Chapter 8

*WARNING: HINTS OF ABUSE AND BUTT KICKING*

They had the rottenest luck in history. Ever.

That had to be the only reason for Percy and Annabeth being in this situation. There they were, happily

eating their burgers and laughing their hearts out when suddenly, Annabeth had a blade to her throat.

For a moment, nobody moved. Both Annabeth and Percy sat frozen in place with their stares to one another.

Then Annabeth sprung into action. She lifted up her leg and kicked him as hard as she could in an area that made Percy flinch so hard. The guy lowered his dagger instantly and groaned, "You're gonna pay for that."

He was about to stab her with the knife in the stomach, but Percy pushed her out of the way and the blade went straight into his left arm. He winced, but didn't scream as he stared into the black eyes of the goon.

Percy didn't know what happened next, but suddenly all he could see of the guy was a black skull jacket and the back of his head, the rest of him being on the ground knocked out.

Percy had punched him. His right hand really hurt from the punch he had delivered to the guy's ugly face. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as the knife in his left arm though, but he could handle the pain. It was the fact that there was a piece of sharp metal stuck in his arm that worried him.

"P-Percy?" Annabeth said with a worried expression.

"Yeah?" He grunted back at her. He winced in pain once more before he was being tackled in a hug. It was a good thing that he steadied himself.

"Thank you! I can't believe you did that, you idiot! You could have been killed! You know that right?"

"Yes, Annabeth. I am very much aware of that." Percy said. "I am also aware of the fact that you are hugging an arm with a knife in it. Let me just say: ouch."

"You took a knife for me?" she asked incredulously. Annabeth knew that the guy was attacking her, and that Percy blocked the blow. She didn't know that there was a knife involved.

Another thing she couldn't believe was how many sparks were flying off of her skin anywhere that was touching Percy.

She let go, blushing.

"Of course, Wise Girl. I'd take a knife for any one of my friends. Let alone my fiancée." He kidded.

"Are you seriously joking at the moment? You have a knife in your arm!" Annabeth screeched while pointing at the blade sticking out of his arm.

"Annabeth if you're so wise then you should know that I would always find a way to joke about everything. Besides, you of all people should know that I've faced worse pain than this little thing." Percy shrugged.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him before saying,"we gotta get this checked out, Percy." She was going to drag him out and away from the place and into some nearby hospital when there was another voice that interrupted them. Huh, she didn't know that there were still other people around. Most of them already ran off as soon as the knife was in plain view.

"Wait- Percy, Annabeth, fiancée. Are you guys – " A random guy in the McDonald's asked.

"Yes, we are them," Annabeth interrupted with a roll of her gray orbs. "Now, has anyone called the police yet, or are we just waiting for him to wake up some time soon?" She pointed at the goon.

But before anyone could answer, there was a loud noise of a revving motorcycle engine out in the parking lot of the food chain.

"I called the police, don't worry." a random girl called out from among the guy with the knife was still on the floor, not waking up anytime soon, yet everyone still kept a descent distant from him.

The front doors opened, Annabeth hoped it was the police, but then something happened that just made their amazing day even better. (Note the sarcasm)

In walked Ares, a friend of the and Annabeth groaned together.

Ares was the class-A jerk of the family. Unfortunately Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades didn't think so. He's one of those guys that they were forced to call 'uncle', even though he isn't related and you hate his guts. Percy never called him Uncle, but that's a special case. Their hatred toward each other could bring the world to chaos.

"Ares." Annabeth greeted bitterly. "What are you doing here?" Sheasked with fake enthusiasm and an obvious fake was more of a scowl. Percy's actually was a scowl, one that he made no attempt at hiding.

"Annabeth, so nice to see you. You too sea-scum." Ares said while nodding in Percy's direction.

"Whatever war-for-brains." He muttered under clenched teeth.

Ares smiled at that comment actually. "Why thank you fish brain. I do love war."

Percy rolled his eyes. "You know this thug?" he asked.

Ares's eyes flicked over to the guy, a slight guilty expression before it disappeared.

"Nope." he said casually.

They didn't believe him.

"Come on you two, when the police come they'll make you go to the hospital then take you in for questioning. By the time all that's done, your little deadline will have waved goodbye." Ares said.

First of all, how come Ares knew that they had a deadline? Did Zeus tell him? What was he doing here? The last thing they wanted to do at that moment was follow him, but they didn't have much of a choice right now. Both of them hated to admit it but they were right.

"How do you know about our deadline? How do you know about any of this?" Annabeth voiced out.

"I have my sources." Ares simply answered. "Now, you two have gotta get out of here. I'll tell the police what happened. Take this backpack, you idiots are probably out of money anyway."

He wasn't wrong. They needed money, just not from him.

"What are we supposed to do about my arm?" Percy suddenly asked while clenching the arm that was oozing with blood.

"What, that little thing? A flesh wound. You shoulda seen the injury I got from Vietnam, now that hurt. Be a man and feel the pain." Ares is always telling war stories like that. Apparently he was in WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. Basically he was full of bull.

Before Percy could comment something rather hateful, Ares grabbed Percy's arm and pulled the knife out quickly. He yelled in pain before clutching his arm.

"There punk, now go get on that zoo truck, its headed to L.A. You'll be there by tomorrow." They didn't answer as they walked away as soon as they saw what truck Ares was talking about. Neither of them liking or trusting the situation.

Percy stopped, looked back and said, "What if we don't want to get on the truck?"

The only response that Ares gave was him was opening his jacket to reveal a gun. Not the best way to get people to trust you, Annabeth scowled but got inside the truck anyway.

What was inside that zoo truck was rather disturbing and should be reported as some sort of violence against animals. After feeding the lions and zebras with the right meal and not some switched up food, they settled on some hay to rest.

"Percy, you have to do something about that." Annabeth pointed at the bleeding arm. "I swear that the lion thought you were dinner."

"Huh? Oh yea, my arm." he said, looking down and noticing the steady stream of blood coming out of it. It was kind of numb, which was why he had forgotten about it. Percy took his shirt off and wrapped it around his arm.

Annabeth gasped at the sight, whether it was from his eight-pack or his scars, she wasn't sure. Percy was praying that it was the scars. He had them all over his chest courtesy of Gabe. He had them on both wrists from cutting. They were everywhere.

Annabeth was staring, she couldn't believe how beat up he was. She also couldn't believe how hot he was without his shirt on. Seriously, an eight-pack? Isn't that supposed to be almost impossible to have? She thought. Oh great, now I'm sounding like aunt Aphrodite. Yuck.

Randomly, a memory of something the woman said came back to her.

Love is the most commonly mistaken emotion. Most people interpret it as a very strong hate.

Annabeth shook her head.

That can't be rational, can it? She thought. Hate is hate, even if you don't hate the person anymore.

While she was thinking of that, Percy's face appeared on her mind. She shook those thoughts out of her head, however and tried to remember their current situation instead.

"Do you think we should open this?" Percy asked her, motioning to the backpack.

"No." she replied. "I don't trust any of this. Who knows? It could be a bomb. He did almost pull a gun on us. There would be no evidence he killed us."

"True. Why don't I just open this little front pocket and see if there's any money." Percy reasoned.

"OK, it's your hand." Annabeth said, backing away from the backpack.

Percy slowly opened the pocket flap and instantly felt something inside. He grabbed it and found $600 rolled up. He grinned and showed it to Annabeth who simply shrugged. Ah, the perks of being rich.

Even when he found money that was helpful on their current case, Percy decided not to get anything else out. Who knew what could be in there? Annabeth was right, a bomb could have been wired or something else He just pocketed the money then walked over to sit next to Annabeth who was now painfully aware that

Percy was only wearing blue jeans.

"How did you get those?" Annabeth asked him.

"What these?" he asked jokingly, pointing to his abs. "Sit ups, crunches, planks – Ouch!" Percy had interrupted by Annabeth slapping the back of his head.

"The scars Seaweed Brain." She clarified.

Percy frowned slightly, but told her anyway. "A horrible monster named Gabriel Ugliano. His last name suits him very well. He was ugly." Percy shuddered at a particular memory.

*Flash Back*

"Get up, you worthless piece of garbage." Gabe said, kicking Percy in the chest.

Despite the pain, Percy complied. It would only get worse if he couldn't get up. Sally Jackson wasn't home.

She was at work, selling candy for the company, "Sweet on America".She never let him hit Percy. But she wasn't Gabe was drunk again.

Beer cans litter the floor, which he knew he would have to pick up before his mother got home. Gabe punched Percy in the face, probably giving him a black eye. Percy groaned, but waited for more. It didn't come. Yet.

"Look what I found today, boy." Gabe said, holding up Percy's razor. The one he used to cut. "If you get to cut yourself then so do I."

He pushed Percy to the ground then proceeded to cut open his chest. It was light, just enough to break the skin. But it hurt like Hades. No, not Hades. It hurt like the depths of Tartarus.

Gabe must have been trying to spell something, but failed miserably; in his drunken state. Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably only five minutes, Gabe stopped. He got up and sat down on the couch, leaving Percy to lie on the ground. It would be hours before his mother got home. Plenty of time to clean up before she could see any of this.

*End of Flashback*

A tear came down Percy's face, but he ignored it; instead hugged Annabeth back, as she had been doing for Zeus knows how long. Percy cried a little, but didn't let it show.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you. If I could, Gabe would be dead." Annabeth softly told him.

"That's OK, Annabeth. He got the death penalty. New York reinstated it for a day just for him. It should only be about another ten years before he gets the electric chair."

Annabeth smiled, despite the tears in her eyes. She could stay like this forever, just holding Percy. Who she was just realizing now felt really good to hug. She suddenly realized that she had feelings for him. Small ones, but they were definitely there.

Once Percy got over the Gabe thing and composed himself again he realized the same thing. They pulled back from the hug and looked each other in the eyes. Percy was about to say something, then stopped, staring deeply into her eyes.

They leaned closer; almost touching noses, and slowly leaned in…

A/N: Will they kiss? Will something interrupt them? See? I told you it wasn't obvious. Only one or two people got it. Don't understand yet? You will soon. Don't worry. Also, I am no longer even going to attempt to write and publish a chapter a day. It is just not possible anymore. I'm going to slow down to 2-3 chapters a week. Sorry if this inconveniences anyone. The chapters may however be just a little longer, no promises. R&R Please.