Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 14

Another call for Johanna echoed from behind Taiya as Finnick eagerly sprinted towards her.

"Taiya! Finnick!" Johanna yelled back in relief. She'd been with Nuts and Bolts for the first 24 hours and she was on the verge of a breakdown.

Taiya went to give Johanna a hug before she immediately pulled back. "Oh my god ew, what's on you?" Taiya turned her nose up at her friend's state.

"Don't even get me started," Johanna sighed as she pulled Taiya in for a quick hug.

"Ew," Taiya muttered to herself as she looked down at her now red-stained wetsuit.

"Well I did it," Johanna started to explain. "I got them out. We were all the way deep into the jungle where I thought it was going to be safe."

"Yeah, it's not," Taiya shook her head.

"No kidding," Johanna scoffed. "That's when the rain started. I thought it was water, you know, because of the lighting, and we were all so thirsty. But when it started coming down, it turned out to be blood. Hot, thick blood! You couldn't see, you couldn't speak without getting a mouthful. It was choking us! We just stumbled around, gagging on it blind. That's when Blight hit the force field."

"I'm sorry Johanna," Finnick muttered.

"He wasn't much, but he was from home," Johanna sighed. There was no love lost between the two. Johanna had spent years complaining about how useless the man was. But she never wanted to see the man dead. "He left me alone with these two," she nudged the barely conscious Beetee with her shoe. "He got a knife in the back at the Cornucopia. And her..." Johanna just scoffed as she looked at Wiress.

"Tick tock. Tick tock," Wiress chanted as she continued walking in circles.

"What's wrong with her?" Katniss asked.

"Tick tock."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Johanna snapped at the woman. "Nuts is in shock," she answered Katniss. This seemed to draw Wiress in Johanna's direction and she headed straight towards her.

"We should probably get you all some water," Taiya suggested, trying to find an excuse to pull Johanna away. She could see the girl was close to snapping.

"Tick tock. Tick tock."

"Just... stop!" Johanna yelled as she shook the woman. "Listen. Stop it! Just stay down!" Johanna pushed her to the ground.

"Hey!" Katniss yelled. "Lay off her!" she defended the woman as she ran at Johanna and grabbed at her arms. "HEY!" Johanna yelled in shock as she tried to fend the younger girl off. "What are you doing?"

"Get off her!" Taiya snarled as she jumped onto Katniss's back in an attempt to get her off her friend.

"Hey, hey, hey," Finnick tried to calm them all down as he stepped between Johanna and Katniss and pulled Johanna away.

Peeta in the meantime took care of Taiya, quickly detaching her from Katniss's back as she started to pull the girl's hair.

"Who do you think got them out of that bleeding jungle for you?" Johanna screamed at Katniss.

That snapped Taiya out of her anger against Katniss. "Take her," Taiya immediately instructed Finnick.

"On it," Finnick agreed as he immediately tossed Johanna's body over his shoulder and carried her out to the water and threw her in. Maybe he figured what worked to stem Taiya's rage would also work on Johanna.

Taiya turned to look at Katniss and Peeta, who were both looking at her in confusion before she nervously giggled and sprinted into the water after them, desperate to avoid any questions Johanna's meltdown might have triggered.