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

Down the Rabbit Hole

Madge didn't like the sensation of being lost. She wasn't adventurous. She didn't travel far from her known paths very often. Home, school, a few select shops in town, those were her known places, her safe zones. However, after the horror of the Reaping, she'd known she had to leave her havens and try, in whatever way she could, to comfort Primrose. She was determined to be a good friend.

So the morning after the Reaping, after stopping by the Mellark bakery and offering her condolences to Peeta's brothers, she'd set out with a basket stuffed with whatever vegetables had come up in the garden and some bread and a canvas bag of dresses she'd outgrown for the Everdeens'.

She'd made it relatively easily, arriving at their door by noon, and introducing herself as 'Katniss' sort-of-kind-of friend.' Despite her hesitancy, her awkward stance on their porch in her pale blue dress and carefully curled hair, Prim was warm and welcoming. She smiled easily and spoke in a soft, sweet tone; apparently her difference from her sister wasn't just in looks.

Mrs. Everdeen was somber, understandably so, she sat at the table through most of the visit and tried weakly to carry on a conversation. She asked about Madge's mother, Madge vaguely remembered her mother mentioning, years ago, a friend that had married and moved to the Seam, though she'd never connected the 'unfortunate friend' with Katniss' mother. Seeing the battered and empty eyed woman, though, she could see a reflection of her mother, and wondered if it wasn't the Seam that slowly killed, but being a town girl. Being lost in the Seam makes her bitterly certain herconstitution isn't strong enough for much out of life.

She'd stayed too long, Prim was insistent, and probably a little lonely and sick of being stuck with her miserable thoughts and her silent mother. A sentiment Madge could sympathize with. But when Hazelle Hawthorne arrived with her youngest child, Madge knew she needed to make a quick exit. And she tried. But Hazelle was nothing if not friendly and the girl, Posy, was enchanting.

"You have a pretty dress," Posy chattered as she took a handful of the soft blue fabric in her grimy hands.

Madge's heart nearly stopped. If she hadn't known the girl was Gale's sister the words might not have struck such a chord, but she was, and they did. Posy's words weren't malicious. There was no scorn, just an innocent, childish statement.

"Thank you," Madge smiled down at her. "I brought some of my outgrown ones to Prim. Maybe I can find some more my mother stocked away and see if they fit you…"

Before the statement was even finished Madge wanted to pull it back. In her mind's eye she could see Gale glaring at her, she could see most of the people in the Seam really, telling her harshly they didn't need her help. Uneasily she looked up at Hazelle, expecting a hateful expression.

Hazelle's grey eyes, however, only sparkled, "That would be nice. Usually I just work with the boys' things, make them more girl appropriate."

Madge let out a long breath, feeling better she hadn't offended them. This is going better than expected, she thought brightly to herself. Then the door opened.

In stepped Gale Hawthorne. Madge would be lying if she said he wasn't handsome. No girl, Town or Seam, could deny he was the most attractive boy most had ever seen. He also frightened her a little. He was, like the trek to the Everdeens' house, an unknown path. His face was relaxed, almost friendly, as he stepped over the threshold, until he saw Madge.

"What are you doing here?"

Hazelle shot him a look, "Gale. Madge is visiting Prim and Valencia. There's no need for rudeness."

Gale looked like there was every need for rudeness, but didn't appear to want to fight with his mother. Then he spotted the basket and then the dresses hanging over the back of one of the chairs. His eyes narrowed at Madge. He terrified her, but she wasn't about to let him know that.

"I brought some of the early vegetables out of the garden. I though Primrose and Mrs. Everdeen might like some," she kept her voice even, diplomatic, and smiled softly. Surely he couldn't be mad about a little help? Yes, yes he could.

He was biting his tongue, Madge knew the look. She was well versed in biting back her thoughts. He was simmering, and while she was relatively certain he wouldn't hit a girl, she still didn't want to be anywhere within striking distance when he boiled over.

Abruptly she stood and bid Primrose and the others goodbye.

"You don't want to stay for dinner?" Primrose asked, looking genuinely disappointed.

Madge shook her head. "I have to get home. My dad will be working late and my mother…I need to be home for her." She didn't feel like telling them someone had to be at home all the time to make sure her mother didn't accidently overdose on morphling and the housekeeper would be leaving soon.

Mrs. Everdeen seemed to catch the thought though. "Tell Matilda hello for me." Then she smiled, it suited her, and Madge returned the gesture with a nod.

She'd only just reached the door when Posy called out. "When will you get my dresses, Madge?"

Gale's face tensed, but Madge took one look at Posy's sweet, hopeful expression and couldn't disappoint her by telling her that she couldn't because if she did her jerk of a brother would murder her.

"After…well, soon as can be. This time of year is busy." She doesn't want to tell them her father is worried about the scrutiny they'll be under for having a volunteer. She doesn't want to tell them that they've already received a letter from the Capitol informing them they'll soon gain a houseguest to 'determine the wellness of the current administration', and that the better Katniss does the more invasive the inquiry will be.

Her father will need her to maintain an illusion for the Capitol, and so she will have to be careful how she does her business.

#######################################

With that she said another round of goodbyes and stepped quickly, but not too quickly, out the door. She'd reached the gate when she heard a harsh male voice.

"Undersee."

She sighed and considered ignoring him. He'll just chase you down. She stopped and turned to him with a neutral expression, "Yes."

"What are you playing at, Undersee?" He looked at her like she was something nasty stuck to his boot.

Her eyebrows arched. "Playing at? I'm not playing at anything. I'm being nice to a friend's little sister and mother. I'm being a decent human being. You should try it sometime."

He ignored the jibe. "You aren't Katniss' friend. You're just the girl she gets stuck with at school because no one else wants you."

It hurt, because it might be a little bit true. Madge had always considered Katniss a friend, at least by her definition of the word, but she really didn't know what the other girl thought of her. Not really. They didn't talk much, theirs was a silent companionship, but amicable. Madge wasn't chatty and neither was Katniss. She took a calming breath.

"I consider her a friend, whatever she may think. I just wanted to help."

"Did you help last year when those other Seam kids were Reaped?" He glared.

"Did you?" She'd shot back. Of course neither of them had. People are mostly reactionary, if it doesn't harm them, actively or passively, they don't upset the status quo. Madge had read through enough banned books to know how that worked.

He made an agitated face, "We don't need your help, Undersee. I'll take care of Prim and Mrs. E. Just go back to your little palace and leave the ugliness to the rest of us."

"I'll do what I want, Gale. If that's to bring food, then that's what I'll do. Until one of the Everdeens tells me to stop, that's what I'll do." She raised her chin before turning, eager to get away. Then he caught her wrist. Tight. Too tight. Maybe she was wrong about him not hitting a girl…

"Let go of me, please."

He pulled her back, his face is inches from hers and spoke low, "Fine. Do whatever it is that you want to do. Prim's good nature can only last so long before she realizes she's just some project for you, to make you feel better about being some little princess." He pulled back and gave her wrist one last squeeze, "Don't even think about bringing any of those dresses to my house. They're probably bought and paid for off the backs of the people like us."

Then he turned and walked away, leaving Madge rubbing her wrists gingerly and fighting off tears.

And that's how she ended up lost in the Seam.

She'd been more upset by his harsh treatment, after she'd only been trying to help, than she cared to admit and she'd taken a wrong turn somewhere and now was hopelessly and unequivocally lost. And someone was following her. She could feel their eyes on her back and the hairs on her arms were on end.

She did a full circle on the narrow road, trying to see whoever or whatever was following her.

"Whoever you are, I know you're there. Please stop following me." It sounds stupid, even to her naïve ears, to politely ask a stalker to stop stalking, but she can't fight off her ingrained manners.

Then someone pokes her in the back and she spins around. No one is there. Until her gaze drops just a hair. A boy, maybe a tall eight or a short ten, dark hair, olive skin, grey eyes, and a baby face grins up at her, "You lost?"

He's cute with his little grin and knowing look and she rolls her eyes, "Well you've been following me, what do you think?"

"I think," he begins, grin widening, "that you're trying to get back to town, but you're going the wrong way." He points in the opposite direction of which she's currently heading, "Town's that way."

Madge sighs. She's taken herself about an hour out of her way. Damn you, Gale Hawthorne.

"Thanks," she gives the boy a quick smile before trudging off in the other direction. Then he's beside her, staring up at her. She cuts a look at him. "Did you need something else?"

"I'm Vick." He sticks his hand out so she stops and shakes it, trying not to laugh at his formality.

"I'm Madge."

"You're the Mayor's daughter, aren't you?"

Madge closes her eyes. Of course he recognizes her, everyone seems to. No one ever sees her, but everyone knows her. When she opens her eyes Vick's face isn't angry or pulled taught with annoyance, he's simply gazing at her expectantly. Against her better judgment, she nods, fully expecting him to shun her, like most of the young people of the District do, as soon as he's able.

Instead, Vick smiles. "My brother goes to school with you. Gale Hawthorne."

Her stomach drops as she watches him, waiting for his smile to morph into the scowl his brother so frequently shoots her way. "Oh?"

"Yeah," Vick shrugs. "He says you're a snob and a lot of other things I can't remember."

Of course he does. Madge can only imagine what awful things Gale Hawthorne has deemed her in his brother's presence. He's probably been abusing her name for years, whether she earned it or not.

"I don't think you are though," Vick starts carefully. "I saw you taking things to Prim and her mother, and you never say anything mean when I see you at the school, even when I hear the other kids saying mean things. I don't think you're a snob, I think you're just quiet."

His awareness is a little unsettling. She forces a smile and says the only thing she can think to say, "Thanks."

Vick's smile widens, "You're welcome." He looks around. "I know a shortcut. Do you want me to show you?"

She's a little suspicious. He's related to Gale Hawthorne, the boy who seems to delight in tormenting her; making her feel inadequate, so she isn't sure she should trust him. But Vick's eyes don't narrow with disdain and his smile doesn't shift into a scowl, and she wants so badly to trust him because it's been so long since someone approached her in such a friendly manner.

How pathetic am I? She thinks to herself. I'm getting excited about a kid showing just a glimmer of non-disgust with me.

But she is pathetic. Itis pathetic. She knows it. So, in that moment, she decides to embrace it.

She smiles, nods, and takes the funny little boy's hand. Because she needs a friend, even if it's only for the walk home.

###############################################

Vick comes by after school and helps her with her garden. He started doing it after he showed her the shortcut from the Seam to Town. She suspects he likes the feeling that he's being useful when he helps her pluck weeds from between the new sprouts, because he chatters constantly about his mother doing her laundry work and Rory picking up and doing deliveries for her and Gale doing whatever it is that Gale does, but he never talks about what he does at home.

"What chores do you have?" She asks him.

He shrugs. "Sometimes I watch Posy, but usually she stays with mom. Mostly I just have to stay out of the way."

Madge nods. "That was always my main activity when I was little." She pitches her voice up, "Go to your room and play, Madge. Don't make too much noise, Madge. Do you have to make such a mess, Madge? Do you have to always exist, Madge?"

Vick giggles, "They didn't say that!"

She shoots him a wry smile, "No in so many words." And not always my parents. She mentally adds.

Vick pokes at a green tomato. "Gale's in a bad mood."

Is he ever not?Madge wonders, but says, "About?"

"Katniss. The Games. He said she wasn't herself. I told him she had to be nicer so she could get sponsors, but he just got mad at me."

"She is just trying to get sponsors. Gale knows that. He shouldn't get upset with you for pointing out the obvious." She finds a squash and hands it to Vick. "My father's been to the Capitol and says it's very different there. You can't be yourself really."

Vick looks puzzled. "Have you been to the Capitol?"

Madge focuses on her garden, pulling viciously at a weed and tossing it away, before nodding shortly.

"Is it like on the television?"

She nods again, trying to ignore his question. He leans in closer, though, waiting for elaboration. She sighs.

"It's worse. It's bright-too bright. You can hardly see the sky at night and you can't see the stars at all. There's always noise and movement. It never sleeps, they never sleep."

He looks awestruck despite the unglowing assessment.

He's too attentive, too clever for her. Madge appreciates Vick's being brighter than the average nine year old, but at the moment, when she doesn't want to talk about this particular subject that she has very little information about, it's taxing.

She stands and dusts the dirt off her dress before heading for the porch then returning with a small basket. "This ought to carry everything."

He frowns when she pushes the basked loaded with her latest round of pickings at him, "I can't take this, Madge."

"You've been helping with it. Besides, I can't eat it all, I may have made my garden a bit too large this year. Everything will waste if I can't pass it off on someone." She makes a pained face. "Just don't tell your brother where they came from."

He shakes his head, "Not a chance. He'd throw them out. I'll show mom first, then he can't."

"Good idea," she laughs. Her face rearranges into a much more serious look, "You should probably stay home tomorrow. Gale's going to need all the support he can get when the training scores come out."

"But that won't be until the night," he makes a face.

"It'll make for a long day for him," she pats his hair down in the back.

He grins then throws his arms around her waist, "I like you Madge. You're nice. Even about my grouchy brother."

########################################

The next day Madge avoids her garden, it's too lonely a place without her newfound friend. She's inside, lying on the floor with her legs propped up on the sofa, waiting for the score show, when the phone rings.

The housekeeper is gone for the day, her father is still at the Justice Building, and her mother is on a morphling holiday so the only person who can answer the phone is her. She contemplates letting it ring out, it's for her father anyways, but no onecalls so it must be important. Grudgingly, she rolls over and stomps up the stairs to her father's office.

She carefully picks up the phone, "Hello?"

"How's my little Pearl?"

Madge frowns, "Mr. Abernathy, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Oh, this and that." He answers evasively. "My Tributes this year have some fire in them. Made me sober up some."

For some reason that doesn't sound as good as it should.

"Oh, good. Katniss is a friend of mine, actually. I'm really pulling for her."

"That's nice, sweetheart." He chews on something, "Look I can't talk long. I have to go get ready for the scores. Tight schedule you know. Won't be able to get any shut eye till at least eleven, unfortunately. The Capitol's the city that never sleeps."

Madge nods, before she realizes she can't be seen through the phone. "Of course. Get some rest."

"Watch for that bird on before the scores. She's back on for analysis. Little wench. Her hair is green now."

With that he's hung up. Madge frowns at the receiver. That was by and large the oddest conversation she's ever had in her life. She isn't certain what she was just told, but she has a sense of urgency building up in her stomach. Mr. Abernathy has never called about Tributes before and that alone makes her uneasy.

She checks that her mother is still soundly asleep then takes off for her father's office. The Peacekeepers there know her and don't give her any grief and she quickly shuffles into her father's office.

"Hello Pearl, is something wrong?" His brow creases in concern so Madge smiles and tries to act nonchalant.

"No, just bored. Mom's asleep."

He smiles and looks back at the paper he had been working on. She bites her lip, "Mr. Abernathy called."

He keeps writing.

"He said to watch for some 'bird' with green hair on for analysis tonight."

His pen stops moving, but he keeps his head down. "Oh?"

Madge nods, "He also said he isn't drinking as much apparently. That's nice isn't it?" Her father looks up with a faint smile, he's catching onto something Madge hasn't and it eats at her insides. She finishes up, "He said he's pretty tired. City's so busy, up all the time, you know? He had to be quick because of the scores being tonight and had a tight schedule. Won't be able to go to sleep until eleven."

Her father's face is set with the same hint of a smile, but he's gleaned something from the vague words. Madge can see something creeping into his eyes. He stands sharply, "I think I can catch up with this tomorrow, don't you think? Let's head home."

He takes her by the arm and they leave, down the steps and to the road leading to their house.

Madge glances around, "Something's wrong isn't it?"

He makes a face, "Not wrong. Just…thought provoking."

It's as vague as anything and Madge narrows her eyes. "Thought provoking how?"

######################################

The fact that Katniss was going to be awarded an '11', the highest score any Tribute from 12 had ever received should have been exciting. For Madge, however, it was now a source of anxiety.

Her father, calmly and quietly, had explained that there was a very real possibility that Katniss' score-gained no doubt by her skill with a bow-would earn the District the inquiry they had been worried about.

"They aren't allowed to discuss what happened during the private sessions," Madge countered. There could be no inquiry if they didn't know what she'd done.

"Don't be naïve," her father had run a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. "They don't discuss the private sessions with the public at large. The President and other high ranking officials, they'll have gotten recordings."

That made her stomach churn.

Her blue eyes darted all around them before speaking again, "What-is there-what can we do?"

He'd stopped and smiled slightly. "We probably have enough warning that we can come up with a plausible explanation for how she got so good with a bow."

"We could say she's a natural athlete," Madge offered. "We were gym partners so I could back it up, and she did do well in class. If there's any question I could just say she held back for my sake."

For a moment he looked as if he's going to argue, but a group of kids, all small and happy, are playing a game of red rover and catch his attention. He watches them for a long moment before sighing. His eyes are shining when he looks back to Madge.

"I hate to put you in that position. If there were ever any questions…but," he shakes his head, "it would protect the District as a whole more than likely. Unfortunate, but necessary."

"Then that's what we'll do." Madge feels her stomach lurch, "For the District."