No Games Left to Play

15: An Unexpected Visitor

"You're pregnant?" Gale asks.

"No, at least I shouldn't be. It hasn't been long enough for me to know." I spill out. He makes me so nervous. A simple no would have sufficed. "Wait. Why are you here?"

"That would explain the whole marriage thing then."

"I didn't marry Peeta because I'm pregnant," I say.

"So it's true?" Gale asks.

"What? Gale, you're not making any sense. Not to mention you still haven't answered my first question."

"I saw on Capitol TV that you and bread boy over here got engaged," Gale says, nodding his head towards Peeta. "I hadn't heard anything about the wedding, so I assumed it was all a lie. You always said you never wanted to get married. You said you thought it was crazy because a marriage would lead to you having a child that would get sent to the games."

"Don't call Peeta that. He has a name," I snap. "And that still doesn't explain why you're here."

"I came to see if it was true. When I showed up on my parent's doorstep, I asked my mother about it and she said I should talk to you. That I should hear that kind of news from the person themselves."

"Well, it's true. The marriage that is. We haven't let anyone see footage of the wedding. The pictures haven't come in for Caesar to show on TV yet. I don't know if I'm pregnant or not. If I am, it's only been 5 days so it's too early to tell," I say.

I don't really no why I keep telling him more than what he needs to know. He certainly doesn't deserve any explanations considering he still owes me one.

"I can't believe you've gone and done the two things you swore you'd never do," Gale says.

"I think it's time for you to go," Peeta jumps in.

"Stay out of this bread boy. This is between Katniss and I," Gale snaps.

"No it's not because Katniss is my wife now. I'm not going to let you hurt her again," Peeta says sternly.

"Both of you stop." I shout, getting both of their attentions. "Gale, Peeta's right. You need to go."

"Of course you would take his side in this."

"I don't even know what this is. You came to see if it was real and it is. If you came to try and win me over you're too late. I love Peeta."

"You didn't always used to," Gale says angrily.

"I have too! I may not have realized it until he almost slipped through my fingers, but I've always loved Peeta."

"Katniss, let's just go," Peeta begs, trying to pull me away.

"Hold on," I break out of his grasp. "Gale, you once told Peeta that at the end of the war, if all three of us were still alive, I would pick whoever I thought I couldn't survive without and that's Peeta."

"How'd you hear that? You were sleeping," Gale is quick to say, stopping me before I was finished.

"That's what you thought," I shoot back. "It doesn't matter because at the end of the war I wasn't myself. I wasn't the mockingjay. I wasn't a victor. I was just a girl who was badly burned with no wings and no sister. You made me that way. Your stupid plan! Can't you see that even if Peeta didn't make it, you wouldn't have even had a shot? You're the reason my sister didn't get to see the end of the war. She didn't get to see us win. She doesn't get to live in the same world as me anymore, a world without the threat of the games. She doesn't get to know that everything I did was for her. Deep down I think she did, but she'll never get to know for certain."