Hey all! Sorry I forgot to do this last time - its been a LONG time since I was on Fanfiction XD
Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games - if I did, Mockingjay would have been a LOT better... just saying .
The entire story is from Gale's POV, in case you haven't noticed by now. I hope you like it!
Chapter 2: Rendez-vous
As the hoverplane began to land I went to rouse Annie from where she'd fallen asleep in my arms, but as I went to wake her I paused. With her face at rest, hair fanned out around her like a cloud, she looked so peaceful. I could only imagine how bad her life had been before I rescued her. How many nights of restful sleep had been stolen from her? How many night had she lay awake horrified while Finnick was in the arena? How many had she cried herself to sleep after they told her he'd been killed? How many times had they pumped her so full of chemicals she couldn't shut her eyes?
"Looks like you made yourself a new friend." Boggs said snapping me out of my reverie. I knew I should have been more embarrassed and yet as I lay there holding Annie, I couldn't be. "You be careful there with Finnick Odair's girl. I wouldn't put it passed him to put a trident through you."
"She already did that for him." I laughed, wincing as pain shot through me. "When will we be landing? I need medical aid pronto."
"We'll be landing momentarily, get yourself ready." He said, running off when someone yelled to secure Peeta for moving. Knowing the time had come I shook Annie's shoulder gently. Her eyes shot open at once, her entire body tensing. It wasn't until I saw how glassy her eyes were that I knew she, just like all the other victors I'd met, was haunted by her time in the arena. Taking her face in my hands I sat up with her still in my lap, whispering her name over and over again until she blinked the deadness away.
"Gale, the wind storm… right, I've been rescued. Thank you for that by the way, in case I didn't say it before. After all the Capital scientists did to my brain to try and make me capable of being controlled to use against Finnick like they used Peeta against Katniss." She said hitching the sheet up more securely around her chest, hands nervously flattening her hair as best she could.
"He's been going mad with worry about you." I said, wondering at the look on her face if that was the wrong thing to say. Annie bit her lip, face going pale. Taking her hands I kissed her forehead, Boggs shooting me a warning look I chose to disregard. Hard as it might have been for him to understand I meant nothing by it other than to try and calm her nerves. I knew I was probably out of line, and that if Finnick found out he would in fact spear me just like Boggs had said, but right then that didn't matter. All that mattered was the look on Annie's face, and how one kiss to the forehead from me seemed to calm her fears. "It'll be alright, believe me. As soon as he sees you his whole world will be put right I'm sure."
"Thank you." She said softly, flinging her arms around my neck. "Can you carry me? I think I'm too excited to stand."
"Of course," I said, Boggs giving me a look that was clearly meant to signify I shouldn't push my injury or my luck with Finnick. Shrugging it off I swept Annie up into my arms, heading off the hoverplane right behind Peeta and his entourage, the medical squad right inside the door making me put Annie down so that they could help me onto a medical table for them to look at my shoulder. Annie stood by looking concerned, helping me with my buttons so I could take my shirt off as the doctors prepared the instruments to pull out the trident.
"I'm so sorry." She said as she saw all the blood, reaching out to touch my shoulder. I pushed her hand away gently, shaking my head at her as she stepped back. Grabbing onto one of the doctors she halted him, shaking his coat sleeve. "Can I stay with him until you take the… shrapnel out?"
"No, you need to go to Finnick, he'll be waiting for you." I said, reaching out a shaking hand to push her hair behind her ear. She caught my hand and held it against her cheek, the sparkle in her eyes reminding me for a moment when Katniss had volunteered for Prim to go into the Hunger Games. Then the image passed and it was Annie standing before me looking a cross between bemusement and worry. "Go to him Annie, I'm not as important as him."
"No, you're a different kind of important." She said cryptically, smiling softly at me as a nurse took my shirt off the rest of the way. "You're the first person who hasn't called me crazy in a long time, even if I am."
"That's what friends are for." I said, poking the tip of her nose. Her laugh caught me off guard, so light and airy, almost like a school girl. And then the doctors were dragging her out so they could start operating. Then caught a glimpse of Katniss , my stomach twisted. She looked so relieved to find me alive, if wounded, calling out my name in a way that tore at me heart before a nurse shoved her out of the way denying her access.
"Finnick!" My head shot up at the cry, almost inhuman in its ecstasy. Suddenly glass doors were the worst thing in the world to me, because I could see every moment as Annie ran down the hall towards Finnick. As the two of them embraced, kissed, fell backwards into a wall together laughing like no one else was around a sharp pain shot through my entire being. I knew at once it wasn't from the doctor pulling out the shrapnel but because of the look of utter bliss on their faces as they collided, as two became one in a moment so intimate and private I immediately felt bad I had witnessed it. Looking at Katniss watching them I knew she felt the same way I did, that it was just as hard for her to see real love and not want it with every fiber of her being. If only she could make up her mind about me and Peeta.
Just then Boggs approaches her where she stands near Haymitch, no doubt telling her where she can find her poor pathetic lover. As expected of a star-crossed lover she immediately tears down the hall and into an adjacent room so I can see all of the action unfold, my stomach clenching painfully as I realize I have to watch, that I can't look away. Even if I hate the idea of their getting back together, I know I have to watch, to know what happens first hand. It's both a blessing and a curse as the doctors bandage me up that I can see every reaction. And what I see, I don't understand.
Peeta's fingers curl around her throat and I scream, moving at once to get down off the table but the doctors are swifter, blocking my exit. No matter how hard I struggled they grip me like iron, several dozen hands on me at once to hold me back until finally someone gives up and jabs a needle into my arm to sedate me. The last things I see before I slip under is dark hair looking at me through the door, a hand pressed to the glass…
But were those eyes that looked back at me sea green or grey?
