Annabeth POV

I frowned, scribbling down another name on an index card, Luke, before leaning my head back on the pillow propped behind my head. Percy and I had been filling out cards sporadically throughout the afternoon. It was late evening now and Percy was taking a break to "rest his hand" (read: lost interest for now) and was currently sprawled out on the bed beside me. I was currently in a period of hyper focus and wasn't really paying attention to anything else. The lamp on the bedside table illuminated Luke's name on the front of my card.

I pushed this one back as far as I could, as I didn't really want to think about Luke right now. I closed my eyes to think. He was a hero to my seven year old self back then, I wanted to make him (and Thalia) proud. He saved my life but how did it go so wrong for him? Was I not good enough, did I influence him to run and betray everyone? Why couldn't I save him from Kronos? Maybe he followed the wrong path because I was blinded by my admiration.

I jotted down:

1. Made it to camp together.

2. Lost Thalia together

3. Left him to Kronos.

I hated this insufferable exercise. Sure, it was interesting to reflect on all of the good things, like being there for Sally when Percy was gone, the late night war strategies with Malcolm, and helping Leo fix his garbage catapult blueprints, but it also threw all my regrets and mistakes right in my face. I suddenly envied Percy's ability to pass out on the bed to hopefully block everything out for a few minutes.

Adding Luke's card to my increasingly large stack of cards on the bedside table, I rolled over and put my head on Percy's chest. After a few peaceful minutes of feeling his steady heartbeat and breathing, his chest rumbles with a groan.

"Nnnnngghh how long was I out?" He mumbles groggily.

"I honestly have no idea," I reply. "But it's dark outside now."

He hums an acknowledgement and props himself up with an elbow. I sneakily maneuver myself to be somehow laying on him, my back against his chest and body cradled by his legs. He wraps his arms around mine and I feel him glance at my stack of cards.

"How the Hades do you have more than me?"

"Uh, you took a lot of breaks kelp head."

"Hey, my hand was cramping."

"Sure it was. Also I took the liberty of stealing some of your blank cards."

"Hey!"

"Don't be stingy, you can just get more tomorrow if you need them Perce."

His voice takes a serious tone. "You ok?" He kisses the back of my head.

"Yeah," I nod, "this is just harder than I thought it would be."

He sighs, "Sometimes… I wonder how people's lives would be if I wasn't there."

I start to protest but he interrupts me. "Like, Nico. If I didn't barge into his school and drag him to camp with us, he could have continued on with his life, with his sister, and be perfectly fine."

I squeeze his hand. "Stop. You know as well as I do that if we didn't do anything, he and Bianca would probably been hunted down by that manticore. And it wasn't just you, it was also me, Thalia and Grover. Honestly things went wrong when I went and got myself kidnapped. You guys saved his life and now look, he's safe at camp and has so many people who care about him, like Will, and Hazel, and us." I twist my head to look up at his face. It's frowning and his eyes are dark and troubled. I pause for a minute before asking hesitantly, "Would you… would you like to look at my cards? I think I made mine to be a bit biased."

He holds me tight. "Only if you want me to Annabeth. You can look at mine too, you were probably there for most of mine anyway."

I reach over and hand him some of the cards from my stack and he leans over to scoop some of his in a pile before handing them to me. I glance them over, Rachel, Blackjack, Carter, Grover, Charlie. I flip over Beckendorf's card, finding a few scrawled sentences. Helped him beat the third lava wall level. Led him to his death and left him behind to die on an exploding yacht.

"Hmmm this one is wrong Percy." I break the silence.

"Just because I use creative spelling that doesn't mean it's wrong Annabeth."

"No, look." I hold the card above my head so he can see which one I'm talking about. "You didn't lead him to his death."

"Uh, yeah I kind of did." He argues. "The mission was my plan and I chose him to come with me, so yeah, I'm responsible."

"No, you can't think like that. Beckendorf made his choices too. You two were a team, and a good team at that. You and I know that there was no stopping him from joining the mission. He died a hero and it was certainly not your fault. Do you mind if I write on this?"

He shrugs and hands me a green colored pencil. I add to the bottom, Gave him the guts to ask Silena out and was a dependable friend. "You helped him live a full life and you know his life would have been missing something without you." I feel him nod and press another kiss against the back of my head.

He flashes one of my cards in front of my face, moving around too much for me to read which one he was holding. "I don't think you turned Thalia into a tree, Wise Girl." I snatch the card from his hand.

"Well obviously I'm not the one who actually did it but if I had stayed strong and not freaked out, then Luke wouldn't have had to drag me away and could have helped Thalia when we were so close to camp. If I wasn't freaking out and crying everywhere, then we could have helped her."

"You were what, like 10?"

"Seven."

"Proves my point even more." He sounds amused, "I was twelve when the minotaur attacked me and my mom and even I was freaking out and almost peed myself. It's totally normal for people to panic when under attack and you were even the one to eventually save her anyway."

"I guess, but-"

He grabs the card and the green pencil and writes something before handing it back to me.

Saved Thalia's life, she is alive because of me.

I stare at it. Thalia saved my life so many times growing up. Going on that quest to get the golden fleece seemed so small, and I didn't even know it would heal Thalia anyway when we got it back. Yet, those words Percy wrote somehow made me feel fuzzy inside, and made me feel a little better about myself? I squeeze his hand and find another green pencil. "Thanks Percy, now give me some more of your cards."

I go through his cards, carefully avoiding the ones with my name on it. He reads through mine.

It's strange to see what he thinks about what he's done. I add some things in green at the bottom, reminding him of all the good things he caused that he obviously overlooked. Helped Tyson find his way home to Poseidon's palace. Protected Bessie from evil people. Invited Paul into a loving family. And, oh yeah, Saved the world.

After a while, we give cards back to each other. I read what he added to mine. Gave Lacy the confidence to be herself. Gave Piper an awesome friend. Saved the camp with an awesome plan, even while in Tartarus. It was almost embarrassing to read some of this stuff. Is this what people really think? Most of this was just dumb luck or just doing things anyone would do. But it was comforting to read.

I hear Percy clear his throat and look back at him. He's smiling a little bit as he reads his cards, his eyes less stormy and he holds me tighter. We end up laying side by side talking about fond memories and arguing about which things were our fault and which events were caused by dumb fate.

"Annabeth, it was totally not your fault that Chiron fell in that ditch."

"Actually, I lured him in there so I could sneak in his office. But I didn't mean for him to pull a tendon."

"Oh."

0-0-0-0-0

Dr. Wright POV

I rubbed my eyes, sore from staring at the bright light of my computer. It was late but I was deep in research. That Percy Jackson kid just looked so familiar, have I seen him before? I pulled up some old news articles from about 5 or 6 years ago. Bingo.

"12 YEAR OLD BLOWS A HOLD IN THE ST. LOUIS ARCH"

"Kidnapped 12 year old, Percy Jackson, attempts escape from his captors during an explosion in St. Louis' iconic Gateway Arch. The whereabouts of the child is currently unknown, and concerned parent Gabe Ugliano offers free household appliances in reward for any information about…"

I scan the rest of the article before finding only one other mention of him, a brief mention of him being spotted in connection with the eruption of Mount St. Helens. There was a grainy picture of him evacuating with other residents of the city, accompanied by a fair-haired girl. Annabeth. This kid had a much wilder past than he was letting on.

I wonder what else these two are keeping hidden for now…