! – Trigger Warning: Brief mention of weight loss (no numbers discussed).
A/N: Let's get into it! Thank you everyone who left kind words at the end of Fly Me Away and at the start of this one. I really appreciate it.
"Ugh, Capricorns."
"Hey!"
Chapter Two: Setting The Stage
There were nine Muses.
This meant that nine different times, nine different women had found themselves suddenly reborn on Mount Parnassus, newly immortal and very confused about why they were there and what the hell was going on.
By now there was a procedure that involved waiting at the ruins on the first anniversary of the Mortal Muse's death. Jack did not know much more about the whole thing except for the brief descriptions Euterpe had given him before.
The Muses assumed that Jack would want to be present this time, just in case. North had been waiting at the ruins on the first anniversary of Yelena's death, after all.
Jack had immediately agreed. He did not like the idea of getting the news alongside all nine other Muses, particularly if it was bad news, but he absolutely loathed the idea of waiting for the news a second longer than he had to.
Seventeen days to go.
"Now, it's been a long time since we've done this, plus Jack's here, so we're going to do a review of, well, everything," Calliope said.
Clio was writing on the board now. "We know that Rowan died after the stardust bomb went off, at approximately 12:03 AM. Urania recovered the body at approximately 12:25 AM. Giving ourselves a few minutes either way as a buffer, that gives us a half-hour window to work with."
Jack shifted uncomfortably. He knew there would be discussion of that night at this meeting, but to hear the times and numbers listed so plainly was jarring. It had been such a short amount of time.
Would there have still been hope for her if she hadn't been so sick? If they had tracked her down five, ten minutes sooner?
Don't get caught up in what-ifs right now.
Jack shook his head slightly, taking a drink of his coffee as Clio continued.
"So, let's say midnight, the twenty-eighth of January, 2013, plus three-hundred and sixty-five days, six hours, and nine minutes to revolve around the sun, modified to local time... We should all meet here on the twenty-eighth, at 1:09 PM, and we will have our answer within half an hour," Clio said, circling the time in question before stepping aside to allow the others to see the board.
"Excellent. Now, specifically, we'll be meeting at the ruins, of course," Calliope said, pointing out the floor-to-ceiling windows, toward the ruins that Jack had landed at earlier. "In the event that we gain a new sister that day, what do we not lead with? Melpomene?"
Melpomene, who had been tracing the carvings in the surface of the table with her index finger glanced up, all eyes having fallen to her. The room was silent for a moment, Melpomene's brow furrowed, before she said, "Oh come on, Calliope, it was one time."
"Yeah, and it wasn't a great time," Thalia, the next oldest Muse after Melpomene, said at once.
"What do we not lead with?" Calliope said again, arms crossed, staring Melpomene down.
Melpomene sighed, leaning back in her seat. "We do not lead with 'you've been dead for a year.'"
"Exactly," Calliope said. "What do we lead with, Sisters?"
"Clothes," Polyhymnia said at once. Calliope nodded, taking another marker and writing "clothes" on the board beside Clio's notes about the time.
"Yes, good, we give her clothes," Calliope said. "Thalia, have you asked Arachne about the dress yet?"
"Yes, she's going to work on it tonight," Thalia nodded. "She's worried about the measurements, though."
"I thought she took Rowan's measurements before she died, does she not still have them?" Clio asked.
"She does, but Rowan was sick," Thalia said. "She said she had lost a few centimeters, and presumably, if she comes back, she'll be healed to some degree and might get those centimeters back."
Jack winced slightly at the memory. He didn't like thinking of how frail Rowan had become, the way he had felt the need to stand nearby when Arachne took those measurements, ready to catch her if she lost her balance.
Most memories of Rowan were painful anymore, but he preferred to remember the bright eyes and excited gestures of the storyteller, engrossed in her fictional world and describing the scenes to those lucky enough to get to listen.
"Arachne is so touchy about the measurements," Terpsichore said. "I don't know why. She makes sure most of what she makes can stretch."
"And the dress just needs to be something simple to cover up with, it doesn't need to be couture," Euterpe added.
"I invite any of you to tell her that," Thalia said with a shrug. "Ara just wants her work to look as nice as possible, and that means accurate measurements."
"Well, she'll have to settle with getting measurements from you and your mask, I suppose," Erato said.
"Oh, right," Thalia said, pulling out her comedy mask. "Been a minute since I disguised myself as Rowan!"
She nearly put the mask on but Urania and Melpomene, each seated on either side of Thalia, reached over to stop her mid-gesture. Thalia furrowed her brow before glancing Jack's way and going, "Oh, oops, right."
She tucked her mask away again. Jack winced again.
Thankfully, Melpomene and Thalia had not actually made use of their shapeshifting abilities to take on Rowan's appearance since her death, at least not in front of him.
If she was really gone, she had to stay gone.
Sleep-deprived hallucinations had already haunted him, he didn't need to see a false Rowan walking about again.
"It doesn't need to be form-fitting or elaborate. As long as we have something," Polyhymnia said.
"We will," Thalia nodded.
"Good," said Calliope. "After she's had a chance to cover up, what do we do next?"
"Well, usually we would introduce ourselves if necessary, but she already knows who we are," Clio said with a shrug.
"Right, so skipping that, what do we do next?" Calliope said.
"Give her a chance to get her bearings, answer questions if she has them," Erato said. "And ask what she remembers."
Calliope wrote "Ask what she remembers" on the board. "Very good. Now, as we know, you can very well remember the incident that caused the death, but not realize that you have died. If she remembers the incident, what do we do?"
"Provide reassurance that she's safe now, that the incident is over," Urania said.
"Which will mean a hell of a lot more coming from you than from any of us," Terpsichore said, gesturing to Jack.
"Right," Jack said. He couldn't help but immediately think of Rowan's other flashbacks, the panic she had over being near death before.
Euterpe had told him that she had initially forgotten her death, only to ask Tooth later on to help her remember. She had spoken of how much she regretted remembering.
Ever since that exchange, Jack couldn't help but worry about what Rowan might remember if she returned.
"Exactly," Calliope said. "Once she understands that the incident has passed, if she remembers it at all, we gently inform her of her death."
Calliope was now writing "Gently inform of death" on the board.
"How do you gently tell someone they died?" Jack couldn't help but ask, supposing that would fall to him as well if Rowan actually made an appearance.
Something like this had happened before, when she had been relocated to the North Pole for her own safety. Jack had to be the one explaining aspects of Rowan's life to the others while they tried to figure out what to do about her disappearance.
Jack had been given warning after warning to avoid getting close, getting attached to a mortal. But when knowing her as a person suddenly became important, when being someone she could trust suddenly became important, Jack was the only one that qualified solely because he had not heeded those warnings.
So, here he was, with nine Muses that had mostly kept Rowan at an arm's length, being coached on how the hell he was supposed to deliver impossible news to this girl he may or may not get to see again. Because he was the only immortal she trusted.
"Don't dwell so much on how it happened, especially if she doesn't remember," Euterpe said.
"Don't talk about what happened after, don't talk about recovery of the body or any of that," Clio added.
"It's best to just… say it. I mean, don't be too matter-of-fact or casual about it," Urania said.
"Don't use euphemisms or anything," Terpsichore added.
Urania nodded in agreement. "Just say, 'you have been dead for a year.' It won't make sense to her at first regardless. But at least she'll hear it from someone she trusts."
"From there it's usually a lot of emotional support and answering questions she might have," Calliope said, speaking mainly to Jack.
That much was not a surprise to Jack, not something Calliope really had to go out of her way to say.
Jack had spent the last two weeks of Rowan Sawyer's life helping her breathe through anxiety attacks.
He had tried to convince her that she wasn't about to die, had assured her at every turn that she was safe.
He had reluctantly agreed to go along with her arrangements for her life's work in case something did happen.
He had done his best to distract her from her fears for her own mortality with plans that had never panned out and visions in snow and ice of penguins that he promised to take her to see.
Jack had entered their short time together unsure what to do when he overheard her sobbing for the first time. By the time she was gone, he was left with a hollow feeling in his chest, wanting nothing but to hold her close again, to assure her that things would be all right.
Emotional support, answering questions, that would all be the least Rowan could expect from him.
"So, if she comes back, what's our plan outside of the usual welcome wagon of 'here's something to wear, do you remember anything, by the way you died?'" Thalia asked.
"Ideally, if Rowan returns, we would place her here where it is safe and we can keep an eye on her while she starts to learn how her powers work," Calliope said.
"But she doesn't trust us," Clio said. "So, Jack, if she comes back we're gonna have to put you on guard duty again. Unofficially."
"Okay," Jack said, surprised that the Muses would trust him to protect one of their own again.
Things had not exactly gone according to plan the last time.
But they were right. Rowan hadn't trusted the Muses, and would not agree to being locked in a mountain with the nine of them.
"Nicky's putting more enchantments on Jack's cabin today," Erato said. "So, if Rowan comes back and needs to stay there for a while, it'll be safer."
"Good," Calliope said.
"What are we going to do about her when it comes to Apollo and Artemis?" Melpomene asked.
"I'm hoping that I can talk Artemis into giving us until the following full moon to actually make a move against Apollo," Calliope said. "That will give us about two extra weeks of business-as-usual and hopefully convincing Rowan to denounce both Artemis and Apollo with us."
"Because if she isn't there when we denounce him, Apollo will assume she's still under his control," Clio added, leaving the others wincing at the idea.
"What about, you know, the next Mortal Muse? Won't she be some kind of target for Apollo and Artemis?" Jack asked.
"She won't be born for a little while," Erato said.
"Back when we were actively keeping track of the Mortal Muse, we realized that their sun signs followed the order of the zodiac," Clio said. "So, Rowan was a Sagittarius. That means the Mortal Muse that came before her was a Scorpio and the one that will follow her will be a Capricorn."
"Ugh, Capricorns," Thalia said, making a face.
"Hey!" Calliope said at once.
"Don't say 'hey' all indignant like you're not my number one example of 'ugh, Capricorns,'" Thalia said. "I love you, you're my sister, but ugh, Capricorns. We don't need another one."
"Bold words coming from a Gemini," said Calliope.
"And we ended up with two Geminis," Erato said, gesturing to Thalia and Melpomene. "That's basically four Geminis."
"Is the Pisces really gonna try and start something?" Melpomene said, cocking a brow at Erato.
"I hope Rowan comes back just so we can have another fire sign in the mix, I'm the only one," Terpsichore sighed. "Wait, Jack, what are you?"
"I have no idea," Jack said.
"Your birthday was on November twentieth wasn't it?" Erato said. Jack nodded. "You're a Scorpio."
"You would be a Scorpio," Calliope said, and Jack wasn't sure if he should take offense or not.
"Yeah, that tracks," Thalia agreed.
"Water sign," Terpsichore sighed. "Figures."
"Oh, we're sister signs," said Euterpe.
"I don't know what that means," said Jack, though truthfully, he didn't know what much of any of this meant.
"It just means we're compatible, we're on opposite ends of the zodiac wheel," said Euterpe.
"Anyway," Clio said loudly to draw the attention of the others. "There's no Mortal Muse during the year following the last one's death. Rowan's anniversary has to pass before the next one is born. Capricorn season had just ended a little over a week before Rowan died. That means the earliest that the next Mortal Muse can be born is December twenty-second of this year. We still have time to figure out a game plan for her."
"Okay, I have another question," Jack said, hoping that this would not end up somehow prompting another debate about astrological signs. "Rowan's the first Mortal Muse you guys were aware of since Yelena, right?"
"Yes," Calliope nodded.
"How do you know that no one else in that time became a full Muse? Could there just be other Muses you don't know about wandering around?"
"We would have felt something," Erato said. The others murmured in agreement.
"After I returned from the dead," Calliope said, "I had no intention of ever coming back to this goddamn mountain, it had too many bad memories. But one day, after centuries, I had the strongest feeling that I needed to come back, it's like something was pulling me in the direction of the temple. When I got here, I found a very confused Clio."
"Very confused and very naked," Clio sighed. "If Apollo is so all-powerful, can't he make a dressing gown or something when he sends us back?"
"He would probably say it's more artistic this way or something," Urania said with a roll of the eye.
"Anyway, a couple centuries after that, Clio and I both suddenly felt like we had to go back to the mountain," Calliope said. "And when we got here, we found Erato. After that, we started keeping better tabs on everything and Polyhymnia was the first one we were waiting at the temple for. If anyone else had come back, we would know."
"Handy instinct you guys have," Jack commented.
"I think Apollo threw that in so that we would keep an eye on each other," Terpsichore said. "It's not like he was going to do it."
"Anything else we haven't gone over?" Calliope said tapping her fingernail against the board with all their notes.
"I mean I have a few things but you and I were going to talk to Jack after the meeting," Erato said, focusing on Calliope.
This was news to Jack, but he supposed it wasn't surprising that they would want to talk to him in a setting without the entire group. Talking over each other and some amount of bickering was just to be expected when they were all present.
"Right," Calliope said. "Anyone else?"
"Don't approach or touch her," Urania said.
Calliope nodded, and wrote this on the board as well. "In the event that she arrives, we will give her the dress, but from there we let her approach us. No walking toward her. No touching her, not even comforting gestures, not unless she comes to you first. No sudden movements. She's going to be confused and on-edge."
Jack could feel the others glancing his way.
He hadn't let himself spare a lot of thought to the idea that if Rowan came back, if he got to see her again, that he would get to touch her again, too. For the most part, he did not want to get too caught up in the idea of feeling her warmth again for the same reason he did not want to get too caught up in the idea of actually seeing her again.
He knew he wouldn't be able to handle it if he sincerely hoped for her return and then the anniversary passed with no results.
But he knew why the Muses were eying him. Obviously, he would want to approach her. Obviously, he would want to touch her, to confirm that she was really there.
But if he had to stand his ground to keep from overwhelming her, he would.
"I think that's everything," Clio said, eying the list. "I mean, usually we offer her shelter, but again, Jack's going to be there and she doesn't trust us."
"Just try to remember your own first day back," Polyhymnia advised the others. "And try to be empathetic."
The others nodded at this suggestion, murmured in agreement again.
"So, are we done?" Melpomene asked.
"Yes, you're free to go," said Calliope. Melpomene didn't need to be told twice and was the first one to vacate the room.
This was fine. Jack had been avoiding even glancing her way. It was endlessly frustrating that she was just someone he had to be in the same room as on occasion.
The other Muses were far more casual in their movements than Melpomene had been, filing out of the room where they would presumably return to their bedrooms or leave the mountain entirely to spread inspiration.
"We'll talk later," Euterpe said to Jack as she and Terpsichore passed. Jack nodded in acknowledgement.
Once all the others had vacated, Calliope pulled her chair closer to where Jack was sitting, Erato simply taking the seat that Euterpe had been sitting in before.
"So, what's going on?" Jack asked as soon as Calliope sat.
"There's a few Rowan-specific things we need to go over," Calliope said.
"Or rather 'so, it's your lover that's returned'-specific things," Erato elaborated.
Jack ran a hand over his hair, unable to help the already-exhausted sigh that escaped his lungs at this description. "Yeah?"
"First, if Rowan returns," Calliope said, "You have to tell her about Melpomene."
Jack cocked a brow, not expecting that at all. "I, uh, I already told her about Melpomene."
If Apollo hadn't gotten involved, Jack was sure that Rowan would still be the only one that he had told about his past with Melpomene.
"Not the fact that you were together all those years ago. You need to tell Rowan about the wedding reception," Erato clarified.
Jack's face fell immediately. "Shit."
"Because if you don't, Apollo will," Calliope said. "He'll use Mel against you all over again."
"Right," Jack said. That was the whole reason the Guardians knew anything about what had happened with Melpomene, after all. It was a desperate attempt on Jack's part to disarm Apollo, to beat him to the painful confession.
But threatening to tell Rowan, well, Jack hadn't considered that. Of course, he hadn't. If he hadn't allowed himself to really hope for her return, he certainly hadn't allowed himself to think much about how she would feel about what she had missed. He hadn't allowed himself to consider her finding out about the wedding reception, the ill-advised dance, the tearful kiss.
"It's not like you cheated or something," Erato said. "But don't give Apollo the opportunity to twist it around into being something more than it is. Because he will."
"Right," Jack said again, feeling more and more exhausted the more he considered having to explain himself. It had already been painful, humiliating, to confess to his lapse in judgment to the other Guardians.
Jack had very confidently told Rowan that he was done with Melpomene, that he had no interest in revisiting what they had.
How was he supposed to tell her that he briefly had revisited it?
"You don't need to tell her immediately," Calliope said after a beat of nothing but silence and Jack's mind racing. "But the sooner, the better. You're going to have a lot to fill her in on if she comes back."
Jack nodded. "I figured."
"She also might want proof of her death," Erato said. "Because, obviously, it's confusing to be walking around being told you died a year earlier."
"Her grave would work but might be too much to lead with," Calliope said. "So, I don't know if you have an obituary or anything, but maybe something like that would ease her into it."
"I do have her obituary," Jack said. "And the program from the funeral."
"Good, that should work," Erato said.
"What else?" Jack asked, not overly eager to hear more but eager to get this meeting over and done with.
"Well, something to keep in mind is that it hasn't been a year for her," Erato said.
"What do you mean?" Jack said.
"If she comes back, she's going to feel like she just saw you a few hours ago," Calliope said.
"So, her reaction to seeing you might not mirror your reaction to seeing her," Erato said. "It might feel like she's under-reacting. Because for you it's been a year, and for her, it hasn't even been a day."
"I'm sure she'd be glad to see you," Calliope said. "It's just that she hasn't had a chance to miss you the way you have had a chance to mourn and miss her."
"And I mean, maybe it won't come up at all. None of us have come back with a significant other waiting for us, so we can't speak from personal experience there," Erato said. "But again, it's something to keep in mind."
"Got it," Jack said. It was yet another thing he hadn't considered, hadn't allowed himself to dwell on. "Anything else?"
"Her body will not feel correct," Calliope said. "She might not notice immediately, but it will come up. The new body will feel wrong."
"She might not be comfortable with touch the way she was before, just take things slow, check in with her, communicate, all the usual relationship things," said Erato with an encouraging nod.
"How do you make the new body feel less wrong?" Jack asked. "Is it just a waiting game and you get used to it eventually?"
"It's different for everyone. Mine didn't feel quite right for over a century, but I was pregnant on top of everything else," Erato said. "Cori felt okay in her new body as soon as she realized her balance and flexibility were better, that she could do more than she could before. Euterpe cut off all her hair and I think that made her feel like she was in control again."
"Just keep an eye on her," Calliope said. She seemed to hesitate slightly. "Try and step in if she's being destructive about it."
Jack wanted to ask what Calliope meant by that, what destructive things had happened in the past, but he already felt like he was intruding by knowing how some of the Muses had died.
He wouldn't describe Rowan as "destructive" anyway. She was cautious. She was thoughtful. She worried about everything just a bit too much.
That's not what you thought during the new moon when she went to that book signing.
Jack winced slightly at the thought, tried willing it away.
Or the new moon after that when she left the dream sand barrier. Or the night she left the pole to try and help Jamie and turned up dead.
No. No, those were all very strange and very specific circumstances.
(But, so was coming back from the dead in a new body, wasn't it?)
"Okay," Jack said, hoping that he didn't seem obviously thrown off by Calliope's warning.
"Any powers specific to her will start showing up in about… a week, usually, yeah?" Erato said, glancing Calliope's way.
"A week at the earliest. I was about a week into everything when I woke up one day as a bird," Calliope said. "Then I fumbled about for a few days until I switched back and didn't know how I did it."
"Well, that doesn't sound horrifying at all," Jack deadpanned.
"Tell me about it," Calliope sighed.
"You should have seen Mel and Thalia. They woke up one day having swapped faces," Erato said. "The amount of yelling that day."
Jack only nodded, slowly, having not realized the potential for body horror that the Muses had dealt with. What exactly was one supposed to do except panic and yell upon waking up with someone else's face?
"Someone will be here, if something strange happens and you need assistance. We'll make sure you have portals to get in," Calliope said. "Clio and I specifically are going to be taking shifts so that at least one of us is here at all times."
"And you can always drop by the pole," Erato added.
"Noted," Jack said.
"I think that's everything," Calliope said, glancing to Erato as though to verify.
"It should be," Erato said, her tone thoughtful. "If we think of something else it's not like we won't be in touch."
Calliope nodded, returning her focus to Jack. "Thank you for being part of this. We're really going to need you if she comes back, we… I dropped the ball with her."
It was odd, how much things had changed in not-quite-a-year. Before, Jack would not have hesitated to confirm that, yes, Calliope had failed spectacularly when it came to Rowan.
It was one thing for most of the Muses to keep their distance, but Calliope at times had seemed to purposefully build a wall of snide comments and condescension between herself and the mortal that was meant to be their "sister."
Jack still wouldn't describe Calliope as his friend, and he was sure that feeling was mutual.
But she was his good friend's wife. She was the one that thought to retrieve Rowan's necklace. She was the one that swallowed her pride and admitted to being wrong first at Rowan's funeral and promised to try harder if Jack would as well.
Thus far, they had both kept that promise.
So, while the thought crossed his mind that, yes, Calliope had failed, the urge to sneer about it was not present.
After all, she already knew.
So, instead, Jack said, "I wouldn't miss it."
And that was true. If Rowan was to come back, he needed to be there.
Seventeen days to go.