Ah, and we have come to the end. I am so grateful for everyone who has put up with the miserably long chunks of time between updates and the irrationally long author's notes. I hope you enjoyed reading this fic as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Completing this fic, with actual plot and linear chronology (that's a first for me) is a huge accomplishment, and I thank you all for being there beside me. As always, if there are any outtakes you want to see, or any in-universe scenes you'd want a view into, pop into my ask box on tumblr and I'll see what I can do.

For the last time in this fic, thank you.

PIPER

She is paralyzed.

Her feet are glued to the floor. Her jaw is locked open. Her arms are frozen at her sides.

Someone turned off gravity and took the air out of the room.

When she finally finds herself able to speak, all she can say is, "Reyna, no," and then, for the first time in ages, she feels real tears prick at the sides of her eyes, tears that aren't in frustration or a joke, but real heartbroken tracks threatening to stain her cheeks.

"No," she gasps, looking around the room. She finds that stupid, dumb sweatshirt that smells like Reyna and feels like Reyna and pulls it on over her head, and it's almost like Reyna's holding her but it's not and she's not. And she never will again. It hits Piper like a train and she feels her knees go out beneath her.

Then she's curled up on the floor, chin on her knees, silent tears pouring down her cheeks, as she realizes what this means. She's never seeing Reyna again. She messed up, she always messes up, it's her fault no one stays with her. She's messed up so bad this time that Reyna left her own room to be away from Piper.

Piper's wrong again, so wrong, and she pushed away one of the only people who's ever really cared about her. There was a chance. She'd had a chance.

And she messed it all up.

Piper grabs the few things she has in Reyna's room and bolts out of there, running blindly until she reaches her dorm and bolts in. She barely hears the desk attendant ask her what's wrong. She doesn't want to talk right now. She wants to be alone.

When she falls into her room, she stumbles until she half rolls into the middle of the room, and the energy it takes to pull herself into a sitting position is almost too much. Reyna's gone. Reyna's not coming back.

Reyna's not hers, was never hers, and will never be hers.

Piper ruined everything.

She's still sitting there twenty minutes later when Annabeth walks in, pressing random buttons on her iPod to turn it off.

"Hey, welcome back, you will not believe the night I – why are you on the floor and curled into a ball?" Annabeth asks. When Piper doesn't respond, Annabeth drops everything and rushes toward her, pulling Piper into her arms. Piper still can't move.

"I made a mistake," says Piper, "I – I did it wrong. I…" Again, again, her words are failing her, she can't talk, she can't move.

Piper just feels broken. She can't even cry. Everything just feels weirdly gone.

"She's not here anymore," Piper gasps, and it's the first time she's really said it and it hurts like a dagger in her stomach. It's like hearing it is worse than feeling it.

Piper can feel Annabeth staring at her, but she shoves her head into the too-big sweatshirt like a turtle and really doesn't want to do anything but never leave her turtle-y place of ignoring everything ever again.

Inside Reyna's big sweatshirt, Piper can pretend everything's okay.

Then, suddenly, she feels something whack her flat in the shoulder and she jolts. "What?" she sniffles, feeling more pathetic than she ever has before. "Why are you trying to make me more miserable than I already am?"

"Because you need to stop complaining before you make me hit you harder," says Annabeth firmly. "Look, I haven't dealt with the bitching from both of you all semester for it to end like this. The two of you are getting together if my life ends because of it, do you understand, you absolute idiot?"

Piper just stares at her. "Huh?" she asks.

"Leave the thinking to me," says Annabeth. "You just sit there and try not to start crying again unless you're prepared to talk it out while crying."

"I don't want to cry," says Piper, "I want to throw myself into a vat of soup and boil to death."

"There, you're being dramatic again," says Annabeth. "You're already getting back to being Piper. Now come on. I have an idea."

ANNABETH

Annabeth Chase is not a girl who appreciates it when things do not go her way. She's extremely good at what she does, and what she does, often, is be right. Being right is her birthright. It's what she does.

So when she walks into her dorm room to find Piper on the floor, barely able to tell her that Reyna's left, she knows this isn't how it's supposed to end, and she also knows that it's her job to turn this shit around. In a flash, she's got Reyna on the phone.

"Don't ask me, Annabeth," she says flatly as she answers. "I'm not doing this again."

"Not why I'm calling," says Annabeth, "I'm trying to keep you two from dying, getting back together is you guys. I'm asking what happened."

"I danced with a guy, she got jealous and accused me of using her, I got fed up, I left. That enough for you?"

Annabeth sighs. "Christ, she's an idiot sometimes."

"I can't do this anymore, Annabeth," Reyna says sadly. "It's all or nothing, unfortunately. So I guess I get nothing."

Annabeth hangs up with a, "We'll see about that," and knocks on the shower curtain behind which she knows Piper is. "You alive in there, Piper?"

"Yeah," Piper replies. "I still don't know what you're doing right now."

"I'm making you be a human because I'm not entirely convinced you're capable of doing that yourself right now," Annabeth responds. "You scared the crap out of me, sitting on that floor, Piper. You were curled up, in the dark, in Reyna's purple hoodie, just staring at your phone."

"And?"

Annabeth punches blindly into the shower curtain, smiling when Piper squeaks. "And that's extremely scary behavior. Look, today we're going to just breathe, okay? We're going to get you showered and then get lunch –"

"Lunch?"

"Yeah," Annabeth replies. "It's one thirty. I got breakfast with Percy around nine, but even I'm hungry now. Are you telling me you forgot to eat, too?"

"I guess."

Annabeth sighs and drops her head to the tile of the bathroom wall. She's done this before, herself, to a more severe extent. The forgetting to eat, the inability to judge time. The inhuman zombie status.

So she's that much more convinced she won't let Piper do the same.

Eventually Piper comes out of the shower in a towel and Annabeth French braids her hair and throws an outfit at her – something comfy – and Piper skips all her classes that day. There was no fucking way Annabeth would ever have her go to their history class. Besides, Reyna will share the notes once this gets unfucked. Even if it doesn't get unfucked, Annabeth will steal Reyna's notes in honors class and photocopy them for Piper, because that's the kind of friend she is.

Annabeth had left Piper with a movie and some popcorn before leaving for her math class, and picks up the phone. "Hey, Percy," she says. "You won't believe the day I'm having."

"Does it have anything to do with the fact that Reyna ran away from me about forty seconds ago after I tried to say hi?" he asks. "Because that just happened."

Annabeth sighs and lays out as much of the situation as she can figure out. It's not much that she knows, but it's enough that Percy gets it.

"I was worried this would happen," says Percy. "Piper's been telling me lately how much she's convinced she was a phase for Reyna and –"

"Hold up," says Annabeth. "Wait. Piper told you – how did I miss this?!"

"Piper and I hang out without you and Reyna sometimes," he says, chuckling a little bit. "I mean, what else can we do when you guys are at your big fancy honors class? Homework?"

"You stun me every time, Percy," she sighs. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She can almost see Percy shrug during his sigh. "Piper asked me not to say anything. I wasn't going to if she didn't want me to."

"That was very loyal of you," says Annabeth. "Piper probably really appreciates it. Speaking of Piper, I am right outside our door and am now required to have a very unpleasant conversation with her. Talk to you later?"

"Course. See you later, alligator."

"In a while, crocodile."

Annabeth hangs up the phone and opens the door.

"You're crying AGAIN?!" she exclaims. "It's Cars! How are you crying about Cars?!"

"They – she has a tattoo and he left and…" Piper dissolves again into tears, and Annabeth is seriously considering calling a professional. Nothing about cars is either emotionally stimulating or that sad, in her opinion, except for that scene with James Taylor in the background.

"I'm going to turn this off and put on Magic School Bus on Netflix," says Annabeth carefully, "and then we're going to have a talk and you're going to make puns like Carlos, okay?"

"Okay."

Magic School Bus never actually makes it on.

PIPER

"And I feel like, maybe, I don't know. I think I ruined it a long time ago by not telling her how messed up I am."

"Why do you think you're messed up, though?" Annabeth asks her. She's studying Piper's face in the way she studies math problems, and it'd be more annoying if Piper didn't know Annabeth was trying to help.

"Because I was with the greatest girl and I fucked it all up."

"That is a vague answer and you know it."

Piper sighs and closes her eyes, trying to figure out how to articulate her feelings. "I didn't want to make it real because I didn't want her to tell me it wasn't," she says finally. She opens her eyes to see Annabeth nodding carefully at her.

"I know you get scared of people being assholes," says Annabeth carefully, "but sometimes people really do care."

Piper shrugs. "I know," she replies, just as carefully, "I just…This hasn't happened before, okay? I didn't know I could feel…Stuff for people. I've never had feelings and stuff before. It's always been dine and dash, hit it and quit it, all those other horrible things I say –"

"Now you sound like you."

" – but now, with her, I…I want her around. I've woken up in her bed so much. Hell, you like her! I didn't want to tell her I felt something and have it be…A lie."

She and Annabeth talk through the night, taking a break for dinner and another for a brief study session so neither of them accidentally end up failing a class, but Piper begins to realize how freaking stupid she's been and how much she's ready to do something significantly more stupid but also more awesome.

"Do you have an idea of the stupid slash awesome thing you plan to do?" Annabeth asks. "Because I don't care what you say, I'm not dressing in drag and doing the luau. That suggestion was just ridiculous even after we'd watched The Lion King."

Piper frowns. "At first I thought hey, telephone. But I can't call her," says Piper. "I can't. She'd kick me. Through the phone. I need to – I need to do something stupidly drastic. Something that'll make her be like, 'oh, she cares' instead of, 'oh, she's faking it again.'"

"Piper," says Annabeth, "she's never thought you faked anything. She's always thought you were scared of confronting things, but not faking it."

Piper smirks. "I'd make a horrible joke about never having to fake it with her, but it feels like the wrong time."

"You? Wrong time for an orgasm joke?" gasps Annabeth, hand over her heart in mock surprise. "Are you sure you're feeling better?"

Piper nods and steels herself. "She's got a lacrosse scrimmage tomorrow. I don't think she knows that I know. What if I wake up at, like, six, to meet her at the game? What if I did that?"

"That would be just dumb enough to both work and show you're in this."

Piper nods. "And she knows how much I like my sleep." She smiles, and it feels real this time. She's going to fix this, or at least do her best to try. "I have an idea."

REYNA

She chooses not to talk to anyone much in the morning as she eats breakfast with the team, or during warm up, or during most of the game. She hears cheers and follows plays and does what she's supposed to, but she's not really into it. She's just mad and sad, which translates horribly to her game play.

Then, near the end of the game, she realizes something odd. Someone's cheering for her in the stands. That's not particularly unusual, the cheering part, but this time it's someone who's calling her name – her first name, not her last name – and yelling stupid things like "Get it in!" and "do the thing!" instead of helpful plays.

She forces back the hope bubbling in her chest. Piper's not here. First off, it's not even ten in the morning, and second, Piper's done with her. Never even asked Reyna to stay – it's clear there's nothing left between the two of them. Reyna squeezes her eyes shut and gets back into the game, ignoring the voice in the stands.

But then it sounds closer, sounds louder, and she can't help herself. Reyna's always been an idiot, but not knowing has to be worse than knowing it's not her, so she takes the leap and glances up at the stands.

And there she is.

Piper's in the stands, in the indoor arena she swore she would never set foot in, next to Annabeth, and she's cheering for her with a sign that says something that nearly kills Reyna where she stands. Before she can react, before she can double check, do the double take to ensure that, yes, those words are in front of her, she gets hit the sound of a whistle and she's back in the game.

Coach is running her hard and not letting her slow down for more than a few seconds – he keeps yelling at her to get on her mark between whistles, like any mark of hers could really get away, come on now – so rest of the game goes by before she gets a chance to look up at the sign again. She's just scored the final goal, and her teammates are on top of her, and she is again blocked. She can't see the sign.

Reyna tries to cheer and be excited for the fact that a freshman like her could do so well in the first scrimmage of the season, but the blood roaring in her ears and the sheer terror that maybe that wasn't what was on the sign is distracting her.

Gwen, bless her roommate's heart, realizes what's going on.

"Come on, girls, let's go talk to coach about our game planning for when the season really starts," says Gwen, and Reyna comes along, glancing up again into the stands. The sign's not there anymore, and neither is the girl who stole her heart with a single glance. God, this is pathetic.

Her heart plummets to the ground. Reyna should have known – it was just another attempt to get her back the way Piper wanted. She's fighting back tears – twice within two days, who is she, this is horrifying – and congratulates the other team for a good game, and trudges back to her bags.

And there she is.

And there's the sign that reads, "My girlfriend's #25 and she'll kick all your butts!"

It's not the kindest sign, or the most sportmanlike, or even very neat, but it's just like Piper and it's perfect. It's the best thing Reyna's ever read.

Piper chucks the sign behind her when they make eye contact (it smacks Annabeth in the stomach) and sprints toward Reyna. It looks like Piper's expecting Reyna to catch her, but instead she barrels into Reyna, knocking the two of the over into the damp grass.

"You were supposed to catch me," says Piper breathlessly, her lips a breath away from Reyna's. "You didn't do this right."

"Are you really going to come at me for doing what's right?" Reyna asks. She searches Piper face for hesitation, for a change in her mind, but she doesn't get it.

"I was scared and stupid," Piper begins, brushing hair from Reyna's face. "I am scared and stupid. I should change my name to Scared Stupid McLean, because that's what I am. But I'm willing to be scared and stupid." She rests her forehead against Reyna's, and she closes those stunning eyes. "I want to be scared. You scare the absolutely fucking hell out of me and I've never wanted to be anything more than…more than a part of you."

Reyna rolls her eyes and pulls Piper down to her, kissing her firmly. "You write that speech or did Annabeth help?" she murmurs against the lips she never thought she'd see again.

"Hey!" says Piper. "That was all me. Those were all my thinky thoughts. Don't tell me I'm doing it wrong!"

"Neither of us are very good at doing what we're supposed to," says Reyna. "But no, you didn't do it wrong. That…" She sighs, trying to memorize Piper's face. "That was very nice to hear."

"Damn straight," says Piper, and they're kissing again.

"Wait," says Reyna, "why are we making out on the field?"

Piper sits up a little more and shrugs. "I don't know. You were here and I was here and we were lying down so I just went eh, fuck it."

Reyna rolls her eyes. "So does this whole thing mean we're dating now?"

"One step further," says Piper, rolling off of Reyna and offering a hand to help her stand up. "You're my girlfriend, asshole. You ready to keep up with this?"

Reyna laughs. "I'm pretty sure you're the one who has to keep up with me."

"You wish, nerd."

"Watch it, Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Ray."

Piper's jaw drops. "Annabeth totally made you call me that."

Reyna shrugs. "You're my girlfriend now," she says with a grin, "I'm allowed to make fun of you using pet names."

"That doesn't count as a pet name!"

Reyna decides she doesn't need to say anything and pulls Piper close again, kissing her full on the mouth. "I'm glad you came back, Piper," she says. Piper, for once, doesn't seem to be guarded.

"I'm not the one who ran from her own bedroom," says Piper, and there's a little bit of residual challenge in the words. "Oh, my god, what's wrong with me, I –"

"That's a fair point," says Reyna. "I'm glad I came back and I'm glad you came back."

"I'm glad we came back too." Piper kisses her again, and as Reyna tries to grab Piper's hands, she realizes they're lost somewhere underneath the sleeves of whatever sweater Piper decided to throw on under her jersey.

Then she looks down and realizes the purple monstrosity is a little too big for Piper and it looks strangely familiar. "Are you wearing my sweatshirt under that hideous excuse for a homemade jersey?" Reyna asks.

Piper refuses to meet Reyna's eyes. "Maybe."

"Have you been wearing that since yesterday?"

Piper, still, refuses to meet Reyna's eyes. "Maybe."

"You're such a weirdo," says Reyna.

"It smells like you," Piper says with a shrug and an uncharacteristically shy smile, and suddenly Reyna realizes she might start seeing a brand new side of Piper from here on out. And it's exciting.

She leans down and tests out a kiss to Piper's forehead. For one of the first times ever, Piper leans into her and lets her wrap her arms around Reyna, and doesn't pull away. It's a little stiff and a bit awkward, but that's how relationships start, right?

"I think I could get used to this hugging thing," Piper says, "but it'll be better when you don't smell like a lacrosse player. You need a shower, stinky."

"You like the smell of my sweater, you idiot," says Reyna. "And by the way, am I ever getting that sweater back, you little clothing thief?"

Piper looks up at her and kisses her, still wrapped up in each other.

"I'm taking it that's a 'no, never, why the hell would you ask me that question?' kind of answer, huh."

Piper nods. "Oh, Reyna," she says with a smile, "you know your girlfriend so well."

As something warm and thick like honey floods through Reyna's heart. "You just called yourself my girlfriend," says Reyna, and she knows that the smile she has on her face has to be ten different levels of stupid.

"It appears I did," Piper replies. "Now stop being stupid and sweaty and go take a shower so we can have sex as girlfriends for the first time."

Reyna laughs harder than she has in a long time. She's not exactly sure what in hell's name she's gotten herself into, but if Piper McLean is in her life, she knows she's in for one hell of a ride.

~The End~