the poor mad girl

Peeta watched with blue eyes the worry that spread over Annie’s face when he cursed the President’s name; and for a moment, he worried himself that he may have triggered something that would cause her to lose it. Thankfully enough, it seemed to dissipate from her features when logic kicked in; that they were all probably doomed anyway.

Annie nodded her head at the question; he did come back often. He'd usually be home for three weeks, then gone for two, then home again, and the process repeated. Those two weeks he was gone, however, felt like eternity, and it was torture just sitting around waiting for him, when she knew their time was limited to six months.

Beetee fell silent as Annie spoke. When she finished, a sigh escaped his lips and he closed his eyes, briefly resting his chin atop her head. Tangled dark hair tickled his face. “Or…you haven’t had an ultrasound since you want to be surprised, right? It could be both.” He tried smoothing her flyaway hair down, with little success. “You could be carrying twins. You could have a boy and a girl. A bit unlikely, but miracles do happen, you know.” Not often, but he didn’t tell her that.

It could be both. The thought of having twins didn't occur to her until now, and it freightened her, more than anything else. She could barely take care of herself, one child would be more than enough- of course, if Finnick was still alive, she'd of obviously wanted more children, but not on her own. Two screaming children would send her hiding into her head within seconds. She didn't say anything about it; maybe, since the thought frightened her, that was a sign she wasn't fit to be a mother. It made her want to burst into tears.

Haymitch sat quietly and let the girl speak, sipping from his flask every so often as he listened. He found it quite amusing how the topic set her off, and as she rambled on, he couldn’t help but smirk to himself. “Well there’s a hell of a lot more to do in 4 than there is in 12, that’s for sure. You can walk in the meadow or even the woods if you dare sneak out through the fence. There’s a lake a mile or two into the woods. Used to go there as a kid. Other than that… there’s nothing to do in 12. Not really.”

There was a fence surrounding her district as well. Of course, it was different them, because of the ocean- not that she had been out to the rough water, but she doubted they had put a fence up out there. No one was stupid enough to try to escape that way anyways. But the fences that she did know were around- that she rarely seen- she would never dare crossing. As far as she knew, it was completely unheard of. It was too dangerous. They were one of the three districts that the Capitol didn't mind too much- the Career districts- no one would risk ruining that.

           It wasn’t like she was actually crazy. Sometimes, Finnick would go along with the mad girl thing because that made Annie useless to the Capitol and thus, she would be out of danger. President Snow could force him into using his body but not his heart, that belonged to Annie.

           Annie stared at Finnick, her husband, her love, for a few long seconds, before she slowly got up from her spot to throw her arms around him. Maybe if she could hold onto him tight enough, he wouldn't disappear again, whether he was real or not. So long as she could see and feel and talk to him, it didn't matter if it was all in her head. She would happily live out the rest of her days in the darkest corner of her mind if it meant she could be with Finnick- until the baby came, anyways.