The Mockingjay and the Albatross
Bury the hatchet
Author: Howlynn
Realm: The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Story Title: Bury the hatchet
Summary: Johanna's funeral. Finnick Odair decides. How Johanna became Auntie Jo Odair.
Character/Relationships: Katniss, Finnick, Johanna/Wake Odair,
I Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author notes: I hate funerals, so I hope this one does not offend you, but Johanna can't go out plain and strictly dignified
Warning: may contain any of the following ingredients –(old people, language. Spoilers, Sexual discussion, ghosts, sex, smexy lemons, smutty thoughts, sexual reference, sexual innuendo, reference to past violence, sadness, bondage, violence, dead characters being discussed, alcohol use, caffeine use, reference to man love, unintended exhibitionism, naked people, infidelity, torture, reference to adultery, reference to other persecuted unacceptable sex (threesome), reference to possible non-consent and prostitution -whew the warning alone could be hazardous) If you have any allergies to these subjects, please take appropriate measures for your maturity level. Side effects may include but not be limited to: flaming of the author, altered perception, red tint in vision, having to re-take the anger management final, painful throat injury from screaming.
I can't believe they scared up one of those old victor coffins. Silver with an old capitol seal emblazoned on the side. Ad victorem spolias is written on the side. I had looked that up once and it meant 'to the victor go the spoils' in the old capitol speak.
I look out at the crowd and smile a little. I have grown comfortable speaking in public, but this is too emotional for comfort. I wait for the murmers and fidgiting to subside. I keep my voice calm and speak slowly.
"We are here today, gathered, because we loved this woman. Johanna Mason Odair – her middle name was not Fofanna by the way to any nieces, nephews or others who dared ask that question. It was Maxine. I can't tell you much about who she became that you don't already know. You know the wife and mother she got to be. She could appreciate those things like no other person can understand. You all know her. But understanding what she became can't really be appreciated unless you know where she started.
'Most of you know she was a victor. I won't go into the things they did to her for that crime. When I met her they had taken everything. She had been stripped of every choice life has to offer. They had made her into someone who should have never had the capacity to love. She was obnoxious; there is no getting away from that fact. You had to be kind of a strange person to see that she loved anyone. She had learned to hide it well. If she did it openly, they were taken from her. She appeared as unlovable as possible, because anyone who could love her, anyway, had to mean it.
'I was flat out scared to death of her. The first conversation I had with her was in an elevator. She was naked and my co-victor was about to pop his eyeballs peeking at her while I was mortified. Peeta never enjoyed an elevator ride so much. I never took one again that I didn't think of her.
'Finnick Odair and I became friends and he loved her, so I was stuck dealing with her from time to time. He insisted that she liked me and I wondered if the man was sane. When Haymitch confirmed she was my friend, I had to take it as fact, though I had my doubts.
'Recap friendship with Jojo. She stole my best friend. She stole my morphine. She called me names. We got into fist fights once a week, more if we had been drinking. She never bought a bottle. My stuff was hers and her stuff used to be mine. She loved to tick me off. But she also loved to interfere with my plans. She kept saving me when I least expected it. That proved she liked me and I started liking her back. Getting either of us to admit that would have never happened. She would probably break my nose for just saying it now.
'I didn't want to write a speech and read it to you. I have two stories to tell you about Johanna. They are funny, but she can't beat me up for telling them now. If the roles were reversed, she'd do what she could to make me mad enough to jump out of the box and kick her butt for it. So Johanna, if you are listening, feel free to take your best shot.
'When Haymitch was elected the first time, I was in prison for murder. We didn't get to have any kind of a campaign party, so when things settled down, Jojo felt it was her personal duty to have my baby shower. She was determined and Haymitch, being Haymitch, assured me this was a good idea. I reminded him of the two black eyes I had to have airbrushed out of each and every wedding photo, but he was certain Jojo was contrite and trying to make up for it.
'Now she never claimed to be a Cinna, but she seemed to have everything lined out pretty well, so we smiled and let her take care of all the invites and entertainment. This took place in the old banquet hall of the training center. It was a large facility and even though it didn't have the best memories for me, I could deal with it.
'Johanna went all out in her Johanna way. I could begin with the balloons shaped like penis' or I could tell you about the boob pacifiers or the fact that every favor was eyebrow raising in a bad way. The colors she picked were baby poop yellow and baby poop green. All the food was served in diapers. The ice sculpture was a life-size naked and colossally pregnant me.
'She had hired some band whose last engagement had been for President Snow's courtesan lounge. They only knew risqué songs. So she invites all our friends pulse around six hundred people we didn't know at all. Now, being pregnant some of this didn't go over so well with me. She knew it was a disaster. Halfway through, the beer fountain collapses and Johanna disappears.
'I assume that she is off drinking someplace. Finnick shows up and hunts her down. He comes back mad at me. I had never experienced Finn actually mad at me, he was always patient and sweet. This did not help my party mood. He drug me up to the balcony and made me look around the room and all I could see were about a million laughing people who were doing the most horrid humpy-bumpy dances anyone ever saw. Haymitch is leaning back with his feet up smiling for the first time in weeks and everyone is enjoying himself or herself. It is not a perfect Capitol party, it is much better. I am the only one still whining.
'I realize, just like always, Johanna knows I would hate a formal prissy party, and she made sure it was anything but what anyone expects. Jojo was upset. I was showing and she couldn't hit me so she cried. She didn't give a rat's petunia if I was mad at her. That amused her, in fact. But, this was different, she did cry when she felt she had disappointed someone. There were not many people she wanted to please and I can say she never once disappointed me until she died. I am disappointed she didn't out live me so she could be up here telling all the things I don't want anyone to know.
'Back to the party. I go storming into the room, pretend not to notice that she is upset and I gush about what a wonderful party it is. She grumbles and I drag her out and point out how much fun everyone is having and how people were comparing diapers for the gross out factor. There has never been a baby shower so horribly perfect. There has never been a friend so horribly perfect in every way.
'There was no hiding things from Johanna. She knew everyone's business and kept it to herself except for her favorite pastime of torturing people in private for the things she knew. She knew Haymitch loved me long before he knew it. She knew all sorts of information about the rebels and they didn't get anything worth using out of her. They tortured her ten hours for every one they spent on Peeta. He didn't have a clue about the rebels and still they got more out of him then they did her.
'Lots of victors lost themselves in the games. Johanna never stopped being who she was. She hid who she was, but she didn't lose it. She would have made a better Mockingjay then I ever did. She was smarter, wittier and a much better fighter. She never got the credit she deserved. She didn't want credit. She wanted the world to stop hurting kids. She wanted to make it so the capital could never make another Haymitch, Finnick or Johanna out of some poor district kid who just wanted a chance to live.
'I teased her when she got married to Wakefield Odair. Finn's Uncle was too quiet, to polite and too pretty for her taste. Her boyfriends were usually known to be trouble makers with long histories of indelicate behavior. Here she was falling in love with a fisherman, when she was morbidly terrified of water. She hadn't always been afraid of water, but the capitol had done a thorough job of making it so by then. It even may have saved her life in the long run, that terror of water cost her, her slot on the squad that ended the war.
'We didn't have much luck that day if you want to know the truth of it. We won, but the price was almost more than I could stand. It was a blessing she was afraid of water. She didn't see it that way, not when I had let her down and let her Gale Hawthorne die. I never thought she would try again. She always claimed she couldn't love anything. Annie and Finn knew her better.
'She made a stink about it. But, she falls madly in love with a person who lived water. I have heard for years that Odair's breathe water, and let me assure you I now know with perfect certainty, that is not true. The capitol had killed off much of Finn's family, but his uncle had somehow escaped their notice. Annie and Finn had introduced them and they proceeded to instantly hate each other. It is an odd story, but I can tell you they saved each other. She filled his heart like a hurricane and she filled his life with pure chaos. Somehow only Wake could calm the storm that was Johanna Mason.
'I think she found true love and I have to say nobody deserved it more. I look out at all the people here and I am so thankful that she got all the life and love she deserved. Anyone here, who was fond of or loved this woman, I thank you. She deserved every heart she gathered. She more than earned the places she made in ours. So with love, and pride and all the words of honor I have, I know I was blessed with the friendship of Johanna Maxine Mason Odair. I won't say farewell, because the place in my heart she filled for so long is still full. She will always be right here, for me. I even wore a black eye, just for old times. Good luck, twit, For once you let me have the... last word." I could just rasp out the end of the sentence. I left the podium and took my seat.
Wake sat in the audience, remembering the whole story, face blank and far away. He fell in love with her, but the odds of it working had not been in their favor. It had not started well. The Mockingjay had no idea how badly the storm had torn his life apart at first.
She was visiting, and Finn and Annie were preparing for a fishing trip. Johanna refused to go but insisted they go ahead, there was a storm breaking in the south and from all accounts the fishing was good. He had been hit with a boom that crushed his wrist and arm, and is still recovering. He is capable of working if he'd had too, but being single and unwilling to take a chance of another injury, he made the decision to sit this rumor of riches out.
Finn nd Annie promised to be back before the storm hit and Wake was asked to check in on her. Neither was pleased with the arrangement, but Johanna accepted that if she needed some item and had no idea where to get it, the injured and healing Wake Odair could be put up with long enough to obtain the information. She agreed that if he should have any trouble with his injury, she could offer him the decency of assistance for Finn's sake. They were just on the side of polite indifference to each other, and had put the end to any matchmaking plans Finnick and Annie had hoped to execute. They didn't like each other. It was simple, she thought he was a jerk and he thought she was a freak.
Finn and Annie and his crew head out of port and Johanna enjoys a wonderful time, just walking on the windy beaches and poking around in the shops. She and Wake did check in, but for the most part ignored each other, until the storm hit.
Johanna looked out the window for the fiftieth time. She didn't know what to do and she was in the process of falling apart. The water. The motherplucking water was coming for her. She panted in fear as the surges crashed up to the very door of the house and water began to seep under the sill. She backed away. This wasn't supposed to happen. Finn said they would be back before the storm. She looked out the kitchen window and the surges were so huge that she was sure all boats on the water had to be gone. She cried in fear.
She screamed at the storm. Her Finnick Odair and her Annie couldn't be alive on a little boat as the sea turned into a raging hell. She was more afraid of their loss, than anything, but she could handle timber snakes and grizzly bears easier than the ominous trickles of water that were draining into the house.
By the time Wake showed up, Johanna had lost her sanity alone in the little house by the beach. The water had surged into the parlor and she had built a furniture island and was sitting on the top of the contraption, rocking, eyes scrunches shut and mumbling to herself.
Wake tried to talk to her. He tried to be forceful with her. He considered leaving her here to drown. Damned townies, he swore to himself. He decided that if he got her drunk, and let her pass out, he could get her out and to the safety of his house, before the main storm fell. "Damned Finnick. Leaving me with your leftover idiot girlfriends." He cursed under his breath.
He climbed up to the girl's rickety fort and held out a bottle. "The water is bad. Water hurts." Johanna assured him, looking in his face with such pure fear she almost looked like a brown eyed Annie.
"It's Ok, Miss, I will keep you safe," he says calmly. Finn must have a thing for insane women; he was delighted he'd refused to get involved with her. She was pretty, in a rough almost vulgar way, but he was not about to admit he was almost lonely enough to give her a chance. Finn had bragged on what a catch she would be for him, and looking at her trembling and listening to her crazy talk just ticked him off at his famous nephew.
Of course the nephew part was a bit of a joke, he was only two years older than Finnick. They were more like distant brothers. They had been close when they were kids and as he'd watched Finn change after his games, the distance and a few misunderstandings had probably saved his life. The capitol had never spotted his family, because they never interacted with anyone after their son became the great and powerful victor. It wasn't until after the terrible war that the whole story was told.
His family had felt deep guilt for not suspecting that all was not what it seemed among the victor Odairs. Still, that snobbery had served them well. It kept them safe as tragedy after tragedy destroyed the branch that seemed to have had such luck.
"No place is safe from the water, Finn." She leans into him and sobs. Wake had no idea what to do, she seemed to be so far gone that she didn't know he was not Finnick. They did look a bit alike, but he'd never had a way with girls the way Finn did. Still, getting her out of the house might be easier beings she trusted Finnick, so he played along.
Three bottles later, the fake Finn and the laughing Johanna are singing loudly as he sloshes through the hip deep storm surge with her riding his shoulders like a five year old balanced on its daddy. He is unaware that somewhere on the trip, Johanna has decided that she should be topless.
They slog through the water as they sing off color songs, neither really know the words to or can quite hit a note of in tune. Even once they are on high enough ground that Johanna can walk, she won't get down and walk on the damp shiny pavement.
Wake's neighbors are watching the storm and are treated to the vision of him staggering along, half-drunk with a half-naked all the way drunk woman on his shoulders. He is still unaware of the development and waves at everyone as if nothing is awry.
When they reach his house, far up the hill and built solid and storm-proof, he sets her down and opens his door, calling over his shoulder for her to make herself at home as he hurriedly brings lamps, beings the house is totally dark by this point.
Johanna, stands in his parlor, now completely naked and he stops in his tracts at the vision before him. Maybe her hair was wild, and her mind was gone at the moment, but she was the loveliest thing he'd ever seen. He can't breath as she slides up to him with a grin and plants kisses all over him.
He had not had hunger like this for years. He'd had his pick of girls since his wife had passed within weeks of their blissful but painfully brief marriage, but his libido was picky. Most of the women he'd tried to date had not stirred him at all. This had been a terrible embarrassment for him.
He was a man and men should be content with any willing subject who had reasonable hygiene. Having heard Finn's exploits since long before the games, not to mention his friends many fish tales, he'd come to understand there was something very wrong with him.
He'd given up hope for someone to care for. How could he explain that part of him was without interest in them and not be the laughing stock of everyone? He had accepted that he was meant to be alone and his friends simply blamed his disinterest on the way he had never gotten over his sweet girl, Shelly.
He wants to be a gentleman now, but he has not been with anyone for a long time and this beautiful creature literally demanding him, is more than he can take. She is driving him insane with her soft skin and her desire. He is more than stirred, he is certain the storm outside is but a little spit puffer in comparison to the raging squall attacking him from within.
He kisses her back and her response is filled with such passion and hunger he is without any ability to stop what is happening between them. He was never a heavy drinker and he is as lost in his drunken worship of her as she is. The passion is out of control and the third round is in progress when the truth becomes clear to him.
"Oh my Finnick. I have missed you, so much," she moans, as she is swept with yet another fit of rapture.
He comes to a momentary halt as she calls out the wrong name over and over. He knows it is wrong to continue, but her movements and words drive his heat to such thoughtless lust, that he is beyond caring. "I'm not Finnick," he tells her. The information barely leaving his lips as she pulls his hips with her legs, giving him little will to stop.
He groans in misery and joy as he gives in to the beautiful body chanting words that no woman has ever said to him. He is not himself with her. He isn't even who she wants, but she has shown him that insanity has many forms. They lay peacefully for some time.
Never opening her eyes, she murmers,"I love you Finnick. I always have. I know you belong to Annie, but I won't ever stop remembering all the things we have had. I promise not to tell, but please, don't forget me. I need you Finn. Love me a little. Just a little. No man has ever…loved me. Maybe one. But she didn't bring him home so I won't ever know. You and Haymitch are all I have left. Tell me I can have just a tiny piece of your heart?" She doesn't wait for his answer before falling into exhausted darkness.
Wake lays there, taking in all he's heard. She is in love with Finnick. Poor thing. She has obviously been his lover for some time. Who knows what she meant about the president. Wake knew Finn had been forced, but he'd never imagined he'd cheated on Annie by any choice. The information doesn't make him happy, and he is embarrassed that he has made this error in judgment. It will have to be straightened out in the morning. Still, something about this beautiful woman so filled with life, never too have been loved, makes his heart ache. How could anyone not love her? She is perfect.
He watches her sleep and the more he did, the more he hated those who had found passion with her but hadn't bothered to care for her. This was a total disaster, she didn't even know who he was and here he held her in his arms, wanting nothing more than to do the very thing for her that she claimed all the others had never done. He could love her in an instant, hell he loved her now. He feared his dull life would never be able to tame her, but he had every intention of trying.
He expected her to be mad. He hadn't expected her to try to kill him, but he woke to her sitting on top of him smiling, with a bit of rope around his neck and her demanding to know what he'd done to her, as she pulled it tight.
He said the first thing that hit him. "I got drunk and fell in love with a crazy girl."
"I am not crazy," she says glaring.
"You are the one who is about to strangle a man who just said he loved you, after saving you from drowning last night." He grins at her as his face turns colors and he sees pretty lights dancing around her.
"You kidnapped me and took advantage of me. I can't even find my cloths you pervert." She loosens the rope a little, but wonders why he's not fighting. He is actually a little attractive, mostly because he resembles Finnick, but his eyes are a soft sky blue-green. More pale then Peeta's, but hard to look away from. Aqua she thinks.
"They were gone by the time you came in the door. I guess you can strangle me and steal some of mine, but you might want to wait until the storm ends before killing me. Hate for you to be stuck with me up here decomposing while Finn's house is under water." He says laughing but making no move to stop her.
"You are nuts. It must run in the family," she says hatefully.
His eyes take in this wild beauty and he melts. She can do anything she wants, he can't work up the ability to care. "I must be. You made me that way last night. I would do anything to make it up to you. Please forgive me?"
He can't help the reaction her nakedness is causing. He looks away and blushes at her snickering retort. "Typical Odair. Hopeful to a fault. What if I get you drunk and take advantage of you?"
His pale blue-green eyes lock on her. "I would have to propose. Marry me," he whispers. He can't believe these words are coming out of his mouth but he's never wanted anyone like this insane, dark-eyed, angry, obviously ex-girlfriend of Finnick's. He pulls her to him and kisses her with gentle want and she sits back looking at him confused.
"You don't even know me."
"I know enough to see the most incredible thing that ever happened to me could walk out the door and never speak to me again. I know how I responded to you. What else matters." he pleads.
She took the rope from around his neck. "Why wouldn't you give me a chance when Finn asked you to? You don't want a whore. That was why, wasn't it? Nothing changed last night. I am still just a whore and you got paid for your efforts."
"Finn told me, what you had been through. It matters, but it didn't matter for the reason you think. I have never. I mean my wife was only alive for a few weeks after we married. I have, you know, dated, but I felt nothing. It isn't romantic I guess, but I was terrified. You have known so many men and you have been with him. My nephew, of such renown. I never thought. Johanna, I am not like other men. I don't stir for every pretty girl who crosses my path." He says defensively. "I can't compete with Finn."
"No you can't. He's a good guy and you are a scumbag." She gets off the bed and is surprised when she see's such hurt in his eyes. He must think she is a fool.
He stands up and she noted his problem has gone away without any arguing. He dresses, stares at the floor and says, "Pick anything I have that suits you to wear. You can take the bedroom until the storm breaks. Help yourself to anything you would like." His voice is so choked he sounds like a frog and a small pang of guilt hits her for strangling him. She hadn't meant to do it that hard or anything.
He leaves the room without his eyes lifting for even a hesitant glance. She smiles a little. Intimidation works with perverts every time. She digs into his closet and finds a huge shirt she simply wears as a dress.
Sleepy and wanting to show off her grouchy side, Johanna enters the living room to find coffee and eggs waiting for her but no Wake Odair. She sees a note. 'I went to the marina to check on my boat.' She looks out the window at the monster of wind, rain and gray screaming nature outside. It makes her sick to even think of setting foot out in this horrible wet mess. She shudders, eats the entire pan of eggs, and sets herself into exploration mode.
She looks at his darned socks and pilfers through his medicine cabinet. She searches under beds and in out-of-the-way corners. His closets are a boon of information, when she comes across a chest. There are old photos of smiling Odairs and a huge wedding. Then she sees the papers of his wife's death. She had only been nineteen. The death date had been just a month and a few days after the wedding.
She dug more, expecting to see the capitol's hand behind the tragedy, but it had not been them. She had died of an allergic reaction to a jellyfish sting. She read the many articles and found that it was an inherited condition. She had only gone swimming with a bunch of friends. They had all been stung that day, but only she had been allergic.
Johanna read his letters and even found one from Finn. He seemed to be giving Wake advice in the way to handle girls, except he wasn't telling him how to win their hearts but how to let them down gently until he found one who made him feel like his wife had. Finn had spoken of there being no shame in not wanting to make love to people he felt nothing for. He made it sound like he was gay, yet he certainly hadn't been last night. He'd evidently given her a capitol romp from the way she had awakened feeling.
She returned his belongings carefully to their places and wandered around the house bored and pondering what kind of sucker this relative of Finnick's was. Questions came to her mind one after the other. She smiled, nobody had ever asked her to marry them. Even if he was a stupid pervert, that alone was a little flattering.
Wake left the house utterly crushed. She had laughed at him. He had just handed her his heart like a chump and watched her stomp on it like a bug. He stood in the rain watching his boat and all the others be tossed against their tethers with the same careless hopeless loss of control as he felt near that woman. He didn't want to go home now. What was there to say? He was an idiot. He had his chance at love with Shelly. He was the worst kind of sap for thinking someone like her could be pleased with his ridiculous outburst of pathetic nonsense.
He stood on the upper dock in the cold rain all day, having no place to be and not wanting to embarrass himself again. It was long past dark when he finally turned back home. He entered his house quietly, dripping and shivering. She was sitting cross legged on his counters doing puzzles, she looked at him and smiled and his heart lurched in the cold slush of his shame.
"I was starting to wonder if you fell in?" she says looking him up and down.
"I tried. Good night." He said hurrying for the guest bedroom. He wanted a shower, but it would mean going back out there. He didn't even peel off his wet cloths; he just dried himself on a blanket and flopped on the narrow bed.
Johanna was annoyed that he just closed the door and dismissed her. Last night he'd jumped her and now he was too good to speak to her. She grinned as she hopped off the counter and headed for the closed door. She hoped to catch him naked again and make fun of him. She quietly opened the door after listening for a few minutes, and let it flop open with a smirk.
He lay face down on the bed, still soaking wet and when he looked up in shock she could see his eyes were puffy. "Damned. Did your boat crash?" she tried to add a little sympathy to her voice, or at least sound like she didn't think it was funny.
"What are you doing? I gave you my room." He sits up.
"You're going to get sick you know. Were you born in a barn? Get out of that bed and put on some dry cloths before you ruin the mattress. You ought to jump in a hot shower. Have you been out in this the whole day? Look like a drowned raccoon."
He sat there with his mouth open. "It is my mattress. Why the hell would you care?"
She laughs and shrugs. "Well if I do get stuck marrying your perverted little hide, maybe I don't want you ruining the furniture. Come on. I didn't mean to choke you. I'll wash your back." She drags him up and pulls his wet things off as he protests in astonishment.
"No. Stop this. I don't want a shower. What do you think you are doing?"
"I don't like to shower alone. I hate water." She shrugs, naked before him again.
"Well I can't help you with that. You. You laughed at me." He sputters as she snuggles up to him and rubs soap all over him.
"Yeah? So? God it's like you aren't even an Odair. Haven't you ever showered with a girl before?" She is smiling and friendly, but what her hands do is making him lose his mind again.
"No. I have not!" he says firmly, stopping her hands and looking at her, beginning to be angry at this strange reaction.
Her brows knot together. "How many girls have you been with? Tell me the truth."
"Three," he states, cheeks flaming.
"Not this week. I mean ever?" she asks again in disbelief.
"Three," he says again through gritted teeth. He is shamefully stirred again and hates himself for being unable to stop the display.
She looks down at him and smiles. "That, I do remember." Her voice is husky and her eyes enormous as she playfully touches him without so much as a warning.
The shock of her delicate fingers around him, makes his eyes roll and a moan escapes him. "Why are you doing this?"
"Are you gay?" she asks directly.
"No." He pulls away, turns and begins rinsing himself of the soap she has slathered all over him.
"It's ok if you are. I mean, god knows it doesn't mean diddly to me. But you're as pretty as Finn and yet you claim your number as three. If that includes me and your wife, then you must have had one long term girlfriend. Why didn't you marry her?"
"How is this any of your business?" Wake hates her for thinking him to be such a joke.
"Don't you want me to marry you …Pretty boy?" Johanna asks innocently.
He sighs. "Johanna, I explained this morning. I have no interest in most women. Nothing. My first experience was nothing, just teen antics. Then my wife and then you. I am sorry if my experience doesn't meet your exacting standards."
Johanna stares at him in disbelief. "You are almost a virgin? Ohh that is so hot. So tell me, has a woman ever done this?'
She grabbed him and he nearly died of embarrassment as he watched her open her mouth and made him disappear. "You have to stop!" he cried in agony. But when she didn't, it was too late to plead again.
She stood up immensely pleased with herself. "Oh, Pretty boy, I can't wait to find out what else you haven't done."
He was without shield against her. By the time the storm ended in the night, he knew there was never going to be a way out of her net. He was hopelessly entangled and he couldn't imagine existing without her. He held her in his arms, touching her hair and unknowingly winning her with each caress. "When you decide to strangle me in the morning, please know, I love you anyway."
She laughs and kisses him. "You're as crazy as a bed bug."
By the time Finnick docked two days later, Johanna lived with Wake and never left. Every night he'd told her he loved her, even if she decided to strangle him in the morning, and every morning, she decided not to.
Finn had beamed with I-told-you-so delight and had instantly begun calling her Auntie Jo. He never called him Uncle Wake, but the name stuck and rarely was any other spoken again. President Haymitch Abernathy had walked her down the aisle and kissed her so obscenely that people talked about it for years. Katniss and Finnick had rolled their eyes as if it was to be expected on such occasions. Annie had kindly explained finally. He did trust her, but he still watched the president like a hawk out of pure jealousy.
Wake looks at his beautiful children. Her mind had begun to wander a few years ago, but all he could see as he had lost her, was the scared young girl terrified of a storm. Now he was lost and all he could think of was how little time he'd had with her.
The boat is set to the water. The casket tries to slide off and the whole boat has to be rearranged. Johanna refuses to go calmly. Katniss tucks a little box of sugar cubes, from Finn and a bottle of moon liquor in from herself. "Share it with Haymitch," she whispers. Everyone adds a token for her journey. Wake lays torch to it as the disposable motor is released and the little funeral barge scurries past the peninsula and smoke rising, heads far out to sea. The little boat will flame for a few hours, then anything not consumed, will sink into the sea. It will wink and flash for those who stand on shore once the sun goes down. Katniss finally breaks at the sight wondering if anyone else would know how much this would have been disagreeable to her. She would have wanted a nice hole in the ground with a pretty tree planted over her to wrap her forever in its roots. How did they not know how afraid of water she is? She hated fire too.
Katniss went to the dinner. Wake Odair thanked her, she did three very quick interviews for the press, refusing to discuss Finnick Odair and only giving praise to Jo Odair. She greeted her children and held on to young Cinna and Hay Two as Thresh and his family told Auntie Jo stories and Finnick Abernathy demanded to see Uncle Finn. It was Chaos in the Abernathy-Mellark Horde as always. She could not begin to fathom the Odair Fleet. She looked at three of her grandchildren with tears, their mother had not attended. Maysillee held her youngest and Katniss reeled at the sudden knowledge that she was so tired she couldn't remember her little name, so she called her 'sweetheart' and the older kids beamed at her at the familiar remembrance.
She called her mother twice, the news was 'no change'. She still felt rushed to get back to the hospital. She stood it as long as she could, then went straight back to the small room with the man she felt sure she was losing.
She spoke in a quiet voice. The next day was spent with one visitor after another dropping by. The grandkids were a streaming mass and other Odairs seemed determine to take her place as the boss of Finn. She gave them some quarter, allowing them the thought for the moment. She was going to see this through, and what he needed, she would give him. She did sleep, and as the others finally became a trickle then gone, she held his hand and spoke again. This is her world now. She is the watcher of the sleeping man. Day. Watch. Day. Watch.
Abeo Clarus. Slip from the fame. Finnick's coffin should say that instead.
After more than she could count, after everyone told her to stop, after she had almost stopped dreaming of them, the green eyes look at her. She smiles and whispers, "Took you long enough to decide."
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