sweet dreams • leo valdez

11

"What happened?" Delilah woke up groggily, rubbing her eyes slightly as she sat up. They were on the boat but she could tell something was wrong just by looking.

Hazel was asleep, Frank next to her desperately trying to wake her up. Percy was next to Delilah, having just woken her. The problem was that Hazel didn't seem to be awakening. Had she fainted? Lost consciousness?

"Hazel won't wake up." Percy confirmed, his voice coated with anxiety just as much as the look on his face was. 

"Do we know why?" Delilah replied, moving over to Hazel. She kneeled opposite Frank, next to Hazel.

"No. We've been trying for a few minutes now." Frank answered, sounding unlike she had ever heard him before. 

"Get us to the shore." She ordered Percy, who nodded and moved to the sail as they started to speed towards a cliff nearby.

"Can you help her? Wake her up?" Frank asked her with his voice shaking slightly. 

"I'll try." She told him while trying to remain as calm as possible. Someone needed to.

She placed her hands on either side of Hazel's temple and took a deep breath. She saw glimpses flash through her head. It was the same as what she'd seen in her dreams recently, of Hazel in that strange cave with her mother. She knew now that it must be a memory if Hazel was reliving it now. 

"She's having some sort of flashback." Delilah told them as she continued to see what Hazel was. "I think."

"So what do we do?" Frank asked, not taking his eyes off of Hazel.

"I should be able to wake her up. But I don't want to do it on the boat. She'll do better back on solid ground." Delilah replied, directing that mostly at Percy, who was nearing the ship towards the cliff. 

Within seconds Percy had docked them at the shore and Frank had Hazel in his arms, carrying her to the cliff. Frank placed her down and Delilah immediately placed her hands back to Hazel's temples. 

Hazel's consciousness was still wrapped up in her memories. Delilah knew it would be harder to wake her up than it would be someone who was asleep, which she could normally do without contact just by concentrating on that person a little.

So she focused her powers on Hazel and on the memory, and forcefully urged Hazel back to consciousness. She could feel Hazel trying to fight back, but Delilah was a child of Sleep. If she wanted someone to wake up, they would wake up. 

Soon enough, Hazel's eyes flickered open and she was staring up at Delilah confusedly. 

"Hazel! Thank the gods you're awake!" Frank sighed in relief, as his shoulders sagged and let go of the tension he'd been holding in. 

"Where are we?" Hazel murmured weakly as she started to sit up and look at her surroundings. 

"Mendocino. About a hundred and fifty miles north of the Golden Gate." Percy answered as he knelt down beside Delilah. 

"A hundred and fifty miles? I've been out that long?" Hazel groaned at the thought of it. 

"You were unconscious. You wouldn't wake up normally and I didn't want to wake you on the boat." Delilah explained, placing her hand on Hazel's forehead to check for a fever. Anything that could have caused the vivid dream and flashback. 

"Delilah said something about a flashback?" Frank asked her in a gentle tone of voice.

Hazel took a deep breath before saying, "It was a blackout. I have them once in a while."

"A blackout?" Frank asked worriedly, taking hold of Hazel's hand which didn't really surprise Delilah. She didn't have to be a child of Venus to sense their budding romance. It was painfully obvious to everyone except the two of them. "Is it medical? Why haven't I noticed before?"