"When I spoke to Peeta on the phone, we agreed a new crib might be a better choice. I mean - the one I made was fine but … well … you know what's associated with that and -"

"No … Haymitch, this is perfect," Effie said as she ran her free hand along the simple railing of the crib in Rosie's nursery.

Peeta and Katniss had done a good job of making it presentable. Effie had tried, while Rosie was napping, to unpack some things and the room now looked a little more lived in - but they were sure as the days passed it would look more like a baby was there than just a baby was planned.

"Do you think she'll be all right on her own?"

"We can move the crib into our room for a while. Probably would be best anyway since it's the first night and she still has some antibiotics to take. We could start having her in her own room when she's just on formula."

Effie agreed. "Could you move the crib then?"

"Yeah - better take Rosie downstairs, though, in case the noise bothers her. Oh - and dinner's on me."

Effie smiled. "You mean dinner's on Peeta. You're just heating it up."

"Isn't that what I said?" Haymitch kissed Effie's cheek and went to start to move the crib.

Haymitch was in and out of sleep that night. Rosie, he expected, would be up every few hours but he and Effie had only gotten up twice and, looking at the clock, he found it was only four in the morning.

"What're you doing?" Effie asked in a groggy voice when she felt him moving around in bed.

"Just rolling over - why are you awake?"

"I can't sleep."

Haymitch sat up. "Are you just staring at the crib?"

"I don't want to forget her first night home … and I don't want to ever sleep through her cries."

"I doubt that you would. But, sweetheart, you do need to sleep." Haymitch put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "Come on," he muttered. "I'll keep watch, if it'll make you feel better."

Effie sighed. "I feel like I've been such a bother the past few weeks. I've been so on edge -"

"Princess, it's understandable. Hell, at least you can hold Rosie. I've barely gotten that far."

"That is something we need to work on …" Effie felt Haymitch's lips press lightly on her neck. "It was nice with Katniss and Peeta here, though. When I spoke to Annie after dinner, she seemed to think it would be a good idea to let them be involved - godparents, maybe."

"I thought you wanted Annie as godmother."

"I do. And I told her that. But she's a bit insistent on Katniss." Effie rolled onto her back so she could see Haymitch. "What do you think?"

"My bid for godfather died a while ago."

"Who?"

"Draw between Chaff or Finnick. No need for that debate now though. But Katniss and Peeta … we do owe 'em."

"Is it a way to repay them, though? I know the pressure Katniss is feeling and -"

"This could relieve it, sweetheart. It'd give them excuses to babysit, to see the kid. Might get Peeta to back off just a little bit."

"I thought you said he wasn't being pushy."

"He isn't - but he doesn't need to say anything for Katniss to know what he's thinking."

Effie sighed and held onto Haymitch's hand. "Keep watch?" she asked.

"Yeah - get some sleep."

Effie let her eyes shut, pressing her body closer to Haymitch's.

But just as she began to drift off, she heard the sound of a rattling window coming from downstairs and a couple of thuds that woke Rosie up.

The lights went on instantly and Effie was up, picking Rosie up from the crib while Haymitch went downstairs to investigate.

Though he was gone long, Effie heard barely anything - no struggle, no fight. She was almost surprised when he came back upstairs, with seemingly nothing to say.

"What was the noise?"

"What I expected," Haymitch said.

Effie was too tired to put the pieces together.

"It's the boys. It's Linus and Faxon. They're sleeping in the front room."

"They must have seen us come home."

"Question is, what are we going to do?"

"What we planned on doing," said Effie, straightening her shoulders just a bit. "We'll take care of them."