When We Were 'Us'

A Most Remarkable Thing- Annabeth POV

[Title note: I am now stealing from published authors]

As soon as I heard the quest was back, I dropped what I was doing. Luke had been gone with them for almost three weeks, and he hadn't told me anything about where they were going or what they were doing.

Leo had claimed that he was given a prophecy by Rachel, but that he wasn't allowed to share it because the Oracle told him to keep it to himself. I didn't fully believe that, but if he had a reason for not telling us it was probably good. He was pretty truthful most of the time.

He'd picked Will and Luke to go with him. That made me suspicious, but I couldn't exactly call him out on it. Luke assured me that he could take care of himself, and Will told me he'd watch out for him.

"I'll always need you," he had said, "But I want to be able to go on quests. I'll come back to you when we're done, I promise."

'You're not his mother, Annabeth.' I reminded myself. 'He's an adult, he'll be fine. And he wants to prove himself, let him.'

I could tell where Luke was in the crowd because there was a ring of empty space around him so he could maneuver.

"Girlfriend coming through, out of the way!" Someone shouted.

I grinned at the little thrill in my chest when I heard that. The group split so I could get to the center.

Luke waved, moving a little stiffly. "Hi Stormcloud."

"How did it go? Did you get hurt? What happened?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, Annie! One question at a time." He put his hands up to stop me. "Lets go sit somewhere and you start over with those questions. Slowly."

I chuckled and let him lead the way. He was moving very gingerly as he pushed his wheelchair, which worried me, and after about ten feet I grabbed the handles of the chair.

"Where are we going?"

Luke shrugged, then grunted. "The library?"

We'd been building more to the camp since there were more kids here now. My favorite building that had been added was a huge library of books translated into Ancient Greek. There was a front room that was set up sort of like the commons of a dorm, where people could sit and hang out, talking or reading.

I wheeled Luke up the ramp that I'd made sure was put up, into the lobby. We made our way to the sliding doors and inside slowly.

"Let's go in the far corner." Luke pointed. It was my favorite spot anyway.

"Okay, let's get started with the questions." He smiled when I'd wheeled him over to the chair in the corner and sat down myself.

"How did it go?"

He shrugged. "Not bad. No one died, we really didn't have many attacks. Quiet and frankly, boring. I missed my Stormcloud."

I raised my eyebrows. "Really? Lucky."

"I don't believe in luck." Luke smirked.

"Of course you don't. You know there's a goddess of luck?"

"Oh yeah, but does she really do anything?"

I rolled my eyes, smiling. "Okay, now tell me what really happened?"

"What do you mean?"

He pulled off a pretty good 'innocent as a lamb' face, but the problem for him was that I recognized that expression.

"Luke. What happened."

Luke took a deep breath and leaned forward. "It's a really good thing you're sitting down..."

"What do you- oh my gods!"

He was definitely unsteady on his feet, but gods, he was on his feet! I couldn't process it right away, but once my mind caught up with what I was seeing, I jumped to my own feet and threw my arms around him.

Luke hugged me back, and I could feel him laughing.

"You're taller than I remember."

"So are you." I pulled away and held him at arms length. "What- I- How? You were on a quest- you better not have lied to me-"

"Leo made up the quest to get Will and I to Camp Jupiter."

"Camp Jupiter?"

Luke nodded. "Jackson found an experimental surgery to fix paralysis. He ran it by this tiny little prodigy at the hospital in the camp and they agreed to try it. Leo didn't even tell me what we were doing until we had gotten there."

"Jackson... I guess I owe him thanks then."

I got a shake of the head.

"He said it's payment for what you did at Olympus. He was... surprisingly helpful, despite the fact that I stole his girl." He grinned.

"Stop it." I laughed, shoving him lightly. "Oh gods- sorry!"

Luke flopped down into his chair again, waving me off. "I'll be fine. Got some appointments with Doctor Sunshine for a while, but I'll be back and better than ever in no time. Old man's the god of speed and medicine, isn't he?"

"One of those is right." I snorted. "Saying your dad knows about medicine is giving him way too much credit."

[A/N my Luke has several books on his account by the way. Both good. I'm helping edit one. Also there's more of our snarky interactions so go follow him and read that on LordOfThePen

The end is almost here for this one, and then I'm saying ciao to Wattpad (tbh I'll probably check up on it occasionally), I do have a book that's all updates on my original work]