A/N: Hi again. I love and missed you guys! I'm back from Europe, YIPPEE! Enjoy if this is any good, and please, by all means, TELL ME IF MY WRITING HAS DEGRADED TO A PILE OF CRAP, AND I'LL WORK ON IT. Stupid French language has made my English-speaking skills practically dissolve.

Also I'm well aware that I disappeared for ages. SAHHH-REE.


I slid low to the ground, catching my breath as I heard the footsteps grew louder. I'd only have to wait a few more seconds, at this rate. The grass brushed against my thighs, creating an itch impossible, at the moment, to scratch. The approaching campers' chatter grew louder...I only had a few more seconds to wait. The band had just finished a week-long trek into the surrounding wilderness, and I had to surprise one person in particular.

Successfully hiding behind Thalia's tree on Half-Blood Hill is a lot harder than you'd think.

But it was all worth it when I caught my first glimpse of him. You know...dark messy hair, eyes like mini-emeralds, a loopy smile and confident swagger. I guess there were a lot of men like that out there, but when my eyes met this particular man...I sprang into action.

"Hiiii-ya!" I cried, leaping on Percy Jackson's back in the greatest welcome-back-tackle in history.

He stumbled twice before craning his neck back to see me. "Wise Girl?" he laughed, hitching me up on his shoulders and piggy-backing me down the hill. "What've you been up to?"

I shrugged, enjoying the ride. "Just getting a lot more done than you and your group."

"Oh, really?" he asked, his voice cocky. "Because we just brought back six ounces of wolfsbane."

"WHAT?!" I yelped, so surprised that I bounced on his shoulders and I heard something crack.

"Ow," he muttered.

"Sorry. But you got it? You really got the wolfsbane?"

"Six ounces," he reminded me. "And you already had moly and got kingsfoil this week, right?"

"Right..." I said.

He paused, my piggyback ride stopping momentarily. "So that just leaves--"

"PERRRRR-CEEEEEEEEE!" a high voice sang--or rather, screeched--from across camp.

Percy looked at me patiently.

I straightened up, lifting my chin like a general. "It's Silena," I said. I pointed to the grassy space in front of the cabins. "Onward! To the beauty queen!"

So we sped off into the sunset...where Silena and Kathy told us the big news.

I'm sure you're not surprised, but I sure was.

Kathy was practically screaming with delight. "We've finally, finally, finally grown it!"

"THE BLOOD ORCHID!" exclaimed Lorraine.

Silena just stood, wide-eyed while she held the deep red flower, root ball and all, in her cupped, manicured hands. "Oh, my gods, guys. We did it."

"Um, we did it, Mighty Aphrodite," Kathy and Lorraine said, gingerly plucking the red orchid from Silena's hands.

"Who cares?" Percy said. "You know what this means!"

"Yeah," agreed Kathy. "You can make that elixir."

I nodded quickly. "Take this over to the Apollo cabin with the moly, kingsfoil, and wolfsbane, and tell them to get mixing the elixir, stat. They're the best at healing and medicine and all that."

Percy sighed contentedly. "Now all we need is a way to get it to Luke."

Kathy, Lorraine, and Silena took a subtle glance my direction. I shook my head urgently.

"Okay..." Percy folded his arms suspiciously. "What?"

The three girls looked at me pleadingly. I raised my shoulders in the tiniest shrug--like, I have no idea what to tell him either!

"Will you please quit communicating with looks and tell me what is going on?" Percy demanded.

I exhaled in defeat. "Hey, Seaweed Brain, maybe I'd better tell you in the Big House."

-----------------------

I ended up telling him the story, everything. About how Iris came last week, about Luke...about how I was supposed to go there tomorrow...everything.

Let's just say he didn't take it so well.

"Wait, wait, wait," he interrupted me near the end, when I was talking about how Silena wrote down directions. "You're saying you're actually considering this?!"

"Um...yes?" I said. "You tell me how many other opportunities we'll get."

His face morphed into a scowling pout, like a five-year-old. "Whatever."

"Whatever what?"

"Well, can't we wait and do something that doesn't involve just you?"

"What," I said, a little piqued. "You don't trust me to do it right?"

"That's not it," he said. He was biting his lip, trying to stay calm. "I mean...well, come on, Annabeth. What do you think Luke wants with you?"

I caught my breath. "Well," I started slowly. "He probably is just going to use me to find out what the other demigods are planning."

"He could have asked any one of us that."

"All right, then, my wisdom and advice!"

Percy snorted.

"Come on!" I said, exasperated.

He just muttered, "I think he has something a little more friendly in mind..."

"You know what, Percy, it's my funeral! Get over it."

"Like you possibly never coming back has no effect on me," he said. His green eyes were trying to look angry, gleaming with the last rays of molten gold sunlight behind me, but they couldn't. All I saw was fear.

Fear for me.

He drew a sharp breath and said, "What exactly do you expect me to do if you're dead? Or, anyway, captured for life?"

"If you need wisdom," I said, trying to remain scowly, untouched by his oh-woe-is-me gaze. "You can go to the Oracle."

Percy sighed. "Yeah, but can the oracle do this?" He caught me by my waist and spun me around so I was leaning back dramatically in his arms like part of a tango. I groaned in disgust.

"Oh, gross. I really hope not," I muttered, but smiled and kissed him anyway. And kissed him again. And, okay, maybe just one more, because he was really warm and his lips were really soft and...

"Oh, excuse me," a sarcastic voice said from the doorway. " I thought you were talking strategy."

Percy dropped me, causing me to yelp in surprise as I hit the carpet. "We were!"

"That last move was an unexpected bonus," I said under my breath, rubbing my back where I'd landed.

Kathy shook her head. "Well, when you're done practicing your kissing expertise, Beckendorf's got something to show you."

She left the Big House, muttering about private matters and PDA.

Percy smiled. "I know she's pissed off, but I'm not sorry one bit." He bent down and planted a kiss on my lips, making sparks run down my spine.

"Beckendorf," I mused, flopping onto my stomach. "What do you think he's got?"

Percy gave me a hand up, leading me out the door and to the forges. "How 'bout we find out?"

The forges were the same as always: smokey, blackened, with fires blazing left and right. What was different than usual, though, was the fact that, like, eight billion people had crowded around to watch.

"Hey," Percy and I said to Beckendorf after pushing through the half-blood horde. "You wanted to see us?"

"Big news," he announced, puffing out his chest. "The elixir...is DONE."

"Thanks to us!" a new Apollo kid named Michael Yew added. This was met with hoops and hollers of agreement from the rest of his cabin.

Beckendorf ignored him. "But, more importantly, we've made a way for you to keep it undetected." He rummaged around on the work table behind him. Finally, he pulled out what seemed to be a beautiful charm bracelet--glinting a bronzey gold, with little charms like Apollo's lyre, Hermes' winged shoes, the owl of Athena, Poseidon's trident, Zeus' lightning bolt, and...

"What's this one?" Percy asked, pointing to a strange little charm. Not nearly as recognizable as any of the others, it seemed to be just a...box. I mean, okay, it had little carvings and stuff on it, but mostly just a little golden-bronzey cube, with a tiny latch.

"Well, it's either Pandora's box-slash-jar," I said slowly. "Or it's..."

"Something much cooler," Beckendorf grinned evilly. "Shield your eyes, guys, this can get a little bright."

I had no idea what he was talking about. Then he opened the celestial bronze box charm.

Blue-white light streamed in a piercing line from the little treasure box, nearly blinding us all for a moment before it faded. "It's the elixir," Percy breathed.

"Well spotted," I told him.

He stuck his tongue out at me.

"You wear this, Annabeth, and we get the elixir to Luke," Beckendorf said, swinging the charm bracelet in his huge dark hands. "You wear this, and we win."