Chapter 21
Shorter, I know. I had writer's block at the end of it, so sorry. But here ya go.
Nope.
Annabeth's POV:
The man ran his hands across the rest of her body. He stopped at her breasts. He felt around them a little more before stopping, moving his hand back to her leg. Annabeth couldn't find the ability to move. She just stood there in shock.
"Perfect, now come with me," he ordered.
He didn't get very far.
Poseidon was walking with Percy, and they were the first to find her. The man still had his hand around her neck and his hand on her thigh. Poseidon ripped the son of Mars off of her, while Percy punched him across the face. Annabeth stayed backed away on the wall, trying to keep her distance.
"What the hell you doing with your hands on my wife?" Percy urged.
"It's not what it looks like, she consented-"
He didn't get to finish because Percy had punched the life out of him. He didn't stop. Percy had him pinned on the ground and racked the man until his face was bloody and bruised. Poseidon also aided that.
She hated that side of Percy; the side that could uncontrollably deck someone or something without hesitation. But she couldn't move, or find her voice, to tell him to stop.
Poseidon called for Mars to get his son, or something else. Annabeth's ears were still ringing from the shock of it and she couldn't really hear. Percy, who had finally pulled away, came up to her and gently lifted her up and backed her away from the man. He hugged her tight.
Annabeth just put her weight on him until she could stand again. Percy pulled away slightly, examining her. She didn't feel horrible, except for her neck and her dignity. He softly brushed his hands against her neck.
"You might have a bruise from it, but it looks fine otherwise. Where else did he touch you?" he chided.
Annabeth couldn't form the words again. Her mouth hung open slightly as she tried to regain her voice. She stuttered, "Um, he..."
"Hey it's okay, take your time. You're okay," Percy soothed.
"He put his hand up my dress-"
"He didn't rape you, did he?" Percy asked urgently.
She sniffled, "No, but he put his hands up under my dress to my waist and grabbed my neck. He also um... he... he grabbed my breasts."
Anger flashed across Percy's eyes for a moment. He took a deep breath and pulled her back into another hug. He ran his hands along her hair and rubbed soft circles on her back. "Okay, thank you for telling me, I know it's not the easiest."
Annabeth knew what he was referring to.
"Percy, I- I didn't give him consent... please- I'm not cheating on you," she choked.
Percy kissed her forehead. "No, no, it's okay. I know you aren't and I know you didn't. I'm just glad he didn't get that far..."
Athena and Mars walked over at that moment.
"What happened here?" Mars asked Poseidon.
"Maybe you could tell your son to keep his hands off my daughter-in-law," Poseidon jabbed.
Mars gabbed his son by the neck and held him up. "You got anything to say for yourself boy?"
The man scoffed, "Only that that bitch was asking for it."
Athena kicked his legs from out underneath him. Mars started yelling at him, saying something about not being able to touch the flower of Olympus. That was a nickname she was given out of pettiness. Half of the gods didn't even like her, including Ares/Mars, but they knew not to touch her. If they did, there was a whole line of people waiting to beat them up. Athena rushed to Annabeth.
"Are you okay dear?" she asked quickly.
Annabeth just nodded into Percy's chest. Athena took her from Percy, and hugged Annabeth for herself. Annabeth didn't like all of the pity, but was too dizzy to say anything otherwise. She didn't mind her mother hugging her though.
Poseidon walked over also. "You feeling better?" he asked.
Annabeth nodded again. It was her only real answer she could give. She went to stand back up again on her own, but fell over. Thankfully Percy was right there and caught her. Annabeth had almost forgotten that she still had a lot of alcohol in her system. Percy helped her walk to the bathrooms, where she proceeded to puke her guts out.
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Percy's POV:
Percy helped Annabeth walk over to the bathrooms. He opened the door of one of them and led her inside. She immediately fell over the toilet and threw up. Percy stood behind her, holding her hair back.
He still couldn't believe she could've been raped. That was the last thing he wanted to happen to her. Thankfully, the son of Mars was taken away by Mars himself. What made it worse was that he knew that son of Mars. He couldn't quite remember his name, but he was in the 5th cohort when Percy first got to Camp Jupiter. He was known to be a little rough and had a blood thirst problem.
Not only that, but she really thought that he thought she was cheating on him. Percy had lived in New York too long and had saved too many girls in alleyways from the same thing, where their kidnapper had said the same thing. Annabeth was smarter to willingly consent to that anyways, and loved him too much than to cheat on him.
"I'm sorry, Annabeth," he said. "I should've gone with you."
Annabeth coughed, "It's not your fault." She couldn't really say anything else because she doubled back over and started puking again.
After about ten minutes, she stopped and leaned against him. "Let's get you some water, you're probably really dehydrated," Percy offered.
He helped her stand up again. She seemed like she was a lot more stable than before. Percy led her back through the main room and grabbed her a water bottle. She sat down on the steps of the stairs they came down, slowly taking small sips of water.
Thalia rushed over to her and sat by her. "I heard what happened, are you okay?!" she rushed.
Annabeth blinked, "How did you already hear about that?"
Thalia stared at her like she was stupid, "We are Greek, do you think these people can shut their big mouths for a second?"
Annabeth shrugged, "No."
"Now answer my question, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Good." Thalia hugged her from the side tightly. She leaned into Annabeth's ear. "And way to beat Reyna."
Annabeth laughed, "Thanks, Thals."
"Jason and Piper got into a shot challenge so I'm gonna go watch that. Unless, Perce, you wanna go?"
"You lost last time, you'd lose again. And I'm gonna stay on the sober side," he shrugged.
"Suit yourself," Thalia said, and she jogged away.
Annabeth turned to Percy. "Do you wanna go over and watch Jason lose?"
Percy kissed her cheek, "Only if you feel up to it."
"I just wanna try to forget it," she sighed.
"Then let's go."
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Annabeth flopped down on the bed and buried her face in the pillow. It was 4:30am and the party had just let up. Both of them were exhausted. Luke had already been changed into his onesie and was asleep in the nursery. Silena was still in her fluffy blue dress and was laying on their bed. She had indeed, not done well being away from both parents for almost 12 hours. She would start to cry if either of them left the room.
Annabeth stood back up and walked to the bathroom. She began to wash off her makeup and pick off the rhinestones around her eyes and in her hair. She looked like she was about to fall asleep standing up. Percy wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and kissed her temple. She just continued to wash her face.
Percy changed into sweatpants and discarded his shirt. He sat in bed with Silena, rocking her back and forth. All of her crying must've made her tired, because she was asleep fast. Percy took her to her room and changed her into a white onesie. Somehow, Silena stayed asleep the whole time. He set her down in her crib with her favorite little blanket.
When he got back to his room, Annabeth was already in one of his shirts and a pair of pajama shorts, her hair in a high ponytail. She was out cold.
Percy chuckled and climbed into bed with her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to him. After what happened earlier, he just wanted her to stay closer to him. He felt himself drifting off, and gave into sleep.
When Percy woke up, the sun was already half-way up the sky. The weird part, he heard no noise. He looked at his clock, it read 11:06am. By this time, everyone should've been up and at their daily tasks. He thought it was safe to assume that Chiron had given people the day off. He wasn't stupid, Chiron knew when a bunch of teenagers were drinking and thought it would be better to let them be than to have them puking all throughout camp.
Annabeth was still out next to him, snoring softly. She faced him and had curled up to him in the night. Percy leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. As he did so, he glanced at her neck.
All around the front of it, she had a large bruise that stretched from her jawline down to her collarbone. It wasn't on the back of her neck, just the front where she had been grabbed. It ranged from shades of green to purple to black. It wasn't there when they went to bed, her neck had just been really red. He assumed it had developed over the night.
Percy pushed the covers back to see her legs. While it was only on her left thigh, she had another bruise that was across the side of it. This one went from the top of her thigh down to just above her knee.
He sighed and covered her back up with the sheets. She stirred a bit and opened her eyes. To match her neck, her face had a green hue to it. Annabeth jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Percy heard her retching her guts up, and followed her in. He grabbed her hair out of her face and tied it into a low bun. After she was done, she leaned back into him. Her face was spotted with red dots where her blood vessels had reassured from puking so much.
Annabeth stood up and went to brush her teeth. She froze in the mirror, staring at her neck. She looked disgusted by it, and looked away quickly. She brushed her teeth fast and went back into their room. Percy sighed, but followed her. She was already flopped back down in bed.
"Annabeth," Percy said, "It's 11:00am, I would start getting around soon for lunch."
"I don't wanna go to lunch," she mumbled into her pillow.
"Why?"
"Because then people are gonna stare at me and pity me and it's gonna look like I was too weak and stupid to get some predator off me."
Percy sat next to her in the bed and rubbed her back. "Wise Girl, no one thinks you're weak. What happened was horrible and I never want it to happen again, but these things can happen to anyone. No one is going to think you're weak."
Annabeth stayed quiet, hugging her pillow.
"Maybe you should take a hot shower, that might help you feel better," he suggested.
Annabeth sat up, "Okay."
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Annabeth ended up not going to lunch. She stayed home with their children and snuggled up on the couch with 2 blankets and a hoodie. She must've taken 3 naps throughout the day because every time Percy came in to check on her, she was asleep. Thankfully, the babies were asleep most of the day too.
At around 4:00pm, Percy came back to find Annabeth awake on the couch. She was sitting criss cross with a bowl of soup in her hands, her eyes fixed on the T.V.
"What're you watching?" he asked.
"Some show about Troy," she answered.
"Fun," he shrugged. Silena was asleep on a blanket on the floor, Luke next to her wide awake. Percy picked up Luke and sat him on his hip. "I'm gonna take him on a walk, you wanna join us?"
Annabeth said, "I'm okay. I'm going to stay here with her and probably give her a bath."
"Okay, love you," he gave her a small kiss.
"Love you too."
Percy walked with Luke down to the lake. Both of his children enjoyed being in the water, something he was glad they inherited. He held his son above the water until it was deep enough to go under. He made a bubble for them and sat at the bottom of the lake. Luke sat perched in his lap facing away from him.
They watched the fish and turtle swim by, along with some other creatures. Some naiads would stop to say hello or blow bubble kisses, something Luke liked to watch. He would laugh and babble at them before they would swim away. Luke would reach out at the creatures that would swim by, trying to say hello. He always looked a little disappointed when they left.
Luke got bored of watching the fish swim by, and decided to focus his attention on something else. He twisted in Percy's lap sideways. He began to touch his father's SPQR tattoo, running his little hand over it. Percy never understood why everyone in his family made some big deal about it, even his 4 month old baby.
Luke poked at it a few times before looking back up at Percy. "That's daddy's tattoo from the Romans," Percy said. Luke just stared up at him, not understanding. Percy laughed and kissed his forehead. "You are the cutest thing."
Luke began to drift off a bit. He laid in Percy's lap on his back, sucking his thumb. Luke wasn't the most energetic child they had. He did this thing where he would be all happy and bubbly when he was awake, and would fall asleep 10 minutes later.
Percy picked him up, and brought their bubble to the surface. He carried his sleeping son back to their house. Annabeth was still watching her show, but now held Silena and was bouncing her a bit. She turned and smiled at him. "Already back?"
"Luke fell asleep."
"Shocker."
He sat next to her on the couch and pulled her into his lap. He wrapped his arm around her and shifted Luke to his other arm. Annabeth leaned into him a bit, she seemed so relaxed at the moment, which rarely happened.
"I love you," she said.
"Love you too."
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