Help Me Make it Through the Night (Everlark Fanfic)

Chapter 34: You Love Me, Real or Not Real

Katniss' POV

I sit trembling in a chair, staring at the woman staring back at me in the mirror. Soft white silk covers her slender frame and a light amount of make up covers her cheeks. The women in the mirror reassembles me, but she doesn't show the broken, shattered child that lies beneath the powder and silk. Delly stands behind me, trying to get my unruly mass of curls into some kind of order when we hear a soft knock on the door. Delly goes to answer it and the person who walks through the door.

My mother with her pale eyes and hair walks across the wooden floor of prep room of the Justice Building. She stops behind me and I see a silent tear runs down her cheek.

"Your father and sister would have loved to see this," she murmured softly. I stand up and face her.

"So you made it. In the letter you sent you did sound so sure," I say.

"That was before Annie went into labor two weeks early," she says handing me a photograph. My mother had been taking care of Annie through the last trimester of her pregnancy, supporting her as she got closer to giving birth, missing Finnick more everyday, "It's a boy. She named him after his father," The picture shows a little red faced baby, with same green eyes as his father, lies in his mother's arms. Annie looks down at him with happy tears running down her cheeks,"She wished she could have come, but it wasn't an easy birth and she's on bed rest,"

"He's gorgeous. How is she doing without Finnick?" I ask.

"Some days are better than others, but she's getting through it. Before the baby was born, she cried herself to sleep almost every night, and then she would wake up screaming for him. Now that she has her baby, she doesn't cry as often, but sometimes I find her holding a picture of him, talking to him, but that's better than I could have hoped for considering all the mental trams she's endured," my mother says.

"That's good," I say sitting back down and turning towards the mirror. She looks at me in the mirror and smiles sadly.

"Katniss, would you let me put up your hair one last time?" She asks shyly.

"I would love that," I say giving her the first genuine smile I've given her in years. She gently brushes through my hair and braids it up into the intricate bun she did for my reaping. Delly walks over with my veil and my mother gently pins it in place and drapes it over my face. I stand up and turn to face her. She kisses my cheek and leaves quietly, the shiny floorboards creaking under her feet. Delly gently pins my Mockingjay pin on and clips the necklace Peeta gave me for Christmas around my neck. She hands me my bouquet of primroses, rue, and dandelions tied with a soft orange ribbon. She gently takes my hand.

"Katniss, I know your nervous but you really shouldn't be. When we were little, he always used to talk about how beautiful you were and how he wished he could work up the courage to talk to you. And I can tell you he's probably pacing in that room across the building right now. But you both will be fine. You guys really deserve this. Good luck Katniss, your escort should be here to fetch you in a few minutes," She says and walks out the door.

I start to pace back and forth and finally find myself looking out the window across the newly healed District 12. Ash still covers some areas but others have started to grow green again newly built businesses and homes decorate the streets. My home had become a beautiful place again, as though it were rising from the ashes of the world we once knew. I'm lost in my thoughts until I here someone cough behind me.

"Well Sweetheart, this is a sight I never thought I'd see. You more nervous then that boy out there," Haymitch says walking over to me. I look at him with a questioning look.

"He's not nervous?" I ask slightly shocked. According to Delly, last she knew he had been a bundle of nerves.

"He's terrified, but that doesn't mean he's not putting on a brave face for you," he says,"So you ready?"