I somewhat have writer's block with this story, so I'm doing my best to speed it up and get it done with as soon as possible. Anyway, it'd be great to hit 300 reviews and possible 100 faves before that.

Previously—

"Mrs. Arnolds? What's wrong?"

"Captain Chase," she choked out.

"What?! What about her?"

"She's gone. She's no longer at the hospital."

"What do you mean?" Percy's heart threatened to stop as soon as the words left the old lady's mouth.

"She's nowhere to be found!" Mrs. Arnolds was at the verge of tears at this point, inconsolable.

"Wait, wait. Calm down. Start from the beginning, and tell me everything slowly," Percy spoke to her as though he was speaking to a child.

Mrs. Arnolds gave him the stink-eye but decided to comply with his demand, "I got a call from the hospital earlier this morning saying that she had woken up."

"What?!" Percy yelped. "And you didn't tell me?"

"I couldn't find you and frankly, didn't bother looking. Anyway, continuing from before you interrupted me, they said they wanted a day or two before discharging her to make sure all her blood sugar levels and brain activity were within a normal range."

Percy nodded in understanding as Mrs. Arnolds went on, "About an hour ago, I got another call from them asking if someone had come by to pick her up without the release forms. At first, I thought perhaps it had been you, but I then realized you had no way of knowing that she had woken up. In conclusion, she's missing."

"Did you go check the hospital?"

"Does it look like I can drive?"

"No, but…"

"Go find her."

"How do you expect me to do that?"

"Maybe it was just a misunderstanding with the hospital. I don't know, young man. You created this mess, now go fix it. We need Captain Chase back!" Mrs. Arnolds was beyond help at this point. She had surpassed hysteria into a state of pure shock and terror.

"Alright, alright. I'll go check out the situation."

Percy found himself climbing back into the accursed Hummer once more, revving up the engine. He had a nagging suspicion as to who was behind this but no definite proof to verify his theory. The ride to the hospital was shorter than usual.

Perhaps it had something to do with the weather. Like that day two weeks when he had last seen Annabeth and di Angelo, the clouds produced a greenish gray hue, threatening to storm any moment. The speed of the gust of wind had already double in the past half hour to such high speeds that even Percy could feel the vibrations of the Hummer as it rocked back and forth on the road.

As soon as he had reached, the hospital staff immediately ushered him up to the room, closing the door behind him quickly. Odd. Alright then, where to start? It didn't take him long to figure out what was going on and was surprised to notice that the staff were slow to pick up on it.

In plain sight, near the window, rested a black fedora that could only belong to one person: Nico. He flipped over the hat on hunch and found a slip of paper tuck away neatly into one of hat's deep folds.

Good boy, Perce. I knew it wouldn't take you too long to figure it out. Now, you know where to find us. Remember the old warehouse?

Percy had a fist against the glass pane as he read the message, his hand scraping along it the angrier he got. What the hell was di Angelo playing at? Was he trying to help or only make things worse? Whatever be the case, he had Annabeth once again in his grasp. The girl was becoming a serious liability.

He glanced at his watch. It was only three, but the drive to the aforementioned warehouse was well over an hour long. Great, just one more hour in the car and the horrendous storm threatening to erupt.

To make things worse, the only station working on the radio was some mix of hippie country music which personally wanted to make Percy rip the radio out of the car. He managed to restrain himself as he drove through traffic-less roads.

He pulled up in front of the warehouse, noting that one of the few doors was opened. As far as the eye could see, no one was in the nearby vicinity for possible disturbances. Percy approached the building apprehensively, wary of the fact that Nico may be armed and could have possibly harmed Annabeth.

Percy knocked once, and not to his surprise, no one answered. Taking this as an invitation to enter, he did so.

With the back faced towards him, a figure sat seated on a large, black leather chair. Had it not been a matter of life and death, Percy found have found the situation comical. Almost as though di Angelo was the don of the Italian mafia.

"I've been waiting, Jackson," di Angelo began, his chair spinning to face him. Oh, he had a spinny chair too? Classic. The man was using a short dagger to clean off his fingernails.

"Where is she?"

"Getting straight to the point, are we? All in good time. All in good time."

"Why'd you take her?"

"She woke up," he replied simply.

"So?"

"She would have been a threat."

"What'd you do to her?"

"Drugged her again. Smaller dosage."

"How long are you going to keep this up?"

"Until you finish your task."

"This is illegal."

"The entire operation is illegal. Keep in mind Jackson that if we go down, you do too. You are just as involved and responsible. Especially in the case of manslaughter. Don't expect the Feds to let you go easily. And it wasn't as though you were brainwashed. You have malicious intent pointing back to incriminate you."

Percy knew that Nico was trying to get under his skin but wasn't going to allow that to bother him. "Where is she?" he asked once more.

Nico shook his head in a direction as Percy followed his glance. How could he have not noticed before? Annabeth was hunched over in the corner, barely moving.

"Is she awake yet?"

"She will be in another half hour or so. We knocked her out as soon as the hospital declared her awake. Captain Chase has no idea where she is."

"Let me take her back."

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Jackson, I'm trying to help you here by making your job easier. I got the girl out of the way, and we'll keep her here till you're done with the task."

"This makes it harder; you do realize that, don't you? They're already suspicious that I knocked out their Captain…and possibly could have killed her, the trust factor is going to disappear immediately."

"What do you suggest we do about?"

"Give her to me. I'll deal with it."

"Fine," Nico motioned to his two guards to bring her back. As they brought her back, Percy fought a wave of nausea at the sight of her dirtied hair, filled with a stench of sweat and alcohol. They had used chloroform to gag her mouth, her hands and legs tied as well. Using the knife he had been using to clean his nails, Nico cut the ropes binding Annabeth easily, "Take her."

Percy easily managed to throw Annabeth onto his shoulder, making his way to the car. She stirred a little as he managed to buckle her in, trying to prevent her head from hitting the dashboard.

Another quarter hour passed by quickly as he drove. Percy noticed Annabeth's lolling a little as she was still unconscious. But soon, this began to fade as symptoms of her regaining consciousness appeared.

First her gray eyes flickered open. That had been a sight to see. It had almost been three weeks since Percy had seen those stern, steely colored eyes that it astonished him. In a way, he had missed them. They still looked a little lifeless after the ordeal she had been through.

She winced, massaging her wrists gently. Only when she had done so did she take in her surroundings, her mouth forming an 'O' shape when she saw who's company she was in, "Private Jackson?!"

He let out a weak grimace, "Nice to have you back Captain."

"Where are we?"

"You were discharged from the hospital…" he lied. Of course he would have to go back later to sign the consent and release forms, but for now.

"But I thought…"

"They changed their mind."

"Oh," she remained quiet for a minute longer before speaking up again, her voice still a bit bleary from being drugged. "But…but…how did you get here?"

"Mrs. Arnolds sent me."

"Let's no go back to base!" she said suddenly.

"Excuse me?"

The color in her eyes had changed, suddenly more ferocious, rebellious in a sense, "Let's go somewhere else. Away from it all."

At this point, Percy Jackson freely admitted that he was scared to see this feral side to his Captain, "Captain, you still haven't recovered. We should go back."

"No Jackson. You will do as you're told. That's an order," just as unexpectedly, one of her hands grabbed the steering wheel, the other his uniform. She pulled him close until they were within inches of one another.

What happened next was something that not even Fate could have predicted. She kissed him full on the lips, and what surprised him most was that he responded back without a hint of protest.

I know this chapter sucked, but honestly the inspiration for this story is plummeting. Hopefully the addition of Percabeth will raise that somehow.

In the meanwhile, I hope you guys aren't disheartened and continue to review. I intend to finish the story, but that won't be possible without your ongoing support. Reviews/faves/follows really do encourage writers.

In other news, I began another story to clear my mind while I have writer's block for this one. Yes, this one is based off a Korean drama, but it's pretty decent. Here's the summary:

Title: My Gay Best Friend.

Annabeth is dealing with a betrayal of her boyfriend and best friend. To add to the problem, she's broke. Percy is a young businessman trying to make his way to the top. By accident, he meets Annabeth, learning that connections with her family could secure his position in the business world. When Annabeth rents out her house, Percy takes her up on the offer, posing as a gay man to win her trust. What happens when he accidentally ends up falling for her instead? AU/AH… Characters will be OoC.

Have any questions, leave a comment or message in the box below, and I'll get back to you.

To those who review this story and my new one, special shout-outs to you.

~TJ