PUSHING DAISIES

There were few people whose opinions mattered to Annabeth. It worried her that Percy Jackson was becoming one of them.

Annabeth had never paid any attention to him in class. When they were saddled together as tutor and tutee, all she saw in Percy was another assignment to complete.

The blonde wondered, as she walked home from the library one breezy afternoon, when the connection had formed.

Maybe it was after she'd almost been stabbed in his apartment?

Maybe even before that?

...well, she supposed it didn't matter anymore.

Percy wasn't an idiot, despite what his marks might say. He'd figure out sooner or later how his mom had found him at Posei Corp. It bothered Annabeth that he hadn't complained once going through an entire act of Macbeth. It felt like whatever they had together was starting to strain and if this went on, eventually something would snap.

On top of it all, it seemed like he had some history with the Dare company's heiress.

To be honest, Annabeth couldn't explain how she'd felt staring at Percy's blurry, yet instantly recognizable form crouched over an equally fuzzy girl in a taxi. At first she was annoyed that Percy had neglected to tell her anything about this. Then she was confused, why should she care about Percy's life before CHB? Then she was worried, but at least she could justify that emotion by being his friend.

A sigh escaped her, fogging in the late autumn air. She watched it fade away and wished her problems would do the same. Every time she thought of Percy, she just confused herself more. The logical thing to do would be to stop thinking of him, but somehow Annabeth just couldn't do that.

A sharp sound broke through her thoughts and Annabeth froze.

Someone cried out in pain immediately after.

Annabeth broke into a run as her mind registered just whose voice that was.

She rounded the next corner at a sprint and followed the noise to its source. Someone was knelt over on the sidewalk, clumped dirt and ceramic shards surrounding him in a broken mess. The person turned at the sound of her hurried footfalls and stared up with dazed sea green eyes.

"Annabeth?" Percy slurred, a hand pressed against his head.

"Percy, you idiot, what happened?" she replied, walking over the remains of what looked like potted daisies towards her tutee. She pulled his hand away from where the pot must have hit and cursed at the sight of red. "You're bleeding, and on top of that, you might have a concussion."

"Did I just get owned by a flower pot?" Percy asked.

Ignoring his delayed realizations, Annabeth looked around the oddly empty streets for help. Her eyes settled on Monsieur Pantoufle, the chocolate shop Silena Beauregard's father owned. Perfect, only a few meters away. "Percy, I'm going to get help, okay?"

"Huh?" he replied eloquently.

"Just...don't hurt yourself," Annabeth instructed worriedly as she handed him a handkerchief to press against the wound. The blood looked bright against the old rose colour of the cloth. Annabeth rushed towards the shop, kicking away as many shards of broken pot as possible. Shoving open Monsieur Pantoufle's glass paned wooden door, she scanned the vaguely familiar place for any sign of Silena.

"Can I help you?"

The voice, deep and sombre, startled Annabeth. She craned her head up and up and up to see its owner: a large, dark-skinned teen. In light of the rather urgent situation, she decided to forgo all niceties. "My friend is bleeding on your sidewalk."

Charlie Beckendorf didn't normally follow strange blonde girls with bloodied hands out the door, but he supposed today could be the exception.

~O~o~O~

"Ow!"

"Percy, don't squirm," Annabeth sighed. "They have to scrub the blood off."

Percy kneaded the sheets of his gurney, wincing as an intern swiped at his forehead with gauze that stank of antiseptic. "Do they have to do it so roughly?"

"We have to make sure the soil won't infect the cut," the intern replied. Hi gave his patient a few more rubs before snapping his gloves off and turning to the blonde who stood at his bedside. "I've stitched him up but there might be some bruising in his brain. We might have to take him up for some scans."

"Okay, well are there any forms to fill?" Annabeth asked. At the intern's nod she turned to her tutee and crossed her arms. "I'm going to go and fill out your paperwork. DON'T move and DON'T get into any trouble."

Having Annabeth shove him around wasn't new to Percy. Instead of wasting time and arguing as usual, he just nodded. Percy was tired. Maybe trying to go back to school regularly was a bad idea. It just gave the journalists and photographers a regular place to stalk him at. But Rachel had told him how to deal with this. He was supposed to do nothing. So that's what he was going to do. He trusted Rachel; she would deal with this. She'd been dealing with these things her whole life.

Percy pressed an ice pack to his throbbing head, fiddled with Annabeth's bloodied hanky and sighed. His eyes panned tiredly around the bustling emergency room as he watched doctors and nurses come and go in blue coloured scrubs. Blue, the colour reminded him of his mom. Oh God was she going to kill him.

"Hey!"

The teen startled and turned to the frail looking boy who'd called out. "Um...me?"

"Yeah, I've been trying to get you to help me for like an hour," the boy whined, rolling towards Percy.

Wait, rolling? Percy glanced at the boy's chrome wheelchair and couldn't help feeling sorry for him. He barely looked ten years old. "But I've only been sitting here for twenty minutes..."

"Details, details," the boy said with a dismissive wave. "There's something caught in my wheel and I can't get it out."

"Why don't you get one of the nurses to help?" Percy asked as he pushed himself off his gurney, Annabeth's instructions all but forgotten.

"I...don't like the nurses," the boy mumbled. His voice dropped to a whisper as he sighed. "The doctors too."

Percy's brow scrunched in confusion. Deciding not to pry into the life of a stranger, he went for a safer question. "So what're you doing wandering around, kid?"

"Trying to get away from my annoying sister and her punk friend, and the name's Nico, not kid," he huffed, crossing his arms and eyeing Percy. "What're you in for?"

"I uh...got assaulted," the teen replied. Well, it wasn't a lie, not really. Nico looked expectantly at him to continue and Percy sighed. "By a flower pot."

"That's got to be the lamest thing I've ever heard," Nico snickered, gliding back and forth as he tested his wheels. "Come on, let's go around and try to find someone even lamer."

Percy winced as he heard the word 'lame' fall candidly from the younger boy's mouth. "Sorry, Nico but I probably shouldn't wander around."

"Why not?" Nico half-whined. He glanced at the crumpled pink fabric Percy was still fiddling with and uttered a knowing, "OH."

"Oh what?"

"I get it."

"What?"

"Girl troubles," Nico nodded sagely.

"Wait, WHAT?" Percy sputtered. "You're like, TEN, what do you know?"

Nico shrugged, "I call it how I see it."

But before Percy could even have a chance at defending what little of his manly pride was left, a pointed cough sounded.

"Nico," called a stern voice. "You shouldn't be this far from your room. Now you'll be late for your rehabilitation session."

"Maybe I don't want to rehabilitate...," Nico mumbled to himself as the Nurse took control of his chair. He sighed deeply and waved goodbye to his new friend. "Bye, flower boy. Hope I don't see you around here anytime soon."

Percy wanted to make some witty retort but the sight of the boy being wheeled off made the words stick in his throat.

A familiar and comforting voice came up behind him. "Who was that?"

"No one," Percy said automatically, turning to face his tutor. He balked. Something was wrong. "Annabeth, did something happen?"

"N-no, why would you say that?" she huffed none too convincingly.

Annabeth never stuttered. The last time it happened, she'd been at the receiving end of a knife. He took in her flushed face and rapid breaths, his brow creasing. "Annabeth..."

"I just...," she breathed. "Saw someone I knew."

"But—"

"Percy, drop it," she ordered, grey eyes hard. Annabeth didn't know what to think. She'd seen something that had set her head reeling. She couldn't deal with it right now, especially not with someone who confused her just as much. "Let's just get out of here."

~O~o~O~o~O~

A flash of movement caught Luke's eye as he crouched over Silena. It gave him a bad feeling, knowing that someone may have just seen him. But he supposed it didn't matter, he was here on Cronus' orders. He had to stop being so paranoid. Now, back to the task at hand...

"This sloppy work has to stop, Silena," Luke told her, fiddling with the scythe charm on her wrist. "If you don't get serious, you know what will happen…"

Luke looked at the girl who was in much the same situation he was in. Her father was caught in Kronos' snare, unable to break away and forever reliant on his protection. He knew that this was horrible, wrong and all things villainous, but he stared her down and barked the order anyway.

"Finish all this, or your shop gets closed and your father gets run out of town."

He knew it was wrong, but if it would wake his mom from her endless dream, he was willing to live this nightmare.

Note: I truly am sorry for the late update. Summer's looming and the next two chapters' plot is clear in my mind. We're drawing close to the first climax so don't give up on me now! :) I'm trying to stick Percabeth in but the way my story works it goes slow :D

Also, I haven't updated in 3 months but amazingly enough, people are still reviewing. You guys are AWESOME. Just wanted to know though, how is that that you found Notes (this story haha)?