Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine.
Reunion
"Are we there yet?" Vick asks for what is, by Gale's count, the three hundredth time.
"Not much longer," Gale's mother answers before Gale has to answer that, no, in the past minute and a half, they have not arrived at their destination. He's beginning to wonder if this whole expedition is worth the trouble. His growing headache certainly makes him think not.
With a sigh, Gale leans against the window of the train and watches the flat grassland speed by and listens to Posy comment on the various livestock that occasionally appears on the horizon.
They're finally going to Ten to see Madge. It's taken Gale several months to convince her to let them, though honestly, he'd have rather taken her to Two. Gathering up one person is much easier than four, especially when two of those persons are teenage boys going to see a former crush.
Gale is certain Rory alone packed more clothing than his mother and Posy combined.
Madge is hesitant to leave her new home though, getting her to visit Four with him had been a miracle and ended up being a turning point in their new and tentative relationship. After that step he'd thought she would happily go to Two and see his family, all of whom called her on a weekly basis, but something about traveling to see them and not just traveling for work that made her hesitant. Gale didn't understand it, but he didn't want to push her, she's still skittish sometimes.
When he'd first found her and mentioned how excited his brothers would be, she'd been nervous that they'd be angry with her and wouldn't make the journey to see her, which is ridiculous. Even if Gale hadn't seen that Madge wasn't the enemy back in Twelve, his family had. He'd barely gotten the words out, 'I found Madge', when his brothers erupted in yells.
"We told you she was too smart!" Rory shouted, a blazing smile on his face that told Gale he was going to be hearing about his lack of faith for years to come.
"I knew she was alive," Vick added, his eyes wide with wonder that his inkling had been right.
Posy barely remembered Twelve, let alone Madge, but she did have a vague recollection of the first time she'd gotten new dresses. That was enough to make her excited the now blurred and shapeless blonde from that memory had made it through the Rebellion.
His mother had simply sat down at the worn looking kitchen table and pressed her fingers to her eyes. "That poor girl. She's all alone now, isn't she?"
"Yeah," Gale had told her. Madge hadn't given him many details about what happened to her parents or how she'd survived, other than that some 'Riders from Ten' had saved her. He didn't press it. If anyone was aware of the need to tell things on their own time, it was Gale.
"When do we get to see her?" Vick had asked, that night, and every night he spoke to Gale after.
"When she's ready," was Gale's stock answer.
It had taken him most of the summer to get her to agree to let them come down. She'd always had an excuse.
There was a cattle drive in town, she'd be too busy, she had a birthday party to attend, and, least convincingly, she had to help process and package meat for some of the goat ranchers.
"You aren't going to touch meat, Madge," Gale had countered, crossing his arms and fixing her in a steady look.
"Well…" She sighed, flushing pink and not meeting his eyes. "I just don't want to disappoint them. Every time I talk to them on the phone they're so excited and…what if they get down here and see that I'm still just me? I'm not special. I haven't gotten any tougher or-"
"You have," Gale cut her off, wincing slightly. The Madge he'd known back in District Twelve wouldn't have punched him. She'd survived the bombing and District Ten, which is Gale's least favorite district, and if that wasn't a sign she was tougher he didn't know what was.
"But they don't care if you're just 'you'. Just you is who they want to see."
That had quieted her, though Gale is certain it will take actually seeing his overjoyed family and having them hug her breathless to actually convince her it's the truth. They don't care if she has or hasn't changed. They'd liked her as she'd been and the minor differences would only increase their fondness of her.
"Do we hafta ride horses?" Posy asks as they pass by several men on horseback.
Gale shakes his head and Posy looks relived, though she's probably less so than Gale. He'd fallen off one of the stupid things the one and only time he'd tried to ride one, and received a round of applause for his failure. He has no intention of ever attempting travel by horseback ever again.
The drab scenery, dry grass and scattered tufts of taller sprigs, begin to slow outside the window and Gale squints to see the outskirts of Madge's town.
It's as faded as everything else in the District. Buildings with peeling paint and patched roofs alongside penned animals stretch out for several miles along cracking roads which turn into riveted dirt ones at the edge of town. Madge likes it though, so Gale keeps his dislike somewhat covered.
"Is that it?" Rory asks, nose pressed to the glass. He drops back into his seat. "Not much to look at is it?"
Gale snorts. "Wait 'til you get in it."
It's like something out of the midnight matinees his mother and Posy are so fond of. Murky looking films from before Panem with cowboy hats and boots.
Vick, unlike Rory, doesn't look disappointed, just continues to squint out the window.
"She's going to be at the station, right?" He asks, eyes still on the window.
"Yeah," Gale assures him.
"What's she wearing?" Posy asks.
Gale groans. "I don't know, Pose. I haven't seen her yet."
"She didn't tell you?" Posy flops down beside their mother. "What if we don't recognize her? In the story on the television the girl told the guy what she would be wearing so he could find her."
"Posy," Vick rolls his eyes and finally turns back from the window, "we already know what she looks like. We know her."
"I don't," Posy grumbles. "I just remember she's blonde."
"Don't worry, Posy," their mother pats Posy's hair down. "I'm sure the boys' memory is going to be more than enough to help us pick her out."
She gives Gale a little smile and he crosses his arms over his chest and turns his face back to the window. He doesn't need more of her insinuations, especially not in front of Vick and Rory, they're unbearable enough without her prodding.
It takes a few more minutes before the train slows to a stop, gently jerking them all forward then back.
"We're here," Gale tells Vick pointedly.
Both Vick and Rory tussle around as they try to get their overstuffed suitcases from the overhead compartment. In the end they drop their mother's on Posy and cause her to burst into tears. Gale shoots them a filthy look as he hoists their sister up and carries her in an attempt to calm her.
When they finally get off the train, into the blinding light and thickly hot air, Gale is ready to strangle both his brothers. They'd managed to trip an old lady and knocked a man into the wall of the narrow hall down the train.
"Boys," their mother had snapped at them after apologizing to the woman and helping her pick up her purse. "Madge isn't going anywhere, but you might be headed back to Two if you don't get yourselves together."
That had calmed them, though Vick still pressed a little too closely to the girl in front of them as they waited to get to the exit and received a dark look from her father.
"Ugh!" Rory pulled at the collar of his shirt. "It's stuffy out here."
Gale almost teases Rory about not being able to handle the heat, but since he isn't too fond of the sultry weather that settles over Ten in the summer, he decides not to say anything.
Vick doesn't seem bothered by the heat, even the added part radiating from the resting train, as he bobs up and down on his toes to give himself a few inches of added height to look over the crowd.
"I don't see her," Vick tells him sharply. "I thought she might be over-"
"Vick?" Madge's soft voice reaches them over the dull buzz of humanity around them.
Gale turns and finds her, dressed in something he's sure she borrowed from her roommate. It's blue and simple, but nicer than anything he's seen her in since finding her. Her hair is pulled back, up and off her neck, probably to save her from having a heat stroke and her skin is a shade darker than the last time he'd seen her, though still much paler than Gale's.
Her eyes scan the group and she squints into the bright daylight. "Rory?"
Before Gale can say so much as a hello, Vick has scooped her up, pulled her into a tight hug and is twirling her around, her legs dangling uselessly as they spin. When he finally sets her down Rory throws his arms around her waist and hoists her into a crushing hug, making her laugh.
"How did you see us?" Vick asks her, once Rory puts her back on the ground.
Madge's eyebrows rise and a small smile forms on her lips. "You're a bit hard to miss."
She gestures to the crowd. Gale, Rory, and Vick are all at least a head taller than almost everyone, it would've been more difficult for Madge not to find them.
Vick shrugs and pulls her into another hug. "I can't believe you're really here."
A little chuckle bubbles from where Vick has her trapped. "I can't believe you're so tall." She pulls back and looks between Vick and Rory. "Almost taller than Gale."
"Almost," Gale emphasizes. He doesn't want them getting any ideas.
When her attention settles on Gale it also finds Posy. Madge's mouth forms a small 'o'.
"She's gotten so big."
Posy smiles shyly and ducks into Gale's shoulder.
"She's pretty," she whispers in his ear. Gale just chuckles.
"Madge," Gale hears his mother say. He looks over and sees her smiling, probably remembering how Madge had given them hope, brightened Vick, and occasionally Rory's afternoons, when they'd lived in Twelve.
"Hello, Mrs. Hawthorne. Did you have a good trip?"
Gale's mother takes a few steps forward, reaches out and pulls Madge into a much less dramatic hug than her sons. She must say something to her, because Madge looks at Gale and smiles before whispering something back. Gale tries to read her lips and thinks she says 'me too'.
His mother lets her go and Madge swats at her eyes, brushing away a few tears Gale pretends not to see.
"I guess I should show you all where the hotel is so you can drop your bags off," she finally says, looking away to compose herself.
"It has air conditioning doesn't it?" Rory asks, wiping the increasing perspiration from his forehead and his expression anxious.
Madge laughs as she begins leading them from the station. "Not enjoying our mild end of summer?"
"Mild?" Rory's mouth turns down. One of his eyebrows rises. Gale smirks at him as he brushes past, but stops when he hears Rory muttering under his breath. "Maybe you should give her your doctor's name, 'cause if she thinks this is 'mild'…"
Gale shifts Posy in his arms and smacks the back of Rory's head.
Rubbing his head, Rory grumbles to himself as he trails after the group.
Posy finally gets confident enough to get down, grabs their mother's hand and listens intently as Madge points out different buildings to them.
When they finally reach the hotel, the same one Gale stays at during his visits, Vick and Rory race up the stairs to the rooms, Posy scrambling after them and their mother following after in exasperation.
Madge watches, trying and failing to hid her laughter, and Gale knocks her in the shoulder with his, smirks down at her. "What?"
She grins up at the stairs. "I just can't believe how big they've all gotten. The boys are both so tall."
"Not taller than me though," Gale adds again.
"And they never will be, right?" Madge asks.
Gale nods. "Never."
Especially not Rory if he continues to be a pain in the backside.
With a sigh, Gale decides he should probably go up to the rooms and make sure Rory and Vick don't destroy the one he's supposed to share with them. They'll have every inch taken over if he doesn't place some claim on at least the couch.
Taking Madge's hand, Gale tugs her toward the stairs.
"Come on," he tells her. "I need to go make sure I have a place to sleep tonight."
Her eyebrows arch up. "And you need me why exactly?"
He starts to tell her that they came there to see her and he intends to spend every waking moment doing just that and that she's the only decent thing in her hellhole of a district, but thinks that might make her uncomfortable so he keeps it to himself.
She doesn't resist as he continues to pull her up the steps toward where his family had disappeared.
Gale glances back at her over his shoulder, giving her a small smirk.
"I need you to distract them," he tells her simple, earning himself one of her bright little laughs.
It might've been headache inducing, traveling with his obnoxious brothers all the way down to Ten to see her, but having her cool little hand wrapped in his, and having the possibility of blindsiding his brothers into letting him get the bed by the window by having her presence divert their attention, might make it a little worth all the trouble.