Jacob POV

Allie reached over and gave Percy and Annabeth each a hug. She pulled back and smiled at them both. She then reached down to pick up her bag, but I quickly seized it from her.

She rolled her eyes at me. "Jake Scheper, I am a grown woman and I can carry my own bag."

I smiled and pulled her in close and kissed her on the cheek. "Yes, but with me, you never will." She blushed and smiled.

"Are you sure you two will be okay?" Percy asked.

"Percy, yes, we will be okay. It's like we are just going on a little vacation," Allie stated. Percy gave me a side look.

It had been six weeks since I was back. Six weeks since I had been found and taken out of that hellhole. Six weeks since I had Allie back in my arms again. These past weeks had been great. However, there were a few hiccups.

Allie and I had always been with each other. We never hid anything from one another. Now, there was a long period of our lives that we weren't together. We wanted to reconnect, just the two of us away. Annabeth had suggested Percy's house on the ocean. It was a few hours away from Camp Half-blood and it was a gift from Poseidon, so it was protected with magic. Percy had graciously let us use it.

"Are you sure you two need couples therapy? You seem like honestly perfect," Annabeth said.

Allie smiled sheepishly. "Yes, we are close now, but there's so much we need to talk about. We lost eight years together. Honestly, we were closer before and I know we can get back to that."

I pulled Allie in close. "We just need time to reconnect, just the two of us. You have all been great and I'm so thankful you were all here for Allie when I couldn't be, but it needs to be just us two for a while."

Annabeth smiled. "And we have your apartment key. Percy and I will go and clean out the nursey while you are out."

Allie's eyes teared up a bit. She managed out, "Thank you."

Percy was standing a little bit farther back. I had gotten to know Percy a little bit more these past few weeks. It was a little weird knowing he slept with Allie and had a child with her, but he was a really good person. He was very loyal. Even though he had gotten to know me, I knew he was still wary of letting me go with Allie alone. His overprotective nature was taking over.

Percy stepped forward. "Again, are you sure you're going to be okay?" He glanced at me.

"Stop it," she lightly hit him. "Jake is not going to do anything to me. He's not some serial killer."

I smirked. "Well, I'm not going to do anything bad to you, but I might make you scream in some other ways," I trailed off.

Allie's eyes got wide and she blushed. "Jacob," she whispered still with a great blush on her face.

"Okay, you two get going before I barf in my mouth," Annabeth said but she smiled while saying it.
Allie gave Percy a sad look. This would be the first long time apart since losing their baby. It had to be difficult to some extent. Allie rushed over and gave him one last hug and whispered something in his ear. Whatever she said made him relax a bit. We waved a quick goodbye and headed off.

Allie and I fought over who go to drive, but finally, I gave up and let her. I never really won any arguments with my love. We headed off towards the beach house. And gods, did Allie look beautiful. She was singing loudly to the music and laughing. We had the windows partially down, so her hair moved in the wind.

She caught me staring and turned the music down. "What?" she asked.

"You're just so beautiful," I said smiling.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, Romeo." But she then bit her lip. "You're not too bad yourself."

I rolled my eyes. "Wow, thanks. I call you beautiful and all I get is not too bad?"

She smiled and just turned up the music again. We eventually made it to the beach house. We got out and unpacked our bags. Once we got settled in, I looked at Allie.

"We've had a long day; can we do our talking tomorrow? I just want to be with you tonight and not have to worry about anything else." I said.

Allie stood up tall and kissed my lips. "Yes, Jake, of course."

So that night we were just with each other. I woke up the next day to Allie sleeping on my chest. I loved sleeping with her. We hadn't done anything yet since I was back, but I loved her just sleeping. I moved over to the side and got up slowly. I showered and got ready for the day.

Allie followed me downstairs thirty minutes later. She had her hair up in a messy bun and was wearing maroon leggings with a plain black shirt. She wasn't wearing any make-up either. And gods, did she look so sexy. But I knew I couldn't say or do anything, we had things to discuss.

I slide her over a cup of tea. "You still like tea, right? And do you want anything to eat? I can make you something."

She smiled softly. "The tea is perfect. But I don't really feel like eating."

We both stood in silence. "Should we, should we sit down?" I asked rubbing the back of my neck. Gods, I loved this woman so much, but I never felt more uncomfortable at the same time.

She nodded. We went over the living room and sat on opposite ends of the grey couch. The living room had a wall full of windows overlooking the ocean. It was amazing. Allie crossed her legs across from me and held onto her tea tight.

"Do you want to go first?" I asked.

She nodded. "I guess. What do you want to know?"

I shrugged. "What is there to know? I haven't seen you for eight years. How did, what did you do after I," I gulped, "after you thought I died?"

She looked down at her tea. "I left. Camp Jupiter had too many memories of you. Without you, I didn't feel like I belonged there. So, I did what we did after the titan war, I ran."

I gulped. "Why didn't you stay? Reyna could've helped you. Our friends were there."

Allie shook her head and I saw tears coming to her eyes. "No, I couldn't. I was broken, Jake, you were gone. The person who I had pictured the rest of my life with. How could I go back to a place like that?"

"Allie, if I'm pushing too hard, we can stop," but she shook her head aggressively.

"No, I hate talking about it, but we have to. We have to move past it," Allie stated.

I hated to see her cry, but she was right. We both had to tell our stories. "And after camp?"

"I moved to New York City, somewhere far away from camp and where I could blend in. I went about my day to day business and got my degree in healthcare administration."

"And that's when you met Percy?" I asked.

Allie nodded. "He was struggling in some of his classes. I had been helping some other students with classes as well when I noticed tutors were dropping out on him. He was only a grade younger than me, but I insisted on getting paired with him when I heard his tutor yell at him." She smiled. "All he needed was the right motivation. Eventually, he was able to pass all his classes. Percy's mom, Sally, insisted that I come over for dinner after learning I had helped him. Ever since then Percy and I have been friends."

I swallowed. "Did you," I sighed and shook my head. "Never mind, it's not important."

"No, Jake, if we are going to move past this, we have to share everything," she said.

"Did you have feelings for Percy?" I asked slowly.

She stared back at her tea. "Not in the way you would think. I never had feelings for him, more about him." I stayed silent waiting for her to elaborate. "He loves Annabeth so much, sometimes I would fantasize about someone loving me that much. Sometimes it was you alive, but sometimes it was him. I never loved Percy, not the way I love you," she smiled into her cup, "but that didn't mean I don't care deeply for him."

I nodded. I thought this information would hurt me, but it really didn't. Percy was a good guy but neither had true feelings for each other.

"Is that why you slept with him?" I asked.

Allie looked at me sadly. "Yes and no. I wanted to be with someone, to feel something, even if it was just through sex. In my mind, I knew it would be bad to go off with just anyone. It wouldn't be good for me and Percy was just there," she shook her head. "It filled some of my fantasy, but he wasn't you."

I sighed. I didn't want to bring it up, but I had to. "And after you found out you were pregnant?"

"I was scared, of course. I was single and working a high-stress job. When Percy cut me off, I knew I just had to accept it. It was going to be my baby and me against the world." She started to tear up. "I was viewing the world in a new way every day. I also think," she sighed. "I think I was starting to notice things again."

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"About the demigod world. It didn't occur to me that my baby was a demigod, I thought it was just me being a mom. I noticed accidents being caused on the news, and they were monsters. Things like that."

I nodded. "Allie, I have to ask you something else too. It hurt me, but I know asking might hurt you." I stared at her with sad eyes.

"Jake, go ahead," she said instantly.

"Why were you killing yourself?" She took an intake of breath and set down her tea. I immediately backpedaled. "I didn't mean, if you don't want," she shook her head.

"Do you remember when I got stabbed?" Allie asked.

"How could I forget? It was the worst day of my life," I replied.

Allie had tears streaming down her cheeks. "Losing Jayce was that day for me. Of course, losing you was horrible as well, but I never felt it. You were gone, but I just ignored my grief. Losing Jayce, it was the grief of not having you both combined. I didn't want to live anymore without you."

"Allie," I said sadly.

She smiled softly. "I knew it was stupid, but I didn't have anything holding me back. Obviously now, I know that's not true. Even without you, I had Percy and Reyna and our friends from camp. It was just," I scooted over and held her in a tight hug.

"If you ever feel like that, just tell me and I'll," but she cut me off with a kiss.

"Jake, I won't. Not ever again. I love you and I love this world. I've never met Pluto and I'm not going to anytime soon."

I smiled and looked up at the clock. We had been talking for hours and hadn't even gotten to my story. The story I was regretting to tell. I sighed.

"I know I need to explain my time too, but are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" I asked.

Allie smiled and nodded. We quickly ate some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, both our favorite. We then sat down on the couch. The sun was starting to lower slightly in the sky. I sighed.

"I'm going to tell you what happened. I'm just going to get through it, I don't think I'll be able to start after I stop." I began, and Allie nodded eyes open wide. "I told Nico and Drake to leave, I knew I could endure some pain long enough for them to get away. They ran out. Eventually, I was overwhelmed. They stabbed me in my side and I passed out."

"I thought I died," I continued. "But I woke up and was chained to the wall. I had slowly healing cuts all over my body. When I was passed out, they had been cutting me." I saw Allie's jaw tense. She hated it when people abused my powers, but I couldn't focus on that right now. "At first, they experimented on me."

I shook my head. "When Reyna and the others came to get me, they only saw the monsters. But, Allie, it wasn't just monsters. Mostly, it was other demigods. I don't know who or how but," I blinked back tears.

"At first, I refused to heal them. Demigods and monsters alike were murdering each in front of me, trying to taunt me to save them. I didn't. They continued to cut me, but the healing didn't hurt. I knew I could endure it. And then," I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes.

"Jake," Allie's voice was shaking.

I continued. "They brought in these two women. One looked just like my mom did and one looked like you. I knew it wasn't either of you, but there was resemblance. The one like you had your same hair and gods, I have no idea how they knew it."

"The woman who looked like you, Samantha, she had a daughter Andrea. I later found out she was a daughter of Apollo, the Greek version though, but there wasn't much of a difference. I kept picturing that would be what our daughter would look like someday."

Allie gave me a sad look. I continued. "They started to torture and cut them, and I had to help them. They were obviously not part of the group. They never hurt the daughter, but the way she screamed while her mom was being tortured," I paused remembering her cries. "This went on for a while. It could have been months or years, honestly, I don't know. I eventually started to get immune to the pain of helping someone else. I mean, not quite immune. But I had experienced such immense pain that the pain I was experiencing was negligible."
I paused and looked over and saw Allie in tears. She opened her mouth. "And the women and the little girl?"

I turned away from her. "The one who resembled my mother died first. They had brought in one of their own and I had refused to heal them. For punishment, they killed her. I was chained to the wall and couldn't get down until it was too late. Samantha," I trailed off and shut my eyes. "They tried some kind of biological agent on her. I couldn't heal the virus and she died. After the mom died, I never saw Andrea again."

"How long ago was that? What happened after?" Allie asked softly.

"I," I sighed. "I gave in. I knew that they had to know about you in some capacity to get Samantha to resemble you so well. They threatened to find you and torture you. I couldn't take the chance. I started to heal their soldiers without question. Even with this, they still liked to cut me for sport and watch me heal. It probably went on for a few years until I was found."

I finally looked at Allie again. She had her head tilted and her hand over her mouth. She was sobbing hysterically. My love. I went over and pulled her into my arms. She sobbed into my chest.

"How are you okay?" She finally asked.

"What do you mean?" I questioned confused.

"This was your life for eight years. Eight years! We abandoned you, I abandoned you. How can you forgive me for not searching for you? How did you make it through it all? All while you were being tortured," I stopped her with an aggressive kiss.

"Allie," I held her face and stared into her eyes. "Every moment I was thinking of you. I was thinking of your laugh, the way you smiled, the way you blushed when I kissed you," her face was flushed. "I was picturing this moment. I love you so much. I know you didn't think there was hope for me. I'm not mad no one searched for me." I kissed her again. "I've been dreaming about being with you for years. You're my dream, that's how I made it through."

I leaned down and gave her a kiss. This one was different from all our others up until this point though. It wasn't tender and delicate. This one was passionate and hungry. I wanted her, and Allie returned the kiss in the same way.

Soon, I was laying on top of Allie holding her arms above her head. Both our shirts had come off somewhere in the process. I made my way down from her lips, to her neck, to her breasts. She moaned, and I smiled against her chest.

"Jake," she gasped when I kissed her midline.

I wanted this. I wanted her. But I stopped myself. I brought myself up to her face and looked her in the eyes.

"Are you okay with this?" I asked.

Her eyes grew soft. "Okay with what?" she asked almost amused.

"With," I gulped. "With sex. I know you haven't done anything since the baby," I trailed off as she wrapped her legs around me and kissed me.

"Jake, you are so sweet. And yes, I'm ready. So please, love, take me to the bedroom and make love to me," she asserted.

"You don't have to tell me twice," I finished.

Annabeth POV
Percy and I were at Allie's apartment cleaning out the nursery. We were almost done, we just had to pack up some of the miscellaneous items. I placed a stuffed animal in a cardboard box and looked over at Percy.

He had been doing okay most of this time. He had been mostly silent though, which was unusual for him. There was a moment when we set aside some framed sonograms that he got choked up. Allie had wanted to keep those.

He was currently staring at the painted elephant on the wall. I walked up and wrapped my arms around him. I placed a kiss on his shoulder.

"Seaweed brain, what's going on in that head of yours?" I asked.

"Owls," he said plainly.

I stepped back and raised an eyebrow. Percy turned to look at me. "Excuse me?" I questioned.

"For if we ever have a little girl. The nursery would be filled with little owls," Percy said, and my heart swelled.

"If we had a girl?" I asked again.

He nodded like it was the simplest thing in the whole world. "And if it's a boy, sea creatures. Or maybe just like a Finding Nemo theme."

"You think about what our kids will be like?" I asked.

Percy nodded. "I do, a lot ever since Jayce." He sighed. "I didn't realize how much I wanted kids, not until then. And now, I know we are still young and we have to fix our relationship more, but I want kids with you Annabeth."

I smiled and kissed him. "I do too Percy. Some day."

He smiled and kissed me back.

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