I don't own anything. As usual.
So I just would like to thank everyone who has reviewed! To be honest, I wasn't sure what the reactions would be to this one, cause not only have I admittedly rushed a little through these (to be honest, I'm really excited with where I can take this and am spewing out ideas at the seams), but also, this isn't my best writing ever. I usually write a lot more detail, go in a lot more thoroughly. But the fact is, I'm often told that I go into too much detail and tend to drag things out, so I'm trying to tone it down. Hope you guys like!
And a lot of you are excited for them to meet, I feel terrible a little wicked to tell you, they don't officially meet face to face for a couple more chapters. Heh *cue sweat drop*
Thanks!
Garden Grudges Day One ~ 12:12 PM
It was Jennifer's lunch break, and being that Annabeth was playing as her shadow, she too sat in the employee' lounge, a room much more lively than any other that occupied the building.
Her mind, however, was elsewhere. Gray eyes were spacing, mind far away from the loudly chewing brunette that sat across from her, slurping coffee and smacking her food.
Hers remained untouched, subconsciously shifting as she poked the contents with her fork.
After all the events that had happened on her first day, it sent her mind reeling. She needed to think somewhere without distraction. Somewhere to clear her mind.
"Can I go to the gardens?"
Jennifer paused in her eating to look at her incredulously. "Why?"
Annabeth shrugged. "I just want to look around some. And I'm not hungry."
"Oh...well sure. Just don't bother any of the other doctors that are out there with their patients. Its out the door, down the left hall, and to the right."
She nodded her thanks to the brunette and stood, pushing her chair back as she exited the lounge, internally repeating the directions until she found the doors to the gardens.
After seeing that most of the M.M.I in dull colors, and lack of anything comforting, she was pleasantly surprised as the sunlight hit her eyes and the smell of flowers and dark soil hit her nose. Almost desperately, she trotted over to an empty bench and sat, clutching the wood and breathing in the fresh air.
For the first time since the entire ordeal had begun, she felt she could finally breathe. The grass, trees, and flowers were so alive. The outside was so colorful and bright, everything that the M.M.I wasn't. Was being a doctor supposed to be like this? Like a panicked agony swelling in her chest?
Regaining her self preservation, Annabeth blew out a puff of air and decided that she needed to relax. Slipping out of her white lab coat, she laid it next to her on the bench, then proceeded to tie her blonde curls in a loose pony.
Her shoulders dropped an inch, as owl-gray eyes began to study her surroundings. Nurses were gently guiding several patients around, some in wheelchairs, others held their hands and laughed as they talked. That was what she had wanted. To be that care-taker that helped with those children and adults that needed help, someone she could give all the care and attention to when they needed it.
Give someone what I didn't have from my own ignorant dad and my stupid step-mom.
Shaking free of her thoughts, she continued to observe and think. She hadn't planned to be pulled into such a scientific marvel, one that left her jaw-dropped and scared for her life. But what of the patients with the mutations? She had seen how they're treated. She remembered the slight fear in Katie's nature colored eyes, the absolute and raw fear that had flashed in Hazel's golden iris'. It tugged on her conscience and settled on her doubt.
It was then that she felt someone sit next to her on the bench, and she nearly jumped when a familiar red-head was right there, grinning warmly.
"Hey! Annabeth, remember me?"
Rachel Elizabeth Dare, still adorned in colorful patches, was still as peppy as ever. It seemed out of all the patients that suffered from the mutation, she was the most content.
However, after having met this strange new figure who seemed to know things of her past and future, the friendly demeanor still set Annabeth at the edge of her seat.
She forced a stiff smile, still weighed down by the earlier events. "Hey Rachel. What are you doing outside your dorm?"
"Oh, my caretaker is over there," she pointed to where a forty-some year old looking woman was talking to another doctor a short distance across the garden ground. "She knows I'm not much of a danger. Plus, she's one of the nice ones that work here. My friends in sector C aren't so lucky."
This caught the attention of Annabeth, and she wanted so badly to bombard the redhead with questions. But the level-6 patient quickly overcame her somber subject and turned back to her with a tilt of her head.
"So Annie, have you found the color of the sea yet?" her eyes sparkled mischeviously, almost tauntingly like: I know something you don't.
And after that little display earlier, Annabeth was sure that she did.
However, she had almost forgotten Rachel's bidding of the ocean, and thinking back, no she hadn't. "No, I don't think so Rachel."
She didn't seem to be disappointed. "Well you should anytime now. Actually, we should clear out. The special session will be happening."
Annabeth frowned. "Special session? What's that?"
Rachel turned to blonde with a solemn look. "Well, Nico developed schizophrenia after everything he's been through. First he lost his sister, and then a friend recently died, Frank Zhang, who was close to several patients here. And after being trapped here at the M.M.I, he's slowly becoming more paranoid. They have him meet with some of the other patients he's friends with, since they are the only thing grounding him to sanity. I feel bad for the poor kid. Every few days or so, he is brought out here to meet either Hazel, his other sister, or Percy. They're really close. But the meetings are heavily guarded, since they are two of the higher graded mutations."
There was a pause of silence as Annabeth registered these words. It sounded horrific.
"Aren't they giving him any sort of treatment?" she asked, feeling pity for the mere sixteen year old boy. If she recalled correctly, Nico was the one that could bend shadows. The thought still freaked her out.
Rachel frowned, "sorry Annabeth. I can't say too much. Also, my doctor Sarah is about to call for me to return to my dorm."
"Rachel!" a woman's voice yelled from across the gardens.
"Gotta go," and she left with a twinkling wink.
Annabeth shook her head. That would take some time to get used to.
She remained sitting on her bench, and slowly noticed that just as the fore-seer had said, everyone had begun making their way back inside, the grounds cleared out till it was only her and the chirping of birds.
Something told her she too, she go inside. But she was curious at Rachel's words. The redhead had said she couldn't say too much. What secrets were there? Were the M.M.I up to something illegal?
Pondering the circumstance, her curiosity won out and she remained on the bench outside, making sure that she was a far enough distance away from the doors to not be so easily detected. If a doctor questioned her, she would just play her new-girl card, as well as play it off as dumb-blonde with a sweet smile.
Satisfied with her strategy, she watched the doors and waited until they opened.
And when they did, she jolted.
Pushed out into the garden grounds, was a baggy clothed teen, with black hair, pale skin, and startling dark obsidian eyes. His entire wardrobe was ebony, and right away, she knew this was Nico Di Angelo. The air around him seemed to simply dampen, the grass drooping at his feet.
For a moment, she was sure she saw a flower wither.
Following with an imperious demeanor were three guys, all buff in stature and thick in muscle, and one girl, with shaggy auburn hair and brown eyes. The girl, who she overheard from the raised voices name was Mariah. She seemed to be the only one genuinely concerned, yet still weary of the sixteen year old boy.
Annabeth watched intrigued as Nico scrambled away from the four imposing doctors, watching them with intense and crazed like eyes. He looked lost and afraid. And frighteningly angry.
Leaning forward, she listened.
Mariah was the one making orders; "Luke, you and Ethan get Jackson. Me and Matt will stay here with this one. We'll give them fifteen minutes to see each other and talk before returning them to their cells."
The tall blonde with blue eyes, and the stout brunette with an eye-patch each gave curt nods and walked off.
Annabeth's eyes followed the dark boy as he shuffled away, rubbing his arm and frequently glancing around. His black shirt hung baggily off his body, his frame much too skinny for an average boy his size. The look in his eyes shone pure pain; and in that look the blonde remembered everything Rachel had said about him with his sister, with the friend that died recently, with the constant fidgeting and paranoia. No wonder the boy looked so sad.
Gray eyes wrenched away from Nico as the door whipped open once again, only this time, a different figure walked in, hands behind his back, she noticed with a small gasp, his wrists clasped in chains.
She swallowed heavily. That couldn't be right. That couldn't be legal.
The male was roughly pushed forward into the gardens by Luke and Ethan.
Finally, his head lifted, and Annabeth stared at the twenty year old man with a jaw dropped. This was the infamous Percy Jackson?
His skin looked to be a natural olive tan, but seemed to be lacking in a glow from being behind thick walls. Muscles were defined, yet he was lean like a swimmer. Black locks draped in a marginally disheveled fashion, coming down just over his eyes with a slight angled swoop. His clothes consisted of a white V neck covered by an unzipped blue hoodie, with dark washed jeans and sneakers.
And it was then that she saw them.
Eyes. Sea green. Angry. Sparkling. Ocean eyes.
Watch for the color of the sea.
Rachel's words rang in her head, throbbing against her temples. It couldn't mean...could it?
She clutched the bench hard as she continued to watch the scene play out.
The dangerous Percy Jackson saw Nico standing uncomfortably amidst the garden and immediately, Annabeth detected worry, concern and absolute loyalty to his friend flash in his eyes.
"Just unlock me and let me go to him Luke," his voice growled, smooth and mysterious.
The handsome blonde smirked, and it shown clear there was a sort of rivalry between the two. "Fine Jackson. Go comfort your dark little friend. Mariah's giving you a courteous fifteen minutes; use it with caution."
Ethan stepped forward with a key and with a defined click, unlocked the cuffs off.
At once, with a heated glare sent to the four doctors, he ran forward to the dark teen and dropped to his side as the boy began to tremble.
"Hey Nico. Come on man, look at me, alright? Everything's okay." His voice, low and warning before, became instantly warm and soothing. He poured comfort into his words as he clutched the shoulders of his friend.
Finally, Nico spoke, his voice weak as if worn from use. "Perce," he croaked, "I can't stand it here. I can't escape. I want to leave." His words were becoming softer, fainter. Annabeth had to strain to hear them.
The older male shushed him like a child, like a little brother. His words became whispers, so only the ears of his friend could hear them. They remained like that for awhile, whispering quietly to one another undisturbed, and a calming look began to form on the teen's face. His tense behavior slipping at the reassurance and casual talk with his friend. At one point, they both chuckled, and it was a cherished sight.
The display left Annabeth once again fascinated. How could two patients, considered so dangerous and disabled, show so much emotion through a scene of concern and loyalty? Couldn't the doctors see that they weren't just mutants, humans with a DNA mutation, and actually just like them, with feelings and a heart?
Commotion to the left, made gray eyes wander to where the doctors stood watching stiffly and warily. Only Mariah seemed to find the moment between them tender, a soft look in her warm brown eyes.
But the three boys, Ethan, Luke and Matt; seemed irritated. After a shared look, Matt huffed and gave a curt nod before approaching the crouched patients.
"Hey, no whispering Jackson!"
The heavy built doctor swung his leg back, about to kick both of them with a lead foot, and Annabeth was tempted to call out a warning.
A gasp left her mouth as in a blink, Percy had grabbed his foot, and stood, knocking the doctor flat onto the ground.
She clamped her hand over her mouth as she watched with wide eyes; Luke and Ethan running forward and grabbing the wrists of the angry patient who barely struggled against his assailants. He was watching Nico, his eyes flashing with different emotions.
Nico stood, clenching his fists as he watched his older friend become cuffed in chains once again. "Percy!"
"It's okay Nico," he spoke back smoothly, completely ignoring the fact that he was being practically dragged away, back towards the building's doorway to the gardens.
The teen watched with wide eyes; and Annabeth was stunned silent at the sight of black shades flickering around his body, like inky flames, shadows danced around him.
Percy seemed to notice this too, because before he was further pushed away from sight, he calmly met the eyes of his friend and nodded a reassurance, "It's going to be okay Nico. I'll fix this."
And with those final words, the two male doctors shoved him inside.
The final words of his friend seemed to somewhat calm Nico, as his mutation settled away, now showing once again the unsettled lost teenage boy.
Mariah approached him carefully. "Nico sweetie? We need to head back to your room."
Nico watched her with tired eyes, and didn't even react as she gingerly grabbed his hand and lead him out of the gardens.
As the door shut, finalizing the 'special session' that had just occurred, Annabeth shakily stood.
This wasn't right. The M.M.I were doing something. There was too much evidence convincing her that whatever the treatments the doctors were using for the mutations weren't exactly cures.
Fumbling with her lab coat, she slipped her arms through the sleeves and stumbled her way to the door, reentering the building with a numb chill settling in her bones.
She was found by Jennifer soon after.
"There you are Chase! Come on, you have a meeting with your final patient, Thalia Grace."
