I glanced at Percy and Annabeth in the back seat, wrinkled my nose and glanced at Nico and Will in the middle seat and finally turned back toward the road.

"I think you just summed up where I am in the romance department." Travis rubbed his neck.

"It's not like I don't have a boyfriend. Why do they have so adorably perfect for each other? I will never have that."

"Never say never," He responded instantly.

"Eithne wants me to go to Tír na nÓg with her."

"What?" He jerked the steering wheel a bit when he glanced sharply at me, then hurried to correct it.

There were half-asleep sounds of protest in the back, but no one really seemed to wake up.

"She thinks there are things I would benefit from learning there."

"Isn't she banished?"

"As far as I knew. Maybe she can go into certain parts, or maybe her banishment just isn't monitored closely. I don't know. But she thinks I should go and learn some things. I think there might be more trouble in paradise than she's comfortable talking about outside of Tír na nÓg."

He nodded slowly. "But you would be safe?"

"I would assume so."

He didn't respond. "About ten minutes until we get there. It's kind of weird traveling with Annabeth and Percy. I'd never done it before now."

Got it, we were done talking about it. "Yeah? Me neither. I think they're just relieved that they've been able to travel without monsters attacking them."

"Yeah, plus Annabeth apparently forced Percy to take a plane to Massachusetts. He probably hadn't slept that off yet. Or he's just good at sleeping."

"Hey, at least he'll be well rested when we arrive."

Nico yawned. "How far?"

"About five minutes."

"Cool. Wake up, dork." He prodded Will.

I shook my head and stared out the window as long island passed by. "I'm starting to have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving."

"It'll be fine. You'll feel better once you've had some puppy-cuddles." Travis was teasing me a bit, trying to cheer me up.

I'd had this pit in my stomach since yesterday that I just couldn't shake. This sense of dread and impending trouble that just kept creeping closer and closer without me being able to discern what it was. It was annoying and frightening. It gave me chills.

"There it is."

I looked forward again, smiling. It looked nice in the snow.

Travis parked the car and called back in a loud voice, "We're here!"

I giggled as they groaned, and hopped out.

Batman came bounding out the front door with Jacob a ways behind him.

I waited until Batman sat before I greeted him and threw the nasty tennis ball for him.

Jacob hugged me. "Hey, Cassie-bear. How was your trip?'

"Quiet. The couples were snoozing in the backseat so I couldn't blare music."

"Bummer."

"Major."

"I've got homemade chicken noodle soup inside."

"I love you!" I whistled for Batman to bring the ball back.

"I know."

"Did I hear food?" Travis asked.

"Soup is in on the stove."

There were grateful sounds from all of the boys, but Nico was the one that managed to dart in behind me and get to the soup before me. He cheated. Sort of.

He grinned at me, then scooped some soup into his bowl. "I only woke up because I was hungry."

"Of course," I responded, grabbing a bowl and waiting. "It's almost one. Much later and we would have stopped an hour or so ago to get food."

He took his bowl to the dining table. "There you are," He said to the cat.

She purred and rubbed against his legs.

Batman came in with everyone, excited, and followed them all into the kitchen and around the kitchen, having to keep track of all of them before finally just following Travis over to the dining table and laying down behind me.

"Don't push your seat back."

"Yup, I saw." I glanced at Batman again and he wagged his tail. He always thought he was getting a treat just for existing. It was adorable, but I couldn't help but think he set himself up for disappointment. Then again, I usually set myself up for disappointment when I set a word goal for myself outside of the month long challenges provided by NaNoWriMo. Not that I was competing this year. THere was way too much going on. Especially since we were writing in class as well.

"So, Nico said that your story for your writing class is the best." Annabeth sat across from me.

"His is good too."

"Not nearly as good as yours." Nico pointed his spoon at me. "Everyone knows that you shouldn't be in that class until we get to the full-fledged editing section of this class."

"Oh please! It's not that good." I made a face. "There are three plot points that I've had to shove into it so that I can meet my ultimate goal, I realized that I have a character that does absolutely nothing for the plot and I'm going to have to cut her or give her purpose, and I don't actually have subgoals to my main goal. At this point, I'm writing by the seat of my pants. My next chapter is super crappy, and unless I can fix it, it's going to be turned in as a super crappy story."

"Really?"

"Do you want to read it?"

"Yes," He said forcefully.

I pulled out my tablet and opened up the most recent chapter, then put it in front of him.

He was quiet as he read it. "Wait…what?"

"Mmhmm, keep reading."

Another five minutes.

"No!" He cried out. "No! NO!"

I flinched back, feeling my eyes widen.

"Why would you do that?!" He looked devastated.

I shrugged a little. "Are you sure you read it right?"

"You're killing Hank?" He looked inconsolable.

I felt my eyes widen and I snatched my pad back. "No! You weren't supposed to read that! Crap! That's the wrong story."

Travis started cracking up.

"You're killing Hank!" Nico accused me, horrified.

"No! I was just writing because that's what I do!" I pulled up the proper scene he was supposed to read. "That was just me playing with ideas. There isn't a sequel to my book."

"That certainly read like the opening to one." Nico was still looking at me like I had just killed a puppy or kitten in front of him.

"It isn't," I insisted. "Really, I was doing a word war with the book club because they didn't know what a word war was and it's November."

"What is a word war?" PErcy asked.

"You set a time frame and then write as many words as you can in that time frame, trying to do more than the others participating. It's because of NaNoWriMo."

Even Annabeth looked concerned.

"National Novel Writing Month. It's a…writer thing…" I looked down at my bowl of soup. "Um, people challenge themselves to write fifty-thousand words in a month. Fifty-thousand words is about the average size of a novel."

"How big is that event?" Percy asked, looking slightly scared.

"It's huge. People around the world do it. Thousands of people. And people who donate to it support young writers programs in schools and across countries. My mom was going to do a pep-talk for them this year, but obviously she didn't get around to it so I donated money in her name." I grabbed the oyster crackers and poured some into my soup.

Jacob was shaking his head a bit. "Cassie, you take time to have fun, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

He shook his head dismissively. "Just making sure."

I shook my own head.

Will was quiet for a moment, then got a little smirk. "I still want to see Nico swing dance."

I grinned.

Nico turned a bit red. "No."

"Yes," Will looked at me and nodded. "She can teach me."

Nico shook his head, glancing at Percy and Annabeth.

Travis shook his head. "We both know that Cassie can get you to do it, especially with Will on her side."

I finished the last bite of my soup, pulling up my swing dancing playlist.

Annabeth looked interested. "Please Nico, I want to see. Maybe I can get Percy to learn."

Percy didn't look like he thought that was possible.

I went over and put my phone on the dock, turning on the music. Then I went over to Nico, and pulled him out of his chair.

"No, come on! It's embarrassing."

"You didn't think so before today. Well, the first day you did." I pulled him to the open floor.

"Fine. One dance," Nico agreed. "After that, I'm done."

I grinned.

Will whooped and went to get a better seat.

Travis skipped to a new song so that we had the whole song.

Nico took my hands and waited a moment to hear the beat, then we started the basic step. We had gotten pretty accustomed to each other's styles, and compensating for the fact that I was still taller than him.

We did the moves that we knew, and then one that neither of us was sure what happened.

Nico was laughing, but we kept going until the song ended.

Will was grinning. "That looks like so much fun."

"It is fun, though I'm not sure what that one move was supposed to be." Nico was smiling and looking embarrassed.

I hugged him, then went to turn off my music.

Annabeth smiled. "That did look fun. Percy?"

Percy shrugged a bit. "Looked a little complicated…"

"The basics of it are really simple if you have a good teacher. Which isn't me, by the way," I told them. "I'm a follow, and that's about it. I can show the moves, can't explain them."

Travis rolled his eyes and turned the music back on. "Annabeth," He said, offering her his hand. "Basic step for you is a triple step, triple step, rock step and back again. Yeah, like that." He kept teaching Annabeth how to swing dance.

Percy was watching carefully, then sort of tried the basic step and looked at me to see if it was right.

I nodded. "Keep loose, on your toes like when you sword fight."

He frowned a bit and tried that.

"Loose, relaxed, and on your toes," I repeated.

He relaxed his shoulders some.

We kept helping them learn the basics of swing dancing while Jacob read a book or watched.

Eventually we all wound down and were just talking about dancing and school.

I grabbed my tablet and started working and editing my scene for class.

"No doing school," Nico said, glaring at me.

I stuck my tongue out.

He was about to push farther, but the doorbell rang.

We quickly did rock-paper-scissors, then he groaned and went to answer the door.

I listened carefully until I recognized Hazel's voice—an interesting feat considering how little time I had spent around her—then Reyna and Frank.

Reyna was the first to come into the room, the other two were talking to Nico, and she grinned and waved to me and the others. "Hey, Piper and Jason aren't far behind. Thanks for letting us meet here, Cass."

"No problem. I figure it isn't that far from Camp, might as well treat the hard-working cabin leaders and praetors to a day out of camp. Besides, some people from camp were already coming here for Thanksgiving." I shrugged, then got up to hug her quickly.

"How is that project coming?" She looked interested.

"The first place was awesome. I mean, the TV alone, and the fridge…" Percy nodded. "I want that for my own home."

"Stoll!" Nico's yell was audible from the entryway.

Connor came in, chuckling. "Works every time." He and Travis hugged tightly, then he squeezed me in a tight hug that left it hard to breathe. "Hey, Cassie."

"Hey, Connor. I take it the other cabin leaders are here too?"

"Yeah, they're still gawking outside while Chiron tells them not to break anything and giving a lecture on not overextending the host's hospitality."

I nodded. "Well…"

Lou Ellen came in, looking around. "Dang, this place is nice. Can we have cabin leader meetings here all the time? Oh my…" She hurried to the back doors to look at the view.

Malcolm rolled his eyes, greeting Annabeth briefly and then coming over to hug me. "Hey, Cass."

"Hey, how are you?"

"Pretty good," He said, then kissed my forehead. "Happy to see you."

I smiled back. I did love those eyes. And he was always so sweet.

"Are you sure about letting them in here?" He nodded to the other cabin leaders that were filing in.

"Well," I responded. I didn't have a sentence to follow it.

Chiron rolled past them and nodded to me. "Ms. Dellaro, this really is a nice place. Thank you for offering your home to us as a treat."

"Of course," I dismissed it easily. "I thought it might be nice. A change of scenery."

He dipped his head again, letting the cabin leaders look around a bit.

I nodded to Malcolm that I was going to sit down again.

He glanced at the seating and quickly nodded, sitting with me.

Travis and Connor hurried to grab seats.

Nico grabbed the spot on my other side, with Hazel on his other side.

"You guys can grab the chairs from the dining table and the bar stools if you need a chair," I told the cabin leaders that were going to be seat-less in a few moments.

There was a mad dash to grab a seat after that.

Annabeth was pulling out a map that I guess Malcolm or someone else had brought her. She waited until everyone was at least quiet before she started. "So the first safe house is finished and functional." She put a sticker on the general area of Massachusetts that the safe house was in. "Grover said that he couldn't even smell half-bloods when he was right outside of the house. So whatever the magic is, it completely masks our scent. I don't know how long this works, but it should be enough for either a nature spirit to respond to your distress call, or for you to rest, restock, and get moving again."

"Um, isn't he mortal?" Miranda Gardner asked.

"Yes he is," Jacob said, not even looking up from his book. "He is the one who arranged the purchase of the property for the this safe house."

I nodded.

The half-bloods seemed to accept this relatively easily.

"Anyway," Annabeth said, glancing around. "Where's Leo?"

"I'm here, I'm here!" He came out from the bathroom. "What'd I miss?"

"The safe house is safe, and functional, Jacob is a mortal but he's a cool one, and Annabeth is about to ask you about the website," I filled him in.

He grinned. "I got it working this morning. I've done a bunch of tests. As long as you get to the site quickly, the monsters won't be able to pin-point you. I've got the location of the first place put in, plus directions to the three camps."

I nodded. "And we've already printed a special page with the website address and the GPS coordinates of the three camps. Eric is writing them into his books when he gets the chance. Actually, he has a stamp that he's been using."

"A stamp? Where'd he get a stamp?"

"I guess someone made it for him because he was getting tired of writing it in."

"Alright," Chiron said, bringing everyone's focus back to the matter. "What about the page for information on monsters?"

"I'm working on the coding for it, I just need content," Leo replied. He was oddly calm today. Maybe because he was away from Calypso.

Piper pursed her lips. "Is there a number for camp too?"

"Yeah, I have that with Camp's information. I was also thinking of saying that if they find trouble in Such and Such town that the Way station is there, but I don't know that it's a good idea to advertise the Way station. It's not like the safe houses."

"What about weapons? What are we doing on that front?" Sherman asked, folding his arms and glaring at the world.

"The backpacks in the safe house all have either celestial bronze or imperial gold knives, nothing big, but enough to at least kill a monster. We don't have the resources to provide real weapons for every half blood that passes through these places, and it's not practical to assume that if we put a few swords, spears, or other such weapons in the place that a half blood would know how to use them or that it would be the right weapon for them to use. Until we have better resources, we'll have to stick to the small knives."

Annabeth nodded. "A knife can be just as effective as a sword. We can take care of their weapon needs when they actually come to camp, any of the camps. The hope with these safe houses is that half bloods can go from safe house to safe house until they can safely reach one of the camps, or can be safely escorted to one of the camps. How many times did we all wish there was a safe place to sleep? A place safe from monsters, even for a night. A place with food. Most runaways are kids with no idea how to find food other than to steal it or try to pay for it without money. These safe houses are to alleviate the harsh conditions we've all had to endure as half bloods, not to ameliorate them."

There were a few thoughtful nods.

"Okay, here's a question," Jacob started, getting up and coming over to lean against the couch. "And pardon me if it's a dumb question, but where do you get said resources to make said weapons?"

Chiron looked thoughtful. "Sometimes we can find old hoards of weapons, other times we are able to locate pockets of the metals. It's not as it once was, that's certain."

"Huh, okay." He sat back down, pulling out his laptop to work apparently.

I fought back a smile and leaned against Malcolm.

He put an arm around my shoulders. "What about the next construction?"

"The next construction is not planned yet. We're still trying to decide what locations are the most useful at the moment. Focusing on areas near major cities and trying to decide what is a reasonable distance so that we can set up this network. I have plans for a place in Manhattan, a place in New Mexico, Florida and Indiana. I'm still looking over my options for Texas, Montana, and a few others. The California place is technically safe for half-bloods as well, it's just not classified as a safe house because I do rent it out." I played with my hair, staring at the map.

"That's a lot of safe houses," Jason said, studying me. "Are you sure you'll be able to take care of them all?"

"It's really not that many, and the work on them is staggered. I've already budgeted for the ones that are set to happen. Thinking of, Nico, Will, don't let me forget to pay you. You too Travis."

"Oh honey, I don't forget money," Travis said, smirking a bit.

"You pay people to help?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, need a job over Christmas break? That's when I'll be doing the Manhattan project."

Percy nodded. "I should be home to visit my family."

"Awesome," I replied.

"You're not worried that we're overlooking something?" Miranda asked. "What if the borders only last a couple years?"

"Then we'll renew them. Look, I've been planning these things with Reyna, Malcolm, and a bunch of others for months now. If something goes wrong with the first one, then it will go wrong quickly, or the problem should only be minuscule, easily fixed. Annabeth was consulted on the structural aspects. Grover on the natural. And there's a whole group at Camp Northpoint who are very skilled in magic. There could very well be something that was overlooked. But we've done our best, which is all we can do."

Some of them looked like they were still with Miranda, that this wasn't a good idea.

"Guys, come on. We all know that being out there is dangerous. Monsters can find us. We have more tools to try and make better lives for ourselves than ever before. Cassie, tell them about your idea for keeping up these houses," Nico told me.

I hesitated. "Well, I was thinking that they could also function as homes for demigods. As adults, I mean. Why waste a space? It's already going to be mostly paid for, they'll already be furnished. It would just mean opening your house to some demigods on their way to camps every once in a while. You'd still be safe, and others would still be safe, and you could try to live normal lives outside of a camp. No offense to New Rome, it's just…sometimes you need more. More space, more freedom. It's just a vague idea. I haven't fleshed it out completely."

Sherman was glaring at me in a semi-interested way. "We'd just pay some sort of small rental fee if we were living there?"

I shrugged. "Maybe? I don't know."

His glare eased up. "So then, let's say Will were to stay at the safe house while he attended Harvard."

"Bit of a commute, but go on."

"Would you make him pay some sort of rent?"

I made a face. "Probably not. College is expensive. I don't know, Sherman. I think I would say that College students could stay free and newly married couples have six months to get on their feet. It's not like I would have anyone pay a huge chunk of money. It would just be to sort of help pay for the property. Life is tough and I don't want to make it more so."

Sherman nodded. "I approve."

I figured that was as close to a compliment as I was going to get, so I accepted it.

Chiron was watching all of us, a strange sort of hopeful light in his eyes. I wondered if he was considering the impact this would have on the survival rates of half bloods.

I hoped there was a significant one.