"Praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety"

Okay so if you know what song that line is from I have to say you are so the most awesome reader I have and I will post another chapter this weekend.

As always i do not own Percy J and the Olympians Rick Riordan

Annabeth's POV

It didn't look so bad, Annabeth told herself as they drove in town. In fact, there on the northern edge of town, things seemed almost normal. Annabeth spotted a couple of downed trees and some flattened fences, but nothing like the devastation they'd witnessed coming in.

When they turned onto Main Street they saw that Hermes store parking lot was packed, people going in and coming out mostly empty handed. She wasn't surprised. It wouldn't take long to clear out the shelves of emergency supplies if everyone in town and most of the ranchers showed up all at once and grabbed whatever they could fit in a cart.

The Community Church had its doors wide open. People sat on the steps there or stood out under the trees in front. Most of them look confused and lost.

"Shouldn't the Red Cross be showing up any minute?" she asked hopefully. "And what about FEMA and the National Guard?"

Percy grunted. "With a lot of the state in this condition, the phones out and the roads blocked, we'll be real lucky if a few supply trucks get to us in the next day or two." And then he swore low. "isn't that the mayor's SUV?" The old brown 4x4 was half in, half out of the town hall parking lot. It had definitely come out the loser in the encounter with the elm tree. The tree lay square across what was left of the hood. The driver's door gaped open. A couple of boys in their early teens were peering in the windows.

"That's just too sad," Annabeth said low. "You'd think they'd want it off the street."

"Damn right." Percy muttered. "A sight like that is not encouraging." He hit the brake and then swung a U-turn. He shouted out the window at the two boys. "Hey, you two get over here."

Both boys froze. They wore guilty expressions, but then they put on their best tough guy scowls and sauntered to Percy's side of the truck. They were the older brothers of a couple of Annabeth's former students and when they spotted her in the passenger seat, they dropped some of the attitude and mumbled in unison, "Hello, Ms. Chase."

She gave them both a nod.

One of them raked his shaggy hair off his forehead and met Percy's eyes. "yeah?"

As he'd already done several times in the past eighteen hours or so, Percy surprised her. He knew their names. "Adam. Vince. Show a little respect, huh?"

Adam, who was fourteen if Annabeth remembered correctly, cleared his throat. "We are, Mr. Jackson." Mr. Jackson. So strange to hear anybody call the young and wild Percy mister. But then again, well, the Jacksons were pillars of the community. Some of that probably rubbed off, even on the family bad boy especially to a couple of impressionable teenagers.

Vince, who was thirteen, added, "We were just, you know. . ."

Percy leaned out the window and said "You two could make yourselves useful, head on up to the garage. See if Hephaestus has a tow truck he can spare." Hephaestus had owned and run the garage and gas station for as long as Annabeth could remember. "Tell him the mayor's SUV is still sitting in the middle of Main Street with a tree trunk buried in its good and lots of folks would appreciate it if he could tow it away."

And then Adam said, "Yeah, we could do that."

"You want me to take you up there?"

"Naw," said Vince, puffing out his chest. "We can handle it."

"Good enough, thanks boys, and tell Hephaestus he probably ought to bring a chain saw for that tree."

"We will." The two took off up Main at a sprint.

"That was well done," Annabeth said, and didn't even bother to try and hide the admiration in her voice.

Percy replied, "Maybe, but do you think they'll make it happen?"

"you know, I kind of do. They're good kids, and this is a way for them to help. And you know Hephaestus."

"Yes, I do. Hephaestus respected Zeus and he won't like it that the car Zeus died in is sitting on Main with the hood smashed in for everyone to stare and point at."

She glanced toward the dashboard clock. It was 10:45 a.m. "so what do we do now?"

"I was thinking we could go and see how your house made out. . ."

She glanced over her shoulder, out the back window, past a happily panting Frank, at the Main Street Bridge. Someone had put a row of orange traffic cones in front of it to warn people off trying to use it. And one of her brother's deputies was standing, arms folded, in front of the pedestrian walk that spanned on side. "It doesn't look like they're letting people cross the bridge."

Percy glanced over his shoulder, too. "We could try heading back, then going on foot along the top of the levee until we get to your street."

"That could be dangerous. . . I mean, with the breaks in the levee and all. We would have to go carefully, and we don't know what we'll find if we manage to get to my house. It could take hours and we would miss the noon meeting Apollo mentioned. I do think we should go to that."

Percy faced front again, his big shoulders slumping, and stared broodingly out the windshield back the way they had come. "You know who'll be running that meeting now that Zeus is gone, don't you?"

She did. "Luke Castellan." Luke was in his mid-twenties, a member of the town council. Everyone expected him to be mayor himself someday. He and Percy had never liked each other. Luke was as handsome and dynamic as Percy was brooding and magnetic. Percy had always been a rebel and Luke considered himself a community leader.

Rumor had it that five or six years back, Luke's girlfriend, Rachel, had cheated on him with Percy. Word was Rachel had told Percy that she and Luke were through. But apparently, she'd failed to inform Luke of that fact. There'd been a fight, a nasty one, between the two men that left both of them in the hospital. Percy with a broken hand and Luke with a couple of cracked ribs and broken nose. After that, the two had hated each other more than ever.

Plus, there was the old rivalry between their two families. Luke was a Castellan to the core. The Castellans not only owned the general store, they were also as influential in the community as the Jackson's. And for as long as anyone could remember, Castellans and Jacksons had been at odds. Annabeth didn't really know the origin of the feud, but it seemed to be bred in the bone now between the town's two most important families. Jacksons didn't think much of Castellans. And the Castellans returned the favor.

She spoke gently, but with firmness. "I really think it's important that everyone who can possibly be there attends that meeting."

He put his arm along the back of the seat and touched her shoulder, a gentle brush of a touch. She felt that touch acutely. His sea colored eyes sought hers and held them. "So you want to go to the meeting first and then decide what to do about getting to your place?"

She smiled at him. "I do. Yes." Right then, a tow truck came rumbling toward them down the street. Percy got out to give Hephaestus a hand.

AN: as always leave a review and i will respond and love you all readers