How hard is it to keep one boy in your sight? Really? It seemed as if Hazel would never truly know whether Nico was safe or not. He was either in the Underworld, in captivity or being kidnapped by gigantic, fire-breathing dragons. But Hazel couldn't worry right then. There were other matters to take care of. Like that fact that Leo appeared to be having some form of asthma attack and that the Argo II was hurtling toward the ocean.

Besides Leo, Annabeth was the only one who knew how to control the ship. Both of them were out of action at the moment, so nobody had any idea to slow them down. Jason ran forward to the controllers, looking around wildly.

"What do I do?" he yelled.

Hazel ignored him and knelt beside Leo. He was gasping for breath, his eyes wide and panicked. Hazel turned him around and began hitting his back, trying to get more air into his lungs. Eventually, his breathing slowed and he slumped down.

"Thank-thank you." he breathed, flopping down on the deck.

Piper and Jason had somehow guided the safely to the water's surface. Coach Hedge came over to Leo.

"You okay, cupcake?"

"I-I'm just great." Leo said, his eyes sliding shut as he dropped off into sleep.

"Why do you think that happened?" Hazel asked fearfully.

The coach looked troubled, his warm eyes tense.

"I have no idea."

"I do." Frank jumped in.

"Fire takes away oxygen and basically suffocates you. Leo was in the middle of an inferno. He couldn't breathe."

Coach Hedge picked Leo up as if he was a light as a doll and carried him to below deck. Frank and Hazel were left alone.

"Are you okay, Frank?" Hazel asked gently.

He indicated the jacket the Hazel always had around her shoulders; the jacket that contained the piece of driftwood the determined Frank's life.

"As long as you have that, I am."

Hazel looked down. She'd completely forgotten about the jacket as she helped Leo. If Leo had suddenly caught flame again...Hazel didn't want to think about it.

"Frank-I-"

The son of Ares had already left.

Now that everything was relatively calm, Hazel let herself worry about her brother. He was the only family she had. If anything happened to Nico, she'd probably lose her mind. The group met below deck to discuss their next plan of action.

"What are we going to do now?" Piper asked tiredly, running a hand through her brown hair.

"I don't know." Hazel admitted.

"We need Nico back, that's for sure. He's the only one who can guide us to the Doors of Death."

"I agree." Jason said firmly.

"Our first plan of action should be to get your brother back."

Hazel wanted to throw her arms around him for that kind comment, but before she could, they heard,

"Don't tell me you were discussing battle plans without me?"

It was Leo, looking paler than normal and holding a blanket around his body.

"Get back to bed right now?" Piper said angrily as Leo slunk in beside them.

"You aren't well enough to get up yet."

"I'm fine, seriously!"

"The what's with the blanket?"

"I'm just kinda cold, that's all. I guess being engulfed in fire can make that happen." Leo said with an impish smile.

"Go." Piper said, pointing at the door.

"Now, Piper, be careful." Jason said with a grin.

"You wouldn't want Leo to get "all fired up", now would we?"

A dark blush spread across Leo's tan skin and Piper grinned too, saying,

"Yeah, he's rather hot-headed, isn't he?"

"Totally."

"I'm never going to live this down, am I?" Leo muttered.

"Oh look, Pipes, he's getting hot under the collar!"

Hazel didn't know if it was because of hysteria or if Leo's discomfort was hilarious, but they all burst out laughing at this.

"Poor Leo, it must be hard to be such a firebrand!"

*And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason I adore Leo Valdez :)*