A Billionaire's Bodyguard

Chapter 45: All Better

—————-Percy's POV: —————-

The bus ride was quiet, the night sky moving by highlighting the dark forestry and occasional lakes.

We had planned on leaving the next night, but with everything that happened Bruce got us onto a last minute bus ride back to Gotham. We'd been lucky to get a secluded bus that had a max of 4 other people, all of which seemed to be either asleep or in another realm.

I'd been talking slightly with Sadie, though somehow she seemed to be even more aggressive over text which I never knew was possible until now.

Though this only seemed to fall into the back of my mind as even through my reassurance, Bruce seemed to be quiet. I snuck a peek over at him to see him staring blankly at the laptop monitor in front of him. He wasn't moving, just seemingly lost in thought.

I looked back to my phone as another message popped up. This one from an unknown number.

"Percy!!"

I could feel my breathing pick up slightly, was this Annabeth?

My fingers hovered over the letters hesitantly before I picked up the speed "Annabeth?"

The world went quiet as I waited for what felt like forever for the message to come back, a bubble would pop up then disappear before popping up again and dying like before. Suddenly the number came up for a call. I took a deep breath, tapping Bruce. He looked over and I motioned that I was gonna go a seat over to take the call. He nodded, giving me a small smile.

I stood up, quickly going back a few rows before picking up the call.

"Percy! Percy oh my gods it's you! Please tell me this is you and Sadie didn't just play a prank because I swear on Hades good name that I will-"

"It's me Annabeth." I said quickly, her voice stopping immediately. A moment of silence went between us before she spoke up again, her voice a lot more emotional than before.

"You know you promised not to disappear again. You're not very good at keeping promises." I let out a short laugh. Something about this situation was making my emotional and I could feel my chest getting heavy.

"I see." I replied, not having much else to say.

"You don't have to pretend to know everything, Sadie explained your memory loss, for your information this is the second time this has happened." I let out another laugh.

"I mean seriously, why don't you guys lock me up??" I asked, feeling my smile widen.

"I ask myself that everyday Perc." She let out a short breath, and I could hear the heavy relief that filled every word. "You don't know how good it is to hear your voice right now." She mumbled, the phone barely picking up her voice.

"It's nice to know the girl from my memories is as she seemed" I replied, and I could hear a short sob come from the other end. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"You never change seaweed brain" I stopped apologizing, allowing Annabeth a moment to collect herself. "Everyone's missed you. Like a lot. And Hazel and Jason think they killed you much to everyone's opposition."

"It was my fault though, I told the horse to go up" I said quickly.

"You remember falling? Holy shit Percy I'm so sorry, we should've found you sooner maybe-"

"It's fine Annabeth. I've been lucky" I looked over to Bruce to see him now working away on his computer. "I've had a lot of help recently"

"That's good. I hope it hasn't been too bad." I let out a short laugh, shaking my head.