Sorry about the wait but I'm sick for the third time in less than 2 months and I've been so busy with school! Here's chapter 7. Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Go back and look at Chapter One.


Chapter Seven: Decisions

Percy's POV

Annabeth's been watching me like a hawk ever since my drunken escapade. Not that I blame her. I am so ashamed of what I did. The fight Annabeth and I had after the parent teacher conference and after Adam was asleep made me realize that.

*flashback*

I smiled as I looked out of the car window. What a beautiful day it is today! The sun is shining and not a single cloud hanging in the sky. I turned back to look at Annabeth with a grin, but she didn't return the smile. What was her problem? Suddenly it felt like all the alcohol drained away. It was then when I started to realize what had taken place today and why Annabeth looked so grumpy. Did I say 'grumpy'? I mean furious! I started to sweat as I began to really understand how deep in shit I was. My feet started tapping the floor slightly, anxious to run.

"Going somewhere? Oh no, I don't think so." Annabeth suddenly said in a dangerous tone.

I looked at her with evident fear in my eyes. Oh Gods, I'm not sure I will survive this. I wiped the sweat off my forehead as the car stopped.

Annabeth jumped out of the car to help Adam, who was struggling with his seat belt.

She gave the house keys to Adam. "Adam, hurry up to your room, Dad and I have need to talk in private. Leave the keys on the drawer besides the stairs." I really didn't like the way she said 'talk' but Adam ran into the house and left me alone with Annabeth. I'm not sure if it was because of the fear or the alcohol but I really needed to throw up. I burst out of the car, doubled over and vomited all over the lawn.

"Perseus Jackson, you are soo dead." she said with a murderous tone that sent a shiver down my spine. She took a fist full of my hair, while I was still doubled over and started dragging me towards the house.

"Oww! Annabeth, let's talk about this." I managed to blurt out.

"Oh we will." she said in tone that made the blood in my head rush down. I tried to grab her hand but I was defenseless in this position. She dragged me into the house and up the stairs.

She opened the door to the study and threw me inside. "Wait here. I'm going to go make sure Adam is in bed and is going to sleep."

I simply nodded, not wanting to say anything and end up making her angrier then she already was. As she left the study I sat down on the couch, putting my hands in my head, thinking. I thought about how I could let the grief come to this. How I could let the grief drive me to get drunk in the middle of the day. A few minutes later, Annabeth came back, with her hands folded over her chest. She was pissed, very pissed. Getting up, I put my hands up in the universal sign of 'I surrender' I started to talk, "Annabeth, please. Just hear me out."

"No, Percy. Just shut up. I don't want to hear you out; I can't believe you would do this."

"Do what? Get drunk in the middle of the day? Excuse me for trying to grieve!" I snapped.

She sighed, "Percy, I understand that you're trying to grieve but you can't get drunk in the middle of the day! What would have happened if I had Adam with me when I came home! He's six! It's bad enough he's lost a mother and a grandfather, he shouldn't come home to his father lying passed out on the stairs. What do you think he would think? He wouldn't understand."

"What is so difficult for him to understand that I'm trying to cope with losing my father? So what I get drunk and Adam finds me? He's a kid he won't remember it!"

"He wouldn't understand why you would have to get so drunk that you pass out, or get drunk at all! Just because he's a kid that doesn't mean he won't remember!"

"He's six, Annabeth, he won't remember seeing his dad come home drunk!" I yell, frustrated and not understanding why she wouldn't just let me grieve in my own way.

"I remember! I remember all those times when my father came home drunk and start yelling at Malcom and me, blaming us for our mother's death." Tears started streaming down Annabeth's face.

I was too shocked to say anything; I've always tried to get Annabeth to open up to me as to why she hated her father so much. I knew the only reason she let him walk her down the aisle was because she knew it was important to Malcom, to make him think she had forgiven their father just like he had. I knew better, I knew she hated him just the same, but I never knew why.

"I do not want Adam to have the same memories as I do." Annabeth wiped the tears off her cheek and walked towards the door. "I would sleep in here tonight, if I were you."

I stared after her as she walked out of the room. I put my hands behind my head as I looked around the study, staring at the pictures of Adam and Annabeth that were hung on the walls. My feet carried me, unconsciously, towards one picture in particular.

It hung in the center of the wall right behind the desk. It was of Annabeth and Adam. She was holding him in her arms while he had his arms wrapped around her neck. Adam was giving her a kiss on the cheek, causing her laugh. Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes as I thought about what Annabeth had said to me tonight. I didn't know what to do. I was lost, terribly lost.

*end of flashback*

As I sat in a booth in the back of a bar, that I somehow managed to come to without Annabeth finding out, I stared at my wedding band that was lying on the counter in front of me. I had no idea what I wanted to do.

A part of me wanted not to care and throw away my marriage, forget about Adam and leave. Leave everything behind and start over somewhere else. The other part of me wanted to stay, make things right with Annabeth, pretend everything's fine and go back to normal. I didn't know if I could leave them, I loved Annabeth and Adam too much to leave and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left them. But I also knew I couldn't stay and pretend everything is okay, that everything will be okay. I don't know how long I sat at the bar, drinking, before Malcom came. I didn't notice him until he sat next to me and took my drink.

"Dude, what the hell? If you want one just order your own!" I fumed as I turned around.

"You've had enough, Percy." Malcom rolled his eyes and finished the drink as Nico and Grover sat down around me at the booth, I'd moved to.

"What are you guys doing here?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Looking for you, Annabeth's been worried sick about you. When you didn't come home after work she thought you were at your mothers but obviously you weren't there. She called Malcom, Grover, and I to see if you were with one of us and when we said no she started freaking out. So here we are looking for you." Nico explained.

"And what do we find? A drunken Percy who, might I add, is not wearing his wedding ring." Grover observed.

"Really, Grover? Its right in front of me, it's not like I threw it away." I rolled my eyes.

"You might as well." Malcom stated.

"Malcom,—" I tried but he cut me off, he was pissed.

"No, Percy. What the hell is wrong with you? Huh? You want to leave your wife and kid just because things have gotten tough? You're talking about throwing you're whole life away. When you married my sister you promised to stand by her until the day you died. And guess what? That day hasn't come yet." He fumed.

"What are you going to do about Adam? Just leave him? It's bad enough he's lost his mother and his grandfather. You want to put him through losing a father too?"

"What about what I've lost?" I just couldn't hold it in anymore. "I lost the woman I loved, half my friends, and my father! I've lost so much too soon. You guys may have moved on but I haven't."

"My god Percy, are you really that stupid?" Nico asked. "We've all lost somebody. We all lost Silena, Beckendorf, Bianca, Zoe, and Ethan, not just you. We loved them just as much as you did."

"And what makes you think we've moved on? They were a part of our lives for years, it's going to take longer than three years for us to move on from losing people we've known pretty much our entire lives." Grover jumped in before I could reply to Nico.

"You need to decide what you are going to do. Because Annabeth is not going to let you near Adam or her until you decide. She will leave you and take Adam with her if that's what she feels is best." Malcom stated as Nico, Grover, and him got up to go.


I was sitting at the bar, about to pay for my drinks, thinking about what the guys had said but my thoughts were interrupted when someone sat down next to me and grabbed my ring from my fingers as I kept twirling it around them, deep in thought.

"How about you forget about whoever gave you this and come dance with me?" The girl who took my ring asked when I turned to face her.

She was pretty, in a sense, dark hair and brown eyes but as I stared at her I didn't see anything that made me want her. Right then and there, staring at this stranger that was holding my wedding ring, I made up my mind. I had realized that she was everything I didn't want. I didn't want dark hair and brown eyes. I wanted blonde hair and grey eyes. I wanted a family and a lifetime of waking up beside my wife, not one-nightstands every other week.

Snatching my ring back and sliding it on my left ring finger, where it would stay I replied, "No, thanks. I have to get home to who gave me this."

With that said I paid for my drinks and walked out of the bar and caught a cab to head home. To my family.


Author's Note: Yeah, so, how'd you like it? I'd appreciate some feedback. Anyways, next chapter will start out in Annabeth's POV and hopefully will be up sooner than this one was. Sorry about that. Thanks to BSK, who helped when I had slight writers block on this chapter (He wrote the hair pulling bit). Do you like it when I switch between Percy and Annabeth or do you prefer it if I didn't switch….? Let me know and I'll try to update soon!

Until Next Time,

~booklover484 :D