Sorry it's been such a long time since I last updated this story. Here's the 12th chapter. It varies slightly from my original plan (which involved sea turtles), but I really like where this one goes.

Reviews:

Sass Guest - Thanks!

Disclaimer - I don't own PJO, I do own this storyline.

~Percy Jackson~

"Come on, this way".

We reached the end of the tunnel, and I stepped off of the conveyor belt onto a small flight of stairs, my girlfriend close behind me. "What are we going to see next?" she asked.

I smiled, pulling my id card from my pocket and walking over to a less obvious door marked 'Staff Only'. Annabeth gave me a confused look. "Seaweed Brain, you know that that door says that it's for staff only, right?"

I grinned at her. "Of course. But what use is being able to access awesome behind-the-scenes type stuff if I can't actually show you any of it?"

"Fair point. Just try not to make a habit of it please".

"I promise not to make a habit of this. At least, I won't after today".

Turning my attention back to the door, I swiped the ID card and quickly keyed in a 4-digit code before pulling the door open. "Alright, follow me".

She nodded, following me into a well-lit hallway with long glass windows on either side. "This is… interesting. And not quite what I expected, if I'm entirely honest. What are these rooms for?"

I smiled, gesturing to the closer of the two rooms. "The room on the left is storage for the newer arrivals, at least until we get their new tanks properly in order. Do you see the small container in the back there?"

She stared into the room thoughtfully. "The one with 'Touch Pool' written on the side in large red and black letters?"

"Yes, that's the one. We're adding a couple of interactive exhibits for kids in the next couple of weeks, and a touch pool is going to be one of the first ones added. Come on, I'll show you".

"Are you sure that that's allowed, Percy?"

I nodded, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. "I wouldn't be offering to show you if I wasn't sure. Besides, most of the creatures in the touch pool's tank are already used to humans, and I'm sure that those that aren't quite there yet could benefit from your presence too. So, what do you say?"

My girlfriend looked doubtful for a couple of seconds before nodding. "Let's do it. I promised myself I'd stop passing up any opportunities life offered me, and this is the perfect time to try something new".

"Isn't it just?"

With that agreed on, I pulled open the sliding glass door and stepped into the slightly-cooler room, Annabeth close behind me. "Air conditioning, right?" she queried, noticing the slightly cooler air almost immediately (as I had expected she would).

I nodded in agreement, reaching behind her to tug the door shut again. "Yes. The fish and other assorted sea creatures that we keep in here prefer slightly cooler temperatures, so we have an air conditioning unit set to keep the temperature in this room at slightly colder than room temperature at all times".

"Very cool".

I found myself pausing in mid-step for a second, stunned by her response. Did she really just say that? "Just over here".

I walked over and knelt down beside the storage tank, letting my hand fall over the side into the water, where it was almost immediately swarmed by a group (4 or 5 of them, they were moving around so rapidly that it was hard to tell) of baby stingrays. Glancing up at my blonde-haired girlfriend, I gave her an encouraging smile. "They won't hurt you, if that's what you're worried about. Well, except for Rusty, but he's always a bit grouchy this time of day anyway so try not to dwell too much on it".

"Rusty?"

As she spoke, she crouched next to me, letting her hand fall into the clear liquid in the tank and watching as the baby stingrays which had been swarming my hand immediately flocked to hers. "Wow. That is a seriously odd sensation. Are you sure they won't hurt me though? I mean, what happens if one gets overly excited or something?"

I gave a reassuring smile, pressing my lips to hers gently. "I wouldn't worry about that".

"You wouldn't?"

"No. The interesting thing about these little guys is that we actually trim their tail barbs every so often, and we do so until they grow old enough (and comfortable enough around people) to be added into the main stingray tank. As Mel said earlier, their tail barbs are made of keratin, so it doesn't actually harm them. It's basically like trimming the stingray version of a human's toenails".

"You're right, that is actually really interesting. Not something that I'd ever really thought about before today, definitely, but still really interesting. It still doesn't answer my earlier question though. Who, or what, is Rusty?"

I laughed. "Rusty is the storage tank's resident hermit crab (and, soon, the touch pool's). His name comes from the fact that everything he takes for a shell is, co-incidentally, a rust-brown in colour. Or at least close enough so as not to make a difference to him".

"You said he usually gets grouchy about this time every day, right? Why would that be?"

"It's his feeding time".

I stood and walked around the edge of the tank so that I could reach the spot that Rusty had basically claimed as his own. As I reached into my pocket and withdrew a small packet of walnuts, opening them, I could feel my girlfriend's piercing grey eyes on me. "Percy, I thought you said it was his feeding time, not yours".

"It is his feeding time. Watch".

Out of the corner of my eye, I was dimly aware of her shifting the way that she sat to get a better look of what was going on. I knelt, eyeing the small crustacean in front of me. "Hi, Rusty. I've got a little something special for you to try today".

I tipped a single walnut out of the bag into my open palm, and slowly, carefully, lowered it towards the crab. Almost immediately, a pair of dark brown antennae emerged from the depths of the shell, followed a couple of seconds later by a small face and a pair of claws. One of the claws, the one closest to me, immediately shot out and snatched the walnut from my hand before disappearing back into his shell. Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Wow. He does not like to stick around, does he?"

"He definitely does not. On the subject of food, I suppose I should feed the stingrays too".

I stood and reached up, taking a grey steel bucket filled with raw shrimp from one of the shelves. "This is the only thing they'll eat at the moment. Hey, do you want to try feeding them? It's not too difficult, all you have to do is hold the shrimp just over the surface of the water and they do the rest".

Annabeth considered the question, before nodding, moving to my side and extending her hand. "Alright, why not?"

So there we go. Honestly, I'm actually rather pleased with how this turned out, even though it turned out to be nothing like what I had originally planned. Anyway, we might get to meet Will next chapter!

Songs for this chapter are:

7 Years, by Lukas Graham
The Scientist, by Coldplay

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you guys thought of the new chapter!