"It looks like they're all loaded up. I should probably go." Finnick laughed when Annie nuzzled deeper into his shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll be back soon."

"You'd better be." She pulled him down for one last kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too." Annie stiffened when the hovercraft's engine roared to life a few feet away, and he gave her an extra squeeze before pulling away. "I think that's my cue. Promise me you won't worry too much?"

She handed him his trident. "If you think I'm going to agree to that, you're even stupider than I thought."

He waved as he hurried up the ramp and onto the hovercraft. Gale watched him, a carefully neutral expression on his face. "Be quiet, you" Finnick said, his efforts to be scolding foiled by the smile he couldn't quite wipe away.

"Did I say anything?"

"See, you didn't have to worry about me."

She didn't turn away from where she sat at the foot of their bed. "Annie? I'm back." He sat down next to her. For once, the mattress didn't groan beneath his weight. "Annie, can you hear me?" Finnick put a hand on her shoulder. "Sweetheart?"

There had been times after her Games where she wouldn't respond, but she hadn't had an attack this bad in years. "I'm going to grab Doctor Aurelius, all right?"

He made it as far as the door before she started sobbing. Finnick hated that he counted that as an improvement. He moved back to her. "Don't worry, love, it's all right." He tried to push a piece of hair back from her face, but his fingers slipped through it. Finnick stared at his fingers, then at her hair, but nothing seemed off. Nevertheless, trying again yielded the same result.

It was just his mind playing tricks on him. He needed to keep talking, calm both of them down. "I just got back. Not going to lie, there were some close calls here and there. The Capitol's rigged just like an Arena. They've got these little boxes hidden all around, little ones so small you don't see 'em until you've triggered whatever trap they've got inside. Pollux – you've met him, he's an Avox – he led us down into the sewers to try and escape them, but even down there they had these things that were almost half lizards and half people. It was almost the end of me right there, but…"

But what? For the life of him, he couldn't recall anything after the sewers. But there must have been something, for he wouldn't have –

He reached for her again, but this time, he was not surprised when she did not respond. "Oh, Annie. I'm so sorry."