Thanks for all the birthday wishes! The best part of my day was your reviews! Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the song, "A Perfectly Good Heart".

I groggily stretched out on the couch, my socked toes barely brushing the armrest. Looking blearily at the red digital letters glaring at me through darkness, 5:38 cast a glow on my face. I groaned and shuffled over to the window, throwing the curtains open to allow the final rays of the September sunlight to filter in to the spacious but comfy family room of our apartment.

Avocados sounded good.

I bumbled my way to the kitchen, wondering absentmindedly when Percy would get home. Flicking on the light switch, I grabbed an avocado off the counter and sliced it open. By the time I had cubed it, I was no longer hungry for it.

Ah, cravings.

I stared down at my pristine chucks of avocado, sitting innocently on the counter.

"Now what am I supposed to do with you?" I asked my snack.

It didn't reply.

"You think you're funny, don't you? You made me so hungry for you, I cut you up, and now I don't even want to eat you."

My avocado said nothing.

"You're mocking me," I said accusingly. "Well, you can just-"

Oh my gods. What are you doing, Annabeth? You're talking... to a mangled avocado.

Pregnancy was doing weird things to me.

I quickly put the avocado into a Tupperware, concerned that it might start talking back. Cravings and mood swings were maddening for a child of Athena. It felt as if your hormones were outsmarting your brain, manipulating your feelings and tapping into your appetite. And just when I got a handle on how I was feeling, my cravings would go off the charts or vice versa. It was frustrating to me and downright frightening to Percy.

Not that we minded. We had been talking about having kids from day one, but after being married a while it kind of hit us that we were when that seemingly far-off fantasy became a present-day possibility. After a lot of Venn Diagrams weighing the pros and cons between having a baby now and waiting awhile, we decided to not necessarily try to get pregnant... but don't do anything to prevent it either. However, the first time we had sex after coming to said decision Percy had no sooner than rolled off me than said, "Hey, maybe you should go take a test!"

It was then we realized how ready we were to be parents.

So, after six months, lots of, erm, productive time in the bedroom and one false alarm, I woke up one morning and knew. I had felt the delicate balance of my body shift into a different kind of symmetry, I sensed that my cycles had been altered, and I just knew. Of course, I took seven tests to be sure, but I was certain from the get go. And we were overjoyed. Not once in the last seven weeks had Percy or I complained or had second thoughts about our baby; not even when morning sickness crept up on me... And all over Percy. Both of us covered in bile, he just grinned at me and said, "We're gonna be parents!"

Now, with the ninth week quickly approaching us, I had submerged myself in pamphlets about pregnancy and prenatal care and circumcision and epidurals and everything else under the sun. Our apartment was littered with them; it almost appeared as if Percy and were trying to start a new era in home decor. My laptop had as many parenting guides on the desktop as blueprints.

As I was leafing through a brochure regarding water births (which Percy was all for) I thought back to my doctors visit last week. There, in grainy black at white, was our baby, the thumping of their heart fluttering steadily across the monitor.

"A perfectly good heart," the technician said, smiling at Percy and I. Percy just squeezed my hand, transfixed at the sight of his child on the screen.

I heard cheerful whistling in the hallway, signaling my husbands arrival.

"Hey, Annabeth," he said, ambling into the kitchen with a briefcase and a grin.

"Welcome home, hon," I said, glancing up briefly from my reading when he pecked my forehead.

"Annabeth reading something, check," Percy said smiling. "Baby?" He bent his head down to in stomach, pretending to listen carefully. "Check," he said happily, ruffling my hair. "Looks like we're good to go here."

"Sure are," I said. "Except I'm hungry. Any dinner ideas?"

"I'll cook tonight," Percy said, taking his tie off and adopting an all business manner. I, however knew Percy; not always the most reliable person to get a a decent meal on the table.

"What do you want to eat?" Percy asked.

"Hmm... Breakfast for dinner sounds good. French toast?" Percy's smile faltered a little bit.

"Actually, French toast isn't my forte," he said, scratching the back of his neck.

"How about pancakes?"

"Nope."

"Omelets?"

"Afraid not..."

"Waffles?"

"Ahh...no."

"Scrambled Eggs?"

"Er, not so much."

I sighed. "What can you cook?"

"Umm... Pasta. And pasta... oh, and pasta..." Percy smiled sheepishly at me

"Hmm... pasta sounds good." I said.

"One plate of pasta, coming up!" Percy said, putting a pot of water on to boil. Twenty minutes later, we sat on the couch watching the history channel while eating plain noodles. ("I said I could cook pasta, Annabeth, not pasta and sauce!") Percy was grading papers while I was working on my laptop, designing arches for a new building being put in downtown Manhattan.

"Ugh," Percy said, fervently crossed out a short answer on some poor kids test. "This guy tried to convince me that Artemis is the goddess of love instead of Aphrodite... And got the Muses confused with the Fates... And seriously? He said Hercules's mother was Hera? That's only in the Disney movie..." I laughed as my husband cursed animated films and quality family entertainment.

"Well, you'd best get used to it," I said, patting my stomach.

"Yeah yeah..." he said, playfully nudging me.

"Excited for tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah. A little nervous."

I was too. Tomorrow we were having Paul and Sally over to tell them that we were expecting. We knew they'd be happy; Sally had been egging us on for a while now. But we knew as soon as we broke the news we'd have to tell our Olympian parents, which could only result in all hell breaking loose. It was the perfect scenario to say "Oy vey" in without getting weird looks.

"In a weird way, I'm going to miss keeping it our little secret," I said.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Like from now on when we see people, they'll just be asking about the pregnancy, and when you have the baby they'll want to know how their doing, and it will just keep going like that." He paused. "And I suppose once we tell our parents we'll have to tell every one at camp- I mean, we can't just let the reason for World War III go unexplained," Percy said, referring to my mothers reaction when she finds out.

"Yeah," I said grimly. "Not to mention all the jokes... I mean, do you think the Stoll brothers are going to leave this one alone?"

Percy groaned. "Oh gods have mercy, the Stoll brothers..." I put my laptop aside and stood up, stretching my hands toward the ceiling.

"We should probably go to bed," Percy yawned, standing as well.

"Yeah, probably should." I clicked the television off. Taking my hand, Percy and I walked to our room. While I brushed my teeth, I did my nightly ritual of inspecting my stomach, searching for the tiniest sign of a baby bump.

"I don't see anything tonight, sweetheart," Percy said, kissing my stomach. "Maybe tomorrow. Doc said that you won't start showing for a few more weeks."

Disappointed, I allowed myself to be put to bed, tucked into the fluffy white comforter on our bed. I curled up into Percy's arms, snuggling into his bare chest, his skin warm against my face.

"Night Annabeth," he said sleepily, kissing my forehead sloppily before he began to snore lightly.

"Goodnight, Percy," I whispered softy. Sleep overtook me before I knew it, tonight a dreamless experience.

I woke up at two in the morning to a wet, slick sensation between my legs. Sitting up, I saw I had soaked a good portion of the bed in blood, no doubt a direct correlation between the twisting feeling in my stomach. Cursing menstrual cycles, I dragged myself out of bed and grabbed a new pair of pajama pants and underwear.

I didn't realize what was happening.

I flicked on the light in the bathroom and pulled off my soiled pants, making a mental note to clean them tomorrow.

My my mind muddied by sleep, I still hadn't pieced it together.

Gods, I was bleeding a lot. I fumbled in the cabinet to find a tampon, finally finding a half full box.

It still hasn't dawned on me.

Still bleeding, I went over to the toilet, past my vanity were I had a framed picture of Percy and I when we were twelve and our wedding photo, which I had propped the ultrasound picture up against.

The ultrasound picture.

It was if I was struck by electricity, sending every nerve in my body into over drive. Wide awake now, realization crashed into me, feeling like I did when I was thirteen trying to hold up the sky. Feeling like I did when I was seventeen, falling, falling, falling into Tataurus. No. No.

I ran into the dark bedroom, turning the lights on and shaking Percy. No.

"Percy! PERCY!"

"Wha?" he said irritably, sitting up. Seeing the blood stained bed, he relaxed a bit.

"Oh, it's ok," he said, coming to the same wrong conclusion as I had. "Let's clean it up in the morning, we can go sleep in the guest room-"

"Percy!" I screeched, scared witless.

"What?" he asked, looking alarmed.

"I'm supposed to be pregnant."

The words hung there, the room silent, Percy's face now mirroring the horrified expression on my own.

"Fuck," he said. "Oh, shit. No. Okay, it's okay. Shit. Umm..." he looked around the room, panicking. He paced wildly as I stood there quietly, blood running down my legs and onto the white carpet.

"Percy-" my voice broke, my lungs and eyes and throat burning, my mind reeling. "I need to go to the hospital," I choked out.

"Hospital!" he cried in agreement, pulling on a shirt at random and yanking on a pair of shoes. I was frozen in my spot. For the first time, I was struck dumb and Percy had to be the one to keep calm and call shots in a crisis all by himself. "Yes, hospital. I will drive. You will find some pants. And get a pad or a towel or something. No just kidding I'll do that just- just stay here!" He dashed out of the room, doing Gods know what. I couldn't move. I felt like my lungs had been steam rolled. I felt like I was being crushed between two cement blocks coming closer and closer together as they slowly smashed me.

Percy came running in. And started helping me into a pair of yoga pants. "Look, maybe it's not what we think. Maybe this happens sometimes." He shoved one of his college sweatshirts over my head. "Its gonna be okay. everything will be fine. Lets go." He took my hand and pulled me towards the door, leading me like a mother leads her small child.

The hospital, the smell of antiseptic stinging my nostrils and fluorescent lights making me blink. I heard nothing, felt nothing. I saw people talking to me, but I could not hear them. Percy's hands were on my shoulders, but I did not feel them. All I heard was the beating of my own heart, thundering in my ears as my eyes slid in and out focus.

I was put in a hospital gown and had an IV put in my arm. A man in a white lab coat came in and knelt by my bed. He looked me in the eyes and spoke for a while. I did not hear anything. Do you understand? His lips asked Do you understand? I continued to look at him. He needed to shave. Percy's concerned face came into view, eyebrow scrunched together with worry. Annabeth? Annabeth! He began to shake me, gently at first, then harder. Annabeth! I could see panic on his face, and for the first time since I had slipped into this state of quiet shock I wanted to break free of it, reach out and touch his face and tell him that it's alright. But it wasn't, so I didn't. I continued to sit and look into those green eyes, those eyes I had hoped my baby would have. Percy, now visibly yelling my name and shaking me violently, was pulled away by a nurse and put into a chair across the room. I saw him crying. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. Or maybe I was crying but couldn't tell. I was still bleeding.

Time seemed to have no substance. I shut my eyes to keep the glare of the bright lights away from my eyes. I stared at the back of my eyelids. When I opened my eyes again, Percy was no longer crying but was clutching a cup of coffee, talking to a doctor and gesturing to me.

Too much blood. I had read about this. This was not normal; something had to be done. After a while Percy came over and talked to me. I didn't hear him, but I liked having him there, holding my hand even though I did not feel it. I felt sleepy. Very tired. Percy kissed my forehead and brushed my hair out of my face... I was slipping off some sort of edge. I wasn't dying, I couldn't see the underworld or Charlie or Silena or Zoe or Bianca. It was dark. I let it take over.

A perfectly good heart.

I woke up to the whirl of hospital machines and beeping of devices. The cotton sheets were scratchy on my bare legs. Fluttering my eyes open, I blinked around the dimly lit room, the small fluorescent light casting a cool glow against the ceiling. Percy was sprawled out in a recliner. Drooling.

In the quiet peace of the sleeping hospital, I took the time to come to terms with what had happened. Placing my hand on my stomach, I felt empty, both physically and mentally. I knew I no longer had a baby. I knew I had had surgery, clearing out anything left. My child's perfectly good heart had stopped, and my perfectly good heart, though still beating strong, was broken. I got angry. I thought about how it wasn't fair, that we were ready. I cursed Hera, the patron of childbirth, I cursed Zeus for being her husband, I held them all accountable. My mother, Artemis, Hades, Percy, Barak Obama, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Kate Middleton, Luke, Walt Disney, Harry Potter and God and Jesus himself; I blamed them all. I blamed myself. I blamed global warming. I blamed crying. I cried. I cried and cried, silent tears of hopeless sorrow. I screamed, but no noise came out. I bit my tongue. I asked myself over and over what I had done, how this had happened. I yanked the IV out of my arm, I kicked my bedsheets off and threw the biggest, quietest temper tantrum. I slowly yanked each petal of every flower in the vase on my nightstand and threw them on the ground. I got up and paced. I sat down and grieved. Finally, I laid back on my pillow, so exhausted and alone. I stopped thinking, I just stopped feeling sad or angry. Not because I was over it, but because I simply couldn't handle it any longer. I had no tears left.

"Annabeth?" Percy raised his head off the cushion of the chair. I smiled weakly at him and waved pathetically, my hospital bracelet bouncing around my wrist.

"Oh thank the Gods you're alright." He popped up out of the chair and came striding over to my bed and climbed in with me. Cradling me in his arms, we said nothing. He did not ask why my flowers were destroyed or my IV was out or why my sheets were thrown off. He simply pulled them up around us. After a while though, he began to talk. More to himself than anything. He talked about how he loved me, how he loved our baby even if we wouldn't ever meet them. He talked about how proud he was of me, of us, and that I'll make a wonderful mommy. Someday. When the time is right. We'll get through this together, just like we did everything. He started talking about how we meet, about our adventures and our friends and camp. He talked about our first kiss and prom and our wedding and first anniversary and going to movie premieres and vacations to California and our trip to London and about us and our future and how he couldn't wait to spend eternity with me in the Underworld. I laid there and let his words wash over me, smiling at the memories. I would get better. I would go on, because I had Percy with me, backing me up every step of the way. The healing had begun.

"I love you."

A perfectly good heart.

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