"A date?" Silena questions, her voice raising an octave higher than normal to emphasize just how surprised she is.

Seeing as Silena and I have gotten along together very well, she's easily become one of my closest friends here at the office. With all the free time I've accommodated from Percy's busy meeting schedule, Silena and I have had a lot of time for these little 'chats' as she likes to call them. And considering my anxiety towards mine and Percy's impending date, and Silena's experience in this area, I figured why not tell her about it? She's great at giving advice, as I've learned these past few weeks.

"Yes, a date, and I'm extremely nervous about it." I make a signal with my hand for her to lower her voice. After all, this is his office floor.

She grins at me conspiratorially. "Why are you so nervous?" Her voice can barely be described as a whisper.

"Because he's Percy freaking Jackson! I'm Annabeth Chase…a nobody. Why would he want to go on a date with me?" I whine.

Silena lets out a sound of understanding. "I get it now, your self-conscious about the whole thing! That is so cute." She lets out a dreamy sigh. "Listen Annabeth, your gorgeous and your talented and your determined. Percy's dated a lot of bimbos, trust me, I would know. So maybe now, he's looking for a change. And he's definitely looked in the right place."

I smile at her, silently thanking the fact that I ever met this girl. She does know how to boost a person's confidence.

"I know, but what if I get fired?"

She shrugs nonchalantly. "So you find a new job. I highly doubt that you were thinking of keeping this one forever?"

"Well, as of right now, I kind of…" I hesitate. I'm not sure if I'm ready to tell anyone yet. It's just too personal. I've never been an open person, and I'm not about to start now. "…just need the income, okay?"

Silena rolls her eyes. "Whatever, back to Percy…" And she's talking about her favorite topic again. This girl practically screams matchmaker when you lay eyes on her.

A gasp from her brings me back to reality, and I feel slightly bad that I had been tuning out her rant.

"Annabeth! Were you even listening to what I was saying?"

"Yeah, mhmm." I say distractedly as I had just caught sight of raven locks from the window in the break room door. If Percy's out of his meeting, I better give him those files that are freshly printed.

Silena's voice sounds fuzzy as I consider what Percy could be wearing today. I hope he's wearing that tie that I like.

Silena's voice reaches my ears once again. I'm assuming that she's just about finishing up her tirade. "Great, then it's settled. I'll come over before your date with Percy, and help you get ready. Don't worry, because I will make you look fabulous."

Wait, what? When did I agree to her coming over and helping me out? I give her an inquiring look. In return, she gives me a small grin that lets me know she's not giving up on this. I sigh. I should've known this was coming. I mean, it's Silena…expect the unexpected when she's interfering with your love life.

I stand up, grabbing my empty plastic coffee cup and my empty sandwich wrapper and throwing them into the garbage can by the door. While there, I take a quick glance through the window and catch a sight of Percy talking to one of his employees. I was right, he is wearing my favorite tie.

"See you later, Silena." I say, as I open the door and make my way out.

"Alright, I'll call you later to talk about you know what!" She calls out to me, putting the last part in code as she didn't want anyone to get suspicious. Believe it or not, Silena is a very trustworthy person when it comes to this kind of stuff. All of the sudden, I'm extremely thankful to have her.

I make my way over to my desk, searching blindly for the files I was supposed to give to Percy. I find them under a pile of export forms. I'm so eager to get them to Percy, that I hadn't realized he was already making his way over to me. When I turned around suddenly, Percy was right there. And that was made very clear when he spilled his scalding coffee all over my shirt.

I gasp at the sudden temperature change and drop the files that I had been holding.

"Oh my god, Annabeth, I am so sorry!" He says as he's realized what and who he had just dropped his coffee on.

I freeze upon realizing something, I was wearing a white blouse. And it had bled through. Percy blushes upon realizing my predicament, but, then, like always, it's replaced by a smirk. He takes my hand, which I try desperately to ignore at the moment, and drags me into his office.

Once we're behind closed doors he turns to me, still smirking. "I never thought that this would be how I first saw you in a bra. I have to say though, white lace really works on you."

I had never wanted to smack anyone more than at that moment. I quickly cross my arms in front of my chest. "Don't you think that's a little bit inappropriate for the office, Mr. Jackson?" I clench my teeth at the end of my sentence, trying and failing to control my anger.

"Yes, but do you see anyone here, Miss Chase?" He's mocking me. Jackass.

I ignore his question, he already knows the answer. "What exactly are we doing in here?"

"I have paper towels, and a shirt." He walks around me to the side of the room and starts to open up random cabinets in search for these items.

"How convenient." I say, just to let him know how sassy I'm feeling towards him right about now.

He lets out a chuckle. "You know, I am trying to help you." He steps back from the cabinet throwing me the newly discovered paper towels in the process. I catch them easily. He steps behind his desk and opens a drawer, throwing me a shirt that he found inside.

"No, you're trying to get me to take my shirt off, and change in front of you."

"That obvious, huh?" I glare at him. The courageousness that this man possesses for everything he does mystifies me. How he isn't nervous about getting fired all the time, is a mystery. He challenges me with a smile. I have to remind myself to look away.

"Won't this look suspicious?" I try for a subject change. He gives me a questioning gaze, so I clarify for him. "Wearing the boss's shirt?'

He shrugs, furrowing his brows. "Not really, I do it a lot with my assistants."

I huff at him, leaving his office with an eye roll and not a single thank you. I can feel his smirk burning a hole in the back of my head. Ugh, that man makes me insane.

After running all over the office in search of Silena, rather embarrassingly on my part, and revealing her to be in her office, I make my way into the bathroom. I take my soggy shirt off and hand it to Silena, who tries desperately to get the stain out.

"I can not believe he gave you his shirt." She says.

"It's nothing special. He said he did it for all of his assistants." I don't mean for my comment to sound hateful, but it comes out of my mouth like that.

Silena coughs, muttering a "jealous" under her breath, not so discreetly in the process.

"I am not jealous! I just think it's disgusting." I say stubbornly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Here." She hands me my somewhat dulled down stained blouse. "It's the best I could do." I say a quick thank you and tell her that we should probably get back to work.

Five hours later puts me at my desk. I can't tell you how many times I've twirled around in my comfy swivel chair. I'm starting to get a head rush. Percy's been meeting with a foreign asset in his office for the past two hours. He's an early thirty-something year old man. He's cute, nothing compared to Percy in my book, but cute nonetheless. He's a little weird though, looking at me far too long for my liking.

As I have way too much time on my hands and not enough at others, my life at this office is pretty easy and then other times not so easy. Right now, I would categorize it as easy. Silena's gone home already, complaining about missing Charlie too much. Everyone else has gone home. Percy asked me to stay late. I'm not sure if that's part of our date plan or if it's just him needing extra help. I guess we'll find out.

Percy and Tom, who's name I just remembered, walk out of his office. Of course, I have to be swiveling in my chair at this exact moment. And I couldn't exactly find anything to hold onto to stop. Percy saves me from my humiliation by putting a hand on the back of my chair. Now I look like an idiot.

"Sorry!" I stand up quickly, blushing furiously, and pulling my pencil skirt down in the process.

"Sorry about that. I have to find some ways to entertain myself on these late nights." I try to brush it off. Percy chuckles behind me. He's so close to me.

"I understand that, Miss Chase. I wish my staff could be as entertaining as you." Tom says in a strange tone of manner. I don't know how to take in his statement. Was that a compliment? He smiles at me conspiratorially, his skin crinkling around his eyes.

Percy takes this time, not so subtly, to step in. "Well, it was nice seeing you again, Tom. I'll think about your offer and get back to you on it."

"Sounds good, Percy." They shake hands. And then he turns to me.

"Miss Chase." He puts his hand out and gives me a smile.

"Mr. Colatusso, it was nice to meet you." I say, putting my hand in his to give a firm shake. He holds on too long, and suddenly he's bringing my hand to his mouth and kissing it. What the hell? Are we in the 1920's?

I don't know what to make of this gesture so I give him an awkward smile, pulling my hand ever so slightly to give him a hint. Tom is staring at me intensely, and I'm starting to feel very uncomftorable.

I look over at Percy, and he has that familiar flash of jealousy in his sea-green eyes. His hands are balled into fists. I can tell he's not very comfortable with another man touching me. I feel slightly flattered towards that fact. I have to admit that at this point in mine and Percy's relationship, I wouldn't be very happy with another girl touching him either.

"The elevator is just over there." Percy says rudely, while pointing to the elevator. He must have not been able to take it anymore. Tom doesn't seem to think anything of it. Thankfully, he releases my hand and makes his exit, sending one last intense gaze my way.

When he is safely out of the building I turn to the jealous man beside me. "Percy, you can't be rude to clients like that!" I yell at him, giving him a smack on the arm for emphasis.

"I can do whatever I want." He winks at me and grabs my hand, bringing it to his lips and leaving a lingering kiss, mocking the old-fashioned gesture that Tom had just done to me. I roll my eyes at him, but still get tingles in my hand from where his lips touched.

"Now it's just you and me, alone. Whatever could we do?" He's still holding my hand and he pulls on it, tugging me closer so that I'm pressed up against his chest. My mind goes crazy with his proximity.

I recover my equilibrium quicker than I thought possible. I take a step back. "How about we go on that date that you promised me, and get to what you're thinking about later." His face turns hopeful for a second, so I clarify. "Much, much later."

His looks mock-disappointed. "Let me just go shut down my computer, and lock my office, and then we can go on that date." He twirls me around dramatically, then drops my hand and leaves behind closed doors into his office.

I smile to myself towards his actions. I start to collect my things and file the last of the finished paperwork when my phone vibrates. I ignore the call at first, it's probably just Silena letting me know when she's going to be at my house. I'm sure she'll be mad that I'm about to go on a date with Percy without telling her or letting her fix me up before I go. And frankly, I don't want my giddy mood to be ruined.

I do get concerned though, when my phone vibrates a second time. I don't think Silena would be this annoying about information, would she? I decide to answer it.

"Hello?" I say anxiously. What greets my ears is crying. I'm immediately alarmed. "Who is this? Are you alright?" I try again for an answer.

"Annabeth it's me." And then I know it's Bobby. He sniffles into the phone and my trepidation increases.

"Bobby, what's wrong? Are you okay? Is it Matthew? Is he alright? Where's Maggie?" My questions start to garble into one, and I'm not sure if he can even understand what I'm saying. I wait desperately for an answer.

"I went to see Matthew today and he's not doing good. He was so pale and he kept coughing. He looked so weak, Annie. I don't want him to die…" His sentence wares off as I hear him start up his sobbing fit again.

My heart breaks into a million pieces when I hear his crying. I want to be there with him, so that I can hug him. But, no the selfish person that I am, I'm instead going on a date with Percy.

"Listen to me Bobby, calm down. Matt is going to be fine. He's a strong boy, you of all people should know that. You need to stay strong for him. Everything's going to be fine. It's just the side effects of the therapy that he needs to go through. Please, stop crying. You know that I get so sad when you cry." I hear a hiccup escape his side of the phone. I think he's trying to calm himself down.

With all of the worrying I have been doing about Matthew, I hadn't even thought of talking to Bobby about all of it. I assumed he wasn't going to take it this hard. I'm a bad sister, is the thought that keeps reverberating throughout my head.

Bobby's terrified whisper reaches my ears. "What if…what if he dies?" It's my worst fear, along with his. I hear him start anew his round of sobbing.

I ignore the question at the moment. I don't know how to answer without breaking down myself. I try desperately to get the thought of him dying out of my head.

"Where's Maggie?" I try and not show how much that statement just affected me. But my voice quavered undeniably.

"She has a job for tonight." He takes a deep, trembling breath. "I'm all alone and I'm so scared Annie."

He needs someone there for him. He can't be alone when he's so depressed like this. I know what I have to do. "Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be over there, okay? And we can talk all about this." He agrees and I hang up, preparing to deny Percy our date, yet again.

He walks out of his office right as I hang up the phone. "Alright, I'm all set. I was thinking we'd go to one of my favorite restaurants."

I feel so horrible for doing this. "I'm sorry Percy, I can't go. Something has just come up."

He looks beyond disappointed, and he tries desperately to hide it. He replaces this look with a fake smile, I can tell. "If you don't want to go on a date with me, you could have just said so-"

I cut him off. "No! No, that's not it. It's family issues, I swear. That is not an excuse. I want a rain check, okay?" I walk up to him giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Deal." He says. I beam at him.

And then I'm out the door, running as fast as I can to my car. This will be one hell of a talk, if I can't even convince myself that Matt will make it out of this alive.

A/N: I know I haven't updated in forever. Please don't hate me! Blame it on my busyness. I rushed this chapter, so I'm sorry if it's not that great. As always, review. It keeps me motivated. And I PROMISE that next chapter will be their date! :D