"What was that light integrated in your mind? What have you done? It's too early for everyone." – Silversun Pickups, Well Thought Out Twinkles.

"Oh no no no. No. This cannot be happening. No one is allowed to kill Travis but me," Katie muttered to herself, dribbling some nectar into his mouth and doing all she could in the way of healing. Praying silently to Apollo, she watched as Travis' breathing regulated. Slowly, mind you, but he wasn't dead. She breathed a sigh of relief, and realized she'd been crying.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, and mentally smacking herself, she rocked back onto her heels, and waited for him to recover.

The blackness was vaguely unpleasant to Travis as he floated. This was weird. He was just floating, aimlessly…No. Not aimlessly. He was heading somewhere.

With an unpleasant jerk behind his naval, he appeared in a flower shop. Not just any shop. These flowers were the most beautiful he'd ever seen. Hell, he hadn't even seen most of these flowers before, but the colours were like a Brazilian street parade or something. He reached out to touch the most vivid bird of paradise he'd ever seen, but when his hand should have come into contact with a leaf, it just drifted straight through.

"Don't bother touching anything," said a voice, and Travis, or the dream Travis, or whatever he was, turned around. There stood, what he thought for a brief moment, an older version of Katie. But her hair was darker, though her eyes were the same. This woman was quite beautiful, he had to admit to himself, and he wanted to kick himself for thinking of Katie.

"Demeter?" He guessed, and she rolled her eyes. Yep. That was Katie's mother.

"Lady Demeter to you. But yes. I am Demeter, and you're in a brief coma. You'll wake up in a few days, though during that time my daughter will be stressing out. Oh, don't worry. Katie's fine. Though very stupid, you undoubtedly saved her life. Then she saved yours. Though I'm beginning to wonder why. I mean, I've been watching you two. Abercrombie and Fitch? Really? How could you even remotely think that was the right way? Oh, but that's beside the point," Demeter began, waving her hands. As she did so, twenty more flowers popped up around the shop, "My reason for talking to you during your coma is this; for one, I can't directly interfere, of course. The other reason is this; it was me or Aphrodite, and she'd never get her point across. She loves to speak in riddles, that one. ANYWAY. She has plans for you and my daughter. Though I'm highly skeptical of this whole thing working out, I thought I'd meet you," Demeter finished, Travis utterly bewildered.

The goddess looked at him shrewdly, and he suddenly felt very embarrassed. Him? And Katie? He wouldn't pretend he had never thought about it, never imagined it, because he'd be lying to himself if he did so. But he had a feeling Demeter was in his head, and she could see every thought he'd ever had about her daughter. This made him feel very uncomfortable.

"A little slow, but aren't all humans? And you have a knack of getting into trouble. Like your father, I suppose. But, unfortunately, nothing I can use as smiting material. Apart from the occasional inappropriate thought. But nothing I can fault you on, unfortunately," she said, flicking her long, braided black hair over her shoulder. This had to be the most embarrassing and yet the most pointless meeting with a goddess he'd ever had. Why hadn't they sent Aphrodite?

"Because this is more personal, Mr. Stoll," Demeter answered, her back to him. He jumped. Yep. She could read minds. She turned to him, and he was beginning to feel even more uncomfortable.

"Umm, can I go now, please?" He asked, and she looked puzzled.

"Actually, yes. It's been three days, after all," she responded, snapping her fingers. What? Three days? More like five minutes. Wait? What was happening? He hated magical mojo. This time, it was like he went backwards in fast forward; and then, suddenly, he was coughing, his eyes open to natural light, and a face. Katie's face. Not Demeter's.

It was grimy, but streaked with tear tracks.

"No need to be so anxious, Gardner. I'm not going anywhere," he croaked, sitting up. She let out a sigh of relief, and then did something very unexpected. She hugged him.

Then she seemed to realise it was Travis, let go, and cleared her throat awkwardly. "Er," she began. "I'm just glad you're not dead. Or else I'd have to go all the way back to Camp by myself, lugging your corpse," she tried to reason. He grinned.

"Admit it. You missed me," Travis said, grinning as he took the water she was offering him. She rolled her eyes. Dear gods, she looked like her mother.

Her mother.

Just as she was about to reply, he held up his hand. In it was a rolled up piece of paper. He frowned at it, and read it. It contained only a few phrases. Don't be stupid. Oh, and go to Chiron. You're just going to get eaten out here. –D. It took a few minutes for him to decipher this, due to a combination of his dyslexia and the fancy handwriting.

He gulped. That fancy handwriting had to be Demeter. He held the slip of paper out to Katie, and as she readit, struggling as he had, he figured he had to say something about his meeting. But…Maybe not give away any of the details. Because that would be embarrassing.

"Er. Katie? When I was knocked out…I, um, met your mother," he began. Katie turned to him, puzzled.