Katniss stirs awake, jumping slightly and waking Peeta in the process. She'd just seen her future - if nothing changes - with her children carted off to the Games, none returning. She'd never believed she'd be granted a family, given a family, deserved a family. But here she was, Snow had shown his hand, and Peeta she'd married. The ending of the tour signified that. The wedding was a week later. Gale had never been madder at her, and really, she didn't care. She was saving lives, his ungrateful one too, at that.

"Everything okay?" says Peeta pulling her back against him and folding his arms around her small frame. "Did you have another nightmare?" All she can do is nod before the tears come rushing. "Shhh," Peeta says in an attempt to comfort her. "Whatever it was, it wasn't real. You're here. You're safe. You're with me. It'll be okay."

"That's just it though," she hiccups, "not unless something happens, it won't."

"What are you talking about?" he wraps his arms around her tighter and leans his head on her shoulder. "What happened?" Katniss starts shaking so fervently that Peeta sits bolt upright and envelops her in his arms. Leaning her head against his chest she tells him about the dream. "But we're okay, Katniss. We don't have to worry about anything like that happening."

"Did you use something last night?" she asks catching him off guard. He hadn't. "Because I sure as hell, know I didn't." Then the tears begin anew and she cries herself out. It must have hit Peeta too because at some point he joins her in crying. They just sit there on their bed in their home in Victor's Village and try to push the idea as far from their minds as possible. What were they supposed to do now?

"Well," Peeta says finally when he's gained his composure, "there's no reason to worry about that now. We have to be in the Capitol tomorrow for that big party they're throwing for us, so we might as well put that thought out of our mind. If, we come to that bridge, we'll cross it in the best way possible. But it's no use to worry about it now."

"Okay," croaks Katniss. She's still shaking, but the crying has at least, for the most part subsided. "But it's possible Peeta. We weren't smart last night. We didn't think about-" she cuts herself off with another sob. "I'm not even pregnant and I'm a mess! What am I supposed to do if I actually get pregnant?"

"We'll cross that bridge," says Peeta kissing her forehead. "When we come to it. Okay?"

"Okay," Katniss responds barely inaudible and curls back into his arms.

The two fall asleep but are awoken moments later by a loud pounding on the front door. They both franticly spring from the bed. Katniss yanks a box from the floor that used to hold a lamp Effie had sent. Peeta grabs a piece of wood from his side that must have fallen out of the bed in the middle of the night. They look at each other before shrugging their shoulders and placing the objects back on the floor. They weren't in the arena anymore. There were no muttations here to hurt them. They were fine. They were safe.

The two make their way slowly from the room, through the hallway, and to the staircase.

"Come on!" shouts the voice outside the door.

"It's Haymitch," says Katniss giving Peeta's shoulder a shove from her crouched position behind him.

"I know it's Haymitch," Peeta whispers back.

They continue down the stairs and walk to the door. Peeta pulls to door open and a very angry looking Haymitch is standing at the door. Effie, Cinna, Portia, and the prep teams behind them. "Let's get this show on the road you too." He almost shouts at them. Effie looks offended but the rest of the prep team walks in and immediately gets to work. We just got married, so I really have no idea what else they really need to do at this point, but I don't argue and instead let them make me however they want.

Peeta and Katniss find very little time to talk during the Harvest Festival. At a certain point Katniss feels a hand grab hers, and instead of finding Peeta at the other end she sees Gale, who is pulling her along behind him. She's not sure where he's taking her, but she's pretty sure she's not in the mood for it, no matter what it is.

"What do you want?" she asks a little more angrily than she meant.

Gale comes to a dead stop and spins Katniss around and holds her in a firm grip with his arms wrapped around her. "Why did you marry Peeta?"

"What?" she asks trying to get out of his arms, realizing that won't make much difference, especially because he is taller, stronger, and bigger than her. So she stops fighting to get loose. "Why are you asking?"

"Because I need to know!" he snaps. Katniss stares at him dumbfounded, completely clueless as far as what to say. Gale shakes her once. "Don't just stand there!"

"Well I couldn't move even if I wanted to!" she shouts at him. "Which I do! So let go of me." She tries to move again, but it's no good. Gale is stronger than her and he has no intention of letting go. "Why do you even care?" she screams and shoves hard enough she breaks his grip and stumbles backward.

"I just need to know!" he reaches for her again but she slaps his arm away.

"No you don't!" turning on her heel she starts walking as fast as she can to get back to the Justice Building. Back to the Harvest Festival. Back to Peeta. But Gale's faster. He puts a hand on her shoulder and she spins around hitting him so squarely in the chest that he flies backwards several feet. "Ahh!" Katniss takes off at a run and just gets around the corner of the Justice Building when she runs right into Peeta.

"Whoa," he says putting his arms around her as she buries her head in his chest. "What on earth just happened?" Katniss shakes her head in answer as Gale comes around the corner. Peeta eyes him warily. "What on earth just happened?" Peeta asks through gritted teeth. "What did you do?"

"What did I do?" yells Gale. "It's what she did!"

"What did she do then?" Peeta straightens his posture slightly.

"She married you!" Gale shouts and takes off in the opposite direction. He's walking so fast that he's gone almost instantaneously.

Katniss breaks down into tears just as Haymitch comes up to them. "I don't know what just happened, but you better get over it because Effie wants you guys to say something before we head out to the Capitol."

"Why?" Katniss asks just above a whisper.

"How am I supposed to know?" he shrugs as he takes another swig from his bottle.

"Fine," grumbles Peeta. He wraps his arm around Katniss and she keeps hers around him and they walk to the front of the Justice Building. When they catch up to Effie she is all aghast at whatever is going on with Katniss and then absolutely refuses to let them talk. After complaining about the look of Katniss' hair and Peeta's suit she rushes them instead directly to the train station. Peeta and Katniss follow obediently, neither energized enough to complain.

As soon as everyone has boarded the train Effie turns to glare at Peeta and Katniss, "you two look absolutely dreadful! You may as well just go to bed." She flips her hand in the air in disgust. "I can't bare to look at you!" Then she hurries to a different part of the train as fast as her ridiculous shoes can carry her. Haymitch gives a look of annoyance and goes in the same direction as Effie. Whether to his own car, or the drink car, neither knew nor really cared about.

"Come on, Katniss," Peeta bends down and scoops her up into his arms. He walks down to their compartment and Katniss begins to cry again. "It hasn't happened yet. We'll be alright." He says a vast array of comforting things, but nothing seems to help, nothing seems to calm her down. Of all the people Peeta knew, Katniss was one of the strongest. She had saved them in that arena. Taken care of him. Nursed him back to health when she didn't even really know what she was doing. And yet here she was crumpled up in his arms crying. When he finally reached the car she extended her arm just enough to get the door open and then curled back up. Walking to the bed Peeta gently laid her down. She was asleep in less than a minute. He pulled the blankets up over her, kissed her on the forehead, and walked back to the door. He needed to talk to Haymitch.

"Ugh!" grumbles Haymitch at the sight of Peeta entering the drink car. "What do you want?"

Peeta gives him a reproachful look.

"Eh," shrugs Haymitch. "Leave me alone Peeta."

"What is your problem?" Peeta steps forward yanking the open bottle from Haymitch's hand. It doesn't matter, of course, because he had another one stashed beside him. Expecting that someone would try to take it away. "Why do you drink so much? What ever happened to you? What did you do in your Games?"

"We'll talk about it, when you're older," slurs Haymitch, Peeta barely understanding a word.

"You know better than anyone," Peeta tears the other bottle from Haymitch's hand. "How much those Games change you. You're never the same person coming out as you are going in. So what happened to you?" He scowls at Haymitch when he sees that he has yet another bottle beside him.

"No," Haymitch shakes his head. Then gets to his feet, unsteadily, and wanders out of the car towards his room. "I don't have time for this Peeta."

"We have a long ride," Peeta darts around him. "You've got time."

"No!" Haymitch shoves Peeta into a wall. "What Katniss did was stupid! Those berries. But she's not the only victor to do something so reckless! And not everyone was as fortunate as her, living despite that act of rebellion." Haymitch's face harden's at Peeta. "When you've gone through what I have - then maybe we'll talk." Then he shakes his head profusely, downing nearly the entire bottle. "Unlikely, but maybe."

Peeta watches as Haymitch leaves the cart. An attendant comes up to him to tell him that he should really get some rest. Saying he overheard the "peppy woman" say something about a "busy busy busy busy day" and figured the victor might want to get some actual sleep. Peeta gives him a brief word of thanks and makes his way back to the car.

He opens the door of their compartment to see Katniss completely curled up into a ball. He'd never seen her like this...and this was just with the idea of having kids. He admitted to himself right then and there, that if Katniss never wanted children he'd be okay with that. He had to acknowledge, however, that he'd always wanted kids yet Katniss meant more to him than that. He wanted to give his children a life that he'd be deprived of. And knew with near certainty, that Katniss would be a better mother than his own, on her worst days.

After a few more minutes of picturing what his future would be like, children or no, he was glad that of all the people in his life it was Katniss asleep in his bed and not someone else. Though they had been sleeping in the same bed during the Victory Tour anyways, and that hadn't really made too much of a difference either. Probably because no one wanted to tell them what to do, besides Haymitch, and he just didn't seem to care one ounce.

Slowly, quietly, Peeta walks toward the bed and crawls in behind Katniss. As if his presence had awoken her, she scooted back towards him and pulled his arms around her. "Stay with me," she mumbled, just barely above a whisper. Peeta knew that no matter what happened that would be the case, that he would stay. That he wasn't ever going anywhere ever again.

"Always," he whispered back.