Hey, guys.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been meaning to, but my life's been bombarded by a ton of stuff and I haven't had much free time. I've also actually hurt my wrist by typing too much, so I had to take a day off to let it relax :(

Anyway, in chapter 9, we left off with Annabeth being pregnant, which I realise is a very clichéd plot twist. However, I never mentioned what would happen next… *evil face*

Thank you so much for all the favourites and follows! It's overwhelming how much you're all enjoying this story. Thank you also to the people who reviewed :) Reviews and feedback are always appreciated :)

Also, for those who didn't see the last update, I've recently begun a Wattpad account. Unfortunately, I can't post the link on FanFiction, but my username is included in the previous update. I just completed and published my first original work – a short three-part novella called "Live, Love, Laugh". Please check it out and vote and comment at will :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Don't forget to review, favourite and follow :D

LilRed17 :)

Annabeth

Annabeth spent several days in a stunned daze.

Pregnant…

In fiction, girls who unexpectedly became pregnant when they were unusually young were either shunned by their families or had a marriage of convenience.

Annabeth didn't really have a family to shun her – anyway, they already had, without the unplanned pregnancy. She didn't have any plans to tell them about her situation – they had made their opinion of her, as a daughter and as a sibling, extremely clear.

As for the marriage of convenience…

She loved Percy. She knew that with a certainty that sometimes scared her. She had never felt so certain of anything in her life. But – she didn't want to marry him. Not right now. She didn't want to get married right now. She was only eighteen. In a few months, she'd be nineteen and very close to becoming a mother. Not only was it not the right time, but she didn't feel ready. Nor did she want Percy to marry her because he felt obligated to.

But Annabeth couldn't just bring up the subject out of nowhere. "Percy, just in case you were thinking of proposing… Don't."

How well would that go down? she wondered briefly, staring at the ceiling during one of her late-night ruminations.

Then there was the matter of Tony.

He'd been taken to jail. The police had called Percy, since he was the one who had reported him, to let them know what had befallen Annabeth's abusive ex-boyfriend. He was to be jailed for up to five years, maybe more, for his multiple offenses. Theo was being held as well, but for three years, since he was an accomplice. Despite the amount of evidence that they currently held over Tony, they were still trying to determine the exact number of years he'd be held, since they hadn't tracked down all of the evidence yet.

With the combination of her worry about him, her anxiety over the child she currently carried and her fear of Percy proposing suddenly out of obligation, she spent her days in a constant state of anxiety and pensive preoccupation.

She was lying on her side one night, staring across the darkened room, lost in thought, when Percy rolled over and hesitated before whispering, "Are you all right?"

She stiffened. They hadn't really discussed the pregnancy since she'd told him about it. He'd been stunned. Hell, she'd been stunned. She'd announced it, then, because her life was apparently a soap opera, gone to throw up. He'd followed her into the bathroom and held her hair back for her, but they hadn't talked. Not really. Then she'd escaped the apartment to wipe down tables in the restaurant.

Annabeth had then proceeded to throw up twice more that same night, partly from being pregnant, but mostly from the fear and nerves that had taken up residence inside her stomach alongside the unexpected blip. Percy had held her hair back again while she'd thrown up, but she'd walked straight out of the bathroom after finishing up, gone to lie down on the bed and pretended to be asleep when he'd come to bed a few seconds later.

She didn't know how to bring it up. How did one bring up the subject of an unplanned, possibly unwanted pregnancy with one's brand-new boyfriend? It was impossible. And awkward. It was impawkward.

And yet, the moment had presented itself.

So she rolled over, meeting his eyes, which were glinting in the faint light from the street. Breathing deeply, she replied, softly, "I'm all right."

They stared at each other for a while. Finally, Annabeth sighed and stated, extremely quietly, "I'm pregnant."

Percy shut his eyes. Then the glint returned. "I know." A pause. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm freaking out," Annabeth admitted, softly. "Completely and utterly wigged right now."

"Wigged?" Percy chuckled slightly. Annabeth bit her lip.

"How are you feeling about it?"

Percy paused. "I don't know."

Although she was feeling pretty much the same way – with a bucket of anxiety and nerves thrown in for good measure – she still felt the blood drain from her face as he said that. Then he continued, "I think I feel – happy."

"Happy?" she whispered. Every thought in her mind went quiet. Silent. It was like white noise, but not.

"Happy," he repeated, solemnly. "I mean, obviously, we're really young. It isn't the most ideal moment or situation. But think about it, Wise Girl – we're bringing in someone who's part you and part me, to become a loving, stable family. Really, this could have happened at a later time and we could have been less ready than we are now. Completely unstable. Absolutely off our rockers. Lost our marbles." She was beginning to smile now. She felt like she hadn't smiled in days – all her thoughts had been taken up with worry. "I'm nervous. Just like you. I don't know if we're ready for this, but I think that we're stable and you'll be the best mother in the world." He paused. "I'll try to be a good dad–"

"You'd be the best," she breathed.

"But we'll help each other through it," he told her. She watched as his expression turned from thoughtful to pleading and truly realised, for the first time in days, that Percy was just as terrified of this new addition to their lives as she was.

She reached out and touched his cheek, curving her palm around it. He leant into her hand, still gazing at her. "You'll be the best dad," she whispered. "I know, because you are the best man I've ever known." She heard his breath hitch as he exhaled. "And because I would never let you be a deadbeat."

"Wise Girl," he said softly. His nickname for her sounded like a prayer, the way he said it.

She smiled gently at him. "Seaweed Brain."

He reached out and grasped her waist, turning her around gently and tucking her into his body. She felt a wave of warmth and safety wash over her as she closed her eyes, feeling at peace.

Suddenly, Percy spoke. "So, names," he murmured.

"Names, huh?" she whispered. "What were you thinking?"

"Hansel if it's a boy," he said, thoughtfully. "Gretel if it's a girl."

She half-groaned, half-laughed. "No way."

"What about Liesl?" he asked, innocently. "Friedrich? Kurt? Brigitta? Louisa?"

"We are not naming our child after a character from a musical," she told him sternly, biting her lip as she said 'our child'.

"Why not?" he groused.

"Because I don't want him or her growing up hating their parents," Annabeth laughed. "That's why." She went quiet suddenly. Our child. Their parents.

"Percy," she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"We're going to be parents."

He was quiet. "I know." His hand smoothed over her stomach, his fingers brushing her bellybutton. "There's a baby in here."

She smiled, biting her lip, happiness and anxiety warring inside of her. "I know."

His hand paused on her stomach. "You're still anxious," Percy murmured. "I can tell."

"Of course I am," Annabeth murmured back, her voice rising slightly, edged with alarm. "I'm only eighteen, I'm pregnant and I don't have any family left."

Silence. Then –

"You have me."

Annabeth closed her eyes briefly. Then she turned over gently to face Percy. "I know." She leaned forward and kissed him, softly and sweetly.

Turning back, she felt Percy's arm tighten around her stomach, as if he never wanted to let go.

The feeling is mutual, she thought, drifting off to sleep.

The next day was better.

She was still anxious, but it wasn't overwhelming. It was the underlying feeling, patterned over with a cautious kind of happiness.

She waitressed as usual, talking and laughing with Ramona and Felix and serving the customers with ease. But every time she glanced through to Percy, standing in the kitchen, he would glance up and their eyes would lock – and they would smile at each other. And a warm, happy feeling fluttered inside Annabeth.

That afternoon, Percy went out grocery shopping. Annabeth volunteered to close up the restaurant, which, to her growing amusement and frustration, he protested against.

"You can't close up," he objected, his keys hanging, mostly forgotten, in his hand. He watched her wipe down a table, then pick up a chair.

"Why not?" she asked, her eyebrows raised. She placed the chair on top of the table.

"Because… Because you're fragile," he protested, his expression earnest.

Annabeth stared at him for a few seconds, then, after realising he was serious, began laughing. Tears began sliding down her face. She wiped them away and took a deep breath. "Seaweed Brain, I think I'm fine to wipe down a few tables and put some chairs on top of them. Go get food. I swear I'm fine."

"But…" He looked torn and Annabeth sighed, half-frustrated, half-affectionate. She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

"Go," she told him softly. "I'll be here when you get back."

Percy's mouth twisted to the side as he considered it. Finally, he sighed and stood up. "Okay."

As he exited the front door and got in his car, she waved from the door of the restaurant. He had keys to get back in to the restaurant, so she had no qualms about locking both doors.

After she drew all the blinds and locked the back door, she made her way upstairs, still shaking her head over Percy's behaviour. As she stepped into the apartment, she heard the phone ringing. Picking it up from its cradle on the bedside table, she put it to her ear, shutting the apartment door behind her as she did so. "Hello?"

"Annabeth. Don't hang up."

She didn't freeze; not this time. She'd heard her father's voice too many times recently to freeze up anymore. Instead, Annabeth stiffened in anger – but she did not hang up.

"The police have contacted me again," her father continued. "Tony's in jail now. They don't know for how long, but… They searched Tony's apartment and found his phone, with photos of you in it. They did some sort of identity scan – they didn't fully explain it – but they contacted me after finding out I was your father. They – they want you to provide testimony."

The shock of that sentence drove every other thought out of Annabeth's mind and she blurted out, without thinking, "Testimony for what?" Oh, God, what if they think I was involved in all of his shit? What if they think I was helping him? Oh, God… Oh, my God…

A pause. Then he spoke. "Someone tipped the police off that Tony was your boyfriend. That he'd been hurting you."

And this time, Annabeth did freeze, as memories of those bruises, the black eyes she'd had on more than one occasion, the slow emaciation of her body from lack of eating and fear, all came rushing back to her, from where she'd slowly stowed them away over the past months.

Her father spoke again. "Is this true?"

God, that question. But she answered, roughly, "Yes."

A pause. Longer, this time. Much longer. She was starting to wonder whether he had hung up accidentally, when he stated evenly, "They want you to come and give testimony."

"When?" The flat question fell from her lips without thought.

"As soon as possible," he replied. He named the address of the police station.

"I can get there," she told him, keeping her voice even. "Let them know I'll be there in the next few days."

"I will." He seemed to hesitate. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." She hung up. She put the phone back in its cradle.

And then Annabeth sunk to the floor, opposite one of the apartment's windows. She stared out at the sun, slowly setting in the sky and turning the clouds a pinkish orange.

Somewhere inside of her, she wanted to cry, but she didn't think she had any tears left.