NEVER BE THE SAME . . . percy jackson

thirteen: the battle.

BROOKLYN DID FALL asleep, and even though she'd woken up a few times, she felt pretty much asleep for the next, like, day or something.

But when she did come to, she saw Annabeth at her bedside, working on her laptop as she absentmindedly wiped sweat away from Brooklyn's forehead or readjusted her blanket.

"Shouldn't you be, like, leading a battle or something?" she muttered, raising a hand to rub at her eyes. It took more effort than she wanted.

Annabeth didn't seem fazed. "There's no fighting happening," she reported, not even looking up. It reminded Brooklyn of her mother, which caused a rush of anger to seize her in its grasp for a moment before it faded, replaced by pain from her wound. "Percy, Thalia, and Grover are at a meeting right now. Otherwise the former two would be here."

"I want to see Thals," Brooklyn muttered under her breath like a child. "It's been so long since I've seen her."

"That's what happens when you get stabbed and your body's too tired to keep you awake," Annabeth commented. Then she finally looked over at Brooklyn. "That was really heroic," she told her. "What you did to save Percy. Even though he's invulnerable."

"Yeah, well . . ." Brooklyn felt smug at knowing where his weak spot was and Annabeth didn't, but she was too tired to show it. "Achilles had his heel, didn't he?"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at Brooklyn. "It's you," she said.

"What?"

"Percy's Achilles heel. It's you."

"I wouldn't say that."

"He likes you. A lot. I've never seen him happier than when he's with you," Annabeth admitted.

Brooklyn frowned. You're lying, she wanted to say, but that wouldn't look very couple-like of them, wouldn't it?

"He talks about you all of the time, did you know that? 'Brooks won her volleyball tournament' this, 'Brooks dragged me into this stupid situation' that. And he's been so angry since you've been hurt. But he kept coming back to check on you whenever he could." Annabeth sighed wistfully. "I used to be jealous of it. But now . . . now, I'm over it. He's really happy with you. But are you happy with him?"

Brooklyn blinked away the other realm that was flickering in her vision, admitting: "of course I do. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me. He's just . . ." she trailed off, before saying, "he's too good for me."

Annabeth stared at her, not knowing what to say, but Brooklyn was too tired to talk anymore, and she closed her eyes and willed herself to fall asleep. She didn't know if the gods were listening or not, but they did grant her wish.

* * *

When Brooklyn woke up, she forced herself to get up. She couldn't move her right arm at all — ugh, that was her good arm — but she got her armor on, albeit with a shit ton of pain, hefted her club and a nearby shield, and she set off in search of someone familiar.

Luckily, she didn't need to go far. Percy was sleeping in the room just across from the terrace. How cute. He probably shouldn't have left the door open, but whatever.

She walked over to his bed and was just about to scare him awake when he jerked awake, banging his head on her shield.

"Ow!"

"Shit, sorry!" Brooklyn stifled a laugh, though she did feel apologetic. "I was just about to wake you up."

Percy rubbed his head, his eyebrows furrowed and his face scrunched up into his thinking face.