Catching Fire: What If Katniss Had Really Gotten Pregnant?

Chapter 7

I opened my eyes what I'm pretty sure was a while later. I saw Peeta's fuzzy face right in mine. I shook my head violently and my vision returned to normal. Wait, it wasn't Peeta. It was Finnick.

I felt Peeta's hands around mine but I couldn't see him. I sat up with a jerk and felt excruciating pain spread throughout my body and I screamed.

I shut my eyes tightly, threw myself back onto the ground, and huddled myself into a ball.

I laid completely still but the pain never receded. I slowly pulled myself to my feet with Peeta's help. Then I doubled over, hands on my stomach, and found myself on the ground again.

"What happened?" I grumbled out as I rolled onto my back.

"You ran into a, Well, a force field, I think." Finnick explained. "It knocked you right out." I turned to Peeta and saw his face for the first time since I'd awoken. His eyes were red and puffy, his face drenched in tears. How long had I been unconscious? "Can you walk?" Finnick asked me.

I thought once again of the pain that shot through my body and shook my head. "No, I don't think so." My hands returned to my stomach. "When I move, my stomach -- Well, I don't know. It just hurts."

Peeta lifted me in his strong arms and held my head to his chest. "It's alright. We should find a shelter."

We walked for just a while before we found the perfect place under a canopy of various plants and trees. Peeta volunteered to take first watch. I laid next to him. He waited until he was sure Finick and Mags were asleep to speak.

"Finnick was lying to you earlier, you know." he murmured quietly. I looked to him in confusion. "About when he said the force field knocked you out, he was lying." A single tear slid down his cheek. "Katniss, you were dead."

The shock of what he had just said took a moment to hit me. "What?" Peeta swallowed hard and continued.

"I saw you go flying, and when I ran up to you, you're heart had just -- stopped. I was in hysterics, I didn't know what to do. Finnick saved you. If Haymitch hadn't made him our ally, you'd -- you'd--"

Peeta's voice broke and he buried his head in his hands. I wrapped my arms around him. "But I'm not, Peeta. I'm okay, I'm right here." He hugged me back gently then insisted I go to bed.

I slept for a while before I heard yelling as I was shaken awake. I felt Peeta lift me and run. What were we running from? I tried to look over Peeta's shoulder and all I saw was fog. Finnick carried Mags as we ran, ran, ran...

We broke out of the forest and found ourselves on a beach. There was nowhere left to run. Peeta set me on the ground and huddled over me in protection, waiting for the fog to engulf us. But it never did.

We all looked to the forest, but the fog had just... Vanished. "What was that?" I asked, terrified, as Peeta sat next to me; panting from the exertion of carrying me.

"I have no idea." he said in return. "But every animal and plant it passed is dead." I let this sink in just a moment. It was a very good thing I hadn't been on watch. If I'd dozed off...

Yeah. You get the point.

After a while of laying on the beach, drinking, eating, enjoying the sun; my muscles and stomach all felt much better. I could stand, and walk slowly, but if I tried to run or strained myself to much, I'd drop suddenly to the ground in pain.

I hoped dearly that this side effect of the whole force field incident would wear off soon. There was no chance of me surviving long enough to ensure Peeta's winning if it didn't. And I had to.

After quite a while of exercise and stretching, I gave up on trying to force the pain to go away and stood. "I think I'm going to go for a --" My head jerked suddenly to the side, and I raised my bow, pulled back and arrow before I even knew what it was I heard. I saw Johanna Mason, from district seven.

Behind her were Wiress and Beetee, the smarties from the technology district. She wasn't that far away. I don't see how we hadn't noticed her earlier. Peeta and Finnick stood, each ready for battle. Finnick with his trident and Peeta with a dangerously huge dagger, ready to protect me, I'm sure. 

"Look, I brought the brainiacs. So we're allies, right? Don't try anything. I'll still slit your throat if you do. I don't care if you're knocked up."

"Shut up!" Peeta's voice rose to a shout as he stepped in front of me. "Be a better ally and maybe we won't try anything." How many allies did we get that I didn't know about? Johanna gave him a dirty look as she walked past us and sat on the beach. 

Wiress and Beetee weren't in the best conditions. Beetee seemed to have a gory wound on his back, and Wiress appeared to have gone mad; Walking around in circles mumbling out, "Tick tock. Tick tock... TICK TOCK!" What had happened to these two?

Whatever it had been, I clearly couldn't argue with Haymitch's decisions. And if I tried to fight with Johanna, she probably really would slit my throat. And I obviously couldn't put up much of a fight in my condition anyway.

Peeta volunteered to take first watch again and no one argued. I snuggled up next to him, knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep, what with Johanna sleeping so close to me with a knife in her hand. I didn't trust her. I don't know why, exactly. First of all, there was her 'slit my throat' comment. But I don't know...

Something just didn't feel right about her.

Peeta waited once again until everyone else was asleep to speak. "You have to go back, you know that." I opened my mouth to say something, but Peeta continued. "And I don't want any of that junk about saving me. No one would miss me. Your family needs you. Our baby needs you. No one needs me."

He rested his hand on my stomach, and immediately I felt pain spread through first there, then my whole body. I groaned out in agony and crumpled into a ball. I felt him pull me into his lap very carefully and gently. His hand caressed my braid softly and he murmured, "It's okay," to me repeatedly.

"I'm sorry, Katniss." We just sat there like that for a moment before I felt droplets of something on my head. I realized they must have been Peeta's tears. "I'm scared." His words surprise me. Of what? Losing me? Dying? The pain I was in?"

"What if... What if something happened? If something's wrong with the baby?" My head lifted and I felt tears of my own begin to form. I hadn't even thought of that possibility.

"Can that happen? From the force field?" Peeta shrugged. "Oh God, Peeta, I hope not. I don't know if I'd be able to live with myself if I'd killed --" My voice broke, and both of us knew there was no need to say anything more.

We both hugged and cried until Finnick woke up. He said he could take watch now, and we both agreed easily. I slowly drifted off to sleep in Peeta's arms. That was one of the first dreamless nights I'd had in months.

It was too bad it didn't last very long.