Reyna P.O.V
The bullet that had landed in my hip was easy to get out and the wound was shallow.
"You'll be back on your feet in no time," Dr. Asclepius told me after the bullet was removed (which hurt like a bitch) and the wound was cleaned and bandaged.
Hylla was the first to visit me. She brought along a comfortable pair of blue cotton pajamas for me to change into.
"I'm proud of you, hermanita," she said, "You were great back there."
"At least I got a scar and a good story out of it," I laughed.
"Speaking of scars, when do you think they'll let you out of here?"
"Probably by the end of the day."
"Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?"
"I'm starving and I could really go for a black coffee and an everything bagel with cream cheese and locks from Amsel's."
Amsel's was a Jewish deli near where Hylla and I lived.
"Will be right back. By the way, the Graces are here to see you as well."
Hylla exited through the curtains which separated each of the beds in the emergency room. Piper, Jason, and Thalia entered the same way. Piper was wearing the same green and blue chiffon dress she been wearing the night before. Thalia wore a dark blue pantsuit and a ruffled white blouse.
"Thanks for saving my little brother," she said, producing a flask from the pocket of her coat, "You'll need some medicine."
I took the flask, opened it, and breathed in the sweet perfume of Jack Daniels whiskey.
"Thanks," I replied.
Thalia winked and smirked.
"Well, if you excuse me, I have to pop in to see Annabeth."
Jason was the next to approach with a bouquet of yellow lilies.
"These are lovely," I said, taking a sniff of the sweet-smelling flowers, "I'll ask the nurse for a vase of water when she comes back."
"I thought you could use something cheerful to look at while you're here," Jason answered.
"Thankfulness."
"Don't you mean, thanks?"
"No, thankfulness. That's what yellow lilies mean."
"I guess it's an appropriate gift then. If it hadn't been for you, I might be dead by now."
"I doubt it. Titan's goon was a lousy shot. He only managed to graze my hip."
"But still, you jumped in front of me."
"Perhaps I've always been a little in love with you."
A/N this is a reference to Eponine's final line in the novel Les Miserables "And do you know Monsieur Marius? I believe I was a little in love with you." Eponine also takes a bullet for her unrequited love but with a less fortunate outcome.
Jason bent down and kissed my forehead.
"Get better, Reyna."
Piper put a hand on her husband's broad shoulder.
"Jason," she said, "Would you go see if you can get me a glass of water."
Sensing that Piper wanted to speak with me in private, Jason respectful backed out of the room but hovered behind the curtain in case he needed to intervene.
"I know you have feelings for him," Piper continued.
"Why should it matter," I scowled, "He chose you over me."
She sat down on the hospital bed next to me.
"Reyna, you are a strong, beautiful, amazing person. You'll find someone. When it's meant to happen, it will..."
I knew Piper meant well, so I resisted the urge to laugh in her face. What she had just said was one of the stupidest things I'd ever heard.
"...Until then, you have people who care about you: your sister, Nico Di Angelo, as well as Jason and me. I hope you will consider me a friend."
"You could charm the moon out of the sky, Piper McLean."
She laughed and handed over a box of chocolates.
"I brought this for you..."
I opened the box and took out a dark chocolate ganache truffle.
"Thanks. Would you like one?"
"Don't mind if I do."
Piper's present soon disappeared. One of the perks of spinsterhood is that you can eat as many truffles as you want without having to worry about losing your figure. I didn't know if I was ever going to find love or if Piper's words were just meaningless cliches. At least, I was alive to find out, which was something to be grateful for.
Annabeth P.O.V
After being released from the hospital, I returned to my parents' house in Montauk to recuperate. Nereus Cottage was now fully renovated and decorated and sometimes I stayed there. Lace curtains were hung in the windows.
The wicker furniture was softened with Egyptian inspired art-deco cushions and Fortuny silk pillows.
My bed was made up with flannel sheets trimmed with ecru lace.
Green glass pendant lanterns hung on the walls in the living room. A lamp shaped like an owl stood on my bedside table.
Outside, there were turquoise wrought iron lawn furniture and white beach umbrellas.
On each side of the front door was a plaster statuette of an owl and on the lawn was a birdbath held up by three sea horses. Both had been purchased at Medea's antique shop.
Percy rented his family's usual cottage near Half-Blood Cove for the rest of the summer, so Sally, Paul, and Estelle could stay there whenever they were able. Whenever I decided to stay the night at Nereus Cottage, he would come and join me. I was glad to have him there since I slept better with him beside me.
In my dreams, I kept hearing gunfire and the screams and groans of the two men who had died on the night I was shot. As bad as my nightmares were, I imagined that Percy's were worse. He was also haunted by the murder of Atlas Titan.
My parents waited until I was home to break the news of Luke's death. They explained that he had been shot by Kronos Titan. Luke had stabbed Titan, who then fired a bullet into his head. Both men were dead. The newspapers were saying that he had come to rescue me and had died a hero. They happened to leave out the fact Luke had set me up to get kidnapped in the first place. I didn't know why he had done what he did but I found it in my heart to forgive him.
The blueberries on the bushes along the path down to Half-Blood Cove came into ripeness at the end of July. Whenever Percy and I spent the night at Nereus Cottage, I would go out in the morning to pick blueberries to serve with the pancakes I made for breakfast.
A good portion of the berries I picked were gobbled up before I made it back to the cottage. My figures and orange skirt were stained were stained into the same deep indigo as the middy blouse I wore.
Percy and I would pack a picnic lunch and spend the afternoon at Half-Blood Cove. I lounged in a striped deck chair while he horsed around in the water with an inflatable rubber zebra.
Sometimes, we would bring down the dory, which had been painted a bright red and christened the Argo II, and row it around the bay.
"Let's catch some clams," Percy said one afternoon, "Then we can cook them for dinner."
"Yummy," I exclaimed, "Clams sound good right now."
He dropped the anchor then dived like a dolphin in the water. I slid off the beach pajama pants I wore over my blue bathing suit.
The seabed at Half-Blood Cove was covered in a thick, slimy, black mud. If you kick around in the mud, it uncovered clams. Clutching the clams in our feet, we brought them up to the surface and put them in a bucket on board the Argo II.
Back on the shore, we built a fire pit out of rocks and a metal grille. I gathered up driftwood and dried seaweed to use as fuel for a bonfire.
The clams we had caught were put in a pot and steamed with beer. While I was putting the clams in the pot, I picked up the largest clam we had found and noticed it was empty. I almost tossed it away before I heard something rattle around inside it. The empty clam held a silver ring set with slivers of diamond.
"Percy..."
He picked up the ring and put it on my finger.
"Will you marry me, Wise Girl?"
"Well, since I've been forcing you to live in sin, Seaweed Brain, I might as well make an honest man out of you," I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him, "But we'll have to wait four years. I want to at least finish college before I settle down."
"I waited six years to get this far, I can wait another four."
When the sun went down, we lay in the sand and looked up at the stars. I rested my head on his shoulder while he pointed out constellations.
"That one's Perseus, my namesake," he gestured to a constellation that was a bent line which forked off into two separate directs towards the end that kind of looked like a person bending over, "And that one's Andromeda."
The Andromeda constellation was two bent lines that joined together at the end. In the story of Perseus, Andromeda was the princess who Perseus rescues from being sacrificed to a sea monster called the Kraken and later married.
Percy and I visited a tattoo parlor after we announced our engagement. I had the Perseus constellation tattooed on my side.
Percy got a similar tattoo of the Andromeda constellation.
My mother was horrified when she noticed my tattoo. She was also horrified when she found out that I would not be a virgin on my wedding night. The fact that Percy was going to do the right thing and marry me eventually calmed her down.
To my surprise and belief, my parents were thrilled when I told them that we were engaged. I had expected them to turn up their noses at him, and say that he was not right for me. Perhaps the fact that Percy had come to rescue me when I was kidnapped was what won them over, like how Perseus defeating the Kraken was what earned him Andromeda's hand in marriage.
Six months later
Piper P.O.V.
Silena and I spent Christmas getting ready for our babies: her's was due in early January; mine was due in February. She went into labor on New Year's Eve and Clarisse Rodriguez brought her to the hospital.
When we were shown into the hospital room, I helped Silena out of her camel hair coat that she had thrown over her pale pink peignoir and nightgown.
Silena groaned as she climbed into the bed. Clarisse adjusted the pillows to help make her more comfortable.
"It'll be over soon," Clarisse whispered.
"But the worst is yet to come," Silena moaned.
I held Silena's hand and stroked her hair as she writhed in agony. Her contractions became worse as it became clear that the baby was coming.
A young nurse named Hygia called for the doctor.
Silena's labor lasted several hours. The doctor administered ether to help dull some of the pain. She became drowsy and held onto Clarisse's hand.
From what I could tell, the labor was a particularly difficult one. The baby started to come out in the breech position and had to be set to rights, a process which looked like torture. Silena nearly crushed Clarisse's hand.
I flinched and cringed, dreading when in a few weeks, I would have to go through the same thing.
Around midnight, a tiny head slid out between Silena's legs in a puddle of blood and slime.
"Keep pushing, Mrs. Beckendorf," Nurse Hygia instructed, "You're almost done."
After several more pushes, the baby, a little girl, was finally out. The doctor cut her umbilical cord and the nurse handed her over to Silena.
"Hello sweetie," Silena greeted her new daughter in a groggy voice, "You're so beautiful."
Her eyes were heavy with tears but her face was beaming.
"Just like your mother," Clarisse, who was leaning over the bed to admire the baby, added.
My niece was indeed beautiful. She was dark like Beckendorf, but a slightly lighter shade of brown, and had Silena's delicate bone structure. Fuzzy dark hair covered her fragile head.
"What are you going to call her?" I asked.
"Charlie and me decided that if we had a girl, we would call her Charlotte."
I reached over to stroke the baby's saggy, wrinkled face.
"Hello, Miss Charlotte, I'm your Aunt Piper."
"I have to wash her up," Nurse Hygia cut in.
She took Charlotte out of Silena's arms and took her away to have her first bath. Silena's exhausted eyes follow them as they left the room.
I wish I could say that Silena's part of this story has a happy ending. That she watched Charlotte grow into a lovely young woman, maybe found love again, and lived a long, full life. But this would be lying.
The difficult birth tore Silena's vaginal canal, which became infected.
A/N Prior to the start of the widespread use of penicillin in 1942, severe infections were always potentially lethal.
It also caused hemorrhaging. Silena languished in the hospital for several days before she died. I promised her that I would raise Charlotte along with my own baby.
The next month, Jason and I welcomed our son, Callum (Cal) Aquilinus Grace. I was scared to death when I went into labor, afraid that what happened to Silena would happen to me. But I was more fortunate.
I hated myself for surviving childbirth when Silena hadn't. I hated myself for having a loving husband when Reyna didn't. I hated myself for getting off easy when people were dead or shot because of my mistakes. I hated myself for being happy when others couldn't.
A/N Hope this downer ending didn't ruin your holiday.
Happy Holidays-
Love,
Rachel