The Girl Who Sparked the Capitol - Book 2 - Peeta

Chapter 20

"Peeta!" Alessia screams. She shakes him harder, even resorts to slapping his face, but it's no use. His heart failed. She is slapping emptiness. "Peeta!" She screams again with tears rolling down her face.

Finnick props Mags against a tree and pushes Alessia out of the way. "Let me." His fingers touch points at Peeta's neck, run over the bones in his ribs and spine. Then he pinches Peeta's nostrils shut.

"No!" Alessia yells, hurling herself at Finnick, for surely he intends to make certain that Peeta's dead, to keep any hope of life from returning to him. Finnick's hand comes up and hits Alessia so hard, so squarely in the chest that she goes flying back into a nearby trunk. She is stunned for a moment, by the pain, by trying to regain her wind, as she sees Finnick close off Peeta's nose again. From where Alessia sits, she pulls an arrow, whips the notch into place, and is about to let it fly when she's stopped by the sight of Finnick kissing Peeta. And it's so bizarre, even for Finnick, that Alessia freezes. No, he's not kissing him. He's got Peeta's nose blocked off but his mouth tilted open, and he's blowing air into his lungs. Alessia can see this, she can actually see Peeta's chest rising and falling. Then Finnick unzips the top of Peeta's jumpsuit and begins to pump the spot over his heart with the heels of his hands. Now that Alessia has gotten through her shock, she understands what he's trying to do.

Once in a blue moon, Alessia had seen her mother and Mrs. Everdeen try something similar on someone before her mother had passed. If your heart fails in District 12, it's unlikely your family could get you to Mrs. Everdeen in time, anyway. So her usual patients are burned or wounded or ill. Or starving, of course.

But Finnick's world is different. Whatever he's doing, he's done it before. There's a very set rhythm and method. And Alessia finds the arrow tip sinking to the ground as she leans in to watch, desperately, for some sign of success. Agonizing minutes drag past as her hopes diminish. Around the time that she's deciding it's too late, that Peeta's dead, moved on, unreachable forever, he gives a small cough and Finnick sits back.

Alessia leaves her weapons in the dirt as she flings herself at him. "Peeta?" she says softly. She brushes the damp blonde strands of hair back from his forehead, finds the pulse drumming against her fingers at his neck. 

His lashes flutter open and his eyes meet her's. "Careful," he says weakly. "There's a force field up ahead."

Alessia laughs, but there are tears running down her cheeks.

"Must be a lot stronger than the one on the Training Center roof," he says. "I'm all right, though. Just a little shaken."

"You were dead! Your heart stopped!" Alessia bursts out, before really considering if this is a good idea. She claps her hand over her mouth because she's starting to make those awful choking sounds that happen when she sobs.

"Well, it seems to be working now," he says. "It's alright, Alessia." She nods her head but the sounds aren't stopping.

"Alessia?" Now Peeta's worried about her, which adds to the insanity of it all.

"It's okay. It's just her hormones," says Finnick. "From the baby." Alessia looks up and sees him, sitting back on his knees but still panting a bit from the climb and the heat and the effort of bringing Peeta back from the dead.

"No. It's not-" Alessia gets out, but she's cut off by an even more hysterical round of sobbing that seems only to confirm what Finnick said about the baby. He meets her eyes and she glares at him through her tears. It's stupid, she knows, that his efforts make her so vexed. All she wanted was to keep Peeta alive, and she couldn't and Finnick could, and she should be nothing but grateful. And she is. But she is also furious because it means that she will never stop owing Finnick Odair. Ever. So how can she kill him in his sleep?