Chapter Fifteen
The week before Peeta and Haymitch were due to conduct the interviews was a busy period for Effie. Both she and Plutarch had taken on the task of calling up the couples whose names were listed on the document Effie managed to procure a few months before. Only those who consented to be being interviewed were slotted in for one.
The plan was simple enough. They needed to get on record the opinions of the masses and the way the law had impacted or affected their life both good and bad, and the social impact that they noticed happening around their district since the law was implemented.
Haymitch had been surprised by the response. The list of those who agreed to be a part of it was more than expected and in light of the numbers of names on the list, Plutarch had suggested that the interview be split into two different dates. Haymitch had agreed on it although Peeta had hesitated for a minute, claiming that Katniss was nearing her due date in a few weeks.
"That's in a few weeks!" said Haymitch, not understanding what the worry was all about.
"Babies rarely arrive on time or on schedule," Peeta muttered.
After some assurance from both Haymitch and Plutarch that the second part of the interview could be scheduled after Katniss had given birth or right before, Peeta came to a compromise – they would go for the first round of interview and evaluate the situation first before deciding on the second date.
XxX
A day before he was due to leave, Effie occupied herself by helping him pack his bag for the trip simply because she needed something to do.
Haymitch was standing next to her, picking out the clothes Effie had suggested he brought with him. Nodding towards her stomach, Haymitch commented as he handed a shirt of his choosing for her to fold and keep in the bag, "you're starting to show."
Effie paused whatever she was doing, straightened up and walked over to the full length mirror, critically examining herself. "Are you saying I'm fat?"
He frowned having sense that it was a possible trick question.
"I said nothing of that nature. I said you're showing. As in, I noticed a bump. But if you're asking, yes, I've also noticed that you've put on some weight."
She gasped at the honesty of his statement.
"Not fat," he added quickly, "just... You know, gained weight that's all. And that's perfectly normal, read it in your brochure."
"I didn't know you could be so observant and knowledgeable, Haymitch," she smiled at him. "I wish you could come with me for my next appointment."
There it was again – the appointment. He had lost count the number of times she had brought up the appointment. If he didn't know better, it was almost as if she was trying to guilt trip him into staying at Twelve till her appointment had passed but he knew she was just thinking out loud – wishful thinking.
"It's just an appointment, you'll be fine. I've got work to do. I'll call you once in a while, alright?"
"It's different if you're there," she said quietly.
"The last time I was there you ordered me out of the room."
Effie gave him a rueful smile at the memory of Haymitch having his panic attack.
"You can call me if there's anything interesting that the doctor said about the …. twins," he finished.
Haymitch still wasn't used to referring to the babies as twins. He still had not fully comprehended the fact that in a few months there would be two new lives in the Abernathy household.
His thoughts came to a screeching halt. When did he begin to think of them as a family unit?
This was a temporary arrangement, he reminded himself, at least until the law is gone. They are his children but there was no need to implicate himself - especially his feelings - with Effie any more than was necessary. He was only trying to protect himself for when she return to the Capitol.
XxX
District Seven burnt with the heat of the unrelenting midday sun. He had just landed on District Seven two hours ago and was ready to head back to the hovercraft where the air was much cooler. It didn't help that he was exhausted beyond belief after six days of constant travelling. He craved for his own bed and the comfort of drinking leisurely out at his front porch without Plutarch telling him he could not meet people while smelling of liquor.
"I will give you an interview. But you never asked me," Johanna said, crossing her arms in front of her.
The shirt Haymitch was wearing was sticking to his skin. He was uncomfortable but Johanna was oblivious to it. Haymitch downed the glass of water she had provided for him and the small crew he had and took his time answering her.
"I didn't ask you for a reason. I don't want Paylor to think I'm gathering the former Victors to go against her, you understand?"
"It's not her I'm against," she clarified. "It's the law and I only want to speak the truth."
"Let Gale speak on your behalf," Haymitch placated her. "You get along well with him?"
She shrugged and Haymitch had a distinct feeling that he probably wouldn't like what he was about to hear.
"Yeah. More or less. He taught me how to set up snares, I taught him a thing or two about axes. I think he likes watching me wield the axe, gave him some sort of thrill," she smirked at him.
"Right," replied Haymitch, refusing to rise up to Johanna's teasing although the images of her and Gale did invade his mind.
"What about your Capitol princess? Read in the papers that she's pregnant," she said. "They're yours?"
Haymitch scowled at her, feeling slighted by her question.
"Of course they're mine," he spat. "What are you trying to say?"
Johanna smiled at him over her shoulders before looking out the window to watch Peeta talking to Gale outside their home.
"You know what it's like in the Capitol before the Games?" she asked. "Sex was a way to pass the time and I think now… Even with the law…"
"Sure, I know about it," Haymitch answered, thinking back to his encounter with Adria Stone.
"So, she's been faithful to you?"
The question struck chord in him. Haymitch tilted his head to the side and watched Johanna as she leaned against the wall, waiting for him reply.
"Yes," he answered off the beat. It filled him with a strange sense of pride to know that he could answer Johanna's question without having to doubt Effie at all.
"And have you?"
Johanna narrowed her eyes at him when he took slightly longer to answer.
"Yes, not that I have to answer to the likes of you or anything like that," he muttered.
"Lucky."
"What's the matter?" Haymitch asked when he picked up the slightly despondent tone in her voice.
Johanna shrugged again and shuffled over to sit across from him. She looked at him briefly before averting her gaze elsewhere.
"I don't know. I think he has someone, but I can't tell for sure."
"Jo – "
"I don't know, Haymitch," she sighed. "We get along - Gale and I - but there's no affection there."
He opened his mouth to say something but shut it again when he realised he had nothing comforting to offer to the young woman.
Then her eyes blazed with the stubborn familiarity Haymitch was used to seeing during their time as mentors together. Her voice took on a hard edge when she spoke next.
"I want this to end. You end this law, Haymitch. Promise me. And if you need any sort of help at all, I'm here."
He never thought Johanna Mason, hardened by the brutality of the Games - the proud, slightly stubborn and on edge girl from Seven - would ever want such a thing as affection. His mother had told him once that no man could lead a solitary life but that had been his life for more than two decades. It wasn't easy but he had just grown use to it. Perhaps deep within that tough exterior Johanna projected to the world was a woman crying for a little bit of attention and love.
"When are you going back to Two?" Haymitch queried.
From what little he gathered, just like him and Effie, Johanna and Gale had a house in both District Two and Seven respectively. Johanna had refused to give up her home where she had grown up to move to a different district all together. Her house remained and she would sometimes return to District Seven with or without Gale.
"End of the week."
They said nothing for a long while. Haymitch pressed the cool glass on his cheeks, desperately wishing he could take a cold shower. The heat was unbearable. He was desperately wishing for Peeta to hurry with the interview and gather all the information he needed so they could board the hovercraft and return home.
"She's having twins," he broke the silence, more out of the need to distract himself from the desperate need to go home than the need to make small talk.
"You're having twins?" Johanna repeated the questions. She looked at him disbelievingly.
"Yeah, we are. Weird isn't it? Me - a father. Those poor kids."
Johanna laughed. She sat back on the chair, with a hand covering her mouth as she laughed at him.
"You and Effie – parents to two kids at the first try?" she chuckled. "Good luck, you're going to need it."
Haymitch pretended to be annoyed. "Stop laughing at me, you idiot."
It took her a while to calm down. "To be honest, I think you'll do fine," she said earnestly. "You'd be an okay father. You've been doing it all these time anyway. Being a father figure, I mean."
Haymitch looked confused, his brows crinkled as he tried to make sense of what Johanna just said.
"It'll be like back then, when you look after me and Finnick, yeah?" she said. A dark cloud settled over her when she mentioned Finnick's name. Johanna and Finnick had been close and had formed a friendship much like he had with Chaff. When she found out Finnick's fate, Johanna's rage was a sight to behold. Haymitch had witnessed it as she blamed herself, repeatedly telling him that if she had been stronger and had passed the test Coin had set out, she could have been chosen to go with the squad to the Capitol. She could have done something to help Finnick and despite repeated reassurance from Haymitch that there was nothing she could have done, Johanna led her life believing otherwise.
"And you did the same with Katniss and Peeta," she continued. "We were your kids, but we're fine now, Haymitch. We're okay. The twins? They're your blood and I'm pretty damn sure, you wouldn't let shit happen to them."
Haymitch clutched his hand to his chest, and with a mocking smile, he said, "your faith in me is astounding, not to mention misplaced."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. But you've got Effie. She'll be a good mother. I believe in her."
"How so?" he asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow in question.
Johanna did not answer and Haymitch did not press her for one thinking that whatever it was, she probably did not want to talk about it. She surprised him when she spoke up about her imprisonment, a topic that was as sensitive to her as it was for Effie.
"She looked after me and Annie in prison," she spoke quietly. "I don't like to think about it. But there are things you just don't forget. When they electrocuted me that first night and threw me back in the cell, Effie was there. She had not been transferred to a different cell yet. She saw the state I was in and laid my head in her lap. Your Capitol princess looked out for me that night and the days that followed until they ripped her away from us. She tried to stop the bleeding from my wounds even though I knew she knew nothing much about first aid."
"She never told me any of this," Haymitch said.
"She couldn't. I told her I'll kill her if she repeated it to anyone," Johanna grinned. "I might have scare her with my threat of death. Who knows? But she never breathed a word about what happened in that cell to anyone."
"What happened to her in that prison, Jo?"
Johanna looked at him in surprise. "Don't you know?"
"No, I told you she never said anything," he shook his head. "She was in a pretty bad shape when we got her out, that's all I know. I never knew what happened. She never brought it up, I never asked and I don't think she wants to talk about it."
"Sorry, Mitch," she said. He rolled his eyes at the nickname that he only allowed Johanna, Finnick and Chaff to use and get away with. "Can't tell you. It's not really my place. Boy or girl?"
"What?"
"Your kids."
"I don't know," he answered. "Is today Friday? Her appointment is today. Can I borrow your phone?"
XxX
He called her twice and didn't get an answer. The third time he called, Effie picked up when he had nearly given up on her ever answering.
"Hey, Eff," he greeted. "Took you long enough."
"Haymitch!" she exclaimed, sounding so pleasantly surprised that he could almost picture her smiling through the phone. "I'm sorry, I was doing something."
"I'm at Seven; at Johanna's house."
"Oh, right on schedule then," she said. "Oh, say hello to her for me, will you?"
"Sure. So… did you see them on that thing… the scan? You saw the twins?"
"I did!" she said excitedly. "Oh, Haymitch, I saw them. It was so clear. I'll show the sonogram to you when you get back. When will you be back?"
"Tomorrow," he said, cradling the phone on his shoulder and glancing at Johanna who was giving him an amused look from where she was sitting. "So we're really having two?"
"You know, Haymitch, it's really nice to hear you say "we". It's like… It's good to know that you've considered yourself to be a part of -," Effie stopped abruptly, suddenly aware that she had said it out loud. "I – Yes, to answer your questions, yes, we're really having two."
Haymitch breathed out. "Unbelievable. And what about the gender? Johanna was asking."
"I don't know. I've decided that I don't want to know. I want it to be a surprise."
"Are you sure? I don't know much about pregnancy but don't we have to think about the names before they're born? Logically, speaking? Or is it going to be gender neutral?"
It seemed unlike Effie to not want to be as prepared as possible. He thought that she would definitely want to know the gender of the babies, it would make everything easier.
"I thought about that. We could pick out names for both boys and girls! That would be fun, don't you think?"
"No, I don't think it will," he muttered. "That's double the work."
"Well, if you want to know, you can," she sighed at his reluctance. "Dr. Bell will be able to tell you at the next appointment but just… just keep it to yourself."
This chapter has been a pain in the neck to edit. This isn't my favourite chapter by a long shot but I hope you don't hate on this too much! :/ I haven't mentioned the law in quite a while and the bit on Johanna was to show that there are other victors/rebels apart from Haymitch that is affected by the law and to show how it's affecting her. As to why she is married to Gale? He was the first person to come to my mind instead of creating an OC to be Johanna's husband.
In Chapter Seventeen - Hayffie fight/drama. Do review, it'll make my day!