Author's note: Due to some things going on in her personal life, everlylark has stepped down from betaing this story. I appreciate all the help getting this story off the ground and for the notes on the first ten chapters. It will forever bear her mark.

Thankfully, JavisTG has stepped in to beta the last half of this tale. Go look over her stuff when you get the chance.

Thanks for your patience. I've done some tweaking to the first chapters of this story that were bugging me (just a few fixes concerning the soulmate touch that I flt needed to be clarified and altered). I'll get them fixed eventually, nothing else has changed in them, so it's not pressing.

Happy reading!

Chapter Eleven

Katniss rolled over and stared at the empty spot in the bed. After ten years of sharing, she hated being alone. He could have stayed. She could have asked him to. But maybe it was best if they started getting space from each other.

She heard some shuffling downstairs in the kitchen and decided that checking on whoever it was would be easier than trying to get back to sleep.

Gale looked up from the coffee pot when Katniss stepped into the room. He offered up the cup he'd just made. "I was having trouble sleeping."

"Me too." She took the cup and got the creamer out of the fridge. "I am mad at you."

"I know. I'm mad at me, too." He poured his own cup of coffee.

"I wasn't much better than you, though, was I?" She sipped her coffee and then put the creamer away.

He shrugged. "A few months compared to five years."

"I know very well how hard starting the conversation is." She sighed. "I asked you if you were having an affair. That would have been the perfect time to talk about it."

"I know, Katniss. I'm an asshole. I get it. I screwed up."

"Stop." She shook her head. "It's done now. We can't fight about this. I don't want us to turn out like that, blaming each other." She brought her coffee to the table and looked up at him. "I called Peeta. Just now. I woke up from a really horrible dream."

He sat down. "I always text Madge when I wake up from our dreams."

"You're pretty stealthy about it." She looked down at her cup. "Maybe I'm just too oblivious."

"I'm not much better." Gale sat back. "Looking over your interactions with Peeta, I can see the signs now."

Katniss nodded. "Well, now we know."

They were silent for a while, each drinking their coffee. It wasn't one of their normal comfortable silences. There was so much unsaid between them. But where to start?

"What was it about?" He asked, breaking the silence.

She looked up slowly. "Hm?"

"Your dream." He clarified. "The one you just had."

She swallowed and sat forward. "I was buried alive. We both were. Together. That's what the darkness was all about." She sipped her coffee and let out a long breath. "I just told him you and I were probably getting a divorce."

"Are we?" Gale looked at her critically.

"I think we should." Katniss leveled the same look at him. "You and Madge… There's something more to your connection, I can see it."

Gale squeezed her hand and then let go. "I love you, Katniss." It was a simple statement of fact, no desperation like from earlier in the day. "Whatever is going on with Madge and me or with you and Peeta, I don't think it would help to rush into anything." He sipped his coffee. "I agree to a divorce. We are just friends sharing space and I don't want to deny that I feel something more for Madge than I ever felt for you."

"Gee, thanks." She gave him a sideways smile.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as he sat back again. "That definitely didn't come out how I meant it."

She nodded. "I know. You've never really been attracted to me."

Leaning toward her once more, he shook his head adamantly. "I have. I so have. But not in nearly the same way."

Katniss took another sip of her coffee. "You know you don't have to defend yourself. I wasn't jumping your bones every five minutes because I was attracted to you, it was because you were convenient and I was being selfish." She sat her cup down and traced the wobbly arrow that Sam had painted on it the previous summer at day camp. It was Katniss's favorite mug. Gale's too. They were always fighting over it.

"But I still love you." He said. "And I always will. You're a part of our daughters. That won't ever change."

"What do we even say to the girls? How do we explain this?" She looked up. "All they know is one day Mom and Dad were happy and everything is fine and today they don't want to be married anymore."

Gale put his hand on hers again. "Neither of us have ever been very good with words, have we?" He squeezed, but didn't remove his hand after he loosened it. "We just tell them the truth. That we love each other, but aren't meant to be married anymore. It's not like people have to be constantly fighting to not be right for each other."

She nodded and took another drink from her coffee.

"I want you to have the house." His voice was slightly muffled behind the rim of his cup just before he took a sip. "I'll move out."

"Your parents paid for the house." She argued. "You should have it. I'll find somewhere else."

"And where would you go?" He sat his cup down. "Prim and Rory live right next to Mom and Dad. Would that be any more comfortable? And what about the girls? Sam will be hurt the hardest with this. You know how sensitive she is."

"Must have gotten that form Prim." Katniss said, staring once more at the arrow on her cup.

Gale chuckled softly, "You hide your sensitivity well from everyone, but I've seen it quite a bit. Remember Prim's senior year? You were crying every five minutes about the last this or the last that."

Katniss wiped at a stray tear. "I was a pretty big mess with all of Sam and Becca's firsts, too."

"So was I, honestly." He squeezed her hand again. "This is for the best, Catnip."

She turned her hand over. "If I get to keep the house, you at least should stay in the guest room until we figure it all out. Otherwise, wherever you go there will be babies crying at all hours and you shouldn't have to deal with that."

He snorted and leaned down to kiss her knuckles. "It's a deal."

Sam stepped into the kitchen rubbing her eyes. "I need water." She mumbled as she got a glass and filled it at the fridge before shuffling off again.

Gale stood and filled his cup once more. "You want to get all the details worked out now or wait?"

"We don't have a whole lot of assets that I think need to be split. You have your car, I have mine. Your clothes, my clothes. Whenever you have a place, we can split up furniture as needed."

He leaned against the counter. "No, you can keep it all. I don't want you to have to just buy a partial set. You were the one that picked that one out anyway." He scratched the end of his nose. "You think we can work comfortably together?"

"I think so." She smiled. "We'll just have to break all our habits."

He mirrored her grin. "We've had sex at the office exactly once. That's not much of a habit."

Katniss laughed. "I was talking more about me coming to your studio to work."

Gale sat back down. "I see no reason why. Aren't we going to stay friends?"

She shrugged. "I want to."

"But?"

"I'm so tangled up in your family, Gale. Even Prim married into it. Are they going to expect me to go away?"

"No, of course not." He sat his cup down and grabbed both her hands. "They love you, Katniss. You were family from when we were kids. None of that will change. I'll make sure of it."

She squeezed his hands and rubbed her thumbs over his knuckles. "Thank you." She let go and finished off her coffee. "I don't want us to spend time with our soulmates alone until the divorce is final."

"I agree." He took his seat and eyed his cup. "I think we should extend it past the divorce too." He said softly. "None of us really know Peeta. I don't want you alone with him too soon."

Katniss smiled. "You're always going to worry about me, aren't you?"

Gale shrugged. "For our girls, and for me, I'll worry about you until the day I die."

She got up to refill her cup. "Do you remember that night when we were dating when I took you out into the forest and we watched the stars all night?"

"I remember." He smiled fondly. "I knew about four constellations." He snorted. "Hell, I don't even remember them now."

"Daddy taught me." She took her seat again. "That was one of my favorite dates."

"Mine too." He winked. "Didn't hurt that you let me touch your boobs."

A loud guffaw escaped her and she had to cover her mouth quickly. She got control of herself and dropped it. "Two days later I let you in my pants, so I guess it worked one way or another."

He watched her in wonder.

She felt self-conscious. "What?"

"I just thought of the first night after we brought Sam home." He said softly.

She chuckled. "Neither of us slept because we were so scared."

"Prim thought we were crazy." He laughed. "The joys of raising a teenager."

Katniss rested her head on her hand. "Are we ready for another?"

Gale shrugged. "Got a few more years yet. We'll figure it out by then I'm sure."

They reminisced for the rest of the night.


Prim knocked on the door a little after sunrise. When Katniss let her in, she took one look at her sister's face and said, "You probably don't want to talk about it, but I'm here to listen."

"You're right, I don't want to talk." Katniss called up to the girls, "Your aunt is here."

They came barreling down the stairs. They weren't passing up the chance to shop with Prim. After accepting hugs and kisses from their parents, Sam and Becca ran out the door arguing over who got to sit up front.

Prim squeezed Katniss's arm. "I can bring them to half a dozen stores and come back. Then you and I can go to lunch or something."

"You only come back if they are driving you nuts." Katniss said. "I didn't sleep last night, so I'll probably just try to catch up."

Prim kissed her cheek. "Call if you change your mind."

Katniss stood in the doorway and watched her go before she turned to Gale. "I'm too keyed up to sleep."

He nodded. "Let's make a list, then."

"Okay, let's do that." As she waited for him to get some paper from the guest room, she returned to the kitchen and made a fresh pot of coffee.

"I feel like a failure." He sighed as he came back and sat the pad of paper in the middle of the table.

"It's not a failure, Gale." She poured them each a cup of coffee. "I felt like it was expected. Friends, dating, lovers, married. I never thought there would be anything else." She shrugged. "Not that it mattered. I liked you then, loved you. I love you now."

He sniffed and wiped at his eyes. He so rarely cried. In fact, Katniss was sure the last time Gale shed a tear was when Becca was born. "I'm sorry, Katniss."

"Why?" She asked softly, standing and taking his arm when he didn't answer. "Gale?"

"We could have spared all this. I shouldn't have—"

"Shouldn't have what? Married me? Had babies with me?" She touched his cheek. "I loved our life. Every minute of it. It's nothing to apologize for."

He grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Madge sooner." He swallowed hard and let go. "I can't do this right now, after all. I'm going to try to sleep for a bit." He walked to the back of the house and closed the guest room door hard.

Katniss stared down the hallway for several moments before she went up the stairs to her room and threw herself across the bed.

Her phone buzzed and she picked it up to find a message from Prim. She opened it and was met with her sister and daughters' smiling faces with silly hats and sunglasses. The message read, Are we gorgeous or what?

Katniss smiled to herself and answered, Beautiful!

She rolled over and curled up as the death of her marriage suddenly started washing over her.


Madge rolled over and looked at her clock. She could have taken one more day off, but she'd promised to get the last Christmas push out before the end of November. They had quite a few orders pending, but the team had made several of the smaller standard items that were best-sellers ahead of time and Madge was crucial in getting the word out through all social media accounts.

Her phone rang as she was getting her computer set up.

She pressed it to her ear with just a glance at the screen. "Didn't expect you to be awake this early on a day off." She said in greeting.

"You know I always wake up early." She could tell by Gale's voice that it wasn't a normal morning.

"You finally told her."

He sighed. "I didn't have to. She figured it out. She's got a soulmate, too."

Madge didn't know how to respond to that at first. It was a relief to know it was out in the open. "Well, what happens now?"

"Divorce." Gale said.

"You sound upset." She commented as she signed into the Hawthorne Sporting Goods Facebook.

He scoffed. "Shouldn't I? Madge, I've known her all my life and we've been married for ten years. We have kids, for god's sake."

She let out a slow breath. Sure, he was hurting. She could grant him that. "Sorry." She said softly. "I just thought maybe you'd feel more relief, is all. I do."

There was a pause and then he whispered, "I've never felt more relief in anything."

"Want to come over? Hang out?" She chewed her lip as she waited for his answer.

"Can't. Katniss and I promised no alone time with soulmates until after the divorce is final."

Madge nodded, even though she knew he couldn't see. "I understand. This is going to be a big change for everyone."

"I'm worried mostly for Sam and Becca." He admitted.

"Well, you know I'm a big supporter of therapy." She clicked around on Facebook to add links to her post. "Helped me."

"I know." There was a pause and then Gale let out a sigh. "Katniss and I were up all night talking, I'm pretty tired."

"At least the girls are old enough take care of themselves if you and Katniss need to doze." Madge sat back in her chair and stretched.

"They're with Prim, so even better."

"Yeah." She rubbed her eyes. "You go get some sleep and I'll talk to you later."

"Okay. Have a good day, Madge."

"I will." She hesitated a moment and then blurted, "I love you, Gale."

She could almost hear his smile when he said, "It's good to know."

"Get some sleep. Tell Katniss I'm thinking about her, okay?" She felt her throat tighten as the call disconnected. She covered her face with her hands and let out a relieved sob. Now that it was all in the open she didn't have to talk on eggshells around them anymore. She could be herself. She could love Gale with a little less shame.