Hold Me Close

Ch. 16

Annabeth

In my dream I was with Percy. We were standing at the mouth of an alleyway, the streetlight's glow washing over our faces. It was snowing.

I was cold, very, very cold. My teeth were chattering, my body trembling, and my fists were clenched at my sides. Percy was shaking just as badly, his nose red from the bite of the air.

"Where's Leo?" He asked me. I forced myself to shrug jerkily and pressed my shoulder against the wall of the alley, trying to get away from the wind.

Before I could open my mouth to say something, I felt something warm at my side. I looked up, shocked to see Percy there, looking at me.

He put his hands on my shoulders and slowly pulled me towards him.

I'm ashamed to say I let him. I was so cold, my brain was only concerned about how warm he was and how immediately I felt immensely better.

I was against the alley wall.

"Why won't you kiss me?" Percy asked. I looked up at him, lips parting in shock. His mouth was in a hard line, his eyes fixed on mine.

"Percy--"

"You're supposed to kiss me." His voice was low. He pressed into me, trapping me.

"Percy, what are you--"

He grabbed my wrists and slammed them into the cold brick wall. A gasp of shock came from my mouth before I could stop it.

"All night," He growled, his green eyes narrowing, "All night I've been trying to get you to notice me. To kiss me. To touch me. But nothing!" He gripped my wrists to the point of pain and I tried to push him off of me.

"Percy, let me go!" I yelled.

And his lips were inches from mine and I could see the fury in his green eyes.

This isn't him...

I squeezed my eyes shut as he let go of one of my hands, instead grabbing both of my wrists in his fingers and holding them against the wall above my head, and slid his hand under my shirt, his icy fingertips pressing into my stomach, trailing up towards my chest, skimming my bra. And then he--

I woke up, nearly hitting my head on the car-door handle. Percy was driving, his eyes flicking to the rear view mirror with concern. My heart was beating wildly and I couldn't get my thoughts straight. For a second, I felt threatened by Percy being there. Then I realized that it had all been a dream. A scenario that my mind had cooked up, replacing my ex with Percy in one of my most terrifying moments.

I felt the car veer off to the side of the road and Percy turned to me, eyebrows scrunched together.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly.

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came. My tongue felt like lead and I realized how lightheaded I felt. I gripped the back of Leo's seat as I tried to sit up.

Pain was racing through my leg as I pulled myself into a sitting position. I almost felt as if I had been cut again, but I knew it wasn't possible.

"Annabeth?" Percy asked softly again, "Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine..." I muttered, looking down at my leg. There was no way I could get a good look at the cut on my thigh without taking my jeans off, and that was not happening in front of my present company.

"You're flushed," Percy noted, "C'mere," He scooted his chair backwards then leaned towards me. I pressed back into the seat out of instinct but he didn't notice, instead pressed his hand to my forehead. His eyebrows shot up.

"You're really hot." He said. Then, he seemed to think over his words for a second and turned red, "Bad choice of words, I'm sorry. I think you have a fever." He cleared up awkwardly.

"Uh-huh." I nodded, closing my eyes.

"Wait, how's your leg. Is it hurting?" Percy asked.

"Uh-huh,"

"Let me see,"

"What?" I opened my eyes. Percy looked away.

"We need to see if you have an infection." Percy muttered, "You don't have to. I can wake up Leo."

"I'm already awake, what's going on?" Leo groaned, lifting his head from the passenger's window. He looked back at me, "Oh, God. You look bad."

I barely managed a glare.

"You know what I mean, what's wrong?" He looked over at Percy.

"I think her cut is infected." Percy said, "But I don't know for sure. We have to look at it first."

Leo raised his eyebrows, "Man, you're cool, but I hope you know that I'm not about to let her take off her pants in front of you." He said. Percy turned red again.

"Do you know what an infection looks like?" He asked. Leo paused.

"Well, like... No... But I can figure it out." He promised, "I'm sure you don't know any more about infections than I do."

"Trust me, Leo, I definitely do." Percy said seriously.

The pain was racing through my leg and I squeezed my eyes shut, "Hurry!" I said through clenched teeth. I hoped that this wasn't going to be bad. I hoped we wouldn't have to go to a hospital.

"Annabeth, just unbutton your pants and pull one side down so we can see the cut." Leo said. I did what he said and watched as he slowly took the bandage off my wound.

With one look I knew it was infected. It was red and swollen and hot to the touch, and as soon as Leo peeled the bandage away from it a horrible pain shot through my leg.

"That's really bad... That's, like, the baddest thing to ever bad." Leo said, trying to keep his tone light. But I could see the worry in his eyes as he looked at it.

"Leo, drive." Percy said, getting out of the car. He climbed into the back with me and pulled a medical kit from under the seat.

I leaned my head back on the window as Percy cleaned dry blood from my leg and told me it would be okay.

"This'll hurt," He warned and I squeezed my eyes shut. He pressed something to the wound and, he was right, it hurt.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He apologized, "I'm trying to make sure you're not going to lose any more blood."

I must have passed out at some point because the next time I opened my eyes, I was in a brightly lit room with clean sheets over me and a constant throbbing in my thigh.

"Good morning," A man by the door said, "Don't worry, we're going to take good care of you."