Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine. Any lines from the books are hers too.
AN: Someone wanted more 'Possibilities of a Life' and someone wanted vacation. I think they wanted Glen and Savanna on the vacations too, so…here you go. I'll do better next time…maybe.
A Debt Unpaid
Gale watches as Savanna runs from the waves lapping at her tiny heels, squealing delightedly as flecks of sea foam catch her.
She chases the water as it retreats, shouting nonsensical gibberish at it in warning before it comes back in, beginning the game again.
A few minutes pass before she finally gets bored, dropping to her knees and clawing a wet shell from the sand and running to Gale.
"Da!" She holds the sun bleached shell out, practically under Gale's nose, for his inspection. "Loo!"
Smiling, he takes it and nods. "Very pretty, 'Vanna."
"Pri'y," she echoes, taking it back and tottering around him, depositing it in her mounting pile of 'pretties' from the beach.
Clapping, she grabs his hand and pulls him to the water, babbling as she does, clearly thinking she's giving him very important instructions as she points to random places and nods.
Before he can work out exactly what it is she's trying to explain to him, Glen comes racing up, nearly running headlong into Gale.
"Dad," he half gasps, grabbing Gale's free hand and tugging him the opposite direction, "come on! The boat's ready!"
Laughing, Gale tugs him back by the neck of his shirt, sending Glen toppling into Gale's middle. "Hold up. I gotta get 'Vanna."
Huffing, Glen straightens back out, glancing around to make sure no one had seen him falling over, before rushing over and grabbing Savanna's hand.
"Come on, 'Vanna, Reed's got the boat ready for you."
"Weed!" Savanna cheers, tripping over her feet as she tries to keep up with her brother.
Sighing, Gale scoops her up and motions for Glen to go ahead.
Not waiting to be told twice, Glen races off, kicking sand up in all directions in his wake.
Chuckling, Gale carries Savanna toward the dock where the little boat is waiting.
Feet echoing hollowly on the worn wood of the dock, toward the weathered boat at the end, Gale spots Glen animatedly announcing his arrival to Madge and two other figures.
Annie Cresta looks pretty much like Gale remembers from District Thirteen.
Dark haired, slight, and pretty, she's managed to wipe some of the fogginess from her eyes, but there's still something missing from her. There probably always will be.
Gale hadn't really known her in Thirteen, other than seeing her with Finnick, knowing that the other Victor had loved her. He hadn't felt the need to get to know her before they'd mounted their assault on the Capitol, and he hadn't wanted to get to know her after.
Finnick, who'd protected his family and Annie at every corner, had died, and Gale, who'd devised a bomb so terrible it killed hundreds, thousands, of innocent people, had lived. It wasn't right.
He hadn't been able to look her in the eye knowing that he should've been the one to die. She shouldn't have had to raise her son alone.
But she had, and done a good job of it, despite what anyone might've thought.
Madge had been the one to bring Annie into Gale's life, years ago, at one of the awful gala's Gale had always been 'encouraged' to attend.
She'd met Annie while attending a meeting about memorials earlier in the day, and the two had hit it off.
"She's really great, and she has ideas for the memorial that I think we can use," Madge had said. "I'd really like to get input from her. She's seen the worst the Capitol had to offer. I think it's only right she have a say in how things get remembered."
While Gale agreed, he had only grunted an acknowledgement. He didn't want to think about Annie Cresta or what she'd seen. It only made him remember Finnick and what Gale had seen.
"She'll be at the gala tonight," Madge brightly announced. "She seemed excited to see you. I guess I didn't realize you knew her."
Since Gale hadn't really known her, he'd purposefully avoided her for an entire evening, dodging her at every corner. She'd want to talk about Finnick, probably his last moments, and he didn't want to put those images in her mind. Finnick wouldn't want her to know how it had ended. Gale owed him not to put those images in her head.
"She really wants to see you, Gale, Why are you treating her like she's got the plague?" Madge's expression seemed to droop. "It's not because she's a little odd, is it?"
That would've been a much simpler answer, Gale had thought, and he'd almost said 'yes', but had stopped short when he remembered how odd Madge's own mom was.
There was a string of madness connecting Madge's mom and Annie Cresta, Gale couldn't deny that, and that strange tether is probably what drew Madge to Annie in the first place. It wouldn't be hard to see Matilda Undersee in Annie Cresta, and Gale was sure Madge had.
Sighing, Gale had shaken his head.
"I-I just-I saw Finnick-I was one of the last people to see him alive, and I don't want to have to tell her about it."
He didn't want to recount the death of a loved one to someone as fragile as Annie. He couldn't handle watching her break, knowing he was the cause.
Madge had taken his hand and smiled.
"I don't think that's what she wants to talk about."
Reluctantly, Gale had let Madge lead him to Annie.
Annie didn't asked about Finnick's death, she didn't asked about his last days, she didn't look at Gale like the monster he was. She just smiled and pulled him into a hug.
"I'm so happy to see you," she'd whispered before pulling back, still beaming, as if they'd been old friends. "Finnick liked you. He told me so."
Blame, yelling and crying would've been easier to take. Sweetness and praise weren't what Gale deserved.
"He told me that you'd make sure the Capitol never hurt anyone again, no matter what," she'd sighed. "And you did."
Gale hadn't been able to hold back after that.
"I'm sorry," his voice broke. "I-I'm sorry he died."
Annie's strange smile never faltered, even as her eyes shined. "I am too."
She'd invited him and Madge to her home after that, one of the last remaining houses in Four's Victors' Village, which Gale had hesitantly accepted.
The Village was right on the beach, the houses all lined up along a cobbled road, whitewashed with pale blue shutters in need of a paint job.
Annie's was the last house on the lane.
The yard was well maintained, trimmed up to the neighboring house's edge. There were mounds of flowers in front of the deck and more flowers spilling out of pots, both sitting on the porch and hanging from the edge of the roof.
Annie had been sitting in a weathered old rocking chair at the far edge of the porch, her eyes on the beach.
When she'd noticed Madge and Gale, she'd jumped up and ran to them, pulling them into hugs.
"I'm so glad you came," she told them. "We never get visitors."
Gale felt his insides lurch unpleasantly.
Turning, she'd shouted down to the beach. "Reed! Come back up!"
Seconds later, a little boy had come running up, his hair wet and plastered to his head.
He'd flung himself around Annie, beaming up at her, and Gale's stomach squirmed again.
He hadn't expected to meet Finnick's son, though really, he thinks he should've known it would happen.
Reed had been lanky, bright eyed, and bronzed skinned. If it weren't for his dark hair, clearly inherited from his mom, Gale could imagine him as a very young Finnick.
"Do you want to come see my boat?" He'd asked Gale, minutes after meeting him. "Uncle Ford helped me build it."
Without waiting for an answer, he'd pulled Gale to a small dock behind the house and excitedly shown Gale every part of his tiny boat.
"-and I've been out spearfishing with my uncle-not in this boat-but, uh, in his boat." He'd frowned at the little boat before shrugging. "Do you want to go see that boat?"
He'd reminded Gale a little of Vick, excitable, eager, and maybe a little lonely so Gale had nodded. "Maybe sometime. We should probably go check on your mom first though."
Reed had nodded in agreement before taking Gale up to the house again, up the back steps, and the rest of the afternoon had been spent drinking Annie's fresh made lemonade, eating salted caramel chunks, and talking about the memorial that was going to be built in Four.
Gale felt increasingly lousy for having tried to avoid Annie. Even if she'd wanted to hear about Finnick's last moments, it wasn't his place to keep it from her. She wasn't weak, and pretending she was seemed insulting.
Annie had survived more than most. She deserved better than to be avoided and shunted away.
After that, whenever they'd been in Four, they'd stopped by Annie's, and Gale got the impression that aside from her brother-in-law, he and Madge were some of the only people that spared them the time of day.
It frustrated Gale. Annie had first lost some of her sanity, and then her husband, all for the sake of the people of Four, and yet no one seemed to care.
Even with all she'd given up, all she'd suffered, Annie was just another relic to them. Tossed aside like Katniss and Mellark and all the other surviving Victors. They deserved better, but they'd never get it.
So Gale had made it his personal mission to make sure neither one of them felt forgotten by him.
He brought Reed candies from across the country, toys, even a funny hat from Ten that he'd been given by one of the Commissioners, and Annie...just wanted to talk to someone. He never turned down her calls when he was at work, though usually she called Madge, which Gale was more than a little grateful for.
He owed Finnick to keep an eye on his wife and son, even if it had to be at a distance.
When Glen was born, Annie and Reed had sent a pineapple, which Vick had ended up having to cut up for them. Then when Savanna came, they'd gifted them a coconut.
They hadn't bothered trying to crack that gift. It was still in the kitchen, a kind of bizarre conversation piece.
When they'd brought Glen to Four, just after he'd learned to walk, Reed had taken to him like an older brother.
He'd insisted on teaching him to swim, much to Madge's horror, shown him how to spear a fish, and half begged Gale to leave him for a weekend.
"Madge says no," Gale had told him, grateful his wife got to be the bad guy. "Maybe when he's older."
Gale doubts that Reed will want either Glen or Savanna staying around now that he's almost a teenager, but he's fond of them, that much is clear as he ruffles Glen's hair and laughs at whatever ridiculous thing he's saying..
"Get on Gale, and prepare to be amazed!" Reed shouts, hoisting his trident above his head and twirling it. "For I am Reed, tuna slayer!"
Savanna claps, squealing happily as Gale hands her off to Madge, already standing on the boat.
"I'm gonna spear a big, giant fish," Glen announces, leaning over the edge and squinting into the water, possibly expecting to see his prey swimming under his nose. "Then we'll cook it on the fire, right dad?"
Gale nods, side stepping a bucket of dirty deck water before taking Savanna back from Madge and plopping down on a bench against the cabin.
"Da, Da, loo!" Savanna slaps Gale several times in the face before pointing out at a pelican, perched on a post on the pier. "Bir'y!"
"Yeah, gorgeous, a birdy."
Madge drops down beside him, looking ill at ease and forcing a wary smile. Despite all the weeks of talk Glen has done about going on a fishing trip with Reed and Annie, Gale gets the impression she'd hoped it wouldn't happen.
"Sure you don't want to stay on dry land?" Gale asks, eying her pale skin carefully.
"And let my babies be towed into the middle of the ocean without me? No, Gale."
He almost laughs. She can't swim, and it apparently terrified of the water, there's less than nothing she could do if something did happen, but he gets the impression she'd be the first to dive in if either of her children went overboard.
"Do you need a bucket?" Annie asks, her gaze on the blue horizon, sounding only mildly concerned. "Ford keeps one in the cabin, if you need it."
Smiling weakly, she shakes her head, though Gale thinks she ought to take the offer.
Gale wraps an arm around her, hoping she doesn't get sick all over him, as he looks to the bow where Glen is chattering away to Reed.
They almost look like brothers, with their dark complexions and hair, and Gale tries to imagine what life would've been like if Finnick had lived. He and Annie might've had a dozen kids. Reed would be going out fishing with his own dad, his real brother and sister.
It's a life he'd never been given a chance at.
Shaking the thought off, it'll do no good, Gale pulls Madge closer.
He owes it to Finnick to not waste his life with what could've beens.
It's a debt he'll never pay off, but he'll never stop trying.