Reyna had done a lot of waiting. She'd waited a prisoner of the pirates when Circe's island was raided. She'd waited for Jason to come back when he was stolen, she'd waited in prolonged silence while the seven went on their quest and came back, hoping to hear good news upon their return.

The wait for Leo to come back almost rivaled those.

It wasn't that Reyna was particularly anxious about it. It was more that she desperately wanted to believe that she'd done the right thing. She wanted to believe that it had been right to barge in like that and reveal that she knew where he was. She wanted to believe that he'd show up at the end of the month ready to come back. She hoped that he wouldn't run off somewhere else in anger and all her worrying would be in vain.

She still wasn't exactly sure why she was even worrying. It wasn't even her job to worry about it. But somehow, she felt a connection to the scrawny boy with the leather tool belt and an overstated sense of humor. She knew from experience that unspoken promises were sometimes the most devout ones. Leo Valdez and she had more promises than anyone else she knew.

The more days went by, the more she hoped she'd get one of those Iris-messages saying that Leo had come back, or even the unlikely possibility that he'd come to Camp Jupiter to see her, though she wasn't exactly sure why she hoped for that. It was a stupid fantasy. Camp Jupiter still held a huge grudge against the son of Hephaestus, and though one could debate for hours on Leo's sanity, he wasn't suicidal. Reyna had to be the one to pull the trigger. And she got the feeling that Leo was waiting for her to do exactly that.

January had closed in, and she knew that at this point, there was no turning back. She'd given him deadline. His words kept bouncing back at her. They'll blame you. My friends will hate you. As if she didn't have enough people who looked at her strangely. She almost thought about going back on the idea. Let the kid stay where he was. He wasn't happy at Camp, and he wasn't any happier in Utah, and if the kid couldn't be satisfied, that wasn't her problem. But suddenly, it felt very much like her problem. If she never saw Leo again, if no one at Camp Half-Blood ever saw Leo again, she was sure that mound of guilt would press itself back on her shoulders. Percy and Annabeth had talked about holding up the sky before. She imagined that this must feel similar, like opening a self-inflicted wound. The pain doubled the more you thought about it. Reyna had never been a fan of self-inflicted pain.

Why would you do that? he'd asked, his eyes daring to question why anyone would ruin their reputation for someone like him.

Because no one else will, she'd answered. And it was the truth. No one knew except for Reyna. And that made it all that harder to decide which one was the right thing.

Reyna was at Camp Half-Blood again, for some thing or another, and she was standing by the big house, having just finished discussing something with Chiron. She didn't want to tell Leo's siblings because she didn't know any of them very well. She also didn't want to walk up to Piper, because even though she may be a daughter of Aphrodite, her temper was not something Reyna wanted to reckon with. Once again, Reyna felt herself falling back onto Jason, which she despised. But she knew it was one of those now or never times, so she hesitantly went over to the basketball courts where Jason had been shooting hoops.

"Hey," she said, sitting down next to him.

"Hey," he said back. She took a deep breath.

"So, there was something I wanted to talk to you about." Reyna felt so immature, like she had been put into one of those stupid teen movies with the awkward conversations where you just held your breath and closed your eyes while you waited for it to be over. She was usually direct, but it felt like she was walking on a tightrope. She wanted to inflict the least amount of damage as possible, which was selfish, as it had been her who had volunteered.

"Go ahead," he said, fixing his gaze on her, which, for the first time, she found slightly unnerving.

"It's about Leo." Reyna grit her teeth in her mouth.

Jason's expression immediately changed to something unreadable. "Yes?"

There were so many ways that she could put it delicately, but then again, she had never been one for delicate measures. She took a deep breath and said the words she'd wanted to say for the last four months. "I know where he is."

It felt like everything in Camp just stopped cold and took a breath. A cold breeze blew past them. If Jason's eyes were unnerving before, now they were piercing, like they were cutting into her soul. He'd only ever looked at her like that once before, and even then it hadn't hurt as bad. Now it felt like a knife blade.

"Are you serious?" he asked, amusement in his voice that didn't make it to his eyes.

"Yes." Immediately she was defensive, sitting up straighter and forming her words differently. "Why would I lie?"

"why would you tell us after four months?"

That shattered her resolve a bit. "That's complicated. It's a long story. But I wasn't entirely sure until a little while ago. Now I know I'm right."

"Complicated?" Jason didn't look mad exactly, it was one of those expressions that you couldn't pinpoint; like anger mixed with hurt mixed with disbelief mixed with fear. She wasn't exactly sure where the fear was coming from.

"Quite," was her only answer.

Jason stood up, wringing his hands and pacing. Jason had always been a pacer, and she used to think it was so annoying, but now the movement looked frighteningly solemn. His voice was still the same anyway, so she hoped she wasn't completely a goner.

"How do you know, anyway? Did a god send you a vision? Did you catch a glace of him somewhere?"

Reyna felt like she was digging herself an even bigger ditch. "He told me himself," she answered in a stoic tone.

"How?"

The world was spiraling out from underneath her. The corner of her mouth twitched. She wasn't even sure she wanted to see the expression in her eyes, as she could barely meet the one in Jason's. But she was far past the point of no return. "I was there the night he left. I talked to him."

Reyna had never been more positive that she was going to get skewered in her whole life. There had been times when she'd argue with Jason, or with the senate, or with Octavian (most notably Octavian), and she felt like she understood the phrase 'if looks could kill'. Fighting with Jason had never been on her top things to do list, because Jason had a presence that even affected Rena sometimes. But that was always about work. They'd never fought about person things before, and Reyna was beginning to wish that the opportunity had never arisen.

"You knew he was gone and you didn't tell anyone?" This was not Jason Grace, sixteen year old Californian. It was Jason grace, praetor of New Rome, son of Lord Jupiter, a side that Reyna rarely saw.

"I made a sort of promise to him," she explained. "That I wouldn't tell, and he could go and sort out whatever problems he had on his own."

"Leo made you promise?" Jason's voice was softer now.

"He didn't make me promise," Reyna amended. "It was just an unspoken promise, like he was daring me to go after him."

"But you didn't."

"No," she said, reclaiming some semblance of control over the situation. "Because if he knew we were coming, he would have run again to gods know where, and then we would have no way of tracking him down."

"And it's so much better to track him down after four months, isn't it?"

"What are you implying?" she demanded.

"Everyone here was so upset with him gone, and you weren't. I brushed it off, since you didn't know him that well, but now I find that you knew where he was the whole time. You just wanted to watch us suffer?"

"You know I'm not like that, Jason," Reyna said, standing up now.

"We didn't know what had happened to him. We thought he might have been dead!" Jason pointed out.

"And that shows such faith in your supposed friend, doesn't it?" she spat, unable to hold it in.

Jason stopped cold. "What?"

"He didn't leave because of me. He left because of you. He left because he was unwanted and ignored, just like all the other stupid places he's run from. He left because he wasn't happy. That's something you cannot blame on me, Jason Grace."

"We didn't ignore Leo. He was my best friend," Jason hissed, but he didn't sound sure.

"Tell that to him," she said in defiance. "After all the time I spent trying to get it into his thick skull, tell him and see if he listens. I told him that if he didn't come back before a set date I would tell everyone where he was. And he isn't here."

"I can't believe you talked to him and still let him leave like that? I can't believe that you, Reyna, would just let him leave. You know how dangerous it is out there."

"I could say the same for you Jason," Reyna replied easily. "I think I could say the same." She started to walk back towards the Big House. "I kept my end of the deal. You can interrogate him about it all you want, but I played fair. He's in Salt Lake City, Utah. See if he'll come back."

She turned on her heel and walked away. She was sure that if her expression darkened any further, it could rival Tartarus itself.

Leo wasn't a patient person. He wanted things done instantly, the twenty-first century state of mind. He was even less patient with himself. So he was painfully aware of the days passing by as he waited for Reyna to sic her dogs on him. He wasn't going back to Camp. If he showed up at Camp now, after four months, he had this building fear that it would be very insignificant. T noticed he was gone, or so Reyna said, but would they notice he came back. He somehow thought that they wouldn't.

Piper misses you, Reyna had said. Jason misses you. We cared about you. Could that be true? It hadn't felt like it. But then again, Leo had never been very good at dealing with people. That's why he always ended up running. You would be one to have a temper tantrum and just run when things get hard. It hurt because that was the truth. And Leo knew better than most how horrible the truth could be.

By the time the deadline drew around, Leo was still firmly rooted in his spot. He was half-hoping they would come, half dreading it.

Nothing happened.

The whole day he was peering over his shoulder for familiar faces, listening for someone yelling his name, watching out for shadows of pegasai overhead. Nothing happened. No one came. It was almost impending, like the calm before a storm. The next few days were much of the same. Nothing, no disruption in the clean pattern he'd been following for the past four months.

The week after, they came for him.

He had just walked out of his apartment and started down the street when he heard a voice that made him stop in his tracks.

"Leo Valdez!"

Piper. Oh gods. He was almost afraid to turn around. But he flipped around to see the angriest daughter of Aphrodite ever storming towards him. He could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. Jason and Nyssa were flanking him.

"Piper!" he said, trying for a big smile. "I see you brought the entourage!"

"Valdez!" She looked too mad to even speak. "You-you-Leo!" Leo resisted the urge to back up and run for the hills. She reached him and raised a hand as if to slap him across the face. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been? Do you even know?"

Leo put his hands up. "Well, Reyna gave me some idea."

Piper blew air through her nose. "Oh, her." She looked back towards the corner she had just rounded, and Leo was startled to see her leaning against the side of the building, looking anywhere but at them.

"Why did she come?" Leo asked, and Piper looked murderous.

"She had to show us where you lived," she said. "If you weren't out here I was going to go in breaking down doors."

"You wouldn't," Leo said.

"I've got a record anyway," Piper shrugged. "Why not make it look pretty?"

Leo smiled a half-true smile. Just the sort of excuse Piper would come up with. Nyssa came running up behind her with Jason. She too looked like she wanted to knock Leo into next week.

"Leo!" she said, her hands clenching and unclenching.

Leo studied her. "At least I know you both remember how to pronounce my name," he said cooly.

"This isn't funny, Leo!"she said. "Harley has been worried sick. I've been worried."

Leo didn't answer. If this was going to be a whole bunch of I-missed-you's and where-have-you-been's, then Leo was actually considering walking away. He wasn't into all that kind of mush and gush.

"This was so not cool, dude," Jason said. "Why would you just leave?"

"I have my reasons," Leo said mysteriously.

"Don't play games with me, Valdez," Piper scolded. "You know what? It doesn't matter. Let's just go. We can talk back at Camp."

She grabbed Leo's arm and tried to pull him towards the street, but Leo stayed rooted to the spot.

"No," he said quietly.

All three of them spun to look at him. Nyssa's eye twitched. "Come on, Leo. We're going home."

"No," he said, and was instantly stunned by how good it felt to say that. "Well, not today."

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Reyna smile.

Now Piper was mad too, "What do you mean, 'not today'?"

"Not today. I kind of like Salt Lake City. It's western."

"This is not funny Leo," Jason said. "Not funny at all."

"I'm not being funny," Leo said honestly, and he wasn't. "I'm not going anywhere."

Piper opened her mouth, but Leo stopped her. "If you charmspeak me into going, I'll just leave again. And you know that."

Piper's eyes were literally spiraling into rage, Nyssa was at her side, and in that moment, she resembled Coach Hedge, and Leo was seriously glad that she didn't have a baseball bat with her. Jason stood almost awkwardly behind the two girls, looking like he was trying to keep from slowly exploding on the sidewalk.

"I'm going to stay right here," Leo said, tapping the sidewalk and crossing his arms. "You head back to Camp, and I'll meet you back there."

"When?" Nyssa demanded.

"At some point," Leo shrugged. "I don't have a calendar on me."

This was taking some nerve, standing up to three people who could probably kill him right here on the sidewalk. Piper's eyes were mixed with hurt and anger, and also confusion, which simply irritated Leo even more.

"But-" she said softly. "We thought-"

"I'm not an idiot, Piper," Leo said. "If I wanted to go back to camp I would have by now. I know where it is, you know. You guys just don't get it."

Leo shook his head and walked off towards the corner of the street to stand in front of Reyna, pointedly ignoring the glares and stares boring into his back. She was looking anywhere but at him, but her lips were upturned in an almost smile, so that was a start.

"Your timing was off," he said, loud enough so that his voice would carry.

"It's not like I've done this before," she answered, not mimicking his volume. Her tone was icier.

"I'm still not going back."

"I figured," she shrugged her shoulders. "I told them that. The rest of this is on you."

"I know," he said darkly. They stood in silence for a little bit. "You know," he said. "I never got to wish you a happy New Year."

"New Year has never been my favorite holiday," Reyna dismissed.

"It isn't mine. But people ask questions when a guy like me isn't excited about New Year's. Go figure."

Reyna looked up. "You friends look like they want to kill us both. They probably will."

"Let them do that. I'll just keep standing next to you." Leo was back to serious-mode again.

"And be hated?"

"Nothing new."

"But why?"

Leo had been waiting for her to ask that.

"Because no one else will. And that's what someone like you deserves."

There was that smile again, that he'd seen all those months ago, that smile that he thought he'd never see again. But this time, he knew he'd be seeing it for a while.

"How did you even get here?" Leo asked. He didn't see any pegasai, or any flaming chariots.

"Long story, Valdez," Reyna grumbled.

"I know a burger place."

For Leo, it was easier than ever to pretend that Piper and Nyssa's angry shouts were directed at someone else. He was trying to make a habit of not looking back.

Please tell me someone else hates this ending. This took a really long time because I was trying to fix it, but I started to feel bad about it, so sorry that it's really crappy ending. Thanks for all the support this got!