"Hello? Please! I need your help! My daughter wants to jump off of the roof of my office building and I can't talk her down!" A man's voice sounded urgently over the phone as Percy listened.

"Of course I'll help sir. Where are you?" He said, sitting up straighter in his seat.

"Olympus Architecture," the man said.

"I'll be right there, sir." Percy said, already standing up and slipping on his jacket. He heard the man's 'okay' before hanging up the phone and sprinting out the door.

Olympus Architecture was just down the street and so Percy didn't bother getting his car from the parking garage, instead opting to sprint. So he quickly reached the building and ran inside, heading straight for the elevator. The roof was fifty stories up, it would actually be faster to take the elevator.

He pressed the button and the doors dinged open a second later. Entering the elevator, he quickly pushed the button for the fiftieth floor and watched as the doors slid closed.

As he waited for the elevator to reach the top floor so he could get to the roof access stairs, he tapped his foot and stared at the numbers, crossing his arms and counted with the elevator. When it finally dinged open, he rushed out and toward the roof access.

Pushing open the door, he stepped onto the roof and looked around for a man and a young girl, spotting them quickly. The girl was a tall, athletic-looking blonde with long curly hair who stood on the edge of the roof. The man was standing a few feet away from the edge where his daughter stood.

When the man heard the door open, he turned around and looked at Percy with wide eyes. He ran over and grabbed tightly onto Percy's biceps, concern and fear lighting up his eyes. "Please! I don't know what to do!" Percy nodded and gently grabbed the other man's hands to remove them from his arms.

"Stay here, okay?" Percy told him. He nodded and looked over at his daughter. Percy looked over at her as well and began to slowly walk toward her. When he stood just about a foot or so away he asked her a question. "What's your name?"

The girl sighed and slowly sat down, her feet dangling over the edge. "Annabeth." She said. Percy took this as an invitation and slowly walked over to join her on the edge of the roof, sitting down beside her.

"Why?" He asked, looking over at her face. Her eyes were closed and her mouth turned down in a small frown.

"Because that man that calls himself my father ignores me. My mother died when I was young and the woman he married, my stepmother, is  an evil, despicable woman who hates me and treats me like a slave. Her two sons are brats to me as well, always blaming me for the shit they do wrong. I get all A's in school, I'm in all high ability classes, but does anyone care? No.

"School is almost as bad as at home, the kids there all make fun of me. If I jump, then it's all gone. And I can be with the only person who ever cared about me." A few tears leaked out of her closed eyes and slipped down her face. Percy reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly in his own.

"Well if you jump, I jump too."

Annabeth's eyes snapped open to look at him, her eyes startlingly gray. He looked away, down at the road fifty floors down. "What," she said.

"If you jump, I'm jumping with you. I never knew my dad, he died before I was born, and my stepdad is an alcoholic and he used to hit me before I finally moved out." Annabeth gave a small gasp but Percy ignored it and kept going. "My mom had to work really long hours to pay the rent so she was almost never home, and I didn't want her to know so I never told her. I would sneak out of the house whenever I could to mow lawns and walk dogs to help pay rent and I often didn't eat much so that my mom would have something eat when she came home. I never did any good in school. In fact, I got kicked out of almost every school I went to since preschool.

"We lived in such a small apartment, and it was so crappy, and it was in the worst neighborhood, but we could only barely afford it. And I was scared to walk to school and I was scared to be at school. The kids were all so rude and mean, I didn't have any friends. I uh..." Percy rubbed the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't holding Annabeth's. "I got so numb to pain and feeling that, just to feel something, I would cut. It was hard growing up. And my mom died about a year ago in a car accident with a drunk driver. I'm alone, and really, I've got no reason to be here either. So, if you jump, I jump with you."

He finally looked back over at her and saw her beautiful grey eyes filling with more tears. He gave her a shaky smile and said, "my name's Percy by the way." Annabeth gave a quiet watery laugh and squeezed his hand.

"Percy," she said quietly, "I'm sure that there is someone out there who cares. Like, I'm guessing you work at a suicide prevention agency or something of the like, and I'm sure all the families that you've helped are so thankful to you." Percy shook his head.

"None of them ever even ask for my name." Percy looked back down at the road so far below. Annabeth noticed a single tear drop onto his jeans.

"Percy, how did you deal with it for so long?" She asked gently.

"I don't know." He whispered. "How did you deal with everything so long?"

"I don't know either." She placed her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. He rested his head on top of hers and closed his eyes as well.

Suddenly Annabeth pulled her head off of Percy's shoulder and looked up at him. "Hey," Percy looked down at her and her big grey eyes and tilted his head to the side, ignoring the tear tracks on her face and the ones he could feel on his own. "If you promise to not give up, to-to keep living and to keep going, then I will too. I promise to not give up. I promise that I will live because there is a reason. I mean, my father wouldn't have called you, I guess if he didn't really care. And, you must do the work that you do because you care about, well, everyone, it would seem." Annabeth looked away before continuing. "I think that you have the largest, kindest, most trusting, most selfless heart. But I think that you're scared. Because you've been taken advantage of too many times, and you've been hurt too many times. So you're afraid that you'll get hurt again. But-but I would never hurt you. I could be your friend. If you'll be mine." She looked back over at him hopefully. Percy nodded slowly.

"I promise that I'll keep going if you do too. And I'll be your friend. As long as you'll be mine." Percy cracked a small smile. "I guess we should get away from the edge now, huh?" He said. Annabeth laughed quietly.

"I guess we should." Together, the slowly stood up and stepped down from the edge of the building, still holding hands.

Annabeth's father was pacing by the door where Percy had left him and biting his nails, until he saw them walking toward him. "Annabeth!" He cried, flinging his arms around her and hugging her tightly. "Oh, Annabeth! I am so sorry! I have been such a horrible father and I'm never around and I never talk to you and I never listen to you and we never hang out and oh I am so sorry I don't know what I would have down if I had lost you." He pulled back with tears in his eyes.

Percy smiled slightly as we watched them. Annabeth's father turned to him for a moment. "Thank you! Thank you so much." He said before turning back to Annabeth. Percy's face fell and Annabeth noticed.

"Dad," she said, "this is Percy. He's my friend." She smiled softly. Percy smiled a little again in response. "He's been hurt, like I have. So we made a promise. If we both promise to keep going as long as the other one does too." Annabeth's dad looked at Percy with shock and awe in his eyes, as well as gratitude.

The man stepped away from his daughter and walked toward Percy. He opened his arms and Percy flinched back, shrinking into himself a little in reflex before letting himself be hugged by the man. "Thank you, Percy."

Percy nodded, barely able to believe that this was happening. Then Annabeth came over and asked Percy for his phone. He handed it over and when she passed it back, he had a new contact. Her name and her number. He grinned widely and asked for her phone. He quickly entered his name and number before handing it back to her.

"There you go. Now we can keep in touch, like real friends do. And we can check up on each other." He said as he handed it back. Annabeth smiled and nodded. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek before turning around and walking back inside the building with her father.

Percy stared after her for a moment before looking down as his phone and her number.

He had a friend. And he had helped her.

The next day, Percy received a text from Annabeth.

How are you?

Percy smiled down at his phone s he replied.

I'm not giving up. How are you?

It became their thing. Every morning, they would ask each other 'how are you' and they would reply with 'I'm not giving up' or if they weren't okay, something more like 'I'm not happy'.

Other people might have found it weird, but for them, it was beautiful and normal and safe.

After three years of being friends after that day, they started dating. And two years after that they got married.

Now, they woke up, rolled over, and asked each other the same question they had been asking each other for years.

And to think, that day on the roof, it had been double or nothing.

A/N Word Count: 1797

I GOT SOMETHING UP!

HAHA!

Also, be happy, I actually had half a mind to end this with them both jumping.

Hm...

It would have been shorter and out faster...

Well anyway, what did you think?

Yours in demigodishness and all that,
Annabeth_Jackson_12 <3