XXXI

NICO

Blue eyes

Blond hair

Nico had been in a long sleep. He had been in comatose for 3 months due to a hit and run incident that had happened to him last October. Within that long sleep, he had these repetitive dreams, of flashes of blond hair and blue eyes. Blond hair and blue eyes that belonged to someone he didn't know. . . or couldn't remember, at least.

You see, Nico's mind was a little bit messed up. He couldn't remember that he had a half-sister, yet he kept looking for his other sister whom he didn't remember dying ages ago. He couldn't remember having a female friend named Reyna because Nico had initially thought that he had this male big brute friend, although he couldn't remember the name of this big brute friend of his. Was it Ben? Bart? Bill?

Nico was having retrograde amnesia, thus unable to remember his former life before the incident.

Nothing in his life right now felt familiar to him. Their apartment in Queens, his family, his friends, and his own life. Had he always been a university student for his master's degree in forensic medicine? Had he always been so passionate about forensic medicine that he had even taken a master's degree in it? Being a CSI had always been his dream? Had he been searching for part-time jobs even though his sister had insisted that he didn't have to since their family was well off? What kind of person was Nico di Angelo?

His psychiatrist had said not to force himself to remember everything in his life, and just continued living normally. But how could he live normally when it felt like something was always missing every time he was going to wake up in the morning.

Nico paused at the intersection. He looked at the towering buildings of Manhattan. He smiled a little bit. At least, he felt at ease while being here, as if his whole life had been here in this city. But that was another strange thing, according to his half-sister Hazel, he had been living in Italy and had finished his studies there. He had gone to New York for a vacation with her and later on had decided to take a master's degree at NYU.

Nico took a deep breath and closed his eyes. There were a lot of things that didn't make any sense to him. But for the past five months, he had learned to roll with it even though it was frustrating at times and his temper was always running thin. There was nothing he could do about it anyway. His brain refused to give him anything about his past life. . . well, maybe except for. . .

His phone suddenly vibrated at his jeans' pocket that made him jump in surprise. He shook his head dismissing his thoughts. He fished out his phone from his pocket and answered.

"Hey, Reyna," Nico held the phone against his ear

"So how's the date, lover boy?" A woman on the other line said. There's a hint of a smile in her voice.

"Don't call me that," Nico said annoyed. He started to walk and cross the street together with the other people who were eager to get on the other side of the street.

"Anyway, I messed it up," Nico added casually.

"What? Why?"Reyna asked in surprise.

Nico sighed reaching the sidewalks and turned in the corner with no particular destination in mind. "My head started to hurt so I had to end it early. Harry probably thought that I'm weird now."

"Are you okay now? What happened? Why did your head start to hurt again all of a sudden?"Reyna said in concern.

"I'm okay now. The ache subsided a moment ago. As for the sudden ache. . ." Nico trailed off.

His head had started to hurt after meeting the guy who had interrupted his date. Coincidentally, he was also blond and blue-eyed.

"As for the ache?" Reyna prompted.

"Nothing," Nico said on the other line. "It just happened."

"Did you remember anything somehow?"

"Nothing again," Nico said.

"That's all right. Don't-"

"-force myself." Nico finished. "I know."

"Good. Now, where are you since your date finished early? Let's have lunch together. I am still at the NYPD." Reyna answered.

"Okay. I'll go there. I'm already a few blocks away."

"Okay. See you." Reyna hung up.

Nico pocketed his phone and continued his way. Moments later he was in front of the New York Police Department. His friend Reyna Avilla Ramirez Arellano was a detective there. She had gotten transferred to Manhattan from Queens at the start of this year and fortunately, his hit and run incident case had also been transferred to her. Reyna was investigating on it full time. Yet even though how hard she worked at the case, they were still stuck. Like for example, it was still a mystery why Nico had been there, at that place, where the incident had happened? What was Nico doing there in the first place?

"I told you not to think too much!"

Nico turned his head to the side and saw Reyna walking towards him. She was looking at him with piercing black eyes, her hands on her hips. Her black glossy hair was, as always, in a single braid over her shoulder.

"What?" Nico snorted. "You don't even know if I was really thinking something or just staring in the nothingness."

"You're always thinking," Reyna stated. "You always have been."

"Oh, really?" Nico's eyebrow rose. See, his friend knew him more than he knew himself. That was probably a good thing, was it?

This made Reyna smiled "Yes. So where should we eat?"

Nico opened his mouth to answer.

"And don't you dare tell McDonald's. I am seriously going to skin you alive if you did." Reyna pointed her index finger at Nico.

"What's wrong with McDonald's" Nico grumbled.

"Tell me the truth, is McDonald's secretly paying you to endorse them? Tsk. You're looking for a part-time right. Just be an endorser of that red fast food with a creepy mascot." Reyna shook his head. "Anyway, I am craving garlic bread. Let's eat somewhere with garlic bread." Then she started to drag Nico who was still pouting silently.

"So there's no 2nd date with Larry now?" Reyna leaned her arms on the edge of the table after they had ordered their food. They were in a booth sitting opposite to each other.

"Harry." Nico corrected crossing his arms. "There will be probably no more since it felt like I freaked him out earlier. Well, I acted strange because my head hurt earlier, all of a sudden."

Reyna frowned. "You're taking your medications properly, right?"

"Yes, I am, granny." Nico nodded.

Reyna glared at him.

Nico shrugged.

Reyna sighed. "But then, I am curious. Don't think I haven't noticed, why is it always blond with blue eyes? Do you have a thing for those? You are always having blind dates with guys with those characteristics."

Nico stared at Reyna. Right. No one knew about his delusions about blond and blue eyes except his psychiatrist. How could he tell them about that? What would he say? What would he say on something he didn't even know? Especially to Reyna, being a detective and all, she might think that whoever that was, might be a suspect to his incident. There was nothing much to tell aside from the blond and blue eyes. . . and the bittersweet feeling he would have just thinking about that.

"I don't know," Nico said casually, "I may prefer those now."

Reyna nodded. "You know in the past, you never took interest in blond and blue eyes. So I am kind of surprised that your preference change. . ."

Yes, the past that had always felt like blank to him.

"Are you sure I don't have. . ." Nico hesitated. "... I don't have someone special... I've forgotten somehow.. . ?"

Reyna smiled. "Like significant other?"

In a flash, Reyna vanished in front of him. Instead, he was staring at a pair of bright blue eyes. He was sure that it belonged to a man. Because that man was standing in front of him. But the frustrating was, the man was blurry except for the eyes and specks of blond hair. He couldn't even make out what he looked like.

The man spoke. "So what do you prefer, boyfriend? Partner? Significant other?"

"Significant annoyance in your case." Nico was positive that it was his voice that answered.

Blond hair

Blue eyes

Then Reyna was back in front of him. He was back at the restaurant. Nico stared at Reyna, his mouth slightly open.

A single tear slid down from his eyes.

"Hey, Nico, what's happening, are you crying?" Reyna asked a little bit alarmed.

Nico immediately touched his cheek. It was wet. He stared at his fingers wet with his tear.

What was that?

Right, for the first time after waking up from a long sleep, an old forgotten memory had resurfaced.

Now Nico was really sure that there was something about that blond hair and blue eyes. His heart hammered on his rib cage suddenly. Nico clutched his chest. He almost doubled over. Why was he acting like this all of a sudden?

Blond hair

Blue eyes

Who are you really?

oo00oo

Two detectives exited the NYPD. One had blond hair and electric blue eyes with eyeglasses, and the other one had jet black hair and sea-green eyes.

"Hey what should we eat for lunch? I'm hungry." Jason Grace nudged his fellow detective Percy Jackson.

But Percy didn't answer instead he was looking at the distance. Jason followed Percy's gaze and saw their fellow detective, Detective Ramirez-Arellano was talking to a guy.

"Huh? Isn't that Detective Ramirez-Arellano? Who was she talking to? A boyfriend?" Jason wondered out loud and then frowned. "But then. . . why am I having this feeling that I've seen that guy before?"

"That guy's familiar to me." Percy suddenly said still looking at the latter two from the distance. "I've seen his picture on a file case."

Jason whipped his head to Percy. "What case? Is he a criminal?"

"No, the opposite, he's a victim of a hit and run case."

"Really? But how did you know that? You are on homicide division." Jason raised an eyebrow.

Percy sighed. "Doc Solace asked me a favor. So I've been poking on unsolved traffic incidents files and I'm sure Detective Ramirez-Arellano is going to kill me for that."

"Dr. Solace asked you to look for traffic incident files? Why and whose files?"

Percy pointed at the retreating figure of the guy and the female detective. "That guy. Nico di Angelo. And that's what I intended to know why Dr. Solace is asking what happened to Nico di Angelo. What's their relation exactly?"

"But you do realize that you shouldn't be disclosing cases-related information to a random civilian right?" Jason said.

"Who said Doc is just a random someone. He's our friend and he saved our lives!" Percy said. "Just zip your mouth about this and we'll be fine."

Jason mimicked on zipping up his lip.s "And what are you going to do with Detective Ramirez-Arellano? She's going to skewer you alive if she knew that you were poking on her case files without her permission."

Percy sighed. "Should I quit being a police officer now and hide in the deepest part of the Amazon forest?"

Jason nodded. "You should, for your sake. You can't even lie to her. I swear she's like a walking lie detector!"

"I know," Percy said grimly. "Let's eat while I'm thinking of ways on how to avoid a walking lie detector. Should I ask Annabeth? She's a genius when it comes to strategic planning."