A/N: edited 18/01/15 and 22/01/2015

This is the last chapter of The Baby Games! It switches between POVs so I hope it isn't confusing!

All I really want to say is thank you for the reviews, follows, and favourites, they honestly mean the world to authors who spend way too much time on these damn things. Onward, my trusty readers, and thank you :)


Chapter 40: Inferno


Katniss

One year has passed.

It's springtime. Hugo is making a mess, mashing the flour-and-water dough that Peeta cooked up for his son to play with in his chubby hands. Melanie stands beside him, her nose only just breaching the table top. Peeta went out three hours ago, to visit Haymitch. The look on his face sent thrills running through me. It's something about the rebellion. I can tell. These secretive meetings and talk of uprising has been increasing lately. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about preparations.

I'm by the sink, rinsing dishes and leaving them on the rack to dry. At first I think that I'm just hearing things- that the persistent, high-pitched noise is something conjured up from my imagination. That it's all in my head. But the noise doesn't go away. Sirens. I blink, cocking my head and narrowing my eyes to concentrate and listen, staring out the window into the street.

The sirens that are positioned on towering grey poles around district are supposed to warn us of an impending attack from someone or something outside the district boundaries. When I was young, about Melanie's age, there was a wild storm. Ferocious winds during the night brought down an oak tree from the forest outside the district, and it fell onto the fence. This provided wild animals with an easy access point into the district by simply climbing over the tree and the warped metal squashed below.

Because the Peacekeepers never bothered to patrol the fence, the destruction went unnoticed. It was only when a pack of wild dogs ran through the Seam and into the Merchant Quarters that the dogs were shot and the fence was fixed. When the sirens first went off I was playing out in the street with Dad. He swept me up into his arms and carried me into the house and calmed my heavily pregnant mother as the pack lurched past mere meters from the house, their eyes glistening, drool hanging from their jaws as the sirens screeched.

Melanie tugging on my pant leg brings me back to reality with a frightening jolt. I look down and squeeze her hand reassuringly. Her eyes are so similar to Peeta's. It gives her an unfair advantage when it comes to getting what she wants. I can't say no to those eyes, and she uses that to her advantage.

I call Peeta's name despite knowing that he isn't here, pulling Hugo out of his seat and into my arms, holding Melanie close to me as the sirens ring out and the ground shakes.

"What's dat noise Momma?" Melanie asks, her eyes wide and anxious. Hugo snuggles against my chest. He doesn't like loud noises.

"I don't know sweety," I reply. "But it's okay."

"Where's Daddy?"

"He'll be here in a minute," I say, trying to reassure my children as well as myself. Peeta bursts into the room just then, his cheeks flushed, and wraps his arms around all three of us, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "What's happening?" I hiss.

He covers Mel's ears before speaking, his face sombre. "Capitol hovercrafts are coming. They've bombed Seven, Ten and Eleven. They're bombing us next. We need to get out of here. Now."

"The Capitol?" I ask, horrified.

"Haymitch and Effie are running about with megaphones, telling everyone to head for the woods."

"Why?!" I ask, adrenalin pumping through me.

"Rescue hovercrafts are going to save us, now come on!" he exclaims, his eyes worried. He reaches out and takes Hugo, supporting his head with one large hand that almost covers Hugo's small skull. If you didn't know Peeta, you'd think that he was a brute- possibly violent- who used his size and evident strength to bully people. Not that he was a loving father who puts his wife and children before everything else.

"No, Peeta. Tell me what's going on. I don't understand this," I say, yanking Melanie behind me as if she could be used as an object to force Peeta to speak. My husband looks wounded, glancing down at his daughter. My heart cracks a little, but he eventually speaks.

"You know when I worked in the mines?" He asks. I nod, swallowing hard. It was so many years ago now, but I can still remember the feeling of pure terror I felt as I ran through the district, not knowing if my husband was safe or not, whether I would left alone aged sixteen with a baby on the way.

"Remember that I heard rumours about an uprising, and how people weren't happy about being under the rule of the Capitol?" Peeta continues, lowering his voice a substantial amount, glancing around. I frown. What is he looking for? Cameras? Microphones?

I nod in response, too confused to speak. "I... I haven't lost contact with some of the miners. They know about secret groups of- of rebels who are plotting against the Capitol," he pauses, stepping closer to me and holding my gaze. "All survivors are to be taken to District 13. I want my family to be part of those survivors." He says, smoothing his thumb over my cheekbone.

"District 13 doesn't exist." I whisper.

"That's what I thought."

"That's what we all thought."

"Katniss, we need to go."

"Please, just let me get some stuff first." I tell him, letting go of Melanie, pushing her towards Peeta, and racing for the stairs.

"No! Katniss we need to go right now-!" Peeta yells after me, and Hugo whimpers in his father's arms.

"Wait!" I ignore my husband's pleas and pull some faded drawstring bags from the small closet under the stairs. The sirens seem to get louder and louder as I climb the stairs two steps at a time, a wailing, droning sound that rattles through me. Shivers ripple down my spine. All the information that I've just been told is too much to comprehend in one fell swoop.

The Capitol.

District 13.

Rebellion.

All of those words are wrong, all of those things sound so, so wrong. But at the same time they sound dangerously right.

I can hear Hugo crying downstairs, and just louder than the sirens, the soothing tones of Peeta as he tries to calm his children. "Katniss! Come on!" he bellows. Racing into Melanie's bedroom, I throw some blankets and toys into one of the bags for my children and then I turn into the bedroom Peeta and I share. Skirting around Hugo's crib, I locate Peeta's sketchpad, pencils, my pin, and the box containing the cufflinks Peeta wore at our wedding. I'll have to try and grab my bow and quiver once we're in the forest, before the hovercrafts come- if they even exist, that is.

This could be a trap. A death wish. We could all be racing for the forest only to be bombed to smithereens by the Capitol. Any who survived would be tortured, I'm sure. Made example of in a ravaged, smouldering Panem.

I sling the knapsack over my shoulder and dash down the stairs. Peeta is standing at the doorway with Hugo in his arms and Melanie at his side.

"I'll carry Melly. You take Hugo," he says, passing the baby over to me. I strap him against my chest in a practiced action. Peeta lifts Melanie up into his arms. "Hold on to Daddy, Melanie," he instructs, and she nods with eyes as wide as his.

"Is this actually happening?" I ask.

"We'll be okay. Everyone'll be okay," he promises, opening the front door. I have to trust him. I have to trust him with my life yet again. I glance down the hallway of our little home, and leave it all behind for something better. For hope.

Out in the street it's absolute chaos. People are running with carts or armfuls of belongings. I see someone amble pass with a donkey. Peeta and I hurry down the street, following the wave of people advancing forwards, towards the Seam. This makes me think of Mom and Prim. Are they okay? Have they gone to the forest? I throw open the front door of my house when we reach it, yelling out for Mom and Prim. There's a note on the table, stating that my sister and mother have gone to the forest with everyone else and that they'll see us there.

Peeta pulls me out of the house by the elbow, and when we reach the fence I see that someone has widened the hole Gale and I've been using for years, and propped the flap of sharp metal up in the air with a plank of wood. Peeta climbs through, and we walk Melanie across with encouraging smiles. Hugo and I follow close behind, ignoring the grumbles of 'hurry the hell up' from various people waiting to get out of the district. I'm in my element in the forest, and dart forward down the small winding trails I'm so accustomed to in order to find the hollow tree containing my bow and arrows. I add them to my rucksack. We're gasping for breath and Hugo is bawling, stumbling up a grassy hill near where Gale and I used to meet, when there's a loud explosion from somewhere in the distance. Everyone pauses and stares in horror as the mushroom-shaped cloud erupts into the air.

"They're here!" Someone screams. "Everybody run!"

Only a few people start to move, but there are others that are rooted to the spot, watching the district beginning to burn, at the Capitol hovercrafts that drop the bombs and the ant-sized figures fleeing down below in the valley. We continue on, over the crest of the hill and back into the dense woodland. Animals are fleeing from the scene as well, whinnying and squawking in terror. It's every creature for himself out here.

We reach a clearing after what feels like an eternity of running, and find a small army of helicopters and hovercrafts on standby. Smartly-dressed soldiers with giant '13's printed on the back usher people forward to various aircraft, ordering people to be quick but orderly. I can tell that it's a small percentage of the district in this valley. The loss of life will be great in return for our freedom.

I spot Haymitch among the crowd and he waves us over.

"Get into that helicopter. Tell them that I sent you. That you're Lowell's daughter," he orders, looking half-sober but ever professional. This whole thing is too organized. They've been preparing for this moment. Lowell's daughter? What has Dad got to do with all this? There's no time for questions, and I rush forward, Peeta on my heels. Melanie is looking around in fright, and Peeta mutters something to her repetitively, trying to keep her calm. Hugo is crying, his red mouth a round 'o'. I shush him gently, but it's no use. We approach the helicopter.

"Haymitch Abernathy sent us. I'm Lowell's daughter," I tell the soldier on guard. His eyes widen behind his visor and he stares at me. He nods after a moment and instructs us to keep our heads down as the helicopter blades spin above us, whipping the air about, causing a racket. It only adds to the confusion and panic of the situation. "Make sure Dahlia and Primrose Everdeen are accounted for. And Aymee, Farrell, Fenton and Rye Mellark." I order stonily before getting onto the aircraft. He just nods.

"Will do, Ma'am," he says, saluting me. The glass door slides shut and the ground disappears from beneath us.


Peeta

Despite how terrified she looks, Katniss navigates the forest easily, carrying Hugo and not letting go of me as we run away from the hovercrafts bombing the district just below us. Melanie lets out a frightened whimper and buries her face into my chest and I hold her tightly to me as if my arms could protect her from the destructive force of Capitol hovercrafts.

"Papa," she whispers, and I can barely hear it let alone stop and listen to what she wants to stay. Instead, I just murmur that it's okay over and over again into her ear, reassuring her as well as myself. Haymitch said we'd have someone waiting to take us to safety, and I'm relying completely on that promise. Katniss would be able to survive in the forest, but with two young children and a baker husband in tow? We'd be caught within the week. Charged with treason and shot in front of the country to make an example. To show that the Capitol has no remorse, not even for families.

Then again, this is exactly why we need to leave Panem. Why we need to end the oppressive rule of President Snow. We are fairly safe, admittedly. It isn't like the Capitol is plucking people out of the districts and killing them for entertainment. They leave the citizens alone, especially the ones in the outer, poorer districts. It's a curse as well as a blessing. We still live in bad conditions, conditions I don't want Melanie and Hugo to grow up in. I want them to be able to know what justice is. I want them to be able to breathe in fresh air and not have an electrified fences locking them into an endless cycle of struggle. This is a risk. If everything goes wrong I will lose everyone I hold dear to me. And I can't have that. I need my wife. I need my children. They're part of my heart now, and letting go of them is going to be the last thing I do.

Imagine my relief when Haymitch is right. Over a hill and through endless woodland the ground clears to reveal helicopters and hovercrafts waiting for us, all armed with District 13 soldiers who usher people forward with frightening synchronicity. Haymitch waves us over and I trip over tree roots and people as we rush towards him.

"Get into that helicopter. Tell them that I sent you. That you're Lowell's daughter," he instructs Katniss. I glance at her. What has her Dad got to do with this? She looks at Haymitch with a similar look of confusion, but doesn't question him. Hugo begins to cry and Melanie's bottom lip trembles, so I murmur more reassurances into her ear. Katniss and I head for the helicopter and she does what she was told. The soldier's eyes widen and he nods rapidly at her, instructing us to keep our heads down as he escorts us under the whirring blades of the helicopter. Katniss orders him to look out for her family and mine before climbing on board with Hugo. I pass Melanie to her and don't miss the look the soldier gives me when I follow close behind with the rest of my family.

The doors slide shut quickly, cutting us off from the outside. I feel guilty for a second at leaving all these other people on the ground, but Hugo begins to cry again. I look over at Katniss and watch as she tries to calm him, but it's no use. He's scared and unsure and can only react in one way.

"Kat?" I call over the noise of the aircraft. Katniss doesn't hear me. I try again, louder, and she looks my way. She's on the verge of tears, her grey eyes wide with worry. "Give me Hugo," I say, reaching my hands out for my son and passing my daughter to her mother. Melanie curls up in Katniss' lap and Katniss buries her face in her wild black curls, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. I rock Hugo in my arms and wait for his cries to slow, staring at my wife. My hands are shaking and my head is spinning, but, for now, we're safe.


Katniss

The next thing I know, I'm in District 13.

District 13 is an underground maze of endless grey corridors, rooms, and elevator shafts. It's organisation like I've never seen. Everyone knows their place. Their job. Everything is programmed to be perfectly sustainable, perfectly planned. But one of the only flaws to the system is the lack of people. At least two generations of these people have never seen natural daylight. Any disease that contaminates anyone or anything ravages the underground chambers. That's why so many families and young people were being taken from the districts. They needed new blood. They were dying out. Our only hope of freedom was breaking down from the inside out. This rebellion was now or never.

After much fighting, I'm allowed to be placed in a room with Peeta, Melanie, and Hugo. Alma Coin, the woman in charge of District 13, insisted that I be in a separate room, away from 'distractions'. I don't like President Coin. She's cold. Calculating. She never has a hair out of place. I don't see her as a flawed human being with emotions. I see her as a robot. Programmed to feel very little. Programmed to hold an indescribable power over everyone.

Those who died in District 12's bombing are mourned. The Undersee's burned in their mansion. Mitch was with them. Peeta said that his friend was finally introducing himself to the Mayor, planning to propose, even. Rye was caught in a bomb blast while trying to help others, though the rest of the Mellark family escaped with nothing but burns. Delly made it out. Effie and Haymitch made it out. Sae, Ripper, and the owner of the apothecary made it out. The florist made it out. But so many people didn't.

And that was in my district alone.

I spot the Lomenzo twins in the cafeteria one day. They no longer look like the teens I last saw them as. They're hardened soldiers, trained by Coin to react to commands and nothing else. I demand to see the Hawthorne clan. Even Gale sheds a tear when he sees us, looking so much older than I imagined he'd be. Even sweet Posy looks changed, insisting that Melanie keeps her doll that Peeta and I found so long ago. Rory even has the guts to ask Prim out.

"Catnip, you're here," Gale whispers roughly, hugging me tightly with thick, muscled arms.

"I missed you," I sob into his chest, ignoring the hard plates of his body armour. "I missed you so much."

"I wanted to go back and visit you. They said it was too much of a risk," he says, his voice loud in my ear. "You look well, Catnip. Mellark been treatin' you right all these years?"

"He's a keeper," I laugh, wiping away tears. I pull away, smiling up at him. I turn, looking at Peeta holding Hugo on his hip and Melanie's small hand in his. I go to stand by my husband's side. "Gale, I'd like you to meet Melanie and Hugo Mellark."

Gale is shocked to say the least, but eventually he slaps Peeta on the shoulder, asking him 'how the hell did you manage to knock her up twice?' to which Peeta replies, 'Perseverance, my friend. Perseverance.'

Gale then crouches down to shake Melanie's hand. She stares at him as he speaks to her, not reacting. He looks up at me, puzzled as to why she's not saying a thing. And then Melanie throws herself at him, giggling and wiggling around. Gale falls back onto his ass and laughs. Peeta comes in close to me and takes my hand.


Peeta

District 13 is nothing like I ever imagined it would be. It's stifling. I get little sleep not only because of the day-to-day anxieties of war but because I can't open any windows. This dry, processes air makes me feel ill.

Katniss fights to be placed with her family against the President herself. President Coin doesn't seem to trust my wife and tries to keep us apart. Katniss always fights though, like she always does. We spend three days trying to get acclimatised to our new home. Melanie hates that she can't go outside but Hugo doesn't seem to mind it.

A week after we arrive in Thirteen, I'm sat in the cafeteria with Melanie and Hugo, trying my hardest to get them to eat all of their rations. I don't blame them for spitting it out though. The grey 'soup' is tasteless and you never feel like you've eaten anything of substance. Katniss is gone, busy elsewhere with the President, which is why when the television screens in the room flicker to life and begin to list all the dead from the different districts, I don't have anyone to lean on. Three names appear and it feels like a punch to the gut.

Margaret P. Undersee

Mitchell Bryant

Rye Mellark

I stare at the screen, feeling tears welling up. No. Please, no.

"Daddy?" Hugo asks, tugging on my sleeve, jolting the spoon in my hand onto the floor. I clear my throat and look down, plastering on the biggest smile I can.

"Silly Daddy," I say with a laugh, but the sound is strangled. "He dropped his spoon!"

I manage to hold everything in until both of my children have slipped off for an afternoon nap, and then I break down. I full out sob, mourning my friends, mourning my brother. Mom, Dad, and Fenton weren't on the list, but I haven't seen them since that morning when we ran for our lives. I don't want to lose any more people. I can't.

When Katniss finally arrives an hour later, it's obvious that she's heard. She gathers me into her arms and lets me cry into her shirt.

"M-Mitch," I gasp out, my chest tightening like it's being stamped on. "He was introducing himself t-to M-Mayor Undersee. He wanted to m-marry M-Madge."

"Oh, Peeta," she sighs, hugging me closer.

"I-I didn't even think to make sure my brothers and parents were safe," I say. "Why didn't I t-think, Katniss?"

Her voice is thick with emotion when she tells me it's not my fault. "You couldn't have prevented anything, Peeta. You ran. You were protecting me and Melanie and Hugo. And Rye was protecting others as well. He sacrificed himself, Peeta," she pulls back and cradles my face in her small, calloused hands. "That was sacrifice enough, and a sacrifice too many."

Katniss doesn't leave my side that night, or the following day. We go to the cafeteria as a family, and she points out the Lomenzo twins.

"Look how different they look," she murmurs, bouncing Hugo on her lap to keep him occupied. I stare at the two boys – men – in question, watching as they march down the aisle between the tables, wearing the same black and grey armour that so many of the other soldiers here do. "I can remember when they vanished," she says, and I take her hand.

Katniss fights against President Coin again in order to see the Hawthornes. Gale hugs her with frightening intensity and she sobs into his chest. I stand, pulling Hugo into my arms and taking Melanie's hand and walk towards my wife and the Hawthorne family. Katniss introduces us and Gale actually acknowledges me, slapping me on the shoulder and bending down to look at Melanie.

I watch as the Hawthornes catch up with Katniss. Hazelle fawns over my children and Rory and Prim blush together in the corner. Posy and Vick stand side by side with tight expressions, thawing only a little when Melanie reveals Daisy, Posy's old doll. Since when were they so different? What changed them? Who changed them?


I'm walking back to my compartment after a shift in the kitchens when I spot a familiar blonde head in the ground. It's a woman, shorter than me, and her hair is drawn back in a tight bun, secured with broach I've seen almost everyday of my life.

"Mom?" I call over the crowds, pushing my way forward. "Aymee Mellark?!" I shout when she doesn't turn. She jumps and stops and locks eyes on me.

"Peeta?" she says, looking at me like she's just seen a ghost.

"Mom!" I exclaim, rushing to her. I stop short and hesitate. Should I hug her? Should I just say hi and move on?

"Oh, son," she sighs, shaking her head. "Did you hear about Rye?" I nod, biting down on my tongue. She nods, her eyes sad. I step forward and put my arms around her, ignoring the dirty looks from the other people flowing around us in the corridor.

"I'm sorry, Mom," I whisper into her ear, and she pats my back lightly.

"Come and see your father and brother," she says gently, and I pull away. She doesn't touch me, not even with a hand on my elbow to guide me along, but I don't care. I'm just so happy that my Dad is okay. That Fenton is okay.

Dad doesn't let me go for a long time, chuckling and crying at the same time when Mom leads me into their compartment. Fenton joins the hug, equally teary, and Dad pulls Mom into the hug as well, telling her to stop grumbling, woman when she protests. We're a family again, at least. No one mentions how off-balance it feels without Rye's sarcasm and laughter. We're just relieved no one else was lost.


Katniss

It's soon after my reunion with Gale that I find out the truth of what happened to my father. He didn't just die in an accidental explosion. The Capitol found out about that main group of rebels –which included my father and Gale's- and sent them all to one area of the mine. And then they blew them up. They knew all this time and hoped that killing off a few dusty old miners who wanted to rebel would stamp out a bigger force. But the spark had already turned into a full-blown inferno that threatened to swallow up the country. This information only makes me angrier. I spend more and more time in the command room, surrounded by maps and screens and officials who advise Coin on what our next moves should be.

Alma Coin decides to call me the Mockingjay, after seeing the pin that Madge gave me. It's simply Mockingjay this, Mockingjay that. I try to get on with her, but pretty quickly I begin to see the dark side of our president shining through. She doesn't care about those who are killed fighting on the front line. As more and more of the districts join our fight, she begins to train more and more people.

"Miss Everdeen-"

"Mrs Mellark."

She purses her lips. I ignore her. "I would like you to observe the soldiers at work today. I'm sure that you'll be very impressed with how well-trained they are. How efficient and skilful they are." I say nothing as we enter a large room the size of a warehouse. She wasn't kidding when she said that the soldiers were well-trained. They are all the same. They have the same uniform, the same way of holding themselves as they march in perfectly synced blocks. Every bullet hits its target. All their movements are sharp and precise.

It's then that I realise that Alma Coin in building herself an army.


Peeta

Katniss has been spending more and more time locked away in command with President Coin and her henchmen, and each time she comes back later and angrier than the last. She doesn't tell me anything, though. She just climbs into bed beside me and falls asleep, her brow creased, her mouth pursed.

It hurts. It really does. She told me all about her father and the rebellion and why she's being called the Mockingjay, but it's clear that the stress of so much being placed upon her shoulders is taking its toll. She snaps more at Melanie and Hugo and then cries to me when they get upset. I don't know what to do, trying to comfort my wife and children when they're all crying about the same thing. So I just sit there, and sympathise, and try not to cry as well.


Melanie and Hugo stay at a children's care centre when Katniss is off working with Gale and the President and I'm working my shifts in the kitchens, doing my part to keep this fragile district going. I meet a lot of people by serving them meals, but always end up sat by myself to eat my own. It gives me a chance to think, though. To try to come to terms with everything that is happening around me. A war. A rebellion. An uprising. Whichever way you put it, whatever label you give it, it's still nasty and bloody. If we succeed in throwing President Snow off his iron throne, what will remain of Panem? A burning, crumbling graveyard. I have to remind myself that District 13 was once exactly that, and now they're at the forefront of bringing down the tyranny we've suffered under for so long.

The man in charge of the kitchen signals for me to go on my break, so I grab myself a bowl of stew and a pitiful bread roll and head to an empty table in the corner, my stomach rumbling. I'm halfway through the bowl when a thunderous voice rings out from behind me, making me choke.

"PEETA MELLARK?!" someone bellows, drawing the attention of everyone in a five-mile radius. I turn in my seat, searching for the source of the noise, and am more than a little surprised when a woman with short, spiky hair comes storming towards me, a tall, bronzed man and a smaller red head following close behind. The woman stops in front of me and points her finger into my face.

"Are you Peeta Mellark?" she asks. "Husband of Katniss Everdeen?"

"Y-yes," I stutter, staring at her in shock.

"I fucking told you he was him," she says, spinning on her heel to address the bronzed man. He chuckles, putting his hands up in the air in defence. "I told you, Finnick, and you didn't believe me!"

"I should've listened," Finnick says, still laughing. The red head steps closer to me and smiles gently.

"I'm sorry about those two," she says quietly. "I'm Annie. DO you mind if we join you?"

"Do I have much choice?" I ask, and she laughs, the sound musical and light. Finnick and the other woman sit down as well, but pretty much ignore me, continuing to argue as if wasn't even there. I finish my meal and watch them as they talk. I feel like I've seen Finnick before. The name sounds familiar for some reason.

"Do I know you?" I finally ask him in a lull in conversation. He turns to me, flashing a brilliant smile.

"No, not in person," he says. "I'm Finnick Odair. You've probably seen me on TV."

"My mother used to watch you. Every Friday," I say, memories of Finnick adorning my family television screen for two hours each Friday, much to the delight of my mother. It's kind of disheartening to see that he actually looks as good as he is onscreen in real life, with is perfect skin and perfect teeth. Even the harsh fluorescents in the cafeteria can't compete with him.

He proceeds to introduce everyone at the table. He's Finnick Odair, a Capitol television personality hailing from District Four, who, over the last few years has been corresponding with feeding Capitol information into Thirteen. Annie, his fiancé, is from Four also, but has never been to the Capitol, a fact that, according to her, she is proud to maintain. Johanna Mason is the spiky haired woman who first yelled my name from across the cafeteria. I'm shocked to find that she's the girl who disappeared from District Seven over a decade ago, the girl whose family was killed off before she vanished, leading everyone to believe that she too had perished.

"I've met your charming, wonderful wife," Finnick says, and I raise my eyebrows. "I was in Twelve years ago finding out if she did indeed exist, and found her working in what I believe is your family bakery? Of course, back then, she was sixteen and rather pregnant."

"Popped out one more sprog after that, didn't you?" Johanna pipes up.

"Yes," I say, smiling fondly. "Hugo."

"What is his sibling's name?" Annie asks with shining eyes.

"Melanie."

"How sweet," she says, smiling brightly at me, such a strong contrast from scowling Johanna and dazzling Finnick.

"I like to think so," I say with a laugh. Annie takes Finnick's hand and doesn't let go for the rest of my break, never joining in with her fiancé's argument with Johanna, never batting an eyelid at her harsh language. When I'm called back to the kitchens, I feel like I've made some friends. Some very strange, and very different friends, but allies in this alien district.

As they talk, I pick up more and more details about life outside of Twelve. And the more I find out, the more puzzle pieces slot into place, building up an image in my head that explains so much to me.

At the very start of the Games, before Hugo, before Melanie, Panem suffered from shortages of grains due to 'trouble' in District Nine. The bakery lost a week and a half of sales because we had nothing to make bread with. We never found out what this trouble was, nor whether it was resolved. Mitch often told me about how much Madge knew about Panem. He would tell me about all the things she would overhear in the quiet, empty corridors of her home. About the borders that were shut to 'stop people getting hurt'. About issues with train lines and factories everywhere in Panem. About unrest and issues that I had never really heard about before. Perhaps I was naïve. Perhaps I just didn't think. Now everything is beginning to make sense.

Even Twill, Katniss and mine's mysterious elderly neighbour, was to do with the rebellion. All these tiny, minute details have lead up to this point. To the rebellion. I was too caught up with my own life to notice, and now Johanna's stories about riots in the logging plants, Finnick and Annie's tales about mysteriously sinking boats, are bring everything together. This rebellion has been growing around me all my life, and I've never even noticed.

When I go to collect Melanie and Hugo after my shift later that day, I'm informed that Katniss has already collected them. I rush back to our compartment and tell her everything. Everything about the missing girl from Seven who turned out to be Johanna Mason, about the strange-looking man who once stopped by in the bakery to buy sugar cookies, about his quiet, kind fiancé. Katniss is shocked by the time I'm finished.

"With every day that passes, Panem seems to get bigger and bigger," she says with a heavy sigh, resting her head on my shoulder as I lean back against the headboard of our District 13-issued bed with its grey, scratchy bedclothes. "And I'm getting smaller and smaller. I'm not fit to be the Mockingjay. I can't finish what my father started."

I push her upright and force her to look at me.

"I'm scared too, Katniss," I say, not letting her look away. "But I have faith in you. I know that you're going to help lead this country to victory."

"Peeta…" she protests, closing her eyes. I wipe away the tear that rolls down her cheeks and press my forehead to hers, inhaling and exhaling with her.

"Katniss Mellark, my brave, beautiful wife," I say, cradling her jaw in my palms. She wraps her fingers around my wrists and sniffs. "You've never been anything but a victor. Look at our children. They look up to you more than they do me. You've always been and always will be a fantastic mother, and you're a woman I'm proud to call my wife," she starts to interrupt me, so I kiss her again and again until she knows to stop talking and let me finish. "Can you remember what I said to you? Before Melly was born, when you were scared and didn't believe in yourself? I told you that I trusted you. That you had to stop beating yourself up. And I still do. You haven't let anyone down. Please don't start doubting yourself after so much time."

Katniss lets out a long breath and pulls away, wrapping her arms around me and pressing her ear to my chest. "I'm so scared, Peeta," she says softly, and I hug her close, inhaling her scent to calm my nerves.

"That's what life is about," I tell her. "If you aren't scared, you aren't living. Just take a deep breath and don't let me go, okay? Don't let Melanie go. Don't let Hugo go."

"I'll try," she says, and I grip her tighter.

"You will," I say firmly. "You will."


Katniss

Peeta's words mean nothing when I'm in command. I'm too occupied with body counts and maps and ammunition stockpiles and which districts we've got control of and which are still fighting against us, under the Capitol's rule.

It's three months in and four days since I last saw my husband or my children, when there's a shout from outside the command room, a thump, and the sound of electricity buzzing. Boggs –Coin's second in command- jumps up from his seat, pulling a sleek gun from his belt.

"President, Mockingjay, stay where you are," he says, inching closer to the door.

"Fuck off!" I hear someone shout from outside. Peeta?

"Wait, it's just Peeta!" I exclaim, flying across the room to stop Boggs shooting the father of my child.

"Peeta?" Boggs asks.

"My husband," I explain, wrenching open the door. Out in the corridor its chaos. Two soldiers lay unconscious on the floor. Two more soldiers have Peeta pinned against the floor, and another wrenches the taser from my husband's hand.

"What is going on out here?" Coin shouts, a vein in her forehead bulging out. She really hates chaos in her well-oiled machine.

"Ma'am, Civilian Mellark was causing a disturbance," one of the soldiers reports, saluting Coin. I roll my eyes at the display.

"Peeta, what are you doing?" I ask, crouching down to face him. His face is mashed into the floor.

"Tell these idiots to get off me!" He exclaims.

"Why'd you taser them?"

"Because I need to talk to you."

"And you couldn't have simply requested to be let in?"

"I tried that," Peeta sighs, his chest heaving. "They denied me access."

"So you tasered them?"

"Obviously, or we wouldn't be in this situation."

"Soldiers, let him up," Boggs orders. Peeta climbs to his feet and brushes off his 13-issued grey clothes, eyeing the soldiers who had him on the floor with disdain. I try to reason with him.

"Look, I'm finalising plans. Haymitch will be here in a minute with Gale and Paylor and a bunch of other important people, and then we're going to start talking strategy," I say softly. "I'll be back by tonight."

"This isn't all about you!" Peeta snaps. I frown.

"I know it isn't."

"You obviously don't," he retorts, and Coin sighs heavily. "Since you've been locked up in that damn room for four days now. I haven't seen you. Melanie and Hugo haven't seen you. They keep calling for their Mommy and half the time I don't even know where you are! Nobody's seen you, Katniss! All you do is stay in that room and finalise things that are never going to happen. Where has my wife gone? Where has the mother of my children gone?"

"I'm right here!" I exclaim angrily, my hands balling into fists. How dare he accuse me of anything? I'm fighting for him!

"No, you aren't," he says stonily. "You aren't Katniss Everdeen –or Katniss Mellark anymore. I don't know who you are."

"Why are you being such an asshole?" I spit, embarrassed that he's decided to confront me so publically. "I'm busy helping out. Unlike you. All you do is complain!"

"I complain? I haven't complained in the slightest! I know this is important. I know you're important as an Everdeen. But you need to get your head out of your ass and spend some time with the people you're fighting for," he pauses. Everyone is silent. My cheeks flush red. "I love you, Katniss. But it's like you don't exist anymore. It's like you're just a name, a rumour. Not actually a person."

"Dear me, you really know how to stir up trouble, don't you boy?" Haymitch chuckles, advancing towards us. I scowl. Peeta curses under his breath.

"Enough!" Coin hisses. "At a time like this we do not need this. Mr Mellark, return to your children and your job. Mockingjay, back inside, please."

"No," I say, suddenly feeling very tired. Peeta's right. I have lost myself. I've spent too much time looking at facts and figures, determined to fight for my father died for. I've bitten off more than I can chew. Looking back, I realise what I've done. I've cut myself off from those that I need. Those that I love. This underground network has become a prison. I begin to wish that I wasn't so important, because I've spent so long trying to give my all to Peeta, Melanie, and Hugo. I've spent so long being a scowling, stubborn Seam brat. I've spent too long working on being a better person. And now I've thrown it all away. Something pangs in my chest. I miss my family.

"Mockingjay. Back into command," Coin repeats. "That is an order."

"Peeta's right. I'm going back," I say, locking my jaw. Haymitch grins widely. Boggs fights a smirk. Peeta breathes a sigh of relief. Coin looks like she's going to shoot me herself.

"If you leave, you will be excluded from all future conferences."

"No I won't. You need your precious Mockingjay too much," I reply, before turning on my heel and marching down the corridor. Peeta follows close behind. It's only when the elevator doors close in front of us that I let myself go, falling into Peeta's chest and crying.

"Hey, it's okay," he soothes, all the anger from before disappearing.

"It isn't, Peeta. Stop being a jerk and be angry with me! Yell at me! Call me a bitch!" I say, slumping against his solid body. "You're right. I'm sorry. But everything is so much worse than everyone thought. So many people are dying. So many people's lives are being ruined. Panem is a mess, and I feel like it's all my fault."

"It's Snow's fault," Peeta murmurs. "And Coin's."

"But I should've stopped all this. I should've done something... anything..."

"Katniss, stop it."

"And now I've cut you off. Melly, Hugo, Prim, Mom. For fucks sake. I didn't see Gale and his family for six years and now that they're in the same area as me, I never see them! Madge is dead! Mitch is dead! Everyone is damaged. Rye is gone," I swallow, thinking off the mangled mess the middle Mellark brother ended up as. There was so much blood. We couldn't do anything. "I did that."

Peeta's bottom lip trembles. "You didn't do that, the Capitol did."

"You don't understand! It's my fault, and I should be doing so many things differently but I can't because I feel like I'm being suffocated and I-"

"Katniss! Shut up!" he shouts, gripping my shoulders and shaking me. "Stop beating yourself up about everything that's happened! This isn't your fault!" I blink and shake my head. "I'm angry with you. But I'm also proud of you. So please, stop blaming yourself, and come and be with everyone who loves you. Hugo is crying for you, every single night."


Peeta

Katniss stays. She cries at me and I cry at her and then we shout a bit more and then we just sit together with our children and block out everything else happening around us. She spends times with Gale, and I'm never, for a single second, jealous.


Katniss

I spend the next week and a half ignoring Coin. Ignoring everyone. I spend time with Peeta. I play with Melanie and Hugo. I shoot arrows with Gale in the training units. I hug my mother.

But despite everything, I'm still exhausted. Everyone tells me not to pile everything onto my shoulders. The voice in my head taunts me at night, images flashing in my head of the destruction around the districts. Burning houses, burning people. Bleeding people. Floods, fires, gunshots. Complete and utter devastation.

The voice in my head sounds a lot like Snow.


It takes two long years of fighting before the Capitol falls, leaving Panem a free country. One week later, I'm appointed to execute President Snow as someone who can represent Panem as a fighting, independent nation, and as the daughter of the man who started the rebellion. Haymitch, however, says it's Coin who is to be shot. At first the idea seems absurd. Me? Kill the person who pushed us to victory? Haymitch rolls his eyes and explains that Coin has nothing to do with it. That she's as bloodthirsty and power-hungry as Snow. I warm to the idea pretty quickly.

Mom and Prim stand with Peeta's parents and brother. Peeta holds Hugo against his chest and stands hand-in-hand with Melanie with a determined look on his face in the protection of a group of soldiers. "Shoot straight." He tells me, and I kiss each member of my family, inhaling their scents. I made a bargain that if anything went pear-shaped my family would be protected.

The circle is deathly silence as I step out into the weak sunshine. A reporter to my left stares into a camera. "And here is Katniss Mellark, daughter of Lowell Everdeen, taking her spot in the circle to end this tyranny." My breath steams out in front of me as I walk forward, the eyes of our world fixed on me. Snow kneels in the middle of the concrete, drowning in shackles.

'For you, Dad,' I think to myself as I position my feet and notch the arrow into place. This will be just like killing an animal, right? And I know how to kill animals. The President is much more terrifying up close- all waxy skin and stretched red lips- but he's really just a frail old man. I won't let anything get under my skin. "For everything you died for." I whisper.

There's an audible intake of breath from the crowd as I draw back the arrow and take aim, closing my eyes briefly and swallowing. I glance up at Coin. She isn't even watching the execution taking place just below the balcony of Snow's mansion. I imagine that I'm in the forest with no one but my father with me. I can feel him guiding me to shoot properly, his calloused hands, soft smile, and gentle words.

I can smell the forest, hear the crickets, feel the cool breeze, taste the clean air. For a minute I'm lost in my memories. And then I open my eyes. I aim the arrow forward, and fire it up into Alma Coin's perfect head of hair. She falls forward, plummeting over the balcony railings and to the ground. In front of me, Snow cackles, blood spurting from his mouth. I smile contently -a strange calm taking me over-as the crowds surge forward. I'm whisked away before I can be hurt.


Everything has numbness to it later that night. Everyone heads home to be with their loved ones, not to celebrate, but to breath and live and figure out where they go from here. Gone are the days of an oppressive rule. Back in District 13, everyone celebrates by cracking open the rations to eat what they want, when and where want it. In command, the table is cleared of holos and screens and papers to make way for all manners of foods. Peeta and I sit side by side. Hugo curls up in the crook of his father's arm, falling asleep almost immediately, ever the baby of the family. Melanie stays awake for as long as she can, but eventually she falls asleep with her head on my shoulder.

We call it a night, give everyone a weary smile, and make our way back to our compartment. The elevator ride is quiet. The process of changing Hugo and slipping Melly into some night time diapers is done quickly and efficiently, and twenty minutes later after walking through our front door, Peeta and I strop to our underwear and collapse into each other's arms.

"I love you." I say, kissing his chest, the weight of everything I have done in the past forty-eight hours pushing down on my own so hard it's like I'm being suffocated.

"I know," Peeta replies. "I love you too."

"I can't believe it's over. I don't think I'm going to actually realise what's happened for a long time."

"It's weird. But it's nice."

"We'll be able to go back to District 12 and be happy and safe, right?"

"Right. I've never heard anything so beautiful," Peeta grins tiredly, tracing over the burn scars on my shoulder with a lazy hand.

"Nothing will ever be the same." I whisper.

"It's a good thing though. Everyone can start fresh. Build up their lives again."

"Not everyone," I say, my eyes brimming with tears. "Not Madge. Not Mitch. Not Rye." Peeta's breathing catches at the mention of his brother, and I hug him close to me. For a moment I feel like I'm not miles below that ground. That I'm not a murderer. That I'm not the Mockingjay. That I'm just Katniss Mellark. Wife, mother, Seam girl.

The loss of lives has been great, but the lives left behind, the lives that were spared, they will go one and flourish and make Panem better. Memorials will be built. People will mourn and celebrate and remember. But Panem was fought for. It was protected by its people –not its government. I have to focus on the positive. I have to look back at fond memories and use them to build the future.

And I, for one, am glad that I carry the surname of Mellark while I do it.


Peeta

The meadow becomes a mass grave. Twelve is as grey as Thirteen was, but the sky is so blue and goes on forever now that all the buildings have been levelled. The sun is hot against my skin. The birds sing like they've never sung before. The wind ruffling my hair tastes like freedom.

For a moment, I can pretend like the bodies of old classmates, friends, customers, Rye, aren't surrounding me, somewhere in the rubble unless they've already been buried.

I left Katniss and the children in bed and left a note on the kitchen table to let them know where I've gone. Katniss won't come and find me. She knows that I've got to do this on my own.

It's ironic that the Capitol didn't bomb the old graveyard that has stood here for as long as I can remember. My breath billows out into the air and my feet crunch on the icy grass underfoot, loud in the silence of the cemetery. I find Mr Everdeen's gravestone easily. It's the only one surrounded by dandelions. I bend down and lay a bouquet of wildflowers onto the grass, crouching down and bowing my head.

And when I open my mouth, nothing comes out. For once, I'm stunned into silence. I just stare at the rough etching of Lowell Everdeen and open and close my mouth like a fish out of water. My shoulders slump and I sit on the ground, not caring about the frost that will melt and dampen my pants. I just sit and listen to the wind in the trees several meters away, no longer cordoned off by an electric fence. I feel the sun's rays on my back. I feel the cold bite of winter. I inhale the air that has just started to clear of coal dust, and try to find a way to relief myself of this burden. I put my head in my hands and try to think my way through the thoughts muddled in my head, but I can't.

Finally, as my toes go numb and my nose turns red, I stand and take a deep breath.

"Thank you, Mr Everdeen," I say, surprised at the strength in my voice, but also at the simplicity of what I'm saying. "Thank you for Katniss."

And then I turn on my heel and walk away. I have nothing else to say, and want nothing more than my wife and my children and the knowledge that for today we are safe. That tomorrow will be kinder.


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