AN: No excuses here... I'm an awful, awful person, and you can all yell at me in reviews/PMs/rants in your head. Seriously, I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: Perhaps if I was Rick Riordan, or the owner of White Collar I would update faster...

Percy was left all alone in the room, sitting in a chair with his head bowed. He bit his lip and sighed, knowing what he had to do. He walked over to the rarely used fire place and flicked the switch, glad for the automatic gas system built in. Walking over to the fridge, he grabbed an uneaten sandwich he had been saving for later and threw it in.

"Poseidon." He spoke before whispering his prayer to his father, the first one since Annabeth had allegedly drowned, and neither he nor his father had been able to rescue her, or even to find her body. "Hey dad, it's me. I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry for blaming you for something which you really had no control over. I don't know who did that to Annabeth, but rest assured, when I find them, they'll wish they had never messed with a Son of Poseidon. I'm pretty sure you've heard about Mom being kidnapped, and as soon as we can find Annabeth, we'll figure out where she is and Nico and I will go get her. I'm sorry for these past few years, but I hope you know that as always, I am your son first, and everything else second. I love you dad, and I'll get them back, I promise."

A warm breeze swept over him, smelling of salt and the ocean. He grinned to himself. Apparently, his father hadn't forgotten about him.

Then, sinking back into a chair, he laid his head back and began to think, using none of his ADHD-Percy-Jackson-Style-Do-First-Think-Later technique, instead focusing directly on his Oh-So-Very-Logical-Neal-Caffrey-Think-Absolutely-Everything-Through-To-A-Point-Where-It's-More-Than-A-Bit-Annoying technique.

Amnesia was a type of madness, was it not? Percy had seen Mr. D cure Chris, Clarisse's long-term boyfriend (or at least he had been when Percy had last seen them, he made a mental note to ask Nico whether or not the couple was still together), with a snap of his fingers. It should be a small matter to "cure" Annabeth. Then again, if Annabeth had been captured and brainwashed (or at least made to forget) by an unknown enemy (which was the only likely scenario, in Percy's mind), it might be likely that Mr. D would be unable to help.

Annabeth would surely help if her memories returned, as she was always an admirably loyal person (not to mention a huge fan of Percy's mother, and her cookies), but if they did not… If they did not then Percy could easily convince Peter to bring her in for questioning and hope that she would open up to the FBI and not preach some confidentiality agreement.

So, that would help Percy get her mother back… But what then?

What if Annabeth was in a relationship?

What if she was married?

What if, once her memories were recovered, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with Percy?

What if, once she found out the crimes Percy had committed, she was disgusted?

What if she never got her memories back?

What if she was on the 'dark side'?

What if she was in league with Adler?

What if she went to jail?

Squeezing his eyes shut tightly and massaging his temples with his fingers, Percy somehow managed to cram his thoughts into a small corner of his mind where they would not interfere. He then stood up and walked to the door, opening it violently and grinning at Thalia, Rachel, Mozzie and Nico when they fell in, as they had all been eavesdropping.

"Having fun there?" He asked them.

"Oodles." Thalia snapped back, getting up and dusting off her parka, before wincing once she saw how Percy looked.

Mozzie's eyebrows flew up and he gaped in horror at Percy. "Oh my gods, Percy. What did you do to your hair?"

"My hair?"

Mozzie shuddered in revulsion and pointed at a mirror, all the while refusing to look back at Percy after the initial glance.

"You're acting like I'm Medusa."

Nico snorted, amusement dancing in his coal black eyes. "With that hair, you might as well be."

Walking calmly to the mirror, trying not to imagine what his hair might look like, Percy grinned briefly at the considerably lightened atmosphere in the room. His grin vanished, however, when he looked into the bathroom mirror, and a gargoyle was staring back.

His hair, so precisely gelled and styled just five or so minutes ago, was in disarray. Some of it was sticking straight up, other parts of it were sticking out, or back, or lying straight across his head in the opposite direction of where it should have been. Diving for the comb on the counter, Percy quickly styled his hair back to the way it should have always been… With the help of what was probably an unhealthy amount of hair product, his hair was saved. He gave a relieved sigh when the crisis was over.

"Did you get a picture?" Nico was asking Rachel. "Please tell me you got a picture."

The oracle sighed. "Sorry, Nico… I couldn't get my mind to think enough to whip my phone out, can you ever forgive me?"

The dark eyed teen glared at her. "No, I don't think I can. That was the opportunity of a lifetime!"

"I know Nico… Hey, what if I email you that one photo from camp when we found Percy cuddling with a stuffed animal dolphin?" She suggested.

Nico nodded thoughtfully. "I guess that could work."

Percy groaned. "I thought you deleted that."

"Nope!"

"So, Seaweed Brain… In the absence of our resident Wise Girl, did you think of a plan?" Thalia prodded him.

Percy grinned. "Of course. The Boyfriend of a Daughter of Athena always has a plan."

"Hey, boss, I've got something weird." Jones informed Peter, who was immediately at his side.

"What?"

"Thalia Grace's father is the same as Percy's. He absolutely doesn't exist. I'm thinking that with Nico, whoever he is, his father doesn't exist either."

Peter nodded thoughtfully. "What type of people are so high up that they aren't on birth certificates?"

"Maybe they're in the mob? Percy, Thalia and Nico all have vaguely Italian features… They all have black hair…"

"It's a good theory. It would explain why they're so scared to cross them, and how they could possibly know where Percy's mother is."

In the middle of their very intense thinking session, the phone suddenly rang, and Peter picked it up quickly after noticing who the caller was. "Percy," he greeted, the name sounding foreign on his lips. "Have you found out the location of your mother?"

"Vaguely. I know she's underground, in a very well-designed fortress belonging to Vincent Adler. I also know that it's a secret fortress, if you can believe that."

"A secret fortress." Peter stated; his disbelief evident in his voice.

"Yes."

"You expect me to believe that."

"I expect you to at least hear me out before you call the mental hospital."

"Okay, what else?"

"The plans or blueprints aren't going to be in city hall, but we know who the designer slash architect is, so we can just bring her in to interrogate her…"

Peter sighed. "Fine. But it's not going to be an arrest, just a questioning. What's her name?"

Peter heard whispering in the background and could vaguely make out Nico's voice before Percy spoke again into the phone. "It's Shannon Thina." This time, when Percy spoke to Nico, or whoever was there with him, he could vaguely make out the words. "Thina? Really?"

Ignoring it, Peter quickly repeated the name to Jones, who searched her name in the FBI's all-knowing database. She was quickly found when Percy mentioned a few key things, such as where she lived and what she looked like. However, from the halting flow of information, Peter suspected that it was really Nico speaking to him, using Percy as a middle-man.

"Okay, she's a successful architect with a firm here in New York. I'll go pay her a visit."

"You? As in you alone? As in without me?" Percy spoke incredulously.

"You're involved personally with this case, I can't let you go with me into the public eye… You can, however, question her with me when I bring her back."

There was speaking in the background and Peter could hear arguing before the phone was, obviously, torn away from Percy.

"Hi," a vaguely familiar female voice spoke. "It's Rachel Dare… I request that I be present as well."

"On what grounds?"

"On the grounds that Percy is an idiot who is so emotional at the moment that he might do something abnormally stupid, even for him, without my guidance."

Peter thought for a moment before shrugging. He couldn't see any harm in the idea. "I'll allow it. Goodbye, Miss Dare."

"Goodbye, Agent Burke, and thank you!"

"Hi, my name is Agent Peter Burke, this is Agent Jones, we're with the FBI. We're here to speak with Shannon Thina." Peter approached the red haired secretary, flashing his badge at her along with a polite smile.

The secretary took a look at his badge and immediately grabbed the phone. "Miss Thina? There's two agents with the FBI here in the lobby waiting to see you. All right, I'll send him up." She then stood up from her desk and smoothed down her skirt, flashing a grin at Peter. "I'll show you to Miss Thina's office, please follow me."

She walked off, and Peter, along with Jones followed her to a very light, airy looking office with floor to ceiling windows that showcased a fantastic view of the Hudson River. A blonde woman was sitting at the desk, furiously sketching out something on a sheet of paper. She flushed when she saw them standing in the doorway.

"Thanks, Chelsea…" She dismissed the secretary. "Hello, I'm Shannon Thina, I understand you're here to speak to me?" She spoke, walking from around her desk to shake hands with Peter and Jones.

"Yes, I'm Agent Peter Burke, this is Agent Clinton Jones, we're here to speak to you about a design you made for a man named Vincent Adler?" While he spoke, Peter examined her face. She looked horribly familiar, so familiar, in fact, that he found himself nearly staring at her.

She nodded slowly, frowning as she did so. "The Adler design… You know, I never felt quite right about that one."

"Why?"

"When Adler came to me, he asked me to design what was basically a fortress. He asked me to build him a labyrinth. An un-navigable maze that was even underground. He assured me that it was purely for a vault, since he had a lot of valuable art and other items, but it seemed too much like a prison for my liking."

"If you didn't want to build it, why did you?" Peter asked, and she shrugged guiltily.

"Thing is, I was very inspired by the whole idea. For whatever reason, while designing that… I felt like I was closer to my past than I had ever been before."

"Your past?" Jones asked skeptically. "You designed an underground fortress to feel better about your past?"

Shannon's grey eyes flashed dangerously, and Peter nearly took a step back, recognizing the danger hidden.

"Agent Jones, do you see that river in my window? Nine years ago, I was fished out of it, hypothermic and barely alive. The couple who found me adopted me, and all was well except for one problem. I did not and still do not remember anything from before I woke up in the hospital. So, yes. Feeling close to my past was important for me. If you have a problem with that, Agent, I would appreciate you keeping your thoughts to yourself."

"You don't remember anything?" Peter asked her, surprised.

She shrugged. "I have dreams sometimes, but unless you count dreams of random jets of water nearly knocking down the Empire Building as memories, then no. I don't."

"So, you designed the fortress for Adler… Do you have any idea what it looks like, or where it is?" Peter spoke, still scrutinizing her to try to figure out where he knew her from.

Shannon grinned. "Why, of course, Agent Burke. I have all the documents detailing absolutely everything about that fortress."

"Would you mind coming into the FBI building then?"

She nodded. "Of course, but may I ask, why all the fuss about the Adler building?"

Peter took a deep breath. "We have reason to believe that there is a woman being held there against her will."

Shannon showed no reaction other than a slight frown. "Well then, let's go to the FBI."

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Rachel pestered Percy for the umpteenth time as they stood in the conference room.

"I'll be fine." Percy assured her though he did not, in fact, feel very okay. "And I know the plan. Don't tell her anything, don't let anything slip. I can tell her who she really is when all this is over and my mom is home."

Rachel nodded. "Now, Peter will be referring to you as Neal Caffrey, since you're only Percy unofficially."

"I know."

"You can't even give her a hint."

"I know."

"There's little to no chance that seeing you will make her remember, so don't worry."

"I'm not worried about that."

Rachel groaned. "Then what are you worried about?"

"Nothing."

"Percy."

"What if I let something slip? Peter can't know… If he suspects, he might take me off this case, and that will make it that much harder to get my mom back."

Rachel thought for a moment. "Hmmm… You and Annabeth were in disguise a few times, right?"

"What?"

"A few times, when you were on a quest or whatever, you lied about your identities, right?"

"Yes…"

"And that's how you got your start as a con artist, correct?"

"Alleged con artist, but yes."

"So, pretend you're running a con with Annabeth. You've been caught or whatever, and now you're pretending not to know each other. You can't let anything slip or else it will mean prison, or at least an angry minotaur."

Percy nodded slowly, staring at the floor, his eyes far away. "That sounds reasonable."

"It's beyond reasonable. It is pure genius."

He grinned at her and she opened her mouth to speak once more but before she could, the door of the conference room opened and two people stepped in.

Percy turned slowly, and for the first time in nine years, faced the first and only girl he had lost his heart to.

AN: Yes, it's a cliffhanger. I know, boo me. I'm horrible... I've already given permission for all of you to yell at me though, so feel free to go ahead and do that. Now, I need some feedback... Should Annabeth recognize him? Because I've got two completely different outlines for each scenario, and I'm not quite sure which one I like more...

The next update should be up sooner than this one was (once again, I am so, so sorry).

Sorry again,

-Marie