Hide and Spy- Gallagher Girls FanFic

JOE SOLOMON- Chapter 14

Joe Solomon POV
Chapter 14

I set Rachel down on her feet but held on to her waist to support her in place of her sprained ankle.
"Matthew." She whispered but only I heard her.
"Cam, you're alive?" Matthew took a step towards his daughter as Rachel pulled away from me and hobbled over to him.
"Rachel." Matt took her in his arms, "I'm sorry, so, so sorry. I love you."
"I love you too Matt." Rachel cried in to her partners chest, "I never stopped loving you."
I turned and took a few steps away, I heard Abby follow me. She rested a hand on my shoulder as I played with the wedding ring on my finger.
"She's still got hers on too." Abby told me.
"I know, but it will soon be off." I sighed and turned back to where Matthew was hugging Rachel, Cam looked over to me and smiled slightly, "We both know she doesn't love me the way she loves Matt."
"I know." Abby nodded,
"I've got to tell Matthew and then step away now and give them their space." I sniffed, realizing I was crying, if I was to give them their space it was likely I would have to leave.
"Joe," Abby sighed, "there was one thing I neglected to tell you about Rome."
"What?" I wiped my eyes.
"Before he left he told me, 'let them fall in love, I don't mind if they do so you shouldn't. Let Joe fill the hole I left.' Matt expected that to happen, I'd bet anything right now that he won't hate you and he won't push you away from her." Abby smiled.
"And you neglected to tell us because?" I raised my eyebrows.
"I didn't think you'd need to know." Abby shrugged as Bex came over.
"Of all the things in the world I never thought I'd see." She smiled at me.
"I'm not crying." I told her, "There's just some dust from the explosion in my eyes."
"Of course, Wise Guy." She smiled and turned to go back to the group.
"Come on, I need to give my first brother-in-law a slap." Abby smiled, making me laugh as we walked back to the crowd.
Rachel pulled away from Matthew and came to take shelter in my arms with my coat wrapped around the two of us. Raising her hand as she walked over to Matt, Abby gave him a sharp slap.
"I... probably deserved that." Matt looked back to her.
"That is for making us all think you were dead!"
"In that case surely your niece, my daughter, deserves one too?" Matt looked to Cammie.
"Dad." She looked to the ground as Zach came back and wrapped his arms around her, "I'm sorry, I don't remember any of last summer."
"What?" Matthew frowned.
"We'll explain on the way home." Zach interrupted, "Grant and Jonas are going to pick us up from a river about two miles from here."
"We'd better start walking then." Bex smiled.
"Can you manage Rach?" I asked her.
"I'll need some support." She smiled to me as Matt came over.
"It wasn't your fault Joe." He smiled to me and held out a hand.
"Which bit exactly?" I laughed and shook his hand before we hugged.

Together the two of us supported Rachel as we walked towards the river. It was slow going and a bitter wind was blowing in from the northwest.
"Managing Lizzie?" Cam asked as Liz reached out to grab a tree's branch.
"Yeah, it was just a little icy." Liz nodded.
"-deep there." Preston was telling Macey as they walked through a different path in the trees.
"Why do I have a terrible sense of dejavu?" Cam muttered to Zach.
"We didn't walk last time Cam." Zach smiled.
"When was this?" Abby asked.
"When we were breaking Preston out of that facility." Bex replied, "We acquired some snowmobiles and used them to get away."
"That and an avalanche thanks to Liz's placement of some explosives." Zach smiled.
"The only difference is that there aren't gunmen after us and Duchess didn't get shot." Cam glanced at Bex, "Did you?"
"No, no gunshots were fired in the making of this mission." Bex joked, making us all laugh.
"It's getting dark." Abby sighed and shivered, "How much further Zach?"
"I can see the tree line." Zach pointed up ahead.

We reached the edge of the tree's a few minutes later and looked down the small cliff, it was around a fifty foot drop. The bottom was mostly rock but there was a deep pool of water probably left by a waterfall that would return in the spring.
"I hope they get here before that does." Liz pointed northwest to where dark clouds were rolling in.
"How long will they be?" Cam asked Zach.
"At least another twenty minutes." Zach sighed.
"Wait." Macey held up her finger, "What's that?"
"An engine." Cam whispered and we all looked up to the sky.
"Get down!" Edward shouted and we all fell to the floor, as she went to drop away from the cliff Rachel lost her footing and disappeared over the edge of the cliff. As three shots were fired.
"Mom!" Cammie screamed as I scrambled up to watch her fall.
Rachel's eyes were open as she scrambled to catch something to slow her fall.
"Remember Singapore." I whispered, "Relax, slow, feet first." She must have remembered because Rachel looked like she was remembering exactly what I was muttering as I stripped off my clothes.
"Rachel!" Matt yelled as I pulled my sweater over my head.
"What happened?" I asked, throwing my clothes to one side.
"She hit her head before she landed." Abby told me.
"She'll be alright." I whispered, "Stay there!" I yelled at the others before running along the cliff a little and diving down in to the freezing pool of water.
I resurfaced and wiped the water off of my face so I could see to swim to the edge of the pool.
"Please be okay." I whispered as I ran over to her.
Falling to my knees at Rachel's side I rolled her on to her back, cuts and scrapes covered her bare arms and face but what worried me most was the pooling blood on her thigh.
"Please, wake up Rachel." I whispered as I pressed my hand against the gun wound, "Please, I beg you."
"Joe?" She whispered.
"Hey." I sobbed, "You're alright, everything's going to be fine."
"Joe, I was shot." She whispered.
"Mom!" Cammie was suddenly beside us, "Mom, it's going to be okay, you hear? We'll get you to a hospital-"
"No!" Rachel refused as loud as she could, "They are still after us, we need to hide."
"Back to the Academy then." I told her, "We'll take you there and look after you."
"I love you Joseph Solomon." Rachel gripped my hand tightly, "I love you completely."
"Shhh." I told her and stroked her temple as she leant her cheek in to my hand, "You'll be fine Rachel, I told you before, I'm not loosing another Morgan."
"And you won't." Cammie back me up as Rachel closed her eyes and relaxed.
"Here." Liz ran over to us, "I've got a first aid kit."
"Joe, your clothes are there." Cammie told me as she nodded towards where a rope dangled down the cliff, my belt was fastened above the gun wound on Rachel's leg.

After that everything seemed to be a blur, I was focusing completely on Rachel. We were on a helicopter for five minutes and then transferred to a private jet which had all the things you needed to perform several medical operations.
Rachel was in the back of the jet, lying unconscious on a bed with drips and an oxygen mask.
"Joe, let me do it." Abby held her hand out for the kit in my hand, "You've been in a daze for the last twenty minutes and aren't concentrating properly."
"Alright." I handed the kit to her as she went with Matthew to the back of the jet while I took a seat next to Cammie, Zach was flying with Grant while Jonas and Liz made everyone drinks.
"Thank you Joe." Cam whispered as she looked out over the clouds we were flying above.
"What for?"
"For diving after her like that, I panicked, Dad went in to shock. But you just went."
"I don't know why I did it." I whispered, "I guess I must still love her."
"Just in a different way to how Dad loves her." Cam smiled, "You acted on instinct, your gut told you that you weren't going to see any of the Morgan hurt again."
"I just want the three of you to be happy." I nodded, "That's all I ever wanted for you."
"I know." Cam smiled, "Thank you for that."

About an hour later Abby came back and took a seat, "I've cleaned her up the best I can, the gun wound doesn't look too serious."
"That's good." Cam smiled, "Thank's Abby."
"It's alright Squirt." Abby smiled.
"Joe, Matthew wants to see you about a certain ring." She told me.
"Great." I muttered and got up.

I closed the door to the back of the plane behind me and looked to where Matt was twisting the ring on Rachel's finger.
"I don't blame you." Matt told me without looking up, "I expected it."
"I know." I sat on the opposite side of Rachel and took her other hand, "I only did it because I truly believed you were dead."
"What made you think that?" Matt looked up finally.
"Cam found your grave and you'd stayed away from them for so long... I thought the only thing that would keep you away from them was death."
"It was hard." Matt nodded, "Really hard. I knew that she'd want your company."
"Double motive?" I laughed, "She didn't ring me up until Cam was starting CoveOps."
"Why did she ring you?" Mat frowned.
"They needed a teacher, I only agreed when she told me I'd be teaching Cam." I shook my head.
"What was the motive there?" Matt asked.
"Put her off it, persuade her to get a 'nice safe desk job' somewhere. I'd obviously forgotten how stubborn her dad was." I smiled, "I made it absolute hell for her."
"Good. I can tell that she's better for it." Matt nodded.
"Rachel knew that too," I nodded "that's why she got me... and falling in love was the consequence." I looked to Matt, my oldest friend who had put all his faith in my to care for his family that he had protected by leaving behind, "We agreed one thing though... it was a different love, not the love you felt for her but it was still love."
"Does she still love me?" I knew he had to ask, I knew I had to respond, tell him the truth no matter how much it hurt me.
"Yes." I nodded, "With all her heart."
"Then why didn't she come and find me?" Matt frowned, "Surely Cammie told you that I rescued her?"
"Cam couldn't tell us." I sighed, "I'll tell you from the sta-"
"We'll help if you come out here?" Cam stood in the doorway, smiling to herself.
"Come to check we're not killing each other?" I chuckled.
"Yeah." She nodded, "Abby says Mom shouldn't wake up until after we've landed."
"We might as well go and let them contribute their bit." Matt nodded.
"Yeah." I watched as he kissed Rachel's head before following me out.
"I thought you were flying this thing?" I frowned as Zach and Grant. Zach was sat with Cammie in his lap and Grant lounged on another chair.
"Jonas and Liz took over." Zach shrugged.
"Anyway." Cammie interrupted, "Dad, I don't believe you've been properly introduced to half the people here." She looked around the jet.
"I'd say more than half, but I do believe I remember... Rebecca Baxter?" He asked hesitantly.
"As you heard before it's Bex nowadays, but yeah." Bex nodded.
"Dad, this is Zach." Cam smiled and looked to Zach before adding, "My boyfriend."
"Nice to meet you Mr Morgan." Zach nodded towards Matthew.
"Call me Matt." He smiled.
"Zach went to Blackthorne." I explained, "But, like me, he's swapped sides."
"I see."
"Edward is Zach's Dad, Abby's... I suppose he's your partner now Abby?" Cam asked as she nodded towards Edward.
"Yes, Edward is my partner." Abby nodded, "And the father of my child."
"You're pregnant!" Matt gasped.
"Well you've not got any quicker at putting two and two together." Abby laughed.
"You can't win with her Edward." Matt told him, "I'll tell you that now."
"Thanks for the advice." Edward nodded.
"Macey McHenry." Cam nodded to Macey.
"Daughter of the Senator?" Matthew asked.
"And Gillian Gallagher's great-great granddaughter." Macey added, "Nice to meet you."
"And you." Matt nodded.
"Liz isn't from a spy family." Cam explained, "But she's the smartest girl any of us have ever met."
"And then Grant and Jonas are my friends." Zach introduced the final pair.
"So now we're all acquainted, what about last summer?" Matt looked to Cammie, "Why didn't you tell them?"
Cam looked to the floor, shame and upset etched on her face.
"It's alright Cam." Zach whispered to her.
"I didn't tell them... because I didn't remember Dad." Cam swallowed, "The only memories of last summer I have are the ones I watched on the DVD you sent Mom."
So we began telling Matthew the story of blowing up Blackthorne, and I found out exactly what happened in the six months that I lost of my life.