18. Time
Time is endless. The only constant in a universe of temporary.
Or at least that's what people say.
Leo disagrees. Time runs out faster than anything, especially when you don't want it to. When you're dreading the seconds ticking on that clock they always seem to tick faster.
Tick, tick, tick.
Leo's time isn't running out.
Reyna's is.
Why else would he be pacing in this hospital he's forgotten the name of? Why else would he be ripping strands of his own hair out because he's gripping it so hard and he walks.
That god damn clock keeps ticking.
Tick, tick, tick.
They're not letting him inside the room to see her. The minute the baby was born and its newborn cries filled the room Reyna fell unconscious. Her heart monitor started beeping, (beep, beep, beep) and her blood pressure fell, plummeted, dived off of a cliff hoping to never come back.
Leo was physically shoved out of the room as soon as the doctor and nurses understood what was happening.
So he was pacing next to a plan blue wall in a hallway, with a clock ticking above him.
Tick, tick, tick.
His friends had all gone to see the baby. Hazel had tried to get him to go too, but he couldn't. Not when his wife might be dying- or dead- just a couple of rooms over.
Leo had met Percy's eyes and had known the son of Poseidon was the only one who understood. Because Annabeth had died a couple of years ago after giving birth to their second child.
Leo didn't want Reyna to do the same.
Time. When you had a lot of it, time was great. But when it was running out before your eyes, an hourglass full of sand slowly trickling down, you wished it would freeze.
But is not knowing better than knowing?
Not in this situation.
When the doctor comes out of the operating room Leo can see it in his eyes.
When his lips aren't up in a smile and his eyes aren't sparkling with relief and pride, Leo knows, he knows what that means.
He feels his heart stop. Physically feels it.
Then he feels it stutter to a start, like an old car still grasping on life with it's fingers.
Leo can't even listen; partly because he doesn't understand, but mostly because he's numb and there's a fog around his brain, coating and layering it, and he's incapable of doing anything other than standing there mutely.
But he catches phrases.
'-so sorry, you don't know how sorry I am-'
That makes Leo want to punch him.
'- some amniotic fluid must have gotten into her bloodstream, there was nothing we could do-'
That makes Leo feel sick.
Later he would go and see his dead wife, tears streaming endlessly down his face. Later the only person who could get him to even go and look at his baby is Percy.
Percy understands. He understands the conflict of emotion inside of Leo right now, even if at the same time, he doesn't. Percy knows Leo thinks his child killed his wife.
Percy knows the only words that will get Leo moving to see his daughter.
"She's the only thing you have left of Reyna."
Time, it seems, has finally decided what to do with itself.
For Reyna it decided to run out.
For their newborn child Leo holds in his arms, it has decided to start.