A/N: Hi all, this is kind of a trial since it's the first time I've uploaded a long plot fic in a long time, so please let me know what you think! I don't know a huge amount about the filming industry and how it works, or the ins and outs of an aquarium, but this is more of a plot-based project rather than a realistic approach, so a fair few details will probably be off. I mean, there's realistically no way that an aquarium can be big enough to "humanely" contain larger sea creatures like Dolphins, or Orcas- thank you SeaWorld- so yeah. It's all for plot and not for realism; enjoy!

(Also fanfic really didn't like actually formatting my work to look nice so I had to get a little creative, sorry if it's off-putting!)

Chapter 1

"Hey, how'd the meeting go?" Percy asked, grinning hopefully. His father chuckled down the line. As he waited for a response he stood up, leisurely strolling around the villa.

"I would say it went swimmingly." He paused to allow Percy's groan of disappointment come through at the water pun; a continuation of an inside joke long overrun. "TV people are surprisingly easy to get through to, especially when you speak their language."

"What? Money?"

The young man wandered over to the huge windows of his living room. The faint reflection of his sea-green eyes slightly obscured the view, as he narrowed them and took in the slightly distorted view of himself.

"You don't seriously think I bribed them, Perseus?"

"No, but I think once they heard that your big pitch was to let them bring an entire film crew into Poseidon's Palace for a few weeks all they could see were dollar signs."

In the brief pause that followed, Percy had time to take in the entirety of the resort below him. The huge, lake-like pools, the fake beach spanning the length of the shore piled with sun-loungers, parasols, and cabanas. He ran a hand through his raven hair as he sighed slightly. It would look truly brilliant when it opened for real.

"True enough." Percy's father conceded. "But a few of them genuinely did look interested in the proposal, and even more so when I mentioned that I could offer my son up as the host and main star of the show."

There was a very long pause, as the words refused to register. Percy looked out beyond the pool to the enormous building that housed the other half of the Palace; the aquarium that was his pride and joy, hidden under artificial hills. Then it clicked.

"You did what?!"

(Line Break)

"You did what?!"

"I told him that you'd take the show."

Annabeth couldn't believe her ears. She wasn't interested in filming some rich playboy show off his daddy's aquarium. Granted, she had heard brilliant things about the Poseidon's Palace resort, but she'd only ever been interested in visiting it for a day. Not spending entire weeks there filming a stupid show.

"But I'm so close to securing the Greece placement!"

That wasn't entirely true, and Annabeth was sure that her mother was aware of that, but it was worth a shot. She'd wanted to film a documentary on the buildings of Ancient Greece for years. The Parthenon was one of the reasons she was interested in architecture, after all.

"You've spent long enough chasing that, Annabeth, it's time to let it go and do your job. Which as of now, is heading up the series on the Jackson resort."

Athena's eyes softened as she looked at Annabeth, who was doing her best to conceal the crushing disappointment.

"I'll make you a deal, Annabeth." At this, Annabeth straightened, her grey eyes narrowing to the calculated look that her mother so often used. When Athena offered a deal, you listened. End of story. "If you complete the series on the resort without a hitch, I will personally see to it that your expedition to Greece is fully funded, and will grant you a full camera crew and four months on location."

Four months? Annabeth could have fainted. She'd only ever applied for a month and a half, and she'd been told that such a timeline was unreasonable and unaffordable. There was no real choice to make.

"When do I leave?"

"As soon as you're ready."

(Line Break)

"Oh, this is going to be fantastic." Silena Beauregard, Annabeth's lead wardrobe designer, practically bounced with excitement as Annabeth finished addressing her team. Annabeth smiled weakly.

"I suppose it will be."

Silena's enthusiasm was unmatched, and infectious, and it was hard to quash the positivity the young woman brought.

"And you said everything will be covered? Full expense?" Leo Valdez, her lead tech, asked. The Stoll twins, Leo's other thirds, grinned at each other. They were single-handedly the most chaotic technician crew that Annabeth had ever worked with, but they were damn good at what they did. Annabeth nodded.

"Mr. Jackson has assured me that we will be put up in hotel rooms for the duration of the project, all expenses covered in a gesture of goodwill." A low whistle accompanied her words.

"They must really want the good press." Clarisse La Rue, one of her camerawomen, said, and many heads nodded.

"Either way, we have a job to do, and we leave in a couple of weeks, so please have everything in order." Annabeth said, her gaze lingering particularly on the the three that made up her tech crew. They smiled innocently back at her, and she snorted, shaking her head.

The crew began to file out of the room, pausing at the table next to the door to retrieve their flight tickets. Annabeth was always thorough in her planning. The tickets had been printed as soon as she had left her mother's office earlier in the week. She only hoped that no one would lose theirs again. At least she had digital copies.

"So… I heard he's cute." Silena's voice brought her from her reverie of the missing ticket incident.

"Who?" It was always difficult to tell which guy Silena was talking about. It wasn't that she slept around, in fact Annabeth wasn't exactly sure if she'd ever seen Silena with a boy, but the designer had a habit of 'appreciating' those around her. Sometimes it was a fun way to pass the time on set.

"Mr. Jackson."

"Mr. Jackson is fifty years old. He's not boy-toy cute, and he's not reached old-man cute yet." She said, wrinkling her nose.

"No, the young one. The one who you say is gonna present our show." There was a teasing element to Silena's voice, and Annabeth's eyes widened.

"No." She said, holding a hand up. "Don't even go there, Silena. I couldn't care less what he looks like, as long as his pompous rich ass stays on track during filming."

"You don't like not being able to choose the presenter, huh?" Silena was definitely teasing her. And it was working.

"No, I hate it. And you know I do. Why we couldn't use Chiron Brunner again I don't know." Annabeth made a mental note to contact the man about the Greece gig. He loved Ancient Greece as much as she did.

"I guess they wanted someone younger, more passionate."

"What? Chiron is passionate!" Annabeth felt herself getting defensive. Mr Brunner had been a very good mentor when she had worked her first ever set with him.

"Yeah, but he's Attenborough passionate, ya know? He's a soothing voice in a violent storm kinda deal; great for nature documentaries…"

"Like the one we're filming?"

"But!" Silena overrode Annabeth's interruption. "This is something that's supposed to draw in kids as well as adults! Mr Brunner is great, and I love the 'comfortable old man' vibe that he has going- it's so easy to wardrobe- but he's just not the right fit for an exciting series about a resort that's mixed into an aquarium."

"True enough." Annabeth conceded. "Lunch?"

"Always." Silena smiled, linking their arms as they headed out.

(Line Break)

"This is going to be utter hell." Percy complained, perched on the railings that overlooked the South-East Asia reef tank. Anyone else caught doing so would be severely reprimanded. Benefit of owning the place he guessed.

"Come on, it won't be that bad." His best friend, Grover Underwood, stood next to him, shifting on his feet nervously. Grover was a huge 'nature nerd' as Percy had dubbed it, but he much preferred dry land to water.

"Are you kidding me? I'm not a TV presenter! And I sure as hell don't want to be. Why can't they get someone else to do it? I'm sure Will wouldn't mind, or Piper, they have that annoying way with people."

"Dude, it's literally just one of your live shows, just without the annoying kids and with a camera crew instead of an audience. I love you Perce, but you're being hella dramatic right now."

Percy let out a reluctant chuckle, smiling at Grover as he threw his legs over the railings and swivelled to face the water. He loved the 'backstage' element of the aquarium; minimal people and plenty of animals. He watched a couple of Blacktip Reef Sharks lazily drift through the artificial current that circled through the tank.

They were majestic in their own right. Not the largest of the sharks, but the ease at which they flitted in and out of the coral and boulders was truly beautiful. And though the species was largely skittish as a whole, their time in the aquarium had allowed them to grow accustomed to some of the staff; particularly the divers that fed them.

"You're going in, aren't you?" As his best friend, it was no surprise that Grover could read Percy's mind.

"Come on, Blacktips rarely go for people…"

"Unless they're agitated by food or mistakenly bite people wading in the shallows. I know Perce, I've seen you give that lecture like a thousand times by now. But just because you know all about them, doesn't mean you can just jump in and swim with everything in the aquarium."

Percy pouted, knowing that Grover was right. The only reason the monstrously large aquarium existed was to educate people about conservation efforts. Or at least, that was the only reason to Percy. His father, being the businessman that he was, also saw an opportunity. So, when the idea of an aquarium had first been suggested, Percy was permitted his venture with the acknowledgement that there would be a resort attached to the premises, and that his father would run both as a joint business.

"I know, man, but they're so cute! Imagine if we had the space to humanely house a Great White or something! I'd love to go swimming with one again."

"Not a damn chance! You got way too close last time, and you nearly didn't make it back to the boat!" The memory of the near-fatal encounter sobered Percy's mood, and his thoughts once again turned to the documentary series.

"I just hate the fact that it's not even about the animals, dude. It's all about the world-breaking technology that built this place, and dad's business. If I was talking about the animals the whole time then I'd be fine."

"Well why don't you make it about the animals?"

"Say what now?"

"Show them all the backstage stuff, and talk about the animals the whole time. If the cameras are supposed to be on the entire time, then eventually they'll have enough footage of you talking about sea creatures that they can make a whole other documentary on it!"

"I'm not sure that's how these things work man…"

"Neither am I, I know nothing about filming documentaries. But it's a nice thought."

"I'm with you G-Man, and it's worth a shot."

Grover's reply was lost on him, as Percy took a breath and pitched himself forward into the water. As if he wasn't gonna swim in the tanks when the place was closed. He hit the water with a splash, and grinned, knowing that Grover had been close enough to get wet.

In hindsight, maybe treating the place as his own personal swimming pool did sound kind of conceited and more like the 'playboy' image that the media had begun to attribute to him, but Percy couldn't care less. He was here for the animals, and swimming with them was the best way to gauge their feelings, their health, their habits. Underwater, he felt so in tune with his surroundings that it was worth looking like an ass.

In time, the newspapers and blogs would forget about the few mistakes he'd made in his youth, especially when he started delivering his lectures more regularly. At the moment he only gave them to the staff for training, preferring to stay in the background for the aquarium's opening, monitoring tanks he knew housed endangered species or the ill and injured animals that they took on.

He dived, skirting around the Titan Triggerfish that had made its territory in the middle of the tank, away from the tapping fingers and prying eyes of any of the early-access aquarium visitors. She wasn't usually aggressive with the divers, seeing as she wasn't nesting, but Percy knew she could be unpredictable, and her teeth could really pack a punch. A shadow passed overhead as one of the few Blacktips came closer to investigate him. He allowed its nose to brush him gently, before it seemed to recognise him and swam off.

Breaking the surface, he laughed at Grover, who was trying and failing to give a stern look, before sobering up at the sight of the man behind his friend.

"Hi Dad."

(Line Break)

"Ok so not my best idea, clearly." Percy began, towelling himself off in the staff changing room.

"You think? It's actions like that that have caused this image problem that you have, Perseus." His father stated, pacing in front of the young man.

"Pffft, what image problem?"

"Don't play dumb with me. The media are desperate for anything to use against us, and I could really do without you acting out all the time. Why can't you be more like your brother? He at least uses his head."

"Yeah, when it's not up his ass."

"Perseus." Percy knew that tone. And he knew what happened if he kept pushing his luck.

"Ok, fine." He held up his hands. "No more unsanctioned dives. I get it."

"It's not just the dives, Percy."

"I know. This whole thing means a lot to you. It means a lot to me too. It was my idea, before it became your next business project, remember?"

"I remember."

"Ok good."

It baffled Percy that everyone seemed to forget that he knew these animals inside and out. How he could look at one of their sea lions and tell that they needed to change up its diet, or how by dipping his hand into the tropical fish tank he knew if they needed to adjust the temperature or salt concentration. It was why he had pushed and pushed his father for an active role within the aquarium. But now wasn't the time to fight about that. Not with the film crew arriving in less than a week.

"How's the work on your script coming along?" Poseidon seemed almost eager to steer the conversation away from the strict parent lecture. The man's mood really did change with the tides. Weird. Wait. Script?

"Ummm…"

"You haven't started, have you?"

"…No."

"Perseus."

"I forgot I needed to do one! I don't think the talent is supposed to come up with their own material on normal documentaries, you know."

"You don't have to come up with it all. You just have to follow Miss Chase's plan, and draw up enough material to keep each segment of the show running."

"And what plan would that be?"

"You haven't read her email?"

"There was an email?"

"That film crew are gonna have their work cut out for them." The man sighed, managing to extract a promise from Percy that he would look into drafting a rough script in the next week, or at least something that resembled ideas that followed the outline that the documentary team had sent. He then took his leave. There was a meeting to be had with his other son, who was thankfully much more business-minded.

Percy's mind was scrambling. Honestly, he hadn't checked his emails in a while. It was full of junk anyway. Who used email these days? People should stick to calls and texts. He thumbed open his inbox on his phone, surprised to see that aside from the usual spam and subscriptions he had forgotten to cancel from miscellaneous websites, it was empty. Huh. Seemed that this Miss Chase had forgotten too.

Unless.

He had a work email now, too. Shit. One that was only ever logged in on his work computer in his office. An office that he hadn't been in for a couple of weeks. Not that he was shirking any duties, but he much preferred to walk around the aquarium in person than read reports alone behind a desk.

Grover walked with him as he made his way towards the administrative side of the aquarium. His office was… was ostentatious too strong a word? Percy wasn't sure. Then again, he had never fared well in English class. It was showy and classy and just about everything that he was trying not to be. He was supposed to take meetings in there, not that he had many to take, but it was much nicer to sit next to one of the shallow open pools that were dotted around the aquarium and watch the multi-coloured species that they contained.

"So, a script, huh?"

"Supposedly."

"I don't know why you're surprised, man. These things tend to be scripted."

"Yeah, but I expected them to give me one when they got here! Not have to write my own."

Grover was quiet for a minute, and the only sounds heard were their echoing footsteps.

"Maybe you don't have to actually write it. Maybe just make a list of things you wanna talk about?"

"I dunno dude, dad sounded pretty fixated on this script thing."

"Some of the best moments in TV happen off-script you know."

"True. But this isn't a 'Friends' episode G, it's a serious documentary about dad's new business. He'll kill me if it goes wrong. And I don't wanna look like an idiot in front of this film crew."

"Then we'd best read this email and come up with something."

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"I could stand to hear it a bit more."

(Line Break)

Hope you all enjoyed. I have more prepared, but it won't be out for a while. Also fanfic is doing that horrible thing where it enters the source code again if you copy and paste into the document file so the formatting might change for next time.