Hey, guys! Spur-of-the-moment painful Percabeth one-shot for ya here...

I don't own anything. All rights belong to Rick Riordan. The italics are from The Son of Neptune, pgs 405-406

He picked up the receiver and punched in a New York number – his mom's apartment.

Voicemail. Percy should have figured. It would be, like, midnight in New York. They wouldn't recognize this number. Hearing Paul's voice on the recording hit Percy in the gut so hard, he could barely speak at the tone.

"Mom," he said. "Hey, I'm alive. Hera put me to sleep for a while, and then she took my memory, and…" His voice faltered. How could he possibly explain all this? "Anyway, I'm okay. I'm sorry. I'm on a quest -" He winced. He shouldn't have said that. His mom knew all about quests, and now she'd be worried. "I'll make it home. I promise. Love you."

He put down the receiver. He stared at the phone, hoping it would ring back. The train whistle sounded. The conductor shouted, "All aboard."

Percy ran.

Little did he know that the phone did ring back – just too late for him to hear.

Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!

The phone in the Jacksons' house really was unusually loud, Annabeth decided, burrowing her head deeper into the pillows on the couch. She loved staying over at Sally and Paul's house, but their phone had the single most annoying ringtone she had ever heard.

She was considering getting up and answering the thing just to make it stop, it finally did, and she sighed with relief. Finally. She rolled over and looked at the clock: 12:15 AM.

Who in the name of Olympus would be calling at this hour? Must be some solicitor from the West Coast. Probably nobody important –

The answering machine clicked on. Annabeth groaned and buried her face into the pillow again. Great. Now she'd have to listen to some stupid businessman rant on and on about how wonderful his business was and why she should absolutely buy his product –

"Mom."

Every cell in Annabeth's body was suddenly on high alert. She would know that voice anywhere. Percy.

He was alive.

"Hey, I'm alive. Hera put me to sleep for a while, and then she took my memory, and…" His voice trailed off. Annabeth leapt off the couch where she'd been sleeping and crossed the room in two strides, tears already forming in her eyes.

"Anyway, I'm okay. I'm sorry. I'm on a quest…"

On a quest? With who? For what? The Roman camp? Did they even send quests? Where was he?

"I'll make it home. I promise."

Annabeth sunk to the floor next to the answering machine, her eyes welling over. He'd come home. He'd come back. He promised –

"Love you."

The line went dead. For a long moment, both Percy and Annabeth stared at the phone, worlds away from each other, tears in both their eyes. Annabeth was in shock, her brain trying to process the fact that she'd just heard Percy's voice, his reassurance that he was alive, that he loved them, that he'd be coming back. Percy was hoping, praying desperately for his mom to call back, on the blind hope that someone was awake at 12:20 AM in a certain apartment in New York. And there was someone there. But, for the space of a second – just one second too long – she was too shocked to move.

At the exact moment that Annabeth's hand reached for the phone in New York, Percy turned away from the phone in Alaska and ran towards the train he was supposed to catch. He jumped on board, already looking for Frank and Hazel as the train began to move.

If he had looked back, he might have seen the vibration of the phone – might have even heard the ringing – as the one person he missed the most finally managed to hit the "return call" button.

But, alas, it was not to be.

...I am so sorry

Lovelovelove -D-