A/N: And this is it. The final chapter. I know it's like half a year later, but better late than never, right? I didn't get enough reviews to believe anyone really cared enough anyways. At any rate, enjoy!

Percy was leaving. Only for a week, but he was still leaving. Annabeth and Percy were attending school in Manhattan together now that the war with the giants was over. Percy had made the school swim team and had a large swim meet he had to go to. The problem with that? It was in freaking Hawaii. Percy hadn't wanted to go. He'd tried asking the coach if he could get out of it, but the answer had been no. This was the biggest school swim meet in all of America. Percy was Goode High School's best swimmer and the reason they had qualified for this meet in the first place. He couldn't not go.

Watching Percy try to back his bags was always funny. His room was so messy, it was a wonder he could find any of the clothes he needed. When Annabeth informed him of this Percy just smirked. "You're one to talk, Wisegirl. You pretend you're all neat and organized, but I've seen your desk when you're working on an architecture project. Papers. Everywhere. It's like they're trying to take over your room!"

Annabeth laughed. "Percy, do you want my help or not?"

It took them over an hour to find all of the stuff Percy needed. Percy ended up packing two bags. A duffle bag for his swim stuff, and a small suitcase for his other clothes. It was easy to tell that Annabeth had packed the suitcase and Percy had packed the duffle bag. The clothes in the suit case were all neatly folded, whereas the clothes in the duffle bag and been stuffed in haphazardly.

"Percy, if you want to make your flight on time, we have to leave now! The traffic is supposed to be bad!" Sally called out from the entrance to the apartment.

"Ok Mom, I'm coming."

"Percy, wait," Annabeth stopped him before he could leave the room. "You're sure you have everything in case of emergencies, right? Ambrosia, drachmas if you need to contact anyone-"

"Annabeth," Percy interrupted, "I'm going to be fine. You can stop worrying about me."

"One of us has to," came the grumbled response. "Considering you love to throw yourself into danger and worry about the consequences later." Annabeth was fully aware Percy was capable of taking care of himself. He was the most powerful demigod she knew. But she still worried. This was the farthest away they would have been from each other since the war, since…. Tartarus. The memories from that place still affected her and Percy greatly. They were getting better, but if something happened to Percy while he was in Hawaii, well, the island was somewhat isolated from where help would be.

Seeming to have noticed the worry in Annabeth's facial features Percy wrapped her in a hug. "It's only going to be a week." He kissed her sweetly. "I'll be back before you know it." He moved to kiss her again but was interrupted by his mother calling out to him.

"Percy, I wasn't kidding! You're going to miss your flight!"

"I have to go." Percy looked at Annabeth. "You're coming to the airport, right?"

"Of course."

True to Sally's word the traffic was horrible. Annabeth didn't mind however. It meant more time holding Percy's hand in the backseat of Paul's Prius. Percy had acted very nonchalant about the trip in the apartment, but the closer they got to the airport the more nervous he got. Annabeth was reminded of Percy's fear of flying in airplanes.

"What if the plane crashes?" He looked terrified at this thought. It was an expression Percy didn't show often. One that reminded Annabeth that even though they'd seen so many horrible things they were still so young and vulnerable at times. It made her want to hug him and never let go. However, that would be slightly unreasonable considering Percy had to leave, so Annabeth opted for reassuring him instead.

"Percy, Zeus wouldn't let that happen. Not after all you've done for Olympus. The rest of the gods wouldn't stand for it." Percy nodded a bit at this. Glad she was making him feel a bit better, Annabeth continued. "Besides, a good portion of your trip is going to be over the ocean. If anything happens then, you'll be able to use your powers to fix the situation."

Percy swallowed. "You're right. I know, but gods of Olympus this is terrifying. Facing your fears is hard. Is this how you felt going to face Arachne? And that was more dangerous than this. How did you stay so confident and brave?"

She didn't. But Annabeth couldn't tell Percy that. Studying his beautiful sea green eyes Annabeth could tell just how scared he was about this. Believing that Annabeth could be brave facing her fears was motivation for him to face his own, so Annabeth had to play along. "I…" Annabeth took a breath. "You just have to believe in yourself and just go do it."

They'd made it to the airport. If Percy was still nervous he didn't show it anymore. They met up with Percy's swim team at the baggage drop off and made their way over to the security area.

"We can't go any father than this," Sally said to Percy, referring to herself and Annabeth. "Good luck Percy, I'm so proud of you. Look at my son, growing up on me." Percy gave Sally a hug, she had tears in her eyes.

"Mom, like I said to Annabeth, it's only for a week." Percy sounded a little embarrassed because his friends were watching, but he had tears in his eyes too.

Annabeth hugged Percy good bye as well. There were a few things she wanted to say but couldn't with the swim team here. After all, if she started talking about myths as if they were real they'd think she was insane. So instead she simply told him to be safe and gave him a short kiss. She watched as he went through the security line and then disappeared into the crowd of travellers. Then she and Sally made their way back to the apartment.

Annabeth was back in the one place she never wanted to return to. Tartarus. But this time Percy wasn't with her. Somewhere in the back of her conscience Annabeth knew it was a dream, she's made it out of the pit and Percy would never let her fall down there on her own. However, it didn't make the situation any better. The dreams about Tartarus always messed with Annabeth's emotions and mind. In this dream she was stumbling trough the pit trying to survive, but on her own it was pointless. When Arachne found Annabeth as she had in real life, she quickly killed Annabeth while the demigod was paralyzed in fear. The dream shifted, and Annabeth was being attacked by Kelli and her empousa posse. Again with out Percy there Annabeth was quickly killed. The dream continued on like that, showing Annabeth every time she would have died without Percy or her other friends. Fighting Kronos on Mount Olympus, trying to navigate the labyrinth, Mount Tam…. The dream just kept changing showing Annabeth just how vulnerable and weak she was. Without the help of her friends she was nothing. She'd be a forgotten soul in the fields of Aspohdel by now.

Annabeth woke up gasping. It wasn't the worst nightmare she'd had about Tartarus or her quests, not by a longshot. But with Percy being gone it really hit close to home for her right now. Annabeth was somewhat dependant on Percy at this point. She hated it, she really did. Annabeth wanted to be the independent strong demigod who didn't rely on anyone, the one the rest of the demigods saw. But she wasn't. She relied on Percy to help her when she was incapable, and his absence was proving that.

He'd been gone for three days and they'd only managed to talk to each other once. It was hard for Percy to iris message Annabeth because his team mates were almost always with him. Annabeth absolutely refused to talk to him with mortal technology because she didn't want him to attract monsters when his team mates were always so close by and he was the only demigod they knew of on the island. And the fact that the time zones were so different didn't help.

Brriinnnggg

Sighing Annabeth looked up from her half-completed math work. That was the bell signaling the end of school for the day. Normally Annabeth would have been able to finish her work before the period ended, but she wasn't sleeping well lately, and it was starting to interfere with her concentration at school. She would have to finish the math as homework. As if she didn't already have enough on her plate with the gods' crazy deadlines for the plans for Mount Olympus. While going on the quest to stop the giants had been necessary to save the world, it had also put Annabeth several months behind in redesigning Mount Olympus. One would think that being thousands of years old the gods had some patience, but as Annabeth was quickly finding out they had less patience than most three year-olds. Don't get her wrong, Annabeth loved redesigning Mount Olympus. It was a huge honour, and the idea that her designs were in a place like Mount Olympus….. the idea of it still amazed Annabeth. But having to design buildings fit for gods in a limited amount of time added a huge amount of stress to her already stressful demigod life.

Caught up in her thoughts Annabeth noticed she's already walked straight past her locker. She turned around and went back to her locker where she found her mortal friends waiting for her.

"Hey guys."

One of the friends, Stacy, looked at her suspiciously. "Are you ok? You seem kinda out of it today."

"Yeah I'm fine," Annabeth reassured her, "just kinda tired from all the homework we have."

Her other friend, Julia, cut in. "You almost always have your homework done before the end of class."

Not today, thought Annabeth. Instead she replied with "They're projects. You know the ones due by the end of the month? I decided I'd finish them early." It wasn't fully a lie. They did have projects due by the end of the month, but Annabeth had already finished them last weekend before Percy left. It was just regular homework that was killing her right now. Stacy and Julia didn't have to know that though.

"You're sure you're not stressed because Percy's gone?" Stacy asked.

"No, of course not. I'm an independent person, I don't need him around constantly." Annabeth protested. That was a blatant lie this time. Yes, she was stressed because Percy was gone, but she couldn't admit that.

Stacy didn't look like she believed Annabeth, but she knew enough to back down. "If you say so. Julia and I are going for some ice cream if you want to come."

Annabeth shook her head. "Sorry I can't. I would any other day, but I've got to work on those projects."

Paul drove Annabeth back to the apartment like he did most other days. The conversation was slightly awkward without Percy, but it wasn't too bad. Annabeth had come to know and like Paul when she would visit his and Sally's apartment constantly when Percy was missing. When they arrived at the apartment Annabeth thanked Paul, said hi to Sally and walked into the room she was staying in. Time to get to work.

Percy was coming home today. Sally was really excited, probably more so than Annabeth. In her defence Annabeth was really sleep deprived at this point. Sally had baked dozens of blue cookies for Percy, cleaned his room for him and even made a banner that read 'Congratulations on your meet Percy! Welcome home!' Percy had called them last night telling them that he had won first place in all his races and his team had placed third overall. Annabeth was ridiculously proud of her Seaweedbrain. He had seemed really happy to be coming home though. He had told Annabeth that once he was done catching up with his parents that he wanted to take her out for a date because he'd missed her so to be ready. There was still 4 hours until Percy was supposed to get home though, so Annabeth was going to work on one of the designs for Mount Olympus before getting ready. She sat down at her desk and looked at all the papers spread out every where. Percy had been right, her work space did get really messy when she was working on a project. She took out one of her blue prints, a temple for Hermes. Perfect, it was almost done so she should be able to finish it before Percy got home.

"Annabeth."

The person in question groaned. Someone was lightly shaking her awake. Couldn't a person get some sleep around here?

"Annabeth."

Annabeth opened her eyes. She'd fallen asleep at her desk. Shit! She was supposed to be getting ready for her date with Percy. Speaking of Percy….. he was the one trying to wake her up. Annabeth rubbed her eyes and turned to look at him. "Oh my gods Percy, I'm so sorry. I meant to get ready, I swear! But I was working on a project and I just…."

"Fell asleep." Percy supplied.

"Yeah. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean-"

Percy just laughed and cut her off with a kiss. "It's ok Annabeth, I just missed you." He kissed her again and studied her face a little more closely. "Are you ok? You look really tired."

Annabeth was about to deny being tired like she had with her friends, but she stopped herself. She remembered something that Piper had told her when Percy was missing, that it was ok to tell people how she really felt, to show some vulnerability. Otherwise the feelings would just grow inside her until they were really dangerous for Annabeth's mental health. Annabeth hadn't fully taken up Piper's advice of course, but this was Percy. Annabeth trusted him more than anyone else. If she couldn't even be honest with Percy Annabeth had some problems.

"You're right I'm exhausted. I didn't sleep well when you were away, the nightmares got a lot worse." Annabeth made a mental note to listen to Piper's advice more often. She hadn't even said all of it but it felt so much better for those thoughts to be out in the open.

Percy looked concerned. It reminded Annabeth of something that she had told Percy before: 'You're cute when you're worried. Your eye brows get all scrunched together.' She hadn't been wrong then and she certainly wasn't now. He exhaled. "Annabeth, why didn't you tell me? Even if I couldn't come home early I still could have tried to call you more often and made sure you were okay. I'm sorry, I-"

"This is why" Annabeth interjected. "I didn't want you to worry about me. I should be able to solve my own problems. And you had a swim meet to focus on. I didn't want to distract you from that, I know how important it was to you."

Gripping her shoulders Percy looked Annabeth right in the eyes. "You are more important to me than any swim meet Annabeth. Or anything else for that matter. And I don't want to hear this 'solve your own problems' crap again. You have friends to help you Annabeth, they can't do that if you don't tell us what's wrong."

Percy seemed angry about this. And he was right, Annabeth realised. She was being stubborn and stupid, which was pretty embarrassing for a daughter of Athena. "I know, I shouldn't be like this. It's ridiculous, everyone needs help from time to time, but I can't get over myself to ask for help. It's the hubris and I hate it, but I don't like admitting that I'm not always capable and I'm not as strong as everyone expects me to be and I…" Annabeth was rambling at this point. It had taken a lot out of her to be even talking about this and she was fairly upset.

"Hey hey. Look at me." Percy took Annabeth into a comforting hug. "No one's perfect, but you're about as close as they get. So if you need some help or comfort from time to time, that is nothing for you to be ashamed about, you hear me? I love you Annabeth Chase, and I will always be here for you."

"Thanks Percy. I'm sorry. You had something all planned out for when you got here and I ruined it."

Percy smiled. "Don't even worry about it. I just wanted to see you. Doesn't matter to me where we are."

And that was when Annabeth knew that while she would always be a guarded person to most people, she did feel so much better after talking to Percy. It was ok to open up to your loved ones. They cared for you and weren't going to judge you; they just wanted to help and support you. And Annabeth loved Percy for being the one who was able to finally teach her that.

Annabeth Chase was 17 years old. She was still a leader at camp, a role model, someone people looks to for answers. The perfect daughter of Athena, she was strong, brave, intelligent, and fearless (with the exception of spiders). At least that's what the camp thought. Annabeth knew that last sentence was not true, and maybe she wanted to let the camp keep believing that. But Annabeth knew that if she let her closest friends and family see the part of her that wasn't always perfect, strong and confident it wouldn't make her any less of those characteristics. In fact it made her stronger and more able to deal with her struggles. She didn't have to put on a show for everyone all the time, and if she had a breakdown there were people who would help her through it. With the wars over there wasn't nearly the same amount of pressure on Annabeth to be that strong leader type. Maybe there was never that expectation put on her by others ever, and she had projected it onto herself. It didn't matter, she would always try to play that role for others when she thought they needed it. But for now Annabeth could relax a little, and just be herself. There would always be a little bit of guarding her true feelings around most people, but she could talk about them with Percy and Piper, and probably others as well. It was still a little uncomfortable for Annabeth to be talking about these problems head on, she was so used to burying them and pretending they didn't exist. But after she would discuss them with someone she trusted Annabeth always felt so much better, happier. There was a huge burden being lifted off her shoulders and she made progress with her feelings slowly but gradually. Talking about her feelings and problems was one of the hardest decisions Annabeth had ever made, but in the end opening up to others was one of the best decisions she had ever made. Other than dating Percy of course.

A/N: And that's a wrap! Thanks for reading, I know I had a great time writing this. I'm pretty proud of completing my first story. This is the last chapter I had planned but I am open to writing more chapters, possibly from other characters points of views if I get requests for that. Keep in mind that while the story was just that, a story, the message is real. If you ever have any important issues that you don't want to share, please do tell someone! Mental health is important and there are people out there who care for you and want to help you.

Again thanks for reading! See you all later with my next story (which for all we know could be another half a year later),

BlankPage-CleanSlate :)