"A jar?" Markos knelt in front of the seated Satyr "Tell me how many giants were there?"

The goat looked at Markos, he must have sensed something bad because he cringed away slightly and turned back to Annabeth

"Two giants"

"Brother" Clarisse summoned walking outside the room, Markos followed closing the door behind them, the hallway was empty

"You thinking the same thing I am?" she asked

"Otis and Ephialtes" he comfirned

Worry flashed across Clarisse's features "What do we do know?"

"Good question" Markos's hand went to his head, the wound had re opened and blood trickled down the side of his face "First I have to take care of this"

The Satyrs had prepared four rooms for the demigods and Markos was in the en-suite to his, staring into the mirror trying to stitch his own forehead back together. It wasn't going well, he didn't have the patience for it right now, he wanted to do something, to fight something but with no knowledge of where the giants had taken his father there was nothing to be done. He braced his hands against the edge of the sink and took a deep breath, he looked at his reflection again, his sister was looking to him for answers but he had none to give her. A gentle knock at the door sounded, probably Clarisse he thought or another satyr

"Come in" he called as he attempted to do another stitch but he was never good at healing and ended up scratching his eyebrow

"You are making a mess"

Markos whirled around, Annabeth stood in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest, she was watching him with kind eyes but still in those eyes he could see fear.

"Sit down" she said as she walked over to the sink where the first aid box was, Markos complied unable to take his eyes off her, she was wearing a tightly fitting vest and the jeans from earlier. He watched how her hands made quick work of threading the thread through the needle, she turned to face him with a clean damp cloth in her hand. Gently she cleaned away the excess blood so she could see how bad the gash was,

"Does it hurt?" she asked inspecting the skin

"Not really" he lied, he couldn't think straight right now, it had been so long since they had last seen each other, so very long. But she still looked as beautiful as he remembered, the brown hair that usually fell over her shoulders was now pulled back into a ponytail so it stayed out of the way. Markos eyes trailed down her body, but something on her upper arm caught his attention, scars, so pale that they seemed to glisten. His fingertips went to her arm

"What happened?" he asked he looked up into her eyes

"Onocentaur, Percy and I found some other scattered demigods and they were being attacked so we intervened, I was not careful enough though and he grabbed me, I wasn't fully focused on the fight" she stopped short as if she had revealed to much, she swallowed and carried on stitching Markos's head. Markos trailed his fingers delicately across the skin following the four scars as they curved down her arm eventually dropping his hand back into his lap. He watched her face again, there was a little crease that appeared between her eyebrows whenever she concentrated.

Annabeth tried to keep her eyes focused on the stitching but when she was done she found her eyes wandering down to his, silence filling the air between them, so much needed to be said but neither saying anything. Another couple of minutes past when Annabeth broke the silence

"You're all patched up" she turned and hastily started to clean away the medical equipment, her hands trembling slightly.

"Annabeth you don't have to…" Markos started to say but it was clear Annabeth wasn't listening, he stood coming behind her, placing one of his hands on top of hers stopping her actions

"Annabeth stop" he whispered, his breath tickling her ear, she caught her breath. Markos could feel his heart racing, and was pretty sure hers was doing the same, her skin soft under his hand, the smell of her hair. Slowly Markos laced his fingers through hers, he watched their reflection, watching for her reaction, she had her eyes closed.

Markos pulled her hand gently turning her to face him, she opened her eyes slowly finding his, her eyes were sad

"Annabeth I…"

"I can't" Annabeth spluttered, she blinked back tears, she moved out of Markos's space releasing his hand as she did, she walked directly to the door. Markos followed her but stayed back

"I'm sorry Annabeth"

With her hand on the door she stopped

"So am I Markos" she looked back at him, then she left the room, the door closing softly behind her.