Whoo! Chapter twenty-two!
That rhymed.
Okay, so this was fun to write, hope you guys enjoy it!
(Any misspelling is probably there on purpose ;) )
Disclaimer = as always

Chapter twenty-two: Unknown Admiration
~Leo's POV~

When Hazel and he arrived back on the Argo II after their encounter with Narcissus and Echo, Leo couldn't wait to get away from those crazed nymphs.
But Piper and Penelope weren't back yet, so he had to stand on deck nervously, scanning the skies for Frank, who had gone to pick the girls up, while Percy tried to calm down the lake, which seemed intent on sinking their ship.
"Can't he hurry up" Leo mumbled, when just at that precise moment, he saw a huge eagle flying towards them.
"There he is!" Leo cried, and started to raise the ship, using the emergence flight modus he'd managed to repair right after they'd returned. It wouldn't last long though, so they would need to land again soon for him to make some permanent repairs.
As the ship lifted upwards, Frank got closer, and Leo could see the girls on his back.

Something was wrong though.
Piper was sitting upright, her face white and scared, clinging onto a motionless form.
Penelope.
Without thinking, Leo let go of the controls and raced over to where the eagle had just landed and Piper was getting off, carrying Penelope in her arms.
"Piper!" Leo yelled "What happened?"
The daughter of Aphrodite was out of breath, as if she'd just run a very long distance.
"Forest. Tree. Snake." she panted, and Leo noticed both of the girls had a lot of scratches on their arms and face.
"What?! What Snake?" Leo asked, his heart beating fast with fear as he looked at Penelope, who was ghostly white and still unmoving.
"Come on, I'll take her" he told Piper, who carefully handed the girl over, and then slid down against a mast, looking exhausted.
"We have to get her to Coach Hedge" Frank said from behind Leo, having turned back into himself.

But Leo had already started to hurry down the stairs into the ships hull, shouting for the satyr.
He found him in the sickbay, tending to Jason who was still out cold, but looked a lot better.
When Leo entered with Penelope, Coach Hedge jumped up, and directed Leo to a bed, removing the sheets first.
Carefully, Leo lay Pen on it, his stomach twisting as he noticed how her head flopped lifelessly to the side.
"She isn't...she's not..dead?" he whispered, as Coach checked for a pulse.
"No, there's a heartbeat. It's pretty faint though. What happened?!" the satyr demanded, just as Piper came in accompanied by a harassed looking Annabeth.
"We found the tree, just like you said." Piper sounded very afraid "But when we were getting the sap, this huge snake attacked us. It was horrible, it had a head on each of its ends. And while I was trying to get the file, Pen engaged it so it wouldn't bite me. But then it bit her instead and then I killed it, but she blacked out and..."
Piper's voice caught a little and Annabeth gripped her arm.
"I need my kit" Coach Hedge told them, and Annabeth ran out to fetch it.
Leo looked at Penelope, searching for the bite. He didn't have to look for long.
There, on her right thigh, was a horrible wound, two huge punctuations, like vampire bites, but they were ink black. Black tendrils were spreading slowly from the wound, carrying the poison through Penelope's leg.
It was a disgusting sight, and Leo felt sick to the bone.
Just then, Annabeth arrived back with the medic-kit, with Percy was right behind her.
"We set the boat on autopilot" Annabeth told Leo, who only managed a faint nod, his eyes still fixed on Penelope.
If she didn't make it...Leo didn't even want to think about that.
"All right, everybody out!" Coach Hedge ordered, motioning for them to leave. "I need space to work."
They all obeyed, although Piper had to half drag Leo out of the room.
He didn't want to leave her alone. This was all his fault.
"Leo" Piper said, making him look at her. "She'll be okay. Coach Hedge will help her."
It didn't help that Piper's own face was still scared and bloody, but Leo nodded.
"Yeah, she'll be okay." Maybe if he repeated this to himself long enough, it would come true.
"You need to land us somewhere safe" Piper told him, and again he nodded.
"Where?"
"Kansas."
Half an hour later, they set down near Kansas, where Piper said they would meet some guy called Bacchus. Apparently he'd have something to help them, so her, Percy and the newly (with the help of the tree sap) awoken Jason had gone off to meet him.
In the mean time, Frank and Hazel went to search for any Roman pursuers and him and Annabeth were repairing everything that had gotten broken in New Rome.
It felt good to do something constructive, and while he worked on his ship, Leo's nerves calmed down again, as he tried to sort out his jumble of thoughts.
They had only been on their journey for a day, and already they had had two serious injuries, one half destroyed city, a legion of new enemies, broken ship parts, and a dark prediction from Nemesis, saying Hazel's brother would soon be dead.
And they hadn't even gotten to the dangerous part of their quest yet...
Sometimes Leo seriously questioned why he put up with all of this.
And then there was the awkward situation between himself and Hazel, too.
She had told him on their trip to the island that he looked like a boy, Sammy, she used to know back when she'd been alive the first time. From the way she'd said it, Leo got the feeling that this hadn't been just any boy.

But Hazel was Frank's girlfriend, and Leo didn't want to get messed up in any relationship drama.
And then of course there were his feelings for Penelope, which were growing stronger...
It was all terribly confusing and frightening and so he relished in working with machines for a bit.
At least they wouldn't go all upset on him.
"Hey, you two!" Coach Hedge suddenly stuck his head into the door of the engine room, where Leo and Annabeth were just finishing their work.
"What?"
"Penelope's awake." The satyr's voice sounded odd, which made Leo uneasy.
He got up, and followed their guardian to sickbay, where Coach Hedge stopped him just in front of the door.
"I have to warn you, Valdez, the remedy I gave her worked, but it causes strong hallucinations. She
might not be all that right up here at the mo'" the satyr tapped his head to show Leo what he meant, and then turned to go watch TV.
Wondering what to expect, Leo entered the room and felt instantly relieved when he saw Penelope's

eyes were open, looking at him.
But there was something weird about them. They weren't as bright as they usually were,
but glazed and drowsy looking.
It reminded Leo of the look he'd seen on peoples' faces who been given sedatives.
When she spotted him, she smiled dazedly.
"Hello Annabeth" her voice was slurred and Leo turned around to check if Annabeth was standing behind him.
But no, there was only him. Who did Pen mean then?
"Annabeth, wha're you lookin' at?" Penelope asked, in that same slurred voice, and it dawned on Leo that Pen though he was Annabeth.
Well, this could be interesting.
"Er, nothing." he said, deciding to play along.
"Good." Pen smiled dreamily. "Look a' the preddy lighs"
She tried to lift her hand to point at the torch on the wall, but apparently it was too much effort, as her hand dropped back down onto the pillow half way up.
This made her giggle, in a very un-Penelope-ish way.
Just then, the real Annabeth entered, taking the seat next to Leo who had drawn up to chairs next to Penelope's bed.
"How're you doing?" Annabeth asked Pen, concern in her voice.
Leo was just about to tell Annabeth how the girl had been behaving, when she saved him the explanation by saying "Oh, hiii, Chleo.", smiling at Annabeth.
"Er, what?" the blonde girl asked, raising her eyebrows at Leo, who just shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or be worried.
Seeing Penelope act like this was an absolute one-off, and it would have been extremely funny,

if a poisonous snake-bite hadn't caused it.
"Chleo, can you see the preddy lighs?" Penelope asked Annabeth, trying and failing again to point.
"Er..Yeah, they're really nice." Annabeth played along, looking just as helpless as Leo felt.
Just then they heard the sounds of Frank and Hazel landing on board, and Annabeth got up, relieved to have something to do.
"Will you look after her?" she asked Leo "Then I'll go check on Frank and Hazel"
"Sure" Leo said, and with that he and Penelope were alone.
Penelope was humming a little tune, and Leo could feel himself getting drowsy just by listening.
But then Pen seemed to notice Annabeth was gone, and she asked Leo with her face dreamily troubled
"Where's Chleo gone?"
"Oh, er, she had to do, stuff." Leo said, and Pen nodded as if this was obvious.
"She's always doin' stuff, Chleo is. All the time. Cause she's impordand."
"Er, yeah" Leo agreed.
The lapsed back into silence for a few minutes, and Leo thought Penelope must be getting tired, as her eyes kept drooping.
Please go to sleep, he thought. Go to sleep and wake up normal.
But Pen wasn't quite finished yet.
She giggled again, too high, and then slurred
"You know wha' else's preddy 'xcept the lighs?"
Cautiously, Leo shook his head, trying hard not to simply shake Penelope until she was normal again.
"Leo" Penelope said, and he almost said what until he realised what exactly Pen meant.
Now he was listening.
"He's really hansome. An' nice. He saved my life, you know?"
For a moment Pen simply nodded, and smiled dreamily.
"And funny, too." she added, making Leo's face go even redder. Was he really hearing this?
"I'm glad he's my frien'. D'you think he likes me, too?" Pen asked, and the worry line Leo thought was so cute appeared on her forehead.
At first Leo didn't know what to say, but then he thought, what the hades and told Pen the truth.
"Yeah, he likes you. He things you're amazing."
She probably wouldn't remember this anyway. He hoped.
His answer made Penelope grin happily.
"Tha's nice." she mumbled "I like him so much."
Suddenly, she grabbed Leo's hand and looked at him urgently.
"You won' tell him though, will you, Annabeth?"
Her face was so sincerely worried, that Leo couldn't help but chuckle a little.
Then he caught himself and said, "Don't worry, I won't tell him."
"Good" Penelope smiled, sinking back into the pillows, her eyes closing as she drifted off to sleep.
"Good..."