A/N: Sorry for the long delay. Hope you enjoy the update. :)
Naiya welcomes us in with her usual cheerful welcome but I can tell she's tired. Rose is by her side and Naiya hugs me and then Bear as we step through the door. I give Rose a quick hug, asking her how she's doing as lightly as I can and letting go of her before any swell of emotion can hit me. Rose and Bear hug with an awkward hesitancy that seems to be on both sides. There's an awkward second before Naiya begins her usual running commentary and questions and shoos us into the dining room. Before we can settle in Rose offers to get everyone drinks and hardly waits for us to answer before hurrying from the room.
As she goes, I share a concerned look with Naiya, but she waves me off calling a thanks to Rose and saying, "I'm so glad you two came over. I'm really grateful for all your help Maddie, letting me have more time here at home. I don't know what we'd do without you darling. It was such a zoo around here, with the twins and the rest of the family. It'll be nice now that things have quieted down, for both of us. And I'm gonna be picking up my part of provisions again Maddie, I promise you. Who knows, maybe Rose will want to come in to help out sometime too."
"It's okay Naiya," I tell her. "We just want to help - if we can."
"Thank you dear," Naiya continues, "you've already been such a help. You know, when I went in to the store yesterday, everything seemed to be running fine without me. You're doing a great job. Has Tad been helping you out? We'll have to think about how the stores will change now that the war is over ..." Soon Naiya and I are engrossed in plans for the stores, Naiya continuing to ask me about details with operations until Rose reappears, bringing in drinks for everyone.
Naiya looks up at her daughter and at Bear and shakes her head. "Oh listen to me, Maddie. I'm sorry to bother you with work. I'm probably putting Barend to sleep, talking on about provisions. I just want to get caught up as quick as I can."
"So you're going back full time now?" Bear asks.
"Well ..." Naiya begins.
Rose cuts her off impatiently, "Mom I told you you didn't need to babysit me. I'm fine."
"Darling, I just wanted to spend some time with you." Naiya lets it drop, changing the topic to our evening meal. She heads to the kitchen to get everything and conversation lapses. Belatedly Bear decides to help her, and follows her out of the room.
I ask Rose, "So how've you been?"
"I'm fine. Of course I'm glad to be home but it's ... I don't know. Weird, being here."
I answer, "Well I'm glad you're back. It's great to see you." Unspoken, Spinner's death still hangs in the room.
"Have you heard from Johnny?" she asks. I have a feeling she wants to get away from Spinner's memory but can't. This is as close to Spinner as we're going to get tonight. Which is alright by me.
"No," I tell her. "He's still in a hospital in the Capitol."
When Naiya and Bear return with dinner, we turn the conversation back to district four and the rebuilding. Rose and Naiya talk about their time visiting with the family and Rose wants to hear about Mick and his stories from the fishing expeditions. Dinner is a little tense, with everyone trying to avoid the painful topics that are on all our minds. At the end of the meal, Rose offers to clear dishes, and stops me when I begin to help.
As Rose clears the table and again disappears to the kitchen, Naiya says, "Barend, Maddie said you've been working pretty hard lately. What was it again? Something with the medical group? I bet you're doing great things over there."
As Bear fills Naiya in on the basics of his work with medical, Rose returns. With a self-conscious smile she sits at the table, catching the end of Bear's description of the hospital that they've written into the proposal to the Capitol.
"They're building a hospital?" Rose asks.
"Don't know yet," Bear explains. "We sent this proposal to the Capitol, asking to build one."
"Oh," she replies flatly.
"That's fast," Naiya says, filling the silence. "Paylor's barely been in office a week and already they're taking proposals form the districts? Well maybe it really is a new world out there."
Bear answers, "They started writing it when Coin was in charge, and decided they might as well send it and hope for the best. We need it. The old infirmaries weren't nearly enough for district 4 as it was, and then there's the damage from the attacks."
"Well we need it, that's true," Naiya says.
My thoughts drift briefly to district 12, and how little medical care had been available there. I realize I didn't even know if most people had any access to medical care and how lucky I'd been. As Mayor, my father could afford the doctor in town, and the medicine for my mother's headaches. Thinking of them, I felt an empty heaviness in my chest. All that was gone now. But we're all carrying loss and grief.
I force myself back to the present. Bear is talking about how administration records showed that Snow systematically prevented any kind of support for the districts unless it benefitted the Capitol directly. "There's a lot to do. Coin had already spread the word to the district rebels about investing in the districts, that's why the medical group started all this," he says.
"Yeah, Coin knew how to get things done," Rose agreed. "If it weren't for that crazy b-" she cut herself off after a warning glance from Naiya. "Sorry mom. But she is crazy, I mean to kill the leader of the rebellion? Thinks she's something just 'cause they put her on the broadcasts." It's the first mention of the assassination or Katniss. I tense a bit, not wanting too pick a fight but still wanting to defend Katniss. Next to me, Bear must have known how I would react. His hand squeezes my thigh.
Bear sounds casual when he asks, "What do you mean? Did you ... meet her?"
Rose looks at him with a puzzled frown. "No. The squads all kept to themselves, and we weren't anywhere near her. They weren't on the frontlines until that mission they disappeared on. But one of the guys from the squad was in 2 when I was sent there. Hawthorne, he's been on the broadcasts."
"You talked to him?" I ask, feeling oddly anxious at the thought of my two worlds - twelve and four - mixing. Also, Gale seems so different in the broadcasts now, so official and - well, adult.
Rose shrugs. "Some. I mean, not casually. He ranked above me. But he led enough of our strategy meetings. From what I could tell, people were always asking him about the Mockingjay Squad and that girl. He didn't want to talk about it. So it couldn't have been good. I mean, he didn't say anything bad, but that was before we all knew how crazy she was. Before she killed Coin. He went back to the Capitol for Snow's execution."
I want to ask her more, to hear everything she knows about Gale now and compare it to the Gale I knew. To puzzle through what was happening with him and Katniss and everyone else from 12. But it's not the time or the place. Maybe some other time, I'll feel comfortable asking her. Instead I ask, "What about Paylor?"
"Never met her. But she was respected. She was a good commander, everyone said. Anyway, I don't really want to talk about the war. When will you find out about the hospital?" she asks.
Bear shrugs. "Soon I hope. Now that Paylor's assigned that Executive Council."
The rest of the evening passes quietly. I can tell Rose is feeling cooped up in the apartment, and hope that she and I get more time together soon. Rose tells us that she's hoping to come by provisions soon. We don't mention Spinner or the other deaths that haunt us, but Rose hugs both me and Bear fiercely when we leave, and I'm sure she'll talk about it when she's ready.
A few days later I'm writing out some notes from my last meeting with Naiya when Bear hurries into the apartment. "Madge! Guess what!"
"What?" I ask him, setting down the work.
He grins at me, his whole face lit up with his excitement. "we got it! We got it. The hospital, they're gonna build it."
My eyes widen with happy surprise. "That's so great! I knew it, I knew you would get it." Leaping to my feet I throw my arms around his neck. Bear lifts me in a hug an spins me around, squeezing me tightly to him before setting me back down on my feet.
Mick hearing the noise comes to join us and Bear tells us both about the announcement.