THE PROBLEM WITH LEO VALDEZ

Disclaimer: thanks Uncle Rick for making such great characters


THIS STORY IS CURRENTLY BEING EDITED. SORRY FOLKS THAT I'M SO SLOW BUT HEY I'M TRYING

11/05/16

I want to hopefully get this whole thing revised by Christmas so that I can spend 2017 finishing this damn thing. It's being going on since 2014 and lemme tell ya, that's three years too long.


CHAPTER: IV
PIPER

Worries

Piper didn't stop and explain to Annabeth why exactly she was running like a madman, but it was clear that the daughter of Athena knew what was going on.

"Do you know where Leo is?" Annabeth called as Piper ran past her and towards the stairway. "Piper! Did you find something?"

Piper didn't stop to turn around. "Just focus on getting the controls working!" she shouted back, giving a half-hearted thumbs up to her friend. The last thing anyone needed right now was more worry. As far as Annabeth should be concerned, Piper had things handled.

Sure, Leo was in the middle of throwing fireballs around his room, but other than that things were basically under control.

Before Annabeth could press the conversation further, Piper disappeared down the stairs.

Leo... what did he think he was doing? He may have been the one who built the ship and considered himself 'captain', but even he should have known that his fire abilities weren't to be used freely while aboard the Argo II. He was being stupid- idiotic. The way he was acting was far too out of character for Piper to just let it slide.

And besides, fireballs? Piper scowled. They had a whole training deck made for that sort of thing.

Too many questions to process raced through her head as Piper ran to where her friend was. Past the Galley, Frank's room... Percy's room... bingo. Leo.

The door, although being open on the monitor, was shut.

The door, being smashed open by Frank, didn't do much use being shut.

"Leo?" Piper said carefully, knocking on the broken wood despite being able to just climb through. The hole was big enough to see through, but she figured intruding upon an oddly-acting, fire-wielding kid who didn't seem to be right in the head at the moment wasn't the best idea. "Valdez you in there?"

Of course he was in there. She had just seen him trying to set his bed up in flames.

"...Valdez!" Piper called, slamming her fist against the frame. "Leo, I know you're in there. Just come out and talk to me, please." Where else could he have gone? Out the window again? No, no that was stupid. Leo was smart enough not to pull the same trick twice.

But she couldn't see him. She peered through the hole in the door, searching past the wreckage and burnt furniture.

Then, right in front of her, Leo popped out.

"Hi." The boy cautiously, running a hand through his hair.

Piper furrowed her eyebrows. "We need to talk."

Leo made a face. "That's- uh, not really a good idea right now. Maybe later? I've got this thing that I really need to do and-"

"I saw the fire Leo." Piper snapped, pushing him out of the way and climbing past the splintered wood. Leo stumbled backwards into the knocked over desk chair. He tried to straighten himself, but was already too unsteady and ending up falling to the floor.

"Hey- Hey! I didn't say you could come in!" Leo snapped, quickly jumping to his feet and putting the chair back into its place at the desk. "Hence why I didn't say 'Hey Piper, come on in!' when you showed up like you run the place. I'm busy! Come back later!"

Piper narrowed her eyes. The room was in a worse state than it had been when she and Hazel had first checked it out. Now, it looked as if a bomb had went off. Piper turned towards Leo, furious. "What did you do?"

Leo managed a wobbly grin. "A little bit of clarification would help me answer that, you know."

Piper scowled. "Look, I saw you using your fir-"

The son of Hephaestus shot her a cold look that didn't quite suit him. "Were you seriously spying on me?"

Piper blinked. "I- no. Not intentionally, I mean. The computer brought the surveillance video up. Anyway, listen, that isn't the point I'm trying to-"

"The ship's system doesn't do anything without being told to." Leo pointed out angrily. There was a look in his eyes that Piper didn't quite recognize. "Don't lie to me, Piper."

She clenched her fist. He was being the most uncooperative she had ever known him to be.

"Could you at least explain these, then?" Piper snapped, pointing her hand to the burnt markings on the wall.

Leo squinted at them as if he had forgotten they were there. "Those? Are you serious? I probably had a nightmare or something and freaked out."

"Probably? You mean you don't know?"

The boy let out a sigh. "What are you, my mother? Why is this such a big deal all of a sudden?"

"Because they weren't there yesterday, and you're acting like all of this is completely normal!" Piper snapped at him. "Just answer me, please." She let a bit of charmspeak to slip into her voice, hoping that it would be just enough to edge him on to tell her what was really happening. Normally she was against controlling people, but it was obvious that Leo wasn't going to tell her what she wanted to know.

However, as soon as the words left her mouth a look of recognition flashed on Leo's face.

For a second the son of Hephaestus almost looked conflicted, as if he was aware of the charmspeak and wanted to give in, but something was ordering him not to. His face twisted; his eyebrows furrowing together and his nose scrunching up. He looked confused, baffled, angry, then confused again.

"I don't remember." Was his answer. Whether it was honest or not Piper couldn't tell, he didn't even look that sincere as he spoke the words.

Piper was so stuck in her frustration that she wanted to scream. He wasn't telling her anything. What did a simple 'I don't know' get her? She felt like she was forever stuck on Square One, and that Leo had designed the game to never let her advance.

But then Piper forced herself to cool down and really look at the situation. Was she being unreasonable? She didn't think so. Leo had been acted oddly since morning, and from then on he only seemed to be getting worse. She was worried, that was all. Worried that something was wrong, worried that there was something he wasn't telling her.

He was always acting weird though, wasn't he? He was constantly changing, switching gears and always on the move to be different.

But he had never been like this before. He had never been this rabid, this out of control.

"Piper," Leo said, snapping the girl out of her thoughts. "I don't know what you're expecting me to say, but I'd appreciate if you left me alone now." Although she felt like the words were supposed to sound genuine, Piper couldn't help getting the impression they were pulled right off a script.

Piper watched him for a few seconds before nodding. Still, she couldn't help but add "You know I'm just trying to look out for you, right?"

Leo waved her away. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks and all that."

As she turned around to leave and was just about to walk out into the hallway again, Piper remembered that the ship still wasn't moving.

"Oh! And Leo-" She said, whipping around to face her friend. She stopped talking when a shine caught her eye, like the glittering of gold.

"Gods, what?" Leo snapped. His face was no longer pointed towards her, so all she saw was the back of him as trudged in to his bed pulled the blankets over his body.

"Annabeth needs help getting the ship moving. Can you-"

"Use the Wii remote that has the blue case."

"But aren't you going to-"

"The A button will start the engines up, and Festus already knows where to go so don't worry about steering or anything." Leo explained, still not turning towards her.

She had made him angry at her, hadn't she?

Of course she had.

Piper dropped her eyes to the floor and turned around back towards the hall. "Thanks."


Jason and Frank were both alongside Annabeth now, but both of them seemed to be having the same luck with the computer that Piper and her had had.

"Have any of you seen a Wii remote?" Piper asked, scratching the back of her head as she walked up to them. She had tried to put Leo out of her mind, but her worry over him was stuck in her brain like a disease. Was he okay? Probably not. Would he let her help him? Probably not.

Frank looked around him and shrugged. Jason cast her a curious look.

"We don't have time to play virtual bowling at the moment." Jason told her. "Maybe if we're not all dead within the next few weeks or so, we can have tournament."

Annabeth's face went in to a look of deep thought. "The one with the blue case, you mean?"

Piper nodded.

Annabeth rubbed her forehead and groaned. "Not since yesterday. Percy took it, I think."

Frank blinked. "We were gonna play tennis, but it wasn't working."

"Only the A button actually does anything." Annabeth explained without missing a beat, "That way no one would get it confused with the real controllers... Frank, do you know what he did with it?"

"Uh. He put it down?"

"Telling me where he put it down, is what I meant."

"Oh! Yeah, uh, right. He dropped it somewhere on the floor in his room. Sorry- if I had down it was important I would have brought it back."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Once she was gone, Frank must have gotten the impression that he was the next in line to leave and quickly excused himself.

Jason turned to Piper and looked at her carefully in the eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked. When she didn't answer, Jason put a hand on her shoulder.

"Seriously Piper, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"But...?"

Piper sighed. "I'm just worried about Leo." she admitted. "He didn't want to talk to me when I went to his room, Jason. He's shutting me out."

Jason's lips pressed in to a thin line. "You saw how he was this morning. He's probably just sick, you know? Doesn't want to be bothered."

"I know, I know. That's what I was thinking. But if you had been with me and Hazel earlier... oh gods, Jason, you should have seen it." Piper groaned, rubbing her forehead with her hand. There was too much to think about. Too much that she didn't know.

Concern didn't leave Jason's face. "What do you mean?"

"He set part of his room on fire, that's the best I can explain it." Piper said, reaching for the single braid in her hair. "Then he claimed he didn't know how it happened, like he just woke up and found it that way. But on the security footage, he was-"

"Maybe he's telling the truth." Jason intervened. "Things have been tense lately. Maybe he had a nightmare and things got out of hand."

Piper shook her head. "You didn't let me finish, Jason. On the security footage, I saw him. He was shooting fire out of his hands like he was playing a game or something, like it wasn't the slightest bit dangerous at all."

Jason's lips twitched in amusement. "Weird kid."

"That's all you have to say?"

"I don't know, Piper, but-"

"But what?"

Jason looked at her for a few moments before taking in a deep sigh. "I don't know." he repeated. There was a certain tiredness to his voice. "I'm just as concerned with all of this as you are, but I just... maybe it's better not to pry, you know?"

Piper's eyes widened. Was she hearing him correctly? She couldn't be.

Jason must have sensed her disbelief, because quickly he jumped in to an explanation. "I know this is weird, but if anything was wrong or bothering him, don't you think he'd tell us about it? I mean, this is Leo we're talking about. He can get himself in to ruts, sure, but he isn't someone who'd hide things from us. Whatever he's going through, I think we should just keep a quiet eye on him and let him come to his own conclusion."

Piper's shoulders sagged. "And if he is sick, like you said?"

Jason shrugged. "We can stop at the nearest drug store and load him up on some Buckley's."

At that, Piper wanted to laugh. Jason had a way with making her feel better about things that she otherwise wouldn't have felt better about. And besides, he was right, wasn't he? Leo hadn't been a danger to anyone, and so far his only crime had been being a bit careless with his fire. If he wasn't sick and if it was just his nerves getting to him, could Piper blame him? Things had been tense lately, and nothing would ease up until the war was over.

Everyone was getting skittish. Leo was probably worried about messing things up again, even though those other few times hadn't really been his fault.

Piper sucked in a deep breath of air and nodded. Jason was right, she decided. She'd wait this out and let Leo come to his senses on his own. After all, she trusted him. He had never given her a reason to doubt him before.