"Hello, Peeta."

"What do you want?" he asks again pointedly, emphasizing each word. "I told you you couldn't come here."

"I looked at that," she steps forward into the house. "More as a guideline than an actual rule."

"Why are you here?" he says through gritted teeth, eying the woman warily as she enters the house and walks straight to the kitchen. Peeta follows slowly behind her, why she was heading to his kitchen, he didn't know. This wasn't the bakery, she couldn't do whatever she wanted here.

Katniss' expression hardens as Mrs. Mellark - Peeta's good-for-nothing mother - enters the kitchen. "What do you want?"

"That's what I've been saying," says Peeta coming around behind his mother to stand next to Katniss. "What do you want mother?"

"We need you back at the bakery," she says this, neither as a request nor as a suggestion, but as an order.

"You have Rye and Obi to help you," he shakes his head profusely. She couldn't just come here into his house and tell him what to do. That wasn't how it worked, that's certainly not how it was going to work. "I'll come in tomorrow - like I said I would - but not before then. I'm entitled to a couple days to myself, to adjust to this change." He gestures between himself and Katniss. "I'll be there tomorrow. But not one second before."

Then his mother turns to face Katniss, "you know, I always knew you'd make it out of that arena. You're tough. I knew you'd make it."

"Speaking of that," snaps Katniss as she hops off the counter. "How could you say something like that?" Her face red as a cherry.

"That you're a survivor?" she shrugs. "Because you are. You've survived this long, haven't you?"

"No," Katniss shakes her head. "About District 12 finally having a winner...and not meaning Peeta. He's your son. You're supposed to believe in him." Katniss steps forward towards his mother when Peeta puts his arm out to stop her. "You're a mother! You have a duty to your children, your sons, to want to see them experience good things! To see them survive this life and have a future. Not tell them they don't have a chance! What kind of a mother are you anyway?"

"Katniss," Mrs. Mellark says with auspicious degradation, "I can do whatever I want. It's not like you're going to say anything. You can't even do anything. You chose to save my son in that arena, I don't know why - and frankly I don't care - but you did, and so now here we are. In this magnanimous house that the Capitol has given you, because you challenged their supreme rule. Do you really think they're going to let that slide?"

Katniss shakes her head. She knows the answer.

"You've doomed us all." With that his mother spins on her heel and flees the house.

Katniss follows behind her closely and upon reaching the door she shouts at her mother-in-law, "you don't even deserve Peeta! Nothing you will ever do in your life will make you worthy of his concern or affection. You've not shown him any over the years and he certainly doesn't owe you anything!"

His mother doesn't stop, instead she seems to quicken her pace.

The next month passes in a whirlwind of events. Gale is caught poaching after arguing with Katniss in the woods, he's whipped by the new Peacekeeper who has taken over for Cray - not a very pleasant sort of person - Commander Thread, The Hob was burnt down, the mines were closed for several weeks. Punishments are harsher, and carried out, Katniss is less inclined to go into the woods than ever, and parcel day yields rotten and spoiled food.

"Katniss?" Peeta calls to her rubbing her arm. "Are you okay?"

"What?" she looks up at him.

"Are you okay?" he crouches down in front of her sitting in the armchair. "You yelped and then haven't said a word in almost ten minutes. What is going on?" He begins to rub her leg not knowing what's going on, while a multitude of possibilities run through his mind. "Do you need to talk about something?"

"Yeah," she says standing up, nearly knocking him over. "I need to talk to Haymitch."

"Okay…" says Peeta slowly as he gets back on his feet.

Katniss rushes from the house immediately, walks over to Haymitch's, and yanks the door so hard it's a wonder it stayed on it's hinges at all. "Haymitch!" she shouts in the entryway. "Haymitch I need to talk to you!" Walking into the dining area she sees him hunched over the table, out cold. Repeating what she did the last time she found him in the same catatonic state, she throws cold water on his head. and leaps back.

Thrusting his arms around in the air clenching a knife he shouts at her, "What are you doing?"

"I need to talk to you," she says plainly.

"Couldn't you wait like a normal person until I woke up on my own?" there's bitterness in his voice.

"No, because I need to talk to you now," Katniss plops onto the seat opposite of him and bursts into tears.

"Whoa!" groans Haymitch. "I don't do this," he gestures to her. "I don't do crying. No tears. I don't do that. Get out of here."

"Haymitch," she whimpers as her shoulders droop.

"Ugh!" he groans at her. "What?"

"I need your help," Katniss begins to sob.

"Help with what? And please quit crying," he shakes his head. "Can't stand crying."

"It happened," she stops crying suddenly and looks up at him. "I don't know how - well I know how - but it wasn't supposed to happen. Nothing like this was ever supposed to happen! Not to me, not ever to me."

"Well, since you're here you must want to tell me what it is," he slurs the last few words. "So out with it, sweetheart."

"I'm-" her voice falters. "I'm-I'm-I...Haymitch," she collapses on the table.

"Katniss," Haymitch says straightening up from his slouched over position. "You're what?" Instantly there's concern in his voice. "The answer better not be what I think it is."

"You're probably right," she moans.

"Well, that oughta make Snow happy," he shrugs and grabs a bottle off the floor. "Just another thing to hold over your head for the rest of your life. Katniss what were you thinking?"

"I don't know," she looks up at him. "I guess I wasn't thinking! I had no idea-" he gives her a reproachful look. "It only happened once!" Haymitch laughs heartily and makes a joke about how that's all it takes is once. "I'm not old enough to be a mother!"

"Well," shrugs Haymitch. "Not much you can do about that now. And Snow has eyes everywhere, he'd know if you tried to do something. Basically you're stuck, sweetheart. Have you told Peeta?" Katniss shakes her head as tears continue to stream down her face. "Don't you think you should?" She shakes her head again and he sighs, "wrong answer. Like it or not, sweetheart, you're in this marriage for the long haul … or until one of you dies. They would have happened eventually, I guess because you're still young you'll have plenty of children. I don't think Snow would rig the reapings that much."

Katniss stops crying and stares at him blankly. "What?"

"Uh…" Haymitch tries to backtrack but messes up so badly that Katniss bursts into tears again. "Listen, sweetheart," he gets up from his chair opposite her and kneels beside her. "You and Peeta are tough. You know he's going to be thrilled. You'll be alright, sweetheart. It's all going to be alright."

"You can't-" she gasps, "promise that!"

"No," he admits. "But I'll be damned if I don't try to keep that promise." Katniss crosses her arms and lays her head on them upon the table. "Katniss," he coos...albeit drunkenly, "it will be okay in the end. I swear, upon my miserable life, that it will be okay in the end."

Then there's a loud creak from a floorboard and Peeta is in the doorway staring at them. "What did you do Haymitch?"

"Whoa!" slurs Haymitch. "There's no way in hell I'm taking the blame or credit for anything that's going on here," he gets to his feet and waves his arms in the air surrounding Katniss. "This is all you, buddy." He jabs his finger in Peeta's direction. "None of this is even remotely me!" he stumbles backwards and falls over a crate of empty bottles. "This," he clambers to his feet, "is all you bread boy."

"What is all me?" he asks Haymitch stepping towards them.

"This," he gestures with his bottle in her direction. "The girl on fire is in a crumpled mess because of you." He shakes his head and goes in the direction of the living room, "this is all your fault. You two can deal with the consequences of your stupidity together."

"Well, gee," glares Peeta, "thanks?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," mutters Haymitch as he disappears through the doorway.

"Katniss," says Peeta softly as he kneels down by her chair. "What's wrong?" She shakes her head profusely. "You can tell me. Whatever it is, it'll be okay, we'll handle it together."

"Together is what got us into this mess," she shouts. Peeta being unprepared for the hostility falls backwards onto the floor. Katniss jumps up, frantically wipes the tears from her face and kneels down at his side. "I'm sorry…" she shakes her head and rubs his arm. "I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm just not ready!" she's screaming again.

"Not ready for what?" asks Peeta meeting her gaze.

"Nothing...anything…" Katniss begins to shake and tightens her grip on Peeta's arm to keep from falling over. He straightens up and pulls her into his arms. "We can't stop what's going to happen now. It's happening. Our lives are over. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is ours. Nothing will ever be good again."

"Katniss," cries Peeta. "What on earth is going on?"

"You're having a baby, you idiot," shouts Haymitch from the other room, and Katniss pulls back to look at Peeta. "Sorry, to burst your bubble Katniss, but you were taking so long and I just want you to get your crying self out of my house!"

Peeta stares at Katniss open mouthed and neither of them says anything for a very long time. When they do finally decide to talk it isn't until they've made it back to their own house and have collapsed on the bed. Katniss - still sobbing - hasn't stopped crying since Haymitch told Peeta what was going on, why she had run from the house, and why of all people she had gone to talk to Haymitch.

"It's be okay, Katniss," Peeta says stroking her head, though for the time being, even he wasn't sure that it was possible. But for sanity's sake, he was telling her that with confidence anyways. Eventually at some point they both fell asleep, only to be awoken by the same dreams as always woke them up, except now it was an actual, literal possibility.

"I don't want to sleep," she whimpers.

"I know," is his only reply.

Katniss crawls over to him on the bed. "At least it's you."

"What do you mean?" he asks sitting up on his elbow.

"Out of all the people in this crazy messed up world," she looks at him. "At least it's you."

"Good thing or bad thing?" he questions.

"Oh," she smiles faintly. "Good thing. I just thought we had more time to prepare."

"Katniss," says Peeta calmly, "we'd never be prepared for this, whether it happens now or it were to happen in ten years. We'd never be prepared."

"They won't be safe," she shivers. "They'll have their names put in the bowl and they'll be reaped...all because of what I did with those berries. Such a stupid thing to do! But you were hell-bent on dying for me! And that wasn't going to happen...so I grabbed the berries. Perhaps, not the best idea, but all I knew in that moment was I didn't want you to die. And that if you did die, nothing would be the same for me ever again...I'd leave the arena body alone. If you'd died there I don't know what version of me would have come back to District 12...maybe I'd be more like Haymitch. Maybe I would be Haymitch."

"Katniss…" Peeta starts.

"Peeta," she shakes her head. "No. I would not have been fine." She reaches out and grabs his hand. "And even you have to see the similarities between me and Haymitch. I would have absolutely been catatonic. Maybe I wouldn't be drunk all the time, but I wouldn't be normal either. Not that normal really exists."

Peeta shakes his head, "you would have lived."

"No, Peeta," she squeezes his hand. "What is living when a part of you is dead?"

Peeta's face falters momentarily, "then I'll make sure you never have to find out." He brushes her cheek gently with his hand and with his thumb flicks away a tear just forming in her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm here for the long haul."

"I never questioned your sincerity Peeta, never once," she squeezes his hand again, slightly harder than the first time. "Well, there was that time when you didn't talk to me before the Tour-"

"Not all my fault," he shrugs, "but I didn't do anything about that either. I was hurt. Hurt people do crazy things. I was hurt. I was jealous-"

"Of Gale?" she interjects.

"Yeah, Gale," he shrugs. "The end of the Games changed everything. We knew each other, well sort of, like the Tour proved. I don't know how I would have survived that without you."

"Well, you sure would have been able to tell your mother to shut up," she smiles faintly.

"Nah," he shakes his head. "She never would have let me forget how you kept me alive. You have to understand, Katniss. My mother will never care about me. The only reason she cares about me now is because I'm a Victor. The only reason she doesn't hit me now is because, well one, I don't live with her anymore, and two, she's terrified she'll be caught on camera."

"That's horrible," Katniss gasps.

"The point though, Katniss," he shakes his head. "You still went hunting with Gale, but you didn't talk to me. I had thought we'd made a connection, but then there I was, looking at you through my window coming back with your spoils from hunting, knowing you'd probably spent hours with Gale."

"Don't be jealous of Gale," Katniss shakes her head and strokes hi face with her free hand. "There's nothing to be jealous of."

"Well, he seems to think otherwise," shrugs Peeta. "I guess it's his turn to be jealous."

"Don't kid yourself Peeta," she laughs, "he's been jealous of you too."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Katniss nods with a little laugh. "He kissed me, said he had to know, had to do it - just once."

"He kissed you?" Peeta's face is turning red.

"Awhile ago," she nods laughing heartily. "Before the tour. Long before this." She gestures around the bed. "Before this," she points at her stomach finally accepting - more or less - what is going on in her life. "He really has no right to say anything, not anymore."

"Are you going to stop hunting?" he looks at her quizzically.

"No," laughing she taps his nose with her pointer finger. "As long as I can shoot, I'm going to hunt."

"Nothing I say will make a lick of difference, will it?" he asks smiling.

"Nope," she shakes her head profusely.

Peeta leans forward and pulls her face down towards his. "I am right here. Here for you. Here for them. Here for as long as I have breath in my lungs. We'll make up a nursery - we have plenty of rooms - and it will be over the top, because you know Effie is going to have something to say about it."

"Peeta," Katniss says as tears begin to flow once again, "I'm just really glad it's you." She stretches the last few inches between them and kisses him, for all the moments they've had and let go by them in the last few days, weeks, months. Nothing left to withhold, they let go in ways they never have before, the kiss is just the start.

With the sunrise they awaken to a pounding on the front door. Both jump frantically out of bed; Peeta forgetting about his prosthetic leg, crumples to the floor. Once he pulls his leg on he stands up and they throw their clothes to the one another. This is the first peaceful night of sleep they've experienced, quite possibly since the Games ended, only to be awoken by the insane pounding on their front door.

"Who could that be?" hollers Katniss as she yanks her nightgown over her head.

"I don't know," Peeta throws his hands up in the air after tying his pants.

"Why are whoever they are here?" she wretches a robe from the chair behind her and wraps it around herself. "Well this is ridiculous!"

"I couldn't agree more," he says deciding whether or not to wear a shirt.

"Nah," she shakes her head and then winks. "I kinda like you like this."

"It has been decided," he laughs before the pounding intensifies and his laughter is choked out. "We're coming!" he screams out the bedroom door. "Geez. You'd think it was President Snow."

"Don't even joke about that," snaps Katniss. "We don't need that right now too!"

"Right," he nods and immediately walks from the room.

"Wait for me!" Katniss calls running after him.

"You should put some slippers on," he nods back towards their room.

"Oh no," she shakes her head, "way too early for that kind of paranoia Peeta Mellark."

"Give me a break," he laughs. "I'm new at this."

The pounding gets - yet again - louder and more intense than before.

"GOD! We're COMING!" screams Katniss.

"Whoa…." Peeta glares back at her.

"Sorry," she shrugs then guiltily, "hormones?"

Peeta begins to laugh so hard that he has to stop, causing Katniss to lose it at well, "we have to get the door," he says through gasps.

"I'll get it," she shoves him to the side and walks up to the door.

"Nope," Peeta pushes her - gently - behind him, finally regaining his composure, "I'll get the door."

"Fine…" groans Katniss with a smile.

Once they've reached the agreement about the door situation, Peeta pulls it open, only to come face to face with Effie Trinket! At once she rushes into the house. "There's another big, big, big, big, big day ahead of you children!"

"What are we doing today Effie?" exclaims Katniss. "I didn't know we had anything to do?"

"Oh, Katniss," she sighs in reserved disappointment, "of course we have something today. Your prep teams should be here shortly."

"What are we doing Effie?" asks Peeta.

Effie noticing Peeta without a shirt on, "my, my, my, Peeta why don't you be a dear and go put on a shirt?" Laughing he leaves the room.

"What is going on Effie?" Katniss reiterates Peeta's unanswered question.

"President Snow wants an update," she chortles, "so we're doing - well, you're doing - an update interview with Ceaser Flickerman, via video chat. Oh it's going to be absolutely wonderful!"

"Why weren't we informed about this though, Effie?"

"Weren't informed?" Effie gasps. "I sent out information two weeks ago Katniss, are you telling me you never received it?" The look of absolute horror on her face would be hard to misplace.

"No," Katniss shakes her head, "No, Effie we had no clue."

"Oh dear…" she slowly utters. "Well, too late for all that now. Everyone in the Capitol is talking about this! So it will go off without a hitch! It's going to be absolutely glamourous Katniss! You just have to answer the questions asked."

"Okay Effie," nods Katniss. "For you."

Effie looks touched before a tear falls from her face, "why thank you Katniss!" Then she retreats to another part of the house leaving Katniss in the entryway to greet Cinna, Portia, and the rest of her and Peeta's prep teams. "Make them fabulous!" she hollers from the living room. "My, my, my, do we have a lot of work to do here!" she exclaims.

"Hello, Cinna," Katniss sighs.

"Something wrong?" he asks. "You don't look too well."

"We'll talk about it later."

"Okay," he nods. "For now, where is the bathroom. We must make you - in Effie's own words - fabulous!"

"I'm aware," Katniss says somewhat bitterly, "let's get this over with."

"Precisely what I like to hear," says Peeta from the top of the stairs. "Cinna, Portia. Everyone. There's plenty of room up here."

"Wonderful," coos Portia. "Let's get you both looking as glamorous as possible! We've - you've - got a show to put on."