IMPORTANT NOTE! Yes, another one… There's another time-skip here. To the time when Squad 451 is in the Capitol. Also, and perhaps far more importantly, I'm changing canon here. You'll see how and I really, really, really hope you like it enough to keep on reading…

Chapter Eighteen

I don't want to die.

"Come on, Odair! Hold on!"

I'd like to. I'd like to come and I'd like to hold on. Whether I can or not is another thing entirely. Maybe I'm not dying. My life's not flashing before my eyes. It's supposed to. I think.

All I know is pain.

I want relief from this pain.

I would give anything for relief from this pain.

A hand slaps against the side of my face. "Finnick! Listen to me! Eyes open. On me. Come on!"

I try to keep my eyes open and on this person talking to me. It seems like it'd be a good idea to listen to this person. There's a haziness in my vision and my ears are echoing like I'm underwater. I don't know who is hovering over me.

It's hard to breathe. The weight on my chest feels so heavy.

"I'm going to turn your head," the voice says, scrambling around beside me. "If you have to cough or spit something out, do it. Please."

He said please. Maybe if I do as he asks, he'll make the pain stop.

"Good," he says when I cough out what must be an alarming amount of blood – it's red and hot and sticky so it must be blood. He moves again, shoving still warm white bodies out of the way and shaking out fabric of some sort. "Stay still and I'm going to bind your wounds the best I can."

I couldn't move if I want to.

The pain is blinding as he slides the fabric – a uniform jacket, I think – underneath me and zips it up without using the sleeves. It's far too small and it makes it hard to breathe. I think it's Katniss'. He tugs on the sleeves and ties them around my neck.

I recognize him as he's just above my head. Gale Hawthorne.

"I'm not telling Annie you love her or that you're sorry," he says, seeming to read my mind and understanding what I want to say. "Tell her yourself. Hold on, stay alert, and tell her yourself."

It seems unlikely.

I can't move but I remember now that we're in a sewer underneath the Capitol. I can see him now well enough to know that he's covered in red blood, probably mine, and green blood, probably the lizards.

The lizards.

Gale puts his hands on my shoulders when I start to panic. "Shh. Calm down. The lizards are dead. All of them. Katniss dropped her holo to kill them. I don't know how you survived the lizards and the holo but you did."

I don't know how either and I'm too tired to wonder. I can't speak anyway, at least I don't think I can, so I can't ask where Katniss is. It seems like Gale would be with her.

"Katniss went ahead with Peeta, Cressida, and Pollux," he says, seeming to read my mind again. "I stayed back to find something of yours to take back to Annie. Imagine my surprise when I found you alive. Now I've just got to keep you that way."

I want to tell him not to bother, that he'll only end up getting himself killed. But I want to beg him to save me.

I still can't talk. The haziness and the echoing are back.

It all fades to black before I can form another thought.

"Finnick, come on. Open your eyes. Show me you're alive."

It's sort of a startling realization, but I am still alive.

So I open my eyes and show Gale just that.

It hurts to open my eyes. It hurts to breathe. It hurts to think.

"I'm sorry I don't have pain medication for you," he says from the spot on the floor – we're not in the sewer anymore – where he's sitting beside me. "Since you're still alive, I'd try and get you some if I had any idea where to try. If you can tell me something, I'll go."

I can't think of anything, other than that I really don't want to be alone.

Different hands are touching me.

They're softer, smaller, gentler.

"Do you want water, Finnick? You can take small sips, just enough to wet your mouth and throat."

I do want water, I really do.

I open my eyes as Gale, because he's still here, lifts my head just a little. As I get tiny sips of water, I realize the girl giving me water is Katniss' sister.

She shouldn't be in the Capitol.

I stop worrying about her when she puts the bottle down. I'm more bothered that I can't have more water.

"There's a wound in your stomach," she tells me as gently as possible. "If you drink more, it will only leak out and make you bleed more. You've lost too much blood already."

I'm not sure what's more terrifying; that I've lost that much blood or that water could leak out of my stomach wound.

Primrose holds up a syringe and flicks it twice before pushing aside fabric on my leg – at least I feel that even though I'm a little worried about why I'm still bound in the too small, too tight jacket. "This is medication to help ease your pain," she tells me. "It might make you drowsy or even sleep. You'll wake up though. I promise."

It's a grand promise to make. I won't be mad if it turns out she's wrong.

"They're sending an extraction team to get you," Gale says as Primrose presses the needle into my thigh. "Prim and my brother came with a medical team and Katniss sent them here. When the rest of the team gets here, we'll get you on a hovercraft and to the closest hospital."

"Annie." I croak her name and I'm sort of proud of myself for it, even though it hurts so bad my eyes water.

"To the closest hospital or to Annie," he amends himself. "And if the hospital is closest, we'll get Annie to you. I promise. Now just rest and hang on."

I think I whimper when I'm jostled.

I hear Primrose scold someone, telling whoever it is that if they're going to do it that way, there's hardly a reason for them to be here at all. She's got more spunk than Katniss – and I know this for sure because whoever she's talking to moves me more gently.

I realize I was moved to a stretcher of some sort. They're carrying me up a flight of stairs. I can see Gale walking at my feet, maybe helping to carry the stretcher. Primrose is on my right side, holding a clear bag high above me that's attached to my leg. A boy about her age, it must be Gale's brother, walks on my left and he's holding the same sort of bag.

"You're still with us," the boy says when he sees me looking at him. "That's awesome."

Awesome is a good word.

No one is running so there's no panic. That's a good thing. I remember Gale said Katniss sent her sister and his brother. That means they met up somewhere. And medical teams would've been dropped near the center of the city. Is Snow dead?

I wonder if they can read my mind about that.

I close my eyes again before I can find out.

It's so loud. The noise makes my body hurt. The people bustling around me make my body hurt. I want relief again. I want to escape. I want to be done with this.

Gale leans over me again. "Don't go anywhere, Odair, not now. You're in a field hospital. The doctor is starting to stabilize you. More importantly, Annie's on her way. Don't make me face her without you when she gets here."

Annie shouldn't be coming into a war zone. I start to protest, to try and move.

He puts his hand on my shoulder and holds me still – and I realize no one touches me anywhere but on my shoulder or my leg. "It's safe now, Odair. Snow is in custody. We've got control of the city. Haymitch is coming with Coin and Annie's coming with him. You trust Haymitch with her, right?"

I do, so I stop fighting.

I'll let the doctors do what they will to try and save me.

I let my eyes close again.

All that matters is waking up to Annie.

I love her. So much.

And after I left her in Thirteen, she should hate me.

I hope she doesn't hate me.

I love her. More than anything.