I'm going to be a silent godess right here and give you fans what you want :*

Thank god I had good aim. The bullet went straight to the canister of that spray he had used to wake Abby up; it also hit him straight in the hip bone so he crumpled to the ground as a light pink smoke billowed from the canister. Before the other guards realized what was happening I shot their canisters too. The Pink smoke began to grow thick and spread through the cavern. The other guards realized what was going on and dropped their captives to get their guns to train them on me. Perfect.

Since the smoke was so light it took everybody a minute to wake up; but once they did they all went straight into action. The adults pulled guns and threw them to the teenagers and they all went about their business taking out the guards. I attended to Bex and Abby. Abby had a few long gashes running through her features while Bex had gashes along her throat, dangerously close to her jugular vein. When she pulled the cut tape off of her she pulled me into a quick hug and ran off to help Grant who was in a stand-off between two guards and himself. I looked to Abby but she was already running at the guard who had gotten a little trigger happy in Joe's direction. Since they were both fine I turned my attention to Zach but he had gotten up and was trying to sneak over to his mother. She was desperately trying to find something in the wall. I ran after him, she would kill him. She already proved she didn't care about maiming him.

As I drew closer I realized Zach and I could have done a tap dance number right in front of her and she wouldn't have noticed.

Zach turned to me, "Give me the gun."

I held it away from him, "She's your mother, let me do it."

"No you'll never forgive yourself." With that he wrenched the gun out of my hands, aimed it and shot her straight through the ribs on her side. She collapsed a look of shock on her face.

"Zach," she croaked when she realized it was him who had pulled the trigger.

"That was for what you did to me." He walked closer and shot her in the stomach. "And that is what you did to Joe." He aimed it at her chest but I grabbed him and pulled him back. "We need her alive to give to the CIA if we want Joe to go free. Speaking of him, what did she do to him, other than the obvious?"

I had expected him to shrug it off and tell me nothing but he looked me dead in the eye and said, "So not the time for this discussion." Then he made a move to go help the others but I shoved him down.

"You were just stabbed in the stomach and shot your mother, stay." I took the gun and shot two guards in the stomach before i ran out of bullets.

"God damn it," I said and threw the gun at a guard and it surprisingly hit him in the head.

One last shot rang out and I realized that all the Circle members had fallen along with…my mom. Though her injury looked at least an hour old. I ran over to her, "Mom! Mom, please be okay."

She was on her knees now, covering the bullet hole with her hand. Before I could even get near enough to her, I felt a set of strong arms lock around my waist. I looked up expecting to see Joe or Mr. Baxter, but it was Grant.

"Grant please let me go, I…my mom." I let out a sob and went limp, all the energy left my body. He swept me up in his arms and carried me back to Zach, who was sitting on the ground, shirtless. Before you get any ideas, his shirt was balled up against his stomach, plugging the hole his mother had created in him. Grant set me down and exchanged a look with Zach, then he walked over to my mother where Aunt Abby and Joe were examining her.

"Zach, I can't lose her. I can't lose you," I whimpered into his shoulder. He took his free arm and wrapped it around me.

"You couldn't lose me if you wanted to Gallagher Girl." There was sudden warmth that accompanied that name. A sense of familiarity that maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay. We sat there in silence for a few minutes, and then Zach broke it.

"Cam, you asked me what my mother did to Joe. And well I've been meaning to tell you but, um, Joe, well he… he told me the night we got back to Gallagher. He's…he's my dad Cam. That's why he took me under his wing so to speak. My dad's not dead Cam, and he's standing right over there."

I was in shock, that had never come across my mind. Ever.

"Well that makes sense, I guess. But why did that make you want to shoot her?"

"They were…dating, I guess you could say, at one point; and she cheated on him. Then, as luck would have it, she found out she was pregnant by the man she cheated on, or so she thought. She told Joe she was pregnant by another man and they broke up. He wanted nothing to do with her. It was only when i grew up and looked like him that she realized it was his child. When she told him he was heartbroken that he had allowed his child to grow up in such a bad environment. By then he was already trying to take down the Circle with your father, and he didn't want me caught up in the mess. So he told her to send me to Blackthourne even though it was a school for assassins. And the rest is history."

"Wow, Zach I have no idea what t say," I trailed off.

"Yeah neither did I at first, but then I got to thinking. I actually do have a dad; and he cares about me, a lot."

"That's beautiful," I said without thinking. He chuckled, "Don't tell anyone, Zachary Goode doesn't do beautiful."

"Your secrets safe with me."

"What would I do without you Cammie," he asked softly, but he didn't let me answer. He kissed me once, softly. After we broke apart we sat there looking each other in the eyes, having a very cliché romantic moment. Only to have it shattered by a, "Cammie watch out!"

ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER! OH MYYY! HEHE You know you love when I do this. But I also pinky swear that I'll post the next chapter ASAP if I get mroe amazing reviews :)