Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson

You know that feeling when you've had a terrible day - just one disaster after the next - and everything just makes you angry. All you want is for classes to end so you can go back to your room to relax and forget about your day.

Well, I was having one of those days.

I stalked down the hall to my room, it had been an hour since classes ended for the day but I had had to stay behind for detention for 'talking back to a teacher'.

Honestly, all I did was tell her where she could shove her simultaneous equations!

My craptastic day had started with me having an argument with my best friend; Annabeth.

Me and Annabeth went to boarding school together in Brooklyn and luckily our trainer at Camp Half Blood, Chiron, was able to fool the administration into letting us room together even though we were in different grades, though Annabeth's so smart we may as well be in the same grade.

My last pen broke this morning, so I was rummaging through Annabeth's backpack to borrow one of her's when I found it.

A silvery embossed pamphlet.

I had turned over to the cover and felt like my blood was turning to ice.

'Join the Hunt today!'

'Eternal Life!'

'Sisters forever!'

'Boys suck!"

The Hunters of Artemis.

We'd first met them years ago when we'd been travelling with Luke, but we had both turned them down, they must have come through recently if she was considering it again.

We had both been tempted by their promises, especially the promise of family. But at the time we had been a family, Annabeth, Luke and me, and we had believed that we would be together forever. Family forever.

Zoe Nightshade had been particularly vocal about her disapproval of our decision, I really did not like that girl, and I'd be damned to Hades before I let her take Annabeth away from me.

I decided to confront Annabeth about it immediately, in hindsight - maybe not a good idea.

Basically the story had been that she came face to face with the Hunters the week before when she'd had a close call with a Cyclops (an unfortunate side effect of living in Brooklyn - there was practically a Cyclops on every corner) they had helped her finish him off but only stayed long enough to give her the pamphlet and tell her to think about it before waltzing off to brainwash more young girls.

Annabeth was adamant that she wouldn't really join the Hunters, she only considered it because of her dad's recent plans to move to San Francisco, but if she was so sure then why was she carrying the pamphlet around in her backpack?

We hadn't resolved the argument and had both been late for class.

So anyway, I violently thrust open the door and slammed it behind me as loudly as I could, let out a frustrated scream and collapsed face first onto my bed.

"Well, aren't you a little ball of sunshine today," came a sarcastic voice from behind me - a male voice - which is strange considering I go to an all-girls boarding school.

I groaned and reluctantly looked over my shoulder to see Annabeth, who was for some reason blushing, sitting at her desk, behind her an Iris message shimmered above the Architecture books which littered the desk. Through the Iris message I saw the smirking face of the Son of Poseidon, who I am ashamed to say is actually my friend.

"You know, Thalia, you probably wouldn't be in detention so often if you didn't shout at the teachers," Annabeth said, in a patient tone. It improved my mood slightly that she didn't seem angry, though I was put out to note that it was more likely to do with the fact that she was talking to her 'Seaweed Brain' than her not being angry with me.

"Yeah, probably," I mumbled, non-committedly.

I heard quiet laughter from both of them.

"Shut up," I growled, though I'm not sure they heard me since my face was buried in my comforter again.

"I'd better go," I heard Percy say, "I'll see you, Beth,"

"Yeah, I'll see you soon, I think. Last time I spoke to Chiron, he mentioned something about us maybe going to collect some half-bloods that a satyr's found in Maine," Annabeth replied, "Tell your Mom I said Hi."

"Will do. Bye," he said, I could hear the smile in his voice.

I didn't hear anything else after that except for the squeak of Annabeth's chair turning so I presumed that the Iris message had been disconnected.

Trying to forget the argument of this morning, I decided to tease Annabeth a bit.

"So… since when have you let people call you 'Beth'?" I said, propping myself up on one elbow so I could turn to see her.

Her eyes were trained on her lap but I could see that she was still blushing.

She quickly answered, "Don't you dare start calling me that!"

"Why can't I? Kelp Head calls you it!"

"Yeah, but he's different!"

"Different how?"

"He- he- he just is, okay!"

I couldn't help but snort, ever since I had been released from my pine tree a few months before I had had to put up with Percy and Annabeth's denial.

Even I could see they liked each other.

I remember Luke once called her Annie and she kicked him in the shin, repeatedly, until he apologised.

In that moment I realised that I didn't have to worry about losing my friend to the Hunters of Artemis. I should be more worried about losing her to Percy Jackson.

She would never abandon him, no matter what she was promised.

I had heard the news just a few hours before.

I had been discussing the plans for the next day with Lady Artemis when Chiron had called with an urgent Iris message.

His news was that Annabeth had returned from the Labyrinth, without Tyson and Grover, and most importantly, without Percy.

I knew immediately that Annabeth would be devastated.

"You must go to your friend, Thalia," Artemis said gently, a sympathetic look upon the goddess' face.

"Are you sure, my lady?"

"Yes, my dear, I'm sure we can survive without you for a few hours," she reassured me, "Go to Camp Half Blood and return by moonrise tomorrow."

"Thank you, Lady Artemis," I said gratefully.

Fortunately, the Hunter's were staying only a few hours from Camp so it didn't take me long to arrive.

The sun was setting as I met Chiron on Half Blood Hill.

"How is she?" I asked a little hesitantly, not sure if I wanted to know.

"Right now, she's in her cabin," he said gently, not having to ask who I was talking about, "She said she wished to be alone, but I think she will appreciate your company, it's most generous of Artemis to allow you to visit."

I nodded, "I'll go find her then."

I walked up to the Athena cabin, and pushed open the door. The entire cabin was in darkness and it seemed deserted except for a lump under the covers on Annabeth's bunk.

At first the cabin seemed silent until I listened closer and heard quiet sniffling sounds.

I hurried over to her bunk and pulled back the covers. I found Annabeth underneath them, curled up in a ball, crying softly.

"Annabeth," I whispered hesitantly, she didn't seem to have noticed me.

She gasped and whispered "Thalia?" as she turned towards me.

"Yeah, it's me. What happened, Annabeth?" I asked quietly, hoping that she would be able to tell me the full story since Chiron hadn't had many details.

However this seemed to be the wrong question since she dissolved into tears again. I hurriedly pulled her into a hug and started stroking her hair like I had when she was seven after she'd had nightmare. It was strange that though she was now physically the same age as me, she'd always be younger to me.

She hugged me back and choked out a question through her tears, "How did you get here?"

"Artemis said I could come to camp to be here for you," I explained, "But I have to be back with the Hunt by tomorrow night."

I saw a box of tissues on her night stand and handed her a couple so she could blow her nose, which she did noisily.

"Thanks," she muttered, "Did Chiron tell you what happened?"

"Not really, just that you were the only person who returned and that you were upset."

"Did you hear the news about Mount St Helens?"

"Of course, everyone's heard about Mount St Helens, what does it have to do with your quest?"

Annabeth managed to choke out, "Percy-" before crying harder.

"Were you two there?" I asked gently once she seemed a bit calmer.

She sniffed and began to speak, "Yeah, we were doing a favour for Hephaestus so that he would tell us how to find Daedalus, but… it all went wrong, Thalia!"

She blew her nose again, "He told us to find out who was using his forge on Mount St Helens, and gave us this mechanical spider to guide us there, but on the way Grover caught the scent of the Wild and thought it would lead him to Pan so we couldn't stop him, but we didn't want him to go alone into the Labyrinth, so Tyson volunteered to- go- with- him..." she started choking on her words towards the end, and once again was overcome with tears.

"So you and Percy," she made a sound like a wounded animal at his name but I kept on speaking, "went to Mount St Helens?"

"Yeah," she sobbed.

I felt heart broken, I'd never seen Annabeth so distraught.

"What happened then?" I hoped it would help her to get the full story out.

She took a deep, shuddering breath and continued, "Telkhines had taken over the forge."

I nodded in recognition of the monsters.

"Well, basically they saw Percy and started to chase him," tears poured down her cheeks as she spoke, her eyes starting to look puffy and red, "We hid and saw that they were making... something - some weapon for the Titans - for Kronos I think - and then he told me to use my cap to es-escape, that he would hold them off, and then I-" she clutched me tighter for a moment and then carried on speaking, "I left him and after about a minute I heard him s-scream and then there was this huge ex-explosion and I-" her voice failed as she choked on her sobs.

"I've always wanted to lead a quest, Thalia, how can I have failed so badly?" she gasped.

"I guess the Fates weren't feeling kind," I whispered to her, not really knowing how to comfort her, recently this had been Percy's job.

We just sat there for Zeus knows how long as she continued to cry into my shoulder, wrenching sobs wracked her body, until she eventually used up all her tears and fell into an uneasy sleep against me.

I covered her back up with her blankets and left.

I wandered up to the Big House, hoping to find Chiron, and instead I found the most unlikely pair of people to be found in each others company.

Clarisse la Rue and Silena Beauregard were sitting together on the porch steps, talking quietly, they looked up as I approached.

"Since when have you two been friends?" I asked suspiciously.

"We're not!" Clarisse protested instantly.

Silena only laughed before her expression turned sombre, "How's Annabeth doing?" there was no question that Annabeth was the reason I was here.

"Not good, she cried for I don't know how long and now she's asleep."

"Well, at least crying shows she's sad," Silena sighed, "Better that than the emotionless, cold Annabeth that came out of the Labyrinth, it was like she didn't understand us, like she was broken, we thought the Labyrinth had turned her mad for a minute."

"That punk better come back soon," Clarisse grumbled quietly.

I was surprised, it looked like Clarisse had changed a lot since I last saw her, first she's sitting with a daughter of Aphrodite and now she's worried about Percy.

"For Annabeth's sake, she's lost without him," Silena said with a shake of her head.

"Exactly, she needs him, without him she's weak," Clarisse said simply, "And with the war that's coming we need her to be strong."

Clarisse's words stayed with me long after I left them to return to Annabeth. If love could win us a war, then it must be a lot stronger than I give it credit for.

But then I thought about Annabeth sobbing onto my shoulder and remembered how much pain love can bring.

The war had ended and Percy, Annabeth and I finally managed to find time to have cheeseburgers together at Le Parker Meridien.

Annabeth talked constantly about her ideas and designs for Olympus, Percy told me how much Tyson was enjoying being a General and how all the new campers were fitting in at camp and the construction of the new cabins, and I filled them in on the news from the Hunters.

Just being together reminded me so much of the summer after I was freed from my Pine tree, we were just enjoying being with our friends, one of us acting as mediator if the other two had an argument (though Percy wasn't very good at this since he mostly joined the argument instead of trying to end it).

But things were also very different in so many ways. Two years had passed, I was now an immortal Hunter of Artemis, we had won the Titan war, Percy was the Hero of Olympus and Annabeth was their official architect.

That Percy and Annabeth covertly held hands under the table was a sign of the biggest change of all; that they had finally gotten up the courage to tell each other how they felt.

As an eternal maiden I wasn't exactly thrilled that Annabeth now had a boyfriend, but I was happy for my friends.

Once we parted, I watched them walk through the park hand in hand, sometimes talking, sometimes not, occasionally stealing a kiss from one another, unaware I was watching them. Perfectly at ease with one another and completely in love.

They had found in love what I had found in Artemis' Hunt; peace.

I had to hand it to Aphrodite, she didn't often get it right, but when she did, she really got it right.

Hi all,

Hope you enjoyed this and that there weren't too many Briticisms!

Reviews are appreciated and thanks so much for reading,

- TheOracle18