It All Started With The New Students... And The Murder

Chapter 19 : Disney Movies and Babysitting

TW: mention of dried blood and self harm

Percy's POV

Percy sat down next to his mother's hospital bed. He and Reyna had listened to Nico's voicemail again as the waited for her to finally wake up, hopefully before Paul and Estelle arrived.

Percy's mind flashed back to the forest. He wasn't sure if Annabeth would ever forgive him for faking his death to Ethan, but he knew that was what he was going to have to do so Luke would feel comfortable enough to show his ugly face again.

He also hoped that Nico was doing alright. That interrogation room of his tended to bring out a dark and horrifying side of him, one which only Percy and Reyna were ever ok with. Percy desperately wanted to go check up on him, but he didn't want to leave his mother's side either.

Mercifully, Sally awoke a few minutes before Paul and Estelle arrived.

"Why hello there you two." Sally croaked with a smirk. "You didn't really think I'd let you off the hook that easily."

"Mom, this is serious, you almost died." Percy said.

"Leave it to your mother to make jokes in the most serious of times." His dad suddenly said from behind them. "Hello Sally."

"Poseidon. Good to see you again. How are the seas treating you?" his mom asked with a smile.

Percy was surprised at how relaxed the two spoke with one another, after all, he was the child of an affair his father had had, but the two spoke as if they were old friends.

"Ah, some days are good, some are bad. You know how it is out there." Poseidon chuckled. "I see you haven't let these two run you over yet."

"You know there's no way I'd let that happen." Sally laughed.

"Mom, Stelle and Paul are gonna be here soon." Reyna informed their mother.

"Shit." Percy almost jumped. He'd never heard his mother curse before. "Percy, please do me a favour."

"Of course mom, what do you want?" Percy asked, not really wanting to leave her side.

"When they get here, take Estelle and go somewhere, anywhere else. I don't want her to see me like this. She's too young to be involved in all of this." HIs mother pleaded.

"A- are you sure? I don't really want to leave you here all alone." Percy replied.

"I'm not alone dear. I have Reyna, your dad, and all of your friends here." She said softly, placing a hand on his cheek. "I'll be fine. It's your little sister you should be worried about."

Percy gave a resigned sigh. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"Not unless you never want to have cookies ever again."

"Fine. I'll do it. I wanted to check up on Nico anyways. If anything happens, Luke is going straight to the grave, no prison at all." Percy mumbled, hugging his father as he left the room, Reyna tagging along for the moment.

"You sure you want to take Estelle to him?" She asked him as they closed the door behind them.

"I know it sounds slightly dumb after what he just told us, but you know he has a way with her. She loves him to bits and one of us needs to stay here and the other has to check on him, so I'll kill two birds with one stone." Percy answered, to which Reyna gave him a nod of agreement.

"What are you guys talking about?" Thalia asked, getting up and walking towards them.

It hadn't gone unnoticed by Percy that she and Reyna had been spending a lot of time together, and, more importantly, they'd gotten much closer, both emotionally and physically in the past week.