BPOV

"GRANT!" I yelled through the house, "Is Zach still coming tonight?"

He suddenly appeared in the doorway, eyebrows raised, "What do you think? It's Cams birthday, when does he ever miss that?"

"I'm just checking, but that means that we have got to get a move on and go to the store."

I said as I was going through the mental checklist of what we needed for the meal. Every year since Cammie left, we have celebrated her birthday, in her memory I guess. It's a very bittersweet day, every year. We don't know what happened to her, heck, we don't even know where she went when she left.

Originally I thought Zach would have the hardest time letting go, that he would try to go after her. Instead he seemed very… melancholic about everything. When any of us asked him about it he would just mumble something about timing. I'm not saying he wasn't upset, or even downright depressed at times, but he was never as angry as he was when she ran away when we were 16.

For a couple of years, everyone came to the annual birthday dinner, but slowly people got too busy to come. The first to stop showing up was Macey, then Jonas, then Liz. It's not that they stopped caring, it's just that life got in the way .

This will be the third year that it's only Zach, Grant and I.

Morgan, finally old enough to understand what this night was about, and also knowing about the origin or her name, wanted to join us this year.

We quickly made our way to the grocery store. Grant and I split up to hurry the process along. In all my hurrying I lost sight of Morgan. I looked around frantically for her familiar dark hair. Suddenly I saw her tiny body hurtling towards me, throwing herself into my open arms. As I pulled her into a tight hug I caught sight of an eerily familiar figure turning away from us.

I quickly ran up behind her, "Cam?"

The moment we started talking I knew we were going to be okay. Inviting her to dinner was so impulsive, it never occurred to me to give Zach a heads up. Oh well, I guess it'll be the surprise of a lifetime.

CPOV

Bex followed me in her car to my apartment so I could drop off my purchases and so she could give me a lift to her and Grants house. The entire drive back to her place she had a small smirk on her face, I could tell she was up to something, but I didn't bother asking, figuring I would find out soon enough any way. Grant had gone ahead with Morgan and brought their supplies home to start on dinner.

Soon enough I had been shown around the house and was sitting with Bex at her coffee table, talking about nothing and everything at the same time.

I told her about how after I left I ended up living in a small town in Delaware, where I worked in a small bakery for several years.

I told her about using my Gallagher training to teach a womens self defence class at a gym after a friend and co-worker at the bakery was mugged on her way home.

I told her about being home sick and coming back to Virginia.

I was in the middle of telling her about trying to fix my relationship with my mom when the doorbell rang.

A sly grin made its way across her face, "I'll be right back, just wait here," she said before dashing off towards the door. To say I was confused would be an understatement, Bex had not mentioned any guests would be coming over for this dinner. I waited none the less.

BPOV

I ran like a mad dog towards the door, knowing exactly who would be on the otherside. I stopped short, composing myself before opening the door. Zach wore the same somber look on his face he always had around this time year. I could barely contain my excitement as I welcomed him inside.

"So, how are you holding up?" I asked him, trying not to give anything away.

"Honestly? I just… We're never going to see her again are we?" Something about how he said it made me stop in my tracks, forgetting my excitement.

"What do you mean? I know it's been a long time but you've always been hopeful, why the sudden change?"

He sighed before answering, "The other day I could have sworn I saw her, I don't mean 16 year old her, I mean what I guess she would look like today, and it just made me realize how much time had passed. When she left I always assumed she would come back to Gallagher, and the year after we graduated, I assumed she would come find us, but she never has. I can't help but feel like, maybe, she doesn't want to come back to us." He was leaning his shoulder against the wall as though it was the only thing keeping him upright.

"I saw you too, you know,"

ZPOV

"I saw you too, you know,"

I froze as I heard a voice I never thought I would hear again. I was scared to turn around, worried that I was wrong, that I hadn't really heard her. But then I saw Bex looking close to euphoric. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a faint figure of a woman with shoulder length blonde hair looking at me.

I slowly turned around, finally coming face to face with Cammie after 7 years of not knowing whether she was alive or not.

"I saw you too," She repeated, "Yesterday, by the old pharmacy. You don't know how much I wanted to just run up to you and pretend I never left."

"Then why didn't you?" I questioned, not taking my eyes off the woman in front of me, even as Bex slipped out of the hallway and into the kitchen.

Cam shook her head, "Don't you think that after seven years a person might have moved on from a promise made as a teenager? I didn't want to make any assumptions. I didn't want to have to deal with how I would feel if I heard you had moved on with your life. I didn't want to think about the fact that maybe you hadn't."

"Cammie, I told you that I would wait for you until our time was right, and that is all up to you. To me, it wouldn't have mattered if that time was the day after you left or even if that time was ten years from now. In that aspect of my life, I never moved on from you. But I was worried you had."

"It was a daily worry for me that you had found someone better, more deserving, and decided never to revisit this part of your life. I was always scared that you would never come back."

The silence that followed reverberated off the walls and I watcher her face as she took in what I had said.

CPOV

He thought that I was never going to come back.

I let my head drop slightly, allowing my hair to cover my face as I felt the first tears making their way forward.

I suddenly felt two strong arms wrap around me, cradling me to his body.

"I- I'm j-just so s-sorry," I gasped out, feeling the weight of his words settling on my heart. There I was making the decision that I was better off out of his life for him, when I should have come back a long time ago.

"I've been so st-stupid," I continued. Zach started rubbing soothing circles on my back as I cried.

"It's okay, it's all okay. You're here now and we are all okay. Just take a nice deep breath," he murmured into my hair softly, rocking us back and forth slightly, almost as though I was a child.

I slowly stopped crying and wrapped my arms around his waist in return, remembering how this felt back when we were teenagers.

I felt safe there, in his arms. I felt like I was home again.

The End.

So this is it. I've finally finished it. I went back and edited all the old chapters, nothing has changed really, it was just so that the story would flow better.

I hope you enjoyed this, and I really am sorry for disappearing for a year, I hope you all understand that I was going through a difficult time.

If any of you are going through a hard time feel free to private message me, even if it's long after this is published.

Feedback is appreciated, and encouraged. Please review and favorite, let me know what you think.