Annabeth's P.O.V

Sally got the call that they'd found Percy an hour after we'd left the station. It took another ten minutes to let Paul know she was going to see him and by that time I was at the door with my shoes on waiting. It was well past midnight and I had work at eight, but I didn't care. I had to see him.

"I should've known you'd be awake." Sally whispered as she ushered me out of the door.

"I couldn't sleep knowing they might find him. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss the call." I admitted as we made our way to the car. I wanted to be there when he was found. Was left unsaid but Sally knew, I didn't need to tell her.

The car journey was shorter than I thought it would be. As I was wringing my hands in my lap the whole time, it took me a while to realise that one: we'd stopped and two: we weren't at the police station, but at the hospital. If I thought my heart was beating quickly before it was nothing on how fast it was beating now. In my rush to see him, I had assumed that he would be at the police station, that he would be okay. My heart plummeted into my stomach as I realised how naïve I had been to think that.

Ψ

Sally walked quickly and with purpose to the nurses station. "My son, Percy Jackson, has been brought in could you tell me where to find him please?" She asked, she sounded so calm and collected and I might have believed that if I hadn't caught the look of fear she was trying to hide in her eyes.

"Of course, he's in A & E at the moment, but is expected to be moved to a room soon. If you head straight down this corridor and follow the signs for A & E, you'll find the waiting room. I'll put a note on the system to say you're here, so someone will come and find you when he's ready to be moved." The nurse said.

"Thank you" Sally said.

I followed Sally to the waiting room in A & E in silence, when we got there, we found Will waiting.

"Hi Sally, hi Annabeth." He greeted us.

"Hi Will, are you here for Percy?" Sally asked.

"Yes ma'am" He replied.

"How is he?" She asked.

"I don't know much. But what I do know is the police set off some kind of fail safe. He was unconscious when they brought him out and he looked pretty beat up too. But he was breathing, I'm sorry Sally that's all I know." He said looking a bit bashful.

"That's more than I was expecting, thank you Will." Sally said.

She was so strong. I didn't know how she was managing to hold it all together. I was barely managing to keep the tears from falling, but Sally stood steadfast and strong it was admirable.

A fail safe. What on earth had Luke set up one of those for? Why did he feel it was needed? How much damage is that going to have done to Percy? How would it affect him? I hoped whatever it was wasn't too serious, that they could reverse whatever Luke had done. That Percy would recover from whatever it was.

Ψ

It took about an hour for someone to come and find Sally. Will and I waited to hear what was going on, giving Sally the space she needed to find out what was happening with Percy. After Sally had spoken to the doctor she gestured for Will & I to follow her which we did. We followed her to a room in the recovery ward. There in the bed was an unconscious and bruised Percy Jackson. Sally rushed to his side, kissed his forehead, and stroked his hair back off his forehead before announcing that she was going to call Paul and Percy's dad to let them know what was going on.

Will and I made our way over to Percy and each took one side of the bed. I reached out and took Percy's hand in mine.

"How are you doing with all of this?" Will asked me.

"Not great. Better when he wakes up, hopefully. You?" I asked.

"I'm glad he's alive, I just want him to be okay now." He said.

"Me too Will, me too." I replied, squeezing Percy's hand.

Ψ

Hazel's P.O.V

It had been three days since they'd found Percy and he still hadn't woken up. The family had put in a rotating schedule so that everyone got to see him, but so that we also carried on with our everyday lives as well. Aunt Sally wouldn't have it any other way.

Today was my turn as I had no classes. When I got to Percy's room, I found he already had a visitor. I was surprised to see Will, sitting with him, as I thought he was on for tomorrow.

"Sorry I'll just be going." He said and his words stung. It was my own fault, he was avoiding me because of Nico, but he didn't understand the full story. I owed Will that much, heck I owed Nico that much.

"Will, wait! Would you please stay? There's something I should have told you a very long time ago." I confessed. Will nodded and sat back down in the chair he'd been planning to vacate. I sat on the other side of Percy. If ever I needed his help to give me confidence it was now.

"First off, I owe you an apology." Will looked like he was going to interrupt but I held up my hand to silence him. "Please let me get all the way through this and if you can't forgive me, well I'll understand." I said and he nodded.

"Before I met Nico, heck, before I even knew who my father really was, I lived a very sheltered childhood, with my mom and grandmother. And I don't mean sheltered like I was kept away from technology, which to an extent I was, I mean like world values and anything that wasn't in the bible sheltered. Almost like I was born in the last 1920's. Anyway, both were, when they were alive, very religious people and they had very set views in regard to life but especially in regard to men and women and who they should love. Views which they taught to me."

Recognition flashed in Will's eyes, and I could tell he was replaying the day we met in a different light as I spoke to him.

"When they died and I moved in with my father and Nico, I held on to those 'values' that they had instilled in me. I thought, very misguidedly I might add, that by holding on to those 'values'" I used air quotations again when I said values because I no longer valued them. "I thought it meant holding on to the people I had lost."

Will looked like he wanted to interrupt and say something, but he didn't, and I was very glad for it. "Nico at the time was figuring out his sexuality and you happened to be the boy he was doing that with. Nico and I fought for weeks, I told him all sorts of things I really wish I hadn't. But I can't take them back and I'm lucky that thanks to Percy, Nico forgave me."

I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts and clear my memories of those awful first few weeks in my relationship with Nico. "I am sorry Will. I'm sorry for the outdated outlook I had on life, I'm sorry I imposed it on my brother's love life and in turn yours. I'm sorry that Nico pushed you away because I wasn't accepting of his choices." I said.

"What changed your mind?" Will asked tentatively.

"As I'm sure you can imagine I alienated a lot of my family very quickly with these views. I hadn't even met Thalia or Jason at this point, but I know now that that was intentional on their part. They didn't know how to meet a cousin who could say such horrible things to her brother, their cousin, who they loved, never mind accept her into the family." Will looked surprised.

"Don't look so surprised Will. You know as well as I do that no matter how open my family is, or how accepting they are, they are loyal to each other above all else. Thalia and Jason didn't know how to accept me, and be loyal to Nico, we've long since buried the hatchet as they say." I said and offered him my own tentative smile. "To answer your question though, on what changed my mind, Percy did. He spent time getting to know me, the real me, without judging my views or imposing his own."

"He's always been good at that." Will interrupted and I nodded.

"Yes, he has." I replied, glancing at Percy while I did. I wished more than anything that he'd wake up. "Slowly I started to find things that I was interesting in, and I mean really interested in. It wasn't going to church or reading the bible or any of the teachings from it that had been bestowed on me by my mom and grandmother. And as I discovered these things that I really liked to do; I came to a realisation. I'd always wanted a brother and now I'd got one I'd managed to ruin that relationship before it had ever had a chance of getting started. I told Percy this one night and he asked me why I was so against Nico being attracted to other boys."

Will looked at me like I'd just insulted him, and I tried very hard to suppress a giggle. "Don't look at me like that Will, back then you were just boys, not yet men."

Will did concede the point with a smile. "I told Percy what I've just told you. And do you know what Percy asked me?"

"Something ridiculously profound, I'm sure." Will said and we shared a smile.

"He asked me how I would feel if someone told me that, me painting and drawing was wrong. How I would feel if someone told me riding horses was wrong for me. He picked everything I'd just recently found that I loved to do and asked me how I would feel if I was told doing those things was wrong for me to do. I didn't know how to answer Percy, and he knew that. But he gave me a lot to think about even if painting and who we're attracted to aren't directly comparable."

"I understood the point that Percy was trying to make. I then spent weeks trying to get Nico to see that I understood what I'd done and how sorry I was. He didn't believe me, and I didn't blame him for that."

"But you said Nico forgave you?" Will enquired.

"Yes eventually." I said with a smile. "Nico wasn't just being told by me that how he felt was wrong. There was a bully at school, who decided to out Nico before Nico was ready to tell people. To say I was angry is an understatement. And not just because of what the bully had done but because he was bullying my brother. I'd been bullied before I moved, you see, so I was none too happy to discover that Nico was also on the receiving end of it. But, because I'd effectively pushed him away, I hadn't known about his bullying until I walked in on this particular event." I said.

"What did you do?" Will asked.

"What any prim and proper twelve year old girl would do. I socked him one and told him who my brother did or didn't love was none of his business, as long as he was happy that was all that mattered and that he should be so lucky." Will chuckled as I drew to conclusion my story. "What I didn't know," I said. "Was that Nico had witnessed the whole thing. He told me a couple of days later and forgave me. Now we're closer than ever."

"That's great Hazel, and I do accept your apology and forgive you. But why now? You could have sought me out at any point in the last eight years to tell me this."

"You're right and I should have," I said apologetically. "Truthfully I thought you might not want to hear from me again. And I've rather selfishly asked you to sit and allow me to apologise now, knowing I should have done it sooner." I said and Will nodded acceptingly. "I know I've meddled in your life enough. Heck I'm not even sure if he wants it, but I hope you'll give Nico a second chance. Because it was me that ruined the first one Will, not him, not really."

Will gave me a gentle smile; it was almost shy and said, "I promise to think about it." Which was more than I could ever hope for. Will got up to leave and as he reached the door I called out and said, "Thank you." Will nodded before leaving me alone with Percy.

I turned to Percy and said. "You're not even conscious and you're still helping me." Before I squeezed his hand. I really hoped Will would reach out to Nico because from all that Percy had told me about Will over the last eight years and all that I knew about Nico, I thought that they could be really happy together if they gave it a chance.

I hoped, and not for the first time, that my past actions hadn't ruined my brother's potential happiness and I was beyond thankful as always to have Percy, who always helped to give me the confidence to do the right thing. I just hoped that it was enough. I'd changed a lot over the past eight years, I tried to accept everyone I could now, and really emulate that part of my family's values. That was important to me. It was also part of what drew me to psychology as a major, and I hoped even though I'd turned my back on their values, that somewhere out there my mom and my grandmother were proud of me.

Ψ

Luke's P.O.V

Annabeth hadn't returned. Why hadn't she returned?

I wanted to talk to her again. I know if she came back, we'd talk like we used to, and she'd come back to me.

These detectives keep trying to talk to me, they keep asking me stupid questions that they know I don't have the answers too. Only he has those answers and they have taken him away.

I don't want to talk to them, so I haven't. I only want to talk to Annabeth, they know this. They need to bring Annabeth back. I have to talk to her again.

Ψ

~Author's Note~

Hi all, thanks for reading, I really hope you liked this chapter as I've had it in the plan for absolutely ages. Please let me know.

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