A Sisterly Reunion | Hailey

[Virginia Grace]

Genie set on the front porch of the Hephaestus cabin fiddling with a small clockwork gadget she had been working on all day and humming to herself softly. Almost absently she flipped the gadget, which looked like a small mechanical spider, all around turning screws and spinning gears with distracted but clearly methodical movements In fact, the girl didn't seem to be paying attention to what she was doing at all and yet she definitely seemed to have some purpose to all the tweaks and adjustments she was performing.

One thing that Genie wasn't distracted from however were all the many campers walking by as she worked. In actuality that was the whole reason she was out here. If there was one thing Genie loved to do it was people watch. It was fun to watch the other campers go about their normal lives. The cute couples on their way to dates, the occasional blunders when somebody wasn't watching where they were going, it was all so interesting and even though it might seem odd it helped her work.

She supposed it was pretty cool that she could actually get things accomplished when she wasn't really focusing on her work but she was glad she could. Genie liked to socialize, she liked to meet new people and it gave her a chance to see things that a lot of people missed for example, the person that was walking up to their cabin right now. Genie squinted her eyes as the person approached but she didn't think she was mistaken and if she was right it was going to be someone she hadn't seen in a long time.

Hailey Nichols

[Hailey Nichols]

Hailey wanted to stay in the Hecate cabin forever, but there two things wrong with that. She was pretty sure she was overstaying her welcome and if she didn’t go back to her own cabin, Theo was most likely going to embarrass her to death. So it took several pep talks for Hailey to finally go outside of the Hecate and walk towards the Hephaestus. It looked a lot bigger than she last saw it, but she was also a tiny bit tinier the last time she went through this part of the camp.

She walked slowly towards the cabin as she tried to talk herself out of going back to the Hecate cabin. The distance seemed to grow as Hailey walked. It was all in her mind, but it was almost proving to be too much. A part of her wanted to rush towards the cabin and get everything over with while another part wanted to avoid her cabin as much as possible. Would Hera mind if Hailey crashed her cabin? Hailey didn’t want to upset another goddess, so she thought it was safer to go back to her cabin.

But as she approached her cabin, she noticed that someone was on the porch. Great, she would have to deal with her siblings sooner than she wanted to, but as she got closer, she noticed it who it was. Genie. Gods, she hadn’t seen the girl in forever. Hailey smiled a bit as she quickened her pace to get to her cabin faster.

[Virginia Grace]

As Genie squinted and the girl walking towards their cabin came into focus she found that she could hardly believe her eyes. It had been a long time, a very, very long time, but she knew that she recognized the person coming toward her. It had been what, two, maybe closer to three years, but you didn't forget family, at least Genie didn't. She stopped what she was doing and took a longer look just to be sure but there was no need. How could she forget her sister?

"Hailey?" She said a little unbelievingly as she got to her feet. "Hailey!" She repeated this time accepting what was in front of her and letting her excitement show. That was all it took. Genie dropped the small automaton she had been working on and ran to meet welcome home a sister that she thought she had lost. "Hailey it is you!" Genie said as she reached the girl and wrapped her up in a hug. "You're back. Like really back. We've missed you!"

[Hailey Nichols]

As Genie called out to her, Hailey’s smile got a little bit wider as her pace quickened. She hadn’t seen Genie in years and at least she looked like someone who was happy she was back. Did she even know…

That thought quickly escaped her mind as her sister was standing right in front of her and pulled her into a hug. Hailey hugged her back and tight. Gods, her first human hug in a long time and if felt good. She let the hug last a little bit before she pulled away just enough to look at her sister. “Yup,” she said as a slight pink tint crept onto her cheeks. “I’m back and I’m…” She took a deep breath. She didn’t realize how hard this was going to hit her. Her eyes watered up a bit as she looked at her sister. “I’m home. I’m home Genie and for good.”

[Virginia Grace]

Genie could hardly believe what she was seeing even when she had Hailey in her arms. Here was a sister who had run off to join the hunters and then essentially disappeared. She knew that the hunters were very busy of course and that Artemis kept many of them with her for long periods of time but it would have been nice to see her sister every now and then. Maybe that's what this was. In any case it was all very exciting and Genie was happy to final be seeing her sister again.

That being said it took a minute for Hailey's words to fully sink in. "Wait just a second..." Genie said as she held her sister out at arm’s length. "Back? Like back, back. Like back at our cabin back, back?" The girl stared at Hailey incredulously. She hadn't known about the boy or the breaking of vows or the transformation or anything and hunters didn't look back, did they? "You mean you're really coming back to stay with us? For good?"

[Hailey Nichols]

Hailey wondered how Genie was going to react that she was staying at the cabin permanently. Everyone knew that once Hunters took their vows, they stayed with the Hunt unless they were killed in combat or broke their vows. She wondered for a moment if she was going to be judged for breaking her vows, even if it seemed worth it at the time. The smile grew on her face as Genie held her at arm's length as she looked her over.

"Yes, Genie," she said as she slowly nodded her head. "I'm going to be staying at the Hephaestus cabin from now on." She felt herself get a little teary eyed as she said. "This is my home now. With you guys."

[Virginia Grace]

Genie squealed happily and wrapped her sister up in a hug again before finally releasing her and giving her some relief. "Hey, don't cry this was always your home. What'd you think that we'd forget about you?" The idea was preposterous. Genie didn't forget about family. She didn't know about the boys but she was sure they would agree and if they didn't she would just whack them on the back of the head with a wrench or something. Being the oldest sister to everyone she had that right.

"What about the hunters and everything? Won't they be upset with you? Are we going to have to put up defenses around the cabin?" This could get pretty ugly if they didn't prepare properly but if her sister wanted to stay the hunters definitely wouldn't be getting her back without a fight. "I wouldn't worry about it that much. We'll make sure to keep you safe."

[Hailey Nichols]

Hailey smiled a bit wider as Genie wrapped her up in another hug. Genie was always so happy and Hailey was glad that didn't change over the years. She hugged her back and hard, missing the feeling of her arms around her. But when Genie pulled away, Hailey sniffed a bit as she reached up to wipe away a stray tear. "I honestly don't know what I was expecting," she admitted with a sheepish smile. "But it's really good to see you, Genie. Gods, I missed you."

But at the mention of the hunters, Hailey froze a bit before her nose twitched nervously. She blushed as she reached a hand up to cover it. "They were upset with me, but I think they got enough of their revenge. We shouldn't be too worried about them." Then her sheepish smile got a little bit stronger before she lowered her hand. "Unless you want to build a crocodile moat with me?"

[Virginia Grace]

It was really good to see Hailey again and whether she suspected a warm reception or not Genie had no problem giving it. If she would have known she would have made a cake or something but considering her lack of cooking skills that may have ended up being a blessing in disguise. Granted that might not stop her from making one but for now at least they needed to get Hailey settled back into the cabin now that she was finally home again.

“Well listen, don’t you worry about them right now. You’ve always got a place here. I think we’ve any still got your room too though we probably need to clean it up some.” Genie thought about this for a moment and then nodded to herself. “We probably had a few automatons that could get everything straight for ya.”

Genie grinned broadly in of those smiles that seemed to brighten the world around her as she actually considered the prospect of a making a crocodile moat. “That would be pretty neat…” She said distractedly. She wasn’t sure if Hailey was being serious of not but building something as cool as a moat was a pretty good project if she was going to be living at the Hephaestus cabin again. “I say we do it but can we name the alligators when we put them in?”

[Hailey Nichols]

"You still have my room?" Hailey asked a little bit shocked. Nobody replaced her here while the Artemis cabin they were much too eager to shove her stuff into a corner of the cabin. Stuff she needed to get back, but she was afraid she would be smited if she stepped foot inside that cabin once more. But to know her siblings still cared about her... Hailey could feel her eyes water up again as she shook her head and tried to force a happy smile onto her face. "That's... that's great... I would've hated moving into a new room."

She chuckled a bit as she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear before moving to cross her arms across her chest. She watched her sister as she went into one of those trance-like phases as her smile grew a little bit wider. "We can, as long as we can name one Tick-Tock... oh wait, he was a crocodile." She laughed as she shook her head. "But I think we can find some excellent names for our alligators."

[Virginia Grace]

“Of course silly. You’re only our sister and everything. Wouldn’t be very proper of us to kick you out on the street just because you wanted to go be a hunter and have all kinds of adventures and stuff. Besides, dad would probably get mad at us if we did.” Seeing that Hailey was getting a little shaken up again Genie wrapped her arm around her so nobody would see. She didn’t know what her sister had been through but obviously it had been a lot and there was no reason to have everyone standing around gawking at the crying Hephaestus girl.

Genie listened and laughed at Hailey’s alligator name. “I’d name at least one Harley.” She thought about this for a moment and then nodded in confirmation. “Yep that’s a right fine name for my alligator.” Genie was already making calculations and running figures in her mind as she thought about how to make things work. “We’d have to make it deep enough, maybe build some kind of digging machine but I think it could be done. Want to talk about it inside and then we can get you settled in and everything? I still want to hear about everything you’ve been up to recently.”

[Hailey Nichols]

Hailey was still in shock. This was the complete opposite reaction of what she was expecting and she was pretty sure Theo would be disappointed that she wouldn't be staying at the Hecate cabin forever and becoming their unofficial mascot. But at the thought of him, she blushed a little bit, but tried to play it off. Hopefully Genie didn't ask her what it was for, because then Hailey was in for a very long retelling of her story.

But she focused on naming their alligators. This seemed like a good thing to keep Hailey's mind off of the Hecate boy. "If we name one Harley," she said with a bit of a smile, "then we have to name one Quinn. And they must be the best of friends." Hailey wasn't sure if Genie would catch onto her reference or not, but there was talk of going inside and talking about what Hailey had been up to. Oh gods... she thought to herself as she forced a strained smile. She would do it at least for Genie. "Sure," she said as she nodded her head and took a step towards the cabin door. "We can do that. Is anybody else home?"

[Virginia Grace]

The whole Harley Quinn reference went right over Genie's head. As usual her brain was focused on machines with the occasional thought of alligators sometimes combining the two to consider machine-alligators as she was sure that would be fun too. She chuckled. "I was thinking more along the lines of Davidson but Quinn works well too. Anyways it wouldn't be a proper alligator moat without more than one alligator."

Genie led her sister towards the cabin wondering why Hailey seemed so skittish all of a sudden. Maybe she had some harrowing experience that she wasn't ready to talk about yet. That was fine but Genie hoped she would consider some girl talk later. She had been the only girl in a cabin full of boys for a while now and there were just some things the boys didn't understand at all. "I think we'll be the only two unless somebody comes home early. Everyone was at the forge or doing their own thing the last time I saw them.”

[Hailey Nichols]

Hailey figured that the entire comic book reference would go over Genie’s head. She didn’t seem to be the type of girl who was into that sort of thing, but Hailey couldn’t help but smile a bit. “I like Davidson,” she said as she shook her head. She was completely missing the motorcycle reference. “Or maybe we could have one named Gregory or Alberto. But we do need multiple alligators for our moat.”

But it was so weird to be back in the Hephaestus cabin again. The last time she stepped foot in here, her life was a lot different. She was a lot different. But knowing she would be the only person here along with Genie oddly brought a strange sense of peace. Maybe she could work herself back into the cabin one person at a time. She crossed her arms over her chest as she weakly looked at her sister. “So…” she said slowly. “How have you been, Genie?”

[Virginia Grace]

“Those are both pretty good too.” Genie said thoughtfully. “Sounds like we are going to need a lot of alligators.” This thought made her giggle as she figured that the two of them could go on discussing alligator names for a while. It wouldn’t do very good to get her hopes up though. Chiron would probably limit them on the number of alligators they could keep and it was no use having a lot of alligator names if you only had a few alligators.

Genie led them towards Hailey’s room figuring the girl might want to see it again after so long. As she did she continued with the small talk. “Oh I’ve been good. Things tend to stay pretty much the same for me. I’ve been working at the forge a lot lately trying to finish up a new chariot design, even strung up a hammock in case I wanted to take a nap. You should come by and see sometime. I know it’s been a while since you’ve been able to get your hands dirty in the forge and for me there’s nothing that gets me fixed up faster than banging away at some metal.”