Deeper Than Appearances (A Percy Jackson and Twilight Crossover)

Chapter 3

The Cullens part with Bella outside of the school, Edward somewhat reluctantly. They plan to go hunting today and the brunnette has a lot of homework anyway. Just as they are sliding into their cars Edward looks over to see Percy leaving the building. His eyes narrow as he watches the black haired teen, but no matter how hard he tries he can't seem to read his thoughts. He grimaces.

Suddenly Percy's head snaps up and he glares at Edward. He doesn't seem to like people watching him. The vampire hesitantly turns away and climbs inside the car. He doesn't trust the new student. There's something off about him.

- O - O - O - O - O -

Percy feels like crap as he climbs into the Prius. His stomach is twisting and turning. That amount of food shouldn't have made him sick, but it did. He lays his head against the glass and stares out the window.

There goes the Cullens. He would think that their relationships were disgusting, but truthfully he doesn't care. After all the godly family tends to make you a little more open minded about stuff like that.

On the ride home Percy doesn't talk and Paul doesn't try to get him to like he normally would. Instead the teacher turns on the radio and simply drives. When they pull up to the house, Percy walks up the path sluggishly. 

He sees Bella next door and sends her a little wave. It makes sense that she's Charlie's daughter. The two do look an awful lot alike. She waves back awkwardly and ducks inside.

Percy's mom fusses over him, but in the end he throws up his food in the downstairs bathroom and then crashes on the couch. He drinks the glass of water she gives and leaves the soup untouched. He feels sick, just plain sick. He can't just be the food from lunch either. That's out of his system now. Maybe it's the weather or maybe it's the sleepless and lack of proper nutrition piling up on him. As much as he wishes it wasn't, it's probably the latter of the two.

Sally puts a hand to his head and withdraws it. "You've got a fever. I'm going to get the thermometer. You just stay put."

He gives her a weak thumbs up from where he is with his face half buried in the cushion. She returns and sticks the cold little device under his tongue. She waits somewhat impatiently until it beeps. Her frown deepens and she hurries away to find Paul. Percy reaches out and grabs the thermometer from where she placed it on the coffee table. 105.3'.

Well that's not good. He groans and plants his face back in the pillow. He can think about it later. Right now he wants to be up in room, in his nice, comfy queen bed. The only question is how to get up there while doing the least amount of work possible. He could crawl, but no, he won't feel like standing up again to actually get on the bed. He's going to have to walk, leaning on the wall as he goes. 

He slowly stands up, dizzyness hindering his progress a little bit. He ignores and keeps going. It's slow and he actually almost gets caught by his mom, but eventually he makes it to bed. He throws himself down and just stares up at the ceiling. He wants to sleep. He needs to sleep. But his mind just won't let him, whispering of the horrors he will see in his nightmares if he closes his eyes.

- O - O - O - O - O - 

Sally doesn't know quite what to do. She's well aware that Percy snuck upstairs and she lets him be, but that's not going to solve the problem of his fever. Should she call the doctor, she heard they have a really good one here, or should she contact Chiron for advice? After all she's never really taken Percy to the doctor before, because she wasn't entirely sure if a demigod's bloodwork will come back different or not. Not only that, but Percy's never actually been sick.

"Honey," Paul says as he sits down with her at the table, Andie in his arms. "Just call up the doctor. I'm sure plenty of demigods have gone to the doctor before, what about the parents who don't know their kids are halfbloods? Nothing's ever happened and nothing will happen."

She nods and sighs. "I'm just so worried."

"I know," he says and puts his hand on hers.

"I try to get him to eat and I try to help him sleep, but nothing works," she goes on, her eyes a little wet.

Paul tilts her head up to look at him. "Listen to me. Percy went through a lot of really difficult things. He's having a hard time getting back to his normal life and right now things aren't looking too hot, but he will get better. He will begin to move forward again. It's just going to take some work. Our job is to be there for him and help him where we can. Okay?"

She nods and wipes her eyes. "Okay....I-I'll go call the doctor then."

Paul sighs as he watches his wife walk back into the living room. He looks down at Andie and she looks back up, a confused look spread across her little face. She's not use to seeing her mother upset or her brother doing something other than smiling and making faces.

- O - O - O - O - O -

Carlisle is just leaving the hospital when he gets the call. He waves off the other doctor's offer to take it and heads over to the Blofis household which just happens to be next door to Bella's. He's never actually been to the girl's house, but he knows enough from Edward. He sighs when he thinks of his "son". The boy is way too attached to the human girl, he's actually become a little stalkerish when it comes to her ..... but that's a discussion for another time.

A nice, middle aged woman greets Carlisle. She introduces herself as Sally and her husband as Paul. She thanks him profusely for making a house call like this. Her son is pretty sick right now and a little too heavy to be lugging out to the car. He assures her that it's okay.

Paul's the one that leads him upstairs to the teen's room while Sally rushes into the living to care for the baby. She's seems a bit frantic and Carlisle guesses that her son doesn't usually get sick. 

Percy, as Paul introduces him, is laying face down on his be with his face turned away from them. From his steady breathing Carlisle would think he's asleep, but as they enter he sits up slowly and turns to them.

"Hey," he says. His voice is a little strained and his cheeks are flushed bright red. On the phone Mrs. Blofis had said his fever is over 105'.

"Hi Percy. I'm not Doctor Cullen," Carlisle says, walking farther into the room. He notices the bags under Percy's eyes as he approaches. Paul lingers in the doorway a moment longer before he leaves, apparently deciding that they're fine by themselves.

"So my actually called the doctor?" Percy says, swinging his legs around to the floor. He takes this chance to kick of the shoes he forget to take off earlier. His shoulders are slumped forward with exhaustion. He felt a little off this morning, but he hadn't thought anything of it. It wasn't until he shoveled down that overfilled plate of food that he actually started to feel sick. And trust me when I say that he does not like being sick.

Carlisle takes out a stethoscope and presses it just over Percy's heart. He asks the teen to take a big breath which sends Percy into a small coughing fit. The doctor frowns. He takes his pulse and temperature before sitting back and asking the typical questions, most of which Percy interrupts with irrelevant comments. He mentions the fact that he met the Cullen kids at school today and that they were rather generous, especially Alice.

In the end the Carlisle writes a prescription for some suplements to help with the beginnings of the malnutrition. He advices sleep, tells him to just stay home tomorrow and that he'll be back to check in when he's done with work tomorrow. If Percy hasn't gotten better by then, they'll check him into the hospital. 

Percy groans and pushes his face back into the pillow. "Great. Just what I need."

Carlisle chuckles. "You have to take better care of yourself."

"Yeah? Try living my life and see how well that works out for you," Percy mumbles without looking up. He's normally able to at least pretend he feels better than he does, but right now he can bare move without his aching body protesting.

Carlisle shakes his head and ducks out of the room. He doesn't want to know what Percy means by that. He supposes he should talk to his "kids" and see what they think of him.

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A/N

I know I just update, but I was on a roll so you get another chapter not even  twelve hours later. I hope you enjoyed it. Please comment, vote and follow.