Hey guys! Here's the next chapter! I keep doing stuff in Annabeth's POV, and I'm sorry, because it's supposed to be alternating, but I promise, next chapter is Percy's POV.

Also, please read the author's note at the end of this.

"Why do they keep letting you in?" Percy asked, smiling at Annabeth as she walked in through the door. It was two days later, and according to Sally, Percy would be able to be discharged in the next few days. They wanted him to stay a couple days for monitoring, and so Annabeth decided she would come to his room after school. She was still using the whole "girlfriend" excuse. "They keep saying to me, relatives only."

Annabeth laughed nervously. "Well…" She hesitated, trailing off. "I'm sorry if this is weird for you, but I sorta told them," She squeezed one eye shot, using the other to see his reaction. "That I was your girlfriend." She finished quickly.

"What was that?" Percy said, eyebrows raised.

Annabeth sighed. He wasn't going to make this easy for her. "I told them I was your girlfriend."

"Oh." Percy said. "I didn't-"

"I'm sorry if you don't feel that way, but we don't look alike at all, so I couldn't use the relative excuse, and this was the only way. I know that you're in a weird mental state, and an even worse physical state right now, so I'm sorry if I'm just adding to that, but I really wanted to see you." God, what was wrong with her? She was babbling. Mouth, she told herself, Shut the hell up, nobody asked.

But of course, it wouldn't stop, until Percy quickly interjected (thank goodness). "Annabeth, that's fine. If you want to stop lying, you can."

So he didn't want to see her? That was okay, that was fine. "Okay, I'll come clean."

"Annabeth," Percy was looking at her, seriously. "That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you-" It slowly dawned upon Annabeth what he meant. "You mean…?" She hesitated to say the words.

Percy smiled, and nodded. "Yeah."

She was silent for a couple seconds, processing what he had just said, until Percy looked at her meaningfully, and took her hand. She shook herself out of it. "I mean, yeah, yeah."

"Really?" Percy's smile widened. He squeezed her hand tighter. "I hope I'm not taking advantage of you while you're vulnerable."

"No!" Annabeth said quickly, "No, don't- you're not doing that, I- I feel the same way." She continued.

Percy sighed, and relaxed into his hospital bed. Annabeth felt herself blush, and looked down at her hand, in an attempt to block it. That only worsened it, as she saw Percy's hand on her's. Sighing, she decided to embrace it, and looked over at Percy, who was beaming right at her.

She couldn't understand how he could smile in a situation like this. Despite what had happened in the last five minutes, he still had a broken leg and arm. He still wouldn't be able to swim. He still wouldn't be able to walk. She didn't know how he was going to get a job, much more pay for college.

"Percy," She said, "I- I have a merch store. Well, merch items. It's partnered with the website I publish my story on. I've saved up a bunch of money. I can help you with college."

Percy instantly frowned. "No. I can't accept that. I'm not going to exploit you for cash."

Annabeth shook her head. He didn't understand. "My parents and I can pay for my own college. You don't have that luxury."

"It's too fast," Percy told her. "We haven't been friends that long. We've been together for five minutes. You can't do that." He removed his hand from hers, and placed it on her knee. "I appreciate it, but I'm not going to let you do that for me."

She hesitated, and then decided to now speak, acknowledging his opinion. Right. She was taking this too fast. "I'm sorry." She said, "I just wanted to help."

"And there's nothing wrong with that." Percy replied, "I just don't want to be a charity case. I'm not a charity case. I'm more well off than a lot of people. And I will go to college, I'm sure of that, whether it's on a loan, or a scholarship, or whatever, so you don't have to worry about me, okay?"

"Okay," Annabeth said. "I'm still going to worry about you, but I understand what you mean, okay?"

They continued to talk until Annnabeth had to leave for homework and writing. After she left, she wondered what it must be like to be Percy.

He didn't seem guarded to a person that didn't know him very well, but to Annabeth, it felt like he had put a facade of not caring, one that was hard to break through. She never thought, in the past, he would be the type of person to care about grades, or anything like that. He seemed carefree, but as Annabeth got to know him, she continuously went back to- one she used in her stories, paraphrasing a shakespeare line: Things are not what they seem.

Hours later, in her room with a pen in hand, staring down at her notebook, she did what she could do to reason out her thoughts. She wrote a story. This one wasn't connected at all to the plot of her big one, but once finished, she read over it, and felt satisfied, knowing that this was good to publish.

People reason with their thoughts in different ways, and to sort out her ideas, versus the ones she had, writing was the key. She wanted to see what other people might think of it. So, at midnight, hours later, after typing it up, and editing, she pressed the publish button.

It somehow made her feel more connected to Percy, despite him being in a cold, hospital bed alone.

Minutes later, comments came rushing in, some telling her it was good, and others requesting the next chapter of her main story. For once, she didn't read them, and closed her computer, setting it down to charge, and then lying flat on her bed.

She wondered if Percy would ever see that story. If he was looking at it now, or if he was asleep. She hoped that if he saw it, he would know it was about him. Because it was.

"That's not what I meant" he had said, and as Annabeth remembered this, her heart tightened, because now, she was not alone. In fact- these last couple of days she wasn't either. Hazel, Piper, and lastly Percy were expanding her world.

They were helping her out of her shell- and although that shell was heavily guarded and locked, she could feel it slowly clicking open- just slightly. That didn't mean she would immediately change, immediately become sociable, but what it did mean, was that she was trying and that other people were helping her try.

And that, she decided, was a good thing.

Thanks so much for reading! I really appreciate all the support, and I hope you enjoyed

this chapter.

I also wanted to let you guys know that there are about more chapters left (including the epilogue), and upon the arrival of the epilogue, the poll on my profile will be closed, and the first chapter of the next will be posted.

Also, there has been some confusion about the update schedule, so I'm going to clear that up: I update Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Depending on where you live, that will be different. It is beyond my ability to update everyday, and I sometimes even have trouble with the update schedule in place already. Please bear with me, as I am doing the best I can. I'm human, so not everything will be EXACTLY on schedule.

Anyway, thanks so much for all the support! Every review, favorite and follow means so much to me, and I am endlessly appreciative of you guys.