Disclaimer: I do not own anything that looks familiar! Characters, setting, or anything else. That belongs to the Fabulous Rick Riordan!

Chapter 1

I gasped and shot upright out of bed. My chest heaved with heavy breaths and I felt the clammy heat of my shirt clinging to my sweaty back. Tremors ran through my body, and my hands were shaking uncontrollably. Regaining control over my breathing, I rubbed my eyes and tried to clear my brain of my recent nightmare. Tartarus. Again. That retched place would not leave me alone. A month after Gaea's defeat, and I was still plagued with nightmares, vivid flashbacks that would leave me trembling on the ground, and constant paranoia of danger. Yes, yes, I know I am relatively safe at Camp Half-Blood, if only I could tell my subconscious that. Annabeth… Where is she? I tense up, and frantically scan the dark cabin for her. Where is she? The cliff. The Arai. I squeeze my eyes shut, and suddenly I'm back in Tartarus. I see Annabeth about to walk off the cliff. She's alone. Her unseeing eyes open wide and her arms outstretched. "Percy? Why did you leave? Help me, Percy. Where are you?" She calls. I try to run to her, so save her, but I cannot move. I cannot even look away. I cannot even make a sound. I noiselessly watch her take another step. One tiny step. Then she is gone.

My eyes burst open, and I realize I am curled up in a ball on my bed, my hands clenched so tight that I had drawn blood. Nothing major, just an annoyance. Get a grip Perce. Fully awake and free from any more hallucinations for the moment, I stumbled shakily to the bathroom and flicked on the light. I turned on the faucet and stuck my hands into the cold water, both healing them from the minor cuts and washing the blood from my fingernails. Peering into the mirror, I noticed the dry tear tracks on my face and washed them off too. Annabeth is safe. I told myself over and over. Great, now I sound like Mrs. Castellan. I creep out my cabin door and head off to Cabin 6. After a close call with a harpy, I make it to the Athena cabin and tiptoe to Annabeth's bed. Luckily, since she is the head counselor of her cabin, she gets a single bed instead of a bunk bed. My bare feet make little sound as I make my way across the wooden floor. My heart grows heavy as I notice her sniffling, her blond curls cover her face but a touch to her damp pillow tells me she has been crying for a while. Now sitting on her bed, I reach out and give her shoulder a little shake.

Immediately, she cries out and swings her arm in my direction. My eyes water as she makes contact with my nose. Well, that's what I get for waking Annabeth I guess. "Shh, Annabeth, it's me. You're fine, we're together." She calms down and moves over so I can lay down beside her. I kiss her wet cheek and wrap my arms around her. We sleep peacefully for the rest of the night.

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I awake to hair tickling my face and a finger poking my forehead. Slowly I crack my eyes open, only to see a pair of grey ones twinkling back at me.

"Guess what guys! He's alive!" Annabeth cheered with sarcastic enthusiasm. "C'mon Percy, we're gonna miss breakfast."

I groan and reluctantly sit up. She knows I can't resist the thought of breakfast. Cruel. Blinking my eyes and looking around, I see Annabeth heading to the bathroom. Her siblings were getting ready as well. Brushing their hair, tying their shoes, and this one little kid picking up crumpled sheets of paper and pencil shavings from the floor. Poor little guy must have clean up duty today. Malcolm nods a hello at me as he makes his bed. Me being here isn't unusual for them. Technically it is against the rules for campers sleep in different cabins, but I guess they gave me and Annabeth some slack. Somehow I always end up here in the morning. I roll out of Annabeth's bed and get some of my clothes which I stashed in the bottom drawer of her dresser. I throw them on in the bathroom, and don't even bother with my unruly black hair. I wait for Annabeth to finish throwing her hair in a sloppy ponytail. Well, she calls it sloppy, I think it looks perfect. And so we head off to the dining area.

"Thanks for coming over last night..." She said quietly. "It wasn't as bad that time, but still…"

"Always." I answer. "I couldn't sleep anyway."

"What was it about?"

I sigh. I didn't want to talk about it. To relive the memory. But I never keep anything from my Wise Girl. "Tartarus. You. You in Tartarus." I say shortly.

She stops suddenly and faces me. She reaches up and puts her hands on my shoulders. "I am safe. We are safe. You know that." Then she looks down and whispers, "I know that."

I bring her in for a hug and rest my chin on her head. "I know. Thanks." I pull back and grin. "Now come on! Food awaits!" I grab her hand and together we run towards my table.

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After eating, as campers began to wander away to do their own thing, Mr. D stood up to say the morning announcements.

"Good morning, and all that blahness. All right brats, today there will be an arts and crafts demo by the Demeter Cabin at 2, and the canoes will be off-limits to do someone drilling holes in them. So you lucky Hephaestus youngsters will have the fantastic opportunity to fix those. Also, in the forest today…"

I must admit I kinda zoned out at that point. Oops. I snapped back to attention though when I heard my (sort of) name.

"…and Peter Jefferson and Annie Ball Chaff please report to Chiron after breakfast. That will be all. You may carry on with your frivolous activities now."

I looked at Annabeth and she smirked at me.

"Wonder what it is this time. He probably wants us to give another tour or something." She mused.

"No, I bet he wants us to give a fighting demo, or I know!" I smiled, "He wants us to help the Hephaestus Cabin seriously upgrade those canoes!"

Annabeth playfully smacked me upside the head. "No, Seaweed Brain. Then Chiron would only want to see you, not both of us."

I quickly scarf down the rest of my blue pancakes, then walked to the Big House with Annabeth. Chiron was seated in his wheelchair at his desk, shuffling through some paperwork, looking just like some old regular nutty professor grading homework. He looked up when we walked through the door.

"Ah, there you two are. Have a seat."

We both sat down in the chairs opposite the desk and looked at him expectantly.

"Now, are the both of you? Getting enough rest? Any injuries? Stress? Anything at all you need to tell me?"

Um. This is not what I had in mind. Uh, what to say. I don't want to seem weak, but I don't want to lie. I squeeze Annabeth's hand, telling her to take this one.

"We are fine, Chiron," She answers smoothly. "Just, you know, demigod dreams… nightmares mostly. Just memories though, we are okay."

Chiron's eyes sadden as he gazes at us. I resist the urge to cross my fingers behind my back. We don't want the extra pity.

"Please child, don't try to be heroes. I have heard your screams through the night. I haven't seen any of you smile. Truly smile. This is why I have contacted the gods and together we have decided to get you help."

Wow, the gods all agreed on something. Someone write this down! Wait, they want to get us help? Like what kind of help? Some kind of mythological wonder that can make the nightmares stop? That would be great!

"Help…" I say, "Like what?"

"A person trained especially to help people who have gone through traumatic experiences."

Annabeth's eyes lit up "Who? Theia? Metis? Ekecheiria?"

Chiron held up a hand, "Not who you would think child. We decided you shall talk to a Mr. Thomas Wright, a psychologist at the Marfield Hospital."

I racked my brain for any character in Greek or Roman mythology for the name. Coming up with nothing, I snuck a glance at my girlfriend, whose superior knowledge might know of him. Seeing her blank expression, I spoke up, "You're sending us to a mortal?!"

Author's Note:

Hey y'all! New story! I kinda quit on my 'Stress of the Demigod Life" because I thought it was lame and horrible. This idea has been bouncing around in my brain for a while, so we will see how it goes!

Please, PLEASE let me know if you have any suggestions, or ways to improve. I am trying really hard to prevent the characters from being too OOC, but it's hard!

Leave a Review!

:D