Annabeth's phone vibrates, making her purse shake. Embarrassed, she smiles at Luke. "Do you mind?"

His hand clasps hers, and he squeezes. "Of course not,"

Annabeth pulls her chair back from the table. She kisses Luke on the cheek before walking to the women's bathroom of the restaurant, pressing the Accept icon on her phone.

"Annabeth Chase,"

Silence.

"Hello?" She asks. If this is a prank call I swear to gods.

"Is this not Sally Jackson?" The voice asks. It's a man, sounding stressed and… in pain.

"Who is this?" Annabeth asks.

"Uhh, I'm Percy Jackson. Is this your phone?"

Gods. She looks at her phone. "Of course it's my phone." She snaps, irritated.

He sighs. "Oh. I'm… I'm really sorry to bother you. It's just…"

Annabeth thinks she hears a voice on the phone telling the man he has three minutes left.

Annabeth frowns. "Who are you? How did you get this number?"

He- Percy pauses. "I thought this was my mom's number."

"How in the world could you have thought this was your mother's number?"

"I… I never had a phone. Until last year. And I just can't seem to memorize her number."

Annabeth almost smirks. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

Her almost-smirk fades. "Where are you that you only have…" She looks at the watch on her wrist, "One minute and forty five seconds left?"

"Long Island Prison." He whispers dejectedly.

Annabeth almost chokes. "Long Island Prison?" She repeats, her mouth gone dry. What in the world is a twenty-one year old assumably poor person doing in a prison for hardened… murderers? Than she corrects herself. He could be a murderer.

"Why are you there?" She asks, before she realizes it is a personal question. But something about this man intrigues her. He is like a man she met in one of the novels she reads.

He answers without a heartbeat. "I punched my stepfather. In the head. And the arm. And his other arm. And his-"

"Okay, okay, I get it! But why would they put you in a prison designed for murderers and gang members?

"My stepfather has connections at this prison. He pressed charges, and his mountain of lawyer friends got me put in here. This is his form of punishment."

Wow. Messed-up stepfather. "And your mother?"

Percy pauses. "I need her to bail me out of here. If I don't get out of here in time for work tomorrow, I'll lose my job," Percy coughs, then mutters, "and I need the money."

Annabeth can't believe what she is planning to do. She quickly shuts down the logical part of her brain with, It'll be my kind act for the week, no the month.

"Sit tight uh, Percy. I'm going to-"

Click. The line went dead.

"Gods!" She screams in frustration.

Annabeth quickly grabs her purse, shoves her phone in it, and walks back to her table to her fiance.

"Luke, I'm so sorry. I just got a call from work. I have to go. The freaking electrician put the main electricity wire by the support beams on the wrong side of the building. I can't believe I have to go fix this."

It startles Annabeth how quickly she can lie to Luke, but she pushes it aside.

Luke smiles warmly. "Go. I can't wait to see the orphanage when it's finished. You're going to save a lot of children's lives, Annabeth."

Annabeth blushes. "I won't be the one taking care of them. Just designing the building. Love you." She kisses Luke and walks out of the restaurant.

Annabeth slides into her blue Toyota Camry and sets her GPS to Long Island Prison. "Mystery man, here I come."

Annabeth walks into the prison forty minutes later. The woman at the desk gives her an odd look, but doesn't say anything out loud. Annabeth can only imagine what she is thinking. She walks up to the woman and says, "I'm here to bail someone out of jail."

The woman raises her eyebrows but looks at her screen. "Name?" She drawls.

"Annabeth Chase."

"No. The name of the person you want to bail out."

Annabeth wants to slap herself. Normally she wouldn't be so idiotic, but the jail has her on edge. It is relatively clean, but the man staring at her in the chair behind her does nothing to ease her nervousness. "Percy…" She tries to recall the man's last name. Jackren… Jacksim… Jackson! "Jackson," She finishes.

The woman pecks at the keys, then turns to face her. "Five hundred dollars. You can pay ten percent now and leave with him, then pay the rest later."

Five hundred dollars… even paying fifty dollars now seems ridiculous. But Annabeth dutifully pulls out her wallet and hands the woman five ten-dollar bills. The woman grabs a ring of keys and disappears through a wooden door by her desk.

Annabeth waits patiently by the desk until the door opens again and Percy walks out. Annabeth freezes, staring at him. He has messy black hair, the most gorgeous sea-green eyes she has ever seen, and a tall, skinny form. He walks with confidence, but his face is guarded. His clothes are torn in some places and wrinkled.

"You." He looks at her, surprised. "You came."

Annabeth smiles, also guarding her face. "Well, you seemed to be in a pretty bad situation."

Percy studies her. "I wasn't aware I called an angel."

Annabeth feels her face redden, and it slowly dawns on Percy what he had said. "No! No! I meant that you were an angel because you bailed me out, not your looks."

Annabeth raises an eyebrow.

Again, Percy realizes what he had said. "I mean, you are pretty, it's not, I wasn't saying you weren't, just that I…" He slowly trails off, running a hand through his hair. He only succeeds in making it messier.

Annabeth motions to him with her arm. "Let's go."

Percy stands there. "You don't have to take me with you. I can call my mom."

"With the number you can't seem to remember?"

Percy bites his lip. "I can walk."

Annabeth laughs. "Yeah. I don't know where you live, but I assume you don't live by this dump, and you look like you haven't eaten in a few days. Stop being stubborn."

Percy reluctantly follows her, letting her lead except for when he stepped in front of her to open the door of the jail.

The drive back was in silence, except for the radio playing softly. That is, until a song from The Graeae came on, and Percy turns it up. "I love this song!" He said excitedly.

Annabeth smiles. "Me, too!"

Together, they sing. Annabeth is surprised Percy isn't bad, and Percy likes listening to Annabeth's soft, unconfident voice.

When the song ends, Annabeth turns off the radio completely. "Where do you live?"

Percy hesitates. "In an apartment off of 19th Street. By the new orphanage Athena Architecture is building."

Annabeth laughs. "I'm in charge of that project! I run Athena Architecture with my half brother, Malcolm."

Percy's eyes light up. "Really? I think it is awesome you are building an orphanage for what has to be lower pay than you usually get."

Annabeth nods. "It is one of the charity cases we work on per year. Last year was a homeless shelter in Montauk."

Percy's eyes slowly widen. "Charity… money… bail! Oh my gods, how much did you pay?"

Annabeth keeps her eyes on the road. "Fifty. But you have to pay four hundred and fifty more. I think by the end of the year."

Percy's mouth drops. "You paid it for me? Oh my gods, I promise I'll pay you back as soon as I have the money…"

Annabeth shakes her head. "Don't worry about it. Focus on getting the other four hundred and fifty, okay?"

But Percy just shakes his head slowly. Annabeth decides to change the subject. "So, if you don't mind me asking, why did you punch your stepfather?"

Percy's eyes harden. "He hit my mother."

Annabeth's stomach drops. She already hates Percy's stepfather, but now she starts to despise him. "That's terrible." She murmurs.

Percy nods curtly. "That's why I hit him." Annabeth notices his fists clench in and out. The blue and purple bruises on his knuckles ripple with the movement, but Percy shows no sign of pain, unlike his voice on the phone.

"Look," Percy says, turning in the seat to face her, "I don't want you to think I'm a bad person. I just… I just can't stand anyone disrespecting my mother. She's all I have left, and when I walked in to see her with a black eye… something in me snapped. Gabe always ordered her around and treated her like crap, but he hasn't hit her before."

Annabeth smiles slightly and nods. "That's too far."

"Exactly. And when I hit him, he didn't even fight against me. It's like he knew he would be able to put me in jail. I can't imagine what he has done to her since I've been gone."

Annabeth knew better than to press him on his stepfather. "You're close with your mother."

Percy's eyes lit up with a burning intensity. Love. "Very. She used to make me these blue foods… just because I love blue. And she worked many jobs just to be able to make that pig satisfied. When he was happy...he stayed away from me."

Annabeth clenches her jaw. The idea that people exist like this in the world makes her furious. Her whole life she has wanted to change the world, and she thought the charity projects were helping. But clearly, there was much more even in her own backyard than she can fix. "Percy, I'm truly sorry."

Percy jumps in his seat, almost surprise at the fierceness of her words. He stares at the road, seeming to be deeply in thought. Suddenly his eyes widen, and he points to a turn. "Turn right up here."

Annabeth complies, and they pull up to a run-down apartment complex. Annabeth slows to a stop in front of the wooden steps leading down to a floor of doors and up to a floor of more doors. Annabeth can only assume each of those doors is an apartment room.

But with the spacing between the doors and the edge of the building, Annabeth hypothesizes each room can only be about twenty feet by thirty feet. Just enough room for a small kitchen and a bed, maybe a small dresser. It's all he can manage. She reminds herself.

Percy opens the car door and slowly gets out of the car. He fidgets with his fingers, then mumbles, "You should come in. I can make you dinner. It's late, and it's the least I can do to repay you."

Annabeth opens her mouth to respond, but is cut off when her phone starts to ring.