𝑃𝐸𝑅𝐶𝑌 𝑅𝐸𝐼𝐷 thought the worst thing he would have to live through was his mother's death but life deals him a new hand, something he would have never expected, it takes away his father.
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ON THE THIRD DAY PERCY WAS WORRIED, the longest he had gone without seeing his father was probably a week so Spencer being gone shouldn't have upset him but it was the fact that his father didn't pick up his calls that sent him off the edge so that morning before he had to leave for school, he went to Emily to talk about it. "I'm sure he's alright. He's a grown up and an FBI agent, he can take care of himself." Emily filled his glass up with cherry juice as he opened his mouth to argue but she was ruffling up his hair. "Can you relax a bit? Spencer will be back before you know it." Emily promised but Percy didn't believe her, he wouldn't believe her until she had evidence that he wasn't dead somewhere with his organs being sold on the black market. "I'm just saying, my dad has never ignored my calls. Once he got shot in the neck and he picked up, well, Aunt Alex picked up but still, we don't ignore each other. It's like an unspoken rule."
Percy could still remember the night he called his father to say goodnight to him, it was three years ago, and eleven-year-old Percy snuck out of his bed, snuck into Elle's room, took her phone, got into her closet and called his dad. The phone rang about three times, and he immediately recognized the voice on the other end, and it wasn't his father. "Aunt Alex, where's my dad?" He held the phone closer to his face, as if that would make Alex tell him where his father is any faster. "Percy, your father isn't feeling well." That was what adults told him when one of two things happened, either Spencer was in some kind of hostage situation, or he had been hospitalized.
"Can I talk to him?" Alex sighed on the other and he knew it was the latter. His dad must have been hurt, stabbed or shot. He should have been used to his father always being on the corner of death at all times, but the thought of his father hurt always paralyzed him with fear. "Percy, your father is in surgery. He's been shot."
"What? Was he not wearing his vest?" That was the only words that could leave his mouth as tears stained his cheeks, he wasn't just sad, he was angry. Angry at his dad, at whoever shot him, hell he was even angry at the team for not doing enough. "He was, he was shot in the neck." Most people wouldn't be that honest with a child but that was how everyone spoke to Percy, not like he was a child but like he was an actual person. He had grown to appreciate it, but that night was not one of those times. "Please tell him to call me back. Please, when he makes it." Not if, when Spencer was out of surgery. When he felt better because he would survive it, he always did.
"He will, go back to sleep now, Percy. It's past your bedtime." She hung up soon after that, but Percy couldn't make it back to bed, he couldn't even make it out of Elle's closet when the first sob left his lips. Elle found him a few minutes later and took him to bed, she sat with him until he fell asleep and when he woke up the next day, his father was at his side, telling him everything would be alright. He had hoped that when he woke up two years later, Spencer would be home, like he said he would be, like he promised.
"I'll call him when I get to work, just go to school. Your dad would kill me if I'm the one to ruin your attendance." Emily smiled and Percy finished his glass. She gave him money for the bus and a hug as he left the apartment, telling her to enjoy her day as she told him to not cause trouble at school and he wouldn't because he never made it to school. He stopped at a phonebooth first, "Your friendly neighborhood Oracle of all things knowable and unknowable at your service." Garcia answered the phone, "Aunt Penny, you busy?" Percy shuts the door of the phonebooth for more privacy, "Never too busy for you, prodigal son? What do you need?"
