The Hidden Follower

28.

"First thing," she said. "I—I have to get my dad home. I'm sorry, guys."

"Oh," Leo said. "I mean, absolutely. He needs you right now. We can take it from here."

"No matter how convincing that was, you really can go Piper, I know it's a hard choice who to be with but, I can tell your pretty good with those, do whatever you want to do, not what anyone else does." Delta said putting a hand on Pipers shoulder. Clearly Delta wasn't the only one with an opinion on the matter because Mr. McLean spoke up.

"Pipes, no." Her dad had been sitting in the helicopter doorway, a blanket around his shoulders. But he stumbled to his feet. "You have a mission. A quest. I can't—"

"I'll take care of him," said Coach Hedge.

Piper stared at him. The satyr was the last person she'd expected to offer. "You?" she asked.

"I'm a protector," Gleeson said. "That's my job, not fighting."

"Well technically fighting can be a form of protecting so, yeah part of you're job is fighting." Delta said.

  "Don't give him any ideas," Leo whispered back.

Hedge straightened, and set his jaw. "Of course, I'm good at fighting, too." He glared at them all, daring them to argue.

"Yes," Jason said.

"Terrifying," Leo agreed.

The coach grunted. "But I'm a protector, and I can do this. Your dad's right, Piper. You need to carry on with the quest."

"But ..." Piper's eyes stung, as if she were back in the forest fire. "Dad ..."

He held out his arms, and she hugged him. He felt frail. He was trembling so much, it scared her.

"Let's give them a minute," Jason said, and they took the pilot a few yards down the tarmac.

  "Hey coach, can I talk to you before you go?" Delta asked.

  The satyr nodded and walked with Delta to a secluded area. "What's wrong Ortiz? You look distressed."

  Delta took a deep breath, "About that, I needed someone to talk about everything from the past few days and you seem like the only one who I can tell right now."

  "I'm glad you trust me enough for this kid and I'm happy you're talking about your emotions with someone."

   "Okay, please stop acting all comforting, I don't need comfort, I need someone who can yell at me, got it?" Delta raised an eyebrow. "I know where Jason is from, I know everything about him that he doesn't including that he's Roman because I am too, then I found out that Leo was my brother, after that he let me go through his memories and I found out other mother died a few months after I left for the Roman camp, and that his memories have been altered so that he doesn't remember me, and I am this close to a mental break down so if you could just yell at me to snap out of it that would be nice."

"Alright kid, you just need to calm down, you're strong cupcake, remember that. Jason is most likely getting his memories back and we'll probably be involved with you're camp soon, that's one thing gone, as for Valdez's memory that's something you can't control, him being your brother? Also something you can't control, just breathe."

  "Thank you coach, not exactly what I asked for you to do but, it helped so thank you."

  As the Two walked back to Piper, Delta's breathing evened out and when she cleared her head of the thoughts spilling out of control, the only thought left was how was her boyfriend doing? When she last checked in Nico said he was getting bad again and would need her soon, Delta figured she could try to see him before the month was over.