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"ANNABETH!"
My throat burns as I scream her name. I roll my wrist and definitely slice myself a little bit with Riptide but I can't focus on that right now. Besides, it'll heal. I throw off the rope, run and jump into the water, thinking nothing but that it has to carry me, I have to get to her. And I wrap my arms around her, feeling her jerk and pull away, but I wrap my body around hers as I say her name.
It feels like I can't stop saying her name.
She cries out as the rope yanks me- yanks us both, because I lace my hands tight together, linking my fingers - and so we fall. I try to focus on softening the hit into the water for her, but I don't know if it does anything, really. She's still fighting me, and then she's whipping herself side to side and up, craning her neck and tilting her head, and I try to focus on helping her breathe.
It's automatic, as I try to imagine a bubble of air, I put my hand against her cheek and put my mouth on hers. Her eyes bulge, but I exhale, and then I pull back, waving my hand so she doesn't stab me for doing that. Showing her the bubble of air I've now made, but she simply looks at me as I carefully help her turn. The places by her nose crease as she crinkles her eyebrows, but then her lip trembles. "Ah, no. Annabeth, I'm sorry," I say softly. "I just- I had to get you out of there, that one siren grabbed you and I-"
She rolls her lips even as her eyes fill with tears, and then she closes her eyes and turns her head. Drops and shakes it. I figure she's going to push away again, but she sort of falls into my chest instead. I catch her, and hold on. And my rope hauls us back to the ship, providing a wake. But I keep the bubble of air intact by sheer force of thought, because if Annabeth starts choking on water after I've dragged her through the sea, I won't forgive myself.
My muscles are screaming as I lift my arm and manage to grab onto the side of the ship. I still hold Annabeth against me with my other arm, and I pull us both up, hauling, gasping and resting my head against the gunwale when I reach it. I push Annabeth up so that she can grab onto the railing of the deck, and mercifully she can tell I'm not shoving her.
Hopefully.
She falls over the side, waterlogged and gasping, and with the water pushing my legs I fall, flop almost onto the deck too, kind of like a landed fish. I gulp air and push back my hair, it's sopping wet and in my face even as I know it's gonna start to dry super soon. I push myself up and crawl over to Annabeth.
I've got to check on her again, just to see- but I can see right away she's shivering really hard. She's cold, so I roll and wince and get up, squelching over to grab a blanket - luckily the Captain's quarters on this boat are basically beside the deck. I hurry back and find her curled in on herself, arms wrapped around her knees. She's shivering and staring off into the distance. I crouch down.
"Annabeth," I say, keeping my voice soft. "Annabeth?" She blinks and jerks her head, but I just hold out the blanket where she can see it and say "here, I found this for you."
She looks at me, and it's like - as though she's seeing me for the first time since she heard the sirens sing. Her lips really start trembling. "Percy...."
"It's okay," I say, shaking open the blanket. "You're okay." She ducks her head, turns inward a little bit, and I shuffle closer to wrap the blanket around her. She catches both edges in her hand, and I'm about to give her space, to get up and move, when with her face turned slightly away from me, she says something I don't quite hear. "What?" I ask her. "What'd you say?"
"I said," she exhales, her lips purse as she shifts and clutches the blanket around her neck. "... don't go anywhere. Please."
Oh. I shift a little on my knees. "Okay," I say. I've gotten pretty much dry already, and so I just shift onto the plank next to her. She shifts closer and leans against me, and I wrap one arm around her. Annabeth turns, her voice catching on a quiet noise, and she puts herself right up against me, almost like she's burying herself in my shirt. Or my -toga, whatever the specific word is for it, because I'm still wearing the stupid thing I had on at C.C.'s resort. I wanted to rip it off before, but now it feels... important, because Annabeth is clinging on to it. To ME. She's lifted one hand to hold, kind of clutch my shoulder. The side of her face presses into the cloth over my chest, and I hold on to her. I wrap both arms around her and rest my face against her hair. I think about my fatal flaw, what Circe had told me, and there's some satisfaction in me proving her wrong already, because it's me caring about Annabeth that allowed me to save her.
Because what I saw when I'd cut myself free from the mast... I only saw her. And there's no way I was letting her face the sirens alone. Not when I could do something, and I did.
She may be mad at me- she saw and wanted to stay with her mom, I could hear her say enough to make that out. I rub her back, unsure if saying anything right now would help. Turns out the only thing I think of to say is, "I'm here," which I know is lame but I still say it anyway. Annabeth murmurs something else that I don't quite catch, but her hands have come up now as well to wrap around me, and she holds on tighter, increasing the strength of her grip when I move because I figure it's time for me to let go.
So I stay here, and I hold her, which I kinda hate to admit feels ...nice, even after everything we've gone through already. Maybe it's extra nice BECAUSE of that. I don't know, and I don't really care- any time I can hug Annabeth and not be sure she's gonna stab me is a good time.
I hang on tight, because I can't - I don't want to think about her being gone, dragged away by the sirens to be eaten. I'm super glad I was able to get her back here on the ship. Maybe we'll get some rest before we make it to Polyphemos's island to bring back Grover and the fleece.
There's always a tiny possibility I won't have any more nightmares on this quest, right?
Yeah. Right.