Disclaimer: I own nothing – all rights go to Ally Carter.

Eventually I decided that it was time to go and face the `outside world' so I got up out of Zach's lap pulled him up. "We should go, they're probably wondering where we are." I stated the obvious.

Zach just nodded. We walked towards the passageway door when I turned to him and asked, " How did you know I was here and how did you get in?"

Zach just pointed a finger at himself and said, "Spy." I rolled my eyes. I seemed to do that a lot around him.

I turned back around and continued towards the door but before I could scan my handprint Zach wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me, "We'll get through this Gallagher Girl, I'll be right by your side,"

Despite the circumstances that I found myself in, I couldn't help but smile at Zach's words.

The door scanned our handprints before opening to reveal a very angry bunch of teenage spies and my mother.

"Mom?" I was honestly confused. I figured she must have known where I'd gone but I didn't ever think that she'd come and get me.

"Cammie, thank god you're alright. I got a call from Joe saying they couldn't find you," I stiffened at the name `Joe' but Zach tightened his grip around my shoulders in a comforting way.

My mom stopped babbling and drew her attention to Zach's arm. I felt uncomfortable but Zach didn't remove it. My mom glared at him for a moment before she softened her gaze and smiled at me.

"I want to have a word with you Cameron, alone." My mom hardly ever calls me by my full name so I knew she meant it. I nodded and stood away from Zach.

I started to walk after my mother down the eloquent hallway but I turned around and smiled at Zach, he smiled back and I felt strangely reassured.

I followed my mom to Dr. Steve's office and sat down on the couch that was in front of his desk. I croosed my legs and sat there in the awkward silence.

My mom finally spoke but it was in a dangerously calm voice, "Cammie, why did you run away from Gallagher?" I'd been through this with Joe but I didn't feel the judgement with my mom that I felt with him.

"I just couldn't deal anymore Mom. I felt like I was under so much pressure. I needed... to be close to dad."

My mom nodded in understanding but she wasn't satisfied with my answer and gestured for me to go on.

"I've been having the dreams again," I said quietly and my mom sighed in reply. I'd started having the dreams shortly after my dad died. We hadn't found a way to stop them but after a while they became less and less frequent so we never talked about them.

"You could've said something Cam, you didn't have to keep it all bottled up," But she didn't understand, the dreams were starting to be more like messages than dreams.

I shook the thoughts away, "I don't want to talk about it, okay?" My mom nodded and let it go, we sat there again in an awkward silence, but this time I was the one to break it.

"I found a letter from dad." she looked up sharply, "What do you mean?"

I sighed, "I found a journal and there was a letter to me from dad in the spine," I tried not to be too patronising as I spelled it out for her.

I swear I saw a tear glint in her eye but she blinked it away and put her walls up before I could be sure. "Can I see it?" she choked. I nodded and handed her the letter, her eyes flickered over it but then she handed it back to me.

"Have you found the other one?" I started to nod but the realised what she had said, `the other one' not `the others'.

I think my mom realised what was going through my head because she reached into her bag and pulled out a similar looking journal to the ones I had found.

"I've had it for months, can't really remember where I found it. I got a letter too Cam; he was prepared for what happened... and he never told me." She started to cry and I got up and walked round the desk.

I embraced her as she let her head rest on my shoulder. When she pulled herself together she kissed me on the cheek and mumbled a thanks. You wouldn't have thought she was the responsible `hold it all together' grown up in the room.

"I can't look at the journal again Cammie, please just take it." I accepted the journal and turned towards the door assuming that our `moment' was over but I felt her hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw a sad look in my mother's eye.

"Cam if you're going to leave again, at least say goodbye first. Okay? You have no idea how worried I was when I found out you were missing. I love you." I hugged her and told her that I wasn't going anywhere yet.

I walked down the corridors and made my way to my room where I collapsed on my bed and fell into a deep sleep that was riddle with the nightmares I had been dreading.

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