A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update. I struggled getting through this chapter but hopefully I'll be back on track to update once a week


"Listen, Jackson, I get you're saving kittens from trees or helping little old ladies across the street but you were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago. If have to deal with this alone it's going to be a long time before you see me naked again, do you understand? Get here, now."

Annabeth ends the call and leans her head back against the wall. She's camped outside Jason and Piper's apartment, waiting for her boyfriend to show up so they can break the news to their respective best friends. There's been a brick sitting on Annabeth's stomach since she and Percy agreed to do this. Rationally there's no reason Piper shouldn't be okay with this, she was the one pushing them to make the relationship between them real. Annabeth knows things won't just work rationally, life would be so much easier if they did but they won't. In the week she realized she cared about Percy she'd come to realize other things too, one of them being that she needs Piper more than she's willing to admit.

When the thirty minutes passes with still no sign of her boyfriend Annabeth gives up on waiting for Percy. Something needs to be done and she's already here. She takes a deep breath and readies herself for the shit storm she's about to walk into.

She knocks hard on the door and waits, hearing a grunt and the sound of bare feet on hardwood floor. There's the thunk of the deadbolt turning before the door swings open to reveal a scowling Piper.

"I'm not interested in the details of you and Percy doing it." It's a lot nicer of a greeting than Annabeth had expected.

"That's not why I'm here."

"Oh, so then you're here to tell me you're sleeping with another one of my friends?"

Annabeth winces, biting her tongue to keep herself from shooting back some smart ass comment and reminding herself why she's here.

"I never meant to hurt Percy, I didn't. I still don't. But we're-"

"Adults and you can make choices for yourselves," Piper says, cutting her off. "Or so you say."

Annabeth clenches her fists until her nails are biting into her palms.

"Would you just let me talk?" she snaps at Piper.

"Why? So you can convince me that this is a good idea? Or so you can explain how having sex with Percy is good for both of you? Maybe you just want to tell me that you know everything and-"

"I love him," Annabeth almost growls the words, her voice low and fierce.

"You… you what?" Piper's mouth hangs open, ready to catch flies.

"Can I come inside so we can talk?" Annabeth glances up and down the narrow hallway.

There's a lot she needs to explain to Piper and she doesn't exactly want the entire floor to know about it.

"S-sure," Piper says, nodding stiffly.

She steps out of the way and lets Annabeth past her into the apartment. Annabeth watches her closely, almost hearing Piper's brain try and process the massive bomb Annabeth just dropped on her. If Piper's already struggling to keep up now, Annabeth wonders how she'll handle the fact that they're a real couple.

Piper closes the door and locks it before walking over to the couch and dropping down onto it.

"You love him?" There's more than a little surprise and disbelief in her voice.

Annabeth takes a seat on the other end of the couch, memories of the last time the fought and wound up here coming back to her. It feels ridiculous to her that they're here again, fighting over the same issue all because of Annabeth's stubbornness. This time she'd determined things will get dealt with.

"Yes." Annabeth does her best to make the answer solid and firm, trying to get Piper to believe her.

Piper groans, running her hands over her face and slouching. Annabeth frowns at her friend, she'd expected Piper to be a bit happier about this.

"I swear to god, if the two of you run around for another three months playing the 'but do they love me' game I'm going to-"

"I've already told him." Annabeth cuts Piper off, a blush rising to her cheeks as she speaks.

It's a mix of embarrassment about how it happened and what happened after that makes her avert her eyes from her friend.

"You what?" Piper shouts loud enough to make Annabeth wince. "You told Percy you love him?"

"It kind of came out. He was trying to break up with me and I got upset and-" Annabeth struggles to fill Piper in and make sense of it all.

"He was trying to what?" Piper stares at her wide eyed, an eyebrow quirked.

"There's a lot to fill you in on but I need to say something first." Annabeth takes a breath, giving Piper a chance to say something to stop her or throw her bout but Piper keeps quiet. "I'm sorry. We didn't handle things well- I didn't handle things well- and it caused all of this," Annabeth says, gesturing to the space between them. "I don't want to fight with you anymore, and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, for what happened at your engagement party." Annabeth's eyes prickle with the burning promise of tears.

"I could have been a better friend, Piper. I should have been a better friend." Annabeth clamps down on the tears, refusing to let them break and guilt Piper into forgiving her.

"I pushed you too hard. It's just," Piper huffs out a frustrated groan. "I knew, knew, you two were perfect for each other and you wouldn't listen. I just wanted you guys to give it a real chance but I pushed it on you and that wasn't fair either. You are adults and needed to figure things out for yourself, but it was so hard knowing I was right."

"Not so easy is it?" Annabeth jokes, tears still burning at the corners of her eyes.

"Oh shut up," Piper says and tosses a pillow at her.

Annabeth lets out a choked laugh, brushing away the dampness of her eyes quickly. They both sit there, the silence hanging over them like an awkward weight neither of them wants to deal with. Annabeth doesn't expect things between them to just be perfect, to fall back into place where they were before all of this but she wants – needs – Piper back. Things with Percy are a lot to deal with and Piper is Annabeth's emotional sounding board.

"We good?" Piper asks softly, scooting a little closer to Annabeth.

"No," Annabeth says seriously. "Your engagement party-"

"Wouldn't have happened without you. Jason proposing wouldn't have happened without you," Piper say just as seriously. "And that's nothing compared to what my mom and Jason's dad have done."

Annabeth raises an eyebrow at Piper, silently asking her to explain.

"I don't want to talk about it right now." Piper shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "I just want my friend back."

"I'm definitely back, and I'm sorry." Annabeth reaches out and squeezes her friend's hand.

"Me too," Piper says, wrapping her arms around Annabeth tight enough to make her ribs hurt but Annabeth hugs back just as fiercely.

They sit in silence for a moment again, this time much less awkward. Annabeth lets the relief wash over her, Piper will still get back at her for this and probably never let her live down the fact she was right, but Annabeth can live with that.

"So you told a guy you love him." Piper moves even closer to Annabeth on the couch, kicking her legs up to rest on Annabeth's knees. "Spill."

"I was going to tell him that I wanted something serious, an actual relationship." Piper beams at the words, I-told-you-so written all over her face. "But," Annabeth continues pointedly, "before I could say anything he tried to break up with me. Then I may have started yelling and that's when I told him."

"Oh my god," Piper says dramatically. "Two weeks, not even that, and you fall apart without me. Wait, why was he trying to break up with you? What did you do?" Piper narrows her eyes at Annabeth.

"I may not have talked to him for a week while I was trying to figure things out," Annabeth admits a little timidly.

Piper groans again, burying her face into the back of the couch.

"Do you see what I have to deal with?" Piper complains to an empty room, her words muffled by the cushions. "So," Piper turns to head to stare at Annabeth. "What did the doofus say when you told him?"

Annabeth smiles, ducking her chin to her chest.

"He said it back. He actually admitted he'd fallen for me first."

"Ha!" Piper shouts. "I told him. I so told him!" Piper grins at Annabeth with pride. "And then what happened, or do I want to know?"

Annabeth's face warms and she tosses the pillow back at Piper.

"Shut up," she says, a smile still on her lips.

"God you two are gross."

"I shared an apartment with Jason while you two were dating. I'm just getting my revenge for years of having to listen to you two through the walls." Piper's darker complexion doesn't make her immune to the blush that spreads across her face and neck.

"Oh god, how much did you hear?"

"More than I can ever forget," Annabeth deadpans.

Piper covers her face with her hands and flops back on the couch, muttering something to herself that sounds like a plea for a quick death.

"Hey, Pipes," Annabeth says softly.

Piper lifts her head, looking at Annabeth between cracks in her fingers.

"I missed you." Annabeth almost whispers the words, saying them just loud enough to be heard.

Guilt still sits like a lead weight in her stomach over what happened, how it happened, but she's resolved to make it up to her friends. They've been there for her for years, and they only wanted the best for her, even if they tried to force it upon her.

Piper moves her hands from her face and props herself up on her elbows, her eyes softening as she looks at Annabeth and her mouth pressing into a thin lipped smile.

"I missed you too."

Annabeth smiles at her friend, glad that the weight of worry she's been carrying around for the last few weeks has melted away.

"So what happens with you and Percy now? Because we can totally do a double wedding-"

Annabeth shoves Piper's legs off of her lap with a laugh.

"We're not ready for that yet, but he wants me to meet his mom."

"She's gonna love you, probably even more than she loves me," Piper says easily, placing her feet back on Annabeth's lap.

"I hope so," Annabeth mutters, mostly to herself.

"Hey," Piper says, gently nudging Annabeth with her foot. "Sally is going to adore you, don't worry."

Annabeth nods, the anxiety of impressing her boyfriend's mom gnawing at her nerves.

"Let's talk about something else," Piper offers.

"Like what?" Annabeth asks, absentmindedly tickling Piper's feet.

"How about the fact I have to plan a wedding and I'm absolutely screwed." Piper's voice is filled with exhaustion and defeat.

"I may be able to help with that," Annabeth squeezes Piper's foot and offers her a reassuring smile.

"Do you have a venue, caterer, photographer, videographer, DJ, and invitations already picked out?" Piper asks dryly.

"No, but I have it narrowed down to just a couple for each. And a couple color pallets I think you'll like and I found a dress designer I think you're going to love." Piper's head snaps up as Annabeth speaks, her eyes glazing over with awe. "As soon as Jason told me he was going to propose I got to work. The decisions will be yours but I wanted to narrow it down so you didn't-"

"I freaking love you," Piper blurts and Annabeth laughs. "If I hadn't already said yes to Jason I'd propose to you right now."

"I'm flattered, but I couldn't steal you away from him. He'd be useless without you." They both laugh and Annabeth feels another weight lift from her heart.

Things feel easier after that, almost back to normal. Annabeth tries to talk to Piper about wedding planning but the bride-to-be quickly gets annoyed and starts answering questions with ridiculous answers. Annabeth gives up after Piper tells her she wants to walk down the aisle to Polka. Piper turns on the tv and gets sucked into a daytime soap that is riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies Annabeth gets too interested in pointing out and fixing. She's sucked into finding out who killed Sierra, or if Sierra is really dead, when her phone starts to ring and makes her jump.

Annabeth fishes it out of her pocket with a frown, expecting Percy to finally be calling her back after standing her up, but she doesn't recognize the number that appears on her screen.

"Hello?" Annabeth answers, Piper mutes the tv and looks at her quizzically.

"Hello, is this Annabeth?" A woman's voice asks.

"Yes. May I ask who's calling?"

"This is Sally." Annabeth's heart comes to a grinding halt. "Something happened with Percy. You need to come to the hospital."