PROLOGUE

TRAGEDY. That's what the principal had said over the intercom at the start of that fateful Thursday morning. Annabeth Chase, one of the school's most beloved students, had committed suicide. She was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room, her neck snapped as her body weight forced the noose to crush her windpipe. Everyone that knew Annabeth, and since they lived in a small town everybody knew her, was utterly devastated and distraught.

Two people in particular were reeling from her sudden disappearance - Piper McLean and Percy Jackson. One her best friend of many years, and the other, her boyfriend for three years running. Both of them quietly left school that day after the message on the intercom, and their teachers didn't do anything to stop them. They both found themselves walking in silence towards the Chase household, each struggling to process the horrible turn of events.

Just yesterday, Annabeth had been laughing brightly on the phone as she discussed the AP US History homework with Piper. Just yesterday, she held onto Percy's hand as they walked across their small town and joked to themselves, occasionally kissing if they felt like it. She was so full of life, with a beating heart, a perceptive, sharp mind, and dreams, hopes, ambitions - she was alive.

But now she was gone. No explanation. No warning. Just gone.

Percy was the one that knocked on the weather worn red door that led into her house. Seconds later, a very distraught Mrs. Chase opened the door and burst into tears at the sight of them, knowing how much they meant to her late step-daughter. Quickly, she invited them in, but the teenage pair remained stoically silent, still thoroughly unable to speak.

"Frederick? Percy and Piper are here!" Mrs. Chase called up the stairs.

"Be down in just a second," a gruff voice answered.

Mrs. Chase smiled wanly at the pair and led them into the living room for refreshments. As Percy and Piper sat there on Annabeth's pale brown sofa and sipped blueberry Kool-Aid, they drank in their surroundings as if seeing them for the first time. In a way, they were seeing it for the first time - they were seeing it post-Annabeth, and that made for a very different sight indeed.

Percy's hold tightened around his ceramic cup when he realized that he would never see Annabeth bounding down those stairs and hurling herself into his arms ever again. His throat constricted when he realized that he would never be able to surprise her by jumping into her bedroom and yelling at the top of his lungs, only to be met with a face full of pillow. He would never again see her beaming shyly down at him, decked out in her silver dress for prom, looking like an angel that had descended from heaven.

Piper's eyes burned when she realized that she would never hear Annabeth's bright peals of laughter echoing from the other end of the phone. Her heart throbbed painfully when she understood that they would never be able to go make fun of those cheesy romantic comedies that the local movie theater showed. She realized that they would never again be able to dance like crazy people in the solace of her bedroom without a care in the world and discuss cute boys, girls they despised, and their lives in general.

No matter what happened, neither of them would ever get that from her again. A whole life filled with memories, moments, and experiences was extinguished in a heartbeat without rhyme or reason. So how could they sit in the Chase household sipping juice and nibbling on cookies without wanting to explode? They did because they had to; they had to pretend that these things that they were feeling were alright and that they could be dealt with later. For now, their shock had yet to wear off, but they both acknowledged grimly that it would wear off, and all that would be waiting on the other end would be unfathomable pain.

Idly, Piper gazed at the dark haired boy sitting beside her, wondering if he was feeling the same things that she was. She knew that he would be, but his experiences, his memories, and his grief would be different in many ways. One thing she knew for certain was that Percy had to have been feeling the same magnitude of confusion, hurt, and betrayal that she was. Annabeth was never a selfish girl; sure she had a certain uppity sense of self-importance, but she would never abandon all of her loved ones without reason.

Percy just stared straight ahead, not even aware that Piper was looking at him. He felt like hot glass, ready to shatter at the slightest disturbance. He knew that when he got home later that night, the water works would start and that he would be like that for a long time. With grim understanding, he knew that he was scarred and that he would never truly be the same again. He would never be able to live in that happy-go-lucky, blithe manner that he had always lived. Annabeth had taken that away from him with her passing. He would be different. Permanently.

Mr. Chase finally made it down the stairs, and Piper, as perceptive as always, noticed the manner in which he held the railing of the staircase as though it was the only thing keeping him up. Frederick's face was pale, and his eyes were sunk into his sockets. Gaunt would be the word to describe him at that moment, Piper thought to herself.

"Piper, Percy," he said gruffly, his voice raw and emotional.

Percy stood wordlessly and walked until he stood right in front of Mr. Chase, his sea green eyes swirling with some emotion that Piper couldn't quite place. The two of them didn't always see eye to eye, and it had taken a while for Percy to win his approval, but in the end they could tolerate each other. Percy surprised everyone in the room when he enveloped Mr. Chase in a big hug, tears rolling down his face in rivulets.

For a second, Mr. Chase stood in shock until he too began to cry and hugged his daughter's boyfriend back. Mrs. Chase, unable to handle the sudden discharge of emotion, found herself sobbing as well. Piper, for her part, smiled for the first time that day, but even she was not exempt from crying as small streams of tears coursed down her own tan skin.

"I'm sorry. I broke my promise to you, Mr. Chase," Percy gasped, his voice quivering with emotion.

"What're you talking about, boy?" Frederick asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.

Percy stepped back from him, placed his hands on the older man's shoulders, and said, "I broke my promise. I promised that I would take care of her, Mr. Chase. I failed. I failed."

Piper broke down at Percy's emotional words, unable to contain herself any longer, and Mrs. Chase rushed up to wrap Percy up in a big hug, crying uncontrollably as well.

"We all failed her, my boy. We all failed her," Mr. Chase said sorrowfully, turning away from them both.

A few minutes later, Piper found herself standing in Annabeth's bedroom alone, looking forlornly at all of Annabeth's possessions. The medics had already transported her body elsewhere, and the room looked as neat and tidy as it always did. She stood silently in the center of her room, careful not to touch anything, as though moving things would somehow disintegrate the remnants of the dead girl's spirit. In a way, that made sense to her. Piper had always the superstitious type, much to her best friend's jabs and chagrin, so it just felt wrong to disturb her belongings. After all, everything was in the exact place that Annabeth wanted to leave it.

Piper took a few steps towards Annabeth's bedside table to better look at a picture that she was in. Annabeth was smiling and holding up a soccer trophy, one hand on one loop, while Piper held onto the other. They both were incredibly sweaty, but they looked ecstatic. Without her mind's permission, Piper's hand went to touch the still frame, specifically the portrait of Annabeth.

"It's strange isn't it?" Percy asked from behind her, causing Piper to nearly jump out of her skin.

Quickly, Piper retracted her hand and spun around guiltily. Percy stood, leaning against the doorway, his expression undecipherable, but his eyes swimming with emotion. Annabeth always used to tell her that his eyes were an inlet to his soul and that she could always tell when he was lying to her, which was a rare occasion in and of itself. Percy Jackson does not lie. Percy uncrossed his arms and walked towards Piper, and she hugged herself, willing herself not to cry.

Percy and Piper were never truly close - they were just associated with each other since they shared a mutual bond with Annabeth. If she was being honest, Piper would have said that she was glad that out of all the people in the world, Percy was the one that had come to the Chase household with her. There was something about him that just made him easy to be around.

"Why do you think she did it?" Piper asked, her voice sounding feeble even to her own ears.

The raven haired teenager cleared his throat, probably to speak without his voice cracking. "I don't know," he said softly, and Piper felt her heart constrict. Percy was clearly just as dolorous as she was, but the sound of his voice at that moment really struck her. It embodied every emotion she felt within herself - grief, confusion, anger, betrayal, guilt. She knew that Percy held himself somewhat accountable for her suicide. Hell, she did too, but she knew deep within herself that it wasn't their fault.

"Look, Percy-" she began, trying to console him, but he shook his head bitterly.

"I know what you're going to say. You're going to say that it wasn't our fault, and that Annabeth's choices were her own. You and I both know that's a whole load of crap - we stood by and let this happen. We could have saved her," Percy said, his voice still carrying that painful tone.

Piper jumped when Percy sank to his knees and pounded his fist against the floor of her bedroom, his bloodshot eyes overflowing with tears. "We could have saved her, dammit! She could have still been alive!" Percy spat through gritted teeth.

Cautiously, Piper placed a hand on his shoulder, causing the boy to look up at her. Piper offered him a small smile, and said, "Don't. She wouldn't want us to do this. She'd want us to be happy, and let go. She wouldn't want us blaming ourselves."

Percy dried his tears with the back of his hand and stood up shakily, refusing Piper's attempt to help him up. When he opened his eyes again, they were hardened and impenetrable. Piper felt a shiver run down her spine when she saw.

The raven haired teen looked down at her, and said, "You're right. We have to move on, but that doesn't make this any easier." Piper merely nodded her acknowledgement, her choppy chocolate colored bangs bouncing as she did.

For a little while, they remained taciturn, each thinking and lost in their own worlds - memories of a time when there was an Annabeth. It was Percy who broke the silence first, by saying, "If it isn't too much to ask Piper, do you think we could maybe hang out sometime, just to keep our heads out of the water?"

"To cope? Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I mean, apart from her parents, we're the two people that this hit the hardest. I think it would be healthy for us to try to get through it together," Piper reasoned, and Percy chuckled like he used to before today.

"What?" Piper demanded indignantly.

Percy raised his hands in mock surrender, still grinning happily like he used to. "Nothing - I was just thinking that that was why you are captain of the speech team." Piper managed a small smile of her own at his words.

"Annabeth sure has influenced us a lot, huh?" Piper asked, thinking back to how Annabeth was adamant that she join speech. Her hunch had been right - Piper turned out to be remarkable at public speaking. Then again, she could count on her fingers the amount of times Annabeth had been wrong. One time being when she thought with certainty that Percy didn't have a thing for her when Piper clearly called it ahead of time.

The other boy put his hands in his pockets, staring up at the ceiling, his eyes glossed over and distant. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Piper stood silently for a while thinking about how true his words where when she felt Percy's arm drape over her shoulder. She looked up at him inquisitively, and he gave her a reassuring smile, one that he gave Annabeth all the time. It was a platonic, but very welcome gesture. Instinctively, Piper moved closer to him, clinging onto the front of his shirt like he was a lifeline. He was the only one that shared a bond as deeply with Annabeth as she had, so they could understand one another. That's all she could really ask for at this point - understanding.

They stayed like that, in a warm, comforting embrace, for a short while before deciding to leave Mr. and Mrs. Chase to their own devices. Neither wanted to infringe for too long, but neither could bear to leave. Percy left first, his stride shaky, and Piper was left alone once again. Unable to resist the temptation, she picked up the picture she was looking at earlier, and stared hard at it.

"You know, you did a real selfish thing, Annabeth," Piper said quietly, her voice quivering with emotion. As expected, there was no answer, but in a way, Piper felt comforted talking to this picture. She had an identical one in her own room.

"But I know that you had your reasons. You always did," she said before moving to put it back. It was then that she noticed a note pressed neatly underneath where the frame had originally been. Curiosity overcame her and she picked it up.

She felt her skin crawl when she read the top of it. Printed in neat cursive writing was Annabeth Chase's handwriting.

To Piper and Percy.

Shakily, Piper opened the note and read the inside at least four times and still couldn't make sense of it.

4212. 11/7/37.

Piper did the only thing she could at that moment.

"Percy! Get up here! I found something!"

A/N: Thus the hunt begins! This story is a Percy/Piper romance if that wasn't clear in the summary. It will be mystery novel like as the two of them piece together more and more things from Annabeth's past. The more they learn, the more they realize that they never really knew Annabeth at all. Told primarily from Piper's perspective. Thanks for reading! Please: Follow, Favorite, and/or Review!