Chapter 13: Out of the Woods
Madge is surprised at the urge to run because her legs feel like bricks, but as soon as the little village comes into view at the base of the valley running is all she can think about doing. Food. Telephones. Toilets!
Gale puts his hand on her arm, as if sensing her imminent race, and scans the road leading from the valley to their current location. "Careful. They might be expecting us here."
"What can they do? It's a busy Saturday afternoon." Gale being famous works in their favor now; nobody would try anything with so many witnesses. And she really, really wants to get back to her aunt and uncle's house to take a shower and change into clothes that aren't… disgusting.
Gale keeps glancing around suspiciously as they descend the rocky slope, and finally approves of approaching a small food market on the outskirts of the village to ask if they can use a phone. From the shopkeeper's surprised expression as he points them to the phone on the front counter, Madge suspects Gale's fame is helping them with this task, too. They tie Zipper outside and then debate who to call first, finally deciding on Simon since the sensitive nature of the theft of Madge's phone and notes trumps damage to military property.
"Madge?" Simon answers after the first ring, and she can hear the mingled anxiety and relief in his tone. "Where are you? We've been trying to find you all day. Are you with Gale? Are you all right?"
"We're fine, we're in Ponderosa Village in District 2. We went hiking yesterday but the car battery was stolen and we had to walk all the way back."
"That's all? I thought you were in trouble when you kept calling this morning and not answering when I'd call back. Your aunt and uncle and I have been worried, Madge," he scolds. "I even sent Rogers and Amos to Gale's apartment to break up your little love nest because he wasn't picking up and his answering device isn't accepting new messages."
Embarrassing: her aunt and uncle and Simon and her coworkers all assumed she and Gale had locked themselves in his apartment and were ignoring the outside world. While the idea does have appeal, she would never be that inconsiderate. She glances at Gale, who's standing close enough to her that he might be able to hear Simon speaking. She hopes he missed the love nest comment.
"Simon," Madge says firmly, hoping to leave those assumptions behind. "My phone was stolen."
He goes quiet and she knows he's trying to calculate what information might have been compromised. Her phone only stored the numbers for him and the team members she travels with, but that's still several phones he's going to have to deactivate immediately.
"Why don't you—carefully—explain what happened," he says. Code for 'don't disclose anything confidential' because this isn't a secure line. Madge glances at the shopkeeper, who's busy reorganizing a display of canned goods but is obviously listening. And Gale definitely is, watching her with rapt eyes.
Madge describes their hike from the construction area and how when they returned at dusk, the car battery "and the phone and other things" were missing so they had to spend the night on the mountain and hike to the nearest village.
"What 'other things,' Madge?"
She hears the warning note in his voice and winces. "Remember when we were in District 7? The thing I couldn't find because you'd taken it?" Her notebook of theories, which Simon had picked up to prove a point about her carelessness because she'd left it unprotected in their makeshift office one night. She can tell he remembers because a weary exhale echoes in her ears.
"You'll have to call me back," he directs and then promptly moves on. "Any threats at the moment?"
"Not that I know of." Nobody followed them into the store, although obviously people noticed Gale walking through town. "Gale's anxious to call his commanding officer about the damage to the jeep."
"I'll call, it's a joint jurisdiction issue now. I assume Prince Charming is standing next to you, listening and glaring? Put him on."
Madge passes the phone to Gale, who was indeed mid-glare. Gale gives Simon his commanding officer's name and contact information and describes where the car is and where they are now.
"I need to know what's going on," Gale says firmly. His glare grows more fierce as he listens and he finally says "fine" before shoving the phone back into Madge's hands.
"The army will send a car to pick you two up and take you to your family's home," Simon tells her briskly. "Call me when you get there. I'm sending a team to help Gale's buddies retrieve and inspect the vehicle. Stay alert."
"We will," Madge agrees meekly before hanging up. The trouble she's caused is starting to sink in… Simon is going to have to cancel the phones, coordinate with the army about the jeep, dispatch a team to make sure no bugs or other traps were left in the vehicle, call her aunt and uncle… And Gale probably won't like hearing that her coworkers broke into his apartment.
Gale looks frustrated. "He wouldn't tell me—"
Madge presses her finger to his lips. "Let's wait outside. I'll pick out some food and meet you where we tied up Zipper."
Scowling, Gale exits while Madge starts shopping for liquids and food that isn't shriveled or dehydrated. Maybe she can't hunt for meals, but she's good at buying things. She finds Gale outside on the porch, sitting on the single step and feeding Zipper pieces of jerky. Joining him, she passes over a bright blue drink, which he uncaps and sniffs skeptically.
"It has vitamins and minerals," she explains. It's a delicious, sugary concoction Simon introduced her to when they moved to the Capitol.
Gale takes a sip of the blue drink and promptly spits it out onto the dusty road. "What the hell—"
Madge sighs, pulls the bottle out of his hands, and passes him a fresh sandwich instead. He'd deny being picky, but he'd probably also deny that the health drink qualifies as food.
While he's busy unwrapping the sandwich, Madge says quietly, "That phone line wasn't secure and we don't know who might be listening or watching us. What did Simon tell you when you asked for the whole story?"
"He gave me some crap about calling from your aunt and uncle's house, paperwork, blah blah. You said he'd authorize telling me," he accuses.
Madge smiles. "The phone at their house is secure, and you already took the oath and signed the confidentiality paperwork—remember? That was his way of signaling that he couldn't tell you yes just yet. He'll have to describe the parameters."
"He'd better," Gale threatens. But she can hear the cautious optimism in his voice.
"Gale, I should tell you something else…" He freezes and stares at her, waiting for her to continue. "Simon put me on involuntarily leave," she confesses. "I'm not taking time off because I wanted to."
Gale immediately launches into suspicious mode. "Because you were investigating his scummy brother's scummy quarry?"
"You didn't think anything was wrong with the quarry," she reminds him.
"Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. But Simon shouldn't be influencing investigations involving his family."
Madge kicks a pebble, annoyed at having to defend Simon on this. But she doesn't like Gale always assuming the worst about him.
"I thought he sent me away because he didn't like that I wouldn't let go of the investigation into the quarry," she says. "But he might have been worried about me." She scrunches her nose, not wanting to admit this to herself much less to Gale, but at the same time wanting to tell him the things she can tell him about. "I started taking a lot of… medications after I visited District 12. To help me sleep, to help me wake up… He said they were interfering with my work."
"Were they?"
Madge focuses on Zipper's rib cage moving in and out as he breathes, sleeping by Gale's feet. "Maybe," she says evasively. If being late, not being able to concentrate, and snapping at everyone count as interfering with work. Which they do… She could have run into real trouble if she'd had to go undercover or visit any of the districts when she was like that rather than working in the main office. Now that she's gotten all the chemicals out of her system, she can admit that she's thinking more clearly. Aside from the fact that she's dangerously fatigued at the moment.
"If he overreacted, I understand why," she says. "His mom also had problems with morphling. And he was with me when we found my mom, which may have triggered a reaction…"
Gale has stopped eating his sandwich and is watching her closely. "Are you… all right now?"
She nods. After a few bad days, she got to the point of being able to sleep at night at Dusty and Perri's house, and once she didn't need the pills to sleep she didn't need the other pills to help her wake up. Or the other, other pills to balance out her moods…
Gale reaches for her hand and squeezes it. Madge smiles at him, grateful for the gesture of support. Eventually he'll probably have to acknowledge at least appreciating Simon, but maybe for Gale that means refraining from a nasty comment.
"Lieutenant Hawthorne?"
The shadow from a looming figure lands on them and Gale pulls his hand back. A red-haired young woman about their age is looking down at them with a questioning expression, and out of the corner of her eye Madge notices Gale glaring.
"Is something wrong here in the village?" the woman asks while opening a massive purple polka dot handbag and pawing through it. "Can I get an exclusive?"
She pulls out a small recording device—Madge has a few of those herself, though people don't usually know when she's using them—and pushes it toward Gale's face.
He shoves it away. "There's no story here."
The reporter looks momentarily disappointed until her eyes drift to Madge, who immediately wants to hide behind Gale. Both to maintain her low profile and because of her no doubt horrifying appearance. The snarls in her hair! The dirt covering every inch of exposed skin! Her filthy clothes! The reporter reaches for a camera while eyeing Madge hungrily.
Gale leans backward, gazing cooly at the reporter. "Darcy Scott, Free Press," he says in a level tone, drawing the reporter's attention, apparently surprised that he knows her name and newspaper. Unlike Madge, Gale seems to gain confidence from being dirty and tired and unkempt.
He waits a few more seconds until he's sure he has the reporter's entire focus and then continues. "Third row, you usually sit on the aisle so you can make a quick exit. Good strategy." Turning to Madge, he says casually, "She's one of the better ones. I was considering moving her up to the front row so her paper could raise its profile." He looks back at the reporter and adds, "Since it's one of the few that actually makes a distinction between news and gossip. I'd hate to see those standards lowered."
The reporter stares blankly at Gale for a few seconds before smirking and pushing her camera and recording device back into her purse. "Glad to hear it's just another peaceful day in the village. Enjoy the evening."
Gale nods as the reporter walks inside the store, and Madge leans over to quickly kiss his cheek, the bristles tingling on her lips.
"Thank you." She beams at how he not only deterred the reporter but didn't cause a scene. In fact, she hasn't noticed any tabloid programs airing footage recently of him yelling at reporters or breaking cameras—he must finally be learning how to deal with all the unwanted attention.
He seems startled at the kiss and then smiles slyly back at her. "I'm training them. They're like Zipper."
She laughs at the mental image of reporters trying to catch bees in their jaws or barking impatiently when someone doesn't throw a stick promptly enough. They do respond eagerly to the sight of Gale, though, so maybe the comparison works.
#
They reach Madge's aunt and uncle's house less than an hour later, having been delivered by a black van with military plates and three uniformed soldiers as escorts. Madge had nodded off almost as soon as she buckled her seatbelt, lulled to sleep by fatigue, the hum of the engine, and the murmur of Gale and the other soldiers talking about what he and Madge had been through.
She wakes up when the van stops outside Dusty and Perri's house, immediately sitting upright from where she'd been leaning on Gale. He removes his arm from around her shoulder and opens the car door, grinning. "Home."
She's so eager to get out she crawls over him and flies toward the house, Zipper close behind her.
Perri is opening the front door and catches Madge in a tight hug. "You're all right? Your friend Simon said you had to hike over 20 miles since last night."
"We're fine," Madge says, relaxing at the familiar smell of Perri's soap. "Gale had emergency gear and got us to the village."
"I didn't realize that construction zone was so crime-ridden," Dusty says as he hugs Madge with the arm that isn't holding a squirming, whimpering-with-joy Zipper.
"It's lawless in a lot of ways," Gale says, joining them as he sets their backpacks near the front door. Madge can see him watching Zipper in Dusty's arms disapprovingly and realizes Zipper probably got there via his jumping antics that Gale's been trying to cure.
"I'll coordinate with the guard forces to see that security teams patrol that area now," Dusty offers.
Gale nods. "Good idea. There are so many groups prospecting out there, I wouldn't be surprised if they're starting to fight with each other before they even get a chance to make their claims. Madge and I might have stumbled onto a turf war."
Perri releases Madge and moves to shut the front door, sighing and shaking her head in disgust. "This is what happened before. Before the Dark Days. Not that anyone would know, since the Capitol ensured nothing useful was taught in the schools."
Madge can agree with that, familiar with this particular rant.
"Fighting over land and resources nearly destroyed us before," Perri explains, apparently for Gale's benefit. "Panem was organized around the idea of eliminating those conflicts through central control and dividing the districts according to specialty. Consolidating power and wealth in the Capitol, of course. Though we saw how well that turned out."
Madge recognizes the frustrated expression on Gale's face, and Perri must be able to read his moods now too because she adds, "Getting your land distribution proposal out sooner rather than later would be helpful, Gale. Eliminate some of this uncertainty people are trying to take advantage of."
He gives a tight nod and Perri doesn't say anything else on the topic, instead offering to heat up a chicken casserole for them. It sounds warm and nourishing and perfect. Madge is looking longingly down the hallway toward the bathroom—she's mere meters away from a hot shower!—when Gale turns to her.
"Let's call Simon now."
Calling Simon probably is more important than a shower at the moment, although not by much. She leads Gale to the spare bedroom where she stays when she visits. It's practically as empty as her apartment in the Capitol, but it does have a phone.
Simon answers quickly. "Hold on." Clicking sounds indicate she's been put on hold, cutting off the muffled sound of varied voices in the background. A few seconds later Simon's voice returns without any ambient noise. "Sorry, had to switch rooms."
"Who's visiting?"
"What?"
"Who is at your house?"
"My brother, a few friends. They stopped by but they're in the other room; this line is secure. Talk, Madge. What weren't you telling me before?"
"So your brother's visiting right now?" Madge repeats for Gale's benefit, biting her lip anxiously as she looks at him and debating how much she should tell Simon. And since when does he have friends other than her? "Your brother still doesn't know what you and I do, does he?"
"I haven't told him if that's what you're suggesting," Simon says icily.
Not quite, though she wouldn't be surprised if his brother figured it out, since he was already suspicious. What if Gale isn't the one who had been recognized at the quarry or the staging area? The thief also called Simon repeatedly from her phone, which he no doubt answered with comments like 'Madge, stop screwing around' and 'What is your problem, Madge?' before figuring out something was off. And Simon's brother knows her name and obviously knows Simon's voice…
"What exactly was stolen, Madge?" Simon prompts. "You weren't supposed to be working."
"I had been making some notes for myself," she admits. "Trying to fit it all together in my head based on what I remembered." She explains to him about the trailer that had vanished and how two people turned up to verify its disappearance. "Gale might recognize the people again, and it was his car that was vandalized. I think we need to bring him in on this, Simon, at least for limited disclosures."
Simon asks to speak to Gale again, and Madge watches anxiously as Gale listens in stony silence punctuated only by occasional utterances of "yes" and "of course" (usually in an offended tone). But when he hands the phone back to her, he's wearing a satisfied smile—Simon must have authorized the disclosures.
"Well, you got your way once again, Madgelet," Simon tells her. "You and your war hero can theorize to your heart's content. Assuming you're not too distracted with whatever else you guys do together. But I want both of you in the office as soon as possible tomorrow. Gale can be back in District 2 by Monday. And stay out of trouble."
Madge hangs up the phone and turns toward Gale. His smile is infectious: she throws her arms around him and lets him lift her off the ground into a hug. Being allowed to tell him what she's been working on feels like a victory she didn't know she'd been fighting for.
"We have to go to the Capitol to meet with Simon," she says when he sets her on the ground again.
"Tonight?" Gale squints at her and rubs his eyes. "You need to rest. I do, too."
He hasn't even dozed since they started their trip and his bloodshot eyes look like they're being pulled downward by the drooping skin underneath. She's not up for the train ride to the Capitol, either.
"We'll stay in District 2 tonight," she says, deciding on a course of action. Turning to her dresser, she starts transferring its contents to her suitcase. "We can walk over to the train station from your house tomorrow morning and catch the first train."
"You aren't staying… here tonight?"
It hadn't even occurred to her, but Gale sounds surprised. "Is that all right?" she asks. True, it was rude to invite herself over to his house, but she assumed he wouldn't mind. "If someone is targeting us, I don't want to endanger Dusty and Perri by staying here, and I don't want you to be alone, either." As exhausted as she is, if she stayed here tonight she would be so uneasy about Gale being by himself that she knows she would wake up constantly and have to call to check on him, which would mean neither of them getting much sleep. So really, it's safer and healthier if they stay together tonight.
Gale nods slowly. "Of course it's all right. I asked the squad stationed in the village to keep an eye on the house tonight, but you're right that we're the likely targets. If we were at my house, it would be safer for your aunt and uncle."
He sounds like he's rationalizing as desperately as she is and frowns slightly as he glances at the doorway. Lowering his voice he asks, "They won't mind?"
Madge blinks innocently at him. "How could they mind? It's the safest course of action." Gale stares at her like she's an idiot for a few seconds until she lets him off the hook with a smile to show that she does understand his concern. "I can do what I want." She shrugs. "It's what they thought last night anyway. And I'm sure you have a couch or an extra sleeping bag I could use, right?"
"I do," he says, raising his eyebrows. "You can sleep wherever you want."
She feels her face warm at the implication and can only hope that all the dirt is camouflaging her blush. "OK then," she says, pushing past him and practically running into the bathroom for her reunion with hot water.
#
They wave good-bye to Dusty and Perri after being dropped off in the parking lot of Gale's apartment complex, Zipper's tortured yips fading as the car recedes from view.
"He'll be OK," Madge says sympathetically, putting her hand on Gale's arm.
"He needs discipline," Gale grouses. "How can Perri be such a hard-ass about everything except Zipper? Did you see her sneaking him scraps at dinner?"
"I think she's mellowing," Madge murmurs as she starts her scan of the darkened parking lot for suspicious figures. Gale should be grateful Perri is mellowing out; she didn't do much more than frown in judgmental disapproval when they explained why safety required that they be dropped off at Gale's house before catching the train to the Capitol. Madge had purposefully been vague about whether they were catching the last train tonight or the first train tomorrow morning, and Gale had insisted he needed to check on any damage Madge's coworkers had inflicted on his apartment when they broke in.
After a few seconds she senses Gale also turning his attention to assessing possible threats in the parking lot. Madge feels much more competent here than she did in the forest: scanning urban settings for surveillance tech and overly casual loiterers is much more her scene than avoiding becoming breakfast for a bear.
"Looks clear," she says quietly. Gale agrees and leads her up the stairs to the second floor. She doesn't spot anything out of the ordinary until they pass a door cracked open just enough for someone inside to monitor all comings and goings. She squeezes Gale's hand and nods toward the door, which he's already noticed.
"Just my asshole neighbor," he says loudly. "Ignore him."
Too late. The door swings open and a slovenly man leers at them, triggering Madge to instinctively recoil. "Blonde, huh, Hawthorne? I thought you liked brunettes—"
In a single fluid motion, Gale kicks the door with all his body weight. The door shuts seconds before Gale's foot makes contact, though, so he kicks it one more time in retaliation and pounds a fist on it for good measure. Madge notices a series of similar scuff marks on the paint; this has clearly happened before.
"Sometimes he's hard to ignore," Gale explains as he stands in front of the next door over, squinting suspiciously at it. Madge recognizes the number as Gale's address and does her own inspection but doesn't find anything alarming.
Gale opens the door, tosses his backpack on the floor, pulls out his gun, and walks down the hallway into the rest of the apartment. While he's checking for intruders, Madge studies the living room and kitchen. A small table and a cluttered island dominate the kitchen side of the apartment's front area, and maps are tacked up all over the walls.
She starts digging under the piles of unopened mail on the island in search of the phone; apparently Gale ignores all communication forms equally. Honestly, she's going to have to do something about this. Finally she finds the phone and dismantles the receiver, confirming that it's not tapped. Good sign. Less impressive: the red blinking '30' on the answering device, apparently the limit for recording new messages. She's going to have to do something about that, too.
Gale reappears and stows his gun on the nearly empty shelves in the living room. "Nobody hiding in the closets or bathtub."
"Good," she says distractedly, moving deeper into the kitchen and running her hands under the cupboards to check for wires, transmitters, and microphones. "It's too bad you don't get along with your neighbor—he could have told us if anyone suspicious was hanging around."
"Worth the risk," Gale mutters. "I hate that guy." He doesn't seem to know what to make of Madge pulling a chair toward the refrigerator so she can stand on it and look at the upper cupboards. "Are you spying on me now?"
"I'm making sure no one planted anything here," she corrects. "It would be easy to figure out where you live and the equipment is all over the black market in District 3. And the lock on your door is a joke."
She moves to hop off the chair, only to find Gale standing below her. For once, she's taller than him and she can't resist pushing her hands through his hair from this new angle. His locks feel thick with trail grime but he doesn't seem to mind, focused instead on Madge.
"You could spy on me," he says as he slips his arms around her and lifts her off the chair. She slides along his body until her feet hit the floor again. "I'm not hiding anything from you."
No, he doesn't seem to be. Specifically, he's not hiding that he's thinking about kissing her. The expression in his eyes is almost too intense and Madge is grateful he's still holding her upright. He waits only for her tug on his shirt—pulling him toward her—as an invitation. She's thought a lot about this moment, and in her daydreams, this kiss was always slow and gentle. In reality, it only starts out that way—they both seem to be in a hurry, as though determined to get as much as they can of each other while they can. Within seconds Madge feels like she traveled backward in time to those urgent, heated moments right before Perri had walked in on them in the kitchen after she'd shocked Gale by suddenly reappearing in his life. That was before things had gotten complicated, when they could simply react to the gift of being within kissing distance…
Madge hears the sound of paper crinkling and realizes Gale maneuvered her against the kitchen wall where all his maps are taped up. He doesn't seem to mind his maps getting wrinkled, though, and Madge can't bring herself to care either. Somehow they slide together down the wall, and right as Madge feels herself sitting on the floor, a cascade of paper showers over her.
The maps. Folding and twisting in the air, burying them. Gale swears loudly and bats the papers away, which only leaves him even more tangled in them. A large one lands on his head and drapes over his shoulders like a freakish hat, triggering Madge to start laughing. He peers out from under it with a hostile expression that slowly morphs into a smile as he pushes the map off his head.
"I didn't realize they were so connected like that," he says, glancing up at the now-empty wall.
Madge pushes papers out of her way so she can crawl over to him. "You need to shave," she says, moving her hand along his cheek. As nice as those bristles are to look at, they left her skin slightly raw.
He rubs his jaw. "I was on my way to take a shower. Guess I got distracted." Grinning, he leans in toward Madge again, but she puts an arm out to push him back.
"I need to finish checking your house. Go take your shower, and can you get me a blanket or a sleeping bag so I can sleep on the couch?"
Gale looks like she suggested surviving on nothing but that blue health drink he spat out earlier. "The couch? But you were just—"
"We still have a lot to talk about," she says, standing up so she won't be as tempted by him. "But for right now we need to sleep."
He stands up, too, glowering at Madge and almost starting to speak but then cutting himself off, which confirms that he agrees. Finally he resorts to his Gale default setting of being semi-angry.
"You're not sleeping on that couch," he decrees, pointing at the couch like it's responsible for his bad mood. "It's lumpy. You take the bed, I'll take the couch." Then he spins and storms down the hallway toward the bathroom.
Unconcerned with his reaction—Gale being bossy and grouchy is normal, Madge continues her inspection but doesn't find anything suspicious in the living room or kitchen. The sound of the shower running starts by the time she reaches his bedroom doorway, where she observes that he doesn't even have a normal bed, just a mattress! And he keeps his clothes in piles in the floor rather than in the perfectly functional dresser!
Curious what he uses the dresser for if not clothing, she opens the top drawer. It holds two items: a picture of her from a few years ago—it must be the picture he stole from her grandparents' house—and that necklace he made of their cemetery shed key. Was this his attempt to forget about her? Shove any memories away in an unused drawer? Well, she's not hiding in a drawer anymore. She walks the photograph out to the kitchen and attaches it to the refrigerator with a magnet. That's what her parents did at home with pictures of her; Gale can carry on the tradition. As for the necklace… She loops it around her own neck.
The other drawers are empty, and she doesn't find any signs of surveillance technology. She does notice a spare blanket folded on the mattress, though, and picks it up to take with her to the couch. She wants a pillow, too, and scoots up the mattress to grab the extra one. It smells like Gale and his bed is so comfortable… Maybe she'll just rest here until he gets out of the shower…
#
Hot water available with the flick of his wrist is definitely a positive aspect of winning the war. But the heat and steam wash away the layers of dirt that have been propping his eyes open, and the need for sleep becomes overwhelming, eclipsing even his need for certain blonde minxes. Madge was right—they need to talk—but she makes talking a poor second choice activity when she smiles at him, or looks at him, or basically just breathes near him because the fact that she does that—breathes—means she's not dead, like he thought for so long.
He pauses when he walks into his bedroom, eyes drawn to a Madge-shaped lump on top of the covers on his mattress. His bed and Madge are two things he wants most in the world right now, and the combination is perfection. She must have realized he was right about that shitty couch because she's curled up on the side where he usually sleeps, clutching his pillow the way Posy used to hold Mr. Bunny.
He sits down next to her and says quietly, "Madge?"
She shifts slightly and reaches for him, the way she did last night on the mountain when wind gusts or howling coyotes would wake her up, her eyes closed and her hand grasping air until it connected with him. This time her hand lands on his shoulder and she pulls him toward her.
"I-don't-want-to-sleep-alone," she mumbles with her eyes still closed.
He doesn't either, and decides this counts as her changing her mind about the couch. Scooting onto the bed, he pulls her into an embrace at the same time she curls into his body.
#
He wakes up to the sound of knocking but he can't tell if it's at his door or one of his neighbors. Sunlight is streaming in through the window, meaning he's slept later than he usually does, but he still feels exhausted. Then he notices Madge sleeping peacefully next to him, and the last couple of days rush back into his memory, which explains why he's still so tired.
Leaving this bed is not an option. He probably dreamed the knocking. He realizes his hand somehow snaked its way under Madge's shirt to grasp her waist, and carefully pulls his hand back so it won't be quite so obvious that he's governed almost entirely by hormones. He closes his eyes again, but a few seconds later Madge shifts—she must be waking up—and he feels her snuggling up even closer to him and… kissing his jaw. He abandons trying to sleep and pulls her onto his chest, opening his eyes.
She stares back at him and he wonders momentarily whether she remembers intending to sleep on the couch last night. What an idiotic idea that was. Her hair is cutely tousled from sleep, reminding him that he liked how she looked while they hiked for precisely this reason: associations with bed head and what it implies…
Madge starts smoothing his own bed head, and from this vantage point and the way the neck of her shirt is gaping, he decides he is definitely not going anywhere. She can try to fix his hair forever. Screw the plans to go to the Capitol to meet with Simon.
A loud rapping at the front door distracts her momentarily and she frowns, cocking her head sideways to listen more carefully the way Zipper does. Gale is instantly annoyed that he didn't dream the knocking.
"Ignore it," he tells her. "Probably reporters."
The knock repeats. Impatiently.
"What if it's the people who messed with the car?" she asks in a hushed voice, sitting up.
"Why would they knock?" Gale points out, sitting up as well and cursing whoever is bothering them. But he can tell Madge is distracted and her shirt's neckline has righted itself, wrecking his view, so he might as well get rid of the intruder or she won't be able to concentrate on him. "I'm answering that door with my gun," he warns as he crawls off the bed. "If it's the assholes who stole the battery, I'm shooting them. If it's reporters, I'm shooting them."
Madge looks slightly alarmed at his vehemence and scrambles to follow him, which further annoys him because how is he going to get her back onto the bed? She'll probably make them go visit Simon like they're supposed to. Or talk. But he'll deal with that later. For now, he'll peer through the one-way window in the front door before actually loading his gun again.
All thoughts of reporters and potential thieving villains evaporate. He can't unlock the door quickly enough, and seconds later flings it open to his mother, Rory, Vick, Posy, and a pile of luggage.
"Good morning Gale," his mother says calmly.