Last time on BS: The hardest part was afterwards. That's where our story really begins.

The six demigods from the Argo II and Nico met on the porch of the Big House.

Jason hung his head, even his glasses lost in shadow. "We should have been there at the end. We could have helped Leo."

"It's not right," Piper agreed, wiping away her tears. "All that work getting the physician's cure, for nothing."

Hazel and Frank looked at each other, and decided it was time.

"Piper," Hazel's voice was soothing, and she rubbed small circles on her friend's back. "Where's the cure? Bring it out."

Piper went to pull the bottle out of her belt pouch, bewildered. All she found was the chamois cloth pouch, empty.

All eyes turned to Hazel.

"How?" Annabeth asked.

Frank put his arm around Hazel. "In Delos, Leo asked the two of us to help him."

Together they explained Leo's plan to kill Gaea and take the physician's cure.

"He wanted to do it alone. He thought that, since he's the son Hephaestus, he might survive the fire. He said he thought we'd understand the sacrifice, since we're Roman. But he knew the rest of you would never allow it."

At first the others looked angry, like they wanted to scream and throw things. But as Frank and Hazel kept talking, the rage seemed to dissipate. It was hard to be mad at Frank and Hazel when they were both crying. Also . . . the plan sounded exactly like the sneaky, twisted, ridiculously annoying and noble sort of thing Leo Valdez would do.

Finally Piper let out a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh. "If he were here right now I would kill him. How was he planning to take the cure? He was alone!"

Frank looked up at the group, with a sense of realization, "He had this machine rigged up to Festus that was supposed to do it for him." Hazel nodded.

"Then maybe he did it." Percy said. "This is Leo we're talking about. He might come back any minute. Then we can take turns strangling him."

Hazel shook her head, "No- I mean, yes he might be alive, but he mentioned something about Ogygia. If he is alive- and I think he is- he won't be back for a while."

Piper let out another half sob/half laugh. "That son of a bitch."

"He said he would IM." Frank added, not so helpfully.

There were a few chuckles, and the demigods fell into silence.

The silence was finally interrupted by Percy, "Holy crap. We did it." He ran his hand through his hair, looking absolutely stunned. "We actually did it!I need to sit down. No- I need to find Grover. Shit, I need to find my mom." Percy ran into the Big House.

"We defeat Gaea and the first thing Percy does is call his mom."

Annabeth shrugged and reclined back in her chair. "Honestly I'm surprised that he waited this long."

The other campers left to go put their affairs in order, except Annabeth who remained in her chair, looking out at the woods outside camp. She was deep in thought when from behind her a voice said, "Hey, Annabeth."

Annabeth sprung to her feet, and launched herself at a grinning Grover. She held him at arms length as if to examine him. "Gods, its been so long. How are you? How's Juniper? And Rachel-where's Rachel- oh, there she is! Hey Rachel! Anyway, how's the council? Are they listening to you? If they're not I swear I'll rip those old goats limb from-"

"Have I ever told you that you worry like an old mama goat?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You might have mentioned it once or twice. But seriously, how are you?"

"I'm good Annabeth. And so's Juniper, and everything else."

"Good. Aw, come here." So Annabeth pulled Grover in for another hug. Then he pulled up a chair to join her.

Percy jogged onto the big house's porch, visibly excited. "So, my mom is good. I talked to Chiron and I'm going up to see her in an hour. You could come with, if you wanna." He came to a stop behind Annabeth's chair and leaned down so his hands were on her armrests and head was hovering above hers. She tilted her head back to look at him, and he dropped a kiss on her forehead.

"That's adorable." Grover commented.

"G-man! You're here!" Percy scrambled towards the satyr, who stood up to hug him.

"Hey Perce!"

Percy swung an arm around Grover's shoulders, and let out a content sigh, exaggerated for Grover and Annabeth's amusement. "The gang is all back together. The dream squad- reunited!"

"Yeah, we're still not calling it that." Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. But she was smiling.

Grover shrugged, "I don't know, I think it's pretty catchy."

Annabeth rolled her eyes again and leaned back in her chair, "Well, that's too bad."

Grover laughed,"Ah Annabeth, I have missed you."

Annabeth grinned.

And for a little while, everything was perfect.

[AN] The dream squad is back bitches. I'm beginning to really like this au. Like a lot. Well, only one or two more of the prologues, I think, and then I start with the POVs (No first person I promise). That means soon there will be no more stretches of text directly from the book. And longer chapters. And the fun plotlines begin (YAY) AND WE BEGIN TO DEVIATE FROM CANON ENTIRELY YASSS. Okay: Question: What character from the first series do you want to see show up? (Oh and all te old questions still apply. They're cumulative. And if you don't wanna answer a question in your review that's cool. Or if you wanna answer all of them, that's really cool. But if you don't review, I don't know about that. You're still a pretty cool person but that's not a cool move.)

-FR7 (Oh and thanks Chocolatelover2001 for following. You rock!)

Next time on BS: A shit ton happens. We meet up with Reyna, Piper, and Frank, who have a lot of shit to do. And also Nico has a confession to make.