Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine.

Baby Steps

Madge wrings her hands, takes a few more anxious steps, and accidently steps in a small puddle. The water seeps into her shoes and soaks her socks, but she's too preoccupied to pay it much attention.

She's outside the building Gale works in, an old office made of smooth limestone with what seems to be hundreds of glistening black windows. Gale's desk is next to a window, at the far back corner, overlooking the edge of their town and the mountains in the distance. Madge thinks the view is the only thing that keeps him from demanding to be given more fieldwork, without it she imagines he'd feel trapped, suffocated in the chilly office and his rolling chair.

Normally she doesn't come to see him. He's asked her not to, actually, something about the other men at the office watching her making him uncomfortable.

"They're a bunch of pigs," he'd told her sourly before they'd gotten married.

This is a special occasion, though, and she wants to tell him her news as soon as possible.

For the past few months, as the frigid winter thawed into a soggy spring, she's suspected she is pregnant.

There hasn't been any nausea, no strange cravings, or emotional upheavals, just overwhelming tiredness and an odd feeling. She's kept her thoughts to herself. There was no reason to worry him if she wasn't certain.

Her hand runs over her damp hair and she sighs. As much as she'd like to think Gale will be happy they're going to have a baby, he'd agreed to it after all, she knows, more than anything, he'll be terrified.

"I don't deserve all this happiness. I have you, my family, a future, and I don't deserve any of it. What if you get pregnant and something happens?"

Gale's gotten it in his head he's forfeited his right to happiness, that all good things that come his way are conditional in some way, one good thing exchanged for another. He'll see Madge being pregnant for nothing more than all the potential to lose not just her, but the life they've created. She has to prepare herself for the onslaught of his over protectiveness that's bound to come.

That's partly why she's waited so long to visit the doctor. She wanted to be a good way into the pregnancy, past what she felt were the most dangerous first stages before she told him. If she lost it then the tragedy would be her own, not Gale's. He was anxious enough about this whole adventure and she didn't want to give him more reason to worry.

"You're a good fourteen weeks along based off your last period," the little redhead, Dr. Brahman, had told her. "We'll do an ultrasound when you come back and get some measurements to be certain though."

After finding out her suspicions were right, that it was something good and not horrible going on with her body, Madge hadn't been able to stop smiling. She was going to be a mother, a possibility she'd never even entertained when she'd been younger. There was another living being slowly growing inside her.

The moment she'd stepped on the bus to go to Gale, though, all her happiness had evaporated out of her.

What if Gale wasn't able to work through his worries and enjoy the little milestones of this next step in their relationship? What if he changed his mind and didn't want a baby after all?

It had started raining again after that. The pale gray clouds had begun leaking warm spring rain down from the sky and splattering on the flat windows of the bus as Madge watched the people outside barely pay the renewed shower any concern.

By the time she'd reached Gale's work the rain had stopped, but the clouds remained, threatening to open up again with each little rumble of thunder.

Now, outside his office, Madge thinks maybe she should wait until he gets home to give him the news. If he takes it badly she'd rather it be in the privacy of their home and not in front of his coworkers.

Just as she turns to leave, head back to the bus stop and make her way home to wait out the few hours until Gale gets home, she hears her name.

"Madge?"

Gale is standing at the top of a small set of stairs jutting out from the side of the building, his eyebrows are knitted together in concern.

Caught off guard, Madge forces a smile and gives him a little wave, but stays rooted in the spot.

He must sense her inability to move, because he takes the steps swiftly and jogs over to where she stands, under an ancient tree on one of the last patches of grass in the downtown.

The soggy grass makes squishing noises under his feet when he reaches it, splattering a small bit of mud on the bottoms of his pants and flicking Madge's bare legs as well. He doesn't seem to notice, he's wholly concerned with why his wife has decided to seek him out at work.

Before Madge can say so much as 'hi', he's pulled her into a tight hug. "What's wrong?"

Madge laughs, trying to make it sound light but only succeeding in making a weary noise. She pulls back, pops up on her toes and presses a kiss to his lips. "Nothing's wrong."

He gives her a scrutinizing look. "Then why are you here?"

Taking his hand, still tanned despite the long winter and just as rough as it had been back in Twelve when he'd made his living by them, Madge gives him a tug, over to a little stone bench and makes him sit beside her.

"I wanted to tell you something and I just-I couldn't wait," she tells him, letting her smile peak back out at him.

Despite her bright demeanor, Gale's expression remains stiff, a sort of terrified resignation shinning in his eyes. He nods, encouraging her to continue.

Even with his worry coloring the moment, Madge can't contain the news anymore. If he's even half as excited as she is she'll take it.

"I'm pregnant!" She blurts out before she can think of a better way to tell him.

For several seconds Gale just stares at her, his gray eyes just as dark and unpredictable as the clouds overhead. His hand is still in hers and she gives it a squeeze to try and get him to respond, break his trance, but his focus stays on her face.

Finally, he nods. "You're pregnant."

His eyes drop, down to her stomach, which hasn't changed since he'd left for work, and he nods again.

When he rakes his free hand through his hair, putting it on end, then drops his other from her grip, Madge thinks it's come to the worst. He's upset. He's realizing the enormity of what they've done and he wants out…

As tears are building up in her eyes, preparing to spill out, Gale grabs her and pulls her into his lap.

"You're pregnant," he whispers into her skin as he presses his face into the side of her neck, begins kissing up into her hair. He pulls back, tilts his head so that he's peering up at her. "We're going to have a baby."

Worry finally boiling over, the tears begin falling as Madge nods. "Yeah."

A smile, just as goofy and bright as the one Madge had worn when the doctor had given her the good news, forms on his lips. One of his rough hands reaches up and brushes away the tears trailing down her cheeks and he cranes up to kiss her. "We're gonna have a baby."

His hand drops down and presses flat against her stomach. He looks up at her, anxiety creeping back into his features.

"How far? Is everything okay?"

Madge grabs his hand and presses a kiss to his palm. "About fourteen weeks. The doctor said everything is perfect."

"Fourteen weeks," he repeats. His expression drops. "You didn't know for fourteen weeks?"

With a snort, Madge smiles. "I had an idea I might be, but…I just wanted to wait."

Gale's mouth forms a line and his eyebrows pull together. "You should've told me. What if something had happened? What if I did something and hurt you? I could've-when we were in the shower or-"

Madge presses her hand over his mouth and gives him an exasperated half smile. "There's nothing you could've done to hurt me, Gale. I'm a little tougher than you think."

He doesn't look so certain, but he keeps his thoughts to himself, at least for the time being.

They sit under the tree for several more minutes, letting the last drops of the earlier rain drip down on them from where they had been clinging to the newly opening foliage on the tree, enjoying the moment before Gale frowns.

"How did you get to the doctor?"

Madge feels her cheeks begin to warm. Gale hates the bus, says they're dangerous and unreliable. He'll be twice as annoyed as usual she took it to the doctor rather than tell him where she was going and having him take her. "I rode."

He sighs. "Madge…"

"I didn't want to ask one of the boys or you mother," she begins to explain. "They would ask questions and I wanted you to be the first to know, you know, if I was pregnant, which I am. So see? I was right."

With a huff, Gale lets his forehead come to a rest against Madge's shoulder. After a second he looks up with a chuckle. "As happy as I am that I'm the first to know, I would still rather have been second than have you on that metal deathtrap."

"It's not a deathtrap," Madge tells him, a little smile creeping back onto her face. "I guess I could've rode my bike…"

"No," he tells her. "No more biking. Please promise me no more biking. And you can't walk all over the place anymore, alright? There are four people in our family that can drive, and none of us are going to make a pregnant lady walk with armloads of groceries."

He's off on a ramble, telling her he'll have Vick take them to the library to get every book on pregnancy there is, they'll talk to his mother-she's been pregnant enough times, she'll know everything- and he's coming with her to every appointment from here on out.

"I'll threaten to quit if they tell me no," he tells her.

She snorts. "They'd never want to lose the great General Hawthorne, right?"

"You laugh, but it's true." He presses a kiss to her cheek. "They won't want to make me mad."

When another rumble of thunder rolls through the air, Gale stands and pulls Madge to her feet.

"Come on. I need to get my keys and tell them I have to drive my crazy wife home."

"Your crazy pregnant wife," Madge adds.

Gale's smile widens. "My crazy pregnant wife."

He gently puts his arm around her shoulder, presses a kiss to her hair and sighs. "We should stop for lunch too."

Madge shrugs. "I'm really not that hungry, but there's food at home."

Gale shakes his head. "No, you need to eat. You're making a person in there. You need all the extra nutrients you can get."

Rolling her eyes, Madge laughs. "Are you going to force feed me?"

"If I have to," he chuckles. "I'm not letting anything happen to either of you."

Arms sneaking around his middle, Madge gives him a squeeze. "I know you won't."