AN: Hey guys I'm back!

I'm really sorry about the long wait, but I had maths exams and... I lost my muse. But enough excuses. I'm so sorry guys!

On the plus side I've had loads of reviews. THANK-YOU (perhaps I should have big breaks more often.) Just kidding!

So, the winner for the last question was Silvanyx5, congratulations, and please review who you want. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(0)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)

I feel like I should also credit ObsessedwReading, for all the reviews I was given. You reviewed on each chapter. Talk about dedication. I just review on the last updated one of each story I read.

WARNING: in this chapter Leo has a rant about bulling and bullies- If this is at all triggering for you, avoid the asterixed section

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.

Sammy Valdez... But he's dead...

Ok, on with the story. I've kept you too long already!

In Which Leo lies to the police (again)...

After Leo had made that statement, Dakota stared at him in shock. Leo almost felt sorry for him. He wouldn't really be able to visit New York again. At least, not this area of the city. The police would be on the lookout for him. Leo would try to pin it on Serephone, but as the cut was made in Leo's room, where only Leo and Dakota had been, the police would think it was Dakota who stabbed Leo, and he would be hunted by the police.

In fact, judging from the way everyone was running to and fro upstairs shouting his name- Dakota had about a minute to leave before he and Leo were found, else he would be hassled by the police so that he wouldn't be able to make it back to camp Jupiter for ages! Dakota left in rather a hurry, using the back exit as Leo had suggested. He obviously was also picturing what would happen if he didn't leave before the police showed up. As soon as he had left, Leo collapsed to the floor, summoning ambrosia from his tool belt. He had lost a lot of blood, and as his cut was still bleeding, so he assumed he had left a trail of blood from his room.

He realised he couldn't use very much ambrosia, because when the mortals found him, they would be suspicious if his cut had remarkably healed. He broke a corner of one of the squares and quickly gobbled it down. He noticed that the cut had stopped bleeding but wasn't healed- still a red line the length of his forearm, looking all the worse because of the blood turning his entire fore-arm crimson.

Leo was slightly shocked by how much the cut bled- he wondered if it had something to do with the imperial gold. Now he thought of it- Jason's sword; before he broke it fighting the giant-king, had seemed to be sharper than other weapons too... That was a possibility to look into when he had some time to do so.

Now though, Leo had some worried mortals to deal with. He figured as soon as the worker- Liz or Darcy or whoever calmed down enough to notice the trail of blood they would be down in the room with him. That meant he had about 30 seconds to come up with a believable story- didn't Serephone's previous orphanage have a disappearing boy problem?

She would be hailed as a criminal- guilty of murder and attempted murder of minors, and would be hunted by the police. Not that they would find here when she was currently floating around reforming in the horrible pit of evil that was Tartarus. Still, he wasn't so mean as to pin that on Dakota, and if he said that Dakota had run away...

People wouldn't blame him for running away when there was an evil care worker with a knife, after all.

As Leo finished planning his story, he felt another wave of dizziness from the blood loss; he groan and stopped trying to stand up- shuffling over to place his back agaist the wall, and his head on his knees. He held the, now stinging, arm out in front of him. Now the adrenaline had worn of he found that the cut throbbed. He wondered if there had been some mild poison on the blade. Well- if there was, the small bit of Ambrosia would probably take care of it, and it was only a dull throb. Nothing like some of the wounds he had sustained in the Giant war.

Heck, it wasn't even as bad as the swipes he had gotten from the fury and hellhound, though he was certain that this one would also leave a scar. Oh- scars. If he had to submit to someone clearing it up for him, and the police asking questions, they would all no doubt see his scars at some point. That meant that they would ask yet another set of questions.

Well, he would just have to find the highest ranking officer who came, and manipulate the mist for him, so that Leo would forgo any interrogations. He could make him think that he had gotten them in a fight for the government or some such thing. Secret agent Leo...

Leo was broken out of his planning by the door of the room slamming open, and one of the bullies, Ryan, crouching in front of him. Leo grunted and turned away from him, shuffling further from his reaching hand. He was so not in the mood to be attacked by them now... But Ryan didn't seem to be attacking. In fact, he looked almost worried.

Ryan stuck his head out of the door, and yelled, "I found Leo, down here!" He then came back to Leo and slowly spoke. "Are you all right?"

"I got my arm cut, not my brain; you don't need to speak to me like I'm a two-year old. And why do you care." So what if Leo was being a little mean. He felt he disserved it. He was cut and bleeding, and Ryan was one of the bullies who had ganged up and beat the stuffing out of him less than a month ago. He had reason to be a little miffed.

"Sorry." Ryan slid down the wall to sit beside him, ignoring Leo's flinch; Leo could hear footsteps rushing to the door. Ryan turned to him again. "I really am sorry you know. I was such a... Well, we could have killed you when we ganged up on you when you arrived. We didn't realise what we would have done till Liz got us together just now, and told us there was a trail of blood leading from your room, and a pool of blood in it- she looked so scared, we all thought you had died. Half the kids started crying, I was scared I wouldn't get a chance to apologise. I... I'm sorry Leo, you're not worthless, you're not stupid, and we're idiots to even think it."

Leo looked at him in disbelief, never, in all of both of his lives, (and that sentence shouldn't have made as much sense as it did) had a bully ever apologised. They just beat him up and laughed when he ran off. No one actually cared enough to... The world didn't work like that- bullies were bullies, they didn't change (not in Leo's experience), they were always just there to beat Leo up. That's what they did.

Now here was a bully actually apologising for his actions, and Leo could see in his eyes that he meant it, and now Leo's world was thrown of course. He had always survived, but known that the bullies were right. He was worthless- like they said. Even a whole adventure where his friends relied on him, where he had proved his worth time and again, he could never quite shake that fear- he was worthless. Now here was a bully telling him he wasn't.

"You didn't believe us right?" Ryan actually looked worried about him, and Leo couldn't help letting out an incredulous laugh, this was quite possibly one of the strangest days of his life. Ryan was looking at him like he actually cared! He let out another laugh, this one darker, less hysterical.

"The thing about being called worthless, repetitively, from every bully you ever come across, is that you start to believe it. How could everyone be wrong? - They must be right. How could I not feel worthless, when it's all everyone called me?"

Leo looked up to a gasp from Liz. Wait Liz? When did she get there? Why was he forgetting everything he ever learned about stealth, dam it, He knew better than to not realise when someone had entered a room, and now he had just spilled out one of his worst insecurities to a bully and a social worker! What in Hephaestus's name was wrong with him!

As soon as Liz saw he had noticed her presence, she sprung forward, first aid kit in hand, and ordered him to show her his arm. When he stopped cradling it, and held it forward, he saw Liz's eyes widen, and Ryan give a gasp, echoed by those lingering in the doorway. He looked down in confusion.

"It's not that bad."

"Your entire arm is stained with blood, and your top is covered in it. You've left a blood trail and a pool of blood, and the cut stretches the length of your for-arm; and it's not that bad! Leo! What is your definition of bad?!"

Leo grinned, and gave a normal laugh, which seemed to make everyone in the room relax a little, "Oh, come on Liz, I've had worse."

"You've had WORSE?" Liz was franticly cleaning the cut with the water that Darcy had brought, and Leo winced, "That was meant to make you relax."

Liz took a deep breath and sent him a glare that could rival Reyna's "No. That does not make me relax. That makes me worried about your past and how many gangs you've crossed!"

Leo snorted and he heard some of the other kids laughing as well. "Don't worry Liz, the only gang I crossed was the Latin Kings, and they let me off, because I got them out of a spot of trouble."

The entire room stopped breathing and stared at Leo, waiting for him to declare he was joking, which would have been all well and good had he been joking- but he really wasn't joking. He hadn't gotten into much crime when he was on the streets, but that was one time it was unavoidable. Some of the unimportant members of the Latin kings had set a plot to rob a store, and Leo had known about it, but he also knew that that storekeeper's daughter had cancer, and he needed the money to pay for her treatment. So he had tipped them off and the police were waiting.

The gang members were taken to prison, and Leo had been caught by some of the other members- who were about to beat the living daylights out of him, before he explained why he had done it. After that they let him go. Well, there was that small matter of him showing them an escape route through an old workshop that he had visited with his mom, so they could get away from the police chasing them.

The room seemed to realise at the same time, that Leo wasn't kidding, and Darcy flopped to the floor. Then cliché of all clichés, he heard a voice from the back entrance. "Is that right son."

Leo stood up and turned on the spot, Liz finished with cleaning his arm, and wiping away the blood. "What a stereotypical way for the police to announce their presence..."

After Leo had explained his story to the police, and how, actually he shouldn't be arrested; they got onto how he was cut. Leo was delighted to embellish the story, and gleefully told about how Serephone brutally cut him, and was about to kill him before Dakota intervened, but after she ran off, he immediately left, claiming the orphanage was too mad.

Worst part was, Leo didn't feel at all guilty for the lie. Sure he was lying to the police, but he'd done worse things, so it didn't even really prick his conscience.

He had wrapped his cut ASAP, so no-one had seen the other scars, but he figured someone would eventually. He left the social workers to discuss what had happened with the police, and, thankfully, due to Serephone eating all the boys in her last orphanage, they were content to blame it all on her, and issued a warrant for her arrest. Leo didn't think they'd ever find her though.

I know it was a bad end, I'm sorry, I couldn't think of one...

I'd like to say sorry if there was anything I said about bullies in this chapter that offended anyone- It was not my intention, but I really think that if anyone is told they are worthless for long enough- they'll believe it.

Question: Can you name two people in the fields of punishment?