CatchingFire1: Thanks! I play seven, but most of them were forced upon me. My favorites are Irish whistle and piano. I would sing for you, but I kinda can't over the computer. I hope you like the chapter!

SummerSpirit18: You should go look up Ellen's segment on auto correct, it's so funny. I'm assuming you know who Ellen is. She's a pretty big deal in the US, but I don't know about Romania. Don't worry, I wouldn't be able to write anything like that if I tried. Maybe in the future, but for now you're safe. Oh my God, Catching Fire was amazing. My favorite part was in the elevator with Joanna. The casting for Joanna was perfect. She was my favorite character. The thing about our chorus is that we don't have to audition, we just sign up for it on our schedules and we get in. The good news is that she's so quiet I can't hear her sing when she's standing right next to me unless the rest of the room is completely silent.

Mrs-diAngelo25: I love the Reyna/Hazel pairing, too. It was just a whim I had when I was writing the first chapter, but people really seem to like it. I wasn't really planning to go anywhere much with it. It grew on its own. I feel like this whole story is doing that. I have an outline, but all the feelings and everything, they're on their own. And they're thriving by themselves, too. I did write a Thanksgiving one-shot, it's not about their children, though. It is Thalico, but it's not really romantic. If it kept going it probably would be, though. The best part of Thor 2 was when Loki died. It was so well acted. And I got so mad when Loki betrayed them and handed over Jane and Thor lost his hand, and then he was just tricking them and I was so happy.

Goddess Of Idiots: Hehe. Keep reading, it gets even better in the next few chapters.

I don't own Percy Jackson or Claire's. I do own Leader-Man, Baby Cakes, and Rat.

Chapter 7

"Come on, it'll be fine."

"We're not five."

"Everyone's five sometimes. Come on."

"This is ridiculous."

"I'm ridiculous, Thals. You should know that by now."

She rolled her eyes. "I do."

Nico took her hand and tugged. "Come on. Please? It's my birthday."

"Your birthday was four months ago."

"Details." He tugged on her hand again. "It'll take two seconds."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Scoot over." He did so, and she sat down on his lap. "You owe me."

"I always seem to," he said jokingly, and pushed off.

Two seconds later they were at the bottom. "See? I told you it was stupid."

"Oh, please, Thalia, slides are never stupid."

She laughed. "You're such a kid."

He grinned. "How about I make it up to you."

"Hmm. How do you plan to do that?"

"Like this," he answered, and leaned down to kiss her.

Behind them a camera flashed.

Nico smiled at the memory. The picture was sitting on his desk. Her hair was being swept back by the wind and she was wearing his leather jacket. It was six months after they'd started dating, in December of their senior year.

The smile fell off his face when he thought of what had happened just a few months later. He hadn't cheated on her. He'd never understood why she thought he had. She had to know that he would never do something like that.

He'd wanted to go back. He'd wanted to go apologize, even if he hadn't done anything wrong. He hadn't wanted her to remember him like that. But he was too proud. They both were. Neither would admit that they were wrong.

And now she was missing.

He promised himself that if they found her – when they found her – the first thing he would do would be to apologize. Maybe he wouldn't get another chance with her, maybe he didn't want one, but it didn't matter. He hated the thought that she would remember him like that.

And what if they didn't find her? What if they never found out what happened? It wasn't uncommon for a disappearance to go unsolved in New York City, no matter how much Nico hated when one did.

No, this wouldn't be one of them. He was going to find her. He had to.

The door to his office opened and closed, and Nico looked up from the photograph to see Reyna standing in front of his desk. "What are you doing?"

"Just thinking," he answered, putting the photo into one of his desk drawers. "What's up?"

She eyed him warily, like she didn't believe him, but let it go. "There are two kids outside waiting to talk to you."

Nico frowned. "Why?"

"Their friend went missing. Same as Thalia. There one minute, gone the next. I thought you should talk to them."

"Do you think they're linked?"

Reyna shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe they're completely unrelated. You can talk to them, though."

"What's their friend's name?"

"Jason Valdez."

He nodded, and Reyna opened the door to poke her head out. "You can come in," she said.

Two teenagers walked through the door. The boy was short, about a head shorter than the girl. He had curly dark hair and chocolate colored eyes. He looked Hispanic. He was fiddling with something metal.

The girl had brown choppy hair and the weirdest eyes Nico had ever seen, even weirder than Thalia's. They couldn't seem to decide what color they wanted to be, so they swirled, green and brown and blue and Nico thought he saw some purple in there, too, although he couldn't be sure. She looked like she could be part Native American.

"Sit down," Nico said. They took the chairs across from his desk, and Reyna pulled up another one. "I'm Detective Nico di Angelo, this is my partner Reyna Ramirez-Arellano. What are your names?"

"Piper McLean," the girl said.

"Leo Valdez." The boy looked nervous. He reached into his pocket and added something to whatever he was fiddling with.

"And your friend Jason is missing?"

"My boyfriend," the girl corrected. She jerked her thumb at her friend. "His brother."

"What happened?"

"He went missing," Leo answered.

Piper hit him on the arm. "I'm pretty sure that's not what he meant, Leo." She turned back to Nico. "We went out to dinner at this fancy restaurant. Jason has this problem with fancy restaurants." She chuckled. "Something always goes wrong. One time he forgot his wallet, and one time he tripped a waiter on his way to the bathroom and got covered in hot soup."

"And his car broke down, remember?" Leo added. "He had to call me to come help."

Piper laughed again. "Anyway, this time he managed to spill Mountain Dew all over his nice white shirt. We had to leave. We went out into the parking lot and something knocked out. I woke up and Jason wasn't there."

"We tried calling him, too. His phone was off. I couldn't trace the signal," Leo said.

Nico turned to him. "You're good with tools?"

The latino looked down and nodded.

"There was blood on the ground, too," Piper added.

"It wasn't yours?"

She shook her head.

"The officers who showed up at the scene got samples," Reyna informed him.

He nodded. "Leo, Jason was your brother?"

Leo glanced at Piper, then looked back to the detectives. "Yeah. My mom adopted him when we were eleven. But he was my foster brother before that."

"And what about his real family?"

"I am his real family," Leo responded with more venom than Nico had thought the boy would be able to muster. "And so is my mom."

"His biological family, then."

"He didn't know."

"And he didn't care," Piper added. "Jason didn't want to know his family. They gave him up."

Nico nodded and looked down at the file that Reyna had placed in front of him. "He worked at McDonald's?"

Piper and Leo both nodded. "He didn't like it, but it payed," Piper said.

"Do either of you have jobs?" Nico asked, looking back up at them.

"I work in my mother's garage," Leo answered.

"And I work at Claire's." Piper wrinkled her nose.

"Did Jason have any enemies at work?" Reyna asked.

Leo gave a sad chuckle and Piper shook her head. "Jason didn't have enemies anywhere," she answered. "He was the nicest guy you've ever met."

"So you can't think of anyone who'd wanted to hurt him?" Nico folded his hands on the desk and leaned forward. This was starting to be painfully familiar. A boy who went missing for no reason, no suspects. Maybe it was a chain.

This time it was Leo who shook his head. "The only person who didn't like Jason was Mrs. Fall, his tenth grade English teacher, and that's because he compared Shakespeare to comic books."

"He was right, by the way," Piper added.

Reyna chuckled, and even Nico cracked a smile. He reached for another file on the desk and pulled out the photo in it. "Do you recognize this woman?" he asked, handing it to Piper.

She frowned. "She's the girl on TV, right? The one who's been missing for a few weeks?"

"But you've never met her? Never seen her?"

"No, sorry. Does she have something to do with Jason?"

Reyna took the picture out of their hands and said, "We're not sure." She looked up and smiled. "Thank you for coming in. We'll be sure to keep you updated."

The two teenagers stood up and shook hands with both detectives, then left, closing the door behind them.

"Do you think they're linked?" Reyna asked when Piper and Leo were gone.

"I think it's a good thing you brought them to talk to us," Nico answered, and closed the file on his desk.

*/*/*

Thalia woke to the sound of quiet crying. Her eyes had long since adjusted to the darkness, but she could still only see the boy's faint outline, if that. He had been unconscious when Thalia had fallen asleep.

"Hello?" she said into the darkness. Her voice was tired.

The crying stopped. "Hello?" the boy answered.

Thalia scooted towards him as fast as she could while tied up, ignoring her aching ribs and stinging skin. She felt around the concrete floor until she reached his hand, and grasped it in her own. "I'm Thalia," she said, trying to sound kind. It had been a while since she'd done so. "What's your name?"

The boy sniffed. "Jason," he answered. He was trying to sound strong, but his voice trembled.

"How old are you?"

"17." He wrapped his fingers around her hand like it was a lifeline. "What's happening? Why are we here?"

She shook her head. "I don't know."

There was a rustling sound, and in the nearly pitch black room, Thalia say him draw his knees to his chest. "Me and my girlfriend went out to dinner, and I spilled Mountain Dew on my shirt so we had to leave. I went out into the parking lot and Piper was lying on the ground. Then something hit me on the head."

Thalia nodded, even though he probablycouldn't see her. "I was walking home from work."

"How long have you been here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. A while, I think. I can't really tell."

"Do they let you out of here?"

Thalia paused. This poor kid was terrified. She couldn't tell him what they'd done to her. She didn't even know if they were going to do the same to him. "Sometimes," she answered, and left it at that. "What's your girlfriend like?"

He chuckled. "Her name's Piper. She's really funny, and she's kind of a dare-devil. We were best friends before we got together."

Thalia smiled. "I used to date my best friend."

"What happened?"

The smile faded. "It didn't work out." She squeezed his hand. "But I'm sure yours will."

"Do you still talk to him?"

She sighed. Why had she brought this up? She'd been thinking about Nico too much lately. "Not really. We went our separate ways after high school. But he's a police officer."

Jason didn't answer for a while. "Maybe he's the one who's looking for you," he said eventually.

She'd considered that possibility, in fact she'd hoped it was true. She wanted to apologize for what she'd said, what she'd accused him of. She knew he wouldn't cheat on her. He was too nice for that, too good a guy. She didn't know why she'd done it. But she hoped she would be able to tell him that she was sorry for it. Maybe she wouldn't get another chance, but he had to know she was sorry.

"Maybe," was all she said. She reached a hand up to pat his head in what she hoped was a motherly gesture. It must have worked because he leaned his head on her shoulder. He was a few inches taller than she was.

"When was the last time you slept?" she asked as she rested her cheek in his hair.

"When they knock me out," came the response. His words were slightly slurred, and Thalia knew he was about to pass out from exhaustion.

She chuckled softly. "That doesn't count. Go to sleep. I'll be right here."

"Thank you, Thalia," Jason said softly before closing his eyes. A second later his breathing evened out and she knew he was asleep.

Thalia sighed. She hadn't done anything. Whether she was there or not didn't make a difference. She couldn't protect him from Leader-Man and Baby Cakes and Rat. Not if they wanted to hurt him. They hadn't been feeding her nearly enough, she wasn't strong enough to fight them or to protect Jason. No matter how much she wanted to. Just a few minutes of talking to him and she already felt a bond with the boy.

"Don't thank me yet, kid," she whispered into the darkness.

I changed Jason's last name. He couldn't really have the last name Grace, it would be too obvious.

I've started the next chapter, but if it's not finished by next week I'm very sorry, it's Thanksgiving this week. And I have a huge family, and I have to spend every day with them. My grandmother's staying with us, she's stealing my room, which means I have to clean it. We have 24 people this year, at least. That's not all of my family, not even all of my mom's side. My dad's side doesn't come, I think it has something to do with my mom's family. They aren't the easiest people to be around. I love them, but they can be...interesting. And some people from my mom's side aren't coming because they don't like to travel over Thanksgiving weekend.

Actually, I complain about it, but Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without everyone there. And afterwords we all sit down at the table and play music. I play my Irish whistle and my uncles and my dad and my cousins play guitar and my mom and my aunts and my grandmother all sing, and sometimes they do harmonies. Even the little kids help, my three year old cousin has this egg that's like a maraca. It's so cute.

And my aunt makes the best fudge pie in the world. It's always runny, so we put it with vanilla ice cream and it's like hot fudge sauce and ice cream with pie crust. It's amazing.

I did write a one-shot for Thanksgiving. It's not what I was imagining at first, with Nico and Thalia and their kids. But I really like it. It's funny. It's not exactly romantic, but it has the potential to be. And of course, it's Thalico. I'll upload that tomorrow, the library's closed on Wednesday and Thursday.

So yeah! That's about it! Have a great Thanksgiving to all of you who do celebrate, and for those of you who don't, well, I'm sorry, you're missing out.

We should have a great Quote of the Week after Thanksgiving. My family always has a little bit to drink and they say some pretty funny stuff.

Quote of the Week: "There's a piece of brain on the floor. I'm picking it up with my toe." We were doing our Saturday School and my mom got this puzzle of the brain, and she dropped a piece of it. After she said that, my brother asked, "Is it squishy?"

Review and go read White Rose, and Something To Be Thankful For tomorrow!