"District 4 has the best program. If I'm going to really become a healer, I need to go there."

"I can stay with Annie, or Finn and his family."

"We can talk on the phone every week."

"I promise to come home every holiday, and summers."

"I want to see the work grandma started."

"I want to do what Auntie Prim couldn't. I want to be a healer like her. For her. For her memory."

She's gone over all of the reasons why her parents should let her go off to 4 to study medicine. She knows travel and adventure are never good enough reasons for her parents. She knows that their idea is very different than hers. She knows their past affects how they view her future. But she knows she needs to go. It's an irresistible pull. She loves 12: its mountains, its people, its ways. She fully intends to return. But first she needs to go.

Her teachers at the district school have done all they can for her. They've given her a solid foundation. They've gone out of their way to find books and resources for her. They helped her get a job at the medicine factory, in research. And it's her work and n the research lab that has inspired her to do more. There are so many needs in Panem, and a wide open future. A future created by her parents and their friends. But it's her time now. She needs to find her own way.

Growing up in 12, being a Mellark didn't cause too many second glances. It isn't the way of mountain folk to single people out. If anything, she and her brother were over-protected. Even in school, her friends and their families accepted her on her own. True, her teachers, especially those from outside the district, expected higher marks from her in history; being the daughter of the Mockingjay does have its responsibilities, after all. But overall, they were just another family trying to rebuild a destroyed district. Her teachers noticed she had a gift, and encouraged her to use it. Her supervisors at the Lab also encouraged her curiosity. It was time to spread her wings, she only needed convince her parents of that. Mostly her mother.

Katniss Mellark was odd, some might say quirky. If it hadn't been for her marriage to Peeta, or her permanent Mockingjay status, she'd probably be considered a "character". But she had those things on her side. She hunted. She kept to herself. She was as self sufficient as she could be. She was quiet, and her permanent scowl kept others away- more so because of the intimidation factor than anything else. Katniss Mellark was different at home with her family. She was calm, she smiled, laughed and sang. She loved her family fiercely. And, her daughter knew, her greatest fear was that they would all be taken away. Of all things, this is what scared her. Her daughter heard the nightmares that never really went away, saw her father disappear into his mind occasionally. All of this meant she needed to broach this subject with them as carefully as she could. Because her going away to school meant something far different to her mother and father than it did to her.

"I don't see why you'd want to go," her mother says, almost hurt. "You said yourself you've been doing good work at the lab. Can't you help people that way?"

"Katniss," her father counters, "You know she can't. You know what she needs to do." At this moment she loves her father best. He is the only one who can convince her mother, and though she knows it breaks his heart too, he's doing this for her. This is how she knows they both love her. One won't let her go, the other one regretfully will.

"But Peeta. Our little girl. They'll know who she is by looking at her. They won't leave her alone!" Katniss says, almost in a panic. Peeta calmly holds her, the rock in the Mellark family world.

She has thought of this. She looks just like her mother, save for her father's eyes. She knows they'll stare, they'll question. They may even treat her differently. Hopefully not once they get to know her, they'll realize she is not Katniss Everdeen. That's what she hopes.

"Things are so different now," Peeta tells Katniss soothingly. "Even from 12 we can see it. Yes, they'll recognize her. But that'll wear off. She's not you. She's not me. She's her own person. They'll see that. Even Annie says they don't bother her in 4. Finn and his family get along fine- and you know how much he looks like his father."

She's amazed. Her father always knows what to say, and when to say it. She should have known. That the only voice that reaches her mother would be him. All of the excuses and examples she could come up with pale in comparison to him. They truly are a team, her mother and father.

BABABABABABABABA

4 is as far away from 12 as the moon, she decides. Where hardwood trees line the streets of 12, in 4 the palm trees sway in the breeze. The rocky clay soil of 12 is so different than the sandy, silty soil here. She doesn't recognize any of the plants. But the adventure, the excitement of a large and totally rebuilt district thrill her!

There is so much to see and do, it's hard to take in. She's glad she decided to come down a few weeks before the start of the term. Finn and his wife and kids keep her on the go. Between the trips to the beach, dinner at amazing restaurants, and shopping for her dorm room, she barely has time to call home, let alone write, but she knows how much her mother must be worried, so she sets aside time each evening just to touch base.

"It's amazing here! I love the beach, it's so different than the lake. The waves scared me at first, but once Finn showed me how to body surf, well, they're not so scary!"

"Slow down little girl!" Her father laughs. "I never got to swim in those waves, I'm sort of jealous of you. And don't tell your brother or he'll pester us to let him visit."

"Oh! You should! Let him come down. The Odairs would love that! I promise!"

"You know how hard it was for your mother to let go," Peeta hedges. "Imagine both of you there? She'd never forgive me."

"You're exaggerating. There's absolutely nothing you can do wrong in her eyes." She smiles into the phone. She knows her parents better than anyone else, except, perhaps, her younger brother.

"That's just what we want you to think," Peeta replies laughing. "Now, you probably need to get going. I will pass this information on to your mother, but I'm pretty sure we both know what she'll say. Be good!"

"Bye daddy! I always am!" She smiles to herself. She hasn't called him that since she was five.

BABABABABABABABA

The course work is as rigorous as she expected, but she finds she's thriving in this atmosphere. It's a nonstop, hurry up program split 50% in the classroom and 50% in clinical. The doctors are top-notch, and working alongside some of the best healers in the country gives her so many ideas to bring back to 12. She receives a few stares here and there, especially from some of the older students and instructors. But those soon die down as it becomes clear that it is not Katniss Everdeen come to 4, but her daughter. As much as she loves living, learning, and working in 4, she will not let go of her home. 12 is where she belongs.

"Ms. Mellark," her biology instructor, Dr. Arsenault calls to her before she can leave the lecture hall one day a few months into her studies. "Hold up please!"

"Yes sir?" she wonders what he could possibly want. Her family history has given her a need to blend in, not stand out. So, in a class of 100, how could he possibly know who she is?

"I was wondering if you could walk with me while I head to my office. I knew your grandmother quite well and was hoping to speak with you about her."

"Oh, my! I...that's not… OK?" she stutters. Someone who knew her grandmother? To hear her mother talk, did anyone ever really know her grandmother? But she also knows her mother's opinions on her grandmother are slightly tainted. Even Annie has given her much different perspective of Mrs. Everdeen than she knew before coming to 12.

When she was younger, her grandmother was this mysterious lady who sent her and her brother wonderful presents from 4. She had met her a time or two, when grandmother would come to stay. But she only came to 12 twice. Each time she was a bit distant, a bit unconnected to the place. Grandmother never wanted to go into town, never wanted to go to Father's bakery. She stayed at the house, which was fine by her and her brother. But grandmother always seemed tired, strained. To meet someone who knew her grandmother in 4 intrigued her…

They enter his office. It's small, but nicely proportioned. Lots of wood and bright natural lighting from the windows. Pictures line the opposite wall from the desk, among them, photos of Mrs. Everdeen. She looks at these pictures of her grandmother. A smiling woman who appears calm and capable, so unlike the quiet, withdrawn woman she remembers.

"Please, have a seat Ms. Mellark," Dr. Arsenault interrupts her thoughts. "As I told you, Ms. Mellark, I knew your grandmother. We both came to 4 together to help build up the hospital here." Dr. Arsenault says, from behind his desk. It's clear from the expression on his face that he was very fond of this Mrs. Everdeen. "She was a brilliant healer, who understood common folk remedies I had never heard of. Together, she and I were able to integrate old ideas and modern technology. She is one of the reasons 4 has become a leader in health care in Panem."

She sits there in shock as she listens to her professor go on. Her grandmother, a woman she hardly knew, a woman who, as far as she did know, was a quiet, meek woman who seemed almost afraid of her own shadow. But to listen to him, she was an amazing healer who revolutionized medicine in Panem. She wonders how her mother would feel about that? Then she wonders if she should tell her. She walks home after this, deep in thought.

BABABABABABA

"Annie, did you know my grandmother was so influential in 4?" They are sitting at the table at Finn's house. His kids and wife have gone outside to play. She has been pushing her food around her plate, her appetite gone ever since her conversation with Dr. Arsenault.

"I did." Annie begins gently. She realizes Annie is treading on careful ground with this conversation. "She was. I would have lost Finn if it wasn't for her. If it wasn't for your grandmother, we wouldn't have so many of the medicines you produce in 12. She was instrumental in diagnosing and caring for mental health issues as well as physical health. She saved me. I will always say that, and I will never forget her either."

As Annie goes on, it seems like this woman, her grandmother, was someone she never knew. Someone her mother never knew. And it makes her angry and sad at the same time. All of this time, lost. And why couldn't her grandmother have been there for her mother? Katniss survived on her own when so many others would have given up. This conversation, learning about her grandmother, gives her another perspective on that time, both before and after. It gives her a new perspective on her parents and their lives. And it confirms what she's always known: Peeta and Katniss Mellark are the strongest people she has ever known.