Author's Note: Hey guys! Two things:
1) I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in a super long time! Life is super busy but I finally wrote a decent chapter. I'm sorry if I've kept you guys waiting, but like I said, I've been super busy, and I'm really sorry!
2) Now that I once again have written I'm hoping you will take time out of your beyond busy schedules and read and review!
Okay guys, so without further a due here is the next installment of Rub-a- dub- dub spies in a tub! Last time Cammie had just admitted to Zach that she loved him and Zach had tricked Cammie into doing so, but its Zach so you can't really be mad at him… here we go!
I woke up the next morning in Zach's strong arms. I wouldn't have it any other way. I felt a sense of relief that she and Zach were officially boy friend and girl friend. Sure the mission would be tough, but sometimes you wouldn't have it any other way. I was about to get dressed in mission clothes when I remembered I was on office duty for the next week. Not like I minded, that gave me and Zach more time to be together and gave the four of us more time to find the code to access the file room. I began to get up when Zach pulled me down. I hadn't realized he was awake.
"Cammie, can we talk?" Zach said looking at me seriously.
"Yea sure, what is it?" I said looking at him with a smile.
"I know you talked to Solomon last night, are you okay that he was originally going to turn you into to the Circle?" Zach said, I detected no sign of emotion in his voice.
"Zach, I'm okay with it, I truly believe that Mr. Solomon is good now. But what I don't get is why he did it, weren't he and my dad trying to take down the Circle before I was even born?" I said, staring at Zach. Nope, still no emotion.
"Cammie, the Circle can make you do thoughtless, irresponsible, unintelligent and stupid things." Zach said, a look of reflection came on his face and I knew that the Circle had forced him to do some crazy things too, and I knew that this was a conversation that was difficult for Zach to have.
"I understand Zach." I said looking up at him, hoping the sorrow of this conversation would end we could just have fun.
"Cammie, another thing, I hope you didn't just say 'I love you' back last night to get me to stay." Zach said the seriousness still in his voice.
"Nope" I said smiling, "I honestly love you Zachary Goode." A smirk danced on his lips as I used his full name and I quickly wiped it off by kissing him.
"Good" he said.
"However for payback for your reckless actions in last night's mission I'm going to strongly suggest that you get us breakfast" I said a smile playing across my face.
"No problems Gallagher Girl, but afterward don't forget we report for office duty" Zach said getting up.
"Okay." I said heading to the bathroom, but then I stopped and turned around, Zach hadn't left yet, he was staring at me as if it was that first day in the elevator in D.C. he looked like he was about to speak.
"Gallagher Girl, one last thing, I love you."
"Good, I love you too" I said. "Now get me my breakfast."
After brushing my teeth, washing my face, and combing my hair I heard Zach come in carrying a bag of donuts and coffee. Yum. We sat down on the bed and began eating. I was so hungry. Zach still looked at me, like he had before he went to get the delicious donuts.
"What are you looking at Zach?" I asked.
"How beautiful you are when you eat donuts." Zach said with a smirk.
"Thanks." I said a confused look on my face. "Do you know what exactly we're going to be doing today as part of our office duty?" I looked at Zach hoping to change the topic.
"Probably run around get my mom snacks do some paperwork. Lots of cleaning" Zach said between bites of his donut.
I groaned, if I wanted to do paperwork I would have done another boy investigation back at Gallagher. Zach just sat there, ate his donut, drank his coffee and looked at me. It was kind of getting awkward. Thank goodness for a panting Bex and Grant who barged in about two minutes later.
"Ms. Goode's. Office. Now" Bex panted.
"Wait, what, why?" I looked at Bex.
"Office. Duty." She panted, slowly regaining her breath.
"But I'm not done my donut." I said, staring at the deliciousness in front of me.
"I don't think she cares Genevieve." Zach said pulling me up.
"Oh alright" I agreed shoving the rest of my donut into my mouth.
"Good luck!" Grant said as we took off down the hall.
Zach knocked on his mom's door. She opened it, "Ah Genevieve, Nicholas how nice of you to finally arrive. Here is a list of things I need completed. Maybe next time you won't fail to get my microchip." With that she slammed the door shut and Zach and I were left standing in the hallway.
"Woah, my mom is needy." Zach said staring at the list that stretched about three feet long.
"What's first?" I asked trying to peek at the list.
"Snack delivery" Zach groaned, and I knew why. Spies eat a lot. We are constantly on the move and therefore have an ever dropping blood sugar, so Zach's mom being the queen of the Circle as she was, probably became extremely exhausted and therefore needed lots of food. Zach and I began our hunt for the vending machines. We stalked the hallways searching for a café or a vending machine or something that would satisfy Zach's mom's hearty appetite. We turned the corner and 'BAM' there it was, glowing in all of it's food glory.
"What does she want?" I asked Zach trying to peer at the list.
"A weird combination of stuff" Zach said with a disgusted look.
"Well what?" I asked again trying to sneak a peak at the list.
"Funyuns, Doritos, Peanuts and a Slim Jim" Zach said.
"Well, if we don't get around to destroying her, maybe her high cholesterol will" I added with a giggle.
"Let's hope so" Zach sighed, "Less hanging over my conscience."
"I'm sure you don't have too much on your conscience" I said staring at him, I hadn't realized he'd turned away.
"Yea, well its more than I'd like" Zach said turning away, and began inserting quarters into the machine and slowly pressing Z1, A4, C12 and H6. As all of the snacks were ready, Zach said "Alright, copy making time."
"What on earth are we making copies of?" I asked, spies aren't really big on making multiple copies of things, too many hanging around to get intercepted.
"Guess we'll have to wait and find out." Zach said grimacing at the thought of actual paper work, and not paper work in P&E where we learn how to kill people with, well you know paper.
We headed down toward the room labeled 'Copy Room' slid our "id badges" and entered with ease. On top of a teetering pile of papers was one that said "Copy" so Zach and I both tried to grab it. With no luck, Zach hoisted me up on his shoulders and I tried to grab the file. Zach then tripped over a chord and we both came tumbling down, and to no avail as did the file of papers. We were soon covered in papers. Zach burst in to laughter and I quickly joined him. However in the back of my mind I knew we were soon going to have clean all of that up.
Zach opened the file that had to be copied, it wasn't anything special just some basic rules that had to be copied for the new Circle members. We started to make copies, but soon we became extremely bored. For someone who has spent the past few years, following normal boys, following spy boys, and following an elite terrorist group, making copies is extremely low on your excitement list.
"Hey Gallagher Girl … Watch this!" Zach said, I'm sure he too was becoming extremely bored with the task of copying these papers. So I watched, and what happens next is neither pretty nor appropriate, so all I'm going to say here is that Zachary Goode made a copy of his butt cheeks on that very copier. After he did it however we were both on the floor (Zach had put his pants back on) keeled over in laughter. Maybe office duty wasn't going to be so bad.
We cleaned up the piles of papers that we had scattered all over the floor and continued on with our list of duties for Ms. Goode.
The next item on our list of things to accomplish was to retrieve Ms. Goode's coffee order from Starbucks. As each task went by Zach and I could feel ourselves being more and more degraded.
Zach and I left the base to find the nearest Starbucks. We found it in no time using a GPS in Zach's shoe, but instead I chose to take my time with no bugs around us.
"So, we're out in the world with no bugs, want to do something?" I said looking at Zach, hoping he too wouldn't want to get back to the dreaded base.
"Not really, I think we really need to focus on the mission" Zach stated, but reached for my hand and started swinging it. This is so perfect, I thought to myself, just me and Zach and the beautiful September air, and oh yea, a mission that could change the world! We stopped in front of the Starbucks, and headed inside.
"I know" I said finally responding to Zach's previous comment. We ordered Zach's mom Caramel Macchiato and left. I was sitting there thinking of all that still had to be done for the mission, we still needed the D.C access code, we needed to find out where my dad was, and we needed to deliver this coffee with out it getting spilled. Easier said then done right? Exactly, because at that moment Zach and I found ourselves being dragged into a car by none other than Macey McHenry and we felt ourselves speeding down the road.
"Macey what the heck is going on?" I demanded
"I'll let you know once we get to the approved meeting spot, but we think the Circle may know something is up with you. Not that they know you've joined the Circle, but they are noticing that you've dropped off the maps. You too Zach." Macey turned and looked at us.
"How did they figure it out?" I asked.
"Once we debugged the two of you for any Circle action, they most of noticed that the two of you had dropped off of the map." Macey said as she kept driving.
"So what are we going to do?" I asked, dumbfounded that we hadn't expected the Circle to pick up on the lack of movement.
"I think they have a solution, but I don't really know." Macey said still driving.
"Where are you taking us?" Zach said, trying not to spill any more of his mom's coffee, Macey wasn't exactly the most graceful driver in the world.
"I have no idea; I was just supposed to tell you guys about the radar that's gone up and radio Ms. Morgan but now I just kind of want to hang out. Now that you're here I don't want to let you go, all Liz and Jonas do is speak geek" Macey sighed deciding where to drop us off.
"Well Macey, why don't we go to a headquarters and fill out a brief missions log before going back to the Circle. Mom will believe that there was a line at Starbucks anyway." Zach sighed.
"Thanks guys!" Macey said zooming off to the nearest CIA headquarters.
Once we arrived we all filed out of the car, we went inside the Smithsonian museum of American History, approached the Dumbo car, checked to see that the coast was clear and filed inside. Once we all fit Zach pulled a lever that took as shooting straight down into the facility.
"Wow! What a ride!" Macey exclaimed, unlike Zach and I, Macey had few experiences with top secret spy facilities.
We all filed out of the room we had been deposited in and I took a seat in the food court while Zach went to go radio for some paperwork, meanwhile Macey found some food, I was really hungry.
Once Macey arrived back she looked like she was itching to talk.
"So…" Macey said eyeballing me.
"So… what" I said giving Macey a questioning glance.
"So how are you and Zach?" She said nudging my elbow.
"We're good" I said, I wasn't exactly going discuss my newfound romance with Zach when there were probably a billion cameras around us.
"How good is good?" Macey questioned "You guys barely talked in the car are you guys at least talking again?" Macey was giving me a look that made me know I had to talk soon.
"Good is just you know, good Macey." I said shrugging and taking a sip of my coffee.
"Alright, I just guess we're not as close as I thought we were." Macey said, wiping a tear from her eye. This girl was good.
"No, Macey don't cry!" I screamed.
"Then tell me Cammie!" Macey said wiping yet another stray tear from her face.
"Alright, alright" I said, telling Macey the story of Zach faking the mission and everything else.
"I KNEW IT!" Macey screamed standing up on her chair.
"I thought you were devastated?" I said noting the change in Macey's emotion
"You must've forgotten Cammie dear, my father is in politics." Macey said a devious look on her face.
"Darn you Macey." I said.
"Oh by the way, I just saved you a phone call to Lizzie, she was on the other end of my comms unit." Macey said with a smile flashing the piece in her ear.
Within two seconds I heard my phone ring, I tapped into it.
"OMG Cammie!" Liz squealed. "Congratulations! I just knew things with you and Zach would work out!" Liz continued to scream, but not for long because soon I heard a crackling on the other end.
"Hey squirt, I thought I told you to stay away from that boy" I heard my aunt on the other end, oh no, I was in trouble.
"Uh… I'll be careful Aunt Abby." I said hoping for her to ease up.
"You better be kiddo" I heard my mom on the other end now.
"I will mom, trust me." I said consoling her.
"Alright, call us back later kiddo, we have some bugs to plant and Liz has some files to sort and destroy. I know you guys are doing great! Love you!"
"Bye mom, bye Aunt Abby, bye Liz! Love you all and I'll see you really soon!" I hung up.
"Well I guess I better head out and help then clean up around the mansion, and keep at bay any new Tina Walters rumors." Macey said grabbing her coffee and leaving, "it was great to catch up with you Cam! Good Luck with Zachary" Macey said leaving the way we had come in.
"I heard that McHenry!" Zach said coming up the hallway.
"We'll follow you Macey" Zach said grabbing my arm. "We need to get going as well." But instead Macey just took off laughing, typical Zach v. Macey behavior.
With Macey gone, and leaving Zach and I without a ride we decided to wander the museum, maybe we could just tell Ms. Goode that about five Starbucks' were out of Caramel Macchiato.
"So any idea on what the code could be?" Zach said, probably raking his brain for any clues. "It could be anything! But since this is such a large base its probably something simple so almost anyone can access it"
We kept walking, "Zach" I said, "There is plenty of time to figure out the code on the way to the entrance of the Circle, maybe we could just enjoy sometime in the museum"
"Okay, I guess your right" Zach said, so he took my hand and we just started walking.
"Yea, I'm always right get used to it Blackthorne Boy." I said looking at him.
"Oh please, Gallagher Girl, if you were always right then you wouldn't have said no to me the first time I told you I loved you" Zach said with a smirk, I had a feeling that horrendous incident wasn't going to be dropped for a long time.
"Nope, I still think I'm always right Zach" I said smirking, he was not guilt tripping me that fast.
"Fine, today you can be right" Zach said looking at me and giving me a kiss on the lips.
We kept walking, until we came to the Ruby Slipper exhibit. Zach looked at me, I started to speak "wow, I guess this is where it all started didn't it?" I said.
"Yep" Zach said staring at the shoes.
"I guess we owe a lot to these shoes don't we?" I said starting to reminisce in everything that had happened between me and Zach.
"We sure do Gallagher Girl, most of them good, but some of them bad." Zach said staring at the shoes as well.
"But only good ones to come" I said trying to be positive.
Zach just snorted, "You're cute Cammie you know that? In the life of a spy nothing, no matter who you're with, is going to be good" Zach said looking at me, I felt like I was going to cry. But Zach's boyfriend ESP must have kicked in so he just gave me a hug. It didn't help, for some reason I just wanted to cry, knowing the life I had ahead of me made me just want to go home.
I looked at the heels and imagined myself wearing them and clicking them together chanting "there's no place like home, there's no place like home." But instead of appearing in my bed in Washington, or in Nebraska, the first bed that came to mind was my mom's office at the Academy, and I knew I had to return there soon. Determined to speed this mission up I unwrapped Zach's arm from around me, looked at him sternly and said "You're right Zach, things aren't always going to be good, but we can make them, and the sooner we finish this mission the sooner we can save my dad, and all those CIA members, bring down the Circle and go home. So let's start figuring out those codes on the way to Starbucks to get your mom a hot cup of coffee!" I started dragging Zach out of the museum.
"That's the spirit Gallagher Girl!" Zach said smiling at me. We held hands as we moved down the streets of D.C, discussing the possibilities of the codes. We passed a little rest area where Zach decided to call Grant and have him cover for us if anyone noticed we were gone. Meanwhile I went to get a chocolate bar, as I pressed the buttons to get my candy, something hit me! I knew the code.
"Zach get over here! The code for the D.C office, I figured out! But you're not going to like it!" I screamed at Zach over him yelling at Grant for something he said to Bex, as if he were always smooth with the ladies. Zach snapped the phone and headed over.
"What is it Cammie? What is the code?"
"The letters for the vending machine back at your Mom's office, they spell your name, that must be the code! Your mom adores you remember the picture of you on her desk? She'd never forget your name, you must be the code!"
Zach and I sprinted out of the rest area toward the Lincoln Memorial calling Liz on the way.
Once inside Zach and I headed for the detainment room, Liz had tested my theory of Zach's name being the code on the computer and it had given her access to the entire D.C online database for the Circle, all Zach and I had to do was get into the actual file room and prison.
Zach typed in the code, while Bex and Grant came to meet us. The code screen said "Access Granted" and Zach slowly turned the knob. We entered slowly not knowing what to expect, however one thing we hadn't anticipated was the note on the wall that read "Matthew Morgan, transported to Nebraska base for questioning on the whereabouts of his daughter and secret vault" My heart leaped, jumped and spun, Zach squeezed my hand and gave me a hopeful look, we were on step closer to completing the mission. We knew where my dad was, we had code number one, and as we spoke Liz was probably destroying all of the online files for the Circle. Bex gave me a squeeze on the shoulder and Grant gave me a hopeful look. Zach leaned over and kissed me, when all of a sudden we heard the door outside say "access granted" and so we all headed for cover in the nearest possible hiding place: the bathtub, go figure.