Came to me when I was thinking about how I needed more Leo to my répertoire, and more Silena and Beckendorf a long time ago. It sort-of just busted through the front door and demanded to be writen, and now I'm thinking 'better publish soon before DocX deletes or something'. So here it is!

Disclaimer:... Not mine?


After a few things had been dealt with (notably personal hygiene, opening bunker 9 and catching up on some sleep) Leo had one more thing to do before he was okay post-quest.

He'd figured that for every switch in Cabin 9 had, there were two more, plus a lever.

And that Beckendorf usually doubled the standards of children of Hephaestus (example: the guy goes for the full-grown adult metal dragon).

So when he looked up in his bed (Beckendorf's ex-bed), and saw the panel of green, blue, red, yellow, white switches and buttons and cranks… Well; there were a few buttons his fingers were itching to push.

First one; blue.

Two flaps Leo hadn't even realised was there opened, and a TV slipped out. Holly mother! His jaw dropped to the floor. Leo risked taking out a measuring tape. Just as he'd thought; TV's didn't come in that size. At least not in stores and boxes.

Another click and the wall sucked it back in. Leo grinned and went for red.

A bowl fell from the ceiling onto Leo's knees and a cascade of BBQ chips followed.

"S-weet!" Leo said. "Wonder what someone's ambrosia tastes like," Leo muttered taking a chip. He spat it back out nearly right away; it was stale- and that was coming from a guy who fished in dumpsters for supper every now and then.

Checking the expiration date of the bag he found in a complex, layered looking overhead compartment he'd figure out later- Leo saw the date was nearly ancient history. Sometime in mid-August. Leo reasoned that it was after Beckendorf went to a place where no BBQ chips existed.

He took the content of the bowl and the chip bag. He dunked them at the foot of the bed, making a mental note (that would surely get lost under all the other mental notes) to throw them away.

"I'll find you some new chips," he muttered. He clicked the red button again and a jet of air sucked the bowl back overhead. Wow that must be great for crumbs! Couldn't get that from the Sears catalogue, now could you… Genius Beckendorf was, genius.

He couldn't wait to push the green button. So he did.

Overhead opened like a sliding door- revealing a large screen, tilted towards him like a drawing table; using a program that looked like the one teachers used with the Smartboard. Five holes in the walls appeared- each holding a digital Smartboard eraser or a pen- either green, red, blue or black. Leo studied the blueprint on the Smartboard. It was some kind of… rocket? With reusable engine packs and some special fuselage that isolated the rocket as well as protection. The notes on it were a hyperlink to a Word file where Beckendorf must've stored further info. There was also a scribble note that said 'see graph paper notebook #30 for details on fuselage'.

He'd come back to the rocket later; he was going to see what button opened up where Beckendorf kept the notebooks. Leo had a feeling the others would appreciate it; a piece of their old counsellor, everybody's idol's (even Leo's), genius. He'd also figure out where the main computer for the board was so that he could download it all on a USB for them. And then he'd clean out Beckendorf's stuff and send it back to his mom. That'd be the right thing to do. The thing none of the other campers had dared to do but that Leo would do for them.

He tried his luck on a yellow button.

These kind of mechanical stubs in the mattress (IN the damn thing!) started rotating and Leo lied down thinking something like 'ahhhhhhhh'.

Massage. Man- did this bed not do anything? Beckendorf could have lived here!

Leo pushed the white button and the last function stopped as a whiteboard with notes and graphs and blueprints and lists stuck on it with magnets came down. And a picture. Leo sat up and picked it off carefully; it radiated being something amazingly precious and lost. Lost, lost, lost.

The guy was one that Leo knew for a fact was Beckendorf –he didn't look as scary in this picture though. The natural scowl had moved over for a smile. The girl with him was smiling just as bright, but it looked more natural on her. Just by the way it made her face glow, and her expressive blue eyes shine. Her hair was thick and dark, and she looked so relaxed and at ease, with the most beautiful smile Leo had ever seen. She had her arm around Beckendorf, who held her by the waist.

Oh.

The feeling in Leo was when your stomach sunk so far it was probably out of body.

Beckendorf couldn't have lived in here. Apparently one thing to make the guy happy was missing.

Leo put the picture back and stopped messing with the buttons.