Even though I've never written for this fandom before, Gallagher Girls is a big part of my life and since today is United We Spy's official North American release date, I've written a tribute fic of sorts about some of my favourite elements of the series and what I'd love to see in the last book. I cried writing this, as the series is amazing and I'm not ready to say goodbye to it (but really, who is?). This is the longest one shot I've ever written, so I hope you guys all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gallagher Girls, the characters, the setting, or Mortal Instruments, Heist Society, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and the lovely town of Roseville.

Loose Ends

-Cammie/Zach written in celebration for United We Spy-

After all of these years, Cammie can't quite fathom the idea that this is her last night at the Gallagher Academy. It's hard to realize that her secret passageways, long and winding with their hidden doors will be filled once again with dust and mildew. It's even harder to think about the fact that the attic dormitory room will no longer echo with the giggles of girls as they discuss the importance of proper nail care (Macey) or how to successfully execute the Bohemian Backflip maneuver (Bex). But the thing that Cameron Morgan finds the hardest to believe is that in less than 24 hours, she and her friends will be crossing the stage and getting handed their final diplomas that signify them as graduates of the Gallagher Academy.

All of her friends are handling their anxiety about this in different ways. Macey's packing her many bags, but every once in a while she'll make an irritated noise, dump the contents of her suitcase back onto her bed, and restart her packing. Liz surrounds herself with no more than four different laptops, two tablets, and three phones as she attempts to beat her record for hacking into the CIA databases (her previous is 43 seconds). Bex is face down in her bed, still dressed in her workout clothes from a late night PE Barn session. They all have the same expression on their faces, Cammie notes, one that reeks of barely concealed tears and trembling shoulders. It's sometimes hard for her to realize that without their covers and disguises and supremely advanced vehicles, Gallagher Girls are just regular girls (with very good self-defence skills). But, at this moment, they seem just like average girls graduating from your run of the mill boarding school.

There's a knock at the door just then, and Macey wades out of her pile of clothes to answer it. Zach's standing there, his hands jammed into his pockets, and suddenly all of Cammie's thoughts about Gallagher Academy being a regular spy school vanish.

After all, regular boarding schools don't come equipped with super-hot spy boyfriends.

Hopping over Liz's wires, Bex's legs and Macey's clothes, Cammie finally reaches Zach. He pulls her in, and she gladly leans into his hard chest, feeling solid muscle. "Wanna go somewhere, Gallagher Girl?" Zach mutters, and Cammie nods.

"Have her home by ten, Zach!" Bex, ever the overprotective mother hen, shouts as the couple exits the room. The door shutting solidly behind them is her only response.

They travel down the halls together, his arm around her waist and her head resting on his shoulder. Some students do a double-take once they see them, but most just smile to themselves and watch the two pass nonchalantly. Entering a secluded hallway, Cammie finally untangles her boyfriend and turns to face him, hands on hips. "Alright, you've kept me in the dark long enough. Where are we going?"

"Well," Zach shrugs, tapping the crest to open her favourite secret passageway. "I figure since we're graduating tomorrow and heading out into the real world, this is our last chance to do normal teenage stuff. So come on. Tonight, we're going to explore Roseville, no disguises, no tailing people, nothing. Just two teenagers out on a date."

"No disguises?" Cammie frowns, twirling a lock of her still too-short blonde hair around her shoulders. "Zach, isn't that kind of dangerous?"

"So? The Circle of Cavan is gone. My mother's dead," Cammie notes how he says this indifferently, as if he doesn't even care. But then, she realizes, he doesn't. "We're perfectly safe, Gallagher Girl. That is, unless you're too chicken…"

"I am not chicken!" Cammie hisses furiously, lowering her voice as they enter the passageway. "I'm capable of doing anything you can do."

Zach smirks at this. "Well, I wouldn't say everything-"

"Zach."

"Fine, fine. You're not a chicken. Let's change the topic now, alright?" He smirks again, reaching for Cammie's hand as they maneuver further into the passage. "Did I tell you some of the Blackthorne boys are coming to see the graduation? You know, the other ones who thought that being trained to be assassins was messed and ditched a couple months after I did? Grant's coming, I think, and so is Jonas."

"Really?" Cammie stares up at him in amazement. "I didn't know that!"

They've reached the end of the passageway now, the sunlight shining brightly in from the end. Zach clambers out first, helping Cammie up despite her protests that chivalry is already dead so he needn't even try. "Well, I told your mom. She must have forgotten to tell you."

They turn a corner and suddenly Roseville emerges in front of them, all twinkling lights and busy streets. Cammie can't help but let a huge grin spread onto her face, remembering how nice it was to be a normal teenager the last time she was here.

"Come on, Gallagher Girl," Zach places his arm around her shoulders. "Let's go be normal teenagers."

o-o-cm&zg-o-o

165 minutes and two point five seconds after exiting the tunnel, Cammie flops down on a park bench near the centre of Roseville. Her stomach is filled to bursting and her feet ache from walking, but there's a smile on her face- one so wide and genuine that it makes Zach almost beam every time he sees it- that washes all of the pain away. They've snuck into the movies, went ice-skating in the town centre, took pictures in a tiny photo booth, and had crappy pizza from a chain restaurant. All in all, a normal date.

But of course, for spies, normal is overrated to the point of insanity.

So maybe that's why a voice chooses that moment to call out from the shadows, "Cammie?", in the exact same tone as he had used over two years ago.

Cammie sucks in a small gasp as she swings herself upright on the bench, turning to face her ex-boyfriend and his current girlfriend. They're both decked out in fancy attire and grad caps, signifying that their ceremony has just finished. That's not what makes her gasp, though. It's the fact that Josh and DeeDee- the epitome of the good couple- are now sporting two rather different looks. DeeDee's blonde hair is pink, and Cammie counts (with the swiftness that only a Gallagher Girl can possess, of course), no less than ten piercings on all of her exposed skin. Josh's hair is shaved almost down to his skull, and a black strip of dye runs directly down the middle. All in all, they look insane, ridiculous, and totally different than the last time she had saw them.

"Cammie!" DeeDee echoes her boyfriend's statement from before, flinging herself at the other girl and almost wiping out in her high heels. Zach moves imperceptibly closer to Cammie, as if ready to attack. "It's soooooo good to see you!"

It takes a moment to decipher the slur in DeeDee's voice, but eventually it clicks in the Chameleon's mind- DeeDee's been drinking, and a lot at that. She glares at Josh, who stands a little ways back awkwardly. "I swear to god, if you're as drunk as her you're going to have a lot of explaining to do."

"It was the after party!" Josh protests, holding his hands up in mock defense. "I'm totally sober, I swear. My car's over on the other side of the park and I want to take her home."

"Zach can do it," Cammie says, dumping the nearly-passed-out DeeDee into her surprised boyfriend's arms. "Give him your keys and he'll put her in. I… I need to talk to you alone."

Zach's eyebrows quirk at this last sentence, but nonetheless he begins lugging DeeDee across the field. "Fine. Be careful, Gallagher Girl."

Cammie waits until he's out of earshot before whirling around to face her first boyfriend- the one who thought she had a cat named Suzie and didn't know the Gallagher Academy's true purpose. He was so different from Zach, but at the same time, so familiar it hurt.

"Cam-" Josh begins, but she cuts him off.

"What do you remember about the night we broke up?"

"Um..." Josh looks a little taken aback. "I learned you went to the Gallagher Academy and we decided to call it quits."

Cammie sighs, feeling the crushing sense of reality set in. "Alright, thanks." She sighs, turning to walk away. A small part of her mind wished that the memory tea had worn off, but evidently that wasn't the case. "See you around."

"Wait!" Josh says as she turns to walk away. "Why'd... why'd you need to know?"

Cammie shrugs, feeling her small smirk- the one she swore Zach had something to do with- spread across her face. "I'm a Gallagher Girl. Trust me, you there's some things about my life you'll never understand. This is one of them."

She moves forward then, briefly hugging Josh for reasons she cannot fathom before racing off into the dark to meet back up with her boyfriend.

o-o-cm&zg-o-o

"You're late," Bex's voice sounds from the darkness when Cammie enters her dorm room, her British accent sounding stronger than ever.

"What?" Cammie frowns, checking her internal clock. "It's only... two minutes after ten pm. Zach and I were technically back at 9:30, we just had other... activities to attend to."

"Mhmm," Macey doesn't look convinced. "Now, come on, spill."

It had become something of a ritual for the three of them to force Cammie to tell every word of her dates with Zach with them, in the same way real sisters would have done. At one point she would have protested, but now she just sinks down into one of their beanbag chairs and smiles goofily. "Alright, then."

Cammie, in all honesty, kind of likes telling them all about her dates. These girls have been through everything with her, so it only feels right that they should be a part of her romantic life as well. So she tells them the whole story, starting from when they entered the tunnel but stopping rather suddenly near the end, as to save Liz's innocence (because really, there are some things you just don't tell anyone).

After she finishes, she glances around room, taking in all of the little details that have made the space their own after all these years. Some dents on the floor, from when they examined Josh's garbage. A tiny camera from when they tried to spy on the Blackthorne boys. A grainy satellite image of Catherine Goode's ring. A beat-up diary containing all of her father's secrets. And finally, finally, a file from the CIA, the headline bold and brilliant: CIRCLE OF CAVAN UNCOVERED; CATHERINE GOODE DEAD.

It's amazing, Cammie marvelled, that their room, in a way, had matured just as much as they had.

"Cam?" Bex snaps her fingers in front of her face suddenly, causing the girl to break out of her thoughts. "Since Lizzie's done her graph- there's apparently a 89.34% change you and Zach will get married, by the way- and Macey's done analyzing all of the weird stuff with Josh and DeeDee, we're

going to take a walk around the manor. You coming?" The look in her friend's eyes told her that she didn't really have a choice.

Cammie nods, and the four of them begin their stroll, ducking into secret passageways and laughing as they remember all of their adventures. The entryway where Zach and Cammie kissed, the secret room where they 'followed the pigeons', and countless corridors where whispered plans were made. They were giggling and racing and acting like little kids, but although the entire academy could hear them (as it was getting rather late), not a single soul stopped them or even asked them to quiet down.

For as of tomorrow, everyone knew that these four girls would never wander these halls ever again.

o-o-cm&zg-o-o

"And… I think that's it," Macey recaps her eyeliner with a satisfied smile, spinning Cammie around so that she can see her reflection in the mirror. "Just slip on your dress Cam, and you'll be ready to go."

"These… bloody…heels…" Bex groans, flopping down on her bed dramatically as she waves her stilettoed feet in the air. "I swear to God, if it wasn't for that article in Espionage Today about the forty-seven ways to kill someone with these blasted shoes , I never would have put them on."

"You could always wear flats," Liz suggests from her spot on the floor, where she's brushing the final tangles out of her blonde hair. "They provide more arch support, after all."

Cammie sits there silently the whole time, listening to her three best friends in the world debate the pros and cons of stilettoes. It's an average, everyday argument, aside from the fact that there's underlying tones of sadness that weren't there previously, as if they all knew this would probably be the last stupid disagreement they would have in this room. So the Chameleon merely observes, glancing from Bex's cream-coloured, strapless dress with its little metal studs lining the neckline to Macey's vibrant red high-low dress with the silk skirt to Liz's white lace gown with the pink stitching running up and down the bottom half. They all look beautiful, she has to admit. Beautiful, but sad, kind of like one of those regal women in old paintings, where they gaze off into the distance as they wait for a husband who will never come. A woman kind of like her own mother.

Someone knocks on the door just then, causing all four girls to jump up and grab gowns and graduation caps (as well as the necessary lipstick taser). Bex is the first one to finish, as usual, and races to open the door. Four boys stand there, all looking awkward and strange and worried- your everyday prom picture. That is, until Bex practically flings herself onto an unsuspecting Grant, who quickly recovers and returns the hug. Liz is next, doing an awkward handshake with Jonas, until Macey (who is settled quite comfortably in Preston's arms by this point), lets out a loud sigh before pushing the two of them together. That leaves Cammie and Zach.

They stare at each other for a few moments, but it's not awkward at all, simply a way of expressing all of the words you cannot say into one simple glance. Cammie takes Zach in- the button-down shirt and dress pants, the plain blue tie she knew was once his father's, the everlasting smirk on his face. Zach does likewise to her, his eyes flitting around her short royal blue dress Macey forced her into (it has one strap, thank God), the elegant hairdo Liz spent hours figuring out, and the nicotine patches she's just shoving into her purse (Bex had insisted you could never be too sure).

Then, like the gentleman he is, he offers her his arm and she follows him down the sweeping staircase with the rest of the couples, all of which look like they're in Cloud Nine.

The dining hall's been converted into an auditorium, with long rows of chairs all facing a central platform. Cammie knows how the ceremony goes, of course- she's sat through it several times, waiting for the day when it'll be her turn to step up onto the stage. But know that that day's here, she would give anything to be a tiny seventh grader squeezed back into the front row.

Zach gives her a chaste kiss before heading to the rows of chairs with the rest of the boys. It was a long debate, but in the end he had decided not to graduate with the Gallagher Girls, choosing to remain an enigma floating between schools, not that he would ever head back to Blackthorne. Cammie sighs, closing her eyes as she takes her seat onstage. This is it. Her final moments as a student.

The teachers speak, some of them crying, some of them trying to hide their sadness with jokes. Mr. Solomon, ever a mystery, stands at the podium with his arms folded, staring out at the room for what must be a good two minutes. "I once told these girls that they could get good, or get dead," He finally speaks, eyes wandering over the graduating class. "Let's put it this way- none of them will be dying anytime soon."

For those girls, that's some of the highest praise they've ever received.

Cammie's mom steps up next, her eyes already glistening with tears. "Although I'm sure all of the alumni would argue, this, to me, is one of the best classes the Gallagher Academy has ever had the honour of teaching. You girls… you girls are amazing. The challenges you've overcome, the problems you've faced, and the fact that you've managed to remain sisters through and the entire time is astounding. I am so very proud of you all, as are all the rest of your teachers."

She goes on to list more individual recognitions, but Cammie admittedly tunes out a bit, glancing around at her classmates- her sisters. Soon, they're going to be spread all over the four corners of the world, hacking into enemy bases and jumping off of exploding buildings and doing all of the amazing things she's dreamed about since a very young age.

But for now, she's going to live in the present. So when her mother, looking prouder than she's ever seen, calls her name loud and clear, Cameron Morgan steps up to the front of the stage and accepts her diploma certifying her as an official graduate of the Gallagher Academy happily.

A few more names, and then the entire class stands in unison, tossing their hats in the air and cheering loudly, tears dripping down their cheeks as they raise diplomas high. Cammie races over towards Bex, Macey and Liz, all of which are openly crying but smiling nonetheless. The four of them hug, and as they stand there, and even though classmates are all around and the hall echoes with students cheering, for a second they feel like the only four people in the universe.

And then Zach's there, and since Townsend and Abby have already begun to suck face (really, teachers should not be allowed to show that much PDA at school), they decide to join in to their example. They're closely followed by Macey and Preston, and then Bex and Grant, and finally Liz and Jonas. But the biggest surprise of all comes when Rachel Morgan, following her sister's example, grabs Joe Solomon and plants one right on the lips.

Cammie's mouth drops wide open at this, but Zach just laughs and pulls her into his chest, bending his head a little to whisper into her ear. "So, I heard there's some suspicious activity in Peru. Something about a rouge warlock, a couple of art thieves, some Greek gods and a kid with a lightning shaped scar. You in?"

His girlfriend stares up at him, unsure of if he's joking or not. "We'll need backup." She points out logically, snuggling deeper into him.

Zach laughs, a happy sound that resonates around the hall. "Look around you, Gallagher Girl. This is all the backup you'll ever need."

And, with a quick glance around the room at her friends, family, and sisterhood, Cameron Morgan has to agree.

Happy release date, United We Spy. Happy end-of-series, Gallagher Girls.

Reviews and CC are greatly appreciated!

-Jace ;)

PS: A little bit of shameless self-advertising before you go- if you're interested in Percy Jackson, go check out my profile! There's about ten fics up there all dedicated to the fabulous world of PJO.