Oh look...my hand slipped. Here's another one for my fabulous BIRTHDAY. Enjoy!!

(Or not)

"Police Station. Now." Bianca said.

Luke looked sick like he might faint. Bianca couldn't pretend like she wasn't shaking either.

The sight of the beads...even though she'd never even had her own she knew what they meant. It meant Camp Half Blood. It meant Demigods.

It meant Ten thousand more problems on top of the bazillion they already had. Luke dropped the necklace chain on the ground like it was acid burning through his hand. The beads danced along the destructive mess left behind. Bianca swallowed hard picking up one. She would've gocked at the amazing detail if it hadn't been for the feeling of the Party Ponies rampaging over her grave.

"Who could it have been?" Luke asked, more to himself than her, "Oh gods."

"What did he take?" Bianca said, directing his thoughts, "A file? We have to report this."

Luke suddenly looked like he hadn't slept at all last night. Tired, worn eyes scanned the room accessing for any other possible danger.

He knelt where the intruder had been. Bianca swayed on her feet. Luke shuffled through the things on the floor, other papers, pictures, things that the demigod hadn't wanted.

"These..." Luke choked softly. He picked up one of the extra papers, "This is Ethan's stuff. His research..."

"What would a demigod want with that?" Bianca asked, but she wished she hadn't. The paper shook in Luke's nervous hands. His blue eyes were clouded with dark thoughts.

Bianca strained her thoughts not to follow his. She didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to think about The mess around her, or the intruder that had just broken out. She didn't want to think that maybe there was a demigod who know they were alive. She didn't want to think that the mythological world had anything to do with her friend's disappearance. She didn't even want to think about Ethan.

Every breath felt like a gun shot to her heart. His name bounced around her head quick and fast and heavy. Slamming on her temples, and screaming in her brain. Ethan. Bianca wanted to blame his absence for the reason he was constantly on her mind.

But that wasn't it.

Even if he'd been right there next to her rolling his eyes, and saying something that wasn't book appropriate about the thief, then Bianca was sure her brain would still be singing his name.

It didn't feel right without him here. The three of them were were friends, best friends. They were bound together by the Fates themselves.

So why the Hades is he not here now?

"The police." Bianca whispered, "We have to report this. It could be a clue or something, right?"

Luke frowned even more. His eyes roaming the sheet in front of him, he sighed tiredly. He put the paper back down, and grabbed a crumpled shirt from a pile of rubble.

"We better get dressed," was all Luke said.

***

"So, you're telling me a hooded guy broke into your apartment, after it had already been ransacked and stole a couple papers?" The officer leaned back in his chair, "don't you think that's a bit..." He grappled for a non offensive adjective, but when he saw Luke's face he just let it hang.

Bianca was sitting awkwardly in a leather chair while Luke was leaning against a support beam. Their case was taken on by one of the best agents in the state, though you wouldn't know it by looking.

He was about a decade older than both of them, with black hair soaked in gooey hair gel that he could drown fish in. He grinned at them with a know-it-all expression. He introduced himself as Detective Tommy Parker, without looking away from Bianca's chest.

Since then, it had only gotten worse, believe it or not.

They were standing in the middle of a missing persons, two attempted murders, a break in, and thievery, but the detective was insistent that there was nothing to worry about.

"Look, kids, you've got nothing to be worried about. Your friend probably just wandered off in the city. Happens all the time."

That was all it took to push Luke over the edge.

"What the Hades if your problem!" He yelled. The office went quiet. The other detectives and law enforcement paused to look at Luke's livid features. Even though he wasn't wearing the uniform, a couple of his police buddies had recognized them on the way in and offered their condolences. Those same guys, Bianca noticed were standing around another detective's desk grinning and nudging each other like they were taking bets.

"How the Hades did you get to be a detective?" Luke's voice echoed in the room, "I got freaking shot at, Parker! And you want to tell me there's nothing to worry about? Someone called using Ethan's phone and threatened our lives! There is a man laying in the hospital on his deathbed because of this and you want to call it all nothing!"

Detective Parker scowled, "I was trying to save your lady friend a bit of heartbreak, Castellan. I hate setting beautiful woman cry."

Bianca want quite sure what happened next. She remembered getting up and lunging. But then she was being dragged away by Luke. She was secretly glad Nico wasn't around because the things coming out of her mouth weren't something she ever wanted him to hear.

She wasn't sure why she was so angry, though she had multiple reasons. The guy was a creep, he was being frustratingly unhelpful, and his eyes kept drifting back to her front when he looked at her. But that wasn't why she lunged. She could deal with that stuff like that having been a Hunter of Artemis and everything.

"I was trying to save your lady friend a bit of heartbreak..."

He hasn't stepped a got out of this stupid office, and he was already trying to tell them Ethan was...gone.

Detective Parker was slowly getting off the floor. His look was murderous towards her. His gelled hair was a gelled mess and he was sporting a dark red area sound his eye. Everyone in the building looked to be in shock.

"Nice hit." Luke whispered, "but he's still an active officer. He's gonna arrest you, B."

Tommy Parker reached for his handcuffs just like Luke had predicted. No one else moved to help or hinder them. It was like Luke and Bianca and this egotistical idiot were in their own time bubble where things were going very bad, very fast. "You little b-"

"Parker!"

The voice cut through their bubble of space. The detective went rigid immediately, like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Bianca looked past Luke's shoulder at the newcomer that could scare such a high ranking officer.

It was a familiar looking girl, wearing a business suit. She seemed to be uncountable and kept readjusting the buttons on her front. A leather bracelet, that would've totally given the Aphrodite girls at camp heart attacks, hung around her wrist. She looked very familiar for some reason. Bianca was sure they'd met somewhere before.

The girl's voice rang with authority and everyone seemed to respect her, though she couldn't have been older than Bianca our Luke themselves.

"What the Hell do you think you're doing?" She asked.

Detective Parker struggled for words, "Arresting this woman, ma'am. She punched me."

"I can see that. But knowing you she probably had a good reason to." The girl rolled her eyes, "this is the Nakamura case, isn't it? It's a missing persons case, Parker, not a missing container of hair gel. Though I'm sure we've already found a culprit for that one."

Despite herself Bianca smiled slightly. Luke snorted, covering his laugh with a fake cough.

The girl want finished yet though, "I want you off this case, now."

"Bu-bu-but-"

"Now, please, Mr. Parker," She said, "if you could go make some coffee as well. The Lieutenant likes it when tracking down people."

Detective Parker hesitated for only a second more and then he trudged past Luke knocking him roughly to the side, and kept going. Bianca let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Everyone started back to what they had been doing before hand. The girl smiled at them brightly, holding a hand out to Luke.

"Jasmine," She said. "You can call me, Jaz. Sorry about all that. Parker's a jerk and an idiot. You're Luke Castellan right? And Bianca Di Angelo?"

Luke tensed nervously, but if she noticed Jaz didn't say anything. "How'd you know?" He asked.

"Guessed." She didn't offer an explanation, "Don't worry about your case. We've got the best of the best coming right now. She should be here any second--"

The elevator at the end of the hall ringed loudly, and out stepped someone impossible. Luke turned pale, his knees going weak. Bianca's breath caught and she wasn't sure what emotion filled her first: relief or happiness.

"Thee trusted a male to do such a job?" Zoë Nightshade sniffed distastefully, "What idiots."