It was all Luke could do not to flop onto the floor like a fish out of water.

"Zoë!"

Bianca rushed her grabbing her in a hug that was well returned. It was one of those girl hugs where they squeeze hard enough to choke the soul out of each other but somehow don't explode. Luke didn't understand it. All the more reason not to hug girls.

Unless it was Thalia. Luke would hug Thalia that hard.

Zoë pulled from the embrace grinning happily. She didn't look the same as when Luke last saw her, no silver glowing aura or combat boots. Instead she wore a white blouse and jeans. Her dark hair was pulled back in a normal braid.

She looked as ordinary as Luke and Bianca and Ethan.

"Zoë, I-I-" Luke swallowed hard taking a step away from her and looking down.

Zoë looked at him suddenly less happy. She pursed her lips.

"Luke," She acknowledged, then went back to grinning at Bianca. Luke wasn't sure if he should be thrilled she hadn't tried to kill him or insulted. He had basically orchestrated her death, even if his hand hadn't struck the final blow. He could totally understand her hating him.

He imagined that she had a pretty good thing going with Artemis and being partially immortal. Much like Bianca had.

Zoe waved her hand at the still quiet offices, "You have jobs, do you not?" Everyone hurried to pretend like they hadn't been watching them. If Luke hadn't been so nervous he might have found it funny, seeing his laid back co-workers suddenly in a hurry to finish reports and file new cases. Even that Jaz girl had disappeared into the maze of desks and official papers.

"It's so great to see you again!" Bianca cheered, "You've even been working on your modern English!"

"And you have been working on your right hook!" Zoe accepted a cup of coffee from Detective Parker and then immediately sent him to do something else trivial. She motioned for the two of them to follow her to the back into a more private office quarters that Luke new were reserved for high end cases that had a lot at stake (it annoyed him to no end that they hadn't been brought there in the first place).

Everyone seemed to give Zoe a wide berth, Luke saw at least four people make eye contract then swing around to go an entirely different direction.

Against his better judgement, Luke finally blurted out the question that had been tugging at him, "How long have you been here?"

Zoe looked back at him, a decidedly evil grin on her features, "Two days."

Of course. Luke was gone for two days and this is what happens. He made a mental note to stop pulling all-nighters and having best his friends get kidnapped. Zoe lead Bianca and him into a room and closed the door behind them. Her smile fade when she turned back around and the air seemed to tense. The seriousness of the situation came flying back and even Bianca allowed herself to look distraught.

"Now tell me everything." Zoe said, sitting down at the desk, "From the beginning don't leave out a detail."

Luke and Bianca shared a look and then he started talking.

***

When Luke had woken up first in the living world he found a piece of paper in his pocket. It had a simple address on it written in green pen. In his other pocket he found a house key and a wallet with his ID and a couple credit cards and a bunch of crumpled ones. He had been standing in the middle of a park.

Not having any better clue what to do he searched for the address, which ended up being an apartment building. When he reached the door he hesitated. He tentatively knocked on the wooden door but it just echoed. It didn't seem like anyone was home. Then he pulled out the key again from his pocket and inserted it in the deadbolt, slightly surprised that it actually fit.

He had entered the apartment carefully, unsure of what he was expecting. It seemed like he was the first person to step foot in it. It looked comfy enough, small cozy, the type of place that he could live a nice quiet life in.

"Are you flipping kidding me?"

Luke whipped around to see someone else standing in the doorway. At first he didn't recognize the boy who was groaning with his own silver key in the doorway that Luke had left opened. But when his hair tumbled back in front of his right eye, it hit Luke. It was Ethan, he just had both eyes.

"I spent two hours trying to get this key to work." He complained, "Then I go get a hot dog and come back and someone's already broken in."

Luke held up his own key, "I don't think it counts if I have a key."

Ethan shrugged and stepped inside looking around, "So, you too, huh?"

"Yep."

Luke scouted out the kitchen finding it fully stalked. "No hard feelings, right?"

"Make me some Pancakes and we'll see." Ethan replied from down the hall, exploring the bedrooms, "Hey, do you know why there's a girl's room here? Do you have a girlfriend I didn't know about?"

Luke paused in looking through the cereal cabinets above the sink that were filled with a whole bunch of cheap knock-off brands: Frosted Corn Flakes, Dino Bites, Chocolate puffs. His heart thudded but it had nothing to do with the breakfast foods, "Girlfriend?"

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Ethan peeked out from the hallway, inclining his head. "You getting that?"

Luke shrugged and walked over, opening the door again. This time in the doorway was a girl in a floppy green hat looking like a deer caught in headlights. She stumbled for words, nervously blushing, "Look I don't know why but I've got this paper with this address and a key- Hey, I know you."

Behind him Ethan burst out into obnoxious laughter. "What did he get you killed, too?"

"Aw, Shut up, will you," Luke frowned, "That wasn't me. And besides you were the one who followed me. If I'm such a jerk, what does that make you?"

Ethan frowned and slumped onto the couch throwing his feet up on the table.

The girl rubbed her arm, "I'm Bianca." She said, "Bianca Di Angelo."

The last name clicked with Luke. Right, of course she was the older sister of the son of Hades. This unassuming kid could probably raise an entire army of skeletons that could rip him apart and kill him yet again. Wonderful.

"I'm Ethan!" The Son of Nemesis offered, "That's Luke. Don't talk to him. He's mean."

"I'm nicer than you are!"

"Nah," Ethan shook his head, "You tried to take over the world."

"You agreed with that plan-"

"You betrayed everyone!"

"So did you! As I recall you tried to kill Percy Jackson every time you saw each other."

"It was-"

"Ladies, Ladies," Bianca stepped in between them, "You're both beautiful. Now is there any food around here? I'm starving."

She brushed past them into the kitchen and began going through the supplies Luke had just been looking at. Ethan and him shared a look and Ethan grinned widely, "I like her already."

Over the next couple of days, the three of them awkwardly managed to exist around each other. Ethan and Luke shared a room, which would not have been Luke's first choice. He definitely had no desire to be kept awake all night with Ethan reading or writing by lamp light. They also discovered the only one who could cook was Bianca, who made excellent pasta after Ethan burned chicken nuggets. Bianca signed up for online school classes only took a little bit of convincing to get Ethan and Luke to as well.

They all landed jobs. Luke made headlines within the first two weeks. Ethan broke his first case with barely any sweat. Even Bianca managed to get promoted to head Volunteer organizer quicker than most would expect.

And gradually, it stopped being surprising that Ethan got locked out of the apartment or that Bianca was trying out a knew recipe for dinner. Or that Ethan had to call Luke to remind him that sleep was still important after a full day of work.

Luke was actually feeling good again, slowly.

Dare he say he was happy?

He didn't think anything could go wrong. So of course that was night when everything started to go wrong again.

***

Luke rubbed his arm wear Bianca had found a target for every time she thought he was telling the story wrong. He wasn't, of course. He told it exactly as it had happened.

"I did not nervously blush!"

Zoe raised an eyebrow, Bianca slugged him again. Luke took a sip of the water that he was brought.He drew a smiley face in the condensation on the side. Bianca explained everything afterwards, from her seeing Nico to running home to Eddy's to IHOP. She did a good job explaining it all, much better than Luke would've.

The entire time Zoe sat in her chair cleaning a silver arrow from her quiver, which was stuffed under the desk. She didn't seem to be really interested until Bianca got to the part about the intruder breaking into their apartment after it had already been broken into. Zoe removed her feet from her desk and quickly asked for a description.

"He wore a black hood, so we didn't see much of his face." Bianca said, "but he had a gun, which he dropped-"

"Do you have it? We can scan for fingerprints."

Luke carefully pulled it out from his bag but he shook his head, "He was wearing gloves. I....I did get one other thing as well...."

Zoe looked at him expectantly but Luke hesitated. His hands were shaking as he pulled out the necklace and a couple beads that he could find: A trident, the labyrinth, A centaur in a prom dress, and a Greek Trireme on fire. Who ever owned this necklace had to have been at camp for a good amount of time, almost as long as Luke and Annabeth. That worried Luke even more.

"Is...is that a camp necklace?" Zoe asked, "It's a demigod then?"

Bianca shifted uneasily, "We think so. But who could've known about us? And then who would steal papers?"

By now, Luke regretted not mentioning that he had met Percy Jackson in the back alley. Would Percy really have anything to do with this? The guy had a gun and that definitely was not the son of Poseidon's weapon. Luke was sure Percy wouldn't have told anyone about them. He made that very clear the other night.

So who could have known?

"Parker!" Zoe barked suddenly, causing Luke to jump and spill a drop of his water on the ground. "I want a number ID run on this gun. Make it fast!"

The detective nodded and took the gun, sparing enough time to glare heatedly at Luke.

"Also I'm taking this case." Zoe said, "Notify the Department, that Castellan and I will be working this for now."

"But-"

Before Detective Parker could protest any further, Zoe had notched an arrow and let it fly. It missed the man by less than a centimeter. He yelped and stumbled backwards.

"Do you really want to test my patience, again, Parker?" She asked dangerously. Parker sprinted out of the room, probably planning on adding his resignation to the end of the reports he was going to file for Zoe. Luke couldn't say he was disappointed.

The huntress sat back down smiling at Bianca. "Now where were we?"

"Thinking of places that Ethan could be." Bianca reminded her. Zoe nodded and looked thoughtful. It was quiet for a moment then Zoe went to open her mouth.

Except that the door to the office burst open and another lower officer scurried in panting heavily. Luke recognized him as the officer most higher ups treated as an errand boy (They'd tried making Luke into a guy like that, but Luke solved that problem with his fist).

"Excuse me, ma'am!" He yelled, "But it's important!"

"What?"

"You told me to tell you if anything big happens!" He stuttered, "And, uh, there's a shoot out in progress uptown. Live shooting and pedestrians."

Zoe was up on her feet before Luke could even think of getting up. She grabbed her arrows and bow. Then, surprisingly she pulled a gun out of the draw in her desk and tossed it at Luke.

"Come on," She said, "I've got a feeling that they're going to need everyone for this, including you, you dumb boy."