Dew of the Sea [Finnick Odair]

[22. The Aftermath]

Haymitch

He wished he had finished his drink.

He had left it there at the bar, with Chaff, once Rye's cannon went off, but he had stopped drinking long before that, too busy studying the screen for the last stretch of the Hunger Games to take a sip. He was on his way to find Effie as soon as Claudius Templesmith declared Rosemary as the winner, but he didn't have to look far for her.

"Haymitch, we have a Victor!" Effie was bubbly, despite the fact that her eyes were visibly red. He suspected it was because of Rye. He was shocked–he didn't know that Effie had a heart. "We'll meet her in the Remake Center. Come, come!"

She didn't need to tell him twice. "We have to hurry," Haymitch rushed her as they made their way through the crowd of Victors who had stopped to see their new peer, camera still on her face as she sobbed for her brother. "She's not going to be in good shape."

"No," Effie's smile fell. "I suppose she won't."

The Tribute center, where the Victor Bar was located, was not far from the Remake Center, especially when they took the car that Effie had called for them. It was just down the street, but it took them a half-hour to get there because of the excited crowds of Capitolites swarming the streets in celebration.

Haymitch hated them all, but he had a special hatred in his heart for the people who bet on the results of the Hunger Games. At least the Sponsors had a purpose–those who gambled on the Victor did not. And there had been a lot of bets dependent on the Mellark siblings, especially when it was revealed that Rosemary could actually fight if she needed to. There had to be at least fifty lucky people with more money in their pockets tonight. Everyone else had been betting on Rye.

When the car finally stopped in the garage underneath the Remake Center–where the chariot parade at the beginning of the Games started–Haymitch didn't wait for Effie to head into an elevator. Fortunately, Effie kept up just fine and slipped in just before the elevator doors closed.

"If she's awake when they get here, do me a favor and don't congratulate her," he told Effie sternly.

"But she's a Victor–"

"And she had to watch her brother die in order to become one," he interrupted her. He didn't look at her face to see her reaction, nor did she speak.

The elevator doors opened on the medical wing and they marched all the way to the nurse's station. There were three nurses waiting there, and one looked away from a hologram for a moment to speak to them.

"They're ten minutes out," the man told them and then gestured to the hologram with his head. "Maybe more, depending on if they can get her sedated."

Haymitch studied the hologram and discovered that it was a live feed of the hovercraft that was bringing Rosemary back to the Capitol. Rosemary was actively fighting off the medics that had been sent to retrieve her. She must have been doing it for a while, because he could see that some of them had scratch marks on their faces from her attacks.