For this chapter, I'm doing something a little different. Half will be in Madge's POV, and the rest, per Jajaboom's request, will be in Gale's.
For the next thirty minutes or so, I keep attempting to teach Gale to play the piano. Eventually, I give up, considering that he has no musical talent whatsoever.
"You have no musical bone in your body." I tell him and he laughs.
"Which is why I don't play the piano." He checks his watch and curses under her breath. "Curfew's passed. We aren't supposed to be out." I slide off of the piano bench as he quickly strides to the door and turns the light off, leaving the only light streaming into the room from the hallway.
Slowly, he clicks open the door and sticks his head out. "C'mon, there's no one here." He pulls me into the hallway and we slowly continue down the dimly lit hallway. When we finally reach the end of the hallway, Gale shoves me behind him slightly as a couple of people with badges walk by. "You're not supposed to be down here this late."
"And you are?" I whisper, and he nods, continuing to pull me along through the hallways. When we finally manage to get to the elevator, Gale gently shoves me in first and then follows. When the elevator finally closes, he relaxes a little.
"Halfway there." He murmurs, drumming his fingers on the wall on the elevator. "We should be fine now, I think."
"Why is it such a big deal?"
"The night after we got here, Posy and I got lost looking for Haymitch and we got in trouble because we were out after curfew. Coin threw a fit." He starts, and then continues as the elevator continues to go upward, "Said we had to follow the schedule or there would be consequences or whatnot. I didn't really pay attention. Neither did Posy, I think."
I laugh as the elevator dings open. Gale quickly leads me to where I live. I punch in the code and then turn to face Gale. "I had a really good time, Gale. Thank you." He grins.
"So did I. We can go back down there again, if you want." I nod and he smiles. "I gotta go. See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow." Slowly, I close the door behind me, hoping the lock doesn't click. It does, and I sigh. Hopefully, Haymitch will not be up to bug me.
"And where were you?" Crap. Haymitch is up then.
"Out."
"I got that, sweetheart. You were with Hawthorne, weren't you." It's not a question, but a statement. Slowly, I nod. "Hmph. All of us knew you two wouldn't be able to stay apart for long." That's what Mona said the other day. Maybe everyone thinks it.
"Does everyone think that?"
"Pretty much. The two of you were inseparable before." I shift on my feet a little as Haymitch sends me to bed.
The next morning, I'm awoken bright and early by Haymitch. He says that Mona wants to see me. Groaning, I pull myself out of my bed, and throw on some clean clothes. Slowly, I follow Haymitch downstairs.
"Madge, I have some wonderful news." She says, as soon as I'm sitting down in the chair, Haymitch lingering by the door. "You know those tests that we took a while ago on your vitals?" I nod numbly, rubbing my eyes and she continues. "Well, we took a test on your memory." At this, both Haymitch and I sit up.
"And?" He asks, moving into the other chair next to me.
"And, there is a very good chance that it will come back for good."
"Everything?" I ask and she nods.
"Everything. Or, there is another option. One would be to just let it come back on it's own. It could come back gradually, or all at once. The other option would be a surgery to have it come back faster. But, there would be a chance that it would tamper with your brain permanently, messing up something else besides your memory, or causing your memory to never come back." Never is a big word right now.
I glance at Haymitch to find him chewing the inside of his cheek. I mean I want my memory back, yes, but I wouldn't want to mess something else up when I'm already so screwed up as it is.
"What is the chance that the surgery would mess up?"
"We're looking at a 10% chance that it could go wrong. The doctors here have been trying to find ways to fix memories, but they've never had a case quite like yours, though." She pauses to riffle through the papers she has on her desk. "They would need a days notice to get the right doctors and the correct equipment before administering the surgery. You would be out the whole time, you wouldn't feel a thing. After, you'd be given pain medicine. Your memort would be fuzzy for a little, but then it would return to normal, as it was before the Capitol tampered with your memory."
That's a lot of imformation to process. "What do you think, Madge?" Haymitch asks, nudging me. "I know it's a big decision, and you don't have to make it now."
"Can I talk to my dad about it?"
Haymitch nods, but it's slow. "Yeah. You can. You'll have to make it quick." Haymitch tells Mona that we'll be back later. he leads me down to the hospital, but we go to a different ward. We have to get access to go through and finally, I'm allowed to see my father.
At my first glance of him, I think he's dead. He's laying deathly still on the bed, skin pale. It nearly brings tears to my eyes because he looks like my mother the night before the reaping.
"Dad?" I ask quietly, and his eyes slowly open. He smiles weakly and motions with a weak hand to come forward.
"Hello, Madge." He murmurs, and I move closer to him, sitting in the chair. "How are you?"
"Fine," I sigh, "Nevermind. Confused."
"What's wrong?"
"They think that they have a way to make my memory come back, but there's a chance that it could mess up."
He stops to cough, a thick, horrible sounding cough, and I grimace just hearing it. "Well what are you going to do?"
"I don't know." I say and he sighs.
"It's times like these that I wish your mother was still here. She always knew how to talk to you. But it's not my choice to make. That's yours. I can't decide for you." He coughs again. "But whatever you choose, I will support and love you in every way I can."
I chew on my cheek as he continues. "I want you to know, in case something happens to me, that I love you, and that I wish I could've been there more for you. I'm sorry for all the times I was mad at you because I thought I was losing my little girl." Hot tears burn in the back of my eyes, but I can't let them fall. Not now. Haymitch is tactful enough to pretend that he's not listening, instead hitting the ground with the toe of his boot. "Trust Gale; he's a good man. He'll protect you."
"Stop talking like you're dying." I tell him and he coughs more. I cannot cry.
"I need to get some shut eye. I love you." He murmurs, before his eyelids droop.
"I'll be here when you wake up." I murmur, and he smiles a little before finally drifiting to sleep.
He doesn't wake up.
Gale POV:
I know that something's up the minute Haymitch walks into Command late. Usually, he isn't late. I try to catch his eye throughout the majority of the meeting, but he seems determined not to look at me. That's when I figure out that something is seriously wrong. Usually he'll catch my eye and roll his eyes about something that Plutarch or the shedevil Coin said.
Also, there's the fact that Madge isn't here. This is when the worry starts to set in to my veins.
"So, Haymitch, has Miss Undersee made a decision yet?" Coin asks, addressing Haymitch.
"Huh? Oh, Coin, honestly. She's been through even turmoil today as it is. Give her some time on this one." Turmoil? What happened? And what decision does she have to make?
"Well I would expect that she would know what she's going to do by now."
"Coin, she found out today. She's had a bad day. Give her some space. And time." Haymitch growls, and I frown again. The meeting adjourns quickly, and I immediately stalk to the other side of the table where Haymitch is.
"What's wrong?" I demand and he sighs.
"I might as well tell you now. You'll find out soon enough anyways." He pauses to put some more papers back into his folder.
"Well!?"
"First of all, the reason Madge wasn't at the meeting is because she was, and probably still is, hysterical." I frown. Usually, when Madge is hysterical, either something really bad happened, or she had a nightmare, but considering that she doesn't remember anything that could give her a nightmare, I highly doubt it's that one.
"Well what happened?" I demand, but he plows through my words and continues talking.
"Second of all, I had to leave her at your house. And finally-"
"Will you just tell me already?" Haymitch growls at me, jerking his head slightly to where Coin and Plutarch still sit. Finally, Haymitch pulls me into the hall.
"I'm getting there." We start to walk to the elevator, and he punches the button that goes to my floor. "You know how her father was sick?" I nod, and I can literally feel my face pale.
"Did something happen?"
"Yes. He died earlier this morning."
"Oh my God." Haymitch nods, and I feel myself go numb. Even though her father and I had some dissagreements over Madge's future and whatnot does not mean that I don't care that he died. He's Madge's dad, and I know what it feels like to lose a father. Madge has lost both of her parents in the past year, year and a half.
"So, yes, that's why she wasn't in the meeting. She needs you right now, whether she knows it or not." I nod numbly, as the elevator dings open. He stays on the elevator as I get off, quickly moving to my house.
When I finally reach it, I find Rory waiting outside. "How is she?" I ask and he sighs.
"A mess. She's miserable." I nod and slowly go inside. Once inside, I hear Posy singing and immediately cringe. That's not a way to cheer someone up. Quickly, I hurry into the living room to find Posy dancing around the room, singing something, while my mother sits with Madge on the couch. As soon as Posy sees me, she stops singing and Vick pulls her out of the room.
I sit gently on the couch, and Madge turns to me. God, she is a mess. Her eyes are tainted red and her tears keep pooling in her eyes. I hate seeing her like this. I hate it so much. If I could, I would take all of the pain from her in an instant.
Immediately, I pull her to me and wrap my arms around her. My mother, sensing that I have it under control, stands and exits the room. Madge sobs into my chest and I sigh, tightening my hold on her. Her fingers bunch into my shirt, and I rest my chin on the top of her head.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Madge. I'm so sorry." I murmur, tangling one of my hands in her hair.
"He's dead," she chokes, her tears wetting my shirt, "He's dead, Gale." All I want to do right now is bring her closer to me, but I can't. I can't and it's killing me. It's literally eating me from the inside out. The fact that she has no clue what we've been through, what we've dealt with together, it's killing me.
"Shh," I murmur, and she keeps crying into my chest. God, I hate it when she's like this. It's like the whole universe is out to get her. Why her? She's done nothing wrong. "It's okay. You're okay, it's gonna be okay," I mumble, rubbing her back.
Eventually, she cries herself to sleep. Her cheek is resting against my chest and I wipe a stray tear from her face. God, even when she's been crying she still looks beautiful. Slowly, I press a kiss to her head. It's the first time I've kissed her since before she was tortured. It's been what, a month? I've lost count of the days by now.
I sigh and shift on the couch. Well I certainely cannot wake her up now. She needs her sleep. My mother finally comes back in room and looks at our position.
"Did she fall asleep?" I nod and she sits on the other side of Madge, smoothing out her hair. "He died because of the bombs. Haymitch said that there was some poision vapor in the smoke, and her father refused to go get treated for it."
"I thought Haymitch refused too?"
"He did, but eventually he went. Madge's father never did."
"But the doctors said it was a smoke thing that he had?" I ask as Madge mumbles something in her sleep.
"It was, but they didn't want to tell Madge what it actually was."
"That's stupid." I conclude, and my mother sighs.
"What are you going to do about her?" Ma asks gently.
"Well I'm not waking her up. That'd be just mean. And I don't want to leave her."
"I understand that you don't want to leave her, but you certaintely cannot just bring her back to your room like you normally would." That's all I want to do, though. I don't sleep as well when she's not with me. I've had the worst nightmares lately.
"Should I just.. Leave her on the couch? And then I stay out here with her?"
My mom sighs, and then finally nods. "I'll get a blanket for her." When we finally get Madge settled on the couch, my mother tells me goodnight. Then, it's just me and Madge in the living room. I press another kiss to her head and settle into the chair.
God, this is killing me. Seeing her like this, I mean. Before she was tortured, I could just pull her to me and hold her close. Now, though, I can't because she doesn't know why I'm doing it. She means so much to me, and if I end up losing her in the end, it will kill me. I have to do everything I can to bring her back to me, somehow, some way.
A/N: So.. yeah. More will be explained in the next chapter. Thoughts?
