What If

Chapter Twenty-Four:

Katniss

The next few days were a blur. I had more visits from Johanna after her training and I even allowed her to take me to training while Prim watched Camellia, which was harder than ever.

Annie stopped by my room a lot, nearly once a day. I hadn't seen Finnick since our last conversation, but Annie always says that he sends his love. Doubt it.

I hand't seen Gale since our last interaction, at least not very long. Of course I saw him amongst the many faces in the dining hall, but I rarely visited the dining hall for long as I preferred to feed Camellia in our compartment, and I didn't like being without her for very long. I often grabbed my meals and left, which he did as well as he was busy training.

Camellia was nearly two weeks old now, and everyday with her was terrifying in an exciting way. She was bustling with life. She disliked sleeping through the night and often cried her way through the night and slept through the day, leaving me thoroughly exhausted.

One of these days, though, she had miraculously slept a solid few hours during the night, leaving some time in the morning for myself.

I was unsure of what to do. My mockingjay terms included that I could hunt, but it had to be with Gale, and he was most likely training. And besides, who would stay with Camellia?

I decided to read over the plant book that I'd rescued from the ruins of Twelve. My hand carefully ran over the drawings that I knew to be Peeta's and I sighed.

A weak cry came from Camellia's crib, so I instantly rushed over to her. She had awoken and was now peering up at me with her bright blue eyes.

She smiled up at me and I laughed. "Did you miss me?"

She giggled in response, which I'd never heard her do before. The sound was beautiful. Camellia always seemed so happy. Besides when she was crying (which instantly stopped when someone held her), she was always smiling.

How can she be my child? I wondered as I scooped her up and rocked her in my arms. She's always so happy, she clearly didn't inherit my scowl. Maybe she has more of Peeta in her than I thought.

The old Peeta, at least.

A knock at the door made me reluctantly place Camellia back down into her crib. She reached for me as I walked towards the door to answer it.

Standing outside my door was Haymitch, which surprised me. I hadn't seen Haymitch in a while, not since that night I'd last seen Peeta.

"Haymitch?" I asked. He nodded. He looked panicked for some reason. "What's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you," he said.

"Okay, talk," I replied.

"I think you should sit down."

I allowed Haymitch to come inside and I reluctantly sat down. His eyes briefly scanned Camellia, who I realized he hasn't met yet.

"So, this is it?" he asked. I rolled my eyes as Camellia peered up at him with a smile on her face. "Sorry, so this is her?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Her name is—"

"Camellia, I heard," Haymitch interrupted. "She looks like you, sweetheart."

"You're probably the millionth person to say that," I responded.

He shrugs. "It's true. Her eyes, though...."

His voice trailed off, but we both knew what he meant. I still couldn't believe it myself. The way Camellia's eyes were identical to Peeta's astonished me.

"So, is that why you came here?" I asked, knowing that it wasn't.

Haymitch shook his head and turned his attention back to me. "Katniss, he knows. Peeta knows."

I frowned, fear growing in my eyes. "What do you mean, he knows?"

I had a suspicion of what Haymitch was talking about, but it couldn't be true, could it? How could Peeta have learned about Camellia, who could've told him?

"Well....the doctors have been trying this new technique on him. Actually—Prim came up with it," Haymitch admitted. He went on to describe the treatment, which was showing Peeta a video of us and then pumping him with harmless calming drugs.

"And it worked?" I asked, clearly skeptic.

Haymitch sighed. "We're not entirely sure. He seemed more confused than anything, honestly. The first video we showed him was the video of you two in the games when you told him the story about Prim."

"And?"

"All he asked about was the goat," Haymitch said. I took a deep breath. "We also showed him a few other videos, mainly the same response. He'd miss the main point and ask about a detail. Well....until today."

I frowned. "What did he do? What video did you show him?"

"We showed him the interviews of your first Hunger Games, just his and your's," Haymitch replied. I nodded, hanging on every word he said. "He asked if he'd done another interview for a Hunger Games before. We said yes and he asked to see it."

My breath hitched. "You let him see it?"

Haymitch shook his head. "No, we thought that that would cause too many bad memories. He was insistent and then told us he remembered something about them but he wasn't sure if it was true or not."

"Well, what was it?" I asked.

"He asked if he'd been lying," Haymitch said slowly. "He recalled the entire interview and asked if he'd been lying at the end when he'd told the entire capitol that you were pregnant."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing," Haymitch responded. "No one said anything, and this made him angry. Then he...then Peeta said he remembered the night after the interviews, he said it wasn't shiny....we think that means it wasn't touched by the capitol."

"The night after the interviews," I whispered, the memories flooding back to me. I nodded. "Then he knows, Haymitch. I don't think the capitol had access to that memory. That means he knows about her, Haymitch."

Haymitch shook his head. "Now, we don't know what he knows, but he asked something else."

"I'm listening."

"He wants to see you again."