You'll Learn to Love Me

Chapter 62: Missing

When Laylana unfroze, she felt her heart racing. She gasped for air and sat up quickly, Jason next to her on the deck of the ship. It was much warmer now, but the layer of frost on Laylana's skin still kept her cold. 

"Where's Leo?" She breathed, stumbling to her feet as the others raced up on deck. 

"Lana," Jason stood as well, slightly shaky. 

"Where is he?" Laylana cried out louder, her friends turning to her as Piper ran to her side. The look on Piper's face showed a sense of regret, maybe guilt... "No... no please." 

"Lana, look at me." Piper cupped one of her cheeks, only for Laylana to pull away just as quick.

"Piper please... don't tell me. Please don't tell me he's gone." 

It went silent. Part of the crew was scared Laylana would have another outburst like she did when Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus. Which was exactly what was happening as darkness began to creep up Laylana's arms and legs. 

"Laylana, you need to calm down." Nico was suddenly at her side as her legs began to shake. He planted his hands on her shoulders and forced her to look at him as the sky began to darken.

"Not again, please not again." Laylana buried her face in her hands and let out a sob. Jason, Piper and Nico quickly helped her along the deck and past the rest of the crew, down the stairs towards her cabin. 

Piper quickly shut the door behind them as Jason and Nico helped Laylana to her bed, letting her sit down. Jason was quick to pull her into a tight embrace, her burying her face in his chest as she sobbed. Nico rubbed circles on her back while Piper knelt in front of her with her hands on her friend's knees, whispering words to help her calm down. She felt awful putting some charmspeak into them, but it was needed right now. 

"Deep breaths, Lana." Jason whispered. 

"Why does this keep happening?" Laylana cried. "First Percy and Annabeth, now Leo..."

"I know, I know." Jason looked over at Piper and Nico. "We'll get them back. All of them." 

"He's not dead, Laylana." Nico reassured her. "I would feel it. And I will tell you if I do."

"But for now, you need to calm down. Your shadows..." Piper trailed off. Laylana still had wisps of darkness floating around her along with the shadows wounding up her arms.

"I'm sorry," Laylana started to calm down. She still had tears falling, but she wasn't sobbing as heavily anymore. 

"You're okay." Piper gripped one of her hands. "We're here for you. We'll stay until you're okay but..." 

"We might need you." Jason finished. "The ship was kind of roughed up." 

"How bad?" Laylana asked. She hadn't had much of a chance to look as she was immediately searching for her boyfriend. 

"We didn't have time to look at everything," Nico explained. "But Hedge, Frank and Hazel are taking a damage report." 

"And you can talk to Festus, right?" Piper added. 

"I mean, I could try. I'm not perfectly fluent in morse code." Laylana sighed. "I just need a bit. I can't..."

Her voice cracked again. Piper and Jason glanced at each other as Jason stroked her hair lightly, something that he had seen Leo do a few times with Laylana to help calm her down. 

"It's okay." Piper reassured her. "It'll be okay." 

Laylana eventually passed out from exhaustion in Jason's arms, having cried so much at losing some of the most important people in her life. She continued to cry until her tiredness hit her hard. Jason was careful to lay her down as Piper covered her with a blanket.