Disclaimer: You should thank the lord that I don't own Gallagher Girls; it would be terrible. Actually, nonexistent. The idea would never have come to me.

I know, I know. I'm the most generous person in the world :) The best way to thank me is REVIEW. To all those reading Annabeth Comes to Gallagher Academy, I'm working on it. As you read this (most likely). Anyhoo... Enjoy! :D

Grant was leading Zach into the room while he just followed without a second thought. Scratch that, he didn't even have a first thought about it.

"Anything?" Grant asked eagerly. Whenever Zach became depressed enough to almost need to be force-fed, even Bex and Macey laid off of him.

"Nothing." Liz answered for the both of us gloomily. " She's been popping up everywhere."

Grant looked confused, Zach tilted his head up to indicate that she should continue, and Bex and Macey stopped what they were doing to listen. Sure, they knew we were looking at the different bases, but they didn't know we were tracking Ms. Goode to help narrow them down.

Well, the cat's out of the bag now. I thought, just as Liz continued with her signature "Oopsie daisy."

She looked over at me, the look in her eyes telling me she was sorry, but I shook it off. "So… we may have been doing some extra searching behind your backs." I started off.

Bex was about ready to hit one of us, Grant still looked confused, Macey was trying to look uninterested, and Zach had snapped his head to look me straight in the eyes. The message he was sending was clear: spill.

"So I made a program that takes all of the 134 Circle bases in Virginia- because this is the one state she pops up in- and Liz has been tracking her via NASA satellites," I was purposefully not identifying who "she" was, hoping everyone would either get it or forget it, "And when the program gets the base locations and her recent activities over the past five days, it slowly eliminates each base. I have it programmed for when it has five possible bases or less, then it-"

I hadn't taken a breath for my whole explanation for fear of being interrupted, but I didn't need to finish.

Because the ding that signaled that the program narrowed it down to five bases, dinged.

Then, the ding that signaled three bases dinged, not a minute after that.

And before I had the chance to explain, the program popped up on Liz's screen and mine. The signal that tells you, the program's done. We found the base!

Liz nearly fainted as I just stared at the screen, dumbfounded.

"Why are you two looking at your computers like they're about to explode?" Macey asked. If I had been looking at her expression, I would have seen that she was nervous beyond belief. If I had been able to look away from the screen, I would have seen that everyone was nervous.

Liz took it upon herself to answer the pressing question and assuage their worries before they took off running and looking for cover. "We… we found Cammie!" She had choked up a bit when she said Cammie's name, which was the one of the few things that could tear my gaze from the screen. I whipped my head in her direction, and was shocked to see that she was smiling. Like everyone else in the room. Except…

"Zachary Jared Goode, we have found your blo- girlfriend. If you don't stop being a sourpuss, I will personally give you a full body wax!" Nice save, Baxter, was all I could think as she glared at Zach, who was slowly coming back to his old self- at least, as much as he could be without Cammie already safe. If Bex had said bloody girlfriend… I couldn't even think of what would happen. Pandemonium. That's all it could be, but the specifics were impossible to predict…

"Nice save," I heard Macey mutter to Bex, "All hell would've broken loose from that."

"Yeah? Well blame my British heritage." She muttered back.

Surprisingly enough, Grant was the one that got us back on topic. "Well? Where is she?" he asked nervously.

I didn't even have to glance at the screen to answer, "We're going to Bristol."

When they heard the town name, Bex and Macey raced out of the dorm in a full-out sprint.

"Where…" I shouted after them, but Liz was the one to answer.

"They're going to Ms. Morgan's office."

I nodded; of course they were. She would want to know if we found her daughter, wouldn't she?

It took them about two minutes to come sprinting back and gasp out, "She's letting us… go tonight… as long as we… be careful."

I know they're Gallagher girls, and they shouldn't be out of breath, but it takes a minute and a half for a Gallagher girl to run there. For them to sprint there, spit their story out, get Ms. Morgan's consent, and run all the way back to the room had to mean that they A) Shouted their story down the Hall of History as they sprinted, or B) Were two Gallagher girls on a mission to save their world as they had the biggest adrenaline rushes in history.

Before I could question them about it, everyone was already packing everything they would need. Comms units, med kits, napotine patches, and every other object that could help 1) take out Circle people, and 2) get Cammie out safely.

Liz was packing her laptop and some spy ware that the NSA was still trying to buy from her, while Macey grabbed some keys. If there's one thing that girl can do, it's pack in record time.

The voice that brought us to reality was one that had about eighty-three percent of his usual attitude back in it. Zach. "Let's go."

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

The trip was a long one. Even in Liz's state-of-the-art van (which she had pushed up to 375 miles per gallon), the ride was long. It got longer when we realized that, although we just ate dinner, sitting in a van with nothing to do but wait makes you hungry. Fast.

Then, yet again, it got longer when the girls realized that staying in their Gallagher Academy uniforms- while government approved- wasn't the best idea.

"Don't worry, guys! I have cat suits stored right… here." Liz dug through the spare tire compartment until she pulled out four cat suits, one for each of the girls (including Cammie).

"Oh, thank bloody god," Bex thanked Liz. I was driving, with Grant sitting next to me, while Zach sat right behind us, leaning on the armrest.

"If one of you even glances at us in the next five minutes, you'll be wishing that Bex would be the one doing the hurting." Macey, of course, chose to say that. Luckily for us, Zach was close enough to being himself that he had a snarky reply to that.

"Oh, sure McHenry, because we're just dying to see your bodies." Of course, Grant was, but that's beyond the point. A snarky comment is, what a snarky comment does.

"Liz, do you happen to have some food back there?"

"Grant, you just ate an hour ago." Macey started to complain, but was cut short by Bex.

"Oh sure, here." And she handed him some very Liz-made looking cheetos. Not that I have anything wrong with anything Liz makes, but the van was basically the girls' headquarters for fighting bad guys. Which usually meant that-

"Bex, don't give that to him!" Liz practically shouted in panic, which supported my theory of there being something wrong with the cheetos.

"Why not?" Bex's voice was the epitome of innocence, even though she's anything but.

"Because- because you know why!" Liz was having difficulties spluttering her words out, almost as if she didn't want to say the exact reason why.

Luckily, Grant got the gist of what the cheetos really were- dangerous. He was inches away from plopping one in his mouth, but he stopped to hear the argument. In that time, Zach was smart enough to take the bag from Grant- knowing that when he's hungry, there's not much that can stop him- and smacked the cheeto that was hanging in the air, just inches away from entering Grant's wide-open mouth, from his hand and onto the floor.

Liz gave a sigh of relief, but that didn't stop Bex from continuing their conversation. "Why are you so afraid for Grant to eat some innocent, perfectly legal cheetos? It's not like our little Liz Sutton to do something dangerous and against the law with some oh-so-yummy cheetos, is it? Because, I'm completely positive that she wouldn't-"

But Bex was never able to finish her sentence. It took Liz a few seconds to get out of her stupor at what Bex was going to do to her reputation, but when she did, she was carrying poison on her lips. "And we all know that it's not like Bex Baxter to be soft and caring, especially not to one particular person, now is it? You know, the person that she absolutely despises, the one that told her-"

"The game is over, you guys! I thought we established that when I told Tina what happened in Cairo! I won, and there's no second or third place! Goodness gracious, I feel like a mother right now!" Macey was laughing at a memory of what happened at Cairo, but Liz and Bex were roaring with laughter. Girls. Will we ever be able to tell what they mean? And they say we're hard to understand…

"What's going on here?" Grant asked for the three of us poor, confused souls.

Macey barked a laugh. Liz giggled. And Bex? Her reaction was the scariest of them all. She just gave us an evil grin before answering, "We needed a distraction before we went crazy. It started last month. You see, we either had to tell something true and funny about one of the other two, or you make the biggest lie ever about them and see how far you can go before whoever you're telling gets suspicious."

"So… What's up with the cheetos and Bex being nice?" I found myself asking. You'd be curious too if it meant finding out what Bex was going to do to Grant, and how in the world someone got her to be nice to someone she despises.

Bex sighed, but it was Macey that answered. "See, Bex being nice to someone she hates- biggest pile of bull I've ever heard. Seriously, where have you boys been for the past year and a half?" Zach smirked, but it was wiped right off his face when Bex punched him in the arm. "Anyway, the cheetos thing is true. Don't eat them. They're only legal in Russia during times of war. If we even say what they are, the CIA will be shooting us down before we can even say 'innocent'. Which, trust me, we're not." She grinned evilly, and I had to remind myself that I was driving.

The conversation slowly dwindled to nonexistent, leaving us all to face the terrifying reality that I was driving us towards at fifty-two miles per hour.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"Duchess, you're clear." Liz spoke calmly through the comms unit as we sat in the van. Alone.

For once, Bex didn't complain about her codename. She had more pressing matters at hand. We had hacked into the security cameras outside the base, but didn't put it on a loop. Instead, we became Bex, Zach, Grant, and Macey's lookouts. We watched as Bex quickly knocked a man out with one solid punch, closely followed by Grant, Macey, and Zach, who all appeared on the screen not five seconds after Bex.

"Slap some napotine patches on them, just in case." I told them. I felt more nervous than ever before; I was helping someone escape the wrath of the Circle. Liz and I were so enraptured in what was happening onscreen with our friends that we didn't notice two people stationing themselves at the doors. We didn't notice when they pulled guns out and gripped the door-handles as they silently counted together, synchronizing the opening of our doors and putting the guns to our heads.

I guess that's what happens to most agents when they're caught without an option. They don't notice until it's too late. I mean, sure, I could have fought mine off, and Liz could have helped with hers, but they both had guns. If I fought, Liz would pay for it.

I guess that's why I silently obeyed when a gruff voice told us, "Walk."

I could hear Bex in our comms unit, talking to Liz. "Duchess to Bookworm, we took care of the guards. Where are you guys?"

Liz couldn't answer through her fear, so Bex continued. Oblivious to the fact that we had guns to our heads and were being led in their direction.

"We're just heading into the base, this should be a quick in-and-out mission to get her. Zach, are you sure you're ready to-" But she never got the chance to finish. Because, as we walked, I could hear her voice from two places- my comms unit, and just ten feet in front of us. And as we walked closer to her voice, we became visible through the bushes and trees. She stopped talking and stared at us. There was fear in the eight eyes that stared back at us, and I realized that there were eight people behind us.

"Try to resist and you'll have two less friends to cry with, but these two won't be breathing." Oooh, aren't we a clever one. "Now, come with us inside and you may just live for the next week." Okay, so maybe thinking snarky comments at the guard that currently had a gun to my head wasn't a good idea, but it was better than saying them to him. Besides, if we're so destined to die within a week, then where's the point in being a good boy?

I could tell Liz was scared as we were lead through the dank and gloomy hallways, but I couldn't comfort her. The other guards behind us were prodding Bex, Macey, Grant and Zach, and Zach was getting no special treatment. He showed which side he was on when he grew to love Cammie.

Oh god, I'm getting sentimental! This is for girls, not us! But, I guess that's what you get for living in an all-girls school with three male teachers and two other guys for two months…

We stopped in an interrogation room with dank walls covered in old bloodstains. I couldn't help but wonder if they were Cammie's.

"Why, hello Zachy-poo. Did you miss your mother?" A piercing, menacing voice reached my ears.

Zach just glared at his mother, and when I met Bex's eyes, she started blinking in Morse code. When he spits at her, we fight. Their guns are empty. How could I have been so stupid? Cough if you understand. I coughed almost immediately. Pass this on to Liz.

I coughed again, then caught eyes with Liz and repeated the message. She calculated the possibilities for a fraction of a second, then coughed.

"-hate you!" I heard Zach shout at his mother before he spit at her feet. Six teenagers immediately let their P&E training kick in as we fought the eleven adults in the room. I heard a sickening snap as Bex's arm got twisted and broken, which caused Grant to get mad. Within minutes, we had overpowered ten of them, but Ms. Goode was nowhere in sight.

Zach answered the unasked question with a simple, "She ran."

I nodded, and noticed that everyone was bloody, bruised, and altogether injured.

"We should get going."

Five heads bobbed in agreement, and we walked out of the room to find Ms. Goode leaning calmly against the wall opposite us. I froze, ready for a fight.

"Don't be alarmed; I don't want a fight. Just let me talk with my son." She turned to Zach. "Maybe I'll let you see Cameron. She's quite the fighter."

That was all it took for Zach to cave. He actually took a step towards his mother before Grant could grab his arm and shake his head at him. It wasn't much, but Zach got the message- Cammie would rather die than let Zach go to his mother, and while he would rather die than leave her there, all he cared about was what Cammie wanted.

"Pity. Although, I'm sure she hates you, anyway. After all, it was your own mother that brought her here. I'm the one that has been dealing with her fighting, and we all know that she hasn't been cooperating. You know what that means in this business, Zach…"

We all knew what that meant. Cammie was being tortured.

"You know, you really only have two choices. You can either take the chance and walk away, or we can trade you for her. I mean, sure, I need you to get this mission done, but when it gets down to it- Cammie's a joy to have. Truly, she is. I can see why you were attracted to her. So much fight for a captive…" Ms. Goode trailed off, and we took our chance.

We ran.

Yes, there was a possibility that we could have saved Cammie and gotten out alive, but Zach's mom was right. Cammie- poor, captured Cammie- would have found it completely reasonable to hate Zach. There was a chance that she would come with us just to get out of there, but two months with Ms. Goode can do a lot to your body. We had no clue how much pain Cammie would be in with the slightest of movements.

And yet, despite all the logical reasons that told me leaving her there until we came up with a better plan was a good idea, I couldn't help but think that we were making one of the biggest mistakes as we clambered back into the van.

We had been driving for an hour and a half when Liz came up through the aisle and put her hand on my shoulder. I barely glanced at her. How could I? I had just brought her within shouting distance of her best friend, then ran. We ran, went over the speed limit, ignored stop signs and lights, just to get away. And it was my fault.

"Let me drive. You need to get some sleep." She offered. And now she's being the fastidious person she had been all her life. Add that to the reasons I don't deserve her.

Still, I couldn't make myself look her in the eyes. Instead, I shook my head and kept going twenty miles over the speed limit.

She sighed. "It's not your fault. We had to run." How is it that she can read me so thoroughly when all I can read off her is her emotions that she displays so easily on her face?

"I'm the one that told everybody that we found her. I gave them hope. And happiness. Then I let you all down. How can you still talk to me? How can you… You should hate me right now." I stopped there, sure that my voice had cracked somewhere.

"You didn't let us down, Jonas. Yes, you gave us hope, but since when is that a bad thing? And we don't hate you. Remember, it was both of our idea to make the program, and I'm the one that slipped up on telling them about it. If we all start hating people on our side, that are working for the same cause as us, then the bad guys will win. Now, pull over. You need some sleep before you kill us all." She smiled at the end, but I didn't take it as a joke. Instead, I pulled onto the shoulder with a slight bump-bump and hopped out.

"Thanks, Liz." I told her as I held the door open for her. She nodded, hopped into the driver's seat, and motioned for me to hop in.

I shut her door, barely making a sound, and stepped into the back. Everyone was asleep, but the first person I focused on was Macey, with her diamond zit making more noise than the engine, with her head on Bex's lap. We had put a temporary cast onto Bex's arm, seeing as we couldn't find a believable excuse for our appearances if we were to go into a hospital.

Bex's head was on Grant's shoulder, while he had a strip of cloth tied tightly around his arm that probably needed stitches.

The last person that I looked at was Zach. And he wasn't asleep. Instead, he was staring into space, a somber expression on his face. I sighed.

"I said-"

"I know, I know. Going to sleep now," I interrupted Liz before she could get too loud and wake everyone up. She nodded before setting her eyes back on the road, mumbling some things that I couldn't catch under her breath.

I sat in the corner away from everyone else, not entirely sure that what Liz had told me stood true to everyone else.

My mind was drifting, my heart was hurting, and my eyes were closing. Before I knew it, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"Jonas. Jonas, wake up. We're back." I heard a female whisper in my ear and felt a delicate hand shaking my shoulder.

I mumbled something along the lines of, "…" but there was more than one person there, and they weren't feeling so nice at the moment.

Splash. Within half a second, I was alert and ready to fight whoever decided to splash me with ice water. Except… I knew I couldn't take them.

It had to be Baxter- the one person that I'm pretty sure wouldn't mind killing me.

"Oh good. You're up." She said coolly. "Let's go."

I realized that everyone else was awake and waiting for me, so I stood up to go back in.

"Um… Jonas? Your laptop?" Liz looked slightly confused. How could I, the computer nerd of the century, forget my laptop?

I just nodded, reached over for my computer bag, and looked back to see… four retreating figures. What the hell. So much for the whole "Oh, no one hates you. Or blames you." crap. We all know that was a lie.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, I shut the van door, thinking it's ten o'clock, and everyone's been beaten up today. They probably just want to get to the infirmary, get treated, and go to sleep.

And I was right. After I jogged to the infirmary, I found Bex getting a cast on her arm, Grant being stitched up, Macey being given some ice for her ankle, Liz sitting with Bex for support, and Zach getting crutches. I hadn't even noticed he got hurt! What kind of friend am I?

When Liz saw me, she patted Bex's knee and walked over to me.

"Hey," she said quietly. "What's wrong?"

The thoughts that were running through my head were something along the lines of, what's wrong is that my best friends have every reason to hate me- and they do. Hate me, that is. But instead of giving her that mouthful, I replied, "I'm pretty tired." Then, just to make sure, I asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

She nodded, and I could tell she was telling the truth.

Love it? Hate it? Rate it! Oh, and please tell me if they sound out of character, I think they are, but I'm not sure. Next chapter is (also) Jonas PoV, I think that'll be the last one of his, though. For now, anyway.