Apologies for the long wait, I have been wifi-less for over a month, and then school got crazy busy. It has been brutal, but I had time to read BoO so I can't complain too much. Luckily, break is coming up so I'll be able to update more frequently. Again, sorry for the wait, it was utterly ridiculous.

I'm going to put effort into making my chapters longer. This one's length is close to what I'm planning to shot for now. Hopefully it flows well and doesn't seem to be dragged out.

Enjoy!

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Annabeth was a few seconds from a major meltdown.

After she and Leo had managed to keep Reyna's head above water for almost an hour, it took that long for the stupid dragon to realize it couldn't get them while they were in a body of water, and struggling to keep their footing in the river, they'd finally crawled out of the freezing water. The adrenaline has been pumping so much that she barely even noticed the cold sting of the water, but she could feel Leo steadily giving off heat waves preventing them from freezing to death in the river.

Once they were finally out of the water the air was so cold Annabeth worried she'd develop icicles in her hair, but thanks to Leo, who built them a fire right along the river side, they were dry within half an hour. Man, he had been useful tonight.

Leo sucked air through his teeth. "What are we going to do about her burns?" he whispered as he looked at them closely for the first time. The skin was bright red, like an awful sunburn with patches of even deeper reds. He could tell that she'd saved herself by dropping and putting the flames out quickly, but he could also tell that they'd be unbelievably painful and that she's probably need to treat them in some way to keep them from getting infected. Ambrosia would take a while to heal them, and considering the past they had with magically induced injuries healing slowly, it was a better idea to treat the wound the mortal way as well.

Annabeth shook his head slightly to clear it. "They seem to be only second degree, thank the Gods, so we just need to clean them, use some Bacitracin, and bandage them."

Leo widened his eyes.

Annabeth rolled hers. "Camp Half-Blood. I've helped Chiron run the infirmary before."

He nodded. "Alright. Since you have experience I'll let you do it. What do you need?"

"A bottle of water, a cloth, several rolls of bandages, and a tube of Bacitracin." While Leo pulled them out of his belt, Annabeth finally dared to look closely at the blistering patches of skin.

The blisters were a light pink and full with clear fluid. The skin was already beginning to peel in flakes. It was disgusting.

Leo handed her the things she'd requested and sat down on Reyna's other side. He gulped and his face paled a bit. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just help me hold her still if she wakes up. This is certainly not going to be the most enjoyable thing she's ever been put through." Annabeth gritted her teeth as she began to gently dab at the blistering and peeling skin.

She knew that she should change Reyna's shirt to one that wasn't charred through one side. She would have to. But she wanted to put it off. She was worried she'd wake Reyna up and be caught in that awkward position. She felt her face heat slightly; she didn't even know why.

Leo must've seen but he compassionately didn't mention it. Probably thought the wound was making her stomach churn. It was, but not enough to make her complexion change colors.

Reyna mumbled in her sleep, causing Annabeth's hand to jerk back. But she didn't; just settled back into sleep.

By the time the wound was cleaned and treated, Annabeth made Leo go get firewood while she wrapped Reyna's torso with the bandage. The clothes would've been too hard to pull off so she just cut them off of her before beginning to bandage Reyna's burns. It was hard to do, she had to prop the other girl's body against hers while she wrapped the white bandage around Reyna's bare chest.

She discarded of Reyna's half burned shirt and bra into the fire, watching as they turned bright red and curled as they disintegrated. She carefully slipped one of her own shirts over Reyna's head and carefully pushed her arms through the holes before laying her down beside the fire.

Annabeth couldn't believe she hadn't woken up during the process, but she was relieved. The pain would've been awful, and Leo wasn't back yet to provide Nectar or Ambrosia.

Annabeth collapsed onto the ground, curled on her side, and watched the fire crackle.

###

Percy knew he was being watched. He could feel eyes boring into his back, but no matter how many times he scanned his surroundings, he couldn't find anything. He couldn't even make out any shapes beyond the small ring of light from the tiny fire he'd started an hour ago.

Fog had been lathered thickly over the tree tops so he didn't have to worry about people finding them tonight, even though they were in the middle of valley and the smoke was denser then usual. He hadn't been able to find as many dry leaves as he wanted, so he had to settle for some green ones. There were a few trees nearby with green leaves still surprisingly. It was odd.

Percy was sitting with his legs crossed, directly in front of the fire. His hands were clasped tightly, partially from the cold, partially from irritation. He could feel his fingers digging into the backs of his hands.

He was mad, but with himself. Jason was curled up to his right, covered by a sleeping bag with his head rested on two wadded up shirts. The only part of him that was visible was a sliver of golden hair. Percy though about reaching over, gently touching his shoulder, but Jason could use all of the sleep he could get.

Percy had never felt as worthless, through out his entire life as when Jason had that migraine. He couldn't do anything to take away his pain, he couldn't even dull it. He had thought of running to a town, pinching some heavy duty aspirin, but he couldn't leave Jason alone. Especially not with monsters on their tails.

All Percy could do was whisper false, meaningless reassurances, and try to comfort him. None of it could help him though. It could just help distract him. He even thought of telling a story, but he decided all of that talking would just worsen the migraine, if anything. No matter how badly he had wanted to, no matter how tightly his heart clenched at every grimace, Percy was completely helpless.

Jason murmured softly. More noise then words. Percy wondered whether it was another nightmare, but when a storm didn't begin crackling, and he remained silent, he realized he might actually be having a good dream.

It had been a while since either of them had had one of those. When they were younger, back in that foster home, Percy had only had a few nightmares. But he never woke up screaming, or threw up afterwards like Jason did. Percy felt a shiver roll up his spine.

He could still remember how sad it had made him when Jason had those nightmares when they were younger. Percy didn't understand yet how someone could have such bad dreams that they would cry themselves to sleep. That they would be sick for half an hour. That they would yell in their sleep, yell loud enough that neughbors would complain and foster parents would threaten punishment.

He could still remember the one time he had found Jason in the aftermath of one of those night terrors.

It was close to midnight. Percy wasn't supposed to be up, but he had lots of homework that day and had procrastinated. He heard the heavy breathing coming from the room down the hall, he knew it was Jason. No one snored in the house and all of the doors were required to be cracked open at night so that none of them could get away with that much.

He stepped into the hall, heading to the kitchen for a glass of water. The house was cold, the hardwood floor making his toes curl. He failed to understand how Mr. and Mrs. Connelly didn't freeze to death on their sporatic hall patrols.

He worried for a moment one of them might hear him, but he just shrugged and tried not to think about it. Every once in a while, they would patrol the hallway and see who was up to no good. Sometimes they would do it multiple times the same nights other times they would go weeks without. The boys who had been there for a while had been mapping it and no pattern arose.

One of the doors at the end of the hall burst open, and for a moment Percy's heart stopped. He thought he had been caught and would be punished.

But it was just Jason, his face flushed and his hands clamped over his mouth. Percy jumped out of his way as he made a mad dash towards the bathroom, but Jason didn't make it. A few strides from the door, he fell to his knees and vomited.

Percy looked away, the sight making him sick to his own stomach. He turned around at the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs and ran back through his own door, making it just as the feet landed in the hallway, sending vibrations through the wood.

"Jason?" It was a woman's voice. Mrs. Connelly. Jason was lucky, she wouldn't be mad. Her husband would have mort certainly punished him, especially if he saw that he had gotten sick all over the floor a few feet from the bathroom.

"Sorry," he croaked. Percy cringed at how used up his voice sounded.

He could hear her walking towards him. "It's okay. Head back to bed and I'll clean this up."

"No, I can-"

Percy soon heard what had made Jason's voice drop off; more footsteps. Distinctly louder ones. Mr. Connelly.

Percy tiptoed to his bed, diving under the covers and placing hispillow over his head. He didn't want to hear Mr. Connelly scream. He didn't want to hear it. Any of it.

But despite how hard he pressed his palms to his ears, it didn't help. He heard every word exchanged between them. By the time the tell tale slap echoed, a single tear dripped over the bridge of Percy's nose.

All he wanted was for the pain to stop.

###

That was all he wanted now too.

###

So, worth the wait at all? Luckily I have next week off so I wil actually have time to work of this. Despite my horrible updating ways and how lazy I get, I really do love writing this story and hopefully you guys enjoy reading it too.

They'll be heading to Camp Half-Blood soon, so don't worry, we'll get to something less depressing. Expect lots of cuteness to come up once the next plot arc shows up. It will be worth all the pain I put you though, trust me. ;)

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

~Ann

P.S. Let me know if there is anything you would like to see in this story. I'm completely open to suggestions.

P.P.S. There will be a shout out to my 50th reviewer! You guys rock!