A.N. I'm going to be on a three week hiatus of this story everybody. I wish I didn't have to, since we're almost at the end and I'm having so much fun writing these, but I'm going on a holiday to Europe and will be too busy in Paris, London and Scotland to write :( I'm really sorry and promise I'll be back to writing as soon as I'm home. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
75. Cry
Reyna doesn't cry.
She hasn't for years. Not since that time Leo and her broke up because she wanted to go back to Camp Jupiter.
(Stupid, stupid, stupid.)
She doesn't cry when Percy calls her, panicked and saying that Leo's been in an accident. (Funny, usually Annabeth and Percy forget that they're dating again but this time he remembered and she was the first person he dialed.)
Funny.
(It's not.)
She doesn't cry when she gets to the hospital after finally tracking down where it was, and she sees Leo, unconscious, tubes coming out of him, vital signs beep, beep, beeping.
She watches as Annabeth and Hazel and Frank cry, hears Piper crying over the phone and then telling Jason, who chokes up, and she doesn't even tear up.
(She thinks it's called shock, but she's not sure.)
(She doesn't feel for a while.)
When the doctor comes and tells her Leo didn't make it she stumbles, clutches her chest because gods, her heart hurts, it's raw, but as Percy and Piper catch her, she still doesn't cry.
(I'm sorry, there's nothing we could do, the doctor says, and she wants to punch him in the face because he's a doctor and goddammit, what else is he good for if not for saving Leo?)
She watches the rest of them cry, feels their eyes on her, waiting for her to crumble and shatter, but she doesn't.
(She doesn't try to console them either. She grabs her purse and leaves as quickly as she came because it's starting to dawn in her mind. She doesn't feel it yet, but it's trickling in, slowly, and she wants to shut out the realization.)
It's been a week since Percy called her and she hasn't cried.
But she gets home that night and the apartment is empty.
(He's not coming back.)
She blinks and there's a tear.
She walks forward slowly, like she's drunk and afraid to fall. She's cautious because this is her apartment, their apartment, but it all seems so different now than it did last time she was here.
She takes a shower, and the water streaming from her eyes blend with the shower water so she pretends they aren't there.
But then she gets out and goes around the apartment wearing nothing but a bathrobe Leo bought for her and she sees a bowl he left out from the morning he left.
(He would always leave the dishes until he got home, something that drove her nuts.)
And before she's even aware that she's doing it, Reyna throws the bowl and screams, watching as it shatters against the wall.
That's when she cries.
(Full out sobbing, her knees buckle and she grabs the armrest of the couch, but her arm's shaking so she lets go and falls the rest of the way to the ground.)
That's when it hits her.
Leo's gone.
He's not coming back.
It tears her apart inside and she cries and cries and hopes someone out there is happy for doing this because if not- god, what a waste.
She sobs and sobs and then she finally sits up after hours and catches sight of a picture and cries some more.
(She breaks a lot of things.)
She doesn't pretend she's okay. She skips work and ignored the phone calls. Nobody at work knows what happened to Leo, and how could they? She hasn't talked to anybody since the hospital.
People knock on her door and she doesn't answer. Eventually they'll go away.
Reyna cries, because now that she's started she doesn't know how to stop.