I'm Already There

Chapter 6

Peeta

I wake up with a start, my nightmare still playing in my mind, the sounds of battle still ringing in my ears. I feel Katniss move slightly beside me and I look over to see her sleeping peacefully next to me. Her dark hair drapes around her and her hand rests on her thirty-six week gone bump. I feel my nerves calm as I watch her sleeping, safe and warm curled up at my side. I reach out and touch her arm and she rolls over and her dark eyes blink open.

"Are you okay?" she asks. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm fine," I reply. "It was just a dream. I was fine once I saw you were right here." She struggles a little as she sits up and I notice just how big she's gotten. Before I left, you could just barely feel the slight swell of her abdomen as it made room for our daughter to form. Now, it's like she's smuggling a beach ball beneath her shirt.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks.

"No," I say.

"It was about being over there," she says looking down. "Wasn't it?" I just nod.

"I never should have let you go over there," she says. "I should have fought harder to keep you home."

"That wouldn't change much sweetie," I say. "I was already leaving. You couldn't stop it. By law, I was already enlisted before you thought to tell me. There was no going back." She reaches out and touches my cheek.

"I had nightmares nearly every night," she says. "I was terrified you'd never meet our daughter. I was terrified of having to explain to Tiffany where her Daddy was when she learned that she was supposed to have one. I know why you made this choice and I can respect it, but I, I can't help but hate you for leaving me alone to deal with this."

"If I had known, I never, never would have risked that," I say and she lays her head on my shoulder. "I would never, ever leave you girls alone had I known."

"You were trying to leave me though," she whispers. "I can't lose you. Even if you didn't know, you signed up. You asked me to marry you with the full intention of leaving me in the fall."

"I told you, it was just something I needed to do," I say. "I needed to help make this world a better place. Especially now that we're gonna have Tiffany. I want her to be proud of me."

"You're her Daddy," she says. "She's always gonna be proud of you. And she's gonna be here in four weeks. So you can see that admiration in her eyes yourself." I kiss the top of her head and lay my hand over her's on her baby bump. Tiffany squirms a little beneath my fingers and I smile. I slowly get up and Katniss falls over. I didn't even realize how much she was leaning on me.

"Where are you going?"she asks as she realizes I'm putting on my shoes. I carry her moccasins over to her side of the bed.

"We're gonna go see the surprise I've been working on," I say as I help her up.

"Peeta, it's two in the morning," she says. "I'm eight months pregnant. The last thing I want to do right now is go outside. It's slippery and cold and I just don't want to. Can't your big romantic gesture wait until later."

"No," I say. "I want to show you right now." She rolls her eyes and allows me to get her up. She reluctantly follows me out of her house and to her jeep, considering there is no way she's gonna fit in my car with Tiffany hanging around in her abdomen. God I've missed that car. Nearly as much as I missed Katniss. Not really, but I can't help it. I restored that thing myself.

"Where on Earth are we going?" She asks.

"You'll see," I promise as I take another turn. She just crosses her arms across her chest and frowns at me.

"I'm really tired," she comments. "I want to go back to bed."

"I know," I say. "But you really need to see this." I pull up in front of the little two story house that I had my brothers fixing up while I was over seas.

"Where are we?" Katniss asks as I help her out of the car.

"We're home," I say and her eyes light up.

"Home?" She asks. "You're joking right?"

"No," I say. "This is ours. That government salary really paid off." Katniss starts crying and I gently rub her back. "Katniss, what's wrong?"

"Our daughter has a home," she says. "I really, I guess I just thought we would be living with my mother or something. I didn't think we would ever be able to give her a real home that was ours and only ours."

"You want to go inside?" I ask her and she nods. I help her up the stone steps at the front and open the front door. Katniss slowly walks in, kicking her shoes off as she walks across the wood floor. She looks around, her eyes studying every detail of the quiet little house. She turns back to me as I close the door.

"It's perfect," she says. "It's so beautiful. I can see us living here. I can see us raising our little girl here." I smile at her as she looks around more.

"Do you want to see her room?" I ask her and she smiles.

"She has a room?" she asks.

"She's gonna be here in a few weeks," I say. "Of course she has a room. I know she'll be sleeping in our room for a while, but she will need a room eventually. So I made sure she had one." I start walking towards the stairs and she follows me. I stop at the white door that leads to Tiffany's room. I open the door and turn on the light. Katniss walks in and runs her fingers across the pale, blue-green walls and the lavender painted furniture. The freshly painted name above the crib brings a tear to her eye. She smiles and rubs her swollen abdomen.

"She likes her room," she says. "She's really happy." I smile and wrap my arm and her and kiss her temple.

"We can have any life we want here," I say and she laughs.

"Later though," she says. "All I want to do now is go back to Mom's and get some more sleep." I nod.

"Of course," I say. "We'll start getting stuff ready tomorrow."