Pregnant in the Quell

Chapter 17

By the time I hear the buzzer, indicating that my time on the stage is up, some people are still in shock. I leave the stage, preparing to watch Peeta's interview. He charms the whole audience in the first minute, and then talks about his love for me. By the end of the interview, I've got tears in my eyes. Once he's left the stage, we head to the elevators where a young lady dressed up as a tree, joins us.

Haymitch, Peeta and I, are all standing in the elevator, patiently waiting for it to reach the top floor. As I stare off into space, the person asks Peeta to unzip. I snap into attention as Peeta unzips her dress, letting it fall to the floor. I keep my eyes trained on a wall, trying to ignore the naked lady standing right in front of me. In my peripheral vision, I can see Peeta smiling. Hell, I'm not forgiving him for this.

Finally, when the elevator reacheslevel 7, she exits.
"Johanna Mason, District 7." Haymitch says, smirking. Peeta chuckles.
When we reach the top floor, I storm off into my bedroom, passing Effie, who's sitting on the couch watching the Capitol News. I hear Peeta call my name, but I slam the door and lock it, not letting anyone in. Unfortunately, that changes as I let one avox in to unzip my dress for me.

Once they've gone, I crawl into bed and wrap the covers over me. I'm pretty tired so I fall almost straight away. I wake up, soaking in sweat from a nightmare, trying to erase the image of Prim being in the games. It's still dark outside, so I lean over and check what time it is. 4:30am. I suddenly get this sick feeling in my stomach as I realise today I'm going into the games. I unlock my door and run out into the living room, where I find Peeta sleeping on the sofa. I gently nudge him to wake up. After a few tries, he wakes up and starts apologising repeatedly.
"I'm so sorry Katniss." He says, guilt consuming him.
"I love you." He keeps on saying.
"I know, I love you too, let's get you to a comfortable bed." I tell him.
He slowly gets up, still half asleep, and makes his way to our room. As soon as he lays down on the bed, he falls back to sleep. I lie next to him, with my arm draping on his hip.
"I love you," I say, falling asleep as well.

I wake up a few hours later, with people banging on the door. I slowly open my eyes, seeing Peeta staring down at me.
"I love watching you sleep. You look so peaceful." He comments. I kiss him on the lips, and get up, opening the door to my prep team, who order Peeta out.
Before he goes, I say,
"See you in the games. Don't ever forget that I love you and I will protect you with my life." And with that, he's gone.

***