A/N: Hey. Please enjoy chapter 5!

Colt didn't speak. She wasn't bored by any means. No, she was fine listening and watching the four interact. It was just that she couldn't help but feel both like an intruder and a prisoner. Colt shouldn't have been there, yet she couldn't leave without her bag, which was covertly being held hostage by a certain demigod.

It also didn't help that she was coiled up just waiting for some comment or jab from Percy about what was going on, what he had read. The demigod, for his part, continued his oh-so causal lounging on the couch. He never moved, carefully poised in casual elegance. A brick wall covered in vines and flowers was still a brick wall, as Gaige always liked to tell her. Where he heard that, she had no idea, but it seemed to be his piece of yoda-wisdom when he didn't know what else to say.

As the time passed, it was hard to decide if she should continue the charade of just passing by, driving off then returning to work in the shadows, or just weather it out, waiting until they all left to finish the hunt. On one hand, they probably wouldn't stay longer than a day, in fear of monsters showing up. On the other hand, there's nothing to say they wouldn't visit again tomorrow and the next day. Despite the distraction, there was still a ghost hopping about around the apartment.

The salt line. Crap, she really hoped Percy didn't disturb it. She had double checked it after Paul left, but she had completely forgotten to check it after the demigods came in all the excitement.

As casually as she could, she leaned into Percy's side. Colt stretched her neck up to whisper in his ear, "I put a salt line up. Did you break it?"

Percy shook his head, once and short, swinging an arm around Colt, drawing her closer to his body. She relaxed into his side. He didn't appear to be mad at her, at least, and was conscious enough to not break the salt line. She had trained him well in identifying and not disturbing them, she thought proudly.

Eventually (and by "eventually" she meant after lunch going towards dinner), Thalia left to join back up with her hunt. Annabeth followed suit, apparently only taking a short break from one of many architectural construction projects she was managing. Percy, forever being the gentlemen, offered to take them back to wherever a lieutenant of Artemis and the Architect of Olympus had to go.

It was time to make her escape. She knew Sally could tell her plan, based on the looks she was giving Colt, flicking every so often to her bag. Colt had texted the woman that she would work it from the outside, so that Percy's mom wouldn't think the hunter was just abandoning her. But, of course, Percy had to put a stop to that plan. He took her bag.

Took. Her. Bag.

Like, slung it over his shoulder so casual you'd have thought it he owned it, took her bag.

Dear God, she really did turn him into a criminal.

Nobody touched that bag besides her, and he knew it. The jaunty grin he threw to her over his shoulder as it mockingly swung by his side proved he knew he hit a nerve, but didn't really care at the moment. She was so going to guilt him later. It was a stupid and dangerous move. Obviously she had more weapons in the car, but her notebook, wallet, ID (well, the real one at least), favorite weapons and the like were in that bag and she wouldn't leave without them.

Objectively, it was a smart tactical move. Emotionally, she was going to take that smirk off his face. The hard way.

She told Sally she'd be right back, quickly slipping down to the parking lot to grab a few replacement tools to tide her over until he got back. Percy had better hurry. The longer she went without her bag, the harder she was going to punch him.

Colt stewed, sitting on her trunk. Her bag of assorted lethal objects for emergencies (Colt preferred to call it her aloe kit) slumped beside her. She was reluctant to head back up the stairs without her bag. It was silly, really, to get attached to something so much. Every hunter knew not to get attached to things, especially easily replaceable things. Besides, it wasn't like Percy stole it. Never mind, he did steal it. But it wasn't as though he wasn't going to give it back. She was over reacting for nothing really.

She straightened up, roughly rubbing away any possible wetness from her eyes. Yes, she had owned those things for a long time. Yes, he took them without asking. Yes, she understood his reasons. Yes, she was going to get them back. So, it was time to stop moping and start moving. She had a ghost to figure out.

She slouched up the stairs, listening carefully outside the door for any sign Percy had already returned. Nothing.

Colt slipped back into the apartment, slinking back over to the couch she had been held prisoner in for the majority of the day.

"We're going to have dinner first," Sally called, after spotting the girl on the couch. "Hope that's okay."

"Yeah," Colt called, feeling as though she wasn't actually here for a case. If she hadn't seen the ghost herself, she'd have guessed she had been conned into family day with the Jackson family.

Speaking of the family, Paul chose that moment to enter the home, giving the hunter a nod and smile of acknowledgment before heading to his wife in the kitchen. Colt returned the gesture, picking through her duffle for her other notebook and green ink pen. Snatching them from the bottom, she shuffled around in her seat and opened to a new page.

It was blanker than the ghost's face. The poor kid. Colt couldn't get over that he was a demigod, maybe a little younger than Percy. That could've been Percy. In another time, another place, Percy might've been something she hunted and killed.

She shook her head. There was no time for such morbid thoughts.