Katniss&Peeta-Forever&Always

Crashing Down

KATNISS POV

May 14th

There's something relaxing about watching the person you love sleep. Knowing that they are at peace, in some far away world of their own. Although Peeta never thrashes around in his sleep, his mop of blond curls are always a mess, how they get that way will forever be a mystery to me. It's 4am and I've given up on sleeping. No matter how many times I turn my pillow over, face the other way or cuddle into Peeta, I can't find sleep. Sleep and I have never got along.

I feel myself slowly beginning to drift off to sleep, when Aster's cries wake me up again. I feel Peeta stir next to me and he mumbles "Katniss?" Before falling asleep again.

I smile at him before getting up and heading towards the nursery. I walk in to find Aster, screaming in his cot. I go over to check on Willow and Rye first and they are both sound asleep, heavy sleepers, just like their daddy. I pick up Aster and hold him close to me while he cries. No matter what I do, he doesn't seem to want to go back into his cot, so I bring him into mine and Peeta's bed. When I get back into bed Peeta moves to wrap an arm around me. The small movement makes my smile like an idiot. I place Aster in between us both and he snuggles into my side. I whisper 'I love you' before finally finding sleep.

I wake up to a loud crash coming from downstairs. When I realise Peeta isn't beside me, I begin to panic. I pick up Aster from our bed and take him back into the nursery before heading downstairs. It's when I reach the bottom of the stairs I hear it. A sound I haven't heard for over two years. "You're a mutt! A stinking mutt!"

I freeze, not knowing what to do. My first instinct is to protect the triplets, but I know if I go upstairs he will only follow.

"Peeta, it's not real. You're safe. It's Katniss, I love you." I say softly, walking towards him slowly. Peeta stands by the kitchen table, gripping onto a chair so tightly that his knuckles are white. I am almost beside him when he throws the chair at me. It was so sudden and full of force that I don't have time to move. The chair hits my side at full force, sending me flying to the floor.

I hold my side, in agony. I know I won't be able to bring Peeta out of this flashback alone, so with everything I have in me, I scream for Haymitch. I keep screaming, until I realise I have woken up the triplets and immediately regret screaming. As soon as Peeta hears the cries of the triplets, his head shoots up and he makes his way towards the stairs, his black clouded eyes could scare even the toughest of people. I am crying hysterically at this point. The pain in my side is now numb as I am so overcome by fear.

Haymitch bursts through the door, and I know as soon as he sees my hysterical state, he knows what has happened. Haymitch reaches out to his side, grabs the lamp on his left and hits Peeta at full force, across the head. Peeta's lifeless body falls to the floor.

I can't bring myself to speak. I am so overcome by fear, pain and horror that all I can manage is to sob.

When I look at us from Haymitch's point of view I realise just how broken we still are. Peeta lays unconscious on the floor, after having a flashback. While I, his wife, sit on the tiled kitchen floor, my body rattled with sobs. Our three children, crying in their nursery upstairs, completely oblivious to their parents' past.

Haymitch running towards me brings me out of my trance and suddenly all of the pain in my side floods back into feeling. "Katniss, what happened? Are you okay?"

The look in Haymitch's eyes and his use of my real name shows his concern. "I came downstairs and Peeta was screaming. I tried to bring him out of the flashback but it got worse and he threw a chair at my side. The triplets started crying and he was going up there. I couldn't stop him because of my side and-" Before I can finish I am overcome by sobs, the thoughts that creep into my mind of what Peeta could have done to the triplets if Haymitch didn't stop him, eating me alive.