Disclaimer: It's the alcohol.

Gale's heart drops into his stomach. He suddenly feels like he's about to puke up all the alcohol he just consumed, it trickles up his throat and he drops his head into his hands, swallowing sharply. "Fiancé!" Nena yells, slamming her cup on the counter. Good thing she does, because Gale certainly couldn't. He's momentarily lost his voice, the ability to breathe all together. "Bull shit!"

"Okay, ex-fiancé," Alend rolls his eyes and scans his nails. "Same thing."

"That is not the same thing," Amicus hisses, his hand resting on Gale's shoulder for reassurance. Right now, however, it feels suffocating, and Gale shrugs it off.

"Another," Gale mutters to the bartender, shoving the shot glass in his direction. Noticing the distress on his face the bartender doesn't hesitate, searching for the strongest liquor in the bar and pouring it into his shot glass.

"Oh, God!" Nena yells again, "What the hell did you do to her?" Nena's glaring daggers at the guy, she forces herself out of her stool and marches over to him, jabbing her finger. "She told me about you. God, you broke her! You ruined her!" More knots, Gale feels more knots. He needs to untie the knot, he needs to breathe, but he can't. It's like he fell out of a tree, like the first time he jumped out of a plane, no air in his lungs.

"No I didn't," the man snaps back. "Everything's just a big misunderstanding, that's all."

"What's a misunderstanding?" Amicus wanders over and pulls Nena away from him, forcing her behind him protectively. "What'd you do?" Amicus doesn't know Madge, nothing other than the stories everyone's shared, but he defends her.

"I don't even know who you are," Alend rolls his eyes. "Why should I tell you?"

"We're invested friends," Gale murmurs, refusing to look at the man. The bartender returns, sliding the shot glass to him. Gale takes his fifth shot. Madge was engaged. Madge was engaged to this greasy cretin two stools down. Engaged. Wedding band on her finger. Diamond and all. He wonders if it was a diamond, maybe a ruby. Perhaps it was a sapphire, blue like her eyes. The knots come back, but then again they never left. "Your turn," he spits, referring to the question Am and Nena asked. What'd he do to her?

"Use your imagination," the man smirks, dragging his fingers through his sloppy hair. "Ex fiancé for a reason, obviously. Made a mistake." The way he says it causes anger to flare in Gale's blood.

"I swear to God," Gale finally snaps, thrusting himself away from the counter and toward the stranger, his hands jabbing his shoulders backwards. "If you hurt her I'll rip your throat out."

Alend straightens himself and then pushes back, "Is that a threat?"

"It's a promise," Gale snarls, shaking off Amicus who desperately tries to pull him away. He's mumbling something about being a soldier and what a real man is and how he's so much better than this, but he's pissed. Gale's nearly shaking with fury.

"Look what we've got here," Alend taunts, "it appears someone's got a crush on little Madge. How cute, except I thought we were adults." He cracks his knuckles, Gale locks his jaw. "The only problem here is we can't find her. And if we could, she'd be waiting for me. Not you. She's in love with me, boy, it's why we were engaged. So why don't you pack your toys, and head on home. I'm gonna find her and fix things, and then things are going to go back to normal." Gale doesn't hesitate to rear his arm back, lurching forward and making contact with his jaw.

Alend's too drunk to dodge the hit, but not drunk enough to reciprocate it. His elbow digs into Gale's stomach, his free hand reaching up to scratch his face. "Gale!" Nena shrieks as Am jumps in, trying to pull the two away from each other. Alend rolls on top of Gale, attempting to pin his arms back, but Gale's had training. He jerks his head forward, slamming his forehead against the other's with a grunt. Alend groans in pain, rolling off to the side and holding his hand up to his nose which is now bleeding. Gale lurches forward, again and again, pounding his fist into Alend's gut, his chest, his nose.

"Enough!" Amicus shouts, jerking Gale backwards by his shoulders and tossing him on the floor. "Gale, pull yourself together!" Gale flexes his hand, blood dripping down his knuckles. The stranger's blood mixing with his own.

"Get out," the bartender snarls, all pity for this man gone once fists started flying. "Both of you. Out."

"His fault," Alend chokes out, "not mine."

"Fine, then you can stay," the man behind the counter gestures to the bleeding imbecile on the floor. "But if you get blood on the stools you're cleaning it up." Gale pushes himself off the floor and charges for the exit.

"Gale," Nena rushes after him.

"No," he turns to her. "Stay. Find out as much as you can." She nods, turning to Amicus with worried eyes. "I'll see you guys later." And then he's out of the bar into the brisk air of the night. Fiancé! The thought makes him sick. Gale stumbles over to a nearby tree and rests against it to catch his breath. Fiancé, Madge had a fiancé. Someone else held her in their arms, pressed their lips against hers, felt her shiver beneath them, her collarbone exposed, her blonde hair around their fingers. Selfish, Gale tells himself to stop being so selfish. The more he thinks about it though, the angrier he gets. A rage bubbling up inside him takes over his entire body and he lashes out, punching the tree in front of him as hard as he can.

"Gale? Gale Hawthorne?" Gale drops his fist and raises his eyes, meeting the dark green ones of Alysia from the Welcome Building. "Are you okay?"

"Alysia," he exhales, forcing a smile on his face. "What're you doing here?"

"Well you ran out of the building so quickly I didn't get a chance to give you my number," she smiles weakly, nervously. Gale lets out a chuckle, straightening his posture. "Oi! What happened to your face!" Alysia rushes forward and wipes his cheek. "Did you get so rotten you got in a bar fight!"

"If rotten means drunk, then," he swallows slowly. "I guess so, yeah. Hell, Veto's gonna murder me." He rakes his fingers through his hair. Probation, probably. That's what'll happen to Gale. Probation, maybe dismissal. Again, he feels like he's going to puke. He wasn't on duty, he won't be held accountable. Maybe no one'll tell Veto anyways, but that's a lie. Amicus'll say something, he's honest like that.

"You're bloody bleeding!" she scolds him. "Here, come back to my place and I'll get you cleaned up, yeah?"

"I don't know," he's skeptical. Gale barely knows the girl, but he's tired and the alcohol is amplifying his senses. "I was just gonna go to my hovercraft."

"I'm not asking you to marry me, mate," she jeers lightly. Gale smirks. "Just let me clean you up, yeah?" And against his better judgment, he goes with her.

"There you are," she wipes his cheek with a disinfectant wipe. "All cleaned up." He closes his eyes as her fingers brush against his skin. He could almost pretend she was Madge, blonde hair, gentle touches. "Want something to drink, love?"

"Anything with alcohol in it," he nods as she rushes off to the kitchen, popping the cork of a bottle of champagne. Alysia pours him a glass and he drinks and she drinks and they both drink until the bottle is empty. He doesn't want to think about Alend, he doesn't want to think about what he did to Madge, how he hurt her, how she fell in love with him. Gale doesn't want to think about anything. And eventually, he and the quirky blonde across from him are bent in hysterics, laughing at nothing because neither of them can walk three feet without stumbling. Because they're thinking about nothing. They're not thinking at all.

Gale goes to get more from another bottle but slips, landing on Alysia on the couch. She giggles and runs her fingers through his hair. "Watch your step," she laughs.

"You were in my way," he teases back. She grins, pulling herself up by his shoulders.

"Mmm," she mews as her body arches closer to his. "You're cute, you know."

"I know," Gale laughs back, obviously affected by the alcohol. And then he leans down to kiss her, his lips frantically sucking against hers. It was like she planned it, the cut, the drinking, Alysia was ready for his kiss. Her hand reaches up to cup his face, the other sliding under his shirt. She moaned into his mouth, shivers sparking down his spine. His hand reaches up and tangles in her golden blonde hair, breathing in her scent of ocean and sun.

"Gale," she whimpers, his body rolling to hover above hers. He leans down, nipping against her neck. Alysia's body shudders as his tongue strays across her collarbone. Her fingers pulled at the hem of his shirt, slowly hiking it over his head. Again their lips were on each others, needy impatient, overwhelmed with the feeling of loneliness Gale doesn't hesitate to slip her shirt off either. His lips trail down her chest, across her stomach. She wraps her legs around him and mumbling something about the bedroom. In one swift motion he raises himself from the couch, her body pressed against his. Gale's eyes opened for a moment and all he can register is the blonde hair, the soft touch of her tiny fingers raking across his chest. Her lips suckle against his neck as they bounded in the room, the feel of her silk bra against his body.

They collapse on the bed, his hands traveling down her sides and up in her hair and all across her in every way possible. Needy, needy, impossibly needy, Alysia's hands reach for the button of his jeans. "Wait," he pulls away as the button comes undone. "Wait."

"What?" she pants, desperate to slide his jeans off. The accent, her damn accent, this wasn't Madge, this wasn't what he wanted.

"I can't," he nudges her hands away. "No, I, I can't."

"Don't you have a franger?" she frowns. "Doesn't matter, I'm on the pill," she stretches up, arching her body against his. "Come on, Gale." He shakes his head. Wrong, wrong, this is so terribly wrong.

"I'm not a one night stand type of guy," Gale pushes her away lightly. "We're drunk, Alysia, I don't actually…" again she was craning toward him, kissing him quickly. "Alysia,"

"I'm not even in the nuddy yet," she frowns. "Come on,"

"I said no," Gale rolls off the bed. Wrong, wrong, wrong, this is wrong. "Get up, would you?" he groans, running his hands through his hair. Alysia pulls her fingers through her own hair, straightening it out over her shoulders delightfully. "I told you I was looking for someone."

"How was I supposed to know it'd be your lover?" she pouts, but only playfully. "People'd kill to be in your position Mr. Hawthorne." He glanced over, taking note of her swollen lips and small red marks down her neck. Hell, he should do it. He wants to, her thin body, anxious hands, but he won't. Lonely, that's all he is. Lonely and drunk. Empty, craving, it'd been so long. "Got a problem with having a naughty?"

"Your slang makes no sense to me," Gale smirks, dropping his hands to his sides. "I should go, I shouldn't've came."

"You knew it'd take you here though, didn't you?" she grins, her fingers lightly trailing across his arm. "I'm okay with a night."

"I'm not," Gale says back roughly. "I don't do that anymore."

"Anymore?" Alysia laughs, collapsing backwards on the bed. "Well ain't that a beaut? How many months late am I for that Gale Hawthorne?"

"About two," he chuckles. Gale's hands reach up and press in his eyes as he lets out a long groan. "This is so messed up."

"It's okay to be lonely," Alysia sits back up, her hands running across the scars on his back and wrapping around his chest. Again, he nudges her off. She sighs, "I knew that girl when you first showed me pictures of her." Gale turns to look at her and squints. "I thought, great, another person who likes Mir more than me. God, there were so many. I mean she's great, don't get me wrong, but no one ever wanted me anymore."

"Alysia,"

"So I acted like I didn't know her, I thought maybe you'd like me. Obviously not."

"It's not that," Gale shakes his head. "This is too fast, too rushed. I'm too… preoccupied." She smirks. "I've been tracking her for weeks, I just want to find her. There's nothing wrong with you, you're beautiful and sweet hell your accent alone is enough to get me in bed." She snorts, her hand finding his knee. "But I just can't, that's not me anymore."

"Well, I guess you'll be going then," she sighs, standing up and pulling him with her. He trails after her into the living room, the buzz of the alcohol almost completely gone. She tosses him his shirt playfully as he buttons his pants. "She's going to Center 15C," she says quietly. "Near the top end," Gale squints. "Mir! Merci!"

"Oh," Gale slips his shirt over his chest. "Oh! When did she leave?"

"About a week ago," she says with a shrug, searching for her own shirt somewhere on the floor. "Where'd that damn thing go?"

"Bedroom," he tells her, watching as she quickly rushes to find it. "Wait, how do you know?" Gale presses, his eyes trailing her every movement.

"She told me so! Let it slip, so she might've changed her mind, but she was really set on it."

"Sweet God," Gale rushes forward, wrapping the blonde in his arms. "Thank you, God thank you." She chuckles into his chest, returning the awkward hug. "I owe you." She raises an eyebrow, gesturing to the bed room. "Not like that," he laughs, starting toward the door. "Alysia,"

"Gale,"

"You know I have to go."

She nods, "Sadly. Now get before I force you in the bedroom myself."

Gale laughs, "Thank you." She smiles, leaning up and pressing her lips to his cheek before holding the door open for him, watching him escape into the night.

When Gale gets back to the hovercraft he can walk in a straight line. His head is pounding, his lips are swollen, but his pants are on and his brain is thinking properly. He knows where Madge is. He knows where Madge should be, anyways. She might not be there. It takes him awhile to climb the ladder, and when he does he opens the door to a very agitated Amicus and Nena, pacing back and forth.

"Where the hell have you been?" Nena hisses. "It's three in the morning!" Her hand travels up to the patched up scratch down his cheek. "How the hell'd you get that fixed?" Gale grunts and marches past her, but Amicus steps in the way.

"Gale," he holds his hand against his chest to stop him. "Stop. Where've you been?"

"I just wanna sleep, we'll leave in the morning," he grumbles. He wants to leave now, he wants to find her in the morning, but that just wasn't going to happen. He also wants to shower, get the feel of the girl who wasn't his off of his skin. He doesn't want them to know what he'd done, or well, almost done. Maybe Am, but not Nena. She'd call him a pig or something of the sort.

"Don't you want to know what we learned about Madge and Alend?" Nena taunts, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the couch. "Let me get you something for your head," Gale collapses on the sofa while Nena rushes into the kitchen department, rifling through the cabinets until he finds a bottle of blue pills that'll get rid of his headache. Am nestles himself on the couch across from him, leaving room for Nena to settle next to him.

"What'd you do?" Am asks him quickly while Nena's rifling. "Where were you?"

"Almost hooked up with some girl," he mutters quietly. Am's eyebrows shoot to his forehead. "Almost! I didn't! I stopped it!"

"Thank God," Amicus rubs his face as Nena enters the compartment. She hands Gale a pill and a glass of water. He downs the two quickly. "Anyway, we got Alend drunk. Like, flat on his ass drunk." Gale snorts, chugging the rest of the water. It'll help him sober up more. "Easy enough after you were gone, he just started spilling his guts. He's one of those drunks."

"Him and Madge were engaged a few years ago," Nena picks up the story for him. "But Alend wasn't always faithful to her and she found out. Apparently, however, she was still going to get married to the bastard." She rolls her eyes and adds something like idiot under her breath.

"He left her at the altar," Am finishes quietly. "Alend kept rambling about how it was the worst mistake of his life, some sort of bullshit story, I don't know."

"What the fuck," Gale groans, dropping his head into his hands and rubbing his forehead. He left Madge at the altar. He cheated on her and she was still going to marry him. She must've loved him a lot. "Meanwhile I was nearly having sex with some chick that looked just like her." He lets it slip anyway, groaning when he realizes what he's said. "Damnit."

"You what?" Nena gasps. "Gale Hawthorne!"

"He said almost," Am nudges her shoulder lightly, a smile playing at his lips.

"She took me to her house and cleaned up my cuts and got me even more drunk than earlier," he mumbles, keeping the story short. Gale decides to leave out the part about feeling lonely, the part about how it was a sort of revenge, how he just wanted to feel something again. "Then she told me Madge was in 15C on the top end, whatever that means."

"Northern Insula," Amicus notes, obviously understanding the Insulan slang. "Wait, she's there now?"

"That's what Alysia told me," Gale shrugs, finally lifting his head from his hands. "We leave in the morning, okay? I'm not letting that asshole find her before we do."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Nena grins. "We told him she's in Luto." Gale raises an eyebrow, a smile spreading across his face. "Told him we had a lead and we were leaving for Luto in the morning, he totally bought it. I, apparently, am a very trustworthy person. Even after being a bitch to him." A laugh bubbles out of Gale and he throws his head back. "Now tell me you love me."

"Hell, I love you," he looks up. "Just imagine if you hadn't come with us?"

"I don't like to think about that," Amicus mutters with a grin, his hand wrapping around her waist. She laughs, leaning into him tightly. "We're gonna find her. Okay? We will. Enough of this shit, we find her and we find her fast." The other two nod in agreement. "And then we thank her for giving us this crazy ass adventure."

"And for introducing us to Nena," Gale adds, watching her eyes sparkle and her cheeks tingeing pink.

"For getting me out of that Center," Nena smiles.

"For Team Find People!" Am shouts, fist pumping the sky as if he just won an award. All three of them burst into hysterics, they finally feel like they can breathe. They're close, they're closer than they've ever been. They can feel it in their bones.

A/N: We're getting close, very, very, very close. Sorry for that brief burst of Alysia/Gale, but I felt like he was craving something. Thankfully, he didn't go through with it. He's still a guy, though, they have needs. More of an explanation with Alend once they actually find Madge, but for now that's all you're getting. Hope you like it.