Chapter 50

(Madge POV)

I cheat the shower timer, making it think I got out and another person got in so the water would start again. I take my time using the conditioner Gale got me because I know how badly my hair needs this. When I get out, I see the girl, Holly, that I met the other day in here. She's waiting for a shower as all the other stalls are full.

"Don't let anyone catch you doing that, you'll lose your shower privileges for 5 days." She warns with a smile.

"Sorry, it won't happen again." I apologize as my cheeks blush in embarrassment and I feel guilty for having made her have to wait for her shower.

"No worries, I personally don't mind but just thought you should know the rule because there are some people who won't hesitate to turn you in over it." She says with a wave of her hand, assuring me it didn't bother her.

"I'm still sorry you had to wait."

"I didn't mind at all. Have a good evening!" She calls as she steps into the stall and pulls the curtain shut.

I hurry back to my room, wanting to comb out my hair so it can dry untangled. Gale's not there yet but I do pass Drew in the hallway. Normally, I'd just keep walking but he did me a real favor today, one he didn't want to do at all, so I give a smile and light wave as we pass one another. He looks exhausted but lifts a hand back in reply and keeps walking. He definetly must be exhausted.

In my room, I stand at the small mirror and smile as I comb out my curls. This is seriously the best my hair has felt since I left home. I am so happy to finally have conditioner! As I change into my sleeping gown, I find myself wishing I had my pajamas from home. The soft, silky feeling ones that fit me perfectly. It's funny how many little things I've found myself missing since we got here. The food, my own bathroom, my hair products. I never really stopped to think of the things I would miss when I daydreamed back then about coming here.

Gale comes in and I run over to throw my arms around his neck and kiss him once more to say thank you for the conditioner. "Thank you so much again for getting that conditioner for me!"

He laughs and pushes a wet curl back from my face. "It was sort of a selfish gift. I missed seeing these curls."

"That's funny. I was just thinking about all the things I didn't realize I'd miss so much."

"Like what?" He asks as he sits down on the bed and pulls me to his lap.

"Like pajamas that felt a little more luxurious than this fabric sack I now have." I tell him as I pinch the hem of my gown.

He laughs again. "Do you miss the dresses? All the fancy ones?"

"Not at all! I admit I don't love what we wear here but at least everyone is wearing it. Do you miss the dresses?" I ask, surprised that he thought of them.

"A little. Don't get me wrong, I love you in anything but some of those dresses were pretty damn hot." He answers as he kisses my earlobe.

I smile at the compliment. "Is there a specific dress you really miss?"

"That black one. The one you had on that time you were walking barefoot on the gravel. We probably should've put that one in the backpack and brought it with us."

"We weren't even together yet when I wore that." I frown at him, remembering how I'd specifically worn that one for Drew.

"Oh but I sure wanted us to be, especially when I saw you in that thing." He admits with a smile. "I was so freaking jealous when I saw your picture in the paper of you wearing that and kissing Drew on your balcony."

"You had nothing to be jealous of." I tell him, looping my arms around his neck.

"Oh I did." He argues.

"Oh please, you had half the girls in 12 fawning over you night and day." I teasingly argue back.

"But not the one I wanted."

We share a long kiss that makes me want to do more than kiss him but I also still have things I want to tell him about so when the kiss ends, I take the opportunity to tell him about Pemberly and the other informants who are being rescued. It makes me happy that Pemberly will be free from the Capitol. While I actually barely know her at all, I have a feeling she's a good person. And knowing her father was a secret informant for 13 this whole time is pretty amazing. When she gets here, I plan to befriend her since I was never really able to do that back home. Gale brings something up I hadn't thought about yet and that's the fact that after all these people escape, the Capitol is likely going to be even more angry and will hand out even more severe punishments on the districts. It scares me to imagine what those punishments might be. It also makes me wonder if Drew's family will survive this round of punishments or not. He hadn't mentioned a word about them when we discussed the rescue.

The next morning, I skip breakfast again because I had a good dinner last night and still don't want the yucky oatmeal. At the office, I find Drew is once again already hard at work.

"How's it going?" I ask as I walk in and take my seat.

"There aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done that I need to get done. I've been here since 4am." He tells me, rubbing his palms over his tired face.

"Do you need me to pick up your breakfast?" I offer, genuinely feeling bad for him.

"Could you?"

I nod and immediately head to the dining hall. When I get there, I ask if they have coffee at all. The woman tells me they do offer coffee for those in certain positions in certain departments. She checks her list and sure enough, Drew is allowed coffee so she gives me a cup of that as well. I ask her if my name is on the list, hoping I can get a cup too, but it isn't. She's apologetic about not being able to give me one but I actually don't mind really. Coffee isn't even something I really like but I figured it could be my new substitute for breakfast if I was allowed to have it.

Drew is excited about the coffee so I'm glad I asked for it. As he eats, I ask him for updates on the mission.

"Do you know when the rescue will take place? Has that been determined yet?"

"Hopefully tomorrow. They have to all take place simultaneously or else they'll fail."

"How many separate ones are there?"

"Five total. One from the tribute training center, one from the train, three from actual districts."

"Drew, can I ask about your family? Did you try to have them rescued too?"

He lets out a scoff. "No, they'd never be allowed to come here, nor would they want to."

"Will anything bad happen to them when Pemberly's family disappears?"

I could swear I see tears in his eyes for a moment before he inhales deeply and says "I have no idea."

"I'm sorry." I tell him, and I am. I get it. My father wouldn't have wanted to come here either and it's hard to grieve for someone who is closely aligned with the Capitol but you still do because family is family, even if you aren't particularly like minded or close. It's a complicated situation to process emotionally.

He just shrugs, wipes his mouth with his napkin and gets back to work. I return his dishes to the dining hall where I see the viewing monitors are revealing the tributes scores. Prim and Haymitch both score zero. Knowing Haymitch, he likely didn't even show them any skills. He's stubborn and I wouldn't be shocked if he sat there and stared at them when it was his turn to show skills. Prim probably tried as best she could but I doubt she had any real skills. Doesn't matter though. I know that the Capitol gave them their scores simply out of spite. They could've wowed the whole room of gamemakers and nothing would've been different in their scores. The zero is a message and a punishment.

I run more files back and forth for Drew most of the day. Lunch unfortunately is the dreaded bologna again. Neither Drew or I can eat it and we settle again with just the raisins and bread. I know I'll be starving again at dinner.

After lunch, I spend a couple hours reading off codes to Drew as he looks them up on the computer. He tells me they're frequency codes for everything from communication devices to Panem's network television. He explains that during the actual rescues, we'll have a team of people in the command center here, overriding these codes and blocking the signals so that the Capitol doesn't see us coming in. Drew's job is to check and see if these codes are still accurate as of today because the Capitol tends to change them at random and we need to know exactly what they are right now for the mission to be successful. There are also codes for specific doors at buildings and for codes to control the train. This whole rescue thing is incredibly complicated and honestly, 13 is lucky Drew is here and so good at hacking computer systems.

"Hey, you know what? I just realized you got your dream job after all. You're working with computers just like you wanted." I say to him as I recall how that's what he once told me he wished he'd be allowed to do back home.

He looks up from his screen and a smile spreads across his face. "Yeah, I did, didn't I?"

It feels good being friendly with him as opposed to trying to avoid him. It's much easier to do when he's not pushing the idea of us as a couple and he hasn't done that today at all thankfully. Maybe he and I can actually be cordial with one another. We finish up for the day or I do anyway. He's staying longer to keep working. I tell him I'll bring his dinner down later, feeling bad that he's working so hard to make sure his part of the rescue prep is perfect to the point that he hasn't left his desk in over 12 hours.

I go to my room and find a note from Gale to meet him in the dining hall, that he's there with his family. When I read that, I feel a little bad because other than last night, he hasn't spent much time with them at all since we got here. I've definetly been monopolizing his spare time and with him sleeping in my room, he doesn't even see them all some days. I need to make sure he's not neglecting them for the sake of spending time with me. I also wonder why he hasn't brought me around them at all since we arrived here. We probably should have been eating meals with them this whole time.

I find Gale waiting for me at the entrance to the dining hall with Posey on his back. I don't see the rest of his family though.

"Hey pretty girl. How was your day?" He greets me with a quick kiss.

Posey giggles and he swings her down off his back. "What are you giggling at, hmm?"

"It was good. Long but important work I actually got to help with instead of just running folders back and forth." I tell him as I smile down at his sister.

"I thought maybe tonight we could eat dinner with my family if that's okay with you?" Gale asks as we go inside and get in line.

"I'd like that. I do have to run Drew's dinner down to his office after I eat though, he's still working on the mission and can't get up here to eat." I tell him, hoping he understands and doesn't get mad.

"I'll go with you." He says firmly and quickly.

"They won't let you in, you'll have to wait in the hall." I remind him.

"That's fine. It'll only take a moment for you to hand him his food." He points out, his jaw stiff but he seems to be trying not to let this bother him too much.

I squeeze his hand and smile up at him. We collect our food trays and then find the table where his family has saved seats for us. Dinner is good tonight and I'm thankful for that because my stomach is not happy that I've been eating so much less lately. Over dinner, Posey tells me about her day at school and sings me a song she learned. She seems to really enjoy the school program here and I stop and think about how lucky she is that the bulk of her life will happen here in 13 instead of back home. She will never ever know the fear of a reaping ceremony. I smile thinking about that. Gale notices and gives me a questioning look from across the table but I just smile back at him. I'll tell him later. His brothers are quieter than Posey is but they also seem to be adapting to our new life fairly well and seem happy. His mother is polite but I'm pretty sure she still sees me as just the Mayor's daughter and I think it makes her nervous.

When dinner is over, Gale walks with me to take Drew his food and when we get to the hall outside the defense department, I pause to give him a kiss, a deeper one than I normally would in the hallway outside my job. I just know he wishes I wasn't doing this and he's supporting me anyway and I want him to know I love him for it.

"Here's your dinner. It's actually pretty good, I think you'll like it." I tell him when I enter his office and put his dinner on his desk. He smiles, heavy bags under his eyes. "Thanks for bringing it, I appreciate it."

"You're welcome. Try to go and get some rest soon if you can though, okay?" I tell him as I go to leave.

"Hey Madge?" He calls out to me.

"Yeah?" I ask turning back.

"He made the list. They're going to try and rescue Martin tomorrow. I thought you'd want to know." He tells me.

"Really?" I ask, excited to hear this great news.

"Really." He affirms.

"Thank you for doing this for me." I tell him, genuinely grateful for him doing this.

He gives me a tired smile then turns back to his screen and goes back to work as he blindly reaches into his dinner bag and pulls out a roll to eat as he works.

I hurry back out to the hallway, grinning form ear to ear over the news that Martin is officially going to be rescued. I find Gale in the hallway where I left him. I practically jump up and throw my arms around his neck.

"They're going to rescue Martin, it's officially happening tomorrow. Prim, Haymitch, everyone is getting rescued tomorrow!" I whisper in his ear because I know it's confidential and I shouldn't be openly discussing it in the hallway but also knowing I can't hold the secret in until we're in my room so I have to tell him right this second.

He spins me around once and then sets me down on my feet again and then kisses me. We make our way back to my room and get ready for bed. Gale is tired from having gotten up so early for work so I try not to be too chatty, instead snuggling up close to him and just letting him drift off. I just lie there, content wrapped up in his arms, my face against his chest. I know I won't be able to sleep at all tonight because I'm too anxious and too excited for all of them to get out of Panem and into 13 where they'll be safe and free of the Capitol's control.

A/N: I apologize that I've been slow with posting chapters this past week. I've been working overtime with my job and haven't had much downtime to write at all. I'm hoping to get back on track later this week with daily posting though!