It takes me a really long time to fall asleep that night. Knowing that I have to go into a possible war zone the next morning makes me nervous. With my luck, I'm going to get shot or something. It's not like I'm going to get shot, but that would happen to me.
Madge shifts in her sleep, moving closer to me. My arms instinctively tighten around her, pulling her petite body towards me. Pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, she wakes.
"Are you still up?" She murmurs, sleep evident in her voice.
"Can't sleep." I grunt, and she yawns. "Go back to sleep, Madge." She snuggles closer to me, burying her face into my chest, pulling the covers closer around her. "Are you cold?"
She shrugs a little. "You're just really warm." I chuckle and she fades off to sleep again. Eventually, I do too.
"Gale?" Madge asks me timidly, two days after Katniss and Mellark have left for the Quell. I must say that I've been in a pretty bad mood since, to everyone other than Madge, really.
"Yeah?"
"Can.. Can you meet my mom?" I turn to look at her and she looks down, avoiding my eyes, like she's embarrassed.
"Of course I'll meet her." She looks back up, and I give her a smile. "Just, I'm wondering why you want me to meet your mom when your dad doesn't want me anywhere near you."
"My dad won't be home, Gale. I want you to meet her." She mumbles, and I nod, pressing a soft kiss onto her lips.
"I'll meet her. As long as your dad is not home."
"He won't be. Trust me." She murmurs, lacing her fingers through mine and leading me from next to the bakery to her house. Once inside, she immediately leads me up the stairs, leaving me no time to admire the decor. Not that I'd actually look at it, really, she doesn't mind where I live, so I shouldn't mind where she lives.
Upstairs, she stops outside of a room and tells me to wait. I lean lazily against the door frame, waiting for her to come back out. It's a couple of minutes before she does, and when she does, she gives me small smile.
"She just woke up, so.."
"So don't be loud?" I offer and she bites her lip and nods.
"Trust me. I got it." I murmur, brushing a piece of her hair behind her ear and kissing her forehead. She takes my hand again, leading me into the room. What I expected was a frail, old woman. What I was not expecting was an alert woman who looks exactly like Madge. Literally, even down to the way her eyes crinkle when she smiles, it's the same.
I stand a little behind Madge as she talks. "Mom, this is.."
"You must be Gale." Mrs. Undersee says clearly, blue eyes the exact shade of Madge's peering into mine. "Madge talks very fondly of you." Without even looking down at Madge, I know that she's blushing. "Well, c'mon boy, I don't bite." Yup. This is Madge's mom.
I walk around Madge to shake her mothers hand. She has a firm grip, something I didn't expect from a woman who drowns herself in morphling all year. "Gale Hawthorne, Mrs. Undersee."
"I know. I've heard a lot about you." I make a glance at Madge to find her face beet red. Smirking slightly at her, I turn back to Mrs. Undersee.
"Have you? I didn't realize that I was a topic here."
"Gale!" Madge groans, rubbing her face and both me and Mrs. Undersee laugh, while Madge groans some more.
"Honestly, you people are out to get me." She huffs and I grin at her.
"Madge, dear, would you go get me a glass of water?" Madge, who's face is still red, stands and nods, going down to the kitchen.
Mrs. Undersee stares at me for a moment before she speaks. "You work, don't you?"
"Yes, ma'am, in the mines every day."
"Not today," she notes, raising her eyebrows, "Are you skipping?"
"No, ma'am, today's Sunday. We don't have work on Sunday's."
"So I assume that is why Madge is never home on Saturday nights, or Sunday's?"
"Um," I pause, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly, "I guess?"
Mrs. Undersee laughs, a sound exactly like Madge's, and she changes the subject. "Madge does talk a lot about you, you know."
"Does she now?"
"Yes. Every time I'm awake, she'll come in and talk to me about you."
"Oh." I pause, to rub my neck again. "She really is something else." I murmur, mostly to myself, but Mrs. Undersee hears me.
"Yes, she is. And I swear to God, if you hurt her, I will personally come to your house, no matter what shape I'm in, or what time it is, and I will whip your ass."
I let out a shaky laugh. "I can promise you, ma'am, I will not be hurting her anytime soon. Hurting her is the last thing that I want to do."
Mrs. Undersee stares for a moment, and then smiles at me, God she's exactly like Madge! "You're a good man. You'll protect her, correct?"
I nod quickly. "I'm going to protect her with my life, ma'am."
I have to protect her, I made her mother a vow that I would. And now that her mother is most likely dead, I have to fulfil it.
The next morning, before I leave, I shake Madge awake gently. She groans and tries to roll on her side.
"I'm so sore. I can't even move." She grumbles, and I slowly sit her up, despite her protests and wrap her in a tight hug.
"It'll get better," I murmur, rubbing circles on her back to ease the tension. "I have to leave soon." Her arms tighten around me at these words.
"I don't want you to go," she starts, climbing into my lap and tucking her feet under her yawning, "but you have too." I nod, and she sighs, linking her hands around my neck.
"I'll be back in a week, you know," I make out before pressing my lips onto hers quickly. She slowly rubs the sleep out of her eyes, yawning again, going to crack her back.
"Too long. Who's going to get me up in the morning?" I laugh against her lips and I feel her smile.
"Guess I'll have to set Posy on that job. Get her to," Kiss, "jump on you," Kiss, "every morning." She smiles sleepily again, tightening her grip around me. Her head finally falls against my chest and I kiss the top of her head slowly, before resting my chin on her head. "I love you. Just in case something happens."
"Don't even go there, Gale." She mumbles quickly, "nothing is going to happen. But I love you." I just sit there, holding her for a little until the time comes that I have to leave. I give her another kiss, and then grab the bag I was assigned to bring before changing into the military uniform I was also assigned.
I give Madge a small wave before heading out of the room. In the living room, I find Vick and Posy already up. They're the two early risers in the family. I give them both hugs and then bend down to Posy.
"Can you do something for me?" She nods enthusiastically and I grin. "Make sure you jump on Madge every morning to get her up." She giggles and then nods again. "That's my girl."
Vick wraps his wiry arms around me quickly. "Ma up?" He nods, and I go into her room.
"Ma?" I pause and she smiles at me from her place sitting on the bed. "I have to go now."
She stands and hurries over to me. "My little boy. Going off to fight."
"Ma, I'm not going to fight. I do not know what we're doing there." That's a lie, I know we're going to blow something up. Don't know what, but I guess that's why I'm going on this trip. To blow stuff up. The thought makes me cringe inwardly.
"Still. You'll always be my little boy."
"Ma, I'm not dying." She gives me a pointed look and I grin. "Love you. I have to go now. Tell Rory I said I love him." I call over my shoulder and hurry out the door. On the way down to the hovercraft station, I end up in the same hovercraft as Katniss.
It's silent for a minute. "So what are we actually going to do?"
"Blow something up." I grunt, fiddling with a string on my uniform to keep myself occupied. Boggs hands me a communicator to put in my ear in case everyone gets separated.
"So, our mission today," Boggs starts, "is to destroy District 2's Center of Operations, or the Nut. We will either destroy is from the inside out, and force all of the workers out to the town square, or blow up the outside of it, and force them out."
Instantly, my mind is all over the place. I'm sure that everyone can practically see the gears turning in my head. The easiest way would be to block all of the entrances but one, forcing them all out there. Then, having them make their way to the square where we'll be situated.
I voice my thoughts and Boggs nods. "And then, in the Town Square, our Mockingjay will give a speech trying to get them on our side." Katniss looks a little alarmed that she has to make a speech, so I'm assuming that she had no idea about it until now. But she nods anyways.
When the hovercraft lands, we're met by Lyme, a past Victor of the Hunger Games. They won a past HUnger Games, though I don't know which Games it is. Boggs has me tell her what I thought of and she nods slowly, before turning to the Nut, or what I think is the nut.
"I say we blow up all entrances but the train station one, so that all of the people inside will be forced to go out that way, unto the town square. Sound good?"
Most of us nod, and then go to set everything up.
Finally, on the sixth day we're in District 2, everything is set. The bombs are up, and the dentator is in my hand right now. When I'm told to press the button, I do. And immediately, my head hurts as the smoke and echoing of the miners yelling and screaming reaches me. My hands grip onto the railing that I'm standing by and I squeeze my eyes shut. I know what it's like to be in a collapse. I know how it feels, and they are now experiencing it first hand.
People won't make it out of there alive. It's like a repeat in history for me. It's like I'm in the mines again, being crushed under tons of rock. It's like I'm thirteen again, waiting for a dad who won't come out. Waiting.
I glance over at Katniss and find that she has gone pale too. She's remembering. When her eyes meet mine, it's like the day we met in the woods, the first time we met in the woods. Distrustful, scared, unknowing. It's like nothing has changed. I can read her thoughts, she can read mine.
A/N: So life's just been crazy. I've been busy with school, track season is coming around and life has just gotten complicated. So I'm sorry if the updates for any of my stories are a little slow!