Find my Seaweed Brain...

May 10th

A/N I'm so sorry for the delay my actual exams are coming up and I've been busy with that, but enjoy this chapter, sorry for the constant tragedy. Actually, no I'm not :)

After everything calmed down I returned to the Athena cabin and put more energy into my role as head counsellor, although I still hadn't spoken to Malcolm. Partially because I know what he said was correct and partially because some of what he said was way over the line. Truthfully, I hadn't really spoken to anyone at all, not in any depth. Of course I've still taught classes and led the cabin but I've been actively avoiding everyone that was at the meeting, especially Piper and Leo. None of that was important though, what was was getting to California safely to get Percy. I need him, I guess that's what everything boils down to. If I'm ever to accept this... this thing inside me I need him with me. I don't know if I'm capable of loving it without him.

One person who had made it his mission to talk to me was Will, which is how I've found myself sat in the infirmary being poked and prodded by the sunshine child from hell.

"And you think it was you that blew up the pipes?" He said ripping a bandaid off my arm with surgical precision.

"Fuck- Hades sake Will ever heard of being gentle?" I responded rubbing my arm.

"Ever heard of ripping off the bandaid? Answer the question." He responded ripping off another with what I am convinced was malicious intent.

"Yes, there was a tugging sensation at my belly button like Percy always described and the pipes exploded." I responded sulkily.

"Anything else?" He said ripping a third bandaid off.

"And then there was a stabbing pain in my lower stomach." I responded smacking his hand away from the next one.

Will took a few steps back and looked me up and down. "You burst the pipes accidentally?" He said really quietly staring at me.

"Yeah, why have you gone pale? You're scaring me-"

"Annabeth... I'm going to have to recommend to Chiron that you don't go on this quest." He said still slowly backing against the wall.

"What do you mean." I stood up quickly following him towards the wall. Recommend I don't go on the quest? He must be joking.

"You burst those pipes with pressure enough to blast away solid concrete from lack of control. You're about to enter your third trimester and if hormonal imbalances are causing you to lose control, both causing damage and hurting that baby then you're a danger to yourself the child and the quest."

Now I didn't exactly pin him against the wall. I did threaten him profusely though.

"Do you seriously think that if you got me banned from that quest it would stop me? Will for Hades sake you know me, I would sacrifice myself and any stupid fucking foetus to get to Percy because that's all I know how to do. If you get me banned from this quest we both know it won't work anyway, you heard the prophecy I hold the key: without me on the Argo II Percy will die and then we all die. Don't make a stupid decision and cause us all unnecessary hassle." I'm pretty sure I said it calmly, as I dragged him back to my bed to finish the checkup.

"You're the one that forced me to take this checkup Will, don't waste it."

I sat back down and stared blankly at the wall as he began to poke and prod me in the stomach over and over scribbling things in his notepad. He then proceeded to weigh me and measure around my bump, as I stood there pretending I hadn't been doing so every day since I found out it was smaller than it should be.

"You're not as big as you would expect at this stage..." It was as though he had read my thoughts stopping to assess my biggest area of concern. "You're barely even showing."