The title and whole basis of the story is from Kendji Girac's Elle M'a aimé (She Loved Me).
Percy left in the afternoon. He made up his mind at work and drove from there to Boston and bought seven nights at a run-down motel that at one point was probably called "Old North Church Motel" but the only working lighting renamed it "Ol Nor uch Mtel." It wasn't nearly as nice as his tiny cabinet of an apartment back in New York with Annabeth, and the sheets were super scratchy, but it was enough.
He had stopped by their apartment before he took off and left her a note on the dinner table. He hoped she'd understand. Him leaving really was for the best, she'd realize that eventually. He was just too much of a coward to face her.
A peaceful sleep was hard to come by that night. And every night afterwards. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her. Most of the time she was smiling at him, which was pretty much worse than the image of her screaming and yelling. It was like Morpheus was conspiring with Aphrodite to remind him of what he left behind.
They were walking down the boardwalk on Coney Island. It was the most cliche date; they had spent the day at the carnival, stuffed themselves with fried Oreos and funnel cake, and were having ice cream for dinner. He had gotten the cotton candy flavor, and it was quickly turning his lips, teeth, and tongue blue. She had gotten turtle turds, or something like that. It was ridiculous, because Ice cream is supposed to be soft and creamy and putting hard peanut butter cups in it defeats the whole purpose of ice cream. Also, it was brown and white. How unappetizing.
But even if her ice cream was gross, his wasn't. He was having a great time. But nothing could compare to how delicious she looked in the setting sun's golden rays. Paired with the glittering Atlantic, she looked like she stepped out from a dream. He said something to make her laugh, and her cheeks stretched back and her tongue stuck out from her teeth just the tiniest bit.
He was so in love.
She licked her ice cream and pointed at something in the distance. He didn't know what it was, he couldn't bear to take his eyes off of her. She said his name and turned to look at him, confused as to why he didn't answer. She laughed again at his face. He probably had the derpiest smile on, but he couldn't bring himself to care. There were more important things to pay attention to, like how her hair turned yellow-gold in the sun and the grey in her eyes was so light it reflected the Atlantic, turning her irises a cool blue. She had a freckle on her left cheekbone that was darker than usual from days sprawled out under the American summer sun.
They were both barefoot; he was carrying their shoes. Her tan legs seemed unending under her white summer dress and her curls, a tangled salty mess, blew around her neck and back.
Percy couldn't wait for the day she wore white and walked down an aisle toward him.
She laughed again and tried to stretch her right arm around his shoulders, getting on her tiptoes and still not being able to reach. He slipped his left arm, the one holding his ice cream, around her waist to get her stead when she stumbled a bit on her toes. She laughed again, throwing her head back this time. Percy couldn't help it. He leaned down and planted tiny kisses all over her face. Her forehead, her eyebrows, her chin, the side of her mouth (and with it a little bit of her toothy smile), the part where her nose met the rest of her face, her eyes, everywhere.
"I love you," he told her, slowing down on his kisses.
"I love you, too," she replied. He shook his head and continued to kiss her.
He didn't have any contact with her. He hadn't told her where he was going. Hell, when he left he didn't know where he was going. He left his cell at their place, wrote down all the necessary contacts, like his mother and physician and favorite taco place in the Bronx and his car insurance dude, and put them all on a burner phone he bought after his first night in Boston. He smiled humorlessly at the thought that was behaving an awful lot like the fugitives in those True Crime shows she loved to watch.
His boss had given him a job with the animals down in Boston Harbor. It wasn't really a surprise. His boss had brought it up to him a couple of times prior. That was the first time he had thought about leaving. He had watched his job become increasingly taxing, with an oil spill down in New Jersey that spread into the Hudson. His commute had gotten longer, too. They moved out to Long Island City so Annabeth could be closer to her office, since she walked, but that also meant they were farther from the Hudson. And since the spill was just north of Staten Island, his commute was further south than usual. He was spending literally hours on the subway every day.
And, since they had pretty recently moved into an only slightly larger apartment, they were still lacking some furniture and the whole house still needed to be deep cleaned. Also, when he left, Annabeth had started complaining about the water in the kitchen sink not working properly. Usually, he was the one that deep cleaned the house (she organized it). She had tried to stay up for him when he began working late, and Percy knew that she had cleaned the house in an attempt to keep herself awake. Thankfully she hadn't touched the pipes in the kitchen. She may have been an architect with a basic understanding of how utility systems worked, but as a general rule, she did what she wanted in her work and let the engineers bitch about how her blueprints were incompatible with their systems. Plus, Percy was just better at anything that had to do with water, even with thick metal between him and the water.
Annabeth understood why he was working longer days, he knew she did, but that didn't make him feel less guilty as he watched her struggle to do the laundry he usually did or noticed the overwhelming amount of leftovers piling up in the fridge.
He told her his feelings of guilt and incompetency.
"It's just for a little while. You gotta go save the ocean, wonder boy, I get it. Things will be back to normal when this is all over. We're just going through a rough patch, that's all," she had smiled at him and then turned back to her blueprints.
Except it wasn't just a rough patch. Oil spills take a long time to clean up and rehabilitating the animals takes even longer. And with her being the only one doing work on the apartment it was taking twice as long to settle in.
And the cherry on top was that Annabeth was starting to get sick. Like, puking her guts out all the time sick. And she had to pee a lot.
Percy was supposed to go with her to the doctor's, but he got a call about a harbor seal while on the subway.
Percy wasn't stupid. He knew she was getting sick from too much stress. And that he was the reason for her stress. She was basically doing double the housework she usually did and getting less sleep trying to wait up for him. He tried to convince her not to, but she was stubborn as a mule. He was 110% the reason she was sick and stressed. And she didn't even let him feel guilty or get angry with him ask him to try to spend more time home or ask him to fold a load of laundry for her. She just left a pot of whatever she had made that night on the counter and the lamp in the living room on.
He tried to step into the apartment quietly, but while trying to take off his scarf and coat at the same time he tripped over either his scarf or his own feet. He caught himself before he could get hurt, but probably woke up the entire floor below them in the process.
Throwing his coat and the scarf over the side of the couch he made his way to the kitchen, packing up the chicken and rice she left out for him. He had bought a hotdog while on his way to the subway. Plus, it was close to midnight, and his stomach hurt if he ate right before bed.
He thought about just stripping and crashing into bed without taking a shower, but then he remembered the sticky thing his hand touched while on the subway and decided a shower sounded really good.
He brushed his teeth in the shower, trying to cut down the time he spent out of his bed. He hung his towel up and threw on a pair of boxers and made his way toward the bed. The floorboards right outside their bathroom had water damage to them and squeaked if stepped on, so he lunged over them in an attempt to minimize his nose making. Not that it made much difference; he already tripped over himself, cursed very loudly at the water's heat, and stubbed his toe on the shower doorway.
He pulled the covers on his side down very gently, trying not to take any off Annabeth's body. He thought he had done really well until he heard her sigh and felt her turn toward him.
"Hi," she slurred without opening her eyes.
He smiled down at her, "Good morning."
"Morning?" She pulled her eyebrows together in confusion but still didn't open her eyes.
"Just after midnight," he whispered.
She nodded and curled up to his side, using his bare chest as a pillow.
He started to rub her back rhythmically and was almost asleep when he heard her say his name.
"Percy?"
He hummed in response.
"Do you want a boy or a girl?"
Oh shit.
She sat up and leaned over him, her curls whispering over his skin and tickling his neck. So she obviously wasn't ready to go to sleep.
"Like, when we have a baby. Do you even want a baby? With me?"
Percy turned to her. "Of course I want a baby with you. I want multiple babies with you. I want a whole football team of babies, my love. Where did this come from? Do you have something you wanna tell me?" He laughed a little.
She resituated herself.
"Well," she started, "one of my coworkers came back from maternity leave, and she was showing everybody pictures of her new baby boy, and I was thinking, I want a baby boy."
Percy nodded, "Okay, what about a little girl?"
She shook her head, "No," she answered firmly. "I didn't have a mom growing up, or really any strong female figure in my girlhood. I'm afraid that I just won't be able to raise a little girl or make her into a strong woman, like your mom, you know? Plus, like, everybody says boys are easier. I can play rough with them and cheer them on at sports games and I don't have to walk them through periods or bra shopping and all the stuff mothers should do with their daughters."
Percy waited for a moment to make sure she was finished.
"But that's why you'll be such a great mom. You're starting off on a blank slate, you have no one to compare yourself to. Plus, you've learned what not to do from your mom, right?"
Annabeth gave him a look that would have been scary if she wasn't still so sleepy.
"I could have figured out that abandoning your kid was a bad parenting move without a real-life reenactment."
Percy laughed under his breath and pulled her close to him.
"Think about it, baby. You remember all the questions you had as a kid, yeah?"
She nodded and whispered, "Yeah."
"And if you had those memories with someone else all you would have remembered would be whatever your mom said, not what you thought or felt. So you basically have a leg up in the mom-game, 'cuz you'll know what she's feeling more than someone who just remembered what their mom said and did," he glanced down at her. She was staring at their wall, a faraway look in her eyes.
"Yeah," she whispered again.
He resituated himself under her and closed his eyes.
"'Sides," he slurred, "I don't care what we have. I just want my baby to have your eyes."
He felt her head turn to look up at him.
"No," he could hear the frown in her voice and pictured her whole face pulled down and her bottom lip pushed out, like how she does when she doesn't like what he just said or did, "I want them to have your eyes."
He smiled and shook his head.
"I want a baby boy with your eyes and I want to name him Leviathan, like the sea monster in the Hebrew Bible, and call him Levi."
It was his turn to frown and look at her, "You want to name our baby after a sea monster?"
She nodded and grinned, "Yeah, I think it's pretty fitting, don't you?"
He laughed and put his head back.
"If we have a boy I'd like to name him Aaron. My mother's uncle, the one she grew up with, died from cancer when she was nineteen? His name was Aaron."
Annabeth was silent for a moment.
"Okay, yeah, maybe you have a better reason for your name."
They were quiet for a moment.
"If we have a girl," he started. She raised her head to look at him.
"I want her to look just like you, and name her Vivian, that way when she's little we can call her Vivi and when she's older she can go by her full name. "
"Vivian means life," she told him.
"Oh, so you've been thinking about this," he raised his eyebrows.
She laid back down on his chest. "I like Milan, and call her Mila, or Sienna."
"Why do you wanna name our baby after cities in Italy? We're Greek."
"I'm Swedish."
"Whatever."
She rolled her eyes at him.
"I like Esmerelda if she has your eyes, but I don't want people to call her Essie or Elda."
"We could call her Mere," he offered.
She thought about it for a little while. "I like it, but I'm afraid it sounds too much like merde, the french word for shit, and then she'd get teased."
"I think you're overthinking this," he told her.
"Probably." She sounded halfway to dreamland, and with the way she was tracing the tattoos on his arms, he was quickly falling asleep as well.
Percy settled into Boston rather nicely, considering he had just left the love of his life. He bought a teeny tiny apartment by the harbor. Boston wasn't crazy different from New York. There were still tourists milling around and skyscrapers everywhere, even if it was slightly less condensed, and there didn't seem to be as many Lithuanian restaurants, and there was no Annabeth in Boston. He remembered she had a cousin in Boston, but if she came to visit the cousin in the time he lived in Boston, he didn't cross paths with her. He went up to visit his mother in New York a few times, too, but his mother still lived in Manhattan, across the river from the apartment he and Annabeth had shared. He walked by the apartment complex a couple of times, but he never saw her. He wasn't sure if he was hoping to see her or not.
Bachelor life was...different. He and Annabeth had been together since they were teenagers, and it struck him when he signed the lease to his Bostonian apartment that he literally couldn't remember when he lived without her. He didn't really like the feeling he felt in his stomach when he slept alone in the empty apartment.
When he and Annabeth were together he had prided himself on being the one to clean the house. He felt like a good feminist taking care of the house and not needing to come home to a housewife that did all his cooking and cleaning for him. Not that Annabeth would ever let herself be a housewife. But he still felt like he was making a small contribution to the equal rights movement. Except, somehow it slipped his mind that because he literally never lived without either his mom or Annabeth he also literally never had to cook for himself. He thought he could cook, because he could bake, but as it turns out they are not the same. Cooking requires spicing and simmering and boiling and something called sauteing.
He ate a lot of takeout. But he did vacuum his bachelor pad every week, so he wasn't completely hopeless.
So consistently alone with his thoughts, memories of her danced around in his head. One of his favorites was when he had been folding clothes in their room and she was on the couch in their living room.
"Baby!" She called, "Baby! I need you!"
"What?" he asked, still folding one of her shirts in his hand.
"I need you," she said in a quieter voice.
"I'm right here."
"No," she held her arms out, "I need you here."
He laughed and threw the shirt on the coffee table in front of her, crashing onto the couch and into her arms.
His bare foot hit something hard and he noticed that she had thrown the book she had been reading to the opposite end of the couch.
"Ah," he thought, "that's what this is."
He smiled sympathetically at her, "Your book break your heart again?"
She nodded from underneath him.
"Oh my god, Percy, the main girl was supposed to fall in love with the prince and make him a better man and they would live happily together forever, but then the author made the main girl go on a trip with the prince's best friend, who's a total perv and an ass, and then the prince goes with his ex to look for the main girl and his best friend, and, mind you, the ex didn't come into the picture until, like, chapter 36, and then the prince and his ex start to, like, re-fall in love, and the main girl and the prince's pervy best friend start to fall in love and it's just not going the way I want it to and now I don't wanna have to suffer through having to read about the two totally incompatible couples but also I have to know if the revolt they're traveling to quell is even happening and if it is whose side everybody is on but I don't want to, because then I have to read about the main girl and prince's pervy friend, and the prince and his poorly-developed ex!" She paused to catch her breath.
Again, Percy looked at her sympathetically.
"Maybe this is just part of the plot? You're not done with the book yet, maybe they'll all fall in love with the right people in the end," he offered.
"No, baby, nobody makes a love rectangle like that."
He laughed. "Well, if it makes you feel any better," he started, "I will never fall in love with anyone but my princess, and certainly not one of my exes."
She tucked a curl behind her ear, "I didn't ask about you, Perce."
"I'm trying to make you happy."
"Also, you don't have any exes," she continued as if he hadn't said anything.
"Yes, I do!"
"Who?"
"Chelsea Peters, from, like, sophomore year of high school, and Maisie Haven was my girlfriend in middle school."
She scoffed, "They wouldn't wanna get back with you anyways."
"They'd love to have a piece of this," he started to roll his hips against hers in what was supposed to be a sensual way, but was really more painful and unrhythmic.
"Ouch, bro, you're crushing me!"
He looked down, "I'm barely on y- hey, is that my shirt?"
"Yeah."
"I'm literally in the middle of doing the laundry."
"Yeah, this one's clean, I took it out of the dryer."
"But now you're getting it dirty again."
"I'm literally just sitting here."
"Yeah, sitting here getting your girl cooties all over my shirt."
She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I'm sure Chello and Maize are both dying to get back with you."
"Chello and Mai- oh, Chelsea and Maisie."
"I don't know why you still remember their names, it's not like they're important or some shit."
Percy didn't date while in Boston. He was using that time in Massachusetts to find himself. Also to rethink his life. People had always told him in high school that he and Annabeth wouldn't last, that young love only feels that idyllic because it's their first love and one day they'd move on with their lives, hopefully look back on the time they spent together with a fond smile, and go their separate ways. Which, was obviously true on a superficial level, but Percy never really stopped loving Annabeth. Yeah, they didn't last, but that was because she was so incredibly angelic and flawless and patient and so ridiculously smart and so full of potential and just all around perfect and he just wasn't good enough for her that he was holding her back, so he had to leave her. That's what love is, right? Wanting the person you love to be happy and successful and to flourish and bloom even without you or at the expense of your own happiness.
The difference between his life with Annabeth and his life in MA was so starkly different sometimes it gave him whiplash just thinking about it. He had mixed feelings about it. With Annabeth, he had to text her when he got to work, call her when he was leaving, tell her where he was going if he wasn't going to be home at his usual time. He had to plan dates and buy expensive dinners and go with her to her father's cousin's daughter's wedding. He had to talk with her before buying a new TV subscription and couldn't leave his shoes in the doorway. Now he could so out drinking with his buddies without having to report to anyone and he could eat pizza for dinner every single night. He could buy a cake from the store for no particular reason and eat it all in one sitting with no one to question him. He didn't have to spend money on fancy towels or nice soaps he could never use.
But parts of his soul were missing, too. There was nobody to wake up next to in the morning and no one to binge watch CSI with and no one to cuddle after he had a bad day. There was no one blasting music on Sunday mornings and no one to use as an excuse to not go to functions. There was no one to poke him while he tried to take a nap and no one to go grocery shopping with. There was no one to eat the cherry jelly beans and no one to dance with while he was drunk off tequila at 2 a.m. There was no one to make homemade pizzas with. There was no one to do weird face masks with and no one to sit on the toilet and talk about his day with him while he was in the shower. There were no pencil skirts over the back of the couch and no documentaries filling up his Netflix account and no half-drunk cups of tea on every surface imaginable. There was no one to talk about dinosaurs with at midnight and no one to tell him his breath smelled like New York harbor in the mornings and no one to try and put his hair in a man-bun. There was no makeup sprawled on the floor in front of their full-body mirror and no fancy hair masks in his shower.
Being single came with newfound freedom and independence, but he really missed the pieces of heaven only he and Annabeth shared.
She was sitting at the kitchen table making arrangements for the wedding. He had just woken up from a nap. He had that weird taste in his mouth that you get after sleeping too hard, like a wad of stinky cotton was filling up his mouth. He wanted a Coke and Annabeth. Quiet Swedish music was floating around her and he could smell grilled cheese and tomato soup on the stove.
"Oh, hey, you're up," she looked up at him.
He yawned and nodded.
"Come look at these and tell me which arrangement you like better," she commanded.
He nodded from his place at the fridge, popping open the can and taking a sip before walking over to her. He peered over her shoulder at two photos on her hands.
"Do you like the one with the calla lilies or the daisies?"
"I thought we were gonna do the blue hibiscus flowers, like the one in your tattoo?" He looked back at her.
She nodded, "Yeah, those are going in my bouquet, but they're too expensive to use as table decorations. I may add in a couple, depending on the final price and if we have anything left over in our budget."
Percy nodded and then shrugged.
"I don't care, whichever one goes best with the hibiscuseseses," he drew out.
She nodded, oblivious to his joke in concentration. "I think the calla lilies would go best, there more harmony in the soft edges of those than the triangular daisies."
She set the photos down and reached for her computer but Percy grabbed her hands before they could touch it.
He glanced at the clock, "Have you been working on this all afternoon?"
She shook her head, "No, just since you went to sleep."
"So...all afternoon?"
She laughed and nodded a little.
"You're gonna mess up your sleep schedule," she told him.
He rolled his eyes, "Like you don't keep me up every night until you're satisfied."
She laughed again and stood up, hugging him, "I let you have your fun, too. Don't make me sound so selfish."
"Mmm, you're not selfish as much as you are greedy."
Her mouth made a little 'o' and her face tried to scrunch up in a scowl that was ruined by her smile.
He laughed and kissed her eyes, "Dance with me?"
He started rocking them back and forth as she smiled and shook her head, leaning int him even more.
"I got shit to do," she told him, but made no move to get out of his embrace.
He snorted, "Yeah, me, I'm the shit you need to do. C'mon, my angel, take a break for just a minute."
She nodded and leaned into him as he spun them around a couple of times. He started to quietly sing along to her music, except he didn't know Swedish, so he just came up with the closest English word and sang that. She grinned up at him and rested her chin on his chest.
Her curls were a tangled mess of golden sunlight, and Percy couldn't believe this personification of perfection wanted to be with him, be in his arms, marry him, start a family with him. He must have been a superhero in his previous life to deserve her.
They danced around their tiny kitchen, laughing as they bumped into countertops and whispering sweet nothings into each other's skin. Percy reached up to hold the back of her head in his hand, closing his eyes with a blissful smile on his face.
Percy was going back to New York. It had been two years, and he was tired of soul searching. Plus, his company had opened up another center and Percy had been asked to help with the startup. Percy was only a little bitter that he had just gotten his Massachusetts license in the mail, but as it turns out driving is not as exhilarating as he had anticipated. It was mostly just being confused about the rules and signs while people honked at you.
This new center was farther north than his previous New York center, so he was staying just a couple blocks from his mom, on the Manhattan side of the East River. Communication between him and his mother had been sparse. He still loved her dearly, but along with her having a ten-year-old and living in another state, she always wanted to talk about how Annabeth was doing. Surprisingly, it was better to hear about her on the bad days. It felt good to know that she had been promoted and was doing well. If she moved on or had any other boyfriends, his mother didn't tell him. Actually, more than status updates, he got a lot of begging from his mom for him to talk to her, call her, send her a card. She said Annabeth needed him, that he shouldn't have made such a rash decision, that they needed to work things out together. His mom was really banking on Annabeth being her daughter-in-law and the mother of her grandkids. Percy didn't know how to tell the woman who gave him life that he hadn't done enough with his to be worthy of being in Annabeth's.
He spent a lot of time at his mom's apartment, catching up with her and Paul and playing with Stella. He really missed his family, and maybe he should have thought about the consequences of his decisions before running off to Boston. Stella had missed her big brother a lot.
A lot of things had changed, but a lot of things had stayed the same. Like, instead of soccer and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Stella was interested in lacrosse and boys. Mom had turned a spare room in the apartment into an office for her writing. Paul's school switched to an online grading system, but he still used his old fashioned grade book. Their cat, Isabella, was still fat, and there were an excessive amount of old people living on the second floor of their building, which Percy thought was stupid because if he was older than sliced bread he wouldn't want to take the stairs every time he had to get in or out of his house.
He was thinking about the absurdity of it all when he saw her again.
She had a different haircut, a little shorter and with more layers. Her face looked more angular, like it had lost the rest of its baby fat. She had hoops and diamond in her ears, a necklace on that spelled out a name, and a large ring on her middle finger, and a diamond one on her left ring finger. She wasn't dressed in anything fancy or even really nice, just tennis shoes, plain black leggings, and an oversized Nike tee. She was carrying a large blue backpack and a different purse than the one she had when he left for Boston. But the most surprising thing she was carrying was a little girl.
She was wearing a pale pink shirt and white baby leggings and had a mass of dark curls pulled back in two braids. She looked no older than a year and a half. Since she was so young she didn't have any definite facial features, but Percy could tell she was Annabeth's baby girl right away. They had the same sparkling grey eyes. Even if they didn't have the same eyes, anyone could have recognized they were mother and daughter from the way Annabeth was cooing at her and the way her baby was handing on to her and smiling.
Percy wasn't stupid. Less than eighteen months old meant that she had to be born only months after he left. Perhaps Annabeth had gone out after he left, full of hurt and anger, and had a one night stand, the resulting being the baby in her arms. Maybe the dad was still in their lives. Maybe she loved her baby's father with all her heart. Maybe she and the father were going to get married in the spring and have even more beautiful baby girls.
He entertained the thought for a minute that the father had walked out, or didn't know, or both, but quickly threw the thought away. He knew first hand how hard it was to leave Annabeth. Plus, with two girls as magnificent as the ones walking toward him, whoever had swooped in to save the day after he left had a perfect life.
Percy went through a lot of emotions very fast. At first, it was anger, because he was going to marry Annabeth, he was going to be the father of Annabeth's child, and all the children she had after that. She was going to design a house for them to live in together and they would move out to the suburbs with their basketball team of children and they would grow old together and life would be perfect because he had Annabeth to fall asleep next to every night and their children to wake them up every morning. She was supposed to be Analiese Bethel Chase Jackson and her initials would be ABCJ and he would call her AJ and her children would have his last name because he was supposed to be Annabeth's person forever.
Then he felt guilty because he had walked out of her life and no where in the rules of life did it say that she was supposed to wait around for him to get his shit together and he wasn't fucking entitled to her. He had forfeited his privilege to be in her life the moment he merged onto the highway that took him to Boston.
The most overwhelming feeling he felt was regret. He could have been the one to marry Annabeth, he could have been the father of her children, he could have had the life they had planned together if he just talked to her. If he had just communicated with her and articulated his feelings like the 25 year old man he was when he left then he wouldn't have been too late. The ring on her finger could have been the one he gave her and the baby in her arms could have been his. And it almost was if he wasn't so damn rash and stupid and threw it all away because he thought he knew best.
He realized that he had stopped in his shock and was standing near the stairwell his mother's apartment complex. She hadn't seen him, hadn't recognized him, and she was walking toward the doors to the complex. She was pulling open the doors to the complex and her baby was laughing and she was struggling to get the door opened wide enough for the big backpack to fit through. The doorman saw her struggling and reached over to help. She smiled and thanked him in a soft voice and nodded her head.
Did she live here now? Is this where her fiance lived? Her baby's father? Was she visiting a friend? What are the odds that he would see her again just weeks after moving back to New York?
The stairwell was right next to the two elevators. She was walking toward one of them. She still hadn't noticed him. She pressed the up button on the elevator and stepped back to wait. Her baby was holding a Dory stuffed animal. The baby threw it down in Percy's direction, giggling with glee as he mother reprimanded her and leaned down to pick it up. Her hands wer too full. Her purse fell from her shoulder as she leaned to pick the toy up and she wobbled for a minute, thrown off balance by the purse falling.
Percy didn't think much about it until he was holding the stuffed animal up to her baby's face and had a hand on Annabeth's back, stabilizing her.
Annabeth stared at him as he handed the toy back to her daughter.
"Here you go, darling," he tried to say. The words came out a gravelly whispered mess.
The girl smiled and took the toy, making Dory swim around into Annabeth's hair.
They stood up together.
Percy swallowed and watched the baby girl. Annabeth watched him.
Annabeth's baby looked back at him curiously, probably wondering why he was still standing so close to her mother. The baby stopped playing and rested her head on Annabeth's shoulder, staring curiously at Percy with big beautiful grey eyes surrounded by long black lashes.
"She's your's," he said. It wasn't a question.
She nodded. Then seemed to shake herself out of her stupor.
"Yes, um, she is. Her name is Vivian, we call her Vivi," she glanced down at the floor in a nervous manner, "for now, at least."
Percy nodded.
"Um, how old is she?'
Annabeth bit her lip and shuffled her feet a little, reaching up to tug on the strand of hair falling in her face just like she used to do when she was nervous.
"She turned eighteen months on the 24th," Annabeth told him.
Eighteen months on September 24th. She was born in February of last year. Percy had left in early August the year before Vivi was born.
Percy wasn't really good at math, so he had to do the problem over in his head a couple times. Annabeth had to have been pregnant before he left. Not only that but she had to have been around five months along, and even if the baby was born premature there was no way the healthy little girl sitting in front of him was born five whole months early.
Percy held up his fingers to count, just to make sure.
"That means…"
Annabeth looked like she was about to cry. Her baby- their baby, hugged her neck.
Annabeth nodded, "We should talk."
I was going to make this a one-shot but now I think I should probably make it a two-shot. Also, for those of you that read or have read my other stories:
I'm back! I don't know for how long, though, junior year is kicking my ass
I swear I have a bunch of other stories I'm working on but the problem is that there's so many it's hard to focus on completing one in particular. Also, I started some of them like 2 years ago and I don't know when or if I'll finish some of them because I forgot my plans for them.
I don't know what's gonna happen with Al Long Way From Home, A Long Way From Rome (ALWFHALWFR). I'm debating on taking it down until I finish it and then reposting it, or just keeping it down if I don't ever finish. But I also know that sometimes it's fun to go back and reread old stories. What do you guys think? Keep it up or take it down?