AN: Here it is, the final Chapter. Thanks everyone who followed this story until the end. Your encouragement and support helped me fight through all those spells of writer's block and the lack of inspiration. Please don't hesitate to message me here, or follow me on Tumblr (link is on my profile page.) I will be going over this story and re-editing but there will be no major plot changes.

Pardon any grammar/spelling errors

Read, enjoy, review.

I do not own The Hunger Games

Haymitch notices my ring when I come to bring him food. He looks from the it to my face and raises an eyebrow at me.

"You didn't have to make a scene if you were just going to say yes, sweetheart."

I punch him playfully but he catches my wrist and pulls me in for a hug. He smells of sweat and alcohol, and my eyes begin to water at the old man's gesture.

"That boy deserves to be happy. Make sure you do a good job making it happen." He says. I nod when he releases me and his gray eyes remain on me.

"Though you said I could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him?" I say.

"After all you've been through, no one deserves that boy more than you sweetheart." He says and we both pretend not to notice the tears that are rolling down my cheeks.

Fall arrives and we celebrate Haymitch's birthday and mine together. Peeta bakes a cake for us and Greasy Sae cooks a feast. Peeta and I do our toasting that night when everyone has gone home. We sit in front of the fire and share a loaf of burnt bread. The taste reminds me of the bread that kept me alive all those years ago.

"This isn't the first loaf of burnt bread we've shared," I say after, when we are lying on the floor and my head is resting on his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart.

"I know." He smiles.

"That means we've basically been married since we were eleven." I say.

"You were a horrible wife for the first five years. You didn't even talk to me." He says chuckling.

"You weren't any better…" I say as he positions himself so that he's hovering over me.

"That doesn't matter now." He whispers, placing kisses on my temples, my cheeks, and my lips.

"You're my wife, real or not real?" he whispers before he trails more kisses from my ear to my neck.

"Real." I say.

"I've dreamed about this for longer than any man would care to admit." He says before he brings his lips back up to mine.

His words ignite the fire inside me and I decide I must have him as close as possible. I tug at his shirt and he gets the hint lifting it over his head and throwing it on the floor. He kisses me again as my hands run over his back, touching every scar. Peeta's arms encircle me and he rolls onto his back so that I'm lying on top of him, still kissing him. His hands fumble with the zipper of my dress but he finally pulls it down and minutes later we are naked and tangled and twisted together.

We fall asleep on the floor and I wake up in the middle of the night to find him staring at me.

"Peeta?" I call out his name, hoping he's not having a flashback.

"Hey." He says.

"What's wrong?" I ask when I notice the moisture in his eyes.

"Nothing, I'm just so happy. You've made me so extremely happy."

"I'm happy too." I tell him.

Happiness was something I thought was beyond me. After losing my sister, after being left with nothing, he's made it so I can be happy again.

I call my mother the next day and tell her about our toasting. We cry together on the phone as she wishes me happiness and tells me how proud she is, how happy Prim would be.

4 Years Later

He never asks, but I can see it in his eyes when children come into the bakery. When they are hiding shyly behind their mothers' legs and he gives them an iced cookie to put them at ease.

"Oh, Mr. Mellark, you don't have to."

"I want to." He says when the child grabs the cookie and smiles at him.

I can see his eyes full of yearning, and I wonder how, after having seen so many children perish at the hands of the capitol, he still wants children of his own.

"When are you two going to have some of your own?" asks the woman and I feel something stir in me. Guilt.

Peeta looks at me with longing eyes but somehow he reaches deep within himself and manages to bring a smile to his face.

"Nah, I don't think parenting is for us." He says.

"Oh, but you are so good with them." She says and my guilt grows.

Peeta just smiles as he takes the money she hands him.

"Thank you, Mr. Mellark." She says and then she looks to her child.

"Gus, you want to go give Mr. and Mrs. Mellark a hug and say thank you for your cookie?"

The child hesitates but he walks behind the counter and wraps his arms around my leg anyway. I am frozen but I hear Peeta let out a chuckle before crouching down so he can receive a hug from Gus.

"Thank you, Mr. Mellark." The child manages to say.

The smile he brings to Peeta's face stays there even after he is gone, reminding me of the things I can't give him.

5 Years Later

Peeta finally musters up the courage to ask one night when I am wrapped in his arms on the verge of dreaming.

"Katniss?" he whispers.

"Yes?"

"Do you ever think…" he hesitates and instantly I know what kind of conversation this will be.

"Do you ever think about not taking your pills?" he asks.

"No." I tell him and close my eyes hoping this will be the end of it.

"It's safer now, Katniss. We're safe now." He says

"What if I can't love it? What if you lose your mind completely?" I let out without thinking. I can hear the fight leave his body as he sighs.

I turn to face him and place kiss on his lips.

"I didn't mean it that way. I'm sorry…Peeta, I know you're better. I love you, I wish I could give you what you wanted. But I simply can't. I'm sorry." I tell him as I stare into his eyes. He simply nods, kisses my forehead, and closes his yes.

10 Years Later.

He hasn't asked in a long time and I begin to think, maybe he's given up. Maybe he's resigned himself to the idea that I will never give him a child. But I know that's not the case when we receive a package from District 4. The package holds pictures from Finn's 10th birthday party, and a thank you card he made for us.

"Dear Peeta and Katniss, thank you for the birthday presents you sent me. I love you, and miss you," the card reads. I see the smile as it forms in the back of Peeta's eyes and reaches his face.

"Look at him, he's so big now. Looks a lot like Finnick, doesn't he?" he says handing me the photos from his birthday party.

I nod as I look at the pictures. He looks so healthy and happy, for a moment I start to see what Peeta has been saying, about how things are better now, how we are safe now.

"It won't be long before he's twelve." I whisper and I recall the feeling I felt when Prim turned twelve. Worry, desperation.

"Things are different now Katniss." Peeta says wrapping his arms around me and trying to break me out of my trance. Surely he knows I'm thinking of Prim.

"It doesn't matter. Bad things always happen."

"No, no, stop thinking like that. Remember the good things. Remember that game Dr. Aurelius taught you." He pulls away from me so he can look into my eyes.

"What's the last good thing you saw someone do today?"

"You, with the children. Always with the children." I say.

"Katniss…"

"You with me. I don't—" I begin.

"Don't you dare say it. Don't you dare say you don't deserve me. I love you. I want you. Always" he says before his lips meet mine and my thoughts become focused on him. On the way his lips feel against my skin; on the way that even after all these years, he still ignites a fire within me.

15 years Later

He comes to me in a dream after Peeta and I have a heated argument about why, after all these years, I'm still unwilling to have a child. He is sitting on a rock, when my feet make a noise he turns quickly, lifting up his bow, my bow, pointing an arrow straight at me. When he notices it's me he lowers the arrow and I see his gray Seam eyes light up.

"Hi, sweetie, been a while." He says.

"Dad, how are you here?" I hear myself say.

"Because I'm still here." He says placing a kiss on my forehead.

Tears begin to spill over as I wrap my arms around him, he still smells like coal and grass.

"I heard you're doing well for yourself." He says.

I look up at him through my tears and shake my head. I want to say that no, I let my sister die, I'm not doing well at all.

"No, Daddy, I let her die…" I say through my tears.

My father places his rough hands on my cheeks and wipes my tears with his thumbs.

"My sweet girl, you did all you could. It's been fifteen years, you need to let her go." His voice is soft but firm, and as the sound resonates through the forest, I notice that the chirping of the birds has stopped.

I shake my head.

"I can't, I can't forget her."

"I would never ask that of you, Katniss," he says.

Somehow we find ourselves in my meadow, it's filled with dandelions. My father bends down to pick one up and hands it to me.

"Remember when you got back…this meadow was black with ashes, and it took a long time, but eventually life returned to it."

I nod.

"It's time to let yourself make life, baby."

"I'm scared." I admit to him.

"It's always scary at first, I was scared, your mother was terrified. She didn't want children, you know." I look to him with wide eyes. I never knew.

"How did you change her mind?"

"Going to work in the mines everyday was a dangerous job. I told her if something happened to me, I wanted to leave proof, that we were together, that we defied all odds and we made it, together."

"And she agreed right away?"

"No, it took a while. Your mother is stubborn, you got your personality from her."

"But she gave in, eventually?"

"Yes. And the way her eyes lit up the first time she held you, let me know having you was right. That no matter how horrible this world was, we were holding a ray of hope in our arms."

I begin to cry again. It dawns on me that my mother's nightmares came true. That she didn't want children because they could be taken away, but she had them for my father. And she lost him, and I was sent into the bloodbath, and my little sister was taken from us. And here I was, with a better life, with a husband who loved me so unconditionally that even though I continued to break his heart, he still stuck around.

"Holding you girls in my arms for the first time remains my happiest memory" he says wrapping his arms around me.

"It's time for you and Peeta to feel the same…" he says when he lets go.

He picks up his bow and begins to walk away. I watch him from the place where I stand and in the distance I hear laughter. I know that laugh. She appears from behind a tree, and runs to my father, her blonde hair swaying in the wind. She lays her blue eyes on me and the smile on her face is as big as I remember. She bends down and picks up a yellow flower, and then she makes her way to me.

I let my tears flow as she hands me the flower. I wrap her up in a hug, stroking her hair, noticing her untucked shirt.

"I've missed you, little duck." I say through sobs.

"I've missed you too, Katniss." She whispers.

"I found Daddy though. We'll wait for you and mother, okay?" she says stroking my hair. Her words still the words of a grown up coming from the mouth of a child.

"I'm sorry I couldn't keep you safe."

She pulls away from me and looks into my eyes.

"You did everything you could for me. I will always love you for that." She says placing a kiss on my forehead.

I watch as she runs back to my father and he takes her hand in his. They are both waving, and I know they are leaving.

"We love you, Katniss." They both say as they begin to disappear into the woods.

I wake up sobbing hard; the dream had seemed so real. Peeta is awake with his arms around me in an instant.

"Shhhh, Katniss, you're alright, we're home, it was just a nightmare." He says.

"No…not a nightmare, not this time." I say in between sobs.

I catch a glimpse of the confused look he's wearing before I throw myself at him. My lips are on his, my hands in his hair. I pull away a bit and pull my shirt over my head throwing it on the floor.

"Katniss, your pills…"he says reminding me of our fight.

"I don't care…I'll give you want you want. I'll give you a baby." I whisper in his ear.

He shakes his head.

"I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do."

"I love you…nothing makes me happier than seeing you happy. If this is what you want, this is what I want." I tell him.

"Katniss…" he says still hesitant, but I silence him with my lips and he stops protesting.

"I need you to be sure. I need to know that if you become pregnant you'll want this child as much as I do." He says breaking our kiss.

"I do. I want a baby. I want your baby."

I stop taking the pills but month after month I find I'm not pregnant. I see the look of sadness overcome Peeta's face when I shake my head at him and tell him nothing is happening and for a while I think maybe I'm being punished for not wanting a child all these years. But one morning, after six months of trying, I find myself slumped over the toilet, sick to my stomach.

At first Peeta thinks I'm coming down with the flu and he looks at me with worried eyes and asks if I want him to stay home with me.

"I don't have the flu, Peeta! I'm pregnant" The words come out a bit more frustrated than I intended.

Peeta's eyes light up so bright, I don't think I've ever seen him this happy.

Haymitch finds out when he walks into the house a few days later and I'm in the downstairs bathroom, sick again.

"Damn sweetheart, thought you'd be over that bug by now. You sure you're not knocked up?" he asks and I give him a look that could make flies drop.

"Oh…you ARE pregnant?" he asks and my silence confirms it.

"Peeta finally managed to convince you huh?" he says chuckling.

And that's all it takes for me to receive a visit from Greasy Sae who gives me a list of things I shouldn't do along with a recipe for a morning sickness remedy.

I wait a few days before I finally call my mother.

"Katniss, I've been expecting your call, sweetie. How are you?"

"Alright…who told you?"

"Oh, never mind that! I'm so happy for you, baby."

"Thanks." I say and she must sense the tension in my voice.

"Katniss, don't worry, you will be a wonderful mother."

"What if I'm not? What if I'm so damaged I can't love it?"

"The moment you feel that baby move, you will love it." She says.

And she is completely right, the moment I feel my baby kick against my stomach fills me with so much fear. Fear that someday something bad will happen to it and I won't be able to save it. That's when I know I will do anything for this baby; I'd die for this baby, and that is how I know I love it.

I begin to have contractions a month early and Greasy Sae, who spends the day with me while Peeta works at the bakery, calls for the doctor.

When the doctor arrives, I hear Haymitch's voice downstairs. Greasy Sae reads the questions written on my face,

"We've called Peeta, he's on his way." She reassures me as a wave of pain rolls through me and I bite my lip to keep from yelling out.

"Katniss looks like your baby is ready to meet you." The doctor says and the smile on his face does nothing to ease the anxiety and fear that washes over me and makes me forget the pain I'm feeling.

"What? But it's not time yet. It isn't time yet…" I say not bothering to hide the panic in my voice.

"We know that Katniss, but your baby doesn't and he...or she…is ready."

"I'm here, what's happening?" I hear Peeta's voice before I see him burst through the door. He looks flushed and out of breath, he must have run as fast as his prosthetic leg allowed him.

I extend my hand out for him to hold it. I need to feel the security his touch brings me.

"The baby's coming" I tell him before I feel another wave of pain and this time I can't keep myself from screaming out.

"Alright Katniss, looks like this next one will be it. You will feel the urge to push I want you to take a deep breath and push as hard as you can alright?"

I'm lost in thoughts of all the things that could go wrong until I feel Peeta squeeze my hand.

"Katniss, stay with me." He says.

"Always" I whisper as my eyes meet his.

The next moments pass in a blur as the last wave of pain comes and goes and I push as hard as I can, my eyes fixed on Peeta's the whole time.

We hear a small cry and the doctor asks Peeta if he would like to cut the umbilical cord. Peeta nods and I watch tears roll down his face when the doctor hands him our baby.

"It's a girl, Katniss." Peeta says bringing his lips to mine before he hands her to me.

Her brilliant blue eyes look up at me and I feel the fear I'd felt as I denied Peeta the joy of being a father, and later as I carried her in my womb, leave my body.

We name her Ember, like what was left of me after the war, the surviving part of the girl who was on fire.

The birth of our child is the only thing that can bring my mother back to District 12, and though I stress the fact that she doesn't have to make the trip, she makes it anyway.

She arrives a week after Ember's birth, tears fill her eyes as soon as she spots us at the train station.

"Oh, she is beautiful, Katniss!" she says.

She kisses me on the forehead and tells me how proud she is of me. How proud Prim and Father would be. I nod and hold back the tears that are welling in my eyes.

We watch as our little girl grows and two years later as I watch Peeta put Ember to bed I think of how hesitant I was to have her, and now I can't imagine ever being without her.

"Everything alright?" Peeta asks.

"I think…I think I'm going to stop taking my pills again." I tell him.

He gives me a look of surprise. I don't think he ever expected me to want another child.

"Katniss are you sure?"

I nod.

My second pregnancy is easier, but the fear isn't completely gone. Briar arrives on time and healthy. I see stormy gray eyes stare back at me when I hold him for the first time. Ember is absolutely mesmerized by her baby brother and proceeds to climb on the bed with me and place a kiss on the baby's forehead.

"Mama, he has your eyes." She says smiling.

"He does. And whose eyes do you have, baby?"

"Papa's!" she says a little too loud, making Briar stir.

I look at Ember and know that someday I will have to tell her why there are times her father breaks things, or holds on tightly to the back of a chair. Why I tell her to give him some space when those things happen. I will have to hell her why there are days when "mama is sad." And why there are nights when I wake up screaming my sister's name. But for now I watch Peeta and Ember as they stare in amazement at the baby in my arms, and I know things will be fine as long as we are together.

AN: I'm always looking for prompts and suggestions so if you have a suggestion or request for a story don't hesitate to contact me!

XO,

ANA