It was a very strange thing to be in the headquarters of a brand new regime. Gage hadn't chosen the location for herself - hadn't chosen anything since her decision at the reaping to save Wiley - but she was grateful for it, and grateful for her life, nonetheless. The air was full of excitement and hope in a way she had never seen before. Never in District Six had there been this many genuine smiles, and in the Tower previously everyone had been miserable with worry over the Arena.
Gage wondered idly if she might move out of Six, to somewhere she might never have to see snow again. She entertained this thought for just a moment before she threw it away. A new regime didn't mean everything was different. There were still districts. There was still her home. And Wiley's home.
Gage had asked Wiley to move in with her, when they got back. Wiley had agreed. It would be a strange arrangement, but then, everything was strange these days. Wiley was too old to be her daughter but there wasn't another word for where Wiley had landed in her life the past few weeks.
And then there was the man who had stabbed her daughter, or whatever Wiley might be, in the abdomen, and left her to die.
He'd been injured. A coma, so the rumor went, and just woken up in the past few days. Gage thought a visit was in order. The tributes who survived would all have to live with what they'd done, or what they hadn't.
She checked in with the nurse, and then knocked on his door.
"Hello, Mahlon," she said as she stood waiting in the doorway.
@mxhlon
