AN: NO COPYRIGHT INTENDED. i do not own percy j and the olympians k now that that is out of the way on to the story and i want to say thanks to everyone that is leaving reviews you guys are awesome.

Annabeth POV

When she woke, the light was different.

Sun; it was sun slanting in the window. Also, she was lying on a man. Percy. He had both arms wrapped around her and his cheek against her dirty, snarled hair. Her head was on his shoulder, one arm tucked in against her side.

Her other arm rested on Percy, which was perfectly acceptable, given the circumstances. But the hand that was attached to that arm? That hand was exactly where it shouldn't be.

And where it shouldn't be was hard. Blinking, not quite putting it all together as reality yet, Annabeth lifted her head from his shoulder and blearily squinted at the morning light. Outside, faintly, she could hear birds singing. Without moving her hand away from his very definite, very thick and large hardness, she looked down at him. Because, seriously, could this actually be happening?

It was. And he was awake. He gazed up at her with the strangest, laziest, sexiest expression and said "morning."

She puffed out her cheeks as she blew out a slow breath and then, with great care, she removed her hand from his private parts and whispered, "The sun's out."

He nodded. "The rain's stopped; it stopped hours ago." He was playing along with her, pretending the contact between her hand and his fly had not occurred. Which was great, perfect, wonderful of him.

She backed off him onto her knees, dragging the blankets with her hand and shoved her hair out of her eyes. "You, uh, should have woken me."

"Uh-uh." He reached out and clasped her shoulder, a companionable, reassuring sort of gesture that made tears clog her throat. She swallowed them down. And he said, "You needed your sleep and so did i. I woke up in the middle of the night and it was quiet. I knew the rain had finally stopped. I thought about getting up, but then I just closed my eyes and went back to sleep."

Frank was up, making whining noises, scratching at the door that led outside. "I should let him out." He took his hand from her shoulder. She wished he hadn't, that he would touch her again, hold on tight and never, ever let go. But he didn't. and she pushed the blankets aside, swung her legs over the edge of the hay bales and stood up. Barefoot, she went and pulled the door open. Frank went out and she scolded, "Don't run off, now." She glanced back over her shoulder at Percy.

He was sitting up, bare feet on the floor. He had a case of bed head every bit as bad as hers, and he was kind of hunched over, his elbows on his knees. "Come on," he said gruffly. "Put your boots on," He raked his fingers back through all that thick, messy hair. "We'll see if the water's gone down enough that we can get across the ravine to your parents' house."

They put on their damp socks and boots and pulled open the door that led into the main part of the barn, most of the animals had wandered off, out into the morning sunshine, leaving a whole lot of fresh manure behind. "Are you supposed to be taking care of the place while your parents are out of town?"

She shook her head "No, some neighbors agreed to look after things and feed the stock until the family returned. But I'm guessing they probably all have their own problems about now." At least it was summer and grazing was good. The animals wouldn't starve if they were left alone for a few days.

They ducked back into the tack room and went out through the exterior door. Frank was waiting for them, sitting right outside the door, acting as though he'd actually listened when she told him not to wander off. Annabeth scratched his head and called him a good dog and tried to tell herself that the jittery feeling in her stomach was because she hadn't eaten since lunch the day before not the rising dread at the prospect of how bad the damage was in town.

"It's a beautiful day," she said, tipping her head up again to the clear sky. "You'd almost think yesterday never even happened."

"Hey."

She lowered her gaze to him. Even with his hair sticking up on one side and dirt at his temple, he still looked like every well behaved girl's naught, forbidden fantasy. "Hmm?"

His swirling sea green eyes searched hers. "You okay?" She nodded and forced her mouth to form a smile.

On the other side of the barn, two pigs from the barn were tooting around near the water trough as Annabeth stared across the ravine at her parents' house. The house was untouched by the flood, though the water had gotten halfway up the front walk that was lined with her mother's prized roses. Her dad's minitractor lay on its side at the base of that walk. And a couple of cows had gotten through the fence and were snacking on the vegetable garden in the side yard.

Below, in the ravine, the water had receded, leaving debris strewn down the sides of the hill and up the one on which the house sat. there were tree trunks and lawn chairs down there, boulders and a bicycle, a shade umbrella and any number of other items that looked bizarre, scary and all wrong, soggy and busted up, trailing across the pasture. Annabeth turned her eyes away, toward the road, and saw her Camry. It had drifted past the ditch and lay on its side in the pasture. It was covered in mud.

"I guess I'll be needing a new car." She tried to sound philosophical about it, but knew that she didn't exactly succeed.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go check out the house. Watch where you put your feet in the ravine."

Frank and the two pigs followed them down there. They picked their way with care through all the soggy junk and knotted tree roots. It was going to be quite a job, cleaning up. And she knew that all the other ranches in the valley had to be in a similar state, if not worse. Her family still had a barn and the house, at least. And as far as she could see, there were no animals or people lying broken amid the wreckage down there.

When they reached the house, they went up the front stops. She'd lost her keys. They were probably still stuck in the ignition of her car. But her mom had left a house key where she always did, in the mouth of the ceramic frog by the porch swing.

They went inside. The power and phone were both out, but still, it all looked just as it had the last time she'd been there, the white refrigerator covered with those silly magnets her mother liked, some of them holding reminders to pick up this or that at the store. There were also pictures of her and her brother and a few recipes her mom was meaning to try. In the living room, the remote sat on the table by her dad's recliner and her mother's knitting bag waited in its usual place at the end of the fat blue sofa.

Her childhood home, intact, it seemed a miracle to her right then. And she wanted to cry all over again with a desperate, hot sort of joy.

Percy turned on the water in the kitchen, it ran clear but they both knew that the flood could have caused contamination of any wells in its path.

She said, "We have wells for the animals. But for this house and Malcolm's place, we have a water tank that taps an underground spring higher up on this hill. The floodwaters wouldn't have reached that far. So the water here, in the house, is safe."

"That's good. A lot of wells are going to need disinfecting. Any source of clean water is great news."

She nodded. "And in town they get water from above the falls. So they should be all right, too, shouldn't they, at least on the north side of the creek?" He shrugged. She knew what he was thinking. Who could say what they would find in town, and what about his family's place? "I know you prably want to head over to the Double J."

"Yeah, but let's check out your brother's house first, and then see about getting something to eat."

Malcolm's house. She realized she didn't want to go there, but she did it anyway. And she was glad, again, for Percy's presence at her side. The house was locked up. They looked in the windows. It was bad. The waterline went three feet up the walls, but the moisture had wicked higher in ugly, muddy spikes. Malcolm's furniture was beyond saving, soggy and stained, the stuffing popping out.

"Can we get to the propane tank?" Percy asked. "Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to a possible gas leak." She showed him the way. They were able to turn it off from outside. Then he said, "Come on. There's nothing more we can do here right now."

They went back to her parents' house and found plenty to eat in the pantry. She filled Frank's food bowl and the hungry dog quickly emptied it. After the meal, she took the perishables out of the fridge and put them in a bucket in the front yard. The two pigs went right to work on the treat.

It was still pretty early, a little after seven. Percy suggested they make use of the safe water source and take showers before they left. There was just no way to guess the next time they'd have a chance to clean up a little. Like Malcolm's house, the tank was heated by propane, so they even had hot water.

Annabeth chose from some of her own old clothes that her mom had stored for her in a box under the stairs. She got clean jeans, a fresh shirt and a pair of worn but sturdy work boots to wear. For Percy, she found an ancient purple shirt that belonged to her dad, a pair of her dad's boots that were a pretty decent fit, and some trusty overalls. She also gave him a towel, a toothbrush, shaving cream and a disposable razor. He took the guest bathroom, and she took the master bathroom. While undressing she couldn't help but think about the possibly naked Percy in the guest bathroom. . .

AN: okay probably a weak ending. okay so on other news i want to know if you guys would want daily updates of chapters about this length or longer chapters but less frequent updates. Thanks you guys for the reviews they are all helpful and motivate me to write more till next time