Chapter 14 - My Boyfriend Went to Olympia and All I Got Was This Lousy Goddess

I saw our landing party off on their adventures, making sure to give Percy a kiss goodbye.

Then I looked at Festus, "Can you handle guard duty for now? We'll be below."

He gave me the creak that Leo had taught me meant "Yes." I wasn't as good as Leo at understanding giant metal dragon language, but I could do yes and no questions. Jason had asked to be placed in his room for a change, so I knew he and Piper would be there. I walked to Jason's cabin and stood outside the door for a moment. I didn't hear anything. I knocked gently.

Piper opened the door a crack. I held a finger to my lips and pointed to the hallway. She nodded and came to me. We sat in the hallway, leaving the door open so we could still keep an eye on our patient.

"I think I need to start talking about, uh…" I was silent. I couldn't say the name. My lips went dry just thinking about it.

"Tartarus?" She said softly. The word seemed to fill the hall with cold. I nodded, not meeting her eyes. "Take your time." She told me after a few moments of silence.

I took a deep breath. "They always said it's a pit. But it's not, not really. It's got a bottom, with terrain. And the entire thing… it's Tartarus's body. The rivers, the land -" I shuddered, remembering it. "We fell for… I'm not really sure. A long time. I thought we would die on impact…" And so I told her, all of the stuff that had happened in Tartarus until the moment Bob appeared. I couldn't tell that part. Not yet.

Gently, Piper lifted her arm and wrapped it around my shoulders. She pulled my head to her shoulder and held me there. "It's good that you can talk about it." She said gently. "I'll listen to anything you want to tell me, ok?"

I nodded and sniffed. Tears had been falling down my face during the story. I realized I was shaking so hard that I was shaking Piper as well. The fear, all the memories, had slammed back into me as I told the story, as if talking about that place gave it the power to come closer to the surface.

We sat together a while longer, Piper telling me stories from her life - simple things, happy things, things that could get my mind out of the dark place. I was grateful to her. She was telling me a silly story about Coach Hedge from back when they thought he was just their teacher at the Wilderness School when we heard Jason stir. That ended our talk for now - we both went to check on Jason. He wasn't hooked up to an IV or a heart monitor anymore - he seemed stable enough that I had decided to remove both. I could always restart them, but I could tell they made Jason edgy. They probably made him feel trapped to be hooked to something. I left Jason and Piper alone and went back to the deck to help Festus keep watch. It hadn't been terribly long when I saw Frank, Hazel, Percy and Leo below the ship - dragging what appeared to be a woman in a net. I grinned and threw down the rope ladder. Frank was the first up, changing into a dragon and carrying Hazel in his claws. He set her down gently on the deck, then turned to go get their prize.

"You're hurt." I said, noticing the blood soaking through her jeans. "Let's get you to sick bay."

"I'm ok." She protested, but she was still having a hard time putting any weight on her left leg.

I wrapped an arm around her. "We'll just get you checked out, ok? It's silly to die from something we can fix." She gave me a small smile but nodded and let me help her to the sick bay.

I settled her on the cot I had been sleeping on in sick bay, then went to get her a new pair of pants from her cabin. On my way I heard thrashing and saw Frank, Percy and Leo dragging the goddess Nike in a golden net down the hallway.

I grinned at them. "I see we have subdued Victory."

Percy grinned at me. "Not the hardest goddess to fight, actually."

There was some squawking from the bound goddess and I realized they had duct taped her mouth shut. "Where are we putting her?"

"One of the horse stalls." Leo huffed. "Since Arion and the pegasi don't need them. Might as well keep a goddess in one, right?"

"For how long?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

Frank shrugged. "Until the rift between the gods' aspects is healed and she can think straight."

I nodded and stepped into a doorway to let them get her to the stables. I looked across the hall and saw Piper grinning in the doorway to Jason's room, Jason sitting up in the bed behind her. He was grinning a huge smile. It was definitely one of the funniest things to happen to the crew for a while.

"We'll need to have a meeting in a bit. I need to tend to Hazel -" I saw their eyes get big and rushed to explain. "Leg wound but not bad. Meet us in like twenty minutes in the mess hall?"

Both of them nodded and I went to get Hazel some pajamas from her cabin. When I got back to sick bay I saw she was trying to cover herself with a sheet. She was blushing fiercely. I rested a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her. Then I shut the door, trying to ensure she had some privacy. Her leg wound wasn't bad - it had already stopped bleeding. I washed it with water and nectar, then wrapped it with clean bandages. When I was done I handed her the clean pajamas.

"It'll hurt to wear jeans for a bit." I explained. "The material is too snug. Wear loose pants for at least a day or two, ok?"

She nodded, but wasn't looking at me. I left her to get changed. When I returned, she was still shaken. I plopped down on the doctor's stool.

"Hazel, what's wrong? Is it me seeing your legs, because I promise, that's fine nowadays. I'm like a nurse when I'm in here, ok?"

She nodded, then looked me in the eyes. I could tell she was still a little scared. "It's just… I was so worried that you were still mad. Because of yesterday. But you were so gentle. I… I didn't think I deserved…"

"Hazel." I sighed. "Yeah, ok. Let's talk. So, I'll admit it. I was scared yesterday, Hazel. I mean, you weren't trying to hurt me and that was how powerful your magic was. If you were actually trying to hurt me…."

I saw tears fill her eyes. "But I also realized something. You were trying to give me a gift, to make up for all the bad stuff in the last few weeks. And I should've thanked you for that."

She looked shocked. "But… what the Mist showed you -"

"It hurt, yeah. But you, Hazel. You were trying to do something good for me. And I really appreciate that." She still looked troubled. "I'm not saying I'm totally over it. The vision shook me up pretty badly. But I'm not scared of you. You're my friend."

She gave me a small smile. "Thank you. I… I don't want to lose you as a friend."

I grinned at her. "You haven't." I promised. "Now, want to head up to the mess hall so we can hear about your adventures?"

She nodded and I could tell that things were really much better between us.

We all sat down in the mess hall, ready to eat lunch and hear what had happened in Olympia. I made sure to sit next to Hazel, which earned me a smile from her. Percy, as always, sat on my other side. Leo and Frank told most of the story, how they had managed to find Nike and she tried to make them fight to the death. I looked at Percy for a moment - I knew that would bring up bad memories for him. He reached over and took my hand for the rest of the story. Frank explained how Hazel had manipulated the Mist to make the arena more deadly, then they had managed to defeat all of Nike's Nikai in just enough time for Leo's trap to be sprung. I glanced at Leo, happy that his invention had gone right this time rather than explode. He grinned at me, clearly knowing exactly what I was thinking. Then he gave me a wink. Frank finished by explaining how they managed to drag Nike past all the tourists to the boat by acting like she was a giant bag of dirty laundry that they were taking to the wash. I grinned at that explanation.

"So… Other than a goddess as a souvenir, did we learn anything?" I asked the group with a smile.

"Yeah, Leo's inventions can do amazing things." Frank said.

"And -" Hazel said more pointedly, "Nike said one of the four of us would die in the battle with Gaea."

The room went silent. Percy's grip on my hand tightened and I squeezed back.

"But there's hope." Percy said. "Nike mentioned something that she said would be a long shot, but we need to get something called the Physician's Cure. She said we need the poison of Pylos, the heartbeat of a chained god in Sparta, and the Curse of Delos. So… we need to figure out what those are."

Everyone turned to me. I shifted uncomfortably. "I… have some ideas. We will need to get to each of those places, then. That's the first step. I don't have my laptop anymore, so I'm not sure I can confirm any of those ideas, ok? But first, let's just get to Pylos without dying."

Everyone nodded. I looked around the group. Piper looked the best out of everyone right now. "Piper, can you take control of guarding the ship? Leo, tell Festus where to go." They both nodded and went to go resume their duties. I looked at the others with a mischievous smile. "Who wants to watch a son of Jupiter for the afternoon?"

Jason groaned, but Frank volunteered to watch him. I sent Hazel to her room to rest and helped Frank get Jason settled back in Jason's cabin. Then I went in search of Percy. I found him on the deck, leaning against the railing, watching the sea. I joined him and watched the water below us, lapping at the edges of the ship.

"So, we're back to you possibly being prophesied to die -" I had tried to make it a joke, but my voice caught on the word 'die'.

Percy reached an arm around my waist and pulled me close to him. He kissed the top of my head. "I promised I'd never leave you -"

"But you might not have a choice." I summed up.

There was a long silent moment between us. We both knew the risks, knew we might die at any time. Then Percy whispered to me, "Does it count as being separated if I turn into one of those Lares from Camp Jupiter and follow you around all the time?"

I snorted. "That's the plan?" I asked him, turning to face him.

He grinned at me. "I'd come to all your classes and make funny faces at you the entire time. You'd get locked up somewhere for always talking to someone who wasn't there."

I grinned at the thought, then leaned against him. "For now, we're safe. And let's just focus on that, ok?"

"Yeah." Said his soft voice above my head. We held onto each other for a long time. For this moment, we were safe. And I wished I could freeze this moment forever.