Leo

Life was different on the Argo II. Usually when things are this tense, Leo would break the tension with some corny jokes, but now they seemed ill placed and almost disrespectful. So he had toned down his usually jokes and tried to be engaged. He found himself glancing at Annabeth a lot. She had one of the worst lives of anyone on this ship and yet she was still going. Leo didn't know much about her past, but he did know that she'd run away when she was seven, watched Thalia die, betrayed by another friend (he didn't know who), almost died like a billion times, watched some more friends die, fell in love, got thrown into some suicide mission, fell into tartarus, and then of course the whole Percy thing. And that's only what Leo knew about. Who knew what other secrets Annabeth was hiding.

Sometimes he sat in his room and tried to imagine what she was going through, and then he realized he had no idea what she was going through. He didn't have a "Percy". But then he thought about Calypso. Then he just got sad again. But whenever he thought about the doors of death, he glanced at Annabeth to see if she was okay. And she looked exactly as she always did. About a day after coming back, she took some mortal money and bought herself a laptop, and now she's almost never seen without it. She's always in her seat at the table or in her room researching something or another.

He was looking at her today too. He couldn't help it. She was his friend and he wanted to make sure she was okay. She was sitting on the left side of the table seemingly typing something. At the beginning of the quest, she had sat on the end of the table. That spot was temporarily taken by Jason when she was you know where. When she came back, everyone expected her to take back her old seat, but the first meeting they all had, she sat in Percy's old seat and didn't say a word about it. And neither did anyone else.

Her hair was pulled back into another messy ponytail. Almost like the one she had when she came out of Tartarus except this one was messy from long hours and was clean and wasn't half red with blood. Leo took it back. It was nothing like her hair style from Tartarus. He thought of making a joke about it, but decided against it. Along with about a thousand more jokes he had to choke down. Man this was hard.

Jason was going on and on about different types of monsters and what everyone should be looking out for. It was one of those lectures you know you should be paying attention to, but instead find yourself thinking about anything but. Leo thought Annabeth at least would be interested, but she was busy with something on her computer, the only one in the group out right showing that she clearly wasn't paying any attention. Jason looked like he was going to ask her to listen at first, but changed his mind. No one contradicts Annabeth anymore. Besides, she probably knew it anyway.

Piper had her head in her hand, all balanced on her elbow. She was watching Jason with a dazed expression. Something was off between the two of them. Ever since the whole "Percy incident" Piper hasn't really been talking to Jason and vice versa. Leo thought she was mad at him for holding Annabeth back even though Annabeth didn't really seem at all angry. Or maybe she figured it would have happened with or without Jason's help which is what Leo expected.

Frank was watching a bird fly out the window. Maybe he was wanting to go join it. Leo internally laughed. Franks swooping around with all the pretty little birdies. Hazel was watching the Camp Half-Blood screens. He wondered if she wanted to go there. Then she started to cry.

Everyone glanced up and came around her. Annabeth was the first to reach her side.

"H-he's never going to s-see the ocean again." She cried. Everyone started talking at once, consoling her, but Leo was watching Annabeth. She had stiffened and walked slowly back to her seat. Leo wondered if this was when she was going to break. But she didn't.

"Is everyone done with lunch?" She said. Everyone turned towards her with shocked expressions. Hazel just seemed to realize.

"Oh A-annabeth I'm s-so sorry. I only knew him for two m-months and you've known him for y-years." She seemed ashamed.

"Don't Hazel." She started picking up plates. "He could make a big impact in a couple weeks, couldn't he." She said that last words at almost a whisper. She collected herself.

"I was just collecting plates, is everyone done?" Everyone nodded wordlessly.

"Good." And Annabeth scooped up all the plates, and walked briskly towards and sink and started cleaning.

Leo thought Annabeth was going to break then, but she didn't. She instead broke in a situation he didn't know why. He ran to a grocery store in Ithaca because while he brought magical plates from Camp Half-Blood that produce any meal, it's only healthy food. So every once in a while, Leo would run to grab some junk food. "What every growing boy needs" he would always tell Piper when she'd roll her eyes at him.

When Leo came back, everyone gathered around as he unloaded groceries.

"And you all know I can't live without my Fonzies!" He grinned pulling out his new favorite snack. "And Cheetos for Frank, Salt and Vinegar for Piper, and sorry Jason. They didn't have regular corn chips. They only had the weird blue ones."

That's when Annabeth burst into tears for the first time since the doors. They all stared at her shocked while she ran out of the room. Piper blinked in surprise and picked up the blue potato chips.

"Anyone have any idea why that upset her?" She inspected the bag.

"You're closest to her." Frank shrugged. Piper shot Jason a look Leo couldn't read.

"Maybe I should go and talk to her." Piper suggested.

"No." Leo cut in. He felt terribly. He didn't know what he did to make her cry, but he wanted to be the one to fix it. "I will."

"Leo, I'm sure what ever it is it isn't your fault." Hazel consoled.

"Yeah definitely." Jason said.

"Still though, I'll go." Leo started walking down to Annabeth's room. He knocked on her door the "shave and a hair cut" bit. As he expected she didn't do the responding two knocks. He creaked open the door. She was sitting on her bed, knees pulled to her chest, eyes red. She glanced up at him as he walked in and then returned her gaze to her blanket.

"Hey Annabeth. I'm sorry if I made you sad downstairs." He volunteered to go, but he suddenly had no clue what to say. He shifted uncomfortably. He was a mechanic, not a conversationalist, and definitely not a therapist.

"No no, it's nothing I'm sorry." She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand.

"What do you have to be sorry for? Having a normal reaction?" His joke fell flat. It wasn't a good one anyway.

"I'm sure it wasn't nothing. You uh mind telling me about it?" He came a step closer.

"It's stupid. You're gonna laugh at me." She groaned.

"Well I'm kinda an expert with stupid things and I love to laugh." He gave a nervous grin. She laughed and Leo relaxed. Suddenly this conversation stopped seeming so impossible.

Then she started telling him about how Percy's mom, Sally was married to Smelly Gabe. Leo laughed at Percy's nickname for his step-father. She talked about how some of her acts of rebellion were purposefully making blue foods because it made him mad and that it was Percy's favorite color. Leo vaguely remembered seeing Percy eat a blue slice of pie at some point. Things about Percy Jackson started clicking. At some point the others came in started listening to Annabeth's story which led to another and another.

All around were sad smiles. Smiles for remembering who he was and what he used to do, but tears because he'll never do it again. It was the smile seen at funerals. Leo realized that even though he only knew Percy for a few weeks, he had a greater impact on everyone than Leo could ever even imagine. Even though he was dead, Percy was still the glue that held the team together. Leo looked around at all the bittersweet smiles and wondered if Percy knew what kind of a legacy he was leaving behind.