Aw, you guys are so nice! Have I told you lately that I love you? No? Well then, I love you! Here's the next chapter, don't forget to review and all that jazz.

Enjoy!

Simply,

Sam.

"Hello, Cammie. How are we doing this morning?" I turn to look at Bex, who is walking into the kitchen the next morning. I'm sitting at the table and Zach is standing next to the counter.

"Hey. I'm doing fine." I answer back, slightly awkwardly. I know exactly why she's so freaking chipper this morning, but I'm not going to let her see that I know.

"Really? Well, that's nice. And how are you this very fine morning, Mr. Zachary?"

He eyes Bex, then glances at me before answering her. "I'm doing just find, Bex, thanks for asking."

"Hey, it's my civic duty as an American to ask my fellow Americans how they are in the mornings." Oh yea, apparently, 3 years ago, Bex took a test to become an American, and she passed with flying colors. Which means that now, we can't kick her out of the country if we don't want her as a spy anymore. Not that we would. But it sure is a tempting thought, especially when she's acting like this at 7 freakin' in the freakin' morning. "So, has a letter arrived yet?"

"No, not yet." I answer, just as Joe, Mom, and Macey walk into the kitchen.

"Not yet, what?" Joe asks, heading to the refrigerator.

"A letter or something from 7." I answer.

"We'll just have to wait then." Mom says as she sits next to Bex, Joe taking the seat across from her. Closest to Zach. I think he's secretly planning on killing him.

"Morning, morning. How did you sleep last night, Cam?" Macey asks, giving me a look.

I sigh. "Bex already asked, so just ask her what we said."

Macey pouts slightly and slumps in her seat. "Well, you're no fun."

We wait for anything from 7 to get here. And wait. And wait. And freakin' wait. We're sitting in that kitchen for TWO hours before there is finally a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" I exclaim, shooting out of the seat I had taken earlier. I practically run to the door, throwing it open, only to immediately stop in my tracks. There's a little Girl Scout on the front steps, a little red wagon carrying boxes of cookies behind her. I sigh. "Sorry, sweetie, but we're not interested in cookies. Besides, isn't it just a little too early for you to be out here, selling food that obviously isn't breakfast? I'm just putting it out there, and you think about that, huh? I'm gonna close the door now, so that you can go and get someone's hope up when they hear the knock on the door, just to have it squashed down when they see it's you."

"Harsh." Zach says from behind me, then he turns to the little girl. "What she means to say is that we would love to buy cookies from you."

"Now that I made her feel bad?" I ask him.

"Precisely."

"Makes sense. So how much are they, kid?" I ask her.

She gives me a slightly irritated look before grabbing a box from the wagon and handing it to me. Attached to it with a piece of tape is an envelope with my name on it. "I'm guessing that you're Cameron Morgan. And because you were so rude, I'm not going to give you a free box. But I will give you a free box." She hands Zach a box with a smile on her little face.

"I hope you're not actually considering taking her up on her 'Want me' look. She's not even anywhere close to legal. In any state." I say to him, as I close the door.

He just laughs. "Naw, I only like those that are legal." That's when he gives me a look. A smoldering hot "I want you" look, that sends my heart beat racing.

I smile. "Well, at least you won't get thrown in jail." Then, quietly so that he'll just barely hear it, I say, "At least, not a jail you can easily escape." I turn back to see his pale face and laugh.

"What was it?" Bex asks as we walk back into the kitchen.

I hold up the box with the letter attached to it. "From 7, or at least I'm hoping." I open the envelope and take out the letter from inside, and I read it out loud.

Good morning, Ms. Morgan.

I hope you woke up well. I also hope that Mr. & Mrs. Solomon, Ms. McHenry, Ms. Baxter, and Mr. Good, woke up in the right mood. I know Ms. Sutton did.

Now, today you have a little mission. It's not a big one, but it is important, to test a certain skill you'll have to figure out along the way. First, I want you to make sure you have the following items: video recorder, hammer, screw driver, 5 screws, and one blue tarp. Second, I want you to wait until the next letter arrives. It should be fairly soon, but that doesn't mean you'll get it within the next three hours, so be patient, my little friends. Good luck.

7

"Hm… this sounds promising." Macey says, sarcasm evident in her voice.

I throw the letter down on the table and push my self onto the counter. "Well, where exactly are these things supposed to be?"

"Their in the back, somewhere. I'll go get them." Zach says, walking out of the kitchen.

"I'll help." I say after a moments hesitation, jumping off the counter, following him to the back. "So, are you sure they're back here?"

"Nope, I was just taking a guess, and since Joe didn't correct me, I'm assuming my guess was correct."

"You're such a dork." "Look, right there!" I exclaim, pointing at a little shed type thing. "It's a shed. Why's it inside?"

"We're in a warehouse, why do you think?"

"Storage." We pull open the heavy door of the shed and step inside. The light flickers on and I turn to see Zach in the back, right next to a light switch. "So smart." I say sarcastically.

He smiles at me. "Why thank you, m'lady."

"Let's start looking." We step around all the clutter, looking for the materials.

"Found anything?"

"No." I answer just as the door slams shut. "Dammit. Here, come help me open it."

"Cam, you've gotta push it too, it's heavy."
"I am pushing it!" Then we both abruptly stop and look at each other. Crap. It's locked. And we're stuck in here. Until someone realizes it's taking us quite a while. Which will probably be Joe, because he's been giving Zach a look since yesterday.

"Damn, I think we're stuck." Zach says.

"Thanks for that, Captain Obvious."

We're sitting on the floor, willing the door to open just by staring at it. It doesn't seem to be working, though.

"How long have we been in here?" Zach asks, sounding as if he knows already, but just as if he's making sure.

"2 hours, 35 minutes, and 24 seconds. 25. 26. 27…"

"Yea, I get it." I stop counting. He sighs. "How long can it take to find this thing?"

"Well, it took us a while to find it."

"Not two hours!"

"Yea, I guess you're right." Just then, a phone starts to ring, and we both jump up, looking around the cluttered space. "Found it!" I exclaim, holding up a cell phone. I flip it open. "Hello?"

"Hello, Ms. Morgan. In case you and Mr. Good haven't figured it out yet, this is your test. I wonder what skills it's testing don't you? Good luck."

"Wait! Who are you? And how the fuck did you get this rigged, we would've heard someone! Hello? Damn." The line had gone dead. I look over at Zach.

"Well?"

"This is apparently our test. But we also have to figure out what it's testing."

He nods. "Alright, we can get out of here. It'll be easy."

"Yea, I'm sure you're right."

Two hours later, and still, we cannot seem to get out of here! It's getting hot, I'm hungry, and I'm sitting in a corner, far away from Zach. About an hour ago, he and I got into a little argument, and I haven't said anything to him since then. I can hear him sigh.

"Cam?" I don't answer him. "Cam, please answer me." Still, the silence rings out between us. "Cam, I'm sorry. Okay? Come on, please? Forgive me?"

I'm about to yell out that I don't want to forgive him, when I remember that's exactly what he told me yesterday. It made me feel bad. So instead I sigh, and say, "Fine." I stand up and walk to where he is, sitting cross-legged on the floor. I kneel down in front of him, and look him in the eyes. "Sorry." We stay like that for a while, then I reach my hand up and place it on his cheek. Then, he puts one hand around my waist, the other on the back of my head, and pulls me to him before I know what's happening. And we kiss. At first, slow and sweet, but then it gets fiercer, and, a totally surprise for even me, I place my hands on his chest, and push him onto his back. He drags me along with him, and we lie there, kissing, for quite some time.

After a few minutes of kissing (30 minutes and 24 seconds to be exact) I push away from him, hands on either side of him, and look down at him. "Well, that was interesting." He says quietly.

"Yep, sure was." Then, before he can pull me back down, I push myself up on my heels and stand. "Well, we should try to get out of here, shouldn't we? I mean, isn't that the whole point of us being here?"

Zach sits up, leaning on his hands. "Yea, sure, that's why we're here. Um, hey, help me up will ya?" He holds his hand out, waiting for me to take it, but I know better. He's tried this before.

I slap his hand away. "I don't think so. Get yourself up."

He smiles like a kid that's just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Yes, ma'am." He stands and dusts himself off. "What now?"

I inspect the door and then look around the room. "We have to find something, like a drill, that will let us make a hole in the door. And maybe a camera… Wires… Stethoscope, or even a glass will do just fine… And maybe a screwdriver… If we can find one." I say as I pick my way through the mess of boxes around us. I look up so see Zach staring at me. "Well, you going to help, or what?"

"Why do we need all that stuff?"

"Well, we've gotta find a way out of here. The door is kind of like the door on a safe. It has a lock mechanism and everything. If we can find all of the things I just listed, we can make it out of here."

"How do you know that? I mean, you were never taught to crack safes, were you? Because I wasn't."

"No, I wasn't, but I learned…." I trail off, not sure if I should tell him how I know all this.

"You going to tell me, or what?" He starts to look through the boxes as well, and makes it sound as if he doesn't really care if I answer or not, but I know him too well, He's as curious as hell, but he doesn't want to show it, because he's a spy, after all.

I sight, and then I answer him as best I can. "Well, I took a job at a bank when I first left, but then we had a robbery. I stopped them from taking all of the money, and I was even able to tell the cops the license plate number of the get away car. A few weeks after that, a guy came by to see me. Said he needed people with my experience in his new company, that he was just trying to get off the ground. Said he needed someone that was able to stay calm in hectic situations. So I took the job. One day, while I was there, one of the employees got locked inside the safe. Instead of helping them get out, I had to wait until the boss got there, so he could get him out. The employee was passed out by the time we finally got the door open. So the boss taught me how to crack safes, just in case it happened again. Which it did, plenty of times, so I've had enough time to try it out. Once, I even got stuck inside with one of the other employees. I had to crack the safe from the inside, which isn't that hard, but it's not as easy as opening it from the outside. So that's how I know."

"Wow. Actually, that's pretty cool."

"Yea, it is." I say softly, wondering why in the world he chose to believe me.

"Found it!" Zach yells from behind some boxes. I see his hand go up in triumph, then he comes out from behind the boxes, carrying a camera. "Will this do?"

I stare in awe. "How did you find that! That will be absolutely perfect!" I grab the camera and inspect it. It's in perfect condition, and once the little camera is attached to it, it'll be a breeze to open the door. I through my arms around Zach's neck and give him a quick peck on the cheek before letting go and turning away. Before I have the chance to take one step away, he grabs my arm, spins me around, wraps his arms around my waist, and pulls me towards him. Our lips connect, and I automatically wrap my arms around his neck again.

He pulls away after a couple of minutes. "Now that's a reward kiss."

I smile slightly, then I step away from him and turn back to the door. "Okay, time to open this sucker." I sit down, cross-legged, in front of it, and connect the screen camera to the smaller camera. Once I have them set up, I grab the drill and power it up. "Zach, come here please."

He sits beside me and holds his hands out for the drill. "Alright," I say, "You're going to drill where I tell you to drill, and you'll keep drilling until I tell you to stop, m'kay?"

"Got it." He says with a brisk nod.

I point to a spot on the door, where I know the wires are. "Drill here for approximately 3 seconds." I puts the drill, starts it up, and stops and exactly 3 seconds. "Good." I put the camera into the hole, and navigate it until I can see the wheels of the lock. I point to a spot on the door. "Drill here for 5 seconds, exactly." And he does. "Great, now, there's a sheet of plexi glass on the other side, and you need to drill through it without cracking it. If you crack it, the door locks completely and the only way to reset it is to insert the password, which we don't know. So be very careful."

"No pressure, or anything." I hear him mutter, before he goes back to concentrating on the door.

"Don't add too much pressure to it, but just enough to keep it going."

He starts to drill, but then we hear a slightly cracking noise, and he stops completely. He breathes in deeply, and then he puts the drill back. Again, the only noise is the drill and our shallow breathing. We're both concentrating so hard on the door, we don't hear it until it's too late. When Zach had found the camera, he'd upset some of the other boxes, and they chose now to topple down all over the place. One falls right on top of me, causing me to fall flat on my back. And one hits Zach's hand so hard, he loses hold of the drill. "Dammit." He mutters. "Shit. You okay, Cam?"

I wave his hand away. "Fine." I say, sitting up. "The door?" We stare at each other, then bolt back to the door. "Did the glass break?"

"I don't know, check it with your fancy gadget." He retorts, sarcastically.

"Not a good time to joke, idiot." I look at the camera, and focus until I can see where he was drilling. I give a giant sigh of relief. "Luckily, you didn't break it."

"What next?" He asks, picking up the drill.

"Now, is the tricky part. You're going to need to bring the wires forward, so that we can open the door."

"Alright, just tell me what to do, boss."

The next five minutes are spent with me telling him how to grab the wires, and how to connect them together in a way that will make opening the door so much easier.

"Now what?"

"You drill through the plexi glass." I turn to see a look of shock on his face.

"What? I thought you said if we broke it, we'd be stuck in here."

"Not anymore. You don't break through, we'll be stuck in here."

"Fine." He picks up the drill, and immediately we hear the glass break. "Well that was easy."

We stand and look at each other, and then we turn to push open the door. It moves with little resistance, and a burst of cold air hits our faces. "Yes!" We exclaim, turning and throwing our arms around each other. He pulls back, and kisses me hard.

"Ahem." I feel Zach freeze. "Zachary."

"Crap." I turn to see Joe looking murderous, my mom looking slightly amused, and Bex and Macey looking like they're trying hard not to burst out laughing. "Joe-"

"Oh, you better run, boy." Zach's eyes widen before he turns and runs, Joe right after him. I hurry over to my mom.

"What's going on?"

"After you and Zach had gone off, we received a box. Small TV inside, and a letter telling us not to look for you two. We saw the whole thing, hon."

"Oh, crap."

"You ever figure out what the lesson was?" Macey asks, a small smirk on her face.

"Yea, working together. Not that hard to figure out."

"Well, maybe you should put that new lesson to use, and go help out your boy."

I nod my head slowly. "Yea, you're probably right…."

I know, I suck and you all hate me! I'm so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so sorry. Trust me, I am. But my excuse is the oldest in the book (although true). School. Really, I apologize, and I hope you all don't come after me with pitchforks! Remember, I love you all. I wish this was longer, but I'm having a moment of writers block, so maybe tomorrow I'll be able to come up with something good. Since Monday is Columbus day, there's no school, so hopefully I'll be able to post something up then. If not, I still love you, and I still hope you don't kill me. And poor Zach, huh? :) I love you all, remember!

Simply,

Sam.

P.S: If you like Mortal Instruments, go read GeeAnnaB. She's so funny!