Percabeth NOTE! DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ BoO!

" We don't have to go today. Really, we can come back tomorrow." Annabeth said.

I stood in front of the apartment building that myself, my mother and Paul lived in. The last time I saw it, the fire escapes were being painted from their original yellow to black. Other than that it looked exactly like it had almost a year ago.

I reached down and grabbed Annabeth's hand. I slowly stroked the littering of scars on it. Some were small and unnoticeable while others were visible, too visible for my liking.

" No. Let's just do this now. Besides, I'm sure the neighbors missed me. absolutely hates me." We walked through the building to the 6th floor room E607. I grabbed her hand even tighter. I was starting to get nervous.

She squeezed back a bit and whispered " Do you want me to knock first, maybe reduce the shock a bit and surprise too. Okay?"

I couldn't move. Just knowing that they were on the other side was killing me. I pulled the sleeves of my shirt down more to hide the tattoo on my forearm as best I could but you could still see the edge of a trident.

" Uh yeah sure." I moved to the other side of the door and gave squeezed Annabeth's hand one more time before letting go.

I have never been more nervous in my whole life. Not when I tried to tell Annabeth that I wanted to date her or even having to tell my mom I was expelled again. Nothing made me more nervous. But I shouldn't be because there was no reason for her to be mad that I was back. But it was this sinking feeling in my stomach that wouldn't go away.

Annabeth raised her hand and knocked loudly on the door. I heard shuffling inside the apartment and the door open. And there was my mom. I would be lying if I said that the small hallway wasn't making me feel a bit claustrophobic. I moved farther down the hallway to get some more space.

" Annabeth! It's so good to see you." My mom reached out and gave Annabeth a tight hug. " Come in please." She moved aside to let her in but Annabeth stopped her.

I waited a bit farther down. My anxiety was rising quicker. And the room was changing. The dull green carpet was slowly turning darker till it resembled dirt. Soon I was back at the damned place. Complete with the horde of giants and monsters chanting. I knew it wasn't real. I knew that this place was back to its usual ruins. What I didn't understand was why I was going back there.

I moved farther down the hallway till I was at the edge of the stairs

" Actually -"

She laughed. " Annabeth, I told you call me Sally. makes me sound so old."

Annabeth smiled. " Sally, I have a surprise for you actually. One second."

She looked down the hallway and saw that I was at the edge of the stairway, gripping the railing hard.

" Uh, Just wait here please. This will take only one minute."

She gently grabbed her arm. " Annabeth what's wrong?". She looked down the hallway and saw me. Instantly it got worse. I didn't see her. I saw monsters running at me. Emposai running towards me, trying to kill me. But I still knew this wasn't real. This isn't real but it seems so much like it.

Someone placed a hand on my shoulder." Percy, Percy what's wrong?" Annabeth asked.

I just shook my head, I couldn't speak. The room was spinning and I saw everything again. Annabeth being picked up and cut, Piper trying to fight the giantess. Everything.

" Percy? Percy you need to come back. You need to wake up." Said a softer voice. " Come on sweetie. I made blue cookies and I left your room exactly how you left it. Although I did clean all the dirty clothes you left on the floor. And moved out while you were gone. She went to home. You can't see all that if you don't wake up Percy."

Slowly my vision started to clear and everything came back into view. I was at the edge of a staircase and Annabeth was on one side of me while my mother was on the other.

I glanced over at her. She looked exactly the same. Still some gray mixed in with her dark hair and she had obviously been out today because she had jeans and a nice shirt on. There were lines around her eyes from how many times she smiled.

She rubbed her hand on my back in a soothing motion like when I was little and had a nightmare. " You awake yet sweetie?" She asked.

I nodded and threw my arms around her. Just a tip, don't ever lose contact with your parents for more than a year. Because seeing them again after that time, makes things a bit too emotional for my taste.

But I really didn't care that tears were falling hard and fast and that I might have been hugging her with everything in me. All I cared about was that I was back home and that nothing had changed.

Even though she left that job years ago she stilled smelled like candy.

" I missed you so much." I said.

I pulled back and saw she was lightly crying too. " Ah, this year was hell. Come on, both of you. I've been ready for when you two were coming so I baked some cookies and-and I also made sure the that nothing in your room was changed either."

I was taken aback a bit. It reminded me so much of what did. Making all that stuff for when Luke came back, only for him to never come home.

I looked back and grabbed Annabeth's hand again. She leaned against me and kissed me lightly on the cheek. " I told you it would be fine."

I laughed lightly. " Never doubted you."

We walked in and my mom had lied. The apartment had changed. It had been painted a light yellow color and the kitchen was less crappy looking.

" Well we did repaint the walls. The landlord protested but it wasn't ever stated in the contract that we couldn't paint." She walked back out with a plate of blue chocolate chip cookies.

I smiled. " Not surprised. She always did hate us. Actually almost everyone on this floor hates me."

She laughed. " Well I won't sugar coat it, we aren't the most well liked neighbors but we're better than the one younger couple down the hall. Always having loud parties and being up all night."

She set down the plate. And went to sit down when she noticed my arm.

" What's that on your arm?" She asked. I looked over at Annabeth who was smirking. She grabbed a cookie and sat down, ready to watch the show.

" Uh nothing. Just a scar." I lied. I'm still not the best liar.

My mom raised an eyebrow. " You are still a horrible liar. Got that from me. Let me see." She grabbed my arm and pulled up the sleeve and saw that tattoo.

" PERSEUS JACKSON! What is that doing on your arm?!" She asked and held my arm up.

I tried to form a sentence but it was hard to explain that in order to avoid being killed I had to get burned with a trident at the Roman camp or else I would have been thrown in a river of live gators and eaten to death.

" This is some sharpie right?" She asked.

I finally found my voice and said " Uh no. It's a long story but it was burned into my skin."

" I again ask, what is that doing on your arm?"

" It's a long story."

Mom calmed down a bit. " Okay. Tell me the story when your ready. For now just relax, have some cookies. Oh and both of you are spending the night. No exceptions." She said turning into the kitchen.

Annabeth jumped up and protested. " Really - Sally, I can just head back to camp and you two to-"

She walked back in and gave her a mom look. " Annabeth, you are obviously tired and you look like you haven't seen a bed in years. And the same can be said for a home cooked meal. So you are both staying the night. I can tell Chiron for you."

" Really Sally it's no trouble."

" Percy, you show Annabeth your room, she'll sleep in there tonight. You can take the sofa." Mom said quickly.

I stood up and dragged Annabeth to my room. It was exactly how I left it but cleaner. The same dark blue color with the same random posters and pictures littered around the room. On my nightstand was mostly pictures from camp.

She walked over and picked up one. It was a huge group pic with everyone. In it I was kissing Annabeth's cheek right when the picture was taken.

" I remember this. It was right after the war and Thalia was so mad when I made her actually smile." She set the picture back down. " Percy what happened in the hallway?" Annabeth asked.

I bit my lip. I quickly smiled. " Uh nothing. I just freaked out for a minute. I'm fine. Really."

Annabeth smirked. " Right. And I hate reading. Something happened and you aren't telling me. Were you getting claustrophobic again? Maybe a panic attack?" She asked softer.

" Nothing happened!" I snapped. " I just freaked out for a minute."

Annabeth stood in front of me. " No you did not just freak out. When you freak out you ramble like crazy and can't keep still. You don't go mute and grip a railing like it's your only life line. What happened? Were you back there?"

I sighed and sat down on my bed. " Yeah. I was there again."

Annabeth sat next to mean and leaned against my shoulder. " Back where? In Tartarus? Greece? Rome? Where were you?"

" Greece." I barely whispered the response. " Please don't tell anyone. It's been happening since we got back. I keep going back to all those places and seeing everything all over again. But I can normally cover it up. Don't tell anyone."

" This is completely normal. I'm surprised it didn't happen after the Titan war." I glanced over at her and bit my lip.

"Actually-"

Annabeth fell back against the bed and pressed her hands against her forehead. " Why didn't you ever tell me?"

" Because it wasn't a big deal. And there was so much going on. It went away eventually.

She groaned. " It most likely went away because your memories were wiped out. So the presence of it wasn't as predominate. And it was all just a memory. But this is not going to be erased from existence."

" I know but-"

" Don't tell me this shit about it not being a big deal. Because I've been blind to the fact that you been having flashbacks and I've been horrible and-"

" You haven't been horrible. I just don't think that it's such a huge deal. And I haven't even had them around you so there was nothing to worry about."

Annabeth stood up. She looked on the verge of tears. " I know but almost every night I can't sleep and you're always there to stay up with me and I haven't even been able to notice that you've had problems of your own."

I wrapped my arms around her waist. " Hey. I didn't want you to know. I didn't want you to know that I was dealing with this. So I thought it would be best if I could just hide it till you were better. Till all of this was over."

She laughed wetly. " You're such a Seaweed Brain." She pressed a soft kiss to my cheek and smiled. " If you ever hide something like that from me again, I will not hesitate to finally give that tour of my knife."

I leaned back against the pillows on the bed and pulled Annabeth with me.

" This was the longest day." I muttered into her hair.

We just ended up laying together on the bed for who knows how long, eventually we fell asleep.

A/N Okay I know it's a crappy ending but I really didn't know how to make this end without it being sickening mushy. But I have to reveal something. I will be posting my one-shots separate from this story. I love this collection but it hasn't been reaching as many people as I hoped. There will be no more postings on here. This story was the best thing I've posted and it's helped me develop as an author. If you read my first one-shot compared to this one you can tell that I've gotten better. I hope you don't abandon me all together just because I stopped this story. Thank you for all your love and support. I will forever be grateful.

C YA! LUV YA! E-SAW-BELL!