She awoke in Luke's bed. Luke's arms wrapped around her. She tried to ease herself out of his grip but he stirred and woke up. Thalia smiled at him and kissed him softly. They'd been officially dating for two months. She was going to school in a few weeks.

"Morning." He whispered.

"Morning." She replied as she tied her hair back with a hair tie.

"So do I have to get you over to work today or do I get to keep you?" he asked.

"I actually have the next week off." She smiled.

He grinned, "Good."

Luke smiled and took her back to her place so she could shower and get some clean clothes. He advised her to grab enough for a few nights. She figured that she should leave Annabeth a note to tell her where she would be incase she needed something over the next few days or she'd decided to call a search party to find her.

Thalia shoved some things into a bag and then went out to meet Luke. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" they turned to find Annabeth.

"I'm going to kidnap your beautiful roommate." Luke smiled.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, "Well then I guess I appreciate the warning to call off the search party."

Luke chuckled and kissed Thalia, "Well you're welcome."

"So where are you two off to?" she asked.

"A secret place." Luke smiled.

Thalia looked at him and raised her eyebrows, "What?"

"You'll see where we're going." He smiled.

Annabeth smirked as she passed to her own room once again, "Don't keep her too long I expect her back before the end of the week."

Thalia smiled, "Don't worry mom."

She heard Annabeth chuckled and then they took that as their cue to leave. Luke returned his car and changed and packed for himself. He slid into Thalia's car and smiled.

He led her to a little beach town about an hour away from their own beach town. They pulled into the parking lot of an amazing hotel right on the ocean. Thalia and Luke walked into the lobby and she looked around the place. It was amazing. There were fountains and luggage carts. So many things were going on around her.

"How can you afford this place?" she asked.

"Well there's something that I've wanted to do for awhile and I know the owner pretty well. He gives me free stays all the time." Luke grinned.

They walked to the front desk where a middle aged blonde woman was smiling at them, "Can I help you?"

"Is Harry here?" Luke asked.

"One minute are you his special guest?" she asked.

"That would be under Castellan." Luke smiled.

She smiled, "The stay is complementary, you have the penthouse suite."

She slid the keys across the desk and Luke signed the papers. His arm around Thalia's waist. The penthouse was more than Thalia could handle. She looked around at the room. There were six different rooms there, a kitchen, three bathrooms; there was a pool and a hot tub. She looked over at Luke who had made himself at home.

She walked over to where he was on the bed and sat next to him, "Luke what's all of this about?"

He smiled at her and pulled her onto his lap, "That my dear you will have to figure out through the week."

She looked at him, "What are you talking about?"

"You'll see." He smiled.

They sat there for a moment and then Luke stood up, "Well I think we should go grab some lunch."

"Where?" she asked.

"There's this pretty amazing place down the boardwalk." He smiled.

He took her there and they were seated by the water, by the time they were ready it was already time for dinner. Luke still managed to surprise her every day. He held her hand across the table and stared into her eyes, "All the times I've been here I've always gone alone."

She smiled, "Really?"

He nodded, "You're the first to know about my secret happy place."

They sat there and enjoyed their meal. They ended up spending the night out on the beach at the boardwalk looking at all the town had to offer. She was wearing one of Luke's favorite dresses on her. It was a light airy but deep purple and gold dress. He looked pretty spiffy himself in a nice purple shirt and dress pants.

"Thalia I'll give you one of your clues." He smiled.

He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a picture of Will Smith.

"Will Smith?" she asked, "If this is about my childhood I've seen enough Fresh Prince."

Luke chuckled, "You'll have to see the rest of your clues."

The next day he left a college sweater in the bathroom for her after her shower. It was his U of M sweatshirt. She looked at it and decided that she was even more confused more than she was last night upon receiving a picture of Will Smith.

She walked out of the bathroom in his sweatshirt and a pair of cotton shorts, "The U of M?"

"Just wait Thalia." He smiled.

They spent that day in the room. Luke cooked and Thalia watched movies. It was an easy day there were so many things to do in a hotel penthouse room that Thalia was beat by the time they went to bed.

The next day there were tickets sitting on the kitchen counter for the boardwalk amusement park. They spent the day riding rides, eating cotton candy and chili cheese fries, and enjoying their time together. Luke handed her the map and the merry-go-round was circled.

"Another clue?" she asked.

"Of course it is." He smiled as they walked out to Thalia's car.

Finally the next night after they spent the day doing anything they could think of, and their last day there. Luke called room service for dinner and set up the room while Thalia spent the day at the spa.

When she came back Luke ambushed her with roses, chocolates, and a glass of sparking water. He led her to the balcony where there was a dinner waiting.

He sat Thalia down and they enjoyed their dinner before he handed her a pad of paper and a pen before handing her the last clue, "You'll figure this out after you see the last clue."

She opened the envelope to find a picture of the movie poster for Despicable Me 2. She grabbed the pen and paper and began to write down the clues in ways that would possibly make sense. Luke smiled the whole time as she tried to figure it out.

She looked down at the most recent option and realized that she had written it without thinking, "Will You Marry Me?"

She shook her head and was about to scribble it off the list when Luke grabbed her hand and stopped her. She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows, "What?"

"Thalia there's something I want to ask you." He said before getting down on one knee, "I know we've only known one another for a few months, but I know that there's something about you that I can't live without. I'm going to take a little bit of a leap here and ask you; Thalia Grace will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the world?"

She looked at him and her hand instantly flew to her mouth. She was speechless. Luke looked at her and pulled out a black box before slipping the ring onto her finger. She looked at it and realized that the diamond was surrounded my amazingly blur sapphires and then she realized that the diamond itself was a pale blue.

"Yes I'll marry you." She whispered.

Luke grinned and kissed her passionately. This was not at all what she had expected. She hadn't expected to come out to California to find love but she did. She found someone who made her happier than Nico. She thought it over that night as she lay in bed next to Luke. Nico was someone she loved but now that she looked back on it she noticed that he was also something that reminded her of all the things that had hurt her in life. Luke was someone who she loved also. He showed her that you could move on after tragedy and now she had promised to spend the rest of her life with him. She looked over at him and snuggled into his side. Her life was going to start falling into place now everything was beginning to make sense.

He smiled and pulled her closer to him and kissed the top of her head, "I love you Thalia."

He had agreed that they would wait until she was done with her school and then they would get married. Luke's band, much to the dismay of their fans, had broken up when most of the members decided that it wasn't something they wanted to do anymore. There was nothing that Thalia could think of that could ruin how she was feeling at the moment.

She and Luke survived through Thalia's four years of college and his two before they were finally married the next summer. She smiled when they welcomed their first son into the world where after that there would be another daughter and a set of twins. Their lives weren't haunted by their pasts and they lived it as happily as they could.

Luke smiled at her like he had the first day they had met and she still kissed him like the first time they had kissed after all they had been through. Things like this were what made her life happy. Somewhere between all the trauma and misery and the happiness and the love she found herself. She found that she was strong and that she could love again. She found that she could move on with her life and find happiness and she also found that there was nothing more to life than being happy. Luke definitely proved that to her through those years where his spontaneity showed her that there's nothing you can't find to make you happy/

So that night after she put the twins to bed and tucked in their other children with Luke at her side, she kissed her amazing husband goodnight and snuggled close to him like when they had first snuggled together. She loved him and nothing had changed the fact that he loved her.