Chapter Four

The Power of Love

Food had always been a large part of Katniss' life; acquiring it, preparing it, sharing not enough of it between too many hungry mouths, and truly rare moments of actually getting to enjoy it. The latter had come mostly during Katniss' time in the Capitol, and had been a small consolation for the trials and cruelties she had faced there. For a huge portion of her young adult life, hunting and scavenging for enough food to feed her starving family had been the sole purpose of Katniss' existence, and it almost seemed odd now to have reached a state where food was plentiful.

However, Katniss was simply content with the fact that, in all her four years on Earth, Briar had never once known hunger. Katniss had never dreamed of a Panem in her own lifetime where her child would not experience the sensation of an empty belly, and so she was grateful to 13 for what they were able to provide. Although food was still rationed, the quality and variety of it had vastly improved since Katniss and Gale had first arrived in the District, mostly due to the secret trade agreements that 13 had been able to arrange with Districts 4 and 11 since the rebellion had begun. Although 10 had yet to pledge their allegiance either way, preferring to remain neutral due to the fear the Capitol had instilled in the population, they also sent whatever they could spare in the way of meat.

Sliding into a canteen bench, Katniss turned to hoist Briar onto the seat by her side before affixing a cloth napkin around the child's neck as she waited for Gale to return with their trays. On the menu that evening was a simple turkey broth, steamed vegetables and a small wholemeal bread roll, which was always the first item that Briar would devour. Once a week, the kitchen staff managed to scrape together something that resembled a dessert course, usually on a Saturday evening. This had become Briar's favourite day of the week, and she usually counted down the days with great anticipation. The hours beforehand were spent interrogating her parents as to what they thought that night's dessert may be.

Briar Hawthorne sat impatiently on the bench, swinging her little legs to and fro as her bright grey eyes followed her father's figure across the room, as though sheer will could hurry him along.

"I'm hungwy, Mommy," Briar whined, huffing impatiently before she once again checked on her father's progress.

"I know, baby, but Daddy's almost done," Katniss assured her, glancing down as the little girl leaned her head against her torso and wrapped her arms around her mother's arm, though her eyes were not once drawn from the dinner line.

Katniss smiled fondly at her child, reaching out to stroke her cheek before she too allowed her eyes to rest on Gale's imposing form. Keeping a restraining hand on Briar's leg, she propped her chin in her free hand, and watched Gale chat to the canteen staff with his usual ease and sincerity.

Gale Hawthorne was well respected by the men under his command and liked by the residents of the district, who appreciated his strength, loyalty, and innate kindness. Seeing him through their eyes never failed to make Katniss thankful for having Gale in her life, and she couldn't imagine a more devoted or adoring husband and father.

Of course Gale was also particularly handsome- another factor which had obviously not gone unnoticed by his young wife, or indeed some of the other female citizens of District 13. Sometimes, it almost felt to Katniss like being back in school, where she was forced to clamour for Gale's attention alongside a crowd of hormonal and overly excitable teenage girls. Nothing could have been further from the truth really, but even the Mockingjay was prone to the occasional bouts of insecurity and self-doubt.

As Gale finally began to leave the line and head in the direction of their table, Briar heaved an audible sigh of relief. She bounced in her seat in anticipation and Katniss gently squeezed her knee as a reminder to sit patiently and wait.

Gale placed Briar's tray down first, succeeding in finally coaxing a smile from the little girl, who had woken from her nap unusually crotchety. Her mood had meant that Katniss had been able to achieve little in the way of work for the rest of the afternoon. Instead they had visited the medical wing, where Prim and Mrs. Everdeen had been taking inventory and Briar had been allowed to practice counting packages of bandages. She could never get past 30 but there was very little that could steal the joy from a visit to Grandma and Auntie Prim.

"What do you say?" Katniss reminded her daughter pointedly as she grabbed at her bread roll without a word, her eyes wide with anticipation.

"Thank you…" she finally mumbled from around a mouthful of bread. Shaking her head in a mixture of despair and amusement, Katniss surreptitiously slid her own roll onto Briar's tray. Their daughter had a healthy appetite and could easily have managed double the child size portions that the canteen workers saw fit to provide her with. Katniss, having grown up in the cold shadow of hunger for most of her life, could never stand to see Briar denied something that she was able to provide, and so she often found herself sharing portions of her own meal with the little girl. Besides, she had lost her taste for bread during recent years.

"Catnip…" Gale chided quietly, eyebrow arched at his wife, who only smiled back in response.

He opened his mouth as though to say more, no doubt poised to scold Katniss further, when the large television hanging from the centre of the ceiling suddenly burst into life with a picture of the Capitol emblem emblazoned in the centre of the screen. A deathly hush naturally fell over the canteen, and Gale and Katniss exchanged glances. Briar simply continued eating, finding the messages relayed from the funny looking people in the 'bad place' usually to be rather dull and uninteresting.

The regular fanfare assaulted their ears and the patriotic image of the Panem flag blowing in the breeze filled the screen. Then slowly but surely, the camera panned to the expansive presidential office. With an embarrassing degree of dramatic flair that reminded Katniss of her own regular brushes with TV broadcasting, the camera focused on a solitary figure standing with one hand on the white marble fireplace with his back facing the audience.

With a decisive air, the man turned suddenly and the audience were greeted by their new president, who carried himself with a stoic yet stately demeanor that befitted his surroundings.

Katniss felt like all the air in the room had suddenly disappeared, and her head began to swim as she gazed at the screen with a sickly recognition.

"Oh my God…" she breathed, her eyes wide and conveying the same level of shock that her fellow diners exhibited themselves.

"Peeta?"

As the new master of Panem began to speak, Katniss lost her grip on the fork in her hand and it fell against her tray with a metallic clang.

Gale's complexion visibly paled, and he found himself immediately afraid to meet his wife's gaze for fear of the emotion he might find scrawled across her features. Although Katniss had never given him reason to believe that he meant anything other than the world to her, for the past eight years Gale had felt as though he were living slightly in the shadow of fear that resulted from Peeta's existence in the Capitol. Gale was acutely aware that he had not shared the experience of the Games with Katniss and that, despite the depths of his feelings for his wife, he could never truly understand what she had gone through to simply survive. He was her constant and her comfort whenever she would wake in the night, still haunted by the faces of those she had killed or those who had stalked her intent on murder, but Gale had not been there and Peeta had. For that, he would never truly forgive himself.

A successive attempt to rescue the other tributes from the Capitol had been made not long after Gale had left the hospital wing following his surgery. Both Katniss and Gale had been banned from the mission by Plutarch, much to the relief of their families. The ten men who had volunteered for the mission had never returned home and just a few days later, spurred on by information likely fed to them by their new hostages, the Capitol had launched its most vicious attack on 13 since the rebellion had begun. Hovercrafts and stockpiled weapons had been destroyed along with several areas of the underground District. Men, women and children had lost their lives in countless numbers. The Everdeen and Hawthorne families were among those spared, having reached the shelters quickly after the siren had first sounded. Plutarch and Boggs had not been quite so fortunate, and with their deaths the rebellion had been dealt another, significant blow.

Several days of intense bombing had ended as abruptly as it had begun. Coin, emotionally destroyed by the atrocities and losses that had been inflicted upon her people, had not thought twice before retaliating. Hovercrafts loaded with the majority of their remaining weaponry had been deployed to the Capitol, and weapons munitions factories had been blown to smithereens.

It had been difficult but, whilst Katniss had been trying to harden her heart to the violence that occurred around her, images of Peeta, smiling and well as he followed in Snow's footsteps like a lap dog, had suddenly started to dominate the Capitol transmissions. Any surviving shreds of loyalty and concern that Katniss had once felt for her friend, the boy with the bread, had been well and truly obliterated.

"Citizens of Panem," Peeta stated, his tone ringing authoritatively as he addressed the camera directly, a half smile playing across his lips, "today marks the dawning of a new era."

The whispers and hisses passed between the tables of diners suddenly gave way to an eerie kind of hush, and even Briar directed her attention to the screen. She tugged at Gale's sleeve, her expression curious.

"Who's that man, Daddy?" Briar demanded, her voice echoing around the room. Every pair of eyes were suddenly focused on the Mockingjay, and Katniss felt the bile rising in the back of her throat. She gripped the edge of the table, struggling to regulate her own breathing and retain the calm, collected air that had come to be expected of her. From across the room, Coin gazed at her through sympathetic eyes.

"He's nobody, little duck. Nobody you need to be worried about, okay?" Katniss reassured her daughter, watching as Briar took a moment to digest the information before she bit into her second bread roll.

Gale leaned down, brushing a kiss to the top of his daughter's head, and she grinned through a mouthful of food, oblivious to the tension in the room.

Katniss' thoughts quickly drifted to the ramifications of the situation; they would have to respond in kind to the transmission to show a united front against the new face of the Capitol's dictatorship. Her former 'relationship' with Peeta would likely bring her under intense scrutiny from the leaders of the rebel aligned Districts, but her greatest fear was that Peeta's fight against the rebellion might now become personal.

Shaking herself from her reverie, Katniss returned her eyes to the screen. She reached blindly around Briar's back and sought out Gale's hand, and he wordlessly enclosed it within his own.

Peeta appeared to have breezed through the pleasantries of his broadcast, and had set about establishing and announcing the plans he had for the city, and for the fractured, warring country he had inherited.

"I know these are dark times for us all. I grieve for your losses, and I am truly sorry that so many of you have fallen under the thrall of a young woman who would see you all suffer for her own foolish ends. I…" he paused for dramatic effect and cast his eyes momentarily to the ground, "I thought I knew Katniss Everdeen, but I was taken in just as all of you have been- taken in by her lies and self-serving defiance. I will do my best to help you, to return this country to its former glory. To restore order and peace once more so that we may all live in harmony, with the Capitol restored to its rightful place at the heart of this land. But do not mistake my compassion for weakness; the rebellion will be defeated, make no mistake. This plague of willful defiance will be swept from the landscape, by any force I deem necessary."

A wave of hushed voices crested over the room and Katniss watched the expressions of those assembled turn swiftly from shock to renewed anger. If Peeta was lacking one particular leadership skill, it was political savvy. He had never lived as the people surrounding Katniss had lived; as she and her family once had – starving, afraid, and facing a future filled with uncertainties. He could never understand how it felt to be at the bottom of the food chain- oppressed and terrorised into submission.

"But…" he continued, "there is one way we can bring this terrible, terrible situation to an end without further loss of life on either side."

The camera panned closer to this face, and his expression darkened significantly as he demanded, "Surrender the Mockingjay."

Katniss' mouth dropped open and she felt the blood drain from her face. In an instant, her worst fears had been confirmed and she was no longer under any illusions that Peeta's speech was about the rebellion or even Panem - it was about her, even after so many years had elapsed.

"As of today, there is a reward offered to whomsoever can provide information or assistance that leads to the capture of Katniss Everdeen. Think of your family, think of your children, think of yourselves. Is this any way to live? You know what you have to do. A full pardon will be granted to each rebelling District, so long as the Mockingjay is delivered to me."

Gale was on his feet almost immediately, his features contorted with rage as he stared at the screen with unbridled hatred.

"Son of a bitch…" he snarled, momentarily forgetting himself and the presence of his child.

"Gale…" Katniss warned, casting a meaningful glance down at their daughter, who was peering up at her father with a distinct air of confusion surrounding her. Gale immediately slipped his mask of composure back into place, shooting Briar an apologetic smile.

The room had erupted into a steady stream of loud and disruptive chatter, and Katniss could barely hear herself think in the resultant din. She raked her hands through her hair, hardly caring that she was half destroying her usual braid in the process, causing hair to escape its confines in unruly handfuls.

She barely noticed Effie and Haymitch join them, the former distracting Briar with animated conversation whilst the latter spoke quietly in Gale's ear. Katniss watched with a strange sense of detachment washing over her as her old mentor whispered to her husband, and Gale's jaw tensed in fury at whatever Haymitch had seen fit to tell him. There was a sudden darkness present in his eyes that Katniss recognised immediately from their time back in District 12; it had been the same look that had overtaken him when he had dragged Prim away from her on the day of the reaping, and when he had been bound to the whipping post for interfering with the Peacekeepers' attempt to beat down their friends. The next thing Katniss knew, Gale's arm was sliding through hers and he was leading her towards the canteen exit, which Coin had already started out towards with purpose in her eyes.

"Coin's calling an emergency meeting," Gale mumbled, hating that every pair of eyes in the room was now focused on his wife.

Katniss nodded, watching as other key members of military personnel rose from their seats and followed behind them. Silence fell over the canteen and suddenly only the voices of young children were audible. The screen on the wall had long since grown dark and the insignia of District 13 had replaced Peeta's hardened features, but many still continued to stare at the monitor as though haunted by what they had just witnessed.

Slipping her arm free of Gale's, Katniss instead reached for his hand, interlocking their fingers so tightly that her knuckles whitened.

They continued through the hallways until they reached the control room, but Gale's finger stilled over the keypad and he instead turned to face the woman beside him.

Gale lifted their joined hands to his chest, forcing Katniss to hold his gaze. The fear he saw reflected in her eyes made his heart ache and only served to remind him of times that he had thought long past.

"I will never let him hurt you," he promised, widening his eyes to communicate the sincerity behind his vow.

Katniss nodded, glancing through the reinforced glass in the door to check for observers, before she lifted herself on tip toe and snatched a brief kiss.

"We've got work to do," she stated, her tone all business as her fear for her family overcame her and a steely resolve settled across her features. She tapped in the code that would open the door to command and marched ahead, Gale following in her wake, ever the watchful presence. They moved past monitors and work stations, straight to the back of the room, where several doorways that led to meeting rooms were positioned. The door to the largest room was ajar and Katniss could see uniformed men and women sliding into chairs behind the table, grave expressions affixed on their faces.

Coin and her advisers were already positioned around the large oval table, and Gale felt the eyes of General Finch upon him before he had even stepped fully into the briefing room being used to accommodate the meeting. He threw his hand up in a half-hearted salute, his usual diligence effected somewhat by the images that had just been relayed from the Capitol. The General nodded nonetheless, willing to overlook Captain Hawthorne's uncharacteristic sloppiness on account of the shock still dominating the young man's features.

"Please sit down," Coin insisted, gesturing to two empty chairs positioned at the bottom of the table. Katniss swallowed hard and wordlessly obeyed, settling onto the edge of her chair and laying her hands palm side down on the surface of the table. Gale deliberately brushed his shoulder against hers, a silent reminder of his proximity and support.

"I want to thank you all for coming here at such short notice," Coin began, pausing as she directed a look at Katniss, "and I want to assure you that the new president's demands will be treated by all in District 13 with as much disdain as his predecessor's."

"I need to go on the air," Katniss blurted out, forgoing any formalities or debate, "the Districts need to see us respond."

Coin surveyed those seated around the table, finding that each one nodded their agreement; all except for Gale, who remained still and silent.

"Captain Hawthorne?" Coin roused him from his thoughts, arching an eyebrow as she leaned her hand on the table and awaited his opinion.

Katniss turned to regard her husband, almost sensing his objection to putting her in the public eye and, perhaps more importantly, the eye of the Capitol and its crazed new leader.

But when Gale lifted his head to speak, she found him instead agreeing with her.

"We need to assemble the leaders of the allied Districts. If Katniss goes on air, she can't be seen to stand alone. We're not the only ones in this fight, and we're not the only ones who stand to lose everything if the Capitol win this damn war."

Katniss offered her husband a small, fragile smile of thanks before she turned back to their own leader, her decision set.

"I'll do whatever you need, under one condition," she stated, licking her lips as she waited for Coin to respond.

The older woman's mouth twisted into a weary yet understanding smile as she regarded her Mockingjay; the girl she had actually grown quite fond of over time.

"There's always a condition, Katniss," she replied, nodding as she added, "name it and as usual we'll do our best to accommodate."

Katniss gulped, her fear suddenly discernible in her body language as her hands began to tremble.

"I need to know that the Capitol won't find out about Briar," she said, shooting a glance at Gale, who returned her concerned look. "More so than ever now, if they know about her, she'll become a weapon to use against me."

"That's always been a concern of ours, Katniss," Coin replied, her eyes softening as she regarded the worried young mother, and recalled when she had been the very same. "As always, we will do our best to ensure that doesn't happen."

Katniss shook her head, silencing Coin suddenly as she interjected, "If he finds out, I need to know that I'll be allowed to do whatever it takes to… to make sure they can't hurt her."

President Coin narrowed her eyes thoughtfully and folded her arms across her chest as she regarded the Mockingjay. "Are you talking about assassinating the president of Panem, Katniss?"

Katniss shrugged, her thoughts firmly settled on her young daughter as her jaw set in determination, "If it comes down to that, then yes. I am."

Coin inhaled slowly, her tone uncertain as she queried, "And are you sure you would be capable of that? Given your… complicated history with Peeta Mellark?"

The president stared at the girl intently, recalling how desperate Katniss had been to keep Peeta alive upon first arriving in the District. She wasn't sure exactly how much of the Capitol love story had been fabricated, nor did she doubt Katniss' affection for her husband, but she knew that she would need to be certain that if it should come down to it, Katniss would not hesitate. Just one second of misplaced mercy could cost the Mockingjay her life, and thus bring down the entire rebellion in the process.

Katniss' expression darkened and she cast a fleeting glance at Gale, who had averted his gaze to the floor. The fact that he was still so obviously unnerved by Peeta's presence, however sinister it may be, made Katniss unspeakably angry; angry at the Capitol for forcing her to lie from the very beginning that she had felt anything for Peeta other than indifference or at the very most, friendship.

"This is my daughter we're talking about. You better believe I'd take the shot," Katniss snarled, suddenly climbing to her feet as if declaring the meeting at an end. She paused to regard the men assembled around the table, her voice cold as she ordered, "Make the necessary arrangements."

Turning on her heel with a confidence that she did not feel, Katniss strode out of the meeting room, her arms swinging at her sides as though she were headed towards some as of yet decided purpose. Once she emerged in the corridor outside of the command centre, she continued walking until she had rounded the corner and reached a section of hallway that had been closed off with a metal gate. It had once led to the old school rooms, which had been obliterated by the Capitol bombing, thankfully outside of school hours. The corridor now served as a dead end, leading nowhere, and was thus never usually occupied by anything other than the rats that scurried around 13 occasionally. Finally, Katniss' shoulders slumped and she slid down the hard, stone wall, ignoring the jagged rocks that stuck into her lower back and spine.

Her head dropped into her hands and Katniss sucked in a deep breath, before finally yanking the elastic band out of her ruined braid and allowing her hair to fall around her shoulders. As her hair fell forward in a curtain that obscured her face, Katniss felt her bottom lip tremble, threatening an onslaught of tears that she gritted her teeth against. She would not cry. The Capitol had stolen enough tears from her to last a lifetime, and she was determined they would have no more.

"Katniss?"

She heard Gale whisper her name only seconds before she felt his hands rest either side of her head, and then she found her face being gently inclined upwards towards his.

"I'm okay," she replied instinctively, the trembling of her hands suggesting otherwise.

"No, you're not," he said simply, crouching down in front of her and sweeping his eyes over her face.

Katniss opened her mouth to make a feeble attempt to argue, yet even as she tried to muster the strength to protest, she found herself dissolving into a series of heaving sobs. Gale enveloped her in his arms, his hand curving around the back of her neck as he clutched her to his chest and allowed her to cry as he knew she needed to; without words, without judgement, without well-meaning platitudes.

Katniss gripped the sleeve of his shirt, lifting her tear streaked face to meet his, "If anything happens to me, Gale, promise me that you and Briar…"

Gale shook his head and silenced her quickly by pressing his lips to hers. He kissed her hard until he felt her surrender into his body, hoping that he could force her mind to give up the morbid tangent.

Drawing back only for a moment, Katniss slid her hand around the back of Gale's neck and dragged him closer, this time initiating a kiss that rendered them both breathless.

Gale scattered kisses across her cheeks and temple, drawing her closer as he replied firmly, "I've loved you since I was 14 years old and I'm gonna love you until I'm 104… that was the deal, remember?"

"I remember," Katniss whispered, her features alive with a sincere smile as she recalled the plans they had made years before for a life together; a life after the war had ended, with a cottage in the woods and green meadows where they could watch their children play.

"We will win this," Gale stated, his tone hard and cold, and leaving no room for argument. Katniss only nodded, waiting for Gale to seat himself at her side before she rested her head on his shoulder and let out a sigh. She felt a kind of quiet peace descend around them, and she wondered if it was the calm before the storm that people so often talked about.

With their hands intertwined in Katniss' lap, the couple sat in complete silence, allowing the minutes to tick by uninterrupted, their thoughts concentrated on the sudden uncertainty of their future.

Finally, Katniss broke the stillness, her voice quivering tellingly as she inquired, "Gale, do you… I mean, you know how much I love you, right?"

"Of course, Catnip," he replied, inclining his head in order to place a soft kiss in the centre of her dark waves. She closed her eyes momentarily, stealing a breath before she pressed on.

"What do you think happened to him?" she asked, her voice quiet and bearing an undertone of bewilderment, "why would he make that kind of choice? Betray his family, his District… his friends?"

Gale mulled over her question, scanning the dark corridor before he shook his head, unable to comprehend the possible answer to her question. Nothing could have made him betray his family; family was everything and it was unimaginable to Gale to have made the same choice that Peeta apparently had. Gale would rather die than betray those who loved him.

"I don't know," he answered honestly, "I can't imagine choosing the Capitol... playing their sick games and enjoying it the way he seems to. But… but I guess we don't know what he went through."

Katniss studied his face intently, grinning despite the seriousness of their current predicament as she recognised the doubt and insincerity written there.

"Or…" she punched him playfully on the arm, "you can tell me what you really think."

Gale laughed, shaking his head as he realised it was futile to ever try to get anything past his wife.

"Or… the guy's always had it in him and we were all too taken in by the easy smiles and mild-mannered act he put on for the Capitol. Peeta's a showman, Katniss. He knows how to work an audience, and that makes him dangerous." He paused, sighing heavily as he added, "Not to mention the fact he was in love with you. Probably still is."

"I don't think you need to worry about that, Gale," Katniss replied, rolling her eyes as she scoffed, "he pretty much just asked the entire country for my head on a platter. That's not usually a big turn on for a girl."

"You know what I mean," Gale replied, his tone serious despite the teasing smile that Katniss wore in an effort to lighten the mood. "He's used to calling the shots now. Whatever the president of Panem wants, he gets. You better believe he wants you in the Capitol for a reason."

"Oh I do," Katniss countered, her expression suddenly growing somber again as she regarded her husband, "he knows that the only way to end this rebellion, this war, is to make an example of me. We both know what my fate will be if I end up in the Capitol, Gale."

Gale fell silent, swallowing hard as his wife's words reverberated almost painfully in his ears, the truth behind them seizing his heart in a vice like grip.

"I'm not afraid of Peeta or the Capitol," Katniss said, pushing her hair behind her ears and sighing, "but I'm afraid for you, and for our family. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to just give them what they want if it means you'd all be safe."

Gale's expression became incredulous, and his tone was tainted with anger as he climbed to his feet and held his hand out to her, "Seriously, Katniss? You'd throw all of this away? The life we have together? Our daughter? She needs you. She needs her mother. I need you…"

Katniss accepted his outstretched hand and climbed to her feet, feeling instantly ashamed of herself for the panic stricken look playing across Gale's features.

"You know I wouldn't," she amended softly, cupping his jaw and directing his eyes to hers, "when have I ever given up?! You know me better than that, Gale. You know me better than anyone."

Gale wordlessly reached out and pulled her into an embrace that was perhaps more for his own comfort than for hers.

"There's so much more to lose this time," Katniss murmured fearfully, holding on to Gale with the same ferocity that he held her.

She closed her eyes as she pressed her face into the warm skin of his neck, and his hands swept comforting circles across her back. His breath drifted across her cheek as he lowered his head to her ear, his tone suddenly certain and resolved.

"But so much more to fight for."