Disclaimer: I am not, and never will :( own Rick Riordan's characters. All I own is Dr. Wright.

Chapter 5

Percy POV

I awoke to someone sitting on me. I cracked on eye open, then immediately shut it tight when blinding sunlight pierced my vision. The weight on my back shifted, then whoever it was started bouncing up and down on my spine.

"Go away", I moaned.

"Nope." A girl's voice replied. "C'mon and get up. I've been up and bored for an hour."

"Too bad 'nbeth", I slurred. "Not my fault you wake up so early."

"They're serving breakfast soon." She tempted, "I think it's waffles or something"

Well, I can't argue with that. Waffles are my weakness. I push Annabeth off of me and roll out of bed. Literally. I almost squash her toes as I land on the cold floor.

"You can never resist," she laughs, "Go take a shower, you stink."

I push myself up and grope blindly towards the bathroom, refusing to open my eyes just yet. I sniff my armpits. Actually, I don't smell that bad. But I hop in the shower anyway to please Miss-High-Standard.

After I am thoroughly cleaned and dressed, I emerge from the bathroom to find Annabeth sleeping in my bed. She looks so peaceful that I don't want to wake her… yet. Who could waste such a perfect opportunity? As quietly as possible, I approach the bed until I am right on top of her. Suddenly, I fling myself on top of her and wrap her in a bear hug worthy of Frank himself. Annabeth squeaks and tries to free herself, but her position under my heavier weight proves her struggle to be in vain. Realizing it's me, she goes limp.

"Get off."She growls.

"About time you're awake," I tease, "I've been waiting for hours! Hurry or we'll be late for food!"

I get up and she glares at me. "Or what? You'll call my parents?" She snickered, imitating the nurse from last night perfectly.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure my dad will ground us for eternity if we are in the same room."I chuckle at the thought.

"Well, don't give my mom any ideas. Come on Seaweed Brain. I'm hungry."

As she gets up and walks out the door, she slaps me on the arm. I grin and follow her towards the dining hall.

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We sat at an empty table and started eating. There were no waffles, to my disappointment, but there were pancakes, which is almost as good. Stuffing a bite into my mouth, I asked, "So, what's the plan?"

Annabeth wrinkled her nose at my eating, "Well, I came up with a story to tell Dr. Wright at our session today. Hopefully it's believable and he can still help us with our problem even though he won't know exactly what our problem is."

"Well, I don't even really know what our problem is." I retort. "What's the story?"

She told me, and I must admit, it's pretty ingenious. Well, duh. Of course it's going to be good. We finished eating, then headed to our session with the Doctor.

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"Hello there." Dr. Wright greeted us. He looked kinda flustered. His hair was all messed up, his tie crooked, and on his shoulder was some blood. He looked like one of those classic evil scientists. Trying not to laugh, I spoke up, "Uh, what happened to you?"

He sighed, "Well, the patient who came in here before you has a nervous disorder. A bird flew into the window and scared her so much that she jumped and hit her nose on her chair. It started bleeding, she freaked out, and I had to carry her to her room. Now that I think back though, it was pretty funny." He chuckled. "How was your sleep last night?"

"It was okay," Annabeth answered, "Percy had another nightmare though."

I nodded. "But it's ok. Annabeth calmed me down."

"Hmmm…" Dr. Wright looked down at his notepad. "Yes. I heard from the nurse about that. How did you get out of your room, Annabeth?"

She blushed. "Sorry about that. He was screaming…. I had to get to him. I am pretty good at escaping I guess."

"It's okay. Just try not to let it happen again. Hospital policy and all that. And Percy," He turned towards me. "Do you mind me asking what the nightmare was about?"

Why yes I do mind! I wanted to retort. The dream this time was about Luke. Images of him plunging the knife in his side flashed before my eyes. I blinked, and stammered foolishly, "Uh, it was just um… yelling, and uh, pain and red everywhere." Yeah, that sounded good. I resisted the urge to yell, JUST KIDDING! I dreamed about a guy who stabbed himself to get rid of an evil Titan who wanted to take over the world! Yeah, great idea. I looked over to Annabeth and mentally screamed, Please take over now! Thankfully she got the message.

"Actually," She started, "I think we would like to tell you what happened now."

Dr. Wright leaned forward eagerly. "Please, take all the time you need."

She took a deep breath and recited the story she came up with. "Well, about a month ago, Percy and I were involved with a huge family feud in Italy. Our families have… a violent history. Horrible things happened, mercenaries were hired to hurt us and people we love. Percy and I were captured and tortured for about a month. We barely escaped with the help of some friends, who," Her voice cracked, "didn't make it. Luckily, it's over now, and Percy and I still have each other." She grabbed my hand tightly as tears flowed down her cheeks.

"I am so sorry." Dr. Wright said sympathetically, scribbling in his notebook. "Thank you for telling me ab-"

I didn't hear the rest. As Annabeth told the story, I couldn't help from thinking about Tartarus. Holding Annabeth's hand for dear life in Arachne's pit. Falling. Forever falling as the air grew darker and staler. The Arai. Nyx. Annabeth's face as I choked Akhlys with her own poison. Damasen and Bob, who sacrificed themselves to save us. I couldn't see the room anymore. All I saw was the fleshy ground of Tartarus, and the look on Bob's face when he told me to leave him. Then everything went black.

Author's Note:

I am so, SO sorry it has been such a long time! First, my computer broke, then I was busy with the ACT, and am just now getting to this!

Did any of y'all do the ACT? I am really nervous to get my scores back. I need at least a 30 to get a scholarship for this college I want to go to.

Anyway, thanks for all the encouraging review, follows and favorites! Reviews are REALLY helpful and lift my spirits! (hint hint)

Song of the Chapter

In honor of this story's 5th chapter, which is the farthest I have EVER gotten with a fanfiction, I am asking for YOUR favorite songs which go well with PJO and HoO!

Please review with the name of your favorite song, and I will post the ones I like most in the next chapter!

Please refrain from choosing songs with bad words, as I try to keep my ears clean and innocent

Sorry this AN is so long!

Until the next chapter!

~Ellie