ENTRAPPED ₂

100

AFTER PERCY, LEO, HAZEL, AND FRANK LEFT, MADELEINE REMAINED IN THE MESS HALL ALONE, EATING TOAST. She ate a lot of toast. She really liked toast, especially now that she had been back from Tartarus. Toast was basically a godly food.

After some time, Piper entered the mess hall. She surveyed Madeleine, who was chomping on her third piece of toast, then said, "Jason wants to talk to you."

"Me?" Madeleine verified, wiping a smear of raspberry jam from her face.

Piper smiled. "Unless there's another Madeleine on this ship. I can look if you'd like."

"Very funny," Madeleine said. Drew and Piper were both very sarcastic, but while Drew's sarcasm was meaner, Piper's was more indulgent. Madeleine preferred Drew, because although she trusted Piper enough, the girl was like a multilayered puzzle, impossible to figure out.

So Madeleine finished her toast and made her way to Jason's cabin. He had refused to lay in the sickbay, so he had spent the majority of time since his stab wound cooped up in his cabin, having his meals delivered to him. Madeleine figured he hated it. She would hate it, if she were him.

"Hello, Jason," Madeleine said, letting herself in. "Piper sent me."

Jason was laying fully clothed on top of his sheets, staring blankly at the ceiling. He looked borderline dead, which almost made Madeleine flinch. He looked like Luke again.

"Please speak," she told him. "You look like my dead brother at the moment. It's kind of freaking me out."

Jason shifted a little, wincing. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault. Maybe you should dye your hair." She sat on the edge of his bed, careful not to jostle him. "I'm not a very kind nurse, so if you're looking for that, you should get Piper back in here."

"I'm not looking for that." Jason tried to smile, but it seemed like more of a grimace. He attempted to sit up, but his face turned a pale shade of green, and he hunched back down onto his bed. "You got stabbed once, right?"

In an effort to steer the subject away from the stabbing she knew he was talking about, she told him, "I've been stabbed many a time. I'm a very special girl."

Jason actually smiled this time. "You know what I'm talking about, Madeleine."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You never want to talk about anything. Don't you get tired of it?"

Madeleine snorted. "You're one to talk. I don't need a therapist, Jason. I'm perfectly fine."

"Really?" Jason asked, studying her. "Because you don't look very fine. You look as bad as I feel, actually. You're pale―"

"Jason―"

"I dreamed of you, you know. When you were in Tartarus. I know it was real."

"Jason, shut up."

"You told me you were tired."

"Be quiet."

"You can't charmspeak me into shutting my mouth, Madeleine." He almost smiled. "And I know what kind of tired you were talking about. The kind of tired―"

"Jason." Madeleine got to her feet in a rush. "I'm serious. You just got fucking turned into a shish kebab, you asshole. Don't pretend like you need to carry my problems on top of your own. If you're going to try to psycho analyze me, then I'm getting the fuck out of here and I'm not talking to you until Gaea kills us all, okay? Knock it off. I don't even like you."

"Yeah, you do." Jason was smiling now. Then, at once, his entire face crumbled. "Madeleine, I think I'm going to die."

For a moment, the words hovered in the air between them. Then Madeleine said, "Jason―"