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Car parked beside the forest
Mom?
Figure stumbling out of the trees
Mom, where’s Jason?
Gone
Gone
GONE-
Thalia’s eyes snapped open.
She didn’t gasp. Didn’t scramble upright. Didn’t give any other sign of having woken up. Couldn’t risk it, couldn’t risk giving herself away to anything that might be Watching- except. That was- on the road. That wasn’t this. Camp- she didn’t need to be on guard at camp. A soundless sigh escaped her lips, and Thalia let the tension sink back out of her muscles. Just a bad dream, and thankfully not the prophetic kind. Just a-
-a whimper.
Immediately, Thalia tensed back up.
Her bare feet landed on the floor with a muted thump. She scanned the darkness, one hand hovering over the opposite wrist, ready to activate her aegis if needed. There were a couple of plain daggers she kept close by, one under her pillow, the other tucked between mattress and bedframe, close and simple to grab if need be.
But she didn’t see a threat. Didn’t see any looming shape, over her bed or Percy’s-
Percy.
Percy whimpered.
And he did it again, before Thalia could get her head on straight. No monster, just- nightmares.
“Hey,” she whispered, creeping around the pool in the middle of Poseidon’s cabin, reaching to grab the seven year old curled into a ball on his bunk. “Hey, Percy, wake up.”
Her touch on his shoulder did the trick. Blonde curls bounced as the kid whipped his head up, eyes snapping open, “Mom-!”
Thalia swallowed.
After a beat, Percy seemed to recognize her. Recognized the cabin. Some of the panic faded from his face; grief took its place. “Oh. S-sorry.”
“S’okay,” Thalia told him, ignoring the thickness in her throat. “You- good?”
Percy hesitated. “...yeah...” He bit his lip, though, darting a look up at her, then a second at her side of the room, before ducking his head back down. “Um. Yeah. Sorry, again.”
Thalia’s turn to hesitate. But, hell. She’d already unlatched a bunch of locks, agreeing to protect the kid, going above and beyond what his dad asked. Might have even cracked open the door itself, taking Hera’s favor for Percy’s sake. May as well take one more step, and fling the stupid thing wide open.
“You wanna come to my bed with me?”
After a moment, Percy nodded.
“‘Kay. Grab your pillow, come on.” A bit of prodding, and then the kid followed her back through the shadows to Thalia’s hastily abandoned bunk. The sheets were still warm, at least, and Percy didn’t make too much of a fuss when he crawled in after her. A bit of shuffling later, and they both settled down, tucked in next to one another in the dark.
“...Thalia?”
“Mm?”
“Thanks.”
She resisted the urge to reach up and gently tug on his hair, same as she used to do with a much smaller toddler who’d also want to sleep in her bed after a bad dream. And then gave in and did it anyway; not like anyone else would see or call her on it. “Anytime, pipsqueak.”
Neither of them dreamed again that night.