I do, I need you. #wattys2016

The Baby.

Peeta's POV;

"Shall we start?" Katniss grins.

"Of course." Doctor Anderson nods before calling people into the room and slipping on gloves. "I'm gonna count to ten and you'll push, and then after I hit ten you can wait ten seconds and we'll start up again." She explains to Katniss.

She looks up at me with scared red eyes and I smile rub her cheek. I wipe her single tear and her mother smiles at us both. "Ready Katniss?" Anderson asks.

"Yes."

"Okay...1...2...3.." She continues to count as I watch her face twist in pain. She groans and shouts as the pain continues even though she's stopped pushing.

She looks at me. "We aren't having anymore more kids." She tells me with angry eyes.

I chuckle and nod. "Push Katniss!" Her mother encourages her.

"I see the head!" Dr. Anderson cries and yells for her to push again. She continues to push as sweat rolls down her face and the veins pop out of her arms.

"I can't do this.!" She screams.

"Yes you can!" I say. "Come on, this is nothing compared to being shot! Love tracker jackers!" I tell her getting down close to her face. "You can do this!"

She nods and pushes again. "One more push!" Anderson says.

Katniss screams and pushes again, then I hear a cry. Not from Katniss, not from her mother, not from me, but from our child. She throws her head back on the pillow panting.

"Would you like to cut the cord, Peeta?" A voice asks breaking me from my thoughts.

"W-Will it hurt the baby?" I ask.

"No." She chuckles, I'm handed scissors and I cut the cord connecting the baby and it's mother. "It's a boy!" She cheers. I watch over a nurse's shoulder as she wraps him in a baby blue blanket. I follow her as she walks to Katniss and hands her the baby. Tears fall down her cheeks fast, they don't stop and neither do mine. Haymitch comes through the door and Effie lets out a thrill gasp.

"It's a boy!" Mrs. Everdeen smiles.

"What shall you name him?" Effie asks holding her hands to her face.

Katniss looks at me. "I like Rye." She smiles.

"Rye Samson Mellark." I smile and nod.

"It's so handsome." I smile at her mother and Katniss looks up at me.

"Would you like to hold him?" She whisper to me.

"Yes." I nod. She hands me the baby and I look at him. He has golden curls and blue eyes like me, a nose like Katniss. I see Prim in Rye's face. "This is our baby." I whisper.

"Our baby, we made him." She whispers back.

Rye is passed around and both Katniss and I's eyes dart around each time he's handed to someone new. Katniss yawns. "I'm so tired."

We all laugh. "Well we'd expect you to be after the hell you just endured, we'll get going. Sleep well mockingjay." Her mother smiles before placing a kiss on her temple and everyone scurries from the room.

"Mockingjay..." Katniss whispers looking down to our baby. "One day, mommy and daddy will tell you all of the stuff they've been through. We'll tell you why people thank me and salute me as we walk down the street to your school. Why people call me the mockingjay and the girl on fire. What the star crossed lovers are..." Her voice falters off. "We're gonna be good parents right?" She asks looking at me.

"Incredible ones." She nods believing me.

"I hope so." I sit down next to her bed.

"Our child will have a home, and food on the table, and clothes on their back. They'll never have to fight for their lives, they'll be safe forever."

"Okay. Hey Peeta?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you, you know that?"

"I really do Katniss, and I love you too."

**

We say staring at the baby, and then at each other for hours. It's as if either of us couldn't believe this was happening, like this wasn't actually our baby. I finally put him in his crib when my arms were burning and I couldn't hold him no longer. She had fallen asleep hours ago in hopes that her pain would stop if she was asleep. She finally did and there's a knock on the door several hours later. "Come in." I speak quietly trying not to wake her.

To my surprise, Delly walks through the door. "Delly." I whisper. "What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I came to see if it was true." She whispered, her eyes are red and cheeks are blotchy. She's been crying, over me? "If Katniss and you really did have a child."

"We did." I slowly nod pointing to the crib.

"What's its name?" She asks stepping towards the crib and looking into it.

"Rye Samson Mellark." The name rolls off my tongue naturally. The silence becomes unbearable and I start to speak. "Delly, I don't think it's good idea for you to be here. Or around me at all anymore." I say. "I have a family now."

"You don't get it do you?" She chuckles. "I have been deeply in love with you since high school; I didn't care that you thought Katniss was beautiful. Because she is, but I figured you'd come back to your senses and come back to me. I figured if I had Gale be rude enough to you, you'd come running back."

"Do you mean you made Gale say and do all those terrible things?" I ask disgusted.

"I did." She nods. "But only because it kept you away from her. It left me with you and him with Katniss, anyone from a mile away could see she was falling for you. I wanted to ensure that I had someone that would treat me right."

"Of all people, I never thought you would do something so disgusting and rude." I spit at her.

"It's not like he hurt you!" She shrieks.

"Delly he beat the shit out of me! He beat me so bad one time I blacked out!"

"I never told him to do that!" She screams, it wakes both Katniss and the baby. Rye starts to cry and I step towards him, with my dead eyes on her.

"You need to leave, leave and never come back."

"Just remember who was always there for you Peeta." She hisses before walking from the room.

I bounce Rye in my arms soothingly, his cries continue. "Hey little man, it's alright. Your okay, go back to sleep."

"Your already so good with him." Katniss coos watching us from the bed.

I just smile in response. He still doesn't stop crying. "Maybe he's hungry." I furrow my brow, "or maybe he's tired ... or needs changed .. or scared." I rattle off the possibilities Anderson gave us.

"I'll feed him." She nods and places him on her chest. She begins to breast feed him as she looks him over. "He looks just like his daddy." She smiles and I do too. "A spitting image of him."

"He has your nose." I tell her. She just shrugs her shoulders. "Don't worry, the next one will look like you."

"Next one?" She laughs. "Who said there'd be a next one?"

"I just thought-"

"I'm just kidding Peeta, of course we can have more. Any excuse to get you in bed is a good one, right?"