First off, y'all are amazing. Thank y'all for putting up with me. I've made a lot of promises that I haven't kept, and, for that, I apologize. HOWEVER, this is my longest chapter yet, so hopefully that makes up for it(:

I forgot how absolutely insane it is when I'm around family(: As the oldest, I'm often stuck babysitting everyone. They're all hooligans. Little devil children, but I love them dearly. Just got one of them to bed, so I'm going to write a chapter for y'all(:

It's so hard to get the chance to be alone and write, so for the next week, my updating may be a little irregular! Apologies in advance(: I won't go crazy and not update at all, but just be prepared!

This is a promise I KNOW I'll keep, and if I don't, y'all can virtually beat me up. I will not be one of those authors who ends the story in the middle or just forgets about it unless something major happens like a death or injury.

Enough then(: On to the chapter!

Thanks to ISpyANinjaAndItsMe once again for helping me sort out the details of this chapter(: Quick warning, not everything coincides with the books.

Here it is!

My dad sat across from us, and, seeing the expectant and open expression on my face, he started to explain.

I cut him off before he began. I wanted him to know where I was coming from first, "I'm ready to listen. I'll do my best to be open, but you have to know how hard it was without you all of those years, Dad."

His face showed his pain clearly, "Cameron, I'm so, so sorry. Please, please, just listen to me."

"I will. I am."

He looked slightly relieved, and he began again, "You know that I was hunting the Circle. You also know that, before I went MIA, I was coming really close to defeating them. It was something I'd spent nearly my entire life trying to do, and I got reckless in my excitement."

I had tried to tell myself that I wouldn't interrupt, but I quickly learned that wasn't going to happen. "Reckless? You got reckless?" I screeched.

I kept ranting, "You had a wife at home, as well as a daughter, whom, by the way, you had promised you would be coming back. And, you were reckless?" Even I could hear the judgment in my voice but the memory of the day he left was making my emotions come back head on.

(I don't remember if this was included in the series or not, so excuse me if it is and I'm changing what the amazing Ally wrote! Sorry guys(: )

Tears sprang to my eyes from the pain in my finger, "Ow!"

"Oh, Cammie! Let me see," my dad sympathized.

I showed him my red finger that I had just burnt on the pan of cookies we had made. He gave it a look, grabbed some ice and milk, and poured them in a bowl.

"Here," he said, "Put your hand in this."

"In that?" I said skeptically.

"Come on now, Cam. Don't you trust your old man?"

I giggled since he was anything but old. Even at my young age, I knew my dad was handsome and young.

"Of course, Daddy." I stuck my hand in the bowl, and a sigh escaped from my mouth as the pain subsided.

"See? Never a hurt Daddy can't fix," he smiled. "Well, we better let these cookies cool before we frost them. While we're waiting, I have something to tell you."

I knew what was coming. We always made some treat before he went off on a mission. I was young, but I knew the dangers in his missions. He always came back unharmed, but I wasn't oblivious to the slight anxiety my mom had when he was gone.

"You have a mission?" It was hardly a guess. Tears were in my eyes again, but it wasn't from physical pain this time.

He nodded, "I'll be back before you know it."

I seriously doubted that, but I knew that he had to go, "You will be back, right?" I knew it was childish, but I couldn't help but ask such a simple question.

"Of course. Why don't we shake on it?"

I laughed and jumped off the counter. We did our special handshake. (Think Parent Trap (; )

"I love you, Camster."

"Don't call me that, Daddy!"

He just laughed, "Let's frost those cookies, now. Shall we, my princess?"

"We shall, my prince frog," I curtsied quickly and stuck my tongue out before making a mad dash for the frosting.

He lied. He broke his promise. (Ironic, right? Maybe not so much ironic as hypocritical. Seeing as I broke mine to y'all. Ohmygosh. What is up with my ANs tonight? Enough, Mary Katherine! Write the story!)

I tried to remind myself that, for the time being, I was forgetting about that and giving him the chance to explain. I focused back on the conversation.

"Yes, Cam. Reckless. I wasn't as careful as I normally was. I was just… so close. Closer than I had ever been. I was getting sloppy. Then, one detail, just one, went wrong," he closed his eyes as he thought back.

His voice was quieter when he continued, "I was meeting an informant. They said they had valuable information for me concerning the main base's security. I knew the risk involved in meeting with them. They weren't necessarily a… reliable source.

It was just too good of a chance to pass up. I sent him a coded message with the time and location. Being the idiot he was, he misread it. He went to an unsafe meeting rendezvous, only to be spotted by a Circle member.

He wasn't just an idiot; he was a chicken, too. The second they pulled out a knife, he spilled everything. When I arrived to the actual location, they were waiting. They had me surrounded before I could even think to escape. Like I said earlier… reckless."

And it was. It was completely reckless. It went against every rule you could think of in a spy's world.

Knowing that he'd been confronted in such a way by the Circle gave me a little sympathy, but it still didn't explain why he hadn't come to find us as soon as he was free.

"It was the usual treatment of prisoners once I was in the Circle's clutches. Trying to torture me into giving information that I never gave. One day, they stopped. They seemingly didn't want information anymore, and a new torture began.

Sparing the details, I was slowly brainwashed. Not brainwashed so that everything was replaced, but brainwashed so that everything was just gone. I didn't remember anything until recently. My own name was something I only found out from my CIA identification card that some idiot never took from me.

One day someone came through and released us all. They wanted everyone to follow them back to CIA headquarters, but I was a little confused. As much as I'd forgotten, being a pavement artist is something that never leaves you. You're born with it. It's natural. Not really something you can forget. I did what I did best, and I disappeared."

"Hmph," I said.

Dad gave me a questioning look and raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I've said the same thing. About disappearing."

He looked proud.

"And, I can relate. The summer I assume you were released, the summer we defeated the Circle? Well, the summer before that, I'd been captured by the Circle. I had ran and they caught me. I didn't want my loved ones in danger, so I took my own actions."

Zach tensed, and his arms tightened around me like he was trying to make sure I was never allowed to do that again. I looked up at him and smiled, touching his face briefly before I finished telling my story.

"They wanted information, the same information they wanted from you. I wasn't giving it to them. I didn't know the information to give to them even if I had wanted to. They erased my memory, too, but just of the summer. It seems to be something the Circle resorted to a lot…. Erasing pasts," I clarified.

He nodded, "We have a lot to learn about the years we missed of each other's lives, don't we?"

"Yeah, we do," the hurt was still there even in that statement. Things were starting to make more sense, but I still didn't understand everything.

He knew who he was. He knew he was a CIA agent. Why hadn't he seen he had a wife and child? And, if he knew, which I assume he did since he recognized me, why didn't he drop everything to find us?

"Cammie, it took a while before it all came back to me. It only came back in bits and pieces. I swear that I was coming for you and your mother. I was trying to get a grip on life again. You have to know though, Cam, the second it all came back, my top prior- my only priority was finding you."

I knew he was a spy. A top spy at that. He was trained to trick people, to hide his emotions. I knew there was nothing fake in the sincerity in his voice at that moment, though.

Tears came to my eyes, and I rushed over to give him a hug. "I missed you, Daddy," my voice cracked as I told him. "I love you."

"Oh, Cam. I missed you, too. You're my world." I felt his tears in my hair, and I realized I had forgiven him. For everything.

Soooo? Everything you hoped? I kinda disappointed myself, but I hope to redeem myself in the next few chapters.

I love y'all! Review?