Chapter Text
gabby and marine are in the big house at the break of dawn. if gabby had the choice, she'd still be in bed next to marine right now, but instead, she's stuck listening to the ares and apollo counselors argue about which cabin should be cleaning the stables this week.
it's the last item on their agenda for the meeting, but it's taken up more than half of their time.
gabby doesn't remember whose idea it was to have these meetings in the morning, but if she ever remembers, she's more than prepared to give them a piece of her mind. the bickering is too early in the morning and it's over something so trivial in gabby's mind that she's one table slam away from just volunteering to do it herself again for the third time in the past six weeks so that she can get on with her predictably long day.
gabby's eyes light up as she sees the ares counselor begin to swing her arm down, but before the hand hits the table, the intruder alarm goes off. it's a rickety, complicated system set up by the hephaestus cabin, but it's effective, and loud enough to stop conversation. katie says it's the one in the woods, near half blood hill. they're not on the indicated path towards camp half blood that satyrs usually use, and they're getting closer; they've tripped more than one alarm already.
"gabby and i can check it out, we'll call for backup if we need it." marine had been slouching in her chair, tuning out the conversation, but she sits up as she addresses the rest of the counselors. everyone else nods as gabby perks up.
as they're walking towards half blood hill, marine links her arm with gabby's as she complained about the meeting.
"wasn't it your idea to have these meetings in the morning so you wouldn't have to deal with them in the middle of the day?" marine replied thoughtfully. gabby stops in her stride, furrowing her eyebrows. she turned over to marine, who had an amused look on her face.
"it was?"
technically, they're not supposed to venture past half blood hill. there was no safety beyond the barrier, and although monsters rarely visited the unattended woods now, it was better to be safe than sorry. everyone knew this, including gabby.
however, the daughter of poseidon was also one to run straight into danger without second thought, much to the dismay of her girlfriend who wanted her to be safe more than anything.
though, nothing concerning gabby's actions surprised her anymore, so when smoke emerges from the forest in quick bursts, she follows gabby's sprint into the forest immediately.
they don't know why a monster would even venture this deep into long island, and so close to camp half blood. gabby and marine trade ideas as they run and plan their attack, but nothing is set in stone as they don't know entirely what to expect.
they definitely did not expect to see a girl who can't be older than eleven, curled behind a burning tree trunk in fear.
they definitely did not expect to see a chimera only a few hundred feet away, stalking towards them in precise, measured steps.
gabby does her best to put out the growing forest fire spreading around them. as much as gabby would like to send marine and the girl back to camp to call for back up, she's pretty sure that marine would not let her attack a chimera alone, no matter how powerful she had grown.
the girl on the floor tells them that she was supposed to find a place called camp half blood, whatever that was, but she had no idea where she was going after she lost her half-goat, half-human friend. she was freaking out, and rightfully so. everything was confusing, nothing made any sense. she didn't understand why she was being chased by a lion looking thing that had a snake for its tail.
she was on the verge of tears.
gabby gave her a sympathetic smile as marine bent down to meet her eyes. the blonde gently reassured her that she was going to be okay, and everything was going to be explained in a bit.
in the meantime though, gabby started fending off attacks from the chimera as marine carefully talked down the girl from freaking out even more.
"what's your name?" marine redirected her attention from gabby, who was currently summoning an egregious amount of water from seemingly out of nowhere.
"dominique, but everyone calls me dom."
"i'm marine," the blonde gestures to herself, "that's gabby." she tells dom as the chimera sent fire straight towards them. gabby redirected and formed a wall of water; the fire splashed off it harmlessly as gabby exhaled a sigh of relief. the fire had been a little too close to them for her liking.
"we're going to get you to camp half blood, just wait here and let us deal with this monster first," marine patted her knee, then pulled out a bit of ambrosia, offering it to the girl. she was a bit injured, and the tiniest bit of ambrosia wouldn't hurt her. she wouldn't have been sent to camp half blood if she wasn't a demigod. dom took a small nibble, her eyes widening a bit as she swallowed. she nodded, beginning to trust marine and stayed behind the half-burnt tree trunk.
marine ate a little bit herself, clearing her throat.
"don't hesitate, you can do this." gabby's eyes soften with determination as she watches marine eat the last of the ambrosia she had brought. the chimera growled; gabby had basically waved it off and was only paying attention to marine.
marine nodded. all she had to do was distract it long enough so that gabby could get a few clean hits in. it wasn't easy to defeat a chimera, so all they had to do was create separation.
the exchange between the two of them is wordless from then on, gabby nods as she walks further away; closer to the chimera, pulling out her sword.
marine charmspeaks the three heads of the chimera, the lion, goat, and serpent. she pits them against each other with effective, convincing words.
dom's eyes widen as she sees her attacker take shots at themselves. they were basically dancing in a circle, chasing something they each could not reach without harming themselves. gabby then slammed into them, first with her sword then slashes of what looked like highly pressurized water, leaving the chimera bleeding and wincing in pain.
marine keeps talking to the chimera as gabby runs back towards dom.
"feeling better?" she lent a hand to help her up off the ground. surprisingly, dom's legs didn't feel tired, her muscles weren't sore. the minor headache she had been dealing with vanished away in the past few minutes. dom nodded with a hopeful smile.
"great, 'cause now we run," gabby pointed in a direction, and shoved dom towards it. "don't look back, keep running until you see a giant tree!" she yelled urgently. she didn't even wait for dom's response, turning back towards marine whose voice was evidently straining after continuous use of her charmspeak.
dom spent one half second looking at gabby who ran back to get the blonde, before turning around and sprinting towards the direction she pointed towards.
she sees a girl in an orange t-shirt at the top of the hill as she emerges from the forest, and she knows exactly what she's supposed to run to then. the tree is gigantic, but more importantly, it felt safe to her. the girl in the orange t-shirt looks at her in confusion, then with understanding once the ground shakes from the forest. water and fire clash in a loud explosion, steam rising above the trees.
"where's marine?" another girl asks, "the blonde?" her curly hair is pulled into a tight ponytail.
"i don't know, gabby went back for her and she just told me to run-"
"of course she did," the girl in the orange t-shirt threw her hands up in disbelief, but her face looked as if she was expecting to hear the words out of dom's mouth anyways.
marine emerges from the woods in that moment, with gabby's arm curled over her shoulder as she was hobbling up the hill in pain. the three of them run down the hill, meeting marine and gabby halfway up. dom is a half step behind the other two, still processing what kind of day she was currently having.
this was insane.
"oh hey phee, stewie. what're you guys doing here?" gabby coughed with a grin. she had a nasty burn on the arm over marine's shoulder and dark circles surrounding her eyes. marine's pants were covered in dirt as she held her sword in her free hand.
"we're backup, you idiot. you guys said you'd call if you needed it," phee reminded them.
"did we ever call?" gabby asked no one in particular. her eyes were a little unfocused, not looking at a specific place, but she continued to speak "oh well, we got dom here safely to camp half blood and dealt with the chimera," gabby grinned hazily. she did not particularly feel or look good right now.
"dealt with the chimera? you pushed me into the dirt and got yourself burnt!" marine scolded into her ear. gabby only grinned wider, she was amused with marine's short temper at the moment.
"yeah, but i'd rather my arm get burnt than your pretty face," gabby raised her other arm, moving it towards marine's face before the blonde had snatched it midair.
"what is that?" she looked at the growing stain of what looked like blood on her blue long sleeve. marine had been so preoccupied with getting the both of them out alive that she only noticed the burn that gabby had gotten from the chimera. she hadn't even considered that gabby was hit somewhere else.
"oh this? this is nothing babe," gabby dragged out the term of endearment. she was borderline delusional at that point. she opened her mouth to say something else, but had promptly fell forward into the grass, fainting right in front of dom's feet.
in gabby's humble opinion, getting poisoned the second time around is much better than the first time. she's in the infirmary for less than four hours because they had given her a bunch of sea water to heal her wounds and burns, and a little bit of nectar for good measure.
she walks out of the infirmary with marine, who was listening patiently to her explanation of why she felt like getting poisoned wasn't as bad as the first time. marine tells her that she preferred if her girlfriend remained poison free for the foreseeable future. unfortunately, as much as gabby wants to promise that she will be, she's realizing that being poisoned is becoming a pattern.
hopefully, marine hasn't come to that realization.
pete, the hermes counselor walks up to them as they're heading back towards the poseidon cabin, dom is towing him now in her own camp half blood t-shirt which is a much more vibrant orange than gabby's was. she rarely wore it now, especially because it wasn't summertime, but it had been through its fair share of battles.
"there you two are!" he motions dom to get a little closer. "okay dom, phee told me you guys already met but i feel obligated to introduce everyone properly. this is marine, head of the aphrodite cabin, and this is gabby, who by default, is unfortunately the counselor of the poseidon cabin." he gestures to the two of them. marine laughed at gabby's introduction.
unfortunately? gabby sends him a glare, but smiles at dom anyways. "how are you settling in?"
"um, good." she pauses, staring at gabby's arms, which were completely healed. she had changed into one of marine's t-shirts in the infirmary, given that the long sleeve she was wearing earlier was half burnt and stained with her blood. "i'm glad to see you're uh, alive."
marine noticed that dom's french accent was heavier when she seemed to be nervous. it had been really strong in the woods earlier, and even now, just talking to gabby it was really thick.
"hm? oh yeah, why wouldn't i be? takes more than a chimera to take me down," gabby boasted energetically. marine suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, instead squeezing gabby's bicep to tell her to take it down a few notches.
"what she means to say is that you don't have to worry about her." marine told dom with a small smile, "she's tougher than she looks."
gabby nodded enthusiastically, closing her eyes momentarily, like a proud girlfriend would. then her brain caught up to what marine said, "what do you mean i'm tougher than i look? do i not look tough?"
pete then shook his head, gabby looked at him in offense. dom's lips started curving upward, watching the two in amusement as they began to argue. while they were bickering back and forth, marine leaned over to dom, reassuring her that gabby was actually okay and she didn't have to worry.
"don't feel bad. what happened in the forest wasn't your fault. gabby getting injured wasn't your fault either. she just does this stuff sometimes." okay, maybe sometimes was a severe understatement. any chance that gabby would get, she'd rush in head first, but dom didn't have to know that now. she'd find out eventually after being around gabby for a bit.
gabby doesn't see phee and stewie until supper time. she spends the afternoon in the stables with some of the apollo kids, who had unfortunately lost the coin toss to the ares cabin. she felt bad, she always did. the pegasi were especially moody during this time of year because of the weather, and cleaning the stables could be a pain if you didn't understand what they wanted or needed.
marine has told her numerous times that she looked funny arguing with the pegasi, because all she could hear were the neighs and gabby just swearing at them for being inconsiderate.
"you'd be swearing at them too if you heard the stuff they have the audacity to say to me," gabby scoffed, rolling up her dirty sleeves. she had changed into a different shirt, but this one was also a bit battered and bruised after shoveling manure for the half hour. marine only laughed, brushing a strand of hair away from gabby's face before pulling her towards the mess hall.
phee complains about the smell when she sits at their table for dinner. she's followed by stewie, who also instinctively brings a hand to her nose.
"now you're doing too much. you've been sitting with me for years."
phee and stewie both grinned.
conversation is easy, it always is. a couple of other campers visit and tune in or contribute to the conversation. most of it is about what chores or things that they had to do around camp to keep busy. slowly, most of the campers disperse from the mess hall. it's late, and most of them hung out with the their friends around camp while they could before curfew would be enforced.
gabby doesn't know exactly how, but it becomes just the counselors in the mess hall by the end of the hour. she wouldn't say that she was close friends with all of them, but she was friendly enough with all of them to engage in outside conversation beyond the wellbeing of camp from time to time.
conversation drifts into more serious topics. talks like these were becoming more frequent as this cohort of head counselors grew up. they knew how important preparation for the unexpected was. they learned from their mistakes the past year. they had to be communicative with each other. they don't want to burn shrouds again.
they discuss the arrival of dom, about what it meant for camp. the last camper to arrive not during the summer months was marine when she first arrived five years ago. gabby says nothing weird happened then. she didn't even really talk to marine for a year anyways. (it's still a point of discussion between the two of them every once in a while whenever marine wants to tease her), she doesn't know why it's a discussion now, here with all the counselors.
they start comparing and contrasting the differences. marine had been claimed as soon as she arrived, by aphrodite.
"she didn't have to be claimed by aphrodite, anyone with eyes could see it," gabby laughs. she had been leaning on marine's shoulder, but her head dropped suddenly. gabby turned to her girlfriend with a lilting pout.
"stop it," marine whispered with rosy cheeks, she was embarrassed with the attention she was getting.
gabby stared at her, smirk on her face. she was going to respond, but stewie cut her off.
"okay, we get it. you're in love. leave some romance for the rest of us." she gagged.
gabby laughed, kissing marine's cheek quickly before settling her head comfortably on marine's shoulder once again as she listened to the conversation between her peers.
dom had not been claimed by a god. in fact, she didn't even come to camp safely, one could argue. her satyr companion had been separated from her, and gave her quite honestly, terrible instructions to find camp half blood. it was a miracle she even got to the woods and an even bigger miracle that none of the traps laid out there for monsters captured her.
"she brought a chimera with her," the ares counselor emphasized, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion. "you know who controls the chimera? echidna. the mother of monsters."
"i don't know about you guys, but i'd prefer to not fight monsters for a very long time," pete sighed.
there's an awkward silence for a few seconds. the battle with pallas is still present in a lot of minds, especially marine's. there were casualties she had been expecting, but not at all prepared for. she doesn't like talking about it much; gabby had noticed that pretty quickly.
gabby squeezes marine's hand under the table three times.
i love you.
marine pressed a small kiss on the top of her forehead.
the ares counselor was the same, not wanting to speak of it whenever it's brought up by others, she had lost more siblings than she was expecting, and some of her closest ones at that. she looks away from the rest of the counselors with a deep inhale.
phee asks them if they managed to kill the chimera, to which marine shakes her head. they had gotten close, but marine's charmspeak was still not proficient to be using for extended periods of time, especially not against a mythical creature such as the chimera and gabby had gotten hurt trying to keep her away from the fire, so they only managed to injure it before it had retreated.
there are audible groans of disbelief and cries of you should have called for back up when marine tells them the bad news.
"okay, she didn't exactly bring a chimera with her. she was being chased by it. if we didn't get there when we did, she'd probably be dead. and it was a chimera! we didn't really have time to call for back up." gabby defended her actions with a soft tone. she was physically tired, after waking up early, sitting through a boring meeting, fighting a chimera. the long list of things she had done today was taking its toll as she stifled a yawn into marine's shoulder.
"why would an unclaimed demigod be chased by the chimera for no reason?" katie asked.
everyone stilled. no one responded as they weighed her question.
why would dom be chased by the chimera? she was trying to get to camp half blood, she had told both gabby and marine, who relayed it to the other counselors. but she also had no idea what demigods even were before today. so why would she be chased?
they toss around ideas for a bit, but none of them really stick. phee, who is usually one to offer a lot of ideas is mostly quiet, to gabby's surprise.
"we can talk about this another time in the big house. when we have fresher minds. it's getting late and i have to do cabin checks," marine sighs, motioning for gabby to get off her shoulder.
everyone agreed, collecting their stuff and heading back to their cabins.
when they were finally alone, gabby grinned, stretching her arms. "what's the point of you doing cabin checks if you're the one breaking curfew at the end of the night?"
marine rolled her eyes, intertwining their hands as they walked slowly towards the cabins.
"it's called responsibility, seaweed brain." she paused for a second before adding, "i do it to make sure that no one catches me sneaking into your cabin."
gabby laughed. she loved the fact that marine was going through all this effort to hide something that everybody already knew. her siblings obviously found her bed empty in the mornings more often than not. her friends found marine leaving the poseidon cabin in the morning to go to the mess hall rather than the aphrodite cabin. all of the year rounders were basically friends at this point.
"oh, how could i ever repay you for your troubles?" gabby asked sarcastically.
"you are so annoying sometimes, it's like you are physically incapable of not teasing me," marine muttered in french.
"you love it, come on," gabby stopped walking, pulling marine back towards her with a grin. marine looked at her with hard eyes, trying to stay firm in her stance. gabby also did not budge, drooping her smile into a fake frown as she looked into the sea of blue.
marine sighed, eyes softening. "i do love it," she admitted, kissing gabby gently on the lips. "i love you," she smiled into another kiss.
gabby had sighed contently. she knew that marine often didn't voice her worries about her reckless actions, but it didn't mean that she wasn't worried at all. in fact, gabby probably caused her more worry than anything else in her life. she had to remember that.
she had something worth living for, a life worth living for. she wanted to do better; make marine worry less about her safety. give her reassurances when she could.
"i'm sorry i got hurt again today," gabby murmured underneath her breath. "i'm sorry i keep worrying you." the apollo kids had told her in the stables that marine was by her side the entire four hours, running a hand through her hair as she sat in the infirmary. "i love you," gabby said after another quick kiss.
marine wasn't like gabby; whenever she was worried, she'd fall into silence and let her body radiate her nervousness.
for gabby, you could hear it in her voice, and she would say anything that came to mind. it was easier to see whenever she was worried compared to whenever marine was worried.
"don't be sorry. don't ever be sorry for saving a life. it's one of the many things i love about you, is that you never hesitate to save a life, even if it does worry me a little bit." marine insisted with a shy smile, pressing a kiss to the edge of her lips, then to the crease of worry on gabby's eyebrows.
there were different versions of gabby. the loud, outgoing one that had grown into her confidence at camp half blood, and the soft, quiet one who wanted nothing more than to be by marine's side, all the time. the one who found safety in her girlfriend's arms.
gabby liked them both, but she loved who she was with marine. sure, at times like this, there were challenges. there were the hard, raw conversations. but in the end, everything was easier. marine always made things easier.
dom is french, which becomes very obvious to the other campers a few days after her arrival to camp half blood. she talks in english, but it's broken and heavily accented, much like how marine's was when she first arrived.
at least that's what marine tells gabby. in gabby's defense, she thought marine's english was already pretty good when she met her, but the blonde insisted that it was terrible for at least another year after they talked to each other for the first time.
so dom speaks french most of the time. unsurprisingly, she spends a lot of time with the aphrodite kids, who all know how to speak french fluently. it's not like most of them practice it, but their mother was the goddess of love, and french was known to be the language of love.
gabby has heard them talk down to other campers in french before. that was before marine was the head counselor though. she hadn't heard much shit talking from the aphrodite cabin since her girlfriend had taken the reigns. as for herself, she needed to work on it more. she really only talked in french whenever she was alone with marine. she didn't dare speak it to the other aphrodite kids. sure, they probably wouldn't give her shit for her terrible pronunciation out of fear of retaliation (which marine would never let her enact), but they were capable of it, and gabby didn't want to test that.
speaking of marine, dom talks the most with her. marine is french as well, and the two of them converse easily. marine has been a really good mentor for dom around camp, teaching her the daily routines and what to expect from day to day activities. it's obvious that dom is a lot more relaxed around her too, she talks much more rapidly, casually even. from gabby's perspective, dom is settling into camp much easier because of it.
they're still trying to figure out which god is dom's parent. she was eleven, so she was going to be claimed in the next two years by the latest, but all of the counselors agreed that finding out sooner rather than later would be in their best interests. gabby spends a lot of time by the training grounds in the afternoon, watching dom spar with some of the other hermes kids. she's alright with a sword, but she's better with a spear.
"she looks like you when you first held a sword," stewie snorts from next to her. gabby ignored the diss, but she agreed.
she used to get smoked by stewie back then.
although she'd argue that she felt much more fluid in her attacks than dom did. the spear was new to her. obviously, all of the weapons and celestial bronze was. however, she fought more direct, more physical and linear with her attacks.
she picked it up quickly too, fighting with her sword. dom did the same with a spear.
next to the two of them, phee is silent, she has been as such lately. gabby knew better than to ask her what she was thinking. her analysis was incomplete. there were probably a million different things phee had on her mind that gabby couldn’t begin to think about.
the biggest thing gabby has noticed is her confidence. both on the battlefield and around camp. she's often reserved with her actions, and especially her words around all of the campers. even marine, who despite talking to her in french, is still closed off in a way. her attacks lack the confidence and decisiveness that stewie, gabby, and all the other elite fighters at camp have, but that could be learned over time.
having only picked up a spear a few days ago, she was really on her way to being a formidable fighter.
other than that though, there's not really much information that hinted her belonging to a specific cabin. all of the cabins had good fighters, it was a given for most demigods, so it didn’t help that much in gabby’s mind.
it's easy to get lost in the routine. the routine of waking up, eating, doing chores, training, repeat. everyone gets lost in it eventually. for gabby, she gets lost in it very often. and by getting lost, it's more like she gets found half asleep every few weeks doing a specific task. she gets really into a specific task every few weeks, to the point of obsession, which ultimately leads to her experiencing fatigue and exhaustion eventually.
unfortunately for her, she finds herself being caught half-asleep doing all of these tasks in the span of one week.
marine has been on her ass lately about developing good sleeping habits, and believe her, gabby's really trying to sleep and wake up at a reasonable time. but she couldn't sleep the previous night, so she took HB on a midnight ride above camp. marine had said she needed to look after one of her sick siblings that night so gabby had been left alone to her thoughts.
she always slept better when marine was with her anyways.
so she sleeps really late that night, and she's woken up by a tall, lanky, eleven year old at twelve in the afternoon.
dom apologizes profusely for waking her up, telling gabby that marine told her to she had to or else she'd have to clean the stables later. apparently, some of the hermes kids had scared her about what it was like having to do chores in the stables, so she's terrified with the possibility.
gabby doesn't have the energy to tell her that marine tricked her, because the hephaestus cabin was on stables duty this week, not the hermes cabin, nor the aphrodite cabin. so marine didn’t have the authority to force her to clean up after the pegasi anyways.
dom is in her armor, no doubt getting in some early training. dom looks at anything besides gabby, taking note of the mostly barren cabin adorned with sea related items and gabby's keepsakes she's collected over the years.
the poseidon cabin is slightly bigger than all of the other cabins, minus the zeus cabin, only because gabby has had full reign of it for five years now and has decorated it as solely her own. she's shoved all of the beds to one corner, and has had katie and phee help her with the interior over the years.
in contrast to the hermes cabin, it was much more spacious, gabby could attest to that. arriving in the summer, unclaimed, and squished into a bunk bed with other unclaimed demigods. it was not pleasant, now that she knew what it was like having a cabin to herself. the lack of privacy must've been killing dom.
dom takes a particular interest to the sword next to the door. unlike her usual, celestial bronze sword, which is gold, this one is a dark greenish blue, resembling the ocean. the designs on the blade are intricately engraved, and the pommel is a small compass. gabby has never used it, but the sword could retract into the compass, which always pointed north.
it's a new addition that even gabby isn't used to. it was a gift from her father after the battle with pallas. he had told her that he had it specially made. it was not normal celestial bronze, but forged by a cyclops and meant to be utilized by a child of the sea. not any child of the sea, but for her.
he had been watching her evolution with a sword for years. he told her it was the right time, that she deserved it.
gabby didn't have the heart to tell him that she felt like she didn't deserve the gift at all.
not after what her father had already given her. a second chance.
so it sits by the door, still well taken care of, sharpened daily and polished every few days, but not tested in battle yet.
"you don't use this sword," dom whispers in awe, looking at the blade. gabby shakes her head as she puts on one of marine's sweaters. she doesn't have to ask who she got it from. while the hephaestus forgers were good, they weren't this good. and if the blue wasn't enough, the sea adorned walls were a dead giveaway.
"i haven't found the need yet. "
gabby enjoyed using her good old, normal celestial bronze sword. it was reliable, and had never let her down before. she also understands where dom is coming from.
new at camp, unclaimed, wanting to do anything worthy of recognition by her godly parent. the sword is the most tangible thing dom has seen of a god recognizing their child, and she's rightfully curious.
after this, they get a little closer. dom asks a lot of questions whenever she's alone with gabby, and the older girl provides answers as best she can. they're mostly about what it was like being an "only child" here at camp.
the most important question dom asks gabby is if it gets any easier, being an only child.
there's been times gabby has felt lonely, but she's never been alone. she tells dom that it's important to distinguish between the two. she visited her mortal siblings whenever she had the chance, and although they were rare instances, gabby has always felt at home with them as much as here with her friends at camp half blood.
dom tells her the hermes cabin is funny. they're better than she expected them to be her first day at camp, but she also raves on about how lucky gabby is to have her own cabin.
"i'd decorate it way more. your decorations are too on the nose."
somehow, marine gets sick in the time that gabby has not been able to hang out with her, which is only roughly 18 hours. apparently, she caught whatever was going around in the aphrodite cabin for the past few days when she was taking care of them, and unlike her siblings, the ambrosia and nectar isn't working as effectively as it is for them.
gabby stays up late that night taking care of her, because her fever has yet to break and marine was clearly suffering through the silence. she twists and turns in bed, which is nothing unusual; gabby usually sleeps through it anyways. this time though, gabby can't sleep comfortably knowing that marine was unwell, that her constant moving was a result of her body fighting back.
truthfully, she stays up the entire night, switching out cold towels, checking her temperature and feeding a half conscious marine mortal medicine to relieve the headache she woke up to at 4 in the morning.
by the time gabby can tell marine is finally sleeping somewhat peacefully and showing signs of breaking the fever, the sun is already rising and some campers were heading to the mess hall for breakfast.
again, she didn't want to mess up her sleep schedule she had been trying so hard to fix, so she attempted to just stay awake the whole day. it should have been easy to do.
gabby doesn't realize that she's dozing off during breakfast until dom nudges her, asking if she's okay. half a piece of toast is still in her mouth, but gabby swishes it around, chewing and swallowing slowly.
she's lucky that her head didn't doze off straight into the table with a bang, which she had been caught doing one time during supper a few years ago. everyone looked at her a little funny for a few days afterwards.
this is when she finally is aware that staying awake was going to be much harder than she thought.
gabby can't say she's ever seen dom at breakfast before. then again, she had always been one of the last ones to breakfast, and dom was probably someone who ate it early.
dom asks where marine is, saying that the blonde told her she'd show her around the stables properly this morning. she's evidently disappointed when gabby tells her that marine is sleeping off a fever still, and was out of commission until supper time by the earliest.
"i can show you around though, that is, if you don't mind." gabby brags that she'd probably be a better guide as they eat breakfast, which dom agrees to against her own gut instinct.
gabby has never heard HB talk so much, especially not in the morning. someone woke up on the wrong side of the hay this morning, with very strong opinions.
"this weather is atrocious." she complains to gabby. she'd much rather sleep under the night sky, but during the winter months, she's forced to sleep in the stables for her health.
gabby replied to the complaint, saying she understood and that she'd take her out for a flight later. HB perked up a little bit at that.
"who are you talking to?" dom asks, staring at her like she was crazy.
gabby introduces dom to HB, who spreads her wings out as much as she can.
"she's tall, how old is she? your age? 16 in human years?"
"no, she's eleven."
"wow, you're short."
"shut up or else we're leaving." HB retracted her wings, shrinking back half a step before complaining again about how gabby never visited her.
a complete lie, for the record. gabby visited every day HB was at camp, and actively encouraged her to go elsewhere to do whatever it was that pegasi did in their free time.
gabby pinched the bridge of her nose. dom looked half parts amused, and half confused at how gabby was talking to the pegasus. they go around feeding the pegasi their breakfast, gabby teaches dom how to groom them, and then shows her quickly what the chores would look like.
the hermes cabin was due anytime now to clean the stables. it had been weeks since gabby's last saw them all doing chores.
she finally tells dom then that marine did not have the authority to make her clean the stables the other day. dom laughs a little bit, then shrugged.
"i don't know, it seems like they're pretty well behaved."
unfortunately, dom does not get along that well with the pegasi. gabby tries to convince her to fly with one of the pegasi, but dom refuses to, saying that she was scared of heights. the pegasi does not take kindly to it, trying to kick dom off its back. gabby scrunched her nose.
the pegasi were usually nicer to new campers.
"how are you," gabby motions to her, up and down, unfortunately taller than the height of her own body, "afraid of heights?"
"didn't you not know how to swim?" dom asks her in retaliation.
gabby doesn't know how she knows, but she's fairly sure that marine had told her. only phee and stewie know that besides her, and dom's not stuck by them nearly as much as marine. anyways, that was not marine's story to tell. the less people that knew that she, a daughter of poseidon, did not know how to swim before, the better.
she had a reputation to maintain.
gabby gives up though, just asking her to take a ride around the strawberry fields as she took HB for a couple of laps above camp.
to say dom had no control over where the pegasi was going was a fair assessment. she can't talk to it like gabby can, not like she tries to, but still. the ride is way too chaotic for 9 in the morning, and just when she thinks the pegasus is out of energy, it picks up more speed, weaving in between plants and bushes.
the crisp winter air hit her face harshly as she tried her best to not be thrown off mid sprint. she can't help but think that marine would have never left her alone with this energy crazed pegasus. when she agreed to an in depth tour of the stables, she thought it'd be much more laidback.
to add on to the craziness, she's ninety percent sure that she sees gabby half-passed out on her pegasus, which is swirling around the camp freely. gabby is most definitely not telling it where to go, not when she looked like she was asleep. after fifteen minutes, they start coming back towards the strawberry fields. gabby's eyes snap open as HB lands, coming back to her bearings. she blinked, adjusting to the lighting and looked around, seeing dom and smiling.
"how was the ride?" gabby asks as she gets off HB's back.
"terrible."
she accompanies dom to the training grounds, where she's been training with some of the other hermes kids for the past few days. gabby sees phee leaning back on one of the benches, watching the early risers get their reps in.
"how's marine doing?" phee asks as gabby takes the seat next to her. gabby rolled up her sleeve as she leaned back on the bench, settling her head onto the hardwood.
"she's okay, sleeping off the fever." gabby pauses before closing her eyes. "the nectar's not working and i didn't want to overdo it, so i just gave her some regular medicine."
phee nods, telling her she made the right decision. "it's probably burning through her system too quickly."
gabby hums as she listens to the clang of swords in the background.
katie joins them a few minutes later. phee asks her about something, which sets her off into a full blown rant about how annoying some of her siblings had been the other day.
gabby falls asleep 2 minutes into it, just tuning her out before completely going unconscious.
"i didn't know she snored like that," katie says, stifling a laugh after finishing her rant. phee looks over at gabby an amused smile.
"yeah, i was going to tell her she should probably go back and get some sleep but she fell asleep before i was able to."
thankfully, stewie comes about half an hour later to wake her up for their sparring session. she wakes up groggily, asking her friends how long she had been out for and why they didn't wake her up when she did fall asleep.
they both tell her that she looked like she needed it. stewie laughs at her, telling her to hurry up and get ready.
even when she's a half step slower than stewie, they're pretty evenly matched, trading blow for blow, strike for strike.
a small crowd always gathers whenever they spar. it used to be boring, five years ago, gabby would often lose easily due to her own mistakes. now that she makes less and less of those, it's more entertaining. there are very audible noises of shock and excitement whenever one of them gains the upper hand; gabby is always fueled by the crowd.
they rarely do this now though. spar with each other in the early morning. stewie's about to go off to college, and gabby has taken more responsibility around camp now that she's more tenured. their schedules were busy, and if anything, the ares kids liked a match with stewie more than gabby did.
and gabby would usually still be asleep at this hour.
after eating lunch, she goes back to her cabin to check on marine. she's relieved to find that her temperature is normal now. there had been a lingering feeling in her mind that the fever was not just a regular fever, but marine is peacefully asleep now.
she reads by her own bed for a bit; it's quiet inside. marine's quiet inhale and exhales can be heard every few seconds, only interrupted by gabby turning the page in her book every minute or so.
"what time is it?" a raspy voice snaps gabby out of her focus. she turns to see marine rubbing her eyes. gabby presses a hand to her forehead, making sure the temperature was still normal.
gabby asks how she's feeling, handing over some water and adjusting the pillows so that marine can sit up. the blonde shrugs as she downs the water.
"tired, how long did i sleep for?"
gabby then tells her it's almost dinner time and marine is shocked to learn she's been in bed for almost twenty four hours.
marine's first thought is of her siblings, because of course it is. gabby reassures her that they're fine. she had the apollo counselor look after them the previous night, but she hadn't seen him all day. he's more than capable of taking care of sick teenagers, so really, he was the best option and gabby isn't worried.
marine opens her mouth to speak, but hesitates. "your version of not worried and mine are different," she finally says. then she looks over at gabby properly. "did you get any sleep last night? or any in the past few hours?"
gabby frowned, shaking her head. marine begins to scold her for ruining her sleep once again. gabby insists that she was taking care of marine, citing her worry about her girlfriend being the reason why she couldn't sleep.
marine squeezes her hand, her cheeks still a dark pink from her slumber, "you didn't have to do all of that for me." the one thing she never wanted was gabby to worry or fuss over her. especially at the expense of her own wellbeing.
gabby smiles tiredly, squeezing her hand back, "of course i did, i love you."