It's all very awkward. After helping me wash, Annie wheels me over to the cabin and leaves me at the foot of the steps

"I'll see you at dinner" she smiles, knocking the door and wondering off

"Annie?"

"Dinner Madge" she waves, grinning. There's a click as the latch lifts and then he's in the door way staring down at me in my wheelchair. How tragic I must seem, abandoned here

"I don't think Annie could have got me up these steps" I tell him feebly, in way of explanation. He doesn't acknowledge that I've spoken, just skips down the steps and hoists my chair up on his chest. More awkward. If I didn't know better I'd say he was showing off but I don't know him well enough to determine that yet

"Do you um, do you have books here?" I ask to break the silence

"Yes" he grunts

"Okay … What would you like me to read?" I try again

"I have a bookcase" he says flatly "you can pick" he sets me down inside the threshold and points towards the room I haven't seen, beyond the staircase. The doorframe fits nicely under the stairs, hidden until it's right in front of you. There's a second door to the left

"It'll be a second water closet" Gale tells me when he sees me eying the door. I wheel my way past it and leave the small corridor, entering what I assume will be the kitchen. It too, is lovely, there's a second fire and some odd bits of furniture but even empty, the room is very homely "the bookcase is against the wall on the left"

"Did you make this too?" I call back to him. It looks like the rest of the fine work I've seen, perhaps older but no less impressive

"No" I startle at the proximity of his voice, he's right behind me "my dad made that"

"Beautiful" I'm running out of compliments "you have quite a fine collection here"

"My father liked to read"

"Mine too" I murmur and I can see him stiffen. He breathes heavily through flared nostrils before taking a book from the top shelf and handing it to me

"You'll like this"

"A fairytale?" I raise an eyebrow, although it probably doesn't look like that with my swollen face "you're full of surprises" I try not to laugh

"I like to keep people guessing"

"Well you certainly do that" I mutter. He's quite the mystery

"Too hard a puzzle for you to piece?"

"So far" I admit.

Two chapters in, my vocal chords are aching but my voice is almost back to normal, just a little raspy here and there. I'm not sure Gale is even listening while he works but I keep reading for myself. Hearing my old voice, almost, is a relief of ginormous proportions, I was beginning to believe certain things would never heal, perhaps they won't but at least this is something.

We're nearing the climax of the book, the fair maiden is taking matters in to her own hands, tricking the dragon that guards her keep and trapping him with chains 'you do not deserve death' she tells him 'but you deserve to be trapped as you have kept me trapped and you deserve to suffer as you have made me suffer. In time you'll realise death would have been kinder'

"I see why you picked this one" I murmur, voice cracking, eyes wet "if only I had been braver, right?"

"That's not what I meant?"

"I must seem crazy to you. You live with women like Katniss and Jo, how weak I must seem to have taken the punishment all these years, never once trying to leave or fight back" he doesn't argue, doesn't even look at me "I'd like to leave now" Gale strides right past me, to the front door and tears it open

"Thom! I know you can hear me, come get her" charming. If he couldn't see me I'd be crying, I know I would, I'd be sobbing my heart out but that just wouldn't do right now. Thom looks very disappointed as he crosses the meadow, shaking his head and muttering to himself which only makes me feel worse. He gives Gale a withering glare as he passes, which is returned tenfold before he hurriedly wheels me out and down the steps. It hurts but I daren't say anything

"I'm sorry about him Madge" Thom says loudly, taking me by surprise and ensuring Gale can hear "his people skills are lacking to say the least and he's got the disposition of an old jackass" I can sense Thom turning to see his friends reaction but I won't, I'm still not sure I won't cry "never mind, you can read to me if you'd like?"

"Why did he even ask me in the first place?" I seethe "he hates me, why couldn't he just keep ignoring and avoiding me?"

"I'd be surprised if even he knows why he does the things he does".

The Hawthorne's don't join us for dinner that night, thank the lord but Johanna is all too eager to find out why

"He's sulking and stewing in guilt I hope" Thom tells her "he was awful to Madge" I'm about to disagree, not entirely sure why, but don't get the chance

"That twit" Johanna shakes her head "he's going to have to change his ways pretty damn sharpish. I'll give him what for when I see him"

"I'll race you to it" Katniss offers

"Madge isn't a child" Annie speaks up quietly but firmly "I'm sure she is capable of handling Gale herself" I stay silent, what am I supposed to say? Their right, we all know it, Annie's just being polite. I can't do anything for myself and standing up for myself will never be a strong suit, I'm pathetic.

There's a knock and Cato steps into the room from the quiet bar beyond

"Afternoon everyone" he nods "can I borrow Madge?" he guides my chair out the back door and around to the side of the saloon, out of sight, where Aunt Effie is waiting. Her face contorts oddly when she sees me, switching between a beaming smile and a painful grimace

"Madge, darling" she coos "I'm so sorry I haven't come sooner. How are you feeling dear girl?" she almost strokes my cheek but thinks better of it

"Better, the healing is slow but it's healing all the same" she pulls out a frilled handkerchief

"If I had known-" she begins but I won't have that

"It's in the past now" I tell her

"You're going to live with us" she tells me brightly "we have room to spare and you should be with family" she smiles

"Like I should have told the boy" Haymitch's gruff voice startles us "she is with family" Aunt Effie stands up a little straighter, sets her features a little harder and takes on a protective stance before me and Cato

"Mr. Abernathy" she quirks her lips "this is a private conversation between myself, my son and my niece"

"What a coincidence Miss Trinket, for I could claim the very same" there's a moment where everything is still, I can see Cato mulling the words around in his mind, trying to make sense of them any other way. And then Aunt Effie explodes

"You had no right! He's no more your son than you are sober! You may have finally done the right thing by Madge but you have never done the right thing by him. You pretended he didn't exist only to try and turn him into a drunk like you when you did show up. Why I ought to smite you where you stand Mitch Abernathy, for all the good you are in this world"

"Well hello again Fifi, sorry to see the delicate damsel act isn't holding up. You don't fool me your ladyship" it's Cato that makes them stop

"Mom?"

"I-"

"Is it true?"

"Look" Haymitch steps in, almost in my Aunt's defence

"I didn't ask you!" Cato silences him "Mom?"

"Yes, yes it's true".