Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize from anywhere is mine.
Regaining consciousness after being knocked out is a veritable snowflake of an experience. It seems pretty before it hits you, then it's cold, somewhat shocking and befuddling to the system, and spiky looking on closer inspection. It's also an experience, which in Cassie's personal view, has never been quite the same twice.
The first time she ever passed out had been just after her mother had died. She had run for her life and then cried herself to sleep. The physical toll of the crying combined with the shock of the events of the day had her out cold. She'd woken up with a pain in her stomach from crying curled up on a bare tile floor. The overwhelming sensation she had experienced then had been one of utmost nausea.
The second time had involved major blood loss. She hadn't had her bow yet and had been reduced to fighting up close and personal with an angry vampusa. Cassie had come out of it with gushing slash wounds, but the vampusa hadn't come out of it at all, so it still goes down in her books in the win column. That time she had woken up in pain, but she had woken up, thanks in large part to Luke and Thalia's quick action and Annabeth's quicker thinking in dragging her in to some sunshine.
The next time after that had resulted from an over use of her powers. It had been the first time she had tried to make a shield out of bending light and holding it in place for any real period of time. She'd done it to get herself, Percy, and Annabeth off of The Princess Andromeda without being run through with spears. It hadn't lasted long given that they had been in Florida in July.
The time after that- Well. The idea should now be fairly illustrated.
This time when Cassie wakes up it's not as surprising as it has been before. All things considered, it's not even as painful as it has been before. A quick analysis before she even opens her eyes tells her that none of her bones are broken. She doesn't seem to be bleeding from anywhere either which is always a good thing.
Hades. Nothing even seems to be sprained. She's bruised to be sure, given she's lying flat on a marble floor which wasn't true during her last conscious recollection during which she was vertical that isn't so surprising, but on the whole everything about her seems pretty physically unharmed.
Also, the ceiling in this museum is really interesting. She's never noticed the ceiling in here before and she's visited this museum at least twice. One of the very limited fringe benefits of passing out- you get a few minutes of uninterrupted quality time to look at the ceilings you never bother to observe the rest of the time.
A distant portion of Cassie's mind seems to have gotten back with the program faster than the rest of her brain because some bit of her is registering that this isn't normally the path her mind takes. That probably means she's handling some kind of shock. She thinks she'll just hang out and let it wash over her for a moment.
That plan hits it's expiration date pretty quickly when her auditory cortex gets back to doing it's job and lets her know that there are sirens rapidly approaching. She's recognizable now which severely limits her choices when it comes to forming a plan of action. It's possible that she can keep lying here and wait for someone with an ambulance to show up. Other than that she can either get up and meet the police at the door, or gather enough power to get up and get out of dodge.
The option that involves just lying around and waiting for help can be quickly struck down. Sitting around waiting for someone else to show up and save her has never been Cassie's preferred modus operandi. If it had been she'd probably have died a while ago.
That elimination leaves her with only two options and both of them involve standing up. So with a groan, Cassie summons an effort she thinks those informed to know would agree is frankly Herculean in mass, and pulls herself up in to a sitting position. The movement makes her head spin a little but does prove to be possible which is nice.
It suddenly occurs to her that she hadn't been in her last fight by herself and looks around frantically to find Wanda. The possibility that her friend might be somewhere around here hurt or otherwise in danger gets Cassie moving in a way she doesn't think anything else would ever be able to. At her core Cassie is an emergency medic. When shit hits the fan, she goes to work helping everyone it damages. Consequences to herself be damned.
Wanda turns out to be unhurt, though shaken. She had, very sensibly in Cassie's opinion, removed herself from the main portion of the battle when it had become clear she would be unable to help in the real combat. She'd positioned herself in a shielded alcove near a window overlooking the street in order to defend the mortal bystanders outside. It's thanks to her actions that no glass or debris had showered out in to the street and no one had panicked and caused extra chaos.
"What was that thing?" Wanda asks, looking paler than usual. Which, is certainly a feat.
Cassie frowns and holds out a hand to help pull her up from her crouched position in front of the window. "Technically it's a spike covered, fiery, poisonous son of the mother of all monsters called a Chimera. What'd it look like to you?"
Wanda accepts her help and regains her feet, carefully picking bits of ragged debris off of her clothes. "It seemed to me to be a blurry mix of a lion and some sort of deranged and unpleasant armadillo."
"Huh," Cassie mutters, tipping her head and considering the description. Then she nods a few times. Once would have been sufficient but her head is still a bit scrambled from passing out and making abrupt contact with a very solid floor. "That's pretty close actually. Add some fire and poison and you're basically there."
The other girl revolves slowly on the spot to examine the formerly pristine museum lobby. "I see that. At the time I was unsure as to where the fire came from." She frowns. "I do not know where I thought it was, but it was not my biggest problem."
"I think that might be kind of how the Mist works," Cassie acknowledges. "The less the brain knows how to process something, the more the Mist gets in and blurs things out. It fills in gaps. So the less higher thinking you might be doing, the more you get from the Mist. You probably saw as much as you did because my brain would have been broadcasting pretty loudly."
"It was," Wanda confirms, wincing. "Very loudly."
Cassie supposes that probably explains the greenish tinge in Wanda's cheeks. Not a lot of higher reasoning, thought, or recollection goes in to a fight for your life. You mostly end up running on adrenaline, muscle memory, and instinct. But all of those things have to come from somewhere, and the somewhere it comes from generally involved high levels of violence and fear. Both of which must be pretty overwhelming for a telepath.
She hums in sympathy. "Sorry about that."
The sirens are getting closer and a peculiar ability for sound-echo location is telling her that they'll be at their location in under a minute. She must not have been unconscious for very long given New York City response times. The internal war she's got going about weather she should stick around and explain things like a real freaking adult or just high tail it out of there with Wanda to let the Mist sort things out will have to come to a close sooner rather than later.
Wanda is examining her. "Are you alright? Your brain went very quiet for a minute."
She nods. "Passed out for a moment," she explains. "It happens sometimes. Anyway look, we can either stick it out here and talk to the cops about what just happened which is going to involve a lot of complicated shit I don't know how to explain to the NYPD, or we can completely shirk civic responsibility and get out of here fast."
Wanda is still looking at her with concern and Cassie kind of has to wonder what the portion of her brain that isn't occupied with crisis management is doing right now. Then Wanda examines the room again and the crowd outside which has moved from shocked silence to frantic jabbering and panicked shouts. She pulls a face. "Pietro and I used to steal food and supplies when we were children," she says. "I have no wish to speak to police. But how do we leave here without being noticed?"
Cassie scans the room and takes a step backwards in to a ray of sunshine pouring through the shattered windows. An examination of her arms shows her that golden sparks of magic are flicking across her skin, following the lines of her veins and centering at her pulse points. The energy she's picking up right now isn't the good and vital healthy kind she prefers. Instead, it gives her the shaky emptied out and hollow rush that too much caffein normally provides.
It's probably a bit of her father's consciousness trying to warn her that using more power isn't an idea he endorses just now. Cassie shows her appreciation for the warning by humming a fast and somewhat panicked hymn in his honor and then begins to gather the energy in to herself. All she needs is this one shot. Just one trip, and then she'll leave any and all godly power where it is for at least a week and maybe longer.
Once she thinks she's got enough power scraped together she beckons to Wanda and holds out one hand. "Grab on, hold tightly, and whatever you do, DO NOT let go."
Wanda's seen her vanish in out of space more than once so she seems to grasp what's about to happen fairly quickly. Her dark eyes widen drastically, but she does reach out and grips her hand in a tight grip. Cassie grips back and takes a quick breath.
Before going, Cassie gives voice to an ancient and well known prayer. It's one often thought but rarely vocalized these days. "O Patéras kai o Pappoús sas evlogoei to taxídi mou sto spot."
Father and Grandfather please bless my journey home.
Then she focuses each and every molecule of her being on where it is she wants to go, and pulls herself and Wanda through the channels of darkness between sun spots. Thankfully, they do both manage to pop out hail and hearty on the other end. Well hail and hearty might be a bit of an exaggeration.
Upon reformation in the new team common space, Wanda's first move is to launch herself for the kitchen trash can to throw up.
Cassie really can't blame her. The first thing that she experiences when her entire body checks in at it's new location is a selection of worrying reddish-black sunspots dancing in and around her vision like ripples on the surface of a pond. Her sense of balance also seems to have utterly deserted her too. The floor seems to want to launch up at her and Cassie makes the executive choice to sit down by herself before gravity does the work for her.
Her head seems to feel like it wants to sway independently from her body and possibly detach completely. Cassie likes her head where it is given that it contains her brain, so she pulls her knees in to her chest and presses her head down on them. A distant ringing is pounding through her ears so Cassie takes the additional step of crossing her arms over her knees too as an additional anchor point and sound barrier. The spinning decreases a little, but the ringing doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
"Sas efcharisto ton Patera," she murmurs at the floor. "Thank you Father. Tibi gratius Avus. Thank you Grandfather."
She'll make a proper sacrifice later. Like, when she can actually walk and speak without feeling like she wants to pass out again. Cassie will accept once in a day as a reasonable consequence for power. Equal opposite reactions being what they are. Two is pushing it.
If there's a way to stubborn her way out of this, she plans on finding it.
Over the ringing in her ears and through the barrier of her own arms, she thinks she can hear footsteps rapidly coming their way. That means she should probably make some effort at looking presentable. Or at least less catatonic.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahah.
Right.
Sometimes Cassie can really crack herself up.
She hopes she isn't giggling like a lunatic. There's a sneaking suspicion in her mind that giggling right now might concern quite a few people. Come to think of it, it'd probably concern her too. Giggling probably isn't being done by her right now. She's going to ride with that hope.
Despite all the odds, she does manage a little bit of movement.
She extricates one arm from the curled up ball she has going on and manages to feel and haul her way out of the middle of the floor toward one of the couches. She anchors her back against the bottom of the furniture, folds her arms on the coffee table, and leans her head against them. The coffee table is made out of glass and the cool substance is a fantastic sensation against her skin.
Apparently, she's overheating.
Cassie has rarely if ever been genuinely sick. Her immune system is generally pretty fantastic given her genetics. However, the possibility she's being punished for over use of power with a bit of a fever is not at all a remote one. In fact, it's pretty damn likely that that's what is going on.
What did you take for a fever when you were a demigod? Cassie casts her mind back, but she doesn't think she's ever really needed to treat this situation. The only fevers she's ever dealt with were treated with plenty of fluids, some time in bed, a supply of bad television, and ibuprofen. Maybe she'll go for something like that.
A hand taps on her shoulder and someone asks her if she's okay. Some tone in the voice that speaks let's her know that the person who's asking her is Sam. Actually hearing the words makes her feel like she's listening from under water. Still, some kind of response would appear to be necessary.
Moving her head seems from where it is just now feels like it's at some level beyond what's possible and formulating language is a singular step better. After a second to continue she works her way over to a viable solution and lifts one hand a little off of the table. She makes a quick military hand signal for 'okay' and drops the hand back to the coffee table.
Sam snorts derisively and Cassie's actually relieved to hear it because it means that some of her mental faculties are sorting themselves out. "As a guy with some basic medical training I am gonna feel nice and comfortable calling bull shit on that one Doc."
Cassie sighs and rolls her head slowly to the side to glare up at him with one eye. Then she raises her hand again and gives a second signal. This one is universal, rude, uses one finger, and is utterly impossible to mistake.
Then she closes her eyes again because the overhead lights are giving her a headache.
Sam is close enough to her that she can feel him chuckle as well as hear it. She also hears a whooshing noise and feels a gust of wind fly by her, both of which signify to her that Pietro has arrived to check on his sister. Wanda and her brother share a strong enough permanent mental link that Pietro probably knew what was happening and where they were going within seconds of them making their decision.
A quick chatter of Sokovian passes straight over her head and then there is another whoosh as Pietro leaves again. The swirl of cold air feels lovely against her skin and Cassie moved her arms a little to rest her cheek against the table's surface. She should probably find a water bottle and chug it at some point in the near future.
"Alright now," she hears Sam say. Then she feels him scoop her up off the floor before depositing her on the couch. And that's... that's better actually. Much better. Good thinking on Sam's part in her opinion. Because now she's not vertical in any sense of the word and it's easier to comfortably curl up in a fetal position.
Cassie pats Sam on the arm in a gesture which she hopes conveys her thanks. He seems to get it because he rubs her back in a brotherly way and then gets up and returns a minute later with a large glass of water and one of the protein bars she herself had created. Then he kneels down in front of her.
"Wanna give vertical a shot before a certain Captain shows up and panics?" he asks. "'Cause I don't know exactly what you're dealing with right now. But I gotta say you've looked better, and it's probably gonna be my job to calm down a protective Super Soldier if he freaks out. And Speedy just went to go get him so..."
She groans but nods and then swallows and reaches for speech. "Okay," she croaks, voice dry and scratchy. "Help me sit up?"
Sam nods and reaches out, shifting her upwards so that she's more leaning on the arm of the couch than curled up on the cushions. Then he hands her the glass of water and uncomplainingly helps her drink when her hands prove too shaky to do it herself. Next he produces a bottle of Advil. "I don't know how this works on you, but this is kinda seeming like a 'what the hell' type of situation."
There's really not much to say against that so she takes the offered capsules in her palm and swallows them dry. Weather they work or not, she doesn't think they'll be able to make her feel much worse. Sam nods approvingly and then hands her the unwrapped granola bar which she nibbles on without really tasting it.
That's around when she notices that sparks are still dancing over her wrists, diving and surfing along her veins, weaving frantically through her blood stream. She's only seen her magic behave like this once before, and that time it was because she had been attempting to cure Percy of Pit Scorpion venom. Suddenly, the level of crappy she's feeling makes a whole lot more sense. The chimera hadn't been able to sting her, but it had done the uncharacteristic thing of bursting in to blood, guts, and venom. Some of it must have gotten absorbed and now her system is becoming consumed with fighting it off.
"Can you-" she tries to say, but it comes out raspy so she swallows before trying again. "Can you hand me my bag Sam?"
Sam is frowning at the sparks still visible in her blood stream but he moves quickly and grabs the bag for her. Cassie nods and thinks about reaching out to take the bag and then decides against it. "Inside it there's a ziplock bag in a closed side pocket. What's inside it is probably going to look like a lemon bar. Break it in half and then hand it too me. Quick."
Once again, Sam follows directions without hesitation and hands her the partially crushed portion of ambrosia. Cassie takes the godly food and takes a hesitant bite. She isn't completely certain that this will work, but letting poison take a jive through her body isn't exactly a tenable plan. Thankfully, the godly food does it's job in seconds as the taste of chocolate and cinnamon washes through her mouth and warms her from head to toe.
She eats the portion slowly, relieved that it seems to be banishing the a lot of the sick and spinning feeling in her head and stomach. A little bit more might eliminate the feeling completely, but she's still definitively shaky and feverish without the added risks of immortal substances. Her heart rate is already speeding up but at least it's more even now. The sparks and glow signifying her powers are beginning to fade and recede. She still feels absolutely horrible, but this is at least a functional kind of horrible.
It's the godly equivalent of a bad case of the flu.
Probably.
She's never actually had the flu.
Sam whistles. "Damn. I got no idea what that stuff is but it does a damn fine job fixing you up."
Cassie pushes herself up a little more and takes a bigger bite of her granola bar. "Am I looking a bit better?"
"Less like you might pass out and die," Sam tells her honestly. "I'm not about to say it's the best you've ever looked though."
Well. Cassie can live with that given the circumstances. "Wanda?" she asks. "Is she doing okay? I don't pull people side-along like that very often. I was pretty out of it when we first got back but I don't think my kind of emergency travel agreed with her."
Sam nods. "She was doing okay last I saw. Looked kinda nauseous but not too bad. Gave the basics on what happened and then sent her brother to go get Steve. At least I think thats what the Sokovian was about. Haven't picked up the language yet."
"But it's something you're working on?" Cassie asks. She hadn't heard that it was something he was doing but she isn't so surprised. It's an example of the kind of consideration that makes Sam such a good person.
"One of the things you learn when you travel with any kind of military is that the United States depends a lot on the idea that the rest of the world speaks English. When it turns out it doesn't, communications start breaking down fast," he shrugs. "Speaking a language our new team members do seems like it might be the nice thing to do. Nat's been helping me out when she's around. And Rosetta Stone's a wonder."
Cassie manages a tired smile. "Let me know how it goes," she tells him. "Dyslexia says I won't be able to join you, but still, consider me behind you one hundred percent."
FRIDAY makes a chiming noise which since the AI's installation, Cassie has come to realize is the computerized equivalent of a person clearing their throat. "According to my lobby sensors, Captain Rogers has just returned to the premises. According to City traffic cameras, he has been traveling at a somewhat alarming rate since being informed of today's goings on by Mr. Maximoff. Shall I open the doors on his route from the lobby to this room?"
Before answering Cassie does a rapid mental calculation. The factors involved are somewhat fluctuating, and involve everything from Steve's probable panic level, to distance traveled, to created architectural plans, to the listed breaking force needed to shatter the doors/door frames used in the Tower. Most end quantities she ends up with after doing the math involve several thousand dollars of property damage.
Not that their landlord will actually end up charging them.
Probably.
In all likelihood it would depend on Tony's mood and weather or not Pepper is around.
She lets her head fall back on the couch again and casts her eyes at the ceiling. "That's probably a good idea FRIDAY, thanks. Also, I don't know if there's anything in your programming that can make the elevator go faster, but if there is you should probably do it. A worried Steve is a Steve with very little patience, and an impatient Steve is a Steve that's like forty times more likely to accidentally break a whole lot of drywall and furniture by accident."
"Yes Doctor Morgenstern," FRIDAY says, and barely a second later the door clicks and swings open.
Sam gives one of his easy grins and reaches out to pat her knee. "I'm gonna make a nice strategic retreat to the kitchen. I don't have quite the same breaking strength as that nice wall over there. You need anything while I'm in there?"
Cassie sighs and presses the heels of her hands hard against her eye. Sensations are now cueing up for her attention and one of them is a massive headache that may eventually grow in to a migraine. "I should probably keep hydrating," she says. "Thank you Sam."
He gives her a little salute and Cassie starts her mental count down. She gives Steve thirty seconds to get there. It's an outside guess, so the fact that Steve comes hurtling through the door when she hits twenty-two is in no way shocking.
The fact that he almost does the hurdles over two couches and a coffee table getting to her reinforces the notion that opening the doors between the lobby and this room was a good idea. The maintenance crews around here were used to cleaning up some odd messes, they work for Tony Stark after all, but from her understanding drywall is difficult to replace seamlessly. Leo has made complaints before.
She pushes herself forwards a bit more and holds up both of her hands. As she does so, she notices that a dim gold glow is still emanating from below her skin. Evidently ambrosia is not a one hundred percent effective five minute cure for chimera poison. The moment makes her wish she had something to wear with sleeves. Glowing skin is never really a sign that everything is okay-kosher.
Steve is in front of her in seconds and stops short. Obviously he hadn't had time or mental capacity to plan any farther than charging to her current location to see what was going on. Looking back on things, that's about his general method of problem solving when he personally knows someone who's in trouble. It's what he had done when Bucky had been taken back in World War II.
"What happened?" he asks. His voice is hitting a tone of scary-calm that means he's definitely panicking and trying to wrestle the emotion down. He kneels down in front of her. Then he reaches out but doesn't seem to know where to touch or weather he even should. His hands hover, moving along her arms and sides without making contact. Cassie notices that they're shaking slightly.
Cassie opens her mouth to speak but Steve isn't done speaking and simply steamrollers ahead. "Pietro didn't really explain. He just said that you and Wanda had been attacked at the museum and when he left you weren't moving. And then I couldn't get anybody on the phone and I know you've dealt with monsters since you were a kid and you go out and fight them all the time but normally you don't get hurt." He looks up at her, blue eyes helpless and more than a little confused.
She takes a deep breath and firmly takes his hands with hers and squeezes gently. "Okay," she says, and winces when her voice comes out croaky. "I don't think this is as bad as it looks, but I haven't looked in a mirror lately so maybe not. Things are also not as bad as I know I sound."
He disentangles one hand and reaches out, looping her hair back over her ear. It's a brave move what with the sweat and monster goo. The goo is a problem on several levels. "You look beautiful," he says. "Always. But what happened. Cass, if there's anyway-"
"Nothing you can do," Cassie tells him as firmly as she can under the circumstances. She leans up and kisses his forehead. "I know you're used to saving people, but seriously, in things like this I'm all set to save me. The attacks are too random to plan for, I'm good at handling them, and nine times out of ten I come out of them fine. This time was an exception. I just used too much power to kill the monster and get out of the museum."
Steve comes around to sit next to her and pulls her tightly in to his side, tracing small figures on her back. He's quiet for the moment and Cassie let's him be. She get's the feeling he needs his own time to once again swallow the fact that he can't necessarily keep her safe from the more dangerous elements of her life. It's time she can spare, she's exhausted and Steve's chest makes a better pillow than any couch kitchen.
The sigh he releases is one Cassie can feel deep in his chest. "What attacked you? The news is going with some kind of a gas explosion."
Cassie makes a mental note that she owes Sadie Kane five dollars. It's a long standing bet they have about how their godly issues and combat get played to the wider media. Where the Kanes went, stories of sewer gas malfunctions invariably followed.
She shifts her head a little on his chest and shuts her eyes against the dull throbbing filling her temples. "It's called a chimera," she tells him. "It's a lion, goat, snake thing that spits fire and breathes poison. Poison which evidently can now be absorbed through the skin after you kill it. Which didn't used to be the case I don't think, but Percy was twelve when he saw it and lasted about twelve seconds before doing a high dive escape off of the Saint Luis Arch. The chimera's very old and doesn't show up often. Accounts got a little mixed up over the last millennium."
He tips his head over so that his cheek is leaned on top of her head. "I- I can't even picture that."
"I wouldn't try," Cassie mumbles sincerely. "It's not an image I ever wanted in my head, but living with it is better than the alternative." She pulls herself upright and turns to face him. "I promise you I'm going to be fine," she tells him. "My residual healing capabilities are fighting the venom off as we speak and I already took some ambrosia. I'm gonna feel crappy for a few days, but that's it."
Steve's mouth twitches a little like he's trying to smile but isn't sure he remembers how just at the moment. "I can handle that," he says. "I'll burry you in a million blankets and figure out what kind of tea is supposed to cure poison. Apparently Meg swears there's a tea for everything at the natural foods grocery store." Obviously the semblance of having a plan is helpful and Cassie prepares herself for what's to come. She has a feeling that a slightly protracted illness is going to bring out Steve's latent hovering and mother hen behavior on a whole new level.
She turns her head to press a kiss in to the fabric of his shirt over his heart. "How about we go home?" she suggests. She's gotten back to the exhaustion stage of things and she feels like she's trying to talk around a mouthful of cotton fluff. Right now all Cassie wants to do is sleep and she's about willing to pass out right here on the couch if necessary.
That said, she'd prefer to sleep in a real bed.
"Okay," she hears Steve say tenderly. "Go ahead and sleep. I'll carry you."
Cassie gives him a smile which will hopefully convey her thanks adequately and remains curled up in a little ball for the trip back to their apartment. Had she still been on her own, she would have fallen asleep where she was and then mentally berate herself in to getting up and finding a bed later. However, now she has a super soldier boyfriend very much capable of helping her out so she's going to choose to take advantage of that.
Steve walks them both back to the apartment and FRIDAY must open the doors for them because she never feels his grip on her change. Then she gets changed in to her pajamas and crawls under the covers. The only surprising thing in this situation is that Steve also changes and crawls in next to her.
She frowns around a yawn. "You don't need to lie around with me," she mumbles. "Give me a couple hours and I'll be- be," she's prevented from continuing by another yawn, and this one is wide enough that the stretch in her jaw sends another stab of pain through her head.
"Uh huh," Steve says in a way that makes her think that in this circumstance her own will is going to be absolutely ignored. He moves his own head a little and brushes the lightest of kisses over one throbbing temple. "Tell me that again when moving your head doesn't make you flinch and maybe I'll believe you."
Cassie burrows a little in to his solid warmth next to her and when she speaks again her voice is muffled by the material of his tee-shirt. "Thought you said you'd never call a lady a liar."
He shifts under her and the dim glow that had been filling the room before winks out meaning he must have had the lights turned out. "I never said you lied," he says calmly. "Just that I didn't buy what you'd said. Now go to sleep."
"Bossy."
Despite her protests, she does fall asleep and stays that way for the next ten hours. She eats another piece of ambrosia and goes back to bed. She doesn't know how long she's drifting in and out of being awake, but it must be a while if the progression of sunshine coming in through the gap in the blinds is any indication. When she finally wakes up for good with her headache gone, her phone tells her that it's eight o'clock in the morning.
Steve isn't next to her anymore, but she can hear people moving around in the kitchen so he's probably out there. A shower seems in order so she rolls out of bed and begins to pick her way across the room to the bathroom. Her legs are more wobbly than she would like to admit, and she's still getting occasional black spots in her vision, but she doesn't feel like she wants to curl up and die anymore so she's willing to call this an improvement.
The hot water that pours from the shower head does wonders in relaxing her muscles and she comes out of it feeling cleaner, refreshed, and more human than she has for the last twenty-four hours. Things are going so well since that particular feature of morning routine that she takes it a step farther and brushes her teeth before braiding her hair back loosely to keep it neater. Very possibly such efforts are pointless since her plans for the day mostly involve going back to bed, but she's doing them anyway as a point of principle.
She's just gotten herself resettles under the covers when a knock sounds on the bedroom door. It opens a moment later and Reyna sticks her head in. "Hello," she says. "Is there space on that mattress for me?"
Cassie smiles and makes a sweeping gesture towards the expense of mattress next to her. "Of course."
Reyna grins and kicks off her shoes before hopping up on to the mattress next to her. "I hear you had a run in with a chimera."
"Yup," Cassie confrims. "And it was weird too. The way it produces poison's changed for one thing."
"So I see," her friend says dryly, regarding Cassie's current paid complexion and slightly glowing wrists. "The skin's not broken anywhere but you still ended up poisoned. Did it absorb through your skin? Or do you think it was inhaled?"
The answer to that question is one that Cassie's thought over already. "Through the skin," she says. "Otherwise my lungs would be in way worse shape than they are. But Reyna that wasn't the weird part. The weird part was that after I killed it, the chimera exploded. And I mean like really exploded. There were guts. It didn't just turn in to dust and leave a bad smell the way most monsters do."
Reyna frowns. "Now that I've never seen before." She taps her fingers together as she leans back against the headboard. "We still haven't taken Katya to visit either of our camps yet. Maybe we can combine doing that with asking some questions. We could go this weekend?"
Cassie nods. "That sounds good but maybe next weekend would be better. I don't think I'm going to be up for travel before tomorrow and we need longer than one day. Were you thinking Camp Jupiter or Camp Half-Blood?"
Personally, Cassie is hoping for a nice drive down to Long Island rather than a flight to California. Much as she respect the immortal wolf goddess Lupa, Chiron is a bit better for providing advice and getting people set up to do research. Wolves aren't known for being communicative and helpful.
"Camp Half-Blood," Reyna says decisively. "Definitely. We need advice not training. Chiron will be more helpful."
She makes a humming noise. "That sounds like a good plan. Meanwhile, is my boyfriend in the kitchen?"
Reyna nods. "Yours and mine. I think Bucky is about to browbeat Steve in to being more calm about all of this. I think they're making breakfast. You should have some nice eggs and an ungodly amount of bacon to eat within the next twenty minutes. I have also provided a lovely helping of arroz con leche for your enjoyment. I'm planning on throwing you a picnic in your room."
Cassie freezes and regards Reyna carefully. "You cooked," she says suspiciously. "And not only did you cook, you put in a lot of effort. You made me the traditional and thoroughly delicious dish known as arroz con leche. You are showing me affection through food. You are Reyna Avilla Ramirez-Arellano! You do not show concern through food! You organize people's personal lives and vanquish their enemies for them. Just how close to dead am I looking right now?"
Her friend gives a nonchalant shrug. "If it helps any, you look less dead now than you did before you showered and brushed your hair. Now you just look a little dead. The hot water has made your skin seem more human in color instead of papery grey. Before, I was wondering if I should call someone to make you a shroud."
"My cabin makes pretty shrouds," Cassie says glibly after a moment spent in silence to digest that comment. Reyna doesn't tend to lie or exaggerate. If she's straight out saying that Cassie looked that bad, than she definitely looked that bad. She's picking humor in the face of a near death experience as so many of her friends tend to do. "Seriously, they're pretty. They're shiny and gold with embroidery."
"I've heard that," Reyna comments. "Not surprising. The children and descendants of Apollo when they made it in to the senate always had the nice togas. Even Octavian had a nice dramatic dress sense and he was the most watered down sniveling weasel of a descendant I ever met."
Cassie funnels a little extra healing energy in to the tips of her fingers and snaps them, producing a tiny burst of controlled flame. It flickers and dies out very quickly, but the fact that she can do it at all right now is encouraging. "Drraaaaammaaa," she sings lightly.
It makes Reyna crack a smile, but Cassie knows she's still covering up a fairly severe level of worry. "There must be a song somewhere about that," she says. "I can't remember the words, but I know I once heard a song from a show about why theater was so great. I always thought it was funny but it irritated Hylla. She felt like it was too much self-advertising."
"Hmmm..." Cassie considers. "'There's no business like show business like no business I know,'" she quotes. "Was it that?"
One of the frown lines on Reyna's face relaxes at having the mystery solved. "Yes that was it. What show is that?"
Cassie shrugs. "I'm pretty sure it's Annie Get Your Gun."
"That's a very strange name for a musical."
"The title probably gets explained during the show," Cassie says fairly. "I haven't ever actually watched it. My phone has a wide randomization program that downloads a variety of songs for me to listen to. I get some weird stuff without very much context. Like, I've gotten minstrel ballads interspersed with modern K-Pop before and they make about the same level of sense to me. Which is to say, none whatsoever. If I want to download something specific I have to ask for it on my phone."
Reyna makes a small face. It's the same expression she always makes when they're forced to use technology for their daily lives. Of course, with her new position in the media, Reyna herself has to use one more often now than she ever did before. "I'm worried about the level of demigod exposure we have in this building now," she says. "Just you and me was bad enough given the amount of power we've got between the two of us, but now with Katya and Meg..."
Cassie nods in agreement. This problem is one that's been percolating in the back of her mind for a while now. It's also something she's been trying not to examine too closely, but now here it is in bold. "I think Katya's probably alright for the moment," she says, thinking out loud. "In another year she'd have something to worry about all on her own. The real issue right now is I'm putting out two godly signatures by myself, your a favorite of your mother's and one of her only direct descendants alive today, and Meg is the most powerful child of Demeter I've ever met. All three of us are about past the highest danger point but all together we've gotta be hard to ignore."
"I could call some people," Reyna offers. "There are warding specialists and scrolls on magical protection in the university library in New Rome. Maybe Frank and Hazel will be able to find some kind of warding we can put on the building. It won't be anything like as strong as the protections we have on either camp, but without some of our more high and mighty family members on our side to help out that'll probably be the best we can do."
The 'high and mighty' family members to whom Reyna is referring don't seem that likely to pitch in and lend a hand for four of their descendants alone from Cassie's experience. Even if they could find some family member of theirs who was wiling to help, it wouldn't be the kind of favor that comes cheaply. It's all a trade off in prices to be paid and Cassie's not sure what their metaphorical bank accounts look like right now. One thing's for sure, she doesn't feel comfortable enough to be making any bets.
The best Cassie and Reyna can do is figure out which of their more human friends is willing to help. "I'll get a message to Chiron and ask him to check in with some people in the Hecate cabin. Some of the kids in there are pretty powerful. Maybe they'll be able to figure out some kind of warding spell or early warning system we can put on the new property upstate. Something temporary on this building would help too for the meantime."
Reyna groans. "Gods. We're going to need to drug the rest of the building's inhabitants in to calmness if we decide we want to leave the property for the next few weeks. Especially when they find out we can ward a building. We'll need to do Stark, Pepper, both of our boyfriends, and probably Pietro Maximoff." She raises an eyebrow at Cassie. "Any ideas?"
"Well we shouldn't have any problem with a delivery system," Cassie muses. "Everybody who lives on this floor and works with this team has me for their chief physician. They take the drugs I tell them. The problem will need to be dosage amounts and what substance to administer. Pepper we can probably dose pretty easily but I'd be shocked if Tony didn't have an immunity to most drugs known to man. The dosage level and concentration I'd have to give Steve, Bucky, and Pietro would need some fine-tuning to get dialed in, and in the meantime we'd be dealing with a whole lot of stoned people."
Reyna heaves a deep sigh. "That's probably not worth it then." Then she tips her head and sniffs. "Ah... From the aroma I believe that Jamie must have now burned the bacon to a point that is now sufficient for human consumption. I'll go coordinate food and drink delivery and we'll have our intrusive picnic breakfast."
Cassie rolls her eyes. "Which is obviously the best kind."
Her friend sticks her tongue out in a brief regression to childhood and hops up off the bed to go to the door. She leaves her shoes behind which means she's planning to make herself comfortable for a little while. It's nice to know that Cassie won't be spending her recovery time alone and bored or overly hovered around.
In the time it takes for the other presences in the apartment to bring in breakfast, Cassie decides to be as productive as she can. This is expressed in shifting all of the pillows in to an arrangement that props her up completely and maintains open furniture space. She also gets FRIDAY to turn on the lights and modulate them to a level that can provide illumination without hurting her eyes.
All of this takes about five minutes before the bedroom door opens again and Reyna re-enters, this time followed by Bucky and Steve. All three are weighted down with plates, glasses, silverware, and paper napkins. As predicted, the amount of bacon is frankly unconscionable.
She whistles. "This is a party," she says with a smile. "Seriously, the award for the nicest post-poisoning recovery ever goes to this one. A private breakfast in bed buffet with people I like is amazing. We should do this more often."
Steve's face twists in to an expression that suggests he might have just bitten in to a lemon. "Actually, let's not."
Cassie waves a hand and then uses it to reach for the plate Reyna is offering her. Steve's eyes track the movement of her hands and Cassie follows his gaze with her hands. She's pleased to note that they don't shake any longer. "Obviously the poisoning would be completely optional as a prerequisite." She takes a bite of her bacon and enjoys the fact that Bucky apparently likes his extra crackly.
Reyna retakes her previous seat on the mattress next to her and passes over a glass filled with arroz con leche. Steve takes a seat on the mattress near her feet and balances his plate on top of a book to minimize crumbs and spills. Bucky simply drags over a desk chair to sit in and begins wolfing down eggs.
After a moment or two of protein inhaling Bucky takes a second and waves his fork vaguely in her direction. "I thought you being poisoned by a mythological goat-lion-snake monster was the salient detail here."
"Your point is taken," Cassie says loftily. "Now hush and let me eat my eggs before they get cold. I haven't eaten in a while and now that the poisoning is a thing of the past my stomach no longer hurts and I'm starving."
Bucky makes a conversational tactical retreat and nods once silently.
Steve is already done with his plate and despite the fact that she is hungrier than she's been in the last twenty-four hours, Cassie hands over a piece of bacon for him to eat before he puts his plate aside. Then he asks the question of the day. "How do we keep this kind of thing from happening? Or minimize how many times it does happen if stopping it isn't possible?"
The prompt is clear, and because she and Reyna have already developed a basic strategy Cassie takes the time to finish her breakfast while her friend outlines what the two of them had talked about. Steve and Bucky iron out a few more details. Four tactical heads in this case are certainly better than two, and before things are finalized Cassie wants to talk to Katya, Tony, Pepper, and Meg. What's good is that both Bucky and Steve, concerned as they may be, are recognizing that Cassie and Reyna have more experience with this kind of situation than they do.
By the time the conversation is over, they have a more fleshed out plan to go down to Camp Half-Blood a week from today. If Pepper, Tony, and Meg agree, the seven of them along with Katya will visit Camp the following Friday and drive back up to the city on Sunday night. It's possible that Pietro might want to come too, but Cassie has no idea what in Hades might be going on with him and Meg so she can't say.
Cassie initially volunteers to make all the calls seeing as Chiron knows her better. This idea is firmly put down by Reyna who says that seeing as Cassie can't get through a sentence right now without her voice breaking, the phone call might be better coming from her. Under other circumstances Cassie might have argued harder, but Reyna will already be calling around a lot this week so she might as well add one more to the list.
What Cassie will be doing is talking with Tony, Pepper, and hopefully Katya too. That won't happen for a few days though. The presentation will be better when the Chimera poison is completely flushed out of her body and she's had a chance to recharge.
With her body still working to fight off the remaining venom, Cassie runs out of energy far quicker than she would like or will ever admit. It's also clearly been a sleepless night for Steve worrying about her and trying to plan to fight an enemy he can't hope to protect the people he cares about from. Bucky and Reyna have been up for just as long worrying about Steve as well as Cassie.
This observation is backed up when Reyna drops off to sleep against the side of one of the pillows Cassie had stacked to make room earlier. Bucky collects all of the breakfast plates and vanishes in to the kitchen before coming back and simply stretching out on the floor with a poached pillow. He doesn't snore, but his breathing audibly changes in to a heavier rhythm.
Steve smiles a little nostalgically and drops a blanket down on top of his friend who shuffles without a word to curl up under it. "He's slept like that since he was a kid," he remembers. "He curls up on the other side now though. He used to use the metal one as a pillow. I guess it makes sense that he doesn't anymore."
"Metal can't be comfy," Cassie concedes. "Meanwhile our mattress is, and you should take advantage of that." She holds up a hand to forestall him before he can protest. "Don't pretend you slept while I was out," she says. "I know you didn't. So I'm going to scoot over on this very large mattress by shoving my friend over a little, and you're going to lie down next to me and sleep." He looks like he might be about to protest so Cassie crosses her arms and puts on her most stubborn expression. "I will keep myself awake until you sleep," she threatens, feeling somewhat mutinous. "I know you feel like you need to take care of me, but you need to take care of you too."
For a moment, Steve seems to weigh up his options and then exhales heavily and shakes his head. "I don't get to win here do I?"
Cassie lifts her chin and shakes her head. "Nope."
Then Steve indicates for her to slide over which she does, prodding Reyna to roll to the side as she does so. He comes to lie down next to her and Cassie is relieved to see him shut his eyes. The blueish circles under them worry her. Steve can go longer than a normal human can without sleep, but emotional stress takes a separate toll on the human body. Unsurprisingly, he's as unconscious as Reyna and Bucky within minutes.
This time when Cassie falls asleep, it's a gentle, gradual process. It's natural and healthy. And she does it surrounded by people who care about her.
All in all, it isn't the worst way to lose consciousness.
A/N: Well there it is guys. How did you like it? Next chapter will see our heroes taking a trip down to Camp Half-Blood. Should be exciting right? Sorry about the delay posting. I meant to get this out earlier in the week but my computer lost the draft and I had to rewrite. Because of that I've been rushing a little and will fully admit that I haven't done a lot of proof reading. If you guys catch something let me know. Meanwhile, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo