I decided to respond to all the reviews here instead of PMing you all individually. So here are responses.

SummerSpirit18: The nitpicker in me would like to mention that Luke will be dead, not death, sorry if you don't like me correcting you. You'll actually get to hear about Nico's reaction next chapter, so stay tuned! I love your word. I will have to use it as soon as I figure out how to pronounce it.

Dingy108: You're welcome. Where did you come up with your name?

LizziDaughterOfHades: When you say American Idiot soundtrack, do you mean the production soundtrack? I love that version of 21 Guns, my favorite is the one with the cast and Billie Joe Armstrong, but they don't have an album version for that. Anyway, all the bands I use ARE amazingful. I hope high school isn't as bad for you next year, too, because it's really bad for me. By the way, I love your profile picture.

Guest: I know, he is, I'm very sorry to do that to Thalia. *Hands you a tissue*

xXxZuesMasterBoltxXx: I'm pretty sure you weren't swearing at me, and I mostly understood your comment. Some people are like that, some men see women as nothing. You'll find out what Nico does in the next chapter. You're welcome for updating!

Drawing On Converse: Yeah, I had a lot of fun picking the ringtones. Especially Annabeth's, although I've never seen Jaws.

Purple-Puppy591: Thank you, I will definitely continue. I hope you figure out your account. This is me reminding you to follow me as you requested.

Sonyvaio: I'm going to update really soon, I'm pretty close to being done with the next chapter.

Thalico-Forever13: Thank you! Here is your update, I'm glad Nico talking isn't boring. I'm glad you like the story. I sort of hope Luke is a bastard in everyone's opinions, because, well, he is. Love your name, too.

critic12: I think to be considered Thuke, Thalia would have to be willing. And I think the definition of "rape" is that one of them isn't willing. I am completely against Thuke, and this is a Thalico story. Thanks for loving it, though!

Miette in the Rain: Don't worry, there will be plenty of ass kicking in the next chapter. Actually, I'm not sure if Nico is ever actually going to meet Luke, but he will very much want to kick Luke's ass. And remember, Nico is constantly being hurt by his father, because Hades acts like Persephone can replace Maria. Bianca's trying to prevent him from being hurt any more, she's more interested in the welfare of her brother than of other people.

I don't own Percy Jackson or Snow White Queen by Evanescence. I do own Jane.

Chapter 8 – Snow White Queen

watch?v=-07E8_0_6Ps

Thalia lay on the ground. Luke was lying next to her. At some point last night, he'd started drinking, and Thalia didn't think he was going to wake up any time soon.

She curled herself into a ball, resting her head on her knees, which were tucked to her chest. She ignored the protests from her leg, Luke hadn't been gentle. He had, however, been violent when she didn't respond to his eagerness, and she had a black eye and a split lip as proof.

She looked at Luke again. He was still asleep. She looked around for street signs, but there were none. She had no idea where she was.

But she knew which way they had come from, and that was something. She went to the truck and put on her clothes. She knew Luke hadn't taken anything from her backpack, she'd been holding it to her stomach while she slept in the truck, and she hadn't slept after that. She pulled the bag from the truck and swung it onto her back. Then she pulled up her left sleeve.

The scars that spelled Nico's name had been marred by Luke's grip; there were finger shaped bruises all over both of her arms. But the scars were still readable, and she ran her fingers over them before pulling her sleeve down, steeling one more glance at Luke's sleeping form, slamming the door shut, and beginning to walk down the road.

She knew it was going to be a long walk, especially with the pain in her leg. She was limping, but she had nothing else to do. She couldn't stay with Luke and…

Wait. The truck. She knew the keys were still on the dashboard, she'd seen them. She turned around and looked back. Could she risk waking him up?

She'd seen how much he'd had to drink last night, she'd watched him. There wasn't much that could wake him up right now. She didn't know how far they were from other people, but she assumed it was far. Luke would have taken her far away.

She absent mindedly shifted her weight from one leg to the other, and pain shot through her leg. That was it, she decided. Her leg hurt too much to walk too far, and even if he did wake up, what could he do? She'd already be in the truck, and he couldn't chase her.

She limped the few yards back to the truck and got in, tossing her backpack into the passenger seat. She took the keys from the dashboard and put the in the ignition. The engine came to life when she turned the key and she craned her neck to see if Luke had woken up. He hadn't.

She pulled away from the grass, and when she had turned around she glanced behind her at Luke. He hadn't moved.

She drove for hours, listening to her iPod until it ran out of battery, and then turning on the radio.

At ten, she came to a highway, and started looking for signs that would lead her to something to eat.

At 11:30, she saw one. It was blue, and had a McDonald's symbol on it.

At noon, she found the McDonald's. She had enough money to get a cheeseburger and a soda, and although it didn't completely satisfy her hunger, it helped.

At 12:30, she got back on the road.

At one, she got back on the highway. She pulled her sweatshirt around her; it was cold, and the truck had no heater.

At 2:30, she ran out of gas.

Thinking back on it, she was lucky she'd made it this far without having to stop, but she should have checked the tank.

But that didn't matter now, because she was somewhere on Route 216 in 20 degree weather with an empty gas tank and no way to get anywhere. Not that she really needed to get anywhere, she didn't even know where she was going. But that didn't make her less scared.

She sat with her hands on the wheel for a while before getting out of the truck. When she got out she stared at the hood for a moment, then leaned up against the door and put her hands on her face.

She stood there with her eyes closed until she heard a car door slam and a woman's voice call out, "Hey."

She took her hands off her face and looked to her right. A young woman with chestnut-brown hair was climbing out of a small silver car. "Do you need help?"

Thalia pushed herself off the car and automatically checked to make sure her sleeves were pulled all the way down to cover her scars. "I ran out of gas," she said. She meant to sound strong and indifferent, but instead she sounded like she was about to cry.

The woman took in Thalia's black eye, split lip, smudged makeup, and hair that had obviously been quickly thrown into a ponytail, and gave a sympathetic smile. "Why don't you come with me? We can get some gas and come back, or we can just call a tow truck."

After Luke, Thalia was hesitant to get in a car with anyone, especially a stranger. She didn't know anything about this woman.

But what else was she going to do? Wait for a miracle? Wait for someone she knew to come along? She didn't really have any other options. And what was the worst this woman could do? It couldn't be worse than what had already happened to her.

As if she knew Thalia's thoughts, the woman gave a small laugh. "I won't hurt you, don't worry. My name's Jane. What's yours?" she asked, taking a step forward.

Thalia shoved her hands in her pockets and said, "Grace." She wasn't ready to give her real name.

"Well, Grace, you look cold. And that lip could use a look at," Jane said. Her smile was almost infectious. Thalia felt her spirits lift. She decided to trust this woman.

She nodded. Jane's smile grew wider and she waved Thalia forward, gesturing for her to get in the front passenger seat.

Jane's car smelled like fresh bread, which Thalia thought was a strange smell for a car. It made more sense when she realized that there were two loaves of fresh bread in the back. Her stomach growled, and she tried to hide it.

Jane laughed. "One of my patients gave it to me. Do you want some?"

Thalia realized she was talking about the bread. "I'm fine, thanks," she said.

Jane reached into the back and grabbed one of the loaves, and the knife next to it. She cut a slice of bread and handed it to Thalia. "You look like you haven't eaten in a while."

"I had lunch," Thalia said as she took the bread and tasted it. It was delicious.

"What about breakfast? Or dinner? Or lunch yesterday?"

Thalia's silence told Jane what she needed to know.

"So, what are you doing out here?"

Thalia didn't answer for a moment as she finished her bread. Then she shrugged.

"Runaway?" Jane guessed.

Thalia looked at her, and Jane laughed. "I work at a nursing home, but I used to work with in a help center for kids like you. I know what a runaway looks like."

Thalia looked back down at her hands. "Yeah. I'm a runaway." It felt strange giving personal information to someone she barely knew.

Jane nodded and turned the key in the ignition. "So should we call a tow truck or get gas?"

"Just leave it," Thalia said, playing with her fingers.

Jane didn't answer, just pulled onto the road and started driving.

It turned out Jane didn't live that far away, and it only took half an hour to get to her house. When they did, Jane took Thalia into the back bedroom and said, "You can sleep if you want."

Thalia nodded.

Before Jane shut the door, she asked, "Do you have someone you can call? You can use the phone."

Thalia's first thought was of Nico, but she pushed it away and shook her head. "No."

Jane smiled. "Dinner's at six, if you want." She shut the door.

"Thank you," Thalia whispered but Jane didn't hear her.

She turned and looked at the small bed. It had two pillows and was covered in a colorful quilt. There was a nightstand next to it, with a small lamp. She followed the lamp's plug to the power outlet and plugged in her iPod charger. Then she put her backpack on the bed and lay down. She put in her ear buds and closed her eyes.

She hadn't slept in over 24 hours, and she hadn't slept properly in three weeks. She didn't wake up until she heard knocking on the door and Jane's voice telling her it was time for dinner. Her iPod had finished charging.

Dinner was homemade mac and cheese – complete with bread crumbs on top – and was amazing. Thalia didn't hesitate to tell Jane this, and Jane laughed and offered her more. Thalia accepted seconds, thirds, and fourths.

After dinner, Jane pulled lemon squares from the top of the refrigerator and handed one to Thalia. "So."

Thalia looked up at her, holding the lemon square in her hand. "So?"

Jane gave a small smile. "You can stay the night, of course. But I think you should find somewhere more permanent. I can take you to a runaway shelter if you want."

Thalia looked down at her lemon square and shook her head.

"Grace, you should try it. I know people think it's bad, but it's really not. They'll help you get back on your feet. If you get a job, you might just be able to pull off emancipation."

Thalia chuckled humorlessly. "They'll never grant me emancipation."

"Maybe not. But the shelter could really help you. And you said you had nowhere else to go."

Thalia looked back up at Jane. "I don't need somewhere to go. I'll be fine if I get back to New York."

Jane raised an eyebrow. "On the streets? That's not a place to live."

"I've managed before, I'll manage this time."

"You've done this before?"

Thalia realized what she'd said, and that she'd given too much information. She bit her lip and said nothing.

"You're in the foster system, aren't you?" Jane realized.

Thalia laughed. "It's creepy that you can figure that out." She nodded. "Yeah, I'm in the system. I ran away from one of my homes."

"Then go back to your social worker and find a new home."

Thalia looked at her. It was the first time she'd seemed like she didn't understand Thalia's situation. "It's not that easy."

Jane nodded. "I know it's not. But I know some kids who have found really good homes. Maybe you could be one of them." She put her hand on Thalia's arm. "You have to go somewhere, Grace."

Thalia looked down at her lemon square again. "Thalia."

Jane's eyebrows came together. "What?"

"My name. It's Thalia. Thalia Grace." She looked at Jane. "Can I just…stay here tonight? I swear I'll find somewhere to go tomorrow morning."

Jane smiled and nodded. "Of course."

Thalia lifted her lemon square and took a bite out of it. "This is really good."

Jane laughed. "Thanks. It gets kind of lonely here all by myself. I like to bake."

"You could try getting a pet. A cat, or something."

"I'm allergic."

"Hmm. Maybe a cat's not such a good idea."

They both laughed, and as the laughter died away, they fell into silence, eating their lemon bars.

Finally Jane stood and said, "The bathroom is down the hall to the right. You can take a shower."

Thalia nodded her thanks and stood.

In the shower she ran her hand over the scars. Her fingers lingered over Nico's name.

When she woke up at two o'clock in the morning from a nightmare, she knew it was time.

She tiptoed into the kitchen and took the cordless phone from its place on the wall. She didn't have the number written down in front of her, but she didn't need it. She'd memorized it a long time ago.

She dialed the number and listened as the phone rang.

So, I was writing this, and I had almost five pages, and I was planning to make that the end of the chapter. And then I decided that it wasn't fair to stop where I was planning to stop, so I copy/pasted part of the chapter onto a new document and decided to stop here. So I've got half of chapter 9 done, and that will be up pretty soon.

I came up with another idea, so for any of you who love the Avengers as much as I do, I will probably start a new story as soon as I'm finished with this one. Focused on Clint and Natasha.

By the way, I got more reviews for this chapter than for any other chapter. Eleven. Yay!