A/N: From the reviews, it looks like people love Matthew Morgan! It's awesome to get feedback from you guys, so keep it coming!


"No. Daddy, please. No!" I cried hysterically, "You can't die! I only just got you back." My voice faded into silence when there was no reply. I turned to face Joe and shouted, "This was your fault! If you didn't try to be the hero and throw the knife, dad wouldn't be dead!" I was angry, upset and a whole load of other emotions. Most of all, I was heartbroken. How many people have to be killed or injured before the Circle gets what they want from me?

I couldn't look at him anymore. I ran through an open door that led to a dark hallway at sat there alone, tears trickling down my face. Here I could think. Here I could take off the cover I always wear and be the teenage girl that I was. Slowly, my tears dried out, leaving me tired and worn out, my face hurting from the fight. I passed out.

After what felt like a day, I woke up in a brightly lit room - in a bed and in my pyjamas. Not again, I thought, why do I always end up waking in a mysterious room in my pyjamas? Joe walked in with a grim expression on his face, followed by my mom. Her eyes were bloodshot and she was wearing one of dad's old jumpers. I tried to say something, but my whole head felt numb.

"Honey, your jaw was broken when you were kicked in the face. Don't try to speak." she said, walking to the side of my bed and sitting down next to me. "I know what happened to you was hard - Joe told me what happened. Everything that happened." She could see how much I struggled with being silent, so she gave me a pad of paper and a pen.

As I wrote, Joe started talking. "In case you were wondering, Gilly's sword has been obtained and is back at school." He looked at me with the same expression he had in the air vents, right before we broke into the meeting room. I lifted the pad up to ask my first question, "Where am I?"

"We're in a CIA safe-house on the border of Oklahoma. This was the closest government-owned place from the Circle's base." answered mom, "When Joe called, I came here as soon as I could. Your jaw was swollen badly and you were screaming in pain when you tried to ask where we were taking you. Not that you'd remember - we had to drug you to decrease the amount of swelling on the right side of your face." She continued to speak, but I only focused on writing my next question. When I lifted the pad, she went silent, "Dad?"

Joe leant on the wall and said, "Matt was shot in the chest. The bullet narrowly missed his heart and the main arteries. It's a miracle that nothing vital was damaged." He was saying that my dad was alive. He's alive! I jumped out of bed and hugged him tightly with a lopsided grin and he hugged me back, taken aback at the speed I moved. The moment passed and he became serious again. "The bad news is that he lost a lot of blood in the shooting and the bullet removal takes time. It's a 50/50 chance of surviving."

I sat back in despair and mom stroked my normal cheek, "He'll pull through, kiddo. You know he will." Her optimism was rubbing off on me, I believed what she told me. Sometimes it's good to have a spy as a parent - they tell the best lies. She kissed me on the forehead and said, "I think you should get some rest, your father's operation is in a few hours. We'll wake you when it's over." With that, she left the room, leaving me alone with Joe.

"Cammie, I feel so guilty for what's happened. I shouldn't have thrown the knife. You were right." he said, sitting on the same spot my mom was on before, "I'm sorry." His eyes were glistening, tears beginning to form. "You forgive me, right?" I nodded in approval and he looked marginally happier, "That means a lot coming from you." He got up and opened the door, pausing to say, "You're probably the only reason why I stayed to teach at Gallagher. You're like a daughter to me." After leaving me with that comment, he walked out.

I settled back down into the bed and almost slept. Almost. Something prevented me from sleeping - three somethings. Knocking at the window from he inside of a bush was Bex, Liz and Macey - all decked out in camouflage and spy gear. I stepped out of bed and opened the window, trying to be silent. "What are you doing here?" I managed to say without dribbling too much (note to self: having a numb face is a bad idea when talking to friends).

"We came to see you!" announced Liz, her blonde curls bobbing up and down.

"Shh!" hushed Macey, "We're not supposed to let Mr Solomon and Ms Morgan know we snuck out of school grounds!"

"Sorry!" squeaked Liz, "Anyway, what happened? Where did you disappear to? What happened to your face? Why did your mom rush here when she got a note during her speech in the Grand Hall?"

I was being bombarded with questions, so I grabbed the paper and pen lying on the side table and wrote all the answers out - the main ones being 'The Circle' and 'Dad'. When they saw what I wrote, they began to repeat sympathetic things to me. I started to explain that it was alright (for spies, they're a bit slow to understand that dad's alive), but I heard footsteps approaching my room and signalled to my friends to duck back down. I closed the window and jumped into bed in less than three seconds. The door opened and mom walked in with some food. I didn't realised until then that I hadn't eaten for a few days and I suddenly felt starving.

"Hey kiddo, I brought you something to eat. Thought you'd be hungry since you and Joe had to go through so much together. Oh, and don't worry, I didn't make them." she put down the tray of waffles and I stuffed my mouth instantly, glancing over mom's shoulder to see the shocked faces of my friends. Of course, they'd want to hear every single detail of what happened and Liz would do some kind of equation to figure out how long I was handcuffed to Joe for. Right before I finished eating, mom smiled and said, "Why don't we let your friends in? They spent their time tailing me and now they're just sitting in a bush." She turned around to see three red-faced girls smiling weakly and waving. "You should be happy that you have such good friends. Especially ones that risk losing their privileges for you."