Julie wakes up when Tempest crosses the barrier into camp.
Her body still feels like it's on fire, which makes sense 'cause there are still arrows in her leg. That's really not pleasant. Ever tried to bite down on a chip, but it ends up vertical between your teeth? Similar sensation, but instead of teeth, it's between her friggen tibia and fibula. She feels like someone's pulling apart her calf like a wishbone.
Her arms aren't much better. She can feel two deep puncture wounds through her right forearm and a third in her left shoulder right above the-...
Julie closes her eyes and leans her head against the ventus' neck. There's still a band of stiffness on her upper left bicep. She can't get herself to look at it, but it's prickling like a bad sunburn as the wind hits it.
Gods...She messed up really bad this time, didn't she?
If it weren't for Jason sending Tempest to save her...Julie must be so stressful to date. He must be getting so fed up by this point.
They come in for a landing beside the stables, and Tempest trots inside.
Groaning, Juliette lifts herself up to look around. The sun isn't up yet. The pegasi stalls are empty, though. They must be out for an early fly. She turns her attention to the wind spirit below her and, for once, feels a bit of warmth for the immortal being. She runs a hand through his silvery mane.
"You just saved my life," She murmurs.
Tempest snorts at her. Julie isn't sure if that was a 'you're welcome,' or an 'I know.' She pets him again all the same.
"I think maybe you and I got off on the wrong foot," Julie suggests. "You're Jason's friend, though. If you want, we could start ov-OUCH!"
Julie yelps as Tempest turns around and snags her hair between his teeth. Apparently, she was taking too long to dismount, because he impatiently yanks her off his back and into the mud beside the water trough.
Sputtering and coughing out muddy water, Juliette sits up and glares at Tempest in offense. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
He clops his front hooves at her and turns to go chew on a bale of hay.
"Don't walk away from me, you stupid old windbag!"
Julie, severely pissed off, completely ignores the burning pain in her extremities and dunks her arm into the partially frozen water trough to splash it angrily across the horse's back. It half drenches Tempest, and he whinnies in surprise at the chill before rounding on Juliette and popping her across the fingers with a burst of electricity.
"OW! UGH, WHY DOES JASON EVEN LIKE YOU?!" Julie shouts. Tempest snorts in derision, clopping his hooves at her in what's probably horse-morse code for 'Right back at you,' or something.
"You probably have fleas anyway," sniffs Juliette. Another irritable whinny from Tempest, and then the horse is turning back into a cloud of wind and lightning, heading for the door. Panicked, Julie sits up sharply. "Wait!"
The cloud pauses and turns to her. The sight reminds Julie of the strangely characterized swarms of bees in cartoons. If bees shot lighting out of their butts and caused mini hay-tornadoes all around the stables.
Julie grimaces and raises her hands in surrender. "Will you...tell Jason I'm okay?"
It's strange to say the mini thundercloud stares at her, but that's kind of what it looks like. Just as Juliette's starting to feel a bit awkward at having been beefing with a horse for the past few minutes - a horse that just saved her life tonight - Tempest sends out another shock of electricity that zaps Julie's raised palms. She yelps in surprise and glares at the cloud as Tempest whisks out of the stable doors and back into the sky.
Weirdly enough, him electrocuting her again felt like a 'yes.' Julie relaxes against the stable wall.
As awkward as things still feel between them, Julie is sort of relieved it's Will Solace who finds her covered in blood, mud, and hay collapsed on the porch of the infirmary. Kayla or Austin probably would have freaked out and asked a million questions. Will just sighs and shoulders his bag to lift Juliette up onto her feet and help her walk inside.
"It's six in the morning, Julie," He complains. "How have you already managed this?"
"I live for a thrill," Julie pants, grimacing with every difficult step as the movement jostles the arrows in her ankle.
Will lowers her down onto the first bed they reach and drops his bag beside it, reaching up onto a shelf to grab a pair of gloves. "What are we working with?" He asks her tiredly.
Juliette cringes, laying her letterman jacket carefully onto the bed beside her as a distraction from looking the healer in the eye. "I got shot with some arrows."
Will snorts. "I can see that. Is that all?"
"The ones in my leg, two in my right arm, and one in my left," She tells him robotically.
The son of Apollo frowns and picks up her right arm to examine the punctures below her elbow. He huffs at her in disapproval. "You know better than to pull arrows out without ambrosia."
The ceiling fan in here is very interesting.
"Wasn't me," She mumbles.
That makes him frown deeper. Julie accidentally looks him in the face and is startled to find him waiting for her to make eye contact. Will looks frustrated with her like usual, but in a more urgent way than normal. He lets go of her arm and reaches for a wound repair kit without breaking their uncomfortable stare down.
"Are you going to explain how this happened?" He asks dryly.
Juliette winces. Will rolls his eyes.
He shakes his head and gets to work cleaning out the wounds on her forearm, finishing off with a splash of nectar on each and some clean gauze and bandages. When he finishes the first two, Will reaches up to start on her shoulder.
His hand approaches her left arm, and white hot panic flashes in front of Julie's eyes. A strangled sound bursts from her unintentionally, and she's suddenly falling off the cot, having thrown herself backwards to escape Will's hand. The healer curses when Julie hits the floor with a groan and scrambles to come help her up. He kneels beside her, but hesitates when he goes to reach out again.
Juliette's head is spinning. The interesting ceiling fan is now doing the wave across the infirmary roof with its two identical twins that weren't there a moment ago. Her heart is still pounding from the sudden burst of adrenaline, and she is one more sudden movement away from introducing the floor to the half dozen pink cake pops she ate at the baby shower last night.
Holy Hera, was that really only twelve hours ago?
Another muttered curse from Will reminds her she isn't alone at the moment. He hesitantly reaches for Juliette's head instead, and she bites her lip painfully when he prods at the top of it and sighs.
"You definitely have a concussion," He says quietly.
A bit delirious, Julie finds that funny. She giggles manically and raises her bandaged arm to poke at the place Ms. Bodyguard slammed her with a club earlier.
"Oh, yeah," She laughs.
"I swear, you and Nico both..." Will rolls his eyes and removes his hand from her head. He looks at her seriously. "I'm going to pick you up, okay? Don't flip out again."
"I only flip in," Julie grins.
The healer, as usual, doesn't find her funny. He carefully avoids her left arm as he winds his own under her armpits and heaves her into a standing position. Will lowers her back onto the cot and takes a step back to stare at her, troubled.
"Julie, what happened?"
Juliette is suddenly exhausted. She slumps a bit and shakes her head. Then, she kicks her foot out and gestures down at it.
"...Can you just...?" She requests sheepishly. She doesn't want to talk about it.
Thankfully, Will isn't in the habit of particularly caring about her wellbeing. He kneels down to start cutting away her pant leg. The way the scissors jostle the arrows is painful enough that Julie doesn't even have the strength of mind to grieve her favorite leggings.
Removing arrows hurts way worse than getting shot with them. Juliette tries to keep herself from screaming by studying Will while he works. Ever since he and Nico started getting closer, Will has looked less tired. It's likely due to the lengths Nico goes to to make sure the older boy is eating enough and switches shifts at the proper time instead of pulling multi-day no sleep fests (hypocrite).
They're so cute together. They make her Aphrodite brain so happy.
Will finishes humming a healing hymn that Julie thinks sounds suspiciously close to Mariah Carey. Then, slowly, the tingling warmth of his Sun powers fades, and he stands back up. He immediately frowns at her like she's insane.
"I just pulled two arrows out of your leg. Why are you smiling?"
She's smiling?
"Brain damage?" She offers. This time she isn't fully kidding considering the monster headache she's got, but the response startles a laugh out of Will.
Like, a real one. Like, Julie made him laugh. Almost on purpose.
Will shakes his head. Then, he gestures hesitantly at her shoulder. "Can I?"
She's not smiling anymore. Juliette finds herself frozen. Just staring at the boy in front of her. She feels like she should look over at her arm. Take inventory of the wound.
But she can't.
She can't move. She can also hear the faint clicking of the heater running. It's really loud. Too loud. It's all Julie can hear. Why is it so loud? She's never noticed it before but now it sounds like gunshots. It's loud and all she can hear is clicking as Meg seals the cuff around-
"Julie, I need-"
-her arm. Did she even get out of there? Did she actually escape?
"-you to take slow breaths."
Is she just dreaming all of this while she's really off killing her friends on Nero's orders?
"You're hyperventilating, Julie. Can-"
Even if she did get out, the second one is still out there.
"-you try to hold your breath for me?"
She doesn't want the second one. She doesn't want another she doesn't want it she doesn't-
"Hey, do you smell that?"
...Huh?
Smell what?
Julie tries breathing in through her nose, but her lungs are screaming for more air. At some point, Will started holding her hand. He squeezes it now, rhythmically, and Julie tries to match her breaths to it.
Gradually, her breathing pattern slows, and she's able to inhale through her nose. It makes her hiccup immediately after, and Will has the audacity to chuckle. She sniffs at the air. She doesn't smell anything weird. What was he talking abou-Oh.
Juliette glares at Will. He grins at her.
"Demigod ADHD," He smirks. "Works every time."
Embarrassment makes Julie's cheeks flare purple. She ducks her head and twists her fingers into the lettering of Jason's name on her jacket. "Sorry," She mumbles.
He waves her off, letting go of her hand and sitting back on a swivel chair. He grabs a clipboard and pen from where he dropped it onto the neighboring bed earlier and busies himself scratching some stuff onto it. Probably in an attempt to give her privacy to sort herself out.
Julie appreciates the effort, but it makes her feel ten times more awkward. Still, she's got an arrow wound that's oozing blood down her arm. She needs to get a grip.
She's literally lost a limb before. What is so scary about a stupid cu-...thing.
Hands shaking where they're knotted into the G and E of GRACE, Juliette forces her head to turn to the left. Inch by inch, she lowers her eyes to her arm.
Now, she feels a little dumb. It's just a hunk of gold.
The cu-thing looks identical to the ones Proserpina showed her on the Argo II. Just a simple gold band around her upper bicep, the only adornment an etching of an axe wrapped in a bundle of rods. If she didn't know better, it could just be a piece of jewelry. It looks fairly similar to the bracelets and bangles she saw on Deianira. The only sign it's anything more is the swelling and redness around it at the moment.
Julie can imagine the thing literally melting to her skin might cause a bit of irritation.
"I'm okay."
Gods, her voice sounds like shit. Her headache is worse, and now her chest hurts from breathing too quickly. Man, Julie just wants to go to sleep.
This time when Will approaches with the antiseptic, Julie manages to keep still. She shuts her eyes tightly and grips onto her jacket until he's done, trying to continue matching her breaths to the rhythm Will set earlier, even if no one is holding her hand anymore.
After the last stitch is secured and a bandage has been laid over it, Will draws his focus down from her shoulder wound to inspect the unwelcome passenger on her arm. He apparently knows better than to touch it, which Juliette is very grateful for. He makes sure to look it over thoroughly, though, and trickles a bit of nectar over the skin around it. Probably to help with the swelling. It soothes the pain a little. Like rubbing aloe onto a burn.
Then, Will pulls back fully and takes off his gloves. Julie finds herself uncomfortable under his scrutinous gaze.
"What caused all of this, Julie?" He asks once more.
Juliette chews on her lip and glances at him. Umm. "Telekhines."
Will kisses his teeth. "Telekhines..."
"Yes," She confirms.
Will takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his shaggy blonde hair. Kinda like he does whenever Clarisse starts threatening to break femurs and Will has to talk her down from the ledge. "You're saying...telekhines melted a gold bracelet onto your arm."
Juliette stares at him.
"They were...very wealthy telekhines."
How she manages to hold eye contact with him for so long without breaking down and bursting into either laughter or tears, Julie has no idea. She wins the staredown, though. Will just groans and shakes his head, getting up to grab the clipboard again.
"Whatever," He sighs. "I'm not your therapist."
Julie flinches.
"But, if these telekhines are near camp, you should at least tell Chiron about it," states Will.
Juliette nods, and he turns to head towards his office. Julie watches him go, chest heavy. Before he can shut the door to the small room behind him, she calls out.
"Thank you."
Will glances back at her hesitant form on the cot. They hold each other's eyes for a moment, something strange and melancholy filling the space between them. And then, he turns back into his office and locks the door behind him.
Julie does tell Chiron.
She sits down with him in the den of the Big House just like they used to when she was little, her on the carpet and him propped into his centaur armchair. She starts her story with Pluto's warning. She ends it with Tempest's rescue.
Chiron doesn't make many facial expressions throughout her tale. He just watches her closely and nods encouragement when her heart starts beating too fast to continue at parts. It's midday by the time she's told him all the details, and his hands are knitted together in front of his chin.
"Nero..."
Julie squeezes her eyes shut, frustrated at herself for the jolt of fear just the name twists inside her. "Is he a god?" She asks.
Her mentor sighs and rakes a tired hand down his face. "I do not know. I assume he must be in some capacity to have lived so long...I hoped never to have to hear the name again."
"No kidding," She mutters. She pulls her jacket closed around her knees and picks idly at the edge of the bandage on her calf. "He said he had a 'colleague' he was gonna give me to. And, his company is called-"
"Triumvirate Holdings," Chiron nods, eyes dark as he gathers her meaning.
Julie chews on her lip. "So, there's three like him, aren't there? Head honchos?"
The centaur studies her. "You are very intelligent, Juliette. Yes," He nods again, face grim. "I think that is likely."
Juliette groans, honestly ready to kick and scream and throw a tantrum on the ugly purple leopard spotted carpet. It's been less than six months. Six months since the end of the last war. All Julie wants to do is cheer at sports games and get started on making her prom dress. Now, again, there's some mess Olympus didn't clean up that's fallen into their laps.
But, it was Juliette who opened this can of worms when she went searching for Meg.
Oh, Meg.
That name sends a twisting of fear through her stomach too. It makes Julie laugh bitterly, not even surprised at this point.
Scared of a twelve year old. She's fucking pathetic.
"So, what do we do?" She asks Chiron, pushing her hair back from her face.
"Right now," He leans forward sternly. "We do nothing."
Julie frowns. "But-"
"Listen to me, Juliette," Chiron interrupts, hand raised and eyebrows furrowed in the way that shows he means business. "You are sixteen years old. You have just gone through yet another traumatic experience. Right now, Nero will be expecting you to do something drastic, as you've likely been planning in your mind."
She has a few ideas, yeah.
"I want you to do nothing," Chiron repeats, ignoring her petulant expression. "Nothing until we know more about what you could face should Nero get his hands on you again. You are in grave danger, Juliette. And, you are powerful, which means we all are in grave danger."
Tears are gathering in Julie's eyes. She swipes at them impatiently, tired of every part of her body stinging with distress.
"So, I want you to stay under the radar. If I were confident you would be safe on the journey, I would send you to Camp Jupiter, but times are uncertain right now. So, instead, just continue your regular routine as if nothing has changed."
Juliette grunts in frustration and rubs at her eyes when the tears won't stop. This isn't the time to be emotional.
"But, he said he's been watching me," She reminds Chiron. "What if he knows my routine? Shouldn't I just stay at camp where it's safe?"
The centaur considers her for a moment.
"If that is what you wish, you will always be welcome at Camp Halfblood. It is your home. However," He leans down a bit so he can catch her eye. "I rather think you are braver than that, are you not?"
Is she?
Her cheeks are wet now that she's given up on trying to stop herself from crying. Julie curls in on herself, resting her forehead on her knees.
"I'm scared," She admits, too ashamed to look at him as she does so. How is she supposed to face this man? Chiron, who took her in from enemy forces and gave her a home in hopes she could turn the tide in their favor. It burns in her that she's letting him down like this.
"I know, child," Chiron says quietly.
He doesn't tell her it's alright. It's probably not. After thousands of years training kids like her, he surely knows better than to make promises like that.
Juliette failed last night. And, if she fails again, it's over. They are both very aware of that reality.
"I suggest you keep the details of your situation close," advises Chiron.
Julie nods. Yeah. She probably shouldn't go spreading around that she's a ticking time bomb.
Very slowly, Julie reaches into the sleeve of her jacket and brushes her fingertips against the metal fastened there. It's warm from her body heat, pulsing with every beat of her heart. Like it's a part of her own body now. A permanent fixture. Juliette's stomach turns.
"Is there no way to take it off?" She asks softly.
Her mentor doesn't answer her, but the sadness in his eyes tells her all she needs to know.
Julie tries to do normal. She really does.
She goes back home to Sally and Paul's for the holidays. Her parents buy her and Percy each a new pair of converse for Christmas, and, since they're close to the same size, they decide to swap one. Now, both of them are walking around with one blue shoe and one pink shoe and giggling anytime someone asks them why.
Sally is looking more and more pregnant. She and Paul end up having to let go of their office to make room for the nursery, and Juliette takes great delight in handpainting roses and fairies all over the walls and furniture in there. Years of making fashion sketches in her school notebooks instead of paying attention have made her pretty talented. Sally even asks her to think about one day illustrating a cover for the novel she's writing. That compliment makes her cling to her stepmom like glue the rest of the night, having decided Sally Jackson is her new best friend (sorry Neeks).
Still, despite the cheerful atmosphere...
It's very possible that Julie is maybe, possibly, could perhaps feasibly be doing less than awesome.
Maybe.
She doesn't sleep much. It's kind of hard to when every night she closes her eyes just to relive the feeling of Imperial Gold melting to her flesh while an immortal emperor licks his lips at the sight of her pinned to his floor. So, instead, she spends a lot of time exploring her newfound talent by sketching outside on the fire escape. She gets cold, but there's some comfort in that. The numbness that creeps in from the winter chill makes it harder to feel the pulsing of the...thing around her arm.
Hiding that from her family has been hard. She's had to be really careful. Percy was there that day that Proserpina visited. If he saw her bare arm, he'd know exactly what he was looking at.
Julie can't have that. Not when he's so busy with those stupid recommendation letters. Not when he's so close to college. To getting out from under Olympus once and for all.
Percy loves her, and he's loyal. Stupidly loyal. He'd march down to the Tower of Nero himself if he knew she was in danger. And, strongest demigod alive or not, Juliette isn't clear yet on if that's a fight he could win. So, she's been wearing her jacket pretty much every second of every day.
Which brings her to her most painful worry of all. Jason.
She knows he must be alive. Tempest coming to get her was proof of that because gods know that stupid horse would never have helped her on a whim of his own. Besides, she thinks she probably would have felt if he'd died. Tether and all.
But, how did Jason know that she was in trouble? Did he? Was Tempest a coincidence, or did Jason find something?
And, if he found what he was looking for, why isn't he back yet?
These questions drive her crazy all through winter break. Once school starts back up, showing up to class starts feeling like a stupid waste of time. Why is she sitting in pre-calc learning the friggen unit circle when Jason could be out there right now, wounded or fighting or gods know what else?
So, she stops showing up. Except to Paul's class because if he knew she was skipping, she'd probably be extremely grounded. Instead, Juliette sits under the bleachers and scours every book she can find about Roman emperors.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of those, and Julie is dyslexic. She isn't sure anything she learns is going to be useful (or correct), but...She's hoping maybe she can at least find mention of the Tiberri donum somewhere. That close call made it clear she's been in over her head. Julie needs to understand what Nero has waiting for her.
Which is the ADHD hyperfixation that's got her irritated with Percy and Paul when they start bullying her into the driver's seat of the Prius after school every day, wasting precious time she could be spending sounding out every word longer than two syllables.
Yes, she's sixteen. No, she doesn't have her driver's license. Why? Well, see, she was a little busy last year when her brother got kidnapped, and then her other brother got kidnapped, and then her best friend got kidnapped, and then her dad died, and then she found out she has a little sister who ALSO got kidnapped...Julie thinks she deserves to be cut a little slack.
Paul and Percy don't care. They're both 'tired of driving her to the mall every other day' and 'want her to be self sufficient.'
She literally has wings, but whatever. Driving is fine, she guesses. It's kind of awkward since it's really set up to be done with your right foot, and Julie's is just a hunk of metal now, so she has to use her left. They've only been practicing in the school parking lot so far, but Percy has stopped yelling 'yeehaw' every time she accelerates too fast, and Paul isn't slamming on a nonexistent brake pedal every few seconds anymore. Julie thinks that means she's doing better.
She's certainly not doing well enough for them to be pressuring her into actual road-driving right now, though.
"Do you want to die?!" She yelps, foot firmly planted on the brake in the middle of the parking lot as she stares at her stepdad in horror.
Paul smiles at her bemusedly. "You're not going to kill us."
"Yeah, NYC traffic doesn't move fast enough for that."
"Percy. Please. Be helpful."
"I mean, yeah Jules, you're doing great!"
Julie whimpers in fright as Paul turns the steering wheel towards the exit to the lot and nods at her to continue.
"Oh, Hermes help me," She groans as she gives in and taps the accelerator to turn out onto the road.
She manages to make it onto the street without hitting any parked cars or pedestrians. That's good. Percy applauds from the backseat, and Paul smiles proudly.
"See? It's not so bad!"
"Paul, where am I going? There's a stop sign, what do I do?"
"You stop, Julie."
"Right, right, okay, yeah, stop."
"Oh my gods," Percy cackles from the back, laughing hysterically into his hands. If Juliette weren't so petrified, she'd be throwing things at him.
"Now, you're going to turn left up here and follow that street all the way to the apartment. It's a straight shot, okay?"
"Okay. Turn left. Go straight," Julie nods, gripping the wheel so tightly her knuckles are white.
Once she does the left turn (successfully! No head on collisions!), Percy leans forward between the seats with a thoughtful expression. "Actually, I think there's a bike race cutting down that street today. Turn into this next alley and go through there."
"Alley?!" Julie squeaks.
Paul rests an arm on the back of her seat and speaks soothingly. "You can do it, Julie. It's just like a regular road, but narrower."
"How narrow?!"
"Just don't hit any dumpsters."
"DUMPSTERS?!"
Both men look like they're about to burst out laughing right in her face. Julie makes a mental note to make them pay for it later, but right now puts all of her focus into not crashing their only family vehicle. She does as Percy says, turning carefully into the narrower side street between two apartment buildings.
She makes it around the first group of trash bins, and Paul and Percy cheer.
"See? You did it!"
Juliette lets out a breath, relaxing. "Yeah, okay. That wasn't so bad."
"I told you you were ready for this," smiles Paul.
Julie beams at the praise and turns to him. He nods at her proudly.
Which unfortunately means Percy is the only person paying attention to what's in front of them. So, when a brown haired teenage boy in a green shirt comes darting out of a conjoining alley right into the path of their powder blue Prius, he's the one who yells, "EYES ON THE ROAD!"
Julie's eyes are not on the road, if that wasn't clear.
THUD!