I'm finally back with a sequel for Regret and the Return of Calypso! Any new comers who haven't read that story- you may find this slightly confusing, but I'll do my best to explain everything clearly so it isn't too confusing. Thanks to everyone who provided suggestions and encouragement for this follow up story! Special plot credit to Miz636, who inspired this sequel with her amazing suggestions and plot idea, and also for an awesome beta job!

Please read, review, and enjoy! ^_^

Disclaimer: Um…wait, let me double check- Nope, I'm not Rick. ^_^

Far under the mountains, a girl sat kneeled along the coast of ridged rocks. She folded a cloth that looked like it had been torn from her own attire, hurriedly in her bare hand; her fingertips slowly turning blue from the cold.

A sharp scream echoed off the jagged mountains and the girl turned around in panic, revealing her face.

It felt like she was looking right at me with wide, alarmed, almond-colored eyes and my heart skipped a beat.

The image blurred and the scene scattered.

Rough wind blew, causing powdered snow to swirl off the ground and tangle into the dry air rapidly, like a blizzard. The girl struggled to brush her braided, auburn hair out of her eyes as she made her way through inches of layered snow.

Slowly another figure came into sight. The girl bent over the figure's body, laying the cloth across his forehead.

She whispered to him, softly humming a melody. He shut his eyes tightly and the screams of pain escaped his bleeding lips.

"Shhh," The girl pressed a pale hand to the boy's purple skin. His clothes were torn and ragged. The dry scars of battle marked his crumpled body.

He cried another scream of pain, and it echoed off the mountains' hollow curves.

"It's okay," the girl whispered, gathering as much of his drained body as she could into her lap.

When she moved just enough to prop him up against one of the rocky walls, I got my first look at his full face.

"Percy…"

He had a lost look in his glassy blue eyes, his face thin and pale. A narrow scar ran from his left eye, down to his cheek.

"Percy!"

I woke up.

Paul stood in the doorway of my room. "You okay?" He asked; his smile withering.

I was back in my small apartment, and it had been nothing but a dream. I was breathing pretty hard, but I gave my step dad a reassuring look.

This wasn't the first time I had had that dream, but it still shook me no matter how many times I had already seen it. The girl in my dream was Calypso, and the guy had been Luke.

A cold shiver ran down my spine.

Paul took me out of my thoughts. He smiled, "You better get up. Annabeth's coming to see you today, remember?"

My world did a flip, and I scrambled out of bed.

Just the thought of finally getting to see Annabeth again- after three enormously long months- made me forget about everything else.

"That got you out of bed," Paul laughed, before telling me that breakfast was ready.

Once he'd left, I made my way over to the window; looking down at the rows of cars stuck in a traffic jam due to the weather conditions in Manhattan. It was snowing lightly outside, and the streets were already decorated with the month's early Christmas decorations.

"You all packed up for camp?" My mom asked me, as we settled down around the dining table.

I poured maple syrup over my pancakes. "Yeah,"

School was out for Winter Break, and I was heading over to camp for a couple of weeks for the vacation. My mom seemed a lot more relaxed about letting me out of her sight while I was at camp this time, and I figured it was probably because the war was over.

Last summer, things got crazy when Calypso appeared in the real world due to a bargain I had made with the gods, and eventually my prophecy forced me to choose between Annabeth and Calypso. I had chosen Annabeth, and without realizing, chosen to save Olympus. Kronos was defeated that summer, and Annabeth and I had finally sorted things out. Everything was going steady.

Annabeth had already arrived at camp a couple of days ago, but today she was coming down to my apartment. We planned to take a quick tour around Manhattan, maybe catch something to eat, and then I would grab my bags and we would head back to camp together.

The morning went by quickly to my relief. I had called Annabeth a few times, just to make sure she was on her way.

A long distance relationship wasn't easy, but Annabeth and I made it work. These past months, with school going on and Annabeth all the way in San Francisco, things had been really tough. My parents were supportive, and I managed to talk to Annabeth everyday over the phone. But, that still didn't erase the fact that I was dying to see her in person.

That's also probably why I nearly jumped, knocking my mom off her feet, when I raced to open the door when the bell rang.

Annabeth stood in the doorway and for a second my world stopped rotating.

"Percy!" She took a huge step forward, filling my arms. She nearly crushed my ribs, but I was pretty sure that her circulation wasn't thanking me too much either. I was probably mumbling something stupid, but nothing mattered anymore.

Forever might have passed by before we finally pulled away, on my realization that my mother and step dad were standing right behind us.

I stepped away as Annabeth unzipped her winter coat and shook the fresh winter snowflakes out of her curly blonde hair.

"Hi, Sweetheart!" It was my mom's turn to give Annabeth a hug. "How are you?"

"Great," Annabeth smiled, and I took her coat from her hands and hung it up.

My mom insisted on Annabeth having some of her home-made brownies right away, and she disappeared into the kitchen.

I sat next to her on our small couch in our living room and Annabeth looked over at me when we had all settled. Her eyes were shining. "Hi," she said, realizing that we hadn't really greeted each other properly yet. "I really missed you, Seaweed Brain."

Before I could say anything, Paul spoke and I remembered that he was sitting there on the couch across from us. "You sure?" He said jokingly, "I take it you two had a nice two-hour talk just this morning."

Alright…I have to admit that Annabeth and I would go overboard with the phone calls sometimes, but hey- she was miles away and talking to her was the only reassurance I could get that she was doing okay.

Of course we had sworn to our parents that we weren't the ones making calls to each other at two in the morning, when it had shown up on the phone bills. But the truth was that sometimes when Annabeth would call me up at two in the morning complaining that she couldn't sleep; I would whisper to her until I could hear her breathing steadily into the receiver, and I was sure she was asleep.

Not to mention all the times a storm would hit San Francisco and she would call me just to take her mind off of the lightning striking outside her window. There had even been a few times when both of us would fall asleep with the phone in our hands without realizing it, and we would wake up in the mornings remembering that we hadn't hung up.

Let's just say that those small little times didn't help the long distance phone bills, and they didn't exactly put our parents in the happiest moods.

My mom wasn't too thrilled about the box of golden drachmas she kept, getting lighter and lighter with every iris message me and Annabeth made to each other on rainy days when the sun would peek through our bay window, giving us a rare rainbow.

But despite everything, just being able to talk to Annabeth made everything worth it. Through the pressures of my moral life, it felt like the first second when I would hear Annabeth's voice each day, and she'd tell me how she was doing, or complain about her step-brothers annoying the living Hades out of her- just hearing her talk, knowing that she was there and everything was okay- made all my problems go away.

"Sorry," Annabeth told Paul, and I noticed her cheeks were pink. "About the phone calls, I mean. I hope me and Percy don't hold the phone line up."

Paul laughed, "No, no, it's not a problem."

My mom came out of the kitchen, handing a plate of brownies to Annabeth.

"Thanks," Annabeth took a bite and I couldn't help but look at her. Seeing her in front of me for the first time, after three long months, was just…weird. I mean, it gave me this happy feeling that I didn't exactly know how to explain.

We caught up with our lives and Annabeth told us about San Francisco. Even though I had already heard everything she was telling us, I still liked hearing her talk. It didn't last too long though; when Annabeth and Paul begun to discuss the architecture of the Golden Gate Bridge, I found myself totally oblivious to what they were saying.

It seemed like forever later, when my mom finally spoke up. "Well, you two better get going," she told us, "You don't want to get caught up in a blizzard on the way."

I made a mental note to thank my mom as Annabeth and I put on our coats by the door.

We told my parents we'd be back in a couple of hours and headed for the elevator.

I pressed the 'Ground Floor' button on the console and then put my head back against the elevators wall. I groaned, "That took forever."

Annabeth smiled, "Aw, come on, Percy. Your parents aren't that bad."

"Yeah, I guess…" I shrugged. "But it would still be nice to get five minutes alone with my girlfriend- who I haven't seen in three months- without having my mom stuff her with brownies, and having my step dad discuss 'the Golden Gate Bridge's 4,200-foot long suspension span' with her."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "We're alone now, Seaweed Brain, aren't we?"

She clasped her fingers with mine and stood in front of me. For a second, my eyes flashed over to the digital screen at the top of the elevator console that read 'Level 10' and slowly changed numbers as we went down.

Butterflies suddenly filled my stomach, but it definitely wasn't from the elevators motion. Annabeth had put her lips on mine, and I felt like every bone in my body melted right there. I pressed my hand to the back of her head and felt her body leaning into me. I lost sense of where we were, until we heard a woman's voice.

I realized the elevator had stopped at the first floor and the doors were open. It surprised me that we hadn't even heard the bell of the elevator's doors opening.

"Excuse me," The woman smiled, standing with three small children in front of her.

"Um, sorry." Annabeth squished over next to me, giving room for the other passengers to fill in.

The six of us stood in silence for what seemed like the longest ten seconds of my life, until...Ding! The doors finally opened Annabeth and I headed out under the snow.

I had finally gotten my driver's license this year, but instead of nagging Paul to let us use his car or waiting for a cab, I took Annabeth's hand in mine and we walked down 81st street. A bunch of stores were lined up on the sidewalk with window displays of winter clothes and holiday ornaments. We walked until our hands turned white in the cold air which smelled like peppermint candy canes, and Annabeth and I entered a small cafe.

"What is it?" Annabeth asked me, after we had settled onto a small table in the corner of the coffee shop.

"What's what?" I said.

"You were staring at me."

I tried not to smile, "I just missed seeing you, and now that you're really sitting in front of me it just feels amazing."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "What's this? Is Seaweed Brain actually being romantic?"

"Hey, I can be romantic!" I protested.

Annabeth laughed, which was a sound I didn't get to hear too often. Everything was going perfect and I couldn't help but feel happy. We gave our orders to the waitress that had come over, and we only had to wait a couple of minutes before our drinks were ready.

"Since when do you drink coffee?" Annabeth asked me, looking slightly amused.

"I don't know," I put my mug down. "I guess Rachel's gotten me used to it."

"Mmmm," Annabeth took a sip of her hot chocolate, "So, how's she doing?"

"Fine," I told Annabeth about how Rachel was spending her entire winter break leading a protest rally for the homeless people of Manhattan.

It was funny how Annabeth suddenly found absolutely no problem with Rachel. They weren't the best of friends, but Annabeth didn't completely hate her guts like she had before last summer, and that was good enough for me.

Annabeth told me about camp, and how Grover had been planning to go on a search again for new demigods around Canada.

"Canada?" I asked.

"Yeah, he says he senses some pretty powerful half bloods up in the mountains over there."

For a second I remembered my dream from this morning, and how the mountain ranges I had seen were the types spread out across Canada's border.

I looked at Annabeth stirring her spoon in her drink, and for a second I thought that just maybe I should mention my dreams to her. But, to be honest, I really didn't feel like bringing up Luke on such a nice day. Annabeth looked carefree and happy, and I didn't want to ruin it by giving her something to worry about.

Last summer, when Kronos had been sealed up and defeated, Luke's body was left in shreds and then he had faded away right into the air.

Annabeth still wasn't satisfied with Luke's disappearance, and I knew Luke wasn't her most favorite subject to discuss.

I pushed all of the dreadful thoughts out of my head and focused on Annabeth.

She leaned back in her chair, staring out of the clear window where light snow was falling down, sticking to the curb of the sidewalk. "It's cold in New York." She mumbled absently.

As I stared at Annabeth I couldn't help but think of something that had been poking me at the back of my mind for months now. I hadn't given it too much thought before, but now with Annabeth sitting right in front of me, I couldn't avoid the thought. I wasn't a genius when it came to love or anything, but Annabeth and I had been dating for almost a year now, and I was pretty sure that I exactly how I felt about her. It just bugged me that I hadn't told her yet.

I mean, sure, she knew that I cared about her more than anything else, but I honestly wanted her to know that I loved her.

"Percy..." I realized I had zoned out and Annabeth was trying to get my attention.

"Huh?"

"What were you thinking about, Seaweed Brain?"

I had fought the Titan Lord Kronos in battle one-on-one, but just trying to say I love you to your girlfriend seemed like the hardest thing in the world. I didn't know why it was so hard for me to spit the three words out. It wasn't like I was scared of Annabeth's reaction or anything, but it was more about the fact that I wanted the moment to be perfect.

"Percy!" Annabeth snapped again.

"Um, sorry." I cleared my head.

Annabeth stared at me. "What's on your mind?"

"I was just thinking that..." I touched Annabeth's knee with mine, underneath the table. My mind started seizing on little details, like how a small snowflake was tucked in Annabeth's hair which curled just at the ends as it hung over her shoulder. "Um...I mean… I just wanted you to know that..." The words were stuck on my tongue.

Behind us some more people entered the cafe, and a gust of cold air filled the shop as the doors opened. Annabeth looked back outside through the window, where the wind had suddenly decided to go crazy, and the snow was coming down thicker. It was a pure blizzard outside.

"Percy, we should really get going." Annabeth told me, "If it starts snowing any harder, we won't be able to make it to camp."

She was right. As much as I hated the fact that I had gotten interrupted, it was hard to feel too down today; with Annabeth across from me, knowing that I'd have plenty of more times to make the moment just right.

The waitress cleared our table, and we paid the bill before heading back outside through the storm. Just when we finally neared my apartment, I felt a huge powdered ball slam into my back. I turned on my buildings steps, where Annabeth stood behind me- a smirk on her face- bouncing a snow ball in her right hand.

"Oh, you are so on." I said making a grab for her.

She barely scattered away through the snow, and I chased after her. Despite the fact that we were laughing like idiots, and getting looks from everyone entering and exiting the building- it was just plain fun.

After rolling around in the snow for a while, somehow Annabeth managed to pin me down and I surrendered right before she could smash a wet snow ball into my face.

She laughed, brushing the ice off her jeans as she stood up.

"I guess that proves who the better fighter is," she said, giving me her hand. I took it.

"No way, that was totally unfair." I complained as we made our way back into the heated building, snow covering our clothes.

"It was totally fair!"

We boarded the elevator and I rolled my eyes. "Alright, fine, wise girl. You beat me at one snowball fight. I can totally top you in a sword fight."

"Are you kidding?" Annabeth argued, "Percy, I could totally kick your butt at sword fighting."

We argued the whole ride up, but eventually found ourselves laughing as we entered my apartment.

I shook off my coat, and went over to throw a match into the fireplace in my living room, starting a slow flame.

Annabeth scooted over close to me on the floor and held her hands up to the heat.

We sat in silence, the crackle of the fire slowly getting louder. "You know," Annabeth whispered, "there was a fire just like this the night we stared goingf out."

"Mmmm," I mumbled, too consumed with the fact that my face was getting closer to hers. "I was just thinking about that."

The last thing I remember seeing was the fire reflecting in Annabeth's pupils, before I closed my eyes and lost myself with her lips.

I could have kissed her forever, but- of course with my luck- we were interrupted.

My mom entered the living room, and Annabeth and I pulled away from each other.

"Oh," my mom smiled, "you guys are back earlier than I thought."

"Yeah...um, there was a blizzard." I said stupidly.

My mom nodded, "You'd better get your bags, Percy. I don't want you two getting stuck in the storm."

I stood up, noticing that my mom was trying hard not to ask about all the snow stuck to my clothes thanks to our little snowball fight outside.

I threw my bag pack over my shoulder and met Annabeth by the door. Paul popped up and shook our hands, wishing us luck. My mom gave both of us a hug, telling me all the usual things that had pretty much become a routine every time I went to camp.

"I love you." My mom told me as she waved to us out in the hallway. The last thing I remember thinking as she closed the door- and me and Annabeth headed down to find a cab straight to Camp Half Blood- was 'now, why couldn't I just tell Annabeth those three words?'

I hope you enjoyed this introductory chapter! Drama is coming up soon, so stay tuned! Please give me your thoughts, and feedback! Updates depend on reviews. So please review!