~ * Chapter Twenty ~ *
"So, let me get this straight," Thalia said through a mouthful of blueberry muffin that she washed down with a swig of her coffee ("black, like my soul," she often deadpanned). "After the park closed down in the middle of an ominous thunderstorm, all fences on firm lockdown, employees at home and guests retired, you had a dinosaur on the loose?"
"Yeah," Annabeth confirmed, scooping up the crumbs of her own muffin.
It wasn't exactly the breakfast of champions, her mother always sneered that muffins were cupcakes masquerading as breakfast, but Thalia had bought them and plopped them before her, complete with coffee, and how could she say no to that? Besides, she hadn't eaten since early the night before, only ten minutes or so before Percy's timely visit.
"God, it's like something out of damn horror movie," Thalia muttered into her coffee. Then, cup held up to her mouth, added, "Or from Alan Grant's biography."
Annabeth glared at her, unamused, but Thalia plowed on, undisturbed.
"Anyway," the dark haired woman said, all business-like as she leaned back, her chair groaning in protest. She threw her heavy, mud covered boots up on Annabeth's desk, ignoring the grimace the action dragged from her friend. "All the fences were closed by the time you got the call. No record of the creature in the labs—"
"No records found yet—"
Thalia ignored her, taking another drag of coffee, "It has all the physical characters of a velociraptor and responded to stimuli our raptors respond to. Yet, its hormone levels suggests that it's older than three months, at which time a velociraptor would be much larger."
"Yes, very good nut shelling," Annabeth said dryly. Thalia flipped her off.
"Obviously," Thalia stressed, glaring at Annabeth, "Someone outside the park is making dinosaurs without our knowledge."
Annabeth froze, her coffee hovering halfway between the desk and her mouth as she just stared at Thalia in the aftermath of that declaration. She wasn't even sure how she was supposed to respond to the utter absurdity and ridiculousness of that statement.
"Cut the bullshit Thalia, I need real answers," Annabeth said, her voice flat.
"No, no you're right," Thalia snorted, rolling her eyes as she shoved the rest of her muffin into her mouth. "It's far more likely that someone synthesized an animal that Jurassic World doesn't have a genome for, without alerting anyone to their process, avoided all forty something of our lab technicians and all fifteen cameras; recoded our embryo chamber to hide their new dinosaur then snuck an egg out to, what? A homemade incubator? Or, no wait, they used our incubators but we never noticed. You're right, that's all much more likely."
"Alright, alright," Annabeth said in irritation, her head throbbing dully as she set the coffee down to massage her aching temple. The residual heat from the coffee on her hands helped a little but not enough to really make her feel any better. God, life was so much easier when invisible fences were all she had to worry about. She let her hand fall down onto the desk and pointedly avoided Thalia's smug look.
"But that's hardly the only answer, it's still incredibly farfetched," Annabeth retorted.
Thalia snorted.
"Hardly?" She repeated archly. "Occam's razor, Annabeth, the simplest answer is probably the correct one. We're talking about stealing, recoding—somehow or another synthesizing a dinosaur that is similar to one of our own, yet distinct enough to not be in our databases. The simplest conclusion? We're not the only ones making dinosaurs."
"I know what Occam's razor is," was all Annabeth could think to say, her stomach churning sickeningly. "But that's not a simple answer Thalia—that's fantastical!"
"Oh please, Annabeth these are dinosaurs!" Thalia exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air. "Everything dealing with them is fantastical! No, it's not a simple solution because nothing with dinosaurs ever is! But someone else playing with genetic coding is much more likely than someone creating a new species right under our noses!"
"Okay, say for a minute that I buy this theory," Annabeth said, sitting back in her chair and cradling her coffee close, as if the caffeinated liquid would protect her from this conversation. "Who else has the resources for such an expensive and time-consuming project? Not to mention space consuming, you can't exactly keep dinosaurs in a little dog cage. The sheer amount of technology and complex machinery needed to create a dinosaur is so far beyond the resources of the average person that to even entertain your theory is preposterous! Jurassic World is Lightning Corp.'s most expensive expenditure! Not to mention all the scientific resources and know how's you need to make a project of that magnitude work. Your average person on the street couldn't even dream of pulling something like that off. And in the rare few scientific communities where our level of knowledge is shared, funding is basically nonexistent."
"L.C. is hardly the only multibillion-dollar corporation in the world," Thalia said bitterly, draining the rest of her coffee as her feet shuffled back and forth on Annabeth's desk. "Dinosaurs are good for business, it's hardly the first time someone else has tried to edge into the prehistoric zoology business."
"And to prevent something like that from happening," Annabeth reminded her, "my mother had us patent all the genomes we synthesized for our dinosaurs. Since we filled in the gaps from the old dinosaur DNA and nothing like it can be found in the natural world, L.C. was able to patent the new genomes. No other company can use the same coding as us. It's . . . very difficult to find the right splices of DNA to fill in the gaps. Our scientists have spent years trying to figure out the right combination of genomes to make stable and healthy dinosaurs that at least appear to function as the public would expect dinosaurs to. It's not an easy task."
"The missing dino didn't have any genome we're familiar with," Thalia ominously threw in, a backdrop to Annabeth's fearful thoughts.
"It's real small for a carnivore of its age," Annabeth recalled, "it's hormone levels were all elevated, and even taking stress and the tranquilizer out of the equation there's something not right. It's too small, easily injured, like . . ."
"Like an unstable animal whose genome isn't fitted together correctly," Thalia finished for her, eyebrows raising in a very 'I-told-you-so' like manner.
"Oh god," Annabeth said, picking up the phone. "We need to call Zeus."
"It's just a theory, it doesn't actually prove anything," Annabeth said. "And it doesn't answer the most important question of all: why did we find it in our park?"
"I'll take an all-terrain out, search the far perimeters and the dense forest regions," Thalia said and before the pair, the image of Zeus Olympian frowned.
"You think someone is hiding on our island?" He asked, his deep voice sounding simultaneously disturbed and doubtful.
Thalia crossed her arms, "Well, if I were trying to create dinosaurs and there was a highly successful dinosaur park already in operation what would I do? I'd scope the competition out. Not to mention steal information from them. Sure they can't use our exact genomes without getting into legal repercussions, but they can use the same incubators and general infant rearing systems to keep their juveniles alive. That's a sound strategy."
"How would they get such information, our borders are heavily monitored and the fences impenetrable," Zeus demanded, his face hard and unreadable.
Thalia's face was just as hard and artfully blank; Annabeth had known the daughter of Zeus for so long, however, that she could read between the woman's expressionless brows.
"You think someone in Jurassic World is helping them," Annabeth groaned, running a hand through her hair.
Next to her, Thalia shrugged, "That's what I would do. I don't know how much is my natural paranoia, simply improbable, or whatever else you might want to call it. But I'm going to check it out."
"Run background checks on all lab personnel," Zeus told Annabeth, his stormy eyes barely flickering over to the park manager as he spoke. "No matter how important or integral they are to the scientific process; if they work in the labs, I want a thorough check on them, I don't care if they just clean the floors, check them."
"Of course."
A dark shadow fell across Zeus' face. It was, Annabeth privately admitted, a rather frightening sight. Sometimes she forgot how ruthless and cutthroat her boss really was. Thalia, on the other hand, wasn't the slightest bit fazed, staring unimpressed at her father.
"Something like this doesn't happen under my watch," Zeus declared icily, and the threat that simmered beneath his words promised of terrible revenge. Annabeth almost pitied the stock market and the shake up this encounter would undoubtedly wreck upon it.
"I'm coming down there."
"Wait, what?" Thalia asked, her face twisted up as Annabeth's eyes widened in surprise.
"I'll be there in three hours," Zeus continued, standing up and motioning to someone off screen.
"Perhaps—" Annabeth tried to delicately cut in, but Thalia spoke over her, sputtering in disgust.
"Dammit Dad, why don't you just chill? We can handle it, it's fine—"
"I'd tell you to wait and go on your search after I've arrived but you won't listen to me, so take someone with you. Preferably Reyna or Clarisse," Zeus continued, ignoring both of them as there was a flurry of movement just off screen, Zeus passing a stack of papers to an unseen person.
"You don't get to tell me what to do!" Thalia snarled, her lips curling and eyes flashing, and Annabeth contemplated running for the door. This was rapidly spinning away from business and towards the dangerous territory of Olympian family drama and she wanted no part in that particular disaster.
Zeus' face convulsed and for one glorious minute Annabeth thought that maybe he was going to say something sensible, something smart, yes my daughter I know, I just worry about you and would like to keep you safe—
"Don't take that tone with me, young lady."
Damn wishful thinking, Annabeth mourned silently as the screaming began in earnest. Thalia wasn't rational when it came to her father (or, it seemed, Percy or Jason or the third Olympian cousin). Annabeth knew better than to get in between the feuding pair, or worse, try to reason with them. Instead, she very quietly took her leave, making sure to close the door behind her. Behind his desk, Connor looked up with wide eyes, half crouching behind the protection of his computer.
"Thalia and Zeus," Annabeth said in way of explanation and Connor grimaced, looking appropriately horrified.
"Should I evacuate the building?" he asked, hand already reaching for the building-wide intercom. Annabeth only wished he was being overly dramatic.
"Not yet," she said. "Zeus says he's coming down in three hours though, so warn everyone. It might be a little longer than three depending on how long they argue, but just prepare yourself."
"Thanks for the warning," Connor said, nodding as he typed furiously away on his computer, probably drafting the memo to warn the rest of the staff. "Did you guys get any work done before the shouting started?"
"Yeah," Annabeth said, running an exhausted hand through her hair. "Thalia offered some really good and utterly terrifying insight into the missing dinosaur problem. I don't want to start any rumors," she added firmly as Connor's head perked up, "so until we know anything concrete, keep your mouth shut. Now, I've got to go talk to Ethan. You all set up here?"
"I'm good, boss lady," Connor said, throwing her two thumbs up. Annabeth only wished she were in a better mood to enjoy his carefreeness.
"Good," she said instead, feeling utterly drained and exhausted as she left the office.
She didn't, she mused as she lifted her face up towards the sun, really want to go back to the lab. She didn't want Ethan to confirm Thalia's theory. The consequences of such a discovery made her exhausted just thinking about it. An image came unwittingly to her mind, of Percy in the shadow of the raptor paddock, his eyes downcast and weary as he leaned forward to wrap his arms around her, warm and tight and all-encompassing, and she found herself longing to be back in that moment.
Stop that, she told herself firmly, a little alarmed at the inappropriate thought as she shook her head. Focus, she chided herself. Nothing good came from running, so she squared her shoulders and pushed the memory of Percy's distracting and warm (no, bad, stop) hug out of her brain as she made a beeline for Ethan's lab.
She didn't quite make it that far when a familiar face pulled her up short.
"Luke?" She called, momentarily thrown, not expecting to find the man casually leaning against the side of the genetics lab.
Yet there Luke Castellan was, calm and composed as he grinned down at her. He attracted more than a few stares, his blond hair bright in the sunshine above clear blue eyes, dressed in nothing more than a tight fitting sleeveless shirt and equally flattering shorts. Annabeth's gut tightened at the sight of him, but the unpleasant feeling that rolled inside of her was more closely related to distrust and unease than anything else. She found herself eyeing the man warily, drawing herself up to her full height as he held his arms out.
"Annabeth! It's been so long since I've heard from you!" He exclaimed, his wide grin lighting up his entire face.
It caused the corners of his eyes to crinkle, drawing attention to the scar that marred the left side of his face. She never really paid much mind to it before, like Percy's crooked grin the scar was just a part of Luke's face, something unique to him. Staring at him now though, the scar caught Annabeth's attention for the first time. It contrasted vividly with the brightness of his smile, like a dark rift in the middle of a calm, blue ocean.
"I thought you had all the information that you needed," Annabeth said, forcing herself to look away from the scar.
Luke pushed himself off the wall, slapping one hand against his heart as he gave a throaty laugh, "You wound me, Annie! I thought we were friends!"
Annabeth forced herself not to react to the hated nickname, willing her fingers not to clench around her tablet.
"I'm sorry Luke, now's really not the time, I'm very busy at the moment," she tried to deflect, walking passed Luke towards the lab.
"So I hear, something about a loose dinosaur?" Luke asked and he either didn't catch the dismissal or, as Annabeth strongly suspected with no small amount of irritation, ignored it as he stepped in line with her. "One that you're not entirely sure what species it is?"
Annabeth twisted around, narrowing her eyes at Luke's still pleasant face. "Hm, strange that you'd hear about it," she said, purposefully keeping her voice light and pleasant, like she would during a business conference, all false niceties and politeness. "Since we haven't released any statements yet and the situation has only been divulged to trusted Jurassic World personal."
Luke threw his head back and laughed, winking at her, "Oh, I have my sources."
His words were playful, but they stopped Annabeth in her tracks as she stared at the man. She carefully kept her face calm, but inside she felt something break. Luke's image shattered in her mind, right along that dark rift on his false face and in that moment she hated him. She hated him for tricking her, for deceiving her, for making a fool out of her.
You think they have someone inside Jurassic World.
Annabeth forced herself to laugh and was darkly pleased with how carefree and light it sounded. "And who would that be?" She asked.
"Oh now Annabeth, you know I can't reveal my secrets," Luke said with another wink.
Of course not, Annabeth thought, just smiling pleasantly at Luke as he smiled pleasantly back at her. It rather felt like a standoff, a poker game that Annabeth just realized they were playing. And damn if she didn't hold all the cards.
"Hey," Luke said suddenly, gesturing towards the lab. "How 'bout I take a sneak peek at this dino and see if I can be of any help."
"No," Annabeth said, shaking her head. "No, that's okay, but thank you. We don't want to expose it to too many foreign contaminates you see."
Luke made an 'ah' sound, bobbing his head.
"I'm not even allowed in, I was just dropping paperwork off," Annabeth added breezily, watching Luke's face out of the corner of her eye. She thought his shoulders may have relaxed a little at the statement.
Luke clicked his tongue, "Shame, but if there's any way I can be of help you just let me know."
"Oh I sure will," Annabeth assured him.
"Alright, well I'll just leave you be then," Luke said cheerfully, taking a step backward with that friendly and open grin on his face, the one that fooled her before. Annabeth wanted to slap it off his face. "Might head on down to the raptor paddock."
"Oh," Annabeth said, clicking her tongue in what she hoped sounded like sympathy. "I'm so sorry Luke, but Percy isn't at the paddock right now. And, according to our company policy—" company policy that she was making up right now and putting in the book the second she was back in her office— "no one can be in a paddock without the authorized trainer."
Luke bobbed his head like this was a perfectly reasonable policy (which, given the circumstances and the animals involved, Annabeth supposed it was).
"Of course, of course," he agreed amiably, "he's got to be back for feeding then right? When's lunch for the little demons huh?"
Annabeth hesitated a moment, thinking fast. Her gut reaction was to say he couldn't come, that she wanted him off the entire island dammit, nobody made a fool out of Annabeth Chase. She wanted to scream, to slap him, to—but that didn't matter. She neatly tucked the disgust away in the corner of her mind, breathing evenly through her nose to calm herself. Right now, it was more important to find out what Luke really knew and how he fit into this whole strange situation. Did he really work for Global Othrys? Was the entire company crooked?
What did he want?
Luke's smile flickered and she realized her silence would seem strange to him.
"Noon," she said with a polite smile. "You can come down to the paddock at noon."
"Great, hey just make sure to give the raptor trainer a heads up this time, huh?" Luke teased with a roguish wink that made her fingers itch to slap him once more.
Instead, she forced a lighthearted laughed and waved as he swaggered away. Once he disappeared, the smile slipped from her face, anger simmering barely contained under her skin. How dare he. She would make him regret it, Annabeth promised herself fiercely, pulling out her phone to tap and a quick message out to Percy;
Where are you?
She hadn't taken two steps when her phone buzzed in reply;
mosasour-whatever. The swimming not-dino thing
A pause then another text;
i can't spell
Annabeth's lips curled up at that, a soft laugh breaking forth as she shook her head and shot a text back;
Mosasaurus. Be there in ten.
Her phone buzzed as Percy replied but Annabeth already tucked it away; whatever Percy wanted to say could wait until she got there. She looked back at the lab before promptly decided that Luke was a more immediate problem than the unidentified dinosaur. Besides, Ethan had that under control and promised to call with any changes. She was better off on this problem.
The mosasaurus exhibit was packed, not that this discovery was really a surprise. Annabeth squeezed her way through the crowd, her eyes finding the giant flashing clock at the entrance. Fifteen minutes until next show! flashed underneath it and she nodded to herself, moving forward. Eager faces pressed against the glass panel of the underground hallway, peering wide-eyed into the dark waters of the lagoon as they anxiously searched for the giant beast within.
It would be hard, Annabeth conceded to herself as she squeezed against the wall, to pick Percy out of this crowd. She probably should text him again and ask him where in the exhibit he was when, almost instinctively, she found her eyes falling on a figure slumped over on one of the overcrowded benched.
Percy.
He was squished to the furthest side of the bench, practically only half on it as an eager child bounced at his side. He was leaning forward, one elbow resting on his knee, ancient flip phone dangling listlessly in the other as he despondently gazed out into the lagoon. Poseidon was nowhere in sight.
"Where is he?" Annabeth demanded tersely as she materialized at his side.
Percy jerked in surprise, elbow slipping off his knee in his shock.
"Annabeth!" He said, gaping up at her.
"I said I'd be here in ten minutes," she reminded him, eyebrows raised as she fought back a smile.
He seemed to recover from his surprise and a smile bloomed across his face, the lines smoothing back from his forehead as it stretched across his face, radiant and beautiful as though she brought the very sun to him.
"Well yeah, but," he babbled, waving his hand around like it somehow articulated his nonsensical, nonexistent point. "What's up, something wrong?"
"Yes," Annabeth admitted as he propelled himself to his feet, almost uprooting the poor excited kid at his side.
Percy hastily apologized, smiling sheepishly at the frazzled mother as she whirled around, holding her child close. The mother went from defensive to smiling and giggling, patting Percy on the arm in reassurance, in an instant at the sight of Percy's sheepish face. Annabeth really didn't blame her—but she forced that thought away as Percy detangled himself from the bench to join her.
"Whoops," he told her, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. It was ridiculously endearing and it drew a smile out of Annabeth.
"Seaweed Brain."
"So, ah," he asked as they sandwiched themselves against the wall, away from the ever constant ebb of tourists. "What's the problem?"
"It's—" Annabeth started to say, "Where's Poseidon? Weren't you supposed to be showing him around?"
It irritated her in a way she didn't want to explore and she scowled, looking around for the absent man. He came to see Percy, didn't he? What kind of asshole just sprang up on Percy like that, causing all that distress, and then disappeared, leaving Percy alone on that bench like a discarded puppy? By God, she would punch Poseidon the next time she saw, the absolute—
Percy shrugged, not looking particularly surprised. He sighed tiredly, "He got a phone call. Said he'd be back for the show."
At her furious look, he gave another shrug, "It's okay I'm used to it."
"You shouldn't be," she snapped, infuriated on his behalf. "What kind of idiot doesn't want to—"
She cut off abruptly, the words not coming as she furiously opened and closed her mouth. What kind of idiot didn't want to bask in the glow of that smile Percy gave her earlier? What kind of idiot didn't want to try and make him give as many of those smiles as possible, instead of that stupid frown that seemed to mar his face more often than not as of late?
Her line of thought was startling and her face heated, an uncomfortable lump growing in her throat. Luckily, Percy didn't let her dwell on them for too long as he laughed.
"Doesn't want to deal with me all day? I can name a few," he teased. "But really it's fine, what's up?"
"Luke," Annabeth said, letting the subject drop for now because apparently, her subconscious was rebelling against her.
Percy's face morphed from carefree to moody and dark in a heartbeat.
"Oh," he scoffed and Annabeth had to hand it to him, he made an admirable effort to compose his face and dispel his obvious distaste. He failed, miserably, but she could appreciate his effort to be sensitive.
So she came right out; "I think he had something to do with the unidentified dinosaur."
Percy's head shot up. "Really?"
"Try not to appear too excited," she said dryly, crossing her arms and turning to stare out at the churching waters of the lagoon, separated from their vulnerable forms merely by the slate of glass that arched across the hall.
"I'm not," Percy said, then hastily clarified, "excited. I'm not excited. Well I mean, I was right so, yay I'm not paranoid, but like…not excited. Because he was your friend right?"
"I thought so," Annabeth muttered, staring pointedly out into the lagoon.
"What an ass," Percy muttered darkly. "So what are we going to do about it? There's a show in ten minutes, we could feed him to her."
Percy forked his thumb over his shoulder at the giant dark shape that swam through the lagoon.
"And how would that solve our problems?" Annabeth asked, fondly rolling her eyes.
"I don't know about you but it'd make me feel better."
Percy grinned crookedly down at her, all teeth as he radiated a sense of smugness. It was ridiculous and it made her chest tightened even as she laughed, fondness for this ridiculous, impossible man swelling in her chest.
"Sorry about—"
Her laughter cut off sharply at the interruption. Poseidon stood before them, phone held in one hand as he half frowned down at her. It wasn't a particularly unsettling frown, like the one that graced his brother's face on Annabeth's computer just moments before, but rather tinged with confusion and more than a little bit of annoyance. Like how dare Annabeth actually pay attention to Percy. It made her scowl as she took an instinctive step closer to Percy.
"It was your uncle," Poseidon continued slowly, eyes slowly drifting from Annabeth back to his son.
"Everything alright or do you need to leave?" Percy asked tiredly, shoving his hands into his pocket. He didn't look particularly surprised, almost resigned, as if he already knew the answer to the question.
"No, no I'm not leaving," Poseidon quickly tried to assure Percy, his frown deepening. "It's just—" his phone buzzed again and a pained look fell over Poseidon's face. He pointedly didn't look at it, his fingers curling tightly around the buzzing phone but his eyes remained steadily on Percy's face.
"Let's go see that show," his father said, voice tight with forced lightness.
Percy waved his hand, "Just answer your phone and deal with it or you'll be distracted all day." Poseidon's face was stubborn, the expression unnervingly similar to Percy's own stubborn face, but Percy just sighed.
Poseidon's face was stubbornly set, the expression unnervingly similar to Percy's own stubborn face, but Percy just sighed.
"No seriously Dad just go," he said, sounding exhausted. "I have to go feed the raptors their lunch anyway."
Poseidon critically searched his son's face, and there was a look of infinite sadness deep in his eyes. Like he was pained by how obviously drained Percy was by his presences or perhaps how he really did want to spend time with his son. Annabeth crossed her arms, huffing to herself. Well, who's fault was that?
"Just until after lunch okay?" Poseidon asked wearily. "I'll take you out to dinner."
"Yeah Dad sure," Percy sighed, turning away.
"I mean it," Poseidon insisted. "I"ll be at your paddock in two, three hours tops."
"Sure, okay," Percy repeated, and it somehow managed to sound even more tired and dubious than his last answer.
"Come on," he said to Annabeth, nodding his head towards the exit as Poseidon just stared at the back of his head.
Annabeth winded her arm through his, tightly pulling him close to her side as they slithered through the throng of people.
"You're more important than that," she said hotly as they broke free of the sea and emerged on the other side of the exhibit. "You're worth ten of him."
"Can we just, not?" Percy pleaded, shoulders slumping, his brow turning in and she hated the downcast expression that settled in on his face.
She hated it so much she would have turned around and gave Poseidon a piece of her mind, and then set Thalia on him, and then thrown him into the lagoon with the mosasaursus if Percy hadn't been steadily pulling her away. Instead, she gave his arm a squeeze.
"Okay," she conceded. "But just so you know, I'm still going to set Thalia on him later."
Percy shuddered and Annabeth grinned widely, pleased.
"Now, let's go meet Luke at the paddock shall we?" She asked pleasantly as she steered him towards her car.
Luke's fancy silver rental car slipped into the raptor paddock only a few mere minutes after their own arrival.
"They're a bit testy today," Annabeth called in warning as the man climbed out of his car.
"Hm, any idea as to why?" Luke asked casually as he sauntered over.
Percy uncomfortably eyed Annabeth, his face sheepish. Because of Poseidon, Annabeth knew, just as much as she knew Percy's pride wouldn't let him admit it to Luke.
"We have a few," Annabeth supplied vaguely instead, letting Percy lead the way towards the paddock.
The girls were lounging around as they walked up. Minerva and Ceres were curled up next to each other, Minerva gently grooming her sister and not looking the least bit concerned with the approaching group. Ceres' head snapped up, tongue lobbing out as she excitingly chirped at Percy. That got Percy's lips to twitch, which turned into a full out laugh as Minerva angrily snapped at Ceres for moving; the younger raptor whined as her head was forced down, away from her beloved alpha, as her sister rather aggressively continued to groom her neck feathers.
Juno sat just to the right of the two sisters, her head held high but still as a statue as she watched the three approach. Diane prowled the edge of the paddock, hissing lowly.
"Hey girls, Alpha's home," Percy called affectionately.
Ceres happily chirped again, not able to lift her head from under Minerva's firm attention. Deep in her throat, Juno made a low thrilling noise but outwardly didn't move a muscle. It was rather eerie, hearing the noise rumbling from her throat without the animal herself moving. Diane just shrieked, ever the eloquent one.
Diane just shrieked, ever the eloquent one.
"My, my, they're gotten big," Luke declared, putting his hands on his hips as he grinned. "What exercises do we have planned for today?"
"None," Percy said, shooting Luke a disapproving look over his shoulder as he climbed up to the overhead bridge. "They're too anxious for that."
"They don't look anxious to me," Luke countered, eyebrows raised as he looked over at the girls.
"I'm their trainer," Percy said coldly as both Annabeth and Luke followed him up onto the bridge. Juno's eyes followed them as they climbed, the rest of her body perfectly still.
"And they are anxious," Annabeth agreed, her voice like steel as she crossed her arms, leaning against Percy as they settled in on the platform over the paddock. "Percy of all people would know."
Luke smiled and there was something grossly different about this smile. It lost all pretense of friendliness and geniality as Luke came to a stop across from them, and Annabeth knew the act was over.
"What do you want Luke?" Annabeth demanded coldly, "What do you want with our girls?"
"Oh your girls, I didn't realize that you were so involved with the animals," Luke snarled, taking a step forward. There was something menacing about the single step and Annabeth stood ramrod straight, throwing an arm out as if to protect Percy from Luke's advance.
"Back off Luke," she said firmly, eyes flashing.
"Don't you realize how much potential these animals have," Luke snarled, his face dark and twisted and so unlike the friendly and warm front he usually put on. "What an opportunity you're throwing away?"
"They've been trained enough," Annabeth snarled right back, pushing Percy behind her despite his protests. "We've learned enough about them to fill books, but there's only so far we should push. Do you realize how dangerous and insane you sound? Do you want us to keep going until they kill Percy?"
The thought caused Annabeth's chest to tighten, and she inhaled sharply as she determinedly shook her head in denial.
"Dammit Annabeth," Luke shouted, turning sharply to kick the side of the boardwalk.
The force of his kick shook the bridge, the metal bar groaning as it caved and Annabeth, who'd been partially leaning on the railing in an effort to keep Percy behind her, pitched to the side.
Her back hit the railing, head tipping back so the trees down below were upside down, their green leaves waving oddly at the bottom of her vision and she didn't even have time to scream, to catch herself, oh god she was going to fall into the paddock, she was going to fall right next to the girls, the agitated, angry—
"Annabeth!"
Then she was upright again, two strong, steady arms tightly wound around her waist as Percy bodily hauled her backwards, his face pinched and panicked. She instinctively grabbed onto him, one hand curling around the arm that held her firmly against Percy's chest, the other grabbing onto the back of his neck to anchor herself to him, to this feeling of safety and steadiness as she gasped for breath, rattled.
"Oh my god," he gasped, eyes wide in his pale face, "I've got you. I've got you, it's okay, oh my god, you're okay."
He looked more shaken up than she felt, mouth open as he gasped for breath and frantically searched her for injury, even though she hadn't actually fallen.
It was like a reflex, Annabeth later decided, like pulling your hand away from the stove before your mind even registered the heat, electronic pulses and instinct overriding the conscious mind; one moment she was staring into his frantic green eyes, then they were so much closer, her vision filled with nothing but those tempting pools of emerald; his eyelashes brushing against her cheek, his heartbeat pounding beneath her fingers; her lips pressed against his. Fluid; natural. She didn't even fully realize what was happening, so lost in the feeling of rightness until someone made a choking sound.
She was kissing Percy.
Oh God, she was still kissing Percy.
The realization should have jarred her, made her jerk away like the hand that actually had been burned. Instead, she pulled away slowly, carefully. Percy blinked down at her, arms still holding her fast and tight against his body. His face was flushed, his mouth parted, lips swollen and red. He moved minutely, eyes flickering back down to her lips . . . and that did it.
Oh God.
Oh God.
"Oh God," she gasped out loud. "Oh God."
Her mind stuttered, like an old record trying to get over a scratch, wait—wait—wait—
"Oh god," she repeated as she pushed herself away from Percy, hands flat against his chest as she tried to put distance between his flushed faced and her flustered thoughts. One of the raptors gave a shriek and she flinched.
Annabeth took one frazzled look at Percy and ran.
A/n Um whoops? Sorry to disappear for an entire month; I've been super stressed out and it made writing very difficult. The first draft of this chapter had some serious problems and a whole 2k of it was just terrible. So I deleted it and then walked away for a while. Bless my beta for her kind patience and encouragement. I'm not a 100% satisfied with this chapter, but it's way better than the like 60% I was at before so. I'm still crazy stressed, I just may have bitten off more than I can chew this semester but we'll see. I'll try to keep on a steady writing schedule and just generally try not to be a sucky writer.
I don't think I was able to respond to anyone's reviews for last chapter but I cannot thank all of your enough for all your support, seriously. I love each and everyone one of the reviews I get and all the people who leave them. Hope your fall (or spring there on the other side of the globe) is turning out to be much better than mine and I genuinely hope I'll be posting again for you guys in two weeks.