Ocean Eyes - Finnick Odair

Epilogue

President Snow is dead. After the outraged crowds dispersed, finally recovering from the shock and rage fuelling them, President Snow's body was recovered. Opinions differ on whether or not he choked to death whilst laughing or if the crowds crushed him. Marissa chooses not to think about it; she tries not to dwell on the past too much. It's too painful. She still keeps ahold of her memories made with Finnick, Mira, Peeta, Mags, Annie, Johanna and Katniss, even the painful ones, but she blocks everything else from her mind. She tries to anyway. There are only so many things she can do to rid her mind of the memories, and when they come back in the form of nightmares or unwanted thoughts, she struggles to keep them at bay. That's when she and Finnick are the most vulnerable with each other. Not during the intimate moments they share when Theodore is out or asleep but during the night when she cries out for him, reliving her time in the Capitol where she was made to believe he was being tortured, when she wakes in tears, sobbing over the loss of Mira or even after nightmares where she isn't revived after the bomb that killed both her and Boggs when Finnick cannot save her from death.

There are times when she has voluntarily relived the pain of the past. When Katniss asks her and Finnick and Mags for whatever memories they have of the tributes from District Four they have mentored and Finnick and Marissa's family so that they could be recorded into a book full of people they have lost with pictures or drawings of them and details about what made them special. They have a section on every district, although Districts Three, Four, Seven and Twelve are by far the largest, thanks to the input of Beetee, Marissa, Finnick, Mags, Johanna, Peeta, Haymitch and Katniss. Whenever Marissa ventures into District Twelve to visit Peeta and Katniss and say hello to Haymitch, she looks through the book with them, and they talk about their lost ones together.

The victors still get to keep their houses in Victors Village. The general consensus is that they are war heroes, although none of them feels like it. Marissa is glad to be able to keep the house she lived in with Mira and Finnick for so long. Theodore now occupies Mira's old room. Marissa and Finnick did not want to change anything in there for a long time, but as the years went by and the wounds started to heal, they decided it was finally time to give Theodore a personalised room, and Mira's room deserved to be used once more.

Marissa and Finnick still share the main bedroom, and that's where Marissa awakens with a start, her eyes welling with tears as her hands reach out to find Finnick's body. She calms down a little when her hands meet his torso, the warmth from his body bleeding into her hands as she frantically shakes him awake. He jolts upright, looking around in a panic, although he relaxes when he realises they are in their own bedroom and there is no threat.

"Marissa, it's okay," he says as he cradles her lovingly. He smoothes over her flaming red hair, which sticks out from her night of restless sleep, and she buries her head into the crook of his shoulder.

"Finnick," she whispers quietly, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tightly. "You're okay?"

"I'm more than okay, Mari," he promises her, brushing his lips over the top of her head. "It was just a nightmare."

Marissa nods shakily but still struggles to calm down, so Finnick lets go of her, kisses her temple, and then reaches into the bedside table. Marissa rolls her eyes when he hands her the short length of rope that lives within the bedside cabinet, and he smirks.

"Do you remember how to tie the bowline?" Finnick asks her, and she determinedly picks up the rope and tries to tie the bowline knot with trembling hands. Finnick shakes his head, chuckling when she fails to tie the knot properly and takes the rope off her as she shakes her head, laughing. "I show you this knot all the time."

"I know," Marissa says, smiling as she watches Finnick tie the knot expertly. "I told you before; you're a bad teacher."

"How dare you! I taught Teddy how to tie it, and he's only seven," Finnick says defensively. "You're thirty years old, and you can't figure out how to do it."