A Handsome Nerd: I actually planned on the last chapter being shorter but then my brain was all "OH MY GOD IDEAS!" and I just wrote and wrote. I never make things easy for anyone, just ask my friends. And my boss. Pretty sure they all hate me. Pretty sure you will soon, too.

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THE ROAD – CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

Percy

All I could see around me is white. White like panic.

The blood's rushing to my head, the world is spinning. I don't listen to a word anyone says around me. I can't hear them, any of them. The hospital smells too sterile to be able to breathe properly but I run, run, keep going. Keep running.

The year is 2001 when Percy finds out he's going to have a younger brother. Up until that point, he's been living alone, only his parents and Grover by his side. It wasn't ideal, but it was easy. He still didn't understand why Grover chose to be around him, the lonely kid, but he liked Grover. He was awkward and goofy like him. Percy wondered if having a brother will be the same. The news still shocked him a bit, but he couldn't tell if it was good or bad.

"When's he coming?" He overexcitedly asked his parents, who had just finished breaking the news to him. They both smiled widely, just like he did.

"Mommy still has time, but your brother will be coming soon dear." Sally answered her son, combing his hair neatly away from his face. He never did that himself and she knew she had to teach her second child not to be the same.

"What's he gonna look like?" He asked his parents again. He was too happy, too excited of the thought of having somebody else around to notice how dreamily they were staring into each other's eyes.

"Well, people say you look a lot like your mother." Poseidon studied his wife's face. Percy really did inherit her traits, he knew that much, but it was beyond the physical features. He got Sally's kind, generous heart, the warmth and care she constantly radiated to her surrounding peers. He recalled when he had first met her, and wondered if Percy will have that same effect on people in the future.

"It couldn't hurt if this one had more of your father's looks" Sally smiled at her husband, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Mom? Dad? What's having a brother like?"

Neither Sally nor Poseidon had siblings, so giving a clear answer to their son was not as simple as the question he asked. Sally thought about Percy, about what having a brother could mean to him. And despite never having experienced having a sibling, the answer was clearer in her mind.

"Having a brother is like having your best friend around all the time" she reached her hand across the table, smiling at her son, "He's a friend that will never leave you."

Never leave.

I kept running.

All I know right now is that I'm on the right floor. I don't know where my parents are, where Grover is. All I do is keep searching, keep running. I ignore the people staring, muttering my name - some pointing in my direction, some in awe. I keep running. All that's in my head is him, a kid laughing and playing and too good, too young for this.

Too special…

The year is 2002, two months before Percy's birthday, when his brother is born. All he was told the days before is that he's coming soon, and that mom and dad have to go to the hospital to prepare. They drop him off at Grover's place and he stays with him. Every day he goes to school and back, does his homework like he's asked, and when there's time left, he plays music. His thoughts are elsewhere. It didn't make him comfortable mom had to be in the hospital, but he knew it was for a good reason.

Grover noticed it too. He notices his best friend's off and thinking about something else, but he doesn't know what to ask or what to say. Percy puts his guitar aside and looks at the wall in silence.

Every day he calls his parents to check in. The excitement in his voice is unbearable as he speaks through the line, and despite his wife going through pains, Poseidon manages a smile when he talks to Percy. His innocence, it helps rub off on him, and he never understood how much he needed it until it happened.

"Come on dad, when is he coming?" Percy's literally jumping up and down and Poseidon swears he can feel it, even on the phone. He wants to give him some kind of answer but he doesn't really have one himself.

"We don't know yet Percy. As soon as he's here, we'll call and let you know first."

Percy's in school when it happens. He keeps a phone around, one his father gave him to keep with him. He feels a vibrating sensation in his pocket and time stops working. The world freezes and a chill of anticipation shakes his spine and every single bone in his body. He raises his hand and 'excuses' himself to the bathroom. The smile on his face gave it away to Grover, who smiles right back.

He runs far away from class, just so his teacher wouldn't hear him in case he screamed. He presses the buttons and redials the number that called him, waiting along with the beeping sound. He's bouncing on his toes and some older kids passing by give him weird looks but who cares?

He can hear his dad on the other side of the line, laughing. He can hear another voice in the background, one that sounds like mom, among a crowd of others.

"Congratulations, Percy."

The tears are starting to cloud my vision, but I keep going. He wouldn't stop if I was here.

A nurse pops out of nowhere and I almost run into her, making me stop in my tracks. Exhaustion starts taking me over and all the air leaves my lungs. My arms drop with no strength to hold them up. The nurse's voice makes me jolt up.

"Can I help you, sir?"

"Yeah, I-I'm looking for my brother."

She walks into a room with a desk with too many papers on it. I follow her inside and run my eyes through the list she's skimming through.

"What's his name?"

"Tyson, Tyson Jackson."

I try and look for it, look for his name, but I can't see it.

"He's at the room at the end of the hall."

Percy finds out he really enjoys helping with Tyson. As soon as his brother is home, he's already thinking of the many things he wants to do with him. He tells his mom how he's going to teach him to play the guitar, and how they'll make a band together with Grover. Sally laughs, but tells her son she loves his optimism. She tells him that it will take a long time, but Percy doesn't care. When they're out at the park one day, he tells his father how he's going to teach him sports, just like Poseidon taught him. They're tossing a football around while Sally rests on the grass next to them. Tyson watches the ball fling through the air and flaps his arms happily.

Percy starts noticing his father likes taking pictures. Whenever the family was out, especially since Tyson's birth, he has his camera. He takes pictures wherever they go – the mall, the park, and their favorite – the beach. He buys a photo album and tells his son to help him organize all the new photographs in it. He sorted them all, his favorites first – the one where he and Tyson are in the living room watching TV, or the other time on the beach, when Percy tried 'stealing' Tyson's nose, which led to Tyson actually trying to take his nose.

Percy is 10 and Tyson is 2, and the year is 2004, when he first learns his brother is not going to be the same as other kids. He doesn't understand what that means at first. They take Tyson away and get a blood test, which makes Percy wince more than his brother. He's there at the doctor's office with his entire family, right after school, but none of the words the doctor is saying make sense. He hears them talking about different things, like ADHD and epilepsy, which all sound like weird and scary food names to him. Instead, he stands next to where Tyson is sleeping, acting as guard so no other doctors can stick needles in his arms.

"From your descriptions, it sounds to me like your child may be experiencing symptoms of autism. Our options from here on are to send him to further screenings."

Percy isn't scared for Tyson. He sees nothing wrong. He didn't care that sometimes he didn't respond to his own name, or was too hyperactive to keep track of. He didn't care about the mess he was making when he played, and that he had to clean up after him. He didn't care that sometimes he didn't say hello or wave goodbye. Tyson was his friend.

His best friend.

I ran as fast I could to the end of the hall.

It seemed like it never ended. The end of it was getting further away, farther and farther from me. It feels like an eternity, but I reach it.

That nurse had to be wrong. I check every room, but he isn't there. Where did they take him?

My body forces me to sit down. It's the first time I feel the sweat on my forehead, the first time I feel my throat screaming for air. I sit there, helplessly. Was this another nightmare? My eyes close and the tears fall, endlessly.

Then I feel a pair of warm arms take me in, holding me close.

Mom.

As the years pass, Percy grows to love Tyson more and more.

He finds out that he has to grow very quickly. The year is 2006. He's 12 and Tyson is 4 when he's told he has to babysit his brother so that his parents can work extra hours. He's older now, and they explain to him Tyson's medication is expensive. He doesn't mind it, because it isn't a chore. It never will be.

It's 2010. Percy is 16 and Tyson is 8 when he starts to work. He feels guilty, having his parents work so many extra hours the past 4 years, so he gets a job himself. He didn't really know what he was supposed to do to get one, but he tries. And he must've been very lucky. He walks into the grocery store next to his school, where he used to go with Grover to buy candy. He instantly recognized the older woman working behind the counter. The crooked smile on her face tells him she had as well.

"Look who it is." Mrs. Abramson smiles at him and leaves whatever work she was doing, walking around the counter to hug him, "All grown up"

"It's been a long time."

They talk and talk, and she reminds him of all of the embarrassing things he said while shopping around with Grover. Percy smiles and tries to hide his face as much as he can, but he has to admit – he was pretty embarrassing.

"How's your brother?" She asks him and finally closes the register, having sorted all the bills to her liking.

"It's stressful" He admits to her, rubbing the back of his head uncomfortably. He finds out that growing up with a sibling suffering from a mental illness is not easy. Every day he wakes up is crazy and new all over again. There are special needs Tyson needs from them that other kids might never ask for at his age. But as he was told years ago, when his parents first found out of his brother's condition, he had committed himself to him. They all did.

"He's a very special kid, you know. Very talented"

They both share a laugh when Percy remembers the one time Tyson recited whole books by heart. He made it look so effortless, too. He sat in his room with a pile of them and then surprised his family when he read off every single one of them with no mistakes. Or those times that he remembered dates and times of important or fun things they did together by heart. Like June 11th, 2009, when he and Percy went to watch a movie about monsters together. Or March 19th, 2007. He'll tell you it rained and that Percy slipped and almost went flying in the air, nearly breaking his arm. For some reason, that made him laugh.

"Yeah, for sure. It's been a bit rough. I thought about getting a job, to help my parents with the medical bills and all."

"I could use another hand around here." She smiles at him warmly.

Percy's 19 and Tyson's 11. It's 2013 and despite how hard he worked to graduate high school, he has to drop out of college. The medical bills are costing his family too much. His parents say nothing. Tyson observes around him and asks Percy where mom and dad are, and that's when he realizes they've barely been home the past week. He sits down and talks with them, and when he finds out they were working so much, he decided to drop out. His brother was more important, and he could always go back to college when things are better.

He puts his music on hold to start with. That can always wait. Always, for his family. He starts working two jobs, leaving the house in the early mornings and arriving after midnight. He moves his mattress to Tyson's room, like when they were kids having sleepovers.

2 years pass. Its 2015, Tyson's 13, and Percy's 21 when he starts noticing there's something further happening to his brother. His incredible memory from a few short years ago is almost gone now. He seemed to be having a hard time focusing on tasks and daily routines, that despite his illness, he did with no real difficulty. He decides not to say anything. He decides to be there, physically, as much as he can.

It's 2018. Tyson is 16 years old, Percy is 24. He's about to go off to Olympus Records, to audition and make it in a band. He's about to go off and tour the entire country. His life is about to change, everything except one thing.

'It's like having your best friend around all the time' she said once, before all the trouble. 'He's a friend that will never leave you.'

I grab my mom back, as tightly as I possibly can. I try and be strong, to show her I can make it through this with them, but I break. The possible conclusions are too wild to think about. She lets go of me and takes my hands in hers.

"I have to go speak with the doctors." She says. In a show of strength, I nod to her. She kisses my forehead and goes off, leaving me alone. I don't know what to do or where to go, so I sit. I stay with my face covered in my hands as my brain is muting out the sound of the people walking and talking all around me. The events of the past few hours are not clear. Nothing seems real, or even fake.

This feels like the worst kind of dream, the kind where I don't exist, even in my own mind and none of this is happening, yet it feels real, it pulls you in. I feel like my heart is being stabbed in, the knife twisting and turning it in a mess. It doesn't take long before more tears come out, and before a pair of arms is covering me once again. At first, my body doesn't allow me to feel. These arms are warm too; the warmth before was nourishing, but this one's different. The heat is more intense, engulfing my entire body. I take deep breaths, opening my eyes. It surprises me she's here, and she was crying just like me.

"Annabeth?"

A/N: BAM! A different chapter to how I usually write them. ENJOY!