Katniss

I carefully sit in the training center and practice knot tying half heartedly. Peeta won't let me do anything that involves physical activity, to wanting me to do anything that may harm the little one he has growing inside me.

I only look up as Mags, the eldery woman who had volunteered from 4 hands me a fishing lure she had crafted from a thin string, a strand of wire, and a feather. I take it in my hand and study under the intense fluorescent lights. I smile at her and try to hand it back to her but she shakes her head.

"Its beautiful, but I can't take it with me when I leave," I say. She just looks at me a moment before reaching forward to touch my stomach hidden below the table. Seeing as she can't talk, I know I have to take this as her saying something. She wants me to know how to feed myself and my child in the arena. Of anyone, I guess I should have known she would be able to tell my condition if anyone would seeing as she is in her late eighties with 5 children of her own, 4 of them who fought and lost the hunger games.

"Please, don't tell anyone," I whisper and she nods. I hold up the little hook and gesture to the pile of supplies in front of me. "What do you say I show you how to shoot and you show me how to make one of these?" She gives me a toothless grin and reach accross me to start her work.

An hour or so later, after a few usuable attempts at fishing hooks and an annoying visit with the ever irritating Finnick Odair to raise my blood pressure, I decide to relax by offering my half of the bargin. I test a few bows, pulling the strings back until I find one with a draw weight I like and enter the shooting range.

I walk into the glass room and walk over to the computer. There is every setting you can imagine for the enemies and conditions of attacks which I can encounter. I decide to do what feels right at the moment and turn the computer up to what I feel is necessary.

All the way.

I shoot at the enemies as they appear from all sides. It relaxes me as I destroy everything in my path. I forget about everything. Peeta, the baby, the impending death I plan to face, the people whose eyes no doubt fall on me now. They all fall into obilivian as I continue to draw my arrows and shoot what I see come for me.

I finish, feeling the eyes on me as I set my weapon back where I found them and walk out past all the people who had gathered. Peeta is amoung them and he has a smile but it doesn't reach his eyes.

"You said you would take it easy," he whispers in my ear as I stop next to him.

"You understand that if you want me to live, I may have to do that more than once in a week's time," I whisper back. "Besides, I will not be seen as weak."

"Well, you've definitely shown your strenth, sweetheart," he says and I feel a blush on my cheek. "A good last memory of one of the many reasons I love you." I shake my head and he squeezes my hand.

"Peeta, we talked about this," I say curtly and he just squeezes my hand. "Not here, please."

"Look on the bright side," he says quietly. "No shortage of allies for us after that. You've got the top pick of the best for an ally."

"Lets just see if any of them are worth to us what we would be worth to them," I say as I turn and leave his side.

The training week goes on in absolute agony after my display of strength. I'm smarmed with people trying to impress me. I ignore the flashy ones, the spoiled careers who think their endless years of training will make me instantly want them. The only time I even talk to one of them is when I notice Johanna trying to get close to my husband and I decide to get him back by chatting with Finnick. Which instantly backfires when he jokingly shows me how to tie a noose.

I do enjoy Beetee and Wiress. They are intelligent dispite their absence of strength. They point out the gamemakers now have a protective sheild, a force field around them, most likely due to my outburst last year.

"How do you know that?" I ask and Beetee points to an area right around Plutarch Heavensbee where there is small flicker like the shine in a ripple of water.

"Something like this takes a lot of energy," he says. "Theres always a weak point."

"A chink in the armor as it were," Wiress says quietly. I watch the flickering of the forcefield a moment before getting up and walking away from them to go and eat another of the small meals they allow us in the training center.

Later, towards one of our last days, I stay with Peeta for the most part, dispite Haymitch's advisement. He and the morphling addicts of 6 end up painting me up as a field of wildflowers, I smile as he does this. It was something we did once, in the privacy of his bedroom. He had painted my bare body in flowers just like this and later sketched it in one of his books so it would always be real. Yes, I let him draw me naked, but it was in a tasteful fashion, not crude like the magazines they make here in the Capital.

It hurts to think we'll never have little moments like that. Where its just us and the whole world could just crash and burn and we wouldn't care. I hate to think about what my life would be like without him. After tomorrow, our hours on this Earth are numbered. I can and most likely will lose Peeta.

I'm broken from my thoughts by a soft kiss in my cheek when its time for us to head back to the room. Effie tries to get me to have wine but I shake my head quickly and lay my hand over the glass as the avox tries to fill it.

"It will relax you a little," she insists and I shake my head.

"I can't," I say quietly, looking down uncomfortably.

"Why not, darling?" She asks.

"Katniss gave up liquor," Peeta says. "She just doesn't like how it makes her feel." I nod and feel Peeta squeeze my hand.

"Yeah," Haymitch says cruely. "Thats why she went cold turkey off two glasses a day three months ago." I frown at him and Effie just looks between the two of us, confused.

"What do you mean?" She asks.

"Only that the sweet little girl on fire let the baker put a bun in her oven," he says and I stand up and slam my hands on the table.

"You think I'm ashamed of it?" I say. "Is that why you insist on scrutinizing everything about my life with Peeta. Because I'm not. I'm not ashamed of my love life. Yes, I got pregnant and it was not because I wanted a child. But that is something I wanted to keep away from this place. And now you took that away with all my other dreams I lost when I came here. That was my business, not yours. And I will never forgive you for using it as an insult." I turn and walk away from the table, heading for the ladder to the roof and climbing up to the rooftop sanctuary.

I know Peeta follows me, but thankfully, his mouth stays shut and he just wraps his arms around me as a tear runs down my cheek. I grip his hand in mine arcoss my chest and he kisses my shoulder.

"He had no right to tell everyone like that," I say.

"Yes, but you can't let it distract you," Peeta whispers. "Its done and we have our scoring tomorrow. You need this to not affect you."

"I'm not ready," I whisper. "I can't stand the fact that you, that we are going to lose one another. In a day or two, one of us is likely going to die."

"I will always be with you," Peeta says softly in my ear. "Even after I'm gone, I won't leave you, Katniss. I'll watch over you and our child."

"Don't say things like that!" I say pulling away from him so we face each other. "Stop acting like its okay, that if I live and have this baby, I'll be okay, that you died for me. I don't want you to die for me. I don't want to be here. I want it all to just be over."

"No," Peeta says. "You don't get to give up on this. Its not just you. Its our child too. I know its not okay. It is never going to be okay. But this is what has to happen, Katniss. We have to do what we can for little bit of innocence we made, so she can get a chance. And if that means that I have to die, I will die." I look at him sadly and then nod.

"Fine," I say, "If thats your choice, then so be it. But there are things that need decided before we go in there Friday."

"What?" He asks.

"It needs a name," I say. "Something other than the one from your nightmare I keep calling it. I dont want to decide everything without you. If you plan on not being there, then we are going to name this baby. Right here, right now, Peeta." He nods and we sit together beneath on of the trees and we both lay our hands over the slight swell of my belly. We stare at our joined hands for a while before Peeta finally speaks.

"Jason," he says and I smile.

"My father's name," I say softly nodding. "I like that."

"You can pick the girls name," Peeta says and I look down at my fingers folded over his.

"There is one," I say. "Theres always a name for a baby a girl has wrapped up in her mind. And even though I never wanted one, theres a name I always wanted to call a little girl of my own. And its a little silly and a little unorthodox, but its, I think it'll be perfect for this baby."

"What is it Sweetheart?" He asks and I run my fingers across my stomach again.

"Luna," I say. "I always liked Luna because of the calm of moonlight. Of a calm, starfilled night." Peeta smiles and nods.

"I like it," he says. "Ivy is pretty, but your right. She's not going to be the baby from the nightmares. She's going to be safe and beautiful and you two are going to live an amazing life together in our house." I see a tear in his eye and I kiss his cheek.

"Just promise me you won't go down without a fight," I whisper and he pulls me close to him.

"I promise," He replies. "You two won't see me die a cowards death."

The next day, we are scored two twelves, most likely for our insubordination during our sessions but I don't care. We have a plan. And that plan can and will rock the world to the core. And hopefully, the deaths of this game will not be in vain.