Life Changes, A Percabeth Future Story

Chapter 2

Annabeth's POV:

Two months after we got engaged, we've told all of our family and friends, and received varying reactions. Sally, of course, was ecstatic, and our friends were also very excited for us. My mother, on the other hand, was less than thrilled. She's warming up to the idea now. My dad was... Well, he seemed happy for us, but he's... distracted. My step-mom was happy, though, and my little brothers seemed about as thrilled as you can expect a couple of middle-schoolers to be to find out their half-sister is getting married. Poseidon was surprisingly excited for us. I knew he wasn't totally against his son dating a daughter of Athena--at least not by this point--but I didn't expect him to be even more excited than most of our friends. It was... Odd to say the least.

Percy and I have begun planning the wedding, but we haven't completely decided much. We want to have it on the beach, during late summer or early fall, but nothing else has really been decided.

When, just after my 22nd birthday, I start feeling nauseous, I don't really think anything about it. I figured I had just gotten a stomach bug. I was also exhausted, but I assumed that a combination of the stress of both planning a wedding and a new job as an architect, along with being sick was the cause of it. Even when my period was late, I still didn't think much about it. Stress and being sick can both make your period late, so it didn't seem like a big deal. Besides, I had other things on my mind. Percy was concerned about me, but I kept telling him that I was fine.

It was only when I realized that I had been sick for over two weeks, and that my period was almost that late, that I finally went to the store, and bought... A test. I'm not really sure what I hoped for. I knew Percy would be happy, but I wasn't sure if it was a good time for us to have a baby. We had so much else going on-- the wedding, both of us having brand new jobs, and about a million other small things that made me feel as if we weren't anywhere close to ready.

When I got home, Percy was still at work. It was a Thursday, but I had taken the day off of work, because I felt especially terrible that morning. It was late afternoon, though, so he would be back soon.

My hands shook as I pulled one test out of the box of 3. I used it, and set it on the bathroom counter, but while I waited the 3 minutes the directions on the box said, I lost my nerve, and couldn't make myself look at it. I ended up sitting on the floor in the hallway until Percy got to the apartment we were living in. As he came in, I slowly got up and walked to the door. The moment he saw me, the smile he always wore as he got home shifted to a look of worry. "Annabeth, what's wrong?" He asked, frowning.

"Percy, I think I might be--" I couldn't say the last word. It caught in my throat and made me feel like I was choking.

He pulled me into a hug, rubbing my back and whispering soothingly "shh, whatever it is, we'll figure it out. It's okay."

Finally, I stopped trying to make the word come out, and just led Percy to the bathroom. He saw the test on the counter and the box behind it, clearly labeled "pregnancy tests". He looks at me, a question etched onto his face. He never actually asks it, but he doesn't need to. "Are you pregnant?" his face screams.

I hesitate, but finally say "I... I don't know. I haven't looked at it yet."

He smiles at me reassuringly and looks at the test. His face doesn't show enough emotion to tell me the results. He doesn't say anything for a minute. He finally takes a breath and says "So, one line means you aren't pregnant, right?"

A strange combination of relief and disappointment floods through me. I sit down on the edge of the bathtub. The world seemed to twist around me, and everything seems to be distant and muffled. Percy is saying something, but I'm not sure what. He sits down next to me and pulls my body into his. Slowly, the world goes back to normal, but the twisting and moving of the room has made me feel even more sick than the worst I've felt since this all began. I frantically pull myself away from Percy and lean over the toilet as the contents of my stomach come back out. Percy pulls my hair back as I heave, until there's nothing left in me to throw up.

When I'm finally done, Percy rubs my back and puts something into my hand. He says "I'm sorry, Wise Girl, I didn't mean to..." He sighs, and says "just look at it." For a minute, I think I must have heard him wrong, but I look down at the object in my hands. It's the pregnancy test.

There are two bright pink lines on it.

Heyyy! So... You know how in the description I said that I wasn't sure when Percabeth would start having kids? Well, I lied. I knew long before I started writing this that this chapter would happen, and I even knew exactly when. I have a lot of this story planned out already, actually.

Anyway, you know the drill: I hope you liked it, please comment. Thank you.

💖💖💖 Cam