Author's Note: Hello Everyone. Here is Chapter Nine. It's a tad short, but it has Finnick in it! There are also some small spoilers for Mockingjay, so if you haven't read the third book, you have been warned. They're not huge spoilers, well, they are in some ways, but mainly it just about Finnick's "Job" and the stuff that he's learnt from his "Job" about certain people 'coughsnowcough'.
Anyway, enough of my chatter, please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Chapter Nine

And I did. Try to sleep that is. I think I got around five hours before I was rudely awaken by my door slamming open, bouncing off my wall before being slammed shut again.

"Why didn't you tell me that you met Snow yesterday afternoon?" Finnick's voice growled in the darkness.

My hand flopped around my bedside table for the lamp, finding it and turned it on. The clock standing by it informed me just how early in the morning it was.

"Well, good morning to you too, sunshine." I replied, rubbing my eyes, "and keep it down. Do you want to wake everyone up?" I added when he looked about ready to yell at me again.

This shut him up for a moment or so, enough time for him to stalk over to my bed and glare down at me. In any other situation, I would probably laugh due to the fact that Finnick really isn't a morning person on a good day, but at the moment he looked ridiculous. His hair was all over the place, he face was pulled into a frown that would put a four year old having a temper tantrum to shame and he just looked funny. Or maybe it's the lack of sleep or maybe the nerves, whatever it was; it was making me have a sudden bout of the giggles, because before I knew I was giggling uncontrollably.

"Annie," he growl in exasperation, "stop laughing!"

"Sorry." I giggled, "Can't."

He came to crouch down by me, his frown now replaced with concern as he watched me giggle.

Once I had calm down some, he asked me again.

"Why didn't you tell me, anyone, that you went and saw Snow yesterday?" he asked, far more calmly now.

"I told Grandma." I said and he looked maybe momentarily relieved.

"How do you know?" I asked suddenly, my head tilted to one side.

"Hmm?"

"How did you know I went and saw the President yesterday?"

"If you know who to ask, you can find out just about anything." He informed and my heart stopped for a moment. Did that mean he knew too? About the baby? Was that why he was so angry with me?

"Only, I wasn't able to find out why he wanted to meet with you yesterday, only that he did." He added and I felt a moment of relief, though that feeling quickly disappeared when I saw his face.

"Why, Annie? Why did he want to meet you yesterday?" he was terrified and desperate. "I was so careful. I did everything he asked, so why? Why?" he was talking to himself I realised after a moment.

"What did I do wrong?" he whispered and I caught his face in my hands, forcing him to look up at me.

"Nothing. You didn't do anything wrong, Finnick."

"Then why did he want to see you?" he demanded. I wanted to lie, like I had done last night, to erase his fear and pain, but I couldn't.

"He found out…" I looked away from him, "he found out about us." I said and his whole body froze. Like I had my hands on his face, his hands now came to rest on mine, turning my head so that I looked at him.

"What did he do? What did he threat to do to you?" he asked very slowly and deliberately. I couldn't tell him though, because then I would have to tell him about the baby and-and I wasn't ready to do that just yet. Maybe Grandma was right about not telling him about it until after the games.

"Annie?"

"Why do you even care?" I asked harshly. He didn't even flinch, damn him!

"Because I love you, stupid." He replied just as harshly. "And this is all my fault."

"How do you figure?" I asked.

"I must have done something, something that he didn't like or someone complained or maybe he knows that I know…" I interrupted him mid-sentenced.

"Or someone back home noticed me sneaking from your house back to mine and they went and told him." I snapped even though my heart sunk at the thought, but it was the only thing that made sense as to how he would know about my doing that. That or there are camera's set up around the Victor's Village that no one knows about. Come to think of it, that's not as far-fetch as it might seem.

"Maybe…" he said but he sounded doubtful. "So what happened?" I was tempted to ask him yet again why he cared but since he had said he loved me – which had made my insides all gooey and I was fighting hard enough already not to show it – I flopped back into bed and stared up at my ceiling. Then after a moment, I wiggled over to make room for him. He hopped on without a word, though he didn't get under the covers with me. I wasn't sure how exactly I felt about that.

"I don't know. It was all a bit weird really." I admitted after a while. I was too comfortable having him there and I kept having to stop myself from rolling over and curling into his side.

"What did he say?"

"Not much, really. He was very cryptic." Which was true.

He gestured for me to continue.

"Well, he asked me how my day was, if I was enjoying training," – not so much as asking how I was dealing with training in my condition, - "if he could call me Annie and how I liked my tea." I finished and I felt him stiff. Suddenly he was leaning over me, looking completely frantic.

"Did you drink it?"

"What?"

"Did you drink it? The tea? Did you?"

"Um," I couldn't understand why he was freaking out about whether or not I had drunk the tea, "no. I didn't have a chance. It wasn't an overly long interview and I was panicking too much to think about drinking the tea. Why?" the relief written on his face was strange. He pulled me into his arms and hugged me close to him.

"Finnick?"

"Have you ever wondered how our good President Snow has stayed in office for so long?" Finnick asked me unexpectedly. I pull away from him, looking up at his face with a frown.

"What?" and no, I hadn't. The thought had never even crossed my mind. President Snow has been president of Panem since before I was born and it feels like he'll still be president well after I've died. "No."

"Do you want to know?" he asked and I felt something inside of me feel a little ill, more than a little and it had nothing to do with the baby.

"Am I allowed to know?" I asked nervously, worried that unseen ears might be listening in on our conversation.

"They don't have any cameras or anything like that installed in the tributes rooms." Finnick said as if reading my thoughts, or maybe he saw me looking around the room.

"How do you…" I started but let my voice die.

"You know what I'm forced to do here." He started out slowly, not looking at me but rather at the opposite wall. "What Snow forces me to do? You know why I have to do it?"

I hesitate for a moment.

"Because he'll kill you if you don't." I guessed. Though I knew all about Finnick's other "Job", we had never really spoken about it further than me trying to stop him from either drowning himself or rubbing himself raw in either the shower or the ocean because he feels he isn't clean enough, that he can't get them off him, that his skin reeks of them. It can take hours after he's come back from the Capital to get him to come out of the ocean or shower, all red and raw from scrubbing himself so vigorously. One time he had scrubbed himself so hard that his skin was actually bleeding.

He laughed.

"I wish," he said with a harsh, short laugh, "if that was all, then I would have told him no a million times. Though I doubt he would have, I'm too valuable to him still. No," he looked down at me, "no, if I said no, he would kill everyone I loved. That's what happened to Johanna. She said no and he killed her whole family." I felt myself shudder in disgust and in sympathy, in pity for her lose.

"But I've learnt to work it to my advantage." He started once more. "I do it so that I can protect everyone I care about, everyone I love," his arms around me grow a little tighter and he lips my hair as he speaks, "but I've learnt how to turn it to my advantage as well."

"How?"

"I don't ask to be paid with money or jewellery," he shook his head like the idea amused him, "I've discovered a much more valuable form of payment. Secrets."

"What kind?" I asked softly.

"Any that I feel are worth my while." He says. "And a lot that are worth my while are about Snow. I've found out some pretty interesting things about our president that he wouldn't like to get out." His smile is almost evil and I feel myself shiver at the sight of it.

"Like?" I find myself asking.

"Like how he poisons anyone he perceives as a threat. He's adversaries; sometimes he'll poison his own allies if he starts to see them as a threat to him. Did you notice when you were with him, that strange mixture of blood and roses?" I nodded, remembering the sickening smell and I start to feel ill once more as I remember. "That smell, the smell of blood is caused from him poisoning himself along with his victims so as not to call suspicion onto himself. He has antidotes for the poisons that he uses, but they don't always work, hence the constant smell of blood due to the sores in his mouth that will never fully heal. He uses strong smelling perfume to try and mask the smell."

"Well it doesn't work," I mutter, "it just makes it worse." Then I shake my head, sighing. "Makes sense though."

"Hmmm?"

"He reminds me of a snake. When I met him yesterday and I looked into his eyes, all I could think was 'snake'. And now you've told me that the way he rids himself of all his competitors is by using poison. Poison, the ultimate weapon of a snake."

"You know, I never thought of it like that, but you're right." He then did something he hasn't done in days and that was kiss me. Not on the lips, but on my temple.

"I'm so glad you didn't drink the tea." he whispered against my temple and I nodded. I was too.

"Do you really think he would have? Poison my tea, I mean?" I asked.

"Don't know. Possibly not since you're going into the Arena in a couple of days. Why kill off the entertainment early?" he asked grimly.

"He's going to though." I muttered under my breath.

"What?" oh damn, he heard.

"Annie," he took hold of my chin and turned my head around to look at him. I try to smile but I fail.

"I don't think I'm going to make it out of the Arena." I admitted. "I'll try," I add quickly when I see his face, "but I just have a feeling that I might have a hard time, harder than anyone else that is."

"Did he tell you that?" he asked in a strangled voice. "And because of us? Because I'm with you?"

"No, not as such. And I told him we were just friends. Which of course he didn't believe, but he said I was to stick to the story." Or things might become unpleasant for those I love.

I could feel his panic, his grief, his anger as he held me against him tightly.

"I won't-I won't let them take you from me." he whispers harshly into my ear. "I'll get you out, I'll get you home."

"And then what?" I asked a little dryly, "You'll hide me away for the rest of my life?"

"Don't tempt me." he growls thickly into my hair. "So that's all he wanted to see you about? Us and our relationship?"

"Ah," I started, thinking back over my whole meeting with Snow, which had mostly been about my baby with Finnick thrown in near the end, "basically."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Finnick asked me.

"That was basically what he wanted to see me about. I told you, he's cryptic. It took awhile for me to figure out what he actually wanted and when I did, I just said that we were friends and that I'd stick to that story if anyone asked me."

Finnick made an hmphed noise as he fell back on to my bed and pulled me to his side. It was at this moment that I was tempted to tell him about the baby, consequences be damned!

But somehow I managed to hold my tongue and simply enjoyed being held by him, burying my face into his neck and breathed in deeply. He still smelled of the ocean.

"I've missed you." I whisper instead.

"I know." he sighed, "you have no idea." He hugged me close to him.

And in only moments, I'm fast asleep.

Author's Note: YAY! So Finnick's back! He's whole reason for being all distant and cold with Annie was all due to his desire to protect her and stop people from finding out about them. At least that was his plan... didn't work all that well, huh?

Anyway, on a completely different topic, but eventually comes back around to Hunger Games and Annie and Finnick. I saw Snow White and the Huntsman earlier this week and I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I think this is one of KS best roles - Please don't kill me Twilight Fans or this fic will never be finished! - and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole story. But what I probably loved best about the whole movie was in fact the end credits. Why you may ask? Well, because I found or rather heard, the perfect song for Hunger Games, this fanfic and Annie and Finnick. Some of you may have heard it already and might agree with me (might not, but each to their own) on this, but I think it's a brilliant song for Hunger Games, especially for Annie and Finnick. It's called Breath of Life by Florence and the Machine and in my mind it is just perfect for these two. I also think its the perfect song for this fanfic and I've been listening to it almost religiously as I've been writing Part Two.