ghosts that we knew: A mockingjay fanfiction

36

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 36

Finnick

••••••• flashback•••••••
When they first tell me that the rescue mission has returned, I don't believe it. It's been months, and they've been dangling the idea of their return in front of us for as long as I can remember...I don't believe it because it's too hard to even begin to fathom that it could be true.

I snap at Plutarch and tell him to quit joking around as he smiles like a moron and scampers down the hall.

"It's no joke, Finnick! The Victors have arrived in District Thirteen! Follow me this way."

"Lying son-of-a-bitch," I mutter under my breath, skeptical entirely of Thirteen's tactics.

Yet somehow, I still manage to drop my rope and abandon it, along with my senses, in order to follow the coot.

Her voice breaks me from any and all of my doubts. I'd recognize that voice anywhere.

"Finnick!"

She crashes into me like waves hitting the shore. Her hair is wild, strung out in every which way. Her skin is loose and hangs limply on her bony frame. There marks on her body are fading, but prevalent and patterned along her arms and legs.

Her eyes, however, are what capture me. They're big, wide, and as green as I can remember them. They are here. They are now.

They are my Annie's eyes. Snow may have held her hostage for months, but he could not manage to take me away from her entirely.

"Finnick," she cries into my shoulder. Her legs fly up to wrap around my waist and her hands lock around my neck. "Oh, Finnick!"

Her voice is desparate, breaking off and flying around me as she articulates my name.

"Oh, my Annie!" I breathe out, releasing with it every ounce of anxiety that has taken up residence in my muscles and bones.

She grips onto me as if I am not real. I hold her just as close, for fear that at any moment, she could slip away from me again.

My thoughts wander back to our final night together on the beach. I held her just as I hold her now, and promised her that I would never leave her.

I broke that promise the moment I stupidly signed myself off to this rebellion without thinking of her, and she has had to pay the price for it. I am just grateful that my mistake, my foolish omission, hasn't cost me her.

Our tears comingle as our embrace pushes us against the nearest wall.

For the first time in almost a year, I kiss my Annie.
••••••end of flashback•••••••

I haven't let Annie out of my sight since she returned to me from the Capitol.

Of course, having practically glued herself to my hip, she hasn't necessarily tried to leave my sights, either. I can't say I'm complaining. Having my Annie, pressed up close against me on a lazy Sunday morning, positioned beside me in a new set of propos, held tightly in my arms in an endless embrace...by all means, it's fine with me.

Because I'm never letting her go again.

From where she sits on the floor of our bunker area, cross-legged and cradling Arden joyously in her lap, Annie peeks up at me, perched on the bed and grinning at the entire scene. Her eyes glint with an iridescent joy that the baby picks up on immediately. Staring intently at Annie, the baby's lips form a small 'o' as her chubby fingers latch onto Annie's hair and tug.