Crossing Paths[Sequel to You're My Everything]

Chapter 19: This is Serious

Percy
Christmas 

My head poked through the surface of the water, and I shook my hair so all the water sprayed everywhere.

"Percy!" Turning around,  I saw a woman with blonde hair–I couldn't make out her face, though.

"Sorry..." I said timidly.

"You are the worst." she huffed, treading water. I took her in my arms.

"Oh yeah? World's worst husband over here. Mhm."

"Shut up."

The amazing dream ended when I felt a hard pounding on my gut. My eyes snapped open. Annie was jumping on me, whispering, 'get up, get up!'

"I was having a good dream, ya know." I said grumpily.

"So? It's Christmas!" I rolled over and looked at my phone. Sure enough, it was December 25th.

"So it is. However, it's also four in the morning." Annie looked guilty, and I felt a tiny twinge of guilt.

"But we have to make cookies. It's a tradition to wake up early and make cookies." she gave me the puppy-dog-eye face. Why did she have to get it from me?

"Fine. Give me five minutes."

 •••

"What color?" I asked.

"Blue."

"That's my girl." 

"Can I put the coloring in?" she asked me.

"Go ahead." I said, yawning.

"By the way, Annabeth texted you around midnight last night." I spun around, now fully awake.

"What were you doing up that late with my phone?!"

"Rosalie and I were talking. Anyway, when we stopped texting, Annabeth texted you sorry and something about possibly not being able to come today because of some personal thing." Annie shrugged.

"Oh. Thank you for telling me. In the future, no stealing my phone. Even it's to to talk to your friends." I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, I get it. I won't do it anymore. I'll just save up for my own phone."

"Goodluck with that." I said, putting the cookie sheet into the oven.

"Those will be ready in a few minutes. Help me put the presents under the tree?" 

 •••

It wasn't until around ten when Mom, Paul, and Estelle showed up. Annie immediately took Estelle upstairs to show her how we'd rearranged her room.

"So Percy." Paul began. "A fishy told me that you and Annabeth are planning on taking a trip after Christmas." I turned away to get a cookie.

"That was an idea. We don't actually know if we're going to."

"I'm surprised she isn't here already. You two practically already live together." Mom smirked.

"We do not. I don't think she's coming today. Some family thing." I read the text again; So sorry Rosalie stole my phone. I don't know if I can make it tomorrow–personal issues. See you next Monday, hopefully.

Sighing, I took a bite out of the huge blue chocolate chip cookie.

"I see." she said. The front door slammed, and I saw Thalia, Nico, and Naomi walk in, all looking rather grumpy. Will followed behind, carrying a large box and running into a wall.

"You four are rays of sunshine." I said.

"Yes. We are bursting with joy." Nico rolled his eyes.

"Can you not tell when someone's being sarcastic? What's up?"

"Will made us wear christmas sweaters." Thalia grumbled angrily, taking off her jacket. I'll admit, her sweater was horrendous. It was bright red with green pom-poms, bells, and a huge, out of proportion hood.

"Thals...don't tell me you four have matching sweaters." I suppressed a laugh. Nico and Naomi begrudgingly unzipped their jackets, and I couldn't help it–I burst out laughing.

"Perseus you are dead to me." Nico growled.

"Gotta catch me before ya kill me!" I got up and ran away.

 •••

Once everyone was here(minus Annabeth and Rosalie), and everything was under the tree(it was a huge tree), we all opened presents. Every year, we get each other one gift each, since there are a ton of us, then we bring one thing to a yankee gift swap. It's a thing we've been doing since we were kids, and it just stuck.

"Percy, hand over the cookies." Piper said, sliding the can of coffee to me. I raised my eyebrows as I passed her the tub of cookies to her.

"That must have been a hard choice. You love coffee."

"Not more than I love Sally's cookies." Mom grinned.

"My cookies bring joy to everyone." she said.

"Piper?" Hazel looked her in the eye.

"Hazel?"

"My turn with the cookies." Piper glared at Hazel before handing them to her.

"Who steals cookies from a pregnant woman?" she mumbled under her breath. 

"Me." Hazel hugged the tub. Estelle was about to demand the cookies when Mom's phone rang.

 •••

Sally

I picked up my phone, confused. I didn't think anyone would be calling me today. 

"Hello?" I asked. I heard sobbing from the other end.

"I-I'm sorry S-Sally, I-I didn't know who e-else to ca-all."

"Woah, Annabeth, calm down. What's wrong?" I stood up and walked into the hallway, away from you.

"L-Luke...he took her!" she said through her tears.

"Luke took who?"

"R-ros-salie!" I nearly dropped my phone.

"Honey, where were you when this happened?"

"I-I'm in Boston w-with my c-cousin. I stopped to g-go int-to a gas st-statin and when I got back, L-Luke was dragging h-her aw-away."

"How long ago?"

"About ten minutes a-ago." she took a deep breath, calming herself down. "I already called the police, but they haven't found anything. I needed someone to call, and you were the first contact."

"Okay. Do you need me to come?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Okay. I'll be there in a few hours. I'll keep my eye out. Do you want me to bring anyone with me?"

"No. I-I'm sorry a-again."

"Annabeth, dammit don't be sorry! This is serious. I will be there in a few hours."

"Okay."

"Call me if anything changes. Bye." she hung up, and I ran a hand through my hair, heaving a heavy sigh.

•••

SO. I really needed something other than romance to move the story along. Originally, I was going to have a cute little Percabeth Christmas moment, but then I decided against it because I wanted to add in something dark. And a child being kidnapped is a fucking dark turn.

~Kenzie