"Come on Percy, let's find somewhere to get you fixed up," Hazel Levesque said, her voice filled with natural concern and loving-kindness as she embraced him and kissed his forehead.

"That's a good idea, Mr. Hagrid, why don't you show Percy to his class room and apartment while we chat with Hazel. We can meet back for dinner at six, I think most of the staff is coming in and" Annabeth said until Hazel interrupted.

"No, I'm going with Percy. I'll be back if I feel like it. Mr. Hagrid, please show us the way. Come on Percy, you don't have to put up with this hatefulness," Hazel growled as she stood and offered Percy her hand. He rose silently to take it, hoisting a small backpack he had carried in with him, while Hazel's golden eyes practically burned a hole through Annabeth, daring her to say a word. It was not a dare the headmistress wanted to take.

Hagrid led the two out and the door closed behind them. Annabeth leaned against her desk, her eyes still glistening with tears, wiped the ones from her cheeks with her fingers, and sighed.

"Well. That could have gone better."

"Doesn't she know how Mr. Jackson treats you?" McGonagall asked, as she was aghast at the sudden change in the room dynamic.

"No, our friends just know… well they know were aren't together any more. They were supportive of both of us, and then a few days later Percy's mother and stepfather died in an accident, he became Estelle's guardian, and everyone supported him. I get that. I've drifted away from most of our old gang ever since."

"So, what Mr. Jackson said, that was true?" McGonagall asked as delicately as she could, which she realized all too late was pretty blunt.

"From his perspective I suppose you could say that, uh, except for the part about me doing anal with a zombie, gross. But in reality no, it isn't true. Look there are things I can't talk about and I didn't intend to share this with anyone here, but Percy's outburst means I need you to know who you are working with."

"When I was a little girl, I ran away from home. My father and stepmother were not magical and not supportive of, uh, my peculiarities. I ran into a couple kids like me in their early teens, a boy named 'Luke' and a girl, 'Thalia.' Well, you know, when you are a little girl and a teen boy is even vaguely nice to you, well, yeah I had a crush, just a school girl thing mind you."

"Anyway, we got to, uh, our school and I did really well there. Luke and I stayed really close but after a while, well it wasn't love, he was five or six years older and had girlfriends his own age. Then Percy came along. At first, I couldn't stand him, but after a while, he grew on me. He became my second crush. We went on some pretty big missions together and he really became our leader. Luke, well, he screwed up and became something of a traitor to us, but I could never really give up on him. It got so bad that, you've heard of the Titan War we had in the states? Well Percy led us in that fight and had to fight Luke at the end of it. In the end Luke came around and he died a hero." Annabeth explained.

"So Percy is mad about something that happened when you were a little girl?"

"What? Oh no. This is all for background. Remember about ten years ago, the Giants War, when that parking lot in Rome blew up?"

"Yes, vaguely, it didn't really affect us here." McGonagall answered.

"Right, well not directly but I have a theory on Voldemort's return that is related. Basically, the thing is, they blew that parking lot up to rescue me, and after that Percy and I had to travel through Tartarus to close the doors of death and"

"What? That was you?" the professor exclaimed.

"Yeah, Percy and me, we were quite a formidable team at one time. Always together, and together always. Thing is, while they were open some of the dead were able to reenter the realm of the living, and not just from Tartarus as the doors are metaphysical in their location. I think maybe that is how Voldemort started to rise again but I have no proof of that obviously."

"Anyway, Luke came back. He lived around the San Francisco Bay area as a homeless person for several years I think; maybe not even wholly remembering who he was. You know how homeless people use newspapers to sleep on and as blankets? Well I got an award at my muggle school; I was doing my doctorate and my Ilvermorny Adult Advanced at the same time, anyway I got this award for a building I designed for a children's shelter as part of my dissertation, the local paper did a story on it, and Luke tracked me down from that."

"You did Ilvermorny and a muggle college at the same time?" McGonagall asked, seemingly shocked.

"Yeah, well ICW wanted Percy and I to complete the Advanced Magic course so as to augment our training as kids, and I wanted to study architecture. School has always been pretty easy for me. We were already on the payroll as reservists and they paid for school, so neither of us had to work. We had already finished undergrad at New Rome, that's where I picked up the Public Admin minor, anyway, I focused on Percy and school, and Percy focused on school and me. He only did Ilvermorny so it was easier for him, although I admit I enjoyed being his focus. We were so in love, and just wonderful together. Soon we were engaged. We were to wed as soon as I finished school and I didn't want to wait to start a family. Because of the way we were brought up, family is probably more important to us than most people." Annabeth added, then continued.

"So I've got one week of exams left and I'm done with no-maj or what you call muggle school. Percy finished his classes a couple weeks earlier and was already getting field assignments. He goes off to Puget Sound to fight a giant shrimp and who shows up at my door?" Annabeth asked.

"Your old crush. Luke."

"Exactly. He was in rough shape, smelled terrible, looked worse, and was practically starved to death; I guess living homeless does that. I couldn't throw him out; I'm not that heartless. I throw him in the shower, get him some clothes together and make him rest for a couple days. I slept on the couch and put Luke in our room, I figured he had not slept indoors in a bed since he crossed back over. I drew some money out of savings and got him a bus ticket to his mother's home in Connecticut. He was to leave that afternoon, and of course I would have told Percy when he got back, but Percy was early and just walked in, went straight to the bedroom looking for me, found Luke instead and screamed. I came out of the kitchen armed with a spatula to see what was going on, and Percy saw me wearing what I sleep in, some running shorts and a tank top, nothing even vaguely sexy about it."

"By then Percy had put two and two together and came up with the square root of fifty-nine, grabbed his gear, called me a whore, and left. I tried to reach him for a week, then our old, uh, principal from our old school contacted me and told me Sally and Paul, that's Percy's mother and step father, had been killed. The last thing Percy said to me was that I was a whore. That was the last time I saw him until today. Anyway, I thought you should know all that so you would understand why he hates me."

"Have you ever tried to reach out to him? Explain things?" McGonagall asked.

"At first, every day. But he wouldn't answer my, uh, calls. I sent him letters for a year or so, birthday and Christmas cards to him, presents to Estelle. I begged him to talk to me so I could explain it all, I wrote it out in letters. He never wrote back. I figured I was only a bad memory to him, so I stopped. I only send cards and presents to Estelle now," Annabeth whimpered as tears returned to her eyes.

"It gets better. Fifty years ago I was heartbroken when I could not marry the man I loved. You hurt, you move on, but they will always be in your heart." McGonagall whispered as she tried to comfort Chase.

"You got dumped at the altar too?"

"No, magical law made me dump him. He was a muggle I could not share my life with as I was going to work for the Ministry; I had to choose between magic and marriage. I'm not sure after all these years that I made the right choice. You are young, beautiful and at the top of your career. You can have any man you want," McGonagall answered.

"No, I can't. The only man I want thinks I'm a whore," Chase wept.

"You still love him? After all this time?"

"I always will." Annabeth cried.

Two floors away and at the other end of that part of the castle, Hagrid was showing Jackson and Levesque the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom, which was a large oblong room with rows of desks, each seating two students, facing a low riser with a lectern. Behind the lectern, a spiral stone stairway led to a doorway, which Hagrid said would be Jackson's office. Percy wasn't interested in seeing the office but both he and Hazel walked around the room.

"Where do the students spar?" Hazel asked before Percy had a chance to.

"Spar? Why they don't spar, what if someone got hurt?" Hagrid answered.

"Better to get hurt in here than out there," Percy answered as he pointed through a window and into the distance. 'We'll have to work on that."

Percy's apartment was nearby and it took but a moment to get there. Hagrid explained that the door was keyed to his wand and showed him how to synchronize the two, but once the door was open, Percy dismissed him.

"I can handle it from here, thank you Mr. Hagrid."

"Certainly sir, but if I may, a warning. I don't want to ever hear you talk that way to another person here, student or faculty, and especially not to tha' headmaster. Why she tolerates you being here is beyond me. Do we understand each other?" Hagrid said firmly in his low, gravely voice.

"Hagrid, I got this. A word of advice to you. I've seen Percy gut hyperborian giants, Polybotes, the ghosts of a Roman legion, and a hundred other monsters. Don't think for a minute that because you are bigger you are badder. You're a clearly nice man and I don't want to see you injured, so my advice is sit this one out." Hazel said as she took Percy's hand and led him through the door, closing it behind her.

Once the door was closed, Hazel put aside the pink roller suitcase she had been dragging, wrapped her arms around Percy's waist, and pulled him into a loving embrace.

They just held each other for a few minutes, confirming that they were both alive and in the moment with each other. With no words spoken, Percy's emotional crisis rose up again and he began openly crying. Hazel knew if she asked, he wouldn't be able to explain why, and even if he could, she wouldn't be able to do anything except be there. And so she held him tight and wept with him.

"You could have called me," she finally whispered.

"I didn't want to burden anyone."

"Listen to ya! Geez Percy, you're my last best friend these days and I haven't talked to you in years! I haven't had anyone to talk to since Frank left and signed up for the Marines." Hazel exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I should have asked, how are you two doing these days?" Percy inquired.

Hazel broke off the hug, took Percy by the hand and led him into the living area of the apartment as she answered his question.

"We're not. He picked the Marines over settling down with me."

"What?" Percy asked as they sat on a love seat in front of a fireplace in what appeared to be the living room.

"You know Frank; all about honor and duty, I love that, we all love that about him. I'm not all about that though. I mean, I did my duty, when I stopped Alcyoneus in '42, and the second time with you and Frank. I did my duty on the Argo with you guys, and in Italy and Greece. I did my duty at the Battle of New Rome and the one at Halfblood, plus keeping Leo's secret. I did my duty as Praetor for most of a decade. Then there were the messes in Algiers, Croatia, and the Elfish uprising in Tupelo. After I did my duty I wanted to do what I wanted to do, and what I wanted was to settle down and have a family."

"I lived above a gris-gris shop as a child, then on the waterfront in Alaska. I've never had a real family or home Percy any more than you have, I mean, I know you had your mom but you had that guy Gabe so, I'm not being critical, just calling it like I see it. So I know you know where I'm coming from. Frank? Well he wanted more duty. His duty to me wasn't enough. I've about had it with duty."

"Whoa. Did you rehearse that very long?"

"Just the last couple of years," Hazel laughed, "But I mean it. This was supposed to be when I was a wife and a mother, and then it turned out the fates ended my family line in 1942 so I can't even be a mother, in the biological sense anyway, and it will be kind of hard to adopt since if I did have a birth certificate it would say I'm 92 years old. I'm sorry, it's just frustrating."

"And here I was feeling sorry for myself, I'm a douche, I figured you two would always be together." Percy sighed.

"No you're not, I can't imagine how you feel… well I can a little. People grow, people change. Frank and I are close, but I need a commitment to me in a relationship, not to some transcendent virtue. So, enough about me, it's been a lonely three years hasn't it?"

"No, well, yeah, in the romantic sense, but I have Estelle and she's my world, my only priority, and she is just amazing. She is so smart and really talented. I worry that she doesn't have any friends her age though, I think because of mom and Paul she's really insecure about me so she clings, which is great, but I worry and want to help her work through that. That's why I'm not going the boarding school route with her. If she can't stay with me and me with her, I'm not going to stay with ICW. I'm just not." Percy replied.

"Good, she needs you as much as you need her, but Percy, you need something else, and so do I," Hazel said as she leaned into him and pulled his arm over her shoulder.

"What's that?" Percy asked, his mind being on Estelle, Annabeth stress and the mission he was misreading the vibe. Of course being socially awkward to begin with didn't help.

"Intimacy Percy, affection from someone you love and trust, and I don't mean love like romantic, you know, as they say in this day and age, you need at least a friend with benefits."

"Uh" Percy replied as he was at a loss for word. Hazel flipped her wand towards the fireplace igniting it and dimming the lights in the room.

"In case you haven't noticed Percy, I've grown up from when we first met, when we first worked together," Hazel whispered as she turned towards Percy and laid her arm across his chest. Percy looked down to see her cinnamon hair, mocha skin and her golden eyes that seemed to glow.

"Oh, I noticed. Kind of hard to miss," he replied, referring to her gorgeous figure and amazing body she had developed.

"Ha! Yeah, I guess I was rather plain, but puberty was kind to me," Hazel smiled.

"You've always been beautiful Hazel, but yeah, this version of you, wow."

"Thanks, you're kind, but yeah, I feel a lot more confident now. So…" she said as she leaned up to kiss him, a kiss that was exploratory at first, but soon returned.

Three hours later the couple's clothing was all over the apartment, the blankets, pillows and comforter from the bed were strewn across the room and a single sheet was knotted up winding its way through their entwined arms and legs. Hazel and Percy were glazed with perspiration and trying to catch their breath, each feeling euphoric and sated.

"Jesus Percy! What the hell was that?" Hazel demanded in a soft murmur.

"That was great," Percy whispered as he continued to plant kisses along her neck and chest, like an artist signing a masterpiece.

"But… but how did you last that long?"

"Oh water, it recharges me and gives me strength. Son of Poseidon thing."

"Uh, you were drinking water? I didn't notice," Hazel whispered as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"No, but people are like 70% water, the good parts are even wetter."

"That's just weird Percy. So, we gonna do this again?"

"Sure, let me catch my breath first."

"No, I meant in general, I don't think I could take anymore right now," Hazel giggled.

"I'd like that."

"We should get ready for the meeting, are we going?" Hazel asked.

"I… I think I want to see where this goes as far as Estelle coming here. If she decides to, then I will stay and put up with it. I can put up with a lot for my sis. So, I guess I should go. You?"

"Your ex sent me the books a couple days ago, I should at least report on how fucked they are, and how I can unfuck them. May I use your shower to freshen up?"

"Oh sure, want me to join you?" Percy asked with a grin.

"Knowing its effect on you, lets rain check that," Hazel laughed. "Gods Percy thanks, this was the best way to spend the afternoon ever!"

"I should be thanking you. I'm, well I'm far less stressed out." He grinned. "Truly relaxed now."

"Yay! I helped!"