Disclaimer: Ally Carter owns the Gallagher Girls.

Broken

Catherine Goode

There was a side Catherine never wanted her son to see.

She didn't want Zachary Goode to see her smile. It would be a problem in the future, for his emotions to interfere with his motives. He was going to hate her for the biggest mission she had yet, for him to be happy. She felt like was going to use him. Before all the events that spiraled beyond her control to protect her son, from the violence.

Matthew died because she was weak.

She stopped having contact with Rachel.

Catherine the Great became a lowly pawn to Steven Sanders.

One day, his father died at the hands of someone she never knew. Catherine's heart had broken, but she remained functioning, consoling her four year old to wake and sleep. When he grew to age ten, he'd asked her a question.

"Why did he die?"

It'd sound so much like a statement, so cool and calm like his father that she dropped a porcelain plate.

The little boy's brow furrowed as his mother kneeled to pick up the large pieces as her vibrant red hair seemed to leech out bits of its shade.

"It was my fault."

"But…you didn't do it." Little Zach said, hopping down the tall chair and taking out a broom, sweeping out the smaller shards into a dust pan, like Catherine had taught him to do. "Who did it?"

"I know…but somebody will tell you." She replied elusively. That was the last of her words before she continued washing the dishes. He hadn't remembered anything of the previous conversation, because she had erased his memory.

When he was twelve, she brought him to the Blackthorne Institute. She didn't tell the truth, but she didn't tell the real lie, either. It was only three words before she left him, again, but it was enough to give the message.

You will change.

Catherine miserably became a division "leader" of the Circle of Cavan. A mess she should have never got to, but she felt forced, her actions not her own.

Everything from that confident stride and laugh, down to the sly smiles and sarcastic remarks were nothing of the broken woman underneath.

And that was why she almost broke when she was told to target Cameron Ann Morgan. The daughter of Rachel and Matthew. Why did they have to be affected? They were all conned with their loved ones in order to stop the Circle.

But it was according to the plan. To be a woodpusher, one of her friends told her, is to be hiding a skin of stone.

So she mended herself, knowing that in the end, she would make her son happy. She knew he loved Rachel and Matthew's daughter.

Meh. Just a comeback for Catherine Goode's possible awesomeness. I bet she's a good guy forced to be bad, and she's a good roleplayer.