The sound of the thunder rolls over her like a wave as the skies open up. In seconds, Annie is drenched, blinded by cold water filling her eyes, drowning her as it fills her mouth, leaving her spluttering and breathless, huddled in on herself on the beach. She feels herself begin to slip away and, wrapping her arms around her knees, she rocks, trying to hold herself together, to keep the pieces of herself from flying away on the wind. A sharp crack of thunder [of cannon shot] crashes overhead and Annie bites off a scream.

Closing her eyes, covering her ears to muffle the sound of the storm, she stops fighting the buzzing in her brain and lets herself slip away to someplace warm and filled with light. Darkness and fear have no place where she goes. Nothing can hurt her. Nothing can even touch her when she's there, except…

"Annie, baby, come back."

"Finnick?"

His warm hand cradles the back of her head, but she scrunches her eyes shut even tighter, refuses to open them, afraid he's just a dream. She rocks harder, presses her hands against her skull so hard she thinks her head might pop. Finnick can't be there. He's in the Capitol, where everyone can touch him but her.

"Annie, please. I need you."

Warmth surrounds her, but it's not the heat that fills her head. This heat seeps through her wet clothes and skin to fill her soul. It radiates from him as he sits on the wet sand and pulls her into his arms. The rain still falls, the thunder still rolls, but slowly Annie relaxes into him. When he presses his lips to her cheek, strokes the wet ropes of hair from her face and turns her head toward him, the buzzing recedes. Annie opens her eyes and haltingly drops her arms, letting her hands rest on his forearms.

"You're all wet," she tells him and, even though it still rages around them, his answering smile is like the sun breaking free of the storm.