Sveta cautiously walked into the room where she had placed the unconscious boy in. The boy was still knocked out, in the same exact position she had placed him in earlier in the day. She smiled sadly at him before taking her place in the same chair that other people had sat in while watching over the boy in case he woke up.

Lightning flashed through the sky, followed by a loud, deep rumble of thunder, causing her to cringe. She kept an anxious eye on the boy in hopes that he would wake up. 

Zeus must be angry again, the girl couldn't help but think to herself.

She sighed and leaned back against her chair. Through the flashes of lightning, the girl could see the boy a bit more clearly. She frowned and sat up more when she noticed that his face looked a bit flushed, as though he was having a fever. His breathing seemed to have quickened, and he had a pained look on his face. He whimpered slightly, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. 

She frowned. Carefully, she brushed back his bangs and placed a gentle hand on his forehead. Her eyes went wide when she noticed how warm his skin felt against the back of her hand. She quickly got up and made her way to the infirmary's kitchenette. She searched through the cabinet and found a washcloth. She ran water in the sink before dampening the washcloth. The girl walked back over towards the boy and carefully placed the washcloth on his forehead to help ease the fever.

Nothing much happened during the next couple of hours, until she noticed him beginning to shift, as though waking up. She felt relieved, until she noticed his head lolling sharply to the side. His breathing became short and uneven. He clenched his fists. His body twitched and he whimpered.

Sveta leapt to her feet and her demigod senses immediately went into action. She removed the damp washcloth and put a gentle hand on the boy's forehead, and the other hand in his. It took awhile for the unconscious boy to wake up.

But in the end, she finally got him awake. The boy's eyes trailed on to the girl's face. Her face seemed fuzzy to him. But he could distinctly make out the features of a slim body, blue eyes, and wavy blonde hair.

"Hey," he distinctly heard her say softly. He thought that her voice sounded sweet and reassuring. Her touch felt comforting to him. "It's okay. You're safe."

The boy wanted to sit up. He moved his hands and Svetlana let them go. He tried sitting up on his own, only to feel a white-hot flash of pain shoot through his entire body. The feeling made him cry out and fall onto the mattress again. After a couple of more failed tries, she came in and came to his aid. She struggled to get him in the position that he wanted.

 In the end, he only managed to rest his head against the girl's shoulder, panting heavily and trembling quite badly. She could feel the heat of the fever from the boy's body. Frowning, she placed a gentle hand on the boy's forehead. Her eyes widened as she realized that she couldn't help him on her own. She needed help. Keeping a firm, gentle hand on the boy's forehead, she called frantically for help. 

"Healers?! I need Healers, please!" To the whimpering, panting boy she added quietly, "It'll be okay. I just called for help." 

Shortly after Sveta's plea for help, another sleepy-looking Healer came around with a tray of whatever the boy needed to help heal his injuries and fever. She distracted the boy from the pain by rocking his body back and forth, giving him slow sips of nectar from a straw, and humming soft, comforting tunes to him in hopes to calm him down.

Shortly after the boy had received his treatments and finished the goblet of nectar, he could feel the pain slowly leaving his body. He managed to relax, still leaning against the girl's shoulder. He still trembled, but not as badly as earlier. He finally went unconscious once more. And, for some reason, he felt oddly safe in the girl's presence. 

He felt. . . . protected. He felt warm, in a good way. When Sveta realized that the boy had finally fallen asleep (on her shoulder) once again, she carefully lifted his head off her shoulder, and gently laid his head back on the pillow, allowing him to sleep peacefully once more. She prayed and hoped that the boy would sleep peacefully through the rest of the night and won't be able to remember a thing when he woke up.

***

Sveta hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep with her head on the mattress, until her shoulder was shaken by her friend, Grover Underwood. She winced. The stiffness in her neck was visibly noticeable. Once she got her neck situated, she turned and noticed Grover standing there, looking oddly alert. She was not happy that she had been woken up so suddenly.

"What?" she asked flatly. She was tired of being woken up from her sleep for the past couple of times. Why couldn't anyone leave her to rest? Even children of Apollo had to get their beauty rest, as well.

"Wow. What a wonderful morning greeting," he answered sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Anyways, I know that you've been up the entire night looking after Percy —"

"Who?" Sveta interrupted, confused. The morning fog in her brain was still present.

Again, Grover rolled his eyes.

"Percy. The boy sleeping on the bed. The one you've been looking over half of the night. As I've been saying, Chiron just told me that you've been looking after Percy all night. I figured that it'll be my turn and I'll take over for you."

She smiled slightly at Grover before turning her attention to the sleeping boy, Percy. She didn't know what kind of feeling it was, but she could feel some sort of strong connection between the two of them. A warm feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. She felt like she didn't want to leave his side. Not yet, anyways.

"I'll stay with you, Grover," she finally answered. "Besides. I think that he needs me."

Grover gave her a quizzical look.

"What is that supposed to mean? Sveta, you barely even know Percy."

"I know that, Grover." She brushed his comment off. "But I feel like Percy and I have a strange. . . . connection, I guess."

Grover continued to stare at her quizzically but didn't say anything. Instead, he nodded, and grabbed a chair before sitting down in it. It was late afternoon when the boy finally woke up. He no longer felt like pain was shooting through his entire body. But, to be sure, he carefully turned his head and saw a girl and Grover sitting to his left.

"Hey," said Grover kindly. "It's okay. You're safe here."

Percy didn't say anything. His eyes finally settled on the desk a little ways from him and he saw the broken Minotaur horn. A lump formed in his throat as the memories of losing his mother and fighting the monster came flooding back.

"It really happened, then?" he finally asked, his voice choked.

"It's not every day a demigod gets to kill a Minotaur," Grover answered at once. "So, of course, I had to tell the whole Camp about it —"

"Did you see what happened? Did you see what happened to my mom?"

He sounded so helpless and looked so heartbroken, that it broke Sveta's own heart to hear him sound like that. She glanced over at Grover, who had hung his head, as though in shame.

"Yeah. Yes, I did."

Percy turned away, trying to ignore the tears blurring his vision. She thought that she could see him wiping his tear away as Grover kept insisting that he wanted to talk about what happened. But she didn't blame Percy for not wanting to talk about what had happened. Finally, Percy sat up and slid out of bed.

"Where are you going?" Grover finally asked.

"The whole point of getting me here safely was because my father's a god. So I'm going to go find him," Percy answered flatly.

"But it really isn't all that —" Grover began, but Percy slammed the door behind them, causing Sveta to flinch "— simple."

"Is he usually this moody?" she finally asked after a moment of silence.

Grover paused for a moment.

"Not really. But he just lost his mother. So you can't really expect him to be cheerful after that, would you?"

She hung her head, feeling more guilty for Percy by the moment, even though she knew that none of this was her fault. Grover got to his feet.

"We should probably get to Percy before he does or says anything rash," he suggested.

She nodded, silently agreeing with Grover. She got up and followed Grover to the one place where Percy would ask for help.