The love story of Aurora Nightingale and Finnick Odair.
Nothing can rip the two apart not even death.
- Life sometimes has a way of working with a perfect amount of cruelty. Not enough to kill you but enough to make you wish it did.
- they are two...
It must be midnight, when Haymitch pushes open the door.
"They're back. We're wanted in the hospital." My mouth opens with a flood of questions that he cuts off with "That's all I know."
I want to get up and run but my body freezes with fear. Fear of what is waiting for me in that hospital. I feel Katniss grab my hand as she guides to the hospital. It's like I'm a lost child.
The place is in an uproar, with doctors shouting orders and the wounded being wheeled through the halls in their beds.
We're sideswiped by a gurney bearing an unconscious, emaciated young woman with a shaved head. Her flesh shows bruises and oozing scabs. Johanna. She's alive.
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"Finnick!" Something between a shriek and a cry of joy. I spin my head around in every direction until I lay eyes on her. Aurora, with a new born baby in her arms. I run towards them as fast as I can.
"Your alive?" I question.
"I'm alive" she repeats.
"You had the baby"
"You should have seen Gale's face when my water broke when they were rescuing us" she smiles. She actually smiled.
"Does she have a name?" I ask. She's beautiful. I can't believe she survived all of this.
"Well I was waiting for you to come. You took your time"
"Sorry. I was scared of what I'd find. But I never imagined this" I laughed slightly.
"Do you want to hold her" she asks me. Thats a stupid question of course I want to hold her. I carefully take the sleeping baby, cradling her in my arms just staring at her in aw.
"She's perfect" I say gazing at my daughter as I rock her gently.
"It's a miracle she's alive" she says in a more sadden tone. "Hope" she suddenly says.
"Hope?" I ask confused.
"Her name. It should be Hope"
"It's beautiful" I say giving Aurora a kiss on the head.
"She was the only thing that gave me hope stuck in the Capitol. So she just fits it perfectly" she explains to me but all I feel is guilt for her being there. I can't even begin to imagine what her and Hope have been through.
| Aurora | I look over to Finnick holding Hope in his arms. She's perfect. My little miracle baby.
"We need to take her away to do some tests. To make sure everything is okay" a nurse says as she walks over.
Flash backs from the Capitol flood my mind. The injections. The images. Images of me having my baby and then the Capitol ripping her away from me. Them killing Finnick. The experiments. I feel tears prick my eyes as I look around the room. Beds. Doctors. Finnick. Johanna. Clock. Hope. Nurses. I list the things I see to anchor me back on the reality. At least I think this is reality.
"No" I say bluntly.
"No?" The nurse questions.
"Hope isn't going anywhere without me. Or have you forgotten that I just spent the last 3 months being tortured by the Capitol. So no" I say bluntly as familiar tightening sensuous bubbles in my chest.
"You need your rest I'll go with her. I promise I won't leave her side" Finnick re-assures me.
"You promise?" I ask for reassurance from my husband. No matter how hard the Capitol tried to make me hate him I couldn't. I still loved and trusted him. It's myself I can't rely on.
"I promise"
"Okay, you can take her" Shortly after they leave, I pass out from exhaustion. Finally, I can sleep in peace.
I wake up out of breathe and drenched in sweat. "Your safe. Your safe now" I hear the comforting words of Finnick as he pulls me into his chest. "Your safe. Your at district 13. Hope is right next to you. Peeta and Johanna are alive. Your safe" he reassures me repeatedly.
I sob into his chest trying my best to listen to his words. 'I'm safe' Am I though? As long as Snow's alive I will never really be safe.
"I'm safe" I say out loud. "Raindrop, 4, Fishface, ocean, sunshine, Aurora Odair" I mumble to myself quietly.
"How comes you said that?" Finnick asks.
"Me and - Peeta used to repeat important words back to each other. To try and remember the good in our lives. The real things" I explain through tears.
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to but I'm here when your ready" he comforts me, making sure I'm going at my own pace.
"Me and Peeta were tortured using an enhanced trackerjacker venom - they would inject you with it and try to change your memories of peole" I pause for a second trying to push the memories away. "They - they -"
"It's okay, you don't have to continue" he stops me making sure I'm not talking about my latest trauma too soon.
"I need to. I'd rather explain what happened to me than to some strange doctor. They're gonna force me to talk about it at some point and I'd rather tell you now"
"Okay. Just take your time" he tells me while gently stroking my back.
"They flooded my brain with images. Memories. But they weren't real memories. At least I hope not. They would replay the same ones each time. Making my memories change. Making it harder for me to know what's real and what they were making me think. The images would be of - you. Abandoning me and Johanna in the arena."
I was interrupted by Finnick. "I would never do that. I tried so hard to find you before Katniss shot that arrow. I couldn't move. I wanted to get to you. But I couldn't move" he explained as tears rolled down his face.
"I know. I know. I tried my best to remember you would never do that. But - but as time went on it got harder for me to remember the real you"
He gently brought his hand up to my face brushing away my tears.
"You can stop if you want"
"I've gotten this far there is no point in stopping now. They created this fear in my head that - that when Hope was born. They - they were gonna take her from me. That's why I didn't want the nurse taking her alone" I cry into Finnicks chest.
"Shhh. Shhh it's alright. That's not going to happen. Your both safe here. Try and get some rest you've done enough talking today. I'm proud of you" he gently placed a kiss on my head.
