Hasty update as I'm not sure if I'll get time tomorrow with it being Christmas and all lol, and the fact that I am still unwell. Enjoy people!

Percy wasn't entirely sure how long it was that she dreamed. She knew when she came around that she'd been carried inside and set down in one of the more comfortable looking chairs and had a blanket draped over her. Someone must have carried her inside she realised distantly, pushing herself up so that she wasn't so slumped, gaze flicking around the room- the couch was empty. There was a stain on the material, a dark stain that Percy knew at a glance was Bianca's blood.

That made her chest tight, a lump forming in her throat as she stared at it for a long moment.

It was a sickening sight she knew that much. But the fact that the couch was empty was probably a good thing. The others wouldn't have moved her, not unless there had been an attack or something and in the worst scenario's Percy would have been woken up.
Which meant that, hopefully, Bianca was awake.

Percy let out a slow breath, shaking the morbid thoughts from her head as she pushed herself out of the chair, letting the blanket fall off of her and pool at her feet as she stepped over it.

She could hear quiet voices coming from the kitchen, so she quietly padded out to the kitchen- and She felt some of the fear vanishing as she saw Bianca and Grover. Bianca was perched on a table in the centre of the kitchen, hands braced on either side of her.

She looked pale. Much paler than usual but she was smiling, and there was some color in her cheeks. She was talking to Grover, who had hopped up onto one of the kitchen counters. On the counter next to him was a bag of chips, half eaten, and Bianca had one next to her too. Clearly there was some food here. That was useful Percy could do with a snack.

"Bianca. You look better than you were-"

"I don't think I could have been much worse." Bianca smiled widely, "It's good to see you awake sleepy head." Her expression turned more serious. "Thank you-"

"Don't-"

"You saved my life Percy. If it wasn't for you… You got the bullet out and stopped the bleeding. You saved me-"

"I was worried sick." Percy breathed the words, darting across the kitchen to give Bianca a hug, though she was careful not to squeeze too tight and risk aggravating the wound. "I thought.. gods Bia you can't do that to me ever again you promise me-"

"I didn't plan on getting shot-" Bianca let out a laugh, which earned her a gentle slap to the shoulder.

"Don't give me that. You promise me to be careful. I know our lives are dangerous but- but that scared me." Percy didn't bother hiding the worry in her voice.

"I promise." Bianca gave her a soft look. "I swear on the Styx I'll do my best not to get myself killed."

"Good." Percy poked Bianca's shoulder, "Damn straight. I don't want to lose my honorary little sister. My protégé-"

"That's adorable." Grover's voice was amused, "Seriously. Adorable."

"Grover I will kick your butt."

"Awe, how mean."

And gods but the lack of tension in the air was comforting, the way Bianca burst out laughing. Things weren't perfect but Bianca was there, she was awake and alive and she looked really good all things considered. It could have been a lot worse.

"Where are Thalia and Zoe?" Percy asked as she pulled back, brushing her hair behind her ear and glancing between Grover and Bianca. "Are they upstairs or something-"

"They're out." Grover admitted, "They're picking up some clean clothes. Mostly for you two-" which made sense. Percy glanced down at herself- at the blood covered orange tee she was wearing. And there was still blood on her arms. And Bianca was even worse than her, with her bullet hole in the tee she was wearing. It couldn't be comfortable. It looked stiff from the dried blood, hitched up where Percy had pushed it out of the way and it had been left to dry in that position. "And stealing a car I think. They planned on waking you when they get back. It's getting later and they don't want to leave too late. Honestly if they come back without beating the crap into one another I think we should consider it a victory with those two."

Percy paused at that, "Oh gods. How long was I out? How much time's been wasted Grover is it bad-"

"Like, six hours. You crashed hard and Thalia and Zoe figured it'd be a good idea to let you sleep for a while since the journey to San Francisco will take about six hours so we can still get there in time. There's no need to panic Percy, even if we don't leave until the morning. We should be totally fine to meet the others at Annabeth's dad's house."

"That won't be happening." Percy pressed her lips together tightly, pulling back away, and she could see the confusion on Bianca and Grovers faces so she took a deep breath. "I had a dream. It's not good news." She forced herself to stay as calm as she could as she explained the situation to her friends.

And if Bianca grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly, well, Percy wouldn't turn down that comfort. Four of the most important people in her life were in the hands of the enemy. It was taking all of her mental willpower to stay as composed as she was.

A part of her wanted to take off, to run all the way to San Franscico. She felt like she wanted to fall apart, to let fear and rage tear her apart. But that wouldn't help anyone. She needed to keep herself composed. Needed to keep her head going into this.

Running in on her own would be doing exactly what Alina and Kronos wanted her to do. She couldn't fall headfirst into their trap. She forced herself to take a deep breath when she felt the emotions bubbling up in her chest. And Grover was there too, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, letting her rest her head on his shoulder- and she definitely noticed how he bent his knees slightly to make it easier for her. Which honestly was kind of sweet and she definitely appreciated it.

Unfortunately there wasn't much they could do until Thalia and Zoe got back, so Percy reluctantly let them distract her, munching on some chips while they waited- and it was almost an hour later that Thalia and Zoe returned.

The two girls were, surprisingly, relatively friendly with one another. Which was a lot better than Percy had expected honestly, it seemed the scare with Bianca had eased some of the tension between them. That worked for her.

Once they arrived they knew something was wrong. And both took the news about as seriously as could be expected- they had talked about having a couple of hours to sleep.

It was agreed that they needed to avoid wasting too much time. Percy was capable of driving so they decided that she would drive for the first three hours- to give Thalia and Zoe a chance to sleep during the journey, and after three hours they would take a short break to switch so that Zoe could take over driving.

Grover would sit in the passenger seat with the map to make sure that she didn't get them lost. It wouldn't be fun- it was already dark out but Percy would just have to deal with it. As long as she kept her cool it would be fine.

So, after making their plans they allowed themselves an hour, an hour to clean up and make sure they were all set up to go.
Percy and Bianca both had short showers, changing into the clothes that Thalia and Zoe had picked up for them. Which Percy could admit she was grateful for- she didn't like wearing clothes covered with Bianca's blood, and she felt a thousand times better when she had changed and cleaned the blood off her skin. And she could tell that Bianca felt much the same by the look on her face when the daughter of Hades emerged after her shower.

And there was definitely more color there. She looked stronger than she had, and when Percy stopped her and insisted on getting a look at the wound she was pleased to see that it looked weeks old rather than hours as it was.

By the time they were in San Francisco she should be reasonably healed.

After that it didn't take long to brew up some coffee- filling several thermos flasks, and packing a bag full of chips and other snack type food to take with them for the car journey.

And before long they were on the road. After about twenty minutes of driving Percy felt some of her nerves evaporating like morning mist.

It was dark yes, and she wasn't licenced or anything, but driving really wasn't that hard compared to some of the things she'd done over the years. And while Thalia, Zoe and Bianca all fell asleep fairly quickly, Grover was sat next to her, sipping the coffee in his thermos and directing her when he needed to.

And Percy found it was actually kind of relaxing.

And she talked to Grover. He told her about his time travelling since they'd last met. His search for Pan. The fact that he kept taking breaks and coming back to Camp because he was worried- what with Kronos rising.

Percy was grateful for that fact. If he hadn't been there then Bianca wouldn't have been able to contact Piper and Annabeth and Percy… well, she doubted Chiron would have figured out what she needed it time.

And that was a weird thought. She'd freaked the Hades out over what had happened to Bianca but she'd probably been a lot closer to death than the daughter of Hades had been but it hadn't phased her much. She really didn't have much of a self preservation instinct did she?

She shrugged that thought off, pushing it away.

Now was so not the time to focus on that.

She could deal with that later. She was sure Piper and Annabeth would have things to say about it. Percy just generally would rather she was the one hurt than the people she cared for. And she did care for Bianca. The other girl really was like a sister to her. And she was growing fond of Thalia and Zoe too.

She'd make sure that any monsters who threatened her friends would come to regret it. She knew that much.