"Another One"- DJ Khaled
Seriously, uploading a lot at once gives the illusion that I've written creatively lately. Alas, an illusion.
"Jason Grace!" Piper shouted once she had taken off her blindfold. "You are too good to be true." Hazel and her boyfriend, Frank had decorated the café a little, and Leo had put himself in charge of confetti and party hats. Jason was trying to hug her and swing her around at the same time, which was proving a little difficult.
"Watch it, Beauty Queen." Leo joked as Piper almost toppled a chair onto him. (Leo had recently learned that Piper's mom was a designer. He basically planned on never calling her by her given name again.)
Piper ignored him. The place was filled with bright colors, she could smell a very delicious chocolate cake somewhere, a small pile of presents was waiting on a chair, and Jason's sky blue eyes were twinkling so much it made up for the lack of stars in the city. She nearly tackle-hugged both Hazel and the cake to the ground when she saw them. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" her smile was potentially about to split her face in half. "This is amazing."
"Open your presents." Frank said, dragging the chair of gifts over. They displayed remarkable wrapping skills, especially considering Leo had only remembered to wrap up the box ten minutes before the surprise.
Piper enthusiastically ripped paper off the boxes, exuberantly hugging everyone in turn. After being opened with great fanfare and shown off to the small gathering, A DVD with a collection of puppy videos, a van Gogh puzzle, a plane in a bottle, and a hanging mobile of prisms sat in her lap as she reached for the last box.
"Should I wait to open this until Reyna is here?" Piper asked. "Or I could peek and then open it when she's here."
"Or you could just open it. She won't mind." Jason suggested. "And peeking first is practically a deadly sin."
"Wow, I'm going to hell." Piper grinned, beginning to untie the paper ribbon. "Leo, maybe you should call her. She hasn't said if she got back all right."
"That may not be a great plan." Leo said evasively. "I don't really want to do that." She could still be angry with him – maybe he should give her more time to cool off.
"You can't refuse someone on their birthday." Jason reprimanded his roommate.
"Is your entire moral code based on birthday etiquette?" Piper inquired sarcastically.
"It's because I wasn't hugged enough as a child." Jason agreed. "See what she got you. Leo, go call." Piper agreed a little more happily than Leo. Piper passed around the thick woolen scarf for everyone to appreciate the warm softness as Leo made the call from the doorway. Hazel and Piper were each holding an end of the scarf to their cheek as they tried to eavesdrop, although he was speaking very low and soft. His face gave away his concern and fear the moment he turned around.
Leo had barely said a few words along the lines of 'motorcycle' and 'accident' before Jason was reaching for his jacket and keys. Piper set her birthday presents on a table, keeping the scarf on. Hazel quickly shut off the lights and Frank brought her purse and sweater as they rushed to pile into Jason's car. The drive was silent.
"Reyna, you absolute psycho, why would you ride a motorcycle in the disaster that is streets in Mexico?!" Leo called out over the barking dogs as they let themselves in with a hidden spare key.
"She's been in a motorcycle crash; she can't walk right now!" Piper snapped, marching past him into Reyna's room.
It was a sorry sight. Reyna lay in bed with an icepack on one foot. The opposite calf was wrapped in blood-soaked blue cloth. There was bandaging at her collarbone, chest, and the side of her neck. One wrist was swollen, the other hand had two fingers taped together. Her face was battered out of shape and discolored, and her breathing was quick and erratic. No one knew what to do. Frank, trained cop that he was, was the first to spring into action. He quieted the dogs and grabbed an extra pillow from the foot of the bed to prop her up a little.
"I am apparently not the badass biker I thought I was." Reyna said, coughing weakly.
"Were you drunk?" Leo asked, his voice gruff.
"Leo!" Hazel exclaimed. "Priorities." He nodded sheepishly while Reyna assured him she wasn't, and that they didn't have to stop Piper's birthday celebrations to come and see her.
"Of course we did. You don't even look like you could eat solid food right now." Piper said matter-of-factly.
Reyna smiled at her as much as she could without irritating her split lip. "I'm glad you like the scarf. It looks great on you, I picked it because it matched the green dress you had on the other day."
"No one has any priorities around here." Hazel muttered. "Have you been to a doctor? Have you eaten? Taken any painkillers?"
"I went to the ER and took all the pain meds they would let me take. I'm going to pick up some prescriptions at some point, when the upright motion thing is in working order." Reyna replied. "I'm not supposed to be operating any machinery and I'm not sure if that included a blender, so I left it alone."
Jason and Piper went to work deciphering a doctor's unreadable scrawl to see what medicines needed to be picked up. Hazel offered her some Chex mix from her purse (which proved difficult to choke down), and Frank fed the dogs and volunteered to take them for a walk.
"So, you're not gonna be starting a biker gang any time soon." Leo said, sitting down next to her.
"I'm getting older than I realized." She laughed thinly.
"27 ain't bad." Leo's voice was soft. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling like I flew off a motorcycle and hit a concrete divider." She said drily. "Getting anywhere in a car there is impossible, not to mention the absolute lack of decent parking."
"Have you ever driven a motorcycle before?"
"I've driven a tank. How hard could it be?"
"This is the kind of thinking that causes you to fly off a motorcycle and hit a concrete divider." Leo teased. "That sounds unimaginably painful."
"I'll get better." Reyna tried to shrug, trying to sit more upright to drink the water someone had brought. Leo and Jason helped hold her up and rearranged the pillows. A frown crossed Jason's face.
"Are you aware there's a knife under your pillow?" he asked very slowly, peering at her bruised face.
"I'm a woman living alone in a pretty unsafe neighborhood. Of course I have a knife under my pillow." Leo stared at him incredulously. Was now the time? Hazel was right, no one had their priorities straight.
"It's a ceramic knife, those aren't exactly standard issue. They're made to avoid detection." Jason pressed. "You were special forces, right? You should have a K-bar."
"It was a gift." Reyna explained. Leo wasn't sure that a knife was a good gift, but he wasn't going to question it. He gave his roommate a look, and Jason looked at his lap.
"He's paranoid that someone is going to sneak onto a plane with one of those." Leo explained. "And he's going to change the topic now."
"It smells like ocean in here." Jason managed to sound suspicious about that, too.
"Does it bother you?" Reyna asked apologetically. "You can take out the little plug thing in the corner." Leo sniffed the air – Reyna didn't smell like her usual jasmine self. He volunteered to unplug it; he knew Jason's aversion to ocean smells since the water landing he had made a few years ago.
"I can pick up these medicines now, if you like." Piper offered, trying to dispel the tension.
"Pick them up after you get off work tomorrow. I'll come with you to figure out the dosage and everything." Reyna decided. "Right now I'm gonna change this bandaging, so if anyone is squeamish, scram."
"I'll help." Hazel put in. She had been sitting so quietly, they had forgotten she was there. "You probably don't want the boys in here right now." She glanced pointedly at her shirt. "Y'all go make some soft food for her to eat." Piper led the way out of the room, promising to minimize property damage. The boys sat in the living room, waiting for Frank to get back with the dogs.
"My big sister's friend had a motorcycle growing up." Jason whispered the second they were out of earshot. "She was only fifteen or so and she fell off it a few times, and this is not what it looked like." He seemed uneasy and nervous.
"What are you saying?" Leo was immediately defensive.
"For one thing, most of her injuries are bruises. If she fell onto rough concrete, she would have more scrapes." Jason pointed out.
"That's a stupid thing to focus on." He whispered angrily.
"She didn't call us right away after it happened. She waited for you to call first before telling you. Friends call if they've been in a crash." Jason continued. Leo did not look convinced. "She has a black eye, for God's sake!" Jason whispered loudly. "The divider didn't reach through her helmet and punch her!"
"It's not just her eye!" Leo shot back. "Her entire face is a pulp. She may not have been wearing a helmet. You don't know what happened!"
"Do you?" Jason snapped. "And I wasn't kidding about the ocean smell either. It's not the damn room freshener. What if she's keeping something from you?"
"You're imagining things." Leo insisted. "Don't be paranoid."
"What about the knife?" Jason demanded. "It's perfectly logical to be wary of a person who has a ceramic knife under their pillow."
"She served three tours! People have nightmares about that!" he couldn't believe this. "Why are you such a conspiracy theorist? Who pissed in your cornflakes?"
"I'm voicing doubts. Which you wouldn't do, because you're crazy about her!" Jason hissed at him.
"I'm not crazy! And it's not like that." He insisted.
"But you want it to be." Jason was no longer whisper shouting; it was impossible to tell whether he just wanted to stop arguing or had squashed his doubts.
"Yeah." Leo answered honestly.
Jason pressed his lips together. "How well do you actually know her, Leo?" he seemed only concerned now, not angry.
"I know she's a great girl, and we have fun together." Leo said simply. "So what if she's got baggage? We all do."
"Baggage is one thing." Jason frowned. "Secrets are another." He looked Leo in the eye, saw he was about to blow up at him again, and tacked on, "But if you're sure about it, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut."
"You do that, Grace." Leo huffed, standing up. "I'm gonna mash some strawberries or something." Jason took a deep breath and went to check on Hazel and Reyna. Unsure whether Reyna was decent, he hung outside the door.
Hazel was perched on the side of the bed, her expression serious. "I don't want to know how you got that. It's in the past, and I won't hold it against you. But if it comes back to haunt you, or us, whatever it was will be the least of your worries."
"Thank you." Reyna said, her voice unreadable.
Leo walked right in, ignoring Jason. "You have a tragic lack of fresh fruit in your kitchen. So I mashed some canned peaches. I think they were peaches, anyway. Please go to the grocery store."
"Yeah, let me stand right up and walk over there." She snorted.
"Wouldn't you rather drive a motorcycle?" he asked sweetly, handing her the bowl of mush.
"Cabron." The curse was contradicted by a fond chuckle. "Do you want me to die?"
"Querida" he clutched his heart as over-dramatically as he could. "I couldn't live if you didn't."
"Jackson, be a professional." The woman with the piercings commanded. Percy took his feet off the table. The man had let himself in to help himself to a breakfast of dried blueberries – he looked as if he would like to throw one at her face. She turned to Leo. "You won't be seeing me for a few days. Stay safe."
"You too." He surprised himself. No matter how angry he was, the fact remained that Reyna might know this woman – and both of them hadn't killed him yet. Besides, their jobs were dangerous. They could use the good wishes. She nodded curtly and left.
"Ah, good ol' Thalia Grace." Percy drawled mockingly. Leo gave him a baffled look. "She's my cousin." He explained. "Maybe like my fifty eighth cousin thirty-five times removed."
"She's CIA too?" he knew the answer.
"Probably high up there, too." He mused. "All I heard is once she and Reyna took a buffalo cart from the Taj Mahal to the Red Fort, overnight. Maybe it's a rumor, but they could have done it."
"So, have you ever talked to her? You know, at work?" Leo asked haltingly.
"Yeah, we've worked together a few times." He answered vaguely. "Wouldn't say we talked much outside the job, though."
"What's she like? On the job, I mean." Leo pressed.
"Official answer is that it's classified." Percy said, careful and hesitant. "The real answer is that no one knows."
"Wow. Thanks for the super specific reply. All my doubts are settled now." Leo deadpanned.
Percy almost laughed. "I'm serious. No one knows. French billionaire's Caribbean lover, financier at the Italian national bank, drug dealer in Egypt, farmer in Nepal, janitor in Brazil, Mexican-American veteran with a slight drinking problem – your guess is as good as mine."
Leo felt unsettled in his very bones. "So no one knows the real Reyna Ramirez." It felt like a line from a movie. This didn't happen in real life. "Is that even her real name? Let me guess: it's classified."
"I'd tell you if I knew." Percy said. "They're good and they're needed, but I don't like playing games."
"Who is they?"
"The CIA at large. Maybe even spies as a group." Percy exhaled slowly. "My girlfriend. She's Reyna's partner."
"I'm…sorry?" Leo tried. "I'm not sure what my response is supposed to be." Percy looked a little broody, so he tried to lighten up. "Do they have codenames and things?"
"Of course they have codenames."
"What's Reyna's codename?" he wondered aloud.
"You understand that you're asking me to betray the trust of one of the brave people that works for my country?" Percy said, feigning shock.
"You don't know what it is."
"I don't." He agreed.
"I'll ask her when I see her." Leo decided. "That should be a fun conversation."
"Don't plan for it too much, you're not gonna have it anytime soon." Percy advised. "She'll be gone by the time you leave here."
"What do you mean, gone?" Leo demanded, suddenly angry. He deserved an explanation for the last 48 hours. "She wouldn't do that to me! Please tell me you're kidding." He needed answers. No one would tell him why he had been targeted, why Reyna had gotten close to him, whether he and his friends were safe now.
And there were things he needed to hear from Reyna: whether she had really thought his dancing was alright, whether she had cared about his mother's death, whether she imagined someone else when they –
He had to know how she had done it. He had to know, from himself, whether he could forgive her. Whether he believed they could work it out. Whether he should tell her about the diamond ring in the storefront he'd spent a little too long staring at.
"Please tell me I'm going to see her again." His voice was low but steady as he stood up.
"She pulled every string to keep you alive." Percy said, guessing what Leo was thinking and willing him not to think it. "Please don't do something stupid." He would have done the same thing, in fact, but there was a fundamental difference in their training.
Leo gulped as Percy's hand went automatically to the handgun on his hip. "I have to at least see my roommate. Jason Grace." He stalled, racking his mind for a way to get past Percy. "He'll be getting back from a long haul flight. From Osaka, I think. If there are agents there like you said, I better be there to explain things"
"Your friend Jason will be debriefed in good time." Percy said soothingly. "It's hundreds of miles to New York, and you can't get past me even with a grenade."
"You can't convince me with a bullet." Leo returned hotly. "I need to talk to her. To find out what's going on, at least."
"You want to speak with a spy. To get truthful information." Percy laughed. "Why don't you take a broken bone to a baker while you're at it?"
"My bones aren't broken yet." He needed to practice some bravado before he met her.
"Will you THINK?" Percy snapped. "The only people that know where she is are either with her or deep enough underground that they might as well be ghost stories. She could be in a dangerous situation, and you're not going to save the day, you're going to make things more difficult." He took a breath and continued. "If you see something you shouldn't have seen, she will be ordered to kill you."
That gave Leo a moment of pause, but he persisted. "Put down your gun and stand in my shoes." He requested simply. "If it was you, if it was your girl." Percy dropped his hand from the holster. Taking that as a good sign, Leo continued. "It is your girl – she's probably with Reyna, wherever they are." He let a pleading note enter his voice. "You run in the same circles; you will find out if she's alive, you'll see her again. Why don't I deserve that?"
"Shit." Percy muttered, as if the severity of it had just hit him. He was going to get in so much trouble for this. Reyna was probably going to get in so much trouble for this. He saw the look on Leo's face and knew he wouldn't back down. So. Much. Trouble. In one clean motion, he grabbed the knife from his boot. Leo had a split second to think that this was not how he wanted to die before the knife was being handed to him, along with a canteen. "That's sharp. That's heavy." Percy elaborated, pointing at each object. "You didn't get them from me. I hope you have cash."
Leo hadn't actually expected this to work – Percy must have been very much in love with her, whoever she was. He took the knife and canteen, and half a packet of peanuts from the table.
"Tell the other guard Annabeth could be there too." Percy told him. "He'll let you by." Leo nodded, frantically trying to remember a book he'd read a while ago about navigating forests. The one person who could help him in this situation was the reason he was in this situation. Maybe he should go home and enlist backup – as ragtag as it would have to be.
"I'll tell your cousin Thalia I said hi." Now there was a thought: Leo Valdez having Sunday brunch with members of the CIA.
Percy suddenly scrambled to the door. "Wait. Did you say your roommate's name was Jason Grace?" he yelled. Why did it matter?
It was petty. It was unnecessary. It was such a cheap shot. "That's classified." He called back, walking into the woods, desperately hoping he was going the right direction.
Feedback appreciated.
Motivation appreciated more.
Good, clean jokes appreciated most.