~ALY~

It took a few moments for me to properly see, as my vision was quite blurry. This was just enough time for the pain to set in. Not only did my eye hurt, as well as my body- from the bruises, my ribs were also on fire. I could almost smell smoke.

Wait a minute...It was smoke that I was smelling!

I forced my head around to the source of the smell, and saw a Latino elf-boy standing at my bed side.

That did shock me, but the most shocking thing was that his ears were on fire. And he was just grinning at me.

I gulped, and nearly yelled out in horror, when Annabeth, who was on the other side of the bed, tossed her arms around me, and nearly caused me to scream in pain.

I felt sharp, quick vibrations ring through my head. Since Annabeth's hug nearly caused me to pass out, I could not see who it was that had emitted the vibrations-her or Elf-boy, but after they stopped, she let me go. I had to blink the black spots out of my eyes.

"Sorry." Annabeth told me.

"It's fine. You should be worried about Flame-Head over there. He's smoking." I had to rasp out the words, as my throat was extremely dry and painful, and had to bite my lip in pain at the movement of my arm as I gestured to Elf-Boy, whose ears were still on fire. I couldn't believe he wasn't in ashes yet.

"Who, Leo? He does that. He's the son of Hephaestus." she told me.

"Although I am smoking hot." Elf-Boy, Leo, said to me, smirking slightly. From the vibrations of his voice, I deduced that the vibrations I heard a moment ago were his. The vibrations were like a radio playing in fast-forward: quick, sharp, and crazed. His voice was a little high pitched. His voice matched his appearance, which reminded me of someone who had consumed way too much coffee. His hands were fiddling with a few bolts and screws.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, and opened her mouth as though to reprimand him, when I heard myself croaking:

"No, he's right. He is pretty smoking."

This caused Annabeth's mouth to fall open, and the flames on Leo's ears to spread to his hair. He gasped out:

"Really?!"

I nodded and whispered, as to conserve vocal energy:

"Yeah- and you want to know what else?"

"What?"

"If you ever try to flirt with me, you will be not only be smoking, but dead. Got it?" I asked, with a small smile crossing my lips.

The fire on Leo's head instantly went out, smoke trailed behind, as a look of disappoint crossed his face. Annabeth chuckled softly and told me:

"That's a relief. I thought for a second there that you had lost your mind."

At this Leo shot her a glare, as my own grin got wider.

"Naw. Although, I did think I had when I saw the flames on his head."

Annabeth opened her mouth to speak, when I saw Percy enter the room. My eyes widened in surprise.

His hair, which was normally disheveled, was now even more so, and the whites of his sea-green eyes were blood-shot. His eyes had purple bags under them. He was kind of pale-and looked quite anxious.

In short, he looked terrible.

"Annabeth, has she-" He stopped as his eyes landed on me. A wide grin spread over his face.

"Aly!" He cried excitedly. He raced over to me, and I steeled myself for a hug, when Annabeth said:

"You can't hug her, Seaweed Brain. She's in a lot of pain." I winced at the bad choice of words as worry replaced excitement. However, he did not say anything, just sat at the chair next to my bedside. He looked like he wanted to say something, but, after a moment's thought, seemed to decide against it. He closed his mouth, and glanced up at Annabeth. Clearly, this was going to be something he needed to tell me in private.

Annabeth seemed to understand this, for she told Leo: "Hey, why don't we go see where Piper and Jason are? We could let them know the good news, and get Piper caught up on everything. She seemed pretty worried about us."

Leo scoffed and said: "It seems like she was more worried about Jason than you or Percy."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and replied: "Of course she was. She was worried about Percy and I, though."

Leo shook his head, but followed the daughter of Athena out of the room. As soon as they left I asked Percy:

"Who's Piper?"

Percy replied: "She is the daughter of Aphrodite- and Jason's girlfriend."

I stared at him incredulously. "Jason has a girlfriend?"

"Uh, yeah. Why do you ask?" he asked me, looking at me as if I had asked something strange-which I had.

I couldn't help it. Something inside of me, possibly the repressed memories, found it highly shocking-and even amusing- that Jason had found a girlfriend.

"No reason." I croaked.

He looked at me curiously for another moment, but that look melted away as I asked:

"Percy, why do you look so terrible?"

He rolled his eyes.

"I don't know; I guess it is just bad luck."

"I didn't mean like that. I was asking why you look you got ran over by a huge tractor."

He looked away from me. His face was...flushed?

I couldn't understand what he said, because he was turned away from me, so I asked:

"Could you repeat that, please?"

"Erm...well...I, er, didn't get any sleep last night."

"What?!" I gasped out. "Why not?"

"I, erm, stayed here with you." he mumbled. It took me a moment to figure out what he said, mumbling has very little lip moment- but when I did I asked him:

"How long was I out?"

"Three days." he replied, after a moment of hesitation.

"Three days?! You mean to tell me you haven't slept in three dang days?! What the heck is the matter with you?!" I tried to yell the words, but they just came out as an uneven croak, almost a squeak.

The anger in my voice, which was actually worry for my big brother, seemed to register with him, because he flinched and replied:

"I had to make sure you were OK."

Although I wanted to be angry with the idiot, I couldn't help but feel warm all over that he cared enough to sacrifice 3 days' worth of sleep for me.

"Yeah, well, I guess you are off the hook this time, Seaweed Brain." I gave him a small grin- as his face flushed.

"Can you not call me that?"

"Why not? Annabeth calls you that." I said innocently.

"Well, th-that's different." he stuttered, as his face turned a darker shade of pink. I let out a hoarse laugh, then said:

"Do me a favor, Romeo: Go get some sleep."

"But Aly-" He started.

"I know you needed to talk to me, but I want you to rest first. I am not going to let you sit up any longer. If you do, you might pass out."

He still looked like he wanted to protest, but I stopped him by putting my hand on his. Softly I said:

"Please, Perce. For me?"

He sighed, looking at my hand on his.

"Alright, fine. I will go take a nap."

"Not in here. In your bed-wherever that is." I added.

Once more he looked like he was going to argue with me, but seemed to decide against it.

"Fine. Geez."

He stood up and walked to the door when I blurted out:

"Percy?"

"Yeah?" he asked, looking back at me.

"I-" I hesitated a moment, then said:

"I love you."

His eyes widened in surprise for a moment, but this was quickly softened into warmth.

" 'Love you too, sis. Now get some rest while I am gone, OK?"

I smiled slightly and nodded. I watched him go.

Eyes heavy, I quickly fell asleep.

So, did you like this chapter? I sure did! I loved Leo's joke about how hot he was...*giggle* Aly sure burned him good! And that brother-sister moment between her and Percy: Just so sweet! I wanted to cry after I read over it!

So what does Percy need to talk to her about exactly? Is there going to be some Aly-Piper-Jason drama? Find out Next time...!

Love, Peace, and Pie (Nom...Nom...Nom...)

~Evy