Ricochet

Chapter 9: Aiding and abetting

Author: Carla, aka cali-chan
Rating: Most likely PG-13. Nothing worse than what's in the books.
Genre: Adventure/suspense/drama/romance... again, pretty much what's in the books.
Pairings: Peeta/Katniss, Rory/Prim... and probably others. You'll see soon.
Canon/timeline: Same-context AU- this fic still happens in the same world as THG, but the actual events in the books never happened. I'm adding about five years to the characters from the age they were at the beginning of The Hunger Games. Katniss is 21.
Disclaimer:Yeah, just let me go get my transfer laser and switch bodies with Suzanne Collins. Until I find it in the mess that is my room, anything you can recognize belongs to her.

Note: I've never really tried this before (and I'm sure it will eventually come back and bite me in the behind), but each chapter will be from the PoV of a different character. You should be able to tell whose PoV it is fairly easily, though.

Summary: "Primrose Everdeen." This can't be happening, Katniss thought. She desperately pushed through the crowd. I volunteer!, she wanted to scream. I volunteer as tribute! But she couldn't, because she wasn't eligible for the reaping anymore. There was nothing she could do.

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Somehow they had all reconvened at Katniss' house. Madge wasn't sure why she'd come. She had only been to the Seam a few times, usually to bring Prim a book or to pay Katniss for strawberries, but it wasn't a common occurrence.

She had just been leaving the Justice Building when she saw two Peacekeepers practically deposit Katniss on the steps outside. The moment they let go of her she took off toward the Seam, Gale hot on her heels. Peeta seemed to have been waiting to the side of the building. Madge hadn't been aware him and Katniss were friends, or acquainted at all beside the fact that they were in the same grade at school, so it was surprising to see him catch up to the two a minute later.

She had been worried. Prim being reaped was enough grief for her friend, and Katniss clearly wasn't thinking straight, as evidenced by the scene at the Town Square. If she had somehow gotten into trouble with the Peacekeepers again, they wouldn't let her off with a pass this time. Things could get really bad for her. She thought maybe there was something she could do to help, so she decided to join them.

But now, she felt a bit like she was fading into the background- and it wasn't because her skirt was the exact same color as the wall she was standing against.

Of course, this wasn't anything new for her. When she was in school, she used to stay on the sidelines voluntarily, rarely talking to anyone and only attending any kind of social functions if it was required from her as the Mayor's daughter. Now that she was older, her position as her father's assistant meant a lot of standing in the back, always at the ready to lend a hand as inconspicuously as possible. And that worked just fine for her.

This time, however, the reason why nobody was paying attention to her was because all eyes were fixed on Katniss as she ran around the house, muttering under her breath about "that ugly, old cat of Prim's," which seemed to be nowhere to be found. "The goat can stay with the Hawthornes, but the stupid cat is missing," Madge thought she heard her utter at one point. She was also picking things up here and there so she could stuff them into a small backpack she was carrying around. She was packing a getaway bag. She insisted she was going to the Capitol to save Prim.

"Okay. Okay, stop," Gale tried to halt her hurried packing for what felt like the fifteenth time. Both he and Peeta had been vocally opposed to the idea of her going anywhere in her current state, but both seemed like they expected it from her when she- reluctantly- confessed her idea. Their opposition to it only managed to make her even more agitated, though.

Her eyes flashed as she pulled her arm out of Gale's grasp; she had warned them all before that she was sick of being manhandled like a rag doll. It scared Madge a little. Gale wasn't being brusque in any way and she thought Katniss would understand he was only trying to help; he was her best friend, after all. But maybe she was too anxious to be understanding. "What, Gale? Do you want me to just sit here and let them kill my sister? I won't."

Madge couldn't keep her eyes from drifting toward the fifth occupant of the room. She wasn't the only one fading into the background: there Rory sat, huddled in a corner near the television set, his legs drawn up to his chest and his face hidden against his knees. He hadn't said anything since he arrived at the house, a few minutes after they had all abruptly poured in after the Reaping, but she knew he was still listening. He cringed whenever Prim's name was brought up. Her heart went out to him; she couldn't imagine how horrible he was feeling at that moment, and she hoped Katniss and the others could stop arguing, for his sake.

"That's not what I'm saying and you know it," Gale shot back, sounding almost offended Katniss could even imply such a thing. Madge didn't blame him; Gale might be a surly sort of individual in general and to Madge in particular (over ten years of selling her strawberries and the best she'd gotten was a straight-to-the-point transaction with no snide comments), but there was no denying he cared about the Everdeens. "You know I'd do anything to save Prim." He crossed his arms and responded with a glare of his own, though it was clear he was more concerned than he was angry.

Peeta was the one who voiced that concern, though. "Katniss, what you're talking about here isn't something you can just go and do," he pointed out from where he was standing near the door. "You can't just take a train to the Capitol and politely request that they let your sister go." He shook his head, almost regretful. "You need to take a step back and really think about how you can best help Prim right now. Even if it that means staying. Doing something rash and putting yourself in danger isn't going to help her at all."

She shook her head stubbornly. "There's no time for that. I have to get there. I don't know how I'll get to her but Prim is not ready for the arena and if I don't do something, she won't-"

Gale cut her off before she could say once again that Prim would most likely die. Madge was thankful; the reminders weren't making any of them feel any better. "You go into the forest like a fool, without a weapon, without a plan, and you get mauled by a bear." It unsettled her a little that he was so crude in his metaphor, but it seemed to get through to Katniss, just a little bit. The forest was their world, their domain, and it was something she understood.

She hugged her backpack tightly to her torso, as if she were expecting one of them to take it away. They didn't. Instead, Gale put his hands on her shoulders and hunched over a bit, so he could look her straight in the eye. "Listen, I can't tell you not to go. If it were any of my siblings, I would be doing the exact same thing you are right now. But if I can't stop you, I have to make sure we play this smart. We need a plan. So let's just wait a couple of days, try and figure out what it's gonna take, and then we can go ahead with this."

Madge tried her best not to be unsettled by this turn of events. It didn't surprise her that they would be talking about this so freely- Gale's disgust for the Capitol wasn't exactly a secret, and while Katniss was usually more reserved about it, she knew she held no love for their government, much less now that they were taking her sister away from her.

And she understood. She knew how horrible the Hunger Games were, what they could do to a family, and despite the fact that she lived comfortably, she could see how much people in Twelve suffered because of the Capitol's policies. She would change all of that in a second, if she could. In her heart she agreed with Gale: if she had someone that was as much a part of her as a sibling and they got reaped, who knew, she might entertain these same thoughts.

Still, there was no escaping the fact that leaving the district, attempting to stop the Games... everything they were discussing was treason. As much as she understood them, a part of her wanted to tell them they were all crazy, that they couldn't do this. She had been taught since childhood that any negative comments about the Capitol were, for one's own safety, best kept to oneself. Some kids were afraid of the dark, the bogeyman; Madge was always afraid of saying the wrong thing, and her family being punished for it. Because of that, it was hard not to feel a little bit apprehensive when someone else didn't have the same caution. But she held that fear back and kept quiet. She would never be able to convince them not to do it, anyway.

She thought Gale's words may be able to placate Katniss's urgency, but instead Madge was surprised to see her expression hardened. "You're not coming with me," Katniss declared firmly and promptly turned to walk to the bedroom, her backpack hanging back and forth in her hand as she strode away with purpose.

Gale frowned, now truly cross. "What? Of course I am. Katniss, what the hell-"

"This is my problem!" came Katniss's voice from the back. The house was small, so the sound reverberated easily against the walls. Madge was sure that argument wasn't going to go far in convincing Gale to just stay, as they all cared about Prim. They wouldn't be there, trying to help, if they didn't. "Besides, you can't leave your family," she added and, well, that might do the trick.

Gale set his jaw, and he seemed about to say something to refute Katniss's assertion. Madge wondered what argument he could possibly come up with, as they all knew very well his family was his number one priority. But she was sure even if he had no argument, he wasn't giving up the fight. They really were very similar, him and Katniss, she thought. There was that obstinacy inherent to both of them. No wonder they got along so well, it was them against the world.

However, before he could open his mouth, Peeta intervened. "Actually, I agree with Katniss," he said, and Gale immediately turned his glare from the door Katniss had disappeared through, to the blond man. "Your family can't make it without you. I know how much I pay Rory, and it's not enough to sustain four people without your salary from the mines."

Gale crossed his arms, defiant. "I'll figure something out," he retorted. The height advantage alone made him imposing. He must've had a lot of practice with that particular intimidating pose.

It didn't seem to shake Peeta, though. He only shook his head. "You don't have to. I'll go with her," he said. Madge almost gasped. Barely half an hour previous she'd been wondering if Peeta and Katniss were even friends, yet there he was now, offering to risk his life to help her get to the Capitol and save her sister. She had seen Rory working with him at the bakery, and she had heard that Prim visited often, but she didn't know he'd grown to care so much about the Everdeens. Clearly they were closer than she had initially thought.

Gale, predictably, didn't find Peeta's offer as admirable as she had. Instead, he looked at the blond like he'd grown a second head. "Right, and maybe you can bake a cake for Snow and lace it with cyanide. That would solve all our problems," he drawled, sarcasm dripping from his every word.

Peeta paused for a second, as if he was actually contemplating the idea. Then his eyebrows rose under his golden fringe. "Actually, that sounds like a good idea," he said, almost in wonder.

Madge had to bite down a smile. She couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but either way she liked it: if he was really that naive, she thought it was sweet; if he was being sarcastic, then he was better at it than Gale was, which was downright amusing. "I'm pretty sure they have someone taste all the food the President eats," she piped in on principle, but in truth it was mostly to keep herself from bursting into laughter. It was really not appropriate in a situation like this.

Gale certainly thought so. He turned to look at the both of them like they were discussing pigs' newly-developed ability to fly. That was the first time he even acknowledged her presence in the house- Great, that's just the impression you wanted to make, Madge. "You've gotta be kidding me," he muttered, supposedly under his breath, but everybody heard it. He shook his head (which Madge interpreted as him dismissing the current tone of the conversation as ridiculous and not worth pursuing), and focused on Peeta again. "Don't you have your mother to take care of?"

That was the moment Katniss chose to return to the living area. Something inside her bag rattled when she smacked it against a wall by mistake. Peeta's eyes followed her for a second. He shrugged. "It's about time my brother steps up," was his straightforward reply.

Katniss unceremoniously dropped her backpack on the couch, directly in front of the wall Madge was leaning against. "I don't need a babysitter," she sentenced, crossing her arms tightly as she stared resolutely at both men.

Gale's frown deepened, if that was even possible. Peeta shook his head. "You can't go alone."

"The more people are in on this, the more I risk getting caught," she argued. She didn't sound as exalted anymore- her tone was level, a lot more like the Katniss Madge was used to. And loathe as she was to admit it, she was making a lot of sense. "One person sneaking out of Twelve is hard enough, but planning for two people... too many things can go wrong."

"The extra risk balances out because you have someone there to watch your back," Gale shot back. He was staring straight at Katniss, intense, and she was staring right back at him, and once again Madge could not shake the feeling they weren't talking about going to the Capitol anymore, but about hunting.

Their held gaze was interrupted very unexpectedly. "I'll go," Rory intervened, completely out of the blue. He was still hugging his legs to his chest, his face barely peeking out over his knees. He sounded like he was the one with a death sentence over his head.

"No," both Katniss and Gale snapped in unison, sharply turning to look at the boy.

Rory's lips tightened. "Well, you can't keep tossing each other the ball forever," he pointed out, voice rasping from the emotional upheaval and then being quiet for so long. "You all have something keeping you here. I don't have anyone who depends on me, and Prim is my girlfriend," he explained with purpose. Madge felt for him. She had never interacted much with him but she knew Prim loved him deeply, and seeing his distress as he ran out of the Justice Building earlier left no doubt in her mind that he loved Prim just as much.

Katniss shook her head, final. "Prim would've wanted you to be safe," she started, her tone crisp. "I can't let you go anywhere."

"Let me? You can't just-"

"I can," Gale interrupted, his tone demanding attention, before the argument could escalate. "The only place you're going, and you're going right now, is home." It was clearly not a request, and he left no room for arguments. "You shouldn't even be listening to this."

Rory looked at his older brother for a charged couple of seconds, as if he still wanted to protest. Still, soon enough he couldn't hold his gaze, and he once again dropped his face against his knees, like he just didn't have the energy to keep arguing. But Madge didn't miss the fact that he stayed despite Gale's order. One small sign of defiance, as much as his heavy heart allowed.

Peeta leaned back, resting his weight against the edge of the table where the Everdeens usually ate, and addressed Katniss again. "So, how are we going to do this?" he asked. He'd assumed (correctly) that since the topic of Rory was now closed, the task of accompanying Katniss in her attempt to save her sister fell back on him. Gale didn't look too happy about it, but he said nothing as Peeta continued speaking. "The tribute's train has probably already left the station, and we can't exactly walk to the Capitol. At least not if we want to get there before Prim goes into the arena."

Katniss closed her eyes and took one of her hands to press against the bridge of her nose. Madge didn't know if she was trying to focus better to come up with an idea, or if she had a massive headache. Maybe it was both; after all the turmoil of the day, Madge couldn't blame her. "We stow away on another train, then," came her suggestion, though she didn't sound very convinced of her own idea.

Gale scoffed. "Wish it were that easy," he commented. With something of a grunt, he let himself fall on one of the wooden chairs near Peeta, almost like he thought the arguing part of the evening was over with now and he could at last lower his guard a little.

Madge thought she may finally have something to offer to the discussion: if there was one thing she knew more than anyone in the room, it was train schedules.

As Mayor, her father got a weekly report of all in and outbound trains, whether they were for coal transportation or passenger cars mobilizing approved visitors to the district. And as his assistant, she was the one in charge of officially receiving and reviewing these reports. "Actually, I don't think you'd be able to leave today anyway. The next train won't be departing until tomorrow morning," she let them know, cautiously pushing away from the wall. "And even if you want to get on that train, it's going to be even harder than usual."

"What do you mean?" Peeta asked. They were all looking at her now, expectant. It was kind of an odd feeling, being the center of attention for once, since she wasn't directly connected to Prim or this alarming idea they had. But of course, now that she'd spoken up there was no staying in the sidelines anymore. She wondered if this counted as aiding and abetting.

She cautiously separated herself from the wall. "The next train carries a coal shipment," she explained. "But it'll also include a couple of passenger compartments carrying a small camera crew back to the Capitol, so it's going to be heavily guarded."

"What about after that?" asked Katniss, tension once again rising on her face.

Madge shook her head sadly. "The next train is the mail, but that won't be getting in until the end of the week." And they all knew that wouldn't work. Even if they could get on that train as it left Twelve, they may not have enough time to get to Prim before the arena, and that was assuming the train didn't make any stops in the other districts before reaching the Capitol. That, Madge couldn't know. She hated to make her only friend feel even worse than she already did, but they had to have the complete picture if they were really going to embark on this fool's errand.

If it had been anyone other than Katniss, they might have let out a string of swearing. As it was, she only pressed her lips together tightly and started pacing up and down the length of the couch, surely trying to come up with an alternative. "There's got to be some other way," she said, almost willing herself to believe it.

Gale remained thoughtful, frown still in place. Peeta followed her movement for a couple seconds before speaking up in reply. "There's no way we can get on tomorrow's train," he reminded her, probably unnecessarily since they were probably all thinking exactly that by then. "The slightest sign that anything's off and the Peacekeepers will search every compartment."

There was silence for a moment, as they all inwardly measured their options. The silence was tense; Madge could almost feel another argument coming. But the tension was broken by a loud bang which startled her so much she almost jumped, and made everybody turn to look at Gale- he had slammed his fist against the table. Judging from Katniss's expression she was about to ask Gale what the heck was wrong with him now, but he volunteered the information before she could open her mouth.

"The Peacekeepers don't check the coal."

What those words implied sounded absolutely ludicrous to her ears, but a sliver of hope came across Katniss's face so quickly, she couldn't even try and conceal her reaction. Not for the first time, Madge wondered if maybe desperation was the true mother of invention.

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Author's note!-

Please excuse my momentarily devolving into fangirlism but: YOU GUYS. THE MOVIE. THAT MOVIE YOU GUYS! IT'S BEEN A WEEK SINCE I FIRST SAW IT AND I STILL CAN'T GET OVER THE PERFECTION OMG. THE DVD IS COMING OUT TOMORROW, RIGHT? BECAUSE WATCHING IT THREE TIMES IN ONE WEEKEND COULD NEVER BE ENOUGH. HOLY COW. MIND. BLOWN. \o/

Ac-hem. Needless to say, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. It was partly the reason why this chapter took longer than usual- I couldn't get my head straight enough to start writing until monday, and chapter fifteen was a toughie. But here you have it now, and even with the current feeling in my guts that this poor excuse of a fanfic will never be enough to top all the FEELINGS~ you must be having because of the movie, I still hope you liked this.

Regarding what's discussed in this chapter, I wanted to comment on one thing: I've never been clear on what is the level of surveillance in the districts of Panem. I mean, it's very clear from the books that the houses at Victor's Village are bugged for surveillance, but I've never been sure of what goes on everywhere else. Katniss seems reluctant to discuss anything too anti-government at Twelve, unless they're on the other side of the fence, but it's not clear to me if that's because all the houses are bugged, or simply that they don't want to risk being overheard by Peacekeepers.

Personally, while I wouldn't put it past the Capitol's paranoia to bug every single house in the country, the upkeep for that would be ridiculous, they'd need to have electricity permanently, and most of all I just feel it would be highly inefficient. So, for the purposes of this fanfic at least, the Capitol only assigns surveillance to people of interest to them. So Victors get their houses bugged, but Average Joe District Twelve doesn't. It's still not a good idea for anyone to go on anti-government rants within the confines of the district, but they wouldn't be found out unless the Peacekeepers overheard or someone turned them in. I don't know if that's how Suzanne Collins intended it, but that's the way it's going to be in this fic.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, and Madge's PoV! Many of you guessed it would be Rory- sorry about that, but hey, I might still write from his PoV a little further down the road. We'll see. Please let me know what you think in a review!