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Delly’s always liked Madge, even when she wasn’t supposed to.
They play together when they’re little, running through the streets, mixing and matching with kids from the Town and the Seam. And then school comes and Delly sees the way the older kids whisper about Madge, and scowl at her in the hall. When new friends come along Delly distances herself from Madge. She stays inside when Madge wants to play, eats in a different spot at lunch.
She still regrets it, because she's always liked Madge. Even when she wasn’t supposed to.
-~-
When Madge and Katniss become friends, Delly’s glad. The last of her guilt finally disappears and when she sees them at lunch she waves. Madge always waves back and Katniss always gives her a small, graceful smile.
When Katniss volunteers and is taken away to the Games, Delly shuts her eyes and feels viciously sad for her, and then for her family, and then for Madge.
When Katniss is reaped Delly’s guilt comes back twofold.
-~-
Delly brings Madge a tin of soup and offers to watch the Games with her. Madge, standing on the steps of her house, looks at her and starts crying. Delly scoops her up and holds her close, so close, and Madge cries and cries into her shoulder.
Later, Madge takes the soup and leads Delly inside, holding her hand. They watch the recaps together in silence.
-~-
Delly makes the trek up to Madge’s house almost every day. Sometimes she meets Madge and they walk into Town to watch the Games on the street, surrounded by other people. Sometimes they go to Delly’s house.
Madge’s father is hardly ever home and Madge doesn’t like to watch alone.
So they watch together, usually in the Town, because sometimes Delly can’t stand to look at her mother. Sometimes Delly brings her brother Basil.
Days and days later, Delly realizes Gale Hawthorne is standing next to the three of them, silent. He doesn’t speak, and they don’t speak to him, but when Delly walks Madge home she asks Madge how long he was standing there.
Madge looks at her funny. “Delly, he’s been watching with us for the past three days.”
-~-
Katniss wins.
Katniss wins and Delly sobs because Peeta wins, too, and Basil is clinging to her and laughing and Delly can’t bare to let him go. When she raises her head from Basil’s soft hair she sees Madge up in Gale’s arms, her legs swinging in the air, both of them near crying.
Delly starts laughing and crushes Basil to her again.
-~-
Katniss and Peeta come back.
Nothing is the same.
-~-
Delly starts hanging around Thom and, by extension, Gale and Leevy. But she stays for Thom.
She likes Gale and Leevy fine, of course, but they’re a little too intense for her, a little too angry. They always look like they’re near bursting with something, some secret.
She likes Thom, though. Likes him a lot.
Thom is dark and laughing and has gentle, gentle eyes. His hands are rough but they’re gentle, too. She brings him home to meet her mother and Basil. They love him and he loves them. Thom fits in so well it’s like he’s always been there.
He hasn’t, of course, and she gets looks when she walks down to the Seam. He gets worse when he comes into Town to meet her.
Neither of them care.
Gale cares, though. Delly can’t quite work out why so she asks Madge, who had been a sort of Gale-translator during the Games.
Madge chews her lip for a while before answering. “Thom could get hurt. You could get hurt.” Madge knots her fingers together and stares down at her lap. “He just wants you both safe,” she says, and sounds like she’s talking to herself.
It takes a while for everyone to accept Delly’s presence in the Seam, but not too long.
After all, Delly’s just a shoemaker’s daughter.
-~-
Gale and Madge don’t speak to each other, not often. But they sort of work together.
When Katniss is off doing whatever it is Katniss does, Gale plants seeds of rebellion. He is handsome and young and strong, and so passionate he can’t seem to contain it all. It leaks out of him and rubs off on everyone else so that, soon, everyone is vibrating with it, even Delly.
Men come out of the mines and nod at Gale, weary Hob traders greet him with calloused hands and tired smiles. Gale is everywhere, helping where he can, fighting where he can’t. And when he can’t help, and can’t fight, and everyone’s started looking a little too gaunt and sad, he goes to Madge.
Delly doesn’t think they’re friends, really. But she doesn’t know what else to call them.
One day, when Vick’s cheeks are getting a little too thin and it seems every girl in the Seam needs a new dress, Madge comes down to the Hob with her arms full of things. Two cakes, a basketful of clothes. Nobody greets her or looks at her and everyone starts searching for Peacekeepers. Madge looks frightened but she doesn’t leave, not even when some of the younger men start whispering, start looking like they might go over to her.
Delly gets ready to run to her but Thom puts a hand on her shoulder and Leevy grabs her elbow.
“I have to go over there,” Delly tells them, getting scared for Madge, but then Gale walks up and smiles, big and right at Madge.
It’s like throwing water over a fire. Everyone relaxes and goes near silent. Everyone watches.
Madge smiles back at Gale, tired, and says something that makes Gale roll his eyes. They look friendly, like perfect acquaintances.
Gale takes the box out of Madge’s hands and waves over Rory who’s been hovering behind him, staring out at the Hob. He looks startled but he scurries forward when his brother calls him and takes the cakes from Madge.
Madge squeezes Rory’s hand, smiles again at Gale, waves at Delly, and then leaves.
And so everyone finds out that Madge is where the torn cloths and sweets are coming from. They never could figure out where Gale found them, before.
-~-
Madge pops down to the Seam occasionally, now. Delly always tries to be there when she does because Gale is almost always late and nobody but Delly or Gale (or sometimes Gale’s siblings) will speak to Madge. Not with the Peacekeepers watching.
Once, everyone overhears them talking about Katniss.
“She likes you better than me, now,” Gale is saying. It sounds like he’s joking but also like he’s not.
Madge shrugs. “I’m nicer than you are.”
Gale laughs and Delly stares, along with everyone else in the Hob. “You’re really not,” he tells her.
-~-
And then Katniss and Peeta go back to the games.
Everyone walks with their heads down and Delly forbids Thom from visiting her in Town.
“I’ll come to you,” she tells him. “Don’t risk it, please, please Thom.”
“I don’t like you walking by yourself,” Thom tells her, angry at the world but never with Delly.
“I don’t like the way those Peacekeepers look at you,” Delly says, stroking a thumb over his charcoal-covered cheek. In the end she gets him to agree but every time she visits him he holds her tight, tight, like he’s scared for her.
One day, he turns to her and says, “the miners are striking soon.” He says it like he might say ‘it’s Tuesday’ but he won’t look at her. His hands are shaking but he’s trying to hide it.
Delly grabs one, squeezes as tight as she can. “Alright,” she tells him. “Be safe. Tell Gale and Leevy I said to be safe, too.”
He looks at her like he’s seeing something miraculous.
-~-
She runs to Madge immediately after.
“The miners are striking, Madge,” she babbles, almost before Madge opens the door. “They’re striking and I’m so scared.”
This time it’s Madge’s turn to hold Delly on the steps, Delly’s turn to cry into Madge’s shoulder. Madge holds her tight and looks very pale when Delly pulls away, but she doesn’t say anything. Both of them breathe together.
-~-
Delly goes home to Basil. She holds him so, so tight. Tells Basil that Thom might not be around as much, because he’s off doing important things with Gale Hawthorne.
Basil loves Thom. Loves Thom so, so much.
Basil asks if she’s afraid and she says no. Of course not. Thom won’t get hurt.
He believes her.
Delly tucks him in, even though he’s too old for that, and then goes to her room and cries.
-~-
The Games start again and this time none of them are allowed to watch in the square. Delly drags Madge away from her cold, empty house every day and they huddle inside, either Thom’s house or Delly’s, and watch and watch and watch.
One day, Madge doesn’t come and Thom tells her he saw her at the Hawthorne house. He’s expecting some sort of reaction, probably, a gasp or a smile or a request for more information. But Delly remembers how Madge and Gale watched the first Games, silent next to each other, drawing strength.
“That’s nice,” Delly says, and Thom looks at her like she’s gone crazy.
-~-
The screens go dark and nobody knows what’s going on, nobody is sure of anything.
Everyone riots. People are screaming in the town square, throwing rocks and lighting torches, ganging up on the Peacekeepers ten to one. Delly looks on and thinks, yes, yes, yes, almost incoherent, almost euphoric.
And then the Peacekeepers retreat.
And time passes.
And then it’s late, late, late, and Twelve is burning.
Delly doesn’t really know how it happened. Or maybe she does. Or maybe she doesn’t and Thom knows, instead. Where is Thom? Where is her brother and her mother? Everything is burning and she thinks people are screaming. But maybe they aren’t? Her ears are ringing.
She has to move. She has to move.
So she does.
She’s always been practical like that.
-~-
People are streaming out of their houses, clutching at each others’ hands and shirts, trying not to lose anyone in the fire and the crush of people. Delly runs by herself through the street, searching and searching for Basil and Thom. She wants to yell, wants to call for them, but they wouldn’t hear her. Everyone is yelling and the fire is roaring and nobody would hear her.
She keeps running.
-~-
Everyone ends up at the fence, because of course they do. Delly winds up there too, watching the smoke curl up into the sky. She’s breathing, deep and slow, and not thinking about anything. Every few minutes she looks around for Basil, or Thom, but she hasn’t seen them yet. But she’s not crying. She’s breathing, deep and slow, and not thinking about anything. She’s calm. Or maybe she’s numb. She doesn’t think it matters. What matters is that she’s not shaking, or crying, or screaming, like some of the people are.
She sees two girls, tiny and alone and holding hands, and stumbles over to them. She puts her hands on their heads and they immediately press their faces into her stomach. She breathes. She waits. She doesn’t think.
She sits down on the ground and the girls follow her, almost crawl into her lap.
Not many people made it out. There are thirty, forty people clustered around the fence. It’s not enough, not even close to enough.
So many people must be burning.
She breathes. She doesn’t think. She holds the girls tighter.
-~-
Greasy Sae is standing over her and Delly isn’t sure how long she’s been there. Sae hasn’t said anything, just stood, staring out at the burning, her mouth a hard line.
Delly doesn’t know how long they’ve all been there, by the fence, waiting and waiting. Maybe it’s been hours. Likely, it’s only been a few minutes. People are still trickling in, in threes or twos or lonely and panicked, all on their own.
Somehow, people begin talking, and the first name Delly hears is Gale’s.
“We need Gale. We can’t do this without him—"
“Nobody knows the woods half so well. Has anyone seen him?”
“I saw him, I saw him. Looks fine. Thom’s with him, lifted a buncha wood straight off me—"
Delly jolts, lifts her head and calls across the grass, “you’ve seen Thom?” There’s desperate hope in her voice.
The man, whose dark face is streaked darker with soot, looks at her, and there’s a sort of wild compassion in his eyes. “Yes, ma’am,” he says, “and he looked just fine. I wouldn’t be surprised if him and Gale come by with twenty folks behind them.” His voice is fierce.
“That sounds like them,” Delly agrees, feeling faint with relief.
Greasy Sae looks down at her. “Thom your man, then?” And Delly thinks, like you haven’t seen us around together, but doesn’t roll her eyes. Doesn’t look up at Sae either.
But Delly answers “yes, ma’am” anyway and feels pride well up in her chest.
“Well,” Sae says, and she makes it sound like a whole sentence. “Love’s been doing some strange things, lately.” Her voice is very dry.
Delly almost starts laughing— it’s ridiculous to be talking like this, like the whole town isn’t burning down, like they’re not stuck with nowhere to go, bombs still cracking in the distance. She holds the girls tighter, wonders if she should ask their names, ask if they’ve seen their families. She doesn’t. She breathes.
-~-
One last heave of people comes before Twelve is well and truly destroyed. Greasy Sae and a few of the miners have been pushing people through the gap in the fence, having them run to the trees. Delly is one of the last to go through and she pushes the two tiny girls in front of her. They run to the trees still holding hands. Twelve is burning and burning behind her and she hasn’t seen Basil or Thom. She sneaks through the gap and then turns to hold it open for Sae, who walks through with purpose, her old skin soft when it brushes against Delly’s.
Delly waits by the trees and she breathes. She doesn’t think. She waits and waits and waits, just like everybody else. A few people are talking, trying to figure out what to do.
And then one last wave of people crests the hill and Delly starts crying.
There’s about thirty people and Thom is at the front of the group, right next to Gale Hawthorne, and he’s carrying her brother on his back. They spot her through the fence immediately and Basil starts hollering, waving and bouncing from his spot on Thom’s back. Thom starts crying, but he’s smiling too.
Delly disentangles herself from the girls, passes them off to Greasy Sae who takes them with the ease of a woman who’s been made a grandmother five times over. Delly runs to the fence, waits impatiently for Thom and Basil to duck through. Basil leaps off Thom’s back and starts running to her, Thom right behind him. They both have such long legs, Delly finds herself thinking, half hysterical. They’re the first ones under but it doesn’t feel quick enough.
And then they’re in front of her and Basil launches himself into her arms, knobby elbows knocking into her stomach. He forces his head under hers, burying himself into her chest even though he’s getting too tall for that. Thom wraps himself around both of them, squeezing so tight Delly can’t breathe, and they’re all weeping, and Delly loves them so, so, so much.
She sees Gale and all of his family members work themselves through the fence after and thinks thank God, thank God, thank God.
-~-
And then she remembers Madge.
And then she thinks, oh God, oh God, oh God.
-~-
The bombs hit the Town first and they hit the town hard. Most of the people in the woods are Seam folks, who heard the noise and ran while they could. The Town burned fast and bright, spread quickly to the Seam. But the Mellark boys made it and Delly thinks, at least that's something.
Delly feels a little numb. But then Thom takes her hand and Basil tucks himself under her arm and she thinks, it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been so much worse. But her mother isn't here, her mother isn't coming, she isn't, she isn't, she isn't, and Delly feels sick for thinking it.
Gale’s been talking with Greasy Sae and some of the miners. He comes looking for Thom and when he stops in front of the three of them he squeezes Delly’s arm, smiles at her perfunctory. His eyes are a million miles away and she can almost see his brain working.
“Thom, come on, we need to get everyone together.”
Thom gives her a fierce kiss on the mouth, and then another one, and then another, like he can’t bare to pull away. Delly pushes at his chest, turns her face so his mouth hits her cheek. She loves him so desperately it almost hurts.
“Go,” she tells him, “go, go, go, I’ll see you in a minute.”
He doesn’t go that far, just a little further into the woods, gathers up a few stragglers and pushes them into the group. He’s back at her side almost immediately, clutching her tight, and his arm stretches around her back to get to Basil, who grabs at Thom’s hand. All three of them hold each other.
“Come on,” Thom says, “come stand up front with me.”
They go. Her and Basil are still outsiders, still Town folks, but nobody seems to care. Everyone’s eyes are sad and understanding when Thom can’t let go of Delly’s hand, when he keeps moving the other to touch Basil’s hair. Delly holds Basil a little tighter, tries to comfort Thom. It works a little.
“Listen up,” Thom shouts, and Delly tries not to jump. He’s still right beside her and he’s very, very loud. “Listen up, Gale’s got a plan, but first we have to— to—” and he pauses then says, “listen, does anybody know what the fuck’s going on?”
“An exchange of information,” Gale says, looking exhausted and shell-shocked and also like he’s trying not to roll his eyes. “Where did the bombs first hit?”
“Town Hall and then the Mayor’s house,” a man yelled from the back.
Gale looks like he’s swallowed his own tongue. Delly shuts her eyes and thinks oh, Gale, and then breathes through the pain. She breathes and breathes.
There’s a silence, time ticking away, and none of them have time to waste, and nobody but her seems to know why Gale looks like that, so she steps up. “We need to take a vote. Do we start walking toward Eleven, or do we walk the other way, to where Thirteen was?”
Everyone is still looking at Gale and Gale still looks shocked and very, very young. Hazelle is forcing her way through the crowd and so are all Gale’s siblings, and they all look some variation of devastated.
Nobody is reacting so Delly squeezes Thom’s hand and Thom understands. He always does.
“Come on,” Thom says, “we don’t have time to waste. Vote: Eleven or Thirteen?”
It’s unanimous.
They start walking toward Thirteen.
-~-
She pushes her way over to Gale, who looks better than before. Posy is holding tight to his hand and Rory is at his shoulder, holding onto Vick. Gale’s face is stony but it’s determined too and something in Delly’s chest shakes.
Thom and Basil are right behind her, of course. They all walk up to the Hawthornes together. Thom disentangles himself long enough to grab Gale around the neck and pull him in. He plants a fierce kiss on Gale’s forehead and then does the same to the rest of the Hawthornes.
Delly goes up and grabs Gale’s other hand, tries to smile at Posy as she does it. Gale looks at her like she’s grown antlers, or started caterwauling in the middle of the forest.
Delly opens her mouth and says “Madge” but then she can’t say any more. Gale’s face crumples, his lips press tight together, and Delly’s eyes well up. But then he breathes, and she breathes, and they both breathe together. And neither of them cry.
They keep walking.
-~-
They set up camp.
Well, they try, anyway. None of them have supplies, or any idea of how to make a camp, and so mostly they lay down on the ground in a large pile, limb on limb on limb, everyone breathing together.
Gale sleeps in the middle of his family, all his little siblings clinging to him and his mother. Delly sleeps between Basil and Thom, holding them close as she can. They cling to her, even in their sleep, and curl into her softness.
She looks at Gale and finds him looking at her. She thinks of Madge and she can tell he is, too. She wants to stand up and go to him, comfort him, tell him that she knows, even if nobody else does. She knows, she knows, she knows, and it’s alright. It’s alright, you loved her, it’s alright.
But they can’t move. They’re being held too tight.
-~-
Delly loves her mother, of course she does. Of course she does. She loves her mother.
But she also thinks the best thing her mother did was make Basil.
She doesn't really know what that means.
-~-
Morning comes quickly. It’s surreal. There the sun is, rising in the same place, at the same time, just like it always does. Delly crawls out from beneath Thom and Basil, crouches by them for a minute, brushes the hair out from their eyes.
Her knees crack when she stands. She looks around and sees other people stirring with the sun: parents shaking their children awake, friends nudging friends, lovers stroking hair and faces and kissing, kissing, kissing. It’s quiet but there are a few birds in the trees singing. A few leaves are rustling.
Delly stares and stares and misses Madge. Someone puts a hand on her shoulder. She jumps but it’s only Gale.
They stare at the trees together. Neither of them speak. They breathe, except this time it doesn’t calm Delly down, because Delly remembers doing this with Madge. Remembers Madge holding her hand and crying with her. Remembers how often they’d huddled close together, worrying and worrying for Thom and Gale. Remembers how they’d both go to their kitchens and bake and bake, then meet in the morning and hand the food off to Prim, two Town girls helping the rebellion along as best they could.
And now Madge is gone. Her breath hitches.
Delly doesn’t know what Gale is thinking about but his breath hitches too, like an echo.
But then everyone’s awake and Gale walls himself up and he’s a leader again, the brightest spark in Twelve’s revolution.
Delly thinks please, please, please.
-~-
Thom sticks close to her and Basil. Delly shouldn’t be surprised by it but she is. He’s not with them all the time, of course, but every time he’s away he circles back as quick as he can. He talks with Gale and the other miners and then he comes to take her hand. He talks to Greasy Sae and then comes to kiss Basil’s head. He’s never gone for more than ten minutes and he never goes where she can’t see him.
Gale watches them.
Delly’s heart breaks for him.
They’ve been walking for an hour, maybe two, when there’s a shout. It’s faint and Delly can’t tell if she really heard it or not, can’t make out what the person’s trying to say. It sounds like they’re far, far behind them, and Delly doesn’t react.
Part of her thinks it’s a ghost.
The echo sounds like Madge.
-~-
Another hour and they’re stopping because some of the kids are so, so small, too small to walk very far. Still too big to carry for long. So they’re resting and Delly has Thom nearly on top of her in the grass. His face is hidden in her shoulder and she thinks he might be sleeping. Basil is trying to climb a tree with a few other kids and their hushed laughter drifts over Delly. It’s calming. Basil is the first one to climb up high and he waves down at her while she smiles at him.
Delly tries not to hover, really. He’s having fun and so she doesn’t think about him falling. Besides, Gale’s watching them, scowling and shouting up the tree every few minutes. It’s funny— all the adults in the group and Gale’s the one taking charge, watching the kids and plotting the way to Thirteen, keeping everyone’s spirits up.
Thom shifts, nuzzles into her shoulder further. The sun tints his hair and his skin orange. Delly kisses his forehead three times, quick and fierce.
Part of her wants to go to Gale. He’s a solitary figure, for all that he’s surrounded by people; he’s not holding anybody, no one is holding him. His siblings run to him and then away— Posy comes for a hug and then runs back to Hazelle. Rory and Vick come to nudge against Gale’s side and accept a hand in their hair and then they retreat, too. It’s like they don’t know what to do with their brother, who isn’t just their brother anymore. He's a rebellion leader and everyone can see it.
Maybe he’s the leader. Delly can’t say for certain.
Delly wants to go to Gale and hide him away, let him cry and cry and cry if he wants to. She doesn’t know how he’s still standing, how he’s not shaking. He’s not smiling but he’s not sobbing and raging, either, and Delly wants to sob and rage for him.
She stares at him so hard he feels it. He looks. Their eyes meet and just for a second his face shifts into heartbreak. And then it’s gone and Delly is shifting Thom off her and into the grass.
Thom opens his eyes. “Where—?”
Delly kisses him. “Just over to Gale. Go back to sleep, go back to sleep.”
She walks to the tree where Basil and his friends are playing quietly, so quietly. She almost can’t believe they’re laughing like the whole world wasn’t burning only hours ago, but she doesn’t say anything.
She stops by Gale and they look at the tree in silence. Delly takes a deep breath and takes Gale’s hand. Her heart thumps.
He doesn’t pull away.
Delly’s heart breaks again. Just cry, she thinks, it’ll hurt less if you cry, Gale, I promise. Just let yourself cry. But she doesn’t say anything and he doesn’t cry. They just stand and hold hands under the tall tree and watch the kids play. People stare at them. She thinks Gale might be too out of it to notice, but she does.
It’s mostly Seam folks, people who know Gale and Thom, who know Gale is surly and doesn’t like to be touched, who know how head-over-boots Thom is for her. Delly ignores them. She squeezes Gale’s hand and waits. It’s long moments before Gale squeezes back, like his head is somewhere far away, somewhere it takes a long time to come back from. Like he’s not in his body.
Thom walks over to them and Delly could cry because he throws an arm over Gale's shoulders and doesn’t pay attention to the stares, either.
Thom looks at her from behind Gale and he looks so, so lost Delly could laugh. She doesn’t. She feels like she might explode, instead, because Thom is so clueless and lovely and loyal, and Gale is so, so brokenly stoic. Seconds tick away and the tree stands, sturdy and tall, in front of them.
And then Gale’s chest hitches, stutters, just once.
Please, Delly thinks, but she isn’t sure what she wants. Gale can’t fall apart right now, he can’t, he can’t, because he’s a leader. Maybe he’s the leader. But God, she wants him to, wants him to cry and rage and scream so it doesn’t build up inside him, take him over. She presses her face to Gale’s shoulder and thinks please again.
And then there's a miracle.
-~-
One day, Madge says to her: “God, but sometimes things are beautiful, aren’t they?”
Delly asks her what she means.
Madge says, “I’m just in a mood, I suppose. Did you know that Prim has her first crush?”
“What, right now?” Delly says, shocked. She doesn’t say ‘right now, while her sister is fighting for her life while maybe-pregnant? Right now, while the streets are cold and empty and everyone is going hungry? Now, while the miners are striking and people are being whipped right in the Town Square?’ She doesn't say any of it but she thinks it. Hard.
Madge hears it anyway.
“Yes, right now,” Madge says and smiles at her and Delly sees, for the first time, that she has a chipped tooth. “Yesterday Prim kissed a boy for the first time and she ran all the way to my house to tell me about it. Smiled the whole way here, smiled the whole way home.”
“Huh,” Delly says, but she feels her heart swell.
“It’s beautiful that she can still feel like that, you know? She’s just… she’s still thirteen and kissing boys and falling in love for the first time. It’s just… beautiful to know that they can’t ever take that away. Life, I mean. Not even when they try.”
“It’s almost a miracle,” Delly says.
Madge laughs. “Love’s always a miracle. That’s what my dad says, anyway.”
-~-
There’s a miracle and it’s this:
Another shout comes from the woods and this time Delly knows it isn’t a ghost.
It’s a girl’s voice, cracking and dry, like she’s tired and thirsty, maybe a little hurt. It’s close and everyone jerks up, looking around. Greasy Sae stands up quick, grabs Mrs. Everdeen and Prim, then shouts: “girl, we’re here, we’re here. Follow my voice, now.” No-nonsense, stern. When there’s not another shout, Sae hollers out “c’mon and find us now, girl, you’ve made it this far, move those feet.”
Everyone is holding their breath, looking at each other, wondering if it’s their child, or niece, or girlfriend returned to them. Delly feels like she’s standing underwater, feels slow and weightless, and also like she can’t breathe.
Please, she thinks again. Please, please, please.
They all wait. No one is breathing. There’s a long, long pause and Greasy Sae gets ready to yell again, her forehead wrinkling with concern, but then there’s a noise. A twig snapping. And then there’s something that sounds like stumbling, like someone trudging along through the long grass, hidden behind the trees.
Sae takes a big breath. “That’s it, girl,” she calls, and her voice cracks. She blinks very fast.
Delly’s eyes well up and she lets herself cry. Even if it’s not… even if it’s not… God. This girl is someone from Twelve, she’s one of their own, and she’s come back to them.
When Delly glances around she finds she’s not the only one crying.
The kids have scrambled down from the tree, now, and Basil’s come to hold her hand. Gale and Thom have turned, both of them watching, Gale with the contained patience of a hunter and Thom with a sort of stunned, vibrant hope.
There’s a pause where the stumbling noises stop and Sae’s voice snaps out “we don’t have all day. Get your ass out here.”
Prim is near vibrating. Mrs. Everdeen more composed but still standing ready. All of Twelve is looking out into the trees, trying to spot her, ready to run, ready to help. The girl starts walking again, twigs cracking, and Twelve breathes together. Delly breathes, too. Come on, she thinks. Come on, you can do it, you’ve made it this far.
And then she can see something, a tattered blue dress, light hair, light skin. A Town girl. Everyone breathes in again. Delly stumbles forward a step, tugging Basil with her. Please.
Gale doesn’t move. Maybe he can’t.
The girl moves, tired but determined. Delly watches as a few miners run to her, put their arms around her waist. She shakes them off, stubborn, and Delly almost smiles. A huff of almost-laughter spreads around the clearing, like they’re all thinking there’s that Twelve spirit.
And then the girl breaks the treeline and Delly can’t breathe, can’t breathe, can’t breathe, because she’s laughing too hard.
Nobody moves. Nobody moves and everybody stares and there would be silence except Delly is laughing.
And then one of the Mellark boys says “Madge?” and everyone starts moving all at once.
Prim and Mrs. Everdeen rush to her, set her down on the grass and start speaking quickly, Madge shaking or nodding every so often. Greasy Sae beckons the miners over to her and they start talking, trading wary looks with each other, glancing at Madge.
It’s near chaos because everyone is trying to get to Madge or get a better look at her while trying not to be obvious about it.
Delly wants to scream, wants to shout ‘let me through! Let me through, please she’s my friend’ but she doesn’t think anyone would pay attention.
And then Gale speaks.
And everyone goes quiet.
“Madge?” He asks. His voice doesn’t shake, his face is blank. But there’s something in his eyes. Something burning. Delly feels her heart lurch. Oh, Gale, she thinks
Madge looks up from where she’s sitting. She looks shocked. Her heart’s in her eyes. “Gale?” She says.
Delly can feel Gale stumble a step forward. His eyes are very big, glowing gray in the hazy light. Delly tries to breathe but she can’t, she can’t, some emotion is blocking up her lungs.
No one is moving. Delly thinks everyone else might be holding their breath, too. Madge pulls herself to her feet. She sways a little but she does it and she looks at Gale Hawthorne like she’s seeing something beautiful.
Gale looks like he’s seeing a miracle.
“Madge, oh my God,” he says. And then he starts moving.
Gale stumbles over to Madge like he’s blind, tripping over rocks and roots, never taking his eyes away from her face, not even for a moment. People move to make a path for him. A couple people start crying because that’s their Gale Hawthorne; that’s their fearless leader, their angry Seam boy, and that’s the Mayor’s daughter with burned ribbons in her hair and God, isn’t life strange sometimes? Isn’t life beautiful sometimes?
Gale crashes into Madge but Madge doesn’t fall and everyone watches as she gathers him up and holds him so, so tight. It looks like everything angry in Gale crumbles away, just for a minute, just while Madge is holding him. Delly grabs Thom without looking, tugs him to her. Thom goes easy.
They’re rocking, Gale and Madge, side to side, holding each other tight, tight, tight.
“How the hell did you get out?” Gale asks, face buried in Madge’s hair.
“I don’t know, really,” Madge says, “I was walking back from the Justice building and then suddenly it was— everything was burning. So I ran to my house and that was burning, too, but I couldn’t move because I thought… I thought someone might run out.” And then Madge is crying and then Delly is crying, too.
Delly cries for Madge, cries for that lost look on her face, like she still half-expects her father to appear. But then, before her eyes, Madge buries her nose in Gale’s neck and breathes, breathes, breathes. Delly breathes, too, like an echo. And then Madge lifts her head and Madge’s eyes are still wet but they’re not empty. They’re not empty, or angry, or broken. They’re just… sad. Normal sad, the kind of sad that a person bounces back from. And then Delly breathes in and sees something else in Madge’s eyes.
They’re happy, too, and shining when she looks at Gale. Madge says, “I knew I couldn’t stay there, so I ran to the fence but everyone had left. So I followed you.”
“And how did you do that?” Gale says, still buried in Madge’s hair. He looks like he’ll never come out.
Madge starts laughing. Long, ringing laughs, and they’re not delicate or gentle. They’re hearty, and wet, and there are a couple hacking coughs mixed in. But it’s beautiful. Delly thinks it’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever heard. A few people around the clearing laugh with her, joy catching like sparks in kindling.
“Gale,” she says, “I can’t track a deer or a rabbit but even I can follow a hundred people walking in a straight line.”
“I’m shocked you could even manage that, Undersee,” Gale says, and everything’s back where it should be, Gale sniping at the pretty girl from town, pulling out of the hug so he’s standing at arms-length. Retreating again, hiding again. Madge lets him go.
Gale, please don’t do this, Delly thinks. You’re so brave, Gale, be brave. Be brave, be brave, be brave. Please.
Beside Delly, Thom relaxes. The Seam folks around the clearing murmur a little bit, chuckle a little bit. But Greasy Sae watches, curious like an alley-cat.
Be brave, Delly thinks again.
Gale Hawthorne swoops in and kisses Madge Undersee, right there in the woods.
His hands are on her neck, buried in her hair, and his mouth closes over hers clumsily, hurried, like he has to kiss her right now, damn the technique. It’s sloppy and not what Delly expects, not with how many times Gale’s been to the ‘heap. But it’s real, passionate and impulsive and real.
God, that’s a real kiss, Delly thinks, stunned, they’re really kissing! Because Madge is kissing back just as hard, her hands coming around Gale and holding him to her, pulling him in by the hair. It’s all lips and chins and tongues, close and awkward-looking.
Delly’s never smiled this hard, not in all her life.
Everyone else is so shocked Delly can almost feel it in the air, little kids and old haggard Seam workers both standing with their mouths open. It’s so funny Delly can’t stand it. She starts laughing again and the Mellark boys join her, almost immediately.
“Holy shit, Madge,” the oldest one says and Delly wishes she knew his name.
It’s just the three of them laughing but then Thom joins, too, and his voice is deep and belly-shaking. The sound wakes everyone else up, starts them blinking like they’re coming out of a dream. A couple people start smiling, the younger kids giggle or make faces. Beside her, Basil sticks out his tongue, crosses his eyes. He’s still such a little kid, sometimes.
Delly keeps laughing and Gale and Madge keep kissing. There’s a lot of tongue but Delly doesn’t feel embarrassed for them. She can’t, she can’t, not when Gale’s shoulders are finally loose and Madge is back and Thom is giggling next to her.
Gale and Madge, kissing and kissing in the woods at the end of the world; in view of God and Gale’s family and the whole entire district Twelve.
Madge pulls away first and Delly’s surprised Gale lets her go. They look at each other and they’re in love, it’s clear as day. Delly doesn’t know how anyone could miss it.
And then Gale pulls Madge into his arms and swings her up and around, just like he did when Katniss won her first Hunger Games. Suddenly, Delly’s running, pushing past people and tackling Madge and Gale both. She squirms under their arms and presses her face against Madge’s, kisses her cheek and then her forehead and then her golden hair.
And then Thom is there, holding all three of them, and they’re all laughing and crying and laughing.
There’s a weight at Delly’s back, sudden and heavy. She thinks it’s Basil but when she turns it’s Rory Hawthorne, leaking from his eyes and smiling so big he looks fit to burst. Delly looks at Thom and finds Basil clinging to his shoulders like a long cape, grinning contentedly. Vick and Posy Hawthorne worm their way in between Gale and Madge, clinging to them both with skinny arms.
Hazelle is standing over by Mrs. Everdeen. She’s weeping, hands over her face, and giggling with Prim Everdeen. Greasy Sae is making her way over to them, looking stern but also like she’s near laughter. The two little girls from before, the ones Delly held while the night burned around them, are trailing after her, giggling into their fists.
Delly shuts her eyes. She breathes. She kisses Madge’s hair and then Gale’s face and brings a hand to Basil’s cheek. Thom presses in further to kiss her on the mouth. She kisses back as hard as she can.
Delly shuts her eyes. She breathes.
She thinks, thank you, thank you, thank you.
-~-
The very, very first time Delly meets Madge, she's four years old. She’s four years old and tired and a little bit sick and something very bad is happening.
She doesn’t know what but she can tell it’s bad because all the grown-ups are very sad and all the kids are very scared. Madge is dressed very pretty, though. She’s got on a pale pink dress and ribbons in her gold hair.
Delly stares at her. “Pretty dress,” she says.
A bigger boy shoves past her, following his dad. He’s got dark hair and faded clothes on, a Seam boy, and he scowls at her when he passes. A different boy runs after him, cheerful, and he grins with dimples as he chases after his friend.
Delly’s momma smiles and presses a hand to her stomach.
“Thanks,” Madge says, and Delly thinks her smile is nice. “Yours is pretty, too.”
A lady with pink hair walks to a big stage and everyone goes quiet. A girl their age sneezes and breaks the quiet; her braid shakes against her back as her father shushes her. A blond boy looks over at her, then away. The lady with pink hair walks over to the fish bowls and her shoes go clack, clack, clack.
Madge grabs Delly’s hand.
They breathe.