Chapter Forty

Effie's discharge from the hospital was a quiet affair – the work of Plutarch Heavensbee – as all the staff involved in her welfare while she was hospitalised had managed to keep the date of Effie's discharge to themselves under strict orders from their superiors. The sun was high up in the sky and the grass was parched from the dry season in District Twelve when Effie and Haymitch left the hospital for home, glad that there were no reporters or cameras flashing in their faces.

This would not hold out for long and Haymitch realised it, too. It was only a matter of time before word would get out that Effie had given birth and with it, a fresh new set of horror would descend upon him. The press would flock to District Twelve for news. Haymitch and Effie were after all, amongst the first well-known, high-profile individuals to be married under the law and with him trying to actively repeal the law, it only added fuel to the flame – something the press would dredge up to the front page news over and over again. Here he was, a man who was against the law with children of his own, children born as a product of the very law he was trying to get stop. The press would eat that up.

He would need to have a word with Effie about this but in the meantime, he would savour this moment for as long as he could.

While Haymitch revelled and soaked the feeling of not having to fend off pesky, intrusive reporters, Effie seemed oblivious to this stroke of good fortune. In fact, she looked outright miserable.

"They'll be home with us before you know it," he tried, rubbing his hand up and down her arm soothingly.

Resting her head on his shoulder, they continued walking without breaking stride. "I know, but that doesn't make me feel any less wretched."

There was nothing he could say that would appease her so he remained quiet.

Once at home, Effie secluded herself in the room without even bothering to unpack her bag. He had no qualms with her keeping to herself since she was supposed to be resting from the surgery she had except Effie acted as though somebody had died and it grated on his nerves.

He noticed how her hand kept going to her belly, touching and pressing gingerly on it. She would blush whenever he caught her doing it.

"I've left a part of me behind," she muttered, turning away from him to stare out of the window. The cup of chamomile tea he had made for her remained untouched. "You seem perfectly fine with it."

"Because, unlike you, I know that they're being held in the hospital for their own good."

The grip she had on the window sill tightened but not once did she avert her gaze from the group of boys playing tag on the street just outside of Victor's Village. He supposed he should just add that to the list of things he should never have said to his wife.

"Don't you miss them?"

He almost didn't hear her, the words spoken so softly and hesitantly. The way she was looking at him suggested that there was more to that question than what it appeared to be on the surface.

She turned her body slightly so that she was leaning against the wall, watching him carefully from across the room. There was something deeper, something important that she needed to know from him but had wrapped it in a thin layer of innocent question; nuances and shades that hid the real truth. They were good at this game; years of practice evading the bugs in the Penthouse while they discussed the Rebellion had sharpened this ability.

Haymitch blinked slowly and regarded her carefully before he gave an answer to what she was really asking.

Do you want them home?

"The same way you do," he said.

It was a safe answer, in case, he misinterpreted it.

Her eyes flashed briefly in surprise. "Really?"

Your life won't be the same with them around the house, was what he got out of the second question.

"I don't doubt it. Do you?"

"No," she shook her head, turning back to the window. "I've never been so sure."

XxX

The darkness of the night melted, chased away by the sun filtering through the clouds, casting a streak of orange and pink glow across the sky.

Effie blinked sleepily and stretched her arms lazily over her head. The slight prickle at the site of the stitches served as a reminder of the surgery that she had only recently went through and brought her thoughts back to her children.

It was morning, and morning was good. The night had felt arduous and ridiculously time-consuming since all Effie wanted was for morning to come so she could go to the hospital and spend her day with her children again. Effie only managed to fall asleep when Haymitch climbed into bed in the wee hours of the morning and pulled her close to him, whispering in her ears all the troubles boys generally get themselves into in order to distract her. He was good at that, distracting her.

"Your apple tree might be a problem. I can already see one of them climbing that tree, falling off it and breaking a bone or two on the way down," he smiled into her hair.

"Should we cut the tree down?" she chewed her bottom lip worriedly. "Pity though, I was really hoping to see it bear fruits."

"No, sweetheart. Let it be. The boys will be fine."

"Who do you think?" she asked after a while as she turned around in his arms in order to face him, not that she could see much in the dark.

"My bet's on Ethan," Haymitch said. "But you never know."

Effie fell asleep listening to Haymitch talk about some of the things he had seen the boys his age got into while he was growing up in Twelve. He steered clear of tales concerning himself and as curious as she was to know more about his life growing up, she was not keen on spoiling the moment by her inquisitiveness. His stories lulled her to sleep until morning broke over.

"Wake up," she shook his shoulder, gently at first and then with a little bit more force. "Wake up, Haymitch, we need to see the boys. It's morning. We can visit them."

"It's too early, sweetheart," he mumbled sleepily. He shifted on the bed, sleeping on his stomach and turning his face away from her. "Visiting hours isn't until later. Go back to sleep."

He could not honestly expect her to do that when she was already a bundle of nerves anxiously looking forward to seeing her children. Effie leaned forward, brushing strands of his hair away from his face. She kissed his cheek, her breasts pressing on his shoulder blade.

"Go away," he muttered again, but she could see the hidden smile.

"No," she pressed a kiss to the sweet spot behind his ear lobe. "You wake up."

He turned then, lying on his back on the bed, his hands going to her waist. Over her nightgown, his thumb brushed lightly on the stitches, though Effie was sure he wasn't aware of it.

"It's still too early," he said again. He seemed to be repeating himself quite frequently that morning. "What do we do with all this time that we have?"

"Shower, for one," she told him seriously.

"I'm not particularly interested in that shower…. Unless…."

Effie laughed. "No," she shook her head. "The last time I showered with you, you impregnated me."

"Oh, was that my fault? Are you blaming me?" he teased. "After getting two handsome sons you're gonna pin – "

"No," she laughed lightly. "I'm just saying that I'm not ready to be pregnant again! Get up, Haymitch, come on."

He grumbled under his breath but nonetheless, made his way down to feed the geese, telling her to get ready for the hospital. She smiled to herself. If she had known it was that easy to wake him up, she would have sent someone to give him a good morning kiss all those years ago because it wouldn't have been proper to do it herself, obviously. Their relationship was strictly professional at that time even if she did entertain the thought of kissing him once or twice. He was brash and rude, raw around the edges and mostly trouble that it made her wonder what it was like to kiss him - a man from the District - but his constant jibe at her usually quickly doused that curiosity.

XxX

Mostly, in an attempt to kill time and to stop her from going stir crazy at home, Haymitch suggested that they have breakfast at Greasy Sae. It was such a rare and an unusual offer that Effie froze to study him, to make sure that he was still Haymitch Abernathy.

"Are you sure? You've never – "

He shrugged, feeling slightly uncomfortable under her scrutiny. It was just breakfast together in town, after all. There was nothing special about it, well, not to him at least. Besides, it was a perfect opportunity to discuss some matters with her and he hardly ever does anything without a good reason.

"A father now, are ye?" Greasy Sae asked loudly, shuffling over to them with their respective plates of breakfast.

"It would seem so," Haymitch nodded.

"He's helping you with the kids?" the old woman inquired. "Up at night with you, I hope and not snoring with his bottle."

Effie looked stricken at the sudden reminder that they never had the opportunity to be woken up by the children's cries yet.

"They're still at the hospital," Haymitch told her quietly, giving Effie a side long glance. "They were born early."

Greasy Sae seemed to understand and left them alone to attend to some other customers, not that there were many judging from how early it was.

"There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about," Haymitch said after Effie had calmed down.

She took her time seasoning her scrambled eggs with pepper and salt, and only then did she focus her attention on him. "What is it?"

Haymitch leaned forward slightly with his elbows resting on the table. "Remember when Prim was born? The kids brought her to the Hall where there were – "

"No," she shook her head. "We don't owe the press anything. They're our children, Haymitch, and I don't want them to appear in the papers."

"The boys don't have to be there. It could be just the two of us. We'll tell them that you've given birth to twin boys and that you want some privacy to spend time with the children. That's it. We don't have to tell them more than that."

Effie pierced Haymitch with a glare, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Do you really think they would respect our wishes? Plutarch can't control all the lenses in this country. And why are you so eager to speak to the reporters? I thought you hated them."

"He can't, I know that. But I think that it would be better to talk to them as quickly as possible; get rid of them."

For a woman who was good at handling herself in front of the cameras and dealing with the reporters eagerly to trying to capture pictures of him whenever Haymitch acted drunkenly at the Capitol, she was adamantly set against this idea. He didn't need to be a genius to figure out why. This time it was personal and this time, it was her maternal instinct speaking for her.

"You know we can never get rid of them. I don't want our children's pictures to be taken or published anywhere. I don't even think we should be doing this – speaking to the press. If we appear without the boys, they would find a way to get it still; they'd want pictures of the babies. If all appear together, they would still hound us for more pictures. They're persistent that way. Pictures sell, you know that."

He knew that but his plan was to stall the press from shadowing his family by giving what they want for now. He also knew that Effie was set in her ways and she would not change her mind.

"We're not obligated to do anything, just like how we're not obligated to announce this news to them either. If it's up to me, sweetheart, I'd rather not do it but if we don't, they'll just keep coming 'round and I don't want a situation where they're tailing you wherever you go just to get what they want."

Effie was quiet as she mulled over his words.

"I understand where you're coming from, Haymitch. But I'm just concern. I think you're forgetting who you are."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he frowned.

Her eyes darted away from him to the half-eaten plate of breakfast. She appeared restless all of sudden. The bell above the door rang loudly through the eatery, signalling the presence of a new customer which promptly received Effie's undivided attention. She was stalling.

"Effie?"

"Don't… Please don't take this the wrong way," she began. Her eyes pleaded with him to listen to her and to hold his temper in check. He nodded. "I would never bring this up but … it concerns the children, in a way."

"Go on, then. What is it about me that I seemed to have forgotten?"

"Haymitch, you've made enemies," Effie said in a single breath, "and you're making enemies even now. What if… we're putting the children in danger by letting the press run a picture of them? You were one of the figureheads in the Rebellion which made you partly responsible for changing the lifestyle and toppling the political structure that was in place. There are people in the Capitol who are not happy with those changes. And…"

Effie bit her lips, a clear sign that she was worried. She was concerned about how he would react to what she was about to tell him. Effie had never deigned to tell him this bit of her life before, preferring to let the past remain where it belonged – in the past. It was this same philosophy that made her kept the details of her imprisonment to herself even after he had asked her about it.

His frown deepened. Haymitch felt ill at ease at the mention of enemies and rebellion. This was not the kind of talk he was expecting to have with Effie when they left the house that morning.

"Your work with this law… what if you're making enemies out of this, too? Having our children's picture on the front page news would make them a target. Let's not forget my role in your Rebellion. I helped you. There are sympathisers to Snow's ruling, Haymitch. It never bother me that much because it was just us but it's no longer the case now, is it? We have to think of the children. If they want revenge, apart from Katniss and Peeta, you and I would be among the first that -"

Effie stopped abruptly. The scenario was too dreadful for her to consider and the relatively light conversation about the press was quickly turning dark. Haymitch clenched his fist. Her eyes flickered to it.

"I don't mean to bring it up," she whispered. Her hands shook when she reached out for her cup of coffee, sipping it quietly to calm her nerves.

Gently, Haymitch pried the cup out of her hand, settled it on the table and held her trembling hand in his own. "How'd you know all this, Effie? Who have you been talking to?"

If it was Plutarch, Haymitch vowed to have a word with that man. There was no need for Effie to concern herself with such things. She would only worry endlessly.

"About the sympathisers?" she asked.

Haymitch gave a curt nod. He gritted his teeth in an attempt to control his erratic heartbeat and the sudden spike of fear he felt at the thought of his family in danger.

Not again. Never again.

"I had a life before I married you," she told him. "A life in the Capitol, post-rebellion. It wasn't exactly sunshine and roses, you know. I lived alone in my apartment and I get threats nearly every day – papers slipped into my mail box on good days or on bad days, I come home to find dead animals on my front door, sometimes paint splattered on my door."

"Why wasn't I aware of this?" his voice was taut.

"It wasn't any of your business, was it?" she gave him a tight lipped smile, remembering those times she struggled just to leave the house and worrying about her safety. "I didn't want to bother you with such trivialities. You had Katniss to worry about and I … Well, I was doing okay at the Capitol for the most part," she lied. "I told Plutarch about it and he made sure I wouldn't be in any danger. We think it's mostly harmless, a scare tactic just to frighten me. Besides, it wouldn't do to harm someone so closely associated to Katniss Everdeen, would it? Not when your side had won."

Haymitch struggled not slam his fist on the table in anger. Plutarch knew and had kept it to himself. That wasn't the most troubling bit. The manner, in which Effie was relaying the story to him, calm and collected, worried him the most. It was the tone of someone who had accepted her fate and knew that there was nothing she could do to change it.

"Elias made sure I was okay, too," he heard her say. "He called me every day and Felix made sure I was never alone whenever I had to leave the house. I think Felix was glad that I decided to move to Twelve with you after we got married but the threats had stopped by then."

"This went on for… how long exactly?"

"Not long - a year; a year and half maybe. It stopped even before the law came about. Plutarch thinks it was just a small group, powerless to do anything more than a few harmless threats. He assured me that the President is aware of it and that the government is keeping a close eye on any kind suspicious activities."

Haymitch nodded, slowly unclenching his fist to let the blood flow through it normally.

"They are monitoring the situation which was partly the reason why she visited us a few months ago. She asked me to stop with those interviews to the districts, remember? The Council pegged those interviews as suspicious."

Haymitch had never told her of the investigation they had launched on him and he saw no reason to divulge such information or the fact that her cousin was the one to tip the Council off. From what he gathered, Elias seemed to care about Effie, even if he was the one who was prepared to give Effie up to Klaus Adler. Who was he to judge? People care differently. Haymitch kept information from Effie to protect her. Elias thought his partner would be able to provide for Effie better than he could. Felix was someone with whom Effie could relate her old life in the Capitol with, and he indulged and accompanied her for shopping trips, the likes of which Haymitch could never bring himself to do.

These men in her life are all flawed but they all had one thing in common – they care about her.

"I supposed, we could issue a statement and let the press published it without us actually having to be present," Effie suggested, bring the discussion back to the issue at hand.

"It wouldn't make much of a difference," he pointed out. "What if they start to trail you?"

"That's not something that we could avoid. It will happen but it doesn't mean that I want to willingly step up in front of them and let my children be photographed."

He speared her bacon with his fork, helping her finish her breakfast, and chewed thoughtfully before he answered. "I'll tell Plutarch we're not speaking to them. The press be damned. When have I ever cared about them anyway?"

"Never," she laughed.

With breakfast done and the visiting hours only minutes away, Haymitch held the door open for Effie as she waved goodbye to Greasy Sae. They walked next to each other, her hand held loosely in his as they navigated through the crowds to the hospital.

"Felix wants to throw a party," Haymitch informed her, "here in Twelve. Told me to give him a suitable date."

"A party?" her face lighted up slightly before it fell. "But… We can't have a party without the babies. It has to be until they're home. What's a baby shower without the babies?"

"A shower," he joked only to have Effie glaring at him. "Anyway, yeah, the party… I could tell him that you're not up to it.

"Why wouldn't I be up to it?"

"You just had surgery and the twins are early. It's probably not a good idea, after all."

It was a long shot and it was clear that he was clutching at straws hoping that Effie would not agree to it. It was a misplaced wish because this was Effie. Unlike him, she was not averse to social gatherings. A party is right up her alley, especially, if it is to celebrate her sons.

"Don't be silly!" she tittered. "Back in the Capitol, a baby shower is a way to celebrate the birth of a child. It's also a way to inform everyone of the new addition to the family."

"That's… a bit showy, isn't it? Nobody likes a show-off and how do you even know if people are interested to meet the baby."

"Of course they want to meet the baby! It's a baby, for goodness sake," Effie narrowed her eyes at him suddenly and tilted her head to the side. "Don't try to wriggle out of this one, Haymitch."

"I'm not," he glowered. "I was just saying that given the circumstances it's probably not wise to tire yourself. You do have two infants to care for. We never have such parties here," he countered disapprovingly. "We can't afford to feed that many people."

Effie was quiet. There it was again, the glaring distinction of where they were from and the lives they used to lead. It was a trying period of adjustment not only for them, but for everyone who had married someone outside their own district with each party bringing in their own beliefs and practices into it. Fortunately for Haymitch, just like with the toasting ceremony, Effie was willing to learn and accept practices she was not familiar with. It was easier to deal with her conciliatory nature compared to when she was being outright stubborn. He probably shouldn't complain. He was aware of his own tenacious personality.

"What – What do you have here then? How do you celebrate the joyous occasion?"

"A small gathering, mostly," he shrugged her. "Usually something simple - the family members would visit the couple's house to meet the child. I remembered that from when my brother was born."

Haymitch could hear the gears turning in her head as she thought about it.

"We could have a small party," she tried to compromise. "Just people we know."

"You know a lot of people," he pointed out, not quite ready to give in.

"I used to," she answered. "Not anymore. It won't be like our wedding," she reassured him. "I won't invite my aunts that you could barely stand to be in the same room with."

They had arrived at the hospital lobby and he would rather not be discussing any of this while they visited the boys.

"Alright," he conceded amicably.

He reckoned that it would be tolerable without her overbearing relatives at the baby shower except it wasn't her aunt that made the day unbearable for him. It was someone he never expected.

This is a very long chapter to make up for the writer's block (which I think is slowly going away. Yay!). I know their children didn't make an appearance in this but there will be plenty of time for them in future chapters. I just wanted to focus on Haymitch and Effie, and how there are still things about each other that they still don't know and Haymitch's unwillingness to open himself up that much.

Just thought it'll be interesting to share that while trying to deal with my writer's block, i wrote the last chapter of consortium - so it's sitting smugly in my hard disk waiting for the right time. Anyway, please leave a review about your thoughts for this chapter. I spent such a long time on this chapter so a review would be nice :)

And to the Guest reviewer asking about Live A Little II, it's been taken down. Sorry.