Chapter 11 – detour

Artemis kept his eyes locked onto the horizon. With every second that passed the nausea in his stomach intensified. He had always hated flying, and boats, now he was aboard something that combined the two, but, mostly he was scared to go home. His family had been through so much over the last few years. His going missing in limbo for 3 years had opened a void he had not been able to rebuild. The more he thought about it he couldn't go home. People knew he had died, people had seen him, people had put his body in the ground, how could he explain that. He flopped down on the deck, his rolling in time with the ship.

Hazel came up on deck, chewing her lip as she walked over to Artemis. He appeared to be meditating. She reminded her a lot on Nico the more time she spent with him. She rested a hand on his shoulder and his head snapped up. He looked drawn and pale, his dark eyes were nearly as captivating as Pipers multi coloured eyes.

"I know you want to get home, but home has called us. We have to make a detour to Camp Half Blood first, somethings come up. I'm sorry."

She felt his shoulders sag under her touch. She felt awful for him. Ireland was only 5 hours away and now they were going to head in the completely opposite direction.

Artemis stood, leaning forward over the side of the flying ship, secretly he felt relieved, now he had some more time to plan what he was going to say, or what he was going to do.

"I promised you help so if you need to go there first then go. You are taking me home, that is enough."

Hazel squeezed his shoulder.

"You should eat; the rec room is second door on your right. Just come along when you're ready. We will be landing in about 3 hours."

Artemis nodded, listening to Hazel's retreating footsteps down the galley. Thinking about it, this wasn't the worst thing he had ever flown in, at least it had room to move and didn't subject the passenger to cheek rippling G-Force. As he looked over the side again he saw they were passing over a city, a billboard caught his eye, 8th of October. That couldn't have been right, he'd only been in the underworld 7 days but according to the board he had been missing 3 months. He turned on his heal and ran after Hazel. He burst into the rec room, everyone was there, eating and chatting, they all turned to stare.

"What's the date?" He demanded. His eyes staring wildly at the people around the table.

"Please," he repeated, "What date is it?"

They looked at each other having a silent conversation, finally Jason spoke up.

"October the 8th."

Artemis' stomach dropped to his feet. He had been missing 3 months. He rubbed his face forcing out his next question.

"What year?"

"2013."

Artemis' head swam.

"I've been gone over a year!"

The others around the table looked at each other unsure of what to do or say to help. Jason spoke up.

"Look, I'm really sorry. I know you need to get home, but the frank thing is, if we don't go to camp first, there might not even be a home anywhere."

"I don't even think I can go home. A year, people saw me die, I can't go back, not this time. I can't put them through that."

"Look, most of us here have no living family. There is always a home with us, at camp, if there is a camp after this."

"Wow Jason," said Leo raising his eyebrows, "I think your dads rubbing off on you."

He ducked away giggling as Jason swatted him.

Aretmis smiled sadly, they reminded him of Foaly and Julius Root.

He wondered what it would be like. Living with these people, a complete fresh start without knowing anyone. Start his life from scratch away from fairies, away from friends away from family. He knew it would be easier on them, just to forget him over time, remember odd memories and adventures and laugh about them occasionally. He knew it was selfish of him to want to go back home, he knew it would hurt everyone he cared about, but he could not imagine not ever seeing them again. Although, if what Jason said was true, he might not have to worry about that too much longer. He let the conversations wash over him, plans and schemes, routes and flight patterns. He remembered when these words used to mean so much to him. He leant against the wall closing his eyes, pressing the pads of his thumb and forefinger together. Piper took his arm.

"Come on, you need to rest." She said, leading him to his cabin. "I'll wake you when were there."

Artmeis nodded, the motion of the boat lulling him to sleep.

"Thank you." He mumbled to Piper as she left the cabin.

"Your welcome, now get some rest."

Artemis closed his eyes and dreamed of home.