Chapter 9

Reyna P.O.V

She ran and jumped on Festus. Her heart was beating fast as she climbed the metallic beast. It was

"Go!" She yelled at the dragon as she held on to Leo. The Dragon did not wait as he shot straight in the air with a new gentleness. Reyna then proceeded to take off his shirt to get a better look at what had happened. Clearing her eyes of tears she pulled of his blood stained shirt. She saw the wound immediately it was a bullet wound on his shoulder. Taking the shirt she held it over the wound on both sides making sure to apply hard pressure on his shoulder. She held it there for a quite some time as the dusk turned to dark. She looked down to see a patch of illuminated ground below her. Festus released a quick creek before plummeting down wards. She held on, making sure Leo did not fall off. They landed in the spot that they had left from that morning. She saw a group of demigods appear around her. John must have beaten them to camp and alerted them that they would need a clear area and a medic team ready. A blond boy stepped forward and by the way he was dressed she could tell he was a medic.
"My name is Will are you hurt?" He asked. She shook her head no and looked down to the

"Leo has a bullet wound to his shoulder. I have been applying pressure to the wound" Reyna said. Will waved over 4 campers, two with a stretcher in their hands. Two of them lowered Leo on to the stretcher and carried him toward the medical tent. Reyna watched as he was carried away.

"Hey come on lets go get you cleaned up" a girl who was a part of the Apollo cabin told her.

Leo P.O.V

Leo felt him self wake up. He tried to open his eyes but the light in the room was too much. After sometime he was able to open his eyes a little surprised by his surroundings. Leo saw a white tarp and a couple of other beds. A few had campers on them mostly unconscious with varying problems. Beside him was a table with his belt on it. Looking down he was changed into typical patiants wear but with out a shirt.

"Hi, how are you feeling?" a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes asked. He went to speak but his throat was dry and raspy.

"Fine, could I get some water?" He asked she nodded and left for a few seconds. She came back with a glass of water and lifted to it his to his mouth. He took a sip and thanked her.

"Now you should stay in bed for at least 2 days and then take it easy for about a while." She told him with a smile. She put the glass down on the table as she started to walk away. "Your shoulder was hit by a bullet that went through and through. It did not hit bone but you should still stay in bed. If you need me just holler."

Leo smiled as she walked away. He then reached over with his good arm get his belt before something stopped him.

"Don't you dare move" a girl said behind him. Turning around he saw Piper walking down the tent. She didn't have to use charmspeak to get him to stop. "You are going to sit into that bed and heal up"

"Piper I am fine and I wasn't planning on leaving" Leo said. It was a sort of half lie if you count him leaving camp again.
"You are not fine. You took a bullet to the shoulder and lost a lot of blood" Piper said a bit softer. She came up to the bed to get a better look at the wound. "Oh, Leo what happened to you?"

"You just said so yourself didn't you? I got shot." Leo replied. Piper just shook her head and starred at his torso.

"Leo you have so many scars" Piper said. With that he realized his mistake. With a year of mercenary work you get injured. He froze for a few seconds thinking of his words carefully.

"Piper I will tell you when I am ready." Leo decided looking her straight in the eyes. She nodded and looked away for a while.

"I hate to leave but there is a cabin leader meeting and I have to go. Take it easy and don't even think of escaping." Piper said.

"ME? No, I always follow the rules" Leo said with his grin trying to take her thoughts off of his serious tone. The sides of her mouth tweaked up. She left the tent and Leo watched as some one else came in after her.
"Hey buddy, how is the shoulder?" John asked looking genuinely concerned. Leo looked at him with a smile and John's concern lifted.

"When has a bullet ever stopped me?" Leo asked. He had only been shot 2 times before. Not many of the monsters carry handguns making it quite a rare occurrence. He had been lucky to only have one bone breaking Injure on his travels. "Now do you have my clothes?"

John knew that Leo would want to get out and had his clothes already with him. So John handed the clothes over and Leo put them on being carful because of his injured shoulder.
"Hey nurse, thank you but I will be going now. I appreciate your help and advice," Leo yelled to the nurse who was reading a book out side the tent. Leo then walked to the exit fully dressed with his tool belt around his waist. The nurse tried to stop him but he said that he was fine and in the hands of a medical scholar. She looked at Jack and debated if he looked like some one with a medical background. She shrugged and let them go. Leo could not help but laugh as they walked away. "Hey could you tell Piper that I will be at the Lake? I don't want her to flip her shit"

"Uh, sure" John said as he headed off to the big house. Leo saw Jane start to follow john up as he walked. How does he do it?

Leo walked toward the lake the canoe lake and let out a whistle. Festus came swooping over the trees near the lake attracting the attention of a few people beside and swimmers in the lake. Festus made a soft landing aware of all the people around. He landed a little ways away from the water.

"Hey buddy have you been good while I was out?" Leo asked. Festus made a few clicks and squeaks in response. Leo held his hand out and caressed the dragon's metal head. He led the dragon closer to the water, causing quite a few demigods to run away. Looking at the bloodstains on the neck, head and a few other places. Realizing they might be running away because he now looked like a monster from hell. Soon it was just he and Festus on the beach. The water was beautiful and the weather was perfect like always. Pulling out a sponge he went down and dipped it into the cool water.

"Look at you. No one wanted to clean you up?" Leo said as he started to wash him down with his trusty stain remover.

"You are up early" He heard a familiar voice say to him. Turning around he saw Reyna wearing her typical predator get up only with out armor. "You want help?"

"From you? Mi Riena you are always welcome." Leo said causing her to roll her eyes. He pulled out a second sponge and handed it to her. They felt a little uneasy knowing that they were washing Leo's blood off of the dragon.

"Thanks for helping me back there I know it probably wasn't the most enjoyable thing you could have been doing" Leo said. They were almost finished washing off the blood.

"Leo, I wanted to be there to help, but at the same time you need to take care of your self. I know that that is probably the first time you have been seriously hurt and probably not the last. Please for my sake, be safe I don't want to lose you." Reyna finished leaving very confused Leo. He could not figure out why she was talking like that.

"Well I should probably be going I have to sign off on some…" She said. She walked away leaving him to his thoughts. Pulling out a watch from his tool belt he checked the time. HE knew he was hungry but still didn't know if he was supposed to go to the pavilion or if he was supposed to make food at bunker nine. He decided to visit the pavilion and just act like he was just any other camper, maybe even sit at the table of the 7. He walked away from a sleeping Festus and headed to the Pavilion. It smelled like numerous assortments of food and different meals. Walking in he quickly got his food and decided that he would sit at the table for seven. He decided he wanted a taco soup dish that his mom had made him. He looked up a couple of time to get a feel for his surroundings. He saw people giving him a couple of "covert" glances (some familiar and most not). Some were obviously looking at hi face meaning that they knew him or of him, while some were looking at his arm still in a sling. He watched as more people filed in till six familiar faces came in.
"What are you doing here aren't you supposed to be resting?" Percy said, as he was the first to notice Leo sitting down at the table. Leo sat back putting on a grin.

"This place has much better food and the chairs are better on the back" Leo said back in reply. Piper looked over to him and she had this scary look on her face.

"I thought I told you to stay in that bed" Piper said with a calmer voice than Leo expected. Piper sounded like a disappointed mother and Leo gave her an apologetic face.

"A man can't just sit around and not to mention Festus was still covered in my blood. I can't just leave him like that can I?" Leo questioned. He realized that motioning his blood stopped the

"Shitty excuse man" Percy said in a serious tone. After Percy said this the group went silent waiting for some one to speak up.

"Leo where were you for the past year" Jason spoke up startling the others.

Leo could tell that they all wanted to ask him what he had been doing the night before. He remembered his brief conversation with piper earlier today. He thought he might as well just tell them. It would save him the head ach of having answer their questions all the time. The only reason he hasn't told them was to prevent confusion and further questioning and seeing how things were going he could obviously see that this was not very effective.

"I have been working as a proud business owner of my very own mercenary group. I started it after I met John and we have been doing pretty good." Leo said looking at the demigod's faces to see how they were going to react. Piper, Hazel and Frank seemed shocked, Percy and Annabeth seemed like they had guessed something along those lines and Jason seemed a little off.
"So you kill people for money" Hazel said looking in shock. Leo calmly shook his head and looked at her.

"No I kill monster or gain information for the gods. I also don't kill anything that didn't attack or do something deserving death. John and I are the nicest mercenaries that you will ever meet." Leo said with an encouraging smile. Although his line of work was gritty and rough Leo made sure that his moral compass and personality stayed the same. His mother loved his lighthearted personality and he wanted to keep it that way. Hazel pause to review what Leo had sayed. In the end she lightened up and she smiled back at him.

"So that's why you were so useful when you showed up for battle." Annabeth observed. She must had seen him at the battle he had been quite proficient at helping them.

"Leo!" John yelled. "Get your ass out here. NOW!"

Hey guys I just wanted to thank all of you who review and that I do read them. I am trying to make the chapters at lead 2000 words in length. I feel that I am ready to create more action and maybe more romance. I don't know. I have an idea on where to take it but until then thank you all. Kia Kaha.