A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENN!

You're an amazing writer (aka the best Gadge Writer of All Time)! Always a joy to see you updated! Anyways, happy birthday and have a great summer!

Gale's father, the Mayor, sits across from him. The only barrier between the two men is a dark wooden desk in Mayor Hawthorne's home office. The desk has important papers sprayed across it and Gale is trying his hardest not to glance at them.

Marcus stares at his son with a disappointing glaze that seems to burn through Gale like a hot iron rod. Gale knew he wasn't supposed to sneak out but he had too. It wasn't a matter of life or death. It wasn't anything that couldn't have waited...but it was. If he had waited it would mean that he didn't care. It would mean he was giving up. It would have mean he had forgotten. And nobody could forget Madge Undersee.

Gale felt the unnerving feeling that his father could see right through him. He could see everything that Gale's mind and heart spoke. He heart speed up at just the thought of her strawberry smelling hair, the golden shine of it was probably reflecting in his eyes. Even the moonlight couldn't take away the gold color.

Gale's hands, that laid in his lap, began to sweat. But god damn it if he wiped them against his jeans. Marcus let out a deep breath. His hands curl into fists as he takes another deep breath and closes his eyes. Gale knows he's trying to prepare himself not to yell at his son because nothing good will ever come of it.

"You know why you're here, don't you?"

Hmm, the choice: play dumb or go straight forward.

Gale nods once, his hands, still, still on his pants. A deep, slow breath released.

"You know I don't agree with this." Another nod. "I really don't." Another breath. "And god damn it if I let you continue." A shallow.

"I know you don't agree...You've said it a million times."

"No, I don't! And you never listen to me! I'm your father and I said no! You will have no relationship with a Seam girl." His father's breathing is tight. Gale's stomach clenches, waiting for something, whatever will happen to just happen.

But he opens his mouth...

"You're originally from the Seam. Mom is too. I don't see the problem of having..." His statement is cut short by the loud pounding of Marcus' fist against the desk. The sound rattling through Gale's head like a rocket. Gale let his fingers curl into a fist but only to hide the trembling in his fingers.

He hates when his father acts this way. He hates the end result of fighting matching and bruises from his father dragging him out of the office and into his bedroom only to throw him to the ground. Sometimes he felt like his father punching bag and others he felt that he was the only outlet for his father's anger. And that...that made Gale feel useless.

But he wasn't in his room and he wasn't bruised yet. But his body gave away his fear when it started to tremble. Gale didn't cry much, and he refused to do it now, especially in front of his father, but none the less does his body feel tight with tears.

His eyes burned and his shoulders shook.

"That's enough!" He stood. Gale's stomach dropped.

Gale had a bad habit of knowing when to shut up, but not following through with it.

"She was originally from Town. That should change your opinion! You shouldn't look down on her just because she's from the Seam!"

"I don't care about this fling and it will cease to happen, as of now."

"I love her, dad." His was tiny and scared. But if you listened hard enough, you could hear that tiny flare of determination.

Silence soon followed after. The tension thick, both men felt like they could hardly breathe. Gale bit his lip, drawing blood, to try it hold in the heart wrenching sob that built up in his throat. Gale never cried much as a child, but he wanted to so badly now.

"You don't love her, son. You think you do, but you don't. I was once you're age..."

"And at my age you married mom."

"You don't love her." He repeats as if it would change anything.

Tears brimmed Gale's eyes. His father didn't understand. His father wasn't him, even if they came from the same blood. Gale love Madge Undersee and he would fight for her.

"You don't know..."

"How you feel?" He finishes. "I was 16, 2 years younger than you, and I thought I love a girl from the other part of the District then me. You want to know how it ended?"

Gale nodded slowly, he had no choice in the matter. He'd hear it either way.

"I asked her to marry me. Her father said no to me but I didn't care. I was young and in love and I wanted the world. She said no. That sure, she had fun "messing around" but wanted nothing serious of me."

"That's different. The roles were switched."

"So now you're asking for a love that is only pretend. She'll be forced to say yes to support her family. She doesn't love you. It would be a profit to them. And investment to you. A burden on both of you."

The older man's words seeped into the younger man. Tears boiled over and slipped freely down on Gale's face. He ducked his head, his fist so tightly closed that blood shaped crescent appear there. Like his lip, they bleed together.

Marcus' heart crack a fragment at the sight of his oldest son's breaking heart. It was only necessary that he had to do it.

Marcus "hated" to see tears ruin that nice shirt he had on. He wiped his son's tears away, only to be replaced in seconds and be wiped away again. Windshield wipers, were his fingers. Niagara Falls, his son's tears.

He took his thumb and wiped away the drying blood from his eldest's lip. And slipped a crisp white handkerchief in his hand to soak up the blood pooling in his palm. Gale held the handkerchief tightly to his chest, like a lifeline. Finally a sob escaped his throat, deep and hollow. The Mayor's heart cracked a little more.

Crouching down, he wrapped his arms around the boy's waist. The boy's body fell forward to lean against Marcus' head. Marcus wrapped his hands around his son's and leaned his forehead against them.

They probably stayed in that position for a while. It could have been minutes or hours. It could have been seconds or day, but that was a stretch. But the older Mayor knew that the way his son's heart was breaking it didn't matter how long they stayed there...it was day, years even, of his heart shattering into jagged pieces. The pieces constantly stabbing him.

It was Marcus' job to break his heart. It was Hazelle's job to piece it back together.

Soon that girl, Madge Undersee, will just be a passing thought to Gale. Someone that may have left a mark on him, but nothing important. Someday, Gale will find a nice Capitol girl or Town girl, and be happy. Not the girl from the Seam with the big heart and blonde hair.

She was somebody that would be the better half of Gale. Someone who would make an excellent politician. Someone that nobody knew but them...made Gale's heart beat faster. To quicken his pulse and push his limits. Someone who would challenge every decision in his life that mattered. That was his Madge.

Gale would always know that. And so does Madge. But Mayor Hawthorne would never except that until his son showed him what real true love was again.

He wouldn't know what it meant until his oldest son packed his things and left for the Seam. Never to look back and never regretting his decision. Mayor Hawthorne wouldn't come to terms with himself and his relationship with his son until Gale married the girl of his dreams...and he wasn't invited. When Christmas's past without a sign of Gale or his new wife.

Mayor Hawthorne realized a girl with blonde hair from the Seam may have had a little more then a tight grip on his son's heart. She didn't carry his heart, he never gave it to her have. She sealed it with her love and stole it. And he was her hostage forever.

And he went willingly.

Mayor Hawthorne knew that cold, wintery night where he stood outside his eldest son's small home with presents for his grandchildren, that he may have been wrong. Wrong about everything. His heart swelled at the sight of the lovely, glowing women in front of him. The one who stole his son's heart. A very pregnant women who never questioned his families present at her home, she only offered them in and offered them clean, warm clothes and a hot meal.

That was the night, in the bizarre blizzard that trapped them there for 3 days, that he realized Madge Undersee wasn't so bad. She was the easy part. The hard part of was the man with 3 small children hanging off him, calling to his beautiful wife to see who was there. That was the hardest thing in Marcus' eyes.

And when the boy he expected to see didn't turn that corner, he almost broke down right there and then. He missed his adult son's life, his marriage, his grandchildren, his adult son. He looked a little thinner then the last time he saw him, but that may have been the baggy, dark gray sweater with a design at the top that he wore. His face was shaven, but it always was. He never understood his son's hate for facial hair, but whatever.

Here stood the man he never got to know. The one that didn't look at his father with hate but guilt and disappointment...or maybe that was his own emotions reflecting back at him. This man stood tall but gentle. This man had wisdom beyond his years but a soft, warm smile on his face.

"Dad." He breathed. His children climbing down from him and turned to stare at the man in question. His family standing behind him. Tear welled up in his eyes as he nodding.

"It's good to see you, you-you look good." His voice cracked and filled with raw emotion.

"Yeah, you too."

"Grandpa?"

"Yes." Gale breathed out again and nodded towards him. All 3 children's head snapped up and over before running towards the man. Marcus excepted their hugs gratefully. He may have missed years of their lives and his son's, but he wasn't going to do that anymore. That's if his son wanted him too.

Gale's children fiercely gave everyone hugs — something they must of got from Madge, Marcus observed. Gale was never one for touching.

"Son."

Gale looked up and then over at his wife. Madge nodded towards Marcus with her hand covering her smile. She had waited for this day since her and Gale got married. She knew that wonderful, beautiful, broken man in her life needed closure, but most importantly...he needed his dad. She wouldn't know what to do without hers, after all.

"Dad."

Both men started towards each other. They pull each other towards them and squeezed each other fiercely. Tears spilled down their cheeks — Marcus' resembling Gale that day in his office. His clasp a hand behind his son's head to keep him there, fingers tangling in the man's ebony locks. He misses Gale's nightly hugs throughout the years and he wasn't gonna let him go.

"I've missed you." Gale whispers into his father's shoulder. Marcus lets out something between a sob and a laugh. His hands slipping down to his son's waist and hugging him tightly, Gale's feet off the ground.

The two pull apart and wipe their eyes.

Marcus faces his grandchildren again. "Who wants presents!?"

"We do! We do!" Filled up their house.

Gale hugged Madge's side (the only way he could with baby #4 on the way). He nuzzled into her hair, "I love you more than you'll ever know. You're a beautiful wife and mother. But most importantly...you are mine. And no one will ever take that away from me."

They kiss in the dim lighting before Rory makes a comment about them. Gale sticks his tongue out at his younger brother like old times. Rory does the same and Hazelle knows everything was going to be okay.

They all gather around the table for dinner. Although Gale and Marcus sat the furthest away from each other, everyone knew it would take time to pick the pieces back up between the two. But everyone knew those two would. That's just the way they are. And everyone was more than willing to let the "beautiful princess," as Posy says, into their big family.

As they sit around their tiny living room, watching the kids open up presents from their long lost grandparents, was when Marcus asked an important question.

"What are their names?" Of course he had known Gale had children. He knew of everyone of them within a few days of their birth. Madge made sure of it, even if Gale wasn't close to his family. Madge had grown up with the teaching that no matter what family was family, and she felt it necessary they knew. And maybe she tried to use it as bait to ignite the relationship again between Gale and his father. And maybe Marcus will get to experience his 4th grandchild's birth. But who knows.

"Aurora Rose, our oldest, she's 6" he points to the blonde girl with the big blue green eyes. Marcus knows the hints of green comes from Gale's eyes, "Dylan James, he's 4," he points to the boy with dark features like his father but was clearly all Madge, "William "Will" Daniel, he's 2," next came the the dark hair boy with striking gray eyes like his father, and was exactly like his father. A little ball of energy with wisdom beyond his year in his eyes. Rambunctious. They were all beautiful.

"And Scarlett Johanna, due in few weeks." Marcus almost cried again at the sight of his little boy's soft smile and happiness.

And maybe it finally sinks in that Madge Undersee wasn't all that bad.