Greatest Love Story- A Percabeth AU [On Hold]

Chapter 13

Percy's POV

I spent the entire day in the hospital waiting room, just waiting (duh) to meet my new sibling. This baby apparently couldn't decide whether it wanted to be early, or take extra long to enter the world, so it decided to do both. Apparently this combination was dangerous, but there was nothing the doctors could do about it, since everything they tried only seemed to make things worse. Every hour or so, Paul or one of the doctors came out to give me an update. I think they were trying to be as reassuring as possible, but it wasn't nearly as reassuring as they seemed to think it was.

When Annabeth arrived I felt a sudden surge of hope. Maybe now that she's here, everything will be okay. She crashes into the room, getting the attention of every person in the room, but it's her voice, barely even a whisper, saying my name, that gets my attention. I stand up and turn toward her, and the next thing I know she's in my arms. She says something and I whisper a response, but I don't remember a word of what we said. I realize we're both crying, but before another thought can enter my head, I feel a pair of lips press against my own.

I'm not sure if she kissed me first, or if I was the one to initiate it, but she doesn't pull away and neither do I. After a second, I deepen the kiss. My only thought is I'm kissing Annabeth Chase. This is really happening.

But suddenly I hear a voice coming from the doorway into the room. "Percy?" It's Paul. He must be here to give me another update on the situation with my mom and unborn sibling.

Annabeth and I break apart. She stands beside me, and I feel her hand slip into mine and give it a reassuring squeeze. I look at Paul, but I can't read the expression on his face. It's different from every other time he's come in here, but I'm not sure how. After a long pause he speaks again. "Percy, you have a sister." That must be why he looked different this time-- the baby's finally here. But he doesn't seem as happy as he should be. Instantly, a million worst-case-scenarios flash through my mind.

"What's wrong? Is my sister okay? Is Mom okay?" I'm panicked by now, and I can barely force air to enter or leave my lungs. The only thoughts in my mind are of my mom and the sister I haven't even gotten to meet. I'm barely aware of what's happening around me. Somebody forces me to sit back down in the chair I claimed when we got to the hospital this morning. Annabeth's hand is still in mine, and I cling to it. Somebody is talking, but the words don't register in my brain until I hear "Your mom's okay, Percy. She's alright." Annabeth is repeating it, her voice soft, soothing.

Slowly, I begin to calm down. My breathing is ragged, but at least I know I am breathing now. It still takes a while before I can speak, but as soon as I can, I croak out "What about..."

I can't finish the sentence, but I don't need to. Paul seems almost reluctant to tell me, but after a moment he says "She's in the NICU. The doctors are worried since she came so early and had such a rough delivery, but all things considered she seems to be doing well. They think she has a good chance of pulling through without any long-term issues." I breathed a sigh of relief. I know that what Paul said doesn't mean that my sister is guaranteed to be perfectly healthy, but she's alive and she has a good chance, so that's good enough for now.

A nurse comes in then, and takes Paul to the hall to speak with him for a minute.

I notice that Annabeth's hand and mine are still clasped together, but I make no move to separate them. I don't know if Annabeth has noticed our still-linked hands, but whether she has or not, she also hasn't let go. We sit in silence until Paul returns. I think about bringing up the kiss, but I'm not sure what I would say, or how she might react, so I decide against it.

Finally, Paul returns and tells us what the nurse told him. "We can go see your mom, Percy. She's still pretty tired, but we can talk to her for a few minutes. Then we can go meet the baby, okay?"

I nod and follow him to the room my mom is recovering in. Annabeth comes too, which I'm glad about, since we would have to separate our hands and I'm not sure if I'm ready to do that yet.

My mom doesn't seem surprised to see that Annabeth and I are holding hands. If anything she looks amused when she notices. She doesnt say anything about it, but I see her look right at Annabeth's amd my joined hands right before the amused smile appears, so it isn't hard to guess.

We don't get to talk to her for very long, because after only a few minutes a doctor comes in and says that my mom should get some rest, but while we're in there, my baby sister's name is finally revealed. Estelle Charlotte Blofis.

Estelle is after my grandmother, who died when my mom was a kid. I'm not sure where Charlotte came from, but it goes well with Estelle.

Soon, it's time to actually meet little Estelle Charlotte. Annabeth and I follow my stepdad to a room full of tiny babies in what basically look like clear plastic boxes. Most of them look sick and weak. Finally we reach my sister. She is just as small as all of the other babies in here, maybe even tinier, but she looks healthy. I make a vow to myself that I will never let anything happen to her.

She's asleep, but occasionally she kicks one of her feet or stretches an arm. Whisps of dark hair cover her head, and even though her eyes are closed, somehow I'm sure they're bright blue-green. I'm so entranced by my new sister that I don't notice Annabeth removing her hand from mine and walking away with Paul until they return. Just a few minutes later, a nurse comes over to tell us that visiting hours are over and we need to leave.

"Come on, Percy," I hear Annabeth say as she leads me out of the room, away from my sister. I want to fight to stay with Estelle, but the day has been so long, so much has happened, that I don't have the energy.

Baby Estelle is here! Yay! I looked on the fandom wiki (and didn't get sidetracked this time!) for as much info on her as possible (mainly just whatever details are known about her appearance, so I could describe her as well as possible), and found out her birthday would probably be in March, whereas in this story it's in September, or maybe October, so yeah. Please ignore the fact that Estelle's birthday in this story is in the wrong half of the year. Also, her middle name is Charlotte because I googled "middle name for estelle" and decided I loved the first suggestion on NameBerry (btw, thank you to boyandgirl on NameBerry for the suggestion).

After I published the last chapter, I spent a while trying to figure out why the part with Tyson reminded me so much of my cousin. Well, I finally figured it out. See, a few years ago, my mom's cousin-- who was like a sister to my mom amd uncle so she's basically an aunt to my cousins and I-- married a man that already had kids from a previous marriage. That, of course, made those kids my step-second-cousins (but unofficially they're just step cousins to my cousins and I). When I said something to my cousin, who would have been about 4 or 5 at the time, about us having step cousins, she got really confused because "step means that somebody died. We have cousins that died??" Of course, she comes from a very Christian family in a very Christian small town, so divorce is just not a thing in her mind, so trying to explain to her what it actually meant without saying something that her mother wouldn't want her to know was like walking through a minefield with an infinite number of mines in a finite space. In other words, it was impossible. So yeah, my cousin still doesn't know what "step" means in that context, and I have decided not to try explaining it again.

Anyway... Next chapter should be up soon, since I'm doing really well lately at actually writing a bunch, but again, no promises. Also, on the 19th, I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed, and I have no clue how I'll react to the anesthetics or the painkillers, so if I write anything then or in the week afterwards, prepare for... Something. I might write a few extra chapters that I don't publish yet beforehand, though, so I can still update and not completely disappear if I'm not feeling up to writing after surgery.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Blah blah blah, you know the drill.

Cam💖💖