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Chapter 9

Katniss P.O.V.

News travels fast. Its been three months since we found out about the baby and the whole country seems to know about it. People keep calling to congratulate us. Even Haymitch has called to see how I'm doing. I still haven't felt one kick though. It's starting to scare me, but Peeta assures me it will be okay. I have a doctors appointment scheduled for this afternoon, so I guess we'll find out later today.

As I walk down the steps, I expect the smell of breakfast to make my stomach turn. Fortunately, it doesn't. I walk into the kitchen to find Peeta standing over the hot stove.

"Good morning," I say as I sit down at the table.

"Good morning," Peeta replies as he sets a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me. "Are you feeling all right this morning?" I nod my head. He notices my expression and gives me a worried look. He puts a hand on my back and bends down next to me."I promise Kat, the baby's okay."

"I know," I mumble. "Its just that if the baby would make even a little bit of movement, then I'd know for sure."

"Katniss, maybe the baby is kicking and you just can't feel it yet."

"Maybe," I reply. I try to let his words assure me, but I still won't be satisfied until I can feel some type of movement.

Besides the occasional 'Are you okay?' from Peeta, breakfast is silent. Afterwords, I clean up while Peeta goes upstairs to get dressed. When the kitchen is all cleaned up, I go and sit down on the couch. I stretch out and I've just closed my eyes when I feel it. The baby finally kicked.

"Peeta! Peeta!" I holler up the steps. I hear Peeta's heavy footsteps as he comes flying down the stairs. He rushes over to me, his eyes wide in fear.

"What's wrong?" Peeta asks frantically and out of breath.

"Nothing," I reply. "The baby finally moved. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," Peeta says as he places a hand on my stomach. The baby makes another small movement and Peeta's eyes light up. His worried expression turns into a bright smile.

My happiness grows by the second as I watch Peeta's reaction to being able to feel our child move for the first time. But that happiness is soon crushed by a terrifying thought. I am responsible for this baby. Whatever happens to it will be my fault. I'm afraid that this baby might end up like our daughter. Tears start to flow down my face. I try to wipe them away quickly, but Peeta still notices.

"Kat?" Peeta says as he gently wipes my tears away with his thumb. "What's the matter?"

"I'm terrified Peeta," I say. Peeta wraps an arm around me as he wipes away my tears with his free hand.

"Wanna tell me why?" Peeta asks.

"Whatever happens to this baby is my fault. I'm terrified of becoming a mother." Peeta bends down to look me right in the eyes.

"Katniss, first of all, you're going to be a wonderful mother. Second of all, you're not in this alone. Okay? I'm going to be right here beside you the entire way. We have to stay on the positive side of things, but if anything does happen to our baby, don't you dare blame yourself. All right?"

"Okay," I reply. I wrap my arms around his neck and he pulls me up onto his lap, holding me tight.

"Are you okay now?" Peeta asks.

"Yeah. Thank you." He smiles at me.

"That's what I'm here for."

"Are you going with me to my appointment later on today?" I ask.

"Didn't I say I'd be with you every step of the way?" Peeta asks, making me laugh.

"Yes, you did," I say as I lean my forehead against his. "I'm going to hold you to that, too."

"I figured you would," Peeta says as he kisses me. I put my hands on the back of his head so he can't pull away. His hands go to my back and he holds me closer as our lips move in sync with each others. We don't even have time to pull away to catch our breaths before the phone rings. "Stay here. I'll be right back," Peeta kisses the tip of my nose and leaves to answer the phone.

Its not long until Peeta hollers for me. As I go to stand, I feel my breakfast rushing back up from my stomach. My hand quickly covers my mouth and I run to the bathroom, making it just in time.

"Katniss?" Peeta says softly as he opens the bathroom door. I look up at him and he hands the phone to me.

"Who is it?" I whisper. He acts like he doesn't want to say anything. "Peeta." He looks at me and finally mouths 'Ellen.' My stomach rolls and I begin to retch  again. I hear Peeta tell Mom that I don't feel like talking right now and I'll call her back later, then he hangs up.

He puts his hand on my back and bends down next to me. Just like he does every time this happens. When I'm sure that my stomach is done emptying itself, I clean up. Me and Peeta go back to the living room and sit down.

"What did Mom want?" I ask.

"She heard about the baby," Peeta says as he puts his arms around my shoulder. "That's all she said, then she asked to talk to you."

"Its been three years since she's talked to me. Now when she finds out I'm pregnant, she's suddenly interested in talking to me again."

"Katniss," Peeta says softly. "Maybe you need to just talk to her."

"I'm tired of forgiving her, Peeta," I say as I turn to face him better.

"I didn't tell you to." Peeta takes my hand in his, and he uses his free hand to move my head so I'll look him in the eye. "But, it would be nice if you did." I sigh and nod my head.

"I'll at least talk to her," I say. "But not right now. My appointment is in two hours, so I'll call her sometime after that."

"Good." Peeta kisses the top of my head.

"I'm going to go get ready," I say as I stand and head upstairs. By the time me and Peeta are both ready, it's time to leave for my appointment. Before we can walk out the door, the phone starts ringing. Peeta turns to look at me.

"You go on out to the car," he says. "I'll be out there in a minute."

"Okay," I reply. When I open the door, I get a surprise. No guards. I'm happy at first. I mean, I've been waiting for this day for a long time. But, the fact that if Peeta had let the guards go for today, he would've told me, is what causes me to quickly shut the door.

I hear Peeta coming down the steps and I look up at him. "Why aren't you in the car?" He asks. I'm not worried about answering his question, so I don't.

"Did you send the guards home?" I ask.

"No," Peeta replies as he opens the door and motions for me to come on.

"Then who did?" I ask as I follow him.

"I don't know." When we are both in the car, Peeta looks at me. "I know why though."

"Why?" I ask, wanting him to get to the point.

"They have a suspect," Peeta replies. "That's what the phone call was for. They want me to come over immediately because they're bringing the suspect in, but I told them that I couldn't because of your appointment.

"You go on," I say. "I'll be fine."

"No," Peeta replies.

"Peeta, listen to me. I know that you want to be there for me, but you need to be there when they bring the suspect in. I promise,if I need anything I'll call."

"Fine," Peeta sighs. "But under protest." I smile at him. Peeta drops me off first and kisses me before he drives away.

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When I made the promise that I'd call Peeta if I needed him, I didn't know I'd actually have to call him. Just a few minutes ago, I was informed that something is wrong with our baby. I wanted to call Peeta before I was told anything else.

"Hello?" He answers.

"Peeta," I say weakly. "I need you... I need you to come down here."

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know," I reply as a sob escapes my mouth. "All I know is something is going on with the baby."

"Okay, I'll be there as quick as possible," Peeta says before the call ends. I walk back to my room and wait. Without looking, I know Peeta is here when I hear loud, heavy footsteps coming down the hallway toward my room. The door flies open and Peeta comes in, rushing over to me. He kisses me and wraps his arms around my shoulders.

"I'm okay," I whisper before he even has the chance to ask.

"What's going on?" Peeta asks as he sits down next to me.

"I don't know. I made them wait on you before they could tell me anything." Throughout the next half hour, nurses come in multiple times to check on things like my blood pressure. Finally, the doctor comes in and asks a bunch of questions before she gets to the point.

"Has anybody came in to talk to you yet?"

"No," I reply as I shake my head. "Can you please tell us what's going on?"

"Well, it's clear that your baby has a heart condition. I'm not going to take the time to explain it  so I'll just be very straightforward with you. There's a very slim chance that your baby will make it past birth." The words sink in, but I will not accept them. I will not allow myself to believe this for one second.

"Is there anything we can do?" Peeta asks. The doctor shakes her head.

"But, I do have to recommend that, since the baby probably won't live anyways, you go ahead and abort..."

"No!" Me and Peeta butt in at the same time. At first, she looks a little shocked by our sudden outburst, but she soon continues.

"This would be the best thing to do," she argues.

"And why's that?" Peeta asks.

"Because it's like I said, your baby has a very slim chance at survival anyways."

"Well, we'd rather our baby have a slim chance to live than no chance at all," Peeta shoots back. My stomach starts rolling and Peeta can tell I'm starting to get uncomfortable. "Are we done here?" Peeta asks. The doctor nods her head.

Peeta gets up, offers me a hand, and we walk out.

As I go to get in the car, Peeta gently grab my hand and I look up at him. "I just want to let you know that I'm proud of how calm you remained back there. That took a lot of patience not to get upset."

"There's nothing to get upset about. I know that our baby is going to be okay," I reply. Peeta nods his head and wraps his arms around me. I feel the baby move and I feel like crying tears of relief, then anger rushes through me. "I can't believe she wanted us to abort our baby just because they think that he or she ha a slim chance of living." Peeta pulls me back and smiles at me.

"There's the Katniss I know," he teases. Even though I smile at him, he can still see the anger in my eyes. "Hey," he says gently. "We made the right decision. They can't take our baby away from us."

"I know. But I'm not coming back here unless I absolutely have to."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Peeta says as he smiles at me. "How about we go home and talk some more about this later?" I nod my head. We both get in the car and head home.

On the way home, I start noticing that something else seems to be bothering Peeta. There's something he's not telling me. I decide to wait until we are inside our house to say anything. When we both sit down and can finally relax, Peeta still seems tense.

"What's wrong?" I ask. Peeta shakes his head.

"First, the whole thing with the suspect goes awry, now there's something wrong with the baby," Peeta mumbles.

"What happened with the suspect?" I ask.

"Never mind," Peeta replies.

"Who was it?" He doesn't answer me. He just sits there and stares at his folded hands. "Anybody we know?" Nothing. I sigh. "Peeta..."

"You really wanna know?" He snaps.

"Yeah," I say, ignoring his attitude. Peeta stands up.

"Let's go." I follow him outside to the car, wondering the entire time where on earth we're going. While I'm sitting in the car, I try to break the silence by starting a conversation.

"Since they have a suspect, does that mean the guards are leaving us alone for now?" I ask. Peeta nods his head. "That'll be good, right?" Another nod. "You know, I'm trying to start a conversation."

"Maybe I don't feel like talking," Peeta replies without looking at me. I turn my head to look at him and my eyes widen.

"What happened?" I ask.

"You'll find out in a minute, so quit interrogating me." Tears form in my eyes and I turn my attention to the window. He never talks to me like this. Something really bad must've happened. I decide to keep quiet the rest of the ride.

Peeta stops the car outside the jail. Instead of helping me out like he normally would do, Peeta gets out of the car, and takes off walking towards the jail. I get out and try to keep up with him, which is a little harder to do than it normally would be considering I'm almost four months pregnant. When Peeta's at the door and I'm still not halfway across the parking lot, I holler at him. He turns around to look at me.

"Wait for me," I say when I finally reach Peeta. He starts to walk off again, but I grab his arm. "Why are you in such a hurry?" I ask.

"I guess I just want to get this over with," Peeta replies, avoiding eye contact with me.

"Why can't you just tell me what's going on?" I ask.

"Maybe I don't want to." He opens the door and turns back around to me. "You coming?"

"No," I reply as I cross my arms across my chest. "Not until you explain things to me."

"Like what?" Peeta asks.

"Like why you're acting the way you are."

"How am I acting?"

"Hateful," I reply. He looks taken aback. "Ever since we came home from the doctor's appointment you've basically snapped my head off at everything I've said. You never act like this." He gives me a sympathetic look and finally makes eye contact with me.

"Katniss, I'm sorry," Peeta says softly. "I didn't realize that I was..." His voice trails off as he runs a hand through his hair. He looks back at me and I can see true regret on his face. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," I say softly.

"No, its not," Peeta says as he shakes his head. "I've been acting like a jerk towards you and all you wanted to know was what's going on." I walk over to him and embrace him.

"I promise it's okay," I say. I look up at him and his eyes meet mine again. "Maybe we should just go home and you can tell me later instead of showing me."

"I could," Peeta replies. "Except this is something I'd rather show you."

"All right," I sigh. "Let's go." Peeta opens the door back up and we both walk inside.

We go through a set of double doors that lead to steps. Again, Peeta is faster than me, but this time he slows down when he notices that I'm lagging behind him. He waits until I catch up before he starts to take off again. Peeta finally comes to a stop at a door three stories down from where we started. His hand grips the door handle, but he can't bring himself to open the door. He turns his head to look at me.

"You're not going to like this, Katniss," Peeta warn me.

"Go ahead," I say as I gesture my head towards the door. Peeta sighs, opens the door, and leads me down a long hallway lined with cells. I can tell by the way Peeta's shoulders tense that we're getting close.

When we reach the cell, the suspect doesn't even have to turn around for me to be able to identify him. This is why Peeta wouldn't say anything. He could hardly tell me that the man who is suspected of breaking into our home used to be my hunting partner and best friend.


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I made that chapter a little longer for y'all since it took me a while to update the last one. Hope you liked it and please tell me what you think.

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