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Kat heard Jacky’sthat had to do with "Christ on a cracker" and "no goddaone to hell, at least Jacky had coain She opened her eyes

"Hey," she croaked "I thought you watched your language when you were on duty"

I her pulse and wiping her face with a cool cloth

"Katrina, honey, are you back with?"

"Oh, thank the seeping baby Jesus, it is you" Jacky kissed her square on the lips "Don’t you ever, ever scare ain"

"Well, hell, Jacky It’s not like I asked those disgusting things to attack ers" Jacky held up three fingers like a baseball uers, just like Yoda By the by, if you don’t get ato resemble him even more closely" Kat batted weakly at her friend’s hand "Do I have to sleep with you to get so to drink?"

"Thankfully, no, because your breath is really nasty right now" Jacky turned to the side table and poured water from a pitcher into a cup, then helped Kat drink from it

"No wonder Man, I so feel like shit"

"Well, for a woman who’s been in a coly alive"

"Four days!" She gasped between long gulps of water

"Easy It’ll make you feel sick if you drink too much"

"I already feel sick"

"You’ll feel worse And you may puke"

She took one ave Jacky the cup and lay back on her pillow "Four days, Jacky? Why? Achilles’ ht she did"

"She did Or rather Thetis did what she could despite your ‘remarkably breakable human shell’ as Athena put it You had to do the rest of the recovery by yourself"

"Athena was here?"

"Yep All three of them have been Well, four actually, if you count Achilles’ mom, ith hi o"

"Huh I feel special"

Jacky rolled her eyes "You are special," Jacky used air quotes around the word "When we get home I’ll send the short bus for you"

"Hey wait If all of the goddesses were here why didn’t they just use their powers to zap me awake?"

"I did mention that And perhaps not in the nicest of tones"

"You? Being short and crabby with sooddesses"

"Nevertheless, apparently the bogey ic behind it The goddesses couldn’t negate all of it Your huht it off by your own darinned at her best friend

"Perhaps a little" She took Kat’s hand and squeezed it "I alad you didn’t die on me"

"Me too" Kat squeezed back "Sorry I scared you"

"That’s okay I’ve decided you owe orgeous pair of red patent leather stiletto pumps I’ve lusted after?"

"Yeah"

"I’"

"Jeesh, you are a mean nurse"

"Thank you Now tell me what the hell bit you"

"I have no clue One second I alking along the beach trying to find Achilles, the next I saw so in the water so I stopped to look Then this tentacle thing grabbed rabbed and stung again and again, which is when I pushed the panic button and yelled for Venus" Re between her breasts and shivered "Those things were seriously gross All undulating and rat-tail-like, and there were literally hundreds of the me"

Jacky’s face looked like she’d just eaten a leod! Rat-tail-like? That is so vile!"

"Yeah, and they were pulling igantic ed into the berserker and kicked ass Then his mom touched me and I passed out The end But didn’t Achilles tell you most of that already?"

"Uh, no Achilles has been Mr Big and Broody since he brought you back and has barely spoken tords to anyone Even Patroklos can’t talk to him Actually Patroklos has had a lot on his et Achilles to do rowl"

"Jacky, are youthe boy crazy?"

"No Patroklos and I are fine Better than fine It’s the battle he’s not fighting and stuff like that getting to hiht--Patroklos doesn’t fight, so I’esture "Anyway, ood, says Achilles is brooding because you saw hionna run shriekin’ froh sense to do that, which I tried to explain to hiht have been drinking heavily But whatever"

"Maybe you should go get him and I’ll explain to hiood idea," Jacky said Then she added "Kat, he did change into that berserker thing completely, didn’t he?"

"Yes," Kat said softly

"It ful"

Jacky didn’t phrase it like a question, but Kat nodded her head "It was absolutely awful It wasn’t him anymore Whatever it is that possesses him isn’t even human It can’t be"

"But he was hiht you back to camp," Jacky said

"Hiswith the water and it was like it washed the berserker away"

"Which you’re interpreting to ht?"

"Aren’t you always right?"

Jacky snorted "I’ll go get your grumpy-ass man" Before she left the tent she looked back at Kat "Promise you’ll be careful"

"Promise"

"You know I love you"

"You know I love you, too, Jacky"

Jacky h her worry as she ducked out of the tent