Hey, guys! Yeah, we skipped a Thursday. Trouble is I'm still not done with chapter 7 and I've been so busy my motivation's been low. Hopefully it doesn't last much longer.

Thanks to those of you who reviewed last chapter :) Enjoy!

We can leave this world, leave it all behind / We can steal this car if your folks don't mind

It was sort of strange, being back in New York.

Though he hadn't been away all that long, Percy had been trying the whole time to come to terms with the fact that he would probably never see his old hometown again—at least, not until his uncle had retired or passed away. But now here he was, only a year later, watching the familiar city go by through the back window of a taxi cab. It was the middle of the night, but that didn't mean activity was low. It never was in Manhattan. Cars rumbled by, kicking up dirty, winter slush, and the sidewalks were dotted with pedestrians trudging through the gray, salted snow. It all looked so familiar that even though everything in Percy's life had changed since he'd called this city home, being back made it feel like no time had passed at all.

When he reached his destination, he paid the cab driver and stepped out of the car, trying not to flinch as pain shot through his torso when he stood straight. After stopping at his and Annabeth's flat very briefly for some supplies, a quick shower, and a change of clothes, Percy had jumped the first plane from London to New York, relying on the prospect of a seven-hour flight to help him rest. Even after that, he was still tired and sore from the ordeal at the hospital, and the kick to the stomach he'd taken had succeeded in partially reopening the stab wound. He'd bandaged it off before leaving home, but he hadn't taken the time to get a good look at it. He had more important things to occupy his mind.

Rolling his shoulders to shake off the stiffness, Percy slung his bag over his back and headed up the sidewalk to the apartment building's side entrance, trying to plan out what he was going to say. He hadn't called ahead—he'd decided to leave his phone in London just on the off chance that Zeke had found a way to use it to track him. He was going to try not to get discovered until absolutely necessary. This also meant that he needed help from someone in the States whom he could trust. And at that thought, one name immediately came to mind.

When he reached the right apartment, he stopped and leaned against the doorframe, feeling surprisingly exhausted after ascending a single flight of metal stairs. He must have lost a bit more blood than he'd thought. He'd have to figure out a way around that. Ignoring it for now, he raised a heavy hand and knocked twice on the door.

After a minute or so he heard some dull shuffling on the other side (which wasn't surprising; it was the middle of the night) before the door was pulled inward and the sleepy pair of dark brown eyes behind it widened with instant alertness.

"Percy?"

Still leaning on the doorframe, Percy gave a tired smile. "Hey, Grover. Long time, no see."

"What…? But… How…? I…" Grover Underwood stammered, mouth open in shock. "We'd heard you were dead!"

"Who told you that?"

"Your dad." Grover's voice was a bit faint. "He said that… That Zeke told…"

Percy clucked his tongue in mild irritation. So Zeke was already spreading the happy news, was he?

"Grover, who's there?" a voice called from inside the apartment, and Grover turned sideways to reveal his wife, Juniper, stepping out of the bedroom. She froze in the motion of tying a bathrobe around her waist as Percy smiled apologetically and waved. "Oh!" she exclaimed breathily, before rushing straight past her husband and throwing her arms around Percy, wrapping him in a tight hug. When he grunted in pain, she backed quickly away, blinking tears out of her eyes as they sharpened. "What happened?" she asked, looking him up and down. "You look terrible—Is that blood? We should call for—"

"No," Percy insisted at once. "Nobody can know I'm here. I'm sorry about this, guys, but I really need your help."

His two friends exchanged uneasy glances. Grover shrugged weakly and Juniper sighed in admission. "Alright," she said quietly. "Come in, come in. Lie down and I'll have a look at that while you explain what you're doing here and why everyone thinks you're dead."

She gripped his arm firmly and pulled him inside, before forcing him to remove his shirt and jacket and lie back on the sofa while she fetched some supplies from the closet.

"So," Grover asked as he leaned back against an armchair and folded his arms over his pajama shirt. "I'm sure you can imagine our surprise to find you half-passed-out in our hallway. What the heck happened, man?"

"Zeke," Percy said shortly, sitting up somewhat as Juniper sat beside him, pushing a lock of amber hair behind her ear and shifting through the pile of instruments on her lap. "He tried to have me killed. Twice."

"What?"

"Remember before I left—I told you what my dad said, about Zeke thinking I was threatening his position. I left to escape that, to try to show him that I wanted nothing to do with him anymore. But apparently, that wasn't enough for him. I don't know how he found me, but he did. An assassin showed up at our place the other night—that's how I got this." He pointed to the stab wound Juniper was in the process of unwrapping. The bandages he'd thrown on hastily that evening were now darkened with blood.

"There are traces of stitches here," Juniper said with a frown. "But they've been torn."

"Yeah, that happened at the hospital," Percy explained, grimacing as she poked at the broken stitches. "When Zeke's goons bombed the place."

"What?" Grover repeated with a look of something between horror and revulsion. "He bombed a hospital?"

"Yeah. Just to get to me. I fought off the attackers and barely made it out, but there was nothing I could do about the explosion. It was… a mess. His mess."

"I'm gonna re-stitch the cut," Juniper told him, green eyes trained on the wound. "I don't have any anesthetic, so it's going to hurt. But it's better than you bleeding out on my couch."

Percy managed a weak chuckle. "It's okay, I can handle it."

"I can't believe he would do something like that," Grover muttered, frowning in disgust. "A hospital, seriously…" He sighed and looked up. "What about Annabeth? Is she okay?"

"Honestly, I have no idea."

"What's that mean?"

"It means she and Thalia decided to go after Zeke. They were gone when I woke up in the hospital earlier."

"They went after Zeke? Alone?" Grover shook his head. "Guess that explains what you're doing back in the country. You're gonna find her, right?"

"That's the plan. I just need to figure out how. Knowing her, I doubt she's dumb enough to answer any calls while she's here. Or use her real name, for that matter."

Grover looked thoughtful for a minute, absently tugging at his scraggly goatee. "You could go to an expert," he suggested. When Percy frowned, not following, he went on, "Silena. I'm sure she'd be able to find her."

Immediately Percy shook his head. "I don't want to involve any—"

"Trust me, she'd want you to," Grover argued. "She was… Well, she wasn't happy when the news spread that you were dead. None of us were. Especially your dad." His eyebrows angled and his gaze drifted downward. "When he told us… I swear, I'd never seen him so angry."

With a guilty pang, Percy thought back on the last conversation he'd had with his father, Parker Grace—when he'd warned him of Zeke's intentions and ordered him to run. He'd argued at first, but after seeing his father's desperation to keep him safe, he'd had no choice but to give in and do as he asked. If it hadn't been for his father's concern, he never would have left and his uncle probably would have succeeded in having him killed months ago. And now, here he was, back in the States and about to go after the very person who so wanted him dead and had the power and connections to make it happen. When this was all over, he'd have some serious explaining to do—assuming he survived it all, that is.

"Anyway," Grover said after a moment of tense silence, "you can trust Silena."

Percy considered this quietly for a long few seconds. He wanted as few people to know he was here as possible, but he did have to admit that his chances of finding Annabeth and Thalia on his own were slim. Silena Beauregard was her mother's second-in-command—surpassed only by Aimee herself in tracking and espionage within Olympus. If anyone could locate Annabeth without alerting Zeke, it was her.

"You really think so?" he finally asked, his voice sounding leaden and tired.

"I know so," Grover said with conviction. "You should stay here tonight. I'll give her a call and tell her you'll be over in the morning. Her sister's in town, but that shouldn't be a problem. From what I've seen, she's trustworthy, too."

Percy nodded in slightly uncertain agreement. He'd met Silena's sister once before, back in college during the few months he and Silena had gone out. Their parents were divorced, and though her sister did sometimes visit she lived most of the time with their father in California. He hadn't really gotten to know her well, but he trusted Grover's judgment, and if he said she was trustworthy, then he supposed that would have to be good enough.

"Alright, fine," he conceded. "Thanks for your help. Both of you. I really appreciate it."

Grover waved a hand and Juniper smiled. "What good are friends if you can't use 'em to hide from a crazy, murderous uncle, eh?" Grover joked.

Percy laughed, wincing when Juniper swatted his arm and snapped, "Hold still!"

"So how've you guys been holding up?" he asked. "I really wanted to crash the wedding, but Annabeth was way against coming back for anything."

"Which was probably for the best," Grover said wryly. "Not that we don't wish you could've been there—somehow I ended up with Paul as my best man instead of you and Juniper can attest to how well that went." He cringed as though remembering a terrifying experience and Percy grinned as Juniper giggled in amusement. He could just imagine Paul Archer working the entire thing out to make himself the center of attention rather than the bride and groom. "But regardless, it would've been way too dangerous for you to be there. I guess we all see that now. Since then, though, we've been doing pretty well. Nothing too major going down in the organization—which I suppose makes sense after tonight. Zeke must have been busy looking for you."

"Well, if we're lucky, he'll lay off after the London hospital incident," Percy said, staring at the ceiling with a distinct twinge of anger—which was becoming more and more frequent every time his uncle crossed his mind. "I'm pretty sure nobody saw me get out in the confusion. Hopefully this time he really does think I'm dead."

"If you don't start taking better care of yourself," Juniper said pointedly as she finished re-stitching his wound and began unraveling a roll of gauze, "you will be." Her eyes drifted up sharply to meet his and he gave her a weak smile in an effort to apologize and thank her at the same time. She must have gotten the message, because her green eyes brightened and she offered a tiny smile in return.

Once she'd bandaged the cut in Percy's stomach and replaced her supplies, Juniper offered to make him some tea before bed while Grover went to call Silena. He told her not to bother, and after completely ignoring him and making some anyway (she set it on the coffee table along with six slices of a loaf of organic zucchini bread she'd baked that morning) she and Grover left the room to return to bed, leaving Percy to lie in the quiet darkness and wonder exactly why he and Annabeth seemed to make such a powerful combined magnet for trouble—and how they were going to make it out of this mess unscathed.

Next chapter'll be more exciting, I promise. Well, if I ever get it done, that is. Hey, maybe a few extra reviews would push my motivation?

Later days!

-oMM