And she returns finally from the dead. I am soo sorry to all my readers, I have been having numerous internet problems but I can promise that the last few updates will be much more frequent. Thank you soo much for the reviews and such.

Enjoy the chapter and ignore any mistakes, I have been hard pressed to get this chapter out and now that I have brief internet connection I have to be quick so no editing has been done.

THALIA

I kept quiet the entire car ride and tried not to think about Nico. The three of us sat at the back of the car with Jason in the middle and I could hear Nico telling Jason many interesting facts about Paris. I tried not to keep my focus on his rich deep voice but I was failing. I tried counting the number of people I saw in the streets wearing red but that wasn't working so I focused on counting the seconds till we got to Silena's house.

Nine Hundred and eighteen seconds later we pull up outside a large town house and I see Silena, Beckendorf, Piper and Leo come outside. Silena makes a beeline for my side of the car and I could see her itching to see and assess my outfit. I step out of the car slowly and move to stand in front of her with my arms wide open.

She studies me thoroughly and even rubs her chin as if she's deep in thought. I stand with my eyebrows raised until finally she breaks into a large smile and hugs me tightly. "You look absolutely gorgeous!" she squeals. I shake my head at her and hug her back.

She breaks away from the hug and we walk back to where Nico and Charlie are still talking. "Would you guys like to come in and stay for Lunch?" Charlie asks. I glance at Nico and then shake my head, "No thanks Beck, we need to get to the venue for the show this evening and I still have some things to run by the boss." I glance at him briefly and give him a small smile.

Silena studies the two of us for a few seconds before she sighs and gives us a sad smile. "Yeah I know I'll see you guys there later and Thalia, we definitely need to talk." she glances at me meaningfully and then smiles at Nico sadly and says something in French. Whatever she says makes Nico stiffen and then smile sadly and nod. I am immediately curious but I know he probably won't tell me, not with the way I've been shutting him out the last few days.

We walk back to the car and Nico decides to ride in the front with the driver and leaves me at the back by myself. I couldn't really blame him for not wanting to be near me, it must be hard going from sex all the time to no sex at all. We wave at Silena and Beckendorf as they fade into the distance and as we drive on, there are no words exchanged between us.

We still haven't said anything to each other as we ride up the elevator back to our room. As soon as we walk into the room however, I decide it's time to end the silence but unfortunately, it's not with a good conversation starter. "I'm quitting" I say abruptly.

He whips around to face me and looks like he's about to argue but he nods, "Should I call the car back to take you anywhere or…" he trails off still holding my gaze. I shake my head, "No, I'll stay until after this show is done and then I'll leave."

He doesn't move his gaze from my face, "Why are you quitting?" He doesn't stop looking at me as I try to formulate my answer coherently. "Because I'm done with school and I don't need this job anymore. I want to do something that will mean that my skill set is being used properly."

"And you don't want to work in this company why?" he asks but his gaze is making me flush and not because I'm embarrassed. "Nico our relationship is a bit too complicated for me to feel like I've earned anything I get. I'll always feel like I slept my way to where ever I end up. I'll feel like I traded sex for a good job and a good position."

He remained quiet for a minute, "So what do you feel now?"

I looked away from him, "I already sort of feel that way, that I was whoring myself away in return for your favours." My voice dropped to almost a whisper. I looked back up at him and his eyes looked furious. His jaw was rigid and his entire posture had lost its previously relaxed stance. I almost backed away from him and it only seemed to make things worse.

He stood there for a few more minutes before he walked passed me and out the door, slamming it furiously as he did. I wasn't sure what exactly had just happened but it left me weary and emotionally drained.

NICO

I couldn't remember the last time I had ever been this angry. She thought I was exchanging my help for sex, did she really think I was that shallow? The rational part of my brain was telling me that I was overreacting a bit but it hurt. The fact that she thought so lowly of me and my intentions really bloody hurt. Great now I was starting to sound British. I wasn't sure how exactly I was going to get her to see that I was in love with her and not using her for her body but I had to try.

To make things worse she had stepped away from me when I got angry. When did I ever give her a chance to think that I was incapable of controlling my anger? She couldn't actually have thought I was going to hit her that cannot be possible.

I looked at my wrist watch; I had about two hours till I had to be at the venue to oversee the rehearsals, but I couldn't go back to the hotel now. I let out a breath of frustration and continued walking through the streets of Paris. I watched couple after couple walk passed me holding hands and looking happy.

I walked around for an hour or more while I thought about my situation. Thalia was quitting and that meant it was now okay for me to be with her publicly but it also meant that I'd see her much less. Well you know what they say; absence makes the heart grow fonder. I sat quietly on bench in the park that was shielded by a lot of trees. The leaves of the tree kept the bench in the shade and helped the place remain cool. In the park in front of me were little children playing with various toys, many pets being put to a work out with their owners throwing balls or chew toys for them to fetch.

I sat and watched them playing for a while when suddenly I felt something tug at my trouser leg. I looked down to see who it was and spotted a little girl who couldn't have been more than seven or eight standing beside me. "Hello mister," she said in a high pitched voice. I was quite surprised to see that she spoke English but then again she was probably a tourist

"Hello little girl, what can I do for you?" I asked with a smile as I looked down at her.

"I'm lost and I can't find my grandma." she sounded sad and slightly scared. The poor little girl, "where did you last see your grandma?" I questioned, c concern lacing my features.

"She was at a café somewhere very close to here. She told me to wait while she got some napkins quickly but I saw a pretty butterfly and wandered off." She looked down a scuffed her feet in the grass.

I scrunched my eyebrows, there were many café's surrounding the park and if she was gone for much longer her grandma would probably have a heart attack. I looked at my watch, I needed to be at the venue in twenty minutes but I couldn't leave the little girl alone. I looked back at her; she was blonde with sparkly blue eyes and a very cute face.

"Okay, do you have any way to contact her?" I asked hoping and praying that she would say yes.

"I do but I don't understand French so I've been looking for someone who speaks English for a long time."

"Do you know how long?" I asked warily.

"Maybe an hour ? Well it's has been more than ten minutes so I think it's long." The little girl shrugged like this made perfect sense. I chuckled but I was relieved, "Okay could I possibly have your grandma's contact details?"

She brought out a card from the pocket of her little dress and there was a number and an address. I dialled the number and a woman picked up on the second try.

"Hello, who is this?" she spoke frantically.

"Hi, it's Nico here, I have your grand-daughter and I-"

"How much do you want, fifty thousand euro, a hundred thousand euro even a million? Please just don't hurt her, she's all we have." The woman sounded as if she was on the verge of tears so I stopped her quickly.

"No no no, I don't want any money. Your granddaughter walked up to me and said she was lost so I called the number she had for you. She's at the park beside the café where you left her."

"Oh God, that was so scary. How do I know you're not a liar where is little Beth we would like to speak to her please." Her voice sounded marginally more relaxed but she was still scared.

"Yeah sure, hold on." I passed the phone to the little girl who was now sitting beside me. She took it in her marginally smaller hand and pressed it to her face, "Hey grandma I'm sorry for walking off like that." She paused for a few seconds, "Yeah I'm fine I'm at the park and this nice man who reminds me of Uncle Ben helped me." there was another few minutes of silence before she spoke again. "Okay grandma, love you too and see you soon." She reached out her hand and passed the phone back to me.

"Thank you again for helping her, if you could meet us at Café Viene on La Rue Blanc."

I nodded, "Yeah I'll be there in about seven minutes or so, see you soon." I signed off as I dropped the phone and looked at the little girl. She smiled widely at me and then scrambled off the bench.

"Come on! Granny said if I get there early enough I can have an extra ice cream." She urged me to walk faster. I looked down at her with an amused face, "And do you think you can walk faster than me?"

She rolled her eyes and nodded, "Yes, definitely. You may be tall but you're so slow." She sounded so sure of herself that I had to smile. "Okay, let's have a walking race."

She looked up at me curiously and I could see the gears in her seven year old brain calculating her chances of winning. She seemed to find them favourable to her because she stopped walking and closed her two feet. "Okay, we start walking when I reach three and no cheating!"

I nod my head at her and smile again, "okay, one…two…three!" she exclaims and starts walking furiously quickly in the direction I had pointed out to her before. I glanced down at her and saw that she was a few paces before me and that I could probably easily overtake her but each time she turned round to see who was winning I could see her face light up with pleasure to find that I was "trying" to win but failing. It warmed my heart to see her smiling and laughing with such ease and it made me think, what would my child be like?"

Eventually the café came into sight and I could see a woman standing outside the door. She didn't look a day over sixty and she was average height with a sophisticated look to her. Her expensive jewellery glinted in the sun and if that wasn't enough of a giveaway that she was important, the fact that there were two security guards stationed beside her on the lookout for her granddaughter would certainly do the trick. Oh, and let's not forget the "57 Rolls Royce stationed at the corner with another older looking gentleman standing at the door also searching around frantically.

Little Bethany was still walking competitively with all her might and eventually her grandma seemed to spot her and ran over to her quickly. She engulfed the little girl in her hug and the older man ran towards them also and kissed his granddaughters head affectionately.

I walked towards them to give back the card but the two security guards promptly made that impossible. "Woah! I just wanted to give them back their contact card!" I tried to release from their hold but they were obviously too strong for me.

"Sir for security purposes we'd like to ask you some questions" Guard one said in a thick French accent. I rolled my eyes and sighed, I was definitely late now. "What is your name and the nature of your visit to Paris?"

"The name is Nico Di Angelo and I'm here on business that I am already late for." I said slightly annoyed.

"Did you say Di Angelo, as in son to Pluto Di Angelo?" the old woman asked with wide eyes.

I smiled wryly, "The one and only madam."

"Let him go right this instant," the old woman ordered. She put Bethany down and then walked over to me and hugged me tightly and kissed me on both cheeks. "I am Gaia Gustin or Gaia Forincelli, I used to baby sit your father and his best friends whenever they were all in Milan! How are they, Zeus, Poseidon and Pluto? The big three is what we used to call them!

I nodded and smiled, "They are all very well and extremely successful in their own rights. I would love to stop and catch up but I really do have to go."

"Thank you again for rescuing my granddaughter; I should not have left her on her own." She reached over to her husband who was still holding the girl and rubbed her arm affectionately.

"Grand ma, I won the walking competition against the man!" she shouted from the arms of her grandfather and pointed excitedly at me.

Gaia just laughed and rolled her eyes, "You mentioned you were late for a meeting, I should let you head along but please come back for dinner and bring your father and his friends – and possibly their families- with you." She opened her purse and reached into the side pocket to give me her card.

I smiled and nodded, "I will definitely tell him about you. I need to leave now, I'm already in trouble as it is but I will definitely see you soon. Bye Bethany! Bye Mr and Mrs Gustin.

I didn't bother with replies and ran to the street to catch a cab. I was so screwed.

THALIA

I really hoped this wasn't one of those moments when the guy storms out angrily and gets hit by a car because he isn't watching where he is going. He was late now and he had never been late before. Of course I could handle the normal things but when the bigger designers started going on, he needed to be here to give the top level certification.

I tried calling him again but his phone went to voicemail yet again. This was getting frustrating. Then a thought occurred to me, what if he was out getting some or "de-stressing" like we used to do together? The thought made my blood boil, that he would be shirking off on his responsibilities just to get some. He'd never struck me as that type but since he was no longer getting some from me maybe it was now okay for him to show me his true colours.

Twenty minutes later, he finally runs into the backstage area and begins frantically searching for me. I notice that he looks slightly dishevelled; his hair looks like hands have been run through them repeatedly. His dark blue polo shirt is slightly rumpled at the front and at the back. His khaki shorts have a bit of dirt on them and his face is flushed.

His appearance seems to confirm my earlier statement. He finally spotted me and then he darted over to me and tried to catch his breath, "Sorry I'm late something came up," he panted as he spoke to me. I didn't want to hear it, I didn't want to hear what lie he would come up with so I placed my hand before his mouth, "Don't bother its fine I get it. I hope she won't be coming back to the room though, I'd like to get some sleep without any noise"

He looked taken surprised and then taken aback for a second, "What? How did you know? Were you following me or something? But anyway she definitely won't be coming back, I barely even know her but she was a lovely girl and quite funny too."

The nerve of him to think I was following him! Did he really think it wasn't so obvious what the hell she had been doing? And now he was bragging about it and telling me that she was funny? "Whatever, just get to work the people at Chanel are ready for their centre piece necklace and I've been stalling but they're getting agitated thanks to you" I snapped at him then walked off leaving him with the check board and walked over to where Silena was standing with one of her models.

"Silena can we talk for a second?" I asked her.

She took one look at my face and said some quick words in French to the model she'd been speaking with, the girl smiled at me then strutted away.

"What's up?" she asked intently.

"Nico was forty five minutes late and he comes in looking all messed up and flushed and then has the audacity to brag about the girl he'd been screwing to my face. He even thought I was following him when I called him out on it! As if it wasn't obvious that he did it to get back at me for our fight earlier." I scoffed and looked over to where he was with Beckendorf laughing at something with one of the models.

"So you're jealous?" was the first thing Silena asked.

"No I'm not jealous! I just wished he would be more decent about the whole thing, I mean that's so professional?"

"Aren't you assuming a bit too much here? I mean from what you've told me you haven't even let the guy explain but you shoved an explanation into his mouth and there could be some sort of huge misunderstanding going on right now." Silena tried to reason with me.

"Look I know what he said and he basically admitted to having screwed a girl before coming here!" I argued back vehemently but Silena wasn't convinced.

"Look I know Nico and he may be hot but he doesn't lie to women and play them. He especially wouldn't lie to you" Silena seemed sure but I wasn't having it, after all what was so special about me? I voiced this much and she looked at me like I was crazy or stupid or both

"Really, you don't know that he-" but she didn't get to finish because she was dragged away by one of her assistants who was mumbling something about a torn dress.

"I'll talk to you later Thalia but talk to Nico before you make any rash decisions!" she shouted back.

I grumbled in my head at her and walked back to where Nico and Beckendorf were talking. From where I was I could over hear their some of their conversation but not all of it. I tried to listen to the snippets I could catch,

"Little….with a big personality, she was very confident and bold… I played along with her games until we….. used to baby sit….I spoke to my dad about it and he was ecstatic….setting up a time, place and date…." I heard Nico say. He said something else and Beckendorf bellowed with laughter then hit him on the back, "Look's like you've had a more than a crazy day Di Angelo! Congratulations on everything though!" Beckendorf laughed some more.

Nico punched him in the shoulder and sarcastically laughed, "Hardy, har har." Beckendorf's smile remained on his face, "Look I can see Silena being accosted so I'm gonna go help her out. You get back to work."

"Alright, I should go find Thalia anyway see you later Beckendorf." Nico waved as he walked in the opposite direction to Charlie. I was surprised, what had happened today? Did he meet a woman? Did she happen to be an old flame that his dad had adored?

"Thalia! I've been looking everywhere for you!" he exclaimed as he walked up to her with a grin. It was almost as if nothing had happened earlier today. "Yeah well now you found me," I answered coldly. He stopped in his tracks and scrunched up his face, "Are you okay?" he asked uncertainly.

"I'm fine," I snapped. He looked alarmed and confused. "Well, if you're not um feeling up to it you can go back to the hotel. I'll handle everything else here." I hesitated for a second but I made up my mind. He deserved to do the rest of the work if he couldn't even show up in time because he was screwing girls or making dinner dates.

"Yeah I think I will go back, Thanks Nico." My tone didn't change much and I almost felt bad for being rude to him but what was done, was done. I didn't look back at him as I walked out of the backstage venue and caught a cab to the hotel.

NICO

What the hell just happened? I gaped at her as she walked away from me moodily. She had been angry at me the whole night but I wasn't sure why. Last I checked I was the one who had been hurt by our earlier conversation. I shook my head and sighed, now wasn't the time to get distracted by overemotional women.

Xx

Once we were done with the rehearsal and I had assured that all the important jewels had been stored safely I prepared to leave the hall. As I walked out Silena ran up to me, "Hey, Nico where did Thalia go?"

"She left a couple of hours ago, something about not feeling well." I shrugged, "She's been in a bad mood since I got here and I have no idea what on earth is going on with her."

Silena shook her head, "Did you ask her what was wrong?" I gave her a look, "Of course I asked her what was wrong, and she all but chopped my head off when I did."

"Does it have anything to do with the fact that you were late?" Silena asked cautiously.

I thought back to our conversation when I had first arrived, "Yeah, she was acting a bit strange, she said something about me not bringing this lovely girl I met today back to the room and I hadn't even told her the story of how I'd met the girl." My face reflected my confusion.

Silena hesitated for a second, "And what was this story?"

"Well, I was sitting in the park after Thalia and I fought and this little girl comes up to me and asks for my help to find her grandma. Of course I couldn't leave her alone so I called her grandma and they had a very heartfelt reunion. It turns out her grandmother used to babysit my dad, Percy and Thalia's dads' way back when so she invited us all over to Lunch." Silena sighed visibly relieved.

"You should probably explain that to Thalia" Silena suggested. "But she has no reason whatsoever to be so rude or so angry. I was a little late and I tried to explain but she never let me explain, then she suddenly starts snapping at me?" I argued starting to get very frustrated by Thalia's behaviour. I shake my head bitterly. "I don't think I'm ever going to win with her Silena. I'm in love with her and all she's doing is pushing me out because she thinks she's been trading her body for my gifts and attention, where the hell does she come up with such utter rubbish?!"

I was on a roll now, "I mean does she think I couldn't get it elsewhere if I was so desperate? Does she actually think everything I've done for her is because we've been sleeping together?" I ranted angrily.

"Nico! You have to calm down and tell all this to her. Don't give up yet, if she was really worth it you wouldn't give up." Silena tried to placate me. I took a deep breath and smiled wryly at her, "I'm not going to give up just yet Sil, I have one more thing up my sleeve but it hurts to be rejected and I'm only going to take so much of it."

Xx