Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 31

Finnick had been having a perfectly lovely sleep. He most certainly hadn't been expecting to wake up by someone frantically kicking him.

He jolted up when he felt the foot hit his ribs the first time. He had to blink his eyes quickly before he looked over to his right. As soon as he saw what was happening, his eyes widened in fear. It looked like Peeta was trying to smother Taiya.

Tears were flowing out of her eyes as she clutched frantically at the boy's arms.

Finnick was just about to lunge at Peeta when he heard the boy whisper to her, "Shh, shh, it's ok, it's ok. I've got you. I've got you."

He wasn't smothering Taiya, he was comforting her, whilst using his hand in an attempt to muffle her screams. Yet she was panicking and trying to fight him off.

"What happened?" Finnick asked Peeta, grabbing ahold of Taiya's legs to stop her from kicking them around. "Tay, did you have a nightmare?" Finnick tried to use his voice to break through to her, but she was in such a panic, she didn't even seem close to calming down.

"Please Taiya, you can't scream," Peeta pleaded with her.

"Tay, Tay," Finnick released her legs, trying to get closer to her face, but the second his hands lifted she started kicking wildly again, so he had to push them back down.

"Please Taiya, you need to be quiet."

"Peeta!" Finnick asked. "What's happening? Was it a nightmare?" he asked, he needed to get some information out of Peeta. He needed to know what was happening, she'd never been in this much of a panic when she had a nightmare. She just wasn't calming down.

"I don't know she..." Peeta trailed off, his eyes widening as he looked at the spot opposite him. Katniss was gone. "Katniss, Katniss" he breathed before gasping. "Cover her mouth," he pushed Taiya into Finnick.

Finnick's hand immediately swapped out with Peeta's as he slapped his hand over his wife's mouth. "Shh, shh," he whispered in her ear, trying to calm her down. "What is it?"

"Katniss," a hiss echoed from the tunnel in front of them.

Hearing the hiss seemed to make Taiya thrash around even more. She was absolutely terrified.

"Peeta!" Finnick whispered to the boy, he had no idea what to do, but he had to know if Taiya had said anything to him before she worked herself up into this state.

"Katniss," Peeta sighed in relief as he stopped his district partner standing in the tunnel.

"Katniss."

Not even Finnick's hand was able to muffle the sound of Taiya's scream now. The muffled screech she let out woke the rest of the squad. Peeta's mind was whirring, and a correlation between the hisses, and Taiya's reaction was beginning to form. He frowned and looked over at Taiya. She was squeezing her eyes shut, shaking like a leaf in Finnick's hold.

"What is that?" Jackson questioned. She didn't know what to focus on first, the hissing voices, or the screaming victor currently being subdued by her husband.

Peeta's eyes blew wide open. Taiya knew exactly what was coming, that was why she was petrified. Peeta had never seen them, but Taiya had told him all about them. The terrifying lizard mutts. The one that she'd been thrown into a room with. The one that cut up her leg. The ones that she'd have to see up close every day as part of her torture. The ones she was constantly being threatened with by Snow. The ones that she was absolutely terrified of. The ones that plagued her nightmares. The ones that hissed the name Katniss. The ones that were programmed to kill.