I do not own the Gallagher Girls series. That belongs to the amazing Ally Carter. I however, own the storyline. It's a fan fiction for the love of—! God, these disclaimers are so pointless. Honestly, I don't even—... O_O


Summary: When Macey is kidnapped by the Circle while defending Cammie, can they rescue her in time? Or better yet, will Macey survive the ordeal?

Author's note: Unless otherwise mentioned, this story will take place from Cammie's POV.

Chapter 11

"Awakening"

According to Liz, the storm outside would be raging for awhile, but there were more than enough provisions in the cabinets of the cabin and a decent amount of firewood. I sat dozing against the wall, where I found myself a lot lately. Liz was fumbling with her tech and Bex was pacing back and forth across the room, muttering (and in multiple languages).

Around this time, Macey's eyes opened again. For a moment or two, she looked around, puzzled, as she tried to remember what had happened, why she was lying in the middle of the room covered with a blanket from the waist down. Then it seemed to come back to her. She glanced down at her loosely bandaged side, saw the swollen, discolored flesh and must've felt the heat that shot through it.

She made a small sound in her throat and my head shot up.

"Macey!" I cried, my voice full of relief. I edged closer and seized Macey's hand that didn't have any broken fingers. The return grip was surprisingly weak and I felt a thrill of alarm. Then I dismissed it. Macey had been close to death. She would take some time to recover.

"You're all right now," I said.

Macey glanced around, her misty eyes falling on Bex.

"I don't remember you muttering this much before." She sounded like she'd been eating gravel.

Bex's pacing came to a screeching halt and she locked eyes with Macey's. I saw the tears that sprang to her eyes.

Liz stopped fumbling with her gadgets and dashed over with Bex.

"My god, Macey," I exclaimed, "it's good to see you awake again! We thought we'd lost you for a while. But now you're on the mend."

I caught the quick flash of apprehension in Macey's eyes, instantly masked, and suddenly a horrible thought struck me.

"Macey? You are all right, aren't you? Of course you are! You're awake and talking. Maybe a little weak but you'll get your strength back and heal up and before you know it we'll be..." I stopped, realizing I was babbling, aware that I was talking to convince myself, not the girl who lay before us.

There was a long silence that followed. Forty-seven seconds, to be exact.

"Tell me."

Macey hesitated, and then glanced down at her injured stomach. She drew a deep breath before she spoke.

"You understand the blade was poisoned, don't you?"

I nodded and pointed to myself. "Spy." I allowed a small smile to creep onto my features, but stopped short when I saw her wince.

I continued answering her question. "I should have thought of it earlier."

"We all should have," Liz said, not letting me take the self-blame, and Bex nodded in agreement.

Macey gave a slight shake of her head. "But I should have considered it. I should have realized the Circle would have something up their sleeves." She made a sound in her throat that might've been an attempt at laughing. "I should have realized it when I started talking to the shadows on the walls."

She paused. "I vaguely remember going a little crazy. Something was shaking me, and there was yelling."

I nodded. "That's when we really got worried."

"You started thrashing and shouting and were running a fever," Liz added.

Macey's voice dropped to an even quieter whisper and her eyes glazed over slightly as she looked at me. "I thought they were after you again, Cammie." She brought her hand to her head, felt the bandage that covered it, and then seemed to find something very interesting in that hand and stared at it for several seconds.

Bex and I looked at each other, wondering if the poison was affecting her mind as well.

"Oh, yeah," Macey said, her hand falling back down to her side and her eyes falling back on mine. "Sorry for hitting you."

The way she said it made it sound like she'd broken some kind of super-important friendship oath or something and my eyebrows shot up. Bex just laughed.

"I was planning on making you a gift basket."

I smacked her arm.

Macey might've said something else but her words died away to a mutter and she drifted into sleep. The three of us sat and watched over her. Perhaps she would recover. Perhaps a good rest was all she needed. In the next days, Macey would be on the road to recovery.


Sometime later Bex must've noticed my tired, red-rimmed eyes and led me away to the fire, forcing me to eat some of the canned corn we'd cracked open. (I'd never thought corn as having a rubbery taste, but evidently I was proven wrong.)

When I'd recovered my composure a little we discussed what Liz had said about the poison and the possible outcome we faced. Bex was determined to keep a positive frame of mind.

"But she said she could get better?" she insisted.

"Yeah," I said. "She said the next forty-eight hours would be the most important."

"She's sleeping peacefully now," Bex noted. "None of that tossing and turning. I think she's getting better. I definitely think she's getting better."

I nodded several times. "You're right. All she needs is a good's night's rest. In the morning, she'll be fine."

And for the second time, I was trying to convince myself.


Shortest chapter of all of them, but I promise I'll provide more next chapter.

And let me just say "Thank You!" to all of you wonderful readers out there for helping drive me to push forward with To Save a Sister and you're awesome reviews. Why? Because I've become pretty damn depressed these last few days by looking at other stories with fewer chapters and a ton more reviews.

I mean, if nobody likes the story, I can always just quit. It's that simple.

Seems to me that if I were to just conjure up a Cammie/Zach (or Zammie) story, I'd get a lot more reviews than I do trying my hardest and all my free time writing this one.

Want me to continue? Let me know, and I will. Otherwise, I don't know if I'll throw out my notebook or not.

So review. Please.

Bye.