Authors note: Well hello ladies, or gents. You know, guys might read these books and then go that step further to read fanfiction,it doesn't matter that we don't know about them though, they're probably just really good operatives, or you know, go around dressed in drag or something. Did I ever tell you I had a dream Joe Solomon was a cross dresser? I probably have, I'm just super proud my tortured little noggin presented that image to me. Man alive wouldn't he just fit into a crowd if he was dressed as a woman...woah why am I here? Oh yeah fanfiction! Erm...well, I don't really know what I'm doing with this chapter, you'll just have to sit tight and wait for the beginning of the end of this meager little story.

A few questions raised in the reviews;
1. I may have mentioned the apocalypse at the end of the last chapter and I swear to god I'm not one of the four horseman or the devil or anything I'm just a fangirl who is way too obsessed with Supernatural.
2. Well you'll just have to wait to find out why Martin wasn't sorry ;) And that other druggy man at the end was Townsend. P.s. Have I completely missed something or since when has Zach been British?
3. Dear GangBang (Guest), Woa gal thats some awesomely inappropriate name. I like it o.O
4. It didn't occur to me that kissing then stabbing and drugging someone is messed up, and I'm also aware my previous answer was a bit odd too. I'm afraid I've become so messed up I can no longer tell when something is normal. So I guess this story could get a little wierd from now on depending on your perspective. YOU ARE WARNED.
5
. I'm fully aware I suck at updating and that more people would read it if I did and now I've gotten ahead of my work hopefully I can do what I've been promising I'd do since I started writing this thing and start updating every week. If you all wish hard enough, maybe it will happen ;D

Disclaimer: Yeah, I still don't own Gallagher Girls.

Chapter. 12 - Damp lodgings.

Cam stood in a vast empty hall, something about it was reminiscent of one of the Circle of Cavan's headquarters. It had been burnt down, blown to pieces, demolished within an inch of it's life. Or at least that's always what the CIA had thought, they had been posing as a constant threat to them and were ready to do whatever it took to wipe them out. This was still the case of course, but the circle was far more stable in that position now. Far more stable than anyone realised. The majority of their headquarters had been rebuilt underground or underwater, some even had moved upwards or taken to a dormant disguise.

This hall was normally full of people, buzzing with facts and figures and messages for someone or other. Cam had never seen it empty, without the light or people she realised just how terrifying this place was; dark walls, blood stains where people had been murdered on suspicion and the spot, it was too much risk to trial them, if the CIA got in here there would be a war, a war and ending. There was something wrong about the place, something that didn't let Cam stand calmly on it's floorboards, all her hair stood on end. She could see clouds of dust and was surprised she wasn't choking on them, then she realised there was no light to highlight the floating embers that would allow her to know she was in fact surrounded by dust, and there was something wrong in the way they floated. Something that wasn't natural.

It clicked and she saw the swirling clouds as what they really were. They were the people who buzzed and ran through the hall in a hurry. Ghosts of these people anyway, outlines of what was once a memory of another of Cameron's fondest homes. Something caught her eye across the space, inwardly she jumped but didn't let it show on her features for a second. She stared at it until it came into focus. Martin. Anger was not strong enough a word for what she felt at the sight of him. A thousand other emotions bubbled up with the sight of him. But betrayal and fury was by far the most prominent. He had attacked her so Townsend could have her, kissed her before hand to make her feel like an idiot. How many more traitors must she uncover from her beloved circle. She found herself craving ignorance again.

He didn't move, he didn't blink. He just stared deadly forward with a blank expression. The gap between them seemed further than it was, they were alone. All alone in a cramped and crowded room of dusty ghosts. It only occurred to Cam then how horrendously under weaponed she had been these past few weeks. She had been completely helpless, surrounded by people ready to kill her at any minute, but she had felt reasonably safe. Smug that the circle had trained her well and better than those stupid Gallagher Girls. But they had also trained Martin, the one person Cameron trusted more than Catherine. She had told herself he didn't keep secrets from her. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She cursed herself. She wanted to scream or rip her best friends face off, make him hurt like he had made her hurt. Make him feel as stupid and little as she did.

She couldn't move, every ounce of her wanted to run and attack him. It was in her blood. Instead she just stood and stared at the bland asshole and tried not to dig her nails too far into her fist. Her hair still stood on the back of neck, but that had been because of the room. For some reason she was reminded of the guy she had been with before she had sprinted into that burst of running freedom, or that's what she thought she had been doing. Zach Goode's words drifted and taunted through the depths of her mind. The middle feels better on my own. Maybe that's how it should be.

cCc

Cammie woke with a start. Her back was sore and ached worse than she had ever endured when she tried to sit up. The floor was ice cold, and apparently her body heat hadn't been enough to warm it in the slightest as she slept. It was darker than the hall had been in her dream, which details were already starting to slip away. She sat up, the outline of bars stood in front of her and she made a noise of frustration. Athough, she thought, at least they've stopped pretending they love me and just locked me up already. When she leant against the wall to stand up she found it oddly slimy. There was a thin line of window right at the very top of the wall, but the light coming through it was not that of the sun, or at least not directly. It seemed smudged and strangely blue, whats more was that the faint shimmers of light were moving in dismal currents. Cam cursed under her breath, being underwater is going to make escaping just that much easier.

"Language." The sound of that voice made her insides burn with anger she could just never vent out. It was a little sad, as well as unnerving that now she felt the same kind of anger towards Martin. At least now this one wont get some twisted idea about him being special. Although he probably already thinks he's special enough.

"Shut up." She demanded, closing her eyes without turning around. Half-hoping that if she concentrated hard enough Zach would just pop out of existence.

"I didn't say anything." He drew the sentence out slowly as if he was completely innocent but tired of her delusions.

"You did actually!" Cam snapped a lot louder and angrier than what was called for. Not that he deserved for her to try and act cool around him, but emotion was weakness and she didn't want to let Zach know hers could get the better of her. Alas, those damn emotions themselves were too high for Cam to be bothered to even try and hide them.

"Not very friendly." He commented, the arrogant dark haired boy stood, leaning against the wall with his arms folded like he owned the place. Which, if it wasn't for the giant Gallagher Academy crest engraved into the wall in between the two flickering oil lamps that barley produced any light worth filling the hall, you would have thought he did.

"No, I'm not, very well spotted." she snapped stepping closer to the bars to show she wasn't afraid, if that's how she was supposed to be feeling. "But neither are you. So why are you here? I thought you were done with all that Catherine and Cammie shit." She spat holding two bars and pressing her forehead between them so she could study his features better. She tried not to dwell on the fact that she smelt like Townsend, because she didn't want to gag infront of Zach and give him something else to sarcastically comment on.

"Oh yeah totally done with that, I don't really care, even if I think I've just about cracked it." She highly doubted any of that sentence was true but she didn't have the strength or inclination to point it out to him. "But the rest of what I said has kind of been cancelled out."

"So you didn't mean it?" She asked boredly.

"Don't get too excited, I'm not owning up to some deeply forbidden love to you." Zach commented bitterly, Cameron rolled her eyes even if the very thought made her sick to the stomach and she barely managed to hide her cringe. "I meant it then, but now you've come back."

"I didn't come back, I was drugged and dragged back." She corrected with a hiss. Zach grimaced as if measuring her description.

"Technically you were drugged and driven back, very little dragging was involved." If he was standing any closer then Cammie was sure she wouldn't have been able to stop herself from punching him, Not that she'd really want to stop herself anyway. "But how you got here is besides the point, I still think this little tightrope of middle is tones better on my own but if I'm forced to share it I might as well make that person see sense."

A slow and rhythmic sound started from somewhere, it gradually got louder and faster until Cam cringed without thinking. It felt like a century since her ears had been blasted with the circus music but not long enough. "Good luck with that," her words sounded pained and Cam gritted her teeth at the weakness she was showing, she was never like this, not before she was kidnapped, but then she had thought she was surrounded by people she could trust. Everyday, it was excruciating to think about, Everyday she had been with Martin and he had just handed her over to these people, he wasn't even sorry. The words and the look on his face as he said them burst the anger out of her, she lashed out and hit a bar with her foot, and then cursed when the shoot of pain rang through her.

"Go ahead! Try and convince me my parents love me! because right now I'm locked in a cell under their school and I'm not exactly convinced!" She shouted, and it was more than a fair point, but Zach just looked bored.

"Your parents aren't here and Abby and Joe are upstairs fighting, they don't know you're here. Townsend was the one who brought you down here and boy will he get his ass kicked when they find out." He added the last part almost as an afterthought to himself, as if even he didn't believe Cammie would belive him. For a moment Cam was stuck with the image of the Solomons having an argument. It must be lethal, but that didn't make it any less humourous.

"What puts you under the impression I'll fool for that for a second, Gallagher Boy?" Cam snapped but Zach just continued his steady gaze.

"Look Ms. Cavan, I say what I see; and whilst in some cases that might be a fancy phrase for the truth spies always see more than whats in front of them and I can't help noticing that you just used dearest mothers name as an insult." This accusation just sent ripples of even more anger through her spine.

"Don't flatter yourself. You're the one who made it an insult." It was calmest way Cameron had said anything since she had woken up.

"Okay." He said in a half-laugh, he smiled at his shoes and kicked something on the floor before he stood up straight. It annoyed Cammie how easily he moved and how smug he looked doing it, she hated how comfortable he appeared in his own skin, because with the crowd she had grown up in she was certain nobody could be like that. Especially someone who had grown up the way she had and she refused to believe this was jealousy that apparently Zach had done so. What she hated most though, was how nothing he did ever seemed to diffuse his looks, even when he had pretended to be a tramp in the streets of Roseville he hadn't been totally hideous. Good looking people always seemed to be the worst people at heart, and as he walked from the corridor she dwelled on the thought that whatever sticky situation this bloody hypothetical middle put him in was what he deserved.

cCc

"Preston Winters." Cameron had been staring at a brick shinning with damp slime for god knows how long. Her standards had apparently returned to her normal spying stamina and then some, because she had heard this person coming and labelled them as Macey McHenry when they were still on the sound-proof floor above her. Apparently being paranoid pays off.

"The names Cameron Goode actually but go on." She said in answer to the odd greeting. She didn't want her to go on, she wanted to be left alone. But something about the eyes that were still as puffy and tired as they had been the other day on a girl standing so strong and confidently and yet was supposed to always look perfect and delicate told Cam that she wouldn't just leave if she asked her too, ignored her completely or kicked her but through the bars.

"Shut up okay, and just answer the question." Macey said steadily.

"I don't recall their being a question." Cammie said lazily strolling a small circle in her cell before flopping down against the wall to sit.

"What happened to him?" She demanded. "Almost two years ago he went missing! His dad's been dead a pretty long time now but we...we kept in touch." She listed off determinedly until she faltered slightly at the end. "It was you wasn't it?"

"I don't know the names of the people I kidnap kid, I just kidnap them." She said arrogantly folding her arms and closing her eyes as if trying to sleep.

"You would know about it!" Macey snapped, Cam opened her eyes, slightly surprised at the screeching increase in the volume of her voice. She had flung herself against the bars and the two operatives in training studied each other carefully.

"We tend to give more damns about royalty and you know...actual presidents and stuff." She dismissed calmly. She could tell her what little truth she wasn't certain she had on the topic, but she told herself it was more fun to keep it from her and that it had nothing to do with the fact the guy she cared most about had just turned out to be the opposite of what she thought he was.

"You have to know something, okay!" She yelled with only the slightest hint of a plead. "I - Liz cracked every CIA code she could and I know it was your bloody Circle of Cavan so cut the crap and tell me what happened to him."

"I'm sorry kid, I've never heard of him." She lied but Macey took a step back with her jaw set and folded her own arms.

"You're lying." She insisted, Cam was only half surprised, most of the time nobody could ever tell when she was lying, ever, but somehow her heart just hadn't been in it.

"Preston Winters?" Cammie clarified.

"Yes." Macey answered stiffly and Cam got to her feet again, almost reluctantly and folded her arms once more as she walked over to the bars and studied Macey one last time before giving her answers that would probably make her run away crying and give her a laugh, or that's what it took to make her explain it anyway.

"If you want to blame it all on me and the Circle go ahead, but I doubt any of this would be happening if it wasn't for your beloved Matthew Morgan and Joseph Solomon." Macey just continued to look exhausted.

"What the hell are you talking about?" She demanded and Cam shifted her weight and obliged.

"He'd still be around, if they hadn't killed his father." She tried not to laugh at the puzzlement that crossed the Gallagher Girls eyes but was forced to retire to an evil grin she couldn't control.

"You're lying." Macey said calmly.

"You just saw me lie, was that it then?" Cam demanded as if she had planned the conversation out to be this way. She continued to look smug at the look on McHenry's face "It was Morgan who killed Winters, I remember hearing about it. Do you ever think about that? About how much blood your teachers could have on their hands? I bet you tell yourself they do it for a reason and only when they have to, but if the Circle is as bad as you're under the impression it is then at least one of your teachers is a murderer for the heck of it. He might have gone soft now but what do you think drove Solomon to sign up to us in the first place?" She had strayed from the topic but she was having far too much fun to stop now.

"He didn't know-" She began to dismiss too easily for Cams liking so she cut her off with a laugh.

"Of course he knew! Do you think we want people like your lot part of us? Look I don't know or particularly care what made him change or join in the first place. I'm just saying he's not the best spy you've ever known, he's the best Assassin you've ever known." Cammie reminded her.

"I don't care!" Macey snapped suddenly and Cam raised her eyebrows. "Not right now! Just tell me what happened to Preston Winters."

"Yeah, okay we kidnapped him. Well more specifically, a team including Solomon kidnapped him. So add that to the list of why you should hate those guys. I wasn't really involved with it," Cameron carried on, reluctant to admit they kept her in the dark about most things. "Do you want to know why Morgan killed Winters?" Cammie taunted moving closer to the bars, Macey stepped away almost involuntarily and looed as if she immediately regretted it. "He's a descendant you ignorant peacock! he was one of the big guys, which means you're little boyfriend is too!" Although her body language and words mirrored the opposite, Cammie's heart wasn't quiet in tormenting her, considering she was going through the same thing it was hard to relish on that kind of pain. She continued anyway, she didn't want to damage her reputation.

"No...No...You're lyi-...he wouldn't!" She rambled stepping back again, as if that would stop it from being true. She showed no signs of tears bubbling to the surface, which in Cameron's opinion was a little annoying but she could tell the girls mind was conflicted and that was enough to make it worth it. Even if Cammie wanted to kill Martin, it was clear in her mind that he had betrayed her.

"If the Circle of Cavan is really that bad," Cam said for what felt like the umpteenth time. "You better pray to hell that this Preston kid is dead."

I have a feeling I probably should have given a little bit of warning for that. Just a "hey guys Preston and Macey Chapter thing coming up" probably would have helped, I don't know. This took me the entire day to write, and I mean like all twelve hours of it, because I'm at my dads and don't have the books with me so for some reason I suddenly started doubting everything I knew about Gallagher Girls. I actually spent half an hour staring at the screen because I wasn't sure his name was really Preston Winters. So if there are stupid mistakes, that's probably why ;)

*THIRD MINI-REVEAL THING**THEY'RE ONLY HINTS SO ITS KIND OF TWO*

So I regret to inform any big Preston and Macey shippers that that is probably all you're getting this time around. If there is any more, well, I don't know about it yet. This whole Hoopla becomes much more important in the sequel so once again I guess you just have to sit tight. If it's any comfort, you think the characters you've heard from already are safe? I promise you nobody from the books are quiet how you left them.
On a semi-related note, RIDDLE ME THIS; I have a confession to make; I am in love with Joe Solomon, and writing the changes to his character have been one of the most enjoyable part about scribbling down this mess, and today we saw some rather worrying developments about the ever-present questions as to why he joined the circle if, in this story, he knew full well what he was signing up for. I'm a big fan of double-whamy's but am also constantly misleading (could that have been a double whamy itself?) Seriously, I am a nuisance to read from but I promise answers in the sequel.

...And also, isn't "Double Whamy" just the best expresion ever?