Always

Gone

Dedicated to milkchocolatecat

A.N. Please read authors note at the end! It's about my new story.

The crowd cries out in anguish at what Peeta has just revealed. My face fills the tv screen and I burry my head in the feathers of my dress. Cesar whispers something in Peeta's ear while patting him on the back. As my husband nods his head and makes his way up the stairs to greet me, I see the wetness on his cheeks. Tears. Maybe they're real and maybe they're not, but I know that if he could stop the games he would.

He pulls me in for a tight hug and releases me with a shaky face. Placing his hand on my stomach for the whole world to see he begins to whisper, "are you okay?"

He looks nervous and a little scared, maybe of what my response will be. But I nod my head and kiss him briefly.

Peeta's hand still rests on my stomach when I take Chaff's arm that ends in a stub and grasp it. Chaff follows by taking Seder's hand, and all the tributes take one another by the hand.
We raise them up, for the world to see.

We aren't going down without a fight.

Just as soon as our hands are in the air, the lights go out and the room is left in a darkness filled with screams.

Chaff drops my hand and Peeta wraps his arm around my waist protectively and pulls me through the crowd. Racing through the crowd, we step onto the elevator just as the doors slam shut.

"Are you mad?" he asks.

I sigh. "I understand why you did it. I really do, and the rational part of me agrees with it."

"But?"

"But on the other hand, I can't help but feel terrified. There's this overwhelming urge to protect the baby, but there's nowhere for me to go." My eyes close and I breathe in the scent of cinnamon that always seems to cling to him.

"They just had to know," Peeta tells me.

"And you accused the Capitol without ever saying a word against them," I say. "You just held them accountable. They're to blame for the horror. You did all of that without saying one rebellious thing."

"Hopefully it will  make the Capitol citizens stop and think," Peeta says. "To realize what they've become. It's one thing for the districts to oppose the Capitol. It's another to have the citizens of the Capitol oppose it."

Before either of us can say more, the elevator doors open and we find ourselves in an empty suite.

A soft babble of noise prompts me to go to the window, and I look down to see tons of blinking lights and scurrying people going every-which-way. It's chaos. "Looks like you have them rattled," I tell Peeta absently, my hand subconsciously moving to my stomach.

"That's an understatement."

Peeta and I spin around to see the elevator doors just closing behind Haymitch. "It's madness out there," he says, a weariness in his tone. "Everyone's been sent home and they've canceled the recap of the interviews on television."

"What are they saying?" Peeta asks. "Are they asking Snow to stop the Games?"

For a brief moment, I entertain the idea of a grand announcement by President Snow, calling off the Games. It would really be something, wouldn't it? Then I'd just have to find a way to evade the assassination team that would surely be sent after me and Peeta. No doubt Snow would send one, especially after foiling his prized Games.