You're Not Getting Away From Me

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: We Match

Annabeth's POV

Percy and I sat in silence for a long time, just enjoying being together without worrying about a quest. We sat without speaking until the sun came up and we could clearly see each other.

"Let me see your arm," he said softly to me. I reluctantly lifted it up, but even that hurt. Throughout the night, the pain had steadily grown worse, and now it felt like lava flowed through my veins. It has to be infected, probably with poison.

"It looks infected, Annabeth," Percy told me, voicing my thoughts.

"Yeah. I'm sure Will can fix it when we get back to Camp," I reassured him. He nodded and changed his sitting position. He flinched but tried to hide it from me. Of course, I noticed.

"What about your arm?" 

He showed me and said, "It's not nearly as bad as it looks. It's just a scrape, it just bled a lot." I could see that it wasn't very deep but his voice told me he wasn't lying anyway.

"So what hurts so bad then?" I asked.

"Nothing." He looked down.

"Perseus! Stop being heroic and tell me what's wrong."

He sighed. "Fine. It's still my back. Holding the sky and sitting on a hard surface for so long didn't help. But it's fine."

He is so stubborn. It's obvious he's in a lot of pain but he won't even tell me. But I don't have the energy to fight with him right now.

"So," I started, changing the topic, "how many days do you think have passed?"

"Oh, gods, I have no idea. I didn't even think about how much time passed in the... cell."

"We need to get back to camp."

"Agreed."

We stood up to leave. Well, I stood up. Percy tried and grunted, so I helped him up. He didn't protest, so I took that as a sign that he hurt, really bad. But he walked fine on his own, just a little stiff. Heck, I was stiff. Holding up the sky is no stroll in the park.

"I can't believe we had to do that again," Percy muttered, like he was reading my thoughts.

"Me either. But we did it, Seaweed Brain." I nudged him with my elbow and he grabbed my hand.

"Yeah, we did it. Together." Then he leaned down and kissed me, and all the pain disappeared. I could have stayed like that forever, but he pulled away. "Let's go get married."

"So... how are we getting home?" Percy asked me when we were far away from the mountain.

"Ummm... I cannot take public transportation right now. Sorry."

"I totally agree. But that doesn't help us. Plus, we need to get back to camp quick. And we don't have any supplies. Or drachmas, so we can't call anyone. And-"

"Trust me, Seaweed Brain. I know." I rubbed my temples, trying to think through the pain in my arm. Suddenly it came to me. "Let's go see my dad!"

"Why did it take us so long to come up with that?"

"I don't know."

A little bit later, we were at my dad's house. I knocked on the door and he answered.

"Annabeth! Percy! What are you two doing here," my dad started but he stopped when he took us in. "What happened? Come on in, hurry now, tell me everything."