Disclaimer: Riordan. Enjoy!

After sitting on the bench for another ten lonely minutes, I see a black SUV pull up. It focuses in and out of my view, as my eyes are still blind with tears. I put my face in my hands and cover it as much as possible with my hair. I can't see who the person is as they step out of the car, but I know it's Percy without even having to look up.

I hear his footsteps rapidly approaching me. At this point, my body is shaking from trying to keep the tears in. And when his hand lands on my shoulder, I break my promise of not crying and surrender to the useless tears.

Percy doesn't skip a beat as he leans down and scoops me up into his arms. I make a protesting and unattractive grunt at this display, but he doesn't seem to have heard, or cared have cared at all. Once my head leans against Percy's chest though, I'm so wrapped up in contentment and the feeling of safety that I can't bring myself to move a muscle.

He sets me down gently in the interior of his car. It's all light beige, plush, and very comfortable. I realize how weak I'm being as Percy closes the door to the passenger side and walks around to the drivers seat. He must think I'm just another emotional and crazy girl. I pull myself together quickly, hastily wiping away my tears and taking calm, even breaths. By the time he's situated in his seat, I feel like I've gotten my wits back.

I look over at him discreetly. I expect his face to turn into one of sympathy, but oddly enough, it doesn't. I'm equally surprised and grateful. Maybe Percy will be different than every other person who I have told this to. I hope.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asks, his voice soft. He pulls out of the hospital parking lot and onto the highway. I stare resolutely out the window, because I fell like if I talk at all, I'm going to burst into a brand new round of tears. I'm guessing he eventually takes my silence as a no.

"My mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was ten years old." His confession briefly astounds me. I feel my heart constrict as my mind wanders and starts to think of a little, kid-version of Percy learning of the news that his mom has cancer. The image is almost too much for me to bear. He takes my hand across the dashboard, gives it a reassuring squeeze, and then refocuses on the road. His hand is warm and comforting. Our skin-on-skin contact momentarily befuddles my scattered brain.

"Did she make it through?" My voice is scratchy, but I don't care. Percy looks over at me and flashes me a proud smile. My mood brightens a little bit at that smile.

"Yes, she did. And I am so thankful for that, everyday of my life." I'm the one who gives his hand a reassuring squeeze this time. I sense there's more to his story, so I stay quiet.

"We were constantly struggling…" He continues, "…her medical bills were insane. There were nights when I would go to bed without dinner because it was hard for us to even afford food."

My eyes subconsciously begin to tear up yet again. I'm too transfixed on his words to even care at this point.

"And then my mom found this guy who was a regular at the restaurant she worked at. He had some money, and that's what we needed. So, my she married the guy.

"He turned out to be horrible. He hated me, naturally, and I hated him just as much. My mom begged me not to start anything with him, because we needed his money. I know, call her a gold-digger or whatever, but she did what she had to do. He deserved, more than anyone, to be emptied of all his money. If it would have been just her, I know she would've rather die then accept money from that bastard. But she had me to think about." He takes a deep breath. I know this must be hard for him. And yet I'm so glad that he's opening up and letting me in. It means a lot, for him to trust me so much that he'd share this with me. Fresh tears run down my cheeks.

"I hated myself for being the reason that that asshole had to stick around. But three years later, when I was fifteen, we found out that she was cancer-free. My mom and I went home that day and threw out every single thing of Gabe's, right down the fire-escape and onto the street. You should have seen his reaction when he came home that day." He laughs at this, and I let out a tentative smile.

"Needless to say, we changed the locks." At that I laugh loudly, and then I start hiccuping. I guess crying and laughing is my personal concoction to the hiccups.

"Sorry I keep crying." I sniffle rather loudly, and wipe my nose with the back of my sleeve.

"Don't apologize. You're not weak because you cry and have emotions."

I let those words sink in. See, he doesn't think you're a weakling.

"Thank you for telling me about your mom. I'm honored."

"I guess I just wanted you to know that there is always hope. I mean they gave my mom a twenty-five percent chance of getting out of her cancer alive and unscathed. And here she is, perfectly healthy, and a New York Time's Bestseller."

"Really? New York Time's Bestseller?" I ask. He nods. "Wow, that's amazing. I'd like to meet this woman."

"I'd like for you to meet her too. She'd really like you. She'd be happy to know that I'm involved with a girl who's as smart as you."

I can't help myself when I ask my next question. "Involved? What do you mean by that?"

He smiles, like he knew I was going to ask that. "Annabeth, I like you, you like me, I'd say that's about as involved as it gets for us right now."

My cheeks redden very noticeably. He rubs his thumb over my hand consolingly and it distracts me from my embarrassment for a brief moment.

"Where are we going?" I don't know why I change the subject. Sometimes words just pop out of my mouth before I have the chance to stop them. This happens especially around Percy.

"I don't know. Where do you want me to take you? You're more than welcome to come back to my place."

I think of my apartment…my warm bed, a hot shower, and all the ice cream I could think of. That all sounds great but then I remember that Thalia will be home from work by now. And I don't think I can bear telling the bad news to another person right now. Percy's house has one thing that might just be exactly what I need right now…Percy.

"Are you sure you won't mind me coming back to your place?"

"Not at all. I just went grocery shopping and got a bunch of food so I'll make you some dinner. I hardly doubt you've eaten anything in a while."

For some strange reason, the thought of Percy in a grocery store makes my heart warm towards him. He's just so cute sometimes.

"You've got that right." I say, and my stomach gives an approving rumble.

By the time we get to his house, the fatigue from my long day has set in like a full on punch to the gut. As soon as I step out of the car I take my heels off. I don't think I could last another second with those on. The ground is cold underneath my feet and gives me goose-bumps everywhere, but the relief I feel from the lack of bad footing makes up for that. Percy is walking behind me, and as he sees me shiver he pulls off his jacket and slips it onto my shoulders. I tighten it around myself to show my appreciation and hide my smile behind my hair.

We make our way to the threshold of Percy's apartment building. The kind doorman with the charitable smile opens the door for Percy and I. I smile back at him and give him a grateful nod.

Percy grins at him on the way in and yells "Thanks Darrel, have a good one," over his shoulder.

"No problem, Percy. You, too." Darrel says back.

Once in the elevator, I lean my head onto Percy's chest. There's an insistent pounding that's started in my head and I can't seem to get rid of it. Percy wraps his arms around me and leads me into his grandiose apartment.

"How about you go take a warm shower, and I'll start dinner." He says, walking towards the kitchen.

I'm about to retort that I don't want to waste his hot water, but I know it's of no use. He'll insist that I take a shower, because that's just how he is.

"Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea."

I step into his overlarge bathroom and turn the shower on so that the water has time to warm up. Of course it comes out scalding hot. Not like in my bathroom where it takes a good ten minutes for the water to get at least lukewarm.

Fifteen minutes later and I have thoroughly pampered myself with a surprising collection of different shower gels and shampoos that Percy owns. I'll have to ask him about those later. I step out of the shower and find a clean towel in his linen closest. I wrap it around myself securely and start scrounging around for any sort of hairbrush to tame my wild after-shower curls.

"Shit!" I hear Percy yell from inside the kitchen. I'm instantly concerned. I yank open the door and run into the kitchen.

"What happened? Are you okay?" I yell, looking around wildly for the source of the problem. I see Percy at the stove inspecting his hand. Since everything seems to be alright, my concern quickly vanishes. He turns at the sound of my voice and a grin lights up his face. It's then that I realize that I'm still only in towel and I probably look like a complete mess.

"I'm getting such extreme deja vu right now."

I'm confused for a second and then it dawns on me. "I forgot that this is sort of how we met." He's still looking at me with scrutinizing adoration.

"Stop looking at me like that." I try to say it with conviction, but a blush and grin creep onto my face and I find a sudden interest in the floor.

"Here." He says, walking over to the couch, picking something blue off of it and handing it back to me. I realize it's a robe, and from what I can feel it's completely silk. Being in this robe sounds a lot more tempting than getting back into my uncomfortable clothes that are lying unceremoniously on the bathroom floor at this moment.

"Thanks." I say, and turn my back to him. I wrap the robe around my body, pull my hair out so that it falls down my back once again, and drop the towel onto the floor. Closing it securely with the tie around my waist, I turn back to Percy. He seems a little lost when I make eye contact with him.

I bend down to pick up the towel that I had used. "Where do you want me to put this?"

My question seems to bring him back to the present. "Oh, just put that in the hamper. It's in the bathroom right next to the towel rack."

After dispensing with my towel, I come back into the kitchen to find that Percy has set up a cute dinner for two. It appears that he's made about half a dozen sirloin steaks, boiled carrots and a garden salad. Once again, it looks delicious.

Is it too slutty to be dressed in only a robe for this? Whatever, I just want food. I take a seat opposite of him and sip from my glass of red wine that he has filled for me.

"So what happened before? You scared the crap out of me."

He laughs. "Sorry, I burned my hand on the pot that the carrots were cooking in."

"Let me see." He shows me the burn. It looks like a red blotch from the bottom of his thumb to the bottom of his palm. "It doesn't look too bad, but you should definitely put some anti-bacterial on it."

He raises an eyebrow at my medical knowledge.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of information you pick up from being at a hospital so much." I say. I shove a sampling of every piece of food he's prepared into my mouth. "And if it's any consolation, the carrots are delicious, so you're burn wasn't all for nothing."

"I'm glad you like them. Apparently they're supposed to help with people's hearing."

I nearly choke on the piece of steak that I have in my mouth from the laughter that ensues from his stupid statement.

"You Seaweed Brain! Carrots are supposed to help with eyesight not hearing."

He gives me an inquisitive stare and then a disbelieving smile lights up his handsome face. "Seaweed Brain?"

I stuff more food into my mouth as embarrassment consumes me. That nickname kind of just came to me. But it definitely fits him, in a way.

"Yeah, you're Poseidon's son, remember? You have more seaweed in your brain than you do actual brain cells at times, so therefore you're nickname shall be Seaweed Brain."

He nods his head and then smiles into his wineglass as he takes a long sip. "I'll have to think of a good one for you. I can guarantee it'll be better than Seaweed Brain."

I glare at him. "Good luck with that." I stuff myself with all of the food I can manage. Percy does the same. At his fourth serving of steak, I decide to bring to his attention just how much he's eaten.

"You know, I don't think they'll be any cows left in the world, at the rate you're consuming them."

He laughs and shrugs his shoulders. "I'm a growing man. And besides, the world has an over-population of chickens, so I'm doing them a favor."

I roll my eyes and decide to not make a snarky come-back. Once everything on the table has pretty much been eaten, I get up and grab my plate and then Percy's, and put them into the sink. Just as I'm about to start cleaning up the rest of the mess, Percy grabs my arm.

"Relax, we'll get it tomorrow. C'mon, let's go watch a movie."

I'm grateful that I don't have to clean this tonight. I didn't really want to but I wasn't going to be rude and not offer to help clean up. After all, this is the second meal that Percy has made me, it's about time I step up.

I join Percy on the couch and sit beside him. He pushes a button on the remote and picks The Hangover as the movie that we're going to watch.

"I think you need a movie that's going to make you laugh. Laughter is the best distraction, after all."

I smile contentedly at him. He can be so thoughtful sometimes. Percy keeps his head straight towards the screen but I keep staring at him. He truly is very handsome. With his dark hair and beautiful eyes that shine even more in the bright light from the TV screen.

I lean my head onto his shoulder and snuggle up into his side, not able to keep space between us any longer. I lean up and plant a kiss on his cheek, and then set my head onto his chest.

Reluctantly, my eyelids start to droop before the opening credits even start up. I can't keep up the act that I'm not tired for any longer.

I'm not sure how much longer later but at some point, Percy gets up off the couch, leans down and picks me up into his arms. He walks into the next room, which I'm assuming is his bedroom. He lays me down and tucks me under the covers.

"Goodnight, Wise girl." He says, bending down and kissing my forehead.

I'm much too gone in the depths of sleep to make any kind of retort at his newfound nickname for me. But I do let a small smile grace my lips. As I hear the door shut behind him I think of everything that Percy has done for me tonight. He's opened up his home and his arms to me. He's been such a great person to me when I've needed him the most. We are so much more than involved.

A/N: OMG have you guys read HoH?! Shit went down in that book. Anyways, I can't believe that this is the 15th chapter of this story. That's insane! I want to say thank you to all of my loyal reviewers, you guys are amazing. I'm not sure how long I want to make this story yet, but you can expect at least five more chapters. I have to think of new ideas, so review and tell me what you think should happen next. Thanks for reading!