Annabeth

I stood frozen against the hallway wall as people rushed pasted me. A few glanced over me, then went by, ignoring me in favor of more pressing matters. My heart beat loudly in my chest, and I kept twisting the hem of my shirt in my hands.

They were there, all of them - Percy, Thalia, my dad. I caught a quick glimpse at them when I peeked around the corner, then hid against the wall again.

I was so, so, unbelievably happy to see them that my legs almost lost all their strength and sent me crashing to the floor. I barely held myself up and leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths and biting down on a smile. After the longest week of my life, everything was coming to an end. All I had to do was walk out to them and go home. But I couldn't move, stuck in one spot, so close to them.

Was it nervousness? I didn't know. I was feeling something, I just couldn't tell what it was.

'Come on,' I thought, 'Fear didn't stop you when you escaped, so don't let anything stop you now. They're right there, so just go to them. One step at a time.'

Taking one last deep breath, I smacked my cheeks lightly, then straightened up. Without giving myself anymore time to think, I turned the corner and walked towards them.

Almost as though she sensed me, Thalia's head jerked up from where it was resting against a fist. Her eyes met mine, startlingly blue, almost electric as they sparked with emotion. She gave a shout, crying out, "Annabeth!" as she flung herself off the chair and towards me. I stumbled back as I caught her in my arms, momentum swinging us both around as we laughed through our tears.

"Annabeth!" she said again, stepping back to grab my shoulders, "We were so worried when we couldn't find you or contact you or anything! Oh my gods, I'm so glad you're okay!" Thalia shook me a bit, laughing almost disbelievingly, and pulled me into another tight hug. "Don't you ever do that to me again, Annabeth, or I swear I will handcuff myself to you to make sure you never get into trouble like this again."

I laughed, tightening my grip around her, then pulled back to wipe at the tears on my cheeks. "Yeah, yeah, I promise I'll try not to get kidnapped again." We smiled at each other for a moment, soaking up each other's presences. "You have no idea how good it is to see you again," I said, feeling my heart lighten with her laugh.

"I think I've got a pretty good idea, actually."

Another voice cut in, and Thalia pulled back, still smiling widely, her eyes shining bright. "Annabeth," my dad said, softly, hesitantly, guiltily. For a long moment, we simply stared at each other, motionless and unaware of anything around us. Then I sighed and stepped forward to hug him. It took a moment, but then his raise his arms and hugged me back and I had to turn my face into his shoulders to hide my tears as they began to fall again. After a terrifying week of being tied up and held hostage, the safety of being in my dad's arms made me want to sob in relief, feeling like a little girl again.

I could feel his shoulders begin to shake with his own sobs. "I'm so sorry," he choked out, "I'm so sorry Annabeth."

At that moment, all the hate and anger I felt for him vanished, replaced with sympathy and sadness and guilt. "Not your fault," I murmured, "No one could have know this would happen to me."

"I still abandoned you, left you to live on your own and never checked up on you. You are my first child, my only daughter, and I left you for another family without so much a goodbye," he lifted an arm to roughly scrub away his tears, "I should have been there after Athena died, but I left instead. I'm so sorry."

"It really hurt, having you leave like that for another woman, throw away me and mom," I admitted, "I want to hate you, but I was so scared. I don't want to lose anyone else, especially not you. No matter what, you're still my dad."

We were both crying earnestly now, clinging to each other like a lifeline. Between the gasping sobs and whimpers, were whispers of apologizes, of promises, of "I'll fix things", of "I missed you".

When we finally pulled away, we were both red-eyed, red-cheeked, and had tear tracks making a mess of our faces.

"We can figure out things later," my dad said, beginning to smile softly, "There's one more person here for you."

Biting my lip, I slowly turned to face Percy. He had a wide grin on his face, his eyes were bright and watery and so, so soft as he looked at me. His hair was a mess - no doubt for a week of restless nights - but he looked brighter and happier than I had ever seen him. We stepped towards each other as though we were pulled by gravity, a force just between the two of us. For a long moment, we didn't say anything, eyes tracing each other's faces, searching for something.

"Hey, Wise Girl," he whispered as he gently cupped my cheek. The world faded away until it was just to two of us, together at last. I leaned my head against his palm and smiled. There were no tears here, only happiness so light I felt it would lift me off my feet with imaginary wings.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain," I whispered back.

His smile softened and he pulled his hand away to gather me into a hug, pressing his face into my shoulder, breathing me in. "I missed you so much," he said, voice thick with emotion, "Never, ever, do that again please."

I ran a soothing hand through his hair and pressed a kiss to the side of his head. "Never," I promised, holding him tightly.

I don't know how long we stayed there, wrapped up in each other, breathing in the feeling of comfort and love and safety that came from being in his arms, but when we pulled away, Thalia and my dad were smiling at us.

"Come on," I said, taking Percy's hand in mine, "Let's get out of here."

Percy

We went back to my apartment after meeting my mom back in the car. It was a tight fit, but no one minded being pressed up against each other; instead, we all reveled in the physical contact, so comforting after a week of stress and fear as we all keenly felt the empty space where Annabeth should of been.

Where she was now.

No one spoke until we were inside, nursing warm drinks and small snacks. Once we were all sitting comfortably, with Annabeth in my lap and her legs tossed over Thalia's, did the silence break.

"I'm glad you're safe now, Annabeth," my mom began, "But I don't feel comfortable with you living on your own anymore. If you want to, you can stay with Percy and I. It'll be a little cramped, but we can turn my writing room into another bedroom for you."

Annabeth flushed and quickly put down her drink to reply. "I don't want to impose on you."

"You could stay with me," Thalia offered. "My dad usually stays in the apartment next to ours so we don't accidentally interrupt if he has business going on, and it's only me and Jason so we have an extra bedroom for you."

"Will your dad and Jason be alright with that?"

"Sure," Thalia shrugged, "Dad's gone most of the time for business and Jason already likes you. He'll probably take the opportunity to ask you for advice with his crush on Piper."

My eyes widened and I shared a surprised look with Annabeth before I asked, "He likes Piper?"

"He's been despairing over it for weeks now." She shared a sharp grin with us. "I'm so glad I'll never have to deal with romance."

"What a great sister you are."

"I know, right?" Thalia tossed her hair over a shoulder with a wink to us. We shared a laugh, the tension slowly draining out of everyone.

Annabeth took a breath, then nodded. "If it's alright, then yeah, I'd really like to stay with you for now."

"Sweet, I'll let Dad and Jason know then. Later, though."

She picked up her cup again and took a small sip of her tea, wrapping her hands around it to steal its warmth. I couldn't help but wrap my arms around her waist and pull her into me a little more, overwhelmed by the fact that she was here, with me, safe at last. I rested my chin on her shoulder, reveling in the feeling of holding Annabeth, something I swore to never take for granted.

My mom smiled at the both of us, and said, "You can stay here tonight, and then we can help you pack up your things tomorrow."

"Thank you, Ms. Jackson."

She waved a dismissive hand in the air. "Please, call me Sally."

"Okay," Annabeth replied, ducking her face down shyly.

The silence returned after that, and though it was comfortable, there was an underlying streak of tension to it; a sign that something was going to happen. I glanced over at Fredrick, who stared down at his cup, unnaturally still. He hadn't said a word since we left the station, and his silence was beginning to put me on edge. I looked over a Thalia, who met my eyes, then tipped her head in his direction. I gave a small nod, relieved that she noticed it too.

And if I tightened my grip on Annabeth, well, who's going to complain?

It was only after we all finished our drinks did Fredrick speak.

He cleared his throat, then looked up to Annabeth, looking nervous and a little guilty. "I'd want you to stay with me, but I'm living with Mary and her two sons right now, and I don't think you'll be comfortable spending time with them."

She looked away, but the glimpse I caught of her face was heartbreaking: a mix between anger and defeat. "I figured," she said, voice flat. "And I'm not comfortable with meeting them. Thank you for not pushing me to meet them though."

"It's the least I can do. After all this time messing up, I have to at least do this right."

She nodded, but didn't say anything else. Fredrick sighed and stood up, shoulders slumped. "Right. I'll be going then. I'll call you tomorrow. If you ever need anything, you know you can ask me, Annabeth."

"Okay. Get home safe."

He left without another word. Thalia reached for Annabeth without any prompting, so I let her go so Thalia could hug her. "I'll be back tomorrow too. And if you ever need to talk to anyone about anything, including you're dad, you know I'm here for you." Annabeth nodded, bringing up a hand to wipe at her eyes.

With that, Thalia left, and it was just the three of us.

The atmosphere was tense and a little awkward, but my mom quickly took control, standing up with a clap of her hands.

"Alright!" she said brightly, "Now that that's all done, I'll start making dinner. Percy, go lend her some of your pajamas and we'll watch movies and try to forget about this entire week. That sound good to you?"

Annabeth broke into a genuine smile and stood up as well. "That sounds perfect. Thank you."

"Of course, dear. You're already practically my daughter," my mom said. Annabeth looked away blushing, then followed me to my bedroom, where I rummaged around my drawer for something that could fit her.

Sweatpants and an old tee-shirt from middle school; it would hopefully fit her. I handed them to her, but lingered for a moment. When she turned to me, ready to ask why I haven't left to let her change, I pulled her into another hug.

"Don't push yourself," I whispered to her, "If you don't want to talk about any of this, then don't. We can wait. No one will mind. I promise."

I pressed a kiss to her forehead and left, closing the door behind me before she could respond. It was only then, outside my room, that I started to cry, hand pressed against my mouth to muffle my sobs. Without thinking, I walked away and headed into the kitchen, body shaking under the strain of holding everything back.

My mom didn't have to ask me what was wrong. She just dropped everything she was doing and gathered me into a comforting embrace. She stroked my hair and whispered soothing words to me, but I couldn't hear them.

All I knew was that it would be a long time before we were all okay, no matter how genuine all our laughter and smiles seemed.

It would be a long time before Annabeth recovered from this.

But none of us could ever go back to the way things were before. That was, perhaps, the worst thing of all.