Before the phone call,
Morgan had always known his dad was intelligent.
He had always known his dad was brave.

The whole spy thing was just a validation of that fact.

But, the first week of third grade,
Morgan came to realize that he may never be as intelligent
or anywhere near as courageous as his father.

No matter how many math tests Morgan aced or spelling bees he won.
No matter how many swing-set's he'd gotten the guts enough to jump off of in the past two years.

No matter how hard he tried.

Because, with nothing but a ring on a Sunday afternoon.
Morgan watched his mother – the strongest woman he'd ever known – crumble to pieces,
and hide from the world, from the ones who loved her.

She took off work.
She stopped taking missions.
She stayed home.
She made calls and did research,
desperate to find her best friend.
And, though the Goodes didn't own an especially large house,

Morgan's mother was nowhere to be found, nowhere to be seen.
And, while Morgan Goode wanted to cry
and scream
and hide with his mother,

Zach Goode simply took over the duty of picking Morgan up from school,
turned to him in the backseat, gave his signature grin, and said

"Let's go find mom."


Despite the blood relation,
and the ump-teen times he had read the first three editions
of The Fundamental Elements of Covert Operations under his covers at night

Still, every afternoon when his father opened the front door
Morgan didn't even know how to start guessing
where his mom had disappeared to.

Morgan would check the closets.
Under the bed.
In the garage.

All of the hiding places he could think of.
All the places she wasn't the day before.

Morgan's mom was good.
Morgan's mom was The Chameleon.

But, Zach would only have to check once.

Once Morgan was stumped,
Zach would simply give it a moment of thought,
turn on his feet, then head off in some new direction, and lead the two of them to Cammie.

Zach always knew.
And, Zach was always and only ever brave.

This Morgan knew for sure.

Because, each day, once they had finally found Morgan's mom
crumpled in some new corner, she was covered in
sometimes cobwebs,
sometimes dirt,
sometimes dust,
but always tears

She would sit there and tremble, seeming so fragile that
Morgan would be afraid even to breathe,
terrified that she might shatter if he dared to exhale.

But, Zach, bravery and all,
would never hesitate.

He wouldn't cower in the doorway, like Morgan, afraid of
accidentally breaking her already far-too-broken pieces.

Zach would start right toward Cam,
He would pick her up then place her forehead against his.

He wouldn't be afraid to hold her.
He wouldn't be afraid to let her cry, see her in pain.

He would only whisper, "It's okay, Gallagher Girl,"
and wait.

As if somehow he just knew,
Aunty Bex would be home a month later.

As if he was in on some sort of secret,
a secret that Morgan could never know.

Never understand.

And, it was then, Morgan noticed,
that he began to not understand a lot of things.

How could someone, anyone, just disappear?
And how could even the greatest spies in the world be completely in the dark?

What, if anything, had the power to make Rebecca Baxter vanish,
and Cammie Morgan Goode simply shatter like never before?

Morgan couldn't even begin to answer his questions by himself.
nor could he answer them all at once.
So, he supposed, that's why he picked the most important one,
and asked.

"How long is Mom going to hide?"

His small voice filled the void as the house silenced and another
day fell asleep to the hushed sound of sobbing.

It was awhile until Morgan's father spoke.
But, when he did, his face was one of stone – a sad sort of stone.

"Your mom has never been and never will be weak,"

Morgan would match Zach's heavy expression and nod as if he understood
as if he knew exactly what he was talking about,
where he was coming from.

But, he didn't.

Because, Morgan was not his father.
And, the two would always be hopelessly different.

"But, there's no stopping her," Zach would say,
"When her mind is made up. You have no chance."

"So, does that mean she's going to hide forever?" He asked,

If Cammie had made up her mind to cry, to hide,
to make the pain disappear as easily as she did herself
there was no way anyone could make her do differently.

But, still. Zach said, "No, not forever."

Then he smirked softly," Not if you know the exception."
Morgan's eyes grew wide
as he whispered,

"What's the exception?"

Because, the exception
was the key to bringing his mom out of hiding.

It was a secret that separated the son from the father.
It was the mystery behind holding together a Gallagher Girl so effortlessly,
while the cruelty of the world was taken out on its most
undeserving of victims.

That was something Morgan knew that even if the mystery was solved,
even with the secret revealed,
he surely could never do.

And, he hoped he would never have to even try.

But, as Morgan grew up,
he realized that hope was for children.

And, trying wasn't an option.
Not anymore.

Because, by the time the phone rang again,
on Morgan's twelfth birthday,

Morgan was still not as intelligent,
still not as brave as his father.

And, Morgan still didn't understand.

But, after that phone call,
Zachary Goode was officially missing-in-action.

And, trying wasn't an option for Morgan anymore.
He had to be Zach.

He had to.