Gale was told later that afternoon that he'd been cleared to discharge. He was so excited he yanked the IV from his arm, frightening the nurse, and tearing a wound in his arm that required stitches. Unfortunately, since he'd already been discharged, he had to go to the waiting area to be readmitted. "Are you serious?" he almost screamed at the nurse. She was less frightened by him this time, and sternly pointed the way to the admission area. Gale cursed as left the room.

He was still waiting an hour later when Haymitch came and found him. "What the hell are you still doing here? I told them to release you an hour ago."

Gale sighed heavily and gestured to his arm.

"Oh come on boy, that's just a scratch." Haymitch grabbed Gale's arm, and pulled him up, but as he did, the blood gushed. "Christ, did you rip your IV out?" Gale could only nod. And for the second time that day, Haymitch said, "Damn, boy, I thought you were smarter than that. You'll definitely need stitches." Gale took a deep breath, as if admitting defeat. "Okay, well, here, I'll give you this." Haymitch handed Gale a small silver band that looked slightly like a watch. "It's like a phone." Gale arched his eyebrow into a question, wondering how on earth this thing could be like a phone, but Haymitch didn't elaborate. "Put it on," he said, and Gale complied. "So, are you and the missus getting along?"

"What?"

"Katniss." Gale still didn't follow. Haymitch sighed again and seemed to be losing patience. Gale wanted to blame it on the lack of alcohol, but he had to admit that his failings that day would be enough to exhaust anyone. "What I mean is, will you and she want to be sharing living quarters."

"Oh. Um. Yes. I think so."

"What a resounding response. It must be true love," he cackled and pulled out a card, "this is for your room. It's not much, but I figured you two wouldn't want to be living with either of your mothers."

Gale didn't really like Haymitch, but he was thankful for that. "Thanks."

Haymitch ignored his gratitude. "It's on the same level as your family, though in a different row. There was nothing open by hers, and I figured, proximity to her mother was never one of Katniss's priorities."

"Right," Gale said, processing all the information.

"Have you told her yet?"

Gale stumbled from his thoughts, "What?"

"Today really isn't your day, is it? " Haymitch shook his head and explained. "Mrs. Everdeen. Have you told her?" and then he added, "You know, that you knocked her daughter up."

Gale's look told him he didn't need to explain that last part. "Oh, no. Not yet."

Haymitch apparently found this funny. "Have fun with that." He got up to leave. "Oh," he said, as he turned around, "try not to do anything else stupid today. We're need you to come with us tomorrow."

"Where?" The look Haymitch gave him told him that question counted as something stupid. And Gale suddenly realized what he meant. "To go get Katniss...I swear, these kids..."

Gale was not having a good day, and having to sit in that waiting room for another hour didn't make things any better as he went over all the mistakes he'd made...what a fool he must have appeared to Haymitch and his mother and at the time when he should have most appeared like a man. He was partially glad Katniss wasn't here to see him like this.

When he finally got stitched up, Gale went to find his room. He was too proud to ask for help navigating the subterranean halls, so it took him another hour to find it. Space was tight in Thirteen, and most ceilings were only a few inches above his head, and he had to duck to enter some doorways. He finally found their room, it wasn't big, but it was nice to think he and Katniss would have their own space. Along one wall was a small closet already stocked with a few things, and in the space next to it, and table that could fold down from the wall. And on the other side there was the bed, it was pushed tight against two outer walls, and the wall of their small bathroom pressed against the third side. Though Gale made a mental note to always sleep against the wall so Katniss wouldn't wake him when she'd get up to pee at night. The bathroom was incredibly tiny, and Gale was equally annoyed and impressed with the use of the tiny space. There was no designated shower area, but the head was high on the wall across from the toilet, and the small sink was next to that with a little mirror above it. Katniss would not be able to maneuver in here very well as she got bigger, and she'd probably miss having a bathtub. He was thinking about that when he heard a knock on his door. It was his mom.

"Hi, honey."

"Hey mom," he said, sounding more exhausted than he meant.

"How do you like your room?"

"It's...it's fine." He couldn't think of a better adjective.

"We're just down the way, I wanted to see if you wanted to come visit. Vick and Rory are there…"

"Oh, yeah, of course," Gale said, suddenly sounding brighter.

"Are you sure? You're not too tired?"

"Of course not, mom," he said, leaning down to kiss her has he walked through the door.

Hazelle lead him to their quarters and his siblings exploded when he entered the room. Gale grabbed them all into a big hug, and messed with them as he listened to them all recount their recent adventures.

"We agreed to work in the kitchen!" Vick proudly announced, after Posy informed him that she'd learned about in school.

"I'm so proud of you," Gale said, messing his brother's hair.

"Yeah," Rory echoed. "They say everyone has to help out here."

"I can understand that," Gale said.

"I learned about the Pillars of Civilizations today," Posy said, tugging at Gale for more attention.

"The what?" Gale looked at his sister, but his brother tried to steal him back.

"Yeah," Vick rejoined, "we wanted to work where the food is!" Gale smiled at his youngest brother's logic.

"They're called Seats," Posy explained, still vying for Gale's attention.

Vick continued over his sister, "Yeah," he beamed proudly, "We wanted to work where we could steal some food!"

Gale's smile suddenly faded.

"The S stands for sacrifice, C, community…" Posy's continued, "Oh...I don't remember what the E stands for…."

"It's not Seats, it's SCETs," Vick offered, "and the E is for Ethics and the T is for teamwork."

Gale's brain was still stuck on the "stealing" part, and he couldn't help but notice in irony in Vick remembering that. He was trying to figure out how to react when his mother jumped in.

"Vicker Mallard Hawthorne." They all knew what the use of a middle name meant. "You've been stealing again!"

"No." Vick peeped in the most obvious lie.

"What did I tell you about that?" Hazelle's tone rose to a level that even Gale'd be afraid to cross.

"Vick, Rory," Gale added sternly, "stealing is wrong, you know that." The pair of brothers avoided his eyes. "They people here don't have much, and what they do have they are already sharing with us." The younger boys suddenly turned shame-faced.

Gale hoped that guilting his brothers would be a deterrent enough, but he suspected from the way he was treated at the hospital today, the sheer necessity of surviving in a place like this, and the pillars that Posy had just mentioned, that their hosts were sticklers for rules, and probably didn't look to kind on stealing of any type.

"Don't ever do it again," Gale said sternly.

"Okay," both boys peeped.

"I can't believe you, Rory," Hazelle said in the background. "You were supposed to be watching him."

"I was watching him."

"That means keeping him out of trouble!"

"Technically, I did keep him out of trouble." Rory said with a smug smile that he thought made him look cute.

Hazelle did not think he looked cute. "Not anymore!" screamed, and both boy's faces fell. Posy waked over and grabbed Gale's leg. "Go to bed. Now!"

"But it's not even dark yet!" Rory maintained. He was newly a teenager and at the stage where he enjoyed testing boundaries.

Hazelle also believed that that another one of the keys to successful parenting was never letting her children prove her wrong. Her children had proved her wrong fewer times than they'd surprised her. She shot up, almost violently, and flipped off the lights in their quarters. "There. Now it's dark. So go to bed. All of you!"

Gale could hardly see in the room that was now only lit by the window in the door, but he heard the scraping of feet as the they shuffled off to their beds.

"Good night, Gale," Posy said quickly, darting to his leg for a final hug before putting herself to bed.

Gale waited until they all sounded like they were in their beds before he spoke again. "So, you want me to go to bed too?"

Hazelle took a deep breath, "No, dear, I'm sorry about that," she said as she led him to the hall. "Rory's just…"

"He's a teenager, mom."

"You were never like that."

"Well, I couldn't be. But I wasn't perfect."

Hazelle looked at her son as if to say: do I even want to know?

His look back to her said: Probably not.

Hazelle sighed deeply and touched her son's arm.

"I should probably get going anyhow." He took a heavy breath, signaling reluctance. "I need to go talk to Katniss's mom."

"Oh," Hazelle said, in a tone that meant, yes, you should. But she saw her son's reticence "Don't worry dear, Anise likes you."

"Yeah, but does she like me that much?"

"I think so," Hazelle said fondly, taking Gale's face in her hand and leaning up to kiss him on the cheek.

"Well, good night mom,"

"Good night dear. I love you."

"Love you too."

. . .

Gale knocked softly on the door of the Everdeen's apartment.

"Gale!" Prim screamed as she opened the door. "Haymitch told us you were here!"

"Hey, kiddo," Gale said, messing her hair. Prim was quick to smooth it back in place. Gale noticed her reaction and remembered what Haymitch told him earlier. He made a mental note to watch himself around her. "How've you been?" he asked mostly to her mother, who was folding sheets at a table.

"We're fine, Gale, thank you." She folded another sheet.

"We're going to get Katniss tomorrow…"

"Yes, Haymitch told us."

"Okay…" Gale said, not really knowing what to do with the conversation. "Well, I just wanted to check in. I didn't want you to worry about her."

"Well, Katniss was never one to let my worrying get in her way."

Gale felt the gravity of that statement even though he didn't quite understand it. "You know, we didn't plan to..."

Anise cut him off, "No need to explain, Gale. I stopped worrying about Katniss a long time ago. I know she can take care of herself."

"Right..." Gale said, not quite sure what to make of that.

"So, how've you ladies been?" He tried to restart the conversation.

"We've been working at the hospitals," Prim said. "I get to help mom out three days a week."

"That sounds great." Gale looked down to Prim, but he could feel her mother's eyes on him. It made him nervous. "What have you been doing there?"

"All sorts of stuff. Mostly helping people with respiratory ailments, they seem to have a lot of those down here…"

"Have you helped delivery any babies?" Gale couldn't believe he just said that. Humor wasn't going to get him in with Katniss's mom, and as the thought about it, that probably wasn't even funny. As soon as he caught her eyes, he realized it wasn't.

"Babies?" Prim asked in disbelief. "No, they don't have many of those down here. Something about a sickness they got a few years ago…"

"Prim, can you give Gale and I a moment, please?"

Prim looked at her mom as if to ask why, but Anise Everdeen held her gaze, and Prim left without another word. Gale got the feeling that look never worked on Katniss.

"You got my daughter pregnant, didn't you?"

That sounded a bit more accusatory than Gale liked, but he couldn't deny it. "Yes."

"Well, I suppose this was bound to happen sooner or later." She said it like she expected it and almost smiled when she saw the look of surprise on Gale's face. "Oh, please, when your teenage daughter spends all her free time in the forests with an older boy…."

Gale didn't like what she was implying at all. What kind of a man did she think he was...he would never...Oh, wait, that's exactly what he did. He cursed himself.

"How far along is she?" her tone was almost clinical.

"About five months."

Katniss's mother just nodded. "Can you have her come see me as soon as she gets back?" Gale wasn't sure if that was the motherly request, of a medical one.

"Of course."

"Thank you, Gale."

Gale couldn't help but feel he needed to say something to make this better. "You know I love her, right?"

This time Mrs. Everdeen did smile. "Everyone knows you love her, Gale."

"Oh, okay."

"Thank you for stopping by, Gale." He guessed this was his cue to leave.

"Okay. It was good seeing you."

All she said back was, "yes."

. . .

Gale slept deeply that night, but not exactly peacefully, as too much from that day was drudged through his mind. As he fell asleep, he worried about Katniss and cursed himself for the numerous stupid things he'd done in front of his mom, her mom, and Haymitch. As sleep overtook him, he was drowned in a chorus of their criticisms.

Gale couldn't remember what he'd been dreaming when the bracelet device called him into consciousness. He was happy to be awake. He quickly showered, put on the clothes they'd given him, went to meet Haymitch.

"There you are," Haymitch called him. "We were about to leave without you."

"Sorry," the day had hardly started, and Gale had already made a mistake.

"Don't worry, this place is a maze. I'm still trying to sort it all out."

Gale was surprised by and appreciated Haymitch not criticizing him.

As they climbed onto a hovercraft, Haymitch introduced him. "Jessup, Carmel, Gale Hawthorne." The two soldiers eyed him and nodded their hello. Gale did the same. "He's a good man," Haymitch added, "we're lucky to have him with us."

Gale was a surprised to hear Haymitch say that, but he tried to hide it. This was not the time and place, but on the inside he was smiling. On the outside, however, he tried to look as tough and worthy as Haymitch made him out to be.

"What happened?" Gale finally asked, looking at the window as they moved to Twelve.

Haymitch let out a deep sigh. "That Capitol. You got to hand it to them. They sure know how to play the game. They air strikes that got you and Katniss, well, they hit our units in Eight, Ten, and Four as well. Only, it didn't quite have the desired effect. More people rallied to us, and the Capitol learned...So they cut off supplies. Food didn't come for one week...and then two. No medicine, no fuel...Kids and grandmas started starving to death. People who see bombs falling, they want to fight back. But when people get hungry, all they want is food. About half the district agreed to leave. They went wherever the Capitol would take them, as long as they could eat. The rest of us, well, we hobbled along as long as we could until Thirteen opened their doors to us. We had a couple of contacts here, and when they found out…" Haymitch's look told Gale they couldn't be more grateful.

Gale only nodded, understanding the severity, and the only thing that quelled his anger was the knowledge that he'd get to see Katniss soon.

A/N: Hello All and thank you so much for reading! As always, I'd love to know what you think about this story and my writing, and if any of you could be kind enough to share your thoughts, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'd love to know what you think about my content, characterization, and especially how predictable my writing is (like, do you see these twists coming) and how my attempts at humor are paying off (go ahead, be honest-criticism will only make me a better writer!)