Wowza, guys, it's the last chapter. Before you get to reading, I'd like to say thank you guys so much. I never expected this kind of reception for this story. More than 140 reviews, 130 follows and 60 favorites? That's amazing. I sincerely hope you guys have enjoyed this story as much as I have.

Other notes, don't forget, my friend ell13 edited this for me, so props to her. Also, I'm going to try to continue uploading something every Sunday, for those of you that follow me as an author. I already have a one-shot written for next week.

And that's it for the general housekeeping. Thank you all, I hope you guys enjoy and stay awesome.

-ROC6 :D

Piper blinked her eyes open to find Nico grinning at her. Well, she says grinning, in actuality he was giving her a cheeky half-smile, but it was his equivalent of grinning.

"Never gets old, does it?" he commented, still giving her that sly look, before turning to his half-sister with a worried gaze, "Is she alright?"

Piper nodded, albeit hesitantly, "I think so. She just overdid it on the Mist. A little ambrosia and she should be fine."

The son of Hades nodded, his mop of dark hair flying everywhere, and fished in the pocket of his aviator's jacket for some of the godly substance. After a moment, he pulled out a ziploc baggy with a few crushed ambrosia squares and popped one in his half-sister's mouth. Immediately, the color returned to Hazel's complexion and she sat up with a moan.

"I feel like I just ran a footrace against Arion," she commented, golden eyes drooping.

Nico examined the daughter of Pluto, then glanced at Piper with a question in his eyes, "I'll take her back to our cabin. In the meantime can you check on them?"

Piper nodded, turning her gaze to the two rescued demigods, who had walked a few yards away and were having a heated discussion of some sort.

"Um," Piper cautiously approached the pair of quarreling demigods, "Guys?"

Annabeth held a finger up to Piper absently, "One moment, please."

Then she proceeded to resume talking rapidly, switching between Greek and English, waving her hands as she spoke.

Being that she wasn't quite fluent in ancient Greek, Piper couldn't make out everything the demigods were saying, but it was some sort of argument about returning to New York right away or staying at Camp Half-Blood.

"Guys," Piper broke in again, "It doesn't matter at the moment until we get you checked out in the infirmary."

Both demigods stared at her a moment before nodding, somewhat dazed, and Piper realized she may have accidentally charmspoken them as they began trodding eerily lifelessly towards the big house. Suddenly, Nico appeared out of the shadow of Thalia's pine.

"Someone saw me carrying Hazel back," Nico's eyes flashed, "We need to move. The campers know they're back and they're going to swamp them before we've had a chance to assess their condition."

Piper could already see some sort of commotion occurring down on the camp green, "Take them and go."

The son of Hades nodded, muttering something too soft for her to catch about being killed, and darted off to Percy and Annabeth before run into Thalia's pine and disappearing into the wood with two demigods in tow.

Piper glanced down into the valley again, noting the herd of excited demigods. She sighed, brushing a braid out of her face, and set out at a jog towards the archery range. She figured if there's any place the Apollo cabin would be, that's the best place to check. If they weren't there, then, well, at least she'd still have time to check the basketball court. Thankfully, the cabin was at the archery range when she arrived, though they were in the middle of packing up. Their counselor saw her idling by the entrance to the range and signaled to his cabin mates he was leaving before setting off at a jog with her to the faded green Big House.

"How'd it go, Piper?" the cheery-eyed son of Apollo asked.

"Well," she thought for a moment, "It was close, but we're here. They're here. They're heavily medicated, though we don't know what kind."

"Symptoms?" Will queried as they pushed their way through the crowd of excited demigods that was slowly forming.

"Wooziness, loopiness, a forced state of happiness," Piper supplied, "But those were just the ones we could see."

Will nodded, thoughtful, as they pushed open the doors to the infirmary, carefully pressing the other demigods away from the doors.

Neither demigod was prepared for the scene that awaited them. Annabeth was perched, straight-backed, on one of the infirmary beds, seemingly patiently waiting for her examination with the exception of one thing. She was arguing with Percy. The argument, from what Piper could gather, was something about waiting until after the examination.

"Seaweed Brain," she sighed, "It won't take long."

He moved towards the door, "My mom is so going to freak out. She'd have been so worried."

"Look, she'd probably want you to make sure you were okay first."

The son of Poseidon deflated, "I know."

"Come here, Seaweed Brain," she patted the bed next her.

Nico looked like he was trying to melt into the corner. He made eye contact with Piper in a way that screamed Get me out of here!

"They've been flirting since we got here," he commented mournfully to Piper, then noting Will, he froze, a flush slowly creeping up his neck until his whole face was red, and he scrambled backward against the wall of his corner. Piper gave him an amused look, but the son of Hades still didn't move.

Will, to his credit, acted as though the situation was perfectly normal, and proceeded to zero in on the patients.

He made idle conversation, though Piper could see his eyes assessing their physical states, "I've been reading up on psychology and psychiatry, and yes, there is a difference. I'll have to do your mental examinations individually to assess accurately."

He turned to Percy, "Physically, you seem fine, at least on the surface. Whatever medicine was administered was a pill, so the effects wouldn't be extremely visible, anyway."

The son of Apollo turned to Annabeth, looking thoroughly more concerned, "They gave high levels of injected medication, likely going to leave you some serious withdrawal symptoms, instead of something minor like he may get."

The daughter of Athena gave him a blank look, as though saying No, really?

Will continued, ignoring her stare, "Otherwise, you both seem fine, though I'll have to conduct a more thorough physical examination to be sure."

Both Annabeth and Percy nodded.

The son of Apollo clapped his hands together, smiling slightly as he glanced at the disgruntled son of Hades still trying to melt into the corner, "Alright. First thing's first. How about I give you guys a few minutes to talk things over-maybe call your parents, they've been really worried-and in the meantime, I'll go get a mission report from Nico and Piper. Maybe I'll check on Hazel and make sure she's okay."

Will flashed a grin, then turned and strode out of the infirmary, grabbing Nico by the wrist as he went, leaving the demigod trailing silently behind him.

Piper took a few steps towards the door, then turned to the two newly rescued demigods.

Annabeth must have seen the trepidation on her face, though, as she waved her hand towards the door, sending a meaningful look to her boyfriend that Piper couldn't read, "Go on, we'll be fine."

Piper smiled softly and turned towards the door again, "'Right. I probably shouldn't leave them alone together too long."

The daughter of Aphrodite exited swiftly, but she didn't miss the way the two demigods sagged tiredly against each other as she left, nor the quiet relief in their eyes. She didn't comment, either, instead leaving the two to have their moment.

-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-

One step at a time, the pair began inching toward recovery. Under Will's medical guidance, every day, the waking hours became more familiar, more bearable, until the whole experience felt like a bad memory from long ago. Of course, nothing had gone by without a few struggles. In the first week following their rescue, the side effects of withdrawal from their medication started to show. Throughout the morning and night, Percy and Annabeth seemed restless with nervous energy and stress. Occasionally, Annabeth would even fall into moods of irritation or depression, and though she'd never admit it, frequent headaches were an issue.

Nevertheless, both Percy and Annabeth eventually recovered from their experiences, with no long-term ill effects besides a newly developed distaste for mortal medical facilities and a dislike for medicine. Though, Percy was convinced they'd exhausted their luck quota.

"There's no way a facility for crazy people should be that loosely guarded," the son of Poseidon was waving his hands in the air.

Annabeth let out a loose chuckle, "But it was, Percy, let it go. Maybe the gods intervened, not that they'd admit it."

Her pouted childishly at her.

The daughter of Athena laughed again, leaning up to give him a peck on the cheek, "Seaweed Brain."

She stood, dusting sand off of her legs, pausing briefly to gaze out at the Long Island Sound, simply enjoying the calmness with which the light reflected off the water, the natural movement of the water. And the complete lack of the color yellow.

The dinner horn sounded from Camp Half-Blood green.

She held her hand out for Percy, which he gladly took, then began methodically picking up their picnic provisions.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain, we can't stay here forever," Annabeth began marching off towards the cabins.

Suddenly, a wave of cold water washed over her, leaving her sputtering as salt water dripped down her face and into her eyes. She turned, eyeing her boyfriend with a deadly glare.

He merely grinned lopsidedly, before taking off across the beach.

Annabeth scowled, "Perseus Jackson you get back here right now!"