Madge's recovery feels like it's taking forever.
But she's glad for the time she has to herself. She has a lot to think about, and she doesn't think she's ever been as confused as she is now. The nurses tell her that she can take as much time as she needs before she feels ready to start speaking again, but even Madge knows that they're getting frustrated with her lack of responses. She only talks when she has questions that needed answering (which she mainly asks the nurses assigned to her), and other than that, she's silent.
She does, however, scream and thrash against the restraints during the night — a result of her many night terrors.
Back when she was in the remains of District 12, nightmares were a rarity for her. But here in 13, they are becoming more and more frequent by the passing day. By the end of Madge's first week in the hospital, the morphling, as well as the restraints are taken away from her. And for that, Madge is glad.
Madge's doctor — Dr. Gunter — tells her that she's lucky to be alive. With the sheer amount of blood that she lost as well as the infection that had set in, she had been running a high fever as well as frothing at the mouth when she arrived in District 13. He also tells her that they're working on getting her a new prosthetic leg to specially fit her. But Madge doesn't want a fake leg, she wants her leg back.
Sure, it might've been heavily scarred and ugly, but it was hers. The night before they decided to take her off morphling, due to the morphling delirium that had been still in her veins, she had a funny thought. And in the following morning, she asked the nurses about it, too.
"Did you keep it?" she had asked.
The nurse that had been — they called her Annette — smiled and nodded. "Yes, honey. We took extra care to keep your little Mockingjay necklace safe and sound. As soon as you're discharged, we'll return it to you."
Madge had been glad that they saved her mother's necklace but shook her head nevertheless. "Not that."
Annette's smile faltered. "Then what, honey?"
"My leg. You know, the one you guys hacked off. I'm still upset about that, by the way," she slurs, the morphling in her veins doing most of the talking. "Either way, did you keep it?"
The nurse blinked, dumbfounded. "Sweetie, are you asking me if we kept your amputated leg?"
Madge had given a huff of annoyance. "Yes, that's what I'm asking. I would like to visit her, thank you very much. I'm sure she's awfully lonely. My other leg and her were thick as thieves, you know. I bet my other leg didn't even have the chance to say goodbye before you lovely people decided to whack Ms. Left Leg off like she was nothing. "
The nurse's eyes had gone all wide and concerned. She explained to her that, no, they did not keep her left leg. Madge had been quite angry with the answer. After a few minutes of listening to Madge babbling over the fact that they threw away her leg, the nurse interrupted.
She exasperatedly asked, "Honey, even if we wanted to keep it—" Madge shot her a furious glare, so the nurse backpedaled, "— even if we wanted to keep, uh, Ms. Left Leg, where would we have put it?"
Madge's answer had been quick as if the answer had been so glaringly obvious. "You guys have refrigerators here in 13, don't you?"
Unsurprisingly, they hadn't kept her on morphling for too long after that.
...
The day after they took her off the morphling, Madge receives a surprise visitor: Delly Cartwright.
The yellow-haired, pasty girl is currently smothering Madge with hugs, and the latter is dumbfounded.
If Madge makes a list of who she would expect to walk through her hospital room door with a big, goofy grin on their face, Delly Cartwright would be ranked somewhere between Peeta Mellark and Greasy Sae. Madge has had exactly one encounter with Delly (seeing her once or twice in school doesn't count) — when she dropped by the shoe store and found Delly behind the counter instead of her father.
The cheery girl finally pulled away from the tight hug, her yellow pigtails standing out against the dull color of the room. A grin is stretched across her face and her blue eyes are alight with giddiness. "Oh, Madgey, I'm so happy you're okay."
Madge widens her eyes in surprise and slight indignation at the nickname. 'Madgey' was something only her parents and her old kindergarten teacher used to call her. And, now, of all times, Delly decides to try it out?
"Either, way," Delly says, "When I heard about what happened to you and your parents, I felt like I could relate. I lost my parents in the bombings as well, so I know what you must be feeling right now." Her tone quickly sombers, and the smile that had been on her face slips. "Thankfully, I still got my brother and we're managing just fine. And, well, my brother and I were thinking that you could use a little something, so we brought something for you."
Madge watches as Delly pulls out a pouch from her pocket and hands it to her. She gingerly opens it and sees that it's full to the brim with candy. Not just any candy. District 12 candy. Madge knows that because she recognizes the wrapping as the ones from the local candy shop back in 12.
"My brother had been carrying a bag of the stuff when we were evacuated. You know, I told him — I said, 'Tommy, it's so typical of you to have candy at a time like this.' But now I'm glad he kept it. It's kinda a little reminder of home." Delly looks away and starts fiddling with her thumbs. "I know it's not much, and I know you don't really know us that well but—"
"Thank you, Delly," Madge says firmly and holds the pouch closer to her chest. "It means a lot."
And she hopes she sounds as sincere as she feels.
...
In addition to Delly's one-time visit, Madge has had other visitors as well.
Gale and Katniss visit her every day. And Madge doesn't like seeing them. It makes her head hurt. They remind her of home, and that in turn reminds her of everything that she lost. It's strange seeing two people who she thought were dead, actually alive when nobody else she cares about is. It's strange seeing two people — who are so distinctively District 12 citizens — walking about somewhere that is so distinctively not District 12.
They're like walking pieces of the past dwelling among people of the future.
With Delly, it had been easier because Madge hardly knew her. But she knew Gale and Katniss. And seeing them is hard. And in addition to her not wanting to see them, she doesn't want them to see her like this.
They both visit her every day during their lunch break, without fail. Katniss always checks in on her then leaves after about five minutes, quickly realizing that Madge is clearly not in the mood to talk. Gale stays for longer, however. And that's what he's doing now. He's seated across from her hospital bed, chin resting on his hand. He always sits with her during his lunch break, so now he's eating a sandwich out of a disposable box.
"Why do you insist on staying here? With me," she asks finally. Gale's eyebrows jump. These are some of the first words she's spoken to him since the time she's been here — which has been about a week.
Gale shrugs, placing his sandwich back in the box. "We were friends back in District 12, right?"
Madge nods. She's not exactly sure what the definition of friendship is, but she knows that at one point, her relationship with Gale had met that criteria. Though the answer is true, it still doesn't satisfy her.
"Katniss was my friend in District 12, too. She doesn't stay here," Madge responds.
Gale's silent for a moment. Then he speaks, "Look, Undersee, you remind me a lot of how I was after the... the whipping." To this, Madge turns her head to look at him. "And, well, looking back on it, I'm really grateful for my mom for staying with me even when I 'wanted' to be alone."
"Oh, I get it. My mom's dead, so you think you need to fill in the role she should be playing now, right?" Madge asks, her voice bearing an edge to it. It's remarkable how blunt and abrasive she is now, as opposed to the polite, kind girl she used to be. Then again, she's been through a lot recently.
"That's not what I meant," Gale says tiredly. "What I mean is, you're alone pretty much all day outside of the hour I spend with you during lunch. And being alone, while that might be what you feel like doing, isn't the best thing for someone who's just experienced a loss this great."
Madge thinks she understands what he's telling her, so she doesn't argue with him further. Instead, she tucks her knees to her chest and keeps quiet. When his lunchtime is up, he stands up and says goodbye to her. As he's leaving the room, she murmurs a soft, "Thank you."
He clearly hears her, because he smiles at her before leaving.
...
The hours stretch into days, and Madge spends most of them wondering how she's going to live the rest of her life without one leg. The doctor, however, assures her that everything will be fine.
She is tracing the outline of her bedsheets when Dr. Gunter knocks on the door.
"Today's the day," Dr. Gunter announces as he steps into the room, "Today's the day you get to see your brand new leg, Miss Undersee." Madge should feel happy, she knows that, but she doesn't. They've been measuring her stump over the past few days and constructing her prosthetic leg, but Madge knows it won't be the same. "And if all goes well, I hope to have you discharged by tomorrow."
The doctor has a strange accent that Madge can't decipher. Almost Capitol, in a way. And his face looks sorta... tight? When he smiles, his face stretches like plastic. But other than that, he's also exceptionally cheery for a District 13 resident. Madge watches the doctor leave the room and come back a few moments later comes back with a metal contraption that connects to a tube-looking, flesh-colored sleeve. She realizes after a few moments that whatever that is, is supposed to be her new leg.
"What... what is that?" Madge finally blurts.
The doctor steps closer to her and moves her so that she's sitting at the edge of her bed, her legs over the side of it. He then kneels and tugs the flesh-colored sleeve onto her stump (which has healed famously, according to him), and looks up at her.
"This is detachable," he says, holding up the sleeve. "We wanted to make it so that it somewhat matched your skin color, but the medical advancements in District 13 is limited in comparison to the Capitol."
Madge looks down at where the sleeve ends, and the actual leg prosthetic is black and metal and entirely not her. There's a divot in the black metal where her flesh-colored sleeve ends, and her stump fits nicely in there.
"Why don't you try doing the straps yourself?"
She stares at him for a moment before leaning down and strapping the rest of the prosthetic on. She tries wiggling her leg, but only her knee moves. She tries again, and when it doesn't work, she's fighting off tears. She'd been trying so hard to keep an open mind to this prosthetic, hoping that maybe it'd even be better than her old leg, but now that she's looking down at it, the disappointment is hitting her like a truck.
The doctor leans down and makes sure the straps are tight before helping her to her feet. She stands shakily, and she has to hold on to Dr. Gunter with both hands to keep from falling. He takes her hands and starts leading her across the room, trying to get her to walk.
Madge takes a few shaky steps before wincing. It hurts a lot more than she had thought. It feels like there's a lot of pressure on the prosthetic, and it's going to splinter under her weight any second now. Finally, she shakes her head.
"No more," she says, her voice somewhere between a whisper and a whimper.
The doctor nods and helps her back to the bed. "Well, what do you think of it?"
Madge debates between biting her tongue and telling him exactly what she feels about it. Eventually, she settles on a half-hearted nod.
"I know it takes a little while to get used to, but I promise that using a fake leg gets easier over time." He grins before reaching down to his own leg and hiking up his pants, revealing a prosthetic leg quite similar to her own. Except for the fact his looks much nicer than hers, and it actually resembles his skin color.
"What happened to you?" she asks.
He pats the prosthetic. "Lost it in a lab explosion back in the Capitol."
Madge's eyes widen and she involuntarily inches back in her bed. She had a suspicion that he had lived in the Capitol, but now that it's confirmed, she feels slightly uneasy. He's been taking good care of her, she knows that much, but she would much rather have a District doctor.
Apparently, he understands her weariness. "I get it, I get it," he says, lifting up his hands in acceptance. "You feel uneasy of me, and rightfully so. I've done a few things that I'm not necessarily proud of, but the important thing is I managed to turn my life around and help the rebellion. Trust me, Miss Undersee, I learned my lesson the hard way."
Dr. Gunter's plastic smile hasn't slipped off his face, and Madge doesn't know what to make of it.
"What did you do in the Capitol?"
The doctor is quiet for a few moments, then sighs.
He then launches into a dramatic story of how he used to be a Capitol doctor, and how he used to help nurse Victors back to health. And how, over time, he began seeing crueler wounds and noticing the fact that the Victors didn't look like victors, but rather just war-torn children. Dr. Gunter tells her all about the family he used to have in the Capitol, and how his parents were die-hard Hunger Games fans who disapproved of their son's wavering view on the morality of it all.
He fiddles with his ring finger, and Madge notices a shiny band of silver on it.
Dr. Gunter notices her staring and smiles his fake-looking, perfect-teeth-showing, smile. "District 13's a place of new beginnings, you know. Maybe you can turn your life around here, just like I did," he says sincerely.
And Madge tries her best to believe him.
A/N: And thus is how Madge spent her hospital days. So I'm obviously not well-versed in hospitals, amputations, or how long you need to stay in the hospital after one. But in this story, we're just going to say that she spent about two weeks in the District 13 hospital recuperating from her injuries. But nevertheless, in the next chapter, Madge'll be out of the hospital and integrating into District 13 life.
