A/N Soo...it appears that I'm almost completely writing this story for myself as no one seems to be reading it...I'm mostly ok with this because I like it and I think writing needs to be first and foremost for yourself, but do let me know if you're reading this, enjoying it, dislike it, confused, whatever! I would like other people to enjoy reading this as much I as am enjoying writing it! I also greatly value your opinions and constructive criticism!

Miette

**Disclaimer** PJO Characters, ect are borrowed with all due respect from Rick Riordan**

An exasperated sigh escaped Nessa's lips. It was now around one in the afternoon and the six teens had been walking since they'd finished breaking down their camp around nine o'clock that morning. It was not the long walking that exasperated the able-bodied demigod. Nor was it the scenic woods somewhere between Montauk and Manhattan through which they were walking that had Nessa sighing. She rather enjoyed the woods, actually. She found them reminiscent to those she knew as a young girl living on a vineyard in the Finger Lakes region farther north in Upstate New York. The chill in the early October air also was not what was souring the girl's mood. No, she enjoyed the fall, it meant harvest time, her birthday and tourist to see the leaves change. With the woods, the weather, and her boyfriend beside her holding her hand, Nessa could even just about forget the danger and drama they were all currently living through along with their mission. She thought she ought to be in a rather good mood all things being considered, yet she wasn't.

Nessa's bad mood was caused by the aforementioned boyfriend walking beside her and his foul mood.

With another frustrated sigh, Nessa tugged Charlie's hand, causing them to fall a few steps farther behind their companions, "why don't you just talk to them?" she whispered irritated.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Charlie muttered, pulling his eyes away from his younger sister, asleep, ridding piggy back on her best friend, Neal. In front of them, LB and Grant were talking animatedly about something or other, not even noticing that Nessa and Charlie were falling behind.

"Bull," Nessa calmly responded, "you're bothered, I can tell. My guess? It's one of three things, though I know which one I'd put my money on." She dropped Charlie's hand and began ticking off ideas, "One, you're still upset that they're here. That's not it though. You're not pleased because you want the girls safe back home, but you know that in reality, that's not really any safer, besides you missed them and you know that they'll be a help. Two, you're bugged that your baby cousin and best friend are flirting like their lives depend on it, but I don't think you've actually noticed that yet. Evidently LB's had a crush on Grant for ages, jsyk. I just learned that bit of gossip this morning."

Ness turned toward LB and Grant, now several yards ahead, tilting her head to inspect them, as she began slowly walking again, "they could be cute, I'm not sure yet. Anyway, that's not it. Lastly, but not leastly," Nessa stated, intentionally adding the unnecessary –ly to bug Charlie, "you're in a mood because you can't stand Neal and Pearl's friendship," her tone of voice on the last word put mental quotes around it.

"I don't know what you mean," Charlie wouldn't look at the girl walking beside him as he spoke.

Nessa laughed, "Neal has been friends with Pearl and LB since they were, what? 6? 7? Something like that? You never had an issue with him till around when they turned 14ish. I think it is because consciously or subconsciously you already know what they don't even know yet."

"Oh?" Charlie stopped walking again and turned to his currently very infuriating girlfriend, "and what would that be?"

"That would be, my dear sofó, that Lady Aphrodite has irrevocably and inextricably bound their lives together," with her hands on Charlie's shoulders, Nessa pushed herself up onto her toes and lightly pressed her lips to his, "just as she has ours." With that, Ness turned and hurried to catch up to their friends.

Shaking his head, Charlie followed after Nessa, muttering about her spending too much time recently with their friend Aggi.

"Hey," breathlessly, Bia fell onto the ground beside Annabeth.

"Hmm?" Annabeth didn't move as she acknowledged the younger girl. The blonde was laying on her stomach, propped on her elbows, her eyes trained on the book below her.

Bia grabbed a bottle of water from the bag of snacks and drinks the girls, and Percy and Nico, had brought with them to the park, along with the quilt they were sitting on and the football the boys were currently tossing back and forth. "Everything alright? You seemed fine when we all got up, but you've been getting quieter and more and more like you're thinking about something intense all day."

"It's nothing, mother hen," Annabeth still didn't turn toward Bia.

Bia, for her part, took a gulp of her water as she silently regarded Annabeth, "you had that dream again?" She asked after swallowing.

"It's different each time, but yea," Annabeth rolled to her side, facing Bia, "pretty much the same dream."

"If it's stressing you, you should talk to the boyf about it. I mean, you're welcome to tell me about this new one, like the last few, but…"

"I know, I know, you 'feel asthough' I should talk to Percy about it, because 'he is the one' I 'keep saving the world and crap with'." Annabeth said mimicking what Bia had been saying to her more and more frequently as Annabeth's perplexing dream has become increasingly frequent. "How about, I tell Perc when you tell Nico the truth about why you won't actually go out with him."

"That is completely different!" Bia reached beyond the quilt and grabbed a handful of recently fallen leaves to throw at Annabeth.

"I'm just saying! You're not exactly the poster child for full disclosure."

"And I'm just saying that would be a wonderful conversation that I don't feel like getting into! Besides, things are fine as they are. We make good friends." Bia shrugged, her tone of voice ending that line of conversation.

Pearl glanced around with unease at the lengthening shadows among the trees surrounding her and her friends as they walked. "Maybe it's time to settle down for the night?" she asked, pulling her sweater tighter around her body.

Charlie looked up at the small bits of sky visible between the green canopy, then at his watch to confirm the time, "It's about 6. It will be full dark by about 6:30 give or take. It's up to you guys. At this rate, we'll make it to the city the morning the day after tomorrow…"

LB and Neal both glanced at Pearl, knowing her 'dislike' of the dark that had grown over the last few years. She refused to acknowledge it as a fear. Everyone also knew, however that the sooner they made it to their destination, the better. There was about 24 hours of straight walking between their starting point and their destination, meaning they had approximately 15 left if they stopped now.

"Hey now," Pearl looked between her two friends that knew of her trepidation and her brother and two friends that did not, "we're not stopping just because of me."

LB sighed knowing her cousin's stubborn nature would mean that Pearl would insist they continue walking till midnight, even if she were petrified. "How about we walk till 7 or we can't see to walk anymore? Whichever comes first? Then we set out a bit earlier tomorrow."

"The sun should be up by about 7, tomorrow morning," Neal put in, "that gives us about 10 and a half, 11 hours of sunlight tomorrow."

"Works for me," Grant said with a shrugging, looking around to see everyone else's opinions.

With that settled Pearl turned away from her companions and continued walking. She was exhausted, her body ached. Considering she'd spent most of the trek asleep on Neal's back, oblivious to that fact and the world around them, she felt she had no right to be in discomfort or request a halt for the night. She didn't want to use her recovery from last night as an excuse, and she really didn't want to explain to her brother or Nessa or Grant her somewhat recently developed fear of the dark. That would then involve getting into quite a few things she had no desire to discuss. No, subconsciously Pearl's fingers found their way to the beaded leather cord around her neck, she had no desire to tell Charlie about the events that had triggered her fear of the dark.

"Hey," Neal slung an arm around Pearl's shoulders, "watch this." He held his free hand out slightly concentrating on it till it began to glow faintly.

"Thanks," Pearl's lips curled into a small smile as she looked up at her friend.

"What's the point of having a friend who is the son of the sun god if he can't do nifty tricks like this for you?"

"I don't know, I think saving my butt last night was a pretty nifty trick," Pearl leaned more tightly against Neal.

"Yea, well, it would have been a better trick if we'd gotten the—"

"That's not what I'm saying!" Nessa's loud statement interrupted the pair's hushed conversation. They turned back to see the older girl in a heated conversation with Charlie and Grant.

"What's going on?" LB asked quietly as she joined Pearl and Neal. She'd been walking a bit ahead gathering any edible plants she could find to supplement the meager rations the group possessed.

"No idea," Pearl responded to her cousin, not taking her eyes from the arguing trio.

"It's not a bad plan. It's good in theory. The trouble is that it relies on me! Not only that, it relies on me using an ability that I'm not comfortable with in a way that I've never used it before! I just don't know if I can do it." Nessa threw her hands around as she spoke.

"Umm…question?" LB waved her hand as she called out, gaining the three older teens attention.

"What the Hades are you three arguing about?" Pearl asked, her eyes going back and forth between Nessa and the two boys.

Charlie ran his fingers through his hair agitatedly, "we were trying to sort out a way to get the four of them to feel it necessary to go to camp early."

"Easy," LB shrugged, "a major attack or threat."

"Yes." Nessa said irritatedly, "But what are we going to do? Call in the Greek Myth equivalent of a bomb threat to Camp? Go find a few monsters to convincingly pretend to attack them?"

"We've got the why, it's the how that's easier said than done," as Grant spoke, his eyes shot between Nessa and Charlie.

"We have the how!" Charlie gestured toward Nessa exasperatedly, "it's a sound plan."

It seemed to Pearl, LB, and Neal that this discussion had been going on for awhile before they'd taken note.

"A sound plan? In theory, yes. It sounds to me like a plan that doesn't take into account the human or emotional element! It sounds like something right out of the play book of A-"

"Don't – say – it…" Pearl said through gritted teeth. Her hands were fisted tightly at her sides.

"Excuse me?" The excess of stress and irritation Nessa felt colored her voice and flashed in her eyes as she turned on the younger girl.

"Vanessa Moyers," Pearl took a deep breath, "just don't say it."

Ness softened at defeated look of Pearl and remembered that Pearl was not who she was angry with, "I'm sorry, honey." Nessa took a deep breath of her own before more calmly continuing the original conversation, "in theory, it's a good plan. I just don't know if I'm capable of pulling it off, I don't like that it relies on me. Also, you know that I don't like messing with that stuff. Seriously, though? I'm not sure I can plant the exact same thing, strongly enough, in four different peoples' minds. In order for them to buy it, there can be no discrepancies."

Charlie ran a hand through his hair, remembering this was his girlfriend he was arguing with, not some random demigod, "I'm sorry for pushing you, Piquant," Nessa softened a bit more at the sound of Charlie's pet name for her, "I just don't know what other option we have, and I know you're more capable than you think."

"We'll work it out," Nessa wrapped on arm around Charlie's waist, pulling him tight against her, and linked her other arm through Grants, in a silent apology to both of her friends for blowing up at their suggestion.

"Maybe I can help you." LB said quietly, once a moment had passed and everyone was calm again, "I can hit them emotionally and you can hit them mentally?"

"That could work," Pearl said considering.

"Well, umm, actually," Charlie glanced uncomfortably at his younger sister and cousin, "we were going to leave you two and Neal at wherever we end up camping near the city."

"Well, umm, actually," Neal glanced at Nessa and Grant, how refused to look at him or Charlie, "we," Neal gestured to himself, Nessa, and Grant, "were planning to leave you and the girls behind."

Again, emotions and voices rose as the six demigods debated these two plans.

A/N I hope you enjoyed explanations will be forthcoming for all of the crazy that was going on as setup in this chapter! If you feel so inclined just drop me a line to let me know you're reading! If you've got time, let me know what you think and what can be improved!

Miette