A New Discovery

Chapter 8

It took only a few minutes for the pair to come back and once they did it got pretty intense in the previously calm room. Annabeth looked pretty rough but overall unharmed which Percy was relieved to see. When Annabeth walked in she looked over at Percy quickly and then turned away. It was only a fleeting moment of eye contact but Percy immediately felt a lot better about how this would turn out. He remembered what Aphrodite had said to him weeks before about her gift and could only hope that it reached this aspect of his love life as well.
    Once the doctor and Annabeth sat down it was only quiet for a minute before Dr.Solace started their session. "So, let's start off simple. Annabeth has things to say to you, Percy, and I'm sure you have things to say to her as well. Annabeth?" He said looking at her expectantly.
    She looked nervous but eventually looked up from her hands and near Percy. "I-I'm so sorry Percy." She looked back down after she said that and then continued. "I said some, terrible, things to you and about you. It was in a moment of complete insanity, and although that certainly doesn't excuse my actions, I hope that it will help you understand." She looked back up and into his eyes pleadingly before breaking contact.
    Percy just looked down at his hands that had ended up curled into his lap before finally speaking. "I-I want to say that I understand you, or that I feel bad, but I don't. Not fully anyway, but I am willing to forgive you and try to reforge our friendship." He said looking at her nervously before looking back down. "Before the war, just before everything really, we had such a strong connection and I would hate to lose that, but by the gods, if something like that ever happens again I will never forgive you. I have been through so much Annabeth, so much. Things I haven't told anyone and I don't let that affect the people around me. Things that I have gone through before I ever even knew I was a demigod, things that disgusted me. Made me disgusted with myself, and when people you love say such horrible things about you, it hurts Annabeth, it really hurts.'' At this point he was crying but had too much to say that he couldn't stop. "You know-you know that I would never, in my life, hurt you or anyone else in my life purposefully. What happened in Tartarus, you can't possibly believe that I was in my right mind either could you?" Eyes full of pain and betrayal looked up at Annabeth and she burst into tears shaking her head.
"Of course not, and I'm so sorry Percy! I know how hard it was! We were there together, but that doesn't mean that all of what I said didn't happen! What happened with Misery did happen! And I was terrified Percy, gods I was so scared, but I know you were scared too. I was just too naive to notice. I was worried about the world and myself, and in that moment I remembered that we were just children, and you, you were terrifying Percy." She was sobbing hard now but still continued anyway. "I always just think, w-while we're on quests, that it's just a mission, and that we'll be okay because our parents are watching, but down there they're not, and when you did that, I just couldn't anymore Percy. I knew then that this wouldn't work, that after witnessing that, I wouldn't be able to love you like that, but I tried Percy, I really did."
The two teens took a few minutes to compose themselves while the adults sat quietly leaving them to calm down before continuing. The doctor was happy with how the session was progressing even though they had just cried and not actually talked things out. It was good for them to get their own feelings out. He had told Annabeth before that just giving in to Percy wouldn't work out well for either of them and that she would need to stand her ground a bit. She was in the wrong in the situation and they all knew that, but she was still just a traumatized teenager, and she didn't know what she felt besides fear and anger at the time.
"I think that this is going very well you two, and I think that it is very brave of you both to tell eachother how you feel. It's good to get things out in the open. Now I have some questions that I think could benefit us all. Would you mind leaving for a bit Chiron, just so I can get the kids by themselves?"
"Of course." Chiron said, nodding and then wheeling out of the room, closing the door behind himself.
"Now, Percy, why don't you tell us how camp has been since the incident and how you've been handling things?"
Percy looked up with panic clear in his eyes before looking back down and giving in. He knew he would have to tell Annabeth about his relationship with Nico and he wasn't embarrassed, just nervous. If he was being honest, he was kind of scared of her now. She had really scared him with her yelling during her freak out.
"Well, uhm, it's been okay. There's a lot of people that have been coming up to me asking about what happened and what you meant but mostly it's been quiet. No monster attacks and we've continued to play capture the flag every week. I, uhm, I got a boyfriend too actually, thanks to Aphrodite somewhat but still."
Annabeths eyes widened at his words but she wasn't mad, just confused and maybe a little hurt. "Oh yeah? Who is it? And what did Aphrodite do?"
"Oh, well it's actually Nico, and as for Aphrodite, apparently she knew that we wouldn't last after the war and all the gods had been blessing the seven with things they thought would help them recover from the war. Her gift to me was Nico, and eventually Jason and Leo too. Jason and Leo are dating already and she said that we would eventually get together. Her excuse was that we would all need support after the war and so far it's been really good." Percy explained and Annabeth just smiled kindly back at him.
Her heart kind of hurt because of how fast he had moved on but it made more sense after learning that Aphrodite was involved, and she knew that they wouldn't get back together anyway so it was okay. "I'm glad that you found your people Percy. I truly do want you to be happy and have a good life. I'm also thankful that you actually came to see me. I have been so worried about you, just hoping you were alright but obviously I didn't hear much about you from Chiron and Dr.Solace." she said kindly with a smile still present. She wanted her gratitude to really show so that there was no doubt in Percy's mind.
"How about you tell us some things about your stay here Annabeth, I'm sure it would be welcome to hear of your recovery from your own perspective." The doctor said after a second.
"Sure," She said nodding, "well, I obviously came here and was extremely upset. I was mad at everyone pretty much, I just didn't really understand. In my mind I was just telling the truth and people were not believing me, but I slowly got a grasp on things after a while and realized what had happened. Dr.Solace had many sessions with me and Chiron visited constantly and eventually I felt that I was ready to see you and so did the doctor and Chiron. It was difficult to be here and relax for so long actually because of the usual training and responsibilities at camp, but eventually I learned to relax and focus on myself."
Percy smiled slightly at her for a bit before looking back at his spot on her shirt. It was a trick he had been taught by the doctor that would help with his aversion to eye contact and it had helped him greatly. It was weird for him to hear about her talking about her little trip into insanity but ultimately he was glad to hear that she was past it.
"I'm glad you are better now. Do you think you will come back to camp anytime soon?" This is something he had really wanted to know.
"Well based on how this is going it is possible that she will go back with you, we'll have to continue the session to see though." Dr.Solace interrupted their conversation before they got too into it.
Their session continued on for a few more hours mostly with Percy and Annabeth getting reacquainted and figuring out how they felt about the situation before they finally stopped for dinner. It was a happy meal and they were all very satisfied with their session's results. Dr.Solace fully believed that Annabeth and Percy would be okay and that she would be able to integrate back into camp. He knew that Percy would take care of her well and that he wouldn't let anything happen to her when they got back.
                ~end chapter 8~
Hey~~ sorry for the long break. I had a school break and was just super busy with life. I will hopefully be writing more and getting a chapter out next month. Let me know what you think should happen next in the comments and vote if you like the story so far. I would love feedback from you. Also, we reached over 400 reads guys!!!!!! I'm so excited about it you have no idea. Anyway i'm gonna go read now. lol bye~~~.