Word count: 4773

Part III

To the surprise of exactly no one but Percy himself, Percy discovers that he actually quite enjoys teaching when his students are willing to learn, and the new recruits, who came from all over the US to join the agency, are definitely eager to do just that.

They're different from the agents he works side by side with every day, and it takes him a few days to figure out why.

None of them is all that much younger than Percy – actually, the youngest recruit he and Grover have to train is only eight years younger – but the few years he has on them shows. They're innocent in a way he hasn't been in a long time, and his heart always kind of tightens in his chest when he sees them laughing or joking around when they think he's not looking.

"Feels weird, doesn't it?" Grover asks him one morning as they're watching the group of new recruits jog around them, and Percy nods.

"I can't believe a few years ago that was us."

"Well, to be perfectly fair, I don't think either of us ever run that slowly," Grover says jokingly, and a second later he's screaming at the exhausted men and women to pick up their pace if they don't want to be there all day.

Percy scoffs, but he silently agrees. Grover is a much kinder instructor than Mr. D had been – not that this was difficult – and though he doesn't coddle them, he also allows his students to find their own rhythm where Mr. D had used every trick in the book, as well as some that weren't, to make sure his recruits were field ready in half the time allotted for their training.

He can't speak for his friend's method yet, but Mr. D's, though unorthodox, had worked well on both Percy and Grover. Thalia too, had thrived under it, but that hadn't been the case with every recruit, as some of them had proved to be unable to handle the pressure.

Grover's way seemed to work so far, and his students already looked far healthier than Mr. D had ever had during their training years.

After the morning run and its subsequent stretching are done, the recruits have classes. Percy remembers both hating and loving them, in majority due to the fact that he had thought he was finally done with school-like settings after his graduation but ended up loving most the subjects that were taught there.

From the groans this new generation emits as they head for the classrooms, that feeling is still a popular one.

Percy has access to another perspective now though, since getting enrolled to help train the new recruits also means he gets to lecture them twice a week on various things, such as safety precautions in a fight – always very important – or camouflage training, amongst other things.

He's not exactly a teacher, more like a guest lecturer, but back when he was the one in training, having real agents illustrate the teachers' lessons had often been the best part of his day.

It kind of makes him happy to know that he can do that for other people now, but it's not the same as knowing he's helping protect his nation and its people.

M. Brunner and Mr. D both told him that it'd take time before the agents reviewing his case could decide what to do with him and if he'd be allowed to go back on the field, and though he realizes that it's only been a couple of weeks so far, and that it's probably perfectly normal that he hasn't really gotten any news on that front yet, he still wishes he knew what to expect.

The only real upside to this 'new' job – because as much as he enjoys teaching, the students are still so unbelievably naïve at times that he wants to strangle them – is that he's working with Grover again.

They used to team up, back when Percy worked with Thalia and before Grover's accident, and those had been among the best years of Percy's life.

Before he had been ordered to stay in Langley, Percy hadn't seen Grover in just over six months, and even then he hadn't had much time to spend with his friend. It had been partly because Percy had been in between two missions that had taken him to the other side of the world, but also because Grover had still been stuck in the hospital, trying to recover from the bullets that had taken out both of his knees.

Nowadays though, they have coffee every morning before they make the trainees run their seven miles course, and more often than not end up catching dinner with Rachel, because the woman would never leave her office if someone didn't come up sometimes to drag her out of it.

Grover always orders their coffee. He has the worst taste Percy has ever seen too, which is why the first time his friend suggested the coffee shop a couple of blocks over, Percy had his doubts, but the place turned out to be pretty nice.

It's small, its signboard is almost invisible and the place seems at first glance to be squeezed by the two gigantic official-looking buildings standing on each of its sides – there are a couple of floors above the place too, but the owners recently bought them and are trying to turn them into some kind of restaurant, so there are a lot of metal poles, wooden planks and tarpaulin hiding that part of the façade, making it far more noticeable than it used to be.

The tables inside are simple, made of a nice dark glossy wood, but the chairs are very comfortable. The place has a kind of homey fell to it, and the various black and white pictures of cities from all over the world somehow remind Percy of his mother's apartment.

That is probably why he likes the place so much.

He and Grover meet there at seven am, every morning. Usually, Percy runs a little late, since his place is just a bit further away from the place than Grover's is, and that's why Grover orders for the both of them.

Grover takes his coffee black. He never adds anything to it – the one time during their training Percy suggested it, his friend had given him suck a look, like he was crazy for even suggesting it, that Percy had never tried again – and he always order the same pastries with it.

Percy however, never drinks the same stuff twice if he can help it, which is why Grover always simply tells the waitress to 'surprise them'. The choices in this place may not be as numerous as they are in the nearby Starbucks, but the coffee is better, so Percy considers it a good trade-off.

He always eats a blueberry cupcake with his coffee though, because they're the closest thing to blue food he can get outside of his own kitchen.

Percy doesn't really know for how long Grover's been frequenting this place, but he can see why his friend keeps coming back. He himself has only known the place for a few weeks, but he already is kind of attached to it.

He and Grover even have their unofficially saved spot. It's a small round table by the far-off right corner of the room, and if they position the two chairs at the right angle around it, they both have a view of the entire place, including the entrance.

Grover had mocked him for it the first time Percy steered them toward that table, telling him that he should learn to relax – apparently before Percy came along, Grover just ordered his coffee and went on his way – but, well, by now that kind of thing has become an habit, and it was an habit that had saved his life several times while he was on missions, which Grover knew full well (honestly, Percy suspected that his friend had just been trying to get Percy's mind off his recent forced change of line of work).

"So," Grover starts one morning, pushing Percy's still steaming cup of coffee toward him as Percy takes a seat, "what do you think of this job? It's not as bad as you thought it'd be, is it?"

Percy shrugs offs his coat and wraps his hands around his cup, breathing in the sweet aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

He must take a moment too long to answer his friend, because Grover smirks at him and quips, "Would you like me to leave you two alone?", giving a pointed look to the cup Percy is still holding.

Years ago, Percy would have blushed, or even reacted somewhat harshly. Fortunately – or unfortunately, if you consider that this also means that he has had years to get used to Grover's particular brand of humor – Grover's jokes hardly faze him anymore.

"Like you can talk," he scoffs. "Don't forget I've seen you in the break room when you think no one's looking – your attachment to that coffee machine is unnatural."

"Penelope is an entirely different matter – she gives me life," Grover retorts dramatically, a hand resting playfully above his heart.

"She gives you coffee you mean."

"Isn't that what I just said?" Grover shots back with a smile, and then Percy is just glad neither of them was drinking, because with the laughing fit they have the last thing they need is to battle asphyxiation from coffee that went down the wrong way too.

By the time they've calmed enough that Percy feels confident enough in taking a sip of his coffee without spitting it all back out, their drinks have actually cooled down to the perfect drinking temperature.

"Anyway, you still haven't answered me," Grover starts questioningly. "What do you think of this assignment?"

Percy takes another sip of his coffee to hide the fact that he has no idea on how to answer – you'd think that he'd be able to by now, because he's spent a lot of time thinking about he's been doing these last few weeks, but that hasn't helped him at all.

He only feels slightly confused, and if he's completely honest with himself, a little bit on edge too. It's like something is coming – he can feel that much – but he has no idea what it might be, or why it might happen soon. Knowing his luck though, it'll be bad, and it'll happen at the worst possible time possible too.

"It's… interesting," he finally says, even if the words don't quite fit in his mouth.

Grover winces. "That bad, uh?"

Percy shakes his head. "No, it's not that. I mean, I really like it – I never thought I'd actually enjoy finding myself on the other side of training, but I do, really. It's just that," Percy pauses, bites his lips and sighs, "I don't know man, I guess it's just not really my thing, you know?"

Grover looks pensive at that, and for a few moments the only sounds they make are the one that come with drinking coffee.

Percy is the first one to put down his cup and speak again. "I mean no offense, but as much as I like thinking that I'm helping train the next generation of spies and agents, they're still acting like brats right now."

Grover snorts. "That is so true. You're the lucky one too, you've only known them for a three weeks – I've been saddled with them for months now. Months!"

"I'm pretty sure we were worse than they can ever hope to be," Percy retorts with a smirk. "Honestly, it's a wonder Mr. D didn't just decide to be done with us and send us back home."

"Please, Percy, we were the best of that year and he knew it. Besides, we got better."

"That's true," Percy agrees. "But hey, if we got better, then so can they, right?"

"God, I hope you're right," Grover moans, slumping on his chair. "They're gonna kill me if they don't."

"Well, if they're too much of a bother, I'm sure we can channel a bit of our younger selves to… whip them back into proper shape – and if that fails, I know for a fact that Mr. D would only be too happy to get rid of the worst elements," Percy replies jokingly.

"He would be too…" Grover says this in the same tone as Percy, but he also appears to be considering Percy's previous words.

After that, one thing leads to another, and they both end up late for the recruits' training. On the upside though, they definitely have a plan to make them sweat – Percy just hopes it won't turn into an all-out prank war this time (the training floor's bathroom has never been the same since Percy and Grover tried to blow them up, and they're supposed to be the responsible ones this time around) – or, as Mr. D had put it when he had been the one in charge of training, 'weed out the weak'.

"Is it weird that I'm actually looking forward to doing this?" Percy asks when they're hurrying on the way back – they can't run very fast because of Grover's legs, but they're not that late either, so a few minutes spent talking on the way won't make much of a difference.

"I think it'd be weirder for you not to be looking forward to it," Grover replies. "You're finally getting to put another one of your crazy schemes into play, and you're once again dragging me into it – you'd better be looking forward to it."

"First off, my schemes are never crazy," Percy retorts, offended. At Grover's incredulous look however, he quickly corrects himself. "Okay, so they may sometimes be a little extravagant, but at least they work. And secondly, I'm not dragging you into anything. You gave at least as much input as I did on this plan, I'm pretty sure that counts as being a willing participant."

"I could always say you coerced me."

"No one would ever believe you Grover – they know better than that."

"They could. I can be very convincing you know."

"Oh I know, but no one can be that convincing."

They share a smile at that remark.

"God, I missed you man," Grover admits as they stop to avoid getting run over. "I'd almost forgotten how much fun you were to be around."

"Really? Do I make such little of an impression on you? And after all we've been through together too…" Percy shakes his head mock-disappointedly, as if his friend's behavior dismayed him. "And you call yourself my friend too…"

"Hey, I did say almost, didn't I?" Grover protests amusedly.

"That you did," Percy acquiesces after a short pause. He pretends to contemplate the situation for a moment, and then smiles. "I guess I'll have to forgive you then."

"You'd better," Grover mutters. "'Forgive me' – I'll show you forgiveness…"

Laughing quietly, Percy clasps a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, I missed you too man. I missed you too."

And he really had too. The last year had been difficult for Percy. He had been supposed to go on more and more solo missions since he had more years of experience – he could have chosen to volunteer to take another less experienced partner, the way Thalia had done with him, but instead he had opted to keep things the way they were, with Thalia as his sole partner.

Instead in this last year, Thalia had vanished from his life and Grover – the only other agent he voluntarily partnered with – had been suspended from field work for what would probably be the rest of his career, and now Percy himself has had to leave field work as well.

It's been kind of a nightmare to be honest, and as much as he loves that field work allows him to escape from the troubles that comes with his normal life, he's been welcoming the break working with Grover again is giving him.

He knows that won't last though – soon enough he'll get bored of the routine this new job has given him, and he'll want to move onto something else. He misses the adrenaline field work brings him - making new recruits run until they're exhausted and teaching them about spying is not a proper substitution for that, no matter how enjoyable those activities are.

Some of this must show on this face, because Grover looks sympathetic when he speaks again.

"You know, when we decided to be field agents, and later, when we actually became field agents, I thought I'd never find a job I'd love as much as that one. But well, I did, against all expectations. I love this job Percy, I love teaching them, and I may complain about it and everything, but at the end of the day I'm so proud of what I'm able to do there, of what I'm helping build, that I don't really care if I have to try to give a proper spy education to a bunch of people just out of school.

"I thought I was done after what happened to my legs – I thought I'd never get another chance to do something I could be proud of, but I was wrong. This is my second chance man, but it doesn't have to be yours. I can see that you don't really fit – anyone with a good pair of eyes can, and if the higher-ups know what's good for them, they'll see it too, and you'll be back in the field in no time. It'd be a mistake to waste your talent in here when you could do so much good out there. You'll see."

Touched, Percy doesn't quite know what to answer to that. He just nods and tries to swallow around the knot in his throat.

"Now come on man, I think our students are getting antsy, and we wouldn't want that – besides, we have a plan to implement, have we not?" Grover elbows Percy playfully, and just like that they move past the previous conversation.

"I think we do, indeed," Percy replies with a smirk.

That smirk is quickly wiped off by Grover's next remark.

"Anyway, what's this I hear about a woman who got the better of you in Paris? Aren't you a little old to get a crush on the enemy?"

"Okay, so firstly Annabeth's not the enemy – or at least I didn't know she was going to be when I met her. Secondly I do not have a crush on her. I met her, she stole the package I was supposed to retrieve, and I probably won't ever see her again. And thirdly, who told you that?" Percy tries to defend himself, but he knows from Grover's widening smile that his arguments can't be too convincing.

"So, you call her Annabeth already? How cute!"

By the time they get back to the base – a good ten minutes later – Percy is red-faced and he refuses to speak to Grover again.

He's also sworn revenge on whoever gave Grover his information, but he'll have to find them first – it should be easy, but the story of his 'meeting' with Annabeth is kind of a not-so-secret story (which is why he's so surprised Grover only just brought it up) so there are many suspects.

It doesn't matter – at least this will give him something more to do than watch the recruits run around them.

.x.

The thing is: it takes Rachel a week and a half to gather a file on Annabeth Chase and give it to Percy.

The file is pretty thin. There are a couple of pages on her childhood and family – dead mother, remarried father, two step-siblings – though the pages also indicate that she doesn't seem to have had any contact with them since she left high school, and a few more pages on thefts that can be linked back to her.

She's actually suspected of pulling off many more heists than the ones that can really be linked back to her, and Rachel helpfully printed newspaper stories about those heists. She left him a note saying that she'd try to get him the police casefiles too, but that it might take her a while.

Percy doesn't mind waiting – even if the file isn't very furnished, it has more than enough to hold his attention for a while.

By the end of the week he's read it enough times to know it by heart, though that doesn't stop him from going over it again and again. He doesn't know what he hopes to find – something certainly, and he hopes he'll at least be able to identify it when he sees it.

There's a sketch of her in there too, pinned to the first page, as well as a couple of shots of the back of her head taken by various security cameras over the years. The sketch isn't bad – it's a bit bland though.

On it, Annabeth's features seem imprecise, like the sketch artist couldn't decide on how to shade her eyes or on the length of her nose. He knows it comes from the multitude of testimonies given over the years, but still… Annabeth had been so vibrant in Paris – to see her look so normal on paper wasn't right.

Percy himself has never been good at drawing. It's a skill he admires in others – Rachel is pretty damn amazing at it actually, and she had offered to give him lessons a few times. Percy had never taken her up on it, maybe out of remembrance of endless and hopeless art lessons when he was younger, but now he finds that he kind of regret it.

What he wouldn't give to be able to put his thoughts, his memories on paper the way Rachel so easily seems to. Perhaps then he'd be able to make sense of what he feels and what he remembers.

If he could, he'd paint Annabeth the way he had first seen her: radiant in the sunlight and somehow innocent – not the way a child is innocent, but the way someone who believes they have the entire world ahead of them. She'd be standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, somehow the only face in the crowd people can identify.

He doesn't need to be a genius to guess at what that might mean, and that's why he's at least partly relieved he doesn't know how to draw or paint, so that no one will ever have the chance to interpret this.

Despite this, he finds himself sketching snippets of what he remembers about her everywhere – her eyes, her fingers or her hair – all in the same black ink he writes his notes with.

The floor by his desk is covered in torn up or rolled up pieces of paper (his trashcan overflowed a long time ago, and he's too lazy to go to the trouble of emptying it when a) it's only paper and b) it'd end up filled again not long after that) because they never look quite right, and if anyone asks to see his notes on Annabeth Chase he'll have to refuse.

He knows himself well enough to realize that he's not going to be able to stop until he finds what bugs him so much about this woman, so he just stocks up on paper and black pens. He draws the line at trying to find the proper shade of yellow for her hair though.

(The first night after he gets Annabeth's file from Rachel, he dreams of golden hair and a laugh that sounds like the wind whirling through tree leaves.

There's a warm light up above too, maybe the sun – probably the sun – but beneath him is a great dark chasm.

There's a voice asking him for direction. It's so faint he can barely hear it - it's not even a whisper - but the voice is Annabeth's. He is sure of it.

There's a hand in his too, but when he turns to see to whom it belongs, he sees no one.

He wakes up with a taste in his mouth he can't quite name, his lips tingling, and with the definite feeling that once again, something is about to go wrong.

He just wishes he could know what it might be.)

.x.

Five months after he got back from Paris, Rachel drops by one of his 'lectures'. She waits by the door until he's done with it, but by then everyone – including him of course – is more interested in what brings her out of her office willingly, so he looks to the teacher, who thanks him and lets him leave with Rachel.

Rachel greets him with an, "I'm not supposed to be here.", which is about the less reassuring thing he's ever heard her say.

His heart skips a beat and then starts beating faster. He arches an eyebrow questioningly at his friend, not trusting his words right now.

Rachel smiles and punches him lightly in the arm.

"You didn't hear it from me, but they caught the guy who sold the diamonds to your last target, and we both know what that means."

"I'm off the hook," Percy answers, his lips stretching into a smile.

"You're off the hook," Rachel confirms with a smile echoing his.

His elation doesn't last long – seconds later he's already biting his lips, doubt filling his mind. "You're sure?"

"Sure as I can be. Someone should be coming to see you about it soon." She pauses for a moment, still smiling, and then she shakes her head. "Anyway, I should be getting back to my office now."

And Rachel vanishes, seemingly into thin air, in the time it takes him to blink, leaving him alone in the corridor, fifty feet away from the class he just left, happier and more excited than he's felt in a while. He doesn't even have the time to thank her.

He could go back to the students, but he doesn't. Instead his feet lead him outside.

He still has trouble believing what he's just heard when Grover finds him.

"Hey man, Rachel just told me the good news – see? You were worrying for nothing, just like I told you you were."

"Is there anyone she hasn't told?" Percy asks jokingly.

"You know, I'm not sure," Grover replies. "Probably – I mean, this is a big place. I'm sure we can find someone who doesn't know yet."

"Ha ha ha, very funny," Percy says dryly. "She's going to get in trouble one day.

"Oh relax man, she's just being a good friend – besides, you know we like Rachel way too much over here to let anything happen to her."

"I know, I know," Percy laughs. "It was nice of her."

"You should send her a fruit basket, she'll get a kick out of that."

And she would, Percy realizes. She really would. "Maybe I will."

The rest of the day goes by without any other untimely interruption, though Percy could swear that time has slowed down just to make him feel more anxious.

He spends the day with sweaty hands and a heart beating so fast and so loud it's a wonder no one else can hear it.

Finally, he gets a text from Mr. D when he's on his way home, telling him to swing by his office tomorrow morning.

He barely sleeps that night, and he's up bright and early the next day, and in front of Mr.D's office ten minutes before the mentioned time.

Mr. Brunner is there too, and he sends a reassuring smile Percy's way.

Fifty minutes later, Percy exits the office with the authorization to go back into field work – though he has a few aptitude tests to take first (not that he's worried about those, since he could probably do them in his sleep with how hard he trained for them).

Hopefully, in a month at most he'll be leaving this place – and its damned paperwork (training recruits apparently included filling reports on them too, something that Rachel had forgotten to mention when she had offered him the position. It was no wonder Mr. D had been so grumpy all the time when he was in charge of training, Percy would have been the same had he been forced to spend years filling paperwork) – behind for a while.

He'll miss his coffee dates with Grover though, even if they can always resume them whenever he finishes his missions and is around for a while.

AN/ Sorry for the delay, but I'm actually in the middle of very important exams that are taking up a very significant portion of my free time.
I also don't know how often I'll be able to post this summer since I'll be leaving my home and internet connection for a while, though that doesn't mean I will not write. I'll do my best to have the next chapter up as soon as I can though.

Cheers, and don't forget to let me know what you thought!