And Abby-Rue Makes Three

Summary: I decided to write this after I saw the film of the Hunger Games. The writing will probably get better as I go on because I'm reading the books as I go along. Katniss is terrified that the Reaping for the 99th annual Hunger Games has been rigged, so that Abby-Rue, her and Peeta's daughter and only child, will be automatically picked. Peeta tells her that she is being ridiculous, but with Abby-Rue being Reaped and no-one young enough to take her place, she is forced to say goodbye. Will baby make three when it comes to the Hunger Games, or has Katniss' luck finally run out? AU, because she is Katniss and Peeta's only child.

Disclaimer: All characters, except Abby-Rue and the other participants of the 99th annual Hunger Games, belong to Suzanne Collins. All plot-lines belong to me.

Chapter One

Katniss was sitting curled up in a corner, in the home she shared with her husband Peeta, the boy who she had got to know during the year that she was Reaped for the 74th Annual Hunger Games. And that was the problem.

This year was the 99th Annual Hunger Games and Katniss was terrified that the election would be rigged, due to the fact that this year was also the first year in which her and Peeta's daughter and only child, Abby-Rue, would be included in the candidates for the Reaping. Katniss knew from experience how easy it was to rig the election, as the sponsors had been caught for it only a few years previously. They had rigged the election so that the son of a contestant from the 65th Hunger Games was Reaped, just because of who his father was. He would have stood a chance if they had looked at his mother instead of his father, but Abby-Rue didn't even have that chance. Whichever parent they looked at would be a Hunger Games champion. Twice. She was the most vulnerable girl in the history of the Reaping, even though she had not had to take any tessarae, due to her parents being champions.

There was an air about District 12 today and even Peeta had to admit that the atmosphere was thick enough to be cut with a blade. Katniss knew that it was inevitable that Abby-Rue would be Reaped, but she didn't voice her concerns to anyone, particularly not her daughter.

She sat in silence, her own thoughts warring in her head, until the knock at the door came. It was time. She called Peeta and he came to the door with her, his arm around the shaking blonde girl who the call was for. Abby-Rue ran into her mother's arms and Katniss found it remarkable how much Abby-Rue reminded her of poor Prim, with her hair in two braids down her back and a light blue ruffled dress covering her knees. Her light white socks were shrinking down her legs to rest at the top of the light blue ballet pumps, ones which actually belonged to Katniss, who had worn them for her own first Reaping, four years before she had entered the Games herself. Katniss actually whispered the exact same words to Abby-Rue as she had to Prim all those years ago.

"Now, listen, Abby, it's your first year, your name's only been in there once. They're not going to pick you." Even as she said the words, she felt the falseness of them pulsing through her mind. She believed the words far less when she relayed them to her daughter than she had saying them originally, as she now knew them to have been untrue, and to have caused her young sister to believe and trust in her, when it had been those words that let her down.

After the blood sample was taken, Abby lingering hugged her parents goodbye and went to join the other twelve year old girls from the district, while Katniss and Peeta went to the barrier line with the other parents.

Finally, a well-dressed woman named Effie Trinkett appeared on the stage to nominate the tributes, as she had done every year since the 69th Hunger Games. 'She's the person who selected my parents.' thought Abby. 'What if she picks me?'

"Welcome, welcome to the 99th Annual Hunger Games. Now, seeing as it is the 99th Annual Hunger Games, the selection process will be a little different. The tributes this year will be selected from the children of the previous Hunger Games victors."

The moment the words were spoken, Katniss gasped and buried her head in Peeta's chest, the tears beginning to spill over, not only onto Peeta's shirt, but into Katniss' hair as well. Peeta was trying not to let his wife see him cry, but he was unsuccessful. He only hoped the child of another champion would be chosen, but he doubted it highly, as did they all.

"Now, because it is the 99th Annual Hunger Games, we will begin with the boys." With that, Effie reached her hand into the glass bowl and pulled out a piece of paper. Breaking the seal, she read the name loudly and clearly into the microphone.

"Alexander Jonstone."

The crowds parted and a gorgeous boy with auburn hair, who must have been about fourteen or fifteen years old, made his way up to where Effie was standing. The Mellarks recognised him as the son of the 85th Hunger Games champion, Harmony Latham and her husband, a former Gamemaker, Andrew Jonstone. He was a good boy, from what they knew, and they hoped that he came to no harm.

"Well done, Mr. Jonstone. And now for the girls." Those were the words that Katniss had been dreading. The world seemed to slow down as Effie reached her hand into the second bowl and broke the seal on the paper she had removed. She leaned into the microphone and read the dreaded words.

"Abigail-Rue Mellark."

A/N : Had to leave it on a cliffhanger, just to raise the tension. Please review!