At the beginning of the following week Peeta and I drop Reed off with Haymitch and head to training. Both of us were set on going to the Capitol which means that the both of us excelled and moved up to the intensive training, with Gale, in no time at all.

Training also took my mind off Cinna, who was still healing in the hospital, but I really wanted to talk to him; the last time I'd seen him properly was when I was in the tube and they made me watch him get beaten up by a few peace keepers but, one month after he arrived, Prim told me that they were bringing him round.

Peeta and I headed to his hospital room, with Reed, to sit with him until he wakes up. Luckily he didn't take as long as Peeta and opened his eyes only an hour after the doctors left the room. "Katniss" he smiles.

"Hey, Cinna; how are you feeling?"

"I've felt better" he admits with a small sigh. He then spots Reed and his smile brightens "and who's this gorgeous boy?"

"Peeta" Peeta says "we've met before, Cinna, and, just so you know, I am no longer available."

Cinna chuckles "thirteen married the two of you then?"

We both nod before I plop Reed onto Cinna's bed, handing him over; I watch as Cinna lifts him up to get a good look, supporting Reed's head with his long, slim, fingers. "He's beautiful, Katniss; I've seen a lot of babies in my life time but none as adorable as this little one. What's his name?"

"Reed" I say before I turn to Peeta and frown at him "Peeta wanted to call him Clay."

"It was a suggestion!" Peeta stresses.

"I was joking" I grin, swiftly kissing his cheek.

Peeta just grunts and turns his attention back to Cinna. "Any news on Portia?" He asks.

Cinna shakes his head "I don't know anything, I'm sorry, Peeta." He then turns to me "the avox, the red heads we had-" he starts, waiting for me to nod in understanding "they didn't make it."

Tears well in my eyes but I just nod. I figured that he hadn't. "Sorry, Katniss" Peeta whispers, pressing his face into my neck. "The male one was one of our peace keepers" Peeta explains to Cinna "Darius, he was one of the nicer ones. Katniss and Haymitch got to know him in the hob."

"I'm sorry" Cinna repeats "their deaths were unnecessary."

"I'm just glad that you're alright" I tell him, leaning over him and kissing his forehead "I missed you, Cinna,"

"Missed you too, Girl of Fire" he smiles "how did you like my Mockingjay suits?"

"Genius" I say, smiling "I loved both of them; of course, I've only worn them a few times. Coin wouldn't put me in harm's way whilst I was still pregnant."

"And rightly so!" Peeta growls, annoyed at the thought of it.

"Well, the baby suit had more than enough protection" Cinna tells us "but it was for decoration, it was never meant to go into battle. They didn't show you till you made the decision yourself, did they?"

I shook my head "no, Plutarch made one hundred percent sure that I was agreeing to being the mockingjay before he showed me."

Cinna nods, satisfied that they'd let me make my own mind up without his designs to push me. Peeta and I stayed with him for a while, watching as he cuddled Reed, cooing over him. "He is adorable" he sighs as he passed Reed back to us. "Make sure you come and visit before you leave for the Capitol" he says.

"Of course" I assure him "see you soon, Cinna. Feel better."

"Well, he looks better" Peeta states as we walk down to dinner.

I nod "he still won't look like himself until he starts wearing his gold eyeliner again though."

Teddy gets passed around at dinner so that Peeta and I can eat whilst other people entertain him. It's nice watching him with Gale though, and I often find myself thinking that he'll make a good father someday. I like watching Haymitch with him as well; it's true that Haymitch is very protective of the boy but I think it's cute. It relaxes me when I start thinking about having to leave him behind so that Peeta and I can go to the Capitol. He is so loved by everyone and, even if Peeta and I don't return, he will want for nothing and his family will remain big and loving.

"It helps me too" Peeta mutters, watching Haymitch and Gale argue over who's had the longest turn holding Reed. "Watching everyone else with him. I don't want to leave him behind but knowing that he'll be looked after by all of our friends, and family, really does help."

"Well, there's still a couple weeks left of training" I say "plenty of time to say goodbye."

But, as it happens, we didn't get a couple of weeks. The next day, we were told to go for testing where we put all of the things we'd learned into action before we went into a simulation. I passed with flying colours and was instructed to go to command where myself, Gale, Finnick, Peeta and a few others were informed that we were on a special mission.

The long and short of it was that we wouldn't be on the frontline; we'd be followed by cameras as we pretended to be fighting. It was a bit of an anti-climax.

We were assured that there would be plenty of action, however, because it was also our job to destroy the pods. The pods are traps, put there by the Capitol, and they can be filled with anything from boiling oil to guns all meant to kill us.

None of us were particularly pleased about this but we didn't complain. Being in the Capitol was far better than twiddling our thumbs in Thirteen.

We weren't due to leave for a couple more weeks so, in that time, we were training hard but we also had a wedding to celebrate.

Finnick and Annie's.

The film crew were there, filming the celebration. I danced with Peeta and Reed, with Prim and my mother and Cinna, who was allowed to come. It was a beautiful evening and, for the first time in a while, I forgot about the months to come and, because of this, I had fun.

Peeta and I spent the remaining time training and with Reed; if I didn't want to go to the Capitol so badly, I would have ditched the training and just spent as much time with my son as I could, Peeta would have as well, but, if we did, I'm sure that Coin would not allow us to go.

"I really hate to leave him" I sigh on our last evening before deployment "he's growing so fast!" Reed, now two months old, was now almost twice the size he had been when he was born. He had the most dazzling smile and was now holding his head up for a little bit.

"I know" Peeta says, dangling an old toy, that had been donated to us from one of the district thirteen residents, over Reed who was laying on his back, trying to grab the object. The toy was colourful, in the shape of a sheep, and it rattled. "I'm trying not to think about it too much but, if all goes well, we'll be back before we know it."

The mission that we were being sent on should last between two weeks to a month, if all goes to plan. Maybe not quite as long as that. I was planning on separating from the group as soon as I could so that I could track Snow down. "Should we get some sleep?" I ask.

Peeta nods, picking Reed up and placing him in his crib. "I want to spend as much time with you as I can" he tells me as we climb into bed "there's no telling how long it will be before we have a bit of privacy."