Hide and Spy- Gallagher Girls FanFic

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Abby stood in the doorway of the room, hate and shame covered her face.
"You might?"Zach asked,
"I..." Abby started.
"No, tell us all." I reached out to Zach, motioning for him to help me out of bed.
"Cam, you're not fit enough." Mom shook her head.
"Yes I am." I nodded, "Front room now." I told them.
"It's pointless arguing with her." Bex called.
"Come on then." Mom stood up and left with Joe after Abby.
"Are you sure?" Zach asked as he helped me up, I was stiff and sore but I could manage.
"Yeah." I leant on Zach for support as we walked the twenty three steps to the sofa where I sat down and Zach pulled a rug around the two of us.
"What do you think you know Abby?" I asked her, she sat on the arm-chair with her head buried in her hands.
"He asked me to go to Rome about three weeks before he went missing." She sniffed and sat up straight, Townstead sat on the arm of her chair and rested a hand on her back.
"He needed me to go because he needed an operation." Abby looked at her hands, "He asked me to remove a chip he had inserted in the back of his shoulder."
"His left shoulder?" Mom asked.
"Yes." Abby sobbed and nodded.
"How did you know?" Macey asked Mom.
"The day after you went to the circus with him he went out and when he came back he had a bad shoulder." Mom explained, "I knew better than to ask."
"I removed the chip and he told me to put it someplace safe." Abby took a shaky breath, "He told me that there was a safety deposit box in a bank in Rome, one only him and I could open."
"The same place that I got the necklace from?" I asked her, my eyes growing wide.
"Yeah, I set the chip down on the table and turned to the sink for a second to clean off the scalpel and things... I turned back to an open window and a missing chip." Abby bit her lip and shook her head, "I looked out of the window to see if I could see him in the crowd..." She looked up to me, "But he was a pavement artist."
"Did you go to the bank?" Joe asked.
"Yeah, the chip was there." Abby nodded.
"That doesn't make sense though." Joe frowned, "I sent him to talk to a man."
"Who?" Bex asked.
"Winters." Joe closed his eyes and sighed, "I sent him to talk to Winters about the Circle."
"You mean Winters might have been the last person to talk to him?" Macey asked.
"Abby, did he-"
"No, he said he hadn't done what Joe had asked him to because someone had warned him."
"Who warned him?" Mom asked her.
"He didn't say." Abby shook her head again.
"He might have gone back though." I pointed out, sitting up straighter, "If it was the chip they were after then he might have gone and spoken to Winters?"
"The only way to find out would be to ask him." Townstead sighed.
"But Winters is dead." Macey said quietly. I turned to look at Joe.
"Why didn't you tell us before? When he was alive!?" I stood up and shouted, "Surely we had a right to know!? I could have asked him!" I was sobbing now, my chest ached as I fought for breath, Zach was at my side trying to calm me down.
"Cam, I'm sorry." Was all Joe could say.
"If you'd have told us we might know why these people want Mom!" I went to hit his chest but Zach stopped me.
He looked me dead in the eye as he held my wrists, "Gallagher Girl, calm down." I nodded and fell in to his arms. He took me over to the sofa and passed me over to my mother so I could cry in her arms.
"There's someone else who might know." Macey's head snapped up, "Someone else who was destined to join the Circle."
"Preston." Bex smiled.
"Do you think he'll remember?" Liz asked.
"Possibly." Zach shrugged as I wiped my eyes, suddenly exhausted.
"Let's get you back to bed." Mom smiled to me, right now I was her eight year old daughter, not her eighteen year old. I nodded without saying anything and got up with Mom.
"I can pull the duvet up myself Mom, I am an adult." I smiled as I lay down and pulled the duvet over me.
"Yeah, but a part of you will always be my little girl." She straightened the duvet and brushed my hair back.
"I love you Mom." I sighed as I closed my eyes.
"I love you too sweetheart. Don't worry, we'll work all this out." She began to hum a lullaby that I recognised from when I was little.

I woke up the next morning, Zach was on the floor with a blanket over him. I could only hear that one other person was up, making a fry up in the kitchen. I slipped out of bed and padded through to the kitchen, Joe was cooking in a grey button down shirt and some jeans.
I realised in that moment that yesterday I had been out of order, blaming him, I had shouted him for something that hadn't been his fault. A spy can't blame others for their problems and that's exactly what I'd done. As I approached Joe turned to face me.
"How you feeling?" He asked me.
"Better, thank you." I looked down to my feet, "Joe, I'm sorry about shouting at you yesterday."
"Cam, you shouldn't be, you were right. I should have told you about it before. I'm sorry." Joe sighed, we stepped towards each other and hugged.
"Do you want coffee?" Joe offered when we pulled away.
"I'll make it." I offered.
"No, you sit down, save your energy." Joe smiled at me as I pulled myself carefully up on to a stool at the breakfast bar.
"I thought I heard you get up." Zach came up behind me, resting a hand on the small of my back he kissed my cheek.
"I tried to be quiet." I responded.
"It's okay," Zach smiled, "it can't be easy balancing being quiet and not hurting yourself."
"Trust me, it's not." Joe nodded as he set two mugs of coffee in front of us.
"So what are we doing now?" I asked, "Going to Rome?"
"You kids are." Joe nodded, "We are going back to school."
"Less of the kids," Bex commented as she walked in, "and we are all going back to school before splitting up."
"So is Preston still at the Embassy?" I asked.
"No," Zach sat up on the stool next to me as I took a sip of the steaming, bittersweet drink in front of me, "he's moved to a high security house with his mom." Zach explained.
"None of his family is an ambassador now," Bex shrugged, "They have no reason to live in the embassy."
"Winters left them his fortune." Joe nodded as he handed me a plate of bacon, toast, sausage and scrambled eggs (Being shot is the best excuse for a fry up breakfast)
"You're up early." Abby commented as she came through and opened the fridge.
"Someone has to make breakfast." Joe shrugged as he leant against the worktop as he ate his share of the fry up.
"When are we leaving?" I asked.
"When will you be ready, Squirt?." Abby turned back to me as she took a sip of her orange juice.
"Whenever you are." I smiled back, giving her a look to suggest that a mere gun wound wouldn't stop me.
"That's my girl." Mom came in and hugged me, tightly. Something told me that this mission was bringing us back together, back to being the loving mother and daughter we were before my Sophomore year.