Wow. Hey guys. I literally haven't been on here in forever and just felt like working on something.. So here ya go! I hope to update this more and more but can't promise when. I don't know about the other stories on my page, I haven't looked at them in a while, but hopefully I can get back to you on that soon. Here you go!

chapter six

As soon as everyone left, Zach wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed me above the ear.

"You look..."

He struggled for words until he finally settled for,

"breath-taking."

My face flushed before I could tell it not too, and he laughed in my ear. But I kissed him anyways.

"Could you kids tone down the romance back there.. against school policy or something."

My face flushed even more, but Zach just rolled his eyes.

"Well look who's talking.."

Before we knew it, everyone had gotten in the vans. Solomon had handed us all briefing folders with our names on them, and had told us where to sit. Our van was mostly empty, and Zach had led me to the very back, to a row all to ourselves.

We opened up our folders,

"They're… empty."

Zach turned his upside down and shook it. I watched something small fall out of the inner pocket, but Zach caught it and shoved it in his jacket before I could clearly see what it was.

"Hey, what was that?"

Zach flashed his signature smile and chuckled.

"It was nothing.."

"No, seriously. What if it's a part of our mission or something?"

For a second, I caught a pained expression on Zach's face, but he hid it just as easily as whatever was in the pocket of his briefing folder.

"It was nothing. Just something Joe wanted to give me."

I had gotten the message. It was probably just a guy thing. At least, that's what he was implying, so I backed off.

This mission was weird. No briefing, ballroom dresses, Zach. Something was wrong, everything seemed easy. And that was when I tensed up.

Zach noticed, and he tilted my chin up to face him. His face let me know that it was okay. He obviously could tell something was off, but he wasn't letting it bother him. So neither should I.

I kissed him lightly, and Zach kissed me back, smiling. It made me happy to see Zach like this, so I kissed him harder. He put his hand on my cheek, and pulled away.

"I love you."

His eyes melted me down to nothing, I was staring at his lips. He blew me away. With everything that he was. I could barely get words out. My eyes skirted up to his, dark blue and overflowing with my reflection.

He waited for me to say it back, and I did, my thumb on his lips. His eyes glistened with something, and I couldn't feel the world around me. He kissed me softly, his hand on my neck, and I deepened the kiss. My hand was on his chest, and he scooted closer to me. And I scooted closer to him. He kissed me deeper. And I kissed him harder.

It was like P&E, and Zach was out of breath by the time I pulled away. I began to feel the stares of the driver and other passengers in the van, so I laid my head on his chest, and Zach would kiss me when they weren't looking.

An hour later, the vans stopped, and we were ushered out into an empty parking lot. Lights of a distant city were shining through the trees, and Solomon passed out comms.

Solomon talked to everyone for a few minutes, then pulled Zach and I away from everyone else. He handed me a clutch purse, and Zach a gold watch.

"Hand me your comms."

I started to object, but Solomon just gave me a look I was all too acquainted with. He held out his hand, and we gave him our units regretfully. He took out the batteries, then handed them back.

"Now put them back on again. Hurry, while no one's watching."

I gave Zach a confused look, and he mirrored me back. Soon, a white limo pulled up to the scene, and Zach led me to it, ushering me inside.

I was confused.

I looked for Bex, and finally found her, making eye contact. She looked just as confused as me, and for some reason that made me feel relieved.

Zach draped his arm around me and I leaned against him. I was too tired to feel excited, and the adrenaline wasn't pumping through my veins the way it was in the van.

I started to close my eyes, and Zach brushed the hair off my face.

"Go ahead. We've got a while.. I'll wake you up when we're there."

I shut my eyes, and fell asleep.

All too soon, Zach was gently shaking me awake. I rubbed my eyes, not feeling as energized as I usually did on missions. The limo had pulled up to a very familiar building, and a fancy man dressed in a suit opened the door for us.

Zach squeezed my hand, and I looked out onto the city.

I had always loved Washington, but it wasn't until that one, cold, familiar day at the Smithsonian when D.C. really resonated with me.

The museum was different now. It was lit up, fancy women in dresses were walking in like they owned all of Washington. There were escorts on each side of the door, asking questions and taking names. Zach just waved, and we walked right in.

There was some classical music playing from the ballroom, but I couldn't pinpoint who it was.

"Debussy,"

The man said, who was taking Zach's jacket. But I knew Zach was well-aware. He always was.

Zach took my arm and looped it through his own. We walked up the large marble staircase, and someone pointed us towards the ballroom.

Zach looked at me, over encumbered with something. I wasn't sure what. I yawned, and he broke a smile.

"Come on, this might be fun."

There was no one standing at the ballroom doors now, at least from the outside. The party was well into the second half, which I was glad for. The first few hours of a party of this kind were awful, filled with people chattering on and on about their non-profits and older men offering you glasses of champagne. Zach opened the door, and we slipped inside.

I yawned again, and grabbed a glass of whatever the waiter was walking around with. I gulped it down quickly, and grabbed Zach's hand.

"Let's dance."

The first dance was a waltz, and I inwardly thanked Madame Dabney for every class preparing me for this moment in time.

The second was more of a tango, and Zach and I were anticipating a scolding from Mr. Solomon afterwards for attracting too much attention to ourselves.

But after the third dance, Zach and I stopped paying attention to the music in the background, and danced to our own song. Zach would hum it in my ear, in between kissing me in front of the whole party. No one was paying attention. We were in our own party. In our own world.

But I hadn't forgotten the mission, and in the back of my mind, I knew something was wrong.

"Zach,"

He looked up, knowing what I was going to ask before I even said it,

"What was in your folder?"

Zach bit the inside of his cheek, a habit I had started to recognize quite easily because I did it so often. I was going to find out sooner or later, whether or not he wanted me too. But I was giving him the option, I wanted to hear it from him. He knew that.

Zach fiddled with the watch on his wrist, and finally met my eyesight.

"Remember when we found your father's grave? And how devastated you were? And your mom? And Joe?"

I had stopped dancing, and so had Zach. There we were, standing in the middle of the dance floor. It was the first time tonight me and Zach purposely weren't touching. I held my arms by my sides, and Zach habitually shoved his in his pockets.

I nodded for him to go on, and he did.

"Well, Joe was crushed. And he couldn't talk to you or your mom about it. He didn't want to impose. He knew you guys were grieving in a different way."

Zach stepped a little closer to me, and I didn't object. I just crossed my arms, and willed him to go on.

"Well, out of no where, Joe started talking about 'tying the knot' young, and all this stuff. He started telling me to just get married already, because pretty soon our jobs would get in the way and marriage wouldn't be possible and we needed to take advantage of the time we had while we still had it. And I just kept telling him, 'I'm just a kid, Joe. I'm just a kid.' But he was so persistent. He said it didn't matter. We acted like adults. Pretty soon we'll be adults. I felt bad, I thought that it would make him feel better. So I told him 'I'd think about it.' It was a ring, in that folder. Tonight was supposed to be 'the night.'"

I stared at the floor. Zach reached for my hand, and I took it, gripping it tightly. We walked to a back door, and entered into an alleyway. I gripped Zach's hand tighter, and he whispered,

"Let's get out of here."

We walked to a park bench on the mall and sat down. The only light source was the moon, and the party we had just come from. I stared at Zach's shadowy face.

"So, how do we approach this."

I was thankful for the dark. I wouldn't have to hide my nervousness.

Zach cleared his throat, and looked into my eyes, still holding my hand.

"We're just kids."

"We don't know anything."

"What about your mom?"

"What about your mom?"

"I don't have a job yet."

"I don't think I'd make a good wife."

At that, Zach's head snapped up.

He leaned forward, and kissed me. He whispered into my ear,

"You'd make an amazing wife."

My hands were running up and down his arms, and Zach was looking down at me. I bit the inside of my cheek. Zach brought his forehead close to mine, hesitantly, then kissed me all at once. Suddenly, I could understand what Solomon was saying. He missed out on this. What would happen after graduation? My heart started beating fast, the thought of loosing Zach was too much. What if we got separate jobs? How long would we go without seeing each other? What if something happened to him on the job, like my father? A sudden urgency swept over me, and I opened my eyes to look at Zach. He was already looking at me, pulling away.

His hands were framing my face, and when he told me he loved me again, I knew he was trying to say something.

I grabbed one of his hands and gripped it in mine, not looking at him when I whispered,

"You'd make an amazing husband."

Zach looked down at our hands, then up into my eyes. He rested his forehead against mine, and I bit my lip.

"Cam?"

"Yeah?"

I was barely audible, my heart was racing. Zach was tucking some stray hair behind my ear.

"Let's get married."

My heart was about to explode.

"Let's get married."

Zach got down on one knee, and pulled out the ring from his pocket.

"Cammie Morgan, Gallagher Girl, marry me?"

I couldn't get words out, so I nodded and nodded and nodded again. Zach picked me up and kissed me. And for once, I wasn't thinking of my mother, or the mission, or after graduation. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I wrapped my arms around Zach.

His arms were around my waist, and soon I was laughing in his ear.

Somehow, the white limo knew just where to pick us up, and we got in the car. Zach was beaming, I was glowing. Zach was holding my hand, and kept looking down at the ring, then up at me.

We met in the same parking lot as before, and when we got out, you could tell everyone was sweaty and exhausted. Solomon walked over to where Zach and I were standing.

"So?"

He could tell just by the looks on our faces, but glanced down at my hand anyways. Surprisingly, he looked up at us and chuckled happily.

"Just wait til your mom hears about this.."

He said it almost to himself, but smiled at me anyways, walking away.

On the ride back home, Zach asked me a question.

"Should we keep it a secret? At least for now?"

I thought about it. I couldn't stop looking down at my finger. It was striking, the ring. A thin gold band and a simple diamond on the top. I thought about how much Zach must've paid for it, and grimaced, thinking how shameful it would be to hide something as beautiful as it was.

"I don't want to,"

I started, but Zach finished,

"But you don't want people getting the wrong impression."

I sighed, and buried my head in his chest. He put his arm around me.

Zach slid the ring off my finger, and put in on the necklace I was wearing.

"There. Now you can at least still wear it."

I pulled out my necklace, and looked at the ring again. I could almost see the reflection of Zach in the diamond.

Zach cracked a smile,

"You know, it is kind of funny though."

I turned up to Zach.

"How so?"

"Well, I mean. Our teacher wanted us to get married. And he like, orchestrated the whole mission and everything.. It's just funny."

I smiled.

"That's crazy. This is crazy. It's all just so crazy."

"But it's a good crazy, right?"

I nodded.

"Definitely. This is definitely a good crazy."