the great wave | percy jackson

𝑥𝑥𝑥 - jason

Things were looking up, Jason thought. He was standing side-by-side with Ash, watching Leo descend into full-blown Creative Mode with his siblings while Piper, Annabeth, and some other senior counselors interested in helping gathered around. He looked over to see Ash already smiling angelically at him; shoving the now-familiar but very faint flutter in his chest aside, he smiled back. She opened her mouth to say something when all of a sudden her eyes went far, far, away, vacating so noticeably he immediately knew something was wrong. "Ash?" he asked, and then her eyes rolled completely back in her head and she started full-body shaking like a leaf, knees buckling so swiftly he only just managed to catch her before she came crashing down to the floor.

Immediate panic ensued. Chiron was yelling for order as campers freaked out seeing one of their leaders felled seemingly in an instant. Their friends pushed to where Jason knelt from various places around the table, hollering to 'give her space!' Jason was trembling as he held the girl's torso in his lap, but not as much as she was, because as he looked around frantically for anyone remotely helpful in the limited group in attendance Ash started to convulse, thrashing violently in his arms and muttering incomprehensibly under her breath. He heard someone call for Will Solace and mentally screamed at the son of Apollo to come faster, because if someone didn't do something now Jason was afraid he was going to start crying and oh gods his throat already felt tight and–

He was utterly shocked when a daughter of Aphrodite was first to drop to her knees next to them. With uncharacteristic gravity and an unexpectedly worried look, Drew Tanaka leaned her head down to Ash's, measuring her breathing, trying to decipher her words, whispering little commands of "breathe" and "calm down" that slowly brought Ash's jerky movements down from seizure-level to maybe like, bad-dream-level. By that time Annabeth, Piper, and Leo had come to crouch beside them, surrounding the pair in a protective sort of ring and gazing worriedly down at the unconscious girl in his arms.

Although less aggressive now, whatever was happening to Ash wasn't getting better. Rather worse, actually. Jason felt the tips of his fingers growing numb, pure exhaustion seeping into his bones as a dark energy poured off her, and he could tell the others felt it too by the way the now-hushed ring of demigods around them widened considerably. But he didn't let go, no. She had brought him back from the dead. He wasn't going to leave her now.

"What's wrong with her?" Jason's voice was shaking, and Drew looked up with a frown on her face. Ash's words were a little more intelligible now, but he still couldn't make sense of them; it sounded like she was saying "bodo bodo" over and over again.

"She's... she's asking where her father is," Drew said, voice filled with concern. "Something's really wrong. Chiron?" The Japanese girl called. "I think she needs Nico."

"Nico?" Jason echoed. The name struck a chord deep, deep inside him, his stomach flooding with unease, nearly drowning out his worry for Ash, nearly. But he stubbornly ignored his building headache and focused all his energy on her instead.

"Her brother," Drew explained as the centaur came to lean over them. "He'll know what to do."

"What's happening to her, Chiron?" Annabeth's voice was no louder than a whisper, but so heartbreakingly desperate Jason's chest tightened. He felt something wet on his cheek as well as Piper's burning kaleidoscopic gaze as he quickly rubbed his eyes and looked to the man with all the answers.

But then his heart dropped straight into his fucking shoes. Chiron's face was grey, aghast. "I–I don't know."

Annabeth let out a strangled noise, hand clasping onto Piper's, intertwining their fingers as Jason looked down at Ash in absolute horror. Her aura was practically sickening by now, and she was still shaking terribly. He wanted so badly to do something for her when she turned and wrapped her arms around his waist, tears beginning to seep from behind closed eyelids, crying into his shirt from whatever nightmare state she was in.