Flowers In Your Hair {Percabeth AU}

Confessions And Hope

the louvre by LORDE 

Narrator's P.O.V.

A blond man rushed through the halls of the hospital that seemed to have been holding his friends, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson. He was still in his work clothes. His NYPD uniform was crumpled unlike its usual impeccable state.

He finally knew that he had reached the right room when he saw his former best friend's mother, Annabeth and two other people in the same room as Percy himself. The man, Jason Grace, took a moment to breathe and compose himself. He had rushed here as soon as he had gotten the call.

Annabeth told him that Percy was in the hospital and was being kept under supervision. She claimed that he had gotten his memory back and that he knew were Gabe Ugliano was. A man that his department had been searching for since about six to seven years. Every time that they thought they had a clue, they just ended up at a deadlock.

The man was a criminal. He had multiple tax-evasions, a case of attempted murder stood at him along with a case of domestic abuse and to top it all off, he was a drug dealer who had a hand in the murder of three of his accomplices who were once his sellers. He would be in prison for a long time.

"What happened?" Jason asked, still slightly winded.

"We were at a double date when I fainted," Percy said with a small smile on his face. "I'm sorry, bro."

Jason looked at Percy in shock but he was happy. He knew that those three syllables held all the years of apology that he and Percy had never come around to say or accept.

"It's all good, bro," replied Jason as he gave a broader smile to the raven-haired man. "Though Thalia is more mad at you than me."

"I'm sure that she can wait," Percy said.

The rest of the people in the room were watching their conversation take place with a somber expression; as if they knew something that Jason didn't. He wondered what it could possibly be.

"So, you called me. You know where Gabe is?" Jason said as his detective skills kicked in. "Department's been chasing the guy for years now. He's really in deep trouble. We got all the evidence."

Percy looked at his mother and said, "Could you all please give me and Jason a moment? I'll call you back in if there's any trouble."

Sally Jackson just nodded and ruffled Percy's hair with a teary smile as she whispered a feeble and almost inaudible 'alright' to him. After that she got up and left the room, others following her example. Annabeth stayed back, however, as she studied Jason for a while.

"Jason, listen to his side. Please. We did that mistake once before," was all she said before she got up too. Before leaving the room she leaned in and kissed Percy on the lips before she left too. Annabeth's words had put Jason on edge. He knew this would not be as simple as he had first thought it to be.

Percy gestured to the now empty seat beside him. "Take a seat, detective. You might want to get comfortable," he said.

Jason wordlessly went ahead and sat on the seat and looked at his friend expectantly.

"He's at Montauk," Percy said. "In my family cabin at the beach. Cabin number is thirteen."

"How do you know this?" Jason asked getting suspicious. "There is no way he'd be there even after all this time. Unless he's dead." Jason laughed a little.

"He's still there. And yeah, because he is dead," Percy said. "I killed him."

Jason sat there in his astonished silence. Percy had a stony look on his face however, he was watching Jason carefully.

"That night, I had gotten a call from the hospital saying that my mom had been admitted there because she had fallen from the fire escape while smoking a cigarette," Percy continued. "But that couldn't be possible because my mother detested smoking. Only one person at the house did, Gabe. He already was a douchebag. He hit my mom and I took most of the hits so that she won't be hurt much. He tortured me almost everyday. Force-fed me drugs sometimes so that I could be used as a sex toy for him when mom was not available. I already was on edge but hearing that pissed me off." He paused for a breath.

"So I ran home from the graduation party. When I reached the apartment, I saw him packing all his belongings in a bag. He had a bag full of cash at his feet and he was also emptying my mom's purse. At the time, there was a baseball bat a couple of feet in front of me. He was yelling at me to 'pack my shit' before he does the same to me as he did to my mother. I walked forward and grabbed the bat. Gabe's back was turned away from me as he counted the cash in his hands. I hit him on the head before he could turn back. When he fell down, I hit him with that bat on the head so much that I had almost smashed his skull in."

"I loaded him in the car trunk. He was still breathing. So, I tied him up and gagged him. I visited the hospital before I did anything else. They told me that my mom was in a coma due to all the damage that happened from the fall. Her situation was critical and I was scared. I was scared of losing my mother forever. Then one of the doctors told me that her chance of survival was very less. I decided to drive to Montauk then. I went there and at one point he woke up and started screaming. The screams of bloody murder. They were the same screams as when I was a kid and he used to bet me up and put me into a small closet despite my fear of closed spaces. I buried him alive there in my family cabin and I listened to his screams as I filled the pit that I had dug with a wooden plank when I had knocked him out again."

Jason listened with a horrified silence.

"A day after I had drove back, I got a call from the hospital telling me that my mother had flatlined and that they were trying to revive her. But I couldn't focus on anything else. I hid Gabe's money and deposited some of the amount that was not suspicious to my mom's account. Then, I left a letter in the apartment on my desk writing about where all the money was and made it seem like a suicide note. I was devastated. I thought that my mom had died. I hadn't heard the person on the phone carefully enough. Then I went to that bridge and... jumped. I was prepared for dying but not amnesia. Then, I think you know the rest."

The two sat in silence for what seemed like eternity. Finally Jason moved to stand up and then said - "This... is intense. I'm not sure what to do here. Should I report you and bring you to the station or should I pretend like nothing happened?"

"Look, Jase," Percy sighed. "Even though I did things that would seem justified, I still killed someone... I say, you bring me in tomorrow. Rest tonight we both need it."

"But, what about your mom? Or your career? What about Annabeth?" Jason asked, worriedly. "You can't just leave all of this behind just like that! Nothing will happen if I don't report this. This chapter can be closed here without anyone else knowing. Then why are you doing this?"

Percy remained pondered over his blond friend's words. Then said, "Maybe reporting it would make me feel as if all this is real and not just some figment of my imagination."

Jason sighed tiredly. "I can't believe that I'm saying this," he said. "Two days. After that, I'll report you. Sort out whatever matters you have till then. And if you change your mind, I'll not tell anybody anything. Sound good?"

"Yeah," Percy said with a sad smile.

"Okay. Now rest, man. You need it."

When Jason came out of the room he explained the situation to the four people that were still waiting outside the room. His mother broke out into tears. The the other blond guy (who later told Jason that his name was Luke) had unshed tears in his eyes as well. He had swiftly walked away from them as if needing to process this. His boyfriend (it seemed) had gone into a sort of trance as he collapsed into a seat behind him. Annabeth was comforting Percy's mother. It was almost as if she had expected this to happen.

No one in the room knew for sure what the future would bring now. But they all hoped to go uphill from here.