A/N: This is a slightly reimagined version of the Supernatural Season 4, Episode 17: It's a Terrible Life. But make it Percabeth.
"How is everything going?" Her boss asked, poking her head into her office.
Annabeth was only three weeks into her new role, and she already got the hang of everything. She even helped them shift from the outdated Theta system to the improved Epsilon system.
"Good, our sales are up and we're outpacing our closest competitor despite the market downturn," Annabeth said.
"Good stuff!" He said. "Keep up the good work."
"Will do!" She replied.
He knocked on her door frame twice then left. She returned to fielding calls from sales managers and talking to management to address their concerns. As the Sales Director, Annabeth was more of a middle woman than anything else. But she was good at it.
At the end of the day, she filed into the elevator. Briefly looking up, she spotted one of the tech support guys. He had the signature ugly purple shirt and khaki pants uniform. Unfortunately, he was staring openly at her. Giving him a weird look, she cataloged the fact that he had dark hair and green eyes.
"I'm sorry, have we met?" He asked.
"No, I don't think we have." She said frostily, better to nip that in the bud sooner than later. She kept her eyes on her phone.
"Are you sure? You just look so familiar." He said, still staring at her.
"Yeah, right. Save it for the girls at the bar." Annabeth replied and hoped that the elevator would arrive soon.
"No that's not what I …"
"Don't care," Annabeth said. Thankfully, the elevator arrived at the lobby and she was able to leave.
The next day, Percy went about his day as normal. Everything was fine up until it was time for his coffee break with Luke and Clarisse. Like was always up for any excuse to stop working - and usually Clarisse was willing to join them. Occasionally, she would skip but it was rare.
So they didn't immediately notice anything was wrong when Clarisse declined. Though, she did spend most of her time typing - odd given 80% of their job was answering the phones, 10% was writing up reports online and 10% was spent filling out requisition forms - sadly on paper still.
In the breakroom, Percy set about making a fresh pot. It was 2 pm and he needed more coffee to make it through the afternoon slump. He and Luke kept the conversation going along the way.
As Percy went about pouring the coffee, Luke switched up the topic from the new Epsilon system to beg Percy to share one of his wild dreams.
"Come on, it's the highlight of my day," Luke asked.
"You can't laugh."
"Would I ever?" Luke asked with an innocent look. Percy just stared at him deadpan.
"I won't!" Her promised.
"Fine, I had a dream that I saved two demigods named Bianca and Nico from a manticore," Percy said with a straight face.
Luke let out a solitary laugh, before covering his mouth with his hand.
"Come on, man. Really?"
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." Luke paused. Percy braced himself. "But hey, man, you're a hero!"
Later, Percy found himself alone in an elevator with the blonde who continued to feature heavily in his dreams. He couldn't help himself.
"I just have one question for you - what are your thoughts on the monsters from Greek myths?"
She let out a huff. "To tell you the truth, I haven't given them much thought."
Her tone clearly shut down the conversation. So, Percy watched her leave the elevator. He wouldn't push it with her anymore.
When he got back, Luke rolled his chair over. "Did you just get back from a meeting with Mrs. Dodds in HR?"
"Who? No, I didn't." Percy replied.
"Damn, guess it's just me then." Luke headed out.
Almost immediately, Percy heard Clarisse complaining about missing files on her screen. Popping his head over the cubicles, Percy checked on her.
"Hey, Clarisse - you doing okay?" Percy asked.
"My computer restarted and all my work from today is gone." She said.
"That's okay - just let a manager know and you'll be fine. This doesn't happen too often."
"It's not okay, I met with Mrs. Dodds yesterday and she was very explicit about what the company would accept and would not accept." Clarisse looked worried. "There's no way this will be okay. I'll just work to see if I can recover my work."
"It's almost five o'clock - just let a manager know. You won't be able to get it done before the end of the day." Percy tried to reason with her.
"No! You don't understand." Clarisse said.
Sure enough, when five o'clock rolled around Clarisse was still working. Percy paused before leaving.
"Do you want me to stay and see if I can help?" Percy offered. But he honestly hoped she wouldn't say yes.
"I'll figure it out, I still haven't tried …" Clarisse started muttering to herself different technical jargon. Percy only caught half of it. By now, the room had cleared of all other workers. And, Luke hadn't come back yet. Odd. Oh well.
"Okay, I guess I'll just see you tomorrow." Percy left. They were paid by the hour, so most people didn't stay late.
A/N This is complete! I'm just uploading it slowly to edit it. I'm trying this new thing where I actually review and work on my writing instead of throwing it up as soon as it's done. There will be 6 chapters.
