Blessed By The Willow - everlark

Chapter 1: Present labour

Katniss pov (present)

"Nervous buttercup?" Peeta asks as he looks in the rear-view mirror at my sister's ginger cat.

"A little" I respond giggling with nerves about what awaits me on my arrival to the hospital. "Meow" I say pretending to be a cat as I bounce my leg up and down. I watch as Peeta smiles out of the corner of my eye, "What?" I ask confused.

"Nothing, i'm just looking forward to you bouncing our baby on your knee as she giggles" he states.

"Or he" I offer despite knowing he's set on us having a girl and I have a feeling that even if we have a boy Peeta will love him regardless of his gender. Peeta gently places his hand over my right leg to stop it moving before speaking slowly "calm down, everything's going to be fine and we're going to go in and have a beautiful baby".

"Really?" I say as tears fill my eyes. Damn I hate being emotional.

"Really" he says leaning over and giving me a peck on the lips before readjusting his grip on the steering wheel.

I sniff and offer him a timid smile before saying "Peeta?".

"Yeah" he says he's eyes flickering between me and the road.

"Don't crash". He chuckles in response.

"I don't think I've ever seen Seam streets so empty, it is dead out here" he says as the car slows to stop at a red light despite the road's being clear of people and vehicle's. I nod in agreement as I look around the darkened area; its still early morning and the only form of lightening is the traffic and street lights, but this baby is relentless and wouldn't let me get any sleep so I had to wake Peeta as much as I wanted to ignore the pain.

Pushing the accelerator the car moves as the light turns green and we quickly drive past the Merchant area of District 12 along with the lake before eventually pulling into the hospital parking lot; the same one we have visited for the past few weeks. As Peeta turns off the ignition and gets out of the car before rounding the vehicle to assist me, I feel a strange sense of déjà vu. Gasping I clutch his arm to stabilise myself as he helps me out of the car.

"You okay?" he asks worry evident in his blue eyes. Wordlessly I nod as he takes my hand in his and shuts my door before checking to make sure we have everything; the baby diaper bag with its accessories like new-born clothes and bibs as well as a few personal items for me and him. Locking the door he puts the key in his pocket before we stroll to the entry of Willow hospital; the foundation to which a so called miracle willow tree once stood.

"What about the cat- oh" I exclaim as Peeta tightens his grip to prevent me falling. I'm not hurt but nevertheless my heart rate speed up as I think about what could have happened.

"Watch the bump" he says joking at my expense and as I look over my shoulder I indeed see a bump on the floor which is supposed to stop cars from speeding. Stupid thing. "Buttercup will be fine, I left the back windows open and she has some food, besides, Prim coming soon and she has a spare set of keys so the cat will be fine. Stop worrying, I don't want you to get stressed out" he explains as his eyes roam up and down my body to make sure i'm not injured. I watch as his lips curl into a smirk when he looks at my baby bump; the prime reason for his excitement. I never really understood why anyone would care for them but Peeta wanted one so badly, who was I to reject him the one thing he wanted - well apart from me.

Smiling I take a few reassuring breaths as we enter the building and walk to the elevator. The building is painted completely white and athough unnerving I feel a strange sense of comfort most likely from how they helped us. "Here we go" Peeta mummers as we go inside and the doors close behind us. The elevator shakes as it begins to move upwards to level 12; the penthouse suite "any last words... of wisdom" he says correcting himself at the last moment as my eyes round in panic.