TRIGGER WARNING: There is a trigger warning for this chapter. However, I know some people would rather not be spoiled than read a trigger warning, so the trigger warning itself will be in bold at the very end of the chapter. You can scroll completely down to see it before reading if you want.

A/N: This is the final chapter! Thank you for reading and reviewing! It's really great to know I finished the 100 theme challenge with this. It's also a bit bittersweet though. I've been working on one Hunger Games fic or another for several years now, and after this, I don't have any in mind for the near future. I'm going to miss work in this world.

"Sad things happen. They do. But we don't need to live sad forever." - Mattie Stepanek

They'd been exchanging I love you's for several weeks when Johanna felt the pain. It was in the same area of her abdomen where she would have typically felt period cramps, but she knew that couldn't be it. Besides, this was much stronger and harder to handle. She'd been alarmed and about to rush to the hospital on base when she felt the wetness in her pants.

She'd known what it was without seeing it. She didn't stop to actually look at the blood staining her pants as she rushed for a phone. There was no way to make it to the hospital. It sat on the other side of base, and the pain was becoming too crippling.

Johanna cried to the nurse who answered the phone. The first time she could remember showing so much weakness in front of a complete stranger. The nurse confirmed Johanna's fears that she needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible, and knowing she couldn't get there alone, Johanna immediately called Gale.

They were putting the finishing touches on their latest project. It wasn't a time when he liked to be interrupted, but nothing about this was going to be something he liked.

Johanna wasn't trying to stem the flow of her tears as she screamed at a secretary to get her boyfriend on the phone. Talking to Gale was even more difficult. As soon as she heard his voice through the phone, her sobs became stronger, and it took a tremendous effort to choke out, "The baby. Something's wrong. I need the hospital. Help."

She couldn't go into more detail than that. She was losing the capability of speech even if she'd known how to drop it on him.

Gale was at their apartment in record time, showing speed Johanna hadn't even known a human could possess. The blood had spread by then, soaking completely through the pants Johanna still wore. It was on her hands, too, from Johanna desperately trying to make it stop even when she knew it was pointless. Gale took one look at her and immediately knew what was happening, but he didn't stop to talk. He wrapped his arms around Johanna and lifted her into his arms, holding her as they rushed across base to the hospital.

People stared at them in shock and slight fear as they hurried by, but neither Gale nor Johanna were paying the slightest bit of attention. Even while supporting all of Johanna's weight, they managed to make it to the hospital faster than would be expected. Doctors were already prepared and rushed Johanna into a room where she was quickly given a gown and told to discard her ruined pants.

The pain had subsided now, but Johanna's cries continued unabated. Gale's own cheeks had clear tear tracks running down them, but he paid no attention to them as he focused solely on Johanna. He gripped her hands tightly as the hospital staff hurried around them, feeling at Johanna's stomach and performing an ultrasound to look inside of her uterus. They each felt hopeless as they sat there waiting for their fears to be confirmed. Neither one had much hope that this had been a false alarm.

A doctor hovered something over Johanna's abdomen that hooked up to a large machine with a screen. Neither Johanna nor Gale had ever seen an ultrasound machine, but they knew that was what it was. They both dejectedly watched the screen that neither could make any meaning out of.

"Your uterus is empty." The doctor spoke quietly, pain in her voice even if it couldn't come close to what Johanna and Gale were experiencing. "You've had a miscarriage," she confirmed unnecessarily.

The room was quiet except for the continued noise from the machine. The doctor set to work turning it off as Johanna and Gale sat in silence, still clutching each other's hands tightly.

The doctor paused at the door. "Take the time you need in here. You can leave whenever you're ready. We'll find a clean pair of pants that you can wear home, Ms. Mason. They'll be at the nurses' station when you're ready for them."

Johanna could do nothing but offer a slight nod without ooking in the doctor's direction. A sense of dread came over her as the doctor shut her and Gale alone together for the first time since they'd gotten to the hospital. She couldn't shake the fact that this had somehow been her fault, and she didn't want to face Gale with that guilt on her conscience.

She let out a slightly deranged laugh. "Everything I love dies. I knew it. I should have known this would happen. Damn it!"

She slammed her hands down onto the mattress, making a loud smacking noise in addition to her loud verbal outburst. She couldn't turn to look at Gale, who had moved one hand up to her hair to brush it away from her sweaty face. He moved from his chair to sit next to Johanna on the hospital bed, which was much smaller than the twin bed they used to share. Johanna felt his body pressing against the entire length of hers and hated herself for the comfort it gave her. She stiffened in his embrace.

"Don't do this," Gale muttered, burying his face in her hair. "Don't pull away from me again."

His voice held as much emotion as hers had, but Johanna couldn't understand why he seemed concerned with her when they'd just lost their unborn child.

"But, Gale, how can you not see what's just happened? I finally allow myself to completely love again, and then this happens." She was beginning to sob too much to talk. "I don't know what to do."

She buried her face in Gale's chest, and he held her tightly.

"You don't close yourself off from me because that's only going to make this harder, Johanna. Okay?"

He was right. She couldn't lose Gale, not so soon after this. Not ever. She nodded into his chest.

"I want," she mumbled before cutting herself off. She pulled away and brought a hand up to his face to make him look down at her. "I love you, Gale."

He smiled down at her although his face still showed pain.

"I love you too, Johanna, and we will get through this. We still have the rest of our lives together. I'm not going anywhere. No matter how much this hurts right now, we'll be okay."

And somehow, Johanna believed him. She was done being scared that she would lose everything, even when she lost something as important as this. She still had Gale, and that hadn't changed. It was worth holding onto for as long as she could, even if she got hurt again in the future. The only thing they could do was hold on with all their strength during the time they were granted, even if it made the losing part that much harder to take.

Slowly, the pain of the miscarriage would fade, and Johanna and Gale would continue to build their lives together. The pain of that day may have always stayed in the back of their minds with the rest of the suffering they'd had in their lives, but they could still be happy. That was probably the most important thing Johanna had ever managed to learn.

TRIGGER WARNING: Miscarriage.

A/N: I really hope no one hates me too much...