Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 9

If you asked Finnick if he was a patient man he would say yes. Finnick was a liar.

He'd given Taiya one hour of uninterrupted 'trauma bro' bonding time before he was on his way to the hospital to ask if he was allowed to join. They'd spent two hours together the day before making hats and swords together and Finnick wanted to join the club.

It was when he was two hallways away from the hospital that his blood ran cold. He heard her scream.

He immediately ran the last few corners and slammed through the hospital door to see Johanna being escorted out of Peeta's room with blood on her gown. But it wasn't her blood.

The air in the hospital was crackled with tension as doctors hurried about, but no one stopped to talk to him. Finnick's heart raced as he heard one nurse whisper both Taiya's and Peeta's names in the same sentence.

Finnick's hand began shaking, his imagination running wild with what happened. Dread coiled in his stomach like one of the knots he'd tie into the rope. He'd been assured that Peeta was only a risk to Katniss, but now all he could picture was Peeta snapping and wrapping his hands around Taiya's throat.

His heart clenched with worry as he slowly stepped towards Peeta's room. Panic had seized him, his mind instantly jumping to the worst possible conclusions.

"I don't need help," he heard Taiya complain and his heart skipped a beat in relief. He immediately rushed forward into Peeta's room. She was alive, that much he knew for sure.

"Miss Ambersnow you should really stay seated," Mrs Everdeen tried to instruct.

"Taiya?" he asked, his voice laced with concern. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Oh, hey babe," Taiya waved at him, her face contorted in pain as she smiled at him. She was alive. She tried to stand up again but winced and clutched her head. There was blood streaming out of a cut on her forehead. Mrs Everdeen was crouched over her, trying to inspect her head wound. Taiya turned her gaze to the sobbing boy in the corner. "Peeta, I'm fine," she reassured him. He was currently cowering in the corner of the room, rocking back and forward. "Just let me go speak to him," Taiya tried to push Mrs Everdeen away.

"We need to get you assessed," Mrs Everdeen protested.

A tumult of emotions washed over Finnick - relief mixed with confusion. He was still clueless as to what had happened.

"I'll be fine. Stop trying to break up the trauma bros," Taiya scowled through gritted teeth. "Finnick please," Taiya looked at him, her eyes pleading. He could never say no to her when she looked at him with those eyes.

He just nodded and raced to Peeta's side, allowing Taiya to relax to the point where Mrs Everdeen could get her to leave the room without argument.

"Hey, hey, Peeta," Finnick crouched down and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. He had his hands over his ears and was rocking back and forward. Finnick was used to this. This was Annie's default reaction for years. "Are you worried about Taiya?" he asked, squeezing Peeta's shoulders in time with his breaths. "She's ok you know. Listen, you can hear her yelling at people out there," Finnick slowly pulled one of Peeta's hands away from his ear.

Finnick wanted to be out there with Taiya, to work out what had happened, but she needed him to help Peeta first.

"She's ok?" Peeta stuttered.

"Yeah, she's fine."

"There's blood on the floor," Peeta looked over at the trail of blood Taiya had left on the ground.

"We'll get that cleaned up."

"You promise she's ok? Please, she didn't do anything wrong, don't let her be punished. Just punish me."