Title: To Make You Feel My Love. 2016 re-write version.
Characters/Pairings: Gale Hawthorne/Madge Undersee, brief Everlark mentions.
Rating: T, mostly for paranoia/
Summary: "No there's nothing that I wouldn't do, to make you feel my love." What would you do if you went to work and learned that the father of your children didn't know anything about you? Madge Undersee never expected it, but now that it's here... She's got to find a way to make the best of it.
CHAPTER ONE- it's a brand new day
"it's a brand new day, and the sun is high. all the angels are singing."
The alarm blares loudly. Okay, so it was really just a simple buzzing, but it awakens Madge from the blissful sleep that her body was in, and because of that the alarm clock could have been a bomb and the reaction would have been the same. She lays in the bed, with hands pressed against her forehead covering her eyes so that they can adjust to the morning light, while she lays there, the sound of the alarm still ringing in her ears because she is just too tired to move and shut the sound off.
To any sane person, 6:30 in the morning is far too early to be so awake and perky. Madge was one of those people who agreed, so whoever it is that has just ran past her bedroom window screaming Christmas songs in the middle of September is about to get a piece of her mind – you don't do that kind of things when a cranky pregnant lady lives right in the path that you're screaming, and she wants to make it known that they should never return. If only she could just find the will to get up, put on pants, and go outside before they're gone.
Tongue licks her bottom lips as she tries to apply just a bit of moisture to them, she groans while her hand smacks the dismiss button on her alarm clock. Legs toss over the side of the bed and she finds it in her to chuckle. Gale hadn't moved an inch since he crashed in their bed last night. The alarm clock, the annoyance of Christmas tunes, her extremely loud groan. None of it phased him.
Lately that man could sleep through anything.
"You, wake up." Arm nudges her sleeping husband as she tucks her robe together. "Come on, sweetheart, up." She pulls the blanket off of his shoulders and tosses it on the foot of the bed. "You were late yesterday and I don't think you want a repeat of that." The corner of her lips pull into a smile that reaches her entire face as he mumbles into the pillow. An airy chortle is heard as she inwardly repeats what he says. What was that? Something about me always being right?
As he heads into the joint master bathroom for a quick shower, Madge heads into the closet to decide on an outfit for the day, though in that moment she was entirely grateful that most of her maternity clothes matched each other, because her eyes were still tired and choosing an outfit as she normally would have wasn't something that she was awake enough to do.
She strides into the bathroom and rolls her eyes as she wipes the steam off the mirror. Of course now that they are able to, Gale has to use the hottest water possible. Frankly, she's surprised that he hasn't burned his skin completely off yet.
Much like every morning, as Gale gets himself ready for the day Madge heads downstairs to prepare breakfast. This morning it's nothing extravagant, a simple dish of toast and a cup of coffee for each of them. They aren't broke – they aren't struggling to eat as it was back home for Gale, but they weren't the best off in the district as it was for Madge back in Twelve. But they had what they needed, they were doing fine and were happy and content in their small home. Gale had worked a great job within the Military for the past six years, and Madge had begun work as a teacher for the half day students at the local school.
They make small talk over their toast and coffee (Iced Tea for Madge, Gale is paranoid and has banned caffeine intake for his wife), and as 7:15 rolls around, Gale collects his things and leans over to give his wife a tender kiss on the lips while his callused hands are placed gingerly on the small bump of her stomach. He mutters the words "Love you," and Madge isn't sure if he is speaking to her, to the growing child inside her, or to the both of them. But she smiles, giving him a gentle rub on his shoulder and shooing him out the door before biting the nail on her thumb before heading upstairs to complete her morning routine.
The day goes on as normal, with Madge arriving at the school to begin setting the classroom up for the day (At the end she typically just wanted to go home and rest. even though she is only 21 weeks pregnant it does get exhausting working around children and being on her feet 97% of the day. Most days she will leave the lessons and board set up as they are, however they aren't the type of stuff that can be reused every day.)
The end of the day approaches, giving assignments and assisting the students with their work when needed. When the knock is heard at the door, Madge doesn't anticipate anything more than a simple visit from another teacher, or perhaps the school principal requesting her presence.
"Brintlee, will you answer that, please?" She asks the small brunette who is working vigorously at her radicals. The teacher was assisting another young boy with his own assignment, her chair pulled up to the side of his desk pointing at the plus/minus sign he'd missed when her name pierces the sound barrier.
"Mrs. Hawthorne, a word." She recognized the voice immediately, it was the voice of own of Gale's fellow trainers. She looks up towards the door, and the confusion crashes over her as she nervously stands up, making sure that the her students understood what they needed to do and that if she wasn't back by the time it was time to begin to put their things away they would do so at Brintlee's instruction.
They stand in the hallway and Madge can immediately tell that something is wrong. The way Jenkins face is sullen, and the deep breath that he takes before he speaks makes the nerves in her body seem to peak an extreme. The feeling was one she had felt before, but not for some time. Last time she remembered the nerves and the fears in the back of her throat was when they were waiting to learn if she was indeed pregnant.
"Madge..." He begins, and she can tell the smile that he's now sporting is forced. "How have you been?"
Her head shakes quickly, small talk was never something she enjoyed, though she was good at it. "Jenkins, I don't have time for small talk, I have a class full of students who can only sit and work unsupervised for so long. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd already stopped working. Even though I told them to work until the normal time. Can you just tell me why you're here?"
"Madge, there was an accident with one of the new recruits. He didn't sit well with the fact that he had to do some training exercise. Basic stuff, everyone has to do it. Dude went nuts, went after a few of us."
She takes a breath in, biting hard down on her bottom lip to keep her emotions at bay. The way he was talking is not promising, but she tries everything in her power to keep the shaking nerves hidden.
"Okay, but recruits get irritated and lash out at you guys all the time, Gale tells me all about it. He finds it comical a lot of the time, because they manage to give you a scratch, maybe a bruise if they're lucky. I don't understand why you had to come interrupt my lesson if.."
She is immediately cut off by his concerned tone. "Madge, this wasn't a normal circumstance. This guy is lethal, or pretty well close to it. Two of our guys ended up going to see the doctor, one of them was unconscious and taken there on Emergency."
Eyes go wide and her heart stops, she isn't given room to question or protest before he continues.
"It was Gale."
AUTHORS NOTE:
Guess who's back (Back again?) Kota's back, tell your friends! Just kidding. But hello, new and old readers alike. It is I, back from the dead, Kota. The writer of this crazy Gadge story, that in hind-sight is actually kind of a cliche story type but I am writing it anyway. This is a 2016 rewrite of the story that I wrote back in December of 2013-December of 2014. That story is unfinished and for the time being can be found under my old alias of stella briallre. I wrote that in first person, Madge's point of view, at the time I thought that would be the best way to write this story because it was her story - I never finished the story because I lost motivation and first person is really hard for me to write. This story is my project for NaNoWriMo 2016, and yes I know that it probably technically changing as some of the words are taken directly from the original version but idgaf. I wrote that story when I was seventeen and had free time. Towards the end of the story updates became sparse and the work was not as good as it should have been due to work dilemmas. I'm no longer working two jobs and I no longer work for either employer. (it's funny tho because the mentors that hated me that I mentioned in my last post aren't as lame as I thought they were, one of them works with me at my new job and since this job is so much better I'm much more comfortable being myself and I am happy there, he's noticed a huge difference in me and we're now great friends who talk crap on our former employer) Anyway, this note is getting far too long for my liking so I'll be ending it here. I don't know how many people read Gadge fanfiction anymore or if this fandom has died, but I'm posting my story regardless. Enjoy the first chapter. The next 15 chapters of this story have already been written and will be posted upon editing. If you notice any mistakes in this one please point it out to me.