Always

Chapter 14

Peeta P.O.V.

"It's a girl!" Ellen exclaims as Katniss falls back into my arms, trying to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Yeah," Katniss replies as I help her sit up.

"You did it," I say. "I'm so proud of you," I whisper as I lean down and kiss her. Then I realize something's not right. I can tell Katniss can sense it, too. "Why isn't she crying?" I ask. Ellen ignores me.

"Mom, why isn't our baby crying?" Katniss asks.

Ellen looks at us and barely whispers the word we've been dreading to hear. "Stillborn." Who knew that one word could cause your entire world to come crashing in on you?

I stand there motionless for a minute, trying to make sense of what has happened. Katniss pulls me in and buries her head in my chest.

"No!" Katniss screams through her sobs. I wrap my arms around her and gently rest my head on top of hers. Neither of us say anything for a long time. We just sit there and weep over the loss of our child. Finally, Katniss looks up at Ellen and speaks. "Can we still see her?" She asks.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Ellen asks. Katniss nods her head. Ellen reluctantly picks up our baby, which has been wrapped up in a blanket, and hands her to Katniss. I stare in amazement at how perfect she is. She has no hair whatsoever. She's so tiny, but she's beautiful, all the way from her head to her feet. Her feet! I think. I almost forgot about painting the outline of her feet onto Katniss's stomach this morning. I made the comment about how tiny her feet looked. The same tiny feet that I am now carefully holding onto. The only difference in her feet from this morning is now, they're still whereas this morning they were rapidly moving.

"Here," Katniss says as she hands her to me. I carefully take her, being careful not to drop her. She's so tiny, I could almost hold her in one of my hands.

In just a few seconds, we hear feet coming up the steps. "They're coming this way," Gale says as he enters the room.

"Okay," I say. "I'll be down in just a second." Gale leaves the room, and I turn to Katniss. "I have to go," I say. Ellen, who has been checking Katniss's blood pressure, comes over and takes the baby from my arms. I give Ellen a look and she knows exactly what I want.

"It's still peaking," she says softly. My heart drops to my stomach. I remember in the first Games how my fever kept peaking and how afraid Katniss was that she'd loose me. Now the tables have turned. I lean down and kiss Kantiss's forehead, retrieve my gun that I laid on the nightstand, and head back downstairs.

"There's five of them and they're about three yards away," Gale says. "I have a plan."

"What's the plan?" I ask. Gale doesn't answer me. Instead, he opens up the door and begins to shoot. He takes two down before closing the door again. "So that's the plan?" I ask. "To just shoot as many as we can?"

"You got a better one?" He asks.

"No," I reply. Gale opens the door back up and we each take one down. Gale quickly shuts the door, but not before the one left standing shoots me in the right foot. I bite my lip and fall to the ground. The door flies open, Gale's gun goes off a few more times, and then the door slams shut.

"I think they're all dead now," Gale says. He walks over to me and helps me up into a chair.

"Thanks," I say. Gale nods his head.

"Peeta, you better come quick!" Ellen screams from the top of the steps. Gale helps me over to, and up the steps to the bedroom. I sit down on the side of the bed opposite Katniss. I take Katniss's hand in mine and worriedly look over to Ellen.

"What wrong with her?" I ask frantically.

"Her blood pressure's too high," Ellen says. "It won't be much longer now." I look at Ellen with disbelief on my face. In one day I've been attacked, killed Snow's son, became a father, lost my child, shot a Peacekeeper, got shot in the foot, now I'm loosing my wife. Tears start pouring down my face.

I put my arms back around Katniss and gently pull her in closer to me. "Please don't leave me," I whisper.

"I wouldn't do that to you," Katniss murmurs. I look at her and smile. She tilts her head up as much as she can and kisses me. The next thing I know, all of Katniss's muscles relax, and her breathing almost stops.

"Katniss?" I say questioningly. "Katniss!" I say louder. I squeeze her hand, but don't get a response. "Katniss!" I literally scream her name this time. Ellen checks Katniss's blood pressure and pulse. "Katniss, please don't do this to me," I beg. I take her hand, hold it up to my lips, and keep it there. "Please stay with me," I whisper. "I love you," I whisper. "I love you," I whisper again. I keep whispering those three little words that seem so simple to some people, but to me, they're the world.

Ellen looks worriedly over at me. "She's in a coma," Ellen says. I start to feel dizzy, and that's when I notice the blood on the sheets. With everything happening with Katniss, I forgot about my own injury. I get ready to ask Ellen something, but then everything goes black.