Freedom's Finally Ours

Chapter 28- Shocking Nightmares

Chapter 28- Shocking Nightmares

Katniss's POV

-TWO MONTHS LATER-

Five days after our day in 12, Annie, Finn and Wendy got back onto the train and headed back to 4. It was sad to see them go, but we know that they were going to return back to 12 for the birth of the second Hawthorne child. Twelve days after that, I was admitted to the District 12 Hospital with extreme abdominal stomach pains. I was injected with something to bring my stomach to the correct size it should for the growing rate of my child. It was identified that our baby was growing at an astronomical rate. It was said that my due date was brought closer by a month at the growing rate. It's unknown if that will be the case as the due date grows nearer.

The pain I felt was excruciating from the baby's movements. Then when the kicking came, it was something I had never experienced. I could feel the multiple injections as Leevy and other nurses pushed in the injections all at once. I remember crying out and wanting the pain to stop. Peeta wasn't allowed by my side as all this occurred. He was forced out of the restricted area I was taken too as he was not allowed access. Peeta was in the waiting room for hours as he awaited to be able to return to my side. All I wanted was for him to be at my side as everything painful things were being done to me. I wanted him to hold my hand and tell me in his deep, throaty voice that everything was going to be okay and it was all for the best. But, it never happened. I just laid in pain hoping to God our baby and I were going to make it through the night, also from all the procedures being performed on us. I know Peeta was hoping exactly the same things.

I woke up two days after first being admitted, Peeta by my side. He told me that the procedure was a success, my stomach stretching out to the correct size for the baby's growth rate. They fed me some vitamins and minerals through more injections which would help the baby. With other injections Peeta approved of being done as well, though they have been currently unknown to me. That afternoon after I woke up, Leevy performed an ultrasound. All good things came from that ultrasound. My oldest friend said my stomach would now continue to grow with the baby's growth. The baby was extremely healthy and may possible start slowly down it's growing, but that's still undetermined at this early stage. And since the baby has been growing at an abnormal rate compared to others we know, it's genitalia was formed. Peeta and I decided that we wanted to find out what I was carrying, what was going to be the gender of our newest Mellark. So, we got Leevy to tell us.

"Congratulations, Katniss and Peeta! You are having a very healthy and big bouncing baby boy!"

At that moment when we found out I was carrying a little boy, I was filled with joy. Any worries about myself and Peeta having to raise a boy after our late sons, Hunter and Ash, all flowed from me. I was only consumed with happiness and the possibility to start over. I know that Peeta, Willow and myself are going to make this little boy the most loved and most grateful of all children in the world. I cry as I look at my little boy on the screen. I cry at the little boy who I already love so much. I just never realised because I was so caught up in fear of him dying like Hunter and Ash did so tragically. My little boy who I know will be safe under the protection of Peeta and myself. Safe and loved dearly by our little girl who will soon be a big sister again to another little brother. I know she was once upset about getting another sibling, that we were replacing Hunter and Ash. But, I know that once she sees him for the first time, she will instantly fall in love. As I did for Prim, I can feel that is how Willow will love her little brother instantly just as I did.

When I got home a couple of days later, we showed Willow the video and the pictures of her baby brother. She was in awe watching him, it made Peeta and I so relieved. When we told her she was getting another brother, she wasn't angry like she was before. She was overjoyed. She must have had the same kind of epiphany that I had now knowing that she has a little baby brother on the way. She started jumping up and down, saying all the things that they are going to do together. She even came up and for the first time, she placed her hands on my stomach. She even started talking to her little brother, her hands pressing softly as my stomach was still sore from being stretched using medical procedures. I started crying at just feeling her little hands upon my stomach, finally and officially accepting her little brother. Peeta wrapped an arm around me and pressed a kiss on Willow's fore head, placing a hand on my stomach also. It was relief and happiness that I fell asleep to that night, the weight of now knowing that Willow has accepted the baby. I couldn't feel more relieved.