She whimpered.

Annie whimpered in her sleep, and then her whimpers turn into shrieks.

Finnick shoots awake, and tries to calm her, tries to wake her up. She screams again, tossing and turning, shrieking and gasping. Her eyes finally fly open and she clings to him, her hand clutching onto his shirt.

He shushs her gently, rubbing her back. She's shaking again, from fear. He can only wonder what her night terrors are of, but he does have a good guess.

The doctor had told him she didn't have nightmares; she had night terrors. Finnick didn't see what the difference was until he'd experienced her during one of them.

Night terrors were worse, he detirmined, much worse.

It wasn't unusual, much less unheard of, for a victor of the games to have often, frightning nightmares.

But this... this was awful.

Annie took a deep, shaky breath, trying to calm herself, and him, down, as she could tell she'd frightned him.

"Bad dream?" He said softly, and she nodded slightly, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her gently, quietly, and she shook her head, loosening her grip on his shirt. "Alright. Go back to sleep."

Annie looked up at him with those wide, broken sea green eyes, and he swallowed, a sudden wave of sadness flowing over him. He couldn't help but blame himself for shattering her.

He could make out the glint of fear in her eyes, he knew her too well.

"Don't worry." He whispered, holding her a bit tighter, "I'll protect you."

This seemed to calm her, and Annie buried her face in his chest, closing her eyes, having his protection from the horrors of her night terrors.

She fell asleep soon after, but he held her until morning light.

In the morning, when he was sure she was safe, he laid her down and wrote her a quick note, before walking silently out of the room.

Haymitch was stepping through the hallway quietly, probably on his way to the bar downstairs.

Finnick stopped him, biting the inside of his lip.

"Is she alright?" Haymitch asked him and he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"I..I just..don't know what to do anymore."

He was watching the Finnick Odair finally break, right in front of him.

"Just give her time."

This was as close to sober the older mentor would get. Finnick leaned against the wall, covering his face with his hands for a minute before dropping them and looking at Haymitch.

"It's awful. You know she has night terrors? And they have her on medication?"

"Medication for what?"

Finnick's lip curled up in disgust at the bald doctor on his mind.

"He said she was mentally insane."

Haymitch raised an eyebrow at Finnick's profound hatred for the doctor.

"I wouldn't say insane...maybe a little bit crazy though, you've got to admit." His voice was light, almost joking...but Finnick didn't find this funny in the slightest bit.

Green eyes narrowed in a glare, his voice sharp and bitter. "No. Not insane, or crazy, or anything." He nearly spat, and Haymitch looked at him, slightly surprised at his bitter defense of the newest victor.

Finnick then turned on his heel, exhaling and heading back down the hall to Annie's room.

The door creaked open, and by the time he stepped in, Annie was still curled up asleep.

He sat down on her bed and her eyelids fluttered, and opened. She looked up at him, and a small smile curved up the corner of his lips.

"Good morning."

There was no response, only a tiny nod as she sat up, which made his smile falter, but not fade.

She looked at him for a moment, seemingly having no memory of last night, not remembering her night terror until she looked into his eyes.

That's when the laughter started in her mind.

Snow's laughter.

Her hands instinctively flew over her ears, trying, to no attempt, to block out the awful noise. Finnick brought her closer, his brow furrowing. What was going on inside her head?

She flinched away from his touch, but he didn't let go of her.

The beheading replayed in her head, over, and over again, the blood splattering, Cresula laughing as she dangled the head in front of Annie's face, laughed at Annie's screams...

Finnick's soothing words, his comforting voice were muffled by the laughter of Snow, the laughter of Cresula, the slicing of flesh, making her whimper outloud.

His words eventually broke through to her and Annie very slowly relaxed in his arms.

He rubbed her back gently until she fully relaxed, and then gently released her.

"Are you okay now?"

He didn't know why he still bothered to speak aloud, he knew she wouldn't ever respond. But the silence secretly depressed him, it saddened him a lot to not hear her voice.

She was alive, he reminded himself to be greatful for the fact that she was alive.

Annie gave a small nod, and he smiled for her sake only. "Good. Do you want breakfast?"

He felt her shoulders raise in a slight shrug, and he took her hand, standing up. "Come on." She stood up and followed him quietly, shyly, out of the room, her eyes downcast and avoiding the glances of others. She trailed behind him into a tiny cafeteria, followed him to the line where she was to pick up breakfast.

Finnick picked up a stack of pancakes soon, but Annie turned down everything, making him sigh. "Ann, you've got to eat something."

What she did next made him smile, made him think of when she was less fragile. Annie placed nothing but steaming turkey bacon on her plate, causing Finnick to chuckle and shake his head. "Alright. Good enough. Let's sit?"