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 some of the events in Chapter Twenty Three. 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 Five

I never make it home. Instead, Madge holds me until I fall asleep in her arms. I dream about Katniss walking down the aisle on President Snow's arm to a waiting Peeta. The look on Katniss's face is pure terror while President Snow looks pleased with himself. The officiant gets to the part where the audience is asked to speak now or forever hold their peace and I open my mouth to protest when I see Madge dressed in something frivolous and clearly Capitol made shaking her head at me. The message is clear and the words I want to say stay frozen in my throat. So I just watch as the woman I've always loved marries another.

The dream is so real that when I wake up several hours later, I have to blink a few times to make sure I'm not still dreaming. I notice that sometime during the night, Madge has extricated herself from my grasp and covered me with a blanket. I'm supremely grateful for this since I don't like people seeing me when I'm vulnerable and Madge has already gotten an eyeful of me at my worst.

I scan the room to find Madge curled up on the bed that Katniss shares with Prim. She's not under the covers and I can tell that she's cold. I pick up the blanket that she covered me with and place it over her.

Or at least I try to, the moment I get to my feet Madge's eyes snap open. I never would have pegged the Mayor's daughter as a light sleeper but the proof is right in front of me. I hold out the blanket to her with a questioning expression on my face.

She shakes her head and sits up. "What time is it?" she asks.

I look at the clock on the shelf over the television and answer, "Almost five."

The girl makes a face. "I should get home before my parents realize I've been out all night."

I don't know what to say. She's likely gotten herself in trouble because of me and there's nothing I can do to fix that. Sorry doesn't seem to cut it and I hate apologizing.

She gives me a look I can't quite make out and says, "Are you going to be okay if I leave you here?"

I know what she's asking and a few hours ago I would have lied. Now I know better. "I'm not about to storm the Justice Building at the moment. Although I can't guarantee I won't snap if someone says the wrong thing, but I'm not going to go looking for trouble."

"Fair enough," she says with a shrug. "So, are we still on for hunting and gathering?"

"I don't know, are we?"

"We should be," she says decisively. "There's still no guarantee that Peeta and Prim are going to win although their chances are better now."

"Yeah," I mutter. I don't want to think about what improved Prim and the baker boy's status but Madge is right, even with the improved chances it will still take a lot for them to win.

"So what time should I meet you?" she wants to know.

"How about a couple of hours from now?" I ask.

She makes a face but nods. I'm guessing she didn't get a lot of sleep and was hoping to sneak a nap in. I almost offer to make it later in the day, but hold off. Setting snares and nets is best done first thing in the morning. She can nap in the woods later. I'll just remember to bring a blanket with me.

Madge leaves me alone in Katniss's house and I find myself wandering the small shack. There are only two rooms, a main room and a bedroom, and I wonder how Katniss will deal with having a baby in this small place. My house isn't much better with two bedrooms and a main room. When I get a job in the mines, I'm entitled to a house in the Seam. I'd always planned on saving what money I could so that I could afford better than the one bedroom houses that they give new miners. Now, I'm not so sure.

I straighten up the place and put the blanket back on Katniss's bed. I should get home myself.

It's going to be a long day.

oOo

My mother is awake when I finally get home. She's sitting at the kitchen table cradling a mug of tea. I can tell from the dark circles under her eyes that she's been up all night waiting for me. A jolt of guilt races through me.

She doesn't bother yelling, that isn't her style, instead she raises an eyebrow and looks me over critically.

I run my fingers through my hair nervously and feel the inevitable pinwheel that I always get when I wake up in the morning. "I'm sorry," I say preemptively.

She nods, accepting my apology. "Where did you sleep?"

There isn't any point to lying so I tell her the truth. "At Katniss's. I didn't feel like I could be around people safely."

"Probably for the best," she says with another nod. "Rory was pretty upset for you."

"I figured he would be. Madge made sure I didn't do anything to endanger the Everdeens."

"Madge is it?" my mother asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

"She's a friend," I say defensively and I am surprised to realize the statement is true. After last night, Madge is definitely a friend but I'm not sure how I feel about that. I've always scoffed at and derided merchants and now one is my friend. It's weird to say the least.

I'm not the only one who finds this odd. My mother gives me an incredulous look. "A friend?" The way she says it makes me think that she feels that I'm lying.

I sit down across from her at the table heavily. "Yeah. A friend. Nothing else. I'm still not over Katniss, besides she's a merchant."

"I'm aware of that. I'm just surprised."

I snort. "You're not the only one. Just think how I feel!"

She pats my hand sympathetically, then yawns. "If you're not in trouble, I suppose I can finally go to bed. Are you going out again today?" she asks, getting up from the table.

I nod. "Yeah. The plan hasn't changed even though the story has."

She bobs her head. "When are you going to go sign up for the mines?"

Another frisson of guilt goes through me. We'd discussed me entering the mines as soon as my last reaping passed. We need the money and my wages would be better than what I make in trade. Even if I continue to save up for better housing, what I'll make is still able to buy more than what Rory would get for tesserae. The mines are mostly closed during the Games, but there's always a skeleton crew working to provide fuel for the district. If I'd joined right after the Reaping, I could have asked to be on that skeleton crew and started drawing a salary.

"I can go today," I tell her. "After I finish setting snares with Madge."

My mother raises her eyebrow at me again but doesn't comment about my companion. Instead she says, "Good. We could use the extra."

"I don't plan on starting until after the Games," I warn her.

"We should have enough to keep us going. But Posy's starting to outgrow her shoes and Vick needs new pants. He split them something awful the other day and they're about done."

Considering that they're my old pants from when I was his age and they've already been handed down from me to Rory and now to Vick, I'm not surprised that he needs new ones. They were pretty heavily used when I outgrew them. "I'll try to do some trading at the Hob for material."

"Do that," she tells me and goes to the bedroom she shares with Posy.

I make a simple breakfast for my siblings, tesserae porridge, and wash up. There's no point in taking a full bath until after I come back from the woods, but I should take one before I go to the Justice Building and sign up for the mines.

A little over an hour later, I'm on my way to the Mayor's house to meet Madge. We'd decided not to meet at the fence today, my suggestion since it gave her a little extra time to take a nap.

When I get there, I knock on the kitchen door. It opens but it's not Madge on the other side.

It's the Mayor.

He motions for me to come in and I do so reluctantly.

Once inside, he looks me up and down. "Should I be concerned about my daughter?" he asks me after a few seconds.

"I'm not sure what you mean?" I say slowly.

"Madge assures me her virtue is intact around you, but I'm a father. I'm sure you understand my predicament."

I do. I've often thought about what I'll do when Posy is old enough to start attracting the attention of the opposite sex. I've been looking forward to intimidating the boys who are interested in her. So I can see the Mayor's point of view, even though I'm not interested in Madge in that way. "She's a friend. Nothing more."

He fixes me with a stern look that I'll have to remember for my Posy boyfriend intimidation later. "And how can I be sure you're not lying?"

It's a fair question and while it rankles being interrogated like this by a merchant, I tolerate it for Madge's sake. "You can't," I answer honestly, "but you should trust your daughter, sir. You raised her. You should know if she's telling the truth or not."

He laughs. "You don't know my girl all that well, do you?"

"Not really," I reply. "She was always more Katniss's friend. This whole having a merchant friend is new to me."

"Does that bother you, Gale?"

I shouldn't be surprised that he knows my name. But I am. "It did at first," I admit. "But Madge has got a way about her."

"That she does. She's like her Aunt Maysilee that way."

I don't know who this Maysilee is so I keep my mouth shut.

The mayor changes the subject. "So what are you planning on doing now that you've celebrated your last Reaping?" he asks me.

I give him a bit of an incredulous glance, what does he think I'm going to do? There's pretty much only one career path open for me. The mines. And I tell him so. "I'm going to sign up to go into the mines, sir. In fact, I'm going to go do that later today."

A flash of some emotion flits across the Mayor's face. "Have you considered not going into the mines?" he asks.

A spark of anger starts to ignite in my belly. Of course I've considered not going into the mines. I'd love to run away into the woods and just live out there. But I've got a family to provide for and I refuse to have Rory, Vick, or Posy take out tesserae to survive. I don't have any choice but to go into the mines. I want to tell the Mayor this, but something has me holding my tongue. Instead, I ask, "And do what, sir? I need to make a living to support my family."

"Of course you do," he says, "but there are other options than the mines."

I try not to let my frustration show in my voice, but I'm not totally successful. "Like what?"

He seems ready for the question. "You could work in town."

"Doing what?" I ask, unable to keep the suspicion out of my voice.

The Mayor ignores it. "You could work for me." I start to protest but he holds up a hand. "It's not charity. I need a new assistant. I typically have three but one just retired so I'm short one. I think you'd do a good job."

"Excuse me if this is impertinent, but why me?" I ask. "Because it sure as hell seems like charity to me."

The Mayor laughs and motions for me to take a seat at the kitchen counter. "It's really quite simple, most of my staff in the past have been from the town."

I refuse to sit down and instead cross my arms. "So? You're not telling me anything I don't already know."

"See? That attitude?" He motions to me with his hands. "That's part of the problem."

I know I've got an attitude, Katniss and Madge have pointed that out enough. "What do you mean?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.

"We're one district, but we're divided into two parts. Seam and Merchant. It's not right. And we really should do something about it."

It's not what I was expecting. "And what should we be doing?"

"See, that's the problem. I don't know." He sits down at the counter and looks at me. "I admit it, I haven't really been paying attention to over half of my charges and that's my failing. There are just some things they don't tell you when you become Mayor, how to deal with a divided district is one of them."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Yes, you do," he tells me. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. This district is divided Seam and Merchant. It's rare for someone from the Seam to be friendly with someone from town and vice versa. We don't talk. We don't work together. And that's not right. I want to do something about it."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Something." He fixes me with an earnest look that reminds me of Madge. "That's why I need your help."

"Doing what?" I want to know.

"Not much at first. I'll need to show you the ropes and get you familiar with the paperwork and job duties. But once that's done, I want you to act as an ambassador to the Seam and tell me about the people's problems. There's not a lot I can do, but I want to do what I can."

His words are so earnest, I find myself believing him. "So how much does this so-called-job pay?" I'd like to not work in the mines, but I've got a family to support.

The Mayor seems to understand that because he says, "It'd be about eighty coin a month to start. I know you could make more in the mines, but you'd only be working a half day for a few months and only five days a week."

"Why?" He's right, I could make one hundred coin a month if I worked in the mines but they're twelve hour days, six days a week, in dark and dangerous conditions. Eighty coin for a half a day is still better than what I'd make hunting and gathering. But it seems almost too good to be true and I've learned to distrust things that seem too good.

Nodding his head at my question, the Mayor answers, "First off, the Capitol doesn't work on Saturday or Sunday unless there's an emergency. You'll be on call all the time, but it's not normal hours. Secondly, I'm expecting you to continue your education. You're going to need to learn about the laws and forms and politics of Panem. And you're going to need to do that on your own time. Some of the books and papers can't go outside of the Justice Building or my office here, so you'll be spending a lot of time not at home. But before you say no, there is a benefit for you." He gives me a look that reminds me of Madge. "And for Katniss," he adds as if I knew what he was talking about.

I don't and I say so. "What benefit?"

"When you register for the mines, they take a genetic sample to identify you if something were to happen."

Like if I were killed in an explosion like my father was. "So?"

"That paperwork and result gets sent to the Capitol for safekeeping and is flagged up for review." He gives me another pointed glance.

I'm still not getting it.

It must show on my face because the man sighs. "They did tests on the baby, Gale. That's how they know it is a girl. They know other things too."

And then it hits me. They know that Peeta isn't the father of Katniss's baby but they don't know I am. Yet. "They'll know the truth soon enough," I say.

"But not too soon. It may not matter in the long run. But, better safe than sorry," he says with a shrug.

It's strange to think that in his way, the Mayor is protecting me. I don't know what the Capitol would do if they found out I was the father of Katniss's child. They might kill me to keep up the fiction and a mine accident is easy to stage. They might hold my existence over Katniss as a way to make her cooperate. It's likely they already have. The Mayor's offer protects me in much the same way that Madge's discussion with the Peacekeeper protected me. It still feels like charity and I say so.

"It's not charity. It's really not. You're my daughter's friend. One of the few she has. That matters to me."

"So Madge put you up to this," I state flatly.

"No," he corrects me firmly. "It's my decision. Madge didn't suggest anything."

"Pardon me for saying so, sir, but you're lying."

He smirks. "And you wonder why I want you to be my assistant. I need someone who can see through the bullshit that I get on a daily basis and see the meat of what's actually going on. Consider it a way to say 'screw you' to the Capitol. It's a lot more satisfying than slipping under the fence for a few hours."

The fact that he knows about my daily excursions beyond the fence shouldn't surprise me but it does. I still know better than to acknowledge his words though. "So when do you want me to start?" I ask instead.

If anything his smirk widens. "How does tomorrow sound?"

oOo

AN:

Written: 1/14/14
Revised: 1/21/14
Beta read by Rosefyre

So... I bet you didn't see that coming now did you!

Thanks for reading!