Setting:the Argo two during the time between the HoH and the BoO

My eyes flew open.

After another nightmare, I couldn't handle it. I needed to go to Percy.

But what about Hedge..., I thought. He's probably in bed... After all, it is... 1:43 AM.

After thinking about it for a second or dozen, I made a decision on the spot. I leaped out of bed, and tiptoed across the hardwood floor. I opened the door a crack, and then quietly scampered across the floor to Percy's room.

When I got close, I thought I heard choking. I flung the door open to see Percy practically strangling a pillow in his sleep. His grasp on the pillowwas tight, but he laid in bed motionless, sounding like he couldn't breathe.

"Percy... Percy!" I whisper-yelled to Percy, shaking him to awaken him from his trance. He sat straight up in bed and let out a cry. He faced towards me and said "Oh thank gods! I-I had a nightmare...that I didn't get you in time...and you fell into Tartarus alone...a-and" I stopped him right there with a soft, delicate kiss.

Percy faced me with tears in his eyes. "Annabeth... I am so stupid. I'm not worth being your boyfriend. I let you fall off a cliff... I deserve to die. I have put so many others in pain, and yet I think nothing about it. I have taken so many lives... Annabeth..." Percy said with a shaky voice.

"Annabeth I don't deserve to live. I want to die." Percy said. "Percy. It's okay to cry. You have been so tough through everything you have been through. You do not deserve to die. You are my Seaweed Brain. I love you." I said, as tears started to slip down my face.

Percy put his head on my shoulder, and I felt his tears as he cried.

He cried heart-breaking, devastating, broken sobs. All I wanted to do at that moment was to hold on to him-tight. "Annabeth! It's all my fault! It's my fault we fell into Tartarus! I was too weak to pull you up! I deserve to die!" Percy sobbed into my shoulder.

"P-Percy. It's okay. I l-love you. You are s-s-so p-perfect. All you have d-done since you were t-twelve is fight to protect your f-friends. N-nothing is your fault. I-I hate it t-that you think you should d-die. You are m-my Seaweed Brain, and you've fought too long," I said as I was crying too.

"It's o-okay. We're alive. W-we s-survived," I said, trying to comfort Percy.

Percy just cried into my shoulder. Over and over, distressed cries of pain.

After what seemed like hours, Percy finally stopped crying, and looked up at me with his broken, beautiful green eyes. "Annie.. I love you..." Percy whispered as he fell asleep against my chest, and I fell asleep listening to the sound of his breathing.