I know it's been forever, and to all of those have been waiting I apologize for taking so long. I finally have been abe to write this and am working on the next few chapters. Haven't given up on the story and I hope you guys haven't either. Read, emjoy, and please review to let me know what you think :)

Dinner went well.

Almost too well, I think as I gather the dishes from the table. I've got this feeling as if the dinner I just attended was previously rehearsed. That is a crazy thought being as it wasn't even planned untill this afternoon and I just spent two hours making it myself. Immediately I want to blame these doubts on my lifetime issue with trust. The fact that I have next to none. Especially for anyone outside my family. If my life has taught me anything, it's that if something is too good to be true, it most likely is. The sound of my children laughing floats into the kitchen. "Not everything Katniss," I argue with myself as I run water in the sink. "There is good." This stupid game I play with myself is something Dr. Arelious came up with. I'm annoyed by how often I actually have to turn to it, but over the years it has proved its worth. So I start rattling off all the good I've ever seen. Anything and everything. Stuff from long ago, like Peeta throwing me the bread, to things like my mother visiting kids at the children's home last week. I am able to calm my hysteria, but there is just something strange about tonight that I can't put my finger on and I don't know what.

"Why don't you and Gale go for a walk and catch up or something, I can get these," Peeta says, as he comes up next to me and grabs a dish towel from the drawer.

That.

Throughout the entire meal, Gale and I were the focus. No matter how many times I tried to steer the conversation towards someone else it all ended up back on us. If it wasn't my mother pushing it, it was Tara. Even Pax seemed to be in on it. Now Peeta.

I grip the the edge of the sink. "What are you doing?"

"Washi-"

He opens his mouth but I cut him off. "Don't tell me washing dishes Peeta. This thing, this...I don't know what it is, but you're all doing it."

"The only thing I'm up to, is suds to my elbows, trying to get these dishes done." Peeta doesn't even try to hide his smile.

"Peeta," I say, taking the tone I use on the rare occasion the children need correcting. But before I can say anymore he grabs my face in his soapy hands, squishing my cheeks together.

"I promise. I'm not up to anything. Go."

So I do.

Gale says goodnight to everyone and I walk with him down the path towards town. Other than a few pleasantries about dinner we don't really talk. It's a cool night for being May. The chill goes right through my clothes to the sensitive damaged skin underneath and with it comes the frosty memories. Winter mornings at our meetings spot, finding refuge in th Hob when the snow became too much, sharing a cup of cider on new year's day in the square, the snow ball fight we had with Rory, Vick, and ...and Prim.

I close my eyes , take a deep and let it out slow. When I open them I notice for the first time that I am alone. I look back down the path to see that Gale has stopped a good ways back and is looking up at the stars with his hands in his pockets. I don't move towards him, nor him to me. We stand there, in a situation much like we were the last time I saw him. So close, but still so far away. Because of me. Becasue I was weak and running on hate. Neither my head or my heart could decide what the truth was because both were so broken.

Now, I have chosen to be whole.

I cover the distance, and am standing barely a foot away from him, but his eyes are still on the sky. There's so many things I want to say. Things I should have almost thirty years ago. Before I can Gale speaks.

"I think about her," he almost whispers. "I see her all the time Katniss. "

I tilt my head back, taking in the breath taking view of the constellations. The wind cools the streams of tears on my cheeks. I just let them fall. "Me too."

" I know you do. You got that look on your face after we started walking, and I knew you were thinking about her. That you were always going to go back to that moment and no matter what I do, or what I say, You'll never be able to seperate me from that."

"Gale, I-"

"No Katniss, listen," he says firmly. " I'll never know for certain. The only one's who will are probably dead. But I will always feel it. There's days when I can't even look into my wife or my daughter's faces without shame creeping up and eating away at me."

I hug him. Hard. I hug him so hard that he can barely get his hands out of his pockets to hug me back. Something wet hits my neck and I know why he wasn't looking at me. This is sorry. This is forgiveness. This is me, getting my friend back.

I haven't even let go of him yet when the last part of what he said hits me. "You're married!?" I ask not hiding the shock in my voice, " and you have a daughter? Why didn't you tell me?"

Gale laughs and holds up his left hand. "Apparently, even though you didn't want me, someone still found me desirable. So yes, I'm married. And I don't have a daughter, I have four."

There was no sting in his words. Just a hint of his old sarcastic humor that was so rarely heard outside our time in the woods. But now there's more joy behind it. So I smile. "With a camera-ready face like that, I figured someone might."

We walk side by side, not even two inches apart, the whole way. Gale fills me in on the past twenty years of his life. He met Gwen while working in Two. She was in charge of the crew clearing out the aftermath left when they destroyed the Nut. After my trial, Gale was assigned to oversee everything in Two. That didn't sit well with the current Commander in charge, one Gwenivere Stone , and for the next few months the two of them butted heads on almost everything. Then, much like it was with me, one day he realized he loved her. It took a year or so but she finally decided he was worth putting up with and they were married. They were in Seven at the time signing off on some new training base designed and named in honor of Gale, for dedicating so much to the rebel cause. They decided the time was as good as any, had Hazel and the kids flown in, and got married among the pinetrees and giant redwoods in the forest.

The children came a few years later. The oldest, Holly and Heather, are twins. Gale had a ten year head start on Peeta and I. Then it's Laurel, the carbon copy of her mother. Roxanne, Roxy for short, is only six months older than Tara and apparently her father's guts. Gale goes on and on about them and I can see the mix of pride and worry on his face. It's not the old worries of having that many mouths to feed or dreading the reaping. It's the kind brought about on a father with a house full of girls. I have to laugh. Due to his military assignments, they've lived in almost every District. Even the Capitol. He tells me his family has been in Twelve for a little over a month now but he just arrived yesterday. When I ask what brought him back after all these years he smiles and jsut tells me it's just another assignment.

How long we've been walking, I don't know. But when we finally stop it's at the end of a gravel walk way, in front of a one level brick house. I take a good look at it and feel strangely confused.

"It's exactly where our old house set in the Seam," Gale says reading my thoughts. "Well, almost anyways."

I can see it now. A good bit bigger and sitting about thirty feet from where the original was. Gale really is home. I walk half way up to the door with him and the door opens. A pretty red headed woman opens the door and the light from the street lamp illuminates her bright green eyes. She looks at me and greets me with a wide friendly smile, "It's nice to finally meet you Katniss."

Whether my mouth dropped open or not, I can't say. All I know is I was shocked. Her Capitol accent caught me off guard. Way off guard. I recover quickly though, genuinly smile at her and shake her extended hand. "Hi, you must be Gwen."

There's a silent moment or two but then Gale breaks it by saying he will just be a minute more. Gwen says goodbye and goodnight and goes back in the house. Gales hugs me first this time.

"I better go, or Peeta's going to think you and I've made a break for the woods," I say jokingly.

"He'd find his way back to you," Gale says playing into the humor of it all.

I kiss his cheek and turn to go, " Yea, he always does."

"Night, Catnip," Gales calls from the doorway. I wave and walk on down the street. Half way to the square something hits me and I take off running full out, for home. I just want to get home to him, to them, so bad. I burst into the house. My mother has gone home, but Haymtich is in the living room with Peeta and the kids. By the looks on their faces I'm sure they think I'm having one of my breakdowns. Peeta rushes over to me, alarm in his eyes, and takes me in his arms.

"Katniss? What's wrong? What are you running from," he asks urgently.

"Not from, TO," I say and kiss him full and hard on the mouth.

So, what did you think of that? Happen how you thought? Catch you off guard? I hope so. Let me know what you think of it. Story is still building. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I proof read and deem it worth reading :)