Disclaimer: The Hunger Games and its characters are all property of Suzanne Collins. No profit is being made from this piece of work. No copyright infringement is intended.
16
Shortly after the white lady's visit, Mother took me to the market. At first, I thought she was taking me to buy some ingredients for dinner with her but when we walked straight past the fish stall and through the market place, I realized we weren't going there at all.
In the town centre of District 4 stands a large monument I had always thought was shaped like a giant headstone. That's because that's what it is. My mother took me to the far side of the monument and pointed to two words that were at my eye level.
"That's your daddy," she said. "These are the names of all the people from District 4 who died in the war."
"Daddy?" I repeated, reaching towards the name and tracing it with my fingers.
"Your daddy was a hero," my mother told me, crouching down and hugging me to her. "I love you so much, Fin," she told me out of the blue. She shifted me away from the gravestone a little so I was looking straight into her eyes. I remember that look being the clearest look she had ever given me, one that wasn't tainted by her unstable mind. "And no matter what I do, I want you to know it will always be for you."
(*)
"Welcome back, Fin."
It's not my mother's voice that is welcoming me back from my unconsciousness but Nurse Everdeen's. I'm in a room with bright white lights and I'm lying on a bed. I'm in a hospital. Nurse Everdeen is holding my hand, rubbing circles on the back of it to comfort me.
"What-?" I begin but my voice is hoarse.
"Try not to talk," she advises me. "You were in those cells for just under a week. Your body went into shock from the pain and you were very dehydrated. The doctors are looking after you now. You're in the Capitol Hospital. Britney called me to come up here. I've been so worried about you."
A doctor comes in then, assesses me and then leaves. Nurse Everdeen looks miffed.
"Think they're all high and mighty these doctors," she mutters almost to herself. "I've got a feeling to give them a good piece of my mind!"
I manage a weak smile.
"Mad-" I begin but she cuts me off to save me the pain of talking.
"She's doing fine," Nurse Everdeen says. "Don't worry about her. She's in safe hands. Her mother came down here with me."
"Snow-" I begin. Nurse Everdeen narrows her eyes, she doesn't seem to understand what I'm trying to say. "Snow – she – put – us – there – to – die. How – did–?"
"Aberdeen Snow is dead," Nurse Everdeen says suddenly.
That sentence is better than any morphling the doctors could give me. "How?" Nurse Everdeen gets up and makes me up a glass of water from a pitcher on the other side of the room. When she returns and hands it to me, I drink it all in one go. The effect is marvelous. My throat feels almost normal again. As she sits down though I realize she didn't just do it for my benefit. She needed time to gather her thoughts.
Nurse Everdeen looks so sad that I almost regret asking but then I feel anger rage inside of me. How could she be upset about Aberdeen dying?
"There was a riot," she says before I can embarrass myself by shouting at her. "Last week Aberdeen Snow came out to make her speech and the crowd descended on her."
I find it hard to imagine how that could have done any damage. "How long ago was this?" I ask.
"It's been two weeks since you were thrown in the cell and left to die," Nurse Everdeen explains, catching me up on everything as a whole. "You've been in the hospital unconscious for eight days. This riot happened nine days ago."
"What happened?" I ask. "Was it bad?"
Nurse Everdeen's eyes shimmer with tears. "Whilst Aberdeen was giving her speech, the crowd pushed forward. I think they were trying to crush her."
"Didn't her guards open fire?" I ask.
"Of course they did," Nurse Everdeen nods and I realize this is what has made her upset. "But they kept going and even when she ran backstage she swarmed after her. They attacked her guards and crushed her as they had wanted. Then we searched the mansion and found you. Some of the mentors who were friends of Madison's were looking for her. They saw her hovercraft land but hadn't seen her. Of course everybody was surprised when Britney found you."
"Britney?" I croak, remembering her face peering out towards me in the dark through my cell bars.
"Madison kept talking about you when they were rescuing her but the guards thought she was just grieving. Britney was the only one who believed you were down there, that you were alive. Fin, I thought I'd lost you." She breaks down then, tears spilling freely from her eyes.
In all my life I have never seen Nurse Everdeen cry. She has always been the strong one, the one that kept our small family together, who kept my mother going even when she didn't want to. She even blames herself for not being there when Mother walked into the ocean.
Ignoring the pain that fires up my arm, I reach out and stroke her hair as she cries into the side of my bed. "I'm sorry you had to go through that," I tell her. "I wish I could have told you but Katniss wouldn't let me. She said they'd kill you too."
"They probably would," Nurse Everdeen agrees. "And I shouldn't be like this, I'm sorry. Fin, 495 people died during that riot."
My hand falls back to the bed in shock. Anger rushed through me as though I've been electrocuted before it fades, leaving me numb. "Yet more people who shouldn't have died," I mutter.
"The Guardians want to talk to you," Nurse Everdeen says. "When do you want to speak to them?"
"In a bit," I tell her. "But first I want to talk to you."
"About what?" she asks, reaching out and brushing my hair from my sweaty forehead. My morphling's beginning to wear off.
"Who's the President now?" I ask, surprised that after twenty years of Paylor, the country will have had three different Presidents in a year.
"Nobody yet," Nurse Everdeen says. "The government officials are in talks about who to elect."
"Nurse Everdeen," I begin hesitantly, unsure how to ask what I want to know. "Is it true about my father?"
"Is what true?" she asks, genuinely confused. She looks surprised that I am asking her about my father at all.
"Was he a…" my mouth dries suddenly as I try to form the terrible word, "A whore?"
Nurse Everdeen doesn't gasp or recoil in shock or disgust. She just blinks at me. I know it's true then but I want to hear what she has to say. "Who told you?" she asks gently.
"Aberdeen," I answer. "At first I thought she was just trying to get at me but the way she said it…"
"Finnick did what he had to do to survive," Nurse Everdeen says. "The government – President Snow – would have killed him had he not done what he asked."
"And what did he ask?" I ask, wanting to know everything at once so I wouldn't have to bring this topic up ever again.
"For Finnick to…accompany his fans whenever they paid for it," Nurse Everdeen explains neatly. "If Finnick didn't do as he asked then Annie would have been hurt to."
"Did Mother know?"
Nurse Everdeen hesitates, as though she knows the answer but is unsure how to voice it. "He tried to keep it from her the best he could," she says eventually. "But Annie wasn't a fool. She did, however, love him enough to trust that whatever he was doing he was doing for the good."
"But what he was doing was a bad thing," I protest.
"Just like you," Nurse Everdeen reminds me gently. "You were doing a bad thing but in the end it was for the greater good."
"Are you talking about the Hunger Games?" I ask.
"Yes," Nurse Everdeen nods. "Not that I think they are a greater good but there are those out there would believe they are."
"I always thought my father was a hero," I admit.
"He was, and he always will be," Nurse Everdeen says it as though she is scolding me. "Finnick was only human at the end of the day. He made mistakes just like you and I do."
"Nurse Everdeen," I begin again, wanting to approach another touchy topic but being unsure how to do it.
She looks at me, an eyebrow arched as she waits for me to pluck up the courage and ask her.
"Why do you not talk to Katniss?" I ask.
Nurse Everdeen takes in a sharp breath. I have caught her by surprise.
"I fell out with Katniss a long time ago," she explains. "In a way, I blamed her for Prim's death. Prim was my daughter," she adds by way of explanation.
"I know," I say. "Katniss told me what happened to her," I explain when she frowns at me.
"Do you still hate her?" I ask, wanting to keep her talking and hoping she is not angry with me for delving in her private life.
"No I don't," Nurse Everdeen admits, "Though I do not know how I will even begin to apologize to her after all the upset I've caused."
"I'm sure she'll forgive you," I say. "Life's too short."
"Exactly," Nurse Everdeen agrees, nodding. "Life is too short," she repeats.
"I'm tired," I murmur.
"Then you'd better get some rest," she says, walking away and leaving the room as I feel my eyes begin to close again.
(*)
The next time I wake up the sky outside my room is pitch black and I can hear hushed voices outside my hospital room door. I can't make out what they're saying but I can see Nurse Everdeen through the blinds and hear the high-pitched tone of her annoyed voice.
Eventually the door clicks open and she stands in the doorway looking me over. "The Guardians want to speak to you," she says bitterly. "Are you up to it?"
"Yes," I say immediately and attempt to sit up. I end up doing nothing but sending a shooting pain across my ribs. Nurse Everdeen rolls her eyes and hurried over to help me sit up comfortably.
The Guardians file in one by one, each wearing the stark white uniform of the Capitol. All five of them are men, and one carried a notebook and pen.
"Mr. Odair, we're here to interview you," the bald one says. "Doctors say your mental health is at an acceptable standard and we would like to go over the events of what happened two weeks ago."
"Okay," I say. The Guardians all look to Nurse Everdeen then who sighs and heads towards the door. "Nurse Everdeen!" I call after her. She stops and turns, looking almost worried that I have call her. "Is Madison okay?" I ask.
She rolls her eyes. "Stop your fretting," she says. "Madison is in better condition than you." But there is a look in her eyes that worries me. Before I can ask, however, she slips quietly out of the room. The door clicks shut behind her.
"Mr. Odair, would you please go over the night in question," the bald Guardian says with so much authority I don't even sigh with exasperation.
"Madison and I landed the hovercraft at the Landing Station," I begin but already they interrupt me.
"What were you doing in the hovercraft?"
So I explain to them Madison's plan of interviewing the Tribe's people, of trying to end the Hunger Games. They listen with interest because, apparently, all of them had believed the suicide story the government had spun out.
As I talk more about her, I realize how desperate I am to see Madison. Even Nurse Everdeen if keeping her condition secret. I want to be done with the Guardians as soon as possible so I can see her again.
"And what happened when you reached the President's Office?"
So I tell them that too, trying to ignore Madison's screams of pain as she was whipped again and again. I haven't seen my own body yet though I know it's covered in bandages. I hope the wounds don't scar too much. I don't want a reminder of that day.
"Aberdeen was behind it all," I tell them, letting my anger roll out of me this way. "She kidnapped Plutarch's family meaning he would do whatever she wanted. He convinced Paylor to bring back the Hunger Games; she herself convinced my mother to kill herself so she would be out of the picture and I would be on my own. She wanted me to represent the Hunger Games and she needed me to have no outside influence. I don't think she banked on Nurse Everdeen." I smile for a moment, thinking of how strong Nurse Everdeen is to have been through all that she has been through and still be strong enough for me to depend on. "Obviously me walking in on Plutarch killing Paylor was better than she had hoped for. But in the end she wanted to become queen of the world and I think she would have killed us all in the end anyway; me, Plutarch, Paylor, Madison, Britney. But those 495 people stood in her way." I smile again, wanting to let the Guardians know how proud I am of all those Capitol citizens.
"Is there anything else?" I ask.
The Guardians seem too stunned to say anything. Eventually the bald man says, "No, that will be all, thank you, Mr. Odair."
They leave and I'm left alone once again. I try to stay awake in case Nurse Everdeen comes to check on me and I can ask about Madison but the interview has gotten the best of me and my eyes droop shut once more.
(*)
The following days are a mixture of slipping in and out of unconsciousness, talking to Nurse Everdeen and asking for Madison. They still won't let me see her. After a week of begging, a woman I've never seen before walks into my room.
Still, I know who she is the moment I see her straight brown hair – the same texture as Madison's.
"I'm Belle Hawthorne," she introduces herself.
"Fin," I offer my hand but drop it after she doesn't shake it.
"I know," she replies.
I wait for her to explain why she is here but after the silence drags on I realize she doesn't plan on saying anything more. Weakly I offer, "I'm sorry about your husband. He was a good man."
"Yes he was," she says curtly. "He had to be to sacrifice his life for you." She says it with almost disgust and I resist the urge to tell her about my father saving his life. It would only lead to a petty argument.
"Have they told you about Madison?" she asks.
I feel my heart start to race in panic. "No," I say. "What's happened?"
"Oh, I think you know what's happened," Belle says sounding as though she would like nothing more than to punch me in my just-healed ribs. "Madison is pregnant."