Thank you once again for the positive response. Once again the pairing between Jason and Reyna is not decided. This chapter will be a flashback. Please be sure to review after this one as it will determine the number and nature of future flashbacks. This is important as I have already planned a Jason & Reyna flashback and a Percy & Jason/Annabeth & Jason flashback as well. If this does not bode well I will leave it until the prequel to write them.

Chapter VII: Haunted

Percy had the most vivid dream he'd ever had. Maybe it was the blood loss and the wound, maybe it was the new freaky miracle drug Jason had him on. Percy was a little scared, for once his dreams we're crisp instead of a blur. What scared him a little more was what he dreamt about. He cursed himself with what awareness he had for going to sleep thinking about Grover and by extension his past partners.

Percy dreamt about the missions with his first partner when he was just a rookie at the ATF. One Mr Charles Beckendorf. Percy felt that his short time serving with him wasn't really a partnership and instead was more of a mentorship. Beckendorf was already a veteran when Percy was assigned to him and when Percy first met him he was intimidated. He was a big, burly African-American man with salt and pepper hair but still muscular like a professional athlete and seemed to always wear a scowl. What made it worse was that he rarely talked.

Despite his appearance he was a nice guy in general. On their first few cases Beckendorf though Percy most of what he knew today. However Percy felt that a possible lifelong friendship was cut short when Beckendorf was killed in a car bomb.

Percy's first major mission was at the border near Tijuana. A major drug cartel operation had been discovered and Percy's team was sent in for the bust.

'Beckendorf, I want to take point this time.' Percy said as they exited their saloon car.

'No way Percy, you're still too inexperienced for this.' Beckendorf replied as they made their way down the sandy slope.

'I've been on six field missions already. Am I passed training so I'm just as qualified as the next guy.' Percy demanded.

'Look kid, there are some things basic training just doesn't teach you.' Beckendorf replied.

'Then how do you learn everything.' Percy asked somewhat rhetorically.

'Well, I learn't some of this from when I was in the marines. The other stuff I learned from experience.' Beckendorf answered

'Since I can't join the marines now I guess the only way I'll learn is by taking point.' Percy said, trying to press his point. He was itching for action.

'No, this is not a suggestion. It's an order. You'll be on mid with the SWAT team, I'll be on point.' Beckendorf said decisively.

'Fine…' Percy mumbled as they reach the police command post.

'Already, everyone move out!' Beckendorf bellowed as the assault group formed ranked and moved off to the warehouse.

When they were within a hundred meters of the warehouse Beckendorf held up his fist signalling for the unit to stop. Beckendorf then tapped two officers to follow him as he advanced slowly on the pavement. Percy then was watching intently, wishing he was at point where he would get the most action.

Percy felt the singeing air on his face before he register that the unthinkable had happened. The car Beckendorf passed by had exploded and erupted into flames. Percy found himself caught in a shootout as cartel soldiers started firing from the warehouse.

After the fighting had died down Percy realized he no longer had a thirst for action. He now felt slightly sick that he had wanted to be in the lead. That day seven law-enforcement officers were wounded or killed in action. Coincidentally that was the day he met Nico. That day onwards Percy promised himself that he would try to make sure none of his partners would ever meet the same fate as Beckendorf.

From them on Percy never had any long term partners. During the time he served with multiple people most either being wounded, killed, transferred or had quit after two of three cases. Then there was the work with Annabeth. How he had loathe it. It was less than a dozen cases with her but he hated every second of it.

Their first mission was in Connecticut where there was a suspected national security risk in New Haven. The end result was one week wasted and no results to show for it. Percy hated every second of it. She followed protocol to the letter and there was no room for input. Percy found her to be stuck up and way too prideful of her own stratagem.

The next few missions with her were the same story. After week of planning and bureaucracy it would boil down to a wild goose chase or a hoax with an upset Annabeth and an angry Percy Jackson.

Finally after two years of ridiculous operations Percy was finally given an actual partner, Grover Underwood. Percy had a great five year run with Grover. From drug bust in New Mexico to gun violence in Kansas, they had an incredible track record of missions completed without serious injuries. Grover always said that they were a lucky duo. Eventually their luck would run out during their latest drug bust in Miami.

'I can't believe their planning to have the deal right under our nose.' Grover exclaimed in the command post.

'Well, it's clever, you got to give them that.' Percy commented.

The drug deal they were about to bust was going to happen in a bank, right next to the Miami office of the DEA. The drug dealers had daring to conduct their illicit activities right in front of the very people who were supposed to arrest them.

'Not clever enough.' Grover added

'You got to hand it to them. Pretending that they're transferring money instead of drugs was quite a good cover.' Percy replied. If it hadn't been for Jason passing his information on to law-enforcement they would never have known about the deal.

'Fine, but I still think we should bring in more officers. The lines seem a bit thin and I don't like going in without being total covered.' Grover said changing the subject.

'Jason said it would be fine. They're not packing heat or anything since their trying to fly under the radar.' Percy said trying to dispel Grover's scepticism. He always was the cautious kind.

'That's what Jason said in Austin. The shootout there got to the point where we had to bring in the Texas Rangers.' Grover replied unconvinced.

Before Percy could respond with a counter argument his radio sounded off. 'Schlitz Malt Liquor. I repeat again, Schlitz Malt Liquor.'

'Too late for anything now. The operation is a go.' Percy said existing the command post.

Percy and Grover advanced into the building with the rest of the assault team. There were only six of them but Jason felt they were more than enough of them to make the arrest. Everything would have been perfect accept for the fact that Jason had made a small oversight.

'We've got a runner!' A member of the assault team called out. Jason hadn't factored in that drug dealers weren't the most rational of people.

'Dammit!' Percy yelled as he pivoted on the ball of his feet to face his fleeing foe.

'What are you waiting for? Shoot him already.' Grover yelled, practically bleating as he zip tied one of the drug dealers.

'I can't, there are too many civilians.' Percy called back as his aim followed his target.

'He's out of the bank already.' Grover shot back frustrated. 'I'm faster, I'll get him.' Grover sprinted off in pursuit.

'Grover wait! He's not important, he's not holding anything!' They had already caught the master mind and the two of them holding the money and the drugs.

'We still need to get him Percy! I got it.' Grover said fleetingly as he leapt down the steps.

Percy regretted not challenging Grover. On a normal day he would have insisted he was faster than him, but in the heat of the moment he hadn't said anything. Percy regretted not following him sooner. They were trained to work in pairs, but Percy had gotten over confident. They were the best of the best, and they seemed to have the luck of the Irish. Percy decided to flout his training and his instincts and let Grover go off alone. He was still haunted by this, forever stuck in this moment.

Only after a full two minutes did Percy decide to follow Grover. 'The rest of you are fine handling them right?' The other agents nodded in response, all the suspects were no the ground and not a single shot had been fired. This would have been Percy's best mission yet.

Percy dashed off outside on to the main street. The whole street was abuzz with everyone looking at the drug bust unfolding before them. He could hear police sirens wailing from a few blocks away, the regular units would be arriving soon to take the suspects into custody. Percy was feeling euphoric, it was the biggest bust of his career. To top it all off Grover was strolling down the sidewalk with the last suspect in tow, zip tied and bound with duct tape.

Before Percy could reach out to shake Grover's hand he flinched. He felt the splatter of a thick liquid all over the face and neck and he saw red cloud his vision. He felt it before he heard it, a gun shot rang out and Grover had gone limp as blood seeped from his shoulder. His vision of the world went from euphoric tint of brown that was out of focus to a sharp image of hyperrealism splattered in blood.

'Grover!' Percy cried out before his sense came back to him. 'Sniper!" He yelled out again to warn his teammates leaving the build.

Percy then heard what sounded like a symphony of whistles around him. It sounded eerily beautify before he finally willed himself to duck behind the car in front of him. The world literally crashed around him as the suspected Grover apprehended dropped to the pavement with an extra hole in his head. Glass shatter around him as he heard the pings and cracks of the bullets striking the metal and concrete.

'Percy…' Grover croaked weakly as Percy dragged him fully into the cover of the car.

'It's nothing buddy, you'll be fine.' Percy said in the calmest voice he could muster as tried to stem the bleeding.

'I've heard the one before.' Grover smiled back at Percy.

'It's different this time.' Percy said insisting on his previous assessment. The bullet went into his upper left chest near his shoulder blade. It may not have hit his heart but it surely severed his artery.

'Yeah, I heard that one too.' Grover said as his eyes flickered. Talking sapped a lot of his remained strength.

Percy was starting to get frantic. He couldn't stem the blood flow and Grover was on the verge of losing consciousness. The roar of the sirens was right on top of him and the hiss of the gunshots had stopped.

Grover was stretchered of as the medics attended to him, they were attempting to stop the bleeding while transfusing blood into him. Percy used his hands to help him stand up. He felt nauseous as he saw his hands leave their imprints in blood on the concrete.

'Percy, you okay? You don't look like your shot.' Jason called to Percy as his head slowly turned to meet him.

Percy now smelt the stench of blood as the crimson liquid on his hands dried. It made him sick. He had smelt blood many times, but this time it was his partners and for once he couldn't stand the smell of it. He wavered from side to side before he was finally caught by Jason.

'Woah, easy there cowboy.' Jason coaxed as he lowered Percy onto a nearby bench.

'Dammit…' Percy chuckled filled with sadness. 'Your shirt's all stained.'

'You should look at yourself, the blood has soaked up your sleeves.' Jason said trying to maintain a good attitude. Even though Percy still had a sense of humour he was still shell-shocked.

'Yeah… they are.' Percy mused as he looked down at the cuffs of his shirt.

'Jackson! Pull yourself together!' A voiced called out to Percy.

Percy looked up to see Annabeth. Percy cursed himself, of all people she had to be the one to show up now.

'For the love of Zeus it's just some blood.' She yelled at him.

'What in Hades are you doing here? And it's not just blood, its Grover's' Percy snapped.

'Who do you think gave you the intel?' Annabeth responded completely unphased by his comments.

'Jason! She! She gave you the intel!?' Percy shouted, lashing out now at Jason.

'She's a CIA agent Percy. Show her some respect.' Jason chided.

'No dammit! You CIA types are all the damn same. All heartless.' Percy yelled out in rage. His hands clamped on his collar staining it in blood.

'Look, I don't have time for this.' Annabeth sighed. 'We know Faulkner is still out there. I'm going back to HQ.'

'What's she talking about?' Percy said as he stopped shaking Jason.

'First, get off me.' Jason replied as he broke Percy's hold on him. 'We needed to find out if an assassin we were looking for was still out there doing freelance work. So we planned for a drug cartel to do a deal here and hoped they hire Falkner to cover them.'

'You knew!? You knew and you didn't tell me?' Percy said before striking Jason with an uppercut.

Jason reeled back in pain before standing upright again soaking up the pain. Percy bet that Jason knew he deserved it.

The day went by in a daze for Percy. He was chewed out by his boss for what had happened. He was the one who had accepted the information from the CIA. Then he was given a good shouting at by the NSA officer in Miami for not clearing the operation with him since it involved a possible threat to national security dude to the involvement of a wanted assassin. Finally he learnt the only piece of good news. Grover had pulled through for the day despite the server blood loss.

'You okay?' Jason ventured as he approached Percy sitting alone in the hospital canteen.

'What do you want?' Percy spat.

'I want to apologize.' Jason said as he offered him a flask.

'Single malt.' Percy said as he took a swig.

'Damn right. 50 years old.' Jason said cracking a small grin. At least the alcohol had helped.

'So,' Jason asked again. 'You okay?'

'I can barely remember anything.' Percy admitted, his memory was clouded in a mist of red. After Grover was shot his memories were fogged. The gap in his memory ended with a crystal clear image of his boss raining down profanities on him.

'It's my fault the op went south.' Jason started. 'The scotch is the least I can do.'

'Thanks, I hope Grover can pull through.' Percy sighed as he slumped onto the metal table.

Percy could hardly remember anything from that day even now, a few months later. Still he knew he had broken his oath to himself. He couldn't let it happen a third time.

'Rise and shine sleepy head.' Percy heard from his sleep, the whole statement was laden with sarcasm.

'Get up already.' Percy heard again, now he registered the voice as Nico's.

Percy's vision brightened to see the room filled with everyone else. They had brought along papers and a laptop. It seemed to him that they were intent on doing the debrief as soon as possible

'You're lucky you're still slight injured Percy.' Nico said harshly from the corner of the room. 'That's the only thing stopping me from hitting you with a pipe.'

Just to clarify, Percy does not remember that it was Jason and Annabeth who caused Grover to be shot. If this chapter isn't popular since it contains action and nothing about relationships feel free to voice out like I said before. It will affect the nature and the number of flashbacks in the future. The reason for this chapter? Gives the story some depth and it will affect the relationship in the story.