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

ALWAYS BE WAITING

Chapter 10: Listen to the Stories

Katniss punches my arm, waking me up from a fitful sleep in the uncomfortable chair beside Finnick's bed. "He's waking up. And saying your name."

"Annie!"

He's not so much saying my name as he is screaming my name but I would've heard that if he'd screamed before so this is new. I blink and lurch forward, grabbing his left hand and touching his face at the same time. "Shh, shh. I'm here, Finn. I'm right here."

His eyes focus on me and he exhales slowly. "Are you hurt?"

I shake my head. "No, no. I'm not hurt. We're safe now. Were you dreaming?"

Nodding, he squeezes my hand. "I was… stuck in a cup? A glass, maybe? I couldn't get out to get to you. You needed me. I think. And I couldn't get to you."

Stuck in a cup? I don't understand what he's saying at all and I wish that I hadn't asked if he was dreaming.

"You're not in the hyperbaric chamber anymore, Finnick," Katniss says in a calm and firm tone. "That's the glass you were stuck in. You're not in it now. You can get to Annie and of course she needs you. Don't be stupid and worry that she doesn't."

He blinks, looking down at his body, at me, and then at her. "Katniss."

She smiles a little. "Hi. Sorry I didn't visit you at the other hospital but I'm a little, you know, mentally unstable."

He smiles too, and I'm grateful for that. "Other hospital?" he says slowly. "I was moved, wasn't I?"

She answers, since he's still looking at her. "Yeah. You got much better so they moved you here and then you got much worse for a little while. They kept you knocked out for a few days, which probably explains the dreams, and then they brought you out of it. You've mostly been sleeping for a few days. It's been a week or so, all around."

My hand is starting to ache from how hard he's squeezing me but I don't say anything. I just watch him. "It's true. You had seizures when you got here. The infection came back a little. They… we… I…"

"Everybody was very worried," Katniss picks up, still standing awkwardly at the foot of the bed. "Annie, especially. And we were worried about her, but we took good care of her for you."

He turns to me. "Am I going to be okay?"

"Mm-hmm. The doctor says the infection is contained and won't spread now. It could flare up again, but they know better how to treat it." I swallow a lump in my throat and try to be strong for him. "It's the same as before, really. You might not get all of you physical ability back but you'll be alive. That's enough, isn't it?"

He closes his eyes and nods. "So long as it's enough for you," he whispers.

I lean down and kiss him to make him focus on me. "It will always be enough for me but it has to be enough for you too. We get to live, free of the games and free from fear. We get to be whoever we want to be. Isn't that enough?"

With tears in his eyes, he whispers an apology.

"Don't cry and don't apologize," Katniss says, leaning forward to stick a thin bit of rope between my hand and Finnick's. "I looked it up, there are one-handed knots. Make them. And look on the bright side of all this."

He looks at her like she's grown a second head. "And what's the bright side?"

She fights a smirk as she answers. "Beetee said that if you're paralyzed or have limited movement he'll make you a wheelchair or some sort of contraption to help you. That's the bright side."

I almost cry when he laughs. Everyone knows that Beetee can, and probably would, get a little ahead of himself making things for people he cares about. He had Peeta test a new prosthetic leg the other day, just before we came to this hospital, and he had to go back to the drawing board after the leg walked on it's own before Peeta even put it on.

Katniss smiles and takes a step backward toward the door. "I'll give you two some time alone. Who do you want to come in next, Annie?"

"Johanna or Haymitch."

She nods and takes another step backward, promising to make either of them wait a few minutes. "Knots, Finnick," she says as she opens the door. "Make knots. Do you know why?"

He shakes his head just a little. "Why, Katniss?"

"Because someone wise told me once that it takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart. Your body is in pieces so you've already got your work cut out for you. Don't let your mind follow your body."

He swallows hard and nods, promising to follow her wise advice.

I know he told her that because I know Mags told him that because he told me that Mags told him to tell me that. It really is a true way of thinking about life.

We're alone for a few minutes but we don't talk. We don't have to talk. I just want to sit with him and he seems happy enough to just stare at me. I realize as I sit there that I'm not absolutely sure how to talk to him now that we're free. The short time we had together in District Thirteen was different because we still weren't free. There weren't games and we weren't under scrutiny in District Four but it wasn't freedom. I told Finnick at the other hospital that he didn't have to worry about me wanting to find someone other than him to love.

But what if he wants to find someone other than me?

I'm on the very verge of a panic attack when Johanna comes into the room with a flourish. "Brainless said I should hurry because you two looked on the verge of losing it."

I know that Katniss said no such thing. Katniss would never say that. Maybe we are on the verge of losing it, but she wouldn't say that. Johanna would say it, and I know the words are all hers.

Finnick gives me a searching look and then flicks the rope Katniss put in his hand. I know what he means so I lean forward to help him make one-handed knots. "What book is that, Johanna?" he asks.

"Peter Pan. I managed to miss you two reading more of it." She drops into a chair in the corner of the room and runs her fingers through her spiky hair. "I'll just sit quietly and catch up while you two make knots and try not to lose your minds."

"Read out loud?" I say it but I surprise myself, Finnick, and Johanna by saying it. She agrees, though, and picks up from the spot she last read with us.

She reads for an hour, slowly but clearly, and then sticks a scrap of paper between the pages. Standing, she stretches like a cat and crosses the room to lean close to Finnick. I pretend like I can't hear her ask if her reading is getting better and I pretend like I can't hear him say that he's proud of her. I just keep moving his fingers to make the knots.

Once she goes back to her chair, things fall to an awkward sort of silence. Then I remember how Johanna called me scatterbrain again this morning and I decide to get her back, in front of Finnick. "Finnick? I think Johanna's in love."

She splutters and he looks at me with wide, unbelieving eyes.

I make myself look innocent and twitch my shoulders in a shrug. "Well, I do."

"With who?"

"I am not!"

They speak at the same time and it makes me giggle. I compose myself as best I can, which isn't very much, and respond to him first - but her at the same time. "Gale Hawthorne. She goes to lunch and dinner with him all the time. One day Katniss asked why she smelled like soap, since she's still afraid of water, and she refused to say why but Gale was there and he blushed beet red. Don't you think that means they might be at least falling in love?"

He turns slowly and looks at her. "Yeah, I do think she's falling in love. Johanna? What's going on?"

She lets the book fall to floor with a thud and leans forward, almost putting her head between her knees. "I don't know," she moans, the sound muffled by the fact that she's staring at the floor. "I mean, I can't be falling in love, can I?"

"Talk it through. Tell me what you're thinking."

I half listen as she tells him how she ended up taking a bath with Gale-he'd offered to help her if she ever needed it and that's what she came up with, of course, and how she started having meals with him-Katniss and Peeta weird her out, apparently, and she needed a break. I pay closer attention when she describes the warm feeling, and how she almost cried, when someone on the street called her a child-killing whore for being a mentor and he got into a fistfight with the guy to defend her.

She's in love with him.

He doesn't say that outright. "Don't try to define it, Jo," he says instead. "But don't question it. Just let yourself go with it. Like I told you I did, do with Annie."

"At least you said do," I interrupt, "because I know you still question this sometimes."

His green eyes are on my so fast I sort of jump. "You don't? You don't ever question any of this?"

Remembering my recent near panic attack, I sigh in defeat. "All the time."

"Well that's helpful," Johanna mutters. "Thank you both very much for very little."

"Jo, stop." He winks at me when the firmness in his voice makes her sit up straight. "Annie and I love every minute we have together. It's natural to wonder if it's too good to be true or if it's real. That's not a reason to run away from it. So don't do that, alright?"

She rolls her eyes. "Yes, boss."

Smirking, he shakes his head. "Is Gale here now? Can you get him? I know he tried to save me in the sewer and I want to thank him."

I gape at him when she leaves to do that. Dr. Aurelius has been talking to him about what happened and what he remembers when I'm not there, after one disastrous attempt at having him talk with me around - he was too afraid of hurting me. I tried to say it was ridiculous but it was better that I just left. "You remember the sewers?"

"Some. Bits and pieces." He rolls his shoulders and shakes his head. "I remember Gale went up the ladder before me. He was closer to it but he tried to hang back and make me go first. I was too far away to get there and we both would have… died. If he hadn't gone up."

I bite my lip uncertainly. I don't want to say the wrong thing, that I wish he'd just have gone in front of Gale, especially since he tried to get him to go first. That's a horrible thing to say, about Gale and to Finnick. So I change the subject, even though avoidance is never good - but I can talk to Dr. Aurelius about it later. "Are you going to talk to Gale about whether or not he's in love with Johanna?"

"Not while she's in the room."

I clap my hand over my mouth, a little unable to believe that he's going to confront Gale about it. It's not really what I meant to happen when I got back at her. On the other hand, she needs somebody to look out for her and she doesn't really have many people to do that. So I support him fully in confronting Gale and I'm glad I brought it up. Although helping her with something doesn't exactly get back at her for the scatterbrain name. I'll have to join forces with Katniss on that.

Gale comes in a minute later, alone, and says that Johanna didn't know if the two visitor rule was still in effect so she just stayed outside. He tries to brush off Finnick's thanks, saying that the real way to thank him would've been to go up the ladder first.

That's what Finnick brushes off. And then he cuts to the heart of the matter. "Don't hurt Johanna."

Gale blinks in surprise, and apparently she didn't tell him what we'd been talking about - I'm surprised at that. "What? Why would I hurt Johanna?"

"She's been hurt a lot. She needs somebody to care for her and to know that she's not going to be the easiest person to care for."

He chews his bottom lip and shakes his head. "I do care for her. I don't know how, exactly, but I'd never want her to be hurt. She deserves better than that, so much better."

Finnick and I exchange a knowing look. "Yeah, she does," he tells him. "You do too, Hawthorne. So I'll tell you what I told her - don't run away in fear just because it seems too good to be true. You'll hurt her and you'll hurt yourself. You both deserve more than that."

Gale seems to accept that, promising to try to accept the things that are more easily.

And then Finnick seems suddenly worn out by his matchmaking and closes his eyes. Gale doesn't leave right away, he stays and asks me if I know how Johanna feels about him. She'll be okay with him.