The pair continued talking for a while, just talking about nonsense things. Annabeth learned that Percy's favorite colour was blue; he loves horses, and hated math. She in turned told him that her favorite colour was orange, she was practically obsessed with owls, and that she loved math. They kept talking like this until Sally told them it was time for Annabeth to go back to her room. Annabeth fell asleep that night with a smile on her face

The next day passed in a similar manner, with Percy and Annabeth and spending the whole day. When Annabeth had been wheeled in the next day, Percy had been in his own wheelchair. They had spent the day fooling around, racing their wheelchairs down the hall, and playing with the little kids in the Pediatric wing.

When they had wheeled back to Annabeth's room before bed, they found out that Annabeth would have her surgery the next morning. Then, Percy took a leather necklace that Annabeth hadn't noticed before from around his neck. On it, were beads, and in the center, a sand dollar. He had given it to her to wear during the surgery for 'good luck'. Annabeth made sure to wear it. And when they put her under before wheeling her into the operating room, her last thought was of Percy.

One week later:

Annabeth and Percy were wheeled down to the PT room together. Over the past week, they had been inseparable, except for Annabeth's surgery. Percy had even been there when she woke up. Over the week, the doctors had slowly decreased the size if her braces, until it was just a small discrete brace. She would continue to wear this brace for a couple of months to come, to ensure that her foot would heal right. Once she was out of the brace she would wrap it for a couple of months more, until it was totally healed. Today was her first day of PT. They told her that she would start using crutches today.

As she and Percy wheeled down the hall, they chatted about what they might be doing in the future.

"Do you think we will be able to go back to school?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"I dunno, I mean, winter break is in a few weeks, so maybe after then?" He said, shrugging. "Why would you even want to go back to school anyway."
"Why not? I mean, it would be to much of a bother to repeat the year, and it would be really hard to miss the rest of it and do next year."

"Eh, any of these three options sounds kind of horrible to me. I mean, on top of having to learn to write with my left hand, I have dyslexia. Try learning like that." Percy said.

"Ya, I forgot about that. Anyway, aren't you excited for our outing later?" Annabeth said, getting excited at the thought of leaving the hospital.

"Do you love school?" Percy said, laughing. "I can't wait. What do you think we will do?"

"I want to get ice cream. I mean, all the food here is cold and rubbery." As Annabeth said that, they wheeled up to the door that had Physical Therapy written on it in gold lettering.

"Well, here we are. Ready for your first day of PT?" Percy had, a small grin on his face.

"You know it is your first day to, right?" Annabeth said, her own grin on her face. Percy would have to have someone who would do exercises with his legs so that they didn't atrophy before he regained the ability to walk. He also had another person who would help him start to write with his left hand.

"Details," Percy said, waving it off and pushing open the door. As they wheeled in, they took in the rom. It was much bigger than it looked like from the outside. It was about half the size of the gymnasium at school, with a small table at the back. The whole floor was padded and seemed quite soft. There was various exercise equipment and weird machines thought out the room.

Sitting at the table was a man who looked up at them when they entered the room. "Hello, you must be Annabeth and Percy. I am Mark*, your instructor." Mark had thinning brown hair and brown eyes. His eyebrows were scruffy, and so was the small beard on his chin. He was middle-aged, but seemed to be in good shape. His face had a structure that reminded Annabeth of a horse.

"HI." Annabeth said, extended her hand to shake. Percy followed her lead, holding out his good hand to shake.

"All right, we will start will you Annabeth, then do your exercises Percy." They nodded and Percy wheeled over to the side of the room, and parked his chair.

The first thing Mark taught Annabeth was how to walk with the crutches, it was kind of difficult because she could only stand on one foot for a few seconds before collapsing. Then, Mark lifted her out of the wheeled, and help her stand on the crutches. They were specially designed, with little ledges where she could rest her feet while standing still, like on stilts. They made her kind of sit down on the crutches, and got the weight mostly off her feet. Slowly, they started to have Annabeth walk small distances, and then stop and put her feet on the ledge. By the end of an hour, she was able to get around relatively well, but need breaks every couple of minutes or so.

Then, mark put her in the wheelchair so her legs were not put in to much strain. He told her that she would have to try and use the crutches as much as possible when she was in the hospital, but she could stay in the wheelchair during her outing. Then, she wheeled over to Percy who congratulated her and wheeled himself over for his own exercises. Mark moved his feet trough various exercises, stretching and working Percy's leg. Each leg took a half hour, and by the end, even though Percy couldn't feel it, he was sweating.

As they wheeled out, they each got more and more excited for their outing, so much that they didn't gripe as they usually did when they had to go to their separate rooms.

When she wheeled into her room, she saw the clothes that Helen had laid out for her to wear. They were lose, and comfy, but still were ok to where in public. Then she saw Helen sitting in one of the chairs beside her bed, reading a sappy romance novel.

'Why do you read those things?" She asked Helen, as she wheeled up to her bed. "They have horrible writing, no plot, and might as well be fantasies, for as accurate as they are."

"So, that's the fun in reading them." Helen said with a smile. 'Ready to get dressed?" Annabeth nodded and they slowly were able to get Annabeth dressed. Then, Helen took over and wheeled Annabeth out to the nurse's station, where they check her out for a while. In the lobby, Sally and Percy were waiting for the pair. Instead of the sweats Annabeth had got used to seeing Percy in, he was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt, with his necklace around his neck.

"Ready to go?" Sally said, and Helen and Annabeth nodded." First though, we have to have a talk." Percy and Annabeth turned to each other, and gave each other glances, each wondering what they needed to talk about.

"We haven't been letting you guys watch TV for a reason. The lockdown was al over the news for the last week, and so have you guys been. When we leave, we will be taking the main entrance, but there will be reporters there. When we get out of the hospital, and into their crowd, you guys don't have to say anything g. To make sure that the reporters don't follow us, we will have two bodyguards provided by the police. Do you guys got it?"

Annabeth let the information absorb for a second before nodding. Percy took a second longer, than also nodded. With that, Sally and Helen took hold of Percy and Annabeth's wheelchair and wheeled them side-by-side out of the hospital.

As they reached the entrance, Annabeth turned over and looked at Percy, who did the same. They shared a look that asked, "Are you ready?" In response, Percy reached over and grabbed Annabeth's hand. He squeezed it, and Annabeth squeezed back. When he when to pull away, Annabeth squeezed again and wouldn't let him let go. He nodded, and they exited the hospital.

For the first second, they were fine, no one around them. Then, there were people everywhere! Hands were shoving microphones in her face, people asking questions that all ran together. People were pressing against her, it was to close! Right as she started to panic, She felt Percy's hand squeezing her own, trying to reassure her. She squeezed back, and suddenly, it didn't seem so scary. She held her head high, and looked forward as she was pushed out of the parking drive, not giving any of the reporters her attention. The, there were two men pushing the reporters away, telling them they had to leave Percy and Annabeth alone. A couple more seconds and they were free.

"Are you two alright?" Helen asked,, as soon as they were free from the paparazzi.

"I think so." Percy said, and Annabeth nodded, agreeing with him.

"Ok then, where do you want to go?" Sally said, a smile on her face.

Annabeth and Percy turned to each other, ad with a silent agreement, said at the same time, "Pizza and ice cream." The moms laughed, and pushed the pair to the closest Brooklyn Pizza place.

Hours later, Annabeth was settling into bed, reminiscing on her day out. They had had so much fun out. It was the first time Percy and Annabeth had had junk food, and they had each had huge mounts of both pizza and ice cream. Then, they had spent their last hour at an arcade, battling it out on old-fashioned arcade machines. Annabeth never knew how good her step-mom was at Battlestar Galactica.

She wondered what they news had about them that night. Annabeth had no doubt that there would be a piece run on them, the two innocent teenagers injured in a lockdown turned kidnapping. Ad as scary as it had been, Annabeth knew she would be willing to brave the reporters in order to have one of these days again.

OK, you guys blew me away with some of your reviews. Telling me I could change name and publish it as a novel? Telling me I made you cry? You guys made my dya! Virtual coookies for all. And again, I did not do any reserch for the PT so give me a break. Mark is Chircon, just with a mundane name. a means means horse.x

R & R