Jonas POV (new one eh?)

I'm not sure how long we stood there, hand in hand. No on said a word—no one needed to. What needed to be said had; everything else didn't really need to be communicated. We all understood. So we stood together each of us alone in our thoughts, yet somehow all linked together.

For the first time I think we all really realized the connection we had, the inseparable bond we shared that only accumulates through enduring hardships together. And that we had. It was only natural ,I suppose, that when things got rough we would turn to each other. So we just held on- as cliché as the whole hand-holding thing sounds-and tried to draw strength in the knowledge that we weren't alone in this. The gesture said it all.

There was nothing to be said, nothing to say as we stood in quiet thought in the vacant alley. I felt it inside too, the emptiness of it all.

The room was silent-a heavy sort of silence that we all seemed to feel seep into our bones.

A despairing kind of silence.

And yet…no one seemed to want to break the trance; the silence giving us a false and fleeting sense of security, almost as if time had stopped. It was so easy in that quiet to recede further into each of our own thoughts, to almost forget the gravity of our situation.

Almost.

Because the empty period of silence so easy to succumb to, was also so easy to slip out of. After a while every silence starts to become uncomfortable, and begs to be filled. The silence seemed to stretch out in front of us becoming increasingly uncomfortable, drawing us each from our own thoughts and back to our despondent reality. And as we all slowly shook of the last threads of our remaining ponderings, it became increasingly blatant that someone was going to have top break the silence sooner or later. Really, that was the third reason for the seemingly everlasting daze—no one wanted to have to be the one to break it.

So I sat and pondered some more.

Until someone finally decided they'd had enough.

"Well then. Let's get down to business. " Grant nonchalantly said clapping his hands together in emphasis, his voice cutting through the tension and silence like a knife. I wasn't the only one who cringed at the sudden, reverberating noise echoing across the rafters in the dark, spacious room.

I had predicted it would be him. After all he and Bex were the most impatient of all of us, so logically both were on the top of my mental most-likely-to-break-silence list (a hypothetical list,of course).

Either way it was a welcome change.

"That was certainly an eventful 4 hours. We found out that Macey and Preston were married," he continued seemingly undeterred by the lack of response and vacant glances he was ( and wasn't) receiving. "We got into a particularly nasty - but well fought I might add- fight with Dillon, who was then beat up and sent to the hospital by Preston – good job buddy- which almost totally backfired, until we realized the cop was Tina. Who we then later realized was not, in fact Tina, but one of Catherine's henchman named Colleen. Jeez, that's not confusing at all. Anyway, we thought we were in the clear, but the COC cop took Preston, roughly interrogated him, was knocked out by Tina. Once again we (foolishly) thought we were clear so we tried to salvage our date, during which Dillon and Dillon and Josh were captured and knocked out by the COC here at this very bowling alley because they were idiots and tried to carry out their revenge plan. Which, might I add was an epic failure as plans go. But I bet the COC thought it was fantastic for that very same reason. Those two imbeciles made it too easy for the COC to dispose of them and then continue to follow with their main objective..."He trailed off there unwilling to finish that particular sentence. Zach noticeably cringed and Liz took in a sharp intake of breath. "And they succeeded." He whispered, then just as quickly plowed onward. "Because even though we know the plan was not at all complex, nor hard to defeat, and we're spies for crying out loud, and we KNEW we FELT that something was up, we fell for it. And now she's gone. We suck at being normal!" The more he talked the more he was losing his thin façade of calm. His voice kept getting higher and louder and acquired a hint of hysteria. We could all see he was on the verge of a total meltdown.

And that was when Bex lost it.

"Well what did you honestly expect, Grant?" Bex burst out almost involuntarily. "We're SPIES for crying out loud. What did you think we'd just go on a "normal date" where we wouldn't be checking our tail every 5 minutes; we wouldn't be on edge? That we'd go out to a stupid chain restaurant, and Josh wouldn't show up-because he always does- and we'd eat like normal people and NOT have any eventful things happen? Or that we'd go bowling, and Macey wouldn't complain about the shoes, and Jonas and Liz wouldn't calculate and strategize their exact positions to win, and Zach and Cam wouldn't sneak out when no one was looking, and I wouldn't totally kick your butt, because we all know that I am the bowling QUEEN? And then we'd all go happily back home without a care in the world? Without something going terribly wrong? Because even though we tried to tell ourselves otherwise, WE ALL KNEW THAT THAT WASN'T GOING TO HAPPEN! And realistically what did you expect?" she was wringing her hands now and pacing the room angrily glaring at Grant.

I didn't know if she was going to smack him or run into his arms and start bawling.

"Geez Bex. Calm down." said Grant seeing her obvious distress.

Instantly all 6 of our heads whipped to Grant with equal looks of terror.

Big mistake.

"Calm down? You want me to freaking CALM DOWN! My freaking best friend has once again been kidnapped by the FREAKING COC! They just won't QUIT! And I'm soo sorry that after 4 uneventful years, I was just finally thinking that she was safe. I have never stopped worrying! And after all of my work, watching over her without her suspecting, I let go for ONE night and she's gone again! And…I …I can't… GOD! If I had just made sure she was with me…I could've… I … I would've."

And with that, one of the strongest Gallagher Girls I'd ever seen feel down to her knees and started sobbing into her hands.

"It's all my fault" she choked out.

"NO NO nononono." Grant said wide-eyed as he lifted her up and held her to him, her tears staining his shirt. "It's not your fault. It's no one's fault except the COC. And maybe Zach, for leading her outside." he said attempting a grin.

It was meant to be a joke. Really, Grant should've known better. But you can't blame him for trying. And you really can't blame him for what happened next.

The second strongest spy I knew, the one with the strongest composure who was so good at hiding his feeling it seemed like he didn't have any… cracked.

It started with a twitch of the eye.

A gulp.

Then a single tear trickled down his face as he turned away.

And smashed his fist right into the outer wall.

It cracked and then fell apart. The wall had seemed so strong, but with one big blow, it just crumbled to pieces.

Just like him.

Then he turned back to us the tears pouring down his face. And he started to talk.

"They took her once before, because they wanted something. And when they got it, they got rid of her and gave her back to us, just in case they ever needed her. She was their expendable informant. And they let her be in case they needed her for..." he broke off then sagging against the broken wall. His eyes were closed and he was muttering to himself, caught up in his own mind, unable to make a coherent sentence. He looked crazy… he was talking crazy. But I knew he wasn't too far gone yet. And we had to reach him, get the information form him before he closed up and sealed himself away from the world. Because that's what Zach does when something is just too much to handle. It rarely ever happens (like I said he one of the strongest most composed spy I've ever known), but when it does, well…its bad. He freaks and then curls himself up into a little ball and locks himself and all his emotions away inside himself, so no one can reach him. If you thought getting to him and reaching beyond his carefully constructed facades on a normal day was difficult, try it now. It's like comparing peeling an onion to breaking down the Berlin Wall! And right now we needed him to stay sane. It wasn't just the fact that ,out of all of us, he knew the most about how the COC works. He was a natural leader and had somehow unofficially become our leader. Everybody looked to him and Cam for most decisions. And without Cam…he was our best shot.
I went up and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Talk to me Zach. What do you know?" I asked him slowly.

"They either need her for something else, or they don't need her anymore. Like I said she's…dispensable to them. Jonas, we HAVE to get her back. We have to go now. We- we have to… "

He broke off again franticly looking at each of us begging one of us to help him finish his sentence. Praying that one of us could possibly have the answers he so desperately needed. But no one knew what to say. We were all too shocked to speak. Macey's eyes were filled with horror, and Bex looked murderous. But only Preston dared to speak up, his own eyes filled with calm, saddened resignation, and finally voice what we all knew but dared not say.

"They're going to kill her aren't they? They don't need her anymore and she's only a liability to their plans. She knows too much, but not enough… if that makes sense. She knows what they do, how they work. But she doesn't know enough of anything useful to them. So they're going to get rid of her. They'll probably torture her though. They're despicable like that. Not for too long though and soon…when they've had their fun with her, when they've broken her again…they'll kill her."

If you thought it was silent and tense before, it was a thousand times worse. It's one thing to think about a thing like that, but another to hear it out loud. When it's only in your head you can disperse the thought and keep yourself in a nice little bubble of denial./ But when you hear the same horrendous thought voiced by others- POP!- your bubble breaks into a thousand pieces.

Then Liz started sobbing.

"Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God…"

I pulled her into my arms her cries muffled into my chest.

"We have to hope…we have to pray that she knows something. Anything. If she does we might just get to her in time." I spoke somberly

"I know my mo-Catherine." Zach sputtered as if refusing to acknowledge his relation to that monster and then spitting out her name like it was poison. And, well I guess in a way it was. Catherine was like a deadly poison seeping quietly into your blood, feeding off your soul, and torturing you to the point of insanity. All the while unknown to you, so by the time you knew she was there it was too late. You were already dead.

"She in her own twisted way admires Cammie. She thinks Cammie is just like her. And there is a chance that if she finds something like that again inside Cam, she might just break her enough so she can rebuild her, mold her into a mini-Catherine. But Cam has changed a lot since then. And they may be similar in some ways, but Cammie will NEVER be like Catherine. Ever. So Catherine might just give up and kill her. Unless Cammie knows something else. There's always that possibility, right? Right?"

He turned around to look at all off us searching our eyes for any reassurance.

And when he turned to me, imploring me, begging me to say that everything was alright or even that it was just a bad dream, I saw the look in his eyes that I'd only seen once before.

I'd hoped I'd never see it again.

***Flashback****

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

"Urghhhhh" I said. I leaped up to grab my phone, which I wasn't technically supposed to have. Rubbing my eyes and squinting through the lingering haze of sleep, I fumbled around in my dresser drawer trying to find the cursed object. Finally, I located the phone and whipped it out, only to drop it again, recoiling at its blinding brightness when I turned it on.

"Hiss. My eyeeeeees." I grumbled as I was forced to sit up and bend down to retrieve it.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"I swear, if it's my mother calling me about the My Little Pony underwear that I accidentally left on my bed I will firmly deny that its mine. No one can know that I'm a Brony and I swear to God if she-"

I stopped when I saw the caller ID.

It was Zach. Which means it had to be important, because Zach never calls unless it's important. And I hadn't heard from him in months (though I knew where he was. Spy remember) which means he hadn't wanted to talk to me. Until now.

That thought certainly woke me up.

"Hey bro, what's up."

"Jonas… I… need your help with something." His voice came through crackling and distorted. Even so I could make out the thinly disguised panic in his voice. Zach Goode never panics. So something must be seriously wrong. But what could make him panic like that? Unless it's…

"It's Cammie."

That.

"Oh no. What happened?" I replied

"I… can't explain now. I'm in the woods. Meet me in 5 minutes."

"Alright." I whispered and with that he hung up.

I immediately stood up, ceremoniously tumbling out of bed and then gracefully(yeah right) maneuvering through the room, trying not to let out a string of whispered profanities when I narrowly missed a collision with the bedside table on the way out the door. Before I left I turned around to give the room one final glance and then quietly shut the door muffling Grant's incessant snoring.

I then furtively sneaked through the silent and eerie corridors pausing to enter the"top secret passcode" (I'm always prepared. Oh, and top secret my apple-blossom!)

Running through the woods outside, I mulled over my surprising good fortune. I hadn't run into one single guard(well okay there was one particularly close-call. But nothing happened did it?)! And I was sure all the commotion in my room should have woken Grant up. Well, thank God Grant is a deep sleeper!

When I got to the woods I saw a figure emerge from the trees. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw none other than Zachary Goode, as emotionless and stoic as ever.

"What happened to Cam, Zach?" I tentatively asked, dreading the answer.

And with that one little phrase he broke.

His composure crumbled and he sagged against the tree, as if he couldn't stand without it.

"Cammie… ran away. She said she had to go. To look for answers. To keep us safe" he said hissing a bit in anger at the end.

"Zach…"

"And do you want to know what the worst part is?" he interrupted me. I could feel his calm composure crumbling more and more with every word, showing me his anger, his pain, his hurt and worry. And then I realized that he didn't have any composure left to break. The Zach I had first seen was just a thinly constructed façade to veil the turmoil of coiled emotions inside of him. It was so different then the myriad of layers he precariously wrought everyday. This was so much more fragile.

"It was my idea. I said we should get off the grid, so she did. Actually… no, that's not the worst part. The absolute worst part is that she didn't take me with her."

With those words he turned back to face me. And I took one look into his eyes and wished I hadn't. Because he looked so panicked so scared, so angry, so… I don't know…broken. I had never in my life seen him like this. And I was truly, honestly scared. Because it looked like Zachary Goode had officially gone crazy. And then I knew we had to find her. Because if we didn't I don't think Zach would have ever been sane again.

A.N.

So I'm back from my really unexpected and semi-long unofficial hiatus. I know I told you the chapter would be up super quick because it was already pre-written except for a small part. But though written it was not at all proofread (and I ALWAYS have to at least do some proofreading.) Now that seems so easy to do right? Wrong. Because right after my last chapter, soccer mandatory practices started. Twice a day. 5 hours. I had to wake up at 6 every morning and then go back at night. Needless to say it was torturous. And on top of THAT I had to finish my mountain of bio work, and go to my study group. I didn't even have time to sit down and do that let alone work on my story. SO when I finally did find time to work on it, I ended up seeing that half of what I'd written just didn't make sense or work for me. Long story short—I ended up completely re-writing half of the story! And then proofreading THAT. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I had to get it up. So yeah I'm super sorry for this a-month-too-late update (that rhymed XD). But I've been really busy. Which brings me to my next thing.

I might be putting this story on (official)hiatus. I'm starting high school really soon (freshman year yikes!) and I'm taking all honors classes as well as being in a special Medical Science academy AND playing HS soccer. I have a lot on my plate right now and coming up. SO I don't know how often, if at all I'm going to be able to update. I'll try my best but… this might be the last time you hear from me in a while. Still, I'm not giving up! I'll still be writing during breaks and stuff so we'll just have to see.

Now onto a happier note…

SHOUTOUTS!

GallagherGirls13BYE (twice XD. SO glad you love the character! I don't normally do or like OC's but this one just seemed fitting! And writing her (your) POV was actually really cool because she could be whoever I wanted her to be. No regular character parameters to follow. And I actually find myself attacted to her too XD)

miaadventure

mahiGirl

kayla (guest)

Chloe9614 ( don't worry, this one ain't officially over yet!)

BTW , writing Jonas's POV was actually really fun! I wasn't expecting it to be so easy, but I wanted to write from a different characters perspective. I wasn't actually sure who I was going to do so I'd decided to write it and then choose when I was done who it sounded like the most. But as I wrote I just found myself writing like I thought he would. I guess he just...picked himself.

Regardless I'm actually pretty proud of THAT aspect of this chapter, and I'd love to know what you thought of Jonas and his brony-ness (that rhymed XD)!

Alright guys. As always please send me any feedback, favorites, follows and of course R&R!

Love ya!

-Sarcastic is different than facetious (no one seems to understand this)

a.k.a Courtney.