Troubled

90

time skip--four years
chapter ninety
annabeth

"It's cold out there," Percy commented as she ushered me into Sally's apartment building. He shivered as he shut the door behind us.

It was a cool, crisp evening in New York. Whatever had remained of summer was now truly gone, but that was to be expected in November.

I slipped Percy's jacket which he'd given me off my shoulders and reluctantly handed it back to him. He draped the jacket over his arm and offered me his hand as we climbed the stairs to reach Sally's apartment.

"You ready?" Percy asked me as we both abruptly stopped at Sally's apartment door. His hand quickly found mine as we laced our freezing fingers together.

I nodded, turning to look at Percy. "It's babysitting Estelle, I'm sure it'll be fine. We've done this, what, hundreds of times?"

Percy chuckled nervously and nodded, still staring straight ahead at the door. "Yeah, you're right. Anyways, I just hope my mom and Paul will be home in time for us to make our dinner reservation."

"We can always cancel it," I responded, and Percy made a sound like he was choking. "Percy, are you feeling alright? I'd hate to get Estelle sick...."

"No, I feel fine," Percy assured her, winking at her. "Just a little cold and tired. I'm fine, I promise you."

I raised an eyebrow but decided to let whatever was on his mind go as to not ruin our evening. "So, shall we knock or do you wanna stand out here for a couple more minutes in this freezing hallway?"

"Ha ha, very funny, Chase," he said sarcastically as he dropped my hand to knock. "I hope my mom made blue cookies..."

Before I could respond the door swung open to reveal Sally. I felt warm air and the smell of cookies as we walked inside.

"Percy! Annabeth!" Sally greeted as she pulled each of us into a surprisingly bone-crushing hug. She ushered towards the kitchen and for us to follow her. "Come on in, I made a batch of blue cookies. They're just out of the oven, exactly the way you like them."

"Yes!" Percy whispered, a grin appearing on his face. We followed Sally to the kitchen where a platter of blue cookies sat awaiting us.

Percy instantly grabbed several blue cookies and started munching on them, causing me to playfully roll my eyes. Percy just shrugged as he downed another blue cookies.

"How are you, Annabeth?" Sally asked as she approached me, a warm smile on her face. She was wearing a nice, dark green sweater and black dress pants. Her graying hair was curled and pinned back and she had several bracelets on her wrist along with her wedding ring. "How's everything at work?"

"Well, I don't want to bore you with architecture," I said with a light laugh, "but everything's going great. I've just become head of a new project, we're going to be building a banking headquarters."

Sally instantly pulled me into another hug, which caused me to grin. "That's great, dear! And don't worry, you'll never bore me with that type of stuff, I'm married to Paul, after all!"

Before I could respond a streak of unruly brown hair rushed into the room and instantly hugged my legs. I grinned as I reached for Estelle, pulling her into a hug.

"Hey, Estelle!" I greeted as I pulled her close to me. "How's my favorite?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Percy interjected, earning an eye roll from me. "Now, Estelle, why do you always run to Annabeth first? I'm your own brother!"

Estelle shrugged as she held onto me tighter. "I like Annabeth better."

Percy gasped, clearly shocked. "Wow, my own sister likes my girlfriend better than me. I'm hurt."