Keep doing watcha doing, guys! Enjoy the chapter!
I ain't Rick.
Percy tried it all.
Annabeth insisted she stay in her room every day without speaking to him until she had better living accommodations. She barely ate. She cried a lot (Percy had thin walls) and finally Percy realized he wasn't helping. He rented the hotel room and moved her in before she could protest. If she would have. She probably wouldn't have.
His father was furious when he learned about Annabeth's new room across the street. He chewed out Percy and yelled longer than Annabeth had. Even if it wasn't as scary, it terrified him. Mrs. O'Leary even seemed disappointed in Percy, howling at the door for her new friend to come home.
And Percy wanted her back. He had never screwed up so much in his life.
Work wasn't fun anymore. Some of the kids complained he wasn't listening to them. Teachers and staff pointed out the bags under his eyes or the name on his wrist. The name he didn't try to hide anymore. Gossip spread like wildfire, and everyone heard about the guy who should be walking on air... But wasn't.
Still, he threw himself into it. He'd never finished reports so soon, or student evaluations for that matter. He'd never called to talk with his mother just to calm his anxiety so much. She hadn't spoken to him the first day he'd told her what had happened, and he'd thought about getting himself wasted.
It was the first time alcohol had appealed to him.
He avoided his friends, and they avoided him. Even when Piper and Jason's baby boy was born, he only attended briefly to congratulate the couple and hold his godson. Never had he felt so happy and miserable all at once.
Percy was on one of his longest runs yet, from Broadway to Wall Street when he got the call. The call he avoided.
And then it rang again.
And again.
And finally he picked it up.
Then dropped his phone in horror.
He jumped in the first cab he saw, even though it was occupied. The lady in the back graciously let him take the cab and he told the driver to step on it. But when he reached the hospital, it was too late.
...
Sally Jackson was diagnosed with a brain tumor right after she'd met Paul. It was a lost cause, apparently. Sally wasn't supposed to last a year.
She nearly lasted ten.
And maybe it was a mercy she left when she did. She left just a few days after her wedding anniversary. She didn't have to watch her pathetic son ruin his love life any further.
Percy had gotten to the hospital two minutes after she'd flatlined. Two minutes. Maybe's and if's filled his mind. If he'd picked up the first time, maybe he could've been there sooner. Maybe he could've run when the cab hit that bad patch of traffic. Maybe... Maybe... Maybe...
Percy stayed for four hours after they took her to the morgue. Percy expected someone, anyone to show up and just be there. Because all Percy wanted to do was cry, and he wanted someone there to pay him on the back and tell him it would all be okay.
Misery loves company...
But no one ever showed.
Paul was visiting family in Washington. Poseidon was with his wife and real family, all the way across the globe on vacation. Frank and Hazel, busy. Piper and Jason, taking care of a toddler with colic. Even Clarisse, the girl Percy never lost contact with, was fighting wherever the enemy might be in Spain with her husband and soulmate.
Those words tasted bitter. Husband and soulmate.
And so, Percy finally dragged himself out of the hospital while the regular nurses gave him pitying looks and sympathetic nods. He wasn't even able to find it in himself to scowl at them for it.
The bus ride home was depressing, but still Percy refused to cry yet. He refused to so much as let a single tear drop until he was in the confines of his own home.
Eddie watched in stunned silence as his usually most optimistic tenant morbidly sulked onto the elevator that he insisted he would never use. When Percy finally reached his apartment, he didn't even make it past the door. His first sob echoed down the hallway before being cut of by him slamming the door behind him.
Mrs. O'Leary watched with her sad, intelligent red orbs as her loyal owner collapsed into his armchair and cried into his hands. She whined quietly as well, trying in vain to comfort Percy. He didn't even notice her attempts until she barked.
He turned angrily toward his dog. "WHAT? What do you want?" He screamed. The dog, startled, yipped and ran to hide in the guest bedroom. Percy stared after her, then immediately regretted what he'd done. He let out another round of sobbing.
...
Percy wasn't sure how he got on the roof without his prosthetics on.
He rarely took them off, and when he did it was mostly for relaxation purposes. He didn't enjoy wearing them to bed, but that was about it.
But why was he up here...?
It was like he was in a trance. He remembered reaching for the beer he'd kept stocked for when Jason would get angry at Piper (although usually it was vice-versa) when he'd recalled he'd had it. He remembers bringing it to his lips, then immediately spitting it back out in disgust. Not for the drink, but for himself. What had he come to too finally take a single sip?
He disgusted himself.
In his anger he tore off his fake limbs, disgusted that he needed them. He threw the beer across the room, watching as it shattered. He was disgusted he'd stooped so low as to sip it. He remembered what it had done to Gabe, and was disgusted in how he might've turned out like him in his drunkenness.
Percy, without his legs on, crawled all the way out of his apartment. All the way to the stairs and up another story. Then, he'd opened the door to the roof...
And now he was standing on the ledge, looking out at the darkness swelling over his city. There was something magical about it. Something that enthralled Percy. The way that the buildings around him were so beautiful and breathtaking, and lit up the sky like stars. As much as Percy loved seeing stars, the city was nearly as beautiful.
So Percy just stood on his unsteady legs right on the very edge of his apartment building, letting the wind sweep the hair out of his face and his loose workout clothing to flap around his thinner frame. He decided that he wouldn't actually jump.
But he could wait for a strong breeze.
And Percy thought. He put more thought into what he was planning on doing than any other choice he'd ever made. He thought about his job. His apartment and the people he loved. But mostly, he thought about his mother.
When Percy looked back up, he was watching the sun rise.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" He told himself, almost as if trying to convince himself that it was true. He shifted slightly on his knees and smiled to himself. His mother loved sunrises. She insisted that the best decisions where made with the light of a new day, and when the night would just begin.
And now, he'd made the same decisions at both times.
Percy turned his back on the ledge...
... Just in time for the pigeons to fly in his face.
Percy understood that unless something miraculously saved him, karma would correct itself. He'd fall off a ledge and be a grease spot right in front of his nice apartment building. Percy was going to die today.
But then suddenly, he wasn't.
"Don't. You. Dare." She said, nearly in a whisper. Percy was frozen in surprise as he felt the way his hoodie was digging into his neck. He could see his breath above him and feel the warm gust of wind below him.
Annabeth was currently holding Percy's hoodie by the collar, trying to hoist him up and over. He was at an angle, his back to the ground below him and his front nearly perpendicular to the sky. His kneecaps dug into the ledge until finally Annabeth found her strength and pulled him over.
Percy hit the rooftop hard, and sadly face first. He sputtered, his heart pounding in his chest like a jackhammer. His breath came out in ragged gasps as he realized that he'd just witnessed a miracle. Annabeth sat beside him, breathing just as hard.
"Why?" He finally asked when he'd caught his breath. "Why did you pull me up?" He said in an angry whisper. "What did I ever do for you?" He said, and realized he was tearing up a bit again. He quickly wiped it away as she stared at him.
And then suddenly she was hugging him.
It was a bit awkward, how she basically had to place him in her lap to keep the embrace, but she didn't waver. She buried her head in his scalp, shaking with her own - wait, was she crying?
Percy returned the embrace, forgetting to be angry. "A-Annabeth. It's okay. It's not your fault, and-" suddenly his voice broke and he couldn't speak anymore. Instead he just held her tighter, trying to get her to breath easier.
"Why do you think?" She asked, still keeping her hold on him. "We're soulmates, whether we like it or not. That means I've got your back." She said. Then she violently shoved him away in sudden anger. "Especially if you're stupid enough to try and jump! What were you thinking, huh? What do you think I would've done if you'd gone?" She continued to ramble on until she couldn't speak while Percy just let it happen.
Finally, Percy just placed his hand over hers and squeezed it in reassurance. She started to try and slow her breathing while he helped her sit up against the ledge to lean on. It took a few moments, but she calmed down and pulled him into another embrace without warning. "Just- never do that again." She whispered pleadingly. With her suddenly holding him like this, he didn't see how he could deny her that.
"I'm sorry." He suddenly said against her throat. "I- I know it doesn't mean much, but I am." He said. Seeing how still she suddenly was, he began to have a panic attack.
"It's just- I had these unfair expectations about love, and soulmates, and- and I was being a bigger idiot than usual and with all this crap going on. I just snapped and said I didn't need you and-" he took a deep, deep breath before continuing.
"-and I felt horrible. Because I didn't- I don't think I deserve you. Since you first ran from me, I don't deserve you, because you deserve better and I can't-" Percy was suddenly shut down when she gently squeezed his arm.
"It's okay. Everything's going to be okay." She said. As if by an afterthought, she hesitated before speaking. "We. We will be okay."
LHG :)