Athena's Daughter

Cahpter Three

All characters belong to Rick Rordan as well as the story line.  This is what I think will happen next. 

Chapter Three

ANNABETH

Annabeth watched everyone's faces as Percy and her boarded the boat.  Silence greeted them and Annabeth knew what they were thinking, what they were feeling.  Was he real?  Is this really Percy?

"Hey guys," he said waving awkwardly and looking at Annabeth with a what-else-should-I-do-I'm confused face.  Annabeth laughed and the whole boat swarmed Percy in cheers and hugs and dire warnings to never leave her with them again.  Annabeth blushed suddenly self-conscious over how she had acted for eight months.  She had been short of temper, always close to her breaking point, she couldn’t concentrate.  Overall she had felt as if she had been back on mount Tam holding up the sky again and she realized how much she relied on Percy to see her through.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she watched the people she had treated so horribly the last few months gather around Percy and pat her on the back.  Even Clarisse had given Percy a quick hug leaving a startled Percy staring after her.  She decided it was time to put an end to the welcome home and begin gathering for the Senate meeting.  "MALCOLM, LYDIA, PIPER, LEO, RACHEL, CLARISSE LEAVING IN FIVE BE READY!" she shouted over the noise.  They all yelled back agreements and began to drag Percy towards the gangplank of the boat.

Once they were back out on the field  Annabeth instantly searched Percy out and grabbed hold of his hand still afraid that he would fade away if she turned away or wasn't holding him.  He smiled down at her with his goofy grin and she smiled back then leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked.  Percy let go of her hand and instead readjusted his arm so that it draped over her shoulders as if he knew what she needed.  She needed to be close to him.

"Where are we going?"  Clarisse asked.

"Senate meeting," Percy replied.

"Is that why your wearing that ridiculous looking dress Prissy," she asked.

Percy stiffened,  "Its called a toga."

Clarisse shrugged,  "looks like a dress to me."  With that everyone felt free to jump in with their comments on the toga, except Malcolm who tried to defend Percy.

"Hey guys, wait up," someone shouted and the greek group turned to see Jason hurrying up the walk with three others.  "Hey," he said a tad breathlessly when he caught up.  They all began walking again.  "How was the We-Found-Percy party?"

"It's good to see my family, you?" Percy laughed.

"It's good to be home," Jason agreed.  "Guys I want you to meet Dakota Centurion for the 5th cohort, Frank here is also a Centurion of the 5th cohort.  Can you believe he's only been here a month?"

Percy smiled and Annabeth could see that his eyes were laughing.  He was happy.  "You should see him in battle,  you wouldn't be asking that question."

"Percy, everyone know it was you," Frank said shaking his head.

"I don't remember telling myself to burst the water canyons in the war games or telling you to drag a ten foot giant ten miles on an iceberg just so that he was no longer in Alsaka," Percy snorted.  "All you."

Frank was blushing furiously.  "There's a story in there I think I want to hear,"  Jason said looking admiringly at Frank.  Then he pointed to the girl that was walking next to Frank.  "That's Hazel daughter of Pluto and Franks girlfriend."

Hazel blushed and waved slightly walking so closely to Frank that Annabeth thought she might be trying to hide in his shadow, which she had learned from Nico, was definitely possible.  They followed Percy and Jason and listened while Percy told them about the quest that him, Frank, and Hazel had all gone on.  Annabeth almost didn't notice that Percy had begun to tense up while Frank told them about their time in Portland.  Sudden jerking motions made her look up to see him making slashing motions at Frank, but Frank apparently wasn't listening and suddenly Annabeth was far more than passively interested in the story.

"...Anyway, so Percy, Hazel, and I  decide that we can't hand over Ella to Phineas.  She was just too nice.  So Percy get's this idea that maybe they can get Phineas to gamble with us. So we had back over to where Phineas is and Ella comes to and Percy tells Phineas that he won't give Ella over that easily and offers him this game of chance.  Now we were told that Phineas loves a good game of chance because he can't see small things only the big.  So after we explained the rules he was all like "yeah that sounds cool. "  So Percy puts down both the vials of gorgon's blood down on the table and Phineas picks the one he's going to drink and Percy grabs the other one and they both drink it," frank explained and Annabeth heard a smack from somewhere slightly above her.

"I'm sorry Frank, he did WHAT?!" Annabeth screeched

Finally Frank seemed to realize that telling your friends girlfriend that he had almost killed himself was probably not the greatest idea.  "Well he drank gorgon's blood, but he 's fine see, even helped him get his memories back and all, and really he was never in any danger," Frank squeaked.

Annabeth whirled on Percy to see him glaring at Frank.  "WHAT in HADES were you thinking?" she yelled at him.  "I could have lost you permanently, you could have jeopardized the whole world with that stunt.  I can't leave you alone for five minutes and a monster attacks you, but leave you alone for eight months and I discover you actually try to off yourself.  Are you CRAZY?!" she yelled.  People walking by were stopping what they were doing and watching to see what would happen next, but she didn't care.  She was just too furious

"Annabeth," Percy said softly holding her arms down at her side and looking into her eyes.  "I was never in any danger of the gorgon's blood.  Phineas was a minion of Gaea so I knew she wouldn't allow him to pick the right vile.  She wants me as a pawn to much for that to happen," Percy explained.

"She could have decided you weren't worth it," Annabeth grumbled.

"Annabeth Gaea either wants me to join her or she wants me to suffer  painfully for eternity," Percy said pulling Annabeth into his arms and kissing her on the cheek.  "She wants it so much she's not just going to hand me over to my uncle over a silly bet."

Annabeth took several deep breaths, taking in his scent of sea salt.  His smell always reminded her of the beach and she began to breath in time with her imaginary rolling waves.  Finally she pulled away from him.  "Don't ever pull a trick like that again," she growled.  He nodded and began to lead them again with Jason.  She noticed that the group was a little more subdued since her outburst but what did they expect.  Percy had done some stupid life or death stunts before but drinking gorgon's blood up and surpassed them all by a long shot, including the time where he blew up a volcano.  "Frank, please continue with the story.  I'm used to Percy's stupid stunts, but that was extreme even for him,"  Annabeth explained in the way of an apology.

Frank nodded and began to tell the story from where he left off saying only the Phineas had died.  Annabeth only half listened from that point on.  She was just too distracted by being back in Percy's arms and looking at the architecture of the camp.  Everything was built as if this was a little village in ancient Rome rather than the modern twenty-first century.  As she looked though, she began to notice the signs of a battle.  A wall was missing here and part of a roof there.  It wasn't bad and people were already fixing it up, but she became more attuned to what Frank, Hazel, and Percy were saying about their adventure.  If their story didn't answer her questions she would just ask Percy later.