It was the end of January when Percy realized how supreamly dumb he had been. He could hear his mother's speech in his head, the one she had given him when he and Annabeth had first started dating. It was one of those embarrassing, burned into your brain forever conversations, the kind he couldn't forget if he tried. And yet...
Annabeth was freaking out, of course, pacing the short length of her dorm room, looking on the verge of pulling her hair out. And normally Percy was pretty good at talking her off whatever ledge she gotten herself on. He had known her since they were twelve, had loved her for most of that. He had plenty of practice talking her down.
Except, this time, he right on that ledge with her, looking down at little stick in his hands and three more like it on the bed.
Annabeth was pregnant.
She had missed her cycle in December, she had even brought it up to him, but they had both excused it as a side effect of stress from finals. And then... she was late... two weeks late, which meant she was at least six weeks late, and that was a much bigger deal. She had only gotten the nerve to tell him a few hour before.
Percy still couldn't really believe it. They had been careful. Annabeth had gotten one of those fancy birth control implants, which where supposed to almost never fail, and they used condoms. Sure, there had been a time or two when they had forgotten but that was why Annabeth was on birth control. They were only 19, they weren't ready to be parents.
"What are we going to do?" Annabeth asked, finally coming to a stop infront of him.
He looked at the test in his hands and then back to her. "I... what do you want to do?"
Annabeth looked shocked and scared. "I don't know."
Percy didn't know if he had ever heard Annabeth utter those words in that order. Annabeth, brilliant beautiful Annabeth, had always seemed to know everything. She always had an answer to a problem, and even if she didn't, she would never admit it. "Come here," he said softly, putting down the test with the others and holding his arms out for her.
She climbed into bed next to him and curled into his side like he could protect her from the hard choices they would have to make. He wished he could.
"We’ll figure it out," he said into her hair. "We have options..."
There weren't many options. It was part of the reason they had been so careful in the first place. Any child of theres would likely be a target, for monsters and gods alike. Percy wasnt sure any demigod family would be willing to risk it, not even in the confines of New Rome, or the other, newer, smaller Demigod settlements of New Athens and New Sparta. And there was no way a child like that could go into the foster care system.
Annabeth's father wouldn't be willing, her step mother wouldn't allow it.
They could ask Sally and she would do it, but Estelle was only two. Sally and Paul had their hands full as it was, Percy couldn't fathom asking them to take on another child.
There was always the wolf house but... Percy remembered the wolf house well enough. He remembered Lupa and her pack, and while he was grateful to them, he saw what literally being raised by wolves had made Jason. He had no desire to put a child through that.
That left only two options, neither of which sat well with Percy.
"There's a clinic in Stanford," Annabeth said softly into his chest.
Percy tried not to react, he tried not to flinch at the suggestion. In truth, he didn't know why he wanted to react so badly to the suggestion. He had seen enough of children who were unwanted, and parents who didn't know how to love to know that it was never a happy situation. He knew that being a parent should be a choice, and if Annabeth didn't want it, or wasn't ready, then it didn't matter if thought he did or was, which he didn't. If Annabeth wanted to go to that clinic and take care of things that way, he would drive her himself, he would hold her hand and tell her it was the right choice. They weren't ready. He knew that.
And if she didn't, if she wanted to keep the baby... he would be there for that too. He would drive her to all of her appointments, he would find them an apartment in New Rome with room for a crib. He would even drop out of school after the baby was born so that Annabeth could keep studying. And he would hold her hand and tell her that it was the right choice. Because even if they weren't ready, they had eachother. He knew that too.
"Is that want?" He asked, running his fingers through her curls.
She looked up at him. "Is it what you want?"
"I don't know what I want," he admitted. "But that doesn't matter. I can want what you want."
Annabeth let out a watery scoff. "You have to want something."
Percy sighed, and pulled her tighter to his chest. "I want you to be happy," he finally said. "If that mean we make an appointment and I drive you to the clinic, then that's what I want."
Annabeth let out a small sob into the fabric if his hoodie. "And if I don't want to go to the clinic?"
"Then we have a baby," he said softly. "Is that what you want?"
"It'll be hard," She said, her voice muffled.
Percy wanted to laugh. "Everything we do is," he said. "If you wanna do this, I'm with you."
Annabeths arms squeezed around him tighter. He was sure she cried more, he certainly did. They sat in her bed all night, Annabeth fell asleep sometime around sunrise. Percy wasn't sure he slept at all until he felt Annabeth shaking him awake. She was blotchy from crying, he probably was too, but in the oight of a new day she seemed calmer, more like who she normally was.
"Well," She said softly as he pushed the gray streak away from her forehead.
"Well," he repeated back. "Whats the plan, wise girl?"
Annabeth sighed. "I guess we're having a baby, seaweed brain."
