Chapter 12
Tony
Two agents from the FBI showed up less than two hours after the press conference. He had Friday direct them to an empty conference room while he got himself put together enough to talk to them. Massaging his temples with one hand, he got up to go down and greet them. After stepping into the elevator though, he immediately had to run back out to grab his coffee cup that sat abandoned on the countertop.
There was no way he could make it through this meeting without it.
Sure enough, the agent's incessant questions managed to make the pounding in his head even worse than it’d been when he woke up. He tried to answer their questions as best he could, but a lot of the things they wanted to know were things Annabeth hadn’t told him yet. Eventually they realized that he didn't have a lot of information for them, other than what he’d dug up on the elusive Dr. Chase, and so they requested to speak to Annabeth. He sighed, but knew it was unavoidable to bring her into this conversation. So, Friday relayed his message to send her down, and not even five minutes later she strolled into the conference room they’d commandeered for the day. Her posture screamed confidence as she sat next to him and met one of the agent’s hard stares without flinching.
He had considered giving her lessons on how to deal with the press, but judging by how she handled the agent's questions, she did not need it. Every question they had was met with nonanswers and misdirection.
Nevermind how good she was in the lab, she would make an excellent successor for Pepper as CEO. Her no-nonsense attitude, paired with her confidence and intelligence, was amazing to witness. She was perfect.
He would have loved his daughter no matter what she’d been like, but Annabeth was amazing.
Eventually, the agents got the hint that they weren't going to get anywhere with the interview and took their leave.
Annabeth smirked as soon as their backs were turned from her.
As soon as they were gone, she turned to him, suddenly losing her confident demeanor.
“I think—I know you deserve the truth about what happened.”
“Are you sure you’re comfortable with telling me,” he asked, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. If she changed her mind, though, it might just crush him. “As much as I want you to trust me with what you’ve been through, I can wait to hear it until you're ready.”
“No, I need to tell you,” she responded, and he could hear the conviction in her tone. They locked eyes over the conference table, and she began.
Annabeth
Tony had not taken the news of her past well. Sure, he hadn’t outright said or done anything, but the look of pure devastation on his face had gotten progressively deeper as she’d continued on. She’d almost asked if he was okay by the end of it, but refrained as she knew asking that would make him feel worse.
She knew telling him the whole truth was the right thing to do in the long run, but right now all she could think about was the anxiety in the pit of her stomach.
They’d talked for a long time—most of the day, actually. After she’d given him the basic rundown, they’d moved the conversation into the lab, where he’d basically interrogated her for the next few hours.
When she’d asked if he believed her, he’d just scoffed and reminded her that he was friends with Thor, and that nothing was unbelievable to him anymore.
Which was a fair point, actually.
He’d seemed a little disappointed that Peter had found out before him, though, which she felt bad about. In her defense, she had known and become friends with Peter months before she’d met Tony. He seemed to understand that though, and didn't appear to be angry about it.
When Tony had discovered that she was the one designing Olympus, she could see the obvious pride on his face. He immediately insisted that she would be the architect behind the rebuilding of his Malibu mansion, as the lot had apparently been sitting empty since its destruction during the Mandarin debacle.
It made her happier than she would care to admit.
The conversation had fizzled out eventually, and they’d moved on to working on their projects side by side, in a comfortable silence. She would occasionally ask him questions about design preferences and necessary amenities, and they’d discuss pros and cons for a bit before concentrating on their projects again.
It was nice to work with him like this…with her dad, though it was still a strange concept to think of him as her father.
Neither of them kept track of the time, and eventually Friday alerted them that they needed to attend dinner. Tony looked up sheepishly, apparently not realizing they had missed lunch.
“Let's go eat, kiddo. Pepper will kill us if we miss more than one meal in a row. Believe me, I speak from experience.”
She laughed, following him to the elevator. Her breath caught as she entered, like it always did, but the crushing panic had lessened.
Dinner was a casual affair, as it was just her, Tony, Pepper, and Morgan. They got Chinese takeout and mostly listened to Morgan’s animated anecdotes from her time at preschool.
And Annabeth was…happy. She had her own family now, one that loved her, all to herself. Sally was such an amazing person, and she loved her so much, but she was ultimately Percy’s mom. She hadn’t realized how dependent she’s been on Percy and his family and how much it was affecting her healing. Not everything could be solved by just being there for each other. This time away from Percy had done wonders for her healing, though she still wanted him to come back as soon as he could.
Just because she could admit it was good for them to have time apart, didn’t mean she had to like it.
***
After dinner, she opted against rejoining Tony in the lab, instead choosing to go down to the gym and get a good workout in.
Halfway through, she was joined by Natasha. Immediately, she paused her workout, body filling with tension as Natasha came to a stop directly in front of her.
Neither woman spoke.
Eventually, Natasha broke the silence.
“It was invasive of me to look through your lives like that. I was only trying to assist you.”
“By confronting us?”
Natasha pursed her lips, obviously putting in effort to portray her emotions rather than subdue them.
“I…apologise for my bluntness.”
Annabeth only raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.
“I could show you a few of my moves, if you’d like,” Natasha offered.
At that, Annabeth could feel a wicked grin spreading over her face. Maybe Natasha wasn’t so bad, after all. She was clearly trying, why not give her a shot, and learn some new techniques along the way?
“Alright, show me what you got.”
***
Annabeth was exhausted, mentally and physically. Today had been draining, from the FBI agent's interrogation that morning, to spending most of the day explaining her past to Tony, to ending the day training with the Black Widow—who’d actually been really cool to get to know.
Apparently her day hadn’t been long enough, though, because when she entered her room, Athena was already there waiting for her.
“Daughter. I have discovered who was responsible for taking you and clouding my memories. It was Akhlys, the goddess of misery.”
What?
“You mean the same goddess that Percy almost killed, is the one that was able to cloud your memory?
Athena’s head whipped up at that revelation, all thoughts of Annabeth’s predicament vanishing.
“Perseus did what? Explain to me right now what you mean.”
“He—he was able to use her poison against her when we were in Tartarus. It was water-based, so he could control it. It–he–was terrifying. I almost couldn’t get him to stop.” She shuddered at the memory. It was easy to forget, sometimes, just how dangerous Percy was because he had never been anything but gentle with her.
Athena looked deeply troubled by this information, and vanished within moments.
Annabeth was so glad to finally be alone that she collapsed onto her bed. She’d deal with the information her mom gave her in the morning. It wasn’t like it was time sensitive, she’d been kidnapped fourteen years ago. It could wait another night.
She was out within minutes, and it was the best sleep she’d gotten since Percy left.
Karen
Ellison burst into her office like he owned the place, his voice raised like he suspected she’d done something stupid again. She turned over the last few days in her mind. Nothing popped out at her as something he’d think was especially dumb or dangerous.
“Karen, what the hell are you still doing here? All you had assigned to you today was the piece about the return of Annabeth Stark.”
“It wasn’t that simple,” she began, already knowing that would get him all worked up. “There's more to the story, something big that they’re trying to hide.”
“She was kidnapped as a child, I’m sure there's a lot of things they don’t want to be public. Not everything is a conspiracy, Karen. Respect their privacy and let it go.”
As soon as the door closed behind him, she pressed her palms to her eyes. The piece he wanted from her was already written, so she’d turn that in and hopefully he’d forget about her reluctance to do it.
She wouldn't forget though. She’d keep her ear to the ground and make sure she knew everything there was to know about this case. Ellison wouldn't even know she was looking into Annabeths disappearance and the mysteries around it until she was done.
If she had to enlist Matt to do so, then so be it. There were some perks of having a vigilante as one of her best friends, and the information was definitely one of them.