A Therapeutic Catastrophe

By Jack Flash

Warning: Heavy themes. Not intended for ethical discourse, but as reactions to the events of the story. (It'll make sense when you get to Act II.)

Act I

When Reyna stepped out of Dr. Cenote's office, she was shaking. Although she understood its importance, she hated the "no weapons" policy of New Rome. Whenever she sat in one of Dr. Cenote's bean bag chairs, Dr. Cenote would provide her with a pencil box and a football sized eraser that she could dig the graphite into. But it wasn't the same. She didn't get the same satisfaction that she did from twisting her knife into a table or armrest.

Reyna thought she'd prepared herself this time, but—when she stepped out—she felt like someone had tied plastic wrap around her heart and squeezed. There, sitting in the waiting room to the Harmonia Counseling Association was a male in his early twenties with jet black hair, a University of New Rome swim captain sweater, and jeans. There was a Nintendo Switch in his hands and a kinesiology textbook open to prop it in his lap. A pair of black reading glasses framed his green eyes. As soon as she saw them, that stupid "glasses bros" chant of his and Jason's got stuck in her head.

Percy Jackson

Last time, Percy had given her a reflexive smile before realizing where they both were. She'd rushed out before she or Percy could get over their shock. This time, Percy gave her a friendly, relaxed wave. "Sup, Cap'? Long time, no avoid." Like he'd rehearsed it.

Reyna's instinct was to stab Percy with her plastic knife for discovering a weakness and then to retreat back to her dorm room to figure out if anyone else had followed them there. But, as Dr. Cenote and she had discussed, there was no reason to be embarrassed around Percy. Although the therapist couldn't divulge any information about why Percy was coming to see her, she could point out that Percy shared the same secret that Reyna did: both of them were coming here without anyone knowing.

Trying to act as casual, Reyna pointed her thumb to the shutting door behind her. "You're up, Swimmer's Ear."

Percy shut down his Switch, closed the kinesiology textbook, and shoved everything into the cluster of loose papers in a backpack propped against his chair. When he stood up, he pointed to the plastic knife that she didn't realize was still in her hand. "Careful. I've heard many lunch ladies have gone postal with those things."

Reyna smiled. One of her favorite things about their little group was how often they made her smile.

An awkward moment passed where Reyna knew she should have a rebuttal and Percy should have walked into their shared therapist's office with a secondary witty retort. Neither of them could pretend this wasn't weird. What was she supposed o say? Tell Dr. Cenote her bean bag has a hole in it.

"I'll wait for you to finish," Reyna said.

The words slipped out before she knew they were coming.

"Oh," Percy said.

She waited for him to say why that wouldn't be necessary, and she thought over some reason that she might have "forgotten" for why she couldn't stay anyway. But, it wouldn't work. Percy knew her regatta had been canceled today due to a naiad strike and they didn't have classes on Sundays. And, for the demigod "boxing" club, they had agreed to hold off on their evening brawl as to not infringe on Lacy's birthday party, an event both she and Percy had squirmed for excuses to avoid.

Instead of coming up with the same excuse as he used on Lacy, "I need to clean the pond..?" His eyes brightened. "Thanks!" he said. "I would say I'll try not to take long…" he trailed off and shrugged.

They both knew the sessions ran 45 minutes. Former praetors could plan back-to-back sessions on off hours, but Reyna suspected Percy had the same problem she did—accounting for an hour and a half was more difficult than 45 minutes.

"Hurry up, Jackson," she teased.

When Percy walked out, he half-expected Reyna to have left him a pile of explosives to eviscerate him and any trace of Dr. Cenote's office. The other half of him expected Reyna had gotten fed up waiting for him.

He was pleasantly surprised to find her still in the waiting room, not building a bomb.

Demigods weren't well known for their waiting skills and Reyna was no exception. Dr. Cenote and the other therapists of Harmonia Associates had left toys and fidget cubes all over the waiting room. She was absently sharpening her plastic knife with a nail file and had successfully gotten the blade to real shanking status.

As Percy approached her, he smiled. "You could definitely lead the new recruits to victory with that."

She snorted and tossed her knife into the trashcan.

They stepped out of the narrow hallway marked off for the counseling office and into an elevator for the rest of the office building. Percy had to marvel at how he could go toe-to-toe with a god or a titan but small talk in an awkward situation? He'd rather stab Ares in the foot a hundred times.

They had a lot to talk about and normally never had a problem, but he couldn't get his mind off Dr. Cenote's office.

"Did you drive here?" he asked.

Reyna shook her head. He liked her new hair cut. The shorter waves had a lot of bounce against the collar of her leather jacket.

She sighed. "No, I took the bus and walked. My bike is too conspicuous."

"I think you mean too awesome," he countered.

Everyone was jealous of her motorcycle, especially with all the speed attachments and boosts Leo and Nico had added. And—Percy had to admit—the emergency medical and siege supply compartment that Will and Piper had encouraged was a fantastic add on for when Reyna inevitably got attacked while out cruising along Highway One.

"Did you want a ride back?" Percy offered.

Great going, Jackson, he thought. They could barely make it down an elevator ride without resorting to looking at their shoes, and he was trying to doom them to being trapped in a car for another seven minutes.

"As long as your hunk of junk isn't going to get us killed," she said. The elevator dinged and they stepped out, toward the parking lot.

"Leo assures me that the engine is perfectly fine for at least a hundred more miles," he said. "We just can't go over fifty."

"You know, he could probably build you a whole new car for fun and save you the trouble of visiting Hades early."

Percy laughed bitterly. "Yea, but what's the point of being a demigod if you're not living on the edge?"

Reyna looked away. Percy knew he'd struck a cord. There was no way she hadn't been discussing that with Dr. Cenote. Percy figured that should go on an entry questionnaire: do you fear going to the grocery store or picking up your laundry could result in eminent death or a good god-harassing? Does looking at Cheese n' Wieners give you PTSD? You're in the right place!

When Reyna hopped into his Outback, she set to readjusting the seat for her height. Some part of Percy was pleased to think of how annoyed and suspicious Annabeth would be next time she got in his car. He ground his teeth, trying to think about something else.

"What do you want to listen to?" he asked.

She shrugged, propping her elbow against the window to lean on her hand. "Whatever you have on."

Percy snorted. That was like having a girl say, all swimming holes are safe when one was actually a tar pit. "What do you actually want to listen to?"

Reyna stared at him, raising a critical eyebrow.

Percy's fingers hesitated over the radio dial. As a Christmas gift, he let Leo install an old-school radio. In New Rome, the presence of half-bloods tended to make any newer technology go haywire, but this worked great. "So, if Chainsmokers comes on, you're not going to call it 'evil, commercialized pop for the masses' and force me to change it to a Classical station?"

"You're joking."

Percy punched on the radio. What Lovers Do by Maroon 5 filled the car. His stomach clenched reflexively, waiting for the inevitable—

"Jackson, this is evil, commercialized garbage for the masses," Reyna said.

He glanced over to see Reyna's stern expression cracking to a smile.

They both laughed at the absurdity of his prior paranoia. If he explained, she might get it but…

He almost went to apologize, and realized he didn't need to with her around. "Shut up, Ramirez," he said instead, pulling out of the parking lot.

They hummed along for another thirty seconds before he broke. "Who else knows?"

He turned the dial down a little. All his instincts said he shouldn't bring it up—that might make it weirder—but he had to know.

He was scared Reyna would shut down. Her shoulders slumped in resignation. "Nico recommended her to me, but I never directly told him I was going. You?"

"Same," Percy said, "Annabeth doesn't know I'm going. She knows I went once but…" Percy swallowed. "The whole why are you talking to a stranger instead of me. Kind of kills the mood. Did you… did you ever tell Mr. Perfect-Legacy-of-Mars Aaron?"

Reyna hated it when they teased her about her previous boyfriend. It had been difficult, considering that guy was on his way to becoming a Youtube star with his looks and talent.

Reyna's hand clenched into a fist. She scowled out the window and Percy could tell he'd gone too far. After half a minute of silence, he went to turn back up the music, but Reyna spoke in a clear, controlled tone, "He hit me. We fought a lot. Things escalated. I stayed with him too long."

Like it was nothing.

Percy's fingers shook. He let them fall away from the dial.

Rage boiled in his stomach.

"I already took care of it," she said curtly.

He swallowed again, trying to focus on the road, else they end up in a fountain. If he reacted too much, he knew she would never tell him anything again. He thought about Reyna's other college relationships. "Kahale didn't—?"

She laughed sadly. "No. He did everything right. I thought he was too good for me. You've probably heard it from Jason before, but it can be intimidating dating a child of Venus."

Percy gripped the steering wheel.

After she divulged all of that, he felt like he should have been able to talk about Annabeth. But his stomach kept clenching. Instead, he found himself rambling, wanting to remind her that she was worth everything without upsetting her. He knew her look well from Annabeth, the stop while you're ahead or you're going to slide right off a cliff and into some angry dracaena.

"You know, Kahale's still hung up on you. I mean, you are a hot ex-praetor that drives around on a motorcycle and kicks the crap out of everyone Sunday night—" Percy could sense Reyna tensing. "—and will be slacking off on doing so tonight—" Too far, Jackson.

"Why? Did you want me to kick the crap out of you right now?" she asked, her voice tight.

"I thought you told Lacy that you'd be busy because you needed to pick up some skin ointment for Aurum? I'm sure they have some serious rust diseases for metal dogs and beating me up could take some time."

"I panicked," she admitted to her lame excuse. Reyna relaxed again before asking, "Cleaning the pond?"

"Hey, the naiads didn't go on strike for nothing," he said, even though his excuse to Lacy had nothing to do with the strike."Besides, if you beat me up, I'll be late for Justice League II. I got tickets, but Annabeth bailed on me. Wanna come?"

Percy didn't know why he lied about it. He could just tell Reyna that Annabeth hadn't bailed, but didn't have the time in the first place, and—if she did—she would make them go watch a boring historical documentary, or else she'd get a bad rap in the department for watching bad action movies. Just like she'd get a bad rap for listening to commercialized music.

With Frank and Hazel in Canada, taking care of his estates, Will and Nico backpacking through Northern Europe, and Jason and Piper busy getting a loan to create better structures at Camp Half-Blood, he figured Reyna must be as restless as he'd been. The times he'd seen her at crew practice and when they'd brought Mrs. O'Leary, Aurum and Argentum to the dog park—he knew she'd kick his ass for pointing it out—but she'd seemed lonely.

With how busy Annabeth had been working on her master's program, continuing to erect structure to the Olympians and all the problems they'd been having, he could understand the feeling.

Percy was sure Reyna would demand he take her back to the dorms or worse—suggest they actually attend Lacy's party. Lacy was a great girl, but mixing drinking games with a bunch of Aphrodite children had proved a terrible idea in the past. Percy shuddered to think of the joint New Year's party that Lacy and Dakota threw. Never forget. Never again.

Percy anticipated Reyna's refusal so thoroughly, he flicked the turn signal to go back to main campus instead of the movie theater. When she leaned forward to reverse the signal, he glanced at her.

She smiled again. "I heard Shayera throws a Prius at Hal Jordon. I could get behind some Prius violence."

Percy grinned, changing lanes for more than just the road.

Mel's betacomment: I SHIP IT!

Author note: I'm not used to working entirely with canon characters, so I hope this worked and that you're enjoying so far! Sorry if the story cover is a bit messy—it has been a LONG time since I drew and I'm kind of terrible now XD

Check in next week for Act II! :D When things get a bit more *ehem* personal ;)