***A/N: Final chapter! Hope you enjoy! And, yes, a katobleps is an actual monster from Greek mythology; there's information about it on the Theoi Greek mythology website. And because I think I forgot to put a disclaimer on this story, all characters, their powers, etc. belong to Rick Riordan.***

The dishes were nearly done when Annabeth spotted the stupid bull-sheep-thing through the window. She almost dropped the plate she was drying.

"Um, Percy?"

"Yeah?" He looked up from where he was washing the skillet his mom had made taco meat in, his arms covered in soap bubbles to his elbows.

"Please tell me I'm hallucinating and there's not actually a katobleps out there."

"A what?"

"The over-sized sheep thing walking down the beach!"

"Oh that." Percy squinted to make out the dim shape on the beach. "Yeah, it's really there."

"Fantastic," Annabeth muttered. "Apparently, we don't get to have a relaxing weekend." She set down the plate, dried her hands, and drew her bronze knife. "Come on, we'd better go stop it."

"Why?" Percy asked, still watching the katobleps out the window. "The cat-burps thing isn't hurting anyone. It's just taking a walk on the beach."

"It's a katobleps," Annabeth said, moving toward the back door. "And it won't just hurt people, it'll kill them. Now are you going to help me or not?"

"No, I thought I'd go another round on Halo while you fight a monster." Percy rolled his eyes and shook the soap bubbles off his arms before drawing Riptide. He held the screen door open for her. "After you. Let's go kill the giant sheep."

They didn't have to worry about telling Percy's parents where they were going because Paul had taken Sally to a bar down the road so they could meet up with some friends from their writing class, who were also in Montauk for the weekend. Annabeth had been looking forward to spending the last evening at the cabin with just Percy, but it looked like the Fates had other plans. Stupid monsters, she thought as they walked down the path from the cabin to the beach, where the katobleps was trudging along the shoreline.

She had to admit, it didn't look very threatening, especially compared to the crab from yesterday. The katobleps was roughly the size of a bull, but it was covered in thick fur like a mountain goat or a yak. The fur covered everything, even its eyes, like a sheepdog. Its head seemed too big for its body and must have been heavy because it was hanging down until its nose almost touched the sand. It looked sad and, for a moment, Annabeth almost felt sorry for it. Then, she remembered the stories she had read about katoblepones, who used their power intentionally to hurt other creatures, and her resolve hardened.

"Whatever you do, don't look into its eyes," she told Percy as they cautiously approached the creature. "And try not to let it breathe on you, either."

"Bad breath?"

"Something like that. And the gaze will kill you."

"Wow, I wonder why no one wants it as a pet. What's it doing here?" Percy asked. The katobleps was completely ignoring them, still plodding down the beach. Annabeth followed its path. It was headed directly towards—.

"Oh," she said. Down the beach, a group of college students were having a bonfire. The sounds of music, clinking beer bottles, and raucous laughter echoed down the beach. "I'm guessing it's going to crash that party."

"Not cool," Percy said. "So, what do we do? Just stab it?"

"I guess so," Annabeth said. It felt wrong to just walk up and stab an animal that appeared to be minding its own business, but if it got to the party with all the mortals and started looking people in the eye, there was going to be a serious problem. "Alright, on three, we both stab it." She shot Percy a dirty look. "And, this time, please wait until I actually get to three."

He grinned. "Will do."

"One." They both took a step closer. The monster was only about three feet away and it still didn't seem to notice them. That's weird, Annabeth thought, but she shrugged it off. "Two."

Before she could say "three", the katobleps lifted its head, turned to look at them (luckily its shaggy hair still hid its deadly eyes), opened its mouth, and gave a humongous belch.

The smell was horrendous. It was like a thousand dead skunks had been left to rot on a pile of garbage in the middle of summer, with some manure tossed on the pile for good measure. Annabeth's eyes watered and she doubled over, clutching her stomach and trying very hard not to vomit.

Percy gagged. "What in Hades did this thing eat?"

The katobleps turned away from them and continued its slow march up the beach towards the party.

"New strategy," Annabeth said, wiping her eyes. "Stay as far away from that thing's mouth as possible."

"I vote 'yes' to that plan," Percy said weakly, raising his hand.

They followed the katobleps down the beach, maintaining a cautious distance and holding their breath the two times the thing turned to look back towards them. Annabeth's mind was racing. She had zero interest in getting close enough to smell that breath again, but they had to stop it. If it got to the party, she was pretty sure it would shake the hair out of its eyes and give a very literal meaning to the term "death glare."

"Too bad we don't have an archer with us," Percy said. "Then we could kill that thing without having to get close to it."

This gave Annabeth an idea. In a rare moment of ADHD-fueled impulse, she took aim and threw her knife at the katobleps.

The good news was that the Celestial bronze knife sank to the hilt into the monster's back. The bad news was that Annabeth was now weaponless as the katobleps roared like an angry bull and rose up onto its hind legs.

"Oops," she said.

"Aren't I the one who's supposed to make stupid and reckless decisions?" Percy asked as he stepped in front of her, Riptide raised.

"I thought we'd switch things up a bit," Annabeth said as the katobleps pawed the ground and prepared to charge. "So, um, any chance you have a plan?"

"I'm going to wait until it gets close enough, then cut its head off. How's that?"

"A plan worthy of my mother. You go right, I'll go left and try to get my knife back."

The katobleps charged and they dove out of the way. Annabeth leapt towards her knife, still stuck in the thing's back. She just managed to grab it and yank it out, leaving a long gash in the katobleps's back. The katobleps roared and reared back on its hind legs again, shaking the shaggy hair out of its eyes.

"Percy, close your eyes!" Annabeth shouted as she dropped back to the sand and followed her own advice.

"Die, Dung-Breath!" Percy yelled. Annabeth heard the thwack as Riptide connected with the katobleps, then the dull thump as what she hoped was the monster's head, and not her boyfriend, hit the sand. She risked opening her eyes.

The katobleps had dissolved, the way most monsters did, so all she saw was Percy, breathing heavily, sword still raised, his expression fierce. It was a good look on him. He looked over at her and lowered Riptide.

"Next time," he said, "can I go back to being the reckless one?"

Annabeth threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Yes."

"Good. Now, what are we supposed to do with that?" He pointed at the katobleps's head, which was lying in the sand. Annabeth didn't want to look directly at it, but in her peripheral vision, she could see that its tongue was sticking out and she could smell the breath from five feet away.

"I think it's supposed to be a spoil of war," she said.

"Are all spoils of war disgusting?" Percy asked.

"Most of them, yeah." Annabeth considered the head. "We need to be careful, though. It's like Medusa's head, it's still dangerous."

"Oh, that's a happy memory," Percy muttered. He capped Riptide and put the pen back in his pocket, then pulled off his t-shirt.

"What are you doing?"

"We need something to cover the head with and this is all we've got," Percy said. "Unless you want to take your shirt off?"

Annabeth punched him in the arm, but Percy grinned as he handed her his t-shirt. She held her breath as she got closer to the head and, without looking at it, she tossed Percy's shirt over the katobleps's head. "Gross. Now what do we do with it? I'm guessing you don't want to mail this head to Olympus?"

Percy shook his head. "Nah, only two or three of them hate me right now. Be nice to keep it that way for a while. We could send it to camp."

"Who are you trying to kill there?"

"No one, at the moment. But it could go in the attic, couldn't it, with all that other leftover quest junk?"

"Probably." Annabeth looked down at the t-shirt-covered head. "There's still the problem of how to get it there."

"We could ask Hermes for help," Percy suggested. "Isn't delivering things his job?"

"I'm not asking Hermes for anything," Annabeth said flatly. She couldn't help holding a grudge against the messenger god. She knew Luke's bad decisions hadn't been entirely Hermes's fault, but still, if Hermes had been a better parent, if he hadn't seemed so indifferent to Luke, maybe Luke wouldn't have agreed to help Kronos, maybe he would still be around—but no, she caught herself. That was an ugly train of thought and it didn't go anywhere good. She turned back to the problem at hand. "There's got to be another way."

Percy rolled his eyes. "If you've got another idea, then great. If not, I'm asking Hermes."

They had a silent staring contest. Annabeth was torn between being irritated and being distracted by his sea-green eyes; gods, this dating thing was annoying sometimes. Finally, she relented, not because he was cute, but because she really didn't want to start a fight over Hermes and a monster's head. Neither was worth an argument.

"Fine," she said. "Ask Hermes. But only because I can't think of another way to get rid of this thing and it smells."

Percy looked slightly guilty. "Look, if there was any other way we could think of, I would—I mean, I know how you feel about that whole thing, but—."

"Percy," Annabeth said. He looked at her and for an instant she saw a flicker of the doubt and hurt she had seen the day she'd told him the last line of her prophecy about the Labyrinth. Her heart twisted. "It's okay, I promise. Let's just get rid of this thing so we can move on with our night."

"Okay," he said with a small smile. Annabeth returned it, though what she really wanted to do was fling her arms around his neck again and kiss him until they both forgot about the whole mess with Luke, Hermes, and Kronos. But the katobleps head wasn't making this a particularly romantic spot (it really did stink), so she had to settle for holding his hand, instead. Percy looked slightly happier as he laced his fingers through hers before turning to look up at the sky and saying, "Hey, Hermes, what's up? Listen, um, if you're not too busy, I was wondering if you could make a delivery for me."

Annabeth half-suspected that nothing would happen, but to her surprise, a box just the right size for the monster's head suddenly appeared at Percy's feet, accompanied by a small drawstring money-pouch and a marker.

"I didn't realize we'd have to pay," Percy said, looking at the pouch. "Do you have any drachmas?"

Annabeth nodded and pulled a gold drachma out of her pocket. "You should always have one on hand, in case of emergencies, Seaweed Brain."

"Does this count as an emergency?" he asked as he bent to pick up the katobleps head and dropped it into the box.

"Have you smelled that thing?"

"Good point," he said. Annabeth handed him the drachma and he put it in the money pouch.

"Do you think one will be enough?" she asked.

"It better be. All he has to do is shoot it across Long Island." Percy shut the box and picked up the marker. "Uh, how do you spell 'katobleps'?"

"If the two of us try to spell that, we'll be here all night," Annabeth said. "Just write 'monster head, don't look,' and leave it at that. Chiron will figure it out."

Percy wrote what she said, then dropped the marker into the bag with the drachma. "Okay, so that goes to Chiron, at the Big House at Camp Half-Blood. Please."

There was a small popping noise, then the box disappeared and was replaced by a slip of paper. Annabeth picked it up. It was a receipt written in Ancient Greek. "One katobleps's head, delivered to Chiron at Camp Half-Blood," she read. "Courtesy of Hermes Express. And there's a note at the bottom." Annabeth read it, then snorted, and handed the receipt to Percy. "That's definitely for you."

"P.S. George says you owe him one rat." Percy rolled his eyes again and slipped the receipt into his pocket. "That snake is obsessed." He looked around on the ground, then frowned. "He took my t-shirt!"

"Would you really want to wear it again after it touched that thing?"

"Probably not," Percy admitted. "But still, I liked that shirt!"

Annabeth bit back a laugh. "What shirt was it?"
"My Yankees t-shirt. I got it when Paul and I went to a game this summer." Percy was pouting like a five-year-old.

Annabeth kissed his cheek. "I'm sure he'll get you another one."

"I guess," Percy said, kicking the sand. He stuck his hands in his pockets, looked confused for a second, then his face lit up. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I have something for you."

"Okay," Annabeth said, "but can we move farther down the beach? That thing's stench is still hanging around."

"Definitely," Percy said. He grabbed her hand and pulled her with him as he half-jogged away from the spot where the katobleps had met its end.

About a hundred yards down the beach, Percy stopped and turned to face her, still holding her hand. He took a deep breath. "Okay, so since we're officially dating and everything, I wanted to get you something."

"You didn't have to—," Annabeth started to say, but Percy held up his hand.

"I know, but I wanted to. It's nothing big, and I know you don't really care about flowers or jewelry or anything like that, but I thought you might like this." He reached into his pocket, then opened his hand to show Annabeth the piece of perfectly rounded red coral resting on his palm. "It's from the coral garden at my dad's place. That's where I went this morning. I figured you could wear it on your camp necklace. If, you know, you wanted to." He met her eyes and Annabeth saw the same uncertainty on his face that she had seen when he'd asked her to come to Montauk, like he actually thought she might reject him. After everything, she thought wonderingly, he still doesn't get it. What a seaweed brain.

Annabeth took the piece of coral with one hand, while, with the other, she pulled him close and kissed him. She remembered holding his hand on Charon's boat as they crossed the River Styx and how glad she was to have another living human being next to her. She thought about him holding her in the bubble under the water after he rescued her from the sirens, how he had traveled across the country to find her after she'd been kidnapped by Atlas, the expression on his face after she'd kissed him in Mount St. Helens. The expression on his face when she kissed him on his birthday. And how, after he'd refused immortality, the first thing he did was turn to look at her.

They'd only been dating two weeks, but Percy had been the most important person in her life for a lot longer than that. She put as many of these emotions as she could into the kiss, hoping she could get rid of that uncertainty she kept seeing on his face. She thought she might have succeeded, because when she finally pulled away, Percy looked dumbstruck.

"So, I guess you like it?" he managed to say.

"Percy, it's perfect," she said. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said, watching as she added the piece of coral to her necklace. "I'm going to have to start raiding my dad's garden more often."

Annabeth laughed. "The coral's great, Percy, but, to be honest, what I really like is just you."

"Just me?" Percy grinned and slid his hands around her waist.

"Yeah, just you, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck again and caught the mischievous, affectionate glint in his sea-green eyes.

"That's good," Percy said, "because I like you, too." When he kissed her, every thought melted out of her brain. It wasn't a feeling she was used to, but she didn't mind it.

When they finally broke apart, it took them both a moment to catch their breath. "So, overall, a pretty good weekend, right?" Percy asked.

"Absolutely," Annabeth said. Arms still around his neck, she gave him a final kiss. "Now, let's go back and finish the dishes before your parents get home. And then—."

"Yeah?" Percy said.

"And then, we're going to break out the video games again, because I'm pretty sure I never got a chance to school you on Mario Kart after you beat me at Halo." Annabeth almost laughed at the briefly baffled look on her boyfriend's face that was quickly replaced by a grin.

"Oh, it's on," he said.

"Race you back?" she asked. Without waiting for his answer, Annabeth took off running back towards the cabin.

"Cheater!"

A few hours later, the kitchen was clean, Sally and Paul had come home, reminisced about the evening with their friends, then gone to bed, and Annabeth had beaten Percy by at least fifteen points in every tournament on Mario Kart (though he had beat her three games out of five again on Halo). Now, the two of them were sitting on the couch watching Jurassic Park because Percy told Annabeth it was a crime that she'd never seen it.

"And what, exactly, is so appealing about this movie?" Annabeth asked as a shot of a large pile of dinosaur dung appeared on the screen.

"It's a classic!" Percy said. "It has Tyrannosaurus Rex running around trying to eat people, what's not cool about that?"

"I figured you'd be more into Jaws," Annabeth smirked. Onscreen, the weather was just starting to turn stormy.

"I didn't see Jaws until I was fourteen, and by then, I'd already met sharks who were pretty cool," Percy said, "so the one in the movie didn't scare me. T. Rex, on the other hand, is terrifying. One bite and you're done."

"You spend your life getting chased by actual monsters that really are trying to kill you," Annabeth said. "Why would you want to watch a movie about that?"

"Because it's entertaining when it's happening to someone in a movie," Percy pointed out.

"That," Annabeth said, "is a lame answer. And when is T. Rex going to show up?"

"Soon," Percy promised. "And don't judge the movie until you've seen the whole thing." He was giving her that pleading look again and Annabeth relented.

"Fine." Annabeth turned her attention back to the TV just in time to see the cars stall on the track outside the T. Rex enclosure.

As the water in the cup in the car began to tremble and things in general began to go wrong (unsurprisingly) for the people in Jurassic Park, Annabeth decided to use the movie to her advantage. When T. Rex devoured his first victim, she scooted closer to Percy, who raised his eyebrows.

"Scared?" he asked.

"Maybe," Annabeth said.

Percy smirked. She knew that he knew perfectly well she wasn't scared by the movie, but he put his arm around her shoulders anyway. "Nice strategy," he said.

"I thought so."

Annabeth had to admit, the movie was better than she'd expected. The velociraptors were genuinely freaky and she was relieved when most of the people managed to make it back off the island at the end.

"What did you think?" Percy asked as the credits rolled.

"It was good," Annabeth said. "Occasionally predictable, but it was fun to watch."

"Told you," Percy said smugly and Annabeth smacked him in the stomach. He had put on an old Camp Half-Blood t-shirt when they'd gotten back to the cabin and it smelled like a combination of a campfire and the sea.

"Let's watch another one," Annabeth said.

"I don't think they have the second Jurassic Park here," Percy said, scanning the DVD titles on the shelves. "They have Psycho, though. Please tell me you've seen that before."

"Of course," Annabeth said, sitting up straight as Percy went to switch the DVDs. "Alfred Hitchcock is the master of horror and that shower scene is iconic."

"Want to watch it again?"

"Definitely!"

Percy put the movie in, pressed play, and sat back down next to Annabeth on the couch. "Any chance you're going to get scared again?" he asked.

"It is a horror movie," Annabeth pointed out.

"Good point."

Percy put his arm around her again and Annabeth leaned her head against his shoulder as Janet Leigh's character made the fateful decision to steal $40,000 from her boss. It felt oddly normal, just the two of them watching a movie, like any regular teenagers. I could get used to this, Annabeth thought. The thought scared her and thrilled her at the same time. It all came back to wanting to build something that would last, and she remembered her comment to Sally on the beach, that Percy was one of the few people in her life whose presence felt permanent.

Percy glanced down at her and she caught a glimpse of a smile on his face before he turned his attention back to the screen. Annabeth was confused for a moment until she realized she'd been absentmindedly twirling the piece of coral around her necklace.

"You got something to say, Seaweed Brain?" she asked.

"Nope," Percy said, but he gave her a kiss on the cheek before adding, "Shower scene's coming up."

"Terrifying." As the killer stalked into the bathroom, Annabeth snuggled closer to Percy, who tightened his arm around her. Something permanent, she thought. Maybe, just maybe, they were off to a good start.

No one was ready to leave the next morning, but, as Paul said, unfortunately they had to be checked out by 11:00am, before the cleaning service came in. The drive back to the city was quiet and uneventful. Percy and Sally both fell asleep and Paul was focused on navigating through the post-holiday weekend traffic, leaving Annabeth to alternate between looking out the window and trying to read The Great Gatsby for English class. After about an hour, she gave up on the book and leaned her head against the glass. She was tired, but she hated sleeping in a moving vehicle when she wasn't on a quest; she didn't know if it was her ADHD or her naturally ingrained desire for knowledge, but she preferred to look out the window and see what was happening. Of course, currently, there wasn't much to see besides a packed highway.

Annabeth yawned. They had ended up putting in Jaws after Psycho (the people who owned the cabin had a really great DVD collection), but Annabeth only remembered about ten minutes of the movie. Between the comfy couch, the fact that it was long after midnight, and the warm feeling of Percy's arm around her, Annabeth had fallen asleep.

She'd woken up a few hours later completely disoriented. It took her several seconds to remember she was in the cabin at Montauk and then to realize that she'd fallen asleep on the couch. Beside her, Percy was fast asleep, drooling on the arm of the sofa. Annabeth smirked as she turned off the TV and the DVD player, remembering his very first day at Camp Half-Blood, which he had spent passed out and drooling in the infirmary. Gods, it felt like that had happened a century ago, not just a few years. She watched him sleep for a moment, then, reluctantly, shook him awake.

He looked just as confused as she had, for a second, then he looked alarmed and quickly wiped his arm across his face.

"You still drool in your sleep," Annabeth said.

"Thanks for reminding me," Percy muttered. He yawned and hauled himself into a sitting position. "What time is it?"

"About four in the morning," Annabeth said. "I thought we'd better go to our own rooms before your mom and Paul wake up and find us on the couch."

"Yeah, that'd be embarrassing," Percy said with another yawn. He stood up, then held out a hand to help her up. "Come on, I'll walk you to your room."

"It's literally twenty feet away," Annabeth said as she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet. "I think I can find it."

"My mom said it's always good manners to walk your date to her door," Percy said. "Even if it's just down the hallway."

Annabeth smiled as she recalled this. It explained why he always insisted on walking her back to her dorm, even though he knew perfectly well she could take care of herself. But, she had to admit, the little bit of chivalry was kind of nice.

Two uneventful hours later, they crossed the East River back into Manhattan. Annabeth was a little sorry as they turned down the street her dormitory was on. But, she remembered, she had new plans ready for Olympus this week, which she was excited about, and it wasn't like she wouldn't see Percy, Sally, or Paul for a long time; she'd probably spend most of the upcoming weekend at the Jackson-Blofis apartment. And, in the meantime, her nice, neat dorm room was waiting for her.

Percy, who had been awake for a while, hopped out to help her get her stuff out of the trunk.

"You walking me to my door again?" she asked as he handed her backpack to her.

"Of course," he said with a grin.

They crossed the sidewalk and climbed the five steps to the dormitory door.

"I think this is my stop," Annabeth said.

"Looks like it," Percy replied. His hands were jammed in his pockets and Annabeth couldn't decide if he seemed reluctant to leave or if he was just reluctant to kiss her good-bye in front of his parents, who were studiously looking at the other side of the street.

"Thank you for inviting me to go to Montauk," Annabeth said. "I had a great weekend."

"Me too." Percy flashed her a smile and Annabeth's heart melted. She decided all of New York could watch for all she cared as she leaned forward and kissed Percy.

"You know," she said when she pulled away, "it's our one-month anniversary in a couple weeks."

"Uh-huh," Percy said. He looked a little foggy and Annabeth resisted both the urge to laugh and to roll her eyes.

"So, do you want to celebrate it or something?" she asked.

"What?" Percy blinked, then seemed to focus on her again. "Oh, yeah, we should celebrate. We could do, like, a special dinner or something, if you want."

"Really?" Annabeth was surprised, but pleased.

"Yeah, definitely! I'll take care of the whole thing." Percy grinned at her. "It'll be awesome."

Annabeth smiled back. "I'm sure it will be. And I guess I'll see you Friday?" They had been trying to figure out, between school and Annabeth's job on Olympus, one night a week where they would definitely see each other. Friday, so far, had seemed to work best.

"Yeah, I'm thinking we should go old-school style, do dinner and a movie. What do you think?"

"Sounds great." Annabeth swiped her key card to get into her dorm. "IM me later," she said as she opened the door.

"Oh, I will," Percy said. He gave her his annoyingly endearing sarcastic smile. "I have geometry homework and no idea how to do it."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You couldn't have mentioned that this weekend? We could have finished it Saturday night."

Percy looked horrified. "You can't do homework on vacation!"

"I'm pretty sure you can, Seaweed Brain, you just didn't want to." Annabeth shook her head, but she smiled. "Give me an hour to get unpacked and everything, then IM me. I'll help you with your geometry."

"You're the best!" Percy gave her a last, quick kiss, before bounding down the steps back to the car. "Talk to you in an hour!"

Annabeth waved as Sally, Paul, and Percy drove away, then headed into her building. While she climbed the stairs, she made a quick to-do list in her head: unpack, shower, go over her geometry notes, and wait for her ridiculous boyfriend to call. Her hand unconsciously reached up to twirl the piece of coral around her necklace and she smiled. Life was good.

***A/N: This chapter took me forever to write, but since it's the last chapter in this story, I really wanted it to be good. I hope it is. Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. You're all awesome! And, good news, only one month until House of Hades!***