Open your eyes - Chapter 1 - Mo13 - Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2024)

Chapter Text

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

The words echoed in Percy’s brain, sounding off again and again like a gong being struck repeatedly. Quietly groaning, Percy rolled over in bed, trying to block out the mental noise.

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

Percy pressed one hand over his left ear, and smushed the other one into his pillow.

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

Dammit.

Finally giving up on sleep for the time being, Percy threw off the blankets and got out of bed, grabbing his phone and walking out of their bedroom, carefully closing the door behind him so as not to wake up Annabeth.

Walking into the living room, Percy plopped down on the couch and opened up his phone. Against his better judgement, Percy opened up his recent text messages.

There were a ton of texts from Paul. After Percy had left, Paul had started blowing up his phone with apologies and checking that he was alright. Once he’d gotten back to camp, Percy quickly shot back a text saying that everything was okay and he just didn’t feel like talking. While Paul’s disbelief could be sensed even from camp, he just responded by letting Percy know that he was always ready to talk if he needed to, before ending his stream of messages.

For a few seconds Percy sat there, thumb hovering over the screen and debating with himself before finally swiping out of his texts, deciding not to text him back. Leaning back against the couch and letting his arms flop to the side, Percy stared at the ceiling and tried to figure out what to do next.

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

Groaning in exasperation, Percy reached out and grabbed the remote and switched the TV on, flipping through the channels until he reached one showing a nature documentary about some turtle species found in the Galapagos. Not really the most exciting thing on television, but it was about turtles, so. Plus, it was a good way of distracting Percy from the words spinning round and round in his head.

As the documentary continued on, Percy forced himself to watch despite his exhaustion. And to be fair, the documentary wasn’t exactly boring. Granted, as he watched it turned out the Galapagos turtle was actually the Galapagos tortoise, so not a marine animal, unfortunately. Also, it turned out that Galapagos tortoise was actually the species name, which was neat. But anyways, they turned out to be pretty cool land animals with crazy long lifespans, so not all bad.

Still, as Percy watched the documentary, his eyelids got heavier and heavier. And around the point where the documentary got into Galapagos tortoise mating habits, Percy finally fell asleep right there on the couch.

***

Percy slowly woke up in a warm haze.

Everything was warm, and soft. The surface he was lying on was nice and warm and soft, and the light falling across him was soft and warm as opposed to harsh and blinding. Comfortable, Percy turned over in bed and immediately fell hard onto the floor.

Sharply jarred awake, Percy sprung into fight mode, leaping to his feet and reaching for Riptide, which…he didn’t have on him. Because he was in his pajamas. Right.

With that realization, he relaxed, casting his eyes around and recognizing his surroundings as his living room. Heart rate slowing back down to normal, Percy sat back down on the couch, remembering what had happened last night.

He hadn’t been able to fall asleep, because of…those words. That idea. And so he’d come to the living room to watch TV and distract himself. And based on the fact that he’d just woken up here, he’d clearly fallen asleep while watching that tortoise documentary.

Looking up, Percy realized that the TV had been switched off. Which meant…

“Hey, Seaweed Brain.”

Right. Annabeth was there.

“Hey Wise Girl,” Percy responded, turning towards the sound of her voice. She was standing right outside the open kitchen door, smiling at him with a slight worried crease in the middle of her forehead.

Annabeth always looked a little worried nowadays.

“Everything okay, Beth?” Percy asked, starting to feel a little worried himself. He’d asked her before, why she was always so worried about him now, but Annabeth always just said that she was just a little worried about how he was handling everything, which, weird. Like yeah, there was the whole revelation that his relationship with Luke had been a little bit traumatic, sure, but Percy thought he was handling that pretty well, so. Percy didn’t really get what she meant by that, but Olivia just said that this was something he would probably understand with time.

Annabeth nodded, smile widening and worry crease disappearing like magic. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I made eggs and toast, you want some?”

Percy nodded, getting to his feet. “Yeah, sure. Sounds great.”

Percy quickly ducked into the bathroom to brush his teeth, then headed into the kitchen.
The eggs Annabeth made were…okay. To be fair, she was better at baking than cooking - while she’d occasionally baked at camp, she’d never once cooked before moving into their apartment, after all. Still, the eggs weren’t bad. She hadn’t added enough blue food coloring, which left the yolks green and the whites a sickly whitish blue, and the yolks had split in both eggs, but they were cooked all the way through and had only been burned a little bit, so. Plus, the toast was pretty good - of course, Annabeth had just popped sliced bread into the toaster for that, but still. That wasn’t nothing.

As Percy ate his food, Annabeth picked at hers nervously, as if working up the courage to do something. Finally, when Percy swallowed his last bite, she burst out with her question.

“Percy, is everything…okay?” Pausing, she elaborated, “I mean, is something wrong? You…normally, you don’t have too much trouble sleeping, is all, so I just wanted to check in.”

Percy stopped. He hadn’t told Annabeth about what Paul had said the night before - by the time he’d gotten back it had been around nine, and he had been pretty tired and just…hadn’t really wanted to get into it. He should have, probably, but, well…he just didn’t really want to. But it was morning now, and he wasn’t all that tired, and so the time had come.

But he still didn’t want to do this.

“It…it’s kind of complicated, Beth. And I’ll tell you about it, I will, but…I think it would be better for me to talk about this with Liv first, okay?”

It wasn’t a lie, not at all. Percy was going to tell Annabeth, eventually. And while the words themselves might be fairly straightforward, his feelings about them were definitely complicated. And, it probably would be for the best to talk about this with Olivia before discussing it with anyone else, even Annabeth.

Slowly, Annabeth nodded, smiling slightly. “All right, Percy.” She paused for a moment, then continued awkwardly, “I’m…glad that, that you’re recognizing things like this - about when it’s best to go straight to Olivia, I mean.”

Percy smiled back, blushing slightly. “Uh, thanks Beth.”

For a few seconds they sat there in companionable if slightly awkward silence. Then, Percy got up and went to the sink to wash off his plate and utensils, and Annabeth went back to eating her breakfast. By the time Percy finished drying off his plate, Annabeth was done and went to wash off her own plate as Percy headed off to shower and get dressed.

By eight o’clock, both Annabeth and Percy were ready for the day. And together, they walked out into the morning sunshine, hand in hand.

***

That Friday was a long, long day.

First thing in the morning, a thirteen-year-old kid named Jaden almost drowned during Percy’s first swimming class. As in, Percy had to move the water out of his lungs and do CPR on him. The craziest part was that this happened in literally a foot and a half of water, which on one hand is actually kind of impressive, that Jaden managed to nearly drown in that shallow water, but on the other hand was an extremely nerve-wracking incident.

After swimming was the canoeing class, which you would think would be pretty hard to screw up. Unfortunately, one of the kids, a real brat named Nikita, had been chucking trash into the lake for days. So, the naiads decided to get back at her by creating a whirlpool and sucking the whole entire canoe down to the bottom of the lake - which would be one thing if it was just Nikita, but there were like five other kids in that canoe, so. In the end, Percy had to go to the bottom of the lake to make an air bubble around the sunken canoe, and then spent a full half hour bargaining for their lives with the naiads. In the end he was successful, and all six kids (including Nikita) were saved, though Nikita was immediately banned from canoeing for the rest of the summer.

And after lunch was a solid three-ish hours of sword-fighting lessons, which, keeping in line with the rest of the day, were unusually disastrous. Seven kids accidentally chopped off various limbs, ranging from a finger to both legs, and had to be rushed to the infirmary to have them reattached (with the help of a little healing magic from the Apollo kids). Ten more kids accidentally stabbed themselves, two in the torso near vital organs (though luckily no one lost anything essential) and also had to be rushed to the infirmary. And last but not least, an Ares kid literally tried to murder an Eris kid because apparently he tried to hit on her girlfriend (these kids were all twelve btw) and Percy had to break it up and once more rush the Eris kid to the infirmary for his multiple slash and stab wounds.

Finally, after a solid six hours of pure chaos, Percy finally escaped the camp grounds and made it to New Rome and to Olivia’s office at five past four. Physically exhausted, he stumbled through the doors to her office and collapsed into his normal armchair.

This day…Percy had been through worse, sure. Much worse. But back then, Percy was running quests every couple months, and fighting in straight-up wars. Since the Second Giant War, Percy had only run a few minor quests, and only when he was basically given no choice. Essentially, he was not used to this kind of chaos anymore. No one was. Really, the new campers had no idea how good they had it.

God, that made him sound old. Like he was about to start spouting off about how ‘back in my day, we had to fight two wars, back to back, uphill and in the snow!”

Percy closed his eyes and tilted his head back, enjoying the peace and quiet of the calm, air-conditioned office he was currently in. And for a few minutes, Olivia stayed quiet and let him relax, clearly sensing how deeply worn out he was.

After giving Percy some time, Olivia finally asked the question that had been on her mind ever since Percy had stumbled into her office. “Percy, are you sure you’re up to having an appointment today?”

“Yes!” Percy jerked his head up like he’d heard a hellhound growl. “Yes, I - I am definitely ready for our appointment today, okay?”

Olivia sat back in her chair, visibly startled by his vehemence. Which, fair, but Percy needed this. He needed to talk with Olivia, and he couldn’t wait until Monday. He had to get this over with today , or he might never go through with it.

Slowly, Olivia nodded, acknowledging his words. “All right then, Percy. Is there anything you would like to discuss today?”

“Yeah, there is,” Percy started, then took a deep, sharp breath in and forced his next words out.

“Uh, you remember how I mentioned yesterday, that I was going to my mom’s for dinner? And we were going to kind of, talk about Luke a little bit? Well, we did, and it went pretty well, except for at the end when, uh…” Percy swallowed heavily and made himself continue. “At the end, right when I was leaving, Paul asked…he asked if, if I thought that Luke did this stuff with anyone else.”

Olivia sucked in a sharp breath, calm composure cracking apart for a moment before she slammed the pieces back together. Blinking rapidly, Olivia leaned back a bit in her chair, lightly tapping the end of her pen against her clipboard as she did so. For a few seconds she almost appeared to be at a loss for words, before pulling her thoughts together and beginning to speak.

“I…see,” Olivia started slowly. “I’ll admit, that thought actually never occurred to me.” As she said that, a strange look flashed across her face, a look of frustration. But it wasn’t a normal look of frustration, it was a kind of frustration directed inwards. Like how Annabeth looked when she’d finished a final design, only to suddenly realize that she’d overlooked a major detail and had to go back in and fix it - a feeling of frustration at herself. Which, weird. After all, why should she have thought of this? It clearly wasn’t true.

Shoving a calm mask down over her true feelings, Olivia continued. “All right. Percy, do you want to talk about how you felt when Paul brought up this new idea?”

Percy swallowed heavily, nodding. “It felt…bad,” he started, wrapping his arms tightly around his stomach in a self-comforting hug. “And sudden. Like - like being sucker punched in the face, only worse. Or like being struck by lightning. Everything went kind of fuzzy, and sounds got all weird and distorted, like - like hearing through water, I guess, when I’m not using my powers. I got kind of dizzy too - honestly, I think I nearly fell over. Basically, it just…sucked.”

Olivia nodded sympathetically. “That sounds awful, Percy. It must have been pretty scary for you.”

Percy frowned, a bit confused. “I mean, a little? Maybe? It didn’t really scare me, exactly - I’ve been through worse, so.”

Olivia stiffened a bit. “Right.”

She did that sometimes. It was almost like sometimes, Olivia forgot that Percy had been going on yearly quests since he was twelve and fought his way through Tartarus.

Pushing herself back on the tracks, Olivia smiled at him and asked, “All right then. Is there anything about your initial reaction that you want to discuss right now, or would you prefer to talk about it at another time?”

“Uh, another time, I guess.” Privately, Percy wondered what it was that she was expecting him to say about it that he hadn’t already gone over. It seemed to him like he’d already gotten through everything, but hey. He wasn’t the therapist here.

“That sounds great, Percy. Now, would you like to talk about how you currently feel about this new idea?” Her pen tapped lightly against her clipboard as she spoke.

Percy sighed, and hung his head a bit. He’d been dreading this question, a lot, but…it was also the whole reason he needed this session so badly. He needed to talk about this. He didn’t want to, but he needed to, and so he needed to push himself through this.

“I feel…weird,” Percy confessed. “Like, I know there’s no reason for me to be freaking out about this, okay? I mean, when I first heard it, I kind of thought for a second that it might be true, but when I got a little more time to think I realized that there was no way that it was true, all right? I know it’s not true, I do, but I just…I just feel weird about it, okay?

“Like, I know that Luke would never have hurt anyone like that, okay? So I know he didn’t do anything like this with anyone else. But, it just - it just -”

Percy curled over in his chair like he’d been punched in the stomach, arms hugging himself even tighter. He probably looked ridiculous, but he didn’t care.

“It just - the words. The words that he used, they just - they keep spinning around in my head, again and again, constantly! I couldn’t even sleep in my own bed last night - I had to sleep on the living room couch, with the TV on to drown the words out! I just - I don’t - I don’t know what to do. It’s not true, I know it’s not true, I know Luke would never hurt anyone in that way, but - the words, they just keep going in my head, and I don’t know how to stop it!”

Finishing his rant, Percy panted for air, out of breath after his long stream of rushed-out words. Slowly, he lifted his head up to look at Olivia.

Olivia looked back at him, head tilted to the side a bit, a confused frown on her face. Twirling her pen around her fingers, she asked in a curious tone of voice, “Percy, why are you so sure Luke wouldn’t have done this with anyone else?”

Percy blinked back at her, stunned. Then he burst out, in a righteously angry and extremely defensive tone of voice, “Because he wouldn’t! Luke would never do anything like that! He just - he wouldn’t - he wasn’t a monster! He was complicated, sure, but he would never do anything like that, ever!”

“Percy, slow down,” Olivia instructed firmly. “Take some deep breaths, okay? In and out. In…out. In…out.”

Reluctantly, Percy did as she said, regulating his breathing to calm himself down. After a few minutes, his previous boiling anger had cooled to a low simmer. Closing his eyes, Percy concentrated on his breathing as Olivia began to talk.

“All right, then. Let’s try tackling this from a different angle,” Olivia started in a clear and concise voice. “Percy, you’ve acknowledged that your relationship with Luke was…detrimental to you, to the point of it being traumatic, yes?”

Percy nodded, calmed by the dark behind his eyelids. “Yeah, I guess.”

For a moment, Percy struggled to answer. There was a difference, he knew there was, he just, he couldn’t -

And then the answer struck him out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.

“I wasn’t a kid. The other kids, they got to be kids, but not me. I was a kid, yeah, but - but I also wasn’t. Because I wasn’t a kid, I was the kid. The prophecy kid.”

Percy stared off into the distance, blinking rapidly as the epiphanies continued.

“That day at Montauk with Mom - that was the last time I was a real kid. As soon as I faced off against the Minotaur, as soon as I crossed the boundary into camp, I wasn’t a kid anymore. Suddenly, I was the prophecy kid. And that’s something else entirely.

“Uh, yeah. Why?” Percy was really confused. What was she getting at?

“So were you, Percy. And yet, apparently you weren’t really a kid. So what’s the difference here?”

Percy paused. He felt like he was grasping at straws, which was weird, since he was sure that he was right. Still, he forged on.

“Well, Annabeth - she wasn’t the prophecy kid. I was. So that, that’s a difference, right there.”

“But she was always fighting with you, by your side,” Olivia pressed on. “She went on every major quest you did save one, and that was only because she’d been kidnapped and forced to hold up the sky. She led the Battle of Manhattan with you, she fought her way through Tartarus with you, she fought in the Second Giant War with you. Every step of the way, she was by your side. She was the head of her cabin. People at camp looked to her for guidance, just like they looked to you. So even if she wasn’t the prophecy kid, or a Big Three kid, she was still in a position where she had to undertake a lot of responsibility in the war against Kronos, just like you. Which means that she must have been as much a child as you were. Wasn’t she?”

Percy paused, struggling to find an answer. Because she had a point. Annabeth had done all of that stuff and more. She was as much a leader in the war as Percy had been, which should mean that she and Percy were in the same boat. But…

But, looking back, Annabeth had been a child. Back when they were twelve, she had been as much a child as any of the other young campers. Sure, she had some extra responsibility to deal with, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was a child, same as the rest of them.

Percy wasn’t really sure how to best explain this, but he had to try.

“No, that - that’s not the same thing, okay? It - she was a child, back then, but - she wasn’t like me, it - it’s not the same.” Percy was starting to feel a little panicky, but he had no idea why. They were just talking, it wasn’t like he was in the middle of a monster attack or anything.

“All right, Percy. Okay. Let’s go with that then. Annabeth was a child back then. Let’s both accept that, all right?” Olivia spoke in a soft, reassuring tone of voice, clearly focused on calming him down.

Her words worked. Percy felt it as his breathing slowed down to a regular rate, as his heart stopped pounding in his chest. This was fine. He was fine. Olivia was accepting the truth, so everything was fine. Quietly, Percy nodded in agreement with Olivia’s words.

Olivia smiled warmly back at him. “All right then. Would you like to keep talking about this subject today, or would you prefer to come back to it later, Percy?”

Percy paused. He kind of really wanted to stop here, but…he knew what would happen if he did. He would leave this appointment, go home and spend the next few days with those f*cking words haunting him every single waking moment, and then he would have to do this whole thing all over again on Monday. And while Percy may not want to finish this up today, he really, really didn’t want to do this whole thing over again.

So, Percy looked back at her and said, “It’s okay. We…we can keep going.”

Olivia nodded back at him. “All right. Let’s keep going.

“So, we’ve accepted that Annabeth was a child back then. But, whether or not she was a child, she still had the same kind of quests and responsibilities on her shoulders as you did, correct? With the exception of the Great Prophecy, of course.”

Slowly, Percy nodded, feeling a bit like he was stepping into a bear trap that was about to snap closed on his leg. “Well, yeah, technically. I guess.”

Olivia nodded again, smiling slightly. “Then, you would agree that the two of you were in similar positions, even if they weren’t exactly the same, right?”

Percy could practically hear the metal parts of the bear trap scraping against each other. “Uh…right, I guess?” His voice tilted up with uncertainty.

Olivia tilted her head to the side slightly. “Then, if you were both in similar positions, with similar responsibilities, that must mean that you were relatively similar kids, right?”

And there it was. Just like that, the trap snapped closed.

“No, it - it, that, that’s not - that’s not, it…” Percy trailed off, his initial explosion of denial fizzling out into nothingness as he continued to try and pull his metaphorical leg out of the metaphorical bear trap.

Olivia stayed quiet and let her words hang in the air.

And despite himself, Percy felt her words soak into his brain, spreading through it like ink bleeding through wet paper.

Because she had a point.

They had gone through similar things. Sure, Percy had the whole Great Prophecy, Big Three thing hanging over his head, but other than that, he and Annabeth were pretty much in the same boat, especially all the way back then. After that first quest, they’d both had the same sort of expectations placed on them, as the twelve-year-olds that had saved the world. So even if it wasn’t exactly the same, they were in relatively similar positions. Which meant that they had to have been similar, at least in level of maturity.

“...Okay,” Percy admitted reluctantly. “I guess…you have a point. Kind of.” He crossed his arms tightly over his chest and stared down at the floor, feeling a bit like he’d just given up, and was sitting in the bear trap waiting to get eaten by a bear.

Wait. Was a bear trap set up by bears, or set up to trap bears?

It was weird. When Percy always thought of bear traps, he’d kind of imagined them trapping a person, and then a bear charging out of the bushes to eat them. But now that he actually thought about it, that obviously wasn’t the case. Obviously, humans set the trap to catch bears. Percy knew that was right. Still, the image felt wrong in his head -

“Percy?”

Percy shook off that line of thought and focused on Olivia, blushing slightly at the realization that he’d zoned out again. “Uh, sorry, Liv,” he started sheepishly. “I just kind of…zoned out a little, I guess. Sorry.”

Olivia smiled softly back at him. “It’s all right, Percy. Now, let’s get back to where we were, okay?”

Percy nodded slowly. “Yeah, uh. I just said that you…had a point. A little bit.”

Still, after a little bit, he forced the words out. “About…me and Annabeth being similar. When we were twelve.”

Olivia’s voice sounded soft and sympathetic. “All right then. Now that we’ve settled that…Percy, can you tell me, how would you feel if you found out that Luke had been in a relationship with her too?”

Percy’s head jerked back to look straight at her, pure shock blanketing his face. “ What? That -” And like a sudden rush of wind, pure indignant anger billowed up in Percy, filling him to the brim with defensive rage. “That’s not - Luke wouldn’t! Luke would never - Annabeth was his sister, he would never -”

“Okay, Percy,” Olivia interrupted, holding a palm out flat in front of her in the universal ‘calm down’ gesture. “Okay. Not Luke, then. Someone else. How would you feel if someone else, another nineteen-year-old counselor, had gotten into a relationship with Annabeth when she was twelve?”

Percy stopped and took a few breaths in. He was still a little mad about Olivia suggesting… that, about Luke and Annabeth. The anger was still sparking in his chest, but…Olivia was asking him another question. And while he’d love to keep spitting fire…these appointments were for a set time frame. The last thing Percy needed was to blow through this time yelling at Olivia over one comment.

So, Percy swallowed the sparks down, and focused his brain on the question Olivia was asking him, registering her words.

And he froze.

Percy stared off into the distance, blinking rapidly as her words filtered down through his brain like water.

Because if that had happened…

Percy would have murdered him.

Whoever it was that had done that to Annabeth, Percy would’ve tracked him down and murdered him. Even back when he was twelve, he would’ve done it. He practically murdered Smelly Gabe when he was twelve, some massive f*cking creep wouldn’t have been that different. Gods, just thinking of it, Percy would’ve ripped that f*cker limb from limb -

But that was different.

That was different, it - it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t like that with Luke, it just - it wasn’t. Luke wasn’t like that - he’d been toxic, and a dick, but he hadn’t been like that.

Wasn’t he though?

No, he wasn’t. Shut up. Percy thought to himself, pushing the voice away. Luke wasn’t like that. He had been an asshole, sure, but he wasn’t some kind of creep. He just…he wasn’t.

Shaking his head, Percy responded with a desperate note in his voice, “No, it - that’s not, that’s different, it wasn’t - it wasn’t like that, with Luke. He wasn’t like that. It’s not the same.” He focused his gaze on Olivia, repeating desperately, “It’s not the same.”

Olivia looked calm, but also…almost sad, behind her eyes. “Okay, Percy. For now, let’s say that you’re right, and it’s not exactly the same. Okay? Can you at least agree that there are certain aspects of these two relationships that are similar?”

Olivia looked expectantly at Percy. And Percy…

Percy looked away.

And keeping his eyes on the neon tetra tank, Percy tried his best not to think about it. To block her question out of his brain.

But he couldn’t.

And…she had a point. Again.

His relationship with Luke…it was a little similar to that hypothetical relationship. Mostly in that the age gap was the same - both relationships had that, but - but in Olivia’s example, it was something really, really bad, and in Percy and Luke’s relationship, it was just something…kind of weird. But that was really the only big similarity, between these two relationships, so it was fine. Right?

Remember what Annabeth asked us, back when we told her? When she asked -

Nope, nope, shut it down. Percy thought to himself, forcing the memory to the back of his mind. He did not want to go into that whole dissociative thing again.

Still…Annabeth’s question…Percy wasn’t going to think too heavily about it, because of the whole dissociation thing, but…it had been a good question. A question Percy couldn’t even think about, let alone answer.

Okay, no. Not going down that path. Not now, not today. Let’s just acknowledge that Liv has a point and move on.

Okay. Liv has a point. Fine. That doesn’t mean it’s the same, just that it’s a little bit similar. It’s not the same. Percy could admit to it being a little similar. It didn’t mean it was the same.

“Fine. It’s a little similar. But it’s not the same. It’s not.” Percy insisted, feeling a bit like a child trying to convince their parents that no, their imaginary friend Billy is the one that ate all the cookies, not them!

Luckily, Olivia decided not to pressure Percy on this. Instead, she just nodded and continued, calmly and efficiently.

Olivia nodded, face intentionally still but with a spark behind her eyes, the same spark she’d shown earlier with the first metaphorical bear trap. “So, if these two relationships are similar, even if they’re not exactly the same, wouldn’t it also make sense that it might be possible that Luke also engaged in other relationships with similar age gaps, just like this theoretical nineteen-year-old?”

…And there it was. Just like that, the second bear trap snapped closed on Percy’s other leg. Because of course it did.

Granted, this comparison was starting to get…a little confusing and unwieldy. But…Percy could see why Olivia stuck it out. Because when she put it like this, Percy couldn’t really think of a way to effectively argue against it. Instead, he was left to struggle to find his way, like a bear crawling on the ground with two paws caught in two different bear traps.

Gods, this metaphorical bear trap thing was really getting out of hand.

Okay, no. Focus, Percy. Focus on what Olivia said. You need to defend Luke.

Okay. He could do this.

Percy opened his mouth.

And nothing came out.

He couldn’t think of anything. Percy couldn’t…he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

Mouth going dry, Percy swayed in place a bit. The room around him was going blurry and out of focus, everything around him practically disappearing except for a single spot on the wall that his eyes had focused on. It was sucking him in, like a vortex, and Percy was falling into it, into that one spot on the wall -

“Percy? Percy!”

The shout kind of jolted Percy out of his trance. Disoriented, he slowly turned his gaze back towards Olivia, brow furrowing in confusion.

Olivia was leaning forwards, anxiety almost hidden behind her calm mask. “Percy, is everything all right?”

Percy blinked, and just stared at her for a second. Then, suddenly realizing that he needed to say something, he forcibly wrangled his tongue into submission and pushed out, “Uh. Yeah, I’m…I’m, okay. I guess. I, I’m fine, Liv.”

Olivia looked even more worried behind her smooth, unwrinkled forehead and small Mona Lisa smile. “Percy, if you don’t feel up to discussing this right now, we can -”

Percy jolted up out of his slight slouch, her words like an electric shock to his system. “No, no, it - it’s fine. I’m good, I’m - I’m good. I’m okay, I swear.”

Olivia looked unconvinced, but decided to let it slide, leaning back in her chair and nodding slightly. “Okay, Percy. Do you want to continue our previous discussion, or would you like to switch to a different subject?”

“We can keep going. It - it’s fine,” Percy said, forcing a smile onto his face and pushing past the fuzziness in his head. Okay. He could do this. What had just happened had been…weird, but he could do this -

“Okay, Percy. If you’re sure you want to do this, we can keep going. That said, I think it would be…unhelpful, to go back to the exact spot where we left off. Let’s just change tack a bit, okay?”
Slowly, Percy nodded. “Uh, okay. If you think that’s best, then…then that’s okay, I guess.”

“All right then, Percy,” Olivia said with a small, slightly relieved smile. “So, why don’t we move back to what you said, about you not being a kid, okay?

“I understand that you had an…unusual amount of responsibility back then, especially given your age. And I understand how that may make you feel like you weren’t exactly the same as the other kids. But Percy…a child with extra responsibilities is still a child. You may have been under extra pressure, but you were still a child all the same. And we can talk about that some more in another appointment, about the toll those responsibilities took on you, but for the time being can we both agree that a child with extreme amounts of responsibility is still a child?”

Slowly, reluctantly, Percy nodded. He kind of wanted to disagree, but like always, Olivia had somehow managed to put this stuff in a way that was almost impossible to disagree with.

Olivia’s smile lessened a bit as she nodded back and continued, face melting into a soft, sympathetic expression. “And can we agree that…an adult, who pursues a relationship with a child, is likely to also pursue other relationships with other children?”

Percy wanted to disagree. He really wanted to disagree. But…he couldn’t. Because she had a point, okay? He’d seen SVU, okay, he knew that…people like that, tended to have multiple victims. Of course, Luke wasn’t like that, and Percy wasn’t a victim of anything except a toxic relationship, but generally speaking, the point stood.

So, after a few moments of hesitation, Percy nodded.

Olivia smiled back at him. “Okay then. So, if you were at least technically a child at the time of you and Luke’s relationship, and Luke was an adult who chose to pursue a relationship with you, can you understand why, even if he didn’t have a relationship with any other children, this may still be a worry that some people have?”

Reluctantly, Percy nodded. “Well, yeah, when you put it like that. But Luke wasn’t like that, okay? And, and just because something is a - a concern, that doesn’t mean that it’s true.”

“That’s a good point, Percy,” Olivia allowed, eyes narrowing minutely. “But what if it is?”

Percy shook his head stubbornly. “It isn’t, I - it’s not -”

“I know, Percy,” Olivia said sympathetically. “I know that you don’t think Luke was like that. I know that you think that Luke wouldn’t have done something like that. But what if he did?

“What if he did do something like that, Percy? What if he hurt someone else in camp, or with the Titan army. What then?”

Percy paused for a second. Because what if? What if Luke had hurt someone like that? What then?

That would mean that Luke…that he was a monster. It would mean that, that…

No.

No, it wouldn’t mean anything. Because Luke wasn’t like that. He just - he wasn’t.

Percy squared his shoulders and looked Olivia dead in the eye as he spoke. “It doesn’t matter. Because he wouldn’t have. Luke wasn’t like that. He wasn’t. He never would’ve done anything like that, okay? Not to anyone.”

For a second, a look flashed across Olivia’s face. A look of wild, untamed anger, and extreme frustration. Then, like magic, it disappeared, leaving nothing but her rock-hard, impenetrable mask of calm.

“Okay, Percy,” she said, with a slight sigh under her words. “Why don’t we go back to the beginning, okay? To the words that have been bothering you.”

And just like that, the voice started up again.

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

You don’t think he did it to anyone else, do you?

Percy groaned, loudly. Because of course. Of course the voice would start up again. Great. Just, absolutely fantastic.

Still, Percy did his best to ignore the voice and focused on Olivia. “Okay, okay. Great. So, how do I fix it? How do I make it stop?”

Olivia sighed a bit and leaned forward, a small, slightly tired smile gracing her face. “Percy, the reason those words are bothering you is because deep down, a part of you is worried that they might be true.”

Okay. That was blunt.

Percy blinked a couple times, waiting to see if Olivia was going to say anything else, to soften the blow a bit.

And right on cue, Olivia grimaced slightly and said, “I’m sorry, that may have been a bit…harsh, of me to say. But, it is true, in a way. As far as I can tell, the most likely reason why this is bothering you so much is that deep down, you are at least a little afraid that these words might be true. That there is a possibility that Luke may have done something like this to someone else, to another child. And while there is no way to ‘fix it’, exactly, the best chance you have at making it stop is to do something about it.”

Percy sighed a little in exasperation. “But Luke wouldn’t have done this kind of thing to a kid. Okay? He wouldn’t.”

“Maybe not,” Olivia acquiesced. “But regardless of whether or not Luke did this or not, your brain is still afraid that he might have. And odds are, it won’t leave you alone until something is done about it.”

Percy sighed. This was stupid. This was really, really stupid. Luke wouldn’t have done anything like this. Percy knew he wouldn’t. It just - it wouldn’t have happened.

But…Percy had learned a lot in therapy. And one thing he had learned was that the human, or demigod, brain wasn’t always rational. Sometimes brains did or thought really dumb things, and that’s just how it was. Percy’s brain thought dumb things a lot - like how he used to think that his relationship with Luke was relatively healthy-ish and normal up until their breakup, or that one time when he forgot that apples grew on trees and thought they were root vegetables, like carrots.

Percy knew that Luke wouldn’t have hurt a kid like this. He knew it. But, his brain was being dumb, and it was thinking that he would. And Olivia was saying that the best way to fix it was to do something about his brain’s dumb thoughts, so. Okay. Doing something. He could do that.

…Wait. What was he supposed to do about it?

“Uh, Liv?” Percy asked nervously. At her nod and answering hum, he continued, “Uh, what…am I supposed to do, exactly? About this, I mean.”

Olivia smiled back at him. “Well, your brain is worried that Luke might have hurt another kid at camp, right? Well, then one idea would be to find out if anyone else has reported Luke doing anything to them. That way, your brain will be able to settle down, knowing that you’ve tried your best to figure this out.”

Percy nodded reluctantly. “Okay. And, uh, how am I supposed to do that, exactly?”

“Well, that depends. There are a few ways you could try and do this, depending on how you want to go about it. But the most straightforward way, and the method that I would recommend, is to go and ask the person in charge of the camp. Someone who was there when Luke was, and who campers would go to with their problems.”

Percy’s shoulders slumped as his body almost melted into the armchair, slumping inward with dread. “Chiron.”

As he spoke, his voice sounded dead and flat, like dry yellow grass under the snow.

Tilting her head a bit and looking at him with kind, compassionate eyes, Olivia said “Yes. Chiron.” She spoke in a soft, sympathetic, slightly sad voice. “Chiron is an option, certainly.”

Percy looked away, anger welling up in his chest for no clear reason. “Okay. And what? What am I supposed to do with him? What am I supposed to say? Am I - what, am I supposed to just, walk up to him? Say, ‘Hey, by the way, Chiron, I actually dated Luke back when I was twelve for a bit, and I was wondering if he dated any other twelve-year-olds when he was here? Just curious, is all.’ Is that what I’m supposed to say? Huh? What the f*ck am I supposed to do?”

Panting slightly, Percy finished up his outburst, gaze drifting down to the floor. Staring down, he repeated to himself in a near-whisper, “What am I supposed to do?”

“Percy. You don’t have to tell Chiron if you don’t want to. You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. Okay?” Olivia spoke softly but urgently. “You don’t have to tell anyone about Luke if you don’t want to. And if you really don’t want to tell him, you have options. We can have some extra sessions this weekend, and come up with ways for you to cope with this worry of yours without outright facing it. Or, you could ask your friend Rachel, and try to get her to use her Oracle powers to find out the answer for you instead. You don’t have to tell anyone if you don’t feel up to it, okay?”

Hearing her words, Percy felt something settle in his chest. His breathing slowed down from its quicker-than-normal rate, and his heart rate returned to its regular speed.

He didn’t have to tell.

In past appointments, when they’d spoken about stuff like this, and the topic of maybe telling someone came up, Olivia had always said that he didn’t have to. That Percy didn’t have to tell anyone if he didn’t want to. In the past, he had always ignored that, and gone through with telling someone, but…he didn’t have to. He didn’t have to tell anyone. Not if he didn’t want to.

He didn’t have to tell Chiron.

That thought settling in his mind, Percy nodded slowly. “I think…I think I’m not ready to talk to Chiron about this. Not yet, at least.”

Olivia nodded, a smile gracing her face. “All right, then. That sounds good. Now, what would you like to do instead? You don’t have to decide right now of course, just…consider. Extra appointments, going to the Oracle, both or neither? The choice is yours, Percy.”

Percy took a second to think about it. ‘Neither’ sounded…really tempting, but just thinking about it Percy instinctively knew that it wasn’t a good idea. Extra appointments sounded…awful, but good for him. Like ranch-free salad.

Seeing Rachel, though…that sounded promising. Her Oracle powers, they could look back into the past, into Luke’s past. She could prove Percy right, prove that Luke hadn’t done this to anyone else. That…that would be really, really helpful. Like, Percy already knew Luke hadn’t done anything, instinctively, but to know it, with one-hundred-percent certainty…that would be amazing. It would really…silence, that voice in his brain. Gods, it was perfect. So perfect, Percy was actually surprised the idea hadn’t occurred to him earlier.

Percy really, really wanted to say ‘Oracle’. But…he knew that, however much he might hate it…an appointment with Olivia would probably be really helpful, at least immediately after his session with Rachel. So…

“Both, I guess,” Percy decided, already planning everything out in his brain. “I’ll cut my time at home short tomorrow, and meet up with Rachel when I get back, and then I’ll come straight here to your office around…four-thirty? If, that’s okay with you, of course.” Percy demurred, realizing he’d gotten a bit ahead of himself.

Olivia smiled back at him, a wide, dazzling grin. “That sounds great, Percy,” she said in a warm, proud tone of voice. “I’ll schedule an appointment tomorrow for four-thirty.”

Olivia glanced up over Percy’s shoulder, and her brows scrunched together into a slightly anxious look. “Okay, so we’ve actually gone a couple minutes over time today. That said, Percy, if you feel that we need to extend this appointment a bit, I’d be willing to -”

“No, no, it - it’s fine.” Percy said quickly, waving his hands in front of him as if to ward off her words. “It’s okay, we - we can talk more tomorrow, it - it’s fine.” He scrambled to his feet, more than ready to leave and go home. “It’s fine. We can talk tomorrow.”

Slowly, hesitantly, Olivia nodded at him. “All right then. I’ll see you tomorrow, Percy.”
Percy nodded back, turned and left, speed-walking out of the office, heading out of the waiting room, down the stairs and out of the building onto the street.

Stepping out into the golden hour of the slowly setting sun, Percy stopped, stepped to the side and leaned back against the building, closing his eyes and taking a few moments to enjoy the sunlight.

Percy had things he needed to do - he needed to set up his meeting with Rachel, let his mom and Paul know he’d be leaving early tomorrow, and explain everything to Annabeth. Basically, he had a lot to do. Still, he wasn’t so busy that he couldn’t take a moment or two to relax.

So, Percy leaned back against the brick wall and basked in the dying sunlight, as the sun slowly set behind the horizon.

***

Percy got home a little later than normal, just past six. Normally he’d get back by five-thirty and throw something together for dinner, but after today’s appointment…yeah, no. So, Percy had texted Annabeth and he’d picked up a pizza from New Rome - which, granted, wasn’t half as good as legit New York pizza, but needs must. So Percy shouldered open the apartment door and went into the kitchen, putting the box down on the table. Annabeth was already sitting there, typing away on her laptop. When Percy set down the pizza box, she looked up at him with a wide grin that froze on her face as soon as she met his eyes. Silently, she closed up her laptop, stood, set it on the counter and got out some plates and a couple glasses of water.

Sitting down, the two of them started in on their pizza, which Annabeth thought was amazing (heathen), and Percy thought was mediocre at best.

(The pizza actually was amazing, but it wasn’t New York pizza, which meant that as a born-and-raised New Yorker, Percy was contractually obligated to look down on it.)

Finishing up, Annabeth silently took the plates and washed them off, stored the remainder of the pizza in the fridge, and took her laptop and Percy’s hand and brought them both into the living room. Plugging her laptop into the charger and setting it to the side, Annabeth led Percy over to the orange couch in front of the TV and sat down with him, both sitting sideways on the couch and facing each other.

Squeezing his hand one more time, Annabeth let go and folded her hands in her lap, tilting her head to look at Percy with a caring, deeply worried gaze. Nervously licking her lips, she began to speak, saying softly, “Percy…what was bothering you last night, did you…talk about it with Olivia?”

Percy nodded, smiling slightly. “Yeah, uh…I did. And, it actually went pretty good, you know? We, uh…we actually came up with a plan, so I - I’m gonna have another appointment tomorrow evening, at four-thirty, to go over how it went. Uh, the plan is to ask Rachel to use her Oracle powers to help me…figure something out, if I didn’t mention that.”

Annabeth smiled back at him, looking relieved. “Okay, Seaweed Brain. That sounds great. Do you want to…tell me, about what it is you need to figure out? You don’t have to,” she hurried to add. “Just…if you want to.”

Percy nodded, smile slipping away and feeling a bit anxious. He knew that he was making a big fuss about nothing, he knew that, and he knew that tomorrow he would be able to give Annabeth the good news that Luke 100% for sure hadn’t sexually abused any kids, so there really wasn’t a reason for him to feel anxious, at all. Sure, he felt a bit reluctant about telling her, but that was mostly just because he knew the very idea of it would upset her, and since Luke wasn’t like that, Percy was about to basically make Annabeth really upset for no reason.

Still…Annabeth was his partner. In everything. And it was important, that Percy not keep any major secrets from her. So, he needed to tell her. He just needed to also make sure it didn’t upset her too much.

“Well, uh, it’s nothing really,” Percy brushed off with a self-deprecating laugh. “Just, my brain making a mountain out of a molehill. Not even a molehill, really - there’s absolutely no chance it’s true, so it’s really not a big deal at all, since it’s definitely nothing.”

Annabeth nodded encouragingly, looking both worried and curious. Bolstered by her confidence, Percy glanced away and continued to explain, staring straight at the wall.

“Well, uh, it’s basically just…something Paul said, last night, that kind of just, lodged itself in my brain. He basically, uh…essentially, he asked me if I thought that Luke, uh, had a relationship with any other kids like he did with me.” Percy laughed a little again, shaking his head slightly. “Really, it - it’s nothing, like I said. There’s no way it’s even remotely possible, so it’s really not a huge deal at all -” Percy looked over to meet Annabeth’s gaze, and stopped dead.

Annabeth looked…she looked like she’d been struck by lightning. Like she’d been hit over the head with a cartoon wooden mallet, and had invisible tweety birds fluttering around her head. Basically, she looked very, very surprised.

And then, like a cresting wave crashing down on the shore, her expression collapsed into one of deep emotional pain and heartbreak. Closing her eyes, Annabeth took a slow, deep inhale through her nose and let it out through her mouth. Slowly , she opened her eyes back up and looked straight back at Percy, an eggshell-thin facade of calm covering the sulfurous, gooey, rotten egg inside of pure anger and misery.

Easily seeing through her pitiful disguise, Percy rushed to reassure her, blurting out, “Don’t worry! It - there’s no way it happened, okay? I know it. And - and I’m going to see Rachel tomorrow, if she agrees, and we can double check using her Oracle powers, and when I come back I’ll let you know what we found, okay? Which will be nothing, obviously. It’ll be nothing, because Luke would never do anything like that, okay? So don’t - don’t worry Annabeth, okay? It’ll be alright, I swear.” Percy finished up with a final reassurance, breathing heavily with how quickly he’d forced all of that out.

As he’d spoken, Annabeth had closed her eyes and bowed her head, slowly shaking it back and forth as if to silently deny Percy’s words. Leaning in and scooching closer towards her, Percy heard her mutter something to herself. It sounded almost like ‘Just when I thought he couldn’t get any worse,’ or something like that, which didn’t really make much sense at all. After all, it was fairly clear that Luke hadn’t done anything to anyone, so Percy couldn’t really see how that could make him worse. He was probably mishearing whatever she was saying.

That having been decided, Percy reached out and set a hand on Annabeth’s knee, squeezing it comfortingly. “It’s okay, Beth,” he started out in a warm, reassuring voice. “It’s fine, really. It’s - it’s nothing, okay? It’s nothing, really. At all. It’s just…it’s fine. Nothing like that ever happened, and Rachel can prove it. So it’s fine. Okay?”

Listening to his words, Annabeth nodded slightly and slowly lifted her head, revealing a tear-streaked face. “Okay, Percy,” she acquiesced, giving him a small and wobbly smile. “If…if that’s what you think, I won’t argue with you. I just…I just think…” And here she paused, seeming to silently debate something with herself, before finally coming to a decision and plowing on. “Percy, I think…I think that, even if you’re absolutely sure that Luke would never have done anything like that, I think…I think that you should prepare yourself, for the possibility that he might have done it. Just…hope for the best, prepare for the worst, okay?”

Percy stared back at Annabeth, blinking in shock. This was…he hadn’t expected this. Like, yeah, sure, Annabeth was pretty mad at Luke and all for the whole ‘dating Percy (and being an asshole to him)’ thing, but…he was still her brother, right? Why was she…entertaining this idea? Ever since Percy had told her, it was like she only saw the worst in Luke. Every single time he was brought up, she acted like he was some kind of…of monster . Even when she talked about how much she loved Luke during therapy, she acted like she was confessing to some kind of unforgivable sin.

It was…actually kind of heartbreaking. To see Annabeth take such a hard turn on Luke like this. Like, yeah, Percy knew that she still loved Luke, and was just really mad at him, but…he’d kind of assumed that her anger would’ve faded by now. After all, it had been two months already. If her temper hadn’t died down yet, when would it?

Well. It didn’t matter. Well, it did, but Percy couldn’t control it. Like Olivia always said, ‘you can’t control other people’s feelings’.

On its face, Percy agreed with that statement. But deep down, he couldn’t help but blame himself every time something he said or did upset someone he cared about. But Olivia knew that, and they were working on it, so Percy tried to not feel too guilty about it. That’s one of the more annoying things about therapy, though - before therapy, you feel guilty about something you can’t control - in this case, other people’s emotions. Then therapy teaches you not to feel guilty about that, and then when you’re not able to immediately stop feeling guilty, you start feeling guilty about feeling guilty. And then you’re trapped in the worst knockoff Inception movie ever - Guiltception.

Percy and Olivia were working on that as well.

Still, like he was saying - it didn’t matter that Annabeth was still mad at Luke. Because, assuming Rachel agreed, tomorrow Percy would have evidence exonerating him. And, hopefully, that would help fan the flames of Annabeth’s ire.

So, knowing it wouldn’t do anything, Percy swallowed back a staunch defense of Luke and smiled. “Okay, Beth. I’ll keep that in mind. Promise.”

It wasn’t a lie. At all. Percy was going to keep that in mind, he just…also wasn’t going to prepare himself. Because he knew it wasn’t true, so there was no point in preparing himself for it somehow magically turning out to be true. Plus, the idea of preparing himself for the worst felt…disloyal. Like he was giving up on Luke, giving up his faith in Luke’s character.

Percy wouldn’t do it. Luke had been kind of a jerk, sure, but he wasn’t like that . He just wasn’t. And Percy refused to give up on him like this.

Clearly unconvinced but not willing to press the issue, Annabeth nodded, eyes suspiciously shiny. “Okay, Percy. I…I think, I’m going to go lie down now, to process…all of this. Why don’t you go for a run or something, and come back around seven-thirty so we can head down to the campfire?”

Percy nodded. “Sure, Beth. Oh, and I can ask Rachel if we can do this thing tomorrow at the campfire too!” Percy nodded to himself again. “Gods, I can’t believe she decided to go on a ‘technology cleanse’ this summer. I mean, we’ve only had cell phones for a year now, but they’re amazing, right?”

Annabeth nodded. “Right. I don’t really get it, but hey, that’s just Rachel for you, I guess.”

Her voice was strangely tight and wobbly, sounding almost like she was on the verge of tears.

Feeling strangely off-balance, Percy nodded again, a bit awkwardly. “Okay, uh. I’ll head out now, then.”

Annabeth nodded, stood, turned and swept out of the living room into the bedroom and closed the door behind her. Percy got up as well and headed over to the entryway, pulling on his sneakers and lacing them up.

As he stood and stepped towards the door, Percy paused. He was hearing a strange noise coming from the bedroom, a sound that was…almost like sobbing.

Weird.

Normally, Percy would assume that the noise was Annabeth sobbing, and go into the bedroom to comfort her. But they’d just had a good conversation, and there was no reason for her to start crying now, at least none that Percy could see. Plus, well…

Percy blushed a little at the memory of it. It had been a couple of weeks ago - Percy had come home from one of his appointments to hear groaning coming from the bedroom. He’d rushed in, assuming that Annabeth was sick or had gotten hurt somehow, and was in pain…only to discover that the groans were actually moans, and were coming from a lesbian BDSM p*rn video Annabeth was watching on her laptop. A video with some very… unique aspects to it.

Gods, that had been an awkward conversation. Granted, it had resulted in some pretty awesome changes to their sex life, but still. So awkward. Plus, the sounds coming from the bedroom didn’t sound painful or sexual, just…sad. And Annabeth only had her phone with her so…Oh. Duh. Obviously, Annabeth was watching some kind of You - uh, that is, some kind of Zeus Tube video on her phone. So, everything was fine. Nothing to worry about.

Satisfied with his conclusion, Percy blocked out the noise, opened the door and stepped out to head out on his run.