Goodnight Moon ↣ P. Jackson + A. Chase

1.14

There are fingers in her hair gently brushing through it, carding their way through knotted strands released from a braid that kept it from her face. The touch was soft, gentle and warm, and Kassandra could've stayed like that forever. 

But there were noises around her, the sounds of people trying to be quiet and a heavyweight over her stomach. The murmurs were clear, or partially so, as she kept hearing the pick of a song and the repetition of her father's names over her that made her shift uncomfortably. 

She meets grey eyes that peer down at her as she squints, watery as she continues to speak over and over her prayer. Had Kassandra been a normal person, she wouldn't have heard a thing, however, the plea to her father made her uncomfortable enough to tense, her side stretching painfully as she tries to sit up a little.

The pain is enough to remind her that she was stabbed. By Chris Rodriguez. And then passed out on the yacht like a baby. 

She whines, the sound a mixture of pain and embarrassment as she falls back the inch that she had managed to move, but it brings a flurry of movement around her. 

Annabeth's head jerks up, calling for Chiron, as her head is moved from her lap and she can see light blue eyes glaring down at her. Ah yes, her siblings. 

Kassandra avoids looking at Lee as she takes in everything else. It was like the entire camp was crowded around the crumbling barrier and dying tree -- where she happened to be lying prone at the base of, sad pines needles scattered around her. 

The golden fleece was draped over her, bunched up near her side where she had been run through, and Kassandra hissed as she shoved at it in a rush, pushing it away from her. 

"Stop. Stop, it, Kass," Lee orders, firmly grabbing her hands to prevent her from moving. "Just lay still so that we can move you to the infirmary." 

Taking a moment to look at her brother, she could trace the dark bruises under his eye, the exhaustion in his features. She had known that they were working around the clock to heal the camp, draining themselves to try and keep everyone as fighting ready that they could. As their head councillor and oldest of them, Lee would likely try to take on the most responsibilities to save the others from it. 

"The tree," she chokes out, grounding it out around the pain in her side. "Get the stupid fleece to the tree." 

"No. No, way," he says, grip on her arms growing stronger. "You came in here practically dead. You let it heal you." 

Her head falls back, blinking at the brown pine needles above her. "I did not get dragged into all that to get the fleece just to have the tree die in front of me," She said. "I feel fi- I can make it to the infirmary just fine." 

Lee doesn't look convinced, even as Chiron sends a couple of Hephaestus campers forward with the stretched to carry her, bringing her to roll her eyes skyward at the dramatics. She couldn't been carried, honestly. 

Still, she managed to watch as the fleece was placed over the lowest bough by Clarisse. This time, the tears in her eyes weren't from the pain as the pines gradually turned from brown to green and she got to see her friend get hoisted up onto the shoulders of her siblings as they cheered and carried her to the amphitheatre. 

She laid back, eyes closed as she tried to force away the tears because she knew that once she started, she wasn't going to be able to stop. 

The infirmary was a bit of a mess in an organized sort of way, a disarray of healing supplies. The beds were empty, but they looked as if they were recently in use. The one that she was laid on was clean and fresh compared to the others, the most comfortable of the lot, she knew, and attributed it to her siblings and their worries.