Disclaimer: The Hunger Games Trilogy is property of Suzanne Collins. This is a parody fanwork by fans for fans. No money was made off of the creation of this fanwork.

Note: This is Gale's side story which takes place in the same universe and runs concurrently to my story "Spectator." You will likely want to read that fic first since I will be making reference to the events that take place in it. This chapter takes place after the some of the events in Chapter Twenty of "Spectator." This story will be updated biweekly on Tuesdays. There may be times when I won't totally adhere to this schedule, it will depend on where the main fic is in its storyline. But even if I miss a week, my update day will still remain a Tuesday.

Forgotten

By Fanfic Allergy

oOo

Chapter Four

We meet at the Everdeen house about ten minutes before the start of Mandatory Viewing. Madge is holding a cloth bag that is filled with who knows what.

"What's in the bag?" I ask in lieu of salutation.

She calls me out on my rudeness, "You really are impatient. Not even a 'hello' out of you. Just 'what's in the bag?' Sheesh! I know your mother trained you better than that." Her tone tells me that she's teasing me again so I don't take offense.

"Fine," I say, smiling at her. "Hello. What's in the bag? Happy now?"

"Yes," she answers with a nod. Opening the door to the Everdeens' house, she says, "I'll show you inside."

I follow her into the house and light the lantern on the kitchen table.

Madge puts her bag down and pulls a whole slew of items. There's a large paper bag full of salt and another of sugar. There's a glass jug of vinegar and another one of what looks to be the white liquor Ripper sells at the Hob. But that's just silly, I haven't taken Madge to the Hob yet and as far as I know none of the merchants in town sell the stuff. Finally she pulls out three plastic containers with food in them and utensils to eat with. Two of the containers she slides over to me, the other she keeps back for herself.

"What's all this?" I ask.

"What's it look like?" she counters.

I shrug. "My mom does most of the cooking. Rory helps her. She says I've earned it since I'm the man of the house and have to provide for all of them."

Madge looks at me, an expression of incredulousness on her face. "You don't cook?"

I can feel my defenses start to come up. "Is that a problem?"

She shakes her head. "No, not really. I'm just surprised, that's all. I would have thought you could do everything."

"Hey! I can cook, I just don't."

She lets it drop. "Anyway. I brought you some dinner and both of us some dessert since I figured you were missing dinner by being here."

"And the rest of this?" I ask.

"Pickling supplies," she answers with a shrug. "Seems to make more sense for us to do most of the preserving here rather than cart what we find into town."

When she says it that way, it makes sense.

I don't get a lot more time to say anything more, because the Everdeens old television sputters to life and Mandatory Viewing begins. Old Claudius Templesmith appears by himself. He smiles and makes some chirpy hellos, but without Caesar there to play off of his delivery falls flat. He goes through the recap without piddling himself in excitement of what is to follow. The recaps today are shorter than they've been in previous days despite the deaths that occurred early this morning.

I admit it, I watched some of the Games on the big screen in the middle of the square while on my way to trade the turkey to Cray. I was happy to see that three more tributes were out of the Games, especially the two from One, but I was still anxious because the announcers kept hyping up the special interviews and unbelievable revelations that were going to happen tonight. It made me think that Madge's guess might be right. And I really don't want her to be right.

Now with Claudius almost bouncing in his seat with anticipation, the dread grows.

Madge reaches over and gives my hand a sympathetic squeeze.

I look up at her in surprise.

She shrugs and opens one of the containers of food to reveal a small square nestled within.

"What's that?" I ask, turning away from them showing a recap of the boy from Three's death.

"Bread pudding," she answers. "You have some too and some pot roast."

I open the two containers in front of me to see that she's correct. I'm not that hungry, but I start to eat anyway. The food is filling but bland. Which surprises me. I expected the Mayor to eat better than this.

I'm about to start on the bread pudding when the recaps finish. Claudius announces that now it's time for the part of the show we've all been waiting for, the interviews! They start with the boy from Two's family and I look over at Madge in surprise.

"They're going in order by district for Mandatory Viewing, I think."

"But it's going to take all night!" I explode. "I don't want to be stuck here for that long!"

"What do you want me to do about that?" she asks me quietly.

"I don't know!"

"Why don't you see to Lady?" she suggests. "I'll call you when they get to Twelve."

She's offering me an escape and I take it.

I go out into Lady's pen and feed her some greens Rory had brought over earlier. To pass time, I milk her. When I bring in the pail with the milk, I note that they've moved on to the boy from Eleven's family.

"They're only showing the good parts," Madge tells me, looking up from the screen. "I saw the boy from Ten's family's interview earlier in the day and it was about five times as long as what they showed tonight."

"So how long do you think it will be until they get to Katniss's interview?"

She shrugs. "Maybe a half an hour? Caesar mentioned they're saving the best for last and I'm pretty sure that's her."

"I'll be outside until then."

She doesn't try to stop me, which I'm grateful for. I go out into the Everdeens' garden and in the light of the setting sun do my best to weed it. There aren't a lot of vegetables ready yet, but I don't want the garden to get overgrown with weeds. I put all of the weeds that I pull into a pile to give to Lady later.

About twenty minutes later, I hear Madge call me inside. Caesar is just finishing up with Mrs. Everdeen as I walk in.

"Remember what you promised," she says as I take a seat at the table.

I shrug my shoulders. "I'll do what I can."

Then it's time. Caesar bounds up on stage and says, "Welcome back, folks! I hope you're ready for a rare treat. Now, I know what you're saying: 'Caesar, you've given us so many treats already today!' And I have. But you know me, I've got to save the best for last. And here she is, Katniss Everdeen!"

My heart gives a little lurch as she walks up on stage in a lace dress the color of a candle's flame. The swell of her stomach is unmistakable. They've made her up like she's one of the tributes in the Games. She's still beautiful, but it's not real. I prefer the real Katniss.

She takes a seat and looks at someone in the audience. I wonder who. But the camera doesn't show them.

Instead it zooms in closer and from the first question I know that Madge is going to be right. Damn her.

With each question Caesar asks and Katniss answers, I feel myself becoming more and more numb. She's lying. I know she's lying. I even know why she's lying. But it doesn't stop the intense feeling of hurt that jolts through me with each lie she tells.

I can even see the angle they're going to go for, good boy falls for a girl from the wrong part of town. I can even see how the story could be plausible. Katniss and Peeta would want to hide it because in Twelve the Merchants and Miners don't mix. And with both of their parents' histories it makes even more sense. The way they're spinning it, the way she's spinning it, a lot of people here might even fall for the lies.

I just can't believe that she'd let them twist things like this. Even for Prim's sake. But she is and it hurts. It hurts a lot.

Then there are the pictures. The ones that Peeta drew. I can see the care in each and every one of them. Peeta loves my Katniss and has loved her for a very long time. The detail he put into the sketches tells me this. Especially the one of her rubbing her belly. The way he captured my Katniss's face pulls at my heart. She loves our child. She may not have wanted it, but the look on her face tells me she loves it. I'm jealous that Peeta, of all people, got to see that expression on her face and not me.

The last part of the interview is pure agony for me. While I'm happy to know I'm going to have a daughter, everything else that happens just makes me sick. Even Katniss's auctioning off the right to name our child if Peeta and Prim come home bothers me. I know it's a ploy, a way to make the Capitol invested in seeing Peeta and Prim win, but I don't like her deciding my child's future like that. I'd hoped, even if we weren't together, she'd at least talk to me about what we'd name the child. Now even that's been taken from me.

The interview finishes, but I can't even bring myself to care. The screens shift into the honoring of the tributes who died and out of the corner of my eye, I see Madge lean over and turn the sound down.

I'm not even registering what's on the television. All I can see is Katniss's interview playing over and over again. I know Madge warned me, and I'd honestly thought I'd been prepared. I'm not. I'm not prepared at all.

"Gale?" I hear Madge ask me. "Are you alright?"

I don't respond. How does she expect me to be? Katniss has lied. Lied about who the father of our baby is. She lied about her relationship with that merchant. Every word, every action she did was a lie. And the Capitol bought every piece of it.

"I'm sorry," she says. "I didn't want to be right. I really didn't."

I still don't respond. She says she didn't want to be right. I want to believe her, but I can't. Everything that I once thought was real and true is a lie. The Katniss I knew would have never pretended to have a relationship with the baker's boy for any reason. She wouldn't pretend anything. It's one of the things I love about her. I don't know this made up Katniss that I saw tonight. She's not real. What she said isn't real.

"Gale? Please. Are you going to do something stupid?" Madge asks, reaching forward with one hand to touch my arm.

I know that the touch is supposed to be gentle, a gesture of sympathy, one she'd already done a few times since I've known her. But this time, it feels different. Like a restraint. And I don't like it.

All of a sudden, the numbness that had settled over me is swept away and a torrent of rage floods through me. "Get your hand off of me!" I growl.

She withdraws the offending appendage quickly. "Are you okay, Gale?"

I let out a short bark of laughter. "Am I okay?" I sneer. "What kind of question is that? Of course I'm not okay! How in hell am I supposed to be okay? My girl's just claimed that my baby is some damned merchant's! She's made herself sound like a whore, selling herself just to pay back two stupid loaves of bread! In what messed up world would that make me okay?"

Madge takes a step back at my rant. "Gale, you promised, no doing anything stupid."

"And what do you define as stupid? Because what I saw there," I say, motioning angrily at the screen, "is stupid. It's not stupid to counter stupidity!"

Her eyes narrow. "What are you planning on doing?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business." I get up from the table and head toward the front door.

She jumps in front of me. "Where are you going?"

"Get out of my way!"

"No," she says with a shake of her head. "Not until you tell me where you're going and what you're going to do."

My voice drops to a low growl. "Get. Out. Of. My. Way."

"No."

I try to push past her, but she stands her ground, blocking me with her body.

"I won't let you do this!" she says, trying to stare me down. "I'm not going to let you kill Katniss or Peeta or Prim just because of your stupid pride!"

The words hurt. They hurt a lot. Probably because I know deep down inside that they're true. "You don't know what you're talking about," I snarl.

Madge looks up at me, her eyes pleading with me to understand. "I know you're hurt. You have every right to be hurt. But please, please, for your baby, don't do whatever you're thinking of doing."

The mention of my daughter-to-be causes me to pause. She's an innocent in all of this. The Capitol may think that it's Peeta's but I know she's mine. I don't know what the Capitol would do to Katniss if they learned the truth. People have disappeared to who knows where for lesser offenses than letting the Capitol draw the wrong conclusions. They could see her lie of omission as treason, which is a hanging offense, and act accordingly. And chances are good that they wouldn't let her live long enough to give birth.

I stop trying to push past Madge and take a step back.

The Mayor's daughter watches me warily. She probably thinks I'm trying to get her to let down her guard so I can force my way past her. And for once, she's wrong.

I get it now. I'm still angry, but I can't act on my anger. If Katniss were here, I could yell at her. If Peeta were here, I could punch him. But that's the problem, they're not here and there's no one I can take out my anger on. Except Madge.

"I'm sorry."

The words seem to startle her and she gives me a funny look. "Gale?"

I sit down heavily in one of the Everdeens' chairs and stare down at my hands. Everything I've ever wanted is gone now. It doesn't matter what happens the rest of the Games, in one fell swoop the Capitol has made it impossible for Katniss and me to be together and raise a family together. Even if Peeta dies, especially if Peeta dies, they'll expect her to remain in mourning for the boy with the bread for the rest of her life.

I don't know what to do.

I didn't realize I'd said the words aloud until Madge says, "Nothing stupid, you promised me that."

I look up at her, not even bothering to hide the emotions I'm feeling from my face. "I'm not sure I know what's stupid anymore."

She kneels down in front of me and takes my hands. "Well, that's what you have me for, right? If you want to know if something's stupid or not, you just ask me and I'll tell you."

"So you're the expert, huh?" I ask ruefully.

"I wouldn't say that," she says with a small shake of her head. "But I'm a lot less close to the problem. So that helps."

I think about that for moment then say, "I don't think I should go home tonight." I don't explain why. I'm not sure I can. I just have this feeling that if people get angry on my behalf without someone to stop me from boiling over that I'll end up trying to break into the Mellark Bakery in my anger or possibly do something worse, like call the Capitol and tell them the truth.

Madge doesn't push me, to my relief. Instead she asks, "Do you want to stay here?"

"Where else can I go?" I ask rhetorically.

But somehow I'm not surprised when she answers me anyway, "We've got a guest room, if you'd rather stay someplace else. My parents will understand."

I shake my head. I don't need other people seeing me like this. It's bad enough that Madge has, I'm not sure I could stand the Mayor seeing me without my mask.

She nods her head. "Do you want me to stay with you?" she asks me instead.

Her words, so gentle and kind, touch me in a way I don't expect. I can't speak around the knot of emotion that's settled itself in my throat and the tears I didn't even know I was holding back start to roll down my cheeks. I let out a broken sob and crumple in on myself, slipping out of the chair and onto the floor.

I feel Madge put her arms around my shoulder and I turn my head to bury it in the folds of her skirt, muffling my sobs.

I cry for the girl I lost. For the girl I never had. For the family that will never be mine. But most of all I cry for myself, for the man I used to be.

oOo

AN:

Written: 12/31/13
Revised: 1/7/13
Beta read by RoseFyre.

So, we finally get to the chapter everyone's been waiting for. I hope it satisfies.

Gale's going through the stages of grief in regards to his relationship with Katniss. He's been trapped in a combo of Denial and Anger for a while with some Bargaining going on. He's finally slipped out of those first three stages and into Depression. Which, believe it or not, is progress. You'll be seeing more of that as we move on.

I am going to state right now that Forgotten will have 10 chapters. I have them outlined and they are going to be fairly important for the future of this little universe.

Thanks for reading!