Standing Beside Your Love

Chapter 12

Piper looked up from her desk when she felt Nico enter the room, her sad eyes still worn from the events of the previous night. "What do you need?"

Nico's pale face was the only mark to show that he was dead. Unlike Will or Annabeth, no marks showed suicide or homicide. "The body you found..."

"Was it yours?" she asked. "Or Will's?"

Nico shook his head. "You haven't met her. She...she showed it to you last night with as much energy as she could muster. The storm fueled her."

"Oh..." Piper thought back to all the signs, that gust of wind. "Where is she now?"

Nico shrugged. "Ready to move on, I assume. But she needs her body buried. She needs a good gravestone."

Piper took a paper and pen. "Tell me her name."

"Hazel." Nico flickered at the word. "She was a slave so I don't think she had a last name."

Piper nodded. "One gravestone for Hazel, coming up."

"Thank you..." Nico walked over to her desk. "You're just accepting that easily? Aren't they expensive?"

"We'll figure it out. It's the least I can do." Piper smiled up at him. "If I can help her move on, I will."

Nico nodded his thanks. "I should be going..."

Piper grabbed his arm before he could turn around. "Wait."

Nico looked in her eyes, unable to decide on which color they truly were. "What?"

Piper bit her lip. "Is there any way for you to move on? Any way I can help?"

Nico shook his head sadly. "Not that I'm aware. Will and I...have too much baggage. This is our purgatory."

Piper let him go. "Right... Then... Good luck."

Nico nodded. "Thanks, Piper."

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They buried her beside Nico and Will's graves, deep in the forest beneath the canopy of trees. Some deer came to watch, the sun seemed to shrink away. With the few words they said over that casket, Hazel's spirit floated away.

Next to go was Frank's, who had always been at her side. They rose up hand in hand, rose up into that cloudy sky.

When they got back home, Nico stood at the door. His dark eyes were full of sadness, his hands were clenched at his sides. When asked what was wrong, he stared up to where Hazel and Frank disappeared into the sky.

Piper recognized the look of yearning, recognized the jealousy in his eyes. He wanted to go with them, wanted to go himself into the sky.

She talked to Will, talked to Annabeth and Percy. If they were to go together, they all wanted to go.

So she called a priest.