Connor opened the door with a yell.

"Who's—oh it's you. Did you—?" But he stopped abruptly again when he saw her messy hair and the condition her clothes were in. "Woah. Did multiple people want to use the computer?"

"Don't ask," She breathed, her chest heaving up and down. "Just let me through." And without waiting for him to stand aside and let her in she shoved her way through and locked herself in the bathroom. A moment later there was banging and Andrew's voice echoed into the room.

"You go!" She yelled. "You go downstairs and look up the bakery!" She was furious for reasons she didn't quite understand. Why would they send her downstairs? Why couldn't one of them have gone?

"Can't you just tell us what happened?" He yelled back.

"Did you get into a fight with someone who wanted to use the computer before you?" Connor asked. "Because it looks like you lost, and I can't say I'm not disappointed."

"I was attacked, okay?" She was as annoyed in herself as she was with him for not leaving her alone. "A fury attacked me!"

"A fury?" This time Connor's voice sounded, quieter but still audible. "Why would a fury want the computer?"

"It was disguised as a girl." She whispered, momentarily forgetting that they couldn't hear her, "It pressed all the buttons…"

Connor banged on the door. "Come on! open up or I will knock this door down,"

Eirene could practically hear Andrew rolling his eyes. "Not very likely," He scoffed.

"Good point. Open up or I'll use Andrew to knock this door down!"

"I still doubt that."

"Do you? Would you like me to prove it by bashing your thick-ass head against this door?"

"You could barely bash your sword against a Manticore, let alone reach my head."

"You've got to be kidding me!" She couldn't believe it. They were arguing, arguing! After she'd just told them a fury had come after her and she'd fought it off by herself. Why did it seem like all she'd do was fight, and all they'd do was argue with each other? Especially Andrew, he was so whiny. She was holding her hands against her ears to try and block them out, but they were so much louder than she thought. The only reason they're arguing is because you locked yourself in…maybe if you just unlock the door…So she unlocked the door and swung it open.

Connor immediately pounced on her with a hug, but drew away just as quickly. "Oh yuck, what's on your clothes?"

"I don't know… a little girl exploded on me!"

She was given the oddest of looks by him. "You…You may want to reword that or—Ow! Ow, what the hell! ow!" He was jumping and batting away at his skin that looked like it was peeling off—No—burning off. The atmosphere immediately changed, everyone hurrying to do something, with Andrew rushing into the bathroom and Connor still batting away at his skin when he decided to stop drop and roll, which quieted down the flames. Eirene was crouching down on the floor muttering 'sorry sorry sorry!' as Andrew came back into the room, and threw a bucket full of water right at the already extinguished Connor…and missed, hitting Eirene instead.

"Well, that was a complete bust." Andrew threw the bucket aside and went to crouch at her side. "Sorry, you alright love?"

"Um, excuse you Casanova? You mind directing your worry over here; I WAS JUST ON FIRE."

Eirene squeezed the water out of her hair and shifted away from Andrew to kneel at Connor's side. "I'm sorry! It was my fault, wasn't it?" She reached for his arm but drew back when he winced. "The blood of the furies, I didn't know they burned human skin…"

"They shouldn't, most times furies don't even have blood." Andrew was helping lift Connor up and draping him against the bed frame. He lifted his arms and placed pillows below them. "This is worrying…"

They were raw skin lesions on various parts of his chest and arms, all the parts that had touched Eirene when he'd hugged her. She gazed down at him and saw the pain on his face, and felt guilt overwhelm her. An image of Connor being thrown against a pole during the Manticore attack made a pit form in the bottom of her stomach. It's only been a day and he's been hurt twice.

"I'm sorry!" She blurted out, and Connor let out a soft laugh.

"It's not your fault; I'm just a hugger." There was sweat trickling down his face and his eyes were squinting. "Can someone get me some ambrosia?"

Why didn't I think of that sooner? As she was grabbing his bag Andrew stopped her and shook his head. "He can't have any, not so soon. He had some earlier, remember?"

She didn't understand. "So?"

"If demigods have too much ambrosia, they die. Connor just had some earlier—"

A faint image of Annabeth telling her the same thing popped in her mind. "But that was hours ago!"

"We still can't risk it. Don't look at me like that; I'm trying to think for the future here. At this pace, we'll all need ambrosia later today, and Connor can't have three in one day. He's going to have to manually heal."

"Great," Connor groaned. Andrew inspected his burns and reached into his bag for water and bandaging.

"We have a third degree burn on our hands. I already elevated the wounded areas…now we need to get some wet towels…"

Eirene didn't even wait for the order, she rush into the bathroom and poured water into a bucket, dumped towels of different sizes in it, and brought it back to Andrew. He placed the towels on Connor's burn marks, trying to cool them down.

The longer she looked at Connor, the worse he seemed to appear. It looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes open and he was still sweating. She couldn't help but feel responsible, and she reached over to grip his hand. His response was immediate, and he tightened the hold.

"Connor…"

"Don't. It's not your fault…" He winced as Andrew removed the towels. "Plus at least when I return I'll have some battle scars to show off; as long as you don't mind me taking credit for killing a fury."

She shook her head and let a small smile sneak through. He's always making jokes about everything, even when…even when he's in situations like this. He doesn't deserve this; he doesn't deserve pain; permanent scars… and then idea flashed through her mind: Heal him. Heal him… the idea didn't make her feel any better. It didn't appear like a light bulb in her head, and she knew if she applied the idea it may cause more trouble than it solves. But… every time she looked at his face and saw the pain in it, she couldn't stand it. She wouldn't forgive herself if he got scars and she knew she could have done something to prevent it and didn't. Her only hesitation was that Zeus had told her to use it sparingly.

He'd told her that every time she healed someone, she was taking a little bit away from her life span, her life force and putting that into someone else. So if she healed Connor, he would live a year longer than he should. And she would die a year younger than she should. But does that matter? Do I really want to live any longer in the first place?

"Eirene?"

I have a feeling after this quest is over I'll be back to running, never staying still, do I want—

"Eirene! Your hand, it's crushing mine!"

"Sorry!" she loosened her grip, but didn't let go.

"You seem to be in more pain than I am…"

"Don't say that, that can't be true!"

Andrew was applying Aloe Vera to Connor's burns and then started wrapping his arms with bandages. "We'll have to replace them every few hours…" He paused, stared at Connor's tattered and burnt shirt and sighed, turning his gaze to Eirene. "I'll leave the rest to you, I'm going downstairs to scope out the area and make sure it's monster free."

She didn't pick up on what Andrew meant at first by 'leaving the rest to her' until she too looked at Connor's shirt and understood. She'd have to take off his shirt and apply the Aloe Vera herself, and then wrap it. When the door closed, there was an awkward silence.

"You don't have to do that, I can—"

"No! It's fine, just…sit up." She helped him lift his head up and repositioned his pillow as he sat up, wincing. His shirt was pretty much in runes, and she figured it would be useless to try and get it over his head, so she ripped it off him. She would be crimson in te face if she wasn't appalled by the sight of his wounds and open-bleeding sores on his bare chest. He was toned and defined with a hard stomach but his physique was outshined by the burnt marks staring Eirene in the face, making her feel guiltier and guiltier. Applying Aloe Vera, she didn't even know how to properly do that and feared that she may mess up or not get enough on one area and too much on the next. And then there was that thought, the forbidden thought creeping in the back of her mind…

Connor hadn't taken his eyes off her worried expression. "Eirene, if this is too much for you or something its fine." His tone was a bit humorous, he found it a bit cute how she looked so flustered at the image of his naked chest.

She shook her head and took Connor's hands again. "It's just…Connor, can you look at me?"

His gaze shifted to their entwined hands and then to her eyes. "Is there something wrong?"

"Connor, there's something I'm going to do. And it might freak you out at first but…I want you to trust me."

And suddenly he felt worried, even somewhat flustered. The things that were going through his head…most of them made him blush. What was she going to do?

"Don't be afraid…" She took a deep breath. "I'm going to heal you."

{Author's Note: Next chapter might be a bit late, My laptop was taken into the shop a few days ago and it's due for fixing, so I've been using my Mum's laptop and haven't had a chance to type as much as i've wanted too.}