Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine. Any lines from the books are hers too.
AN: So, I've actually been writing 6 chapters for this series, but I kinda stalled out on the others and since I had a few people ask about Briar and Lew...hopefully this doesn't disappoint.
Kaleidoscope, pt 22
"This is an award winning fish," Miles says, holding up his bucket, the ugly catfish's whisker peeking out over the top.
Scowling, Briar mutters something, probably swearing, then speeds up past him.
She'd had to toss all hers back, too small to eat, not worth keeping.
Other than that, it had been a good day. All their snares had all been full, Sage had bagged a few fat squirrels, and the peach grove was ready for picking. They'd walked away from the woods with full game bags, no small feat in the heat of summer.
"Maybe you should take this home," Miles adds, holding his bucket out to Briar. "Cook it up for your date. Or use it to practice kissing."
He makes a few squishy, kissing noises.
Gale tries not to laugh as Briar shoots Miles the filthiest look she can muster, reaches in her bag, pulls out a peach and flings it at his head.
It grazes his ear, peach juice splattering on his shoulder as he dodges it.
"Your aim was better before you got a boyfriend."
Rolling her eyes, Briar tries to ignore him.
Miles sighs, a bit over dramatically.
"I don't even want to think of how bad it'll be when the two of you get married."
Briar glances at Gale, grins, then takes a strawberry and runs at Miles, tries to smash it on his head.
"Not the hair!"
Cackling, Briar manages to smash a healthy portion on the top of his head before backing off.
"Next time it's a rotten peach, you little asshole."
Gale laughs. He's glad that'll be the extent of her revenge.
Briar has become less prickly over the last year.
"It's all the babies," she'd grumbled. "Making me so damn sappy."
Much as she complains, she adores her nieces, to Miles' confusion.
"I thought you hated babies?" Miles asked after she volunteered to watch Jessamine one evening.
"Not all babies, just you," she'd answered with a smirk.
Sage grinned and added, "-and Wren and Daisy and Boone and Fern-"
Briar huffed.
"Yeah, okay, fine. I liked literally none of you as babies, but I like them now."
"Gonna have some?" Miles prodded.
"I watched three being born." She winced at the memory. "So not a chance."
Considering she's seeing a Peacekeeper and Gale is a bit fuzzy on whether their relationship is even sanctioned, he's grateful for that. He's had enough with worrying about his daughters being dragged off for a lifetime.
He's still not sure how he feels about the relationship. Ephraim is nice enough, but he's still a Peacekeeper. It's not an entirely comforting situation.
He makes Briar happy, though, and Gale supposes that's good enough for now. They'll take their happiness where they can get it.
Groaning, Miles picks bits of strawberry from his hair, shooting sulky looks at Briar as he does.
"Why must you punish my beautiful hair for my sins."
"It's the only way to get you to listen," Briar points out.
Gale grunts his agreement as Miles flicks strawberry guts at Sage.
"Maybe you can get Vanessa to lick it out," Sage teases him as he wipes the seeds off, smears them on Miles' shoulder.
Gale rolls his eyes, exchanges a disgusted looks with Briar. Neither one of them want to hear about Miles' growing dating life. Even if half of it, or more, is completely fabricated.
It reminds Gale a little too much of his own youth, and not in a pleasant way. He just hopes Miles doesn't repeat his history too closely.
Miles shakes his head.
"Naw, we broke up." He thinks for a moment, smiles. "But Tansy might."
Before Gale can comment, give a cautionary tell about his misspent youth, they open the door to the Hob and all their chattering dies.
It looks like a storm has blow straight through.
There's an upturned table in the middle, a crack straight down the middle and all Greasy Sae's mismatched silverware is scattered around it, bits of shattered glass from a jar doubling as a cup and a chipped plate is laying in two pieces under a threadbare recliner against the wall.
Miles lets out a low whistle.
"What happened?" He asks no one in particular, surveying the damage, kicking a shard gently away.
Gale scratches at his stubble, shakes his head.
Maybe one of the Peacekeepers had thrown a fit. Lew had mentioned a few of the newer recruits were cranky, eager to throw some weight around. It would be a nuisance, but not surprising.
They cross to Greasy Sae's, step over broken glass, nearly reaching the counter when someone shouts at them.
"Hey Hawthorne!"
Turning, all four of them scowl as a man stumbles toward them, a rag held to his bloody nose and his right eye swollen shut, a livid bruise coloring it, a few friends trailing after him looking sour and uncertain.
Gale doesn't recognize him. He's young, probably around Daisy's age, has the look of a guy who has probably only just started in the mines. Still soft, baby face under the swelling and bruises, and clean nails.
"You need to get a handle on that daughter of yours! She's as batshit as her granny! Look what she did to the Hob!"
Miles snorts. "What're you on, Hicks? Briar's been with us all day."
Briar nods, still taking in the carnage.
"Not that one!" Hicks snaps.
Gale frowns, eyes the cracked table. "Wren?"
That hardly seems right.
"You got your ass kicked by Wren? She's half your height," Miles laughs.
"Not her!"
They stare at him for a moment, each processing what they've heard, not really believing it.
Then Sage's hand shoots out, grabs Hicks by the neck.
"Hey! Hey! He-let go!"
"What did you do to my sister?" He growls.
"I didn't-"
His friends chime in, though they're clearly too scared to intervene. "He didn't-"
"If she hit you it's because you did something." Sage squeezes a little harder as Hicks slaps uselessly at Sage's arm, gets a little purple in the face. "Now stop stalling and tell me what you did to my sister."
"Nothing!"
"Bullshit," Briar snaps, crosses her arms. "Rip his ear off Sage."
Hicks frantically looks at Gale, maybe hoping age will make him more reasonable, but Gale only glares.
Sage is right. Daisy wouldn't hit someone without a reason. This asshole probably deserves to have an ear snapped off, though Briar looks like she might snatch off a more delicate body part if he doesn't answer quickly.
Gale wouldn't stop her.
They're saved the trouble by Greasy Sae.
"Oh, drop the bastard Sage. He's not worth the trouble and I've got enough to clean up."
Sage lets go and Hicks falls on his heels, stumbles back, swearing and sputtering as he and his friends scurry off.
Sae shakes her head, huffing as she sweeps up bits of broken glass.
"What happened?" Gale asks.
He can't imagine it.
Not that he doubts Daisy is fully capable of it. Daniel had given all of the kids boxing lessons, though Madge had forbidden them from using anything they learned on the bullying kids at school.
"What's the point in being able to kick their asses if you won't let them?" Gale complained.
Madge had simply sighed.
"I didn't say-they can only fight under extreme situations, not just when someone says something they don't like." She'd given him a stern look. "Otherwise they'll be fighting the whole district their entire lives."
"It'd shut people's mouths."
"It wouldn't." Madge smiles sadly. "They'd just say things quieter."
Gale knew she was right. Getting gossiped about was something she'd dealt with more than him. Still, beating the shit out of people was cathartic when they were spreading lies.
"If I hit you every time you were rude to me where would we be?"
Gale grinned, tugged her closer and leaned in, his lips to her ear.
"Probably in that closet a lot sooner."
Snorting, Madge rolled her eyes.
"You have a problem," she'd laughed.
The rule hasn't stopped Briar, her fabled permanent record could attest to that, but Daisy had always followed her mom's word to the letter.
Sae's craggy face pulls back in a sour expression as she recalls the disaster.
"Daisy was here, you know, trading-got her a few nice clothes to make dresses for those babies-and Hicks started flirting with her." She wheezes, shakes her head. "Well, he must've thought he was flirting, being an ass is what he was. Anyway, then Lew showed up, told Hicks to back off, and then Hicks started...well, he started asking him all sorts of crude things."
Briar glances over her shoulder, toward where Hicks had run, probably contemplating how she's going to beat him into dust, then turns back to Sae, eyes narrowed.
"What'd he sat to Lew?"
"I'm not repeat-"
"Just spill, Sae," Briar growls.
Chewing her tongue, Sae sighs.
"Well, you know, real crude things, asking Lew if he was just screwing you or if he got both you and Daisy. Said everyone knew you girls'd be whores like...you know."
Gale grinds his teeth.
It was hardly a secret that Daisy had been pregnant before she got married, just like everyone knew why Madge and Gale had such an unexpected wedding. Just like Madge, Daisy has had to deal with harsh judgment.
Rowan's death had earned her a bit of a buffer. People were gossiping, no one doubted that, but they'd at least given her a little courtesy as a new mother and widow.
The past few months that courtesy had eroded. All the ugly things Gale heard whispered around him about Madge were beginning to float around Daisy.
Despite Madge's warnings that he couldn't fight the whole district, if he ever caught one of the bastards degrading his baby, he'd certainly try.
"I thought Lew was about to deck him, but then he called Briar something and Daisy just…" She balls up her fists and swings, once for the nose and once for the eye. "Right in the nose. I think it's broken."
Gale certainly hopes so.
Miles waves at the table. "And this?"
She chuckles.
"Hicks actually had the balls to ask Lew if he was gonna arrest her." Her grin widens. "Lew just laughed, said he didn't see a thing, Hicks must've run into something. So Hicks takes a swing at him and falls into the table, cracks it, flips it and sent all my shit flying. Lew about arrested him, but I told him not to waste his time. So he walked Daisy home and came back to help me clean up."
Miles grins, nudges Briar. "Your man isn't much of a housekeeper."
Sae waves her hand at the mess. "He got radioed back before he could do much more than sweep. Something about those new idiots that just arrived."
She shakes her head, laughs at the memory before squinting at Briar.
"If I were younger." Sae lets out a low whistle. "You'd get a little competition for that one."
Briar grimaces. "Great."
#######
Madge watches as Briar inspects her hair again, making a face as she brushes back a wild strand from her face.
Turning, she holds out her arms, smiles awkwardly.
"Okay?"
Madge tries not to laugh at her expression, how clearly out of her comfort zone she is.
Her hair is in a twist, something she'd read about in a book, a departure from her normal ponytail. She's borrowed Daisy's skirt, so it's a little too long, hitting below Briar's knees instead of just at, as it does on Daisy, and Madge had been forced to let the waist out a bit otherwise she wouldn't be able to breath.
Despite that, she looks nice, pretty, but very uncomfortable.
"Why did she get to be the tall one?" Briar grumbles, fussing with the skirt a bit.
Madge laughs. Daisy is hardly tall, average at best, but poor Briar missed out on all Gale's height.
"You look beautiful, Bri."
She could wear her hunting boots and coat and Ephraim would still say she's the prettiest girl in the district.
"I just want to look nice," she mutters, rubbing her eyes. "That's stupid, isn't it? It's just Papa and Nona. They met Lew before."
"It's not stupid," Madge tells her. "They haven't met him as your boyfriend before."
It's a big step for Briar, and Madge's dad had been beyond delighted when she'd asked if she and Ephraim could come by for dinner one night. He told Madge he'd even ordered some of the Mellark's best rolls for occasion.
Briar makes a face.
"That's such a stupid word." She's quiet for a moment, chews her lip, glances at Madge and back down at her feet, a pair of Wren's shoes. "Daisy told you about the Hob?"
Madge takes a deep breath, crosses her arms and nods.
Ephraim had given her a full account when he'd brought Daisy home and Madge had panicked at her pink cheeks and puffy eyes, red rubbed nose.
"I didn't hear what that piece of shit said about Briar," he'd whispered to her as Daisy had gone to wash her face, "but if she hadn't hit him I would've. Idiot couldn't keep his mouth shut, asking her for a date, or a trip to the slag heap, then shitting on you and her when she told him no. 'Bout as smooth as a gravel road."
Despite the description of the man's face, Madge thinks he came off the better for Daisy getting to him first. He probably wouldn't have survived a hit from Ephraim.
"Honestly, she improved his looks."
He'd hurried off after that, explaining he needed to help to clean up her daughter's carnage.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Madge finally asked when Daisy emerged from washing her face.
Eyelashes still wet, Daisy had shrugged, rubbed her nose.
"I had enough."
When Madge didn't say anything, just nodded and waited, Daisy sighed.
"People've been-you know-they've been talking, like they always do."
Madge winces, feels guilt creeping in.
The kids have always bore the brunt of Madge's sin of being born into comfort. It's unfair, it's stupid, but if gives people something solid to unite against, even if it's the wrong people to direct their ire towards.
She'd hoped things would ease up as years passed. The kids were from the Seam, they were part of their world.
The stigma of Madge's birth, though, was enough stain to keep their fire alive it seemed.
"I don't even hear it most of the time anymore," Daisy admitted. "It's always the same, calling you names, and me, but then he started in on Briar, and I just…"
Her voice got thicker, lower and she blinked back tears.
"She's been so good-moving in, helping me with the girls, she hasn't even yelled at me when I cry-and she doesn't deserve all the awful things he was saying."
She doesn't say it, but Madge hears an 'but I do' lingering at the end.
It's a familiar refrain, Madge has repeated it to herself a million times. There's got to be some truth behind all the terrible things people say, she deserves their hate on some level.
Despite years of being told otherwise, hearing Gale remind her endlessly that she hasn't done anything to deserve all their scorn, it still creeps in, more often than Madge would like to admit.
She shouldn't let other people's jealousy shade her happiness, but it's hard to completely ignore.
Pulling Daisy into a hug, Madge kissed her cheek.
"Oh sweetheart, none of us do."
Shuddering, Daisy nodded, quiet tears soaking into Madge's shoulder.
"I shoulda let Ephraim hit him," she finally muttered, pulling back and wiping her face on the back of her hand. "That'd shut him up for good."
Madge laughed, wiped at her face.
"I'm sure he'll be all too happy to do the honor should the occasion arise again."
"He loves her." Daisy grinned, eyes still shining. "I'm glad she found someone. I hope they get to be happy."
Her smile faded after that, undoubtedly thinking of her happy ending cut short, then shook her head, forcing away the thoughts.
"Briar deserves to be."
Reaching out, Madge brushed a wild hair from her face.
"So do you."
Shaking her head, Daisy forced a smile.
"No, I don't."
Before Madge could disagree, speak a word of defense, one of the babies woke, started crying from the bedroom and Daisy had rushed off to comfort her.
She'd left after that, telling Madge she needed to get the girls home before Briar came, in case Ephraim arrived early.
"That's why she wants to meet here," she'd explain, laughing. "They always get a late start when he comes by and sees the girls. He loves playing with them."
Briar says the same thing when Madge asks about it.
"He's like an old woman, cooing and baby talking. It's embarrassing."
Madge doesn't tell her she's seen his babbling in person, and that she thinks adorable.
"She wouldn't tell me what he said," Briar grumbles, picking at the buttons on her blouse.
"Does it matter?"
Briar frowns. "No, not really."
She sighs, shrugs.
"It-she's just so quiet-maybe she always was and I just didn't notice. I know we weren't-I know we didn't talk like Sage and Miles, but I never realized…"
She makes a frustrated noise and tugs at the cuff of her sleeve.
"I wish we could talk. Be like regular sisters."
Madge forces a smile.
Part of it is Briar had always pushed Daisy away, treated her problems as silly, trivial even. Daisy internalized the sentiment over the years. She's gotten used to talking to Madge and Gale and Miles, occasionally Sage and Wren. Briar didn't care or want to know.
Part of it is Rowan.
Most of the times Daisy has come to Madge to break down has been over Rowan. Madge greatly doubts Daisy wants to cry over her sister about the man that had caused so much friction between them.
Occasional she's mentioned going to Hazelle, her grandmother has survived a nearly and identical situation, but never Briar.
"There are some things that people just keep to themselves," Madge tells her, hoping it smoothed things a bit.
Briar smiles sadly.
"Yeah."
Madge pulls her into a hug.
"If you want to talk, just talk. You'll get there. It just takes time."
Pulling back, Briar nods, her eyes a bit bright as she glances at the clock ticking away on the wall.
She shakes off the talk, rolls her eyes as a knock echoes through the house.
"And he's late," she mutters as she starts out of the room, pretending to be annoyed.
"You get lost?" She asks as she opens the door.
Ephraim grins. "No. Even better, got to toss a few idiots in the drunk tank. I warned them only you and Abernathy can handle that crap."
Briar says something, too low for Madge to hear, and Ephraim laughs, deep and warm.
"I have a delicate constitution," he defends himself against whatever accusation she's thrown out, shrugging.
Huffing, Briar grabs his hand and starts out the door.
"See you tomorrow, mom."
Ephraim waves over his shoulder. "Bye, Mrs. Hawthorne."
Going to the door, Madge smiles as she watches them shrink in the distance, Briar towing Ephraim along until they get to the end of the road before she drops his hand and he loops his arm around her shoulders, leans on her a bit and laughs.
"Peacekeepers aren't allowed to get married," Madge remembers him telling her, months ago, when he'd been helping her with all three babies and she'd been fretting about wasting his time. "Strictly speaking, they don't want us fraternizing at all."
He'd taken Jessamine from Madge, carried her and Sawyer to the rocking chair and sat down to lull them to sleep.
"So this is as close to fatherhood as I'm likely to get." He'd shrugged. "Let me enjoy it."
He wasn't bitter, just accepted it, and that broke Madge's heart.
"You'd be a good dad," Madge told him.
Ephraim only smiled.
"We make choices and we gotta live with the consequences." His smile shrinks a bit. "It's alright though. I met this girl, I don't thinks she's much in the motherly way."
Madge laughed. "Oh really? You think she's the one?"
His smile ticked back up.
"Definitely."
Madge's smile fades at the memory.
They disappear around the corner and Madge shakes the thought off and shuts the door,.
It's enough they're happy now. Sometimes that's all a person gets.