A/N: I loved writing this chapter, I just hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

As always, please leave a review, helps me feel validated. :)

Chapter 24

Percy

Present Day

This is a little weird, but it's good weird. We spent the entire morning coming up with plans on how to infiltrate Annabeth's former gang. We had three locations in our mind that we had to check today. Annabeth suggested that we go to the place closest to the docks because that's where the Jacksons would not bother looking, as the region kind of falls in their territory.

You know with the whole 'why bother looking at home when it's the one place we are sure they wouldn't be there'. Honestly, I have to admit that it was genius.

Right now, I was driving to the first location and Annabeth was sitting beside me looking out of the window.

I put my hand on her thigh and immediately retracted it. God! Why did my body not listen to me anymore?

"Umm, sorry about that. I was just trying to get your attention" I said.

"Oh, what's up?" she asked.

"You haven't said anything since we left my apartment, are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just a little weird you know" Annabeth started and looked up at me. "I mean it's nothing new, I have done a million missions but this feels weird, you know what I'm trying to say"

I nodded and urged her to continue.

"I just I don't know how to feel anymore"

"Feel about the mission... or?" I asked hopefully. We were always able to talk to each other no matter how hard we fought. We found our way back to each other.

"Yes, about the mission" she said and I felt myself shrinking back in my seat, did she not want to talk about our kiss, did she want to pretend like it never happened "and… us" she finished.

I smiled.

"Percy this is so stupid" she said as she rubbed her temples.

"No, it's not. If you don't mind me asking, how do you feel… umm about us? About me?" I asked. If she shut me down again, I would respect that but what if she did want to talk to me about it but I accidentally kept steering the conversation away to avoid things getting awkward between us.

"I… I feel like I can't talk to you" she said.

"What? Of course, you can talk to me" I said looking at her before I turned my gaze back to the street.

"No, as in, I don't know how to talk to you. God! This is stupid, I literally spent the night with you, slept with you in your bed and now I'm saying I can't talk to you" Annabeth said and crossed her arms against her chest.

"We did more than just sleep in my bed you know" I cannot believe I just said that. I was referring to cuddling in bed but the way her eyes were wide and with the shocked expression on her face. I don't want her to think that I took advantage of her in her sleep.

Once again, it was kind of true, I did take advantage of her. She put me back to sleep last night after I woke up violently from my nightmare, hell she even wiped the sweat off of me and stroked my hair as I held onto her. And I cannot be more grateful for that.

"Percy!" she yelled.

"You know I meant cuddling!"

"I know what you meant, I just, I'm not ready to talk about it" she said as she tried to keep her annoyance at bay.

"Alright, we don't have to talk about it. Although I do want to say thank you" I said as I looked at her as I stopped the car at the signal.

"For?"

"Last night, for helping me out" I said even though I didn't want to talk about my nightmares to her but after hearing that she doesn't know how to talk about it, maybe letting in on my nightmares might get her to feel more comfortable.

"Did you have a nightmare?" she asked.

"Yeah, and yes, I was lying, I get nightmares from time to time and usually I can't fall asleep afterwards but you calmed me down and put me right back to sleep. Maybe it was all the spooning" I said, I didn't want to add the part about spooning but I was only half joking trying to get her to loosen up.

"Oh god! With the spooning again!" she said but this time she had a smile on her face. "If you don't mind me asking, what was your nightmare about?"

Oh yeah, I didn't not think about that.

"I usually don't remember them afterwards, but maybe if we had spooned longer, I would have retained something" I said and stuck my tongue out at her.

"God! Stop it with the spooning" she as she smacked my arm. I looked at the corner of my eyes to watch her, she had a smile on her face, a smile that I hadn't seen for so long.

I will do whatever it takes to get her to be friends with me again and that's a promise I won't ever break.

Five years ago

"Annabeth would you please come out of the bathroom?" I said as I took a seat on my bed.

"NO BECAUSE I'M NOT DONE FREAKING OUT JUST YET" she yelled back "We talked about this Percy, we cannot get engaged, we just can't!"

I rubbed my eyes and rested my head on my hands.

I had the ring for about a month now. I had hidden it in my underwear drawer knowing that Annabeth would never deliberately go through them. Initially I was planning on proposing to her at the beach, maybe at sunset as we took a long walk.

But then the universe intervened and it started raining heavily. It rained for four days. FOUR DAYS! When did it ever rain in Florida?

So, I put the ring back in my underwear drawer and didn't think about it for like a week until I couldn't wait anymore. I put the ring in my pocket and waited for her to return from work.

I watched her change into her pajamas and slide into bed beside me. I leaned closer to her and snuggled against her. I slowly took out the box from my pocket and wrapped my arms around her before I opened the box and placed it by her pillow.

But before I could even ask her to marry me, she bolted out of the bed and ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I said 'Will' but she just didn't let me finish the 'you marry me' part.

"Can you just come out so that we can talk about this? Face to face maybe?" I asked, but I didn't hear any footsteps so I guess we were going to do this like this.

"Why did you propose? We cannot get married!"

"And why is that?" I asked, I was starting to lose it.

"Because Percy, we're in the Mafia. I don't know what's going to happen to me tomorrow, I don't know what's going to happen to you. How can you live with that uncertainty? Our families don't know that we are going out. What if your family doesn't accept me or deem me worthy of their 'prized son'?" I heard her taking a huge breath before she continued. "Say we got engaged, wouldn't our wedding be the best place for the police to raid? Catch the members of the two most prominent gangs in Florida? What about our kids? What do we tell them? What if our kid finds a gun in the kitchen just like I did? What if someone asks them what your parents do for a living? Do we lie to them or teach them to lie? Or do we not have them because what if our family uses them as leverage to start a war"

Wow, that was a lot, that was a lot of information a guy can get in under a minute. No wonder she's freaking out right now.

That's one of the biggest differences between Annabeth and I, she was too practical and I was more laid back, 'go with the flow' kind of a person. I hadn't even thought about the wedding and the kids and all that jazz that came after people got engaged. I just knew I needed her in my life and for me, that's all that mattered.

But Annabeth needed more, she needed assurance and I was more than willing to give that to her, if only I could hold her and calm her down, but I know how stubborn she can get. She wasn't going to open the door anytime soon.

"Uncertainty? For me our relationship has never been uncertain. Sure, I don't know if I'm going to be alive tomorrow or not, but I have to live with that, but I can tell you this. Having you come home to me is enough motivation to survive anything. Our families? I will do everything in my power to get my family to like you but to be honesty, you are pretty badass, I don't think I would have to try a lot"

I heard a few footsteps and heard the sound of the door unlocking. I scrambled on my feet and led her towards the bed and sat her down. She had tear stained cheeks and huge puffy eyes, but she looked beautiful.

I crouched down in front of her and placed my hands on her knees.

"As for our wedding, we could have a wtop-secret wedding or we could elope, I don't care as long as I get married to you. And for the future, I'm ready to quit the Mafia and run off to New York to start a family with you. I could stay at home and look after the kids while you run the three restaurants you have in the city, wait up for you and then we could tuck our kids in bed and drink wine and eat chocolate cake in bed while we watched true crime shows on the television, that's what married people do right? Either way I just want to be with you"

I saw her raising her hands to rub away the couple of tears that had fallen on her cheeks as I rubbed her knees.

"Annabeth, if you want me to take back my proposal I will do it and I promise you I won't be hurt or mopey, but I will only take back the proposal if you think we are moving too fast or you're not ready to be engaged and nothing else, not because of any other reason that is beyond our control. Do you want me to un-propose? I promise you no hard feelings. I love you and I really want to marry you, but if you aren't sure about what you want to do, I understand. But I expect an answer. I-"

"Yes" Annabeth whispered.

Okay, that hurt. I know I said no hard feelings but wow that actually hurt.

"Okay, I respect your choice" I said as I leaned away from her towards her side of the bed and grabbed the box and closed it before I stood up and placed it on my dresser.

I felt Annabeth wrap her arms around me from behind as I felt her resting her head against my shoulder.

"Percy, what are you doing?" she asked.

"I'll return the ring tomorrow, it's too late today, anyway" I said, I know she wanted me to turn around in her arms but honestly, I did not have the strength to face her, not yet. Maybe I should go for a swim.

"Why would you do that when I said yes?"

Wait a minute? Did I hear it right?

"Annabeth? What did you say yes to?" I asked as I finally turned around in her arms and took her face in my hands.

"You asked me a question, I said yes to that" she replied. She had a huge smile on her face, wait a minute. Did she actually say yes?

"Well, I never asked the question, you ran to the bathroom before I could even utter a single word" I said, I know I had a huge smile on my face, I couldn't help it.

"What are you waiting for then?" she asked.

"Will-"

"Yes" she replied before I could even finish asking her to marry me.

"Are you going to let me finish?" I asked but she nodded and took a step away from me.

I turned towards my dresser and grabbed the box and then slowly knelt to the ground and opened it.

"Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?"

"Yes" she said before she pulled me up and kissed me hard on my lips as I felt her pulling me towards the bed. I had done it! We had done it! I leaned in closer to her and took her face in my hand, that's when I realized that the ring was still in my hand.

I pulled away from her but she grabbed me by her head and pulled me on top of her as we dropped on the bed.

She giggled as her back hit the bed. But I used that opportunity to carefully pick the ring out of the box and slide it on to her finger before I kissed her hand.

Present day

"Are you sure about this" I asked as I parked my car.

"Hell yeah! Let's get Piper home" she said as she got out of the car.

Don't get me wrong, I was never the guy who got cold feet before my mission. Actually, I didn't believe in shooting stars or lucky charms or anything 'make believe' even as a child. But today, I felt like I needed to do something to seal the deal.

"Annabeth, wait" I said as I saw her close the door and look at me from the other side of my car.

I raced across the car and got to her before I took her hands in my own and leaned down and pressed a firm kiss on her lips. Her hands quickly escaped my arms and traveled up to my neck to pull me closer. I, in turn, put my hands on her hips and pushed her against the car. I didn't want to be so rough with her, but the way she moaned into the kiss, she didn't mind, rather she liked.

Before I got carried away and decided to take her in my car, I pulled away from her and took her hands once again and rested my head against her.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at her face, her eyes were closed and she had a very stoic expression on her face.

"I... I just couldn't go in without…" I started but my breath betrayed me.

"I'm glad you did" she whispered against my lips and leaned in to kiss me again. However, this kiss was short before she nudged my shoulder as she pulled away from me before we walked towards the Chase hideout.

A/N: So, now you know the proposal, and of course I even gave you the lovely smooch in the end. But to be honest, I checked my stats and I saw that about a hundred people read each of my chapters but there are nearly not enough reviews, follows or favorites to back that up! Come on you guys! I would really appreciate some love.