The Aftermath

“Percy! Wake up, man!” Jason said, his face a wall of stony anger protecting an ocean of concern for one of his best friends. Something in the state of the boyish man in front of him irritated Jason. Percy Jackson wasn’t supposed to be like this. But then again, Percy wasn’t supposed to be away from Annabeth. Ever.

“Percy!” Jason shouted again, and this time Percy stirred. The son of Poseidon groaned as he opened his eyes, fighting his swollen eyelid muscles for sunlight.

“Ugh,” Percy groaned again, “what…what happened?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jason responded quickly, crouching down to lift up his friend. But when the son of Jupiter tried to pick him up, Percy’s hand shot out and grabbed his arm.

“Don’t,” He warned bitterly, “I can stand. Just…just help me up, please?”

“No problem, man,” Jason responded, Percy’s angry outburst already forgotten. Jason had never been one to take offense to bitterness in bad times. Especially if it wasn’t genuine.

Jason silently lifted Percy up, and held his arm out to help Percy. This time, Percy didn’t refuse help. He leaned on Jason as he gingerly put his arm around the guy, and they slowly, but surely walked to Jason’s car, picking up pace as Percy’s bruised lungs and ribs started to fight off the pain.

Ten steps from the car, Percy started wheezing alarmingly. They slowed down, and Percy seemed to get his lungs back under control. But then, Percy slumped, and Jason quickly caught him and dragged him to his car. He let Percy lean on the hood, and Percy started holding his head in his hand, murmuring,

“Gods, what did I do?”

“Nothing I wouldn’t have done if I lost Piper,” Jason quickly assured, and Percy looked up at him, shocked admiration in his face. Percy seemed to realize the person who had just helped him get back on his feet, and suddenly surged forward, hugging his long-time friend.

“I’m so sorry, man. I didn’t mean for you to scrape me off the ground like some piece of dirt. I need to get home. I’m sorry man—”

“No, you’re not going home, Percy,” Jason ordered, “you’re just going to break down again, and we need to build you back up. So,” he said, as he helped Percy into the passenger seat, “you’re coming to my place. You are going to talk to Piper.”

They started driving, and Percy pleaded,

“Aw, no, man! I don’t need a pep-talk from the demigod of relationship advice. Just let me go home. Please.”

“Why do you want to go home, Percy?” Jason asked, still as calm as ever, “So you can get sympathy from your parents and cry a little more? So you can tie another hangman’s noose to scare the life out of them?”

Percy snapped his head to face his friend, bitterness in his red-rimmed sea-green eyes. But then he sighed, defeated, as he knew Jason was telling the truth.

“I didn’t mean to…I just…” He tried to explain, but wouldn’t. He had acted out of emotion, and multiplied that by his impulsiveness. He could not physically explain why he had done that.

Jason checked on Percy again, and then slipped a special Bluetooth hands-free earpiece into his ear. Leo had developed it to work like an Iris-Message, but just for audio, like a phone call. You paid your daily drachmas, prayers and offerings to Iris like a glorified cellular bill. That way, demigods could us phones without attracting monsters.

Jason knew exactly who he wanted to call, but decided to take a chance first. He didn’t dial Piper’s cell or his apartment’s phone, but rather Annabeth’s cell. It went for six rings, and then played her normal “leave a message after the beep” response.

Damn, he thought.

Then, he called Piper as they got within a few blocks. He explained that he had Percy, and Piper told him that she would get over to Sally’s apartment as quickly as she could, which would only take a couple of minutes because they both were on the Upper West Side.

Jason parked and helped Percy into the elevator. Once they got up to his apartment, Percy was fully winded. So Jason let him rest for a few hours. Just after 2:30, Piper called to report that she had scoured the entire West Side for Annabeth, but couldn’t find her. Jason breathed in a puff of anger and released it quickly.

“No problem,” he said, “Just come home, okay? You need to talk to Percy.”

“Okay,” she said, and Jason could hear the sadness in her voice for Percy. That’s what amazed Jason about the son of Poseidon. They had learned on the Argo II that his temperament and disposition dictated exactly how the rest of their close-knit group’s emotions worked. If he was happy, Jason and Piper would somehow sense it, and (more than once) they would go out for a picnic on Central Park. It just happened that Percy and Annabeth would be there, like they were waiting for them.

It only took ten minutes for Piper to get home. Jason kissed her and Piper released quickly, her eyes full of concern. But when she saw Percy passed out on their couch, she just hugged Jason tightly. She pulled away and held her hand to his face, and Jason’s skin recoiled for a nanosecond, still not used to the piece of metal wrapped around her left fourth finger.

He smiled sadly, and they both walked back to check on Percy. That’s when they saw Percy’s face scrunched into a frown, and they heard him murmuring,

“No, no, don’t…leave…you…Annabeth.”

Then, he took a massive breath in and sat bolt upright, shouting,

“Annabeth!”

But he was met with disappointment as he only saw Jason and Piper’s faces, Piper sitting on a chair facing Percy, Jason standing over him.

“Ugh,” he groaned at not seeing his girlfriend, but he still hugged Piper. Piper’s nose crinkled at Percy’s smell, and she whipped her head around to her husband.

“Jason!” She shouted as quietly as she could, “you didn’t give him a shower! You didn’t give him a change!”

“It’s fine, Piper,” Percy said, trying for a smile as he started to sound like his normal self, “really.”

“Not really,” Jason said, “Look, Pipes, I just wanted him to sleep, okay? Maybe he wants to get cleaned up now. We have a huge shower for you, if you want it. I have a few Camp Jupiter shirts, and I probably could find a pair of jeans for you. Whaddya say?”

“That sounds…great,” Percy said, and they helped him up.

Thirty minutes later, Percy was full of food (which had nearly emptied Jason’s fridge), clean and a lot better looking due to being fed some ambrosia and nectar. He still had enough of both black eyes to make him look like a panda, but Piper said it made him look adorable.

“I don’t feel adorable,” Percy grumbled, “Gods, what did that guy give me?”

“WHAT?” Both Jason and Piper exclaimed.

“I…well…um, sit down. This is gonna be a long story.”

Percy explained what had happened at the club, and the dream he had. He explained getting drunk, and the girl...he rushed through that. He started to silently tear up during his explanation of the nightmare, and Piper rubbed his arm reassuringly.

Afterwards, Piper said, out loud, “Oh, boy. Well, one thing’s for certain. Without Annabeth, Percy Jackson becomes S.S. Train Wreck.”

“Hey!” Percy complained, but it wasn’t lie he could argue.

At least he’s in better shape, thought Jason, at least he’s not dead.

“Don’t worry,” Piper soothed, maybe adding a little charmspeak to ease Percy’s fear, “we’ll get Annabeth back. She’ll always be your Wise Girl.”

Jason was fidgeting on the balls of his feet, almost like he was trying to say something to Piper but couldn’t. Piper knew she wasn’t wanted here, so she said,

“Well, I’m going to go upstairs and try Annabeth again. Maybe she’ll pick up this time.”

“That’s a great idea,” Jason said, thanking her silently with his light blue eyes, “Percy and I should talk.”

And with that, Piper left them.

Notes

So here's another chapter! I am slowly getting my mind around where I want this to go, but this story was always an experiment to see how well I could wing a plot.

Enjoy,
Grafon