The Avenger's Assistant - A Percy Jackson Crossover

Momma's Boy

A/N: Yes, it's been ten months. id suggest rereading the last couple of chapters if ur confused! sorry! Ive wasted enough of ur time but I have a special thank you at the end for everyone who's supported me, so stick around! Alas, without further adieu:

– Princess X

Sally paced back and forth in her kitchen. Her fingers pulled at her hair in a panicked frenzy. She breathed so quick that her lungs barely took in enough oxygen before she had breathed out and back in again. The baby was missing, Paul wasn't answering his phone, and nothing was where she'd left it. She couldn't remember much, but she knew something was wrong.

Sally drew in a long inhale, settling herself down. She brushed her hands on her apron-- another odd thing about her circumstances. She donned an apron, but there was no food in her fridge or pantry. She tried as hard as she could to yank any sort of memory from the corridors of her brain, any clue she could use to piece together the puzzle. She could almost envision something, though it was strange. A memory of disappearing. Well, she considered, more like a memory of becoming nothing. She couldn't recall what it felt like, or any particulars about her whereabouts before or after, just that she regained sentience in the kitchen.

The lights were off. She could have sworn she'd left the living room lights on. The TV, too, for that matter. The apartment smelled scrubbed, sterile, and lifeless. The scent of cleaning supplies burned her nose. The longer she stood there, the more certain she was that she had been baking just a few minutes ago. She had been mixing cake batter, hadn't she? With the news playing in the background?

Sally slid down the tile floor and pondered for a moment that she was finally losing it.

A sudden banging at the door jolted her to awareness. Her heart began to beat faster than she ever knew was possible, so loud she was sure the person at the door could hear it getting closer. She crawled forward before tiptoeing to the entrance and peeking though the peep hole.

She gasped, hastily unlocking the door with shaky fingers, swinging it open with urgency.

"Percy!"

"Mom!"

Percy stood frozen in the doorway for a moment, blinking like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Tears hung to the edge of his eyes. Those were the beautiful green eyes she'd raised, and she hated witnessing them cry. He was choking back sobs, backlit from the light of the hallway and the darkness of the apartment. Then the dam broke and the tears fell in quick succession.

There was something otherworldly about seeing her son --a grown man, hero of the world-- break down in front of her.

"Mom." He croaked through his tears.

Sally didn't know what warranted the tears, but she knew enough not to ask. She pulled him into the shadowy apartment, embracing him in a tight hug so he would know that she was, in fact, there. He held her like she was precious, like she might disappear again at any moment. Again, they sank to the kitchen floor, Percy a weeping puddle and Sally a helpless mother. She stroked his hair to calm him down just like she would when he was little and ran into her room, plagued with nightmares.

Percy couldn't believe that he was back in the arm's of his mother. She smelled like his childhood. Overwhelmed with an emotional tsunami, all he could think to do was sit in the arms of his mother and cry. He couldn't imagine what she thought of him-- he couldn't even conceptualize how much he'd changed in the last five years.

After a moment of wailing in the silence, she took his face in her hands, getting a good look at him. His black hair was shaggy and just barely reached his shoulders, split down the middle, and clearly uncombed. He had the beginnings of a beard climbing his jaw. His cheeks were flushed gold with ichor from his sudden fit of sobs. His eyes boar the wrath of a thousand hurricanes and the fear of a thousand sailors. On his neck he wore a leather band with his camp beads, a trident pendent, and Annabeth's ring. He looked so grown up.