When We Were 'Us'

Painful Remembrance- Annabeth POV

We drove in silence, except for Luke's occasional muttered directions. He was tense, I could see it from the way he was sitting in the seat. I leaned forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. He twitched in surprise, then relaxed and reached up to grab my hand.

"Almost there, right?" Percy turned the steering wheel carefully and we pulled around the corner onto a small road that had long driveways stretching from it. "I was here once with Nico, but we shadow traveled there and I didn't see much since we landed basically on the front lawn."

"You were at my mother's house?" Luke sounded surprised. "Why?"

"Nico wanted to check some things. I tagged along cause he basically told me to come then grabbed me." Percy shrugged.

"This is it." Luke suddenly said, his voice soft. Percy stopped the car in front of the drive way he pointed to and slowly turned onto the gravel path.

"Alright, here we are." He parked the car in front of the rather plain looking house.

I opened the back door and pulled Luke's wheelchair out. Percy walked around the car and opened Luke's door. Together, we helped the older boy into his seat and Percy shoved the door closed with his hip.

There was no patio in front of the door, which was helpful with the wheelchair. I wheeled Luke up and Percy rapped his knuckles across the wood sharply.

"One moment please!" A man's voice called. Luke frowned.

The door opened to reveal a middle aged redheaded man. "Hi, can I do something for you?"

Luke spoke up, his voice wavering for half a moment before he got it under control. "I-I'm looking for a woman by the name of May Castellan. Is she here?"

The man frowned. "May Castellan? That name seems familiar.... Honey?" He called into the house.

"One sec, Jesse's being fussy!" A woman's sweet voice shouted from the back of the small building.

Luke was fidgeting awkwardly. I placed my hand on his shoulder again.

"So are you kids from around here?" The man asked.

"Yes," Luke said, at the same time I said "No," and Percy said "sort of."

"Whoa, one at a time, kids." The man chuckled.

"I'm from California." I told him.

"Manhattan area." Percy said, lifting his hand slightly.

"Here in Westport." Luke finished.

"Really? Interesting." The man smiled at us.

"Okay, I got him to go to sleep. Hi!" A very peppy blonde appeared in the doorway.

"Babe, do we know a May Castellan?" The man asked.

"Yes, silly, remember? She lived here before we did." The blonde smiled.

Luke made a quiet choking noise and I squeezed his shoulder.

"Are you looking for her?" The woman asked, turning to us.

"Y-yes." Luke stuttered out.

"Well the caretaker left an address-"

"Caretaker?" Luke interrupted.

"Yeah, they sent her to an assisted living home. She's not fit to live on her own anymore." The woman said. "Such a shame, she seemed like a nice woman. A little off, but sweet natured. She was always insisting that her....son, I think....was coming back, but he hasn't been around for years and they finally decided to move her."

Luke sucked in a deep breath of air.

"Something wrong?" The man asked, looking concerned.

"I'm....I'm her son." He finally managed.

"Oh. Oh!" The woman exclaimed. "Would you like the address? I'll go get it for you!"

It didn't look like Luke could answer easily at the moment, so I smiled and nodded at the woman. "That would be wonderful."

She nodded and ran inside.

"You military, son?" The man asked politely. "Injured in action?"

"Something like that." He responded tightly. His hand was gripping mine again.

"And you? His girlfriend?" It took me a moment to realize he was asking me.

"Mine, actually." Percy smiled.

"We're his close friends." I added.

"Here it is, here it is!" The woman came into view again, holding a piece of paper. "Sorry about that, it took me a minute to find where I had put it."

"Thank you." I took the paper from her with a smile.

"Good luck finding her, son." The man said with a smile.

"Thanks." Luke grunted.

I wheeled him back to the car, watching his shoulders shake. This had been his childhood home when he was young, undoubtedly it had memories to it.

"Can I see the address?" Percy asked as I helped Luke into the front seat.

"It's in my back pocket." I told him.

His hand slipped into my jeans pocket and he kissed me on the cheek as I straightened up.

"Shall we head towards our new destination?" Percy asked, waving the paper.

"Yeah." Luke said shortly. "Yeah. Let's go."

Percy put the car in reverse. "Alright. We are on our way."

[A/N Yes, May is alive. I'm still deciding how she's going to act]