I don't even have a good introduction for these anymore, except I still don't own PJO, and Y'alls reviews will raise my morale going into finals.

Leo dropped the pitcher of water and stood still in shock. Who the hell carried a duffel bag of sparklers in the trunk of a car? How had he been stupid enough to believe that?

She hadn't even brought back any wedding favors, no stories about the reception party, not even so much as a photo. All she'd said about it was that she had tried to break up a fight between two drunken uncles, which perhaps explained the black eye, but certainly not the broken arm.

He didn't even remember what she'd told him about the fracture, only that he had believed it.

He suddenly couldn't do anything but try to list any concrete details he knew about Reyna. She was an inch shorter than him. She spoke Spanish. She was very private and she was away often. There were scraps he no longer thought were real: She moved from Mexico when she was ten. She played basketball in high school. She had served three tours in Afghanistan. She was the principal at an all-girls school. She was very touchy about a certain olive-wreath metal headband. She wore those one-button blazers even if it was warm.

More facts bubbled up at once and he wondered if they were true until the broken glass he was stepping in all but faded away. She made flan from her late abuela's recipe. She got airsick when Jason took them up in a plane. She had promised to go horse-riding with him sometime. She liked him and his friends. She had told him she loved him.

The kidnapping, the getaway car, the safe-house, the agents by the door, the endless list of things that were classified didn't compute with the serious, sweet girl who had –

Who had never explained her more-severe-than-necessary injuries after her trips. She had never introduced him to her parents or friends. She had never really questioned the sharp drop in business the shop had experienced last winter. Hell, he didn't think she had even told him the name of the school she worked at.

Deciding to ignore the broken pitcher, Leo went to search for the radio he vaguely remembered hearing about. He hoped his guards would be a little more helpful and a little less heavily armed than he was afraid they would be.

He hoped they would be the first people on this very long day to tell him their names.

By the time they got back to the screen door of the café, Jason had done absolutely nothing. He only held the banged-up toy helicopter in his hands, fiddling with the propeller and trying not to make it obvious that he was staring at a young woman at the table Reyna had just vacated.

Leo poked his shoulder with a screwdriver. "Are you gonna make yourself useful, or what?"

Jason apologized, his ears pink, and set down the helicopter. Reyna unwound a length of wire to repair the screen. Even as they worked, Jason was distracted. "She's been here for a half hour and hasn't ordered yet." He pointed out.

"Maybe she's waiting for someone." Leo shrugged, glancing towards the woman who was alternating checking the door and her phone. "Are you gonna go over there?"

"Not great with girls." Jason grumbled. "And she'd probably tell me off anyway."

"You weren't even fully dressed when I first met you, and we're still friends." Reyna pointed out. "So you're clearly not that bad with girls."

"You think I should talk to her?" he asked, uncertainly.

Leo waved his screwdriver at him. "Go before I skewer you." Jason neatly set down his tools, and stepped around Leo and Reyna. He approached the woman's table slowly, like he still wasn't sure.

Reyna stared after him, curious as to what would happen. Leo followed her stare. "Hate to see him leave but love to watch him go?"

"Don't be vulgar." Reyna scoffed.

"Not uncommon." Leo shrugged. "After all, he was half naked when you met him." He returned to his task, but glanced at Reyna from the corner of his eye.

"Please just focus." Was Reyna's only response.

Meanwhile, Jason was standing next to the girl's table. She was twisting the feather in her hair. Reyna and Leo strained to hear them as they worked.

"It's nice of you to notice, but it really isn't a big deal. You don't have to worry about a thing." She said. Her voice was pleasant but firm.

"Let me at least buy you a smoothie while you wait." Jason insisted politely. The girl gestured to the seat across from her, and he sat, gesturing to a waitress. "I like your name, Piper."

"So that went well for him." Reyna said, clipping off the wire. "Sock on the door tonight?"

"Now who's being vulgar?" Leo teased, picking up the tools. "And of course not, not on a first not-quite-date. He's more of a gentleman than that."

"Are you?" Reyna raised an eyebrow.

"Let's tell Hazel we're done." Leo suggested, not sure why he was blushing.

Reyna led the way to the register where Hazel was leaning against a counter doodling in a sketchpad. She looked up when she saw the two.

"We've finished the door. Sorry about that again." Leo told her. "Tell me if it doesn't hold up."

"Thanks for fixing it right away." Hazel said. "And be careful with toys like that. Someone could have gotten hurt."

"Yes ma'am." Really, he was lucky she was so friendly and forgiving about the whole thing. "Anyway, I'm just going. Let me know if you ever need anything fixed up around here, I'm your guy."

"See you soon." Hazel smiled. Reyna waved goodbye.

"Actually, I better be going too." Reyna said. "I've left my dogs alone at home."

"I see." Hazel's face was suddenly serious. It struck Reyna that behind her sunny personality, there was a woman with very sharp edges. "Oh, Miss Ramirez, I meant to tell you earlier, I really like your blazer." Reyna tried to take the compliment at face value, but her smile was fake. "Even if it is a little warm out." Hazel finished smoothly.

"Thank you." Reyna said as graciously as she could. "I think it's important to dress professionally."

Reyna and Annabeth crouched just out of sight of the security cameras mounted at the building's perimeter. Annabeth balanced a beacon on her knee as she double-checked the daggers in her sleeves. Reyna tied a purple scarf around her nose and mouth and pulled up her hood. (It did wonders both for the smell and anonymity.)

"Tactical gear is so much better than office clothes." Annabeth said nonchalantly as they snuck closer.

Reyna dug tinfoil and gum out of her pack, ready to disarm the heat sensor. "Definitely. It's ridiculous trying to conceal weapons in slacks."

Annabeth grunted as she hit the ground to avoid being seen by a groundskeeper in a golf cart. "That would have hurt way worse in pumps." She whispered.

Reyna motioned at her to be quiet as a pair of guards walked past. Sensing movement as the two women walked by, they turned around. Annabeth ran for it, ready with the USB drives that would black out the building long enough to finish their mission.

"You sure you're a lady cop?" One of the guards sniggered. "They dressed much nicer in my day."

Reyna hit the other in the chest with a Taser and put the guard that had spoken in a chokehold. "Agent, not cop." She hissed ferociously. "And I'm always dressed professionally."

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