Sorry it's been so long! How was everyone's Thanksgiving break? Once again, I'm suffering from some writer's block...ideas, please! Anything, anything!


"A birthday party," Zach repeats, the idea registering slowly in his mind. Grant beams.

"Yes, Zach, a birthday party!" he cries, exhilarated. "You know, with presents, and cake –"

"I know what a birthday party is," Zach interrupts. "But…"

"But what?" Grant smiles as if it's his birthday, not Zach's. "Dude, you need to lighten up more. We can invite the girls, and –"

"Who said anything about the girls?" Zach starts to wonder how well thought out Grant's plan is. A birthday party? They're seventeen. Candles and cake just don't fit the image of Zachary Goode, trained spy and assassin. Jonas shifts uncomfortably.

"Erm…yeah. The girls?"

Grant scoffs. "Yeah. The girls. You know, Liz, Cammie, Macey, Bex." He practically drools over Bex's name. Jonas looks wildly around the room.

"Whatever. I'm not planning this."

"Neither am I," Zach agrees. Grant complains loudly.

"Zach! It's your birthday."

"Which is why I vote we sit around do nothing," Zach concludes, folding his arms.

"Have you ever had a birthday party?" Zach freezes. His mind is projected back to a time when the world was a brighter, more cheerful place.

"Zach!" His father barged into his room and set a large box on his bed. Zach raised his head drowsily.

"What, Dad?"

"Happy birthday! Go ahead and open it!" Zach sat up quickly and tore off the gift-wrapping. Opening the box he found a comms-unit, his first connection with the spy world.

"Awesome," was the only word Zach could manage as he lifted it out and hooked it to his ear. "Do you have one, too, Dad?"

"Of course," Dad winked. "I'll always be listening."

Later that day, Dad presented Zach with a cake. It was a small party, just them two, but that was all they needed. Zach felt safe and sound, cocooned in a bundle of comfort.

"Make a wish."

He did, and blew out all ten candles in one breath. Zach wished that things could always be like this, that nothing would take Dad away from him. Obviously, whoever heard his wish didn't grant it. Two years later, Zach lost his dad.

Grant notices the expression on Zach's face, and stops. "God, Zach, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to –"

"It's okay." Zach doesn't want Jonas or Grant thinking it's a touchy subject. The Zach they know is steady and sure, not troubled with haunted remembrances of his past.

"Forget the birthday party," Grant mumbles. "We'll just chill."

"No." He wants to prove to them that he's fine. There's nothing to worry about. Zach thinks it's time he had a birthday party. He promises himself that this one will be better than the one he had seven years ago.