FicWad

DISCLAIMER:
I hereby declare that the characters and locations described in this story are the intellectual property of (among other companies) Studio B. By submitting this work, I do not own nor claim to own the rights to Class of the Titans, the episode "See You at the Crossroads" or anything furthermore mentioned in this work of fiction.
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While Jay unfolded the blanket, Herry made his way down the stairs.

"Theresa decided to take a nap?" he asked in confusion.

"Welcome back," Odie responded. "No, she's temporarily lost consciousness. Athena's trying to figure out why."

"Oh," the burly teen frowned in concern.

Making his way over to the foot of the bed, Herry stood beside Neil and watched as Jay began covering Theresa's body with the woolly comforter, pulling the blanket all the way up to the girl's slender shoulders. Meanwhile, Athena ensured that Theresa's feet were not exposed.

The task completed, the goddess observed Theresa for another moment before finally turning to the group to speak. "How much magic has she used today?"

As Neil returned the golden hand mirror to his pocket, the rest of the group exchanged worried glances. After a moment's thought, Archie gave an answer. "A lot," he replied. "Persephone was training her all day."

"Yeah," an anxious Herry chimed in from the foot of the bed. "You should have seen her," he exclaimed with waving arms. "She was floating and everything!"

"And she used a whole lot more magic when she was fighting Hecate." Atlanta added. "Spells, and stuff, you know?"

Athena considered this information before nodded solemnly. "That probably explains it. Her body isn't used to such stress. It's quite wearing to use magic, you know."

"Of course!" Odie announced with a snap of his fingers. "Just look at what happened to Ms. Persephone when she was fighting the owl in her Solarium. Herry," he continued, pointing at the muscular teen, "you had to catch her because she almost collapsed. And if a goddess was having a difficult time..."

"Uh, guys," Neil cut in with a raised hand. "May I remind you all that I also used the torches and also used magic? I'm not going to faint now too, am I?"

Placing a hand on his forehead to check his temperature, he grabbing onto Herry's forearm for support. "Come to think of it, I'm not feeling so great right now," the blonde pouted.

Herry sighed and rolled his eyes at his friend, while the rest of the team stared in annoyance.

"Gimme a break, Neil. That's not even funny," Atlanta shot. "Sure you used the torches, but it was just for a second and probably just your dumb luck again. Theresa had to use actual skill all that time."

"Well," Neil glared as he crossed his arms haughtily, "if you call getting captured by a witch 'skill'. And I seem to recall you being pretty amazing by my wonderful self when I used my dumb luck to get Theresa outta that magical rope..."

"Knock it off, Neil!" their leader snapped.

Surprised, the room went silent at Jay's sudden outburst. Sighing in exhaustion, he closed his eyes for a moment and brought a hand through his hair before letting it flop back to his side.
His heart was still beating rapidly. Looking over at Athena, Jay stared at her in all-seriousness. "So we know why Theresa passed out. Should I call Chiron?"

"No, that won't be necessary. You've already done all you could," Athena shrugged. "Theresa's just worn out, it's as simple as that. She'll be fine, though. She just needs to rest."

Forgetting her annoyance at Neil, Atlanta let out a sigh of relief. "Well that's good."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

"And speaking of resting," Athena continued as she rose from the bed, "I think you all should get some sleep now. It's been a long day."

Stretching his arms, Odie let out a yawn. "I'm going to have to agree." Stepping towards his computer, Odie glanced at the time displayed in the desktop toolbar. "It's past 2 a.m."

"Well, Jay," Herry began, "if Theresa's going to be ok, then I'm gonna head to bed. Want me to carry her to her room?"

But Jay didn't respond. Instead, he stared down at the sleeping girl in front of him, completely lost in thought.

"Yoo-hoo, earth to Jay," Neil teased, while Archie gave their leader a small kick on the foot with his good leg.

Jay's head snapped up in surprise. "Huh? What?" he asked, turned to the purple-haired teen.

Archie looked up at his friend and raised an eyebrow. "Geez, Jay," he quipped, "whatcha do? Get lost in space or something? It's late. Herry wants to know if he should carry Theresa up to bed."

"Uh...yeah," the descendant of Jason replied. "Yeah, we should probably do that."

Atlanta and Archie exchanged bemused looks, but didn't offer any more comment on Jay's strange behaviour. Instead, they said their goodnights to the rest of the ground and headed for the stairs.

"You need help?" Atlanta teased, motioning to Archie's bandaged ankle.

Hoping that his small blush wouldn't be noticeable, the teen defiantly raised his chin. "Naw, I can manage just fine, thanks."

As Neil followed the pair up the basement stairs, Jay removed the blanket covering Theresa and felt her forearm. Satisfied that her skin no longer felt clammy or cold, he loosely draped the blanket over his arm as Herry bent over to pick her up off Odie's bed.

"Be careful, Herry!" Jay cautioned as the muscular teen raised Theresa into his arms. "Watch her head!"

"Relax, I've got her," came the chuckled response.

Biding Odie an uneasy good night, Jay picked up the two pillows and was about to follow Herry towards the stairs when Athena rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax," she said, looking into his eyes. "She's going to be alright."

Embarrassed, Jay avoided her gaze and focused on the pillows in his arms. "I know," he mumbled in reply. "But I...." he stopped and squeezed his eyes shut.

"What?" Athena coaxed softly.

"I just..." Jay sighed, debating on whether to continue, "...feel bad. For her."

Truth be told, Jay was feeling a great deal more than just 'bad' for Theresa's current predicament. A mixture of many different feelings, some he could pinpoint, some he could not, had been slowly building inside him since she had passed out in his arms. At that moment, his head was swirling in thought while his heart throbbed with a painful ache.

But he couldn't tell Athena that.

Luckily, the goddess seemed satisfied with his answer and giving a small nod of understanding, released her hand from his shoulder. Shooting her a quick, half-hearted smile, Jay quickly followed Herry up the stairs.

Eyes twinkling, Odie confidently folded his arms across his chest. "Huh," he smirked when Jay disappeared from view. "He's really falling for her."

"No kidding," Athena replied.

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Sorry for taking so long to post, everyone! School's been pretty hectic, and blah blah blah. For the next (and hopefully final) chapter, Jay will be having a very important conversation with a certain someone. I can't wait to write this!

Until next time. Enjoy.