Against All Odds (Finnick Odair love story) (1)

Chapter 62

I watch my father quietly the rising and falling of his chest is the only thing that indicates he's still alive. I feel Mags and Finnick eyes follow my every movement. It had been a few minutes since Finnick had assured Mr. Cresta that I would be taken care of and forced him to go home to his family.
I scrub the blood from my hands in the bucket of rain water. I can't find the will to stop scrubbing my skin I feel someone approach me grabbing my hands before I can rub them raw. My hands shake hard as I'm pulled from the old almost broken dining room chair to my feet.
'It's just blood Kara..' I chant to myself. How are you going to be a doctor? You can't be a doctor afraid of blood.  How can I be a doctor that saves people when I was built to take lives?

I sigh breathing hard trying to calm myself losing the battle between logic and emotions. My eyes meet Mags' brown ones her hands gripping mine tightly.

"Kara... You've done all you can. There is nothing else you can do for him." She reminds me.

"I know." I say shakily. I stare at the broken slob of a man.

I pull my arms away from Mags rubbing my face my breathing becoming quick and uneven.

"I'll stay the night to make sure he remains stable. There is no guarantee he will survive the blood loss ." I say calmly my eyes not leaving my father's battered form.

"Karaline." Finnicks' voice reaches my ears.
I look up at him waiting for him to tell me not to stay but am surprised as he offers me a T-shirt and shorts. He clearly found in my old clothes that had been abandoned after my return to district 4.

"You need to get dry Kara or you will get sick." Mags tells me rubbing my back gently.

"What about you both?" I ask softly looking up at them.
"We will be fine Kara. I'm going to walk Mags home and get us some dry clothes , food and blankets. I know you need to stay here to make sure he's in stable condition. I'm going to stay the night here with you." Finnick assures me calmly.

I want to argue with Finnick. I so badly want to insist I can do this alone. That I don't need him to stay but realize regardless of whether I need him to stay or not that I want him to stay. That I don't want to be alone tonight.

I nod taking the clothes into my arms and stepping into the tiny bathroom to change into my old hand me downs from my mother and sister.

I step from the room and see Mags off with a kiss to the forehead before she and Finnick leave.

"I'll be back within a hour." He promises me quietly making me nod in response. I find my way to my old cot sitting on the foam padding that covered the thin wooden board. My home for 13 years. The cot my sister and I shared for our lives together.

The paint that was once a cool grey is chipping and dull. The fireplace that my sister and I would huddle up next to on school nights while we would do our school assignments. My sister and I at the table where now my father lays almost dead making, jewelry for each other or drawing pictures with our shared box of colored markers.

Not only good memories filled this house but bad harsh reminders of the reality of what happened here.

I must have been sitting there lost in the past for a long time because Finnick entering my childhood home makes me flinch in surprise.

"How is he?" Finnick murmurs as he takes a seat next to me.

"Alive... barely." I state my heart beat finally stabilizing.

"I feel bad for being disappointed." Finnick jokes shaking his head.

"Me too." I respond my lips twitching up.