A/N: Just popping my head back above water to gift you with this. The second half of the first Sunday night dinner. It didn't turn out exactly like I wanted but hopefully you understood where each of the characters are at right now...hopefully!

DISCLAIMER: Ally Carter owns everything you recognise, not me (unfortunately)

RECAP:
She hadn't taken but two steps in the direction of the door when she felt a very solid, very heavy presence on her back, causing her to tumble to the ground, making an entirely undignified squeak during her descent.

I wonder what Joe is thinking right now, I mean it's not every day you see a mother tackle her daughter.

Chapter 5 - Part 2

Joe Solomon, triple agent, had spent a full week now teaching at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Woman. When he had originally accepted the position he wasn't entirely sure about what his life would now entail but he knew that he would be in a position to stop history from repeating itself.

When he had found himself on a plane with the Baxter's and subsequently their daughter, a close friend of Matthew's own daughter, he could not help but be quietly curious. In truth, he was burning with curiosity. What was she like? Does she look like him? Are they similar at all? He wondered, although it was the last question that troubled him. Or maybe it was his desired response which troubled him; on the one hand he wanted the reminder that his oldest friend lived on, he wanted there to be someone else in the world who was as brave and noble as his friend but on the other hand, he didn't want the reminder of the damage he had done. In his heart of hearts, he truly believed Matthew's death was his fault and truly, he did not want to have to look at the consequences and know that a little girl no longer had a father because of him.

Despite all this he applied for the position of Covert Operations teacher nonetheless, and he had tried every way the C.I.A and the circle had taught him of preparing himself but he still could not fathom how he had ended up in this position: his best friend's wife pinning her daughter to the ground in aforementioned wife's office.

"Is this a bad time?" he asked simply although he was completely flabbergasted (but on the inside of course, he does have a reputation to uphold)

"What?! No, No, of course not Joe, me and Cammie were just practicing is all, isn't that right dear?" Rachel asked in a saccharine tone, her face only slightly flushed, a tight smile on her face and a hint of something dangerous in her eyes.

Cammie for her part just nodded but put no real effort into maintaining the lie. She was grinning like the cat who caught the proverbial canary!

"Can I help you Joe?" Rachel asked with as much nonchalance as she could muster while still pinning her daughter to the floor of her office.

Not being able resist, Cammie pipes up from the ground, "I'm sure you can help him". She then promptly proceeded to dissolve into uncharacteristic giggles before Rachel slams a hand over her mouth, only managing to muffle the sound but also make Cammie laugh even harder. At this point, a few tears had even escaped out the corners of Cammie's eyes. It was the first time since coming back that she truly let go and had fun.

Joe, on his part, was coping mighty well for a man who had just stumbled on the most bizarre scene he could have imagined between a mother and her daughter, but that didn't mean that he wasn't completely confused and was actually caught in a rare moment where he had no idea what to do with himself.

"Would you mind terribly if I asked what you were doing?" He queried as politely as he could, his eyes still a fraction too wide to be considered normal.

Rachel and Cammie shared a look before, Cammie bit her mother's hand and replied in her stead while she nursed her injury.

"We were just having one of are weekly dinner's." Suddenly getting an idea, Cammie shoved her mother's body off of her (Rachel was still examining her hand and occasionally shooting displeased glares at her offspring) and slowly straightened herself out before staring Solomon in his eyes and continuing, "Would you like to join us?"

Joe and Rachel both froze from the unexpected request. Before Joe could figure a way to avoid a confrontation, Rachel had already ordered him to stay put while she talked with Cammie.

In all the years Rachel had called Cammie her daughter, she had never known her to be so out spoken. She was the chameleon, she was shy and hid herself, especially to those she didn't know; and she definitely didn't know Joe Solomon. Finding a secluded corner in the restroom, Rachel locked the door and turned to her daughter, a slight crease appearing in her perpetually smooth forehead.

"Cammie, what is going on with you? I'm glad you're happy to be back and are taking your studies seriously but you know that you don't have to change yourself, right? I know you hate it sometimes but there's nothing wrong with being the chameleon" There's nothing wrong with being a Morgan either, she mentally added on at the end.

Cammie let loose a sigh and set an equally worried frown on her own forehead, the pair of them looking almost identical in that one moment of discord.

"Mom, I love being the chameleon but this isn't about that. This is about you and dad and Joe." Cammie stated, readying herself for a conversation she had not thought she would be having for quite some time.

Rachel however was confused, she could not imagine any way how she, Matt and Joe could possibly be affecting Cammie so much, especially since her daughter had only known one of the aforementioned three for little less than a week.

"Mom, I love you, you know that right? And I love Dad too. I love you both so much and I'll never forget him but…that doesn't mean he should be the reason we stop living. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

There were many ways this conversation could go, the safe way would be for Rachel to deny any sort of personal connection with Joe and to reassure Cammie of her love for Matt…and yet she stayed silent, because although she would never dare to even think about replacing Matt (and indeed she never would), she could not deny that that is not what Cammie was saying and that, in all honesty, there was truth to her daughter's words. When Matt had gone missing, the entire makeup of the Morgan's' lives had started changing and now they were living in a limbo, never truly able to move on for fear of disrespecting the memory of a great man, yet not able to fully put him to rest without his body in the painfully empty grave in Nebraska. Not that Rachel would admit it anyway.

"Cam…what's changed with you?" Rachel deflected, her mind still pondering over what had just been said, and not said all at the same time.

"Nothing, just…I don't want to stay still anymore mom, I'm so tired of staying in the same place when all we I have to do is take the first step. I don't want to worry about stepping on your toes and I don't want be so shy! I don't hate who I am or what I am training to become, but I do want some normality mom…I want to move forward and heal!" It burst out of the brunette like a tidal wave, all the frustration she now realized she had had when she was 15 the first time around – of course she never would have said anything about it even if she had known; she was much too young, too confused with her life to really know what she wanted, but now she was back and alongside the knowledge of the future she now possessed, she knew what direction she wanted to take her life in. No longer was she afraid or embarrassed because just like she had told her mother, she didn't want to be so shy – she wanted to move forward. Perhaps it helped that she at least knew what she was moving towards.

Rachel was surprised to say the least but she could not find it within herself to be sad or angry, in fact she was almost proud for in front of her was not a clumsy teenager but a young woman. Deep inside, the headmistress knew that her daughter would grow up to be strong.

"Okay Cam, Okay. But why Joe? Why did you ask him to stay? You hardly know him." Rachel queried, much calmer and accepting than before.

"He knows stuff mom. I don't know him, at all really but he knows about dad. You told me he worked with him and I want to know- "Cammie cut herself off here, taking a deep breath before centering her thoughts once more, the longing for her family having momentarily overloaded her mind, "- I want to know everything." She turned her eyes up to her mother's, the emotion showing in every facet of her face.

"Oh Cam, of course. Let's go back then, but you know you can talk to me any time you want right?" getting a hasty nod in response, Rachel continued "Let's go then, only God knows what he's thinking right now – which reminds me, don't think you're off the hook for a remark like that young lady!" Rachel teased, her arms quickly embracing her child as her heart did as well.

Giggling to herself a little, Cam nodded her agreement and so mother and daughter exited the restroom with bright smiles on their faces, almost glowing in their love.

"Would you like to stay for dinner Joe? We wouldn't mind at all." Rachel asked her old friend with positively beautiful smile stretched across her lips.

Leaning against the closed door, Joe's gaze flickered between the family of two and seemed to settle on an answer, he still had an apology to make after all.

"All right, I think I will, thank you" a small grateful smile swept over his face before he lowered himself onto the settee, taking the plate of food handed to him by Cameron.

Once the Morgan's had settled themselves back into their places, Rachel next to Joe and Cameron opposite them, a strained silence fell over them.

This won't do, I suppose I'll have to make the opening gambit then Cammie griped internally, carefully swallowing her food before moving to start the conversation but surprisingly it was Joe who stopped her with an apology of all things.

"I want to apologize Miss Morgan, about the comments I made earlier in our lesson. I did not mean to make you so uncomfortable" all of this was said with his cool demeanor in place but even though he did not know Cammie yet, it didn't mean she didn't know him. She recognized not his guilt for saying what he did (he was completely within his own right for saying what he did, it was no lie), but the guilt over what he believed was his part in killing Matthew Morgan was practically killing him inside. It was something they had talked of together many a time in the future and no matter how many times Cammie had tried to tell him she didn't blame him, every now and again he would get it back into his head that he was one responsible.

"No, don't apologize Mr. Solomon. You didn't say anything that wasn't true. If anything you did a good thing. There's no use in us going out into the world unprepared…even if sometimes it is a little hard to bare." Keeping her words soft, the chameleon continued to look at her plate while she spoke, the burden of her knowledge almost crushing her in that one second.

Quickly clearing her throat, Cammie continued before either of the other two spies in the room could recover from her gentle words.

"Mom said you worked with my dad, how well did you know him?"

Blinking once in surprise, Joe soldiered on in the face of the new but not necessarily easier topic of conversation.

"Yes, we both worked together on more than one occasion" and in an effort to ease the conversation into lighter territory, he added "your mother was quite put-out more than once when he chose to spend more of his time with me than her"

With a faux sniff of contempt, Rachel glared at her employee and responded in kind, "I think you need to get your head checked Joe, if you remembered correctly you would know that he only spent time with you when I was on missions."

It was Joe's turn now to scoff in indignation, refusing to believe the slander spread out in front of him so unceremoniously. "You are delusional Rachel, he always loved me best. Remember that time in France?"

And so the night went, Joe and Rachel taking turns to tell stories of their brother in all but blood and husband respectively and Cammie watching eagerly, taking in all the information like a sponge, even though she had heard it all already, she relished in the all too familiar scene from her future with delight dancing in her warm brown eyes.

A/N: So there is another chapter done and now I shall crawl back into my room and bury myself under my books :(
The next chapter is Macey's big arrival! With clashing personalities how will Cammie get Bex to bond with their new roommate?

~Leona Faith

P.S: next chapter will come out sometime in July - I know it's a long wait but I have exams that essentially will decide what my prospects in the future will be. Good luck to any of you who have exams as well!

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