A/N: Hey guys! Here is another chapter for Unearthing the Agony! I know, I know. I need to be updating Beginning of a Bromance and I swear the next chapter is on its way. I am in no way abandoning any of my stories. Thanks to Mysticalxx who sent in this suggestion. I always love hearing from people so please feel free to review or PM me with any suggestions you have or even if you just want to say something about the story. Thank you to everyone that has favourited, followed and reviewed. Rick owns everything. Without further ado, this is Chapter 4!

Piper's POV

"Guys, we are getting nowhere!" I yelled over the voices cluttering the room.

We were currently in the meeting room, arguing over what to do with the arrogant and rude new kids.

"I still say we beat them up til' they know who's boss." Clarisse grumbled, sinking back in her seat.

"Percy would know what to do." Annabeth said softly from the head of the ping-pong table. I looked over to her to see her cradling her head in her hands, softly massaging her temples.

All the arguments stopped and our attitudes softened. She had been taking it hard since Percy had left to go home. His absence was taking a toll on her and being the stubborn yet powerful woman she is, she refused to admit it.

"Why don't we go visit him then?" I suggested softly after a few moments of silence. I jerked my head over to where Frank and Hazel stood by the door, watching in silence. "I'm sure he would like to see Frank and Hazel and you know he would help us."

We soon found ourselves in the camp bus, being driven in to the city. Only six of us went, those six being the seven minus Percy.

I watched the trees pass until they turned into towering buildings. Eventually, I felt Jason's hand on my shoulder. I turned away from the window and lay my head on his shoulder and his head pressed to the top of mine.

Quickly glancing around, I could see that everybody was worn down. Annabeth was up the front, blankly staring out the window. Her face seemed to be getting more animated the closer we got to Percy, yet you could still see the strain in her face.

Leo sat in front of us, half-heartedly tinkering with something, although I think his thoughts were on everything that was happening at camp. Every now and then his hand would travel to his back where his recent injury was still healing.

Hazel and Frank were sitting together at the back of the bus. They were deep in conversation and looked a little worse for wear. They only got to camp three days before but the trek to camp was a little harder than expected with monsters galore. On top of that, they were dragged into the drama of our camp.

The last few days had been awful. We got another bunch of new campers in and along with them came a bunch of hellhounds, which shouldn't have been too much of a problem if Mr. I-Am-So-Much-Better-Than-Everyone-Else, aka Lawrence Sanderson, one of the new campers, hadn't tried to be a hero and made it into something much worse than it should have been.

He had managed to kill one, but Leo, who was closest to him, was forced to watch his back, as well as his own. Just as Lawrence killed the beast, another one came up behind him and would have done serious damage if Leo hadn't stepped in and ran it through with his rarely used sword. Unfortunately, that left his own back wide open for the one he was originally fighting and all it took was one good swipe and Leo was down.

What made it even worse was that Lawrence couldn't see that Leo had saved him, instead seeing that Leo had gotten hurt because he couldn't defend himself as well as he can. He then spread the rumour among the new campers that the way we were teaching them was wrong and that he knew better than all of us experienced fighters. Now we had an uprising in the making.

Leo took the last few days healing and he was only allowed out of bed this morning. I could see Annabeth taking glances at him worriedly. I could also see Leo getting annoyed by this.

I felt a tug at my hand and my head whipped up to where Jason was slowly pulling me out of my seat.

"We're here." He murmured softly.

We all clambered out and stood on the curb as Argus drove away. Eventually Annabeth turned around and began the climb up the stairs. She didn't even bother to knock when she got to the door and we hesitantly followed, not as comfortable with barging in as Annabeth.

Sally looked up from the stove with a smile that faltered for a second when she saw us before it stretched out again.

"Hello sweethearts! I wasn't expecting you lot to drop by." She said and she gestured to the living room. "Please make yourselves comfortable. I will bring out some food in a moment." With that she disappeared back into the kitchen, reappearing a moment later with a plate of biscuits and cheese.

I had dropped onto one of the recliners and Annabeth was in the other while the others were still standing.

"Sorry guys, it's not much…"

"It's more than enough, Ms. Jackson." Jason said, giving her a soft smile.

Something she had said before was stuck in my head though, causing me to frown.

"Ms. Jackson?" I started, causing her head to whip around to me. Looking at her closer I could see the worry in her face, the stress lines around her eyes.

"Yes, Piper?" She asked and I could hear the slight strain in her voice.

I paused for a moment. "You said you weren't expecting us… I was just wondering if you were expecting anyone."

She sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"It's 5:30. School ends at 3:15." Her hands covered her face as she dropped onto the couch. I looked over to Annabeth's face which seemed a lot paler.

"What do you mean?" Leo asked, dropping onto the arm of my chair.

"I got a call at about 2:30 that Percy had skipped the last class. After that I expected him to be home when I got back from work. I was hoping it was him that walked through the door."

Immediately all our eyes locked. Panic flickered across Annabeth's features and I could feel Jason moving from behind me.

Sally looked between all of us with wide eyes.

"Don't all go out looking for him. He probably just got caught up. You know Percy can handle himself." She said, stopping Jason from moving closer to the door. "I just worry."

The look she gave us all made us all settle down. Leo slipped off the arm of the chair and sat on the floor next to it and Jason took up the other side. Annabeth relaxed back into her seat and Hazel and Frank sat on the floor next to her, leaving Ms. Jackson on the couch by herself.

"If he is not back by morning we are going out looking for him." Jason stated as he settled into his spot.

For the rest of the evening we spoke about everything and anything, trying to get everyone's minds off our missing friend.

Eventually, Sally drifted off to sleep on the couch. Annabeth got up from her spot and moved her until she was laying down on the couch and then disappeared down the hallway, reappearing with a blanket.

Her eyes were drooping when she sat back in her seat, but she was obviously trying to stay up for when Percy came home.

"Just sleep, Annabeth." I said quietly. She slowly moved her eyes to me. She seemed to deliberate for a moment before deciding it wasn't worth arguing and nodding.

"I think we should all take that advice." She said softly and soon enough we had all fallen into dreamland.

I woke up in the morning to Sally rousing me.

"Come on Piper. Time to get up." She said and I groaned and sat up. Ms. Jackson continued around the room, waking everyone up. When everyone was up, Annabeth voiced the question we were thinking.

"Did Percy come home?"

Jason got up and moved down the hall to Percy's room. He came back a moment later, shaking his head.

We immediately spurred into action, loudly speaking to each other about where to look. Sally brought out a map of New York and we gathered around the coffee table to read it.

"Piper and I can take Central Park and surrounding area's…" Jason trailed off, looking up to Annabeth. His eyes moved over her head and his eyes widened while letting out a small huff.

"Oh thank Gods." He breathed and jumped up, moving past Annabeth and embracing the man standing behind her.

Annabeth jumped up and began hitting him on the arm.

"Where were you!? We were so worried Seaweed Brain!" She exclaimed.

I think the entire room let out a relieved breath to see Percy standing in front of us, alive and well.

"I'm sorry guys. I got chased by some Hellhounds. Nothing I couldn't handle but it did take me a while to get home." He smiled sheepishly.

Annabeth pulled back and took his face in her hands, seemingly searching for injuries. To our surprise it wasn't Annabeth that spoke up.

"You're lying." Sally stated, moving forward. Her voice was hard, stern, and I don't think I have ever seen her like this. "What happened?"

"Mum, I'm telling the truth."

"No, you're not. You're doing that thing with your hands that you do when you're lying. Now tell me what happened." She ordered. I looked to his hands and was surprised to see he was fidgeting with them.

Well, that's handy

"Nothing serious happened Mum…"

By now we were all frowning at each other.

"Then why are you avoiding it?" Leo asked and we all narrowed our eyes at Percy, daring him to lie to us. He looked up at us and was startled to see us glaring, which made me narrow my eyes more.

What in Hades has happened?

"Percy, just tell us what happened. Why were you so late?" Annabeth pleaded from beside him.

"No, it was nothing. It was stupid." He tried again, looking desperate as we moved closer to him. He took a step back as we took a step forward.

Jason's patience had reached its limit by this point.

"It obviously wasn't 'nothing', Percy. Now answer the damn question." Percy tried to take another step back at this but it didn't go as planned when he tipped over the chair behind him.

It was comical really. He tipped backwards and his arms flailed slightly before heavily landed on his bum and falling towards the wall.

It was silent for a moment before Leo snorted and we all followed him into fits of laughter. Percy glared up at us from the ground, only making us laugh harder.

"Come on Seaweed Brain." Annabeth laughed, holding out her hand to him. He took it slowly and lifted she pulled him up. He reached his arm back over his head, rubbing where he hit it.

"Now can you please…" Annabeth began talking again but her words never reached my ears. My eyes were focused on Percy's face, where an expression I never want to see again overtook my friends face.

Pure horror washed over his face and I felt panic run through my veins. I may not be as close to Percy as others but that doesn't mean I don't care about him. He is one of the only people who understand that I am more than a giggly daughter of Aphrodite. He sees that I am more than a stereotype and his presence is always one of the most calming.

"Percy? What's wrong?" I asked, cutting Annabeth off. He looked me in the eye and slowly brought his hand down from his head.

A strange strangled noise came out of my throat and I leaped forward, forcing down one of Percy's shoulders. Someone was on the other side of him and I saw Annabeth giving him nectar.

When I regained my senses I moved towards the kitchen. I rummaged through the numerous drawers, looking for the little red pack I knew Sally kept in here. I pulled it out quickly, although I paused when bringing it out. The colour reminded me of the colour of Percy's hand.

Shaking my head, I left the kitchen, getting rid of the thoughts of blood.

I handed the pack to Jason who wiped down the wound. Percy kept protesting and eventually we let him up just to shove him into the chair he had tripped over.

"Percy, can you please tell us what happened yesterday? And please don't say 'nothing'." Hazel asked softly, leaning her head against his knees.

"I'm fine, I swear. I got chased into Central Park and got a bit lost. Please just believe me." He pleaded and we agreed to drop it in favour of asking him what we came here for.

"So many new campers have come in and everything is getting majorly overwhelming, especially with you being away and all. We just need some advice on how to take it without snapping at the new comers." Jason said from his place on the arm of the chair.

"Also, we wanted to say hello." Frank said, putting his arm around Hazel.

"So how do you think we could help these kids? Without, you know, accidentally running them through with a sword on purpose." Leo asked, leaning over the back of the chair.

He snorted and then was silent for a moment.

"Well… all you can really do is remember that if you don't do all you can for these kids there can be consequences. These kids need a lot of help. They aren't like us and we can't resent them for that. All we can do is prepare them for everything that is going to go wrong when they inevitably leave the camp. We may have survived with little to no training but a lot of them won't. And if they don't realise that, then that is what you are going to have to drill it into their heads."

"Thanks Percy." Annabeth said softly.

For the another hour we just talked to each other until we decided Chiron had worried enough and we should probably get back.

On the way out, Annabeth embraced Percy.

"Take care, Percy." She said, although we could all hear the concealed order in her voice.

As I walked out the door, I glanced back to where Percy was walking down his hallway, rubbing his head softly. I couldn't help but keep wondering what had happened.

A few days later I found out.

Seeing Percy so broken because of stress and some low life bully broke my heart so much I could barely comfort him the way I wanted to. To know someone had intentionally caused my friend pain, enough pain for him to fall apart, made me want to go punch someone in the face but at the same time I didn't want to leave his side in case he hurt himself. My inner conflict made me useless to comforting him and I felt like such a bad friend.

After he was asleep, I promised myself that I would always be there for him, through anything and everything.

The next day, when I woke up shivering from a nightmare, only to be pulled into his comforting embrace, I realised he had made that promise to all of us long ago.

So I guess now is a good time to begin repaying him.