Ethan POV

"Look at that, Collin! I got it!"

I was practically dancing with excitement. I had found these awesome poisonous arrows. Collin had told me that the poison could kill anything within an hour. I took aim and fired. My arrow hit its mark and a dark shape fell to the ground.

"Not bad," he said. I beamed. Impressing Collin was hard to do. He was one of the best at camp, and I was pretty sure he hated me from earlier today. It was good to know that he liked what I was doing.

Okay, so maybe "not bad" isn't the highest of praises, but it was a start.

"Hang on a sec . . ." muttered Collin, looking closer. "Oh, gods, Ethan. You didn't hit the horses, you hit a person!"

"What?"

"Give me that!" Collin took the arrows and bow from my hand and aimed. With two perfect shots, the poisonous arrows hit their mark - right inside the horses' mouth. Though poison couldn't kill metal creatures, it sure could stop them from blowing fire.

As soon as the fire stopped and the monsters staggered, Collin dropped the bow and started for the motionless body.

I killed someone. Well, they probably weren't dead yet, but give them an hour or so, and they would be.

"Ethan! Where's Collin going?"

I turned around. It was Hazel.

I gulped and said, "Um, I accidentally shot someone with a poisonous arrow and he went to help."

Hazel looked to where her son was now crouched at the body, and gasped. "You hit Leo!"

Fantastic. Not only did I kill someone, I killed Leo Valdez. This day just kept getting better and better.

Hazel POV

I leaned over Leo. His eyes were closed and blood was dripping from the wound in his side. His chest rose and fell slowly, which meant all hope wasn't lost yet.

Collin looked at me and whispered, "What do we do?"

I held back a sob and said, "Ambrosia and nectar. We need to heal him!"

Collin nodded and left to go find something to help.

I turned back to Leo. There was still a tiny flame dancing in his black curls. As I stared at his unconscious face, I was reminded of picnics under the sun with Sammy, when he would fall asleep and I was content just to look at him. A part of me longed for my days as a child, when everything was so much simpler. Yes, I had to deal with my curse, but at least I was sure of which boy I loved.

"Please don't die, Leo," I moaned. "There's so much I didn't get to tell you."

Collin returned with a praetor and some nectar. As I trickled the godly drink into his mouth, Jade said, "Gods of Olympus, what happened to him?"

"Poisonous arrow," said Collin, "shot by the almighty Ethan Jackson."

I stopped feeding him the healing liquid. "I think that's all we can give him without the risk of - "

"Hello?" croaked a hoarse and very familiar voice.

I looked down to see a pair of brilliant brown eyes looking back at me.

"You're okay!" I said to Leo. I wrapped my arms around him in a huge bear hug.

Someone cleared their throat behind me. I didn't have to turn around to know it was Frank.

"Jeez, Hazel, don't choke me," said Leo, but I could tell he was happy.

The gash in his side was nearly closed now, though there was still a large amount of blood. I stood up carefully and offered a hand to the son of Hephaestus. He took it and I helped him up.

"Who did this?" demanded Percy. Looking behind him, I could see that he had destroyed the horses using Riptide. He was now standing next to Frank.

"Your son shot Leo here with deadly poison," I snapped.

"No, I meant - wait, what?"

"Exactly," muttered Collin. "Speaking of Ethan, where is the little creep?"

I looked around. Most of the fire had been put out, and the wreckage left behind was terrible. Everything lay collapsed on the ground, charred and smoking. The place almost seemed haunted. It was quiet - an eerie quiet that seemed bizarre compared to the ruckus that had taken place just moments before. I scanned the crowd of burnt Romans, but if any of them were Ethan, it was impossible to tell.

"Collin," I told my son, "lay off of him. He was just trying to help."

He just shook his head and walked away, probably to find the other legacies.

"Hazel, Frank, Leo, Percy?" said Jade. "We're going to hold a senate meeting to try and find out who set those monsters on our camp, and, more importantly, how they got into the camp in the first place. You and the rest of the seven are welcome to join us."

Percy nodded and said, "We'll be there. Come on, guys. Let's go find Jason, Piper, and Annabeth."

I glanced at Leo, then replied, "You and Frank go ahead. Leo and I will catch up."

Percy raised an eyebrow, but thankfully said nothing. Frank opened his mouth to say something. Unfortunately for him, Percy grabbed his arm and pulled him away.

"What was that about?" asked Leo.

"Look, Repair Boy, you can't keep doing stuff like that."

"Like what?" he asked, grinning. "Be awesome? Cause Hazel, you know that can't be stopped."

I rolled my eyes at him. "No, I mean almost die. You really had me worried there."

He shook his head, his tangle of curls flying in his face. "Nah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I can take care of myself, you know?"

I didn't reply. I simply gazed into his chocolate brown eyes and thought about so many things in my life that had gone wrong. If only things were a little different . . .

No, you can't think that, I told myself. You're married, with three kids, no less, and your heart belongs to Frank.

But what would have happened if I never met Frank? What if he was Greek and Leo was Roman? What if I had never died in the first place?

As all these thoughts swam around my head, I realized Leo and I were standing much closer than we were when Frank and Percy left.

I broke the moment by turning away and saying, "We should get going."

"Yeah." He sounded disappointed. "Sure thing."

A/N: To all my fellow Americans, Happy 4th of July! Have an update!

To those who thought Leo set the fire: Sorry! I guess I made it seem that way without really meaning to. I'm sorry if I ticked anybody off.

To anyone who has or will guess that Collin is Leo's son: Okay, let's admit, I am way too obvious with foreshadowing so *SPOILER* you guys are good guessers.

And to Guest: Thank you! Nico will come into play, but it could take a little while, so you'll have to be patient. And here's a Hazel POV, hope you liked it!