A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter, including folks I couldn't respond to individually. I appreciate hearing from everyone!
Part 2
Gale slunk through the alley, his irritation with Haymitch still simmering. Was insinuating something about Madge Undersee Haymitch's way of pushing Gale out of the way so Katniss and Peeta wouldn't have to deal him and could focus on training? Did Haymitch just really want Katniss and Peeta to live happily ever after for their remaining months together? Whatever it was, Gale didn't appreciate it and was going to say something with his fists sooner rather than later.
When he reached the stretch of alley that passed the Undersees' back yard, he tried to avoid looking at her house, but like usual he failed. The back door was wide open, spilling the kitchen's light into the yard. He hadn't sold anything to the Undersees since Reaping Day last year, telling himself that they'd always been more of Katniss's customers than his. Not that he did much selling once he started working in the mines anyway.
He slowed his pace and paused, still watching the Undersees' house, and started to get annoyed once again at Madge's role in Katniss's life. He wished he had access to newspapers and other information, that he could do something more to help Katniss prepare for the Quarter Quell. Teaching her new snares and snagging a few minutes here and there to chat about nothing important felt so inconsequential. He'd squandered their opportunity to run away, however unrealistic it might have been… What he'd like to do to help her would be to put President Snow and every person associated with the Hunger Games in front of a firing squad. He'd happily pull each and every trigger.
Fast movement just inside the Undersees' door caught his eye: a person darted in and out of view as they crossed the kitchen. Aware that none of the Undersees were the jumpy type, Gale was curious enough to walk to their fence for a better view. The person crossed the doorway again, and realized he'd never seen the Undersees' back door open the way it was tonight, even on the hottest summer days. He frowned in confusion and kept watching, alert to the possibility that someone might have broken into their house.
Suddenly a figure burst onto the back porch and ran down the stairs. It was Madge. And she was carrying a broom. She raced halfway into the yard and then spun to watch the door, holding the broom bristle-side up like a weapon in front of her, not taking her eyes off the brightly lit doorway. Was there an intruder in her house? Someone desperate and hungry and stupid enough to break into the mayor's house? With a flash of panic, Gale registered that she wasn't wearing any shoes or socks, only shorts and a white tank top. Her normally smooth hair was in disarray and even from a distance he could see that she was shaking.
He scrambled over the fence and reached her in seconds. All her muscles were tense and she gripped the broom so tightly her knuckles were white. When she noticed him in her peripheral vision, she startled and moved back a few inches, eyes widening momentarily in shock. But then she immediately turned her attention back to the doorway to her house.
"You all right?" he asked urgently, keeping his voice low.
She jerked her head up once in an apparent nod, still focused on the door instead of Gale.
"Your parents in there?" He imagined the Undersees tied up and held hostage in their own home, Madge having just escaped. The anger amongst the miners about all the obscene pay cuts and long hours must have finally erupted. Most rational people understood that Mayor Undersee was powerless, but hunger and rage didn't necessarily leave people feeling rational.
"They're not home. It's just me."
So the intruders were smart and cowardly: making a move when only the teenage girl was home. Rough her up. Steal whatever they could…
He squinted into the bright light bathing the yard. "How many are there?" He couldn't take on a whole gang, but maybe one or two… If there were more than that, he'd have to fetch the Peacekeepers, which would violate his new policy of avoiding the Peacekeepers whenever humanly possible.
"One. That I saw, at least."
"Armed?" Not that Gale had a weapon, but he could do some damage with the element of surprise and that broom Madge was holding.
"Winged," Madge said grimly. "It will come out soon on its own." She took a deep breath and said reluctantly, "Or I could go in there and shoo it out."
"What?" Gale said loudly. He stepped away to look at her. "You're out here because there's a bird in your house?"
Madge jumped again at his rise in volume and glanced at him. "It's a bat. A huge, gross, vicious Brown Swarmer bat that attacked me." She trained her eyes on the door again. "And I have to get rid of it before my parents get home because I left the kitchen a mess."
Gale pinched the bridge of his nose. These were the problems of Madge Undersee: a rogue bat invading her house and worries about her parents discovering that she's a slob. He should turn around and walk out of the yard. He really should. Right now.
But that would mean returning to his own thoughts and his own problems, none of which he could do anything about. And if there was one thing he was unquestionably good at, it was trapping animals. He hadn't hunted in months, not since… the day he was caught with the turkey. The day he would have died if not for Katniss. The memories and pain still haunted him, but it was the knowledge that a second offense would truly mean the end and that his family would have to do without him that had kept him from pushing his luck, even before the fence had been permanently electrified. He felt the anticipation of a trapping challenge calling out to him. Something he could do and feel useful. Besides, he reasoned, Swarmers were dangerous when cornered and Madge Undersee clearly had no clue how to handle the one in her house.
He snatched the broom out of her hands. Or tried to—she was clutching it so tightly she stumbled into him.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, still grasping the broom but now glaring at Gale.
He tugged the broom again, which had the side effect of pulling her even closer. "Getting rid of your little friend."
"I don't need your help," she scowled.
He twisted the broom clockwise, surprising Madge into letting go of it. "Swarmers are everywhere in the mines. I know how to deal with them."
He started walking toward her house.
"I don't need your help!" Madge called from behind him. "It will probably fly out on its own. Maybe it already left while you were talking!"
He paused on the first step and turned to look at her. She was pissed off: eyes narrowed, mouth set in a fierce frown. A total contrast to every single time he'd seen her since that night in the Seam. She had smoothly reverted to being the cool, collected proper Madge he was used to seeing. This was the first time she'd looked like the spirited girl he remembered dancing and spinning with.
Holding out the broom toward her as an offering, he said, "Maybe it flew away. Maybe it didn't. Don't you want to know?"
She studied Gale angrily for a few seconds and then pushed roughly past him, leading the way into her house and letting him keep the broom.
"It was in the kitchen," she huffed.
They stood in the doorway, scanning the brightly illuminated room for disturbances.
Gale whistled through his teeth. "That bat did a lot of damage, huh?"
Flour was strewn over most of one of the counters and three quarters of the floor, and bowls and spoons were scattered haphazardly. There were footprints in the flour on the ground—bare human feet (Madge) and a series of strange scratches (probably the bat and its wings). Gale could see why Madge's parents might be upset about the mess—it was pretty bad. He'd never seen their kitchen looking anything like this during all his years of selling strawberries at this very door.
Madge ignored his comment. "I don't see it. Oh God, what if it flew into the rest of the house?"
Gale ran the broom along the top of the refrigerator and the area between the top of the cupboards and the ceiling. "They like to be up high," he explained. "We find them in tunnels at work. They drop down out of nowhere and start flapping their wings in your face." He had heard many a grown man squeal in surprise. It was one of the few things that occasionally lifted the workers' spirits during mining shifts.
He could feel Madge watching him scout the room. "Why are you doing this?" she asked abruptly.
"Why not?" He opened the pantry door the rest of the way and shoved the broom into the dark corners to be sure the bat wasn't hiding in there.
"We're not friends," Madge said. "You've made that perfectly clear."
"If you keep yakking, we won't hear it," Gale warned, glaring in her direction for good measure. She was right—they definitely weren't friends—but he didn't want to talk about why not. He looked to the ceiling and tried to imagine where the bat would go. There were two doors leading out of the kitchen: one looked like a hallway and the other led to a formal dining room. The idea of a formal dining area seemed like a complete waste of space; he stored the knowledge for future resentment. He picked the dark hallway, figuring it resembled a cave enough that a bat might seek refuge in it after the stress of terrifying Madge. Walking down the hallway, he banged the broom along the walls in an attempt to get the bat moving again.
"Stop!" Madge shrieked.
He froze, eyes scanning the ceiling for whatever she must have seen.
"You're tracking flour on the carpet," Madge said. "Do you mind… taking your shoes off?"
He turned to look at her, incredulous, and then back toward the kitchen. Sure enough, he had left a set of big white footprints on the carpet runner. Purely to avoid another of her shrieks, he kicked off his shoes and cast a disgusted look in her direction.
"Thanks," she said weakly, but he was already focused on the hunt again.
The hallway led to the front door and the entryway, which connected to the massive Undersee living room. Gale doubted anyone did any living in this room. He suspected if you looked at something the wrong way it would shatter.
He spotted the bat, a dark mass on the top of one of the shelves, out of place amongst the intricate decorations in the rest of the room. He knew the feeling.
Madge moved to stand next to him so he nudged her, pointing at the animal. "It's on that shelf," he whispered. "Open the front door, I'm going to shoo it out from the right."
It felt strange to have to vocalize his plans—Katniss would have just known with a single glance. Maybe even before that. But he didn't have time to dwell and concentrated on listening to Madge walking toward the door and opening it. He signaled that he was moving forward, and then quietly approached the shelf and prodded the bat with the broom's brush.
An explosion of wings rocked the room, forcing Gale to duck or be clipped. The thing quadrupled in size as it flew wildly, circling the perimeter of the room instead of heading toward the door.
"It's not going outside!" Madge called from her hiding spot behind the door.
Gale darted to the other side of the room and leaped over the white and gray striped couch so he could block the bat from escaping down the hallway to the kitchen. It avoided him and flew toward Madge again, causing her to scream and run down the other, even darker hallway. Mentally cursing the needlessly huge size of the Undersee house, Gale chased the winged menace into a room dominated by a large piano and tried to shoo it back into the hallway, only to stumble into first Madge and then the door as he swung wildly at the air with the broom.
"I thought you said you knew how to get rid of these things!" she accused from the floor where she'd fallen.
He grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet. "In mines, not mansions!"
She might have fallen to the ground again when he released her—he didn't bother to check because the little bastard had already flown back into the hallway to the foyer. He watched as it circled near the front door…
And then flew up, up, up. Gale tracked its erratic circular path and saw that the Undersees' entryway was two stories, a gap of open space connecting the two floors and spanned by the curving stairwell. The damn bat was moving into the upstairs part of the house.
Madge ran back and collided with him at the base of the stairs, her eyes following his.
"Oh no," she said.