Hiya!
Thanks to everyone who's reviewing this, you are awesome!
This is a little filler chapter, to prepare you for the next ;)
Enjoy, review and remember I only own Pen

Chapter thirty: Planing Charleston
~Leo's POV~

When they arrived at dinner, Penelope and Leo tried hard to act normally. They had agreed not to
tell any of the others about what was going on between them, as they felt it would only complicate
matters.
So, when all of the eight had sat down at the dinner table and ordered their dinners, Leo started to tell a, slightly altered, version of what had happened to him and Penelope, starting with the kidnapping in the woods and ending with their spectacular escape from the storage hall.
When he got to the part where Penelope had stopped to kill the black demon though, he halted and
glanced at Pen.
Even though the movement was so small he wasn't one hundred percent sure he was actually seeing it, Penelope seemed to be shaking her head. The message was clear: she didn't want Leo to tell the
others about her inexplicable surge of power.
Leo didn't like to keep things secret, but he had to respect Penelope's choice, and so he told the others a version of events where they killed the monsters using knives they'd found lying on a box.
"Where are the knives now?" Annabeth wanted to know, and Leo felt like she was x-raying him with those grey eyes.
"We, er, we lost them when we were running...through the forest"
It was obvious that Annabeth didn't believe him, but she didn't press the matter.
"That was very brave" Hazel said, and Jason nodded.
"Yeah. We should all remember though to always keep our guard up."
They all agreed.
Then, talk turned to what had happened at Phorcys' aquarium, and Leo had to try hard not to laugh at the goldfish part.
Their new course seemed to be Charleston, and he sent a message to Festus, telling him where they
were heading.
"So where can we find this map thing?" he asked the others, and it was Jason who answered.
"Well, I can think of two places. One is the museum where they keep the CSS Hunley, there's lots of relics from the Civil War there. I could lead a team in."
Leo felt his spirits lift "The CSS Hunley? Awesome! I've always wanted to see that!"
"What is it?" Penelope asked.
Leo turned to her "It was the first successful military submarine. So cool!"
Penelope grinned and rolled her eyes, a gesture that plainly said typical. Leo winked back at her
and she blushed, before they both remembered where they were and quickly broke eye-contact.
"So, er , who else is coming?" Leo asked, hoping none of the others had noticed anything. At first he thought they hadn't, but then he met Piper's eyes, who shot him a smirk and wiggled her eyebrows. Urgh, those damn Aphrodite senses...
"Frank, you should come." Jason said, and Leo sighed inwardly. Frank didn't seem to like him very
much. "You're a child of Mars, maybe you can keep the Confederate ghosts in line."
Frank looked disbelieving but nodded.
"Good" Jason said "The other place is the park of the Battery where the ghost of the Battery lives, but I think only the girls should go. I went there once with Reyna, and the spirit would only talk to
her."
"But there's four of us" Piper said, frowning "We shouldn't travel in groups larger than three, should we?"
Frank and Jason shook their heads, but to Leo's surprise Percy spoke up
"I've got a feeling all of you girls should go. We're attracting monsters anyway, and maybe
travelling in larger groups isn't a bad idea, considering what happened to Pen and Leo."
"Okay" Annabeth agreed.
After this, they discussed the precarious subject of rescuing Nico di Angelo, who was Hazel's half brother and was currently being held prisoner by the giants. The problem was that Roman eagles were following them, so they needed a distraction to throw them off the scent, but this would take them even longer to reach Rome in time.
Leo saw Hazel's eyes darken with worry and felt genuinely sorry for her. It must be terrible knowing your brother could die any day.
Yet they still decided to use Buford the table as a distraction, and so Leo sent his piece of furniture on its way.
After dinner, they all went back to their rooms, but Leo had barely sat down on his bed, when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in" he called, secretly hoping it would be Penelope.
But the girl in the door had blonde hair instead of dark brown, and Leo felt his face fall a little in
disappointment.
"Hello, Annabeth"
"Hey. Listen, Leo, you said you were covered in something that prevented you using your fire power right?"
"Uh-huh" Leo nodded. Why was Annabeth asking?
"Well, have you tried it out since?"
Leo realised he hadn't. "No. I must have forgotten it what with all the, er, planning an' stuff"
"Try it now then." Annabeth ordered, and Leo obliged, holding out his right hand and willing it to catch fire.
But no flames appeared, instead a sharp pain raced down his arm.
"Ow" he cursed, and shook his hand.
"It's not working." Annabeth said gravely and Leo nodded. Then, fear gripped him and he asked
"You don't think this will last forever, do you?"
Annabeth hesitated, then shook her head. "No, not forever. But it might last a while. So be careful, okay?" her voice was concerned, and Leo promised he would be.
When the daughter of Athena had left, he let his worry show.
What if he couldn't get his power back? He was sure it would still be needed on this quest, and what
if when the time came he would be completely useless?
Panic threatened to overcome him, and he frantically tried to calm down.
Calm, Leo, calm he told himself.
It'll come back.
What he needed now was a hot shower.
Yes, that sounded like a good idea, and he got up to head to the wash room.
He ran into Piper halfway there, and she stopped him, a smirk still on her face.
"What?" Leo asked, defensively.
"Where're you going?" Piper asked, obviously trying hard to hide her grin.
"The shower" Leo answered dryly and pushed past her.
He could still hear Piper snickering "Yeah right, the shower" even when he'd shut the bathroom door, and then frowned at his reflection in the mirror. His face was a little grimy, and his hair had definitely seen cleaner days.
Once in the shower, Leo sighed as the hot water washed away the grit, and relaxed his muscles.
Instantly, he felt better and after the shower quickly hurried to his room.
There, it took him about five minutes to change and lie down in bed.
Sleep instantly pulled him into its clutches and he slept like a baby.
That was, until he had the dream.