Please read the author's notes at the end. Thanks!
The characters of The Hunger Games Trilogy do not belong to me.
Fated to Love
Part Nine
"Hey Katniss?"
Katniss turned to see Seneca, suited up and ready to head off to the office. Delly had already left their apartment since she had to work with IT to setup for her and Seneca's presentation in an hour.
"Yes?"
"I just wanted to make sure that you were okay," he responded awkwardly. "Delly would've stayed but you know the board members—"
"No, no…" Katniss approached, sitting down on the couch that she had been using as her bed for the last two days. "I know the board members. Peeta is one of them." She wrapped her arms around herself and gave him a weak smile. "Even his name hurts to say."
Seneca sat down in the armchair across from her. "You know us guys aren't very good with our words." He flushed as she looked to him, eyebrows raised. "I don't know what fully went on with you two but I think that at some point you're just going to have to sit down and have a real talk."
Katniss looked away for a moment, contemplating his words, before looking to her former boss once more.
"Why?"
"Because you are still married and you are still having a child together. Delly told me that you asked for a divorce—but something tells me that you don't really want one. There is love between you two. Anyone can see that. However the big question is: why can't you both get it together?"
She sighed, sitting back, and her hand went to the bump that was Toad—the one thing that held her and Peeta together.
"Do you want to know the truth?" Katniss asked, her eyes beginning to feel heavy with the onset of tears. "Promise you won't tell Delly?"
Seneca nodded solidly.
"I don't know when it happened but there is a part of me waiting for that one big gesture. Something that will tell me that Peeta loves me, just for me, and not for Toad. That one moment where I can be assured, that if there was no Toad, Peeta would still be able to say that he is in love with me—Katniss Everdeen, Post-It Girl."
"That's not a nice name to call yourself." Seneca gave her a grim smile. "Peeta, Delly, and I would tell you that you're more than someone who's considered a 'Post-It Girl'. You've proven to not only Peeta but to me that you're someone strong, smart, and innovative—someone who people want to emulate and admire." He clasped in hands together. "Like I told you, I'm not good with words, especially when it comes to the people I love the most. I mean…I've always admired Delly. She wasn't intimidated by me and treated everyone equally. She's beautiful and intelligent. When someone like me or someone like Peeta comes into contact with that, things can be difficult. How can you even come close to touching the sun?"
Katniss grinned at his words. "You think that Delly is the sun?"
Seneca nodded bashfully. "And, I know you're Peeta's."
"How did you figure out how to touch the sun?" she asked curiously.
"She let me in." Seneca smiled to himself. "In the end, we're all just people trying to keep love, find love, be loved. And, you're angry with Peeta—you should be. But, you have to look for the signs that he's trying to let you in too."
Katniss wiped her eyes. "How will I know?" She accepted the handkerchief that the man in front of her offered. "I'm scared. Even if Madge was the one who did all of that, it broke us so easily. It broke me bad. So I lashed out in the only way I knew how—by giving him the easiest way out."
"Easy for him or for you?" Seneca countered.
Katniss had no answer.
Instead, she turned to him. "Don't you have a meeting you're going to be late for?"
Seneca peered at her for a moment. "You're avoiding answering the question." He stood up. "But, I do have that meeting, so we'll discuss this further with my beautiful girlfriend during dinner."
Katniss smiled indulgently. "Yes, Mr. Crane." Gathering his suitcase, he headed to the door. "Seneca?" She stood up, going to him. "How did you know that it was right? With you and Delly? I mean—how will I know?"
He shrugged. "You just know. You won't want to fight it. Because I sure as hell know that you don't want a divorce. Who knows what will happen when Peeta calls your bluff?"
She looked at him with skepticism. "You're so sure that it's a bluff."
Seneca looked down to her left hand and smirked.
"You're still wearing your wedding ring, Mrs. Mellark."
"Mr. Mellark…Peeta?"
Peeta pulled out of his reverie to look at Rue, who sat next to him on the couch.
It was lunch, usually he and Katniss would be enjoying their smorgasbord of food that she had made for them. Her with her tea leaf salads and him—with everything else.
However that was not what was happening in his life anymore. Katniss was gone and he was alone…naturally.
"Yes?"
"We were going to go over your schedule for the week," Rue replied gently. Sighing, she placed her tablet on the coffee table in front of them. "Has she called you?"
"No." He looked down at the table, imagining that it was loaded with food and next to him, Katniss with her hand on Toad. "That's what people do when they plan on getting divorces. They wait for their lawyers to go over the details."
"She sent you a text, Peeta," Rue told him bluntly. "That doesn't exactly say that it's over…in the legal sense."
"But in the emotional sense, it does!" Peeta turned to her. "When she sent me that message, it brought me back to that moment when I found out my parents died. That horrible pain that nothing will ever be okay again. That feeling that you'll never have that kind of love again." He felt his lips tremble. He wasn't used to this kind of loneliness. "I miss her."
"Then don't just sit here," his assistant insisted. "Do something! Because it's not over until you're signing those papers and negotiating custody for Toad."
"That's it." Peeta straightened and looked to her, a solid look in his red-rimmed eyes. "Get my lawyer down here."
"What are you doing?" Rue asked, staring incredulously. "Are you completely stupid?"
"You have to trust me." Peeta looked at her and his assistant could tell the cogs in that maniacal head of his were turning. Knowing how his mind worked was one of the many quirks of being Peeta Mellark's assistant. The man could go from manic to calm in half-a-second. "Now let's go over the schedule."
She shook her head. "Alright…so today, you have that follow-up meeting with the contractors. You know the ones that were interrupted by Johanna? Then you have a photo op with your Uncle and some of the board members. Tomorrow—" Rue paused and then looked up at him, her eyes somber. "—you have a parenting class."
Peeta faltered. Here was a chance to see Katniss. But, did she even want to see him?
"Yeah, we're supposed to be presenting to the class," he told her in a tight voice. "Do you think I should go?"
"You're still wearing your wedding ring, Peeta." Rue's dark eyes traveled to his left ring finger before giving him a small smile. "That has to mean something."
"And, so we're going to name our daughter Pearl," the red-headed woman said brightly as she stood in front of the class, showing off the bright pink onesie. "So Mike and I decided to sew little pearls onto our onesie."
Katniss looked around expectantly. She knew that Mags was also waiting, her own eyes were trained at the door next to her desk.
"Isn't that a choking hazard?" A quiet voice said next to her.
She turned to find Peeta, dressed in a simple button-down and jeans. He gave her a nod as he sat down and pushed a white box towards her.
"They should worry more about poor little Pearl swallowing those massive things," Peeta added.
Katniss took the box, her throat constricted at the sight of him. Even though her chest still hurt seeing him, part of her was comforted to find him sitting next to her. His eyes wandered over her trembling figure and he put a hand over hers to calm her down.
The class clapped, signaling the end of the current couple's presentation, and Mags looked to them relieved seeing Peeta beside her. The teacher nodded and Peeta stood up. He looked to Katniss, offering his hand, and she carefully took it.
Presenting in front of a boardroom was simple enough to her, but going before six sets of judgmental soon-to-be parents was a whole other ordeal.
Going to the front of the class, Katniss looked to Peeta and he nodded in that confident, assuring way that always annoyed her yet made her feel slightly breathless in his presence.
"I'm Peeta and this is Katniss," he began and gave everyone a charming smile. "I know. Weird names." A chuckle rolled throughout the room and Katniss felt herself relax. "We're the Mellarks."
The Mellarks.
It seemed so solid, so real.
But, they weren't real. They didn't start out as real.
They were just two people who wanted to be good parents.
Then she had to go and mess things up by falling in love with him.
"So Katniss and I have a nickname for the baby." Peeta looked to her, his blue eyes warm. "Did you want to tell them?"
She was so caught up by his thick, feathered lashes that she forgot where she was for a moment.
"Katniss?" Her…husband stared at her. "Are you going to tell them?"
Abruptly, Katniss turned to the class.
"Oh yeah! So we call the baby Toad…it's about keeping the evil eye away. Also, Toads are kind of my favorite amphibian…and kind of a funny, little thing that I shared with my grandmother before she passed away."
"So…we dyed our onesie green." Peeta presented the dark green onesie and her eyes widened in shock. "Like toad green."
"What's the emblem on the front of it?" one of the fathers asked curiously.
"When Katniss and I first met, I was getting over a break-up," Peeta told the class. His eyes went to her and she swallowed slowly, willing herself not to burst into tears in front of the class. "She helped me get through it and we became really good friends. Then I helped her out with a horrible shit of an ex, so we were even."
The class laughed once more.
"Katniss gave me this." Peeta held up her Mockingjay pin. "And, she told me that her grandmother had given it to her and that it held all her hopes and dreams for Katniss." He met her eyes and she was caught in the intensity of his gaze. "Then my future wife told me that the pin held all her hopes and dreams for me. She didn't know that my only dream was her—and our family."
Somewhere, one of the mothers was crying.
And, somewhere else—one of the dads was sniffling.
Katniss, however, could only focus on the man standing next to her with Toad's first onesie.
"How are you?"
They sat together outside of a Burmese restaurant that Peeta had found close to their parenting class. Katniss looked up from her plate of tea leaf salad at the man looking solemnly at her. She could see that he was just as stressed out as she was.
Katniss placed her fork down. "I'm…doing as well as I can." She looked to him. "And, yourself?"
"I'm lonely," he admitted. "I miss you. I miss Toad. This is all a mess and I hope that you really don't believe that I would ever sign something like that codicil."
She sighed. "I know. But, I can't trust you now. You kept Madge from me. That makes things even harder now because we are on such a tenuous rope with this relationship. We have Toad to think about. I don't know if I can see him or her being with parents who can't even trust one another."
"I trust you with my life," Peeta said. He stared at her for moment, seeing the doubt in her steel eyes. "But, you won't trust me."
"Trust has to be earned," Katniss responded evenly, her eyes beginning to water. "I don't want to be the kind of wife who always wonders who you're with every time you go out. That's not a marriage. That's co-dependency. I think that's how we came into this—we were co-dependent because we were afraid of becoming parents."
Peeta bit the inside of his cheek, trying to keep the pain from rising in his chest. "And, now?"
"I can do this alone," she replied, her own pain sweltering inside and making her feel nauseous. "Or, we can just work on being parents who just share custody."
"And, us?"
"Was there ever really an us to begin with, Peeta?" Katniss looked at her plate, suddenly feeling her food solidifying in her stomach. "Let's not kid ourselves."
Peeta dared to ask, "Do you love me?"
Katniss blinked back her tears. "How could you even ask that question?"
"Then please…just wait," he begged her. "Just wait."
She took her cloth napkin and wiped her eyes. "I don't understand…"
"Wait until my birthday."
Katniss turned to him. "Your birthday?"
"This Friday," he informed her. "I'm turning 26. Can you wait until then, Katniss?"
"Fine," she relented. "Where can I meet you?"
"At Arena." Peeta gave her a wary smile. "Johanna arranged something with the family…so you'll come right?"
Katniss felt something shoot up her spine. She didn't know if it was Toad or something else.
Despite this feeling, she accepted.
"What are you making?" Delly ask later that night.
Katniss looked up from the round dining table. She placed the ceramic cup down and the paint brush before turning to her friend.
"It's a birthday present…for Peeta." Pulling up a chair, her friend sat beside her so Katniss could go on. "Our family is throwing him a dinner party at Arena. He asked me to just wait until then."
"Wait for what?"
Katniss shrugged. "Wait to get the papers drawn up, I guess."
"Are you sure you want to get them drawn up?" Delly questioned.
"No, I'm not. But, I need something more—just like I told Seneca." Katniss looked to her friend. "Am I being too demanding?"
Delly shook her head.
"No! In fact, I'm proud of you, Katniss. You should get the love that you deserve. If it's supposed to be Peeta then he'll prove it and you won't have to doubt him at all. You deserve to have some grand gesture happen to you."
"Then I'll ask you what I asked your boyfriend," Katniss said. "How will I know when it's right?"
"You won't run away from him," Delly declared, a gentle smile on her pink lips. "You'll be running to him."
"Thank you for being my friend, Delly." Katniss hugged her. "Toad and I can't thank you enough for letting us stay."
"It's really our pleasure. Though I wish we had more room in this apartment so you wouldn't have to sleep on the couch."
Katniss shook her head in understanding. They had not found the right place yet so they were ensconced in Delly's apartment for now.
Her friend kissed her forehead before standing up.
"I better get to bed. Seneca thinks that I stepped out here for a drink of water. Truth is, I'm craving one of those eclairs you brought home from Arena."
"You should marry him," she suddenly told Delly. "He's about the only guy that I'll allow with you."
Delly snorted as she headed back to the room. She stopped and gave Katniss a beaming grin.
"I just might."
Johanna hated shopping.
However during her travels, she didn't have the time to build up a wardrobe. Also, truth be told, there were times when Johanna didn't need much clothing.
Her father had granted her access to the Bloomingdales account and so here she was, standing in her underwear, looking at the choices that her stylist made behind the curtained dressing room.
Peeta's birthday was the upcoming Friday and, with the help of Prim, she had planned a simple dinner at Arena to celebrate her cousin's big 26. She hoped that maybe Katniss could be convinced to change to her mind about the divorce, seeing them all together as a family.
It tore at Johanna to see Peeta so down. He functioned, though only barely, burying himself in work and sleeping on the couch of his and Katniss' quarters. Prim told her that Katniss was the same, insisting that she stay at her friend Delly's instead of with her sister, Cato, and Jace because she didn't want to bother them.
Without even knowing it, Katniss and Peeta were more alike than they realized.
They kept their pain to themselves, not wanting anyone to help or solve their issues for them.
While that was great and selfless of them, it was also pretty stupid. Neither of them could approach one another and nothing was solved in their marriage.
Nothing would be unless they talked.
Johanna and Prim would make sure that happened.
"So you don't even feel an iota of guilt?" A familiar voice said in a room close to hers.
"No." That voice caused Johanna's blood to run; she'd know that hiss anywhere. "Peeta needed an instructive push and he was being obstinate. You know that he actually thinks that he's in love with his wife? Nobody falls in love that quickly. It took me years to make him that way and that blip of a girl reaps the benefits? That is not happening."
"And, what about New York?"
"New York will wait," Madge responded haughtily. "Primas aren't easy to find—" Johanna noted the slight waver in the witch's voice. "So, of course, they'd accept me back into the troupe."
"Whatever, Madge." There was doubt in the other girl's voice—Johanna suspected it was Clove—and a curtain opened. "I'm buying the dress."
"I have a few more things to try on." Madge's airy voice was coming from the room next to hers. "Leaving so abruptly left me without a wardrobe."
The sound of stilettos walking out of the room set her off and Johanna pulled her own curtain open. There was only one other heavy curtain closed and it was indeed the one next to her dressing room.
Without a thought, Johanna stomped out of her room and practically ripped open the curtain.
Madge shrieked, her hand holding the designer dress over her partially-clothed body.
Her blue eyes widened in panic as Johanna closed the curtain behind her. "Johanna?"
"Don't act like you don't know who the fuck I am." Johanna rushed forward and Madge pressed back against the floor-to-ceiling mirror. "You are a pathetic excuse of a person. Just because you convinced Katniss, it doesn't mean that you've convinced the rest of us that you didn't sign that stupid little codicil."
She inched closer, not caring one bit that Madge was emitting a small high-pitched whistle of panic from her throat.
"There are cameras in the Mellark Corporation," Johanna continued. "Also, firewalls in the computers that keep track of all login activity. Peeta didn't badge in until an hour after the codicil was printed."
Madge's eyes widened in fear and Johanna nodded, feeling her mouth rise in a triumphant grin.
"It won't take a goddamn genius to connect your entry into the building with the logs. That's falsifying identity…fraud…and tampering with confidential information…"
"I'll scream," Madge threatened feebly.
"Go ahead." Johanna stepped back, her eyes narrowing at the woman, and she quickly looked around the piles of clothes in the woman's dressing room. "By the time anyone gets here, there won't be anything left of you."
Madge bristled. "What do you want?"
"I want you to watch your back." Johanna glared at those terrified blue eyes. "No one fucks with a Snow, a Mason, a Mellark, and now an Everdeen. We won't hesitate to protect our family."
Kneeling down, she picked up a Gucci scarf that was thrown on the floor.
"By the way, you know your father is off the Mellark Corporation payroll? Doesn't look good for his firm." She met Madge's eyes. "I would start saving your pennies—especially if we decide to move forward with the suit."
Johanna straightened, tossing the scarf haphazardly to her left, before giving Madge a smirk.
"Have a good day."
Turning, Johanna went back to her room, throwing her black sheath dress on and heading out.
Her stylist rushed forward, her eyes simpering, and Johanna looked up just in time to see Clove at the register.
"How did it go, Miss Mason?" her stylist asked.
"I'll take everything hanging on the left side of my room," she told the woman. "Have it delivered to the Mellark Compound." Leaning closer, her eyes were trained on Madge's best friend as she spoke into her stylist's ear. "There's a woman in a dressing room—the one beside mine—who said that she put a scarf of yours into her purse—a Gucci one. You might want to look into her bag right now."
"Oh yes!" The stylist ran into dressing room.
Johanna continued forward, nodding at Clove.
The girl went ashen and she held in the urge to laugh.
"Hi Johanna," Clove greeted eagerly.
Johanna walked past the elfin-looking girl. "Fuck you, Clove."
Like she said, no one messed with her family.
"So no Peeta today?" Dr. Paylor asked. She watched at the screen as she spoke, her hand on the ultrasound wand. "Everything looks good, though there is not much growth on your end. You haven't gained the weight that I thought you would. I'm going to recommend some supplements for you to take."
"Alright," Katniss agreed, her eyes trained on the image of Toad. "As for Peeta…I didn't tell him about this appointment."
Dr. Paylor turned off the machine before looking to her.
"Katniss, you can't freeze him out." She gave her a sympathetic smile. "You need to have these experiences as a couple and even if you aren't together, you need to realize that there is another life coming into this world. You want to make it the best world possible for Toad, don't you?"
"Of course!" Katniss said vehemently. "It's just that, after our fight at the mall—"
"Oh, I've seen that," her doctor responded and Katniss blushed. "I had to let go of a nurse after I found out that she was trying to copy your medical records to sell to the press."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Katniss told her shamefully. "That recording is everywhere. It's embarrassing and immature. Not to mention, a recording of me getting my heart stomped on is something that will haunt me for the rest of my life."
"I didn't see that," Dr. Paylor replied. "I saw marriage. Couples have fights, some are light and some are heavy—but you can't just walk away. You love one another. Anyone can see that. What I don't understand is why you're trying so hard to push him away."
Katniss sat back, her eyes looking down at the exposed swell.
It still wasn't much—but maybe like her, Toad was hiding.
"I don't know," she admitted and a set of tears rolled down her face. "Maybe because despite everything, I still love him. And, I want to have faith in him. But that's scary to be thrown out there. That fight was just one of the many obstacles that we're going to face and it broke me. I'm scared to be torn in half."
"Katniss," the woman called kindly to her. "If you're torn in half, you know how to mend yourself together. But, Peeta—he'll be there mending things with you." She took a tissue from the counter and touched it to Katniss' cheek. "You just have to let him."
"Tomorrow is his birthday," Katniss told her in a thick voice. "I made him something. It's not much, but what do you get the man who has everything?"
Dr. Paylor looked over the ultrasound printouts before smiling at her.
"You tell him the sex of your baby."
"How are you, sweetheart?" Uncle Haymitch asked as Katniss entered Arena.
He embraced her, an arm going around her shoulders as they walked further into the restaurant. They had closed up for the evening to celebrate a private family event, according to the sign on the entrance door.
Anxious to see Peeta, she smoothed out a wrinkle on her black sheath dress and rested a hand on her small bump.
"I'm doing just fine," she assured him. "Delly and Seneca are taking real good care of me."
"You know you can always come back to Seam Island," he told her. "It's dead boring with you, Prim, and Cato gone."
"Thanks a lot, big brother!" Hani went to them, kissing her daughter and entwining their arms. She looked to her brother. "So I'm not enough entertainment for you?"
"Yes, because who doesn't love spending Thursday evenings listening to you scream at the television during Grey's Anatomy," Haymitch responded with a smirk. "Because I really care who's sleeping with who at the hospital."
"You're just mad because Christina is gone!" Hani argued and looked to her daughter. "Your Uncle had a terrible crush on Sandra Oh."
"She was the only one focused on actually being a doctor!"
"That is exactly why I'm not back on Seam Island," Katniss interrupted as they went to the table. She spotted Uncle Snow and Johanna. "I'm going to say hello to everyone."
Going to the father and daughter, she was relieved when Uncle Snow gathered her in his arms.
"You doing alright, Katniss?" he asked, his eyes full of concern. "We really miss you at the Mellark Compound."
"Yeah, Sammy and I don't have our playmate," Johanna added with a smile before hugging Katniss. "We're glad you came."
"Of course," Katniss said, her eyes searching the restaurant. "Where's Pe—"
"I'm glad you came, too." The voice sent a warm shiver through her body. No one made her feel that way except for him. She turned to see her husband, still in his business suit, but looking handsome as always. "Thank you for coming, Katniss."
She nodded, a gentle smile on her lips. "Happy Birthday, Peeta."
"Thank you." His eyes glowed at her and Katniss felt breathless, caught in the haze that was Peeta Mellark. "Will you sit next to me during dinner?"
"Yes." She found herself beaming. "Yes, I will."
"That was fucking delicious, Prim," Johanna proclaimed, her champagne-glazed eyes going to Prim who sat on the opposite side of the table, next to Katniss. Beside her was Hani, who chuckled lightly at her toast and then Uncle Snow, whose face was crimson from the alcohol.
"Language, please!" Prim responded. She looked to Katniss, holding the sleeping Jace in her arms. "There is a child at the table."
"Jace can't even find his nose," Johanna pointed out. "How can he distinguish what's a good or bad word? Honestly, it's all about tone." She looked to the baby. "I could rap some Wu-Tang Clan lyrics and as long as I did it in sweet, dulcet tones the kid will still snooze on."
"It's kind of true, babe," Cato said to his wife from his seat on her opposite side. "I sang Meatloaf's 'Everything Louder than Everything Else' to Jace two nights ago and he was out like a lightbulb."
"Damn. I tried Aerosmith and he cried the whole time," Prim said, shaking her head. "I guess he isn't into Steven Tyler." She smiled at her sister. "Hopefully Toad isn't this weird."
"Toad has us as parents." Peeta looked to Katniss, an easy smile on his lips. "We're weird enough."
"That is true," Katniss contributed, rocking Jace gently, and looking at her family. "But, we're all a little strange."
Uncle Snow stood up, his eyes bright as he clinked his champagne glass.
"I wanted to propose a toast to my nephew, Peeta," he started. The man looked to Peeta from across the table. "Since the day you were born, it's been an adventure. You've inherited your mother's charisma and your father's kindness. It breaks my heart that they're not here."
Uncle Snow's eyes shimmered with tears.
"But, I'm so glad that I got to be part of your life, Peeta. I got to watch you earn high honors in school, build your empire, marry this lovely woman." He paused. "Now, I'll get to see you become a father."
Johanna wiped her eyes hastily before standing with her father.
"And, I just wanted to add that I'm glad that we've all become a family. We stick up for one another. We're there for the good times and for the bad ones. Jace and Toad are coming into a good group."
"Here, here," Haymitch called out from his seat opposite of Peeta.
Uncle Snow cleared his throat. "So let's raise our glasses to Peeta. Happy Birthday, son—and to our family."
They all clinked glasses and as Katniss turned to Peeta, he gently clinked his champagne glass to her apple cider glass.
"Happy 26th, Peeta," she said tenderly, her eyes trained on him.
"To our family, Katniss," Peeta replied softly. "Will you take a walk with me after this?"
They could make this work. She desperately wanted it to.
Katniss nodded, her throat too constrained to reply with words.
If Peeta asked her to come back, she would say yes.
All he had to do was ask.
"So where did you want to go?" Katniss asked as they stepped out of Arena.
It was a cool night, clear and quiet. Since it was almost midnight, the streets were empty though behind them they could hear Cato and Prim singing 'Crazy in Love' on the karaoke system.
"I wanted to take you to a favorite place of mine," Peeta told her. "We need to talk. Like, really talk."
"Of course," she agreed. "Just lead the way."
"It's just a few blocks up." Peeta looked to her, his hands in his pockets. "How are you?"
"I'm fine." She gave him a small smile. "Delly and Seneca have been really gracious about letting me stay at their place."
"I thought you would've stayed with Prim and Cato," he said.
Katniss shook her head. "They're just starting out here in the city. Also, they have a newborn and need to learn how to parent on their own. I couldn't impose on them and their time with Jace."
"I understand," Peeta told her easily. "Rue told me that there was an appointment with Paylor on my schedule. I'm sorry I wasn't there. I didn't know if you wanted me there—"
"I should've asked you," she interrupted. "It's just hard, you know."
"We have horrible communication skills," Peeta added.
"Just one of the many things wrong with our marriage," Katniss retorted tersely. She turned to him abruptly, the guilt of her words rushing though her body. "I shouldn't have said that."
"Maybe you should have." Peeta stopped in his steps. "It might make telling the truth to one another a lot easier." He turned to her. "We're here."
Katniss turned to look up at the archway of the park. "'Victors Village'." She looked to Peeta. "Why would you bring me here?"
"It's one of the last places that I remember going with my parents before they died," Peeta explained. "I wanted to share it with you." He met her eyes. "Listen, Katniss. I know that I'm not the easiest person to know or be with. I kept something from you, I'll admit it. I only did it with the intention of protecting you." Peeta sighed, smiling at her sadly. "I should've realized that you're much stronger than I am. I let you down and in the end, I didn't protect you. So it makes all of this much easier."
Reaching inside his suit jacket, he pulled out an envelope and held it out to her.
"What is this?" she asked, her voice cracking at the edges.
"What you wanted," he told her quietly. "Divorce papers. I know that this is usually a much longer process, but I have good lawyers."
Her hands quivering, Katniss opened the envelope. She read over the document, seeing his signature along with Rue's, who served as his witness.
Tears welled up inside her and her heart raced.
So he didn't want her back.
It served her right, really, for reacting when she was angry.
"All you have to do is sign," Peeta told her wearily, his own eyes shining with tears.
Another paper in the agreement fell from her shaking hands and hastily Katniss picked it up.
Reading over it, the blood dropped from her face. "What the hell is this?"
"A codicil giving you all parental rights to Toad," he explained. "Signed, dated, and notarized. I just want you to feel safe, Katniss—to feel like you're not going to have our child taken away from you. I'm sorry if I didn't do that when we were together, but now…I can never give you a reason to feel unsafe around me."
She gasped, wiping the tears escaped her eyes. "Why would you do this?"
"Because I love you, Katniss." She looked up to see his own face streaked with tears. His lips trembled as he spoke. "But, I messed it all up and I can't change that. I hope that we can get to a place where I can find my way back to your heart—because it's such a lovely, beautiful place to be."
Leaning forward, Peeta kissed her cheek.
"I should go," he told her hurriedly. "I've already made a fool of myself."
Katniss watched him rush out of the park, heading across the street.
The tears came steadily, painfully, and she took the papers throwing them into her tote bag.
Reaching in, her hand felt her birthday present to Peeta—a coffee mug that she had created with Toad's face on it; his eyes and smile with her thick hair.
A perfect combination.
She needed to give it to him…to tell him that she didn't want the divorce…that she loved him…
That they were having a son.
Katniss grabbed the mug and ran out of the park.
"PEETA!"
She could see him across the street, hunched and defeated in his steps.
Delly and Seneca were right.
She knew that she didn't want to let them go, she wanted to fight for them.
She was running after him, crossing the street to tell him that she would love him no matter what happened.
"PEETA!"
There was a sudden squeal of tires…a blinding, vibrating pain through her body…the sound of her Toad mug shattering on the concrete…
Then silence.
If you've watched the series, you know what is coming. If you did not and you think that the upcoming chapter's trigger warning might affect you, then please message me.
I don't want you messaging me if you're anti-Galeniss or something like that. That is not a trigger warning.
Triggers are in regard to serious issues like depression, self-harm, suicide, abuse, etc.
We're getting to the end of Part One. In fact, Part Ten marks the end of it.
Part Two, to me, is very fun and there are a lot of changes for everyone, including our couple.
Thank you so much for all of your reviews. I know that I don't get to answer all of them, but I read every single one as does my husband. You are very passionate readers who care about these characters and I love y'all so much for feeling the same way I do.
This chapter was very difficult for me on a personal level and the next chapter will be as well.
I hope you'll stick around for Part Two.
Your feedback is fire to my writing hearth; leave your words for kindle.
Until Part Ten, JLaLa