Katie was asleep, so I had one good thing going for me. On the other hand, Nico was unconscious on the floor, which was most definitely bad. I dropped to my knees, and curled my hands around him. Effortlessly, I picked him up. Backing into the door, I moved around the side of the building to the infirmary entry-way. It was unlocked, thank the gods. Putting Nico on a gurney, I started the usual routine for him. A small cup of ambrosia, a blanket, and lot of fluids. Once he was breathing normally, I sat down in the chair beside him. I checked the clock on the wall; 10:46pm. This was going to be a long night. I was filled with worry. Poor Nico. I wanted to know how what had happened, was it because adrenaline had worn off? Was it that he'd helped Mrs O'Leary shadow travel us back?
"Mmph."
He grunted as he moved his head closer to me, hair falling in his eyes. I brushed it back, not wanting it to wake him up. Oh, Nico. How many times had we been in this exact same place before? He was always trying to get himself killed. I leaned back in the chair, pulling my hoodie closer around me. I had barely closed my eyes when I remembered…
Katelyn. I sat bolt upright and sprung from the chair, carefully stepping away from the creaky floorboards. Once I hit the outside air, I sprinted to the apartment. The door was still hanging open. I could see the faint silhouette of the toddler, huddled in blankets. She was still asleep. And after having that nap today, I had no idea how she did it.? Knowing that Nico would still be unconscious until at least tomorrow morning, I got changed into my pyjamas, brushed my teeth and hopped into bed. It was a relief knowing that Neeks was fine, but still, this was the only the third time that I'd been away from him when he was like that. I checked on Katie one last time before closing my eyes to sleep.

That night was one of my better nights, because I had no dreams.. Opening my eyes to sunlight, I winced. Did I forget to close the curtains last night? I turned over to see if Nico was awake before realising. He was in the infirmary. I turned out of habit, and saw a mop of black hair. That definitely didn't belong to Nico. It was Katie, and she had somehow managed to crawl into our bed last night. I ran my hair through my hair, pushing it back. Sitting upright I moved to leave the bed when she started to stir. Oh great, I just woke her up.

"Daddy? Papa?" She looked around, trying to search for Nico. When she couldn't find him, her eyes started to tear up, and she was blinking like she was about to start wailing. I had to intervene.

"Hey, it's all okay. I'm here. Good morning, sweetheart."

She scrambled over to me, clinging to my side.

"Where's Papa?" She looked up at me, pushing the tears and sleep from her eyes.

"He's next door. We'll go and check on him in a lil bit, alright?"

She nodded, and relief spread through me. At least I didn't have a screaming toddler to introduce to camp. I pushed off of the bed and went to the kitchenette, putting the kettle on to boil.

"Would you like some hot chocolate?"

"Yes, pwease."

I grabbed out a small cup for her and measured three scoops of the power into it, mixing it with the hot water and adding the milk. She drank it and had a little milk moustache.

"Come here, you little monkey." I grabbed around her waist and wiped her face.

Once she'd put on her outfit for the day - which consisted on some striped blue overalls and a purple shirt -we headed to see Nico. And yes, he was still unconscious.

We walked inside, and she headed straight to his gurney, clambering up the chair bedside it to lay right beside Nico.

"Uh, Katie. I don't think that's a good idea. Nico's still asleep so you have to be very quiet. Okay?" I raised my fingers to my lips to emphasise it, and she nodded, copying my movements. I grabbed a stethoscope and pressed the to Nico's chest, the normal thud of a heartbeat coming through. I could see that he was going to be awake soon, so I grabbed a pad and pen, writing a short note that consisted of: Going to have breakfast and show Katie around. Don't do anything stupid or dangerous. XX, Will.

We left the infirmary, heading towards the shore and the dining pavilion.

"My tummy's grumbly," Katie complained, pulling on my hand.

"Well that's good, because we're here." I pointed to the open ancient greek pavilion. The stone tables were as always, covered in their white tablecloths fringed with purple. The brazier that was only lit at night time was standing beside the faculty's table, which served as the breakfast buffet. At one of the centre tables, a lone group of teenagers had already started to have their breakfast. We moved to sit with the other Apollo cabiners, my half-siblings, and sat down, pulling Katie onto my lap.

"Hey guys, how're you?" I took my knife, carefully spreading butter and honey and cutting the toast into triangles I got a few mumbles in reply, I could tell that they were giving me the cold shoulder. I didn't know why, so I quickly brushed it off, instead focussing on Katie. I simply continued asking them about what they were going to do today, with responses of teaching archery and doing some trails on the pegasi. I nodded and kept eating Luckily, Katie wasn't too fussed and just ate some toast smothered with jam and peanut butter.

After we'd finished our breakfast, Katie and I slowly wandered back up to the infirmary to check on Nico. He was still asleep when we opened the door. Katie ran back up to him and jumped again from the chair to his gurney and snuggled in close to his arm.

"Papa, it's morning."

Her little speech ended with a giggle, to which Nico slowly opened his eyes.

He slowly looked around, processing where he was.

"Mmph," He inched up into a seated position and looked pointedly at me, "Why am I in the infirmary?"

"Because you passed out flat on the floor ."

"But I didn't even - oh..."

"What?"

"I just might have, sorta, possibly...helped Mrs O'Leary shadow travel us cross-country."

"Okay, sure. But I had to bring you to the infirmary, basic protocol." Katie just sat on Nico's lap, looking back and forth between us like it was a tennis match. I nodded, and signed a release form for Nico, bundling up the blanket and putting it back in the cupboard. We collectively left the infirmary but split outside; Nico heading to get changed, and Katie and I going down to the beach.

The water at the beach was nice and warm. Katie and I had omitted our shoes, and left them near the top of the pier. Instead, we walked along the edge of the water and Katie occasionally splashed in the little puddles. Neeks quickly joined us, and we just kinda walked behind Katie, listening to her little ramblings about the waves and the kooky-coloured buildings. She'd run back and forth and sometimes reached for our hands, where we'd picked her up as she'd jump over the water. It went on like that for about a half an hour, before Percy made his way back from breakfast and noticed us.

"Hey guys," he said slipping off his sneakers and catching up with us, "and who are you?"

Katie spun around, giggling and said, "I'm Katie."

"Well hiya, Katie." Percy turned to us a smile on his face as he told us that Annabeth was in the Athena cabin library, and she'd love to meet Katie. We agreed, leaving the beach and began heading to the Athena cabin.

Heading inside the open door, I was stunned at how clean-looking the cabin was. The light grey of the walls and calm, white curtains. We walked through to the library. Annabeth was sitting at one of the benches, working on some schematic drawings. She had her head close to the paper, pencil etching little notes and arrows all over the page. She looked up as she Percy put a hand on her shoulder, before smiling.

"Who's this little cutie?" She opened her arms, Katie almost running into them.
"I'm Katie," she said, pointing to herself, "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing some drawings. Do you draw Katie?" Katie nodded in reply as Annabeth grabbed some paper and coloured pencils out of a drawer, handing them to Katie. Katie sat down on the wooden floor, picking a bright pink pencil and starting to draw some blobs. She seemed happy drawing, so we just started talking in hushed tones since we were still in a library.

"So when did you guys get back?"
"Last night. It was late and we just wanted to get Katelyn to bed," Nico said, leaving out his little episode.

"Okay, and what did you get up to yesterday?"
"We went for ice cream and got Katie some outfits, and spent some time with Jason and Piper. They made some really good cupcakes."

"Yeah, Pipes and I used to make her special recipe each time we ha-"
"Finished!" Katie waved the piece of paper in front of her, before giving it to Annabeth to look at.

"Wow! That's very, um, cool. And what did you draw for us?" Annabeth flipped the paper for us to see. It was our little family, as a yellow blob for me, a black blob for Nico and a little pink blob for Katie. Except that the blob for Nico was standing above mine, giving off a puppet master vibe. And that the Katie blob had a little blackish-brown blob in its hands.

"I don't know." Katelyn raised her hands and shrugged, looking at Nico and I. Nico glanced at me, before bending down to pick Katie up.

"I love it, we'll have to hang it up so you can see it everyday." He finished the sentence by kissing her on the forehead. I had to agree, it was a strange piece, but I did love it.