Disclaimer: I don't own a word of this. All of it is just borrowed and put back where I found it. No money is being made but fun is being had. That's the point, right?

Note: Thanks for stopping in to take a look at my new Odesta story. It's post-Mockingjay and, as you can probably guess by the "Odesta" thing, it's going to be a little AU. Or a lot. Still set in Panem, post-Hunger Games so all that is canon. I think everything will be well explained as I go but please, please leave a review and ask any questions you have! I hope you like it.


ALWAYS BE WAITING

Chapter 1: An Awfully Big Adventure

"Annie? Annie, are you awake? You asked me to make sure you were up."

I exhale slowly and stare at the bright white ceiling above my head. I don't think I went to sleep last night. She probably doesn't know that, even though she didn't sleep either. When I can't sleep, I lie perfectly still. When she can't sleep, she fidgets and paces. I heard her. I could've left the bedroom she gave me in her apartment and we could've been awake together but I just wanted to lie still and think. There's so much to think about.

I can't think about most of those things now, though, so I get up and adjust the hem of my bright white tunic. I got dressed hours ago. White tunic, white pants, white shoes. The uniform of medical assistants at the many hospitals around the Capitol still treating the wounded soldiers and civilians from the war. I brush my red hair again and knot it into a bun at the back of my head as I think about the thing I demanded permission to do. Nobody thinks I should be working in hospitals. Everyone thinks I'll break down and end up in a hospital.

I suppose it's possible.

"Annie?"

I start to say something but my throat catches. I clear it and shake my head. "I'll be right out. I just need to brush my teeth."

It's so strange that I don't mind living in Effie Trinket's apartment in the Capitol. She offered the space when I refused to stay in the President's Mansion, even though all the other victors except Peeta are staying there, and no one wanted me to stay with any of the soldiers or on my own. Effie is very nice. I'd only spoken to her two or three times in District 13 but I think she understands me in a way no one else really does. A way Mags would if she were here. But she's not.

It was Effie who understood my demand, at least understood it enough to convince Haymitch to make Plutarch and President Paylor let me do this. President Paylor probably doesn't care what I do and Plutarch probably wants to film me doing it. He's got slim pickings in terms of happy, hopeful victors to film since Peeta's in treatment and Katniss' trial hasn't started yet. Finnick's widow comforting wounded people would probably make great television.

I think it was Effie who managed to get a promise from Plutarch that I never be filmed. I have my reasons for not wanting to be filmed. Effie knows these reasons but she got Haymitch on my side without even telling him my reasons.

With my teeth brushed, I step out of the bedroom and blink against the brightness of the morning sun that comes through the floor to ceiling windows on the east side of the apartment. "Thank you, Effie," I say in whisper, "for checking on me."

She forces her face into a smile. "Of course, dear. It feels good to get back to looking after someone. Now, you remember that you're supposed to testify at Katniss' trial this afternoon, right? Two o'clock at the Palace of Justice."

I have no idea where that is. "Could you come and get me?" She told me to ask her for anything I needed so I do. "I don't know where the Palace of Justice is from where I'll be." I turn around and look at the schedule I was given for my first official day of work after a few days training. "I'll be at the Lavinia Bosch Medical Ministry."

"Of course I will come and get you. That hospital isn't far from the Palace of Justice at all. I told Haymitch I'll be in the courtroom for the morning testimony. I'll leave at the lunch break to come and get you." She lifts a black and white houndstooth coat off a hook by the door and holds it out to me. "It's cold today but I think this coat should fit you just fine. Do you need me to help you get to work?"

I put on her coat and button it up. "No, thank you. I'll see you a little while before two o'clock." I can't delay going any more or I might never leave. I wave my fingers at her in a sort of farewell and step into the hallway, pulling the door shut behind me. I take a deep breath and walk to the elevator. Effie's building got complete power back just a few days ago and it's a good thing because she lives on the fifteenth floor walking up to her apartment is not easy with all those stairs. When I get outside, it is cold and the streets are full of uniformed people. Worried that someone will demand to know why I'm wandering around, I push the sleeve of the coat up enough that anyone can see the identification bracelet on my wrist that can be scanned if someone needs to know who I am.

No one stops me and I don't need to show my bracelet until I get to the Lavinia Bosch Medical Ministry. A supervisor greets me at the door and takes me to a room filled with cubbyholes where I can store my things. She tells me her name is Sexta and explains that this isn't as much a hospital as it is a care facility. It's called a ministry because the patients here have little hope of recovery. The staff is tasked with keeping them free from pain and treating wounds and illnesses as best as they can. If a family member of a patient comes and asks for the sustaining treatments to be stopped, to let the patient die, they do it. If no family comes, nature takes it's course. Sexta tells me that I shouldn't get too attached to anyone because they probably won't live long.

She doesn't know that I know all of this already.

I did my research, with Pollux's help, and I know that the Lavinia Bosch Medical Ministry is the place I need to be. Pollux is the only person besides Effie who has any idea what I'm doing and I'm going to try to help him at the same time. This is the place I need to be if what I'm looking for exists in the world.

I'll surprise them all and I won't so much as blink while I work here.

I spend the first hours of my first day giving pureed food to the patients who can take semi-solid food. There are Peacekeepers, citizens of the Capitol, rebel soldiers, and injured citizens of the other districts all mixed in together - fifty in total. The hospital is six stories tall. The ten patients on the top floor are the most hopeless cases and the ten on the second floor, just above the rooms used by everyone, are the ones who might get to leave one day if fate is firmly on their sides. The lowest floor of patients eats soft food, boiled vegetables and things. The highest floor is fed through tubes in their stomachs. I spend my time with the middle floors.

I don't like what I see. The men, women, and even a few children in the beds are pale, quiet, and only do things that they're told to do. If this is living without pain, I don't know that it's worth it. There has to be something more that can be done for the people, even if they are just waiting to die. I think about this while I feed pureed beets to an Avox who can't move either of his arms and is in the middle of spectrum and I resolve to ask both Pollux and Effie for help, as soon as I come up with an idea. I know it'll seem like I'm trying to take over and change things, but I'm not. I'm just trying to do something useful. And maybe I could be successful at getting something Sexta and her co-workers can't because I'm a victor and I know Plutarch so well.

When Sexta comes to tell me it's time for lunch she knows I have to leave for a few hours so she brings me a bagel that I eat while standing in a deserted corner of the hallway. She tells me then that if I come back this evening, she'll have me help give bed baths to some of the patients on the top floor if I'm willing to be near them.

"When," I correct her. "I told you I'll come back and I will." I don't know if I can see the top floor patients yet, but I want to be strong enough to do that. Even if I can't do it today, I'm sure they'll have other work that I can do."

"Of course," she says, smiling in a way that says she doesn't quite believe me. "When you come back this evening, we'll see about the bed baths. If it's too soon for that, you can help the second floor with their supper."

I choke down a few more bites of bagel and toss a third of it into the closest trash can. I don't really know what else to say to Sexta so I go to get my coat and I head outside to meet Effie. Her face looks grim when she arrives but I don't expect Katniss' trial to be easy. Plutarch had Fulvia meet with me to go over what I'll be asked but I don't really like her so I didn't pay as much attention as I should have when she spoke to me. I have no idea what I'm walking in to but I don't think it really matters. I'll answer the questions as best I can and I'll do what I want to do afterward.

At two o'clock on the dot I find myself sitting at the front of mostly full courtroom. Effie told me they hadn't been sure about letting the public in but they were worried people would doubt the trial if there weren't representatives from each district there. I see the District 4 rebel commander sitting with the other commanders. He's the only boy I ever kissed aside from the man I fell in love with. I'm glad he survived this.

"Miss Cresta," a man I think must be from District 10, because he's got a tattoo of steer horns on his bare forearm - I don't know why he's questioning me but I see Effie nod at me. "Miss Cresta, I asked if you were aware of any plot to assassinate Alma Coin at any point during or after the rebellion?"

"Mrs. Odair."

He looks up from his papers and stares at me. "I'm sorry?"

"I'm not Miss Cresta anymore." I clear my throat and lift my chin a little. I realize I don't know if Plutarch announced that Finnick and I were married but I remember them filming the wedding so maybe it isn't news. Maybe this man just didn't pay attention or doesn't care. "I'm Mrs. Odair or I'm Annie. And no, there was no plot to assassinate Alma Coin."

"To your knowledge?"

I shake my head. "No. I wasn't part of a plot and there was no plot."

He leans forward, gray eyes fixed on me. "How can you be so sure, Mrs. Odair? You weren't sent to the Capitol with Squad 451 or any other squad."

"Fine." I don't like him but I know he'll stop asking me questions sooner if I make it simple. "There was no plot when Squad 451 left District 13. If that changed when they got here, I wouldn't know."

"Finnick Odair, your husband, he's the one you're using as a source with your statement that it was not a premeditated plot, correct?"

I don't want to talk about him. I know I have to talk about him. I don't want to cry in front of all these people, not ever again. "F-f-f… he told me that they were just supposed to be filmed for propos. He told me they were supposed to stay safe so he and Katniss would look good on television." I take a deep, shaky breath and let my fingers play with the thin rope in the pocket of Effie's coat, knotting and unknotting it over and over again. "But he told me he knew Katniss was going to try and be the one to kill President Snow. F-f-f… he said he was going with her. He told me that Commander Boggs told him and Gale Hawthorne that he knew what Katniss was doing and that it was his mission too. They were all going after President Snow. That's all F-f-f… that's all he told me."

The District 10 man glances at President Paylor, and I only just realize she's sitting behind a desk on a platform beside the chair where I am. I think its President Paylor anyway. "Mrs. Odair," he says, taking two steps toward me, "do you believe you would have been told if there was a plot to assassinate both President Snow and President Coin?"

"Yes." I can answer that with absolutely certainty. I should mention his name in my answer but I know I won't be able to so I know I'll just use pronouns. "Yes. He told me he didn't trust President Coin but that Haymitch Abernathy said it was best to trust her, and he trusted Haymitch. He would have told me if there was more."

He whispers to President Paylor and then to another man, this one wears the District 13 gray colors, but it's still the same man who speaks to me. "Why do you think, Mrs. Odair, that Katniss Everdeen sent her arrow into President Coin's chest instead of President Snow's? Do you believe she had the interests of Panem at heart?"

I bite my bottom lip so hard I taste blood. That brings me back to the moment I need to be in. "Yeah. Yes, she had the interests of Panem at heart." There are more important things to say and I don't care if I'm not supposed to say them. "President Coin sent Peeta to Squad 451 knowing that Peeta was trained to kill Katniss. President Coin approved Primrose Everdeen being sent with the medics to the Capitol even though she was too young to even be called Soldier Everdeen according to District 13 laws. President Coin is the one who had working hovercrafts, hovercrafts that dropped the bombs that killed Primrose and all the others and almost killed Katniss and Peeta. President Coin asked us victors to vote on holding a final Hunger Games with children of the Capitol in the arena. The vote was four to three, that's why Katniss got the arrow. Katniss had every reason to do what she did and if you hold anyone accountable, it should be the other three who voted for a final games too." Johanna is going to kill me if she gets in trouble for her vote. Let her. I take a deep breath and glance at President Paylor.

She watches me with warm brown eyes that look old beyond her years and then she speaks for the first time. "Knowing that the action must be punished in some way, Annie, what do you think would be an appropriate punishment for Katniss Everdeen?"

I blink slowly, still knotting the rope in my pocket. I don't know if it'll do any good but I have to try. The kindest thing they could do would be to kill her but they won't kill her. She will suffer every day of the rest of her life for the things that have happened to her. I know it. The least I can do is try to help her get a fighting chance. "Send her home," I say, clearing my throat so I can say it stronger. "Send her to District 12 and ban her from travel, especially to the Capitol, for a period of time."

I think President Paylor might wink at me. Maybe she understand what I'm trying to do, how I'm trying to help Katniss have a chance at getting better by giving her banning her from what she'd never do anyway. Maybe President Paylor wants this for her too.

Maybe Katniss can be okay one day.