[Luke]

By noon, I had been asked no less than thirteen times if I was okay.

The fourteenth time was Alabaster asking me for the third time, to which I answered with a fervently mad yet numb, "They're all alive, you're alive. I'm dead. And yet my soul refused to wander down to the Fields of Punishment, so I get to watch all that I destroyed."

That was apparently a concerning enough answer for him to manhandle me, while I laughed madly, and get Clovis to knock me out so he could drag me to the infirmary.

By the time I woke up an hour later, Annabeth was staring at me from her perch on a chair beside my bed. I was restrained to the metal bed and I could hear faint whispers from the other room.

"They think you went insane," Annabeth said blandly, narrowing her eyes at me. "They fear that you pissed Mr. D off enough for him to curse you, but he denies it. Says you cracked all by yourself overnight. I don't buy it."

"Annabeth," I whisper, ignoring what she's said, "I've almost forgotten how young you were. So naive."

I go to lift my hand to cup her cheek but the restraints stop me. Instead, I get slapped. My head whips to the side as my cheek stings horribly. I snap back to the present as I stare at her in shock.

Annabeth is glaring at me, "Luke! Focus. We are both in the past, and I'd like my only companion in this strange adventure to be sane."

My mind spins, "Both? You mean-"

"Yeah, I remember." She spat, "And I'm still fucking pissed at you. Who told you to overthrow the gods in the worst possible manner? Great-gramps isn't much better and you killed so many people. What the fuck were you thinking?"

My brain seemed to shut down. What? "You- don't care that I tried to overthrow the gods? Just that I did it wrong?"

"Yes!" She hissed.

"Oh." I said dumbly.

There were a few seconds of silence where I tried to digest all that I've learnt while Annabeth sits in her uncomfortable chair in a huff.

"Annabeth?" I ask tentatively, "Did you die trying to do the same as me?"

She shook her head, "No. I didn't die. I fell asleep on the couch with my husband, and woke up here. I don't know what happened."

"Husband? How long-?" I croaked.

Misery was written all over her face as she crawled out of the chair and onto the bed. She curled into my side just like she did when she was little. "Percy and I got married on August 18th, 2014. I came from 2016."

I wanted to hug her back but my hands were still restrained, instead I tried to tease her. "Percy Jackson, huh? I remember when you hated him."

She sniffled, "He's still a Seaweed Brain."

"Yeah, I know." I cooed softly.

A thought occurred to me that made me blink back tears, "You're the same age as me."

She looked up. "What?"

"You're 23 years old. I'm 23."

She buried her head back into my neck, I could barely hear her muffled, "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Annabeth. As you said, I'm an idiot." I point out, cradling her the best I can with the restraints.

"We both are." She says.

And that's all we need to say. We sit there in silence, comforting each other.

oOo

There was a gentle knock on the door before Chiron trotted in, Lee and Alabaster on his heels.

They seemed to analyse the way that me and Annabeth were clinging onto each other, the dried tear tracks on both our faces, the pure abject misery, before proceeding cautiously.

"Luke," Chiron said calmly. "Do you know what's going on right now?"

I nodded, "Yeah, you think I lost my marbles."

Chiron startled, "Well now, I wouldn't-"

"Yes, we do. You were raving about dying and everyone coming back to life, Luke. What the actual Hades?" Alabaster interrupted.

I flinched, "I'm sorry. I had a very disturbing dream that disoriented me, and I-" I tried to lie, rather badly, but it should placate Chiron.

"Bullshi-"

"Alabaster!" Chiron warned, "If you can't behave yourself, I will not hesitate to kick you out of the infirmary."

Alabaster scowled, but didn't interrupt again.

Chiron turned back to me, "Are you sure, Luke? In all my years I haven't seen a demigod dream affect one as badly as yours did. Last time I saw a demigod react like this was with Hercules."

I flinched and that was enough for Annabeth to detach herself from me to snap at Chiron. "Don't you dare! He's not mad! How dare you?"

"Annabeth," I tried to soothe, but all it did was make her turn to glare at me instead. I held eye-contact for a few seconds, silently pleading for her not to make the already bad situation worse, and she deflated.

Chiron cleared his throat, glancing between me and Annabeth. "Well if you don't mind Luke, we'd like to keep you here for a bit longer. You were acting like you were a danger to yourself and others, and you seemed a bit confused at your surroundings. You'll have a break from your councillor duties, of course."

Translation: I still believe you went off the rails and we're keeping you here until we're certain you aren't going to snap and kill yourself or others. You're no longer a councillor, you've lost all power in Camp.

Great. Just what I needed; people believing that I'm insane when I'm trying to save everyones' lives. Move aside, Cassandra of Troy, there's a new sheriff in town.

I nod, "Of course." I put on the perfect mask of a regretful child ashamed of their actions, "I'm sorry, sir."

Chiron softened, "It's not your fault, child." He patted my head and I couldn't help but lean into the contact - It's been so long since I had some sort of positive touch.

oOo

Chiron and Lee had been questioning me for over an hour about what had happened, with Annabeth and Alabaster sitting beside me and glaring at them whenever they asked an 'invasive question.'

I was quite tired and five seconds away from sending them all away so I could sleep when Michael popped his head around the door.

"Uh, Chiron?" He began, making everyone swivel around to face him. "Lord Hermes is here and he wants to see Luke, should I tell him he went insane or…?"

Wait, what? My father is here? Wait- does everyone know I lost it?

"WHAT?!" I could hear my father shout from the other room. "Let me in!"

Damn it, Michael.

My father burst into the room, beelining towards me.

Alabaster and Lee quickly fled the room, not wanting to be near an angry god, but Annabeth just tightened her grip on my shirt.

A faint part of me noted that my father looked very worried, he was concerned about me. The other, bitter, part of me just wondered why he was even here.

"Lord Hermes-" Chiron tried to cajole my father, but got promptly ignored.

"Luke! Are you okay? What happened? I'm sorry! Are you injured?" He fluttered like a hummingbird around me - far too quick for me to even comprehend.

I was too exhausted to answer and he whirled on Chiron for the answers when a beat passed without any response from my already addled self.

"Chiron, answer me! And why is my son restrained like some beast?" He snarled.

"Luke here reacted badly to a dream. He is restrained because we fear him to be a danger to himself." Chiron seemed to be the one playing mediator today, and I don't envy him.

"What?" Father turned back to me, pale as if he just saw a ghost.

I knew what he was seeing when he saw me; my mother. I hated it.

"I saw everyone die. The great prophecy; so many dead. I died for it." I rasped bitterly, "Forgive me for not reacting very well to it."

My father managed to get paler still. "Luke," He whispered brokenly, "I'm so sorry."

I turned away, looking down at Annabeth, still on my lap, watching the proceedings silently.

Unheard to me, but not to her, Hermes muttered; "This must be what Apollo warned me about."

He sat on the bed and put a hand on my cheek, making me look up at him in shock. Our eyes met - blue on blue - and I could tell that we were both crying. My restraints fell off.

"I'm so sorry, my son," He whispered. "I'm so very proud of you. I love you."

He leant down to press a kiss to my forehead and that broke the dam holding the tears back. My arms came to cling to him as I sobbed into his neck.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never meant to- I'm sorry!" I repeated, brokenly, to him.

"Hush, I understand." Father soothed, rubbing my back. "I've got you, my son. I've got you."

A/N

I'm an angst writer if you couldn't tell

Yeah so, Annabeth and Luke found each other, and Alabaster had to wrestle his best friend to the infirmary cus Luke never admits something is wrong.