-x-

When he first moved to Chicago, he was miserable. Since he was one of the first to move into his office, he knew no one there, and all the offices were still half-empty and oddly too-clean. The entire headquarters was a twelve story labyrinth of empty cubicles and unpacked boxes.

Percy worked in A&R, the artists and repertoire department. His primary job was to find new talent, sign them on, and work with them closely. It was the best department in the entire record label – they had the best leather roll-y chairs.

He spent the first year in seedy, smoke filled clubs and unassuming coffee shops, searching for talent in the least obvious places.

Sometimes, he found it. The band or singer that just had it. He worked closely with them and essentially made them what they were. It was kind of the best job in the world.

After his first year, Leo, who was his kind of his little protégé back when he worked in a music store in Brooklyn, moved out there for college at Chicago U and applied for an internship, which Percy gladly accepted.

Three years and nine months later, Percy got a call.

"Percy Jackson speaking," he clipped into his phone, balancing it between his ear and his shoulder as he grabbed some files pertaining the newest singer they had just found off Leo's desk and headed into his own office.

"Percy? It's Thalia."

He started, almost spilling his black coffee all over his computer. Gently putting it down instead, and tossing the files next to it, he sank into his chair. "Thalia? I- how are you?"

"Good," Thalia replied. Her gruff smoker's voice seemed to have smoothed out over the years, and he hardly recognized it. "I, uh, got married."

"So I heard," he said, twisting a pencil between his fingers. "How is the blushing bride?"

"I don't think you could describe her as 'blushing'," Thalia remarked drily. "But Reyna's good. She sends her warmest regards."

"Does she really?"

Thalia snorted. "Definitely not. She still hasn't forgiven you for when you two were dating."

"Well hey, at least I cleared the way for you two getting together."

"Yeah, yeah." There was a brief pause and Percy bit his lip, holding himself back from asking. "I know you're dying to ask why I'm calling," she said, sounding amused.

"Uh, maybe… how's Annabeth?" a thought struck him. "Wait, she's okay right? She's not…"

"No, idiot, she's fine," she laughed. "I'm calling because… Well, I just got back from Sydney."

"Who's Sydney?" he asked, puzzedly.

She groaned. "Sydney, Australia, idiot. I see being a fancy schmancy executive hasn't made you any smarter."

"Shut up," he said, blushing. "Why were you in Australia?"

"Because," she hesitated. "I was visiting Annabeth."

I... what? He frowned, his brow creasing. "Why is she in Australia?"

"She works there now. I'm not really supposed to be telling you this, but… she's living there for the next year or so, working on a really big architectural project. Ever since you left and Reyna and I moved to D.C. for her job, she's been sort of free-lancing for different architecture firms."

There was a pregnant pause in which they both acknowledged their heavy guilt. "Oh," Percy choked out.

He had left because he thought it would make things better for them when he came back – assuming (hoping) she would have him. Could he have been wrong?

"I think… I think you need to go out and see her. It's really important that you do," Thalia dropped her voice – low, and urgent.

As if he really needed the encouragement.

"I- of course. But… why? If she's okay, I mean…" he asked, brow furrowing.

She made an impatient noise, and Percy could imagine her waving her hand around. "I don't know, closure or whatever -" Thalia covered the microphone of her phone and shouted something to someone in another room. "Look, Percy, I gotta go. Go to her okay? Promise?" there it was – the hard, iron cast edge in her voice that Percy had missed so very much. Well. Kind of missed. To be honest, she was kind of super scary. On a cosmic level.

"Promise," he assured her.

-x-

So.

Annabeth has a kid. A daughter. That's not too big of a deal is it? No, no it's not. Kids love me. I love kids.

Except she has green eyes and black hair.

Fuck.

He was really fucked.

"Um, are you okay?" Leah asked, hovering around his peripherals. He reeled, stumbling backwards a few paces. He stared at her; she was very, very young. Twenty, he figured. That was very young. Annabeth must've been no older than 25 when she got… inseminated. My god.

He swung his body towards Leah, swaying dangerously and grabbing her by her forearms. "Never have sex," he said, probably louder than absolutely necessary. The noise level seemed to dim a bit after he said it. Eavesdroppers.

Leah's face got very pink. "P-Percy?" she squeaked.

"Don't do it," he slurred, shaking his head vigorously. "Don't get pregnant. Bad life decision. Don't do it." He let her go in favor of the shiny green bottle on the bar countertop, intending on taking a long swig but finding it regrettably empty. Frowning and maybe hiccupping slightly, he slammed it back down onto the bar. "Another!"

"O-kay, Thor," Leah said, ducking her head as she grabbed a fistful of his t-shirt and began dragging him away from the bar. "Time to head home."

Percy made a sound best described as 'kicked puppy', but didn't resist her, stumbling after her into the crisp night. The balmy breeze rifled through his hair. It wasn't as dramatic of an undercut as it was when Annabeth first met him, but he had kept the sides shaved and grown out the top a bit.

"Annabeth," he sniffled, eyes getting kinda prickly. "I miss her. Can we go find her? She has a kid now. A girl. She looks like me."

Leah gave him a pitying look he ignored as she shoved him into a cab. "Go home," she sighed, pushing hair out of her eyes.

He gave a befuddled, suspicious look to the weary cab driver, tucking in his chin. "You know where I live?"

Leah sighed and handed the driver a card; it looked a lot like a business card. His business card. "Hey, you have my card! Wait… did I g-gave that… to you? Are you sing? Do you do the band thing?" He air guitarred just to make sure she knew what he was talking about. She just sighed and looked at him with something akin to pity. "Why're you giving me sad eyes, Leah? Oh, I know. Is it because I just discovered that I am the likely father of a three year old girl I never knew existed? Because I'm chill with that. Like so chill, man – hey, where are we going?"

He kept talking even after she shut the door with a sigh, and didn't stop until he stumbled out onto the front steps of the house he was renting and promptly vomited on his brand new steps.

Just like the good ol' days.

-x-

Percy kind of hated himself.

Like, a lot.

He didn't know whether to focus on his pounding headache or the fact that his tongue had turned to sandpaper.

He groaned and sloppily flopped over onto his stomach, burying his head in his sheets. Why is it so damn bright? When he was first looking around for apartments to rent, he found this one in Newtown and thought the big, wide windows everywhere would be great.

He had not anticipated hangovers.

He seemed to be kind of bad at anticipating things lately.

Jesus.

With a sigh, he heaved himself upwards and stumbled into the bathroom. He stuck his head under the faucet, greedily sucking in as much water as possible before pulling away and glaring at himself in the mirror. Stupid fuck up.

He was shirtless, in just the boxer briefs he had been wearing yesterday. The shirt he had been wearing yesterday was on the floor at his feet.

At least he had been able to take his clothes off last night before collapsing into bed.

His face was already scratchy with two-day-old stubble. His undercut had grown out a bit, and his bangs flopped a bit into his eyes. He looked different than he had when he was dating Annabeth. Older, of course. A bit more built (he started going on charity marathons to fill up the aching empty space his lacking social life left; plus, the abs certainly didn't hurt when he started dating again).

But still… he hadn't changed enough. He was still the reckless, impulsive punk from Brooklyn with the tattoos up his arms and spiraling over his spine. There were little scars where he had gotten his ears pierced on dares with Rachel Dare herself.

He just. He wasn't a dad. Percy was incapable of taking care of himself – how could he take care of a tiny, dependent human being? A better question would be, how the fuck did he manage to father a child and not even notice?

Fuckk.

He felt a sharp twinge in his hand that radiated up his arm. He had punched the mirror.

Shit. Good fucking job, Jackson.

I'm sure Annabeth would jump on the opportunity to raise her daughter with a guy who punches mirrors.

Little pieces of glass glittered on the floor. A few were imbedded in his knuckles. Blood, like fine garnets and rubies, dripped down his fingers, splattering against the white vanity. Cursing underneath his breath, he stepped around the broken shards of glass on the floor and walked back out into his bedroom. By how bright it was outside – stupid windows – it had be at least noon.

Which meant it would be ten in the morning in Tokyo. Examining his cuts with a morbid sort of interest, Percy grabbed his phone off the nightstand with his non-bleeding hand and walked back into the bathroom, pining the phone between his shoulder and his ear so he could rifle through the drawers in search of a couple bandaids. He found a few to wrap around his knuckles, drawing blood for a second time when he bit down on his lip as he picked out the pieces of glass. A low hiss escaped him as he swabbed the cuts with rubbing alcohol.

After he finished with that, he grabbed a dustpan and broom from downstairs and dialed Rachel.

"Jackson!" she crowed. There was the buzzing sound of the tattoo needle in the background, and someone shouting in Japanese.

Some time after Percy left, Rachel packed up her bags and moved to Tokyo after being recruited by some really fancy expensive tattoo dojo thing. By now, the only person still in the city was Grover, who had just opened a vegan restaurant in Manhattan. Percy had gone to his grand opening.

It was a true testament to their friendship that he sat through four courses of tofu and edamame.

"Hey, Rach," he sighed. The buzzing stopped and there was some shuffling sounds before Rachel spoke again.

"Hey! What's up? How's the land down under?"she asked.

Percy could feel himself just falling apart at the sound of her familiar voice. "Fuck, Rachel," he said, squeezing his eyes shut as he slid against the wall to the floor. "I don't know what to do."

"Percy?" she asked, concern filling her voice. "Are you okay?Did you find her?"

"I did," he choked out.

She caught her breath. "And?"

"Rachel – Rach, she has a daughter."

"Fuck," Rachel said. He could basically hear her eyes widening. "Is she…"

"Mine?" Percy's voice cracked. "She has green eyes, Rachel. And black hair."

"Oh, Percy, Percy, Percy…" she murmured. "What the fuck are you going to do?"

"I just - I don't know."

Rachel stayed on the phone with him as he sat there, blood-stained glass lying at his feet.

-x-

Hey guys. This will likely be a lot longer than Ignite, so you have that to look forward to (:

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! I love each and every one, and they make me write like crazy!

Anna x.