AN: Okay guys, you can call me a sell-out if you'd like, because this chapter is the epitome of pandering to the base.

13. Noah's Heart Is Stollen

During the drive back to Katie's house, I learned something interesting about Noah. He's not a ladies man, the poor guy. I could tell immediately that he had crush on Morgan by the way he was blushing and how he kept cutting his eyes at her. And when he attempted to introduce himself, well, it embarrassed even me. It came out as total word vomit, and I'm not even sure she caught his first name in that jumbled mess of words that came out of his mouth. It kind of surprised me that he had trouble talking to girls. He seemed so composed around everyone at camp, but get him near a girl he's attracted to and he turned into a babbling idiot, go figure.

When we got to the house, Katie sent Noah and me into the living room with the pizzas and with Miles while she, Morgan, and Lexie gathered plates and drinks. I sat Miles on the floor with his building blocks where he entertained himself, and Noah sat the pizzas on the coffee table.

"So, um…what do you think of Morgan?" Noah asked me.

"Contrary comes to mind."

He looked hurt, "How can you say that? She's sweet and friendly and interesting and beautiful…"

I raised an eyebrow, "And she didn't hit you three times, either. And how can you already be waxing poetic about her? You just met her."

"You think I like her," he guessed. "I mean, like her, like her."

"It's pretty obvious, Noah."

"It is?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

The girls joined us in the living room, and we all got ourselves a plate of pizza and a glass of sweet tea. We sat in the living room while we ate and told Katie what happened at the park.

"So, Morgan, you've seen this Python before?" her mother asked.

"Only in dreams," she answered. "Today was the first time I've seen him in the flesh."

"How long have you known that you're supposed to go to camp to be the Oracle?"

Morgan shrugged, "I don't know…a couple years, I guess."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Katie asked.

"'Cause you and Dad are always goin' on about how lucky I am to be mortal and how dangerous bein' a camper is and how at least one of your kids is normal. I knew it'd just break your heart."

"Oh, sweetie," her mother sighed.

I heard the front door slam and a man's voice call out, "Morgan! Morgan!"

"In here, Daddy," she said as she stood up from the sofa and met her father as he came into the living room.

"Morgan," he said with relief as he wrapped his arms around his daughter. "I was so worried."

"I'm okay," she reassured him.

He took her cheeks in his hands, "Don't you ever scare me like that again."

She sighed, "Yeah, well, that's an impossibility, now."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, then scanned the living room to see us all sitting around eating pizza. "Are these the demigods that are stirring up trouble?"

"Calm down, Travis," Katie said to her husband. "They were sent here on a quest. They're here to help."

Morgan's father walked straight up to me. He had a pretty bad attempt at a scowl on his face. He had sharp, elfish looking features that weren't really conducive to scowling. "You Percy Jackson's boy?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," I nodded.

"Are you here to take my daughter to Camp Half-Blood?"

"Yes, sir."

His scowl turned into a smirk, which he wore well, "Well, I guess there's worse campers to trust. If you're anything like your parents, I figure Morgan's in good hands." He held out his hand and introduced himself, "Travis Stoll."

Stoll…I think I know that name. I wiped the pepperoni grease off my hand onto my jeans before shaking his hand, "CJ."

"Wait a second," Noah said. "You're Travis Stoll? The Travis Stoll? Of the famous Stoll Brothers from cabin eleven?" That's where I knew that name from.

Travis grinned and turned to his daughter, "See, I told you I'm legendary."

Morgan rolled her eyes, "You and Uncle Connor are notorious, not legendary."

Travis turned back to Noah, "I can tell you're not a son of Hermes, but do you stay in cabin eleven?"

Noah nodded, "Yes, sir. I don't have a cabin of my own."

"Well, in that case, you're always welcome in the Hermes cabin. Have my brothers and sisters been treating you right?"

"Yes, sir, they're very nice, not terribly trustworthy, but nice." I'd noticed that the Hermes kids were just about the only campers who didn't treat Noah like an outsider.

"Who's your godly parent, Noah?" Katie asked.

He hesitated, "…Prometheus."

Silence.

"Well…um…" Travis stammered. "I saw Prometheus once…from a distance…a long time ago. CJ, your dad met him. He and Thalia actually talked to him."

"I remember my mom telling me Prometheus came to them under a flag of truce during the Titan War," Lexie added.

Travis turned to Lexie, "And who's your mom?"

"Thalia. I'm Lexie, Lexie Grace."

He looked a little shocked, "You're kidding me, right?"

Lexie shook her head.

Travis looked at her closer, "Well, I'll be damned. Out of all the demigods I've known, Thalia would be the last I ever expected to have a kid."

"Travis!" Katie scoffed.

"What?" he shrugged. "She was a Hunter of Artemis."

"Be nice," Katie demanded of her husband.

Lexie smiled, "It's okay. I wasn't exactly planned, anyway. Dad says I was their happy accident."

Too much information…though, it does explain a lot. Thalia's a great mom, I do remember that from when they lived in New York, but she was such a hardcore monster slayer that motherhood just seemed a little odd for her.

Travis ran his hand over Morgan's hair and grinned, "We know all about happy accidents. We have one of those of our own."

"Daddy!" Morgan gasped and elbowed her father in the gut.

We finished eating our pizza and sat around the living room just talking for hours. Katie and Travis told us stories of the old days back at camp, stories that I'd never heard from my parents. Morgan told us about herself. She'd be a sophomore at her high school next year, and she played softball, which perked my interest; if she could play ball, then maybe she wasn't so bad. I liked listening to her talk, too. Unlike her parents, who aren't originally from Georgia, she had a thick country accent; she beautifully butchered the English language.

Lexie, Noah, and I told them about my quest and our trip down here to find Morgan. We also told them about the two teens that followed us from New York. When I mentioned them, Morgan seemed to tense, and she suddenly got really quiet. I got the feeling maybe she had an idea who they were. She did mention she has a lot of dreams of a lot of things that don't really make sense out of context, and I wondered if maybe I just explained one of her dreams.

"It's getting late, guys," Katie said. "It's time for showers and bed."

"Can't we stay up a little longer?" Morgan complained.

"If you stay up any later, I won't be able to get your butt out of bed in the morning, and you four have a bus to catch at ten." Katie had called the bus station and booked us on the 10 a.m. bus to Atlanta where we'd get back on the Amtrak.

"Oh, alright."

"Lexie, honey," Katie said. "You can sleep in Marcus' room. He's at his uncle Connor's tonight. And CJ, you and Noah can sleep on the sofas. I'll get you boys some pillows and blankets."

After a hot shower, I got settled on one of the sofas in the living room. I was pretty tired and was looking forward to a good night's sleep. Now that we'd found Morgan, I assumed the dreams would stop. However, that was not the case.

Morgan and I were sitting in wooden armchairs in what looked like an office. The office had large picture windows allowing me to see out into what appeared to be a large warehouse full of shipping containers. The sign on the wall read: Sparta Trucking Co. I looked around for Noah and Lexie, but they weren't in the office, and I really couldn't see much out in the warehouse because of all the containers.

The doorknob turned on the office door, and a person I'd never seen before walked in. He was tall, well over six feet, with a fairly muscular build. He had short, dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes. His skin was tanned to a crisp, and his tan line where he'd been wearing sunglasses gave him the raccoon eyes. The weird thing, though…the guy was just a kid. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than me, eighteen at oldest.

He sat down behind the desk there in the office and looked intently at me and Morgan. "So," he said. "Are you two ready to join our cause?"

My eyes shot open. The living room was dark, and I looked over at the clock. It was 3:15 a.m. I looked over at the other sofa to see Noah sound asleep. I lied there wide awake thinking about my newest dream. Who was this guy, and what cause was he talking about? If this dream was anything like the others, I could count on finding out soon enough.

I don't remember falling back to sleep, but I woke to the smell of pancakes. I rubbed my eyes and noticed Noah was no longer on the other sofa. If I were to take a guess, I'd say he was probably in the kitchen where the food was. The guy eats like a horse.

I rolled off the couch and stretched before neatly folding the blanket I'd slept on and placing it on one end of the sofa with the pillow. I made my way into the kitchen to find Noah helping Katie cook pancakes, and Miles sitting in his highchair with Lexie feeding him tiny bites of syrup covered pancakes.

"Well, good morning, sunshine," Lexie grinned when she saw me. "You've got the bed-head this morning."

I patted down my unruly hair, "Doesn't surprise me."

Katie looked at me, "Looks like you could use a cup of coffee. There's a full pot over here. Cups are in the cabinet."

Oh, thank the gods. I poured myself a cup, then sat at the breakfast bar while I waited for a stack of pancakes. It wasn't long before Morgan staggered into the kitchen, and well, I only thought my bed-head was bad. Her curly, brown hair looked like a fro, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

Noah turned from the stove to hand me a plate of pancakes and saw her. He nearly dropped the plate, and if I hadn't been paying attention and caught it, it likely would've hit the floor.

"G-good morning," he said to her.

"Coffee," she yawned.

"Oh, I-I'll get it for you," Noah said, then rifled through the cabinet for a cup.

Morgan sat down at the breakfast bar beside me and glared, "What are you lookin' at?"

I held up my hands in surrender, "Nothing."

She picked up a fork and took a bite of pancakes off my plate. "Hey," I said. "Get your own."

Noah sat a cup of coffee in front of Morgan, and she smiled, "Thanks, Noah."

"You're-you're welcome."

"Noah, will you get Morgan some pancakes so she'll stop eating mine?"

He laughed, "Sure thing."

We finished our breakfast, cleaned up, and changed clothes while Morgan packed a bag and said goodbye to her dad and baby brother. I empathized with her situation. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I said goodbye to my family.

"Come on, kids," Katie said. "We've got to get you to the bus station."

We all climbed into her SUV, and Travis stood at the front door of the house waving goodbye to us with one hand and holding his son in the other. When we pulled out of the drive, Morgan looked back at her home, and I knew what she was thinking: will I ever be back?

We arrived at the bus station about fifteen minutes before its departure. We got our tickets and waited in line to board. As we waited, Morgan and Katie said their goodbyes.

"I love you, Morgan," Katie said as she wrapped her arms around her daughter.

"I love you too, Mom, and I'll miss y'all."

"We'll miss you, too." Katie wiped a tear from her face, "Stay safe and stay out of trouble."

Morgan grinned, "I'll try."

It was time for us to board when Katie said to us, "Have a safe trip to camp, guys, and IM me when you get there."

"Thanks for everything, Katie," I said.

She looked into my eyes, "Just look after her for me, will you?"

I nodded, "Of course."

"Mom, we've gotta go," Morgan said when she reached the bus door. "I'll see ya in a couple months."

"Bye, sweetie."

"Bye, Mom."

We took our seats toward the rear of the bus; Noah and I were seated on the right side of the bus and Lexie and Morgan were across the aisle from us. In only a few short minutes, we were on the road to Atlanta. The bus was fairly crowded, but not packed like the other one. I scanned the passengers as best I could. I didn't want us to run into a situation like we had on our last bus ride. Everything seemed normal, but just because it seemed that way, didn't mean it was…and it wasn't. We'd been on the road for less than an hour, and I was just beginning to relax when all hell broke loose.