Equilibrium

Chapter 17: Jackie's POV

"Ugggghhhhh. Shiiiiiiiit." I groan, squinting my eyes against the light.

"Hey, you awake?" I hear Luka's voice close to my ear.

"UgGGhH." I feel sick to my stomach and I have a splitting headache, and my whole head feels fuzzy and like it's not even part of my body.

"You okay?" He asks, and I open my eyes to find we're flying on Harper, with Luka's arms wrapped around me securely.

"Nooooo... everything hurts and I feel like shit," I groan, burying my face in my hands, "What happened?"

"Well... how much do you remember?"

"Uhhh I just remember going to the inn, finding the chalice- WAIT WHERE'S THE CHALICE?!"

"Don't worry, I've got it right here," Luka pulls the shiny relic from his backpack using some sort of cloth, "Just don't touch it with your bare hands, okay? It might still have remnants of the curse on it and I don't want a repeat of what happened earlier. Anyways... continue."

I rub my temples and try to ignore my pounding headache. "Well, I found it in some secret room and then I grabbed it and walked out, and then all of a sudden I got really thirsty. I sort of ignored it and then my stomach had this horrible pain and it hurt so bad I couldn't move. Then... I drank from the chalice. It was like I couldn't control myself. When I drank the wine the pain went away, but only temporarily. I went on like that for a while, trying to find you, doubling over in pain and drinking to make it stop. It hurt so bad," I groan, clutching my stomach, which now aches with a different kind of pain. "Then I remember finding you and then everything after that is really fuzzy."

"That's all you remember? Like, you don't remember Pentheus?"

"Who the hell is Penthouse?" Luka goes off on this long ass explanation about how he beat this random dude who apparently cursed me, and that's why I had to keep drinking in order to make the pain stop. Ughhh, this King guy, whatever his name is, if I ever see him again he's gonna get a punch to the stomach.

"...yeah and then you sorta passed out and I got really worried so I just carried you back to Harper and-"

"Wait, you got worried? About me?"

"Uh... well..." he looks really flustered and I start to laugh, about to make some snide remark, but all of a sudden my stomach clenches horribly.

Then I get sick over the side of the hawk, hundreds of feet up in the air.

0/10, don't recommend.

Luka finds enough sense to hold my hair back from my face and hands me a few tissues and a water bottle from his backpack when I'm done so I can clean up.

"Ughhh Gods I'm so sorry about that," I don't know why, but I'm lowkey embarrassed.

"Hey there it's okay, don't apologize to me. You couldn't help it. Although, you miiiight want to apologize to the unlucky person that got hit."

"THERE WAS SOMEBODY BELOW US?!"

"Chill, I'm joking," He laughs and gives me a little smirk.

"Dumbass," I mutter, my lip turning upward into a tiny smile. "So... what's happening? Where are we going now?"

"I figured we'd find a hotel or something to stay in for the night. It's getting dark, and you're not exactly in the best shape to-"

"No no no we should keep looking for the relics! I'm fine-" I start to say but another wave of nausea hits me and I stop talking to just groan.

"Yeah... no you're not. We're finding a hotel."

I'd usually retaliate but he's right. No matter how much I hate to admit that.

A few minutes later, we touch down outside of a hotel and rent a room for the night with some money that Chiron gave us. The clerk at the desk gives us a weird look, probably because I look hungover and the two of us overall look pretty rough right now. We take our room key and find our room, number 234, and bring what little luggage we have inside, which happens to just be our backpacks. Harper is probably just chilling on the roof for the night or something.

Our room has two twin beds, so I immediately race over to one and flop down. My head is still killing me and my stomach feels like shit too. Luka sets his backpack on the ground next to mine and then sits down on the other bed and looks over at me, then says, "Hey... you okay?"

"No! I feel like shit. Obviously." I mean, duh! What does it look like?

"Okayyy no need to be a bitch about it."

"ExcUse mE?"

"I get that you're sick but I've been nothing but nice to you for the past few hours so it wouldn't hurt to be nice back."

"I wasn't conscious for most of those hours," I point out, rolling my eyes.

"Jackie seriously why do you have to be so difficult all the time?!"

"Well why do you have to be so- ffffuuuuck," Suddenly I feel like I'm about to throw up again and I race to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, I hear Luka come into the bathroom but I don't bother looking up. I just remain hunched on the ground next to the toilet, waiting for the nausea to pass.

"Look, Jackie, I'm really sorry you feel sick and all that. Just... can we at least try to get along? This quest is going to be a lot more difficult than it has to be if we don't..." Luka continues rambling but his voice is making me feel dizzy so I tune him out and try to focus on my breathing to distract myself from how gross I feel.

"... Okay? Hey, are you even listening to me right now? Jackie?" Standing up, I make my way towards the bathroom door on shaky legs.

"Move," I grumble, trying to get around Luka, who stands in the doorway.

"Jackie, seriously, we need to talk this out," he frowns. Ughhh I can't do that right now! I feel like I'm about to pass out again or something.

"Please move?" I plead, suddenly hit with another wave of dizziness as little spots of color dance before my eyes. Luka's gaze softens a bit and he starts to step out of the way but then my head starts spinning and I stumble forward.

"Woahhh there," he catches me and I cling to his arm for balance, my eyes suddenly aching from the brightness of the lights in the room. I shut them and try to steady myself but my legs are shaking and I'm afraid if I try to take a step I'll go crashing to the floor. "How about you get some sleep and we talk later?" Keeping my eyes shut, I nod my head, trying to shut out the ringing in my ears. "Uh... can you walk to your bed?" I want to retort with some sarcastic comment but all I can manage is a weak little "no." Ugh. I'm either gonna be stuck here clinging to him for an eternity or I'll have to crawl my way to my bed. Somehow, he seems to follow my train of thought and shakes his head.

"No, Jackie, you're not crawling. Let me help you." Suddenly, he scoops me up in his arms, bridal style, and I squeak in surprise.

"Luka-"

"Shh it's fine." I let out a little sound of protest but he just carries me across the room. He goes slowly, thank the gods, because my head is still spinning to the point where I've got to keep my eyes closed. He sets me down gently on my bed and I take a deep breath to steady the dizziness in my head and stomach before cautiously opening my eyes.

"Uh... thanks," I mutter, "You didn't have to do that."

"Are you kidding? You would've passed out. Of course I did!" He gives me an incredulous look.

"I don't know about tha-" I stop as another wave of dizziness comes over me and I grab my head and squeeze my eyes shut to try to make the spinning stop. I feel something soft slide over my body and my eyes snap open to find Luka pulling a blanket over me. I'm about to go off at him again to tell him that I can take care of myself just fine, thank you very much, but the words catch in my throat when he reaches over and tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"Just let me take care of you. Let's get you through this and then we can go right back to hating each other and saving the world, alright?"

"Hmph," I mumble, and he just rolls his eyes and gives me a tiny smile before I roll over onto my side and let sleep overtake me.