The Beauty Beneath The Beast

Chapter 14: Katniss

I wake up feeling the baby kicking my spleen which is extremely unpleasant.

"Stop that!" I say to my stomach, not that the baby can understand or hear me.

"Stop what?" Peeta says groggily beside me.

"I'm not talking to you," I say. "I'm talking to the little rascal kicking me. Its very unpleasant."

"She causing you trouble?" he asks.

"Very much so," I say as I run my fingers over where my unborn child is currently abusing me. "It is not at all pleasant. It actually hurts a lot." Peeta sits up beside me and presses a kiss on my swollen stomach.

"Annabelle, are you causing your Mommy trouble?" he asks running his hand around on my baby bump. That's right. Peeta has already named our baby, which he has entirely convinced himself is a girl. And while I do like the name Annabelle, it just seems too long, too formal.

"What if its not a girl?" I ask. "Wouldn't you feel bad for constantly calling him Annabelle?"

"But I just know its a girl," he says. "Since you told me, I've had this feeling that tells me she's a girl. So I figured, why not name her?"

"Well if you insist, then can I say I don't want to call her Annabelle," I say.

"Why?" he asks. "Do you not like that name?"

"No," I say. "I love it. Its her name. I just don't want to call her all that. Its too formal."

"Then what do you want to call her?" he asks.

"Belle," I say. "I want to call her Belle."

"Belle," he says trying it out. "It fits. It means beauty and with you as a mother, she can be nothing but beautiful." I blush slightly and place my hand over his.

"She couldn't ask for a better daddy," I whisper and he kisses me softly. We are interrupted by knocking on the door.

"Just cause you already got my sister pregnant, doesn't mean I'm happy with you two fooling around. I'm not tolerating any PDA until you guys are actually married," Prim yells through the door.

"It's not public if we're in our own room!" I call back and the baby kicks in agreement.

"Was that what I think it was?" Peeta asks me smiling. I nod and he kisses me again and I smile into it. My stomach rumbles and I laugh as I pull away.

"I think the baby says I'm hungry," I say making Peeta laugh too.

"Come on," he says. "If we don't get up now, we never will." He helps me get up, which seems to be getting harder and harder the bigger I get. I sneak into the closet and dress as best I can, which again is hard seeing as my clothes don't fit as well with a baby growing inside me. I've never been self conscious of how I look, but I'm not even comfortable in my own body anymore. Peeta keeps telling me I'm beautiful, but lately, it's just words.

Because pregnancy sucks. There's all these women who used to tell me how amazing carrying a child is and how they feel so much joy, which I do. But they left out the pain, the annoying little urges and the freaking hovering from the father. I swear, its like Peeta is smothering me in affection to the point where it seems fake. I get it! You love me! Just leave me alone for a minute!

"Katniss?" Peeta asks. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I say. "I was just thinking." I walk out and Peeta kisses my cheek as I do.

"I'll go make you and Prim breakfast," he says and disappears out the door. Moments later, Prim slips in.

"Good Morning Little Duck," I say as I sit down on the bed. She plops down next to me.

"Good Morning," she says. "How you feeling?"

"Like I'm not gonna survive four more months of this," I say and she giggles.

"Well you got yourself into this mess," she says. "And like it or not, yours and Peeta's little cutie needs to cook for another four months until you get to hold her in your arms."

"If I ask you to do something, will you promise not to laugh?" I ask her.

"I won't," she says. "So, what is it?"

"Can you brush my hair and do something with it?" I ask and she giggles. "You said you wouldn't laugh!"

"I'm sorry," she says. "Of course I will." She walks over to my vanity and picks up my brush before sitting behind me and gently removing the knots from my hair. I start to enjoy it as the brush smooths out the tangles and leaves my hair in soft waves down my back. I feel her carefully part my hair and braid it loosely yet firm enough that it doesn't feel like its falling apart. She looks down at my swollen stomach.

"I still can't believe you're pregnant," she says. "Especially when you always said you didn't want a baby."

"For the longest time, it all just seemed like a dream," I say. "I felt like I'd wake up back home in our little cottage and I would have never met Peeta much less carrying his child. But then I started to feel her move around inside me and, it all hit me at once that this is really happening. That I'm really going to be responsible for a baby that is half me and half Peeta and someone who is going to depend on me to always be there for them."

"You almost sound like you aren't ready," she says.

"I'm not quite sure I am," I say. "I know Peeta is. He has been for a long time. And with him by my side, I know it will all be okay in the end."

"I hope you're right," Prim says. "And just remember, you've got me too."

"It'll be like Belle has three parents," I say chuckling.

"You named her?" Prim asks smiling and I shrug my shoulder.

"Peeta and I both feel that it's a girl and he's been calling her Annabelle for a while now," I say. "And today, I guess I kind of made it official when I told Peeta that it could be her name but that I wanted to call her Belle," I say and look at her to see her face deep in thought. "Whats wrong? Don't you like it?"

"No," she says. "I don't like it." And I feel as though a knife digs in my heart before a smile breaks onto her face. "I love it!"