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: Hi people! Big reveal time!

Enjoy! (And leave a review to tell me if you do!)


ALWAYS BE WAITING

Chapter 4: Wish Hard Enough

I wake up with a start. My entire body hurts. That's what happens when you sleep in a chair meant only for short, conscious visits with someone in a hospital room.

"Annie?"

I'm in Peeta's room. I remember now.

He's sitting on a garbage can turned upside down right beside me, eye level with me. He puts his hand over mine and smiles a little. "Annie, Gale's here. He was going to tell you what he found out but then he got a message he had to take in the hallway. The message is about Finnick too."

I turn my hand over and grip Peeta's fingers so tightly that I notice his hand change colors quickly. I can't loosen my grip. "Did Gale find something?"

Peeta nods a little bit. "He found the soldiers and he found the medics. The medics came under attack and had to take cover, that's where things got confused."

"That's where Finnick got… lost?"

He doesn't have to answer because Gale comes into the room. "I'm 95% sure we've found him, Annie."

I swallow, try to swallow around the lump in my throat and squeeze Peeta harder. "Not one hundred percent?"

"Only a DNA test would be one hundred percent." He leans against the foot of Peeta's bed and runs his thumb up and down the edge. "We think he's in a hospital, that he's alive but unidentified."

"Why not just do the DNA test then?" Peeta asks the question I was silently asking.

Gale's faces twists and he shakes his head. "The unidentified man we think is most likely Finnick is in some sort of special medical thing because of an infection."

I feel like I'm underwater and sinking fast. I have to stay above the surface. "A hyperbaric chamber," I say, staring at a spot on the wall while they both look at me in confusion.

"Yeah," Gale says, "that's what the doctor I spoke to called it. So the thing is, opening it to extract his DNA could be dangerous to him. But if they had his DNA, then it could be compared to the files from when Finnick was reaped."

Maybe Peeta takes the pressure I'm putting on his hand as some sort of plea for him to speak for me, because he does. "So what do we do, Gale? I suppose family would have to give permission for the chamber to be opened but since he's unidentified, there's no family to give it."

"Right. That was President Paylor that I had to go speak to. She said there aren't really laws about this sort of thing, so she can only do what is the most attentive and open. She said that since there is witness testimony that this should be Finnick Odair, she'll approve the dangerous test only if a majority of the surviving victors are in favor of it. If there's not a majority, we'll have to wait until he either recovers enough to be brought out of it or… doesn't recover."

This makes sense to me. I like President Paylor even more because she's doing it this way.

I cough to clear my throat and ease up, just a little, on Peeta's hand. "Do I need to contact the other victors and ask them if they're in favor of it?"

"No, she's doing it." He gestures toward me and Peeta and holds out a communication device. "Aside from the two of you, of course. She just wants you to call her and tell her what you think based on what I said."

I realize I don't know how I can answer that question. So I do the cowardly thing and I ask that everyone else say their piece before I do. Peeta seems to understand that and goes into the hallway to use Gale's device to call President Paylor. He doesn't tell me what he said when he comes back. He only asks if there's somewhere I'd like to be for now.

I know it's time to tell them why I knew the unidentified man Gale figures is Finnick is in a hyperbaric chamber. "I need to go to the hospital where I work." They ask me why, just like I expected that they would. So I tell them about the man Sexta's told me about. "Is that who you think might be him? At the place where I work?"

Gale nods, his face set and tense. "I didn't put the two together but yeah, that's who seems to be the most likely candidate. You can't see in the chamber at all? To identify him by sight?"

I shake my head. "There's a medicated mist or something that fogs up the glass."

They seem to trust me. Gale says he'll take me there and stay with me so I'll know as soon as Paylor has the answer from Beetee, Haymitch, Enobaria, Johanna, and Katniss. Peeta explains everything to Dr. Aurelius and he gives Peeta a pass to come with me too. As I walk between the two of them, unsure of how I have the strength and focus to walk with purpose when all this is going on, a part of my mind realizes fully why Peeta and Gale are both so important to Katniss. I can see why she won't be able to live without both of them in her life.

I'm a little bit jealous of her.

Sexta meets us the moment we step off the elevator and onto the floor where Finnick might be. She looks alarmed and confused. "There are guards posted outside the unknown man's room," she tells me. "Do you know what's going on?"

I don't know how to answer her.

Gale does. He shows her his identification. "You were told Commander Hawthorne would be in charge of the guard, right? That's me. That patient may be a high value asset to Panem. I was told that you have a storage room we can use for privacy?"

Her eyes go wide and she glances at me but I don't know how to respond. When she sees that, she leads us to the empty storage room and tells us to let her know if we need anything else. Gale tells her he'll give her notice of anyone else coming to us.

Johanna and Enobaria arrive a few minutes later, and thankfully Johanna isn't upset that I didn't tell her what I was doing. Neither of them tell me what they told President Paylor and Beetee doesn't when he gets here. The president herself arrives a few minutes after that and Beetee helps her set up a computer where we can talk to Haymitch and Katniss.

I squeeze Peeta's hand in support when we see how haggard and broken Katniss looks.

"Annie?" President Paylor says. "Your fellow victors have all told me that the DNA test should be done unless two things are fact; first, that the doctor says doing the test has more than a ninety percent chance of killing him and second, that it's a risk you are willing to take. I believe, based on the evidence Hawthorne has given me, that it is Finnick Odair so I'll defer to you on this. If you want to wait, we'll wait. If you want me to tell the doctor to go ahead, we'll go ahead."

"Dr. Bosch?" I trust him and I know he'll do right, so when she says that it would be him, I tell her to talk to him about the DNA test. I feel selfish asking for it since it won't change anything about that man's condition one way or the other. The test is being done so I know who he is.

"Don't, Annie," Peeta says softly. "Don't feel guilty about this. Even if it's not Finnick, maybe someone's family will find someone they thought was dead. The DNA will be filed, it might be good anyway. And if you trust the doctor who will be doing it, then he's in good hands.

That really is most important. And Peeta's right - this could help someone else. I try to think like Finnick would if the tables were turned and I realize that would have the test done on me, because he'd feel it in his gut… just like I do. I repeat my answer to President Paylor and she goes to tell Dr. Bosch.

And all we can do is wait.

While we wait, something strange happens. Katniss seems to realize that Peeta's there and she suddenly looks more alert. Worried, but alert. It's hard to hear her at first but it's easy to see that she's worried about him. She demands to know why he's still in the Capitol and if they're being good to him. They ask each other a bunch of Real or Not Real questions to make sure it isn't President Snow holding either of them away from each other and they seem satisfied in the end. Some of the tension in Haymitch's shoulders fades away at the same time.

On the screen, Katniss turns to Haymitch. "Is there any way I can go back to the Capitol if it is Finnick? I should be there."

His eyes sort of bug out of his head but he points at their screen. "Don't ask me. President Paylor's right there."

We all look at President Paylor.

"If it is Finnick and if Annie asks for you to be here, I will allow it on the condition that Dr. Aurelius agrees it's safe for you and that you agree to be accompanied by someone at all times."

Johanna snorts and folds herself onto the chair on the other side of me. "What? We victors don't get to on whether or not Brainless gets to come back? I thought we have to vote on when Enobaria gets her teeth sharpened next."

Enobaria laughs as she picks at tiny bits of lint on her black pants. "In the spirit of the new Panem, I'm not getting my teeth sharpened anymore, unless they start to break. As for Katniss, I'm fine with her coming back here to help Finnick, or even just Annie if it's not him."

Her words obviously shock Beetee because he turns his chair very slowly to face her.

Opening her eyes impossibly wide, she shakes her head at him. "I know, I know. Out of character. Finnick was nice to me even when I was a bitch to him. The least I can do is be polite to his widow. Ish. To Annie.."

I realize that it's the first time she's ever spoken to, or maybe at, me. I smile a little at her in thanks.

Everyone ends up voting on whether or not Katniss can return to the Capitol. No one says she shouldn't come. I ask her if she wouldn't rather not be here.

"I don't want to be here now that I know Peeta's still there." She claps a hand over her mouth like she surprised herself and is worried she shouldn't have said it. She relaxes a little when Peeta says he'll feel better if she's closer too. Chewing her bottom lip, she looks at me again. "Sitting here won't do me any good, mostly because it's all ghosts here. I'll probably be okay here in time but if he's alive and I can help him live at all, then I want to do that first."

"Okay." I still don't want to get my hopes up about who might be in the hyperbaric chamber or what he might be like if it is him but I smile a little easier. "Thank you, Katniss."

"It's good that you said that," Peeta whispers in my ear while Katniss argues with Haymitch about something. "Katniss is always better when she's got someone to take care of. Between you and me, and maybe Finnick, she'll be just fine."

I'm squeezing his hand again but I really can't help it. "What do I do if it's not Finnick? I knew when I stayed here and when I wanted to work in the hospitals that he probably wasn't alive. But now that I know he might be, that he was for at least a little while after the lizards attacked and the holo was dropped, now what do I do if I find out that he's dead?"

He thinks about this for a minute and takes a deep breath. "Do you want to go home to District 4?"

I don't have to think about my answer. "No. There's no one there that matters to me."

"Do you want to stay here?"

"No. Well, maybe. Not really. I want to be helpful but I'm crazy sometimes. I don't think I could stay not crazy enough here."

He makes a face that tells me he disagrees about the crazy thing, or at least he doesn't like me saying it. "Then you should come home with District 12 with me when I go. There's nothing left but people are moving back so you could easily find a way to be helpful there, even if it's just with me and Haymitch and Katniss."

I never considered asking if I could go to District 12 but I like the idea. They are the people I know, and they're still rebuilding there so I could do something to help the people there. And Gale's family was so nice to me in District 13 when I ended up staying with them after Squad 451 left for the Capitol. Mrs. Hawthorne told me she has no intention of staying underground so I know she'll be going back if she hasn't already. She's the reason I didn't completely fall apart when the Capitol reported Finnick dead and then again when I was told he really was dead. I miss her and her children.

"Okay," I say after such a long time that everyone seems startled. I don't want to tell everyone what I mean but I don't have to because Peeta knows, I can tell by his smile.

But then I get distracted by Sexta coming into the room and asking President Paylor to step outside with her.

I wonder if I'm breaking the bones in Peeta's hand. He's still not saying anything.

President Paylor comes back with Dr. Bosch and they stand in front of me.

"Annie?" She says my name hesitantly, but I don't understand why. "Annie, Dr. Bosch did the DNA test. The man in the hyperbaric chamber is Finnick Odair."

She might say something else. She probably does say something else.

I don't hear it. I'm running out of the storage room and across the hall.

The man I love, the man I live for is alive. That's all I need to know.