***A/N: Hi everyone! I'm sorry I haven't updated recently. I lost my grandfather to Lou Gehrig's Disease in June, and I started my senior year of high school about a month ago. Anyway, this little plot bunny has been nagging me since I posted the last chapter, but I just haven't had the time to sit down and work on it. I hope you like it! Review, please! ***

Third Person POV

Zach glanced at Cammie and whispered something in her ear. She nodded, squeezed his hand, and said, "We'll be back in a while."

The two of them vanished out of Rachel's office and into the Hall of History. Mr. Cohen shook Matthew Morgan's hand. "Good to have you back, Matt," he said, before heading back to the helicopter that would take him back to Langley.

Matthew turned to his wife. He drew her into his arms and kissed her softly. Chuckling, he held her at arms' length and looked her over. "You're just as beautiful as ever."

Rachel smiled, her cheeks pink. "I feel like a teenager again." Matt laughed, and Rachel couldn't help but join in.

"Speaking of teenagers…" Matt said, shaking his head. "Our Cammie, all grown up. It's hard to believe she'll be eighteen in September."

"You're not kidding… the last four years have been so hectic –" The desk phone rang, shattering the conversation. Rachel hurried to answer it. "Gallagher Academy. Director Cohen? I understand. Give me a few minutes to gather some files and pack a bag. I'll be on my way within half an hour." Matthew looked up, confused.

"They need me to fill out some paper work and identify a couple of our agents detained up at Langley. I should be back either late tonight or early tomorrow morning."

"Go, Rach. I'll catch up with Joe." He drew her close, gave her a gentle kiss, and left the office, finding Joe in his office in the Sublevels.

Matthew POV

Joe turned around in his desk chair as I walked into his office. "Hey, Matt. How are you doing?"

"Much better. It's still a lot to take in. I'm not totally sold on the idea of Cammie with this boy, either."

"Zach's a good kid. We have to remember that he couldn't choose his family. His mother was a psychopath, but he got himself out of the situation as soon as he could. Protecting Cammie has been his number one priority since the first moment the Circle threatened her." Joe tried to reason with me.

"I get that. It's just that the last time I saw my daughter, she was twelve and we were reading the Washington Post on our living room floor. Now she's almost eighteen, taking down terrorist groups and apparently head over heels in love with some guy that I met for the first time when he was pulling me out of a cell in the tombs. I have no idea what he's about, and what the dynamic of their relationship is. The father and the agent in me are both going insane."

"Want me to help you fill in the blanks?" He offered.

"That might not be a bad idea. After all, you've been teaching both of them for the last three years, and evidently had some role in these operations."

Joe chuckled. "You could say that. I guess I'll start with how I ended up here at Gallagher, then. Rachel called me the summer before Cammie's sophomore year. She said that the school was in need of a Covert Operations instructor, and she felt that she had a vested interest in the selection, as her daughter was going to be on the Cove-Ops track within the year. As soon as I heard that Cam was involved, I was on board. I felt that I owed it to you to make sure that she got the training she needed to be successful out in the field, and I knew that I could do that. So I came in and started teaching – met Cammie and her friends right away. Baxter's daughter Rebecca was admitted into the same incoming seventh grade class as Cam. Around Christmas time the board of Trustees at Gallagher approached Rachel and I about an exchange with Blackthorne for the spring semester."

"Wait, so this was essentially the Trustees deciding that the girls needed to interact with another group of spies?"

"More or less, but that had to do with the civilian boy Cam was seeing during the fall of her sophomore year and the revelation that they needed to give the girls some exposure to the male population before they started trying to find boys themselves."

"It would seem that my daughter is more like me in personality than we originally thought…"

"Yeah, she can be a handful, that's for sure! Anyway, the exchange with Blackthorne started as a training op dealing with identifying and losing tails at the Mall in D.C. Then the fifteen boys, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, moved into the East Wing here at Gallagher, and that's when Zach and Cammie's bond started to develop. She hated him at the start because he'd beaten her at her own pavement-artist game. She's known at school and in intelligence circles as the Chameleon, because she blends in so well and can tail just about anyone. But for some reason, Zach could always see her. They eventually built a cautious friendship. Zach was the one that started pursuing Cam romantically, not that she was really opposed." I shook my head. I didn't like that thought – not one bit. "A date and training-op/final exam later, Gallagher let out for the summer and the boys returned to Blackthorne. That summer, Cammie was Macey McHenry's guest at the National Convention in Boston because her dad was on the ballot with Senator Winters. The Circle made its first of two kidnapping attempts that weekend. Another kidnapping attempt was made later that fall in D.C. Both were thwarted, thank God. I went off-grid for a while because I knew I was being pursued as a double agent. I was able to get a hold of Cammie long enough to give her the clues to the key that would translate the codes in your journal. She, her roommates, Zach and his friends infiltrated the tombs at Blackthorne and I think you know what happens from there…"

I shook my head incredulously. My daughter had brushed with the horrible realities of life in the espionage business before she was even out of high school. She'd risked her life on numerous occasions, and asked the ones she loved to risk their lives as well. It weighed heavily on me that I couldn't have protected her, shielded her from all of this. But I realized that she not only saved my life, but she bonded with her sisters in a way that was going to last a lifetime, and may very well have met the man I might eventually call my son-in-law.

"Speaking of Zach, any idea where he is? I think he and I need to have a little chat."

"He's probably upstairs with Cammie in the pigeon tower. They think we don't know that's where they go to hide out when they want some time alone." I tried to hide how much it bothered me that they allowed my teenage daughter to be alone with her boyfriend. Joe could always read me like a book, though, and he just laughed at my discomfort. I turned around and wove back through the sublevels and up to the staircase leading to the pigeon tower.

What I found made me smile indulgently, thinking of the first years of my relationship with Rachel. Cam was sound asleep with her head on Zach's chest, his leather jacket over her and his arm around her waist. His free hand swept gently through her long hair and he gazed down on her with a soft smile on his face. I cleared my throat quietly, trying not to wake Cammie. Zach looked up and nodded at me, then back down to where Cammie was shifting in her sleep. "Shhh, sweetheart. Go back to sleep. I have you, you're safe."

"M'kay…" She said sleepily, snuggling into him. I stood still for a couple of minutes as she settled back into a deep sleep. Then I moved to sit on the floor next to the young man who was currently cradling my sleeping daughter like she was the most precious thing in his world. When I thought about it, there was a distinct possibility that she was. I glanced over at Zach. "She means a lot to you, doesn't she?"

"She's everything to me, Agent Morgan. Cammie is the only person who didn't immediately define me by who my mom is. She's been through hell and back because my mom decided she wanted to lead a terrorist organization, but she never once took that out on me. I can't put into words my regret that you and Cammie were harmed by my vindictive bitch of a mother." Zach suddenly looked too tired, too worn to be just shy of eighteen. I placed my hand on his shoulder.

"I appreciate that, Zach, but it was never your fault. You were just a kid – your mother was the adult. I can't blame you for a grown woman's decisions. I should be thanking you for protecting my little girl when I couldn't."

"The moment I laid eyes on her I knew there would never be any other option than to keep her safe."

"And that's exactly why I know I can trust you with my Cammie. I don't know if she's told you, but her nightmares have come back with a vengeance. She's barely sleeping. So to see her resting so comfortably with you reassures me that you're good for her."

"She's good for me, too. Before I met Cammie, I could only imagine coming home to an empty apartment after missions, getting drunk and leaving the next morning for another assignment. Now I see a real future. Finishing school, going into the Agency, working. But also being able to come home to the woman I love, and the one you'll hopefully someday give me your blessing to marry."

"Zach, you've proved a lot to me since you pulled me out of the tombs. You not only saved my life, but you very well might have saved my wife and daughter's as well. And just know that when you do decide to ask for my blessing, you'll have it." I squeezed his shoulder and stood up.

"Take good care of her, Zach. Believe me, I'll know if you don't."

"Don't worry, Agent Morgan. She's my number-one priority."
"Good. And it's Matt, by the way."

I turned and headed down the stairs, confident that Zach would always love and protect my baby girl.