Just Let Me Leave (Jercy AU)

Chapter 37: Wow, Someone Finally Answers Questions, What a Miracle

[TRIGGER WARNING: mentions of domestic violence in conversation. If you or someone you know is suffering, please reach out. Thank you, and have a nice day, everyone.]

"Me too, honey."
*****

Thalia could tell Jason was worried about something as soon as he walked through the front door after visiting Percy. She gazed at him with raised eyebrows as he frustratedly set some of his things in their respectable spots near the door and turned to go upstairs. However, he caught his sister's eyes from the other side of the room.

"What?" Jason raised his eyebrows, feeling a bit judged.

Thalia sighed. "Come sit down and let me interrogate you."

The blonde slowly made his way over and sat a few feet away from her on the couch. He leaned back into the cushions and glanced over at his sister, waiting for her to speak.

"What happened now, Jase?" She simply asked, expecting a vague answer.

Jason still hadn't told her about Percy's situation. He kept meaning to, as he thought she should know, but he just couldn't seem to find the right time. It was a complicated topic, after all.

He shook his head. "Percy went back home today."

"Isn't that good?" Thalia inquired, confused about why getting out of the hospital was negative.

Jason sighed heavily. He'd decided that then was the aforementioned right time. Piper was out of the house with some of her friends, so the two siblings were finally alone. Bluntly, he said, "Percy's being abused."

Thalia wasn't exactly prepared for that kind of information. "Is that...is that why he was staying here?"

Jason looked away from his sister, nodding. "It's his step-dad."

"What about his mom?" The older of the two asked, her concern increasing.

"I don't know for sure, but I think she's in trouble, too," Jason muttered.

He felt helpless. Percy would be upset if Jason told the police, he could feel it. It would make Sally look bad, to put it simply, and Jason just sensed that that would be a sensitive topic for Percy.

"I can't just advertise it for everyone by reporting it. They'd send investigators and child support services, and rumors would spread like wildfire. Everyone would twist it on him, and he'd hate all the attention, even if it was good. He'd find out it was me and probably never speak to me again–oh my gods, what would I do if he hated me? I couldn't—"

"Hey, hey, hey," Thalia stopped him gently. His speech had gotten louder and faster as he spoke, and Thalia figured it was best to just halt his rambling altogether. "You haven't done anything wrong, okay? Take a deep breath."

Jason followed his sister's instructions, looking away in slight embarrassment. "I don't know what to do, Thals," Jason whispered helplessly, leaning back in an attempt to disappear into the couch cushions.

Thalia's mind was ready to break out and share her surplus of wisdom with her younger, clueless brother, but she quickly realized that she herself was also young and clueless. She had no idea what she was doing either. She couldn't help but let her mind reach and feel as though she was just setting Jason up for failure. The thought had lingered in her mind for a while, but she'd never really been forced to address it unless something with their parents came up or a crisis occurred in Jason's life that Thalia hadn't already dealt with at some point.

The eldest Grace sibling had seen both of these in the past three months.

She decided honesty was her best policy and told him, "I don't either. Just...be there for him, okay? If you see his mother, tell her to talk to me. He's always welcome here, you can tell him I said so. We'll help them figure it out."

If she had known before, Thalia wouldn't have prematurely judged Percy as harshly as she did. She supposed that could be considered as pity, but as someone else who was raised with absolutely terrible parenting, she felt like she couldn't really help it. Percy would end up being just as fucked as Thalia was, and gods, did she feel sorry for him.

"What if something happens, Thals?" Jason kept asking questions that he knew his sister couldn't answer, "Percy hasn't been home in a while, so what if he's super angry or something like that?"

"How long have you known about this?" Thalia asked, wondering how long it'd been bad enough for someone at school to find out.

The blonde shrugged. "A little while. He showed up to school with a black eye one day and I finally stopped acting like an idiot and put the pieces together."

"If something like this ever happens again," Thalia told him gently, "please tell me as soon as you can, okay?"

Jason nodded to acknowledge her but said nothing else on the matter of keeping it a secret. He'd seen now that it was a bad decision, and he would've loved to go back to the day he found out and change his course of action. He would've loved to go back to the day Chris cornered him and stayed by his side. He would've loved to go back to the day he met Percy and have done something different so he wouldn't be where he was right then.

But he couldn't.

"Can I just...can I go to bed?" Jason asked quietly, wanting to escape from his current reality. He internally felt a bit guilty for feeling so when he knew Percy was suffering a worse fate in his own home, but Jason wasn't sure how much more he could handle thinking about it.

Thalia nodded. "Get some rest, Jase. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Jason whispered, getting up and ascending the stairs to his room.

He closed the door behind him and went straight to his bed. He looked over to where Percy had been laying next to him just nights before and sighed, closing his eyes and turning the other way.

He really didn't know what he was doing.

So there's that. Hope everyone is having a nifty time and has a little break off school soon for Easter.

Anywayssss, I meant to finish this Tuesday or Wednesday, but then I got siCK ON TUESDAY. It was not a fun time, I was miserable for 24 hours. Yesterday I was fine, but I just didn't feel like writing. Being real honest with y'all lmao.

Have a nice week everybody.