Chapter 47
(Madge POV)
After President Snow revealed that Prim and Haymitch would be in the games, I actually felt faint. I had to lean back against the wall behind me and take deep breaths. I feel a dozen different emotions right now. Anger, fear, sadness, fury, helpless. I wish there were a way to help them, a way to keep them alive. I doubt either of them has a shot at winning but even if they did, they'd never be free. There would no doubt be some sort of punishment forever being imposed on them. I'm no longer hungry and I look to Gale to tell him I'm leaving.
"I need to get out of here." I tell him.
He doesn't answer, just nods and comes with me as I walk from the dining hall and head back to my little room. As we make our way back, the hallways and elevator are all a buzz with the newest Capitol information. I can only imagine what it's like within each district right now. And my heart aches for the families of Thresh and Rue who are once again, sacrificing another child to the games. And for no reason other than to spite what Katniss and Peeta chose to do.
When we get to my room and are alone, I finally let a few tears fall. "It never ends does it? They'll always find ways to make us all miserable. I'm not even in Panem anymore and they're still managing to make me feel the effects of their calculated controlling measures." I sob in frustration.
"I'm so mad at her for causing all of this." Gale says as he hugs me.
"It's really not even about Katniss, Gale. All she did was make them look foolish by refusing to play along in their twisted games. They've always been evil and always will be."
"Maybe so but she still messed everything up. They're about to take it all out on Prim of all people. Little Prim who has never even so much as had an unkind thought. She shouldn't have to pay for Katniss did."
"But if the Capitol had left Prim alone in the first place, if there had never been a reaping, Katniss wouldn't have been in the position she was in to do what she did."
He's about to reply when there's a knock at my door. I furrow my brow, not expecting anyone. Gale gets up and opens the door while I wipe the tears from my face and splash cold water on it.
"What do you want?" I hear Gale spit out with attitude and I know without looking that it must be Drew.
"Calm down. I'm here on work related matters. I need Madge to come into the office." Drew retorts looking as equally annoyed with Gale as Gale is with him.
"You'll see her tomorrow when it's her scheduled work time." Gale says and starts to close the door.
"No, the Commander sent me to get her. They need her to answer some questions. She's needed now." Drew says, putting his foot in the door. Gale looks down at the foot and I swear he's about to stomp on it.
"Gale, it's fine. If the Commander sent for me it must be important." I tell Gale before he gets into an actual fight with Drew over this.
"Are you sure? Want me to come with you?"
"You won't be allowed past the front desk. I'll be back as quickly as possible." I tell him, reaching up and kissing him.
"I'll be here waiting." He tells me.
"Actually, it's against the rules for you to be in her room without her being present. Really you aren't even supposed to be on this floor." Drew chimes in.
Both Gale and I turn and shoot him a look. I place my hand on Gale's chest to stop him from lunging at Drew.
"You're one to talk about being in someone's room when they aren't present. Let's not forget al the snooping you did going through my room before you start pointing out rules to Gale, hmmm?" I tell him with a tone that clearly lets him know I'm angry.
I step past him and head for the elevators. I can hear him follow behind me but I don't look back. Right now I just need to get to the Defense department and answer whatever questions they have for me. On the elevator we happen to be on it alone and he uses that opportunity to talk to me.
"I'm sorry. He just really makes me angry. Still, I shouldn't have made the comment about the rules."
I turn and look at him. "He makes you angry? He's never done anything to you besides looking out for me."
"Well there was that whole thing where he carried on a relationship with the girl I was supposed to marry, ultimately stealing her away from me, so I'd say he did something to anger me." He argues.
"He didn't steal me away from you, I was attracted to him and made my own choices. If we really want to get into specifics, you actually stole me away from the guy I was supposed to marry by lying to have him turned into an Avox. So again, let's not point fingers."
"Look, I don't want to argue or rehash stuff. Let's just get this work stuff taken care of, okay?" He says with a sigh, knowing he can't argue with what I just said.
"Actually, no. Since the topic came up, I want to know why you were going through my room back home. What exactly were you looking for?" I ask, deciding I really want to know what he had been thinking he'd find.
He shrugs. "I was just trying to understand you better. Sometimes with you things felt natural and easy but a lot of the time things felt forced or harder than I wanted them to be. I thought if I knew you better, if I knew more about you, that I could make things better between us."
"The whole relationship was forced. Snooping through my things wasn't going to change that. If you wanted an authentic, natural feeling relationship, the matching ceremony wasn't the place to find it. Especially when you manipulated the matching. At the very least you should've given your authentic match a shot."
"I wanted you."
"Well you certainly messed that up, didn't you?" I say with a look on my face that says this conversation is over.
The Commander is waiting for me when we walk into the department.
"Miss Undersee, if you'll come with me. I've got a new mission in the works and I need your insight."
I follow him to a big conference room and take a seat at the table. Pictures of the new tributes are on a screen on the back wall.
"We are looking to rescue some of the new tributes in a secret mission. We have people on the inside helping us but I'm hoping you can help. Are you familiar with any of these people?" He asks as he spreads out a stack of photos in front of me.
My heart soars when I hear that there may be a rescue in the works! I take a look at the photos, spending time studying each one. There are some I do not recognize but a few of them I do remember as either guests that stayed at my house or people I knew from the Capitol. In total, I recognize five of the thirteen photos he showed me and I slide those towards him. "I've met these people before."
He takes them and looks over them to see which ones they are then starts asking questions about them. He asks all sorts of things, some of which I know the answers and some I don't. Some I can't imagine are helpful to a mission at all, like do I know what beverages they favored or if there were favorite foods. Did they have pets? Children? Favorite colors? Lots of random information. After a very lengthy question and answer session, he thanks me and tells me I've been very helpful. I want to ask details about the mission but I'm not comfortable enough around the Commander to ask.
I leave the department and find Drew waiting for me in the hall.
"It isn't necessary for you to wait for me. I can get around just fine on my own." I tell him, completely annoyed that he waited.
"I had orders to wait and escort you back."
"From who?"
"The commander of course."
"He didn't say anything to me about that."
Drew shrugs and starts walking alongside me towards the elevators without another word. I have no idea if he's being honest or not and I know he isn't someone I can trust. I also know all I want right now is to get back to my room and tell Gale about the rescue that might happen so I don't press the issue with Drew.
(Gale POV)
It feels like she's gone forever and I have to do something so I go to the information desk on the first floor to ask about how to go about getting a job change for Madge. I literally cannot stand the idea of having that guy around her every damn day. The sooner I can get her out of there, the better.
"Can you tell me how to go about requesting a new type of job?"
"Sure. Every January we post a list of any and all available openings. If you have interest in any of them we have a form you'll fill out and then you can interview for the position. If approved by that supervisor, you'll be allowed to transfer at the beginning of the following month."
"January? Is that the only time transfers are allowed?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so. The way our community is set up, we need to limit the disruptions of people leaving and starting new jobs otherwise the workload becomes very uneven and it can cause departments to falter."
"What if there's special circumstances? Like someone feeling uncomfortable with a certain coworker?" I ask.
"Then I'd suggest they take it up with their supervisor. They'd do an investigation on the problem and handle it as they saw fit, which may or may not include a job transfer."
I let out a deep sigh. "Thank you for your help." I tell her and turn to go back and wait for Madge at her place. I know she isn't going to want to go through the process of reporting Drew and having him investigated.
When she finally comes back, she seems excited.
"Guess what?" She says as she bursts through the door.
I sit up from where I was laying on the bed. "What?"
"They're going to try and rescue some of the new tributes before the games start!"
"Seriously?"
"Seriously! Prim may survive after all!"
"How? When?" I ask, a dozen questions filling my mind at once. I would love to have Prim rescued and brought here. She does not deserve to be in prison or in the games. She's already lost everything and this would give her a chance at a decent life.
"I have no idea. I'm hoping I can find out more when I go to work tomorrow. But I'm just so excited!"
"What'd they need you for?"
"Asked me really odd questions about some Capitol people I was familiar with. Like what were their preferred foods and drinks for example. I have no idea why they wanted to know the things that they asked but I told them what I could."
"Hmm, that is strange. Or at least it seems that way to me but I have no idea how a rescue mission even works."
"Sorry I was gone so long, I hope you weren't totally bored." She apologizes.
"Actually, I went to go see how to get you a different job."
"Really? How do we do it?"
I shake my head. "Can't really do it until January." I tell her and watch as her face falls.
"That's months away!"
"It's possible that you can get approved for a job change sooner but you would have to file a complaint about Drew with your supervisor and then they'd do an investigation and decide the best way to handle it which may or may not be letting you change jobs."
Her whole body language tells me this is not something she wants to do. I knew it wouldn't be.
"I don't want to do that. My issues with Drew are from back home, not here. It wouldn't be fair for me to report him here. At least not if he's leaving me alone."
"Is he? Leaving you alone, I mean?" I ask.
She shrugs. "I guess so. I mean, he's made it clear that he's still interested but I've also made it clear that I am not and never will be."
"I want you to tell me if he ever does anything to make you uncomfortable or if you feel like he's crossing a line. If he does, then I'll go with you to report him." I tell her and I mean it. He'd better not step out of line one single time.
She nods and gets ready for bed. We won't be able to have breakfast or lunch together given our conflicting work schedules but we make plans for dinner together when she gets off work. I worry that she won't eat at all without me there and I also worry that she won't have anyone to sit with. I wish Rory wasn't in the school program because I could have him sit with her easily but here you go to school until you're 16 so he's got a few years left of that. I'm not sure if my mother will be there when Madge eats or not but I'm going to check tomorrow. They don't know each other so it will be a little awkward at first but I would feel better if I knew Madge had someone to sit with. I know Drew will be eager to sit with her but he'd better not even think about trying. The best thing he can do is stay away but I have a feeling he won't.
A/N: I am going on vacation and probably won't be able to post for a few days. I'll be back to normal posting on Tuesday though!