*Yay chapter 4! Sorry it took so long! Hope you enjoy*
Percy was shaking and sweating, pacing around the bathroom floor. As soon as he had given Annabeth the nectar she blacked out, and he panicked. He grabbed her hand and found her pulse. Not letting go. He ran over to the Iris message station in the corner of the bathroom. Fumbling through his pockets, his hands still quivering, he found a drachma and tossed it into the fountain mist, yelling a little too loudly "Chiron". He didn't know who else to call. Chiron answered the iris message quite quickly, and he was surprised that the old centaur was up so late. "What? What's wrong" Asked Chiron. He looked disgruntled, his hair was messy and he was still in his "Mamma's Favorite Centaur" t-shirt, and as far as Percy could tell, he had just gotten out of bed. Percy felt bad about it for a second, and then decided there was no time to waste. "It's Annabeth" Percy stated, forcing the words out. If he said any more, he thought he might puke. The man in the haze whitened, and murmured "I'll be there in a minute". He waved his arm through the haze and his image faded as he ran off to the side of the room. I sat down on the cold tiles and held Annabeth's hand. Tears began to slide down his face as he thought of how hopeless he was, how he could do nothing to help her now. He didn't know what he could do. He cried some more, thinking about how they had spent their whole lives together, and that maybe this was the end. The end of him waking up every morning next to the beautiful blonde, and her kissing him and holding his hand, and playing with her and the girls. Oh gods, what was he going to tell the girls? He would have to raise them by himself, and they would never have a mother again to help them where Percy lacked in experience. The thought of not having Annabeth made him want to curl into a fetal position and cry until he couldn't cry any more. But he couldn't. So he sat, squeezing Annabeth's limp hand and letting the tears roll down his face. He heard the door open downstairs. He quickly wiped the tears off onto his shirtsleeve and awaited Chiron's arrival upstairs. The centaur walked up the stairs, then shrank down into his wheelchair to maneuver through the house and into the bathroom. He met Lenna at the top of the stairs. She hugged him, and he whispered something in the girls ear. She nodded and turned around to go back into her room. Chiron had always been sort of a grandfather to the girls, which seemed suitable, because he was like a dad to Annabeth. As Chiron wheeled his way into the bathroom, he paled at the sight of Annabeth unconscious. Keeping a serious face, he bent over her and started to examine her. While he was doing this, he said nothing. He checked her temperature pursed his lips and turned to Percy. "How long has she been having pains" he asked, dead serious. "I don't know. Past couple days, especially today" I responded. I didn't meet his eyes, for fear of what they would tell me. "Why didn't she call me earlier" the centaur mumbled as he fidgeted in his chair. I knew he wanted to burst up and out and start pacing the floor, but he would probably break our ceiling, so he stayed in his wheelchair disguise. After some thought he spoke to Percy. "Call your mother and Paul to come and watch the kids. I'll take her to a healing ward. I'm afraid… I'm afraid I can't do much". Percy was on the verge of tears. Chiron instructed him to carry Annabeth down the stairs and onto the back porch. He transformed and took the unconscious woman into his arms. "I'll take her to the ward, and then send word when you can visit. I'm…" he stopped for a moment. "I'm very sorry Percy. I'll do whatever I can. But this is a mortal cancer, a hard to cure form. If we had caught it sooner then maybe…" he trailed off, not wanting to keep spilling heartbreaking facts. Percy turned into the house and Iris messaged his mother. He felt terrible for waking her in the middle of the night, especially Paul, who was a heavy sleeper. But Sally was always available to help Percy, and couldn't care less about what the time was when she heard what had happened. After shaking Paul awake, she promised Percy she'd be there in about a half an hour. Not one to break her word, Sally Jackson and an extremely tired Paul Blofis were at the Jackson's front door. As soon as Percy opened the door, his mother pulled him into an embrace that only a mother could give. It healed the heart, because there was so much care and love put into it. Percy cried into her shoulder, feeling like a child but not caring. He was too desperate at this point.
Percy couldn't sleep after that day. He had his mother stay with him and the girls to help around the house. Truth is that Percy was lost without Annabeth. He couldn't function, he just wanted to sit in his, their, bed and cry. He had, until his mom shook him and made him get up and make breakfast. He then remembered that he had completely forgotten how to make breakfast because Annabeth was a surprisingly good cook as well as an early riser. So Sally made breakfast and got the girls out of bed. Percy tried to explain the lack of their mother to the girls, but his half-hearted lie about visiting a friend only fooled Lenna. Rylie didn't by a word of it. She heard the screams of her mother, and she understood. Lenna was happy to have an excuse to continue on with her happy life as a child. But Ry was old way beyond her years, and understood more then she should for her age. Percy didn't want to put his children through this. He wanted everything to be back the way it was. Chiron hadn't even updated him in the week that he had had Annabeth. He told Percy that he would message him if anything was wrong, but so far, Percy had received no messages. Sally stayed at the house and helped Percy, comforting him as he tried to survive without his wife. Because Annabeth was his oxygen, and he couldn't survive without her. He kept clinging to the hope that she would walk back into the house like nothing had happened, and they would live together until they were 90. But the day Percy dreaded came about a week and a half after Annabeth fell ill; Chiron called.
*Please leave comments! Thank you so much for reading! Next chapter is coming soon!*