"I'm completely in love
with you and you haven't
even realised but I'm totally
fine with the crippling
knowledge that you don't like
me back. That's fine, I'm fine.
Totally fine."
[ LEO VALDEZ x FEMALE OC ]
[ HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES...
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0012. | WHAT IF SHE MISSED HIM ALREADY?
The four left towards the presidential library which turned out to be the Carter Centre - Nadia pretended to know what that meant but really she had no clue - and they asked the staff for directions. One of the librarians, Esther, was really nice and insisted on personally driving them around Atlanta.
Coach Hedge took the shot gun seat and Nadia was squished between Percy and Frank in the backseats of Esther's Cadillac. Nadia had wanted the window seat but she was the buffer so Percy and Frank weren't squished together.
Nadia was glad Percy had invited her on the mini-quest. Being away from the ship gave her time to think and to calm down. She ignored Esther's ramblings of Atlanta facts, and instead thought on Nico. She felt awful knowing that he was hurt and there was nothing she could do, but she felt even angrier with how Leo and Jason had reacted. If Thalia had been endangered, Nadia would do absolutely everything to help Jason and still he hadn't returned the favour and was against saving Nico.
She tried to draw the same comparison for Leo, but she was struggling to think of someone who Leo would go nuts over if they were in danger, but then she realised the problem. It was her. She was the only person Leo would go crazy over to save (of course Jason and Piper too). And by trying to help Nico, she'd be putting herself in danger and that was what Leo was worried about.
At the realisation Nadia felt her anger dissipate into guilt. Guilt for not seeing his reasoning, but also guilt for not telling him the real reason for her desperation to save Nico. Her cousin knew of her prophecy, and he had theorised a way to help her fight it. If she didn't get Nico back, then... Scarlet's Daughter will succumb.
She shivered. Frank noticed and gave her a friendly smile that she used to excuse herself from her thoughts. She focussed back onto the conversation happening in the car. Esther was still listing her Atlanta facts so Percy decided to test her.
"Uh, so, Esther," he said. "here's a hard question for you. Salt water in Atlanta. What's the first thing that comes to mind?"
Nadia met Frank's eyes and she could tell he was trying not to laugh too. "Whale sharks?" Frank asked. "You have those in Atlanta?"
"At the aquarium, sugar." Esther told him. Nadia crinkled her brows in thought. "Very famous! Right downtown. Is that where you wanted to go?"
Nadia looked to Percy for instructions. It was almost instinctive to look to him as a leader. Nadia felt that same way with Jason and Nico. She figured it must have been a thing about being a child of one of the Big Three - they were just natural leaders.
