When I get to the hospital it’s flooded with doctors, patients, and loved ones there to visit. I run through the crowd until I find Peeta’s room. I see Gale, Claudia, and Kiri leaning over Peeta’s hospital bed. They all walk over to the other side of the room so I can see him. He has a cast on his ankle. I run over to him and kneel down by his bed.

“Oh, my God. Peeta what happened,” I say starting to cry. Last time I saw him like this he was dangerous to be around and he was in such terrible pain that it made me cry. He brings me down closer to wipe the tears away from my face.

“Relax, I was just running to the town to go get those seasonings and my foot went into a hole. All I have is a break in my ankle, but I should be walking again in about a month or so. It’s no big deal,” he says.

“When are you allowed to leave?”

“In an hour or so. They just have to do some of my monthly blood tests because of-,” he trails off. Neither of us really like to talk about when Peeta was hijacked. He has to come in and do monthly blood tests so we know how his body was reacting to the high doses of venom.

“Yeah, I know.”

“What on earth are you two talking about,” asks Claudia. Gale just whispers in her ear and she gets it.

“It’s nothing,” I say.

“About tonight Katniss, you can’t do that for us. Not with Peeta like this,” says Gale.

“It’s fine Gale. We were almost done before he got hurt.”

“Still, you don’t need to do this. Claudia and I agreed to just spend time as a family tonight.”

“You’re sure because we were going to have Kiri just spend the night at our house so you get the night to yourselves.” Gale looks at Claudia. They have a conversation with their eyes. Then out of the blue little Kiri starts to talk.

“Can I please spend the night at Aunt Katniss and Uncle Peeta’s house?” she asks in the cutest little voice. Gale and Claudia had to tell her that we were her Uncle and Aunt because she didn’t understand the whole “family friend” thing yet.

“I promise I’ll be a good girl daddy.” If I were Gale, I couldn’t say no to that cute little girl. We start to hear sirens go past the hospital. Sounds like a fire truck. I wonder what’s going on. Probably another cat stuck in a tree. I just ignore it and wait to hear what Gale says.

“I guess, but you have to do two things.” He picks her up. “You have to promise to help out with Dawn and you have to give me the biggest hug you’ve ever given me.” She wraps her tiny little arms around his neck and starts yelling “I promise, I promise.” I give Dawn to Peeta and I bend down to her height and open up my arms. She runs right into them and I pick her up and spin her.

“You’re going to help out with Dawn tonight?” I ask.

“Yep, I’ll play with her and feed her and rock her and hold her and-,” Gale cuts her off.

“Kiri, I think it’s time to go,” says Gale.

“Before you leave you got to give us good bye kisses,” I say. She gives me a kiss on the cheek then when I put her down she goes on the tips of her toes to kiss Peeta and Dawn goodbye. She’s so cute. Once they leave I lay down next to Peeta. Since Dawn was on Peeta’s lap she’s laying down now on his chest. I start to rub her back and she falls asleep in an instant.

“I love you,” says Peeta.

“I love you to,” I say. Then we just look at each other in silence.

“I can’t wait for number two to come. I’m look at Dawn, she’s perfect in every way a baby could be. I love her to pieces. If only we knew when he or she would be coming.”

“I know. You’ve wanted kids ever since we first met. Now that you have the most adorable baby girl and another on the way you have to be on cloud nine.”

“Katniss, I was on cloud nine way before we had Dawn. I’ve been on cloud nine since the night you said you said “real”. After that, I couldn’t have been happier. Yes, I’ve wanted kids with you ever since we met but even though I’m very family oriented you will always be the most important thing in my life.” I give him a kiss.

“Do you have any idea how perfect you are? You’re the best husband a girl could have. I can’t wait till our anniversary, Dawn will be spending the weekend with Gale and Claudia so we’ll have the whole weekend to ourselves.”

“Yep, this weekend.” He gives me a kiss then the doctor walks in.

“You’re free to go home Peeta. Your blood seems to still be going fine, but we don’t have any crutches for you so Katniss will need to help you home,” says the doctor. Once he leaves I ask my dad to come and hold Dawn so I can help Peeta get home. My dad came a few years ago. Gale saved him from the Capitol, but sadly Greasy Sae and her granddaughter didn’t make it. Peeta and I cried for days. When my dad gets here by the look on his face, I know that something is wrong and so can Peeta. So I just ask him.

“Just tell us,” I say.

“You have to stay calm alright sweetheart.” I just nod my head. He takes a deep breath.

“Katniss, Peeta, your house has caught on fire. But don’t worry Gale and Claudia are letting you stay with them in their guest room.” I just nod my head and I’m fighting off my tears. I did this. I was so worried about Peeta that I left the stove and the oven on. Things probably burned and caught on fire. My fault.

“Dad, could you give Peeta and I a moment?” He nods his head and leaves the room. Peeta looks at me.

“It was all just a big accident,” says Peeta.

“Yes, it was. A big accident that was my fault,” I say.

“What do you mean?”

“When Gale called and said you were in the hospital I just grabbed Dawn and ran out the door. I didn’t turn off the stove or the oven. So if you want to be mad at anyone be mad at me. I was the one who burnt down the house.” He stays silent for a moment then talks.

“Katniss, why would I be mad?”

“Well because of me the only pair of clothes we have are on our backs, our bed is gone, Dawn’s nursery is gone and we’re homeless.” I’m starting to cry again.

“Katniss, what did we win eighteen years ago?” I hate it when he brings this up. Every time I begin to overreact he brings this up. Even though I have valid points, and he agrees that they’re valid, he will bring this up.

“The Games.”

“Yes, twice. And what did we win?”

“Riches, beyond our wildest dreams.”

“How much of that do we still have after rebuilding Twelve?”

“Almost all of it.”

“Now don’t you think we have the money to build another house?” I nod my head. “Katniss this could’ve been a lot worse. What if I was there when the house caught on fire or you were there? What if Dawn was in that house when it caught on fire? I consider ourselves lucky right now. All of us are alive which is the only important thing here. We could have all the money in the world and we could have all the houses in the world but what if it all got ruined? Would you still be feeling like this? Are you really upset about losing our house or is it something else, because I know I am upset about losing our home but I’m obviously not as upset about it as you are. Are you going to tell me what’s wrong or are you going to just tell me that it’s nothing and then kiss me like nothing is wrong even though I know there is?” Peeta and I know each other tool well. He can read my mind. He knows when something bothers me. Peeta has very important things in that house that I kept in my father’s hunting jacket. I ever told him about them, and I never wanted him to figure it out. Soon I will have to tell him because odds are that, that jacket is long gone.

“I know I can trust you with anything but I don’t know if I can tell you.”

“But Kat-,” I cut him off.

“I just can’t tell you.” I go out in the hall to get my dad. I give him Dawn then I help Peeta get up on his feet. We slowly inch our way to Gale and Claudia’s house and I lay him down on the bed. I elevate his ankle and his head. My dad hands me Dawn and I put her in the crib already set out for us in the room. It was Kiri’s old crib that we have to use. I find out that my dad is staying with a friend, because I was so careless. This makes me sick to my stomach that my dad has to stay with someone else because of me. I just plop down next to Peeta and I sigh.

“Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?” asks Peeta. He won’t drop this. I wish I would’nt have brought it up.

“Because I know you will be mad at me,” I say.

“You know I will never be mad at you.”

“After I tell you, that will change in the blink of an eye.”

“Anything you say or do will not make me mad. I will always love you.”

“That’s what you say for now.”

“Why won’t you just tell me? Just do it fast, like ripping off a bandage.”

“Peeta, if I tell you, you will probably never talk to me again.”

“Well now I want to know if it will have an effect on our marriage.”

“Peeta, if you love me and respect me you wouldn’t make me tell you.”

“I do love and respect you but if this will hurt our marriage I want to know and I want to know now.”

“Peeta, I don’t want a divorce.”

“Okay, what if I promise I won’t be mad and that I will be with you forever and ever. Just like the firework at our wedding.”

“Fine Peeta, if you really want to know-,” I trail off and begin to cry. Peeta pulls me towards him and kisses my head then holds me close. I can’t tell him. He loves me too much and I can’t hurt him like this. I want what’s best for Dawn and split up parents isn’t the best for her. I get the idea in my mind to just lie to him. But I know Peeta and in a few weeks he’ll figure out the truth and will want to know what’s really going on. A few years ago, when Peeta was kidnapped and when I was still fuzzy about there being no Twelve, Gale told me something before some Sleep Syrup took me under. I can only faintly remember what he said but I knew it would devastate Peeta, so all these years I’ve been hiding it from him. When I blew up the force field in the 75th Games the Capitol went after Peeta’s parents since he was the one that got kidnapped. But since Peeta has no clue what he does when he’s hijacked he did something terrible. We told him that his family died in the bombing but the truth is that he was sent to Twelve during the bombing and was forced to kill his parents. Of course it didn’t bother him since he didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but since then no one’s ever told him about it. You can’t just tell someone who just fully recovered from a disease that he killed his parents because of it, which is why we told him that they died in the bombing. I completely forgot about it at the time since I was told when being pulled under by Sleep Syrup but I just remembered when my dad told me that the house burnt down. There were notes that Peeta’s family wrote to him before he killed them. They were in my father hunting jacket and that went with the house. I was going to finally give them to him on our anniversary but I felt that he should see the notes and not hear it from me. But now the notes are gone and I don’t know how to tell him. So I stop my crying and I take a deep breath then just tell him. Once I’m done his face is blank with shock. I start to stroke his hair.

“Why haven’t you told me? You’ve known all these years but choose now to tell me?” he asks.

“I knew you’d be mad which is why I didn’t want to tell you,” I say. He looks at me. He grabs my hand and kisses it.

“I’m not mad, I’m just… I just need some space to think about all this.” I’m going to overreact again.

“So you want a divorce?” I ask with a lot of devastation in my voice.

“No, no, of course not. I’m just going to need some time to let this sink in. I love you and I would never do anything to hurt you.” Then he turns on his side. I get up, give him a kiss then take Dawn and leave him to his privacy. I decide to leave the house and go find Gale. When I find him he’s sitting on a bench right outside the outskirts of the woods. He has something in his hand. I go and sit next to him but he doesn’t look up from the papers.

“Did you tell him?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I say.

“How did he react?”

“He said he just wanted some space to think this all through. It was just too much for him so I left him alone.”

“Everything will be fine with him. We actually have the okay to go back to Twelve finally. They caught Paylor last night and have her in maximum security. She was undercover as a citizen in Five. Claudia, Kiri and I are leaving tomorrow. We decided that we would be living in Twelve though since it’s much safer than the Capitol. When are you going to leave?”

“We are going to leave when Peeta wants to. He’s taking the news extremely rough.”

“Actually I have something for both of you. I saved whatever I could from the fire.” He hands me my father’s hunting jacket. It is a little charred but it’s still wearable.

“Thank you so much Gale.” I give him a hug.

“There is also something I have here for Peeta.” He hands me the papers. There are four pieces. I begin to read them and I knew exactly what they were. There was barely a scratch on it.

“How did you know I kept them in my jacket?”

“I didn’t they fell out when I picked it up. Do you think Peeta will take it alright?”

“I don’t know how he’ll take it. But I do know that there will be tears. Thank you so much.” I give him a hug. I run back to their house and I find Peeta still laying down in the bed. He hasn’t moved. I kneel down next to him and Dawn and I both give him a kiss on the cheek. He doesn’t look at us. He just stares out into space.

“Peeta I have something for you.” He still doesn’t look at me. So I pull out the pieces of paper and I put them right in front of his face so he can see it. Once he reads the first line his eyes light up. The pieces of paper are the notes his family wrote him.

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Sad, huh? How would you feel that eighteen years or so ago you figure out that you weren't in control of your body and killed your family, and you friends knew the entire time, but they lied and said that they died a different way? Comment! Vote if you liked the chapter!

Love, Bookjunkie001