Work Text:
"There's nothing we can do."
Annabeth's world froze as she listened to Will.
And then a burning, blistering anger shot through her chest. She stumbled from her chair and left the room. Will and Piper stared mournfully after her.
____
She looked at him, just lying there, motionless on the hospital bed. She took in his lips, blue from being frozen in order to give the doctors more time to diagnose the problem.
He was being ripped from her, so quickly, so mercilessly.
It should have been her.
___
Flashback:
Percy rolled his eyes as they landed on Leo, giggling in his drunken haze.
Leo had called Annabeth, initially, to get him from the bar, because he obviously couldn't drive. However Annabeth was at work, devoted her energy to altering the skyline, like the badass she is.
So, Percy, who was at home, went to Leo's aid instead.
He got Leo onto the bus onto the bus as quickly as he could, sitting across from him, watching him amusedly, as he oscillated between sleeping and babbling and staring into space.
Percy sneezed. He rummaged through his pocket before getting out his flu drugs. He'd gotten some Amantadine from Will, for this flu, since it had decided to be a persistent bastard.
Tipping out a few tablets, his eyes returned to Leo, whose eyes widened at something behind Percy.
Percy saw only a blinding light, and felt pain, before he passed out.
_____
"Amantadine poisoning would explain the heart rate, the liver, the kidneys... His kidneys were hit, so he wasn't able to filter them out."
Will's voice faded out as Annabeth's joy and hope came shining through.
"Wait, so all we have to do is put him on dialysis? And he gets cured?" A grin lit up her face. She was getting Percy back.
The grin died out quickly as she took in the devastated looks of the Will and Kayla.
"Anna.. Amantadine binds with protein. We can't use dialysis to remove it from his blood."
Annabeth understood what that meant.
Hazel's voice cut in.
"What about a transplant? We-"
"His organs are all damaged, he can't qualify."
Annabeth understood what Will was saying.
Her Seaweed Brain was gone.
____
Kayla tapped Annabeth's shoulder gently as she stared out of the hospital window. It was raining. Percy loved the rain. If he wasn't-
If he wasn't as good as dead, he'd have rushed out into it, cold be damned.
If he hadn't gotten on that damn bus, if he hadn't gone to get Leo-
Leo.
This was Leo's fault.
No one asked him to get blackout drunk and drag Percy out to get him.
If Leo was just a sliver more responsible-
Kayla's voice cut through her thoughts.
"We can unfreeze him, wean him off anesthesia, so you can say your goodbyes."
Annabeth's stony lack of response quickly chased Kayla out of the room.
____
Percy's eyes fluttered open.
The didn't have the same light they did before.
He looked so hollow, so frail and fragile, that Annabeth could almost hear her heart shatter.
This was his mortal half, through and through, she thought. Mentally she cursed the gods for letting their saviour suffer this way. He'd saved them so many times, yet when they requested Apollo's help, the prayers went unanswered.
Her thoughts were interrupted at the frail but beautiful smile he gave her, even now succeeding at making butterflies erupt in her chest. He was beautiful, in every sense of the word, and it was another thing she would lose. This beauty, no one could replicate it, nothing was as gorgeous in her eyes.
He seemed to falter at her hopeless face.
It took strength, strength to look him in his beautiful eyes at tell him he was going to die.
Tear welled up in his eyes with every word, and Annabeth wanted to just gather him up, and backtrack all she'd said and tell him it was all okay.
But she couldn't, and Tartarus itself could never make her feel so hopeless.
_____
People filtered in and out of the room, saying their last goodbyes.
In the distance, at the lake she saw pegasi and hippocampi, mourning the loss of their prince.
Sally and Paul and Estelle came too, and Annabeth looked away, because they shouldn't have to do this.
Soon it was just Percy and Annabeth, as it had been for the past decade.
Annabeth was on the hospital bed, Percy shuffled just a little to give a space.
He was normally able to surround her, to envelope her. Now, even with a solid half foot over her, he looked so small.
Their noses pressed together, Percy's eyes drooping from sleep.
"I think- I think it time- for bed." Annabeth heart seized at Percy's words, broken from fatigue. It was time.
She begged to him stay awake. Just a little longer.
___
"Why aren't you angry?" She asked him.
"It's not- the last- thing-I want to-feel."
Now, it was time. She knew it.
She turned a little, away from Percy, and clicked the four shutdown buttons for the life support.
"I love you." He murmured, then he inhaled, and exhaled.
And then his eyes closed, and for a second Annabeth tried to pretend he was just sleeping. He wasn't though, and she knew it, and broken, choked sob escapes her as she runs her hand down his beautiful, beautiful face.
He's gone, and left a hole in her heart that she knew was never, ever going to be filled.
____
Leo knows that Percy's gone, as soon as he wakes up. Even a blind, deaf man would feel it when Percy, awesome, untouchable Percy, dies.
And Leo knows it's his fault.
And he knows Annabeth may actually be out to kill him. And he knows he's lost his best friends, one to death and one to sorrow.
And he can't stop the tide of misery that pulls him under, deeper and deeper, until he can't breathe.
_____
Annabeth collapses on the bed after two days of angst and heartbreak; the bed that used to be theirs.
Flipping onto her side, she catches a glimpse of a piece of paper on what used to be Percy's side of the bed.
It's a used envelope, and on the of back it:
Sorry I'm not here. Had to go get Leo. <3 Percy
She lets out another sob, because just two days ago, Percy was here, filling her space with his light.
And now he's gone.
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