Disclaimer: do you guys actually read these? Lol, I don't know why I even put them as disclaimers, half the time they aren't even actual disclaimers. Anyway, not entirely satisfied with this chapter and yes it is short, but I think you guys will like it. ;)
Before I register anything else, I'm rushing past Katniss into her living room. She calls for me to stop, something about explaining, but I don't want to hear it.
"Gale," Thom says, his voice serious but his eyes lit up in amusement. "You're going to wake her up. Shh."
"Care to explain, Thom?" I cross my arms, trying to avoid looking at her; it'll tear me apart. "Why the fuck is she even here?"
"I'll let her tell you that," he shakes his head. After I've run out of energy to glare at him, I tentatively let my eyes travel down to her. Her eyebrows are knit, her hair pushed out of her face, tumbling over her shoulder and into Thom's lap. Her lips are slightly parted, her arms crossed over her ribs, which are, like I noticed, completely bandaged. She is wearing a t-shirt and shorts, her knees bent lazily.
Nervously, I look back at Thom; seeing her has suddenly taken all of the anger out of my body. "I'm sorry," I choke out. "I just... I was worried about you guys so I came here and I didn't expect this -"
"It's fine, Gale," Thom's tone is soft. "There's nothing going on between us."
"I know that," I say, embarrassed. I admit I did think the opposite for a minute, but I push that away now. "I...this is what you guys had to leave for, isn't it?"
He nods. Then a few seconds pass, and he looks back up at me. "I'm tired," he smiles. "I think I'll go join Bristel upstairs. Do you want to...?"
My breath hitches. "Is she going to wake up?" I ask. He shakes his head.
"Here," he whispers, carefully lifting her up as I take his place. She shifts in her sleep, murmuring. Holding my breath, I sit down, holding her in my arms. Thom smiles softly at me and quietly walks out of the room to the stairwell.
I look at the clock; it's 8. Hopefully I have a few hours before she wakes up. Carefully, I trace each curve and valley and indent on her face, just barely releasing the breath I'd been holding. She's so beautiful; even when her face is twisted with worry and her eyebrows are furrowed and her hair is a mess. This is the girl that saved my life. As much as I want to, I know I won't be able to ask her about it for a while.
Now, upon closer inspection, I realize that half of her face is swollen and much redder than the other half. Then the rest of the realization crashes down on me.
Madge was in 11, exactly where her father was sent back to after I got him fired. After he threatened that if I saw her again he'd kill us both.
I try to think how utterly terrifying this encounter, or encounters, I don't know, must have been for her. Carefully, I run my finger across the soft threads of the bandages, wondering what her skin looks like underneath, what happened.
Suddenly her face contorts, in pain or fear, I don't know, and she's murmuring, "No, no, no..." I frantically look around, awkwardly kind of waiting for Katniss or Peeta to rush in. She's not going to be happy to see me. But they must be outside or upstairs or something, dammit.
She sharply turns onto her side and then cries out in pain. Her eyes open, and her hands fly up to her ribs; tears fall down her cheeks.
"Thom," she gasps, and there's a prick of pain in my chest. "Thom, I, he hurt me again," the tears fall faster and she squeezes her eyes shut. "Thom?"
"No," I say softly as she tries rolling onto her back again. "Come on," I gently turn her over to face me. "You're okay, Madge."
Her face is a rainbow of emotions; she looks shocked, then scared, then happy, then confused. Her eyes narrow.
"You," she mutters in disbelief.
"Yeah, it's me," I smile. "Sorry to disappoint."
"No," she shakes her head quickly. "No, I...Gale," she sobs my name, and the tears are flooding out of her crystal blue eyes again. She shudders, hard, and then winces. "Dammit," she exclaims. "This hurts so fucking bad, Gale," she cries. "Everything. I..."
"Shh," I whisper, bringing her up to me so her head rests in the crook of my neck and her legs sprawl across my lap. "Madge," my breathing is shallow. "It's okay."
"I left you," she croaks. "Why do you care?"
"I never stopped," I say, my voice weak, Katniss' words to me ringing in my ears.
"Gale," her voice is watery as she repeats my name again. "He...he meant it. My dad."
So it was him. I hold back my comments about wanting to kill the fucking bastard and hold her closer. "I'm here."
"Stay," she says, nuzzling into me.
All the thoughts I've had about forgetting Madge are gone. Things are different now that she's tangible, not a dream or a nightmare. And she's not angry. "Always."
After Madge asked me to stay, we just sat there. We didn't talk about her injuries, we didn't talk about our lack of communication, we didn't talk about the kiss, we didn't talk about her dad. We didn't talk about the redness and swelling on the side of her face or the scars I could now see on her thighs, previously covered by makeup. We didn't talk about how she secretly came to Twelve, so close to my house, and we didn't talk about how she'd been in the same position with Thom just hours ago.
We most definitely didn't talk about how I now know that she saved my life with the morphling, something that still burns at me when I think about it.
Peeta walked in first, apologizing because he and Katniss "fell asleep" (the validity of this I sort of question), talking before he rounded the corner into the living room. When he saw us, he stopped, but he couldn''t hide the smile on his lips. He apologized again. I didn't have the heart to be snippy, so I just told him that Thom got tired. Katniss, though, reacts differently.
"Sorry," she says immediately, awkwardly fidgeting. "She...she didn't want you to know."
Somewhere deep inside me is an inferno that holds all the anger I could possibly have for Madge at this point. Lying to me about the morphling, kissing me and then abandoning me, not telling me about this. But I just sigh. "Catnip," I run my fingers through my hair tiredly, "I don't have the energy to be angry anymore."
"She's really busted up," she murmurs, looking down at the floor. "Her ribs are ten different colors." I flinch. "She'll tell you what happened," Katniss' voice is soft. "She was so scared, she didn't know what you would think."
"I don't know what I think," I confess. "The anger's in there somewhere."
"She's broken, Gale," Katniss looks up quickly. "Don't break the shards in half." Then she leaves.
Thom is more straightforward; I nod along to what he says, still absorbed in Katniss' words. He apologizes and explains that she was so tired and she looked so shattered and he didn't know what else to do -
"Thom," I smile gently. "Please. Don't worry about it. Madge and I, we'll work it out." Bristel nods sympathetically at Thom's side. "We're going to go," she says softly. I smile, "Thanks," looking up at them.
"No problem," Thom's voice is gentle, "and, um...sorry about all this."
"Thom, it's fine," I shake my head, smiling. Madge hasn't said a word; her eyes are closed but I know she isn't sleeping. "See you guys."
They wave, and the door shuts. Then I remember I have to work. It's 9:30. Half an hour until I need to leave. "Madge," I whisper softly. She doesn't stir. "Madge,"
"Mmm?" she opens her eyes. I can't hold back my smile. She grips the hem of my shirt. "Don't leave," she pleads. "I'm so alone."
My heart shatters. "I have to go to work," I tell her. "Working late tonight."
"Mm," she murmurs again. "Come back soon."
"You know I will," my voice cracks as I lightly caress her face. I want to kiss her, her forehead, her cheek, her lips, anything. But I don't. "Take me to my room?" she asks sleepily.
"Of course." Carefully, I pick her up. She's so light. Climbing up the stairs, I look around. Fuck, there has to be thirty rooms in on this floor.
"First one on the left," she says, realizing my confusion. "There's too many rooms in this house."
"Tell me about it," I mutter, opening the door. Her room is small, the only thing I recognize is her bulletin board. It's the same as before, I think. No new photographs.
"The one you took with me that night," she says as I lay her on her bed and pull the blanket up over her chest, "it's...it's in my drawer. I didn't want to put it up."
"Why not?"
"It's a secret," she smiles. "Here, it's in that one." She points to the nightstand drawer on the side of her bed. I open it, and sure enough, the only thing in it is the photo of us. "Madge," I stutter softly, taking it between my fingertips.
"Take it with you," her eyes flicker up to mine. "I want you to have it."
"I have one already," I remind her.
"With Posy," she laughs. "Please, take it."
Without another word I slip it in my pocket, smiling at her as I close the door softly. Walking down that staircase is the hardest thing I've had to do in a long time. I want to crawl in bed with her, hold her, keep her safe.
Katniss is in the kitchen, writing something furiously on a piece of paper at the table. She looks nervously up at me. "I'm sorry, again," she says timidly.
"Catnip," I groan. "It's fine."
"But do you understand why I couldn't tell you?" she quips. I shake my head no; I don't, to be honest. "Madge's manager or something, she called me one day and said something happened to Madge. She didn't really tell me what, but I knew it was her dad."
My body tenses again. I've tried not to think about Mr. Undersee; the things I've pictured are surely unhealthy.
"I didn't expect it," she continues. "But the next day, she was here. And it was this big secret. And I...I thought you guys were...done."
"Can't finish what you didn't start," my voice is low. But I know we started something. Katniss doesn't respond, only looks at me sadly and returns to her papers. So I bid her goodbye and head out the door.
Once out, I'm met with Peeta. "Gale," he nods. "Hope you'll come back soon."
"Me too," I respond sadly, "Seeing her like that..."
"She loves you, Gale," Peeta's expression is soft. "I can tell. The way she talks about you, that's...that's how I talked about Katniss."
I nod slowly, looking down at the ground. "See you, Peeta."
And of all the questions I have as I walk away, one burns at the back of my mind; one that I don't want to let myself ask:
Do I love Madge Undersee?
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter and it met your expectations! Ugh, not enough Gadge... Thanks so much for all the reviews!