When Madge starts to wake up on Saturday morning, the sun is already fully out and shining into the bedroom. It's probably been that way for hours, because it's the smell of pancakes and bacon that lured her out of slumber and now, out of bed.
She wanders lethargically into the kitchen and Johanna and Dakota are singing along to the radio. Jo's manning the griddle and watching over breakfast and Kota is watching in awe, covered in batter. Madge silently scolds her friend for getting her daughter this messy, but she's going to have to clean her daughter up before going to the Hawthornes' today anyways.
"Morning, Madge," the redhead says cheerfully, taking out a fresh plate and adding a short stack of pancakes to it.
"Hey Jo, thanks for cooking," she smiles. Johanna likes to prepare real meals for them every once in awhile, and there's nothing that Madge looks forward to more. The process is messy and unmethodical, but the outcome is always a delicious, hearty feast. Madge turns to Kota sitting on the stool and gives her pale head a kiss. "Good morning, baby."
"Hi Mommy," Dakota smiles back. It's a toothy and giggly one, and Madge doesn't even care that she's chewing with her mouth open.
"When did you wake up?"
The little girl shrugs after thinking about it for a while. "You were still sleeping so I came out to help Auntie JoJo."
It's only then that Madge looks at the clock; it's almost eleven, and she rarely lets herself sleep in that long. Johanna knows that too when she hands her the plate of food. She gladly accepts it and sits down on the barstool next to Dakota. "You must've been really tired."
"Yeah, just a long week," she tries to justify. For some reason her time at work this week and the boring date on Monday exhausted her more than those kinds of things usually do. The days all seem to meld together when Dakota's not there, and she could barely wait when Gale dropped her off yesterday. He gave her a brief greeting and what seemed like the 100th reminder of their plans to see his family the next day. He always thinks she's forgetful for some reason, but Madge knows it's just because he subconsciously tries to control everything, he used to do it all the time.
"Are you better now?" Kota asks sweetly, picking at her cut up bits of pancake with her plastic fork.
"I'm perfect, thanks for asking, KoKo." Madge and Gale had decided to treat her like an adult or a friend years ago after reading countless parenting books. It seems to be working, and Madge likes to think it's making her daughter more polite and socially conscious.
The peppy song on the radio ends, and a voice pipes up.
"What a great song request from Gabriel, thanks man, for calling in to Capital FM. I'm Finnick Odair and if you have any songs that you want to hear, give us a call!"
"He's always working, isn't he?" Jo asks, nodding at the radio. She and Finnick had become rather good friends after Madge introduced them. Even though he basically makes his own hours, Madge couldn't imagine needing to be at the office on Saturday mornings too. She can barely stand being there five days a week.
"Yeah, he's the star of Capital FM after all."
"Gee. I'm so glad I work normal person hours," she comments, shoving some pancakes in her mouth too. Jo's done cooking, and the kitchen is left in complete disarray. Pancake ingredients and utensils are spread everywhere and the whole apartment smells like bacon, but there's no other way Madge would want her Saturday morning to be like.
After eating they start to clean up while Dakota watches some cartoons on TV. She's a hyperactive kid who would only be able to concentrate on the show for an hour or so, but it's just enough time for Madge and Jo to tidy up the mess.
"What are you doing today?" Jo asks as she wipes down the counter. Madge is at the sink, scrubbing away.
"Going to see Gale's family, remember?" she reminds with a slight annoyance in her tone.
"Oh yeah, shit. That should be fun." It's sarcasm.
Madge doesn't know how to respond, so instead she concentrates on the dishes for a couple of minutes, and her friend doesn't pry. When the griddle and all their plates are neatly placed on the drying rack, she finally shrugs and sighs. "It's not that bad, they're nice people. It's just that we always end up fighting, and I thought that was why we broke up. So that we'd stop fighting."
"It's not that easy, I guess," Johanna offers, and Madge snorts.
"No shit." The noises of the cartoon are too loud for Dakota to overhear, otherwise they'd both be more careful with their language. "What about you?"
"I think I'm going to run some errands, then I'm going to meet up with Dell."
"Have fun without me," Madge offers.
"We always do," she teases back, and despite the fact that Madge dreads going to dinner tonight in the suburbs, a late breakfast and some quality time with her friend always make up for it.
Jo goes out an hour or so after that, and Madge joins Kota on the couch. She's surprisingly attentive to the television today, so Madge cuts up an apple and urges her to eat it.
"Can I drink juice, Mommy?"
"You can have some juice for lunch, okay? I want you to eat this apple for now." Madge strokes her daughter's hair and looks at Dakota fondly as she nibbles on an apple wedge and stares at the TV. It's a lazy day, but she doesn't seem to mind for now.
"Mommy?"
"Yes?"
"Are we going to see Grandma today?" Kota asks curiously. Madge had never directly brought it up, but her daughter's always been a great listener, so she nods in response. Her little face automatically lights up in a toothy smile, bouncing up and down on the couch. "Going to Grandma's is my favourite."
"Why is that, Kota?" Madge asks curiously. "Is it because you love her cooking?"
"No," she responds, shaking her head and smiling coyly.
Madge angles her head to pretend she's thinking and mimics a confused face. "Hm… Is it because you love going to see Auntie Posy, and Uncle Vick and Rory?"
"No."
"Why then?"
"Because when we go to Grandma's I get to be with you and Daddy," Dakota points out, and Madge bites back a sigh. Even when they've explained countless times that they're not together and that going to Hazelle's was a one time thing, Kota can't help but get excited. Madge can't blame her, she would've given anything when she was a kid to see her parents happy together.
"You know the drill right?" she asks cautiously.
Kota nods. "We're all living together, and let you or Daddy do the talking," she repeats. It's a tiny rule she's willing to follow if it means she gets to spend time with Gale's family, but Madge still feels her heart hurt a little bit. It's unfair, they might be awful parents. But they can't stop it now, at least not tonight.
They kill a little more time during the afternoon, Madge helps Dakota with some picture books that Ms. Trinket let her borrow. They're all drawings that she has to try to identify the names of, and Madge is happy that her daughter seems to be on top of it. Kota's always been bright, and Madge loves to brag about it as a proud mom should.
At four thirty Gale picks them up, after Madge put on something nice and dressed Kota in a cute romper that Delly bought for her a few months ago. The drive to the suburbs is rather long for her tastes, and she's dreading the ride and the tense conversation that's imminent.
"Hey Kota," Gale nods from the driver's seat while Madge straps her into the car seat. He's wearing a freshly pressed shirt, as she suggested, and he keeps his sunglasses on.
"Hi Daddy," the little girl greets routinely.
"Long time no see, princess," he jokes, and Madge rolls her eyes. They were together yesterday, and she always urges him not to be sarcastic around her. It's not a type of humour she wants Dakota to learn, but apparently Gale can't control himself.
And of course, the little girl doesn't get it. "I saw you yesterday, silly."
That makes Madge snicker when she slides into the passenger seat of Gale's SUV. It's probably not a car suited to his bachelor lifestyle, but he bought it with the intent of driving their kid around, after all. "Are you okay back there, baby?"
Kota nods excitedly, holding onto her little stuffed bunny she insisted on taking with her. Everything seems to be set for now, so they drive off through the busy downtown streets towards the outskirts.
They listen to music (anything but Capital FM, the thought of work is enough to make her feel nauseous) through the weekend traffic, and Madge barely looks over at Gale twice. She thinks that they should be talking, doing some method acting for the hours to come.
"Is Rory going to be home today?" she asks curiously. The second oldest Hawthorne is studying at college somewhere upstate, but he comes to visit home often. Vick just graduated the year before, but he's taking a gap year to work and save up for trade school.
Gale shakes his head. "No, it's just Mom, Pose and Vick tonight."
She nods at his curt answer, not really expecting warm conversation on evenings like this. He surprises her though after a couple more minutes when he calls her name.
"Thanks, though. For doing this, Undersee. I know it's a chore and that you hate it, but you help me anyways."
"Sure," Madge nods, not really knowing how to respond. She could voice all her qualms with the circumstance and tell him that she doesn't want to do this anymore, but that wouldn't be productive or helpful towards the conversation. So she bites her tongue on that one. "We help each other, we have to."
"Yeah," Gale agrees, pausing in his speech to make a turn at a traffic light. When he successfully turns left, he speaks up again. "It's just that if I can do this one small thing to keep my family happy, why wouldn't I, you know?"
He grew up being the one person they're family relied on, Madge knows that he thinks he needs to be a role model or something. If they stopped the act now, they'd be devastated. It's a vicious cycle but neither one of them have a solution.
When they get to the house, planted in a boxy and spread out neighbourhood in the suburbs, Dakota is practically jumping out of her seat. It's actually a nice place, every garden has beautiful flower beds and the whole suburb is just cleaner than the city. But Madge is an uptown girl forever, she's bias towards bustling city life.
It's Posy who opens the door. She's seventeen now, a sweet and intelligent girl who only sees the good in everyone. Although she's taller and her features are more angular than when Madge and Gale were dating five years ago, her personality's all the same. He used to tell her that he was scared that he had sheltered his little sister too much, because now she trusts everyone.
First she gives her older brother a tight hug, then the same to Madge and finally, she leads Dakota into the house and takes her tiny hand. "Hey guys, I feel like I haven't seen you all in forever. You've grown so much, Kota!"
"Hi Pose, is Mom in the kitchen?" Gale asks, and his sister nods. Madge is still amazed by how alike they look and act.
So Madge follows him into the kitchen where Hazelle Hawthorne is diligently watching over the stove. Posy takes Dakota upstairs to keep her company, there are probably a couple more minutes before dinner.
"Ma," he greets, and Hazelle turns around with a loving, sad smile on her face. She hugs her tall son and kisses his cheek.
"Gale," she whispers, looking over his shoulder and breaking the hug and heading over to Madge. "Madge, how are you?"
"I'm wonderful Hazelle, thank you so much for having us," she smiles, a bit overwhelmed by all the embraces.
"It was due time for you all to come visit us, Gale barely tells me anything when I call him to catch up." Madge silently muses on that one, but doesn't say anything more. "Dinner is coming soon, do either of you want some wine?"
"I um- we, brought a bottle actually," she mentions, almost forgetting about the bottle that she picked up and wrapped for dinner. Gale makes quick and appreciative eye contact at her, he definitely forgot about bringing a gift. She holds it up and places it on the counter. "It's the winery that you were telling me about last time, the one from Napa."
"Oh, Madge, you're always so thoughtful. Thank you, let's get it open, shall we?"
They open the wine and snack on a delicious dip that Hazelle set out for them. Even if she dreads coming here, Madge always misses Hazelle's cooking. She grew up on catering and impersonal dishes cooked by house staff, and it feels good to eat something that feels homey and intimate. Madge had always felt that way when she would visit Gale's family.
"Where's Vick?" Gale grumbles when Posy and Kota come back into the kitchen to join the adults. Her hair is braided into a neater style than Madge would even attempt, and it makes her internally sigh.
"He's working," Posy responds, "His shift should've ended ten minutes ago, he'll be home soon."
"Is he still working at the shop?"
"Yup." Vick's been working part-time at their local mechanic since junior year, and he's really good at it too. Not that Madge knows anything about cars, she has a license but hasn't used it since high school when she would drive her aunt's old car. There's just no reason to drive around the city for her, everything is walkable or accessible through transit.
"Still seeing that guy?"
"Mhm," Posy responds. "His name is Russel."
"Is he coming here?" Madge adds on. She always hears about Vick's boyfriend but never gets to meet him, and she wants too.
"No, there not really together. They were but then they graduated, and now they're both trying to figure themselves out. Cliché, I know." Posy explains it pretending to be nonchalant, but Madge knows that she's eating the drama right up. When she looks down at Kota she's scrunching her little nose, confused by the complicated relationship.
Just as Posy finishes, the front door opens and in steps Vick, greasy and still in his scrubs. The first person he bumps into when he walks into the dining area is Madge. "Hey Madge."
"Hi Vick, how are you doing?"
"Good, I would give you a hug but I'm filthy," he states, and they both laugh quietly. He signals to Hazelle a greeting and then nods towards the stairs. "Ma, I'm just going to go upstairs and get changed, scrubbed up a little bit."
So they sit down at prepare to eat while Vick cleans up in his room. Hazelle made roast chicken and a bunch of hearty vegetables, and Madge's stomach begins to growl.
"It smells sooo good!" Dakota exclaims, smiling from her booster seat.
"Thank you, Dakota," her grandmother responds. "I made it all for you, baby girl."
Hazelle probably misses being a mother. All her kids are grown up now, almost all gone from the house. It's no wonder that she would want Gale and Madge to bring Kota here, she misses the sound of children busying up the home.
Vick comes down and they eat. At first it's mostly just silence, everyone's so starving that they're too busy scarfing down the food to make conversation. Gale sees how hungry she is and offers to cut up the food for Dakota instead, which is nice of him.
"So, how's the apartment?" Gale's mom asks after a while. She looks back and forth at him and Madge and Madge just stares at Gale, waiting for him to answer. It's his apartment that they're allegedly living in together after all.
He coughs to clear his throat. "It's great, yeah. Just got the bathroom re-done."
"Thrilling," Vick jokes sarcastically, making eye contact with Posy who laughs under her breath.
"Victor," his mom scolds. "I want to hear about my son's busy life, is that not allowed?"
"It is, I'm sorry," he responds, clearly well trained in how to irk his mother to no end. "It's just that Gale gives me very little to look forward to in terms of adulthood."
"What do you mean? Gale has a great job, a beautiful daughter, a wonderful girlfriend and-"
He chortles. "Please, Mom."
"No, I know what Vick means," Posy insists. "Like we always hear about his plumbing and his boss and what Kota's doing at school but we never get to hear about the interesting stuff."
"What's interesting to you Pose?" Gale offers, and Madge avoids making eye contact with his family. She feels slightly awkward right now, so instead she turns to Kota and makes sure she's eating everything.
"I don't know, I want to hear about how you feel about everything. Like how are things between you two? Do you have time for dates and stuff like that?"
They share a brief moment of eye contact and slight panic, but they've been doing this for years. Madge feels his arm wrap around her shoulder and pull her in, so she hugs his torso with her arms warmly. Gale always smells the same, like freshly washed clothes and pine.
"Things have been busy, I guess you could say we're too occupied with the 'boring' stuff."
"Well we went out on Monday," she brings up, lifting her chin to look at him. "To a new Italian place. Finally Jo offered to babysit."
"Oh yeah, you looked beautiful, babe," Gale lies while biting his lip. They share a short and sweet silence until he presses a kiss to her forehead. It's impersonal and rehearsed, but embarrassingly enough it's the first kiss she's had in months. Madge would rather no one have kissed her at all. When she looks up all the Hawthorne's are staring, and Posy has her chin propped up by her elbows, sighing and smiling longingly. They're the perfect couple and she thinks it's real.
"I change my mind," Vick deadpans, comically tired of their loving act. "Let's talk about bathroom renovations again."
Everyone laughs. The rest of dinner goes surprisingly smoothly, and by the end everyone helps to do some basic cleanup and eat a slice of a pie that Posy helped to make this morning.
"How do you have enough time to bake pies, you're still in high school, right? You haven't dropped out?" Gale jokes.
Posy just shrugs. "High school is easy to me. I have a lot of extra time on my hands."
After dessert Kota starts to get really tired, yawning and lying down in Madge's lap to close her eyes. She strokes her daughter's hair and wishes she could cuddle her to sleep right now. To her and Gale, that's a signal that they better get going and not disturb their daughter's sleep cycles.
"I think we better get going, Ma."
Hazelle sighs. "Oh alright. Do you want to take home any leftovers?"
Food is packed and when Gale is helping KoKo put on her little shoes, Hazelle gives the small box of leftovers to Madge on the side.
"Listen. Thanks for coming tonight, Madge. I know it's a trek to come out here to visit us with your busy lives, but we all miss you, Dakota and Gale so much."
"Of course, Hazelle. She loves it, and I've always loved coming to see you."
"Will you all come back for Thanksgiving?" Gale turns his head over and nods in response to his mom, smiling brightly. Madge is shocked, as she was in the middle of formulating some complex excuse before he interrupted. Now she's roped into another trip to the suburbs and another gruesome night of disingenuous conversation.
Gale's mother smiles tightly and then turns back directly to Madge as if she's holding something back, and then she opens her mouth. "You're good, Madge. You're really good for him. I'm so delighted my son found someone like you to balance out his pride and his short sightedness."
Madge doesn't know what to say, because if Gale seems like he's doing well lately it's not because of her. They've long established how toxic their relationship was, and she knows that his life right now is better than it's ever been. But it's not her doing, and she wishes she could tell Hazelle that her son's doing it all on his own but she can't. So instead she just nods, giving her an earnest hug before doing the same to Gale's siblings.
They're out the door and into the car in no time, and immediately Dakota falls asleep while Madge falls apart.
"Can we please not do this anymore?" she begs, hugging her purse and closing her eyes in exhaustion.
"What do you mean? I thought it went fine," Gale replies obviously while pulling out of the driveway.
"Fine? What is fine?"
"I don't know, not getting caught?"
"Doesn't it feel wrong, Gale? Lying to your family about something so trivial that they care about so much?"
"I think that you're simplifying things too much," he states. Madge doesn't even know what that means, isn't that what the case is?
"How am I simplifying things?"
"You and me, we're more than just a breakup I'm too ashamed to bring up to my family. They love you, did you know that my mom gave me a ring for you? Just before we got pregnant. And you're Posy's idol, practically Vick's best friend. You're important. I don't want to take that away from them."
"Don't turn this whole scheme into a selfless gesture," Madge sighs. She didn't know about the ring, but he's only bringing it up so that she feels bad. "I can't deal with your ego right now."
"Of course it's selfless, if people hated my actions I would stop. I would tell my family."
"I hate your actions, Gale!" Madge practically shouts, startling Dakota slightly in the back. She rustles slightly and lets out a small yawn, but is apparently still asleep. Madge flinches, apologetic for how heated he's making her, so she lowers her voice but keeps her tone. It's a whisper just in case Kota's awake. "I feel like I'm being tortured, Gale. Not because I hate those people it's because I hate lying to them. And I'm worried about KoKo, I don't want to confuse her."
"She understands, we have a protocol."
"Are you listening to yourself right now?" she asks, barely believing that Gale really thinks everything is okay. This was always their problem; she was too much of a realist, he was too much of an optimist, and vice versa in other circumstances.
The air is heavy and the car ride is silent for quite some time, and the darkness makes Madge so tired, she just want to sleep. This whole day had started so hopeful and ended so brutally, but neither of them were expecting anything less. These visits never end well, they always argue and this is why they needed to break up five years ago.
She can tell Gale wants to say something in the way he's furrowing his brow and chewing on his lip. Madge won't prompt him though, she barely wants to know.
"You're not the only one making sacrifices, Madge. I know this is hard for you and I'm sorry but we both make sacrifices."
"Like what?" she tries, truly irritated. "Like Katniss?"
"Sure, why not," he sardonically responds, laughing humorlessly. "I wish my best friend still wanted to talk to me, is that so wrong?"
"Katniss was my good friend too."
"And now she doesn't want either one of us. Ironic, isn't it? But we both made the sacrifice, that's what I'm trying to say."
Madge bites her tongue and chokes on her words. They both miss Katniss. It's no one's fault but their own, and never do they try to blame each other for the falling out of one of their closest friends. The drive when they get into the city is quiet and she stares out into the street instead of looking at him.
By the end of the long car ride, Madge feels bad. Her words were harsh and so were his. So when Gale pulls up in front of her apartment they both get out of the car, just so he can bid them farewell.
"Do you need me to carry her up?" he asks with his hands in his coat pockets.
"I can do it," she states, opening the back door and looking at Dakota's sleeping figure. She turns to face him. "Listen, Gale, I'm sorry we're like this."
Gale shakes his head in forgiveness and hugs her. She lets him and cradles his neck, letting him burrow into her shoulder. They're in this together, they have to be, and it's not the first time they've embraced in moments of vulnerability. He needs something to hold onto, and he's not going to mention it the next day.
The hug goes on for minutes, until she lets him go and swallows hard. "Goodnight."
"Night, Undersee," Gale sighs, opening the door wider for her to unbuckle Kota's seat belt and let Madge hold her. Their daughter is softly sleeping and resting her cheek on her mother's shoulders.
They don't exchange anything more than a nod and an apologetic glance before Madge and Dakota are making their up the stairs to the apartment.
She's growing fast and is getting heavy, but that's not the reason that Madge has never been more exhausted.
A/N: Can you tell that their relationship is a little bit complicated? Aha, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, if you did comments are always appreciated. I love reading what you all think and liked!
Thanks so much for reading, I hope you have an amazing day. :)
P.S. Sorry there was no one-shot this week. I've been seriously busy, hopefully I'll finish something in the next few days.