A/N: Thanks for reading and to everyone who's left a review. :) Special thanks to anwesha. guha. 50 for the initial idea and to Belle453 for the beta and suggestions!
Gale hasn't made it halfway through the Seam when he realizes he can't go to the woods, not anymore. He still can't believe his ears. He doesn't know whether to laugh or cry, at President Snow's obvious manipulations. He's too distraught by the idea of Katniss going back in the arena to even notice her tracks as he approaches her house in the Victors' Village. At the front stoop, he pounds on the door. "Katniss," he yells. "Let me in!"
After a moment, it's Prim who opens the door, her face streaked with tears. "She's not here, Gale," Prim says quietly.
"Where is she?" he demands, stomping into the house.
"I don't know, she ran out," Prim explains. He stops in his tracks and is about to go after her when Prim asks, "Can they really do that Gale? Make her go back?"
Gale feels defeated. A few short months ago he believed in the rebellion, thought he and Katniss could fight the Capitol. But in that time he has faced Thread and watched as the woods were closed off from him and the new security procedures destroyed what little comforts district 12 had ever offered. Having Katniss taken away from him, again, Gale no longer sees a way to fight.
"I dunno," he tells her. "I guess they can. Who's going to stop them?" He left his house unwilling to accept it.
"How can they do this? They won the games. They're supposed to be the Mentors now. She's supposed to be safe."
"I know, Prim. We'll figure this out. I don't know how, but if there's a way, we're gonna find it."
There's no sense chasing after Katniss. If she's run away from Prim, Gale knows she's not going to want to talk to him either. Resigned to wait, he follows Prim into the house to where she and her mother have been sitting. He pointedly ignores the plate of cookies on the table, refusing to acknowledge Peeta's closeness to the Everdeens. Prim is pouring him a mug of tea when there's a knock at the door.
Gale practically leaps out of the chair. With Prim on his heels, he hurries to the door and swings it open wide, thinking only of Katniss.
"Hi ... - Oh!" the petite blonde on the doorstep jerks back in surprise. Her slim coat, though worn, is well made and must be warm to protect her from the night's bitter winds.
Equally caught off guard, Gale mutters accusingly, "Undersee? What're you doing here?"
"I ... I came to see Katniss," Madge stutters, her tear-stained eyes flashing defiantly at Gale before settling on Prim.
Ignoring Gale's glare, Prim speaks up. "Hi Madge. Katniss ... uhh, she's not here?"
"I'm sorry Prim. I can't believe this. Are you okay?" Madge asks.
Embracing Madge, Prim answers, "I don't know, it's hard to believe it's real. Thanks for coming Madge." Gale shifts uncomfortably as the girls hug in the doorway. When they part, Prim asks, "Do you want to come in? Peeta brought some of his lemon cookies over earlier ..."
Gale grits his teeth at both the reference to Katniss' fiancé and the obvious friendship between the blondes.
"Um, no thanks, Prim," Madge says, glancing briefly toward Gale. "I didn't mean to ... Well, don't worry. I don't think the Capitol knows what they're starting. Anyway ... I know you'll take care of her. I'll come by tomorrow. Goodnight Prim."
She turns to go, walking back into the dark night without a hint of hesitation until Prim calls, "Wait! We can't let you walk back on your own." Prim looks meaningfully at Gale who stares back at her in refusal. With a huff, Prim pulls her coat off a rack by the door and walks past Gale to catch up to Madge. Groaning, Gale follows.
Gale can't believe he's letting them drag him away from the house in the Victors' Village. What if Katniss comes back? Still, he couldn't let Prim go alone. Reluctantly he stalks silently behind the pair of blondes, worrying about Katniss while the girls talk quietly. He catches an unfamiliar name and assumes they're talking about school. Mostly he ignores them and pays attention to distant sounds and the shadows around them. He's more than a little worried what someone will think if they're seen. Gale doesn't need any more trouble right now. But the walk to the Mayor's house is quick and quiet. Madge leads them around to the back of the house.
Turning to them at the door, Madge says, "Thanks, Prim. I'll come by sometime tomorrow. Uh, thank you, Gale. Goodnight." Prim says goodnight and grudgingly Gale nods his head in acknowledgement as Madge's eyes meet his.
As they hurry back to the Victors' Village, Prim seems lost in thought. She chides Gale, "what do you have against Madge?"
He answers defensively, "she had no problem walking over on her own. I don't see why walking back is any different. As if anyone would touch her."
Prim says, "You'd never have let me leave on my own." With a frustrated sigh, she adds, "She's Katniss' friend Gale. She's on our side. You could at least be nice."
Gale retorts, "I'm sorry, I guess I'm a little too busy trying to feed my family and help Katniss to worry about the district princess finding her way home at night."
After a moment of silence, he sighs. "I'm sorry Prim. I'm just worried about Katniss."
Prim takes Gale's hand, answering, "I'm scared too." They walk the rest of the way without talking.
When they return to find Katniss still absent, Gale's anger at the townies who have laid claim to her since she became a victor is again tempered by the idea that he alone will be the one here with the Everdeens when she returns. Even if he has to stay here all night, Gale is going to be here.
Despite himself Gale wonders, briefly, what Madge meant when she talked about the Capitol. As he and Prim return to Mrs. Everdeen, Gale tries to convince himself that she can win again. Sitting with them at the table, he tells her family she will. But he's scared that she'll be targeted. He can't help worry that her fate is already written and this is simply President Snow's plan to appear innocent of her murder. In the arena, the Gamemakers control everything.
But if that's the case, what do they have to lose? Why not escape now?
Gale wishes more than anything that he'd swallowed his pride and run away with her when she first suggested it, no matter who she was bringing along, or what was happening in the districts. His family would have come. Prim and Mrs. Everdeen would have come. They could have escaped before Katniss was marked for the arena again. The security given to regular tributes, once selected, is bad enough, and he knows it'll be far worse for Katniss. Maybe they can still slip out though. They have to. They can survive out in the woods, if they can just get away. He wishes he'd never been so arrogant as to think they could start a rebellion here.
It's been hours. Gale stands at the window, staring out into the night. Prim and Mrs. Everdeen sit across the room, but they've run out of hollow words of comfort. He can't leave. He stares out into the night, willing her to come home. Finally he sees her, stumbling up the walk. A light glints off the bottle in her hand, which is all wrong. Katniss doesn't drink. Prim and her mother follow him to the door. He opens it as she reaches the top step, and pulls her to him, tears in his eyes. "I was wrong. We should have gone when you said," he whispers. He takes in the mostly empty bottle and her bloody hand.
"No," Katniss slurs, sloshing white liquor down his back. Gale doesn't notice.
He is insistent, or simply desperate. "It's not too late," he says. Surely they can find a way out of the district before the Capitol closes in on her again. He would do anything to save her from this.
She answers, "Yeah, it is" woozily, before collapsing into his arms. The liquor bottle slips from her fingers and shatters at their feet.
Gale stands there a moment, Katniss' light frame weighing on him. He sighs heavily, refusing to let free the tears collecting in his eyes. He hoists her up into his arms. He turns back into the house, telling Prim to clear off the table as he carries her limp body in to the kitchen where their mother sees to her patients. He had been a patient on this same table himself not so long ago.
By the time he has Katniss on the table, Prim is already pulling out supplies from the medicine cabinet as Mrs. Everdeen heats water on the stove. He retreats to a corner of the room, feeling lost and awkwardly out of place while they get to work, cleaning her and tending to her injured hand. He can't help wince as they pull shards of glass from the cut on her hand and stitch he hand back together. When they finish, Mrs. Everdeen turns to him and asks, "Can you carry her upstairs, Gale?"
He pulls her back into his arms and takes her upstairs to the bedroom, where he leaves her with her mom. Downstairs, Prim confronts him. She asks him, "gone where? Should've gone where, Gale?" He looks at her hopelessly. "The woods. She wanted to go; she wanted us all to go. She wanted to save you."
Prim looks doubtful, so Gale continues, "She'll do whatever she can to keep you safe, Prim."
Prim shakes her head. "But I'm just worried for her! We thought ... we thought with the photo shoot ... that meant things would be okay. I was so excited ..." Prim stops short, seeming to realize how different Gale's reaction to the wedding dresses would have been. "I'm sorry," she meekly ends, as they walk through the house.
"Mom's friend died in the last Quell," she whispers shakily, as they reach the front door together.
Gale wraps his arms around the blonde. "Katniss isn't going to die, Prim. She won't leave you. No matter what happens."
Prim sniffles against Gale's shirt. After a few moments, she straightens herself and looks up at the tall hunter. "Thanks, Gale. Mom's much better now, you know. We'll take care of her. We'll do whatever Katniss needs."
Gale smiles sadly, seeing how much Prim has grown up in such a short time. It reminds him of his brothers. Prim is family to him, just as they are. "Me too, Prim," he agrees.