#c:callum

It was safe to say that Annabeth was still fuming after the breakup and arrest of the closing party for the Greek Pride events. However, her anger had taken on more of the sharpness that was often displayed in her tongue and stony eyes. This was a field for a battle of words, not weapons— but thankfully she was equally confident in her ability to wield both. She waited patiently for whoever it was that would come in to interrogate her, secretly hoping it would be Fergus or Callum. Annabeth wanted to direct her anger at someone who deserved it, and though Maia had been present at the arresting as well— it had been obvious she hadn’t taken as much happiness in the proceedings as the two Roman men. Not to mention, she actually liked Maia...or at least- she had before today. Whether or not she still did would have to be decided on whatever conversation she and the daughter of Cupid had following this particular incident.

Callum rubbed his tired eyes. He had quickly taken a break and re-hydrated. After using his powers like that, he felt exhausted and could barely walk out of the Open Hearth. The one thing that kept him going was the anger he had inside him, which seemed to always be there lately. This time the flame had been rekindled by the fact that the Greeks had been hiding Greek Fire in the open hearth and the fact that Percy had drenched the venue to stop the fighting, wasting all of his own efforts in stopping the fight. He still had full armor on when he walked into the interrogation room, taking his Centurion helmet off as he entered the room. “Miss Chase. Centurion Hayes, but you knew that.” He placed his helmet onto the interrogation table and stood behind the chair he was meant to sit on. He placed his hands onto the back of the chair and used that to support himself. The world seemed to sway slightly; it was a good thing he didn’t get sea sick. “Please tell me your where-about for the course of today Miss Chase?”

Annabeth regarded Callum haughtily, her spine and posture not drooping an inch despite the discouragement she felt. She was determined not to let it show, and it didn’t as her slightly narrowed eyes met Callum’s. “Hayes,” she addressed him pointedly, purposefully leaving off his title. As far as she was concerned, he deserved absolutely no respect from her. Of course, he hadn’t been as bad as Fergus had in the raid, but he hadn’t done anything to help either. He’d even gone so far as to call the lot of them criminals. Her logical side was telling her not to make this difficult, to answer her question easily and truthfully, to get in and out. That would be the best way of preserving the peace between the Greeks and Romans rather than adding to the problem. But her ever-famous and all-crippling pride was far too much in the way for her to speak easily. “Just today? Aren’t you more concerned about what I was doing on the day of the Senate Fire? I think you know where I was today, Hayes,” she rolled her eyes as if mocking him. “The march. And then the Open Hearth. Where you decided to come stomp all over an event that was meant to be unifying us.”

Callum internally sighed as she started making it difficult. He didn’t have the time or energy for a difficult interrogation but kept his posture throughout her response. “Just today for now Miss Chase. Where were you when the raid started? You only arrived after we had found the Greek Fire. Between the time we started the raid and then, you were MIA.” He reaches for the file that was on the table and flipped through it. It was her record, which held no criminal offenses but instead, all the good things she had done throughout her lifetime. He really wished that it hadn’t been Annabeth, he appreciated her wit and would rather have had anyone else and left Fergus to interrogate the daughter of Athena.

Her lips pursed as he went for her file. Annabeth’s private life was one she treasured, even though her most heroic deeds and much of her life was public knowledge, she liked to keep other things close to her chest. Like her father’s name and occupation. Her birthplace. All things that could be found in her file. She didn’t like Callum’s eyes skating over it. “I was in the bathroom. Would you like all the details of that?” she huffed. “What could I have possibly been doing anyway that you’re so concerned about? Trying to hide the mountains of Greek Fire hiding in the cellar? If I’d wanted to do that...I would have succeeded.”

“Annabeth,” Callum started, trying to take a more personal approach, “I know you wouldn’t have started the fire. I was there, working with you, trying to put the fire out. If you had started it, why would you have tried to put it out? It doesn’t add up.” He admitted to her. “The sooner we can get through the procedure questions, the sooner we both can get out of here.” He had put aside the fact that she was Greek and looked at the other facts. He also knew that she would be angry at them, but all he was doing was following orders. Sure, he still considered Greeks to be clumsy and naive, but that was mainly because they hadn’t been trained. Maia had started him on the road of accepting Greeks. “I realize that you wouldn’t want to turn on your fellow Greeks, if it was even a Greek, but do you have any idea who could have done this?” He prepared himself for witty replies like, ‘isn’t that supposed to be your job?’

What kind of question was that? Obviously even if Annabeth had started the fire, she would have wanted to at least seem innocent. So of course she would have helped fight it. It would be strange if she hadn’t. Though of course, she wasn’t going to point that out to Callum. But why was Callum suddenly acting as if he hadn’t been eager to arrest her and her friends? His change in demeanor from the raid didn’t make sense, and she wondered if he was trying to play some bad cop, good cop game with her— only featuring himself as both roles.

“Of course if I knew who it was I’d tell you!” She was rather insulted by the insinuation that she would protect a Greek after they may have hurt New Rome. “And the fact that you don’t think I would just shows how ignorant you are of the Greeks and our viewpoint. New Rome is my home now. Or course I’d turn in anyone who tried to hurt it whether they be Greek or Roman! It’s the only place most of us can live in past the age of eighteen without getting attacked by monsters. And the only place most of us can truly decide to build a life. Haven’t you wondered why you haven’t met many older Greek demigods, Callum?” In her moment of genuine words, she’d slipped up and used his first name— as if she was interested in being cordial. “It’s because they don’t exist. They don’t make it once their time in Camp Half-Blood is over because the world is fraught with monsters out there just waiting to rip us apart. And once we’re outside that boundary, it’s a miracle if we make it past a few weeks.” If she truly wanted to gain the Greeks access to staying in New Rome free of bigotry, she needed them to see why they needed the city so badly.

“So why doesn’t Camp Half-Blood change their ways and make a Greek home for you guys?” Callum asked. It was something he always wondered. They have Cabins and a resident god, why can’t they be more than a summer camp? Maybe it was their Greek intuition that prevented them from thinking that way. “There were plenty of Greek demigods that made it past 18. Amelia Earhart, George Washington, who was your half brother and of course, Hercules.” He said, recalling the history lessons that the legion taught them. “With all this Greek Pride going on, it definitely feels like you would rather stand against us Roman assholes then betray a fellow Greek.” He said, his grip tightening on the chair. He finally pushed himself upright from the chair and walked around to take a seat, file still in his hand.

“I do not appreciate your tone in handling his Miss Chase. I understand that you feel you’re superior to me, or that perhaps I’m a Roman that simply hates the Greeks. But the truth is, something happened in my home too. It’s not just my home, but also every Roman’s home. It’s all we have. We don’t have a Camp to go back to, this is it. No Roman in this city, who is in their right mind, would harm it like this. And although Greeks say that it is their home too, it may still not mean as much as it does to a Roman. So please, just give me something!” He breathed too sharply after finishing his last word and caused his chest to expand rapidly, it stretched a muscle that had been bruised during the fight and he winced, showing a brief moment of weakness.

“You can’t build an entire city overnight, Hayes.” It had taken Annabeth long enough to build the cabin additions Chiron had requested when it was deemed that every goddess and god would be given their own cabin. Of course she’d been ecstatic to have the project, but it was minuscule compared to what building an entire city would be. And though she was more than willing to undertake such a job, there were many a hoop to jump through before such a thing would even be possible. With a smirk, she couldn’t resist adding. “Rome. Or even New Rome wasn’t built in a day.” She scoffed at his claim of there being ‘plenty’ of Greek demigods. “Three demigods hardly constitutes plenty.” Of course she could claim more than three, but that wouldn’t help the point she was trying to make. “And a few outliers doesn’t mean that everyone is as safe out there as they could be here.” 

She could care less about him disliking her tone. Annabeth had heard the same in many a place before. There weren’t many men who enjoyed it when an opinionated and intelligent woman decided to speak her mind. “You can’t possibly know for certain that no Roman wouldn’t harm the city unless you have undeniable proof they wouldn’t. And you don’t. All you have is your twisted bigotry and pride. And that’s the point! If you could just see past that you’d realize that there’s so much more we can accomplish together! How do you think ostracizing the entire Greek community is going to make us want to help you find whoever it was that did this? Why would we speak up when we’re looking down the barrel of a gun ready to go off at any moment? Look at what happened to Blossom, a literal daughter of peace. The person least likely to have done this. She was put in handcuffs and roughhoused. And you can’t possibly know what this city means to people— how much any Greek may love it. Because to think you can bottle that and measure it against your’s or anyone else’s is foolish. Not only because measuring emotions is relative and therefore unreliable, but because we shouldn’t be having a pissing contest of who loves it more. Shouldn’t you want to harbor any growing love for the city? Whether it be from Romans or Greeks? Imagine how much more powerful you could be if you allowed us to compare tactics as well as simply having a larger workforce and other endless benefits. But that won’t happen if you keep pushing us down! If you want to find who did this, stop treating every Greek as if they’re the criminal. You’re only hurting yourself, and our city.”

It was clear that Callum was becoming emotional as she listened to the desperation in his tone on his last words. “I want to help, Callum. I do. And I know that every other Greek wants to as well. But there’s only so much focus we can give to you and finding out who did this when we’re being arrested simply because you see the word graecus rather than an actual person standing in front of you. Greek Pride isn’t about taking anything away from Romans or coming after them. We were literally raising funds to help recover from the fire, actively helping the city. And you and the Senate decided to come along and arrest us? Greek Pride is simply about being proud of who we are, where we come from, and our heritage. And you may think there’s nothing prideful to be found in that, but just because our background is different to your’s doesn’t mean it’s anything less worthy than your’s. We’re not asking you to be proud of Greeks, just to respect us, and realize that we’re stronger together than at each other’s throats.”

Callum had tuned her out halfway through her speech. He sighed at the fact that this was going nowhere. It was frustrating that they couldn’t get to the bottom of this as fast as he’d like too. “Listen miss Chase,” he began, becoming formal again, “If you can give me one ounce of evidence, or some way to point the blame on someone else other than the Greeks, everyone in this building can leave. If not, I’m sorry, but you are all our prime suspects in this investigation. “ He flipped open her file and paged through it again. He wasn’t reading it, but rather just keeping his hands busy. “My hands are tied Annabeth, as one of the most intelligent and powerful Gree-- I mean, Camp Half-blood members, surely there is something you must know? Don’t tell me that you didn’t conduct your own investigation after the fire or at least have a list of suspects?”

Annabeth’s gaze hardened once more as Callum refused to even acknowledge what she had said. “You won’t listen to what I have to say unless it’s incriminating of someone. Even when I’m telling you how you could make New Rome stronger. Tell me, Hayes. How does that equate to loving New Rome? It’s not just about revenge for what’s been done to our city. And if you let yourself be blinded by your anger, and want for revenge...you’re not going to come out of it unscathed. And you’re not doing you, or your city any favors.” Annabeth wasn’t meaning it as a threat. She’d seen what had happened to Luke, though she preferred not to think of it as it often left her feeling sad and weak. “Your hands are only tied because you want them to be. You could raise your voice, encourage others to do the same. You could appeal to the Senate. But you don’t want to. You’re the only one holding yourself back.”

Her eyes slipped away from his as she thought to her own digging she’d done after the Senate Fire had turned out to be more than just an accident. Of course she’d taken up her own investigation, just as Callum had said. She wouldn’t be Annabeth Chase if she hadn’t. But she hadn’t come up with any specific names. The last thing she wanted to do was help Callum, but if helping him meant that he would in time maybe be open to helping the Greeks...perhaps she had to extend the first olive branch. “You’re wasting your time looking for the who when you’re just focusing on Greeks. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. You need to focus on the why. What’s come of the Senate burning down? Who’s reaped the benefits of it— if anyone has? Once you figure out the list of why’s, it’ll help narrow down the who. Get rid of some of the hay before plunging in.”

Callum shook his head as she said that his hands weren’t tied. Of course they were. “It’s not that simple. You can’t go up against the senate and not expect any consequences.” He could lose his Centurionship, he could lose his position in the Third, hell, he could even be kicked from the Legion. He listened to what she had to say, about finding the ‘why’ instead of the ‘who’. But who would burn down the Senate? Was it a political statement? Perhaps it was for fun or pleasure? And then why hide the Greek Fire in the Open Hearth? To Frame the Greeks or because it was the closest thing to hide it in? Perhaps it was the easiest place to access? Why not in the secret tunnels? They must have not known about the tunnels? Who didn’t know about the tunnels? Annabeth’s advice had sparked so many unanswered questions that Callum had literally frozen while going over everything in his head. He sighed and then stood up, walking over to a window that was made of one way glass, as if he could see someone standing behind it. He then nodded and turned to face the daughter of wisdom. “Thank you for your co-operation Miss Chase. You are now free to go.”