When the stars slowly glitters in the sky, he sort of remembers that she's still in his arms, the way she breathes confuses him, and he tries so hard to be strong and even harder not to worry. The scars on her back feels so heavy at his fingers, and anger fills him up every time he remembers what she's been going through, and he feels that sting in his stomach. The guilt. Perhaps it's his entire fault, he should have been faster and he should have been more like the heroes on TV. He should have rescued her before anything happened. He should have been there. So much he should have done.
She knows that he watches her. She keeps her eyes shut though, enjoying the moment and not letting it go to waste. Her whole body hurts and she can almost feel his eyes when they are all over her, and the pain burns inside her when he slowly touches the scars and red marks on her, but she knows that he just want to help. They hurt her so bad. Even worse that she can remember and they say she's shutting her feelings out and tries not to remember to lighten her heart. She takes a heavy breath again. And she feels his hand shaking.
He's so afraid to hurt her more. Maybe his all presence is too much at the moment, perhaps she needs to be alone and learn to breathe again and maybe, just maybe, she doesn't need him. He moves closer to her, feeling her heart beat strong, but yet unsecure. She's still afraid, he can just feel it. And he wants to kill them all, who hurt her. And everyone who tried to keep him from rescuing her.
She can feel is heart beat faster, and slowly she takes his hand in hers and squeeze it to show it's okay. It's okay now. She's with him, and back again, and right know she feels like nothing can hurt her. She knows that nothing can hurt her. She can hear him sobbing quietly into the pillows.
"I'm so, so sorry Annabeth." She don't know if he's talking to her, or to just himself, thinking she's asleep. She squeezes his hand again, and she hopes she succeeds in telling him with just that squeeze that she wouldn't be able to survive without him.
The sun is rising over the fields, and Percy feels the waking of the world. But he holds his arms around Annabeth, and she hides her face in his chest. The world can wake up. And they can stay here forever, at least until everything has gone back to somewhat normal again.
"Thanks for being here." She whispers, and for the first time that night she falls to sleep, in his arms.
"I love you." He whispers back, and finally slumbers off, he too.