A/N: OHMIGOSH I just wanted to thank everyone for the amazing positive feedback I got for the last chapter! I really wasn't sure about it but all of you were so supportive! I love you guys so much – hugs for everyone!

Chapter 11

Carter was lying on her stomach on the grassy top of the climbing wall, staring out over Long Island Sound. Angrily brushing away the tears that wouldn't stop rolling down her cheeks, she laid her head on her hands and closed her eyes, listening to the sound of the water. Her father was out there somewhere, she knew, but sometimes she wished she could meet him. Percy had told her about him, but it wasn't the same. Not really. She would never really know her father, just as she would never really know Nico. The tears started again, and she buried her face in the ground, crying silently. It was impossible for her to even pretend that his treatment of her hadn't hurt.

Hearing light footsteps behind her, Carter pretended to be asleep, hoping the intruder would go away.

"Carter," Nico's deep voice whispered, his hand touching her shoulder blade lightly. She tried to keep still, but his touch caused her to shiver involuntarily, and he instantly knew she wasn't asleep. Drat.

"What do you want?" she choked out. Carter turned to face him, and saw his eyes shutter up almost immediately when he saw her tear-stained face. She wiped her cheeks and turned away from him, watching the waves.

"I'm sorry," he breathed. When she didn't respond, he sat down next to her, ignoring the way she edged away from him a little. "I really am sorry,Carter," he repeated. She blushed at the way he said her name with so much regret and longing, but her curtain of hair thankfully hid that from him.

"You said you saw me making out with Drew," he continued in a low voice, "But I didn't intend to kiss her. She came up to me when I was leaving the forge and said she had a question about her new knife to ask me. She came towards me carrying one, and I thought she was just going to show it to me, and then she sort of grabbed me and kissed me before I could do anything about it."

"You have such quick reflexes," Carter whispered, trying to keep her voice steady, "So why couldn't you avoid her?"

"I wasn't paying much attention," he said. "And I felt bad about just shoving her away – I ended up shadow-traveling back to my cabin." He put his hand on her cheek and turned her face towards him gently. "The reason I wasn't paying attention to her was because I saw you standing at the outside of the arena, and you had this lost look on your face and you looked so beautiful." He studied her face, the high cheekbones, the reddening complexion, those large eyes that were lowered to the ground in embarrassment, and the lone tear that clung to one of her long eyelashes. Brushing it away, he leaned in. "I…I'm not really any good at this," he confessed, "But I want to give us a try. If you want to, that is, I won't force you or anything, but I mean I just –"

Carter's insides were instantly dancing when he told her she looked beautiful, and when he said in a roundabout, twisted and totally endearing way that he wanted to have a relationship with her, not even all the hurt he had caused her, inadvertently or not, could have changed her mind.

She placed a slender finger on his lips, silencing him. "That's a great idea," she whispered. "But there's a catch. There's something you should know first." Carter told him everything Aphrodite had told her, and she couldn't meet his eyes when she finished, positive he was going to change his mind about her. So when she heard his deep chuckle, she couldn't believe her ears.

Nico laughed softly, smiling his amazing smile. "You think that's enough to change my mind? Zeus goes around wanting to kill everyone – I don't even know if he likes his own kids very much. He's been after me for forever, but picking a fight with my father is usually not the best idea. And so what if we screw Olympus over a bit? Change can be good, and you can teach old god's new tricks. Percy proved that."

The way he looked at her made her melt inside – his eyes were so full of hope and love (even though he may not know it yet) that she snuggled into his broad, strong chest, pushing her face into his shirt and wrapping her arms around his slim waist. She inhaled his scent and smiled, feeling happier than she had in a long time as his arms wrapped around her small body. They sat together till the sunset, skipping dinner and barely talking, just enjoying the feeling of finally being together.

After eating with Nico in his cabin (she couldn't believe the food Nico had stored with him), Carter returned to her cabin and showered. She liked to air-dry her hair, and was sitting on the bed in pink sleep pants and a slightly short tank top when there was a knock on the door. Percy hadn't come in yet – he had been with Annabeth the last time she'd seen him, so Carter assumed it was him. But when she opened the door, she staggered backwards as someone with flaming red hair nearly knocked her over.

"Jessie?" Carter laughed, closing the door. "What's up?"

Apollo's daughter brushed her straight red hair away from her dark blue eyes (a stunning combination, in Lily's opinion), and grinned a grin reminiscent of her confident father. "Did he kiss you?"

"What?" Carter blinked, not understanding the other girl's question. "Who?"

Jessie plopped down on the nearest bunk, sighing contentedly at the comfort. "Nico, you idiot, who else? I'm assuming you said yes to him? 'Cause if not, I'll take him. And ohmygosh, these beds are so damn soft. Can I just stay here? Slumber party?"

Carter giggled. "Sure. We'll make Annabeth stay over too? I'll kick Percy out for tonight – he shouldn't get too upset."

"Fantastic! Annabeth makes wonderful popcorn. Do you guys have a TV?" She looked around the cabin. "What? Children of a Big Three and no humongous TV? What is this?"

"Well, I guess it would be nice if we had one, but…" Carter trailed off, staring at the wall above the seawater fountain that was gurgling away happily. The abalone had shifted, revealing a crazily big flat-screen TV. A cabinet had appeared in the corner, and when the girls opened it, they found practically every movie imaginable stored inside.

"AWESOME!" Jessie yelled into her friend's ear. "Can I trade you dads? This is amazing. And you didn't answer my questions. Did you say yes to Nico, and did he kiss you?"

Carter rolled her eyes. "Yes, I said yes, and no, he didn't kiss me. And how do you know?"

"What? Come on, dude. You both skipped dinner – you realize rumors are flying all over the place about you two, right? No one could fail to notice that you two were gone because there aren't very many people who eat at your tables. It was obvious. You'd better hope Percy isn't killing Nico right now. So tell me, what DID you guys do? Oh, and I know because I told him where you were. He was looking for you, and he knew we're friends, so he asked if I'd seen you, and I had, so I told him where to find you."

"Nothing! We just sat with each other for a while, and we had dinner in his cabin and watched that new Rom-Com movie on his TV. It's even bigger than this one," she smiled, gesturing toward the one her father had provided. Instantly, it grew a little bigger, as if Poseidon was miffed at being told he was second-best to Hades. Lily giggled. "And thank you. I owe you my boyfriend." She started laughing harder.

Jessie leaned forward, narrowing her midnight-blue eyes. "We're friends, right,Carter? So come on, you have to tell me more than – Oh, hi guys!"

Carter turned around, twisting a damp strand of hair around a finger and smiling as Percy and Annabeth entered. Their hands were intertwined, and Carter smirked as she realized Percy's lips were shimmery again – he really needed to tell Annabeth to wear a less shiny lip gloss.

She stole a glance at Jessie, and they were caught with a fit of giggles when each realized that the other had noticed too. Annabeth understood a few minutes later, and blushed, whispering something in Percy's ear.

"Shut up," he told the girls, hiding a smile as he wiped off the offending lip gloss with the back of his hand.

"Jackson, you can leave now," Jessie announced. "Annabeth's staying though."

"You can't kick me out of my bachelor pad," Percy asserted, hiding a grin.

"Funny," Carter remarked, curling up on a plushy sea-green armchair, "I thought this was my bachelorette pad. And we want to have a slumber party in here – me, Jessie, and Annabeth."

"So unless you want to listen to us comparing notes on our boyfriends, you should leave," Jessie said, examining the nail polish on her index finger.

Percy wrapped his arm around Annabeth, who cuddled into his side as they sat on the sofa. "Oh, I don't know," he mused. "It'd be interesting to hear what the Wise Girl thinks of me."

"Pleeeease, Percy?" Carter begged, giving him the oh-so-irresistible Bambi eyes she had perfected years ago.

He sighed and got up. "I'll go crash at Nico's, then. See you guys."

"Wish you were him,Carter ?" Jessie winked at her friend and pretended to cower as Percy glared at her before walking out the door. "Wait – I need clothes to sleep in. Can we drop by the Apollo cabin?"

"And Athena," Annabeth said. "I need sleep clothes too. Let's go."

Carter grabbed one of Percy's Under Armour clothing that fell down to the middle of her thighs, and the three of them went to Apollo's cabin first. Carter caught her breath when she got a good look at it. From the outside, it was made of nearly solid gold – with just enough "other stuff" mixed in, according to Jessie, to keep it solid. Inside was another story.

Each person had decorated the wall behind their bunk with pictures of favorite singers or bands. A huge poster of Apollo decorated the farthest wall. Bows and arrows were on display, as well as other projectiles – basketballs, soccer balls, footballs, and rocks for when they were in really bad moods. Several campers were strumming guitars from the tops of their bunks, and Will Solace was singing loudly from his upper bunk to the accompaniment of the guitars, a can of Coke in his hand. The girls were all congregated in small groups of threes or fours, giggling over jokes or YouTube videos. Music clashing with the guitars and Will was playing from the stereo system installed throughout the cabin. Annabeth was giggling silently at Apollo's children, but Carter was more preoccupied with the pictures of Nico that she found taped next to Jesse McCartney and David Archuleta behind many of the girls' beds.

"Okay, let's go," Jessie shouted over the cacophony, reappearing near her friends with a Forever 21 bag full of her sleepwear and other things. "Come ON, guys, before Will starts singing You Belong With Me. It's not fun." She dragged the other two out of the cabin.

Athena's cabin was much quieter. Smartboards were humming on the walls, and the silver curtains were closed against the moonlight. Malcolm and one of his brothers were arguing about battle strategies on the biggest Smartboard, scribbling all over it with illegible scrawls as they debated. Several other campers were kneeling around a large map of the camp, going over strategies for defense. Annabeth quickly gathered her stuff into a gray silk bag with an owl on it and skedaddled before she could be asked for guidance. She stuffed her silver laptop into the bag as well, earning eye-rolls from her friends.

Ten minutes later, they were leaning on the counters of the small kitchenette in the back of the cabin. Annabeth was in charge of popcorn and carter was making the hot chocolate (A/N:That's a sleepover combination I love!),so Jessie stared around idly, looking at the décor.

"Hey,Carter, can I look through those?" she asked, pointing at the photo albums Percy had stored near the fireplace.

"Yeah, just wait for a few minutes till this stuff is done – we'll go through them together. I haven't seen them yet either."

Curling up on the rug in front of the fire, they began flipping through Percy's photo albums. The first few were filled with pictures of him, Annabeth, and Grover. But the fourth had several pictures of a younger Percy and a younger Nico, both of them standing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, eating gelatos and waving at the camera.

"Aww, he was so cute! And look, he wasn't wearing black!" Jessie poked the photo-Nico's red, white, and green shirt with her finger. "So, tell me, what's he really like? None of us really know – he keeps to himself for some reason."

Annabeth blew on her hot chocolate and sipped some gingerly. "Isn't it obvious, Jessie? It's basic psychology – and not even that. The kid's smart. He knows that most people are downright scared of him because of who he is and what he can do, and that others just don't trust him because of his father. He hasn't even done anything wrong – in fact, he's only been helpful. He stays away from people because he doesn't want to be judged anymore. Percy says he's a really good guy if you just give him a chance, and I'm glad Carter's doing that." She smiled.

"He is a really sweet guy," Carter concurred. "He's really opinionated, though, and he knows exactly what he wants and how to get it."

"Like you!" Jessie squealed, and collapsed into a giggling fit. Annabeth sighed loudly.

"Come on, Annabeth," Jessie said. "You don't need intelligent company every two minutes. Even Percy isn't that smart, but you put up with him, don't you?"

"Yeah, but he's a good kisser," Annabeth said with a straight face, and then joined the laughter.

"Hey, do you guys know anything about Nico's sister?" Jessie asked suddenly, sobering up.

"He has a sister?" Carter asked, surprised.

"I think so," Jessie replied. "I heard one of the Ares kids muttering something about her and some Hunters a few days ago, but I wasn't sure who to talk to about it."

"Had," Annabeth said quietly, her face serious. "She was…two years older than him, I think. Her name was Bianca – Bianca di Angelo. She was really sweet. She'd been taking care of him for years; their mother died when they were very young. Zeus killed her, but he'd been aiming for the children. Hades managed to protect them, but he was too slow to save their mother. Bianca died years ago – they were on a quest, and she gave her life for her friends. They never even found her body." She sighed. "Percy told me all of this, and I'd really appreciate it if you guys don't spread it around. But it's pretty much why Nico's so withdrawn – he's basically lost his entire family over the years. It cut him up for a while, and Percy felt really guilty, because he'd promised to take care of her."

Carter stared at the rug, playing with the tassels absentmindedly. Poor Nico. No wonder he was so hesitant to really get close to people – he'd lost everyone he'd actually loved.

"Man, that sucks. I feel real bad, not that it was my fault or anything, but, Ya know? I should stop talking ," Jessie whispered.

Annabeth nodded. "I really don't know how he's managed to be such a good person in spite of it all. With the powers he has, he could probably kill all of us in our sleep if he wanted to."

"I don't think he needs those death-god abilities to do it," Jessie grinned suddenly. "Carter, have you checked his muscles out yet? He's built like a god." She sighed, adding whipped cream to her third mug of hot chocolate and staring at it absently.

Carter giggled. "They're not huge until he flexes, but when he does – wow, he's got some big guns there."

"Okay, this isn't getting me anywhere!" Jessie whined. "I need details! Minute stuff! Does he have any tattoos? How big are his hands? What color is his hair in the light? I mean, come on!"

Annabeth rubbed her eyes. "Guys, I'm dead tired. Can we just go to bed?"

"No WAY." Jessie jumped up and opened the freezer. She grabbed three cartons of ice cream and sat back down with spoons.

"I call the chocolate," she said.

"I'm not that hungry," Carter announced.

"Fine with me," Annabeth smiled, opening the cookie dough carton. "Mmm, I love this stuff." She stretched out on the floor.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, and then Carter spoke up. "Nico's worried about why the gods aren't telling us anything," she said. "I mean, whatever we know has been told to us when it shouldn't have been – remember Chiron saying he shouldn't be telling us about Kronos freezing our ages?"

"Yes," Annabeth said, laying her spoon in the box of ice cream. "I agree with him. Something is badly wrong. It's like they're scared of something…but what? Kronos shouldn't have the energy to reform, so unless…" She trailed off, a worried look in her eyes. "Guys, I need to check something." She pulled out her laptop, and for once, Jessie didn't object.

Mumbling to herself in ancient Greek, Annabeth typed in a few words, and bit her lip. "Oh no. Damn, I didn't think that…Guys, we have a problem."

"Is that an understatement?" Jessie asked, sucking her spoon. "Great," she muttered, when Annabeth didn't answer. "What do we do now? Tell Chiron."

"No," Annabeth said. "We aren't going to tell him anything until we know everything. And right now, we don't. So this is what we're going to do. Carter, will you run down to Cabin Thirteen and bring Percy and Nico over here? I'm going to find Thalia. Don't pull faces,Carter, she's smart, powerful, and she'll be good to have around when we plan our strategy. And then we're going to figure out exactly what's going on and what we need to do to deal with it."

"Okay," Carter Said. " Sliding her feet into a pair of Nike shoes, she ran out the door. Annabeth didn't look happy at all as she stood up to find Thalia in Cabin Eight. This couldn't be good.

A/N: So, another chapter is uppp. Please review! I love to hear from you guys, it always makes me happy to see what you have to say. Thanks everyone and see you next chapter!