Witness Protection for Demigods

The next few weeks moved by a little easier. The teachers realized by now just how extensive his “brain damage” was and no longer looked to him for the harder question answers. After two weeks they stopped calling on him at all. MJ was back to not talking to him but Ned reassured him it wasn’t anything he had done. At school now he had to actually had to pretend to not like Ned now that they were having bi-weekly meetings on how to keep his identity hidden. Percy was not always the quickest learner which May seemed to find great joy in. Ned had informed her of MJ’s habit to hit Percy every time he got a question wrong and May had taken up the role like it was her lifelong passion. She even set aside white plastic spoon in the drawer next to the couch. She called it her “wrongs-be-gone” spoon. Percy called it mini-Gabe, it didn’t hit as hard as Gabe had (May was far too gentle) but he found great joy in naming a dirty cheap spoon after his late step-father.

He thinks things may be changing when MJ flags him down in the hallway during class change one day but his hopes are quickly burned to the ground when she dismisses him from something called decathlon. Apparently he was in it and apparently MJ saw it necessary to make his removal very public. If he was being honest, that one stung a little. 

It was fine though because he wasn’t going to be there much longer, just over another month and he would be gone. Different school, different city, he didn’t quite know the details yet but the end result would be the same. He would never see these people again.

The rest of the day goes well besides the fact that everyone was back to looking at him with pity, even the teachers. It was odd, he guessed his life was something to be pitied, his real life. But getting kicked out of a school club? It was so normal, was this the sort of thing regular teenagers worried about? That realization had cheered him up a bit, thinking about how different things would have been if Annabeth was here. It was what she wanted after all. She would comfort him if she was here, pat his back and tease him for being upset over a club. In private though, she would start off on one of her tangents. Annabeth had never got to experience any real sort of school experience since she had run away at seven. She would have been ecstatic to get the chance to be kicked out of a club. It made Percy smile, he was doing well, living the dream that she had imagined for them.

Ned was already at the apartment when Percy made it home, him and May were sharing a drink of something in the living room, chatting and laughing. When Percy walked in it died off. May sent him a warm smile, “welcome home Peter.”

He chose to ignore the pained look on Ned’s face and responded with some small talk. 

Eventually Ned whipped out his “ear” seeking device and they got into their lesson. 

“MJ’s trying, you know.” Ned voiced about thirty minutes in. He had been going over Percy’s quiz (yes, quiz) when he spoke up into the silence.

“What?”

“She’s trying.” Ned repeated, putting down the red pen, “It’s just hard and MJ… she doesn’t always know what to do with her emotions. It’s why she got into art.” He chuckles lightly at the end but it falls flat. Percy thought back to the flashcards she had made. All those hand drawn photos yet every single one expressed a degree of distress. Ned sighs, “What I’m saying is just, don’t think too harshly of her. She’s trying.”

Percy nods, “I get it” he says, “trust me, I get it”

Finally Ned meets his gaze and when he does he gives him a long hard stare. “I know you do, can I ask who it was?”

Percy’s breath hitches, he winces as Annabeth’s smiling face pops across his vision. 

Who it was…

Who it was.

Annabeth was a was now wasn’t she, not an is, not a now, she was.

It hurt.

“Maybe another time,” Percy decides. Ned just nods and gives him back his graded quiz.

“Alright, well I noticed a hole in your performance today.” it’s what they had started calling it, as if Percy was just putting on a show. Although, in some ways he was. “You seemed confused when MJ dropped you from Decathlon, right?” Percy nodded. “You don’t know what that is, do you?” This time Ned nodded. From his backpack he pulled out a new stack of cards, this time in various shades of green. Percy wilted, he should’ve played dumb…

Going to sleep that night was hard. Percy kept running the day's events through his head. Picking apart each incident and imagining what Annabeth would have thought of it, what she would have said, how she would have acted, what she would’ve looked like. It was a masochistic activity, each second that passed was like someone was pulling at the edges of the hole in his heart. Every part of it was painful, filled with grief and guilt but he couldn’t seem to stop.

He needed a distraction, something to think about that wouldn’t push him closer and closer to jumping off the apartment complexes roof or visiting an arcade just so he could sit there and wait for a group of hellhounds to sniff him out and tear him limb from limb.

That’s how he ended up with Peter’s diary in his hands. The small black one with the red and blue mask drawing on the cover that he had found while packing Peter’s things away. He didn’t quite know why he grabbed it, he was stealing Peter’s life, the last thing he should do is take the last thing Peter owned. His privacy. But there was another part of him that longed to learn just a little bit more about him. From his lessons he knew what Peter liked, who he liked, what he wanted to be when he got out of college, and how he dealt with certain situations. All of this painted out a picture of a wonderfly smart boy who loved his friends and yearned to help others while having very little confidence in himself. But that wasn’t enough for Percy. He wanted to know how Peter thought. Why did he like science-y stuff so much? Had he ever kissed a girl? What kept him up at night caused based on the eyebags under the other teens eyes in all his photos something kept him up. It was like a string was pulling from Percy’s mind, something urging him to understand just who Peter Parker had been. And for some reason, it felt important to Percy that he know.

So, in the darkness of his room, Percy pulled out Anaklusmos and slowly started to slowly read.

His next visitor came on a Sunday. The weather was a little chilly, but no to bad. Percy decided to go out for a walk but when he opened the door, there she was.

“Uhhhhh” he said oh so eloquently.

MJ just pursed her lips, “can I come in?” she asked. Percy opened the door wider and followed her to the couch. He was starting to feel like a school counselor with all these meetings. Although, he usually wasn’t the counselor in those situations. And usually, they ended in his expulsion…

That wasn’t the kind of thoughts he wanted to be having at this moment and as he sat down he tried to push them away along with his nerves. Ned had told him that MJ wouldn’t turn him in but Percy didn’t really know them. He had only been living with May for a few weeks now, only interacting with the two people that held his fate in their hands in mostly academic settings. He whipped his palms against his jeans, trying to get the sweat to go away. He felt hopeful when she whipped out that same device Ned had and scanned the room before sitting down across from him.

Percy was surprised though when she started talking. “I haven’t been fair to you.” She said, meeting his eyes unwaveringly. Resolve was clear in her gaze.

“Wh-” MJ held up a hand. Ok, Percy thought, I guess she wants to talk.

“I tried to turn you away when you first got here. I think that was clear. I didn’t want you here, I still don’t want you here but that’s my problem, not yours. I publicly dropped you from Decathlon because I knew you didn’t know what that was and I wanted to mess you up…” He could see it now, just below the sadness and resolve, guilt. MJ felt guilty. “I… I’m not good with people. But Peter made it easy.” She took a deep and shaky breathe. “But then Peter was gone and you came and I was just expected to pretend like I don’t miss him every. Single. Day. Because I shouldn’t be missing him if he’s here, but he’s not here and if I let anyone know that you would be the one to suffer.” Percy felt like he had been punched in the gut. He hadn’t even considered that. He knew his presence disrupted their ability to grieve their friends but that wasn’t all. Ned, MJ, May, they were well aware that one slip up from them would cause Percy’s life to fall apart. They had to actively help him, whether they wanted to or not. 

“MJ, I’m-”

“I’m not done” she said and Percy slammed his mouth shut. Okay, MJ was a little scary. “Peter is dead but I can’t dwell on that because you are here. Peter is dead and you stole his life. Why was it Peter who died and not you?” Percy winced, he wondered that too sometimes. “It kept evolving until I realized I was blaming you for Peter’s death even though you never met him, didn’t even know him. But I knew him. If it had been the other way around, if you had died and it was Peter in danger I would want your family and your friends to help hide him.” She shook her head, “No. I would expect you to help him because he wouldn’t deserve what was happening to him. And as far as I can tell…” she scanned him up and down, starting from his head to his toes then back to his eyes, “you don’t deserve what’s happened to you either.”

And that was that. Like Ned had said, MJ wasn’t the feelings kind of girl and she dismissed all of Percy’s attempts to start a conversation. She hadn’t come there for a conversation but she hadn’t come to apologize either. She had come to explain her behavior and offer her assistance once more. When she left she didn’t go without promising to be back the next day with Ned and even more flashcards. Overall Percy was starting to feel like his place in Peter’s life was becoming more and more solidified. But there was still one thing that bothered him.

He pulled it out of his back pocket and flipped through the pages some more. Peter’s notebook. He had gotten through most of it but something felt off. It was clearly a diary but it almost seemed like a front. It talked about school, Ned, MJ, Flash, how he missed his uncle whenever he saw a policeman walking down the road. Percy got what he was looking for, it had Peter’s thoughts, his feelings, the what’s and the why’s of what made him him but it still felt like it was missing something, hiding something. For one, it never mentioned any sort of physical activity that would explain Peter’s physique. That was one thing Percy had looked for, hoping to get some tips from the kid that somehow became jacked so quickly. It also left no time in the day for when he could have worked out. According to the diary, Peter’s normal schedule was school, home or Ned’s house or the library and then studying until late. It didn’t make sense. Percy was positive that Peter would need to do some sort of exercise for at least eight hours a week to look the way he had. There was something going on and Percy’s suspicions were only amplified by the fact that he still had yet to find a recent photo of Peter without baggy clothes on. Clothes that could hide his muscles from a normal mortal, but not a demigod.

Percy’s current theory was that Peter had not been as blind to the godly world as May seemed to believe. Maybe he had found out he wasn’t normal but attempted to keep it under wraps to protect her. It wasn’t an uncommon story back at camp. But maybe knowing the truth of the matter didn’t matter. Afterall, in the end Peter was still dead. Yet, Percy wanted to know more, he wanted the full picture.

The next day was a gloomy one. At school Ned had come up to him, anxious and fidgeting with his hands, and warned Percy that May might be in a bad mood that day. It was the anniversary of her husband's death. So, on the way home Percy thought of all the ways campers chose to comfort each other when times like this rolled around. Grover would spend the whole day cooking, nothing edible for demigods but that wasn’t the point. The Stoll brothers usually pulled off some major prank so the camp was always on guard. But they never got upset with the prank, not on anniversary days. And Clarisse liked to float in the lake and listen to classical music. It was supposed to be her little secret but the fish had tattled on her and Percy’s favorite jacket had been torn to shreds when he brought it up. But May? She seemed more like a Piper type of girl. Stay in or go out to the deceased's favorite places, do what they liked to do, and gorge on chocolate. 

So Percy stopped at a few stores and grabbed an assortment of chocolates, strawberries, a chick-flic his mom tended to enjoy, and a face mask. He really hoped she was a Piper type of griever…

It was clear May wasn’t in a good place as soon as he stepped through the doors. It was quiet in the apartment and he spotted her immediately at the kitchen table just staring at her hands clasped out in front of her. He didn’t get any sort of greeting this time and he couldn’t tell if she knew he was back. He knocked on the door frame and she jumped.

“Hey May, I’m home.”

She turned at looked at him with bloodshot eyes and attempted a pitiful smile, “Oh Per…” her smile drooped, “you’re home” she decided on. Percy nodded and walked over.

“Ned told me what today is. I grabbed a few things my friends find helpful on days like this.” May didn’t respond, didn’t even look at the bag, transfixed on his face. Percy swallowed. “Uh... I’ll just leave these here I guess and get out of your hair, I’ll see you tomorrow.” But as he went to put the groceries down May stopped him. 

“Stay?” she asked. Percy felt his heart clench. Here was a woman who had lost the two most important people in her life all within a year and opened up her door to him. Here she was asking him a favor. He would be damned if he didn’t accept it.

“Of course” he told her.

At some point May opened up the chocolates, and grabbed a photo album. She talked slowly, flipping the pages even slower as she told Percy the story behind each photo. He got to witness a whole life, a whole marriage in the span of two hours and it tore his heart apart because he could understand her pain. He had a photo album too, carefully tucked away in the corner of the closet in a go-bag filled with all his most important belongings. Annabeth was on every page. 

When May started to cry again Percy couldn’t help it. He cried too. Eventually May started asking him about Annabeth. She knew about her from a few passing conversations and one dark night where nightmares kept him awake. They talked, trading stories, grieving together and eating chocolate.

Around dinner time though May slammed a hand on the table and stood up. “I’m tired of this” she stated, “I’m tired of being sad.” She looked at Percy, determination written across her face, “Ever been to a shooting range, dearie?” He wiped his eyes and slowly shook his head.

And that’s how Percy Jackson, age sixteen, survivor of two wars and Tartarus, learned that under no circumstances should he ever hold a gun. May’s membership had almost been canceled, only when she promised to never bring Percy back did the owner reluctantly give her card back. Percy felt awful walking to the car. It was supposed to have been an activity to help May and instead all he had done was cause her stress. She walked ahead of him and he could vaguely see her shoulders were tense, Percy held his breath as they stepped into the car. May closed the door and suddenly made a noise. It started off as a sort of choking noise, was she hyperventilating? No… she was laughing.

May threw back her head and let out the loudest laugh Percy had heard in years. It was the kind of laugh that would knock you off your feet and her hands were wrapped around her stomach in a way that let Percy know it hurt.

“Did you see his face!” She managed to choke out, “Lord almighty, dearie I didn’t think anybody could have that bad of an aim. How did you even do that?” She asked, buckling over and laughing some more. Percy flushed red. May caught her breath and turned to look at him, “Well? Come on, did you hit the concession stand on purpose?” He pursed his lips and looked away. May started howling again. “I didn’t think a bullet could bounce off that many objects!” Percy just scrunched down in his seat, wondering if May would have to pay for that bag of chips… or the lightbulb… or that old man’s top button… 

He’s sure the facility would have called the police except for the fact that they had watched him shoot at the target down the lane. None of them understood how it bounced backwards.

May was done laughing now, taking deep breaths with a hand on her chest and lightly chuckling every once in a while. “I might need to find a new range.” She stated. 

“...sorry” Percy muttered, hoping to put this all behind them.

May just shook her head. “No, don’t apologize.” Her arm moved down and she leaned back fully in her seat, staring out the sunroof. “Thank you. For today.” She said, “I never imagined I would be doing this alone.” She looked back at him, waiting until he was looking her way. “Really, thank you honey.” Percy just nodded.