Catching Fire: The New Story

Chapter 44

Peeta's POV

I finally put Katniss to sleep in bed after about an hour’s work. Her cheek isn't as swollen as before, but still red and patching up. Still, it’s healing. I lay down with her to protect her. Although, it seems she is protecting me more than I am protecting her. I soon fall asleep, tired of this eventful day.

I wake up thinking I am in a dream. Katniss is gone from my hold and I shuffle the blankets to try to find her. It's almost two in the morning. Where could she be? I walk downstairs to see her sitting on a chair right besides Gale, her head lays besides his as they sleep. Her hand is on his. She really loves him, huh.

I sniff and head to my house quickly. I bring a fresh roll of bread with me and set it on the table. I wake Katniss up.

"Peeta, go to bed,” she says sleepily. She yawns and stretches her arms. She brushes her fingers lightly through Gale's hair.

I laugh and say quietly, "How about you going to bed? I'll take care of him. I promise."

She nods and gets us. She kisses my cheek, then heads upstairs. I cut up the bread into enough pieces for everyone. Hazzelle left to be with the kids earlier, knowing Gale was in the best hands in Twelve. Haymitch was angry and needed a drink, so he left too.

So it's just Katniss, Prim, their mother, Gale and me in the house.

The house is quiet until Gale groans, showing he's awake. "Katniss," he says.

"It's Peeta. She went to bed.” He nods. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. Just my back is a bit, um, cut up,” he jokes. I laugh with him.

"Are you hungry? I brought bread," I ask. He shakes his head. We went on to talk about Katniss. Things we liked about her. I soon find that Gale isn't such a bad guy.

"You know, I'm not so mad about you two and the new one now,” he says after we had talked for a while.

"What?" I laugh.

"You know, the baby. I regret saying what I said to Katniss. I'm happy about you two."

"What!" I say standing from my chair.

"Shit," he murmurs under his breathe. I run upstairs to Katniss's room. I open the door and hear the shower running. Her covers are on the floor and pillows are kicked to the corner. I knock on the bathroom door. "Katniss open up!"

"One minute Peeta!" she screams back through the rush of water.

I sit on her bed and wait for her. She takes longer than I thought so I pick up her blankets and pillows and put them nicely on the bed. When she comes out I am sitting at the edge of the bed again, but I jump onto my feet and stand in front of her, making her jump.

"Good morning, Peeta,” she says. She kisses me on my forehead, making her tiptoe.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask strictly. My nails start to dig into my palms as they form fists.

"Tell you what?" she asks questionably, reaching into her drawer for clothes.

"You even told Gale before me! Do you not truly love me anymore?" I ask, raising my voice.

"No need to shout, but what are you talking about?" Katniss says. Her eyes look hurt from the last question and how loud I was being.

I choke on my words. I'm the one to speak so well. Why am I choking now? "About... the baby."

Her eyes widen. She looks away from me, to the floor, the window, her hands, then falls to the floor crying into her hands.

I don't have time to catch her but I bend down to cuddle her in my arms. Her towel and hair are damp but it doesn't bother me as it soaked up my own clothes.

"I'm sorry, Katniss," I say. I rock her back and forth. This isn’t the first time I have seen her cry, and the other three times hurt. But, knowing that I made her cry this time makes me feel so horrible, I want to die.

"I'm -sob- sorry. I wanted to -sob- tell you -sob- but-" She can't even finish.

"It's okay Katniss. It's okay. You know Gale said he was happy about it? He's not mad. I'm not mad. Okay?" I say. She nods her head but tears still fall down her cheeks.

I stand her up and help her change. I get her into bed and wrap many blankets around her body until she's warm enough. I wait until she falls to sleep to go back to Gale.

"Heard her crying. She okay?" he asks.

"Yeah." Is all I could say.

-

I don't realize what Gale told me about Katniss until I wake up on the couch with Katniss in my arms and a thin blanket around her. Gale is asleep with a new coat of snow syrup on his back still in the kitchen.

Katniss is lightly snoring, which is cute if you ask me. But the thought in my mind, just floating around, waiting for it to be true and real so I could hold onto it, waiting to see it is indeed true or a horrible prank. What if she really is pregnant? I'll just have to ask Katniss when she wakes.

I don't move at all, or I try not to. I don't want to wake her, but again I do. I want to ask her if it's true or if it isn’t or if this is a dream and I'm just imaging the one other thing I wanted besides having Katniss with me.

I felt her stir under my arm and her eyes slowly opened.

"Good morning," I say. She looks up and smiles.

"Good morning,” she replies, groggy. I could only see the right side of her face, so the scar from the whip lash was visible, her eye wasn’t swollen shut any longer. It went from above her ear in her hair across to her lips. But it only caught the edge, not much.

"Are you hungry?" I ask. She nods her head. The question was digging inside as I held it close, squeezing my insides the longer I held onto it. I would ask later when I feel like it would be best to ask.

I quickly made coco. It was her favorite. I grabbed two pieces of bread and went back to her.

I hand her a cup, her eyes locked on Gale. She whispers a thank you and looks down. I make a small fire and wrap a thinker blanket on Katniss. She sips the coco, yet it's still burning so I let mine sit.

"Katniss," I say. She turns to me. "Is it true?" I ask.

"Is what true?" She asks.

"That you’re... pregnant." I say quietly. She stares at her coco, not knowing what to say.

"Yes." Is all I get. She doesn't say anything else. She puts her cup down and hugs me. "Yes Peeta. It's true."

*

Author’s Note:

Ohhhhhhhhhh she told him XD

Keep reading guys!

~Jez xo