'Charlie! Hey, Charlie!' Charles Beckendorf grinned. He knew exactly who was calling him. Silena was the only person who called him 'Charlie', and besides, he would know her voice anywhere. He kept on walking, pretending that he hadn't heard her. After a couple of steps, she grabbed his arm. He turned to face her, feigning surprise.

'Oh, hey Silena. You should have said something, I would have waited for you.' She slapped his arm playfully.

'I know you heard me, I'm not stupid. Anyway, I know that you're going to get Percy in a little bit, and I wanted to say bye.' He grinned at her.

'I would've come and found you before I left! Anyway, I'm only going to be gone for a couple of hours, it's not like you'll never see me again.' She smiled at him.

'I know, it's just, with everything going on... I just..' He grabbed her hand.

'I know, Silena. There's no guarantee. But we have to believe that we'll be fine, because if anything happened to you...' She nodded and leant her head against his shoulder.

'It'll be fine,' she whispered. 'We'll be fine.' They stood there for a minute, until Charlie gently stepped back.

'I need to go and get Blackjack. Percy's all the way down at the beach with Rachel, so I need to get going if we want to get to the boat in time.' Silena nodded and they started to walk towards the stables.

'Charlie,' she said falteringly. He looked at her enquiringly. 'I need to tell you something.' They reached the stables.

'Sure,' he said. 'What is it?' He started to get Blackjack ready and she stared at him for a minute.

'Well, Charlie, it's, er, it's... I'm... er.' He turned to look at her worriedly. Silena was usually smooth and articulate, so this was extremely out of character for her.

'Silena?' She looked at him for a second longer, and her gaze dropped to the floor.

'It doesn't matter. I'll tell you when you get back.' He smiled, still a little worried.

'I'll hold you to that.' He crossed the length between them and enveloped her in his arms.

'Okay.' She smiled. She knew that whatever happened, Charlie would be there for her. Always.