Dreams (A PERCABETH AU)

Chapter 15- To Hurt and To Heal

Annabeth POV

Saturday 16th April

"Coffee?" The waiter offered me as I sat at the breakfast table with my mother. It was a grand piece of furniture with polished, dark mahogany wood and enough room to seat 20 people.

"Please." I smiled, touching my mouth as I swallowed a bite of poached egg on toast and held up my empty cup.

He was carrying it in a large coffee pot which was steaming at the top and permeating a glorious smell of caffeine through the air. The hot liquid was like a warm hug in my mouth as it slipped smoothly down my throat and I relished in a moment of sudden awakeness.

The weekend really could not have come any later but I was just so grateful it was here now. The past few days at school had been torturous. So torturous, I'm not even going to go into detail about it.

"Darling, are you alright? You seem miles away." My mother's charming voice rang out like silver bells. She looked perfectly radiant this morning in a long emerald green silk robe tied neatly at the waist. Her brown hair fell over her shoulders effortlessly in smooth, glorious waves. Her beauty never ceased to amaze me.

"Sorry." I shook myself a little. "I was just daydreaming." I lied. I don't really daydream anymore, I just reminisce and silently hurt inside.

She nodded but I could sense her worry. "So what's your plan for today? Shall we go out for lunch?"

"I'd love that." I smiled. I needed to get away. "I think I'll probably just relax for the rest of the day, get a bit of homework done, that sort of thing."

"Matthew don't hog the TV remote, share with your brother!" My mother shouted across the room to where my little brothers were fighting on the Living room sofa.

In the midst of their squabbling the News channel came on and my heart instantly dropped into my stomach. I'd recognise those two faces anywhere. The caption read:

Criminal Mastermind, Maxwell Hughes and Drug Dealer, Douglas Reed found handcuffed in an alleyway!

They had been on the News all week. Everyone was talking about them. Maybe a part of me was happy that these dangerous men were behind bars and were in no way capable of tormenting me anymore but mostly, all I could think about was how these boys had just ruined their lives.

"Monsters." My mother uttered. "They deserve whatever sentence they get."

She knew they had something to do with what went down at the theatre.

Suddenly, the screen switched to a mugshot of Octavia and my skin grew cold. There was a nasty taste in my mouth and I could feel the lump growing in my throat. The News reporter went on to discuss how he'd been arrested yesterday morning after they found him chained up outside New York Presbyterian Hospital with a gunshot wound on his left shoulder. He'd been bleeding out on the street in the middle of the night before they found him and treated him quickly before the police came.

A haunting realisation came over me and I bit my lip. Was it Percy? Was it Percy doing all this? Some kind of heroic search for the villains they had faced that night. What was he doing? He could get hurt!

I couldn't help but worry about how Octavia had come to have a bullet lodged in his shoulder though. Did Percy do that too?

My heart skipped a beat.

Matthew changed the channel to SpongeBob SquarePants when he realised the TV screen was showing something educational.

"Maybe we could make a reservation at that restaurant you like." My mother chimed, knocking me out of my thoughts.