Natasha's Secret

Chapter 9 - YOU WERE THE CAT?

"Frank?" Annabeth asked, her voice wavering and her knees feeling weak.

"Hey, Annabeth," her old friend said, his voice raspy and his lips cracked.

Annabeth pointed her dagger at him, "You're not Frank, Frank died years ago, along with everyone else, who are you?" She was almost yelling at this point but she honestly couldn't care less.

Someone thought that they could just show up and pretend to be one of her long lost friends that dies years ago and they would get away with it? Not on her watch.

"I am Frank, I swear," Frank hung his head, his frame was much smaller than it had been the last time Annabeth saw him, though he was still massive.

"Who is that, Mommy?" A small voice spoke from behind Annabeth and she jumped, having forgotten that Luke was there.

"Luke, run and get Aunt Piper, stay inside," Annabeth instructed, she heard Luke's feet run from the alley and sighed in relief.

"Look, I have a son and a family, I've been trained to torture when I need to, who are you?" Annabeth way stepping closer to the thing that looked like Frank.

"Listen, Annabeth, I am Frank, I escaped the monsters and I turned into the alley cat you've been feeding for the past three years, I wasn't killed by the monsters, but the did manage to... do things to me. I couldn't change back into a person but I always tried. Today I tried and I could," Annabeth nearly dropped her dagger.

"You've been that cat for the past three years? And you never made it known to us?" Annabeth felt hurt, had he just been hiding from them for three years?

"I tried to get you to understand, but it's really hard to communicate with people when you're a cat," Frank tried to smile but winced. Annabeth noticed how weak he looked.

"When Piper gets here-"

"When I get here what?" A voice came from the opening of the alley, Annabeth turned around to see Piper in a stained hoodie and some black leggings.

As soon as Piper caught sight of Frank, she froze, "Frank," she whispered, her face pale.

"Hey, Piper," Frank gave her a small smile.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!" Piper screamed after a moment of silence, giving Annabeth a shocked look.

"I don't know, Piper, care to explain?" Annabeth directed her words at 'Frank' who looked sad.

"I am Frank, I swear, can you please give me some water or food? I haven't eaten in a few days," Frank did look quite skinny, but he had been living as an alley cat for the past few years which Annabeth assumed would do that to a person.

"Yes, come on, we'll get you something to eat," Annabeth grabbed Frank's arm and pulled him up so he was standing.

He was still considerably taller than her but looked weaker than ever.

Piper and Annabeth helped Frank into their apartment and sat him down on at the dining room table.

Annabeth went to get a glass of water and some leftover Chinese food from a couple of days ago.

Annabeth returned to see Piper bombarding Frank with question after question, which he answered truthfully to her knowledge.

"Why didn't you try and tell us you were a cat?"

"What was I supposed to do, keep pawing at you until you though 'huh, maybe this cat isn't actually a cat, it might be our dead friend'?"

"Why weren't you able to turn back into a human until today?"

"I tried every day, it never worked until now, they must have cursed me or something, I really don't know,"

"Do you know if anyone else is alive?"

Frank went quiet, his eyes watering, "I don't remember anyone actually dying, all I can remember is a lot of screaming, even Reyna was screaming," Frank closed his eyes and a single tear slid down his face, Piper looked like she wanted to cry too.

"Reyna screamed?" Annabeth asked, almost dropping the water she was holding before pushing it in front of Frank.

"It was terrifying, I've never heard Reyna scream in fear before, in all our years of working together as Praetor, not once," Frank looked like his mind was far away and he jumped when Piper put her hand on his arm.

Piper suddenly sobbed and wrapped her arms around him, "I'm so fucking happy you're alive," her face was streaming with tears as she clutched onto him.

Annabeth joined her, clutching onto Frank and crying.

"I never cry, I've cried twice today, what's wrong with me!" She said exasperatedly which made Frank laugh.

"Mommy! Why are you crying, why is aunt Piper crying, who is this, where is that cat?" Luke appeared out of his room clutching his Nemo plush.

"Luke, this is Frank, he's an old friend of mine, he wanted to meet you so badly, but we thought he was dead. Frank was the cat. Can you turn back into it?" Annabeth asked Frank and he shrugged.

"I could try," Frank closed his eyes, and there stood the alley cat, shabby as ever, Luke looked amazed.

"SO COOL!" He yelled and Annabeth laughed, Frank turned back into himself.

"We have to call the boys!" Piper said, her eyes wide, Annabeth nodded and motioned for Piper to get her phone out of her pocket.

"Hey, Luke, do you want a snack?" Annabeth asked and Luke nodded excitedly, running towards the kitchen.

"Frank, I'm so sorry we weren't able to notice sooner, would another alley cat let my son pet them and pull their tail?" Annabeth laughed and Frank grinned, grabbing the cup of water and taking a drink.

"I called the boys!" Piper yelled and smiled sinisterly, "I didn't tell them what happened, just that they should be here as soon as possible," Annabeth rolled her eyes at her best friend.

"Nico and Will have dinner with Rachel tonight, they probably won't be coming until tomorrow morning but Percy is on his way here and he promised to pick up Jason on the way," Piper said and Annabeth nodded.

The three of them and Luke sat down on the sofa (after Frank had taken a shower and eaten) and tried to update Frank on what was happening in their lives.

Annabeth heard the door open and looked around to see Percy and Jason frozen in the doorway, Jason dropped his briefcase and Percy dropped his water bottle.

"Frank!" Percy yelled before engulfing him in a bone-crushing hug, Annabeth smiled and tried to enjoy her night but a thought didn't leave her head.

What if the others are alive too?

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