Disclaimer: If PJO was mine, I'd probably have a bunch of fans jumping down my throat for answers. Fortunately, Uncle Rick has that wondrous pleasure.

A/N: I am back! If you're reading this, you've most likely read my preceding fanfiction, Beautifully Flawed. If not, that's okay too...

Annabeth didn't like the way that man was staring at her. He sat in the corner, licking his chapped lips. He was homeless. Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest and turned to the side, but after a while she had been fed up. When she told him off, he simply yelled that his name was Fred and turned over on the metal bench and went to sleep.

The room was freezing, the metal bench was uncomfortable, and her hands started cramping from being in the same position in the long-since removed handcuffs too long.

Feeling as if she was about to pass out, she stood up and started pacing. No way was she going to fall asleep with that creep in the corner. She walked up to the bars and started tapping, and then humming, then singing under her breath, feeling the most bored he had ever felt in her whole life.

The man standing in front of the cell hit the bars. "Be quiet," he murmured. And that was the first time she completely acknowledged the fact that there was a guard standing watch on the other side of the bars.

"Hey, guy! When am I allowed to go home?" She called out to the officer on the other side of the bars. About an hour ago, this guy had switch shifts with the other officer who seemed to be falling asleep. But he ignored her. He was average height, maybe a little taller. The way his uniform fit on his body indicated he was strong, but of a thin and wiry build, and he was probably one of the faster officers who could out run the others in a chase. What really caught her attention was the faded and worn black strip of fabric going horizontally across his sleek black hair.

She slid her arm through the bars and jabbed him in the back, hard enough to get his attention. He yelped, and she didn't fail to notice how his hand discreetly reached towards the Taser on his belt.

She raised an eyebrow. He was scared of her-or at least worried about what she was capable of. When he finally turned, she squinted at him. "Wait...I know you." He was something of a Japanese descent, and the strip of fabric was an eyepatch that was torn and frayed at the ends.

"Of course you do," he said with little emotion. And then it clicked. "Ethan Nakamura?" And suddenly she felt a wave of repugnance towards him. Ethan was her older brother's ex-best friend. He was an okay dude, he and Annabeth had never really been close, but she kind of formed a respect for the way he was so set on his goals and would stop at nothing till he achieved them. But that changed the second he tried to force himself on her when she was 14. She broke his nose (it looked like a squashed tomato) and she and Luke had beat him so bad he was in the hospital for three weeks.

"I was kind of surprised to see you here in handcuffs. I never would have imagined being the one putting you in a holding cell," he smiled warily, as if testing the extent of her remaining anger towards him.

"Yeah," Annabeth said icily. "I always remembered the roles being switched."

"Hm. I deserved that. But, I've changed, Annabeth, and clearly you can see that. I mean, what I did was clearly horrible and disgusting, but I was a really horny, and really stupid seventeen year old."

She glared at him. "When am I going home?" she asked again. He sighed. "Technically, you shouldn't be going anywhere until the captain gets this all figured out. We called your parents and they refused to pay for your bail, and the only other person on your emergency contacts file was Luke, but he never answered his phone."

Annabeth's face flushed in anger. Her parents, of all people, were the only people in this world that let her down the most. Two years ago, she was a famous actress and singer, but she quit the Hollywood life because she was tired of the lack of privacy and wanted to go to college. And also the realization that her family was taking advantage her success and money to make themselves rich and didn't even think twice about calling her for a thank you or just to catch up.

"I dug further and found another number. So we made contact with your fiancé-"

She face palmed. "Ex-fiancé. I should've taken him off that stupid contacts list."

"Anyways, he should be here in a few minutes. As for the release papers, I've got everything sorted out so you should get your clothes back and get out in about fifteen minutes. And, um, if you were wondering about this little visit showing up on your records, don't worry. I know how much your education means to you and I pulled some strings to make sure it all turned out okay."

You know nothing about me, she thought, and then what he said finally sunk in.

She blinked, caught off guard. Then she nodded, the indifferent expression once again overcoming her features. "Why are you doing this?"

Ethan shrugged. "Well, I believe that I owe you a lot. If I were in your position I would probably seek revenge and do everything in my power to ruin my life. But, I think it's time to make things right before Karma the Bitch comes around and bites be in the ass."

She appreciated his blunt honesty and the fact he wasn't overwhelming her in fake apologies.

Six and a half hours. That's how long she'd been held in legal custody. True to his word, it only took her fifteen minutes to change into her clothes and fill out a few papers.

She waited outside in the cold, sitting on the curb and playing with a frozen puddle. She waited outside long enough to watch the sunrise, but the beauty was dampened by her terrible mood. After about an hour, she was convinced to just go back inside and wait till Ethan's shift ended so he could take her home not matter how awkward it would be.

A deep blue Volvo pulled up uncomfortably close, and she slowly stood up, ready to give a creep a piece of her mind. But then the window rolled down to reveal the smiling face of Percy Jackson, her ex-fiancé and friend since she was twelve.

The tension was palpable. At least, for Annabeth it was. Percy seemed to be completely at ease, annoyingly tapping his finger on the steering wheel while humming something.

She felt like she was sitting next to a complete stranger. It was hard to imagine that, over ten years ago, they had been inseparable.

For the past twenty minutes, she did nothing but stared out through the window. She hadn't seen Percy in three months, after he broke up with her- no, sorry, they had a 'mutual breakup'. And if Annabeth was being honest with herself, she looked like utter and complete crap.

And she wasn't ashamed to admit that she wanted to make Percy see what he was missing out on. To show that she was better off without him. So much for that plan.

Staring out the window, she traced her finger over the small and almost unrecognizable swirls of frost on the glass

Percy kept glancing over at her, an easygoing smile on his face. "Relax, Wise Girl. It's just me. I'm not gonna hurt you." Despite his soothing tone, his words did nothing to console her. "I mean, I know you hate getting in trouble, but it's not big deal. If it was, they probably wouldn't have put you in the holding cells and instead place you in prison to wait for your trial. Knowing you, whatever you did probably wasn't even that big. What did you do, anyways?"

Annabeth sighed heavily, and Percy laughed. She placed her forehead on the chilling glass, the cold soothing her pounding headache. "That bad, huh?" He teased, laughing.

She huffed and told him what happened.

[flashback]

Annabeth was about to pass out. There was no other way to say it. All her energy had been burned out working a double shift.

About a month after she moved into the college dorms, Annabeth figured out soon enough that she had to get a job. So her best friend Thalia Grace had gotten her a job at 'Golden Age', a diner a few minutes away from her school.

Working all the time while maintaining one of the highest spots in her classes always left her tired. They reminded her of the 'Before Days', when she never had a break from the celebrity scene and was constantly fatigued. She called it that because those days were before she had a real chance of experiencing life and having fun, not being restricted by everyone's expectations, disapproval, and constant surveillance.

She had wanted to go back to college, but the one she originally went to didn't accept her again, which utterly devastated her. After he most recent- and last- movie, Annabeth had made a whole bunch of friends with the cast and crew. She found out that some of them were volunteers from a college in Manhattan. It was a school of all kind of arts, not just performing, and they accepted Annabeth in a heartbeat as a major in architecture. One of the main reasons she applied to the school was because she wanted to surround herself with the love she felt when she was with her 'family'.

Work was more demanding than usual, and she'd had her fair share of ridiculous customers.

One of the families she served had an annoying little brat that reminded her of her own little brothers, which wasn't a good thing. The obnoxious pest kept getting in her way, and one time tripped her which ended up with all the food on the floor and her face in a bowl of mac'n'cheese. The edge of the bowl had collided with the side of her face, and she ended up with a curve shaped bruise on the outline of her cheekbone. He teased her about that too, and his mother did absolutely nothing. Annabeth wanted nothing more than taping the little boy to his seat and shoving a sock in his mouth.

Thalia had given her several 5-hour-energy drinks, but it did nothing but leave her feeling worse than before when the effects wore off.

When her shift was over around midnight, Thalia offered her a ride to the school dorms. But she had stupidly declined, because it was too much work to get visitors past the stubborn guard who refuses to let anyone that wasn't a student pass unless they had their student ID and they signed several papers. And, the biting cold outside should wake her up.

The key. She didn't have the key to her dorm room. Piper apparently was at some party at the guy's dorms, so she couldn't just wait around for her roommate to get home. If she even came home tonight.

Annabeth sighed, searching through her bag for the millionth time. But it wasn't there. She retraced her steps. The kid. During her break Annabeth had gone into the back rooms to retrieve a book from her back, and the little nuisance probably followed her and stole the key. Far-fetched theory, really, but who knew? It wasn't like his mother would stop him anyways.

She looked around. Their room was at the end of the hall, next to a window, and no one else seemed to be around this late. Everyone was either bombed, sleeping, or studying.

Annabeth pulled a bobby pin from her hair and was thankful she chose that today of all days the hair falling in her face was annoying.

Successfully unlocking the door, she pushed it open and…yelled. "What the hell?!"

The lump in her bed fell over to the floor, tangled in her sheets. Less than a second, he stood up, wide blue eyes staring back at her. "Wha-who the hell are you?"

He tried to run past her but she grabbed his arm and stopped him. He shoved her off and she lost her footing, falling back on her butt and narrowly avoiding hitting her head on the edge of her bed.

The guy turned back around and held out his hand, seemingly to help her up. She narrowed her eyes and kicked his shin and stood up, facing the stranger.

"Why're you here?" she demanded. He stumbled a bit, and even in the four foot distance he could smell the alcohol. It was possible Piper might've left the door unlocked and he thought it was his dorm room.

He shoved her away and tried to make a run for it to the door, but she grabbed his leg and tripped him. He crashed into the dresser, one of Annabeth's picture frames knocking over and shattering.

She tackled him and they tousled around on the ground, and more than once Annabeth felt the sharp sting of glass. After a few minutes, she finally got the upper hand despite how obviously strong he was even in his drunken state. Straddling his waist tightly to prevent him from getting free, she put her elbow against his neck and lifted her fist.

"Ma'am, back away from the student." A voice behind her said urgently. When she hesitated, she heard the unmistakable crackle of a Taser.

"Stand up slowly and put your hands behind your head."

Annabeth sighed heavily. This was going to be a long night.

HI! What do you think?

I know this chapter is a little boring at first, but I swear it gets more interesting.

Guest that was the only one who reviewed the previous Shattered Elysium: thank you so much! It probably would have been months before I realized my obvious mistake.

I have a random question: If you ever got arrested, what would it be for? For me it would probably be stealing from a bookstore or something. (^_^)

Update: I made another mistake (geez!) and posted chapter two as chapter one. I guess you got a sneek-peek!

Oh yeah, and take a wild guess who it was in Annabeth's room.

Review!

~Greekfreak302