"The game plan?" my mother repeats, her voice ringing throughout the hall.

"Yes, Mom," I answer. I am still exhausted and my shoulder is hurting from flipping Zach. "There is a hall full of students, and an unknown group of people hunting Zach and I down. As you pointed out minutes ago, they will get into the school. So what is the plan?"

My mother seems to sag under the weight of my question. Her shoulders slump, her face droops, and for the first time in my life my mother looks… well… old. "Honestly, Cam, I don't have one. I haven't really been able to think much past get-my-daughter-and-son-in-law-to-safety-without-anyone-dying."

"What about the passageways?" I ask her. I'd really prefer to have this conversation in private, but seeing as that's not really an option at the moment, I try to ignore the eavesdropping girls at my back.

"If you can get to one that will keep you guys safe, then that's a viable option. I can't think of one though."

I sigh. "There's one that I know for a fact is still usable. It spits us out in a spot with no cover though."

"No. You aren't using it if it isn't going to be safe."

"What about the girls?" I ask. "It's not safe for them if we don't leave."

"Cam," Zach says, nudging my shoulder, "will they be safe if we go?"

I glare at him. I know why he's asking, and I don't blame him. The thought has crossed my mind too. Maybe whoever it is that is after us will come after the people here even if we go, just to hurt us and prove a point. It would be like threatening to kill those children in Spain. I rub my hand over my eyes. "They definitely won't be safe if we stay."

"Headmistress Morgan?"

I turn around and stare at a small girl sitting with the rest of the seniors. She has blonde curly hair, and is about the size Lizzy was. I swallow. They could be twins.

"Yes, Ellie?" Mom says.

Ellie. Ellie was the name of Liz's younger sister. I stare at the young woman in front of me and can't help but wonder…. No. After Liz, no parents in their right minds would let their only living child come here. Still…. I glance at mom, and she nods, confirming that Ellie is Liz's sister.

It takes everything I have in me not to cry. But tears are useless. Liz is dead and Ellie is here, in the place Liz didn't ever want her to be.

"Well, I was thinking, what if they don't have to leave. What if they just have to hide?"

Mom is about to answer, but I beat her to the punch. "That would be a step in the right direction," I say, walking towards Ellie. I stop in front of her bench and she stares up at me. This close, she doesn't look so much like Liz, but I can still see the resemblance and it is like a knife in my chest. "What do you have in mind, Ellie?"

"You're the Chameleon, right? So be the Chameleon. If you put your hair up and borrow a school uniform from somebody, you can pass for a senior. Your husband, Zach, can sit with the faculty." She looks at Zach. "I think you could pass as a Covert Operations teacher. You'd have to make a trip to the disguise room though, so that whoever it is doesn't recognize you. In fact, that might be a good idea for both of you."

"It's a good idea," I say, "but it doesn't solve anything. They'll just kill people until we give ourselves up, or we are dead too."

"Why don't we put on the disguises just in case," Zach says, suddenly at my shoulder. "If we have to leave we can use the passages—otherwise we can blend. Maybe they won't get in the school."

I throw him a look. "Yeah, 'cause that's so likely," I say sarcastically.

Zach puts his hands up in a motion that is both placating and defensive. "Gallagher Girl, I know it's unlikely, but it doesn't hurt to be hopeful."

"Hope gets you killed, Zach. You know that," I say quietly.

His shoulders slump and he nods. "Still, Cam, I think it's our best chance to get out of here without anyone ending up dead."

I run through scenarios in my head, but in every single one we end up dead. Or somebody else does. Every single possible course of action I can think of is too dangerous. Not that the one Zach is proposing isn't, but I think it is our best bet. So as much as I hate to admit it, I nod and say, "Alright."

To my utter surprise, the kitchen staff brings out dinner on time. The hall erupts into the chatter of teenage girls, as everybody begins to eat. The tension in the air is tangible, but at least there is a distraction now. The meal looks delicious, but I cannot eat.

"Cammie, what's wrong?" Zach whispers in my ear.

I stare at him in disbelief. A very large part of me wants to respond by saying, everything, but a smaller, more logical part of my being tells me that is a little melodramatic. I just shrug, not trusting myself to speak.

But really, what isn't wrong? Somebody has my infant son and best friend, but I don't know who they are. I can't go home, my husband and I might get everyone we care about killed, there is an entire school of innocent girls surrounded by people who only want my husband and me, my house was trashed, and I just want to go to bed.

When I was little, my mom used to tell me that everything would be better in the morning. I wonder if she was right?

I doubt it. Life isn't that simple.

Zach seems to sense my thoughts. "We'll get them back, Cam, both of them."

"Maybe, but what is it going to cost us?" I ask. Last time it cost us Liz.

"I don't know, but we'll pay it. Whatever it is, we'll pay it."

I look at Ellie, who sits at her table, talking to her friends. She throws her head back as she laughs and her blonde curls bounce. Maybe she will get to grow old, and have children, and marry someone who loves her, and go to university, and smile, and laugh, and cry. Maybe she can live the life Liz didn't get to. I want her to live the life Liz didn't get to. However, I know that staying here jeopardizes that. I also know that sometimes—often—the price is too high; the cost to large. I know that we can't pay anything to get Macey and Jason back. God, I want to, but I can't. We can't

Instead of voicing those thoughts I nod, and then throw my napkin down on my plate. "Let's go and get those disguises," I tell Zach.

We walk through the passageway slowly, his hand in mine. I feel like I did when we went to school here, young, and scared, and determined, and totally in love with the person behind me. Zach squeezes my hand and I smile. The passage leads into The Closet. Capital 't', capital 'c'. It's Macey's favourite room in the entire school.

I let go of Zach's hand and go to a rack full of uniforms. Zach grabs himself a white polo shirt and a suit jacket. I put on the uniform, and he puts on the suit jacket and polo.

"Should I be offended that Ellie told you that you could pass as a student, but told me I should pretend to be a faculty member?" Zach asks me.

I laugh, despite how worried I am, and wrap my arms around his waist. I have to tilt my head in order to see his face. "You're the only guy who has ever been admitted to Gallagher," I remind Zach. "It would be a dead giveaway for you to be sitting at one of the tables. Plus, she did say she thought you could pass as a Covert Operations teacher."

Zach kisses me quickly. "She did, didn't she? Do you think she has a crush on me? All of the girls liked Joe when he first taught here, right? Maybe telling me I could teach his class is Ellie's way of telling me she thinks I'm hot."

I smirk at him. "I am pretty sure that wasn't what she was telling you."

Zach laughs and grabs my hand, tugging back towards the passageway. "Come on," he says.

"Not yet, I want to grab supplies. New backpacks, new gear, food, clothing, baby stuff for Jason, first aid supplies, money, identities. Weapons," I add. "Our bags were in the burn bin in our bedroom, remember? They will have gone up in smoke the second that alarm sounded."

"We can get everything but the weapons in here, right?" Zach asks me.

"Well…."

"What did you do?" Zach asks me.

"I may have added a weapons cache to this room."

"You didn't."

I shrug. "I figured that if we needed to run at some point and we ended up here, weapons would be a good thing to have easy access to. Since there is a passageway here from the dining hall, I put them in here. Plus, I knew that if we were running and ended up here, weapons would be a necessity. We wouldn't come here unless we were out of options."

Zach nods and sets to gathering everything else while I find the weapons and make sure they are all operational. "We have $5000.00 in cash," he informs me, holding up two black backpacks. "We also have two sets of clothing each, plus an extra set we can change into when we ditch these outfits. There are six MRE's in each of these bags. I added rope and carabiners. Also the last model of Comms that Liz made—the one that is hack-proof, water-proof, shock-proof, and virtually unbreakable in every other way possible. It's more than I'd like to have to carry with us, but the food won't last long and the cash isn't heavy. The rope and carabiners worry me a bit because of their weight, but I'd rather not climb up a mountain side without any kind of safety precautions. We should take harnesses, but that isn't really an option. For clothes, I just went with cargos and black t-shirts. We have twelve different identities, one of the CIA issue first aid kits, but nothing for Jason. Baby stuff isn't stocked in here. Everything in there should sustain us for a few weeks. We'll have to buy food and water at some point, but that's unavoidable."

"Good," I approve. I point to the weapons arrayed in front of me. Four guns and six knives. There is also a stun gun and a Taser.

"Isn't that a little bit excessive?"

"Yeah, but I want to be prepared." I wrap a strip of t-shirt around each type of weapon together, and then tie a piece of leather around the bundles. I put them into our bags, and throw extra ammo in with them.

"I guess I'd rather be over prepared than under prepared," Zach mutters.

I take the backpack he holds out to me. "Exactly."

Zach and I weave back through the passageways together, retracing the steps we took before. When we emerge into the Dining Hall again, the tables have all been push to the side and girls sit in scattered groups around the room. They talk in quiet tones, the occasional laugh breaking through the tense air.

"Did you get everything you needed?" Joe asks, eyeing the backpacks.

"Yeah," Zach tells him. "If we have to run, we'll be ready."

Mom joins the three of us, motioning for Bex and Grant to come over. "If you have to run, where are you going?" she asks in a quiet voice.

I look at Zach and a silent understanding passes between us. "Paris," I answer. "Zach was on a mission there, and he recognized the voices of the people in our house the day we came back from the hospital. Macey and Eva Grey went missing there, and a few of the people we ran into while we were running had French accents. Whatever is happening has something to do with Paris."

"You haven't been back there since…." Bex trails off.

"I know, but I still have friends there. Hopefully they'll still be in the same places."

"Cam, are you guys sure? I mean, going to the place you think this might be based out of doesn't seem like a very good idea to me." Grant asks me.

Zach squeezes my hand and I put on my mission face. "We're sure," I say.

A/N: Alright, so we're starting to get somewhere. Sorry for the gap between updates, but I hope this made up for it. I promise the next chapter will be action filled. Sorry about the cliff-hanger. Please review, I would love to know what you think.

Shout-outs

WolfGirl745 - Thanks for all of your supportive reviews.