Yours [Prim/Cato]

Chapter 55 - Element

Cato:

Her stirring wakes me up at 6:30 in the morning. Rose is laying beside me, tossing and turning in her sleep.

Rose began mumbling in her sleep just as the pounding in my head began to settle in. I drank a little too much and now is the time for it to take its toll on my body. I can't worry about that right now, though. Rose must be having a bad dream, so I need to be here when she wakes up.

As I watch her, the events that unfolded yesterday begin to come back, one by one. My baby is having a baby. That kid won't love me. Why would it? When she goes to school, and her teacher asks her what her parents do, she's going to say her Daddy is head Gamemaker. Fuck...

I didn't know what to do yesterday. Rose and I had a fight, nothing new, but she said something that hurt more than anything in the world. She said that she'd rather our baby not have a father at all than have one like my father was. And instead of making sure I didn't turn out that way, I did the one thing that was actually his dream, something that would make him proud. Now I'm going right in the route that he wanted me to go into, the destructive path toward the hell I deserved.

I hadn't planned on running into Snow last night, but he caught me walking into the Capitol building with a drink. He knew something was wrong and invited me down to talk "business". I was already pretty tipsy, so I agreed without thinking much about it. One conversation led to another, and the next thing I knew, we were talking about the Games, and Snow was telling me about how much of a true asset I would be to the whole team if I would cooperate. It would pay marvelously, which would be great with having to take care of Rose and, now, our baby, even though I didn't want the thing.

This is what I've been working towards for more than half of my life. Why not do something that I would be incredible at? Why stop here? I can keep going and become what I want: someone important and in total control. I knew Rose wouldn't like it, but I've already made the decision, signed the papers, and promised my commitment to the Games, making sure that the seventy-fifth would be the best yet.

Rose surprises me out of my thoughts by sitting up straight. She was beautiful, hair spilling all around her face and eyebrows set in a frown. Her bottom lip was sucked tightly in-between her teeth, and that's when I knew something was wrong.

"Why are you awake?" she asks when she finally notices that I'm sitting up right next to her.

"I woke up because you were tossing so much," I answer quickly. "Are you okay?"

Rose clutches her stomach and shakes her head. "My stomach feels like it's about to fall out."

It's the morning sickness. I remember vaguely when my mom would get her sick spells while pregnant with Charlie. Rose was about a month along, so she's right on time for this shit.

"Lay back down, I'll rub it."

Rose moves to lay down, but she jumps right back up and runs to the bathroom, holding her mouth closed with one hand and clutching her belly with the other.

Fuck, here we go with this disgusting shit.

I hear her heaving into the toilet bowl and sit for a few seconds before I get up to go help her. Rose is holding her hair back with her hands and I see what little from her stomach comes up. She hasn't eaten much. She needs to eat.

I grab at the long strands of her silky blonde hair, holding it back for her. I pat gently at her back, praying that this will be over soon so that she can stop suffering. When she suffers, I suffer.

I don't like it.

Mrs. E walks in, worried about Rose.

"How is she?" she asks me just as Rose blows a huge chunk. She's fully dressed and ready, even this early in the day. It reminds me of my mum, who would always be up at the crack of dawn, ready to tackle the world and take care of me and Charlie.