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"Well, they didn't arrest her because they thought she'd be a wealth of rebel information," he says. "They<br />
know I'd never have risked telling her anything like that. For her own protection."<br />
"Oh, Finnick. I'm so sorry," I say.<br />
"No, I'm sorry. That I didn't warn you somehow," he tells me.<br />
Suddenly, a memory surfaces. I'm strapped to my bed, mad with rage and grief after the rescue. Finnick is<br />
trying to console me about Peeta. "They'll figure out he doesn't know anything pretty fast. And they won't kill<br />
him if they think they can use him against you."<br />
"You did warn me, though. On the hovercraft. Only when you said they'd use Peeta against me, I thought you<br />
meant like bait. To lure me into the Capitol somehow," I say.<br />
"I shouldn't have said even that. It was too late for it to be of any help to you. Since I hadn't warned you<br />
before the Quarter Quell, I should've shut up about how Snow operates." Finnick yanks on the end of his rope,<br />
and an intricate knot becomes a straight line again. "It's just that I didn't understand when I met you. After your<br />
first Games, I thought the whole romance was an act on your part. We all expected you'd continue that strategy.<br />
But it wasn't until Peeta hit the force field and nearly died that I--" Finnick hesitates.<br />
I think back to the arena. How I sobbed when Finnick revived Peeta. The quizzical look on Finnick's face.<br />
The way he excused my behavior, blaming it on my pretend pregnancy. "That you what?"<br />
"That I knew I'd misjudged you. That you do love him. I'm not saying in what way. Maybe you don't know<br />
yourself. But anyone paying attention could see how much you care about him," he says gently.<br />
Anyone? On Snow's visit before the Victory Tour, he challenged me to erase any doubts of my love for<br />
Peeta. "Convince me," Snow said. It seems, under that hot pink sky with Peeta's life in limbo, I finally did. And in<br />
doing so, I gave him the weapon he needed to break me.<br />
Finnick and I sit for a long time in silence, watching the knots bloom and vanish, before I can ask, "How do<br />
you bear it?"<br />
Finnick looks at me in disbelief. "I don't, Katniss! Obviously, I don't. I drag myself out of nightmares each<br />
morning and find there's no relief in waking." Something in my expression stops him. "Better not to give in to it. It<br />
takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart."<br />
Well, he must know. I take a deep breath, forcing myself back into one piece.<br />
"The more you can distract yourself, the better," he says. "First thing tomorrow, we'll get you your own rope.<br />
Until then, take mine."<br />
I spend the rest of the night on my mattress obsessively making knots, holding them up for Buttercup's<br />
inspection. If one looks suspicious, he swipes it out of the air and bites it a few times to make sure it's dead. By<br />
morning, my fingers are sore, but I'm still holding on.<br />
With twenty-four hours of quiet behind us, Coin finally announces we can leave the bunker. Our old quarters<br />
have been destroyed by the bombings. Everyone must follow exact directions to their new compartments. We<br />
clean our spaces, as directed, and file obediently toward the door.<br />
Before I'm halfway there, Boggs appears and pulls me from the line. He signals for Gale and Finnick to join<br />
us. People move aside to let us by. Some even smile at me since the Crazy Cat game seems to have made me<br />
more lovable. Out the door, up the stairs, down the hall to one of those multidirectional elevators, and finally we<br />
arrive at Special Defense. Nothing along our route has been damaged, but we are still very deep.<br />
Boggs ushers us into a room virtually identical to Command. Coin, Plutarch, Haymitch, Cressida, and<br />
everybody else around the table looks exhausted. Someone has finally broken out the coffee--although I'm sure<br />
it's viewed only as an emergency stimulant--and Plutarch has both hands wrapped tightly around his cup as if at<br />
any moment it might be taken away.<br />
There's no small talk. "We need all four of you suited up and aboveground," says the president. "You have<br />
two hours to get footage showing the damage from the bombing, establish that Thirteen's military unit remains<br />
not only functional but dominant, and, most important, that the <strong>Mocking</strong>jay is still alive. Any questions?"<br />
"Can we have a coffee?" asks Finnick.<br />
Steaming cups are handed out. I stare distastefully at the shiny black liquid, never having been much of a<br />
fan of the stuff, but thinking it might help me stay on my feet. Finnick sloshes some cream in my cup and reaches<br />
into the sugar bowl. "Want a sugar cube?" he asks in his old seductive voice. That's how we met, with Finnick<br />
offering me sugar. Surrounded by horses and chariots, costumed and painted for the crowds, before we were<br />
allies. Before I had any idea what made him tick. The memory actually coaxes a smile out of me. "Here, it<br />
improves the taste," he says in his real voice, plunking three cubes in my cup.