Pros and Cons of Dating Zachary Goode

Pro: He's a spy. Spies are hot. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. Just thought I'd be clear. Again, if you missed it, Zach is hot.

Con: Spies are hot. They aren't just hot to their girlfriends though. They are hot to the mass population of females across the globe. This often leads to feelings of jealousy. (But it's worth him being hot, don't get me wrong.)

Con: Zach almost dies, a LOT. That's never fun. Most girls don't sit at home and wonder if a terrorist is going to blow up their boyfriend. I'm not included in most girls.

Pro: When he comes home in one piece, you get to kiss him. A TON. And you have the excuse of his life being at risk.

Con: He smirks.

Pro: He smirks.

Con: His mother wants to kill you. That's never really a good sign.

Pro: If you ever get married, you have a good reason to hate you mother-in-law.

Zach had been back for a total of twenty-one hours seventeen minutes and forty two seconds. And every moment I'd been at his side, not letting him be more than an arms-length away. Currently, he was sitting in the kitchen with one of his feet propped up on a cushioned stool. Okay, I'll admit, I kinda go mom mode when Zach gets hurt. I handed him a glass of orange juice with a blue bendy straw sticking out over the cup. He moved a shaky handy up to the straw and pressed it between his lips. He had gotten a good night's sleep and was looking better since I'd cleaned him up. His worst wound was the gunshot in his lower abdomen. Yeah, I didn't see it till later. Zach had pointed it out to me saying, "Missed a spot sweetheart." To say the least, I felt extremely guilty for overlooking it. It just hadn't really occurred to me to look under his shirt. I know, I should have just done it anyways. I mean who gives up a free pass to look at spy abs? I must have been a bit mental at the moment. Anyways, Bex help me clean the bullet wound. (It was gross, but I didn't vomit! I was surprised with myself.) He had regained a little strength and was able to talk more, but not much.

"I'm gonna make you some pancakes. Is that okay? Do you want something different?" I turned around to see him smirking at my antics. I was acting like his maid. "Smirk if you must Zach. I do it because I love you."

He laughed slightly and smiled at me. He set his glass down on the table and attempted standing up. He tried leaning one arm on the table and easing his weight onto the less-injured foot. I watched him carefully in case he hurt himself. It wasn't long before he collapsed back into his chair with a deep moan.

"Zach…" I walked quickly to his side. "Please don't push it. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt on my watch. Again."

"Cammie," He reached out and brushed at my hair. It was the only thing he'd said since he'd woken besides 'good morning'. I smiled happily at him. He hated being this helpless. It was obvious. He didn't like that he had to depend on someone else for a change.

"Hey. Don't worry. Soon you'll be back to your cocky self and I'll have to suffer your smirk again." I kissed his cheek and pulled a chair next to him. I sat down to see that Zach was frowning at me.

"Suffer? My smirks hot." And then he, of course, smirked.

"You're right." I leaned my head onto his shoulder. "I guess I just missed it so much I started pretending I didn't need it." We both laughed lightly.

"I'm so sorry Cammie. I should have been more careful." Zach's tone changed and I was surprised by the total seriousness of it. This was a very rare moment. I was careful to take it all in.

"Oh please." He wrapped his unburned arm around my shoulders and I snuggled closer to him. "You're Zachary Goode. You're the best of the best."

"You know it babe." Okay, I messed up. I fed his ego and the moment left. Darn.

I leaned up and kissed his lips gently. They were still slightly swollen. He smiled against the kiss and it was like the room melted away. I wrapped a hand around his neck and it felt so right to have him there with me. Alive, thank goodness. Eventually, we pulled away and I stood up from my seat.

"Pancakes it is." I smiled at him and started to walk to the pantry.

"Cam wait." Zach grabbed my hand before I was out of reach.

"What is it?"

"Could you help me up?" He asked and I saw the sadness in his eyes that he needed me just to stand.

"Sure." I draped one of his arms over my shoulder and he rested some of his wait on me. Soon, he was on his feet.

"Thanks Gallagher Girl." He kissed my cheek and I walked to the pantry again.

I searched through cereal boxes and bags of flour until I found the half-empty box of pancake mix. I hummed and set it by the stove. Then I heard Zach coughing behind me.

"You okay Zach?" I looked at him over my shoulder. He was leaning against the table and I could tell he was struggling to hold up his weight. "Hey babe, maybe you should just rest. Your body is probably still exhausted." I tried to lead him back to my bedroom where he slept last night (Don't worry I crashed on the couch.), but he refused.

"Hold on Cam. I'll lie down later." He pulled his hand out of mine.

"Zach…" I warned him, but he refused me.

"Cam I need to tell you something."

"Oh," Was my murmured response. I sunk into the chair I had just left. What in the world would he need to tell me?

"Okay. Here it goes." He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. He was nervous! I almost laughed because, well, my Zach doesn't get nervous. But then I saw the dead serious look in his eyes and I dropped all my humorous thoughts. "So Cammie, I love you. And I hope you how much I love you. Because I don't think you do. I want you to know that you are the thing I love most in this universe. I love you more than myself. And it's… strange… to me, because I've never really felt like this with anyone. But with you, things are different. I don't know how long I'll live in this world. I can't promise a normal life, but I can promise you something." His expression was hard to comprehend. It was like he was confused of himself and yet sure of something. He tried to conceal a moan as he carefully bent down to the ground. He face was twisted with pain, but he tried to cover it up anyways. What is going on? I'm a spy. I'm supposed to notice things and comprehend situations! Why doesn't my head comprehend this? He dug into his pocket and spoke as his fingers latched onto something. "I can promise you that I'll love you forever." His hand slowly pulled out of his pocket and he held a small black box in his palm. He pulled up the lid to unveil a diamond ring that caught the colors in the room and sparkled. "Gallagher Girl, will you," He stop for a second to put emphasis on the word, "please marry me." His looked so hopeful and fragile. I was taking in how perfect he looked when it dawned on me. He just asked me to be his bride. He wanted to be my husband. He wanted to get MARRIED!

"Cammie, I hate to rush you but I'm seriously in a lot of pain right now. I guess I thought you might answer quicker." His hopeful look had slipped away and pain and regret had replaced it. I just stared at him in shock because even my spy instincts couldn't believe it. "Okay, well I'm just gonna go back to Russia and die now." He closed the box and tried to slowly stand up. He failed.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Generally, the guy leaves after he gets shot down. At least that's what I thought. This has never really happened to me before." He admitted and I just stared at him with an 'are you serious?' look on my face.

"Yea, so I'll be leaving now." He tried to stand again and with a long painful groan, he succeeded.

"You can't just leave!" I squeaked. What was he doing? He was supposed to be kissing me right now out of pure joy and excitement.

"Cammie, do you understand how this works?" He face looked honestly confused like I wasn't making sense. "You say yes, I swing you around in circles and we live happily ever after. You say no, I leave and loose hope of ever obtaining happiness again. Then I die a wrinkly old grouchy man with a whole bunch of cats." He struggled to walk and sighed. "I guess I'll go buy my first cat."

"Zach! Forget the dumb cat! Swing me around in circles so we can live happily ever after like Cinderella and Snow White and all those pansies!"

"What? You didn't say yes Cam." He looked at me and for a second I saw honest to goodness hurt flash through his eyes.

"Of course I did! Don't be ridiculous Zach! There's no way on earth I'd said no!"

"What?"

Then I realized he was right. And I felt pretty horrible. And I seriously wanted to slap myself. And I thankfully refrained. And I ran up to him and buried my head into his chest shouting, "YES! YES! YES!"

It took Zach a second to register my insanity, but once he did he wrapped his arm around my waist. He spun me around just like he promised shouting, "Thank God! I hate cats!"

I laughed and nuzzled deeper into him. "Good, I'm allergic."

Yay! That's the end! I hope I entertained you! Please review! I love hearing from you guys. It makes my day. (I know that sounds kind of pathetic...) Anyways, thanks so much for reading! I hope it was worth your while! Message me if you have any questions, comments, or prompts. I'd love to hear from you! God Bless.

As Always ~SpaceNut~

Disclaimer: It's late and I'm too exhausted to come up with some cool witty remark. Forgive me fo rthe lame and unoriginal senteces that follow:

I do not own Gallagher Girls. All rights belong to Ally Carter.