"Ok, Katniss, just stand in front of the screen and look fierce" Plutarch tells me.
They hadn't picked a good day to do this; I could barely stand up straight because my back was hurting, MJ was throwing another party, I had heart burn radiating to my knees and I hadn't slept for almost forty eight hours.
"Stand up straight!" He orders me, getting annoyed "Five minutes is all I'm asking!" But I couldn't stand up straight without my face contorting in discomfort.
Plutarch was halfway through shouting at me again when Haymitch arrives. It doesn't take him long to work out what's going on before he leaps, headfirst, to my defence. "Do you guys not realise that she's pregnant?" He asks them as he comes over and helps me back into my chair "that, because of her injuries, her body hurts more than it should right now? You should be helping her, not shouting at her. Look at her!" He shouts "she can barely keep her damn eyes open!" He starts wheeling me out. "You're going to have to wait until tomorrow and I'm going to be here to make sure that you're treating her right."
"What took you so long?" I ask drowsily, slumped forward in my chair.
"I was with the boy" he states "your mother wants me to tell you that they're going to try waking him tomorrow but you'll only be allowed in if you're fully rested." Haymitch raises his eyes at me as he says "she knows you've been sneaking around, after lights out, to see him."
I shrug "I wasn't sneaking."
"Either way, you're going to need to get some rest; you're sleepwalking at the moment and that isn't healthy for you or the baby. I've been instructed to sedate you if necessary."
"I'll comply, Haymitch" I sigh as if I had the choice. I was falling asleep in my chair as we walked and I don't remember arriving at my room or climbing into bed.
I dream about the meadow, the one in the song I'd song to Rue; Peeta's weaving flowers into hair whilst I cradle our baby, singing to him. My father's there too, with his arm around my mother's waist and his free hand gripping Prim's as they walk toward us. My family, happy and alive.
When I wake, it takes moment for the happy feeling to fade and, when it does, I'm left with just the memory and a slightly odd numbness feeling in my heart. "Katniss?" I look to my left to see that Prim was sitting quietly, waiting for me to wake. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah" I sigh, unconsciously rubbing my bump "just dreaming the impossible."
"Want to tell me?"
I consider this for a moment before relenting. "It was so beautiful" I say when I'd finished "I wish that it could be true."
Prim sits in silence for a moment before sitting forward "just because it can't happen, doesn't make it true, Katniss. I believe that dreams are there so that we can spend time with those we can't when we're awake. I think that it was dad's way of reminding you that he's still around."
"I wish that he were here" I say "I miss him."
"I miss him too" she whispers before sitting straight again. "Haymitch should be here in a minute with your chair."
"To take me to see, Peeta?" I ask eagerly.
Prim nods "I don't want you to get your hopes up too high. We think it will work but it might not; if he doesn't wake, it just means that his body isn't ready yet and they'll try again in a couple days. Don't get disheartened" she tells me "healing takes time and Peeta needs a lot of time."
"It's almost been two months, how much more time can he need?" I ask, growing impatient.
"Katniss" Prim laughs "you can't put a time limit on it; Peeta went through physical and emotional trauma."
I nod as Haymitch arrives with my chair "ready for the big day, Sweetheart?" He asks, parking it beside Prim "I know that I am; will be nice to have the boy back."
"Haymitch" Prim groans "you know what the doctors said! Stop putting ideas in her head!"
"I know, I know" he rolls his eyes, mussing up her hair playfully "I just have a good feeling about it; our Peeta's a fighter."
Haymitch lifts me from my bed, because I was moving too slow for his liking, and places me in the chair before walking the familiar route to Peeta's room.
When we arrive, we find that the doctors had already started to process; I see my mother standing by, watching, looking a little frazzled. When I look at her, she just rolls her eyes at me. She must have tried to get them to wait but lost the fight.
"They stopped the drug last night" Haymitch told me "giving it twelve hours to work its way out of his system; they're checking for responses."
I watch as a doctor shines a light in Peeta's eyes, prod his feet with pins and stretch his arms out. "Good responses" I hear one of the doctors say "reflexes are normal."
"Vitals are better than they were yesterday" another nods before they all disappear from the room.
"What's going on?" I ask mother.
"Everything's good" she tells me, moving over to Peeta and smoothing his hair. She's taken to him quite well; in fact, I think she now considers herself his parent since his parents never arrived at Thirteen. I know that she's been caring for him more than any of the other nurses. "We just have to wait for him to wake up naturally."
"And how long will that take?"
"Anywhere between now and a couple of days. Have faith, Katniss" she tells me with a smile. She then pats Peeta's hand before following the other doctors from the room.
I walk my chair closer to the bed and take Peeta's hand, planning to camp out here for as long as I have to. I want my face to be the first he sees. "Did Plutarch have anything to say about how you spoke to him yesterday?" I ask Haymitch as I stared at Peeta's face, watching for any sign of movement.
"Yes but he soon shut up when I punched him in the face" came Haymitch's reply.
Haymitch and I sit beside Peeta, just watching him and waiting for any sign of movement but we wait and wait and wait. I silently wonder why Haymitch has stuck around but I don't ask him; I know that he prefers Peeta to me though he had told me that he considers Peeta and I to be the children he'd never had. Funny, I always figured he'd end up with Effie.
The two are as different as day and night but I can see it. If Peeta can end up with someone like me then Haymitch can end up with someone like Effie.
I would stay with Peeta round the clock until he wakes up if I could but they wouldn't allow it. I have to leave him, under Gale's watch, to have my weekly check-up. My mother, Prim and Haymitch always sit in with me for this; Haymitch seems to think that it's his responsibility to fill in for Peeta until he's up and about again.
Plus I think he likes the idea of 'uncle Haymitch'.
"Your baby is slightly smaller than expected but healthy" I'm told "everything is going well, Soldier Everdeen. Are you sure that you don't want to know the sex?"
I nod "I don't want to know before Peeta; I want us to find out together" I tell the doctor who'd been offering to tell me the gender of my baby since I'd first arrived.
District thirteen have all of these posh machines to use on expectant mothers but have no one to use them on since the pandemic which killed a lot of their people and left most of the others infertile. They can see into the womb and display it on the screen so that, once a week, I get to see my baby.
Prim and our mother gush over it every time, even Haymitch softens a little. He'd have been a good dad…if it weren't for the games, the drinking and the foul language.
"I understand" the doctor nods, handing me some tissue to wipe the gloop from my stomach. "Until next week, Soldier."
"Oh, Katniss" Prim sighs, staring at the picture the doctor had just printed out "MJ is going to be so adorable!"
"Only if he looks anything like Peeta!" Haymitch snorts before shutting up the instant my mother glares at him but I'm laughing along with Haymitch so loud that I almost miss Finnick shouting.
"HIS HAND TWITCHED!" I heard Finnick shout from down the hall "KATNISS!" And then he comes barrelling into the room, his robe open and his face flushed from running from Peeta's room to mine. "Gale told me that his hand twitched" he says "he thought that you'd like to know."
"He thought right" I reply, grabbing Haymitch and using him to haul myself out of bed before waddling, as fast as I could, back to Peeta's room.
"You look hilarious, Katniss" Finnick remarks
"So do you Finnick, nice boxers by the way."
Behind me, I see Haymitch catching up with us with my wheel chair. "Katniss, get in" he instructs, stopping just behind me. I get in, glad that he'd followed us, I was worn out already!
Peeta's eyes are still closed, when we reach his room, but Gale's staring intently as his left hand which, as Finnick had said, was twitching on and off; it looked as though he was trying to move his hand but couldn't quite. I immediately take the hand he's trying to move and hold it within both of mine. "Peeta?" I whisper "I'm here, it's Katniss."
"And Gale" Gale says.
"Well if you're going to be like that" Haymitch frowns "you can tell him I'm here and all!"
"Don't forget me!" Finnick chimes in.
"Do your gown up, boy" Haymitch tells Finnick "that's more than I need to see."
"Jealous?" Finnick asks, waggling his eyebrows.
Haymitch raises his and smirks "no." I knew full well what Haymitch's body looks like, from when we were training for the quarter quell and, let's just say that, Finnick would be jealous.
"You've seen mine, now show me yours" Finnick responds, referring to his perfectly chiselled stomach.
"In your dreams, Sweetheart" growls Haymitch.
"Play nice, ladies" Gale smirks "no bitch slapping, if you please."
"I'll bitch slap you if you don't shut up" Haymitch snaps back.
I roll my eyes, turning back to Peeta only to see that his eyes are open and he's smiling from ear to ear. His face is red, I'm guessing from the effort it's taking him not to laugh out loud and interrupt the conversation. "Peeta" I sigh, pressing a hand to his face.
"Hello again" he replies, still grinning. The room falls silent and Peeta says "oh, don't stop on my account; I was rather enjoying the terrible comebacks. Hey, Haymitch" he adds "if you show him yours does that mean I have to show you mine?"
"I don't care if you've been in a coma, boy" Haymitch says, with a small smile playing around his lips "but I'll bitch slap you too if I need to."