Percy
"Does everyone understand the plan?" Joy asked after explaining it for the thirtieth time. We all nodded and started loading up the helicopter. I took a shaky breath as I jumped in and sat in my spot. Chiron and Nico were also amongst the small squad of darkly dressed agents filing into the small plane.
I sighed and attempted to relax for the long flight but my nerves were making themselves all too known, filling my stomach with butterflies and making me restless. I took out the rumpled up piece of film and stared at it longingly.
The picture was the only one I had managed to take of Annabeth and myself. We had just returned from paperwork on a case and I had drove her to pick the kids up while her car was getting a check up. The four of us were sitting at the island, Annabeth and I helping them with their homework, actually more just Annabeth since I could hardly remember how to multiply fractions.
Anyway, I still had one of the crime scene cameras so I took a picture of us, Kade hanging on my head from across the marble table and Madison leaning on Annabeth's shoulder. My favorite part was that for that few seconds it took to take the picture, Annabeth had hung on my arm like she actually cared for me.
I learned the hard way that was all just a hoax.
When the idea of Annabeth betraying everyone in the office finally set in, well actually, I still hadn't accepted it yet; it was just too unbelievable. I didn't want to accept it, I wouldn't. She's always talking about her father bossing her around, he had to be behind this too.
Of course I told Joy that, but she had already started assembling the 'hit squad' to go to Israel. She shooed me off, saying the President had sequenced this and it wasn't going to change because of some silly hunch I had.
I sighed again, shifting my position when my butt had gone numb, the hard metal floor of the helicopter wasn't doing much for my back and rear end. "Calm down man." Nico muttered next to me, purposely keeping his voice down so the unfamiliar bodies accompanying us couldn't hear even above the roar of the propellor blades.
"I can't." I grumbled back, the increasingly familiar feeling coming back in my stomach.
After a second of hesitation, he asked, "Is it about, you know who?"
I took my time before I answered back. "Yeah."
Nico didn't answer for a long time, when I looked over he was staring at his hands. Feeling my gaze, my black haired co-worker glanced up. "I'm sorry." He offered. I nodded weakly and we fell into a silence for the rest of the ride.
Annabeth
It was nearly four in the morning when I arrived back at base. I shushed Celev as we exited the aircraft warehouse, nearing the housing units. He was still boasting about killing our target, the actual action always being a race between the two of us.
"I mean, the guard was like 'Who's there!'" He went on, copying the deep voice of one of the guards that patrolled the grounds of the wealthy man our father had some reason to kill. "And I hid behind the lion!" Celev lost himself in a fit of laughter.
"And I in the fountain." I added, wringing out my hair as we entered the washrooms for post mission clean up.
My partner started laughing all over again. "Your face after you emerged was quite humorous." I grumbled, closing the door to the shower stall. "You are just irritated you were caught and I was not."
I waved him off even though he couldn't see me, stripping down and turning on the hot water. "I was merely preventing you from being discovered."
Celev snorted. "Right." The noise of his own shower added to mine.
"You were!" I retorted over the roar of the water smashing against the plastic floor. "The guard was that close to rounding your lion statue. If I had not stepped in to distract him, you would have been run through with his saber."
"I bet he enjoyed chasing a soaking wet intruder around." He commented and I could almost hear the sarcastic smile he was probably wearing. "Especially with that shirt."
I groaned thinking about the see through material. "Shut up." I muttered, barely hearing myself over all the surrounding noise. His laughter seeped over, making me even more annoyed by the large ego my partner possessed.
Getting I was ticked enough, the rest of our showers were spent in silence. Naturally, I finished before him like I always do after missions and dressed quickly, going out to the mirrors to brush my hair.
Percy
The helicopter landed several miles away from the large stone maze I was told was the building we were going to infiltrate. The ten or so of us filed out of the cramped vessel, the unknown males wasted no time in unloading equipment and starting towards the small black outline of the fortress in the distance.
"We're walking?" I asked, slightly flabbergasted and thinking of the couple miles at least we were away.
"Yes." One of them confirmed with little to no emotion, and not really caring if my friends and I were behind them, started off towards their destination. I shared a look with Nico through the darkness, hardly seeing his shrug before he jumped to catch up with the retreating figures on the horizon.
I sighed, it's going to be a long walk.
The three darkly dressed wannabe ninjas stopped us as we came upon one of the several buildings laid out on the huge property. They didn't say anything, communicating in a strange code of hand gestures.
Chiron watched carefully, but of course he knew the secret language, Nico's face changed between confused and understanding; I seemed to be the only one who had no idea what was going on.
Soon after the three of them sprinted toward the closest building. Chiron quickly followed so Nico and I had no choice but to go as well, after all, what else were we going to do? Play Craps while we wait?
Arriving at a large, thick, heavy looking metal door, more hand gestures were exchanged while the third guy went to work on the door lock. There was no way he was going to pick that lock, I don't even think was in Annabeth's skillset, before a guard made his way over and saw us.
Ok, the guard system was so Medieval Times. There were four guards that circled the perimeter of the flat, square roof of every building on the property. It reminded me of the old castles with knights clanking around and keeping watch.
Just as the shadow of the approaching guard started to become visible, there was a small 'click' and the door popped open. Our group quickly slipped inside, I stopped the door before it crash shut and edged it closed gently. The ninjas glared at me; I frowned, I was helping and they thought I was doing something to hinder our work?
More gestures were exchanged before the three of them raced off down one of the four hallways. Chiron stayed with us. "What were they saying?" Nico whisper-asked.
"They said to split up, they're going north," He paused to point the direction where they had rushed off. "I'm going west, Nico go east." Without saying anything to me, he headed down the hall to the left I'm assuming was west. Nico and I shared a look before he shrugged and quietly slipped behind me to go down the adjacent passageway.
"Guess I'm going this way..." I muttered to myself, turning to use the only remaining option. I kept close to the wall of the almost pitch black corridor, not quite running but too paranoid to walk. There were a few halls connecting off the one I was currently going through but I didn't think too much about them as I passed quickly.
Soon after traveling down the dark tunnel, I came to a huge aircraft holder warehouse. There was nothing here besides several billions of dollars in flying machines and a sleeping guard so I turned around, walking much slower to listen for any voices coming from the connecting hallways.
The first few of them had no sign of any activity until I came to a door that sounded like a shower was going from behind. I stopped and listened more carefully and I found I could hear someone humming.
Quietly, I cracked the door open. The warmth of steam from the shower hit my face, making my skin tingle as water vapor collected around my cheeks. There was a wall hiding me from whoever was in this bathroom so I slipped in.
Inching forward so I could see the line of sinks through the first few mirrors, my breath caught in my throat. The girl who plagued my thoughts for the previous months was standing in the middle of the long line of reflecting surfaces brushing her blond hair that was more brown and flat because of the water from her shower that must have ended not long ago by her tank top and short shorts.
I recognized the song she was humming as one of many I had sung out of tune and off key to her in the car on the way to work just to annoy her because her car was out to the shop and she had no other option to get to the office.
Suddenly, the second shower shut off behind her. A few moments transpired with a ton of shuffling around before the sound of a curtain moving and Annabeth turned to glance over her shoulder. A second went by when no emotion crossed her face before she shrieked, trying to cringe away as someone or something was being thrown at her which confused me because I threw a pencil at her once during a dead period and even with her back to me, earphones in, she caught it and threw it back at me. That thing almost stabbed me where the sun don't shine, and I think she planned that.
I clenched my fist around the tiles as a tan, muscular, shirtless, wet, male with only his boxers on grabbed her around the waist and spun her around making her laugh uncontrollably. I heard a protective growl slip out of my lips and before I could stop myself, I was stalking around the porcelain tiled corner to announce my presence.
The unknown man I was ready to shoot through the head noticed me first, stopping dead in his tracks and slowly setting the confused blond down. She had her back to me so she didn't know why the guy had stopped until she noticed he was staring at me, a blank expression not surprised or horrified like I'd hoped.
Annabeth's reaction was much different, the first time I've ever seen her surprised about anything. "Percy?" Her voice was harsh and accusing but I didn't let my expression change, almost competing with the stone face of her friend.
Apparently not enjoying the silence, she leaped forward to take my upper arm in an iron grip, retching me out of the bathroom so fast it took a second for my eyes to catch up with my body. "What are you doing here?" The blond snarled in an angry whisper.
"And I thought you were going to be happy to see me." I grumbled, holding my dizzy head. A small fist contacted with my chest, but either she was losing her touch or all the workouts were finally paying off because it didn't hurt nearly as much as I remember.
"This is not the time to make fun! How you get here, how did you get in in the first place?" A flicker of confusion crossed her face as she obviously thought of the huge door we had entered through. Suddenly the situation at hand pushed through my jealousy that clouded my judgment before. I frowned. "What?"
"It's 'not the time to joke', but is there anywhere else we can talk more...privately?" I leaned forward to get closer incase the guy we left in the bathroom was eavesdropping. Annabeth's lips pulled into a tight, white line as she nodded, thankfully getting that I was serious this time. With an annoyed 'Come.', she grabbed my hand and dragged me through the confusing twists and turns of the maze of hallways like they were the back of her hand, but all I could think of was how soft her hands were.
The next thing I knew, I was being thrust into a small room with a twin bed on one side and a bunk bed parallel to it with only a few feet of space between them, not that I minded because the lack of space forced the blond to be close to me. "I like this room." I joked, pulling her slim figure into my arms.
Annabeth brought a hand up to her forehead but actually leaned into me. "Percy..." She sighed, I was happy there was no annoyance in it, just exhaustion. I pulled her closer. "What are you doing here?"
"Aren't you glad to see me? We didn't exactly get to say goodbye..." I trailed off, pressing my forehead to hers. Her grey eyes met my green and for the third time today I witnessed something I've never seen Annabeth do, her eyes sparkled with sadness in the dim light.
"My father sent an urgent call." She looked down, playing with the hem of my black cotton t-shirt. Inside I was celebrating my genius since that's what my solution was, but on the outside I stayed impartial, waiting for her to elaborate on it.
When she didn't I pulled her down to sit sideways on my lap while I sat on the bed, wrapping my arms around her as she set her head hesitantly on my shoulder. "Why didn't you come back when you were done? Why did you lie about vacation? Why-"
"Percy!" Her quick shreek made me stop. "When I came out of my shower I did not expect to play '30 Questions'!"
"20 Questions." I corrected but apologized upon seeing her annoyed glare. "I'm sorry, I just...I want to know...finding out you left and being forced to conduct an investigation...it..." I frowned, I've never been good at expressing how I felt, and Annabeth was no way better at it than I was. "It hurt."
"Is this a therapy session?" I almost laughed at how now she was joking and I was the one trying to be serious. She sighed after I didn't answer her. "Percy I know I left a little abruptly but I do not have to check in with you every time I have to go somewhere."
Obviously she was hinting to a year or two back when I was at a local bar with one of my friends from high school when I freaked out after seeing her with some guy she must have met somewhere. She yelled at me for at least an hour about being able to date whoever she wished and did not have to ask me if I was alright with it because I wasn't her father or boyfriend.
I looked down at my hands and probably looked like a kicked puppy because a small hand was tilting my head back up. I reluctantly met her surprisingly soft gaze. "Look, Percy, I am sorry I could not tell you, but now you know why." I nodded. "Good, it is your turn, how did you get here and why?"
A battle raged through my mind as I waged if I should-or could-tell her. "Nico, Chiron, and I uh..."
"Chiron is here? Nico as well?"
I nodded, my resolve softening by her excitement to see her old co-workers again. "We were...sent, to find out..why you left." I managed, drawing out the pause between almost every word making my sentence sound unbelievable even to me. Annabeth narrowed her eyes at me and I knew she could tell I was lying, she always could if I had rehearsed it or not, but shook her head with a small smile. Huh.
My attention wasn't on why she let me off the hook long because the small smile turned mischievous and I was being pushed down onto the small bed.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, hope none of you died during Black Friday.
Me? I spent my Thanksgiving watching the Lions get cheated. How did you spend yours?