Till Death Do Us Part

Separate Lives

Chapter 9- Separate Lives

"Happy birthday, Percy!"

Nico greeted his friend as he made his way towards the door of his office.

Katie Williams told him to go straight ahead because whenever she rang Percy to inform him of any visitor, he did not answer.

"Bloody hell Percy! What the heck are those files doing at your desk? Look at this mess."

He sat surrounded by folders, mock-ups, drawings, designs, reports. It was enough to keep ten men busy for a year. "Sit down, Nico."

"Thanks, boss." Nico couldn't resist teasing him.

"Oh, shut up. What's with the files you brought me?" He ran a hand through his hair and sat back in the heavy leather desk chair he had grown accustomed to. He had even gotten used to the impersonal prints on the walls. It didn't matter anymore. He didn't give a damn. He never looked at the walls, or his office, or his secretary…or his life. He looked at the work on his desk and very little else. It had been two months. "Please don't tell me you've brought me another set of problems with that damn shopping center in Singapore. They're driving me nuts."

"And you love it. Tell me, Percy, what was the last movie you saw? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? That was ages ago. Lord Voldemort is now dead. No more death eaters. If you ask me I'll go to Dumbledore and ask him to give you a potion or would you prefer Professor Snape? "

Percy looked at his friend. A truly Harry Potter fanatic! He smiled and continued reading the files in front of him. "So what's with the files?"

"They're a decoy. I just wanted to come and talk to you and of course greet you Happy Birthday."

"It doesn't mean anything to me now Nico. All days are the same. They're all boring days."

He said as he thought of Annabeth. Nico looked at his friend with pity. He's ruining himself with work, and more work, and lots of work.

"So what's up, Nico? How were the Hamptons this summer?"

Nico sat very still for a moment, watching him, before he answered. "Do you really care?"

"About you or the Hamptons?" Percy's smile looked pasted on, and he had the ghostly pallor of November, not September. It was obvious he had gone nowhere all summer. "I care a lot about you, Nico."

"But not about yourself. Have you looked in the mirror lately? You'd scare Bellatrix Lestrange with that uncombed hair. It's like you just came out of Azkaban."

"Gee, thanks."

"Don't mention it. Anyway, that's why I'm here."

"On behalf of Bellatrix?"

"No, mine." Nico laughed. "Mom and Dad want you to come up to the Cape this weekend. They do. I do. We all do. And listen, if you say no, I'll come across that desk and drag you out of here. You need to get out of here." Nico wasn't smiling anymore. He was dead serious, and Percy knew it. But he shook his head.

"I'd love to, Nico. But I can't. I've got that project in San Francisco to worry about, and forty-seven thousand problems with it that we just can't seem to solve. You know. You were in that meeting yesterday."

"So were twenty-three other people. Let them handle it. For a weekend at least or is your ego such that you can't let anyone else touch your work?"

But they both knew it wasn't that work had become his drug. It numbed him to everything else. And he had been abusing the job since the day he walked into the office.