It was the same dream every time.

She was so used to the sight now. A single black nightstand in a darkened room. On top of it….nothing but a red telephone.

The silence was the worst part, staring at that stupid phone. The silence seemed amplified.

"Come on. Come on, damn it," she begged softly, looking at the phone.

It never rang. As much as she prayed and begged, it never rang.

"Rosie. Hey, Rosie, wake up."

She yelped and sat up, angrily wielding whatever was in her hands...which was a pair of Nunchucks. Right. Harley, the little eight-year-old from the Hephaestus cabin, had given them to her. She wasn't really sure why...he had quickly given them to her, and then had ran off quickly. She thought it was maybe his way of comforting her...she liked that kid. He reminded her of...a certain someone. She made a mental note to spend more time with him.

Jason stood over her, raising his eyebrow at the Nunchucks. "You always greet your guests this way?"

"What can I say," she said flatly. "It's the charm of cabin three."

A flash of worry and sympathy flashed across his face for a second. Then, he held out a hand to her. "I brought you a blueberry muffin."

"Thanks." Sleeping in late meant never getting a chocolate chip bagel, her favorite from the mess hall. She placed the muffin on her nightstand, not sure when she would eat it. Thank god it was only Jason here; Piper would've made her eat it, probably force-feeding her.

"We, uh- Piper and I- wanted to wake you up. The summer campers are leaving. Piper wants to say goodbye."

"Oh. Right." The majority of campers were leaving today, going back to their homes for the school year. Piper and Jason were heading to LA to live with Mr. McLean. Going with them was Coach, Mellie, and their baby Chuck.

Rosie had been invited to go with them. Originally, she thought it would be good to go with them, be with her friends, go to school, etc.

Things had changed.

So, she was going to stay. Which partially meant, she was going to be alone.

Everyone was by the entrance, exchanging hugs and goodbyes. Rosie spotted Piper, along with Annabeth, Percy, Coach, Mellie, and little baby Chuck. A small smile appeared on her face when she saw Piper excitedly bouncing on her heels, no doubt excited to see her father.

"Hey!" Percy exclaimed, giving her a wave. "There's our Nunchuck wielding friend."

She smirked, as Piper placed an arm on her shoulder. "I'm guessing that's why you didn't wake me up."

He tapped her on the nose. "Bingo."

Annabeth peered at her. "You look exhausted. Jason, did you give her that muffin?" She glanced at me. "Did you eat the muffin?"

"I gave her the muffin!" Jason said defensively.

Piper frowned. "Why didn't you eat the muffin?"

She held up her hands in surrender. "I will eat the damn muffin! I don't know what I'm gonna do without all my parents nagging me 24/7."

Everyone exchanged slightly relieved looks like thank god, Rosie was joking with us.

"Remember," Percy said. "I'm going to be in the city. You can come visit anytime."

She saluted. "Aye, aye, captain."

He pulled her into a hug, squeezing her tightly and whispering into her ear, "Be careful, sis. No exploding toilets."

"Touché. Try not to die anytime soon."

Annabeth was next, hugging her and smoothing the back of her hair. "Take it easy, Rosie. We all love you."

Rosie gulped. "Geez, you've gone soft..."

Annabeth gasped, swatting her shoulder, with a slight smile on her face.

Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand. "Well, we should get going."

They all waved goodbye to their friends, as the two of them walked towards Argus, probably to check out.

Coach Hedge gave her a once-over, hands on his hips. "Not sure about leaving you here, Reiger."

"Aww, not you too, you old goat." She gave him a lighthearted shove.

"I'm just saying! Watch out, Cupcake..." he hesitated. "We'll be in LA if you need anything, alright?"

Rosie nodded. "Thanks, Coach." She gave him a quick hug, along with Mellie. She stuck out her tongue at Chuck.

That left her with her two best friends, the ones she started this with. However, it was obvious someone was missing. Her hands suddenly started to tremor; she had been dreading this moment.

Jason and Piper were both looking at her like she was a sick puppy.

"So..." she took a breath to pull herself together. "If either of you get any kind of weird body piercings, I may have to kill you."

They both laughed. Piper, however, then frowned and slammed into her, hugging her so tightly Rosie thought her ribs were going to break.

"Ouch! Pipes!"

"I'm going to miss you so much," she cried. "Are you absolutely positive you don't want to come with us?"

Rosie sighed. "I can't...I'm sorry. I'll be fine, though. Don't worry, dude."

Piper gulped. "Call every day."

"You'll get sick of me."

"Impossible."

"I'll talk about boring things, like watching paint dry."

"I'll soak it up like a sponge."

Rosie let out a laugh, which sounded more like a sob. She really was going to miss her best friend.

"I love you," Piper said.

"Right back at you."

Piper finally let go of her, backing away slowly and wiping her eyes.

Jason stepped forward. "Eat the muffin."

Rosie bowed her head solemnly. "It would be an honor to fulfill my duty, Sir."

Jason laughed. "God, you're so weird."

"Charming, Grace, charming."

"I refuse to say goodbye."

Rosie gulped back another sob. "Okay."

"Because nothing is going to happen to us...or you. We'll be across the country, but we'll-we'll visit-and talk-and if you change your mind at all-"

Rosie let out a sob, and Piper and Jason both stepped forward in concern.

"Look what you made her do!" Piper told him angrily.

Jason looked upset. "Rosie, I'm sorry-"

She waved him off. "No, I'm sorry- it's just-hitting me...my best friends-" She let out a weird hiccupy sound. "My best friends are leaving."

She threw herself into Jason's arms, and Jason also silently shook with tears. Piper wrapped her arms around the both of them, and they were enveloped in a group hug. If Leo were there, Rosie knew he would say something cheesy like "awww...family moment!"

"Okay." Rosie wiggled out of the hug. "Enough depressing stuff. You guys go. Have fun. Be normal. Tell your dad I said hi, Pipes."

Piper squeezed her hand. "We'll see you soon, okay?"

She nodded.

The two of them picked up their bags and started walking towards their coach bus. At the last second, Jason turned around and said, "Eat the damn muffin!" She gave him a thumbs up.

She stood there, alone, watching as the bus with all her friends on it pulled away. She felt an undeniable flash of anger, like she knew she should be on that bus. Not just that, though: It should've been all of them on that bus.

She had these moments occasionally, moments filled with so much anger that she didn't know what to do with herself. She had so much anger and nowhere to put it. Anger at Gaea. Anger at Frank and Hazel for helping Leo, even though she knew that was ridiculous, for Frank and Hazel were her friends, and cried and mourned along with her. Anger at her friends, for having families and lives to return to, angry that the only family she had left was the father she didn't even ask for, the one who had done nothing but smite her.

Even anger at Leo, for not divulging her plan to her and for being so good and selfless. Sometimes, she really hated him for it. It was weird how love and hate got so tangled up.

She saw her friends laughing on the bus, and felt another flash of this ugly emotion. How could they already be moving on? Why was she the one to be experiencing such a fatal blow? Hadn't she lost enough already? Did they even care?

Squash it down, she told herself. Don't feel.

She watched the bus drive away, a part of her heart going away with it.

The door to her cabin slammed open, causing Rosie to drop the potted plant she was currently holding in her hands.

"Shit," she cursed as shards of ceramic went everywhere, dirt scattered on the ground.

Nyssa Barrera, a camper from Hephasetus, stormed in, raising her eyebrows in amusement. Her hair was currently in intricate braids. That was always something Rosie envied her for: her braiding skills.

"Well, someone's jumpy," Nyssa observed.

"Careful, there's shards everywhere," Rosie warned, carefully manuvering to avoid getting impaled.

"Where have you been?" Nyssa asked. "No one but Will and Nico have seen you all week."

"Tell them to get a new service project," she said tensely, kneeling down to brush up the shards of the pot into a dustpan.

"Rosie," Nyssa said, sighing. "This isn't easy for any of us. We all want you to be there. Harley keeps asking about you."

"I've been busy."

"With what, stealing plants from the Demeter cabin?"

"Hey, Miranda said I could take these."

"It just feels like...you've been avoiding us. Have you even been to the bunker recently?"

She spent hours in the Sound. All she did nowadays was swim-lap after lap, pushing herself to go harder and harder. The naiads left her alone, most of camp had avoided her since the battle ended. She didn't blame them.

She couldn't sleep- the occasional sleep now only brought nightmares, nightmares that didn't seem so bad anymore because her worst nightmare had already happened, and she was living with it constantly. She walked at night, the patrol harpies giving her sympathetic looks, but never yelling at her to go back to her cabin. She'd walk into the forest, usually all the way to Bunker 9. She never went in, for the painful image of a Latino boy with a shit-eating grin at the doorway always stopped her. Going inside would be too much, too many memories, too triggering.

"I thought I might find you here."

Rosie was sitting outside the Bunker when Piper found her.

"Hi." Rosie didn't bother to get up, or even look at her.

Piper sat down next to her. "It's pretty cold."

"I'm fine." She hardly felt the cold. These past weeks, all she had known was the familiar numbness she had known her entire life, the enemy named grief that stalked her, and destroyed her. She had a constant headache, like the migraines she would occasionally get. It felt like her entire body had aged a thousand years in the past three weeks.

"Man, I have so many mosquito bites," Piper complained, itching her knee. "Those little guys love sucking on me."

Normally, Rosie would've cracked a joke like wiggling her eyebrows and saying "Dirty!", or something like that. She was sure Piper was trying to accomplish this, getting her to tease her. Humor normally came so easily to her, and yet, she didn't have the desire to do so.

Piper didn't falter; she continued on blabbering. A small part of Rosie was guilty: they were both grieving a friend, and yet here was Piper obviously trying to comfort her. She was a good friend: Rosie didn't even mind when Piper used charmspeak on her recently to get basic tasks done, such as eating or sleeping or getting out of bed.

"So..." Piper trailed off uneasily. "I heard they have some blueprints. Of Leo's. Uh, Nyssa told me they're going to try building some of them..."

Rosie said nothing, just felt her chest tighten up at the mention of Leo.

"He was brilliant, Rosie. This'll be the best way to honor him," Her voice shook at the end of this sentence.

"Is." Rosie spoke lowly.

"Huh?"

"He is brilliant. He's not..." She took a shaky breath, praying that she wouldn't cry. She had cried too much lately, something that just reminded of how easily she got dehydrated, and how much Leo had made fun of her for it. "Leo isn't dead."

Piper's face crumbled, and she swallowed back what sounded like a sob. "Rosie..."

"Stop," She begged. "Don't."

Piper grabbed her hand. "Rosie, I know it hurts, but you have to realize..."

Rosie yanked her hand out of Piper's grasp. "Stop!" She shrieked, a loud noise disturbing the silence of the woods. "He's not dead! He...he isn't gone, okay? He's not..." Damn: here came the tears. "He couldn't have just...I-please, don't say it Piper...please don't say it."

She broke down into sobs, and Piper wrapped her into her arms. Rosie realized that she was also crying.

"I know," Piper comforted. "I know...I want to believe that too...but-" Her voice took on a gentle tone. "He is gone, Rosie. Leo is not coming back."

Rosie wondered who elected Piper to be the one to say this to Rosie; she imagined all her friends in a room, debating on how to make crazy Rosie realize her best friend wasn't coming back.

She just couldn't fathom it. She couldn't fathom a world without Leo Valdez.

A blanket was placed on her shoulders by Piper.

"Please come back to bed, okay?" Her voice had some undeniably charm in it.

So Rosie got up, and leaned on her best friend, dreading the empty cabin awaiting her.

After that, Rosie didn't cry anymore about him. She didn't even talk about Leo. He was locked up in the crevices of her mind, territory that wouldn't be touched.

"I promise I'm not avoiding you," Rosie said to Nyssa.

"You sure?" she said, clearly not buying Rosie's bullshit.

"Like I said. I've been busy."

surprise! the continuation to rosie's story begins! this is post-blood of olympus, and it'll lead into the TOA era, the story will start in the months of August-December before then. This won't just be Rosie's POV, there will be the occasion Leo chapter dealing with the Max issue. Updates might be sporadic, as my schedule is busy and I also have another story currently going on (honor, glory, and other flaws- it's a jason prequel, check it out!) i'll try to make the chapters long so even if it's a good amount of time between updates, it'll be worth it.