Changing Fate

Chapter 28: Miracles and Noodles

"To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others." ~Francois Mauriac

(From the point of view of Annabeth!)

The world was a mass of swirling purple. Faces and images faded in and out of focus. Voices whispered to me, hoarse, hysterical voices that pleaded and sobbed. The nightmare wasn't like the others. Percy wasn't physically shown. He didn't die or leave me hanging but I knew he was there. I could feel him there, a warm stable presence in the crazy dream world. All I can remember is being cold, incredibly cold. The violet tinged world was pressing down on me from all sides. I felt like I was encased in a coffin of ice. Needles of frost stabbed into me, deep down to the bone. I was shivering, my skin so cold you could have hit me with a hammer and I would have shattered.

Pinpricks of light exploded in my vision before fading to darkness. The purple was slipping away, the world becoming shadowy. I knew it was close. Death wasn't far away. There were murmurs from the darkness. A soft, familiar voice. It was Percy. He was talking to me. At first I couldn't make out the words, only snippets. All the same, something about knowing he was there was comforting. His voice faded in and out, like a bad radio signal. I caught a little bit what he was saying, I've really felt like I couldn't live without you.

That line caught in my mind like a leaf snagging in a river current. I couldn't get it out of my head. Percy couldn't live without me? There was something about him admitting that made me want to cry. Because I couldn't live without him either. And Percy would have to live without me because it was going to take a miracle to get this poison out of my system.

Although I was cold, the venom was burning through me. A purple fire that was so white-hot it felt freezing cold. The effect was suffocating. It was trapping me. I didn't want to die like this. I didn't want to die paralyzed and cowering on the floor. That wasn't me. I was a fighter. I couldn't help it, though. This poison wasn't something you could battle. It was invisible, it was killing me from the inside, infecting my mind. If I could have picked up a dagger then and fought the toxin I would have. But that wasn't an option. The pain was slowly spreading. Dull, at first, but then sharper. It wasn't just pain creeping up on me but the end too. I was close to the edge.

The dark world around me faded away suddenly. I found myself in a vivid world. The ground around me was multicolored sand. Flecks of cobalt, orange, green, pink, violet and ruby whipped around me and settled in my hair. The sky above was a startling blue. My hair was no longer tangled and fell in delicate curls down my back. I looked down, my arm was healed. My dress was luminous silver, threaded with strands of gold. I looked around the dream world I was in. The brightly colored plains stretched for miles. There was nothing around me. Only me, the sky and the horizon. Maybe this was the end. Or just before the end. Perhaps it was fate that I would spend the rest of eternity in this strange place. But it could just have been a side-effect of the poison. A hallucination of brief bliss before everything went away. And just as that thought came the ground opened up beneath me. A vortex of colour spilled into the hole and I tumbled into the ground.

Somebody was screaming and it took me a few seconds to realised it was me. I felt like I wasn't in my body. The pain, the fear was distant. It was like reading Alice in Wonderland. You could imagine Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole and you were afraid for her but at the same time you knew it wasn't you, that you weren't the one in danger. And then I hit the bottom. Every bone in my body felt broken but I wasn't in pain. I was dull, cold, fading. The world was completely black. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, no angel come to rescue me. It was just cold, hard ground. Time seemed to pass incredibly slowly. The hand of the clock ticked. The darkness swirled. My life dripped away. Then somebody began to sing. I didn't notice it at the start. It was just another part of the deafening silence. Then the song grew, the sound rising and falling. A second voice joined in. The melody became louder the lilting song growing desperate. The notes struck a crescendo, voices pleading. The music wrapped itself around me, pulling the darkness away and letting in the light. The melody was strong, fighting the venom and healing me. The dark world around me faded. I found the strength to open my eyes.

Harsh overhead lights stung my eyes. A crowd of people were gathered around me. All the faces were unfamiliar. Only one face really mattered. Percy looked down at me, his forehead creased with worry. His hair was tousled, like he'd been running his hands through it agitatedly. A slow smiled spread across his face when I opened my eyes. He was sitting at my side and he grasped my hand so tightly that I thought he was going to crush it. He looked a little delirious, like his grasp on reality was slipping ever so slightly. I wasn't sure, but there might have been tears in his eyes.

"Hey, Annabeth," he said softly.

I tried to speak but ended up having a coughing fit. He brushed a few strands of hair from my face and said, "Don't try to talk. You're still sick."

A girl with serious gray-blue eyes and white-blond hair nodded solemnly behind him. "We've neutralized the effects of the poison. It's not going to kill you. But it's going to take some time to get out of your system. You need to rest and recover for a while."

I nodded, feeling the pain shoot up my spine. Maybe in the nightmare the pain felt distant but in the real world I well and truly felt it.

I looked around the room at the others. I thought I was seeing double at first, but then realized the blond girl had a twin. There was a boy with titian hair who stood almost protectively behind the second girl. A girl with warm coffee coloured skin was looking at me with eyes full of concern. To her left was a broad shouldered Asian guy with his arm around her shoulders. The last person in the room was tall with dark hair and dark eyes. She looked down at me with worry but it was obvious her mind was elsewhere.

I sighed, my breathing was raspy. The poison had reached even there. I felt incredibly tired. I just wanted to sleep. But then I also wanted to stay awake. I'd survived so much that I didn't want to waste any more life. I had Percy, I wasn't sick anymore. I had the whole world in front of me. I pushed up with my aching arms into a slightly more dignified sitting position, ignoring the nausea. My muscles were weak and I shook slightly but I managed not to fall back down. Percy put his arm around my shoulders to help me up. I smiled weakly at him although I hated seeming so weak. I knew he didn't care but there was something about not even being able to move by myself that made me feel so... powerless.

The others just kind of stared for a moment. They seemed awkward, like the thought of Percy and I as a couple was surreal. It was almost as if they expected me to disappear in a puff of smoke at any moment, like I was a figment of their imagination.

"You can sit down, you know," said Percy after a moment. The twins were already crouched on the floor. The russet headed kid with a permanent smirk on his face leaned against the door jamb. The girl with the long dark braid perched herself on the arm of the sofa. The other two sat down crossed-legged on the floor.

"So tell me again," said one of the blond twins, "what exactly is going on?"

Percy sighed. "Maybe I should start by telling you guys who this is. Everybody, meet Annabeth."

Tears welled up in the eyes of the girl with the cocoa skin. "She looks just like the picture!"

Percy smiled. "Annabeth, this is Hazel. I met her in San Francisco."

I managed a feeble, "Nice to meet you."

He pointed to the guy next to Hazel, "This is Frank."

He continued to introduce them. The dark haired girl on the sofa was Reyna. The red-haired, disinterested looking guy was Oliver. The twin with eyes that were slightly more gray was Lena. The twin with brighter blue eyes was Emma.

They looked at me with smiles that were slightly in awe. Percy was talking again but I wasn't really listening. I just wanted to rest. I closed my eyes and drifted off into a world of shadows and nightmares. I slept fitfully but it was something. In truth, I hadn't slept well in weeks so haunting nightmares had become the norm.

I didn't know how long I slept for. I went through periods of complete, dreamless unconsciousness. Other times I was half awake. I woke once to find Lena checking the wound on my arm, she gave me a brief smile before I slipped away again. Another time I found Percy curled up asleep in the armchair in the corner of the bedroom. The chair seemed impossibly small with his long limbs spilling out all over the place. I slept once again. I cracked my eyes open some time in the middle of the night to find Oliver standing in the doorway, Percy was asleep in his chair. Oliver's forehead was creased with anguish that seemed unlike him. He didn't notice I was awake. His rust-colored hair reflected the light and made his face look ghostly pale. He stayed for a few minutes before slipping silently away. Things faded in and out for a while after that, I didn't have many more long periods of consciousness.

When I woke again I was under a quilt in the bedroom. Morning light streamed through the gap in the curtains. The little portrait of the sea hung on the wall. I stared at it for a moment. I'd never really noticed how pretty it was. There was a tiny white boat in the centre, battling the huge waves. I thought it was an appropriate metaphor. I lay back on the pillows, aware of an ache at the base of my skull. Somebody had dressed me in pyjamas with ducks all over them. I didn't know who it was but once I was well again I was going to have a serious conversation with them about their taste in sleepwear. My hair was washed. All physical signs of the ordeal had been erased but I knew there were invisible scars would never heal. I bit my lip looking up at the ceiling and trying to slow my beating heart. The memories of the terrifying nightmares induced by the Amphisbaena poison still haunted me. The images of Percy's various deaths were still burned into my retinas and thinking of any one of them sent a jolt of pain through me. I worked to slow my frantic breathing. Thinking of it all, Ethan's glittering knife, my own blood, the syringe full of venom, made me shake with fear. The whole thing made my brain hurt. I didn't want to think about it. I wanted to think about all the good things. Just as that thought came to mind, Percy walked into the room. He was dressed in jeans and a navy blue t-shirt. His hair was a mess and a little wet like he'd had a shower. He limped slightly and when he saw my open eyes a huge, goofy grin spread across his face. He ignored his limp and rushed over, flopping down onto the bed beside me.

"You're awake!" he announced happily.

"Yeah," I said and my voice actually worked for once.

"Soooo... How are you feeling?" I could hear the crazy euphoria in his voice. He sounded so bizarrely happy I couldn't help but grin.

"Better. You?"

"My leg hurts. I don't care, though."

He propped himself up on his elbows and looked at me. He managed to subdue the smile and make his eyes serious. "Are you really okay? And give me a proper answer. Really, truly are you okay?"

I had the sudden urge to cry. I don't know if it was the concern in his face or something else but I couldn't help the hot, unexpected tears that sprung to my eyes. Soon they were spilling over and cascading down my cheeks. I couldn't help it. Percy made a strange, strangled noise and sat up. He pulled me into his lap, ducky pyjamas and all. I ignored the aches in my body and pressed my head into his shoulder. I felt like a little kid as I snaked my arms around his neck and sobbed into his shirt. He put his arms around me and patted my back and stroked my hair like I was a small child. I cried hysterically, my body shaking. I tried to calm my sobs but just ended up hiccuping. Percy shushed me and moved his hands in slow circles around my back until my heaving sobs became quiet tears and my quiet tears became sniffles.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked after I'd grown quiet. I shook my head. I wanted to block it all out. He probably wanted an explanation. I didn't want to explain anything to him. Explaining meant reliving and reliving meant pain. I wanted many things at that moment but pain wasn't one of them. I gingerly lifted my head from his shoulder, afraid to look into his eyes. He met my gaze steadily with sea green eyes tinged with sadness.

"Does it hurt to much to explain? I mean, I guess it does. It would hurt me. Probably more than my leg hurts, which isn't much. Lena and Emma are very good at healing, aren't they? I wonder who taught them that. I mean, I know a lot of children of Apollo have that whole healing-song-thing but they seem to have that extra touch, know what I mean? I guess you'll tell me one day what really happened. It's not going to be, you know, today or anything. That's okay. You're still not well. Like Lena said, it takes time. A lot of things take time. I was thinking-" he was babbling. I think he felt the strange need to keep talking non-stop, like it would provide some comfort for me. I cut him off by kissing him. His eyes opened wide for a second and then he relaxed into me. His arms slid from around my shoulders to around my waist and I moved closer. I pulled away and he looked at me with a slightly bemused expression.

"You taste like tears," he told me after a pause. "And salt."

I laughed. "You taste like soap."

I flopped back down on the bed beside him and stared at the ceiling. He leaned back against the bed-head.

"I like the jammies," Percy said after a moment.

I laughed again. "Thanks. Whose are they?"

"I think Hazel bought them."

"She doesn't strike me as a 'ducky' type," I said.

"She said she thought the blue would bring out your eyes."

"My eyes are gray," I said.

He turned his head to me. "Don't ask me what she was thinking. This is coming from a girl who managed to convince me to wear a beret in Paris."

I sat up ramrod straight. "You went to Paris?"

Percy looked startled at my sudden movement. I didn't tell him the action made me feel lightheaded.

"Yes, I went with work."

"Where do you work?" I asked. I guess it made sense Percy had gotten a job while we'd been apart.

He ran a hand through his hair. "After... after everything that happened, I mean, Ethan told me you were dead. I guess I couldn't handle it, I... I needed to escape. I went to San Francisco. I was offered a job at a place called Jupiter Enterprises."

I swallowed. My voice was quieter than I meant it to be when I spoke. "Ethan told you I was dead?"

Percy looked at me. The light was fading in his usually bright eyes. He was remembering something painful. "You went into surgery. They were stitching you up." he said. I parted the top of my shirt to reveal the pink scars that smattered my chest.

"Then what happened?" I asked softly.

"This doctor came in. He had a mask on and I didn't know who he was. He said... He told me that you'd died. And I believed him. Just like that. He said that it might be good if I took a walk. I just followed him. We walked for ages. I wasn't really paying attention. Then we got to George Washington Bridge. He took off his mask. It was Ethan. I thought I was hallucinating at first. Then he started talking. Before I knew what was happening he was fighting me and I was thrown over the edge of the bridge."

I didn't say anything for a moment. "But you didn't die."

He shook his head. "No. I was never going to die."

"So you went to San Francisco?" I said. "Just like that, you moved across the country?"

"It was a bit impulsive," Percy admitted. "I don't know, I just needed to get out. I think I was scared. I went to San Francisco. The rest is history, I guess."

We lapsed into silence. I think he was expecting me to tell him my story. I didn't want to think about it. The whole thing made my head hurt. It was like there was some kind of barrier that stopped me from thinking about everything that had happened. Like an electric fence, every time I tried to go there my head started pounding and my heart pumped painfully fast. I just couldn't go there. I shook my head slightly. He seemed to get the message.

"I feel like noodles!" Percy announced, his face brightening.

"Noodles?"

"Yes," he said, getting up. "I'm going to see if I can dig anything decent out of the cupboard."

"Okay."

Percy walked out and I was left to stare at the ceiling and try not to think about anything. I kept thinking there was something I was missing. Percy came back minutes later with two styrofoam cups of steaming noodles. He tossed me a fork and sat down on the bed beside me. I frowned at the cup.

"Are you sure these noodles are good for me to eat?" I asked.

Percy laughed. "Are you kidding? These things could survive Armageddon."

I rolled my eyes. "No, I mean. Should I be eating these? You're sure I won't vomit, like, as a side-effect of, you know, almost dying?"

"Oh," said Percy with a frown. "I hope not. You have to eat something at some point."

I picked up a noodle with my fingers suspiciously. It dripped juice onto the bedspread. I lifted it into my mouth. I swallowed slowly, like it was going to explode. It didn't and so I dug the fork into the noodles for more.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Hungry?"

I nodded, my mouth full. "I haven't eaten for hours. What's the time?"

Percy clicked a button on the phone in his pocket. "Twelve."

I sat up straighter. "You're kidding."

He shook his head. "Nope."

"I should be at work!" I squeaked. "I can't leave Piper there without calling. We had people arriving today-"

I started moving around frantically. I put down the noodles on the side table and looked around for a shirt.

Percy put his hand on my shoulder. "Sit down."

I looked at him. "But I have to go!"

Percy shook his head in disbelief. "Annabeth you almost died yesterday. I am not letting you go to work."

"I have to contact somebody..." I trailed off. He was right.

Percy held out the phone. "Then call."

I took it and keyed the number quickly. The dial tone sounded and Piper answered on the second ring.

"Piper I'm so-" I began but she cut me off. He voice was shaky and hysterical.

"Annabeth, oh my gods, I'm so sorry. I can't believe this happened. You almost died? I just... Oh, gods. Where are you? I'm coming."

"Listen, Piper, I'm okay. I'm saved. How do you know what happened?"

Piper paused. "What do you mean how do I know? Reyna told me."

I frowned. "Reyna's there?"

Piper sounded confused. "Well, yeah. She's brought the tenants. There are others too. Hazel, Frank and Reyna bought them. Their names are Lena and Emma and Oliver. They said that there was meant to be another guy too-"

"Percy," I said.

The line went silent. "I thought it was just a coincidence."

My voice caught a little. "No, he's really here."

"That's... Amazing." said Piper. She didn't mention the fact that Jason wasn't there but her silence said it all.

"I know," I said softly. "More than amazing."

"I'll be there soon." she said. "Hang in there."

"I'm not planning on having any more near death experiences."

She sighed. "I know, it's just a figure of speech."

I laughed. "I know."

"Bye."

She hung up but then rang back thirty seconds later to check the address. I laughed.

Percy looked at me. "More than amazing?"

"Oh, no, don't go getting all full of yourself," I said.

He held up his hands. "You said it, not me."

I laughed and hit him lightly on the arm. He caught my arm and pulled me in. I kissed Percy in ducky pyjamas with noodle bits on my shirt and dried tears on my cheeks but it couldn't have been better. He looked at me. "Now you taste like noodles," he said. Way to ruin the moment.

-oOo-

Piper and Leo arrived fifteen minutes later, closely followed by the rest of the Jupiter Enterprises crew. Piper rushed into the bedroom and gave me a huge hug. She didn't even glance at Percy until she'd crushed me half to death. Leo hugged me and gave a little, strange little wave to Percy.

"Come on, elf boy," I said. "You can do better than that."

Percy stood up and shook Leo's hand. Piper stared at Percy.

"You're actually real," she said, and poked him.

"Piper!" I exclaimed.

Percy laughed. "Annabeth said something like that when I found her."

The others crowded into the small room. Emma glanced at Oliver as she squeezed passed him to stand by her sister.

Somebody's cellphone began to ring. Piper pulled it from her pocket and glanced at the screen. Her eyes turned hard and she hit the 'ignore' button before tucking it back into her pocket.

"Who was that?" I asked, although I sort of already knew.

The look on Piper's face confirmed it. "Nobody special."

I opened my mouth to speak but I was cut off when another phone began to beep. Reyna pulled it from her pocket and excused herself. She came back in after a few minutes.

"Who was that?" asked Hazel brightly.

Reyna looked away. "Just... It was nobody."

I looked between Reyna and Piper and noticed the way that Piper refused to meet the other woman's eyes. Their relationship seemed strained and I thought I knew who was behind it.

Leo looked, stricken, between the two and sighed. There was only so much he could do to act as a bridge.

Percy looked to Lena. "Did you see the houses?"

She shook her head. "No."

Piper looked between Percy and I. "So let me get this straight. Percy, you moved to San Francisco and got a job at Jupiter Enterprises. Annabeth, Percy sent your journal of sketches to us, at Zeus Enterprises. We gave you a job as architect while Percy became one of the officers who looks for tenants to put into the houses that you design. How's it possible you didn't know about each other?"

Percy looked at me, his eyes wide in disbelief. "You designed the houses?"

I looked at Percy at the same moment. "You found our tenants?"

We both nodded.

Piper laughed. "That's crazy."

Lena smiled. "Crazy, but it worked out."

Percy turned to the twins. "Have you seen the houses?"

Lena and Emma shook their heads in unison.

"No, there wasn't exactly time," said Emma, glancing at Reyna and Piper. "These two seemed to have a lot of... catching up to do."

Piper looked stubbornly away, her mouth set in a hard line. Reyna looked almost helpless and bit her lip.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Women!"

"When do you think we'll move in?" asked Emma, trying to dispel the tension.

Reyna shrugged. "Tomorrow, I guess."

Lena looked down at a patch of sunlight on the floor. "And then that'll be the end of this whole thing."

Lena's sister put a pale arm around her. "It'll be okay, Lena. It's always been okay before."

Lena laughed harshly. "Call that okay?" she said bitterly. She shook her head like she was shaking something off and the dark look in her eyes lifted. It was like a mask of calm descended on her face and she looked up with a smile.

My mind was whirring. I didn't know why I hadn't seen it. Lena and Emma. Their names were so familiar. Something about them was important. I rolled their names around in my mind. Lena. Emma. Lena. Emma. Lena. Emma. Then it struck me. If you come across anybody named Lena or Emma, tell them Dana and Noah are looking for them.

The perky girl with the rainbow hair and the tall boy with the midnight blue eyes. I'd dismissed it as a hallucination up until then but it had really happened.

"You're Lena and Emma Callihan," I said.

Emma looked up and frowned. "Yeah."

"Noah and Dana are looking for you."

Lena's head snapped up sharply. "What?"

"They're in New York. The girl with the funny colored hair who looks a bit like an elf and the tall boy."

Piper smirked slightly. "A cousin of yours, Leo?"

He smiled and pushed her shoulder lightly. "Shut up."

Lena had gone even more pale than usual. She fixed me with a dead serious look. "Are you telling the truth?"

I frowned. "I think so, I mean, the memory's kind of scrambled but... Yes, I'm sure Noah's looking for you."

Lena's eyes went very wide. "Oh my god."

Emma smiled. "Told you."

Lena opened her mouth to say something but she was cut off as the sound of chimes reverberated around the apartment. I jumped. It took a second for me to realise that it was the doorbell. Percy frowned.

"Visitors? Who would be here?" his eyes widened a fraction and his hand went automatically to Riptide. He stood up and walked to the door slowly. I listened with all my muscles tense as he walked down the hall. The door squeaked. The whole room seemed to breath a sigh of relief when the only sound that came from outside was quiet conversation. I didn't hear him close the door. Everybody was silent as we listened to Percy's footsteps come back down the hall. He stood in the doorway but didn't say anything. He bit his lip. Every head turned to him expectantly. He ran a hand through his hair and hesitated like her wasn't sure quite how to say what he wanted to say.

"Uh..." he started. "Well, um, Jason's here."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Miracle of miracles."

Uh... So chapter 28 is done! I hope that it wasn't too uneventful. I guess the other chapters were kind of full on so perhaps something a little lighthearted was needed. Thanks for the review, I haven't thanked you in a while! But I'm thanking you silently... If that makes sense. I'm debating when to start my next story. Should I start it at Ch30 of this story? Or should I wait till the end? I don't know! We'll see...