Sorry this update took a little longer than I had planned. It's been a crazy week around here but school starts tomorrow and my freedom returns! So read, review and enjoy!

Disclaimer : I do not own Percy Jackson, or any of the content published from Rick Riordan.

Chapter 12

Annabeth pulled her legs into the chair looked up at the woman behind the desk. "You don't mind do you?" Annabeth pointed at her legs and the woman smiled back at her.

"Not at all. As long as you are comfortable."

Annabeth sighed and leaned back into the chair completely. "So . . . how does this work?"

The woman quickly finished writing in her notebook and then picked herself up, along with the notebook and made her way around the desk. She slowly sat down across from Annabeth looked at her with caring blue eyes. "Well . . . you talk. You can either pour your heart out to me or I can ask questions and we can work through your responses. It's up to you."

"How about you ask questions and I will attempt to answer." Annabeth couldn't look at the woman. She simply kept her gaze on her hands in her lap.

The woman leaned forward and with her pen, lightly tapped Annabeth's cast. "What happened here?"

Annabeth glanced up and the woman leaned back, her pen poised, ready to take down anything Annabeth said. She took in a deep breath and then filled the woman in on the car wreck and how Percy had saved her from being hit head on by the speeding car. She then told her how Luke had crushed her cast around her wrist and helped her to fracture her wrist all over again. She watched as the woman nodded and jotted down quick notes.

The woman stopped for a minute and looked at her carefully, almost as if deciding how she should proceed with the next question. She then pointed her pen at Annabeth's bandaged wrist. "And what happened here?"

Annabeth turned her head to the side and tried to blink back the tears. "Do we have to go there right now?"

The woman leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees. "I know this is hard for you Annabeth, but we have to work through things to get you back on track. So please, tell me what happened to your wrist."

Annabeth looked down at her wrist and back up at the woman and the tears poured out of her eyes. "Have you ever wished that you could just take back control of your life when it is suddenly thrown into a downward spiral?"

"Yes."

Annabeth looked up to the see the woman looking at her with complete understanding in her eyes. "I just wanted the pain to stop. I . . . I . . . I don't know how to explain it."

"Try," The woman urged her on.

"I felt like my entire world was crumbling around me. For the past two weeks I have been dealing with the stress of Luke and what he did to me. I can't push it to the back of mind. He took away my security, my faith that man is more good than evil, my ability to protect myself."

The woman nodded and asked, "Did you try to protect yourself?"

"Yes. I failed miserably."

"Did you tell him no? Did you ask him to stop? Did you fight back to the best of your ability?"

Tears were leaving salty streams down Annabeth's face and she answered with a shaky voice, "Yes, yes and no."

"Why do you say no?"

"I should have been able to take him. I have had Judo and self-defense classes. He shouldn't have been able to take me like that." Annabeth's tone was defeated as she tried to calm herself.

"Annabeth, you were asleep when he attacked you. He is also a good six or seven inches taller than you, not to mention he had some weight on you as well."

"I still . . ." Her voice trailed off as she shook her head.

"Look at me." Annabeth did as she was told and the woman continued on, "You did everything you could. You even managed to call your boyfriend whom, if my notes are correct, saved you from Luke."

Annabeth nodded and out of instinct went to press her hands into her eyes in an attempt to slow the tears. "Damn cast!" She dropped her broken wrist back in her lap and looked away.

"Annabeth, you did everything you possibly could to protect yourself. You have to stop beating yourself up over Luke's actions. You cannot physically control what someone else does to you when they attack in a way where you cannot truly fight for yourself."

"I just . . . how long is it going to take to get over this. The nightmares are continuous. I don't sleep and when I do it is fitful and not restful."

"That will depend on you." The woman placed her notebook and pen on the desk next to her and pulled herself to the edge of the chair. "It's going to take time. This is not something you can just forget. You went through something extremely traumatizing and it's not something that can be fixed overnight. You are going to have a long road ahead of you simply because you are going to be asked to drag all of this back up again when he goes to trial."

Annabeth sighed heavily and let the sobs consume her. She didn't even think about all of this coming back up again with the trial.

"Do you spend much time with Percy?"

Annabeth tried to calm herself but all she could do was nod.

The woman handed her a box of tissues and she pulled out several and shoved them to her face. "I am at his place every day. I can't bear to go back home." Annabeth was quiet for a moment and the woman watched her carefully. "How do I make things go back to normal with him?"

"What do you mean?"

"When he touches me, I flinch. I can't help it. When he hugs me, I pull away before allowing him to hug me fully. I can tell he is getting frustrated with me but he won't say anything and he just trudges on waiting for me."

"Percy is going to have to learn to wait for you Annabeth. I hate to say that, but at the same time you are going to have to learn to trust him. He is going to be your biggest asset. Percy is also going through his own struggle. He asked me to share this with you because he can't seem to get through to you without making you upset."

"I am not ready to deal with his struggle though. I can't even deal with mine," She cried.

"You can't ignore him Annabeth. You live with him for crying out loud. You have to learn to trust him and listen to him." The woman leaned back slowly in her chair picking up the notebook and pen again. "So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Annabeth managed to squeak out.

Annabeth quietly put her key in the lock and pushed on the door and let herself in. "Perce, are you here?"

She dropped her keys and purse on the side table by the door and listened for him as she then shut the door. "Percy?"

She walked in and found him dozing on the sofa. He looked so peaceful lying there that she wasn't sure she wanted to wake him. She carefully sat down next to him and watched as he stirred ever so slightly. She carefully kicked off her shoes and laid down next to him.

Percy rolled toward her and draped an arm over her waist, gently pulling her toward him. Annabeth buried her face in his chest, taking in a deep breath of the warm sea smell that was him. She would talk to him later. Right now she just wanted to be with him.

They only had two weeks left before she was on a plane to Texas and she was going to suck it up and try to move on from her rape. As she thought about it, images from that night flashed through her mind. She quickly bit the inside of her cheek and willed the images away. She could do this. She could be happy with Percy and not worry about shying away from him at the same time.

At some point while lying next to Percy, Annabeth had managed to fall asleep. It wasn't a fitful sleep and she was comfortable next to Percy for the first time in two weeks. And then something changed. She felt Percy shift next to her and his movements were only enough to pull her from her deep sleep but not wake her completely.

Her senses were heightened as she tried to wake herself completely and as she started to come to, all she could feel was Percy's presence above her. She knew it wasn't Luke and she also knew that Percy was not about to try something she fully didn't want right now but her mind went into panic mode. Before she knew what was happening she had her arms around Percy and had flipped him to her right, causing him to crash into the coffee table. There was a loud thud that followed almost instantly as he crashed to the ground with the broken table.

"DAMMIT ANNABETH, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"

"I am so sorry Percy," Annabeth squeaked through her tears. She quickly jumped up and held a hand out to him but he slapped it away and Annabeth inched back away from him. "I am truly sorry Percy," She whimpered as she held her hand out to him again.

Percy didn't take her hand again and instead pushed himself up off of the floor. He watched her carefully as she took a timid step toward him. "Don't," He growled at her as he rubbed his back side.

Annabeth dropped her hand and then her head and let the tears flow. She decided it was best to not be in his sight at this moment and took off to the spare room that Alexa used when she stayed with him. She quickly ran into the room and slammed the door. She cursed silently when she realized there was no lock on the door. She didn't want to really keep Percy out but right now he didn't want to deal with her which in turn made her not want to deal with him.

She placed her back against the door and tried to force everything away. She wasn't going to hurt herself again, despite the deep desire to do so. She slid down the door until her butt hit the floor and she wrapped her arms around her knees and dropped her head and cried.

She cried so long that she was sure that she was going to run out of tears but sleep found her first.

Percy could only watch as she ran down the hall to his sister's room. He wasn't in the mood to deal with the emotional drama right now. He was simply trying to get up without waking her and that managed to spark the panic in her mind that someone was going to hurt her.

He turned to look down at the broken coffee table and kneeled down to pick up one of the broken legs.

'Why did this have to happen? Why did Luke have to ruin everything? Why is Annabeth having such a hard time moving on from this?'

Percy kept asking himself these questions on a daily basis and it was driving him mad. He suddenly realized what he was doing not only to himself but more importantly Annabeth.

Angered by his sudden realization at what he had done, Percy let out an angry growl and chunked the broken leg across the room and watched as it hit is front with a resonating thud.

He quickly got up and ran to his sister's door but Annabeth's sobs on the inside made his heart stop and he decided that now was not the time to apologize.