A/N: Hi, how's everyone doing? I know the last chapter was kinda a filler, and I hate to say this, but this one kinda is, too. Sorry... And I'm also sorry for the long update. Anyways, thank you to anyone who reviewed, followed, favorited, etc my stories. It means a lot to me :)

zammiegallaghergirl: Yeah, so do I! It would definitely come in handy :p

mal.k: I'm happy you liked the previous chapter. Hopefully you'll enjoy this one just as much!

xXFangirlingBookwormXx: Deciding to foreshadow, huh? You'll find out everything soon, I promise.

Disclaimer: Ally Carter is the author of the Gallagher Girls series and the rightful owner of the characters.

Chapter 14

Cammie POV

The cafeteria slowly started to fill up with students and teachers. Cammie clasped on to Zach's hand as she squeezed through the crowd and headed over to the table where the rest of her friends usually sat at. She noticed Joe sitting near the front of the room with the other teachers.

At the table sat Bex, Liz, Grant, Jonas, and surprisingly Macey. She still looked a little upset, but at least she had shown up to dinner. As Cammie and Zach down, they helped themselves to the food that was laid out on the table.

"Your shirt looks pretty, Macey," Cammie complimented only to get a word out of Macey's mouth.

"Thanks," Macey mumbled but didn't move her gaze from her plate.

Cammie looked to her right as Joe stood up and cleared his throat. The cafeteria suddenly became quiet, and the loud chatter toned down to a quiet whisper.

Only Joe has enough talent to get a whole population of 300 students quiet within seconds, Cammie thought admiringly.

"Thank you," Joe nodded curtly. "You all have probably realized that we haven't done any Outlander work recently." He looked around the room. "Well that time is coming to an end." He paused and continued on. "There's a village about 70 miles from here, called Washington. The leader's name is Samuel Winters. He's a dear friend of mine. Which means he's an Outlander.

"He wants us to invade Washington because apparently Catherine is rapidly dominating the village. And we all know how that feels like." Murmurs of agreement wove throughout the room.

"The plan is simple," Joe continued. "We train for a couple of weeks. Our elite team will be deploying with the rest of you as backup. We will have two main pickups. Samuel, and his son, Preston Winters. Preston is 18 years old. Blonde hair, gray eyes." Joe pulled up a picture that appeared out of thin air and hovered in front of his face. Preston was tall and skinny, but seemed overall well-built.

Cammie heard a sharp intake of breath behind her. She turned slightly and saw Macey staring at the picture of Preston, her mouth hanging slightly open. Her eyes were shining, and her cheeks started to turn red. Cammie stifled a giggle and turned back around. Looks like Macey's finally found her match.

Later, Cammie was walking with her friends and all the other students from dinner. Bex and Liz were by her side and Zach, Grant, and Jonas were having a deep conversation behind them. Macey was wheeling herself quietly in front of the other girls. After a few minutes, the gang reached the boys' quarters, and they said their goodbyes as the boys left. A couple more minutes passed, and then Liz and Bex departed in the direction of their rooms. As Macey and Cammie neared their apartments, Cammie couldn't help but run up to Macey and ask, "So, what'd you think of the kid Joe was talking about earlier?"

"Who?" Macey asked innocently.

Cammie chuckled. "You know, the guy you were drooling over?"

"I was not drooling over Preston!" Macey shouted indignantly.

Cammie faked gasped. "You remembered his name! That means you're interested in him," she laughed.

"That doesn't mean—" Macey sputtered.

"You like him, you like him, you like him," Cammie danced around Macey.

"Will you shut—"

"Oh, I can't get over his perfect muscles, and that dazzling smile," Cammie grabbed the flowered scarf wrapped around Macey's neck and jokingly fanned herself with it. She even let out a small squeal. "And he's eighteen. That means he's an older boy." She laughed at Macey's embarrassed expression and ran down the hall, with the scarf in her hands.

"Cameron Anne Morgan!" Macey shouted while wheeling herself after Cammie. "You get back here this instant!"

"How do you know my middle name?" Cammie suddenly stopped, breathless.

"I'm a spy, aren't I?" Macey finally reached Cammie, grabbed her scarf and wheeled off in a huff.

Cammie stood in the hall. She stared after Macey and started to trudge to her room. If Macey knows my middle name, then what else do the others know about me that they haven't mentioned? What if it's something I don't know?

The next few days consisted of heavy physical training for the "elite team", which consisted of all the students who were in the highest level of Blackthorne. Liz and Jonas wouldn't be fighting because they weren't field agents. Macey was still handicapped, so she would be sitting out as well.

Unfortunately, since the elite team consisted of the highest level students, that meant that Tina Walters would also be there. As soon as Joe rounded up the students into the giant gym, Tina immediately came bounding over to where Cammie, Bex, Zach, and Grant stood.

"Hi Cammie!" Tina waved excitedly.

"Um, hi," Cammie smiled.

"It's so cool that we're both on the elite team, right?" Tina gushed.

Zach snorted and almost burst out laughing, but he covered it up with cough. Cammie gave him a look and turned back to Tina.

"You know," Tina started. "You sure do spend a lot of time with Zach..."

"Yeah, I do," Cammie said slowly. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"No! Of course that isn't wrong," Tina said quickly. "If you and Zach are...together," she added slyly.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Zach said exasperatedly. He came up from behind Cammie and put an arm around her waist. "We're together, all right?" Cammie looked up at him in surprise.

Tina let out a squeal and a huge grin spread across her face. "I knew it!" She giggled. "Oh, I'm so happy for you two!" She each gave Zach and Cammie a hug and then skipped off to a group of girls and chattered excitedly to them.

Cammie woefully stared after Tina. "You know, you didn't have to tell her," she told Zach.

"She probably wasn't going to leave us alone if we kept denying it," Zach pointed out.

When Cammie didn't respond, he pulled Cammie's arm towards the others. "Come on, let's get back to practice."

"So Zach just spilled the beans?" Bex asked as the students filed out of the gym after training. She slung a hand towel over shoulder and took a gulp of water.

"Yeah," Cammie mopped the sweat from her forehead; the training had been really intense for the first day.

"Wow," Bex exhaled. "You must be having some mixed feelings." She stopped in the middle of the hallway and faced Cammie.

"Well, it's not too bad," Cammie replied. "I mean, I did expect him to hide our relationship for as long as we could, but what happened today wasn't horrible or anything."

"Cammie, you don't understand," Bex said. "He told Tina, out of all people. Tina has sources and other contacts everywhere around the school. I'm certain that by tonight, everyone is going to know about you and Zach."

"I guess, but," Cammie sighed. "Whatever, I'm not really supposed to care, so—"

"Of course you are," Bex interjected. She paused. "When Grant and I started dating, we both promised to keep it quiet for a while. But then people started to figure out, so it's not that we had broken the promise or anything. What Zach did was kinda...unexpected."

"I know," Cammie said. "But stuff like this happens often during relationships, right? I mean, I can't just blame him for one simple mistake." By now, all the students had returned to their rooms, and Bex and Cammie were left alone in the hall.

"Well, could he be mad or angry at something that happened between you two recently?" Bex asked.

"Um," Cammie thought back. "Maybe about the whole Catherine coming to Gallagher situation?"

"But all she did was talk to you on a roof. Why would Zach be conflicted about that?" Bex replied. "Unless she said something that you didn't tell me about..."

"She did say something..." Cammie said slowly. "She said that...Josh was still alive."

"What?" Bex exclaimed. "She said that?"

"Yes?" Cammie said timidly.

"Why didn't you tell me before?!" Bex asked.

"I don't know, I was confused, and—"

"No wonder Zach is acting weird," Bex mused. "He feels jealous and angry that Josh is back, and he wants to keep your relationship with him real and alive. So he wants to declare it to everyone so they know that no one can get into the middle of you two."

"Ugh," Cammie groaned. "I really can't deal with this now. I have to go to sleep." She turned to the direction of her room.

"Cam," Bex grabbed onto Cammie's hand before she left. "If Josh is really back, then you have bigger problems to deal with."

"I know," Cammie sighed.

"Good night," Bex smiled and then turned and walked away from Cammie.

The next morning, Cammie had gotten back to her regular life in Blackthorne. She went to her classes with Bex, Macey, and Liz, did her homework, and never spent a minute worrying about Catherine and her relationship with Zach. That is, until one day, Joe pulled Cammie aside after a period of CoveOps had ended.

"Cameron, can I talk to you for a second?" Joe called out from his desk as the students were leaving the classroom.

"Go on without me," Cammie told Bex, Macey, and Liz. She turned and walked over to Joe. "Yeah?"

"Hey," Joe stood up and ruffled Cammie's hair. "I haven't really had the chance to sit down and talk with you lately. How's everything?"

"Uh," Cammie didn't really know how to have a conversation like this. "Everything's fine."

"Really?" Joe raised his eyebrows. "You were almost kidnapped by the founding leader of the Circle less than a week ago, and suddenly everything's fine?"

"Aside from that," Cammie stared wistfully at the door.

Joe smiled. "Sit down, let's talk." He gestured to the many desks and chairs in the classroom.

Cammie sighed and took a seat. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, for starters, how have you been coping with your new life?"

"Joe, it's been months since I arrived here at Blackthorne, and now you decide to ask how I have been doing?"

"I know," Joe chuckled. "I'm not so great at the whole parenting thing, am I?"

"No," Cammie said quickly. "You are great."

"Then what is it?" Joe asked.

"It's just me," Cammie said. "Me and my crazy complications of life."

"What's wrong?" Joe said, concerned.

"I guess it's just the whole Catherine thing," Cammie shrugged her shoulders. "And then Zach being her son and all."

"It's hard—I know," Joe smiled comfortingly. "How are you and Zach doing?"

"Um, good," Cammie answered. "It's been a little rocky here and there, but good."

"Good," Joe nodded. "What about you and the girls?"

"Oh we're great," Cammie grinned. "We're all really close now. Macey's a little distant because she's in the wheelchair and everything. She's kinda annoyed. And then yesterday, I started teasing her about Preston Winters. She got a little pissed at that, too."

"Samuel's son?" Joe laughed. "Oh yeah, I saw the way she was looking at his picture during dinner."

"Yeah, I know!" Cammie exclaimed. She leaned back in her chair and smiled at how well she was getting along with her "dad."

Over the next half an hour or so, Cammie and Joe had talked up a storm. She had told him everything on her new life at Blackthorne, and he listened intently. The conversation slowly turned into the direction of Cammie's parents and Joe's life when he was younger.

"I miss your mom and dad, a lot," Joe said. "I'd be lying if I said that I don't think about them every day."

Cammie nodded. Then, out of curiosity, she asked, "Did my parents have any siblings?"

"Matt was an only child," Joe replied. "Rachel had a younger sister. Her name was Abigail."

"Abigail," Cammie whispered.

"Cameron."

Cammie looked up. "Yeah?"

"No, that was her last name," Joe said quickly. "Abigail Cameron."

"Mom's maiden name?"

"Yeah, she named you after it."

Cammie slowly processed this information. "Is my aunt still alive?" she asked.

Joe shook his head sadly. "She died in a fire. I was out with Matt and the other Outlander members having a meeting at another village. When we came back, there was a burned up house and a body. Your mother and her parents were in the cafeteria with Patricia. I still remember that day... Matt and I were walking through the gates of Gallagher, and the guards told us what had happened. We started hurrying to find Rachel, and when we entered the cafeteria, she came running up to Matt with tears streaming down her face.

"I even have a locket that Abby used to own. Half of it got destroyed in the fire, but the other half I have in my desk. My piece has Abigail carved into it. The other piece, where ever it is, has Cameron on it."

"Wow," Cammie exhaled. "Are all of my family members dead?"

"Not me," Joe smiled and took Cammie's hands. "I'm right here. Always will be."

"I know."

A/N: There we go. Wasn't too bad, was it? I kinda wanted to get this information about Abby out. Don't worry, she'll be back. Did you guys enjoy the Joe/Cammie bonding time? Joe is kinda the only family Cammie has right now, and I wanted to get that across the board. Thanks for reading :) And don't forget to REVIEW! Bye XD

~bookwormbullet