Hey guys! I want to thank you all so much for your amazing feedback! I passed 50 reviews, which is totally awesome so I'm super happy. Going through the reviews I saw a LOT of good ideas. It's so hard to choose; I want to include everyone's ideas! Also, I tallied up all the votes, and #'s 2 and four were tied. SO I decided to do a combination of a bunch of things. All of them won't be in this chapter though, so you shall have to wait and see while guessing which options I combined ;-)

Shoutouts!(13 reviews btw! 13! Can we try for 15 ? It would totally make my day)

Crazy-for-Goode

Fluffy (Guest 1)

Kickinit1036

Guest (2)

Captain Hook the ninja

Hannahslye

Guest (3)

Kiiki (Guest 4)

diana (Guest 5)

Divergent-Chameleon-Wise Girl

sophia (Guest 6)

mycodenameiscobra

Future gg (Guest 7)

LOVE YOU ALL!

I'm so happy so many of you guests took the time to review! I'm really glad you like my story!

Now, I want you to know that this chapter is pretty much just a filler. I had to write it in order to lead up to the events you all voted on. But don't worry. Every idea I receive I jot down in a word file and write the reviewer who gave me the idea. So next chapter (I think) will have the stuff you were looking for and voted on. AND REMEMBER! Even if your idea is not in the next chappie, doesn't mean it won't be coming later. I may be keeping it stowed away for a bit, just like Crazy-for-Goode's marriage idea. I'm just waiting for the right time. Just stick with me okay? It's coming ;-) And I would love to hear what you thought of it!

P.S.

Hey ya'll Courtney from the past again. As you know, I've been editing all of my chapters so I'm making another note of that here, since this chapter changed more then others. Mostly, I just added more background and explanation to make things more believable. But again, nothing major plot wise happened so don't worry about it if you've read it before.

NOW ONTO CHAPTER 10!

Considering the entire restaurant was gaping at the scene that lay before them, it was fairly easy to find someone to call an ambulance. In fact, once people snapped out of it, we had lots of volunteers. Soon, we could here the sirens wailing from a distance, coming closer every second. And that was when we realized our dilemma.

There are some things in our business that don't really need to be taught or said. Common spy sense, if you will. And knowing that we did NOT want to get caught by the police and possibly getting arrested was definitely one of them. Aside from the fact that no one ever wants to add an arrest to their permanent record, no covert spy in their right mind would want said permanent mark on their public record. Their very clean, inconspicuous public record. Said record that was blank, because no good spy would ever ALLOW themselves to get arrested at all. So, in this particular case it was understandable that no one wanted to risk an arrest, regardless of whether or not we were actually going to get arrested (which was admittedly unlikely).

We had to decide whether to run for it, or brave it out. Since we were surrounded by witnesses, running was pretty much out of the question, certainly for Preston, Zach and Josh, the main participants in the outburst.

But Zach was looking slightly apprehensive at the mention of the police. And I knew that if he was displaying just a little bit of fear, he was not in a good place. Zach always keeps his emotions in check, so seeing him actually displaying them was not a good sign. And really, who could blame him for reacting like this? He was the son of a deadly terrorist. If he got taken in by the police, it wouldn't look good, both to the police who would find his…questionable records, and to the CIA agents who's trust Zach was still trying to gain. Zach had worked so hard to prove he was one of the good guys; that he would be a competent, loyal, and dedicated addition to our team. But despite his successes, not everyone recognized this. To some, even though he was one of our best agents, it didn't matter about who he really was. All they cared about was his past and his family, and nothing could really change the way they looked at him, no matter how much he proved it to be otherwise. They do say first impressions last forever.

All anyone would ever see was his mother, and who she had trained him to be: an assassin after her own heart.

Most parents just want their kids to go to college and get a good paying job. But not Zach's. From the moment he was born his mother was molding him into a cold, heartless killer. And it didn't matter if he didn't want any of it anymore. Back then, he did those things anyway.

Some people were ready to understand, to forgive.

Others simply weren't.

They may never be.

But I think the person who would never forgive Zach the most, was himself.

I'm sure he killed his fair share of people. She may have forced him to, he may have been mislead into thinking he was doing the right thing, or he may have done it even when he knew it wasn't. It didn't matter in the end. And it certainly didn't matter to him. In that moment, I could see the scared, confused, and emotionally scarred young boy. Someone who was so good inside, but was constantly struggling to escape the corruption that seemed to follow him wherever he went.

And in that moment I truly hated Catherine for slowly trying to kill every bit of good inside this boy.

And yet I was so, so proud of him.

That boy who rebelled and resisted his mother's inculcation.

That boy who realized that he really didn't want to do any of those bad things, and decided to do something about it.

That boy who, after everything she'd taken from him, didn't let her take and break his spirit.

That boy who didn't let her win, who never forgot who he wanted to be.

But he could never forget who he was, and what he might have become.

And, judging by the cold look in his eyes, masking out the swirling emotions he was locking deep inside, I knew it bothered him more than we could understand.

We all have skeletons in our closet that we can't shake, and I didn't doubt for a second that Zach had kept them locked up for a very long time. But the past always catches up to you. And the longer you evade it, the more damage it can do. One slip like this, and Zach could be looking at a lifetime in prison.

Just because of a small outburst and a last name.

Sure you might be thinking "Come on, no one goes to prison for life over a little fight." or "How would they have that kind of clearance?"

They wouldn't. But when they find Blackthorne on his record-and nothing on him besides that-they're going to get suspicious. And then, they're going to find someone who does have the clearance they need.

If that person finds out he's been involved in trouble they're going to investigate his past. Where he's been, who he's been with, his family (if you can call it that) etc.

And if they find out what he is - a spy- they're going to automatically assume that he's not the good kind.

And when further investigation finds that he's not just a spy, that he's an assassin, wet-work artist, killer, whatever you want to call it… they're going to lock him up. Because no one can completely cover up their tracks. There will be enough evidence right there to incriminate him, or at least for him to go on trial.

But when they find out he's a Goode.

Then it's over. It's all over.

Of course, its more likely that the CIA would intervene before that happened, would never allow regular law enforcement to have that kind of access, both to information and personnel. But really, it'd just be one bad situation to the next, a trade off. Because the CIA does not take kindly to having to bail out its agents. Especially those whom they don't quite trust yet. Instead of a prison sentence, Zach would have a suspension. He'd have people talking about his "violent tendencies" how he "can't be trusted to keep a low profile" and how "you can't blame him, assassins aren't supposed to have self-control like that, its all they've ever known."

Zach's career was already on thin ice...with this it could be over.

And so, I realized, could Preston's.

Preston Winters, one of America's up-and-coming, successful young leaders, would lose it all with an arrest. The media would pounce, and before we knew it, his wholesome reputation would be tarnished forever.

Now I didn't actually believe for one second that we would let any of that happen. We have connections too, and I know that our group would do anything to stop the situation from getting out of hand. In all likelihood, this was just a small skirmish and we'd just be questioned and then let go.

But the possibility was there. And for Zach, the possibility was enough.

So yeah, either way we were in a really tough predicament.

These thoughts in mind, I crossed over to Zach and he instantly pulled me to him, burying his face in my hair. Just holding me was reassurance enough. Some things don't need to be said. No one, especially me, was going to leave him here. We'd figure something out. We had to.

"Uh guys. What are we going to do?" said Grant somberly. No jokes or smiling. This was not a laughing matter.

"We have to do something. There are to many witnesses to make a break for it. But we can't get caught." argued Bex. All eyes turned to Zach and Preston. We knew what, or more accurately who was really at stake.

"What can we do?" asked Lizzie quietly.

That was the question wasn't it.

If only there weren't so many witnesses we'd quit the scene. But we couldn't.

"Just one night…" I murmured to myself.

"What did you say Cam?" Macey asked me.

"I just wish… I just wish that for one night we could be normal. That we could go out and have fun without being kidnapped or shot or threatened," I said my voice getting louder not even caring who heard anymore. "One night without a fight or someone's life being in danger!" I paused, my voice getting softer. "But we can't can we? Because we chose this life, and whether or not we like it, nothing will ever be normal for us again, will it? So I guess I better take my own advice in advance and start accepting that fact. And start doing something about it!"

"Yeah Cam, but what can we do."

"Well Zach can probably pass his situation off as not really being involved, saying he just walked into the fight and pulled Preston and Dillon apart. Have any fake ID's on you?" Jonas said whispering, beckoning us closer.

"Always," answered Zach confidently, his momentary apprehension behind him. Zach had a mission now, and when Zach was on a mission, he could never fail.

"Good. So you're fine. We'll cover for you right? This includes you and your group Josh."

"Ummm did someone say fake ID's?" asked Josh, totally bewildered as to why this was a big deal. "Why can't he just be questioned? He's innocent. He can…"

"NO!" we all yelled,cutting Josh off.

"Just go with it okay. Answer their questions as honestly as you can, but don't say anything incriminating." Bex said quickly, rattling off the Basic Guidelines to Surviving Questioning that we learned in the seventh grade intro to Covert Operations. "Remember that Zach is…" she trailed off glancing at the fake ID Zach already held in his hand… "Ethan Phillips. If they ask anything else about any one of us, be honest but vague. Act as if you only vaguely know us, which is mostly true. Same goes for all of you," she said turning to face Deedee and everyone else. "Got it? Good. And you better do as I say," she threatened under her breath, scaring Josh enough to nod meekly in agreement.

"So the real question is what to do with Preston," said Liz.

"Yeah, what are we going to do with me," said Preston, as if reminding us that he was still here.

"Well I think the only thing we can do is let them take Preston in and have him act like it was all in self-defense. They'll recognize him of course, and it will probably get leaked to the press, but if all goes well everyone will see it as a necessary defense, which technically it was.

"Hey!" one of Dillon's friends tried to protest but as quick as lightning Bex cut him off. "It was, and I don't care whether you think its not. We want to downplay this event as much as we possibly can, while still making it closely aligned with any eye-witness accounts. And since you all saw most of the whole fight, you are their best witnesses. I'm sure none of you want to be involved in something like this no matter how trivial. So just do as I say alright. We don't have much time."

"But what about D-Dillon." His girlfriend sniffled out.

"You and Josh will accompany him to the hospital unless they take you in for questioning. They shouldn't take any of you except possibly Josh. Most likely they'll ask you some quick questions here and then leave. This is the ideal situation. But you have to be prepared nonetheless to be taken in."

"Okay" said Deedee firmly. "If there is anything else you need us to do, we'll do it." I was surprised at how well she was taking this.

"Good," said Bex with a nod of satisfaction.

Then the door opened and the police came in along with hospital workers who came in carrying a stretcher. They all made a beeline towards Dillon and the rest of us. Another officer entered and walked up to the restaurant manager.

We just stood, patiently waiting to be questioned, and crossing our fingers.

So there you go! Nine pages on Word again! Jeez I'm getting into this

Anyway, tell me what you thought of this chapter! Also I'd love for you to answer the following:

What YOU think should happen after the police arrive!

As I said before up top, just because your idea is not in the next chapter, doesn't mean it won't be coming later.

So answer and review. It doesn't even have to pertain to this chapter. If you have an idea that may be later on, tell me! I might find I can incorporate it, or it may inspire me to do something else.

Either way I WANT YOUR IDEAS (LOL reminds me of Uncle Sam. Picture him while you read this.)

Love ya!

-Courtney