A/N - This. anonymous prompt: "Well, that's the single most impressive thing I've ever seen" inspired a scene that's been done a million times. Just never by me. Enjoy!

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"Well, that's the single most impressive thing I've ever seen someone do," Peeta said in his wife's ear, as his mother-in-law laid their new baby girl on Katniss's chest. "You're amazing." Katniss sobbed and curled forward to kiss the dark hairs on their daughter's – their daughter's! – tiny head. For 12 long hours, Peeta had massaged and soothed and supported his wife as she laboured to bring their baby into the world. His body ached and Katniss had done all the work.

Now, she was here and his heart was so full of love it felt as though the sun was rising in his chest instead of over the horizon out their bedroom window. He watched in awe as Katniss cradled the new life they had made together in her arms. Unable to hold back any longer, he gently stroked her shoulder and then laid his hand over Katniss's on the baby's back. "She's perfect," he marvelled.

And she was. There were 10 tiny fingers and 10 tiny toes. Perfect pouty lips, pursed as though to kiss a fairy. Her head was covered in dark hair, and long lashes lay against her rosy cheeks. The last nine months had been hard on Katniss, as she battled depression and her fears over the many uncertainties they both knew existed in this fragile new world they had helped to build. Peeta had his own fears, ones he'd been afraid to voice in case it made them real. The Capitol had pumped him full of poisons, starved him, beat him within an inch of his life. What if those traumas somehow affected the baby he and Katniss had wanted so desperately? He leaned forward and pressed his lips to his daughter's forehead and knew that the doctors had been right. Everything was going to be just fine.

His eyes locked with his wife's. "I love you," Katniss whispered.

"I love you too," he assured her. "Thank you so much, Katniss."

The babe made tiny noises and rooted around on her mother's breast.

Lily Everdeen chuckled, the joy and exhaustion evident on her face. She'd been with them every second. "She's hungry, Katniss. I'll clean her up and check her over so that you can nurse her."

"No." Her body still charged with adrenalin and hormones, Katniss's protective instincts were on overdrive and she wrapped her arms protectively around the baby.

Lily smiled and handed Peeta the scissors. "Cut the cord, Peeta."

He obeyed and then perched on the side of the bed to wrap his arm around Katniss's shoulders. "She's cold, sweetheart. Let's get her in a nice warm blanket and then you can have her back." Katniss nodded and finally giving into exhaustion, laid her head against his chest.

Her mother whisked the baby away, swiftly wiping, measuring and weighing the baby, now howling in protest. She wrapped her in a warm, flannel blanket, rocking and shushing her new grandbaby as she crossed the room back to Katniss, cooing softly about how beautiful she was. Katniss held out her arms impatiently. Once the baby was back in her arms, she listened carefully to her mother's instructions of how to bring the baby to her breast.

Peeta settled down to watch, holding everything that was important to him in his life in his arms, and stroked the baby's downy cheek with his thumb.

"What are you going to call her?" Lily asked from the foot of the bed where she was cleaning up Katniss.

Katniss looked at Peeta wide-eyed. She had stubbornly refused to discuss names throughout the entire pregnancy, superstitiously clinging to the idea that naming the baby before she arrived could cause something to go wrong. But Peeta knew what he wanted to call her.

"What about Hope?" he suggested.

Katniss looked down at the baby who heaved a sigh and let go of her mother's breast, fast asleep.

"Hope," Katniss mused thoughtfully. "It's perfect."