Right There With Him

Percy squeezed his wife's hand as she rang the doorbell.

"You okay?" Annabeth asked him, eyebrows scrunched together.

"Just nervous."

"You have nothing to be nervous about, Seaweed Brain. Everybody here likes you."

"Well, I'm not so sure about that. Your father-"

She turned to him, straightening his tie.

"Percy we dealt with this four years ago. We're married. We're having a baby. Please just relax. He likes you. And if it makes you feel better, I love you."

"I love you too, Wise Girl." He smiled, kissing her forehead.

He had just pulled away as the door opened, revealing Helen, cooking apron on and hair in a bun.

"Hi dears! Sorry it took so long. Fredrick is in his office and probably didn't hear, Bobby and Matthew are out and I really had to put the oven on."

"It's fine Helen. Don't worry about it."

Helen smiled and stepped aside to let them again. Annabeth stepped inside first and hugged Helen briefly. Percy picked their luggage up and stepped aside as well, giving Helen a small hug with his free arm.

Percy put the luggage down at the place Helen had pointed at and turned around to see Helen touching Annabeth's swollen belly and gushing about baby stuff.

Percy smiled to himself and almost jumped out of his skin when a hand suddenly touched his shoulder.

"Hi Percy." Fredrick Chase greeted.

He turned around to him and shook his hand. "Hello mr. Chase."

"You can say Fredrick, Percy."

Percy nodded and pursed his lips.

"Dad!" Annabeth shouted excitedly and walked over to hug her dad.

"Hi sweetie!" He said as excited as her, "Loon at you all grown up."

That made her scoff and roll her eyes. "I'm as grown up as I was when you last saw me."

"No. Last time you weren't pregnant."

"Good eye for detail dad. It totally isn't obvious." She joked, walking over to Percy and wrapping one arm around his middle and her other hand resting on her stomach.

"You two are the cutest." Helen complimented. "Now I really need to get back to the kitchen. We're eating in an hour."

"Sounds great Helen. Can I help you with anything?" He offered.

"All the help is welcome."

And with that Percy followed Helen into the kitchen and Annabeth followed her dad into the living room to catch up.

———————————————

"So Annabeth, how far along are you exactly?" Helen asked at dinner.

"Eight months. I'm due in January."

"And do you know the gender and names?" Fredrick asked, though he didn't seem as interested as Helen was. Though he was more interested than Bobby and Matthew, but that wasn't that hard.

"It's a boy." Percy answered, smiling softly, always excited to talk about their baby.

"We thought about Damon or Theodore. But in case it is a girl after all, we got Danae."

"Which is completely unnecessary." Percy added.

"No it's not, there is a very small chance that the doctor was wrong and it's a girl. I just want to be prepared."

"Okay. If it's a girl, explain this to me; the doctor saw a small dick. What would that be? A fifth limp?" He argued back.

Bobby had just taken a sip and spit it out, choking with laughter.

"Nice Percy." Annabeth muttered to him, her tone was angry, but he saw her suppressing a laugh.

After the laughter died down, Helen spoke up, "By the way, before I forget; are there any last requests for Christmas dinner?"

"Nah, I'm fine with everything." Percy answered.

They had agreed to spend Christmas with Annabeth's family this year. They normally celebrated Christmas with his family, since Annabeth isn't close with her family anyway. But she had brought it up around a few months ago that she might want to spend it with her family this year to get closer with them. Especially with the baby on his way.

And he was fine with it. Truly. He liked her family and they always spend Christmas with his family so it was only fair. Annabeth had kept telling him that he could stay home if he wanted and that they didn't have to go, but he had convinced her that it was fine.

And until now, it was. It was fun and he had survived the plane flight, so he could do everything.

"So what about Christmas traditions? Anything so that you feel more at home?" Fredrick asked.

Percy's heart warmed at the thought of her family trying to make him feel more at home.

He shook his head softly, chuckling, "No, I'll go along with all of your traditions. It wouldn't be the same anyways."

Annabeth grabbed his free hand under the table, but he completely ignored it knowing that she wanted him to talk about it. Maybe later with her, but not with her family.

After a lot of catching up and joking on his and Matthew and Bobby's side, they began to clean up. Percy offered to help with the dishes, but Helen refused his help anymore and sent him away.

He saw Annabeth standing in the living room and walked up to her, hugging her from behind and laying one hand on her stomach, feeling the baby kick softly. A feeling that was amazing, but also truly terrified him.

"It feels weird doesn't it? Being here instead of New York. Don't you miss her?" She nudged on wanting a confession out of him.

"Well yeah. But we're always there. We're never here so it's fair to celebrate it here. And I don't really miss her; I'm a 27 year old man, Wise Girl." He replied, kissing her cheek.

She turned around in his embrace, knowing that he was lying to her.

Eventually he budged and sighed, making eye contact with her. "I really don't care, Beth. It's only fair to be here and also fun. So let it go. I can be away from my mom for one Christmas."

"Second." She muttered.

"Second?"

"Yeah when Hera took you." Annabeth reminded him.

"Well I don't even remember that time. I had a great nap then." He joked.

Annabeth stared at him for a second, her eyes turning watery and she hit his chest with a fist and turned around, walking away.

He didn't wait a second to follow her and walked after her outside. He knew he shouldn't have joked about it, since that was still a sensitive topic for her, but it had just slipped out.

"Beth, wait! I'm sorry!"

Annabeth turned around to face him, once outside.

"I shouldn't have joked about it. I know that that was a terrible time for you. I feel like such a jerk." He told her earnestly.

"It's okay." She replied, voice a bit wary. "I just need some time alone and some fresh air."

"Alone alone? Or alone with a hug of mine?"

"Hug." She mumbled, shoulders slumped. He opened his arms and she immediately walked into them.

Suddenly he got some deja vu of them at 15 just before entering the Labyrinth.

He kissed the top of her head and muttered, "I love you."

She hummed softly and he knew that they were going to be fine.

After a while she unwrapped his arms and grabbed his hand. They walked outside again and sat down on the couch in the living room.

Nobody else was sitting there, so they snuggled together and just started talking.

"It's weird that we're not eating her cookies this year. But we'll be there next year. The baby's first Christmas."

"Estelle isn't going to leave the baby alone for one second." Percy chuckled.

"Yeah. And we can play board games and your mother is going to want to take so many pictures and Paul is going to read all those old Christmas stories to everyone with hot chocolate." Annabeth said, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck.

"That would be great. Especially the thought of a little baby with us. I hope that he looks like you." He said, smiling, tapping her belly softly.

"I want him to have your eyes at least." She responded. "Though your face wouldn't be so bad either. Oh, and your personality. I want him to have that."

He pecked her lips, "It would be creepy if the baby would have my face."

She burst out laughing. "It would be. But I would also secretly love it.

He didn't say anything to that, but just kissed her softly. Really hoping no one would walk in.

But of course, the gods weren't on his side and her father walked in. He quickly pulled away and let her completely go.

"It's alright Percy. You two are married." Fredrick said as he rolled his eyes and sat down on the seat to the right. Helen joined them soon after, sitting on the couch as well.

"You know, your father proposed to me in the living room on Christmas at our old house. He was sweating and stuttering and basically a mess."

"That's, uhm, really sweet." Annabeth replied, seeming a bit uneasy. He guessed that it was because it reminded her of her youth with them.

"Your father is. What is your engagement story? We never actually heard it. Percy seems romantic."

Annabeth burst out laughing and Percy cocked his head in response to that. He was romantic in fact. Though he had a good guess why she was laughing.

"Percy isn't?" Fredrick questioned, clearly not getting it.

"No, no, he is. Mostly. But he kind of jumped the gun." Annabeth said, laughing loudly.

"Okay no, you're totally not telling the story right. And you yourself partially ruined it. You were the one that found the ring, so you already knew that it was coming." He replied, rolling his eyes.

"Well a short recap; Percy woke up early, he blurted out that he wanted to marry me, got the ring and asked me with a really sweet speech. And it was actually on Christmas too, which is actually really coincidental."

They chatted for a long time and eventually he must have fallen asleep as Annabeth shook him awake, muttering some complaints about drool and him needing to get to bed.

He bid everyone a good night and stumbled upstairs, brushing his teeth and immediately falling down on the bed and falling asleep. He didn't even notice Annabeth climbing into bed next to him, but she had, as when he woke up he saw her.

"Good morning and merry Christmas." He mumbled with a really bad morning voice and kissed her forehead.

"Good morning and merry Christmas to you too." She replied.

They got up soon after and walked downstairs to be greeted with a delicious breakfast and Fredrick reading the newspaper and Helen still busy in the kitchen. They sat down at the table as Bobby and Matthew slowly got out of their rooms and sat down as well.

"Merry Christmas!" Helen sing sang and sat down as the last one.

Everyone muttered it back and began eating, the cheery vibe clear in the room.

"So, family is coming around dinner time so we're doing presents at one. Do what you want during your spare time." Helen announced.

Everyone nodded, it was around ten so they still had some time.

After breakfast Percy and Annabeth had offered to do the dishes, which he always liked to do, because of the water, and Annabeth hated to do. Probably because of him. Always when they did the dishes he teased her, splashing water in her neck or on her face. But he knew she secretly, deep, deep down, she liked it. They always chatted about everything and nothing. She mostly told him an architecture story and he told her a funny story about the fish at his work.

"Do you want to go ice skating? I saw that there is a skating rink in the city. We can be back by one."

"Yeah sure. Just like in New York. But can you even skate when you're pregnant?"

"Ah shit, I totally forgot. But, I can watch you waddle around on the ice and we can get a hot cocoa there."

"Okay sure. Sounds fun."

"Well let's ditch the dishes and let's go." She joked and put the last plate in its place and ran upstairs to get some warmer clothes on.

After they did that, they told everyone they were going and went out, borrowing Fredrick's car to go to the city. On their way there they listened to Christmas songs, loudly singing along to them, until they arrived.

They got him some skates, though he wasn't really planning to skate that much but he knew that she wanted to take some pictures.

He tried to do some silly moves for her, like a pirouette that ended with him on the ground and a leap that also, ended with him on the ground.

After that, he was quite done actually, it wasn't that much fun without her, and skated back to the rink where she was waiting.

"San Francisco is great isn't it?"

"Yeah. But New York is better though."

He leaned closer to her and pecked her lips softly. He wanted to kiss her deeper when his phone buzzed.

He apologized and pulled away seeing that it was his mother who was trying to FaceTime him. He accepted and put the phone so that both of them were seen on the screen.

"Hi mom! Merry Christmas!" He greeted.

"Merry Christmas Sally!" Annabeth exclaimed excitedly.

"Merry Christmas you guys! How are you?" Sally said.

"Good. We're in the city now ice skating." He answered.

"And how's the baby?"

"Great. How is it in New York?" Annabeth replied.

"Good. We just had brunch and I'm baking cookies right now."

"You're baking cookies? I'm so jealous of you guys who get to eat them. I love those cookies!"

His mother only smiled and rolled her eyes. Estelle walked in, grabbing some stuff and walking up to her. "Are you almost coming mom? Dad is already picking out which book he is going to read from."

"Yes coming sweety. Almost done with the cookie batter. Say hi to your brother and Annabeth."

Estelle only then noticed the phone. "Hi! Sorry I didn't see you."

"It's okay, Stella. Good to see you." Percy replied.

"Yes, hi honey. We really miss you. Did you get our presents?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes. They're under the tree."

"Okay great. Well it sounds like you've got a lot to do. And we're going to get some hot chocolate."

"Great. See you later guys. Call me, okay? Have a great day! I love you!"

"We love you too!" Annabeth exclaimed and hung up.

"That was nice, wasn't it?" She asked him as he skated to the exit and got out of his skates.

"I guess."

"It's weird that we're not there doesn't it?"

"What's the deal with you? You keep nagging me about the fact that we're here and not in New York. Okay, you want the big confession? I miss my mom! I know that it is childish and stupid, especially now that I'm about to be a father, but I like spending Christmas in New York with our family. I love the traditions that have been there since I was born. And I know that it's selfish so you can scold me now." He rambled, bowing his head down.

"Hey," She said softly, grabbing his chin softly so that he looked her in the eyes, "Percy, there is nothing to be ashamed of. I just want you to be honest with me. Like you promised me ten years ago when we were seventeen. That's all I want from you."

"I know, I know. I just didn't want you to feel bad about being here. For which you have no reason to. It's great here. And that's the deal with being married right? I'm sorry I wasn't totally honest with you."

"And I'm sorry about nagging you on so much. I think it's the hormones. Now let's get that hot chocolate.

And they did, not ten minutes later they were sitting inside of a cafe, sipping their hot cocoa.

"I really love you." He said out of the blue as he looked at her.

"Yeah, you tell me that a couple of million times a day." She teased.

"I know you love it."

She broke into a soft laugh. "Yeah I do." She stretched her hand out on the table for him to grab it and he happily did. He rubbed his thumbs softly on her knuckles, smiling.

A few minutes later Annabeth got up to the bathroom and just then somebody approached their table, "Percy Jackson? What are you doing here?"

It took Percy a second to link the voice to the face but then it clicked and he jumped up to hug the man.

"Joe! I haven't seen you in forever!" He shouted as he clapped his old college friend on the back.

"Come sit down. If you want to at least." He offered and sat down next to Annabeth's spot now so that Joe could take his seat.

"What brings you here?" Joe asked.

"We're here for Christmas."

"We?"

"Yeah, Beth and me."

"As in Annabeth?" He asked and Percy nodded in response, "You're still together?" He exclaimed, "Wow, that's awesome man."

"We're even married." A female voice said behind them, he smiled, turning his head around to see Annabeth.

"And having a baby I see." Joe commented as Annabeth sat down next to Percy.

"Yes, a baby boy." Annabeth answered, placing a hand on her stomach.

"Wow. That's great. Incredible that you married Annabeth Chase, the hottest girl on campus."

"That's so not true." Annabeth answered, "And it's Annabeth Jackson now."

Percy listened to the conversation with a big smile on his face. He kissed her cheek, remembering the moment she had told him she wanted his last name.

———

One night, two months into their engagement, a 23 year old Percy brought up a question he had wanted to ask his fiancée for a long time.

"You know I don't care if you don't change your name right? It's an old tradition and it's not like we would be less married if you didn't." He started casually as he took a bite of a slice of pizza, leaning against the counter.

"Yes I know, Percy."

"But would you want to? Not that I would care."

"But I want to. I love you and you're my family. I feel more of a connection with Jackson than with Chase. So I truly want to. I don't love you because I have to. Because it is a standard to love and have someone to marry. I love you and want to marry you because I want to."

"Okay." He said slowly, taking all her words in and smiling toothily. He stepped forward, away from the counter and towards her, as he wrapped her in a hug. "Okay, Annabeth Jackson."

"Okay Percy Jackson." She responded, smiling brightly against his chest as he kissed the top of her head and hugged her tightly.

———

They sat there and continued to talk for half an hour when Annabeth spoke up.

"Sorry to interrupt you guys, but I feel really sick. Pregnancy I guess."

Percy already stood up, ready to take her home. But she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "You can stay here Percy. You have to be back in about an hour. I can take a taxi so you can take the car. I can't drive now anyways, I can barely reach the pedals with my pregnancy."

"You're sure?" He asked, concerned.

"Yes. Stop worrying. I'll see you later. And it was great to see you Joe. Don't hesitate to visit us if you're in New York."

"Will do." Joe promised.

She pressed a kiss to Percy's lips and then walked out.

He and Joe kept talking. And he was reminded why they had gotten along so great at college. But when he looked at the time and saw that it already was one o'clock he nearly got a heart attack as he jumped up and grabbed his wallet, giving Joe enough to cover the drinks, against Joe's protests.

"I'm so sorry man I've got to go. But we really need to catch up again and with the rest of the old gang."

"We really need to." Joe replied as he stood up as well and hugged Percy.

"I'll organize it. Gives me something to do. And hey, good luck with the baby."

He grinned widely, "Thanks man."

To be honest, Annabeth had mostly spent time on the presents since she knew her family better and was a perfectionist so she mostly got irritated when Percy tried to help. He always got her a few gifts, one thoughtful one and two casual or silly ones.

Normally they found out about each other's gifts, since their small house wasn't that good of a hiding spot. Which had also happened this year since Annabeth had found two gifts of his; a mug and a half empty photo album, meant for the baby. He had only put in a couple of photos of her pregnant and sonogram photos. Though his third gift, a first edition of her favorite book, hadn't been found.

But the most suspicious thing was that he hadn't found anything from her.

So he was extra excited as they began opening presents.

Everyone had some great presents, like mugs, books, some cd's and house decorations.

He got a cooking apron with 'kiss the chef' on it from Annabeth, a T-shirt of Led Zeppelin, a mug with some cool fishes, a shark toy for the baby.

When everyone was done and was about to leave Annabeth shook her head. "Wait, don't leave yet. Percy forgot a gift."

He raised an eyebrow at her not really knowing what she was getting at.

"Well the gift actually has a story with them. You know how I had a meeting every Thursday and that's why I had to work late for the last few months even when I was on maternity leave."

"Yeah. Because that's the only time everybody was available." He spoke slowly, still not having a clue what she was getting at.

"Well that was a lie."

Bobby and Matthew gasped loudly behind them getting hit by their mother while they both laughed loudly. If Percy hadn't been this anxious he probably would've laughed along.

"Well, you'll see why." She said as she stood up and walked towards the kitchen.

He looked around in the room but nobody seemed to know what Annabeth meant.

Before he could see her, she began speaking again, "Every Thursday I got baking lessons from your mother. How to make her infamous blue cookies." She explained as she sat a plate of blue chocolate chip cookies down in front of him.

Tears filled his eyes as he looked at the plate. He turned from the plate to her and wrapped her in a tight hug.

"Thank you." He muttered as a mantra. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's amazing. You're amazing."

Maybe he missed their home and his family, but only then he fully and truly realized that he had been with his family and his true home all along, because she was right there with him.

And she would always be. 

A/N

Sorry it's late and if it's not Christmas anymore where you live. But it's still here. Well Merry Christmas and a happy new year!