An Ocean Between Us
Epilogue Two

April 18, 1912
Remember Me in the Days to Come

Gale knew he was lucky.

He should be dead, he should have drowned or froze, but he definitely shouldn't be alive. He didn't remember much of that night; it seemed like a frozen blur in his mind. He remembered the cold, the terror, a pale man with a kind face and finally, voices, shouting voices from the lifeboats returned to save them.

(Madge had not slept, could not, and she found herself wondering if she ever would. She could still hear all the screaming, the weeping and there, like a phantom before her, was the Titanic disappearing beneath the ocean.

It was gone and so, so many people with it.

What of Gale? My parents? Are they alive?

Please, don't let Delly and me be the only ones to face this new life.

Someone beside her gasped and Madge looked behind her and for a moment she was sure she was seeing just another ghost ship, but no, this one was real.

Rescue had come)

Yes, Gale knew he was lucky as the Carpathia arrived in New York, even more so because his family had all made it and Thom too. There were all here, against all odds and that was a blessing that couldn't be ignored. He was relived, ecstatic really, and he hadn't let go of Posy's hand since he'd found them, hadn't been able to stop drinking in the sight of their faces. But even in the joy, there was something much darker too.

He knew he'd been close, so terribly close to death and he felt it still, the ice and the fear that seemed to fill him, swallow him and sometimes he wasn't sure it had spit him out yet. Nightmares haunted him, stalked him and there was that man, blond and too kind, frozen solid to their makeshift raft. Gale didn't remember climbing onto the door, had that man put him there? Had he died for a stranger? One who didn't even know his name?

As glad as Gale was to be alive, there was a tiny part of him that hoped he hadn't.

("Madge! Oh my Madge! Madge!"

Madge turned and felt her legs nearly give out because there was her mother, alive and whole and pale with worry, but alive. Madge let out a sob, loud and undignified, and then she stumbled forward because no matter what she had lost, at least she hadn't lost everything.)

Of course, there was another worry that ate at him, one that burrowed in deep and whispered wicked things in his ear.

Madge.

He tried to reassure himself that she was alright; after all, she had to be. She'd gotten on a lifeboat, that meant she was alright. It had to.

Right?

(Madge studied every face that passed, because one that to be her father's, it had to be.

She ignored the fact that the area set aside for the second class passengers had almost no men, that they seemed to have taken absurdly high casualties, because of course her father was okay, of course he was.

He had to be)

The pier was crowded, loud and the rain sunk into his clothes, but Gale lingered a little longer than necessary. This was his only chance to try and find Madge, and he couldn't just walk away. He remembered that night in her cabin, the promise that they would stay in touch, somehow, someway. He held on to that and looked and looked, because she was here, she made it, I know she did. I know it.

And there she was.

(Madge was overjoyed to hear about Thom, about Peeta too.

But still, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't angry too.

Where was Gale? Why was there no news of him?

Why? Why why why why?)

Madge Undersee was running towards him, blonde hair soaked and blue eyes bright and no matter how long he lived, no one would ever look as beautiful as she did right now. He felt his heart seize in his chest, felt his blood burn and she stopped just in front of him, lips trembling and hands shaking. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, never ever let her go but he felt almost paralyzed, because this was too good to be true. He was alive, his family, Thom, Madge, they were all alive. This had to be dream, didn't it?

"Gale," she said and suddenly it didn't matter.

Let this be a dream and let me live in it forever.

"Madge."