When It Fades To Black: Percabeth AU

Wake Up

(All story line rights go to ChasingFreedoms)

Percy POV

I just got off the phone with Piper. One. Damn. Day. I didn't see her one day, and suddenly she flatlines and goes into a coma. I finally realize how much I love her, and I'm ready to admit it and she's under. I throw my Chemistry Book at the wall.

I calm a bit, thankful that my mom and Paul aren't home. I pick up my keys off the wall, write a quick note to my parents, and drive off to the hospital. 

When I reach Annabeth's room, I demand an explanation from Piper who is already sitting next to her friend, her eyes puffy. Jason, Leo, Hazel, Frank, and Nico had ridden with her, cramped in her old Chevy and we're currently standing around, waiting for Annabeth to wake up. Hoping.

Though I addressed Piper, it is Jason who speaks, "She went into cardiac arrest and they we're able to revive her... but the human body can only take so much." He won't make eye contact with me. 

I collapse on the floor just as the door bursts open, admitting Thalia. Everyone in the room takes a step back. It's obviously Thalia's day off, because she is clothed in a grey shirt and pants, a knife strapped to her hip, and a bow and quiver of arrows over her shoulder. 

The nurse follows Thalia in, yelling, "No weapons in the hospital!" Then, "Security! Security!" Thalia just rolls her eyes.

A man bursts in the nurse says, "Terminus! Thank you! Tell this girl there are no weapons inside this hospital!" 

Terminus says, "No weapons inside the Pomerian Hospital property line." 

Thalia sighs and unstraps her quiver and her knife. Terminus waits for the bow, but she says, "What am I going to do with a bow and no arrows? I made this thing, and I'm not just going to hand it over to some semi- competent underpaid security guard." 

Terminus, angry and unable to find a good come back, buffs and leaves, The nurse does too. Frank asks the question of the hour, "Why do you have a bow and arrows anyway? And where's Luke?"

Thalia shrugs and says, "Luke has been called out of city on special duty. And as to the bow, some of my friends and I go upstate on our days off. We hunt and camp for a day or two." 

With that sufficient explanation, we all shrug and the room quiets. It stays like this for hours. Eventually, Frank, Hazel, Nico, Leo, and Jason leave, excusing themselves by holding Annabeth's hand ad telling her they love her and that they will see her when she wakes up.

Days go by, with Annabeth never moving, never making a sound. Everyone visits, but Thalia and I hardly ever leave. It's spring break week now, so I am not missing school, but I wouldn't care anyway.

On the sixth day of Annabeth's coma, Thalia and I sit in silence, not even noticing when the lights clicked off, signalling night. Thalia eventually dozed off, but I was too restless to even contemplate such an action.

And then I hear Annabeth whisper, "No. Please. Please. Oh gods no."Its the first time I've heard her voice in almost a week. I try and shake her, hoping she'll wake up, because the nurse said people in comas almost never talk.

She doesn't wake and instead says, "Percy will hate me if he ever finds out. He'll hate me. They all will." 

I look kindly at the girl I am so in love with, feeling my eyes and face soften. I whisper, "Annabeth, I could never hate you. I love so much. Just please wake up."

Annabeth POV

I fight the demons shoving me in the dark. I know I'm dreaming, or maybe in a coma. I'm not stupid. I know I want to get back to Luke, Piper, Thalia, and Percy. I'm trying. For once in my life, I'm fighting back.

That thought brings me back to the current fight. But I know that I'm still losing. I can feel them shredding my clothes their hands touching places they were never meant to go.

In the dark I whisper, "No. Please. Please." I feel one of the shadows get closer to my body and I whisper, "Oh gods no. Percy will hate me if he ever finds out. He'll hate me. They all will."

Then, as though I'm outside my body, I hear, "Annabeth, I could never hate you. I love you. Just please wake up."

Those words give me the strength to fight. Oh, how I fight.

Finally, my eyes flutter open, but it is still dark. Am I not awake, have I not beat back the shadows?

And then my eyes adjust, and I see Percy, his head hung low on my right, and Thalia, sleeping lightly to my left. I smile to myself, look over again at Percy's defeated posture and say, "What's wrong seaweed brain?"