ʙᴏᴏᴋ ɪ : 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙛 | 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚢 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

Chapter 17

It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality. Chiron had told this long ago.

According to the L.A. news, the explosion at the Santa Monica beach had been caused when a crazy kidnapper fired a shotgun at a police car. He accidentally hit a gas main that had ruptured during the earthquake.

This crazy kidnapper (a.k.a. Ares) was the same man who had abducted Percy and three other adolescents in New York and brought them across country on a ten-day odyssey of terror.

Poor little Percy Jackson wasn't an international criminal after all. He'd caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor (and afterward, witnesses would even swear they had seen the leather-clad man on the bus-"Why didn't I remember him before?"). The crazy man had caused the explosion in the St. Louis Arch. After all, no kid could've done that. A concerned waitress in Denver had seen the man threatening his abductees outside her diner, gotten a friend to take a photo, and notified the police. Finally, brave Percy Jackson had stolen a gun from his captor in Los Angeles and battled him shotgun-to-rifle on the beach. Police had arrived just in time. But in the spectacular explosion, five police cars had been destroyed and the captor had fled. No fatalities had occurred. Percy Jackson and his three friends were safely in police custody.

The reporters fed them this whole story. They just nodded and acted tearful and exhausted (which wasn't hard), and played victimized kids for the cameras.

"All I want," Percy said, choking back his tears, "is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew ... somehow ... we would be okay. And I know he'll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store. Here's the phone number." The police and reporters were so moved that they passed around the hat and raised money for four tickets on the next plane to New York.

There was no choice but to fly. They just hoped Zeus would cut Percy some slack, considering the circumstances. But it was still hard to force themselves on board the flight.

Takeoff was a nightmare. Every spot of turbulence was scarier than a Greek monster. Y/N was humming a tune while they were holding their hands together.

Because of all the chaos with reporters and police, she didn't find the right time to sing and heal him. Upon finding both of them holding hands, the reporters immediately wanted a good bite on how young love bloomed during their terrifying time with the kidnapper. Percy did have a blush and started stuttering but Y/N's acting of being scared of everyone and everything made the reporters stop. It looked as if she needed some assistance and Percy was just handling her.

But this was a good moment. In the flight, Percy was holding on to her hand tight, and it hurt a bit but that wasn't what she focused on. She sang a hymn to heal and energize him on the way, something he was too distracted to understand at that moment.

They didn't unclench their hands until they touched down safely at La Guardia. Y/N wanted to hold on to his hand a little longer, savoring the minutes before they completed the quest and he got together with...Annabeth. Yes, she felt like an awful friend but the heart wants what it wants. Besides, there was no stopping it. It was clear that Percy felt nothing for her and was just friendship from his side. Other than that, Annabeth was smart and she was expecting him to ask her out soon.

The local press was waiting for them outside security, but they managed to evade them thanks to Annabeth, who lured them away in her invisible Yankees cap, shouting, "They're over by the frozen yogurt! Come on!" then rejoined them at baggage claim.

They split up at the taxi stand. Percy told Annabeth and Grover to get back to Half-Blood Hill and let Chiron know what had happened. They protested, and it was hard to let them go after all they'd been through, but if things went wrong, if the gods didn't believe then ... Percy wanted Annabeth and Grover to survive to tell Chiron the truth.