Grover ate the rest of his chopstick and shook his head.
Sen snuck into the kitchen, grabbing whatever she needed. She decided to just make a full vegetarian meal, since Grover would definitely want to pick at the food- though he wouldn't admit it. And besides, most of the meat wasn't labeled, and Sen didn't want to accidentally eat Apollo's sacred cattle. She ended up just going for noodles and vegetables. She felt pretty miserable about everything.
When she got back to the living room, Percy was shooting awake, his hands around his throat.
"Percy?" Grover called from the other sofa. "Are you okay?"
Percy tried to calm his breathing. Sen set her giant bowl aside and propped up some of Percy's pillows. She handed him some water, and he killed the whole cup in about five seconds.
"What- What time is it?" Percy asked.
"About two in the morning." Sen answered.
"I couldn't sleep." Grover said. "I was watching the Nature Channel." He sniffled. "I miss Juniper."
Percy rubbed  the  sleep  out  of  his  eyes.  "Yeah,  well... you'll  see  her  again soon."
Sen sat down at her feet and started sadly eating her food.
Grover  shook  his  head  sadly.  "Do  you  know  what  day it is,  Percy?  I  just saw it on TV. It's June thirteenth. Seven days since we left camp."
"What?" Percy squinted. "That can't be right."
"Time  is  faster  in  the  Labyrinth."  Grover  reminded him.  "The  first  time you and Sen went down there, you thought you were only gone a few minutes, right? But it was an hour."
"Oh." Percy said. "Right." He paled. "Your  deadline  with the  Council  of  Cloven Elders."
Grover  put  the  TV  remote  in  his  mouth  and  crunched off  the  end  of  it. "I'm out of time." He said with a mouthful of plastic. "As soon as I go back, they'll  take  away  my  searcher's  license.  I'll  never  be  allowed  to  go  out again."
"We'll talk to them." Sen promised. "Make them give you more time."
Grover  swallowed.  "They'll  never  go  for  it.  The  world  is  dying,  guys. What  you  did  today- saving  the  ranch  animals  from  Geryon- that  was amazing. I- I wish I could be more like you guys."
"Hey." Percy said. "Don't say that. You're just as much a hero-"
"No  I'm  not.  I  keep  trying,  but..."  He  sighed.  "Percy,  I  can't  go  back  to camp  without  finding  Pan.  I  just  can't.  You  understand  that,  don't  you?  I can't face Juniper if I fail. I can't even face myself." His  voice  was  so  unhappy  it  hurt  to  hear.  Grover, Sen, and Percy been  through  a  lot together, but Sen had never heard him sound this down.
"We'll  figure  out  something." Sen said.  "You  haven't failed.  You're  the champion goat boy, all right? Juniper knows that. So do I. And so does Percy." She fed Grover a forkful of noodles, and he bit off the whole thing, leaving Sen with a silver rod.
Grover closed his eyes. "Champion goat boy." He muttered dejectedly.
He fell asleep.