A/N: It's so weird being on fanfic and people not really reviewing. Guess people just review a lot less than they used to. I haven't read the last book in the Gallagher series, so I'll prob have an alternate Circle plot and idea about Zach and Cammie's past, just a forewarning.

That's all, so hope you guys enjoy!

"I'm not sure how much sight-seeing we'll be doing, Sage," I said after sitting in the car. "We still have to find my mom and Solomon.

"They're fine." She rolled her eyes.

"I highly doubt that," Zach scoffed. As I looked at him, I saw that his facial bruises and cuts were mostly healing, but the cuts on his body were still in the ugly phase.

I lowered my voice and leaned up from the backseat to talk to Zach. "Should we get something to cover your cuts?"

He looked down at his forearms and bit his lip for a second. "I guess there probably isn't a way to make sense of those, is there?" His eyes shifted to the sides of the road, and he parallel parked.

He asked, "Do you have any money on you?"

Crap. I didn't even realize how limited we actually were after being in captivity. "No."

"I don't either," he said, exhaling. "That guy in the store back there let me have some stuff for free because of the cuts."

"I have cash," Sage said.

My eyes flitted from her back to Zach.

"We can't use Circle money. They'll be able to trace the codes," he said.

"So, does that rule out the kit in the trunk?" Sage didn't even look up. She was just casually looking at her nails. "It's been so long since I've gotten a manicure. Do you think we could stop so I can get one?"

Zach didn't even bother reacting. He simply turned to sit facing forward in his seat.

"Maybe later," I said. "We can definitely do it after we find my mom if we don't find time before."

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "If you say so."

I put my hand on her arm and lowered my voice. "I really do want to catch up."

"What does the bag come with? Are there cameras in the trunk?" Zach interrupted.

"Why don't you check and find out for yourself?" Sage snapped.

Zach's ground his teeth for a second. "We'll check the bag later. I'll let you ladies get back to talking," he said, getting out of the car and staring down a man in a long-sleeved, light-blue Patagonia shirt and pastel green shorts.

"Guys down here really do like color, don't they?" Sage said. She keeps talking. That means she wants to communicate, right? Even if she's coming off standoffish.

"Yeah…not sure how I feel about it. What do you think?"

"I don't mind the pretty boy thing," she said, slightly smiling. "Guessing you're not into that, though."

"I'm not totally against it," I said, giggling the mental image of Zach in the guy's outfit. It was so beyond his image.

But soon, that internal image seemed to be coming to life.

"They're arguing about something," Sage said, pulling out headphones from a seat cushion. Not earbuds, but those big, old-timey headphones. She put one part of the device to both of our ears so we could hear their conversation.

"What the hell, man? I'm not giving you my shirt." The guy scoffed and started to walk away, but Zach pulled him into the alley and pushed him against the wall.

"Shirt. Now."

The guy's expression was disbelief and confusion, but eventually waned into complacency. "Fine man, just don't do anything stupid. Just let me get my wallet and I'll give you money to buy your own shirt."

Zach loosened his grip and let his arms down. The stranger shook his head as he pulled his wallet out and handed Zach a few bills.

"We good?"

Zach looked down at the cash and said, "Yeah." With that, the man walked away and Zach started walking back to the car.

Maybe it wasn't right to mug the guy, but that's the line spies have to walk. We can't always identify ourselves outright like other government agents, so we have to improvise.

Zach got back into the car and said, "We're going to have to drive a couple counties away in case this guy files a report, but after that, we'll get some clothes and work on finding your mom and Solomon."

I nodded and smiled back at him. "Sounds good. Let's just get to driving."

After 2 hours and 53 minutes, we arrived to a small consignment shop. The three of us stepped out of the car and walked toward the door.

"We only need a few things to last us, so let's get out of here by the next half hour," Zach said. Sage and I headed over to the women's side of the store and Zach went to go find clothes on the other side.

We shopped quietly and swiftly for a few minutes before I broke the silence.

"This isn't exactly how I pictured us shopping together," I said to her, flipping through the racks.

"I didn't really picture us shopping together at all," she replied coldly. Before I could formulate a response, she said, "I've got my tops. Are you done looking at the bottoms over there?"

I just gathered a few clothes and stepped to the side. Shaking my head, I moved to a new rack full of shirts and dresses. She's just so hot and cold. It's just like when we here held captive; she consistently had to check herself and listen to Chris.

We both finished shopping in 17 minutes (a personal record for the amount of clothes I had to get) and checked out.

Zach was outside waiting for us. "Ready?"

We both nodded and all started walking back to the car. The sun was starting to set, cloaking the city in a beautiful golden hue.

As soon as we got into the car, Zach turned, stone-faced, to Sage. "You're going to tell us where they're being held captive."

Sage scoffed. "They're just going to expect you to show up where they were being held. I'm sure their location was changed the second I broke you out."

"Where would they take them? Don't sit here and pretend they wouldn't tell you the contingency plans."

She snapped, "I DON'T WANT TO DIE." She crossed her arms and leaned back further into her seat. "I'm not dying for you two."

"Then you shouldn't have even tried to help us."

"Zach," I started.

"No. If she's so concerned about herself, then she should've just stuck with doing what she was told. She can't play both sides and expect that everything will be fine."

I put an hand on his arm to try to calm him down and put the other hand on Sage. "I need to know why the Circle has my mom and Solomon, Sage. Please."

"They never fully trusted me. All I was ever told was that we needed them."

"That makes sense, Zach," I said, turning to him. His gaze remained facing forward, not looking at me.

"Georgia."

I turned back to Sage. "Georgia?"

"Atlanta, to be more specific. That's the last location I was notified of."

Zach started the car. "We're just a few hours away from there. We should be there before midnight, if traffic doesn't get bad."

And thankfully, traffic wasn't more than we'd expected. By 11 p.m., we were in the "Chicago of the South."