Together

Chapter 3

Katniss P.O.V.

"Willow, please stop crying," I beg, almost in tears myself. "I'm trying to get ahold of Daddy. Just please calm down." I've got Willow's head laying on one shoulder, and the phone between my other shoulder and my ear. Willow starts crying so loud that I barely hear Peeta answer the phone.

"Katniss?" he says.

"Hey, are you busy?" I ask.

"That doesn't matter. What do you need?"

"Will you stop by the store on your way home and pick up some medicine for Willow? Her gums are still hurting her."

"Yeah," Peeta says. "Wait, didn't you just get some yesterday?"

"I did, but it's not helping anything," I say, trying to talk above Willow's crying. "Her teething ring isn't helping either."

"Okay. I'm leaving right now," Peeta says.

"All right," I say. "I love you."

"I love you too," Peeta says. The call ends and I hang the phone up.

"Okay, Willow, Daddy's on his way with your medicine," I say, more for myself than for her. My ankle starts to hurt so I go sit down on the couch. It's taking me longer to get over this sprain than it would've if I had broke my ankle.

I try everything I can to calm Willow down, but nothing works. She refuses her bottle, she spits her pacifier out, and she throws her toys down on the floor. Willow eventually cries so much that her little head falls onto my shoulder and her eyes begin to close. Her crying turns to sniffling and and an occasional whimper, and the stops all together as her breathing evens out.

In a few minutes, the door opens and Peeta walks in. "Hey. How is she?" he asks as he comes over and sits down beside of me.

"Well, she was throwing a fit while ago, but I think she's wore herself out now," I reply. "Did you get her medicine?"

"Yeah," Peeta replies as he holds up a bag.

"Should we give it to her now?" I ask.

"No, just let her sleep right now. I'll go put this in her room." When Peeta stands up off the couch, Willow wakes up. She starts crying again the second her eyes open.

"Might as well go ahead and give it to her," I say.

"Yeah," Peeta says as he bends down in front of me. Willow gets madder by the second as she keeps turning her head and tries to push Peeta's hand away. In a few minutes, Peeta looks up at me. "I know you don't want to do this, Kat, but I think you're going to have to hold her down for me."

I nod my head and place Willow's head on my shoulder, carefully holding it in place with my hand. I place my free hand on Willow's back and hold her arm. Willow squirms and screams out her protest as her face gets redder and redder. It's all I can do not to let go of her. I hate having to hold her down and it hurts me so much to see her this mad at me.

"There," Peeta says when he finally gets Willow to take her medicine. I lay Willow down in my arms and begin to rock her. When she finally stops crying, I sit her up in my lap and turn her around so she's facing us.

"Are you feeling better now baby girl?" I ask her softly.

"Willow," Peeta says. She looks at him and he smiles. "Will you let Daddy see your tooth?" he asks as he tries to get her to open her mouth. She just stares at him and I start laughing.

"I think she's afraid that you're gonna give her some more medicine."

"Are you gonna be like Momma?" Peeta asks.

"What do you mean?" I say. "You hate taking medicine too."

"Yeah, but you're worse than
me," Peeta teases.

"I am not," I argue. Peeta raises an eyebrow at me and I smile. "Okay, maybe just a little." Peeta nods his head and I roll my eyes.

Willow starts yawning and Peeta nudges me with his elbow. "Look!" I smile when I see a little white spot on Willow's bottom gum.

"Yay, Willow!" I say. She looks at me and leans her head to one side. "You've got your first tooth." She stares at me for a minute and then looks at Peeta.

"What?" Peeta says. "Are you trying to figure out what your crazy Mommy is saying?"

"Hey!" I say as I scowl at him.

"I'm just teasing, Kat," Peeta says. He smiles at me and I can't help but to smile back at him."I guess we're both a little crazy," Peeta says. I laugh and roll my eyes. I watch Willow for a few minutes and then a thought crosses my mind.

"Peeta?"

"Yeah?"

"I just realized something."

"What's that?" Peeta asks as he pushes a piece of my hair behind my ear.

"She's already growing up on us," I say.

"I know," Peeta says. "And the bad thing is she's just a five month old baby. It won't be long until she's ready to go to kindergarten."

"Shh!" I say. "I don't even want to think about that right now!" Peeta laughs and wraps his arms around my shoulders. I look at Willow and smile at her. "That medicine seems to be working," I say.

"Yeah," Peeta says. "I guess that means we won't stay up all night with her tonight."

"Yeah." We soon found out that we were wrong.

"What time is it?" I ask Peeta as he walks into the nursery.

"Three-thirty," Peeta says. I sigh and looks down at Willow laying in my arms. "Have you tried giving her her medicine again?"

"Yeah. That's been over and hour ago and she hasn't calmed down yet," I reply. We went to bed at eleven-thirty just to be woken up by Willow an hour later. We've taken turns carrying her around, but that was three hours ago and she's still crying.

"You need me to take her?" Peeta asks.

I shrug. "It doesn't matter." I wince when my foot twists a little.

"Are you okay?" Peeta asks.

"Yeah," I say. "My ankle is still bothering me a little bit."

"Why don't you go lay back down?" Peeta says as he takes Willow from me.

"All right." I walk back to our bedroom and lay down. I doze off for a little while. When I wake up, Peeta is walking into our room. "Is she okay?" I ask.

"Yeah," Peeta says as he lays down beside of me. "She wore herself out again so hopefully she'll sleep for a couple hours."

"I hate this so much for her," I groan.

"Me too," Peeta says. "I'm pretty sure she's got another tooth coming in in the back."

"This is one thing I am not going to miss about her growing up," I say.

Peeta chuckles and kisses me. "I love you, Katniss. Good night."

"I love you too. Goodnight, Peeta."