Standard Disclaimer in the first chapter

Baby Steps

Autumn

"They were crazy to pick us."

Madge looked to man next to her. Gale's eyes focused on the sleeping Viola in her white-stained crib, made to complement the nursery with its soft yellow paint and white bunny wallpaper. His hand reached to touch her dowdy curls and Viola's head shifted toward Gale's palm.

Today, they buried Katniss and Peeta. It still didn't feel real.

Madge felt numb, though the feeling of her throat closing began rapidly as their caskets were lowered into the ground. It took the squeeze of Gale's hand on her shoulder to bring her back and the look on his face reflected everything she felt inside. This horrible, sickening pain of not being able to see them walk through the door or to hear a Frankie Valli song without not wanting to burst into tears.

"Do you think that Vi knows that her whole life has changed?" Madge asked quietly. "She's going to see pictures of them giving her kisses and not remember what those kisses felt like. She won't remember the smell of Katniss' perfume or the way Peeta used to blow raspberries on the bottoms of her feet—"

Madge looked to the man next to her.

"She won't know them."

"Hey now," Gale said softly, his voice cracking at the ends. "That's why we're here—so she can remember. We'll show her videos and pictures. I have some of our old high school mementos. I promise that they won't be forgotten."

"Are we really going to do this?" she asked in a pained voice. "Are we going to take over their lives just like that?"

"I don't know." Gale shrugged. "I didn't want this. But you wanted their life. You wanted the house, the happy marriage, the kids—"

"Hell, Gale! I never wanted it like this!" Madge glared venomously through the tears brimming in her eyes. "I wanted my own version. I always imagined that Katniss would be there to hold my hand when I was giving birth and Peeta would act like a class act big brother kind of dick when the guy I wanted to marry came along. I didn't want to do this alone."

Wiping her tears, Madge's gaze went to Viola and she ran her hand along the baby's clothed back.

"Where did I fit in?" Gale asked her suddenly.

She looked to him and shrugged. "I guess you were supposed to be the guy that I screwed to get it all out of my system, before walking down the aisle."

"I can still be that guy," he said lightly, an attempt of a smile growing on his lips.

"I come with a little baggage," Madge told him before looking to the little girl. "Not that I mind because I love Vi like crazy."

"Me, too," Gale added and his arm went around Madge's shoulders. "At least we have that."

There was a knock on the door and Johanna, Haymitch's wife, gave them a sad smile.

"The guests are arriving," she informed the two. "You might want to get down there." Waddling inside, Johanna went to the rocking chair close to Viola's crib. "I can watch her. It took me forever to get up those stairs. Haymitch is either going to have to carry me out or get a crane."

Madge gazed at her worriedly. "You sure?"

"I promise I won't drop him or her in this lovely nursery," Johanna assured her.

"Thanks for helping out with the catering," Gale said to the woman in the rocking chair.

"Now that I'm on maternity leave, my cooking crew doesn't have much to do," she informed them. "Katniss and I were actually thinking of joining up. She would make desserts and my team would do the cooking." Stopping short, Johanna put her hand to her stomach. "That's been put on hold indefinitely."

They could hear the gathering of guests as Haymitch let them in.

"Call Haymitch on your phone if you need anything," Madge told the woman and Johanna nodded before shooing them away.

Together, she and Gale stepped out into the hallway. Smoothing her black dress down, Madge turned to hastily straighten Gale's tie.

"Distracting yourself from going down there?" Gale teased.

Her eyes went to his and Madge patted the tie down.

"If you decide you don't want to do this, then I understand," she said, her eyes serious. "You're right in some way. I do want the marriage and the kids. Maybe one day that will come. But, I also want Viola in my life. She is even more precious to me because she's the only part of Katniss and Peeta that I have."

With that, Madge walked down the stairs leaving Gale to contemplate her words.

The last of the trash was thrown out and Gale walked through the front door of the house, closing the door with a resounding thud. His eyes went to the picture of his two friends on the entryway table, they were both gazing down at the newborn Viola in Katniss' arms.

Madge had taken the photo after yelling at him for holding Viola like a football. She was a royal pain in the ass, stubborn, and even snooty at times, but he admired her loyalty as well as her calm nature during bad situations.

Like this one.

Walking into the living room, Gale was surprised to find Prim looking over the photos on the mantle.

"Hey Prim." She turned around and blushed seeing him before her. "You okay?"

The young girl had obviously been crying, her pale face flushed and shiny with wiped away tears.

"I guess," Prim replied softly. "I can't believe that they're gone."

"Have a seat," Gale told her and she went to the couch, hugging herself to warm herself from the chill of death. He sat next to her. "It seems like a horrible dream to me. Peeta and I were on the wrestling team together in high school. He always placed first and I always placed second during matches. Except for one match."

Gale felt a ragged chuckle escape his throat and Prim tittered at the sound. "Why did he lose?"

"He saw Katniss in the bleachers of our gym and got distracted," he explained. "You see, Madge was a cheerleader and was there to cheer us on. Katniss tagged along because it was Madge's first year on the Varsity team and she was nervous. She was Madge's support system."

Gale thought about the look in Madge's eyes during their talk. She had kept it all together externally, but he could practically hear wailing in anguish over her best friend not being there.

So strong for everyone else, never for herself—that was Madge.

"I hope I have something like they did," Prim revealed. "Sometimes I would see Mrs. Mellark just brush her thumb along the top of Mr. Mellark's hand whenever I came over for brunch. He would hum to himself as he drank his coffee. They didn't have to talk, but I could feel the love there."

"I think that's what every person wants," Gale said. "The kind of love that doesn't need words." Standing up, he went to the mantle and took the picture that Prim had been looking at: a photo of the Katniss and Peeta helping Vi blow out her candles. "Take this."

Prim looked to him. "Why?"

"So you can remember them," he told her. "So you know what real love can bring. I have wonderful memories of my friends and all the pictures I have of them are inside my head. You know, they thought of you as their little sister."

Prim stood up and took the photo, her eyes thick with tears. "I always thought of them the same way." She looked out the window to see the evening lull in the neighborhood. "Mom and Dad are probably waiting for me. I better get going."

Gale nodded. "Don't worry. You can always come over, babysitting or not."

"I heard that you and Madge have custody of Viola," she said as they walked to the front door. "If it helps, I think you'll be a good dad."

He grinned, lifted at the word, 'Dad'. "Thanks."

Prim rushed out, cheeks bright from her last words.

After Gale made sure that she was safely at home next door, he ascended the stairs to check on Madge and Vi. His counterpart had disappeared after the guests had all left and the food had been eaten.

A yowl of discontent reached his ears and he peeked inside nursery to find Madge holding Vi, her hand rubbing the baby's back. It looked like she had just finished with feeding time and was trying to help Vi sleep.

"Oh, I know that it's hard," Madge said soothingly. "But as you get bigger, it will get easier to just jet off to sleep." Vi let out a smaller whine. "You're really tired, huh?" She shifted to cradle the little one's head in the crook of her arm to rock her. "What can I do?"

From where Gale stood behind the doorway, he saw Vi reach to touch Madge's golden locks. Maybe she was recognizing that it was a similar shade to her father's. The pain of realizing that Peeta and Katniss' daughter would eventually forget the shade of her father's hair tore at him, stinging like the venomous snake that death could be.

"Mu...mhmm…" came the attempt of words from Vi.

Just that simple string of words sounded musical, her melodic voice similar to Katniss'.

Their friend used to sing, performing with the glee club at school, and Peeta would drag both him and Madge to every performance. There was always a bouquet of flowers for Katniss and no matter how small or large her musical piece was, Peeta was always there to give a standing ovation.

Love like that was really out of this world, this universe…this life.

"Do you want me to sing you to sleep, love?" Madge asked. "I'm not as good as your Mommy was, but I'll try. Everything that I do for you, I'll try my hardest because that's what your Mommy would have wanted. I want you to live a good, happy life, Viola—because you are owed it." Vi began to squirm. "Alright…alright…"

Gale rested his head against the doorframe, his eyes closing as he waited.

"When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful
Every hour we spent together, lives within my heart
And when she was sad, I was there to dry her tears
And when she was happy, so was I, when she loved me…"

He had heard Katniss sing this song before. During a performance at the wake for Madge's mother.

Mrs. Undersee had been sick for a long time, her cancer slowly spreading out over most of Madge's high school life. Their summer after their freshman year of college, the woman had finally gone to heaven, leaving her daughter all alone. Mr. Undersee died years before from an unexpected heart attack.

"Through the summer and the fall, we had each other, that was all
Just she and I together, like it was meant to be
And when she was lonely, I was there to comfort her
And I knew that she loved me…"

That was the only time that Madge ever let him hold her. She wept steadily as Katniss sang, as if her best friend had found a way to release all the pain trapped inside of Madge.

He waited for her to finish singing, enjoying the sweet, low tone of her voice.

"You see?" Gale could hear the tightness in her voice. "I'm not as good as her, Viola—but I can try. I hope that's enough because it's all I can give…all I have, really."

Peeking in, he watched Madge place Vi in her crib and press a kiss to the sleeping child's forehead.

Her steps were heavy as she trudged to the rocking chair.

Sitting, Madge rocked herself and he saw her cover her mouth before wailing into her cupped hands.

Even through her attempts to muffle her sobs, Gale felt her breaking apart and he closed his eyes trying to trap his own tears.

He wanted to be there for her, hold her like before, and he wanted to stop her tears.

So Gale decided to stay.

One Week Later…

"So I need to stay late at the studio on Tuesday and Thursday evenings," Madge informed Gale as she stood in front of the bulletin board calendar. She placed pink Post-Its on all the Tuesdays and Thursdays on the calendar. "How about you?"

"Friday evenings and Saturday mornings," he replied as he bounced with Vi strapped to his chest.

"Why Friday evenings and Saturday mornings?" she asked as she took out the blue Post-It's to block out his days.

"Friday evenings are date night and Saturday mornings are if the date goes well," he responded.

"That's nice and priggish," Madge remarked snidely.

"Not all of us have dust mites down there," Gale retorted as he bent his knees in a hard bounce with Viola. He pinched the little one's cheeks, cooing at her. "Isn't that right, sweetheart? What does Auntie Madge have?" Viola let out a laugh. "That's right…cobwebs!"

Madge put her hand to her hip. "She's going to throw up on you if you keep bouncing her like that."

"No, she's not," Gale protested as he continued moving. "Vi loves this—"

His shirt was suddenly covered in vomit—pea-green vomit to be exact, which Viola had for lunch.

Madge quickly moved to remove Viola from her harness.

"Don't worry, honey. A lot of people have thrown up on Uncle Gale…"

"Including Auntie Madge." He quickly removed his shirt, letting Madge's gaze linger on his toned abs and rich tan. "Don't you remember London, Mary Poppins? You were so smashed from our pub crawl that you convinced yourself that you could use your umbrella to fly. Instead, you threw up on said umbrella and then on me."

Madge rolled her eyes just as the doorbell rang.

"It was my first international trip." She headed out onto the hallway towards the door with Viola in her arms. "Put a shirt on, Casanova. You don't want to scare the mailman or Prim!"

He followed, his hands going to Madge's shoulders as they walked.

"This is my home now. Shouldn't I be comfortable? I mean, my comfort does include some nudity." She blanched as his mouth went to her ear. "Remember Santorini? Moonlight swims?"

"We were kind of stuck with each other," Madge said though the heat began to rise remembering those nights of wine and tepid midnight water. "Peeta and Katniss were out on the sea, having sex on a sailboat."

"Well, we didn't have to swim naked," he replied as they reached the door. "It was your suggestion."

"I was a child," she protested. "And, I'm a grown-up now."

Gale's hand went to the doorknob. "I miss the young Madge." He yanked the door open. "Especially her breasts."

They looked to the front porch to find a woman in a business suit, her dirty-blonde hair pulled back and her cheeks effusively red. She eyed the two before her gaze settled on the shirtless Gale.

Finally gathering herself, she held her hand out to them.

"My name is Delly Cartwright," the woman began. "And, I am your court-appointed social worker."

End of Part Two

This was supposed to be longer, but I felt that this was a good stop. Also, this was an emotionally difficult chapter to write.

Especially the singing.

Song: 'When She Loved Me'-Sarah McLachlan