"Are you avoiding me because we got in trouble," Hazel asks, when Frank comes from the boys bathhouse.
"No it's just…"
"No it's just what?" she asks.
"It's a little hard to see you and think about what we did, which was great, but know we can't do it again because our dads will kill us," he tells her.
"So if I hadn't talked you into what we did…"
"You didn't have to talk me into it," he insists.
"You were afraid of what would happen if we got caught and you were right. Now you don't want to be around me and I've ruined everything," she sighs and drops onto a nearby bench. Frank sits down next to her and puts his big arm around her shoulders.
"I'm sorry," he says, "I want to be around you all the time. It's just a little hard to control, you know, when you're around."
"The past couple days, since Nico and Thalatta went to visit Dad, have been the worst. Everyone here is nice, but I don't feel like I have anyone to talk to. Percy is busy teaching, and looking for those stupid monkeys, and being a dad, and now you are too horny to be around me. What am I going to do?" she cries, "I'm so lonely."
"I know, I'm lonely too," he agrees. "I get along with Chris fine and Leo, but I feel like a complete outsider around my own siblings. Tyson, he's been too depressed to hang around with. Last night I actually hung out with Dakota for a couple of hours, but you would not believe how boring he is when he isn't strung out on sugar."
"Yeah I would because we were trying to study for Annabeth's Ancient Greek test together. I thought I was going to κύβος," she says with a laugh. He looks at her with an expression that says what?
"Die, haven't you been studying," she asks.
"Oh yeah, well no, I pretty much know Greek already. My grandmother taught me a lot, that and Mandarin of course," he tells her.
"So how many languages do you know?" she asks thinking this is something new about her boyfriend that she can't believe she didn't know.
"I can't write them all, but I can hold my own in a conversation in Mandarin, Greek, Latin, and English," he answers.
"Can you teach our kids all those languages?" she asks really more trying to see how close he's paying attention.
"Sure, and if you teach them Creole just think how multi-lingual they'll all be," he says with a grin.
"They all?" she asks.
"Yeah, all fourteen of them," he says then busts up laughing.
"I'm not having fourteen kids," she says punching him in the chest.
"That hurt," he says putting his hand where she just hit him in an attempt to get a little sympathy kiss.
"Serves you right, fourteen kids," she mutters.
"Frank you coming?" Leo shouts from over by the dining pavilion.
"Yeah," Frank calls back then gives his girl a quick kiss.
"Where are you guys going?" she asks.
"To check the traps and see if we've caught the cercopes yet?" he tells her. "Do you want to come?"
"Do we even know if that's what we're looking for yet?" she continues, as they catch up to Leo who was still waiting.
"Belladonna from the Hecate cabin left to find her mother and ask her if she knows anything, but she hasn't returned," Leo says answering her question.
"I hope we can figure this out soon and bring Travis and Connor back," Frank says, as they enter the woods.
"Yeah," Leo agrees, "but it's been nice not to stick my hand into my tool belt and come out with a fist full of peanut butter or shaving cream."
When the three of them arrive at Juniper's tree, they can hear a commotion in the woods back in behind, so they take off running to see what's happening.
"Stop that," Juniper is yelling, as she is swatting at a lump inside one of the nets with a switch from her tree. "My seedlings are napping."
"Juniper what is it?" Frank shouts.
"These little pests where swinging upside down on my branches and picking the tiny leaves from my seedlings. I chased them and the net swallowed the up. Those are my babies," she shouts and swats again with her switch. Whatever is in the net is just giggling.
"Swinging upside down?" Hazel asks wondering what kind of animal swings upside down.
Grover has now come running up the other way, panting for breath. "I came as soon as I heard you screaming. What's wrong?" he asks.
"Our babies," she tells him then points back toward the tree.
"Babies?" he squeaks.
"Look their tiny little leaves," Juniper cries kneeling at the foot of her tree.
"I thought those were just new little trees coming up," Grover continues in shock.
"Of course they are new little trees, what did you think our daughters would be," she says looking at him like he should have known better, being the Lord of the Wild and all.
"I guess I just never thought," he says then kneels next to her to check out their daughters. "They didn't step on them or anything," he says reaching for his pipes. As he begins to play, new little leaves start to sprout. "There they look better already," he says then hugs Juniper.
"Thank you my sweet Grover," she says kissing him.
"So when where you going to tell me we were having…" Grover stops and is pointing at the little seedlings counting to see how many there are, "four daughters."
"And a son," she say with a smile.
"A son! Where is he?" he asks looking around on the ground
"Sweetheart baby satyrs don't spring up from the ground like wood nymphs do," she says caressing his face.
"You mean," he says then starts jumping up and down.
"Congratulations you guys," Hazel says giving Juniper a hug.
"Yeah, congrats, but I think we need to see what's in this net," Leo says turning everyone's attention back to the task at hand.
They decide that dragging the biggest cage they created over and lowering the net down into it is the best idea. It takes all of them, with the exception of Juniper since Grover forbid her to help in her delicate condition, to drag the thing over. Juniper did her part by continuing to swat at whatever is in the net with her switch and yell about her babies.
"Frank, you and Hazel stand on that side and be ready to close the door once Grove and I get it all the way inside," Leo says directing the effort.
"Sure thing," Frank says standing by the side with the latches.
Juniper swats at it one more time for good measure just as they lower it the last of the way inside.
"Now," Leo shouts, as he cuts away the drawstring for the net.
Frank shoves the door to the cage closed and has to put all his weight into the effort to get the first latch to snap into place because the monkeys are trying so hard to get out. Leo and Hazel are also pushing against the door by the time Frank gets to the second latch and it locks much easier. The third lock is a piece of cake.
"Feisty little boogers aren't they," Leo says, as they all stand back looking at them.
"Are they what we all think they are?" Hazel asks looking at their little faces.
"Akmon," Grover says watching to see if either of them recognizes the name. When the slightly smaller of the two reaches his hand out through the bars of the cage, Grover kneels down in front of it. "Are you Akmon?" he asks gently. The monkey nods his head.
"And you're Passalos?" Frank asks sitting down next to the cage. The other monkey nods his head to acknowledge his identity. "Do you know how you got here?"
Akmon shakes his head no then reaches toward the tree. "Are you hungry?" Grover asks.
Both Akmon and Passalos nod that they are, so Juniper snaps some twigs from her tree and hands them to the monkeys.
"Please stay away from my babies," she tells them. They nod in agreement.
"Well, now what?" Leo asks.
"We need to let Chiron and Hermes know that we have them," Grover tells them.
"Will they be turned back into stone?" Hazel asks sadly.
"I don't know. That might be the only way to bring Travis and Connor back. Switch them back," Leo says.
Both Akmon and Passalos start shaking their heads violently.
"It's OK," Hazel tells them softly putting her hand up to the cage, "If there's a way to free the two of you as well, we'll find it."
The cercopes go back to eating their leaves.