I do not own any of this. Percy Jackson belongs to the beloved Uncle Rick and the storyline goes to the amazing Michelle Do for her play of the same name.

"Get the heck away from me!"

Annabeth furiously pushed away the all too eager bachelor seated across from her on the settee.

"What is wrong with you?! You think it's okay to just come into my house and start necking me the first minute we are alone together?!"

The man, Luke, sauntered over and got dangerously close to Annabeth's face.

"Hey now, I didn't do anything you wouldn't want to do. I would make it enjoyable. With a woman as gorgeous as yourself you should be use to this."

He leaned in to try and seal his lips on hers but was stopped by a sudden stinging on his left cheek. She had actually slapped him.

And it felt good. "You louse! You must think you're a real Sheik if you can come here and act like this. But you're not, and I never want to see you again." Annabeth pointed to the door.

Luke stormed off in a fury, but not before turning back to utter one last taunt. "You'll be lucky to find a man half as good as me." With that he strolled out of the Chase mansion with a mission to find a more submissive and less opinionated wife.

What a louse. He'd be half as lucky to find a woman as opinionated as me. Maybe then he'll get some proper manners thumped into that big head of his.

Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief. Why her father kept pushing bachelors at her was one of the most misguided notions that she had ever been a part of. Sitting on the settee, she picked up her current reading obsession and started gazing at the words and letting the sentences create pictures in her mind.

Of course this small peace she had created would not last long, for her father entered the room with ever mounting disappointment.

"He's gone already? Did you even give this one a chance?" Frederick Chase scrambled to the door to see if he could catch Luke before he got too far away, but returned to the sitting room melancholy.

"I didn't need to give him a chance. He just came in here and started necking me." She said all this with indignation and without taking her eyes off of the book in her hands.

Frederick groaned aloud, "Why don't you ever consider the men that I try to introduce you to?"

"Because, that was the 27th..."

"57th", Frederick cut in.

"...man you've tried to make me fall in love with. And I want nothing to do with them."

"Why was I cursed with such a beautiful daughter that hates men?" Frederick sat on the chair opposite the settee with his hands in his hair and elbows on his knees.

Because, your beautiful daughter has more common sense than most of these men have in their entire bodies. Just because I'm attractive doesn't mean I want a man to love me for that reason alone.

Annabeth stood and walked around to lean on her father's shoulders. "You know I am more than just a pretty face. I have thoughts, question, opinions, and debates that I want to experience. My whole life is not surrounded by men trying to woo me because of my physical beauty. Besides, I want someone to love me despite what I look like. I want him to still love me when I'm old and greying and saying nonsense."

Frederick laid his hand on top of hers that was resting on his shoulder. "I know that. It's just that I want you to find the love that your mother and I had."

Annabeth closed her eyes and sighed. It was getting easier to acknowledge her mother's death, but that didn't make it any less painful that she was gone. "I always imagined that you and mom were the poster couple for true love. When I was little I imagined that she was Sleeping Beauty and you were her prince to kiss her."

Frederick smiled and reminisced about his late wife. Athena was the center of his whole world; and when she passed not two years ago, it was almost unbearable. He looked up at his daughter and was suddenly struck with how terribly lucky her was to have her with him and not married like he previously insinuated. Without his precious Annabeth he would be face down in a ditch somewhere wallowing in his own depression and despair. It was Annabeth that reminded him that he always had a piece of his wife with him, living through their daughter.

"Who's to say that I wasn't a prince? I'm hardly a Prince Philip, but I did have certain quality about me that had the ladies swooning at the sight of me. Luckily your mother got to me first with a vice grip and scared away any other girls that even breathed near me."

"Was it love at first sight?" Annabeth asked.

"It was more, intimidating at first sight. Of course she was beautiful, and that terrified me, but when she spoke, it was like you were speaking to a professor. She knew about things that I only pretended to be interesting in, just to impress her. She could go on for hours about science, politics, and economics. She was really something."

"Not unlike another young lady that you so happen to love and cherish," Annabeth added in. It felt good to joke around with her father again.

"Not unlike another you lady that I love very much." Frederick smiled and patted his daughter's hand lovingly. "Just, promise me that you won't push away a man if you think you're falling for him. Promise me that you won't shut yourself out. You'll never find love if you keep putting walls up."

Annabeth rubbed his shoulders affectionately and sighed. "I promise. Besides, if I do, then I am doomed to be a Fitzgerald romantic for the rest of my life. And we wouldn't want that would we?"

"Of course not. I need grandchildren after all. Now, why don't you put down your studies and go out shopping or see a show? We don't have to work now with the money coming in."

"I know, it's just that I like reading and learning more. I may not know a lot about being a hopeless romantic, but I love reading about them." She giggled and gave her father a hug as he stood to put on his coat and hat. "Now where are you off to?"

"The speakeasy down the street."

"Now dad, are you sure you should be going. After everything that's happened..."

"I know, I learned my lesson, and I promise to back home in one piece and not singing God Save the Queen."

"Thank you. Now go have fun, I'm just going to finish this chapter."

"I'll be back soon. I love you, owl." Frederick kissed the top of Annabeth's head and he headed out the door whistling a jazzy tune.

Annabeth watched him go out of the large front windows and sighed. He wants grandchildren, but I want to make something of myself. As promised she finished one more chapter, but not of her romance novels that many young girls fawned over, but an architecture book; and inside those complicated pages, Annabeth finally felt that day, content.

God Save the Queen- national/royal anthem in Commonwealth realms, territories, and the British Crown

R&R