Defenders: The Fighters of 13. Pt 1

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

~Meg's POV~

I sit, curled on the ground, knees pulled to my chest with my back resting against my footlocker. My eyes are unfocused on the ground in front of me. The tears dried up a few hours ago, the exhaustion has kicked in, but no sleep has found me. Everytime my eyes close, I see Collin. Button, gunshot, fall. Over and over again. The sky outside is beginning to lighten, welcoming the dawn, but I cannot move from my position on the ground.

"Meg?" Finn. He enters through the closed flaps. His boots come into focus as he stops in front of me. "Oh Meg." He whispers. He sets something on the footlocker before crouching. He puts a hand under my head, the other under my legs and helps me into a sitting position. He uncurls my arms from my legs, and hands me the cup of black coffee from behind me. I take a sip, letting the bitter liquid warm my insides.

"They stabilized Collin late last night. Well, enough to get him back to 13." I nod, taking another sip. "We've been requested back." I look into his green eyes. "Katniss ordered us back in light of everything. We ship out in a few hours."

At my lack of response, a blank look returning to my eyes, Finn decides to take a seat on the ground next to me. My head immediately drops to his shoulder. "I'm sorry Finn."

He wraps his arms around me, and kisses my head. "I know." The tears return, and he hugs me tighter. He lets me cry it out on his shoulder until morning is well on its way. "C'mon Meg. We better pack up, hovercraft leaves at 0945, and it's 0850."

He stands and gives me a hand. My stiff knees protest the change in positions, but Finn doesn't release my hand until I stand without swaying. We get to work on clearing out my footlocker and stripping my cot. Finn leaves temporarily to fetch clean linens. He returns, and places the folded bed linens on the cot.

"That should be it." He helps pick up one of my bags. "Ready to go?" I nod and follow him out of the tent flap.

~Back in District 13. Meg's POV~

We drop our bags in our assigned quarters and meet up at the elevator. We both agreed on the ride back that we'd check on Jem, Jace and Collin once we returned. We step in together and ride the lift in silence. My anxiety is beginning to heighten, and I don't know if I'm ready to see him like this.

Finn's an every comforting presence next to me, and I reach out to grab his hand. I need an anchor, and I think he does too. We arrive at the hospital unit, and we exit the lift. "Finn. I don't know if I can do this."

"Yes you can. I'm right here with you." He tugs me as he takes a step. We walk towards the director, and see Collin's name to the left opposite of Jem. Towards intensive care. On our way to the ICU, we bump into Vinnie.

"Meg! I was just coming to find you." Vinnie holds a clipboard in her hands, her calm nurse's voice on, indicating to me that she's here with news on Collin.

"Tell me everything."

"You'll both want to sit down." She leads us over to the few chairs lined up against the wall. Finn and I both take a seat facing her. She crouches down in front of us. "He's not great."

"How 'not great' is he?" Finn asks, despite the potentially humorous question, he keeps a straight face.

"How much do you both know?"

"Not much, well, I take that back. We watched the footage about what happened, and that Gale resuscitated him. Other than that, we're in the dark." I answer.

"That's more than I was expecting you to know, so we're at least on a good track for information. Yes, Gale had to resuscitate him, and I'm sure as you saw from the footage, he got pretty beat up. On the minor side, he has the typical scrapes and bruises. Those should heal fine. On the more critical side. That's where it doesn't look as good." She pauses, a sigh escaping her.