A/N: Nothing much to say except for two words: THANK YOU.

And, oh, sorry for the very short chapter but all we need is closure and nothing much so that's what this chapter will give you.

And one more thing, leave a review! :D

NEVER LET ME GO

Chapter 33: MY HEART'S KEEPER

PERCY

It took time but I was able to accept that I would no longer see my son, that he had went on and took the afterlife.

It's been four months since his death, and a month since Reyna had broken up with me.

In the beginning, sleeping was difficult, waking up even harder, knowing that Noah wouldn't be there. Every single night, when I was lying on the bed, I would stare up, imagining my son's face materializing on the canvas of my ceiling. I could hear his voice, telling me to wake up early the next morning so I could cook him his favorite breakfast combination - pancakes and hotdogs. Then the next morning, I would think that it was all just a bad dream; that any moment that I lay there Noah would come barging in. That's when the loss would hit me again head on and I found myself gasping in pain, and for air that my lungs seemed to reject.

Slowly, though, I tried to find reasons to get up everyday because I needed to, because my family needed me to. The first weeks, each day was worse than the one before, but as the days pass, the pain lessened. I just kept on thinking that at least Noah's suffering had already ended and that wherever he was, he didn't have to get hurt anymore. My feet started to support my weight again when I woke up each morning and the sea of gray that was my world started to regain its color.

During that time I tried to mend my relationship with Pierre. I knew that while his brother was still alive, he was almost invisible to me. I took him to a basketball game, we watched a movie during weekends and made sure that we had sufficient time for each other. Normal kids would've rejected their parent's effort, but Pierre was no ordinary kid. Seeing his brother sick had aged him far older than any number could express.

Part of my accepting what happened was Annabeth. In this loss, I knew she was the sole person that could truly understand my grief. Sure I knew that Reyna shared my pain but my connection with Annabeth was different. Noah was our son and we both lost him. It was nearly impossible at first. How do you live when someone you gave life is taken away? With her support, though, I was able to gather enough strength not to fall completely apart. I wasn't going to deny that Annabeth became my rock. There were nights when I would wake up screaming and couldn't calm myself down. I would give her a call and she would answer on the first ring, like she was waiting for my call. We'd spent the next hour talking about random things.

Like what we were doing right now.

Only it wasn't over the phone and it wasn't the middle of the night.

Dad had already left two weeks ago to head the launch of his company's branch in the Pacific. Two weeks since I'd assumed the position he left me. It was a good thing and kept my mind off of my issues.

That day, I had my lunch time off and called Annabeth, wanting to see if she wanted to have lunch with me. I had to first ask her before showing up in her office because she's easily the busiest woman in New York. She said she was free at lunch so I went to pick her up.

We went to a restaurant a few blocks from the apartment we used to live in. We discovered it by accident. It was when Noah was fourteen and went missing for the afternoon. I was supposed to pick him up but he wasn't in school. I informed Annabeth and we went driving around the city. We were about to head to the police station to file a missing person report when Annabeth spotted Noah through the glass wall of said restaurant . . . with a girl. Annabeth and I exchanged looks and started to argue.

"You go," she said, pushing me out of the car.

"No. You go," I said, dragging her out of the car.

"Isn't that a father's thing? You know, when his son starts dating?" she argued.

"I'm pretty sure that's a Mom thing, Annabeth."

"What, you want him to be scarred when I gave him the birds and bees talk?" she challenged, hands on her hips. "I'm sure it would be better coming from you."

My eyes widened. "Are you seriously implying that Noah - our fourteen year old son - is sleeping with that girl?"

Annabeth shook her head. "No," she answered, leaning forward to whisper in my ear in a sing-song voice. "But kids these days, Percy."

"Will you shut up?" I told her, chuckling.

Beside me, Annabeth gasped. I thought something had happened so I looked up, only to see that Noah had reached across the table to wipe something off of the girl's face. His hand then fell to take the girl's on top of the table. They looked at each other, smiling.

Real smooth, Aedan Noah, I thought. Real smooth.

"Oh my, he's such a sweet boy," Annabeth whispered.

"Must've taken from his Dad," I told her.

She glared at me. "Oh, shut up."

Then there were clicking sounds. Annabeth had her phone out and was snapping pictures of our son."Why are you taking pictures of him? Are you for real?"

"Perseus," she told me. "Our son is out on a date. Oh, I need to document this!"

Then Noah looked up and spotted us. His carefree expression morphed into a sheepish one. He waved at us. "Come on," Annabeth said, dragging me into the restaurant.

Noah was smiling at us, but the blush on his cheeks told that he was embarrassed. I sat beside him while Annabeth sat beside the girl who introduced herself as Ellaine.

"Hello, Aedan Noah," I told him.

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, Dad; Ellaine's just a friend."

I held up my hands. "I didn't say anything."

"Why are you smiling?" Annabeth asked, breaking my reverie.

"Do you remember the first time were at this restaurant?" I asked her.

Annabeth smiled. "Ellaine and Noah," she said. "Those two were so cute together, except that Noah said she had a boyfriend and that they were just out for a friendly lunch."

"But he wouldn't shut up about how beautiful she is."

"He clearly liked her very much," Annabeth agreed. There was silence as we both reminisced memories of our departed son. Before, doing such thing would've resulted unthinkable grief but now there was just a painful sting, nothing unbearable.

"I miss him," I told her.

Annabeth gave me a soft smile and reached across the table to take my hand. "Me, too, Seaweed Brain. I miss him so much, but maybe that's a good thing; because at least in our memories he'll never be gone."

"And places like this," I added.

"And places like this," she agreed. We resumed eating and made small talks about pur respective lives. That was until Annabeth asked me about Reyna. "How is she?"

I shrugged, ignoring the longing on my chest. "Very busy," I answered. "Hylla had already went back to California and left the spa to her when she hasn't been there for more than a month."

"You miss her," Annabeth pointed out.

"I do." I didn't even try to deny it. "One month isn't gonna change that, Wise Girl. I miss Rey and Pierre, although I get to see them whenever I want, I still miss them. I don't know, though, this time it seemed different. I miss her in a different way."

Annabeth tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. "Is it because of what she said before she left?"

When I was younger a question like that would've made me stutter and cause me to be flustered. Not anymore, though. I was comfortable enough with Annaneth to discuss my feelings for her. "To be honest, I'm not sure yet," I admitted. "With everything that's happened, whatever it is that I feel is the last thing in my mind. What I'm sure, though, is this: I need you, Wise Girl. I need you now more than ever and I just hope that you won't get tired of being here for me."

She reached up and twisted her fingers in my hair. "I promise that I won't." Her gray eyes travelled down and stared into mine. "I do 't know what is that you did when we were seventeen but I loved you back then and I still do now."

I smiled at her and placed a kiss on her palm. "I love you," I told her honestly. "But before we go there, I need to make sure first in what way because I don't want to be unfair to you. I promise that once I'm certain of it, I will come barging at your house."

"With a boombox?" she teased.

"Nah, probably with an iPod and speakers." We both laughed. And then I spotted my watch. "It's almost one."

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "I need to get back to the office."

"Do you really need to?" I asked.

Annabeth gave me a coy smile. "I can be talked to different things. Let me hear your argument, then."

"I'm thinking maybe we could go catch a movie, drive around the city and go to Central Park but hey, if you want to trade that for all the paper works and blue prints, feel free."

She smacked my chest. "You're a whack job, Seaweed Brain."

"You love me," I teased. She shook her head and stood up. "Where are you going?"

"I don't see any theater around, do you?" she asked, offering me her hand.

"No, I don't," I said, taking her hand.

A/N: The end is a click away . . .