Disclaimer: I am not, no matter what anyone tells you, named Rick Riordan, and I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters. If I did, I wouldn't be putting this on Fanfiction, I would be writing it into one of my books and making a lot of money off of it.

"EEEK!"

The shriek shocked me out of my sleep. Without even being fully awake yet, I reached under my pillow, grabbed Riptide, and, in one smooth motion, uncapped it and slashed it in the direction of the scream. I turned just in time to see the last of the Minotaur dissipating to dust.

There didn't appear to be a source to the cry that had awoken me, but I looked around anyway. I couldn't find anyone, or anything, that could have made such a noise. Then my hand fell onto the bed beside me. I felt something soft and warm. But the weirdest thing about it was that I felt something where there was obviously nothing there. As in, my hand appeared to be resting on thin air.

I thought about what it could be. It didn't take me very long to hit upon the answer. Heck, she was practically all that was on my mind these days when it wasn't preoccupied with fighting monsters. I felt my way along her body, pausing for a moment when I reached her breasts. I finally arrived at her head and whipped her Yankees cap off.

"Annabeth?" I said gently. "Are you all right?"

It quickly became apparent that she was, in fact, most definitely not all right. She didn't move a muscle for five, six, seven minutes.

"Annabeth? Annabeth? ANNABETH!" This couldn't be happening. It wasn't happening. I refused to accept it. Tears welled up in my eyes. I let them flow. "Annabeth," I moaned. "Don't die, OK? You just can't. There's so much I still haven't told you. You can't die, Annabeth. I still haven't gotten up the nerve to tell you how much I love you. Why did this have to happen to you, of all people? WHY?"

Suddenly, impulsively, I leaned down and tenderly kissed her. I'd been wanting to do that for years now, but I'd kind of been hoping that she would be conscious when it happened.

As I was staring at her beautiful face, her eyelids started to flutter. I pulled away hurriedly.

"Percy?" said Annabeth. "Is that you?