Chapter Text
A/N: at the end.
Chapter 34: Epilogue
“Peeta, Peeta wake up.” Slowly his eyes opened to the dark room to find his heavily pregnant wife looming over him. Blinking rapidly he brought the room into focus and immediately recognizes the grimace on her face as labor pains and is instantly worried.
“No, it’s too early; we have five more weeks left.” He pleads with her as if she can make this stop.
“Help me to the bathroom. Prim said they would most likely be early, you know that.” Katniss huffs at him as he helps her to their private bathroom.
“I know…I know. Are you sure it is time, they could be those Braxton Hicks contractions, you got them all the time with Bran.” He replies and an anxious pit in his stomach appears making him want to puke.
Walking her carefully back to the bedroom he quietly hopes that this is a false alarm and as he settles her back into bed without further incident he begins to relax. Unfortunately as soon as his shoulders settle Katniss cries out in pain and her face contorts demonstrating to him the seriousness of the situation.
“I’m calling Prim now.” he calls out trying to reassure her as he runs down the stairs to the phone in their office.
Not 20 minutes later he meets Marvel on the roadway halfway to the clinic they set up next to the Apothecary. Breathing a sigh of relief at the appearance of his new brother –in-law hurrying toward them, Peeta is glad when Marvel helps relieve the physical burden of his wife pregnant with their two babies. He has already passed Madge on the road as she hurries to their home to take care of the kids.
“How are you feeling Katniss?” Marvel asks his wife concern etched on his face as Peeta watches his eyes appraise her medically.
“I feel like shit” Katniss spits out as she looks over at him Peeta ducks at her scowl and he swears she grumbles something about his ‘stupid super sperm’. Another contraction has her releasing a sharp pain and has him and Marvel rushing forward towards the clinic whispering reassuring words into the night air as they practically run.
The lights on at the clinic provide a beacon of light in an otherwise darkened set of streets. “Why is it that women always go into labor at night?” Marvel huffs as they enter the clinic to see Prim bustling about getting things ready.
“I’m not sure” Prim replies smiling as she sticks a thermometer into Katniss’s mouth and then starts a physical examination, “but I am positive it is the fault of you men.”
“Stupid Super Sperm!” is all Katniss can grit out as she scowls at him, but Peeta doesn’t care he is just worried for her and the babies.
Helping Katniss get situated on the examination table he then goes to her side at her head and nervously asks Prim, “Are you sure the babies are coming?”
Katniss cries out and a sudden whoosh of fluid answers his question just as Prim verbalizes what he now knows.
“Yes, the babies are coming now. And yes it is early, but not too early. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had the date of conception off by a week or two, the babies are measuring large for twins and Katniss is horrible about keeping track of her cycle.”
“How long have you been having contractions like this?” Prim asks Katniss her voice quickly slipping into the same professionaltone that her mother uses. This quickly reminds Peeta that someone should have called Lilly, needs to call Lilly now.
“Did someone get Lilly?” he blurts out like a crazy person as Katniss is talking about contractions and timing.
Prim looks up and gives him a look that almost seems to have a bit of resentment in it. “No” she says steadily to him. “I thought we would assess the situation first and give mom a call if we need her.”
“We need her” Peeta blurts out again anxiously, “she has delivered all of our babies.” His voice rises as he starts to get hysterical, ‘and she knows what to do when I faint.”
“Faint?” Marvel questions him his eyes going back and forth between Peeta and Katniss.
“James and Brandon” Katniss manages to huff out, “Peeta freaks when I am in paaaaiiin.”
“KATNISS!” he cries out as his wife wails the last words his knuckles screaming in pain as she attempts to break his hand.
“Get mom, now!” Prim barks out to Marvel her hands are between Katniss’s legs. “Tell her she is close to pushing.” she grits out as Peeta watches Prim stands up quickly and starts pushing equipment around and Marvel rushes off.
“Is she OK? What’s wrong? Is it the babies, are the babies OK?” Panic starts to swell in his chest, please let her be OK, please let them be OK chants through his head. Peeta starts focusing on Katniss trying to reassure her and most likely himself at the same time by murmuring “Its OK Katniss. You can do this, I love you.” Over and over while stroking her hair.
“No more Peeta. Nooooo mooore” his beautiful wife huffs out breathing in the way her mother taught her all those years ago.
“Whatever you say baby,” Peeta feels the tears fill his eyes and slide down his cheek, “whatever you want. Just be OK.”
A breath of relieved air barrels out when Lilly rushes into the room and joins Prim at the end of the delivery table between his wife’s legs. Concerned whispers reach his ears and break through the pain Katniss is inflicting on his hand. Words like breach…distress…and cesarean tickle at his brain and start to wreak havoc with his nerves and eyesight.
“Tell me what’s wrong, I know something is wrong. I can feel it; I have done this three times before.” Katniss demands and Peeta feels the blood drain from his face.
A glove snaps on a wrist and Peeta is sure it was Prim, who stands up quickly and speaks calmly to Marvel. “Get everything prepped and ready for a C-section, I’ll administer the spinal with mom’s assistance.”
Prim then turned to the two of them her face a reflection of calm with an underlying tension. As she speaks Peeta’s world begins to narrow. “The baby that is sitting low in your pelvis is in a breach position meaning he is feet first. From what I can tell the two babies are both in positions making it very unlikely that you will be able to give birth to them naturally without putting one or both of them at risk. As it is one baby currently has an elevated heart rate indicating signs of stress.”
As she talks Prim and Lilly walk around Katniss and have urged her to lean forward. Suddenly Prim is wielding the biggest most horrific looking needle in her tiny little hand. Thank god Katniss can’t see that thing; Peeta thinks as Prim keeps talking about horrible things calmly.
“I am going to perform a cesarean section” Prim continues, “that means I am going to perform an operation and remove the babies in the safest way possible for them as well as the mother.” Then Prim slides that huge hose in his wife’s back causing sweat to instantly bead all over his body and the room starts to get warm.
“Lilly” he manages to choke out as fast as he could since he knows what is coming. Suddenly a chair is swept under him as his knees buckle and Katniss’s hand is torn from his. Blue sheets go up and activity bustled around his wife as he struggles to gulp down air. “PEETA” his eyes snap back into focus as his mother in law barks at him. “Call help now, I want Johanna and Rue here ASAP, both women have helped me in the past.”
Getting a task seems to prevent him from fainting; Peeta hurries into the little room outside the birthing room and quickly makes the phone calls. Confident the women will be there momentarily he scurries back into the room only to find that Katniss is lying back on the table and her lower half was being draped off in such a way that neither Katniss nor he can see her lower half. He makes his way over to her and grabs her hand clenching it between their bodies. Placing his forehead on hers, his other hand softly stroking her hair he takes a moment to stare into the panicked eyes of the woman he has shared his life with.
“I have loved you forever, I will love you always. You can do this. Prim is a trained doctor, Marvel is a trained nurse. And your mom has delivered all four of our beautiful babies.” He soothed her while wiping the few tears that made their way onto her cheeks with his hand that isn’t gripping hers.
“That’s great Peeta” Prim called out from somewhere behind him as Rue rushes into the room, “keep talking to Katniss and keep each other calm. We’ll take care of everything over here.”
“Have I ever told you how I almost fainted from shock that day you came to give me the salves after my mom hit me?” he starts looking at her and her head shaking no at him in answer.
“It was so unexpected that you were at the door and then you were talking to me, like I mattered.” He hears the door opens and knows Johanna must have arrived, but he goes back to talking. “You were so beautiful and you were talking to me…and every time you took a deep breath your tiny t-shirt would tighten around your breasts which would cause me to stop breathing.” A small pained chuckle is all the encouragement he needs. “Between your perfect perky breasts making intermittent appearances and your beautiful eyes like the swirling silver moon sparkling it was all I could do to keep my knees from crashing to the ground. I wanted to kiss you so badly…actually there were many times in those first few months that I wanted to kiss you.”
A wail interrupts him and his eyes snap up to see Lilly and Rue wiping off a squalling infant. “First born, a baby boy completely healthy with a fuzz of dark hair,” Lilly announces as she brings him over for us to see.
“Linden Peeta Mellark” his wife breathes out one of the names they had picked months ago. They decided not to find out the gender of the babies this time around and opted to be surprised so they have names picked for all three possible combinations.
“He is beautiful my love” Peeta breaths at her looking in awe at his wife while Lilly returns to Prim’s side and Rue rushes off to clean up Linden properly. Another wail catches their attention and this time Johanna rushes to help with baby number two. “This one’s a girl, slightly on the smaller side, blonde fuzz on her head,” he looks up to see his baby girl and smiles.
“Dandelion Primrose Mellark” Katniss says as they gaze at her before she is whisked away. Peeta can instantly tell something is not right as the grip on his hand loosens. “Katniss?” he looks down at her unusually pale face just as Prim barks out “SHIT”.
“What’s wrong?” he manages to cry out as Katniss’s eyes glaze over oddly. Suddenly Marvel is pushing him out as Prim is barking orders all he can hear are the words blood and loss and quickly.
Staring at the closed door in front of him Peeta drops to his knees and he feels a hand on his shoulder. Looking up through tears he sees Johanna on one side of him with Dani in her arms. Rue is on the other side clutching Linden to her chest. “She’ll be fine Loverboy.” Johanna says in a soothing tone he has never heard.
“How do you know?” he demands tears running down his face, “Jo, how do you know she’ll be fine?”
“Because Katniss is the strongest woman I know.” Is the answer Johanna gives him, “there is no way she will leave you and your children.”
“I can’t…I can’t lose her Jo.” Peeta sobs. At that moment his father walks in, a smile on his face most likely ready to greet his latest grandchildren. Launching himself at his dad like he is five with a scraped knee he takes the comfort of his father while the father, son, two women and brand new babies await the fate of the mother.
After minutes pass, but what seems like hours to Peeta during which his father helps get him under control and focused on his sweet new babies, Marvel walks quietly into the room. Peeta raises his eyes from his sweet Dani who he is holding protectively in his arms while feeding her from a bottle he locks his eyes on the weary face of his newest in-law. “How’s Katniss?” he croaks out voice raw from crying.
“Katniss is stable” Marvel replies quickly the relief evident in his tone allows Peeta to relax a miniscule amount.
“So she isn’t going to die?” Peeta asks as tears threaten to fall again.
“No” Marvel sighed, “Katniss is not going to die. She experienced heavy bleeding from an unexpected tear in her uterus.” Marvel goes on to explain, “It was actually fairly lucky that we were already in there performing a C-section, it made finding and fixing the leak a lot easier. This type of complication is not unheard of and if the patient is in a medical facility with experienced trained staff almost never results in death.”
At his words Peeta exhaled in relief, “Oh Thank God. My wife will be OK? Right?”
“Yes” Marvel answers with a bit of hesitation in his voice. “BUT…I will tell you that Katniss will not be able to have more children.”
Peeta stared at Marvel for a few moments before answering him, “So? We have six beautiful children. I get to keep my wife, five minutes ago I thought she would die…I don’t care. Katniss may be upset, but… ultimately she won’t care either. Thank you for saving my wife.”
Peeta takes a deep breath as he pulls the bottle away from his tiny baby girl and efficiently adjusts her so that he can burp her in the way only an experienced father can. “When can I see her? When can she see Linden and Dani?”
“Prim and Lilly are still tending to her, when she is ready and awake they will come get you first then the babies.” Marvel informs him, “Katniss is not going to walk out of here tomorrow, and she will be here for at least a week. She will need you here during that time; I suggest you find someone to temporarily take care of your kids and shops.”
“Don’t worry son.” Farl speak up beside him. “I got the shop with Rye. Carrie and Bannock can stay with the kids. Ban’s boys are old enough to be on their own for a while. I’ll go make some calls.” And with that his dad stood up and went to go organize his life making up for the years of turning a blind eye to Meredith’s abuse.
Not long after Lilly comes out and begins to help tend to the babies sending both Johanna and Rue home, although they left reluctantly. Then as Peeta and Lilly silently cared for the newest Mellark children Lilly quietly tells Peeta what happened when he was ushered out of the room.
Two hours later an exhausted looking Prim opens the door. “Peeta you can see her now, she should be waking soon.”
His feet automatically had him at the door and he quickly passes Linden off to Lilly. The whirring and beeping of machines fill the silence and the stillness of Katniss lying on the hospital bed surrounded by the machines unnerve him. Rushing over he quickly scans her face and finds her pallor to have pinked up from the deathly pale he had last seen. Sitting in the chair next to her he gently envelops one of her cold hands in his and leans over to gently kiss her lips.
“I’m here my love” he speaks softly to her quiet form. “I am so glad you didn’t leave me, I don’t know what I would have done. Dani and Linden are so perfect and anxious to meet their mommy.
“I cannot wait for you to see Linden’s dark hair and I think his eyes will be grey just like yours; he looks so much like you Katniss. And Dani…she is perfect. Tiny, delicate and so very strong, her blonde hair is just fuzz and her eyes, I’m pretty sure they’re mine. I know you like that love, when the kids have my eye color, though I am partial to Bran’s the way they mix our colors together in that swirl.
“Dani’s going to be a heartbreaker like Willow and Aster I can just tell. But Katniss they need you. I need you…so can you wake up please?” Peeta catches a few tears before they drip on his wife and takes a deep breath before composing himself and then continues to talk. Peeta just talks telling Katniss about her new babies and then launches into a story about Bran and how he has mastered almost all the frosting flowers.
“Bran is just like you.” The small voice cracks as her eyes flutter open which cause his eyes to dampen again.
“Oh Katniss” Peeta sighs as he senses Prim start to bustle around them. “Don’t ever scare me again like that OK?”
“OK” she croaks out then takes a sip of water that Prim has suddenly in front of her. “What happened?”
Peeta allows Prim to explain as he strokes his wife’s hand softly while kissing the top of her head over and over.
“And the babies?” Katniss asks after Prim has quickly and succinctly described his worst nightmare in a sterile way.
“They are fine Katniss, Perfect even.” Peeta answers her then turns to Prim asking, “When can she see them?”
“Now, briefly, I want Katniss to try and nurse them each so she doesn’t lose her milk.” Prim pauses for a moment and then looks over at Katniss her voice losing the tone of a healer and taking on the tone of concerned sister. “One more thing Kat, you won’t be able to have any more babies. I’m sorry; we removed your uterus so that we could stop the bleeding quickly.”
“Could I have died?” Katniss enquires of Prim in a soft tone her tight grip the only thing revealing her feelings to Peeta.
“Yes” Prim said softly, “I made the choice. I was 100% sure you would live if I took it and if I left it there was a chance that you could have bled out later or I could have missed a tear. Normally I would have asked the father and given the family a choice, but I didn’t. You’re my sister and loosing you wasn’t an option, but I did take away your chance to have more babies for a guarantee that you would live.”
“That is the choice I would have made Prim.” Peeta consoles softly “losing Katniss isn’t an option to me; it wouldn’t have mattered if it was after our first or sixth, the decision would have been the same.”
“Me too” Katniss said softly, “I need to take care of the children I have now. Can I see them now?”
Peeta watches as Prim gestures for Marvel and Lilly to bring the newest Mellark twins into the room quickly reaching for Linden and helping Katniss bring him to her breast.
“This is Linden my love, he is going to be a big boy. Look at those Mellark shoulders and he has your hair.” After situating Linden and the little greedy guy latches on he takes Dani from Marvel and again helps Katniss get the tiny girl onto her other breast, double nursing a technique they perfected with Willow and Aster. “Here’s Dani sweetheart, isn’t she just perfect?”
“She looks like an angel with her hair all blonde and fuzzy.” Katniss breathes taking in her babies with that same expression he has seen over the years that is reserved for him and their children.
“They are perfect; you’re perfect, Thank you.” Peeta softly breathes into her mouth as he gently kisses his wife trying to tell her how much he loves her in his light touch.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
“Give it to me straight” her Nana says, silver eyes piercing to her soul. Cassiopeia O’Dair is the youngest of her cousins and has just completed her medical school training. Her mother Dani Hawthorne is her Nana’s youngest child, by 5 minutes, and is waiting patiently downstairs with the rest of her siblings and all of her cousins that are currently in district 12.
Cassie loves her Nana, loves her fire and the fact that she never wants to be pussyfooted around. ‘Give it to me straight’ is one of her most used terms and normally Cassie wouldn’t hesitate, but today she does because she loves her Nana.
Hesitating slightly she looks at her poppa who is diligently waiting for her diagnosis next to his wife of 77 years. Her poppa was diagnosed a few years ago with dementia and only the presence of his wife keeps him fairly sane. Cassie knows that he will not do well when her Nana starts to deteriorate and she knows that Nana knows it too.
“The cancer has spread, just as I said it would.” Cassie starts trying desperately to control her emotions and pretend as if this woman were just another patient and not the most beloved matriarch of her large happy rambunctious family. Growing up her Nana and Poppa have always been the center of the family. They were both always working and active, her Nana out in the woods and garden and her Poppa in the bakery. Up until a few years ago you could find them every Sunday taking a walk to a willow grove on the outskirts of the meadow.
“And, how much longer…” her Nana prods her voice calm and relaxed as if she were asking how much longer the cheese buns had left in the oven.
“Two…possibly three months” Cassie replies as strongly as she can, trying not to see the tears gathering in her poppa’s eyes. It really shouldn’t be so sad, her gandparents are the oldest in the district and most of her relatives have lost their grandparents years ago. Her Nana turned 95 just a few months ago a few months after her poppa did.
“I can’t lose you my love” her poppa speaks as his ancient hands hold her nana’s face with such reverence.
“And you won’t” her nana says softly, “Well go together just as we talked about a few years ago.”
“Nana?” Cassie questions softly.
“Katniss and I discussed this a few years ago when we lost her sister Prim.” Her Poppa states in a matter-of-fact way. “We have long since lost all our immediate family and our friends. Prim was the last one. We have seen our children grow and have children; we have met and love great-grand-children. Fact is Cassie at thirty you are the youngest of our grandchildren. We have lived good lives, seen our children live good lives. We have bakers and businessmen and doctors and hunters in our family and you have all become successful. We have even seen you marry the grandchild of a former victor. But most importantly we have been happy and our family is happy.”
“I’m ninety-five and have lived the way I wanted to. I want to die the way I want to too.” Her Nanna says in her short and concise way.
“So perhaps it’s time to take a final walk to the Willow trees?” Peeta says to Katniss.
“Together” Katniss says to Peeta.
And so slowly together, with their children and grandchildren following slowly behind Katniss and Peeta Mellark take a final walk in the sunshine to the willow tree grove that stands on the edge of the meadow guarding the entrance to the woods. The two lovers sit and talk quietly together. Katniss produces and handful of purple berries and splits them between the two. And with a final kiss and words of love the two lovers consume the poisoned fruit and join those they love in the heavens above to watch down on the ones they left behind. The couple is happy being with each other in eternity and loving each other, Always.
A/N: That is it folks, thank you for following me and reading my first story. I am sorry it took so long for this chapter, I could blame it on summer vacations, but really I just didn’t want the story to end, it hurt too much. A huge shout out to my beta Oakfarmer, she took my story and made it better. A special thanks to all those who have read, reviewed and encouraged me from the beginning. I would love to hear all your thoughts on the story and look forward to reading your comments. Don’t forget to check out my ongoing fic Love Throughout the Ages Also keep an eye out for another coming right on its heels, The Reluctant Princess – a modern Day AU featuring everlark of course!