"Annabeth," Percy tried to turn me over and my body screamed in protest.

"Percy! Annabeth!" Nico and Chiron's voices rang through the warehouse. Nico turned the corner with flashlight and gun raised. He took in the sight and called back to Chiron, then went to check the pulses of Ravid as well as the second man. When he reached us, he flashed his light over the other bodies.

They groaned with the sudden light. Nico gasped at me and frantically called to our boss again. Said greying man rushed around the corner and ran to us. Percy helped me up, wrapped an arm around my waist and forced my good arm around his. I tried to push him off, insisting I could walk on my own, but he wasn't buying it.

I sighed and let him. We didn't get farther than five feet before Percy picked me up bridal style, claiming it as quicker, and continued out of the open door we had come in through. I felt useless just laying in his arms, so I tried to pass the time by bugging Percy.

I leaned up and kissed what was exposed of his neck. When my lips brushed over a certain part on his neck, his jaw clenched. I smirked and kissed it again. Percy's Adams Apple quivered. Gaining great amusement out of this, I nipped lightly and Percy almost dropped me.

Chuckling lowly under my breath, I stopped-mainly because we were approaching an ambulance. A man and a woman dressed in light blue helped Percy lower me onto a gurney. They primitively wrapped my wounds before pushing me into the back of the van.

I heard Chiron and Percy talking as the woman hooked me up to a bunch of machines that somehow all fit into the small space of the back of this van. "Stay with her, Jackson." Chiron said, "We'll handle the hotel." I knew Percy must have told him about the men and the C4 from the hotel before we were kidnapped-or adult napped?

Percy jumped in as the lady in blue was shutting the door. He smoothed back some of my hair and took my right hand. He said nothing the whole ride.

~~~~Ignore The Pretty Page Break~~~~

I played with one of the straps on my sling, bored to no tomorrow, as I waited for someone-anyone-to come through the door. Suddenly I got my wish.

A nurse wheeled in my roommate. I smiled at the 8 year old girl. "Alright Madison, you're healing great! I'll be back in a few hours with your lunch."

"Shalom Madison," I greeted her.

"Shalom!" She responded with excitement. I've been teaching her Hebrew, upon her request, for the last two weeks while be both recovered. Madison had been beaten while she was kidnapped by a predator of the sexual kind, completely unrelated to our investigation. He had to have been planning it, but we-being Nico since he tracked down the guy from the DNA match of the blood on the window-only found Madison who had received a compound break to her leg. Fortunately she hadn't been raped, but she did need surgery and had been conveniently placed in my room for recovery.

"Hakol beseder?" I asked. Everything ok?

She thought for a second before responding. "Ein be'ayot!" No problems.

I chuckled. "Tov." Good. Madison smiled proudly.

"I'm missing something here." Percy walked in with both my bags.

"I have been teaching her Hebrew. Why did you bring my bags?" I acquired hopefully.

Percy smiled knowingly and handed me my small weapons bag. "The agency replaced all your sharp things, not very willingly by the way, some of these were really expensive."

I smiled, fondly running a hand over the blade of my Kris dagger. The 8 inch, stainless steel blade curved with nine waves signifying how old I was when I got it, and a horse carved where I normally place my index finger on the underside of the blade. On the top side, the blade extended back, almost as if it were protecting my hand. The blade itself was sharper than a Persian sword.

I gripped the hand carved ivory handle, especially made for my hand and my initials carved into the butt, the details of the hilt were laced with gold. "I know." Maddy giggled and Percy rolled his eyes, taking the knife out of my hand. I glared at him. "Any other time, and you would be short a right hand. That is mostly for show anyway."

"Why where there blood stains on the first one then?" He asked, looking it over.

"I never said I did not use it."

"Um...right," Percy gently placed it on the bedside table, like it would explode at any moment. "And besides, this isn't one of those times," He leaned down so his face was right next to mine. "Is it?"

"Am I interrupting something? Again?" A laugh broke out from the doorway.

Percy straightened up and smiled sarcastically. "Like I told you the last five times, no you didn't."

"Well good." She walked over to my bed and moved the bags off to check the monitors. My doctor was named Emily French. She was in her late 30s with dark black hair and bright blue eyes, as well as laughing lines. I think she got most of them from interrupting moments like that during the past fortnight.

"I have brought good news, Annabeth," She smiled at me. "You're being let out of the joint today."

"Really?" I asked and sat up. Dr. French lightly pushed me back down while chuckling.

"Yes. That's why I had your boyfriend bring a change of clothes for you. Now, when he leaves, we'll get you changed and outta here." Percy turned a nice shade of red at her comment.

The black haired and now red faced man stood. He leaned over and placed a small kiss on my forehead before promptly leaving. Emily let out a few more chuckles as she closed my curtain that surrounded the bed.

Sighing, I slipped out of bed with some difficulty. My leg protested and my shoulder was sore. When Adar shot me, he was using his left hand, and Adar is as good with his left hand like an elephant is at being quiet. The bullet did graze my clavicle, and a dinged clavicle hurts like hell, but other words missed major arteries and other important crap that's in your shoulder.

My leg wasn't so lucky, the Škorpion 61 they shot me with used a 18mm full metal jacket. It took a chunk out of my leg as it passed by. Muscle cells take a while to heal, so I still need to come back for treatment to replace my scar tissue and whatever else it is Dr. French told me about.

Much to my displeasure, Chiron was forcing me to learn to write in English during my recovery time. I mean, I love learning new things-when I was younger you couldn't get my nose out of a book when I wasn't training, you still can't-but I'm not so thrilled about my teacher.

Chiron told Percy, to teach me.

I think he wants to punish me.

I took off my sling and grabbed a light grey tank top from my bag; ignoring the agitated signals the nerves in my shoulder were sending to my brain.

"Annie," Madison's voice piped from the other side of the curtain.

"Yes, hun?" I answered subconsciously as I tried to decide between jeans and shorts.

"Is that guy really your boyfriend?" I stopped and thought about it. Honestly I did not know where we stood on that level. Yes, he visited me every day for the last two weeks, yes, he held my hand the whole time, and yes, he kissed me on the cheek or forehead before he left, but was that just him being sympathetic because he couldn't help me? Chiron's orders...or more?

I sighed and slipped a pair of running shorts under the chunky, black boot that immobilizes my leg. "Ani Lo Yoda'at, Maddy." I don't know Maddy.

"He should be."

"Great, an eight year old is giving me dating advice." I mumbled to myself.

"Good advice, and you should take it!" Her smug reply came.

I pushed back the curtain and hobbled over to her bed. She moved to make a spot for me. I sat and pushed some of her hair out of her eyes affectionately. This little girl had really grown on me.

She was sweet, sarcastic, caring, annoying; she was a little sister. I'd never had one, but now I wish I had, and I wanted it to be her-as greedy as that sounds.

"Ken. Maybe I should." I whispered, kissing her lightly on the forehead while wrapping my good arm around her.

Madison and I sat like that for a few minutes, her head resting on my shoulder, I knew she must be tired. I sang a lullaby softly in Hebrew to aid her, and she was almost asleep when a loud woman burst into our room.

"Madelyn Peters?" She called as if we were ten feet away. Madison jerked up, wide eyed from being awaken so suddenly.

When she got her bearings back, she managed to answer the woman. "It's Madison, who are you?"

"Oh dear," She stuck her hand out for the little girl to shake. "My name is Mrs. Cooper, I'm from the child services building. I'm here to arrange a place for you to stay while your father is in Iraq."

"But I already do, my mommy." Maddy replied, confused. I had to admit, I was too.

"Well sweety, the agency has deemed her unfit to take care of you." Mrs. Cooper tired to sooth her.

Madison cringed away from her and closer to me. "Unfit how?" I asked.

"Well, negligence and drug abuse." She said as if it were obvious.

"My mommy never neglected me!" I shh'ed her.

I decided to take over for the emotional little girl. "What options does she have?"

"Well, she could go to the home the air-force has on base for single parents that are deployed, or she can be temporarily adopted into a home with a foster parent."

"I don't want to go to a foster home! I wanna stay here. With Annabeth!" She added as she squeezed me tight. I sighed and hugged her best I could.

"Well if she's a foster parent you can." Mrs. Cooper chuckled as she wrote something down on a clipboard. I'm sure she meant it as a joke, but Madison seemed to think she was serious.

She looked up at me, "Oh Madison, I am not-"

"But you can be right? You just gotta take a test!"

I looked at the old woman. She shrugged at me. "I suppose I can get you an interview with the local care force." She muttered.

Madison hugged me tight. "But," Mrs. Cooper cut in. "You aren't very fit to take care of anyone but yourself right now." She gestured to my boot.

"But I am." Percy walked in.

"You want to be a foster father?" I asked, amused and surprised.

"Well no," He turned to the woman sitting in the chair across from our bed. "But I'm protecting Ms. Chase, and protecting Madison will be no problem until she's well again."

"It's not up to me, but the foster care. They deem whether a person is fit to be a parent." She stood up and shook my hand. "Hope to see you again soon, miss."

When she was gone, Madison went on about how great and amazing it would be if I did become a foster parent. Percy watched with amusement until my doctor came back in.

"Well, you're ready to go?" She smiled at me.

"Yes," I told her, then I pulled her over to my bed as I put my knife away. "When does Madison get released?"

"In about a week."

I nodded. "Thank you, for everything Dr. French."

The dark haired doctor waved it off, "Please, call me Emily; and it was not a problem. It's what I do."

I nodded. "I hope to come for Madison as soon as I can, do you think-"

"I will insist on making sure she is absolutely able to leave, no matter how long it takes." She winked at me and left without another word. I smiled to myself and pulled my smaller bag over my shoulder, leaving the larger one for Percy.

I walked over to Madison and kissed her on the forehead. "See you tomorrow?" She asked. Not being able to say no to her big, begging green eyes, I assured her I would visit her everyday. Maddy hugged my neck. "Thank you so much Annie! See you tomorrow, love you."

My eyes widened at her last two words, a strange feeling engulfed me like one of the little girl's hugs. I brought my right arm up to return her hug. "Ani Ohevet Otcha." I love you. I stood and blinked back the tears I felt in my eyes. Taking a deep breath before I responded, I grabbed my bag from the floor once more and said, "Ani Tzarich Lalechet Achshav." I must go now.

I waited while she tried to process what I said. I smiled when her eyebrows frowned in concentration. Finally she smiled. "Shalom!"

I laughed. "Very good. See you later Maddy."

Percy smiled at me and as I passed, he placed a hand on my lower back as he led me out of the hospital.

While we were driving, I asked Percy about the people that wanted to kill me. "What happened at the hotel?"

"Well, we sent in dogs to find the explosives and removed them. We didn't find the guys though..." He trailed off. It sounded almost as if he blamed himself that they didn't capture them.

I placed a hand over his in a comforting gesture. "I will eliminate the six men we have in custody and you can look for the remaining four."

"Yeah, we can put a bolo out on them, that's a good idea Annabeth!" Percy flipped his hand and took mine in his own; he gave it a squeeze.

"What does 'bolo' mean again?" I asked.

"Be on the look out." Percy smiled at me in an understanding way. "It took me close to half a year to learn all the abbreviations and stuff."

I returned with a small smile. "Where are you taking me then?" I asked.

"Well, you said you were going to get your own place at the end of the week, and well-I figured-since you had free time...I would take you out to look for one. I know some great condos that are close to work and surrounded with great restaurants and stuff, it'd be perfect for you."

"Sounds like a plan." I said, showing my agreement in his idea.

A few dozen complexes and several heated arguments later, Percy turned the key for the door to my new condo. He pushed the door open and dramatically ushered me to go in. I chuckled and did so.

When I first walked in, there was a hall way like in a typical hotel room, but there was a large glass-less window that opened up into a good sized kitchen. The walls in it were a light yellow, almost peach, with black counter tops and island. The cabinets were the same light yellow as the walls and the floor was white tile.

I continued into the living room and gasped lightly. The walls were all a very calming blue, and the furniture was all white. A large, three person couch was perched on the far right wall with a matching love seat-it's back to us. There was a black modern coffee table in the middle of the two chairs on top of a corresponding black rug. All situated on a pristine white carpet.

In the far corner there was a large flat-screen on a black wood table. There were two lamps on either side of the long couch on the same black wood table as the T.V. On the far right wall, there was a door that lead somewhere, and on the left wall, closest to me, there was another door. I chose to go through that one.

The door led to a long hallway with five more doors. The two closest to me were a closet and a full bathroom. The other three were bedrooms.

I peeked into the one right across the bathroom. It was obviously meant for a male, the walls were blue-lighter than the living room. A bed with a dark blue comforter was situated in the left corner. The room also had a nice silver desk on the wall next to the door with a post board on the wall above it. A door on the far wall indicated a closet. On the wall next to it was a rich, dark brown dresser.

I moved to the two bedrooms at the end of the hall. The smaller one on the right was a little girl's dream. The walls were a light pink, the bed a darker shade, and a large closet with two full length mirrors on the outside of it's doors. A white desk was on the far side of the room and next to it, a white dresser.

"Hey," Percy's breath ran over my ear. I resisted the urge to shiver. "Your room is over here." I let him guide me to the last room.

When I walked in, I knew immediately it was a master bedroom. A king bed with dark green and black comforter that matched the dark grassy green walls was pushed against the wall. Another flat screen stood across from the bed on a large dresser. There were two desks on opposite sides of the room. I could see a bathroom and a closet as well.

"Oh Percy," I breathed in awe. "It is beautiful." I turned to face him. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," He laughed. "Thank your dad, he paid for it."

I laughed with him. I went to sit on the end of the bed to take it all in. Percy walked up so he was standing in front of me. I looked up at him in question. He said nothing but leaned down, placing an arm on either side of my body.

Slowly he leaned down to capture my lips with his own. I brought my arms up around his neck and pulled him with me down to the bed.