figure it out. "What happened?"

"Mom," She says mimicking her mom's tone which is completely out of the ordinary for her to do, what on earth can be wrong with her, can it possibly be the starvation. "It doesn't matter."

Then it clicks why didn't I think about it before, the dark look in her eyes, the rudeness towards everyone they could either be because of starvation or, "Katniss, show me your wrists."

"What?" She says stunned for a moment before containing herself again which tells me that I'm right but I need her to show me, "Why on earth would I show you my wrists?"

"Show Peeta your wrists," Prim and Mrs Everdeen say together and I can tell they know where I'm going with this, they sound just as worried as I feel. "Just show him."

"Why?" Katniss replies and I get annoyed, I grab her and pin her against the wall and Mrs Everdeen pulls the jacket she's wearing away from her wrists and I see marks not just the scars that used to be there but recent marks. "Now before you start arguing me there was nothing you could've done to prevent this."

"There is always a way of stopping things like this Katniss," I say moving away from her but still blocking the door with tears in my eyes. "Who knows you're here?"

"Just you three, obviously, Seneca gave the whole band fake identities so I used mine to buy a plane ticket and fly here by plane, but then that plane had a failing engine so it had to land in Denver all the way in Colorado. I had no money left, my phone battery had died so I had no choice but to walk here, I just couldn't do it anymore." And she breaks down in tears and slumps to the floor and I can't help but pick her up and wrap my arms around her, "I'm sorry."

"You've got nothing to be sorry for, why do you think we were all panicking when we heard you might've been kidnapped?" I say still holding her as her tears fall onto my shoulder.

"I have everything to be sorry for, I went off with another band and I've kept an eye out for you guys but nothing ever came up," she says through her tears. "I spoilt your chance of being famous but trust me it's not all that great."

Haymitch told us that you were what kept the band going and we all agreed with him so we fell apart," I say. "But it's a good job though because we found out that Marvel is terrible as soon as the band stopped he went to Cato but Finnick and Annie got together and Madge and Gale are still together. Delly keeps trying to ask me out but I keep refusing because I only want to be with you."