If I owned The Hunger Games, this is what would have happened. So, I don't own The Hunger Games and I'm not Suzanne Collins.

AN: This starts the night before Finnick leaves with Katniss and co. for the big war battle and Capitol Kill Snow mission. I'm fuzzy on the details of Mockingjay, since I only read it once when it came out. So, if I get some details wrong, concerning that, I apologize. The main idea of the story is to be canon but AU in the outcome, so just go with it and enjoy!


Most people say Annie Cresta Odair is mad. For once, she was sane enough to agree.

Annie knew that she was mad as in insane. That fact didn't mean she was stupid. It just made her mad.

Right now, however, she was mad. As in pissed, ticked off, and angry. The object of her aggression: Finnick Odair.

Annie was also mad about him, but that was entirely beside the point at the moment. Or it was the point. The two are too closely related to really tell.

Annie pondered the pressing problem that made her frustrated with her husband (how she relished the word.) This was their last night together. The last night she would lie in the comfort and security of his arms. Tomorrow, he would be leaving her forever. All for some stupid war campaign video.

Finnick had left her so many times before. Lying on his chest watching him sleep made her sane enough where she could think of the past. The endless trips to the Capitol for the Hunger Games. Shudder. The image he portrayed as the Capitol Playboy. Yes, all those other women, she thought with a whimper. And all those gruesome deaths to all those children.

The Quarter Quell.

Annie curled into her Finnick. In his sleep, he wrapped his arm firmly around her and murmured her name. He had always come back to her. Those times, she had been insane enough to know he would. This time was different. Finnick wouldn't come back if he left this time. Annie didn't know how, but she was certain of that, just as she was certain of his love for her.

This made Annie mad. Finnick would just not listen to her. He had to stay! He was the only one who understood her and didn't treat her like the mentally handicapped person she was often treated like. He loved her and made her feel so special. Like she was the only woman in the world. But he was just so determined to protect her, which apparently entailed leaving on a suicide mission.

Annie had tried absolutely everything to convince him to stay. She had cried, screamed, cried and screamed, faked illness, cried some more when he immediately saw through her fake illness, and of course the ever-effective last ditch effort of seducing him into submission. While he had dried her tears and enjoyed her last ditch effort immensely, Finnick refused to see reason.

Well, Annie was a lot of things: insane, kind, simple, loving, and insane, but she was also tenacious. Or stubborn. Whichever you prefer. Her determination had kept her alive during her Hunger Games. Her determination had made her keep swimming so she could survive to see Finnick again.

Gosh darn it all, Annie thought. She had been through so much. Her Finnick had been through much more. They deserved a peaceful life together, and they would get it. But how?

Here was where Annie hit her road block. Over and over again. She was stuck. Nothing she had said or done would convice Finnick to stay with her. He said he knew she would be safe here in District 13. People would look after her, doctors would heal her, and she would be fine. So, he would leave her alone even if she was sick or injured because he knew she would be in good hands.

Well, Annie thought passionately, who would take care of Finnick when he gets sick or injured out there in battle? No one but her. Annie couldn't go with him though. Finnick certainly would die before he let her anywhere near danger. Finnick would have to stay with her. And we're back to where we started. Annie sighed annoyed.

There must be a way to make Finnick stay. Make him stay. Annie pictured a light bulb dinging to life over her head. That was it! She would make him stay!

Visions of fish nets and Finnick dangling from the ceiling danced in her head. No, Finnick would escape easily and leave.

Other ideas binged around in her brain, most leaving her blushing and giggling like a madwoman. She was a newlywed, after all.

Annie forced herself to be serious and focus. She glanced at the clock, casting an electrical glow on the table. Only a few hours before he would leave.

She could injury him. The thought appalled Annie. She could never hurt Finnick. Or could she. Finnick was willing to hurt her by leaving her. Oh, but he was doing it to protect her. Oh no, Annie, don't buy that line she instructed herself.

Still, if Finnick was physically incapable of leaving, he couldn't go. That was it, the only way to make him stay. To make it impossible for him to go.


While Annie is quite mad (as in crazy) and mostly incapable of harming a fly, she was a Career tribute. She was trained to harm things much larger and meaner than flies. She may have suffered a psychological break, but that didn't make the knowledge of killing and injuring vanish.

Besides, Annie didn't look at damaging her husband as hurting him. More like, as her protecting him from his idiotic self.

That is what she told herself in any case as she maneuvered herself into position and neatly broke his leg.

District 13 with all of its occupants would think Annie mad, even madder than usual, in the days that followed for injuring one of the wars strongest assets. There was much debate over whether it was intentional or love-making gone a tad too far. The latter rumor was encouraged highly by Haymitch.

Finnick was mad at Annie for awhile, but forgave her quickly. After all, most agree he is almost as mad as she. He would say mad about her, but that is entirely beside the point.

As for Annie, for once she was not mad. She had her Finnick to fuss over and was blissfully happy.

The Odairs lived happily (and madly) ever after.

The End.


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