How I Met Your Tony

We stayed up talking last night, I didn't even know when we fell asleep. She told me how scared she was, how now she could remember what it felt like being helpless and forced to do things that she didn't want to do. She told me that not having control over her body was the scariest thing to ever happen to her so far.

I look down at her still sleeping form, only last night she didn't bury herself in the blanket. She buried herself in me. Even now, her head was resting on me, her arm draped over my side. I held her lightly, kind of scared to touch her too much. I remember how nervous I felt, but how nice it was to hold her. She talked to me, content in her position, for hours.

She told me more about her family, assuring me that she didn't feel too angry with them about hiding her brothers from her. I told her about my mom, about how much I missed her and how I couldn't wait to see her. Maliah then told me about how much she wanted a puppy, but her parents just never had the time to take her to find one. I told her about how I'd never thought about having a pet, I'd always just been content with the twins. She laughed at that.

Her laughing at my jokes made my face red, now.

She told me how she's scared that she won't be able to balance school and her training this term, but how she's going to give it her best. I told her I had nothing but faith in her. She mentioned to me, casually, that she wants to be a nurse, or a surgeon, or someone in the justice department, if she lives that long. She says she wants to help people, no matter how.

I remember agreeing with her.

I'm staring at her again when I hear a knock on the door. Harvey opens it, holding two plates of food and two cans of soda. He walks straight through the door and into the room.

"Breakfast is ready." he announces.

I stare at him, confused.

"How'd you do that? I thought we were sealed in." I say.

"You are. The rest of us, however, can come and go as we please. We told you to stay on our side." he said, shrugging his shoulder.

I think about it for a minute and realize that taking the stand that I did with Maliah was the best choice. Sure, I would have been able to stay with her just like I had last night, but putting myself in the same category as her so she wasn't singled out was what made her feel better. It made her feel like less of the problem. I was perfectly fine with my choice and I'd make it again.

"Eh, it's okay. I'm happy with the choice I made," I inform him.

"Well, that's good." he says.

"But," I add, "if I wanted, couldn't I just rip the knife out and leave?"

He laughs.

"No. If you touch it for more than a few seconds you'll burst into flames. Only a child of Hecate can remove it. You're stuck here until we get to the island."

"Oh. I guess it's not as stupid as I thought, then."

"Oh, shut up before I take away your food privileges," he says, standing and walking to the door.

After a minute, he's gone. I turn to Maliah and lightly shake her. She woke up, her eyes landing on the food. She doesn't say anything, she just eats. I follow her lead and do the same. I looked at her again. She looked sad and scared. I keep wondering how she can just push through everything that's happened to her so far. How has she not snapped? I realized that most of the people on this ship were going to be scared of her until this curse went away. Sure, I'm stuck in here with her, but in that sense she's completely alone. I realize that I've lost my appetite halfway through my meal.

"Do you want the rest of mine?" I ask her, even though she's not even done with her own plate.

"No, thank you. I really don't eat a lot when I wake up," she says.

I remember her mentioning that to me at some point last night. It just kind of all jumbled together at this point. I place my hand on her back and rub it lightly. She leans into me, resting her head on my shoulder. We stay like this in the silence. It was nice. I wondered what she was thinking about. I wondered how scared she truly was knowing that she was currently a tool to distract and kill her friends and family. If I were her, I would have cried a lot more by now.

There's a knock on the door that drags me out of my thoughts. I've stayed with Maliah so much that at this point, I don't get embarrassed being seen with her like this. We both stay in our position while Maliah calls, telling them to come in. When the door opens, I see a familiar pretty, blonde haired girl.

"Hey, Katelynn," I say.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" she asked, genuinely curious.

Everyone else would have only asked us as a way to tease or embarrass us, but she really cared to know. She didn't want to interrupt something, if that were the case, and embarrass us. It was so hard to picture her how she was when we'd learned about Ellie. She was normally so kind and passive, seeing her angry was like seeing a whole other person.

"No, not at all. We love the company." Maliah assures her.

She smiles and walks in, sitting across from us in the chair. I raise my eyebrow to her.

"What?" she asks.

"I could ask you the same thing." I say.

She sighs, "They're so boring out there. I'm still super upset with Ellie and I told her I'm ready to talk about it, but now that Brandon has completely forgiven her, I'm pushed to the side. It's the same thing every single time. If he's around, I'm just the third wheel. And that's if I'm lucky enough to get noticed. Then there's the Hecate brothers who don't leave their rooms, and all the twins do is mess around in other people's things. Don't even get me started on Prometheus. I've trained and trained until I felt like my arms were going to fall off but now I'm, like, avoiding him because I just can't do it anymore."

I let out a low whistle.

"That's a lot." I say.

"Uh huh." she agrees.

"You could always stay here. We really do love the company." Maliah reminds her.

"Oh. Are you sure? I know that you two share the bed and I wouldn't want to impose."

"Oh, no. We'll figure something out. I promise it's fine." I agree.

She smiles at me, brightly.

"I might consider the offer."

We're all quiet for a minute, a comfortable silence engulfing us. I can't help but wonder about the day of the prophecy, how Katelynn sounded unsure when she heard her line.

"Hey, can I ask you something, Kate?" I ask, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, what's up?" she responds.

"The prophecy, more importantly your part, you said you didn't hate anyone. You didn't sound so sure, though." I tell her.

She doesn't respond at first, but then she takes a breath and looks at me.

"Well, I don't hate him," she begins, "I don't like him. I just- I'm pretty sure he hates me. But I owe him my life."

"Who?" I ask her.

"Tony."

I look at her, watching the sadness enter her eyes.

"Why?"

"There was a time before camp when I knew Tony. We were in the same elementary school and we'd been best friends. Even back then, he was awful at making friends but I was so outgoing I kind of forced my friendship on him. He hated it at first, but then he grew to care about me as much as I did him. I left for a year and when I came back for middle school, he wouldn't even look at me. I had come back and made more friends than before I'd left. I guess I was sort of popular and I just always believed that was the reason. Maybe he didn't like my friends. But I kept trying. I just thought it would be so nice to hear his voice again for the first time since being back, so I went up to him and I tried to talk to him. He looked at me and told me he never wanted to talk to me again, so I should just leave him alone, and-" she pauses, a small smile on her lips and a tear falls down her cheek,

"he told me to leave him alone and die. I remember one of the guys I knew tried to beat him up, but I told him not to. I told him that some people just didn't like me and it was okay. I chocked it up to a loss and went to class. That was the day we were attacked and taken to camp Half-Blood. I can't swim, never could. Our coach turned into a Cyclops and pushed me into the pool. When I fell in, I heard Tony scream my name for the first time since I'd come back. He jumped in and saved me, even after he said all of that mean stuff to me, he ignored the monster to save my life. John Malack had shown up and killed the monster. We were in the fifth grade, only eleven and John was thirteen. He led us all the way to camp, taking care of us and keeping us safe. That was three years ago, though. We became friends with John but Tony hasn't talked to me since that day. Before John left he told me Tony didn't hate me. I still find it hard to believe, but I owe him my life for saving me that day. I have to repay him."

"I'm so sorry, Kate." Maliah said.

"Why did he ever stop talking to you to begin with?" I ask her.

"I dunno," she says, crying, "I ask myself that a million times throughout the day."

I give her a sad smile and open my arms, "Come on, group hug."

She giggles and accepts the offer, squeezing in between Maliah and me and allowing us to comfort her.

After a minute, Perry walks in. He gives us an odd look, "What in Hades are you doing?"

"Group hug," I answer, "want in on it?"

He scrunches his nose a little, "No thanks, I'll pass. Katelynn, did you have breakfast, yet?"

"Yeah, I did. Thank you," she smiles at him.

"Of course."

Perry turns to leave and I look at the two girls next to me.

"We're going to get you your answers from Tony when we save him, I promise." I tell Katelynn.

She smiles at me and stands up.

"Where you going?" I ask her.

"To get my sleeping bag, I think I'll take you guys up on your offer."

With that, she's out the door.