Mockingjay: The New Story

Chapter Twenty-Four

Peeta's POV

"Not your greatest idea, but a good move."

Gale chuckles. "As if you could make something better up yourself."

"No, I probably couldn't. But know, Katniss is going to aim her bow at you when we get back."

Gale whistles. Despite our differences, and may I include our many differences, we somehow came together after the bombing of the Nut to talk. Conversation is becoming easier, especially when we are alone while outside there is a war going on. "I'm getting hell when we get back. Not just from Katniss, I'll say."

We laugh, together, as if we've been close friends for years. This war, with its ups and many downs, has brought us closer together. Gale has Madge, I have Katniss, we are both happy and aren't fighting for the same girl anymore. 

"So, out of all of this war and battle and stress, how does it feel to know you'll be a father in just a few months?"

I sigh. What am I feeling? A question I rarely ask myself. I laugh. I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know yet. I guess, if you ask Katniss how she feels about being a mother, she wouldn't know what to say. I know we'll be fine, we'll be good parents, but then I think back to who we are... Seventeen. Victors. A Seam and Merchant couple. From District Twelve. Rebel leaders. But the most wild one that stands out is: Soon to be Parents. That is what confuses me most, makes me most nervous. Our lives have been based on such gruesome actions, just thinking of bringing something so new and sweet into the equation... I just don't know what we'll do."

Gale sighs. "Honestly, if I were put into your shoes, I would be worse off."

That makes me laugh. Gale can't help but do the same, he couldn't hold the angry face he had given me after I started. The whole thought of Gale, or me even, being in such a situation seems uncanny. A child being born into a war, a rebellion, seems so uncanny. 

"The hardest part for me though," Gale says between laughs, "is the thought of having twins. I don't know how you'll do it, Mellark."

He continues to laugh even after I stop. He can seem to put an end to his messy laughter. He takes a quick look at my shocked face and says, "Oh, come on. Don't be so blown away!"

"What?" I say. 

Gale stops his laughing then. "You didn't know did you?"

"Peeta, it's Haymitch. We want you out in front of the tunnel when the train arrives. Seems like a good time for a speech," he says, chuckling as if it were some joke.

Katniss's POV

Beetee is off in his brains corner to set up the live footage of Peeta giving his speech in Two. On screen is Peeta, waiting in front of the empty train tunnel, damage everywhere insight, dust filling the air. The camera captures Gale in the corner, ready with  his gun, Boggs behind him and the rest of the squad. Coin and her executives huddled together by a screen, mumbling about something probably important. 

It serves me no good right to be sitting in this room, but I was promised to be involved in whatever Mockingjay duties they gave to Peeta. So, I sit alone while everyone else moved around me. This time, Peeta can't see me from anywhere. Cressida, Messalla, Pollux, and Castor move around filming him as he does nothing, and the train tunnel while is stays still. The suspense is long and tedious as we wait. All we can do is wait until Boggs gets word of an incoming movement coming from the tunnel. He shouts out to start filming and for everyone to be armed and ready. Beetee pulls up the live. A second smaller screen shows the Capitol news, currently showing a woman in a red, simple suit, sitting behind a desk and talking about yet another issue in the Capitol. I've heard they've been hit hard by our attacks, low income of food supplies from rebelling districts, lack of water and electricity from the broken dam in District Five, and now a lighter military force, by land and air.