Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that are mentioned, Ally Carter does. I'm just barrowing them for a while.

Slight GG5 spoilers

Her

I was taking a shortcut to Rachel's office when I saw Zach. He was in an old classroom that hadn't been used since I was there. He was just staring out the window. I stood by the door for a few seconds, hesitating before going in. The first thing that I noticed was that my heels seemed to click louder and that he looked lost, broken. Only when I sat down beside him did he acknowledge that I was there. We sat in silence for seven minutes and forty two seconds.

I don't know what came over me but I said, "You're not her."

He was shocked to say the least. I don't know if it was because I broke the silence or the words that I told him.

When he looked at me his eyes were filled with pain and despair, his voice filled with sadness as he said almost whispering, "Yes, I am."

I shook my head, "Zach, you need to listen to me, you're not her."

"How are you so sure?" He asked sounding so young, for a moment I forgot that even though he's seen and done things way beyond his years he was still in fact very young.

"You're not her because you're protecting Cammie; you're not her because you're not taking the easy way out, you wouldn't be asking me this if you were like her." I said, trying to convince him but he just shook his head slightly.

I knew what he was going to say before he said it. "Zach,"

He didn't listen, "I'm sorry, Matthew's dead because of-"

"Catherine, Matthew's dead because of Catherine and the Circle, not you, he's not dead because of you. You're blaming yourself for this and everything else that she's done when you're not the one to blame, stop it." My voice carried no room for doubt, but he still did anyway.

He looked down sheepishly and said, "I can't help it."

"You and Joe are more alike than I thought. You both carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, when you know that it's not yours to carry." As I told him I realized that it was in fact true.

We stayed in silence for a while, his thoughts were probably about my words, and mine were about Joe.

"I can see why Joe likes you." He blurted suddenly, this time it was my turn to be shocked.

My reaction got a small smile from him. "Oh, come on, you're both super spies and yet you can't figure out that you both like each other. I mean everybody's made bets on how long it'll take before you two stop playing games."

"What about you, when are you and Cammie going to stop dancing around each other?" I asked him, avoiding the question and choosing to ignore the fact that I was being bet on. I made a metal note to talk to Rachel about it later.

His smile faltered a little, "I don't know."

"Zach, she'll never admit it but she needs you, in more ways than one. I don't know if you've noticed but the Morgan women can be stubborn sometimes." He laughed, it was a little broken but it was a start.

I looked at him as I said, "You two have something, a connection. She'll push you away because she's scared but I know that she feels the same way. I trust you Zach, we all do."

He didn't say anything, I didn't expect him to. I guessed that he was weighing my words.

Suddenly, I remembered why I had taken the shortcut. "Sorry Zach, but I've got to go; I'm going to be late for a meeting."

I was almost to the door when I heard him say, "Abby, thank you, for everything."

When I turned to look at him I saw that he still seemed a bit lost but I also saw something else, hope.

I smiled, "You're welcome, Zach."

As I walked out of the room I knew that he was a long way from feeling okay but slowly, step by step he would eventually get there.

A.N I had this on my laptop for a while and finally decided to publish it, I know they're a bit OOC. This is not Beta'd so any mistakes are mine. Anyways, thanks for reading and please review.