Out In The Open

|Chapter 7| She's Scared, He's angry, and thats home

It had been such a nice day.

Full of laughs and joy. The sky was as blue as a robin's egg, the temperature not hot or cold, just perfectly pleasant.

But then Annabeth collapsed.

She crumpled to the floor in the middle of the hallway and started screaming like there was no tomorrow. She was shaking and convulsing, screaming for Percy. She begged him to stop and cried out for him. She was asking where he went, why he had left her.

Piper knew what it was, had seen it before, but this time it was so much worse. There had been no trigger, it had been as sudden as the start of a battle.

Piper fell to her knees, and started desperately praying for Percy to come, to help Annabeth. She was crying because why, why did they deserve this. Since when was it normal for Annabeth to be torn down in just a split second, without any sort of preamble?

When had this become their reality?

The doors behind her burst open and Piper whipped around to see Percy running towards them. Gasps went up and people started to bow but he had one and only one focus: getting to Annabeth.

He pushed past the people surrounding her and fell to his knees next to her. His arms ran under her, lifting her up towards him. He brushed a stray curl of her face.

"I'm here Annie, I'm here. C'mon love I'm here. It's me, Percy." He soothed, brushing more hairs off her forehead. Annabeth's hand flew up and slapped his hand away. She started to wiggle out of his grip, so Percy held her tighter.

"NO!" She screamed, with tears rushing down her face. "Percy is dead! Don't lie to me!" She flailed again and managed to escape her boyfriend's grip, landing with a thud on the solid floor.

Percy scooped her into his arms again and started pleading to her, tears now running down his face as well. "Annie, it's me! Please listen, it's me! I'm not dead, I'm right here! I'm not lying, I'm here, I'm here!"

Annabeth's eyes rolled back into her head, and her screams stopped. Percy then started to beg her to wake up, just wake up. His hands probed her neck, looking for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found a pulse but continued his begs for her to wake up. He was shaking and crying, desperately pleading to Annabeth's unhearing ears.

Piper had been so absorbed in the entire situation she hadn't noticed two more people enter the crowded hallway. But she did notice when Percy was lifted up from the floor by a pair of strong arms.

She turned to look, and there he was-Jason Grace. Despite the situation she felt the heat rise up to her cheeks. Meanwhile, Jason was holding Percy back, trying to keep him away from Annabeth. Piper turned back to Annabeth, and saw to her complete and utter surprise, Apollo bent over her.

The God of the Sun's eyebrows were scrunched together and he was biting his lip. He was checking her pulse, her breathing, her body for any cuts or scrapes.

He sucked in a quick breath when he saw that ichor was pooling around her body. She had somehow managed to give herself a nasty gash across her cheek that was bleeding out quickly.

All the while, Percy was flailing against Jason. He started to kick Jason's shins, and curse out his cousin in a strange mix of English, Latin, Greek, and was that horse?

Somehow Percy escaped Jason's death grip. He rushed to Annabeth, pushed Apollo aside, and cradled Annabeth yet again. He started to cry for her to wake up, to show him her pretty eyes again.

Piper turned to Jason, and he looked just like how she probably did. Tears running down his cheeks, eyes bloodshot, hair a mess, and eyes displaying a hopeless that tugged at her heart. She sighed and said "Jason, electrocute him. He's gonna hurt someone at this rate." Jason nodded his head, eyes squeezed tight trying to stop the waterworks.