Chapter 11

It was one in the morning, and Percy – brave, stupid, Seaweed Brain Percy – was still hanging on to life. Annabeth knew that he was nearly gone, though. His breathing was more labored than ever, now. He was no longer able to move from mid-torso down. He could barely hear, and his extremities had turned blue over an hour before, even his nose was cold. The only good thing was that he didn't seem to be in pain, or he was so far gone and paralyzed that he didn't notice it anymore.

Paul and Sally were sitting mutely on Percy's left. Sally was holding his cold hand and smoothing wrinkles out of his blankets. Paul had dozed off, sitting on the floor between the bunk beds with his head resting on the bed across from Percy.

There was a quiet knock at the door. Annabeth and Sally both jerked their heads towards it. No one had disturbed them since Annabeth had returned to the room at eleven. Paul was startled from his doze by the noise. He immediately began to stand up. "I'll get it," he whispered, not even looking at the women.

Piper was on the other side. She glanced at Annabeth before looking back at Paul. "I'm sorry to bother you, but it's Hope. She's crying, and we've tried everything. She just isn't happy."

Percy groaned a little. Sally looked at him. Annabeth could see her heart breaking. It had been hours and hours since Sally had held her daughter, and that was probably what the baby wanted: her mother. But Annabeth knew Sally wanted to be with Percy. Paul recognized what was going on. "Just a minute, Piper. I'll come." Piper nodded and stepped back from the door.

Instantly Sally seemed to make up her mind and was on her feet. "I'll come, too, Piper. Just give me…just a moment." Annabeth stood up from where she was sitting on the edge of Percy's bed and stepped back, and Sally leaned over to hug her son one final time. Annabeth saw Percy struggle to lift his arm to embrace his mother. Paul reached over and pulled Percy's arm up for him and wrapped it around Sally's waist.

"Love you…Mom." Percy's voice was barely a whisper.

Sally's body shook from suppressed sobs. "I love you, too, my Percy." She pulled back just enough to kiss his forehead, and she gripped his upper arms and looked him in the eyes, even though he couldn't see her. "I'm so proud of you, and not just the demigod part. I'm proud of young man who worked his tail off to graduate high school and get into college. I'm proud of the little boy who would scrape together his pennies to buy me an ice cream cone from the street vendor in the summer. I'm proud of the boy who stood tall and held his head high through every bully, every hardship, every expulsion, and even Gabe. I'm proud of all that you are, all that you've ever been, every dyslexic, ADHD, demigod, and human part of you. I will always be proud – always. Now, though, I have to go take care of your sister. I'm sorry. I wish I could stay, but she needs me. I love you, Percy."

Percy swallowed hard and tears ran down the sides of his face. "'s okay…Mom…I…love you."

Sally kissed his forehead one more time, and then she moved to let Paul hug Percy. He actually lifted Percy up from the mattress a few inches and pulled him into a tight hug. "I love you like my own son, Percy, and I'm proud of you, too. You're a good man."

"Love you…too…Paul…Take care…of…girls…for me…please." Annabeth swallowed her tears. She didn't even care that he was calling her a girl or implying that she needed cared for because she knew that Percy had always considered it his duty to care for her, his mom, and his sister. He had always been protective of them and would, of course, need to know that someone was keeping an eye out for them when he was gone.

Paul gently laid Percy back on his pillow. "Of course I will, son. I'll always watch out for them."

"You…'re a…good…man…Thank…you."

Paul nodded, too choked up to speak. He patted Percy's shoulder a final time. Then, he and Sally walked out of the cabin, gently closing the door behind them.

Annabeth stretched herself out beside Percy on the bed. (Sally had changed the sheets quickly while Chiron had been at the cabin earlier. Percy's failing spine had meant the lower parts of his body had completely relaxed, doing what they do but without his consent. She and Will had even gotten his soiled clothes off of him soon after the other guys had brought him back to the bed and had left the cabin. Annabeth had come back into the cabin to find Percy embarrassed, Sally and Will trying to pass it off as nothing, and Paul sitting quietly and just acting like nothing had happened for Percy's sake. And Annabeth's heart had broken even more for Percy.) Almost like a reflex, she curled up next to him like she had so many times before and wrapped her arm across his mid-section.

He took a shaky breath. Tears were still falling from his eyes. "I…gotta…go…Wise Girl."

She smoothed the wrinkles from his shirt and blinked back tears. "I know," she whispered.

"Remember…wha' I said…Live…Make me…wait." He attempted to move his arm to embrace her. She grabbed his wrist and pulled it over for him.

"I remember, Percy," she assured him. "You're my something permanent, you know."

Percy turned his head and gave her a feather light kiss on her forehead. She squeezed him a bit tighter in her embrace. Each breath rattled in his chest. His heartbeat was erratic. His chest was warm, but he still shivered. Annabeth pulled the quilt up tighter around them and put her hand to his cheek. He leaned into it. She could have sworn he purred as her thumb stroked his cheekbone, wiping away his tears.

He kept his eyes closed, unable to see her anyway, so she studied his eyelashes: long, black, and thick. His hair was not at its best after having been tossed around on a pillow for hours, soaked in sweat, and splashed with salty sea water. Annabeth didn't care, though. As far as she was concerned, he was still the most handsome man she had ever met. He looked so much like his father, but Annabeth could pick out little details he got from Sally: his ears, his smile, the round shape of his eyes, and his slender frame. Over the years she had noticed mannerisms he picked up from his mother, too: how he held a pencil, how he would throw his head back and laugh at something he really thought was funny, how he would shake his head at something ridiculous, and how he would cut his eyes to look at someone when they lied to him. All those details and a million more made him who he was, and she loved every single one of them. She would miss every single detail, too.

Annabeth felt the tears well in her eyes, and she couldn't hold them back any longer. She didn't sob like she had earlier. She just cried as quietly as she could. Percy still noticed. She didn't know if he heard her or felt her, but he kissed her forehead, again. "An'beth...'m sorry."

She brushed her fingers through his sweat-encrusted hair. "Don't apologize."

He took as deep of a breath as he could, and in one solid sentence, the last he would ever utter, he declared, "I love you, Annabeth Jackson."

A few more tears slipped down her face. She sat up and looked him in the face. He had finally opened his eyes. She already missed the sparkle that his sighted eyes had held. She cupped his cheek again, leaned down and kissed him. Her long braid slid down her back and landed on his hand, and she could just feel his fingers twitch in the ends of her hair as he kissed her back. The kiss was short and gentle, but she tried to express just how much he meant to her in that kiss. It would be the kiss that he left this world with, and she wanted it to keep him until she met him again in the future.

After the kiss, she looked at him. "I love you, too, Percy Jackson." Then, she snuggled back down next to him with her head on his chest and held him.

His fingers slowly twisted in the end of her braid. His breathing slowed. Then, his fingers stopped moving. She felt his last breath leave his lungs. She heard the last beat of his heart. Through her tears, she could just make out the numbers on his alarm clock: one thirty-two in the morning on September twenty-second. Her analytical mind had to know the exact time that he took his last breath. She had to remember it just like a mother wants to know when her child takes their first breath. After she had committed the time to memory, she laid her head on his silent, still chest and cried. He was gone. Her Seaweed Brain was gone.

Soon, she ran out of tears, and exhaustion began to take over. But she couldn't sleep. There was a camp full of people who needed to know that the man they were keeping a vigil for had passed on. She stood up, arranged Percy's hands on his stomach, picked up the two drachmas that Poseidon had left on the windowsill, and placed them on Percy's eyes as she closed them. Then, she quietly walked to the door and exited the cabin.

The group on the porch all turned to her in one synchronized movement. No one said a word for a moment. Then Sally gathered her courage and began to ask, "Is he-"

Annabeth met her mother-in-law's eyes and nodded. Sally turned and buried her face in Paul's chest and burst into tears. Paul hugged her close while his own tears dripped down his face. Hazel was sitting on the porch beside Frank, holding a sleeping Hope, and he pulled her to him, baby and all, and they began to cry. All over the porch, the same scene played out: friends and couples crying and hugging one another.

Annabeth slipped past them and headed to the larger group. Chiron was already heading her way. He met her halfway across the courtyard. The campers behind him had all turned to watch. Silence reigned as they tried to hear anything she might say. "Chiron," she choked out.

"He's gone." It wasn't a question.

Annabeth just fell into his arms. He pulled her into a strong hug. "He's gone, Chiron," she said through her sobs. The centaur simply held her and let her cry. She knew she had to regain her composure, but it was so hard. She allowed herself just one more minute before pulling herself together. She sucked her tears back, took a deep, shuddering breath, and pulled away from her mentor.

Chiron squeezed her shoulders. His cheeks were wet, too. "You will be okay, Annabeth, in time. I must tell the camp, and you should get back to the others."

Annabeth wiped her eyes and nodded before turning and walking away.

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A/N: First off, I am so sorry for the delay. I promise I had this thing prewritten. What I didn't have was all the chapters uploaded, and my computer crashed and burned. However, lucky for you, the guys at Best Buy were able to save my stuff, if not my laptop. Furthermore, my husband bought me a new laptop for Christmas, so after a long unexpected delay, I am back with the final chapter and epilogue.

Secondly, I've gotten lots of questions about the Golden Fleece. The real answer is that I forgot about the thing. Forgive me. I'm a married 30 year old mother of a three year old and a one year old. I was writing this in the evenings after my kids went to bed. These things slip my mind nowadays, and when you make to my point in life, they'll probably slip yours, too. No disrespect, just saying.

However, for the sake of your questions about the Fleece, I went back and reread the last chapter or two of "Sea Of Monsters," and I discovered, that it took at least four days after the Fleece was placed in the tree for Thalia to come back to life and for the tree to be completely healed of its poison. With that in mind, for the sake of my story's integrity, I'm going to say that there simply would not have been enough time for it to heal Percy.

And to the one person who pointed out that Percy saw his life flash before him when he looked at the Fates after the Titan War ended, I say, that was only a possible future for him. He could have altered that himself before that book ended, too, by accepting godhood. Basically, he had lived through the Titan War, he had a possible long life before him. I still think that the curse from the River Styx from his dad breaking his oath would be hanging in the balance.

In all honesty, it took me awhile to decide whether or not to actually kill Percy, but once I decided to, there was no turning back. I want him to live, too, but I felt that for my story, he had to die. Sorry.

Thank you for bearing with me and reading this. And do please leave reviews. I appreciate them.

Only the epilogue left. Maybe it will give you lovely readers some closure.

Thanks for reading!