Hey, Everyone!

Er. Mah. Gur. It has been four months since I've been here, and I have to say...I missed this. I've missed this a lot, and haven't even really realized it.

So this is me, coming back. I have some exciting stuff planned for the next few chapters, and I hope you all are ready for this!

Enjoy!

Chapter 26

Leo

Leo was seriously starting to second guess bring Calypso back. It had been hard enough following Buford without losing him, getting them enough time to adjust back to land, and finding the group again after he saw his magnificent ship.

But now Percy was going to give her a hard time for cursing them?

What was that even supposed to mean?

Percy was staring heatedly at Calypso over Leo's shoulder. It was so intimidating it took all of Leo's courage to keep standing there. Hopefully the look he was giving in return was just as scary.

"What are you talking about, man?" Leo asked. "She's been on an island by herself for the past thousands of years."

"She knows exactly what I'm talking about," Percy growled, his eyes never leaving Calypso's face. At least, Leo assumed. He had to resist the urge to look back at her.

When Calypso didn't say anything, Leo knew something had happened.

He finally turned around to face her. She was looking horribly guilty and scared at Percy's scowl, and Leo decided, "We need to talk this out."

"There's nothing to say, she knows what she did."

"How did she curse you?"

"Not me," Percy seethed, taking a step forward. Leo automatically got in the way, but Annabeth stepped in and touched his arm as well. Percy wasn't going to hurt Calypso today. "Annabeth."

That took everything to a whole new level in Leo's mind. He suddenly knew why he was acting this way. But based on Calypso's reaction, she knew she'd done something wrong as well. He'd literally been through hell and all she'd done was make it worse.

Leo was going to have to play Mr. Problem Solver, because Hazel wasn't stepping in. She was just staring, tense.

"Okay," Leo sighed, turning to look between both Calypso, wide eyed and waiting, and Percy, seething, and repeated, "Okay. I get you're upset, Percy, but I-"

"Upset?" Percy snapped, turning his vengeful eyes on Leo.

He nearly crawled out of his skin.

This was so much harder than it looked.

But he would deal with it the way he knew best. "Alright, I'm sorry, über pissed. Better?"

That broke Hazel's trance, and she stepped in as well. "We can't help you until you tell us what happened."

"I refuse to relive that," Percy said, finally backing down. Leo let out a stressed breath and glanced at Hazel. Thank you.

She smirked. No problem.

"Then Calypso will tell me," Leo answered. He took her hand and looked at her. "Right?"

She was still staring at Percy, unsure if it was completely safe. Her head bobbed, ever so slightly.

"Um, excuse me," Jason asked, "but is this going to delay us more?"

"Yes," everyone said.

"Great," Jason sighed.

"Next time you have a problem, we'll just walk on without you," Percy snorted. He took Annabeth's hand and walked away from the three of them.

Calypso inhaled loudly. "I thought his stare was going to kill me."

Leo smiled. "I thought it was going to kill me, too. He's really intimidating when he wants to be…"

Hazel put her hands on her hips and stared at both of them. "So…what exactly did you do, Calypso? Percy might be a little different after Tartarus, but he still wouldn't just go after someone like that without a serious reason."

Slowly, after a little coaxing from Leo, Calypso recanted her side of the whole, "I'm mad so I'm going to curse Percy's girlfriend" thing.

Leo rubbed his chin, trying to process this information. "Well…that's not what I expected."

"I'm sorry…I forgot it even happened. It'd been…a while," she said, staring up at him through her lashes.

He sighed. "Yeah…I get it…"

Hazel raised an eyebrow. "Um…" she pointed to both of them. "What's going on here?"

"Um, Calypso is my…" And then Leo blanked. What were they, exactly? He'd never actually said that out loud.

He turned his attention to Calypso. She had her brow furrowed, as if she was just as stumped as he was.

"Uh, we'll figure that out later," Leo decided. "I'm gonna go talk to Percy."

"Good luck," Calypso whispered.

"Come on, you guys, he's not that dangerous," Hazel scolded, but for some reason, that didn't make Leo feel any better.

He walked across the pass between the trees and straight up to Percy. He was talking to Annabeth, muttering, "I can't believe you're so okay with this!"

"So…" Leo said, glancing back and forth between both of them. "I know what happened."

"And?" Annabeth asked, and Percy just shook his head.

"It wasn't cool," Leo agreed. "But dude, I'm not just going to leave her here, and I can't leave you guys again."

Percy blew out an angry breath from between his lips. He wasn't looking at Leo. He seemed to be staring at the tops of trees across the pass.

"I understand that," Annabeth said. "That's fine." She smiled at him. "It's good to have you back, Leo."

"Honestly, we need our comic relief back," Percy finally spoke, looking at him. "And I'm not mad at you."

"You're mad at Calypso," Leo confirmed.

"Well, I mean, yeah…" he sighed, his eyes now pleading with Leo, "but can you blame me? I feel horrible about it, but…" He groaned and ran a stiff hand through his hair.

"But?" Leo asked.

"I kind of get it. She was upset at the time, and…she probably didn't really think anything of it afterward," Percy said. "I'm going to go apologize. I need to do that."

He pushed off the trunk of the evergreen tree he was leaning on and walked across the pass.

Leo, alarmed, took a step to catch up to him, but Annabeth held him back. "No, it's really alright. He just wants to apologize."

Leo watched from a distance, ready to throw a fire ball and light the whole forest ablaze if things got messy.

Percy walked up and basically blocked Leo's vision of Calypso. The inside of his palm started to itch with nerves.

He had no idea what he was saying, but Hazel wasn't intervening. It must have been alright.

And then, Calypso was nodding, nodding vigorously, her head appearing and disappearing behind Percy.

His arms engulfed her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder.

Leo was hit with a pang of…something he refused to acknowledge. He shook his head and looked at Annabeth.

She was smiling. "See? This is good. This is very, very good."

Later, when the stars were shining bright, the Seven were all sitting around a fire made of small snapped off branches in a small pile and Leo's fire power.

"Gods, I missed this," Piper said. "Trying to light fires ourselves was so much harder after being pampered by you."

Leo grinned. "Thanks, Beauty Queen."

"And now you're back to annoying Leo," she remarked, rolling her eyes.

The fire crackled delightfully and everyone, for once, was silent. No fighting. No angry stares.

No worries.

And dry land. Dry land was very, very good in Leo's opinion. For a while, definitely.

He had his knee pressing gently against Calypso's, and then Hazel started to talk. "You really didn't miss too much."

"Except," Annabeth threw in, "the whole second army thing."

Leo could feel all the color drain from his face in horror. "What?"

"Gaea sent a second army to New York to take out Olympus while we're busy taking her out in Athens," Percy explained. "Nico and Reyna are on the way."

"I'm this close to throwing up," Leo said. "This literally makes me sick."

"Why?" Piper asked.

"Because we worked so hard to not die and now we may just die again, and there's nothing we can really do but trust Nico and Reyna." Leo looked at each and every one of them individually. "I don't know about you guys, but I always feel better when I have a part of something."

"Yeah. I know the feeling," Jason agreed, sighing dejectedly.

"When are they arriving?" Calypso asked, speaking for the first time.

"Hm?" Hazel asked.

"When is the second Giant Army arriving to attack New York?" she repeated.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows together. "I…I don't know."

Leo threw his hands up in the air dramatically. "I guess we'll never know, then. All hope is lost."

Everyone chuckled. "I guess so," Frank agreed.

The silence that ensued was pleasant. Everyone needed that silence.

"I wonder how they're doing," Percy wondered aloud.

So that was chapter 26, I hope that was worth the wait, and I'm sure the next few chapters will be! (If the ending was any implication)

So, I just want to tell you guys that I'm starting high school (Oh, I'm going to be a freshman...AUGH!) on Monday, so if my chapters are a little shorter than usual, or maybe not as developed, please tell me, because I'll probably be skipping out on detail because of stress and worries and what not.

Thanks so much guys for coming back to my story, and hello everyone new! I 3 you!

Thanks for Reading!