What was taking him so long? Piper didn't know. She didn't know if she wanted to know. Jason was more than an hour late, which was highly unlike her rule abiding boyfriend. Something must have happened to him, that much was clear, but what? Piper was fishing in her pocket for a golden drachma when she saw a blond boy emerge from the crowd of mortals, he was limping and his head was bowed. Piper raced toward him, as she closed the distance she noticed a dark stain on his shirt, quickly growing. Dread filled piper's stomach, seeming to drag her down. Jason glued up at her.
"Sorry I'm late." He croaked. Jason tried to take another step, and close the distance between them, but his legs buckled, his eyes rolled, and Jason collapsed.
"No!" Piper shrieked, hardly aware of the staring mortals. The blood was looking faster. Jason coughed, blood staining his lips. She trickled a few drops of Nectar into his mouth but Jason began to heave, Blood and Nectar spilling out. "Sorry! Jason no! I'm so sorry!" Nectar might save him but Piper was afraid he would choke before it did any good.
"P- Pipes." he croaked "pipes. I'm just glad you're the last…" Piper knew where that was going.
"No!" she shrieked again, tears spilling down her cheeks and blurring her vision. "Don't talk like that! You're going to be… you're going to be fi..." Finally Piper saw what Jason knew all along, there was nothing she could do to help him. She collapsed down on his chest, shaking with sobs, her grieving tears mixing with his drying blood. She felt Jason's weak hand close around hers. Even when Jason is a breath away from death he's the one comforting her, he's always there to comfort her but he won't ever be there to comfort her again.