Only a few chapters left of this one! But they are important-also adorable and I love family bonding so there's that-Luke is still an amazing big brother and Percy? Well Percy might just be a lil bit jealous.
Percy spent the next several hours with Thalia, Chiron and Nico, helping Chiron catch Thalia up on everything that had happened while she was a tree-well, to an extent-they hadn't told Thalia about the fact that Annabeth had been on the two biggest quests in years, she'd probably freak out.
Of course that meant that none of them really got any sleep-so when the rest of camp started to wake Percy was curled up on a chair next to Thalia's infirmary bed, Nico perched on it next to her.
It was pretty early when Percy heard the call from outside heading rapidly towards the Big House.
"Percy!" and it was Annabeth's voice.
Thalia didn't seem to recognize it-it had probably changed in the years since she'd last seen Annabeth.
And then Grover's voice joined Annabeth's "Percy!" and Percy winced. They'd have woken up to find her suddenly gone-it made sense that they were panicked.
Percy groaned to herself, slipping off the chair as Chiron sighed, "Ah, Percy, please go out and explain the situation to them."
"Of course Chiron." Percy nodded and headed outside quickly, out of the Infirmary and out onto the porch-which Annabeth and Grover were fast
approaching.
"Percy!" Annabeth nearly smashed into her "What's going on? Travis and Connor said Nico woke Luke up really late last night and dragged him off and you weren't in the Cabin we were worried-"
"I'm fine." Percy hugged Annabeth tightly, wrapping her free arm around Grover. "Listen guys something's happened-"
"What is it?" Annabeth pulled back quickly, still gripping one of Percy's arms, and Grover did the same.
"Is it something bad?" Grover looked worried, "Is it the Fleece or something?"
"The Fleece is fine-Luke's probably still guarding it right now-"
"Luke?" Annabeth's brows furrowed, "Why's Luke guarding it."
"Because." Percy took a deep breath, "Annabeth the Fleece didn't just heal the poison in the tree." she glanced back toward the inside of the Big House, "Nico and I both went up there last night because we sensed something we just didn't know what it was but... Annabeth... the Fleece healed more than the poison. You two..."
Annabeth was the first to figure it out, her grip on Percy's arm loosening, "She-you-is it-"
"It's Thalia." Percy stated quietly, "Annaeth Thalia is alive-she's in the infirmary right now, Chiron's been being pretty thorough making sure that she's okay."
"She's okay?" Annabeth's voice cracked, "Really?"
"She's alive?"
"Yes and yes." Percy nodded, "And Annabeth one of the first things she did was ask about you."
"She did?" Annabeth looked like she wanted to cry. "C-Can I see her?"
"I don't see why not. You coming in too G-man?"
"Of course." Grover also looked like he wanted to cry.
"C'mon then." Percy pulled her friends inside quickly, leading them through the halls of the Big House to the Infirmary.
Once they reached the infirmary doors she gave a small knock before opening it slightly and peering around them, "Chiron, uh, can I bring in a couple of visitors."
"Of course, as long as you feel up to it Thalia."
"I guess, who are the visitors?" Thalia turned her head to look at the infirmary doors, and Percy pushed them open.
She glanced sidelong at Annabeth, and she saw the way her best friend tensed when she saw Thalia, saw the way Thalia's eyes opened wide, and then Thalia had her arms wide open and Annabeth was rushing past Percy and launching herself at Thalia, and Thalia's arms wrapped around Annabeth tightly-Percy winced slightly at the loud heart wrenching sobs that she knew were Annabeth's. And then Grover was scrambling across the room, and Percy glanced at Nico, tilting her head towards the door meaningfully.
Nico nodded and got out of the chair, looking fairly relieved to be able to leave and avoid the emotional reunion. Chiron nodded at them both, "You two get some sleep, I'll get someone to relieve Luke too." his voice was soft, "Shall I tell him to meet you both in the Poseidon Cabin."
"Yes please." Percy gave a small nod and a smile, "Thank you Chiron." she grabbed Nico's arm and together they made their way out of the Big House and to the Poseidon Cabin, Percy sorting out the blankets as Nico toppled into one of the free beds.
Tyson wasn't there-Percy assumed he was probably down at the forges since that was where he went most days.
Less than half an hour later Luke joined them, and the three siblings crashed together.
After that things seemed to shift.
Thalia spent a week in the infirmary, Annabeth refused to leave her side-she slept in there too, which meant that unless Percy visited she didn't get to see the other girl-and Grover spent a fair amount of time there too.
Luckily she still had Nico, Tyson and Luke around, but still she found that she missed her best friends, Grover was around a bit but... Percy felt like she'd lost something.
Even spending time helping her mom cook blue cookies for all of the campers hadn't really brightened up her mood-though it had shockingly enough managed to win over Mr. D.
Annabeth's birthday came and went and Percy didn't even really get the chance to see her.
Percy hated how she was feeling. It was stupid and petty-her mom had raised her better than it, but she was jealous.
It felt like Thalia was stealing her best friend away and it wasn't fair.
Oh she didn't exactly blame any of them- Annabeth was understandably happy that Thalia was back, of course she wanted to spend as much time as she could with the daughter of Zeus-she'd almost lost her. Of course she'd be clingy.
And Grover had blamed himself for her death, it made sense that being around her helped get rid of those guilty feelings.
And Thalia, gods Thalia had been through so much and Annabeth had been her world, of course she wanted her close.
And yet knowing all of that didn't make the jealousy go away.
And there was the little fact that she'd quietly spoken to Chiron about.
They both thought that Kronos wanted Thalia back-though Chiron agreed that Alabaster probably hadn't known what would happen-he was far too interested in Percy for him to actually want someone else to be the hero of prophecy, but still it made it somewhat had to trust her for Percy-knowing that Kronos had wanted Thalia alive because he wanted her to be the child of prophecy-she knew Chiron was weary too since he hadn't really had time to get to know her.
In any case Chiron wanted to give Thalia time to adjust before dropping that little bomb on the daughter of Zeus.
Percy wasn't sure how she felt about Thalia being the one the prophecy was about-she didn't actually want it she knew that much, but she'd started to accept the idea that there was some big prophecy about her, and now suddenly it wasn't about her it was about Thalia. About the girl who got Annabeth and Grover.
And yeah, yeah she resented the girl-which was stupid because she'd never really talked with her properly-she found that she always felt stupid and clumsy in front of the strong brave daughter of Zeus who had died for her friends.
And Thalia was never really rude, though there was suspicion in her gaze whenever she saw Percy.
It wasn't fair, none of it was. And Percy found herself trying to avoid her brothers more often than not, and her mom too.
And she always went to the place where she felt most at peace.
She'd been in the middle of a swim when she caught sight of someone stood on the beach waving.
She sighed to herself, swimming reluctantly into shore and walking out of the water once it was shallow enough that she could stand-she didn't bother to dry herself, it wasn't like she was at risk of getting sick from not drying off after all.
As she got closer Percy groaned to herself, it was Luke, sun glinting off of his messy blond hair as he leaned back on his heels and raised an eyebrow as he watched her come in.
"Hey Sephie." he raised an eyebrow at the slight scowl on her lip, "You've been avoiding us-Nico's real worried about you- Will and Kayla keep having to distract him."
"Way to make me feel bad." Percy muttered, looking down as she crossed her arms. "I'm fine Luke, not avoiding-"
"Okay, cut the crap Sephie. I know you better than anyone-maybe even better than mom does and I know when you're upset." Luke gave her a serious
look, "What's wrong with you lately? You're never this distant."
"There's nothing wrong." Percy snapped the words, and Luke moved forward, hand cupping her cheek.
"Persephone Alethea-Alexandria Jackson don't you dare lie to me." his voice was firm, "What is wrong?" and there was so much concern in his eyes that Percy felt her own eyes filling with tears as she started to crumble.
"I miss Annabeth." she muttered the words, "And Grover. They're always with Thalia-"
"Oh." Luke breathed out slowly, "Oh-Sephie... Gods of course. I can't believe I didn't realise." he pulled her into a hug. "Hey... it's okay Sephie-"
"No it's not." Percy muttered, shaking her head, "It's not okay it isn't." she shook her head. "I shouldn't be so worked over this isn't selfish and jealous and it's not fair-it's not like I'm annoyed at Annabeth or Grover and I get why they wanna be with her all of the time I do-"
"Sephie-" Luke sighed, rubbing circles into her back soothingly, "Sephie feelings don't have to be logical you know that-like, I know you can look after yourself but that doesn't mean I don't worry about you. And you know why Annabeth and Grover are spending so much time with Thalia but that doesn't mean you can't miss your friends." Luke rested his chin on the top of her head, "You're not doing anything wrong." he paused, "Do-Sephie do I sound like mom right now?" the mock horror in his voice made Percy giggle-which had clearly been his goal-and not for the first time Percy silently thanked the Gods for the fact that she had the best big brother ever-and she did it wasn't debatable she'd be willing to fight anyone who tried to say otherwise.
Somehow he always knew what to say, he always knew how to comfort her and when to lighten the mood. Sure he thoroughly enjoyed teasing her too, but he was right-he knew her better than anyone else.
"Just a little bit."
"Ugh." Luke groaned, though she could see his lips twitching with a smile, "It's being here year round-I'm the oldest camper so they all come to me for stuff that they don't want to talk to Chiron about. Sephie I've become responsible." he gave a small shudder, "We have to do something about it. This can't continue-I'll turn into a grown up-"
"I mean, you are twent-"
"Shush." Luke slapped his hand over her mouth, "No I'm not. As long as you don't say it no one needs to know. Now help me come up with some prank to play." he moved his hand and Percy paused, "I can't think of anything off the top of my head but Travis and Connor always have something up their sleeves-"
"Genius Sephie." Luke clapped his hands together, "Now you're coming too-no arguments princess not a chance. You need to have some fun to distract you from your moping. Besides Annabeth and Grover aren't the only ones in Camp, you have other friends here."
"I... I guess." Percy smiled weakly, "Think we should grab Nico-"
"I think that's a great idea, I'm sure he'll enjoy causing some mischief with us, and like I said, he's been worrying about you-boy has major abandonment issues and you're his beloved big sister, he's been wondering if he did something to upset you-"
"Of course not!" Percy's eyes widened "He could never-"
"Then let's go tell him that." Luke patted Percy's shoulder reassuringly, and Percy grabbed his hand, "To Cabin three! I need to get dressed in actual clothes that aren't a swimsuit."
"To Cabin three." Luke laughed as he copied Percy, calling the words with a playful grin on his face. "And then we'll steal our darling baby brother from his new friends and we'll track down the Stolls." he paused, "Think we could find some prank to pull against Mr. D?"
"Luke!" Percy yelped the name, her eyes wide, "You wouldn't dare!"
"All I'd have to do would be hint at it and my prank loving brothers would come up with some plan-"
"A plan to get us all smited-" Percy paused, brows furrowing, "Smited-is that a word it doesn't sound like a word."
"The correct term is smote." Luke laughed, shaking his head fondly as he ruffled her hair, "I love you Sephie. Never change."
"I won't." Percy laughed, shoulder bumping him-which made Luke wrap an arm around her shoulder as they reached the Poseidon Cabin and headed inside.
"And Luke?"
"Yeah Sephie?"
"Thank you."
