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Athena could feel the indignation every time she looked at him. How dare this upstart son of her enemy love her favorite daughter. When she saw him, she was reminded of each horrible thing he had done throughout the years.
She had watched as he, only twelve years old, had traveled across the country with her daughter looking for that which the gods themselves had failed to find, which she had failed to find. She watched as he not only succeeded but fought Ares as well. Not only had he fought her fellow war god and survived, but he had won. He had won by outthinking and outplaying the hotheaded fool.
She had instantly despised him. He who would use tricks and cleverness, who was capable, who was clearly already crushing for her daughter. He would prove each of those qualities a hundred-fold over the years. She hated him for all of it.
His loyalty was another quality she despised. When her daughter went missing, she had been annoyed to see that it was him that went searching. Oh, sure, Athena’s half-sister, Thalia, had been searching as well, but she had also been searching for Artemis. No, only Perseus had prioritized Annabeth over all others.
She had told him how foolish it was. That it was a flaw. His flaw.
It was. He would doom the world for her. No life was worth that. She valued no one so highly, not even her daughter. It was utterly foolish.
But she couldn’t help but watch. She couldn’t help but be amazed that this clever warrior was willing to do the impossible for her daughter.
She watched as she tempted him with Calypso and safety on the island of Ogygia, and he had left for her. She watched as he turned down the greatest gift the gods could give, immortality itself, and his eyes flickered to her. She watched as he held her hand, dangling over the pit to Tartarus himself, and refused to let her go.
She knew they were together now, that he had gone to college to be with her. He was studying marine biology. He was amazing at it. He planned to continue on to get a DVM and become a marine veterinarian, using the gifts of his father to help those that he could help better than any other.
She hated him, because she could not help but admire him. She knew there was nothing she could do to stop it. She could feel it happening, and she hated him for it.
Athena hid herself in her palace, isolated and alone, and tried to think of anything but the inevitable.
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Percy sighed as he sank into the couch after another long day at New Rome University. The professors didn’t care that it was senior year. They didn’t care that he had already been accepted to Long Island University’s vet school. They still expected him to put in his maximum effort each and every day. Percy couldn’t help but love it.
For the first time in his life, he felt like he actually knew something. He had gone from a D+ student in middle school, to a C-B student at Goode high, and now an A-B student at New Rome University. He loved his classes, he loved his professors, and he loved his home.
It was a cute little two bedroom that he and Annabeth had received as part of his retirement package from his position as praetor. Never mind he’d only been praetor like a day, the Roman army took care of their own.
The house had a small kitchen with overcrowded counters, a master suite on the second floor, a spare bed and bath on the first floor, and even a little garage that they used as storage space since neither of them had a car or chariot. It was the perfect little home life he’d always fantasized about in high school.
“Percy, I’m home,” Annabeth, the only girl he’d ever imagined being the other one to fill the space in his home, called as she came in the front door.
He heard her sling her heavy bag off her shoulders. It struck the floor with a solid thud as the weight of all her architecture books drug it down. He didn’t bother responding or opening his eyes as he listened to her move through the house. She went to the kitchen and grabbed something from the fridge. Then she came sliding into the living room, sinking into the couch next to him and slotting herself against him like it was the most comfortable place in the world.
Percy slung his arm off the couch and around her shoulders, dragging her even closer to him. The two of them sat there, just taking a moment to enjoy each other’s company and relax after their respective days.
Percy knew that eventually they’d need to worry about dinner. He wanted to know about her day. He wanted to complain about Dr. Roberts and his absurd insistence that all work be turned in using Times New Roman, despite almost every student having dyslexia and Comic Sans being way easier for all of them to work with. That could all wait, because just then nothing sounded better than just laying there with her in his arms.
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Eventually they got up. They ordered from a little Italian place down the road, neither feeling up for cooking just then. They put something mindless on the TV and just let it play in the background as they continued to relax.
Annabeth had finished her seltzer and then laid her head down in his lap. She hadn’t even put up a token effort to stay awake, falling asleep as Percy ran his fingers through the roots of her blond hair.
The doorbell rang and Percy maneuvered himself off the couch to go get their food, Annabeth making a disappointed sound at losing her pillow. He just smiled and shook his head at her as he made his way to the door.
“Hey man,” Percy greeted the delivery driver as he opened the door. It was a guy about his age in a cheesy red and green uniform that looked atrocious.
“Just sign here,” the driver told him, sounding as tired as Percy felt. He handed Percy a receipt and a pen. Percy gave him a generous tip for having to put up with life’s bullshit and was handing back the merchant copy when a flash drew his eye.
Percy looked up and stared at what he saw, trying to process it. Trying to wrap his mind around it. He continued to stare as it continued to grow closer, but he got no closer to understanding.
He must have stood there awhile, because he heard the sleep and confused voice of Annabeth calling him from inside the house. Even still, he did not tear his eye away from it. He felt her arms wrap around his waist, her head against his arms.
“Percy?” she asked, even more confused.
She must have followed his line of sight because he heard her gasp.
“What the fuck?” Annabeth whispered.
Percy could only nod in agreement with her as the golden basket continued to float down and a cold wind swept through the warm California air.
The two watched in silence as the basket landed at their feet, right beside the bag of food the delivery driver had left at some point. Inside was a baby, a little shock of black hair clear on their head as they sucked their thumb, and a note attached to the little pink blanket that swaddled them. It read:
Perseus,
This is your daughter.
Athena
That was it. That was the whole note, written in clear large letters that was easy for even Percy to read. Percy just stared down at the little girl.
“H-how?” Percy managed to ask, his throat tight and his mouth dry.
The noise was enough for the girl to open her eyes, a familiar grey color that every child of Athena carried.
The girl, his daughter, was beautiful. She was exactly the way Percy had always pictured, and it made it so much worse. Because this wasn’t the little girl Percy had pictured, because Annabeth wasn’t this girl’s mother. It was made all the worse that she was her sister.
She looked up at him with eyes too intelligent for a child that young and took in the world.
Percy wondered if this was the first time. Had she opened her eyes for Athena? For her mother, a traitorous part of his mind whispered. Had she seen Olympus?
Annabeth let go of him and turned back into the house. Percy looked back at her to see her angrily storming through the narrow entryway. He flinched away from her obvious anger, not looking forward to that. It did serve to knock him out of his confused stupor though.
Turning back around to the girl, who was now scowling in her own confusion as she stared up at him.
“Well,” Percy sighed. “Guess you’re gonna be a little troublemaker too.”
He bent down and picked her up, carefully ensuring he supported her as he had learned when caring for Estelle. He held her in one arm, tucked close to his body, moved the Italian into the basket, and grabbed the basket with his free hand.
He walked into the house to find Annabeth angrily pacing around the table. He set the basket with the Italian down on the counter and moved to stand close, but remaining far enough away not to be in her way. He had made that mistake once. She had shoulder checked him by accident and they’d ended up sprawled on the floor together.
“What was she thinking?!” Annabeth demanded, though before Percy could respond she had rounded on him, her grey eyes blazing with rage. “Did you know about this? Have you been cheating on me with my own mother?!”
“What?” Percy gasped. “No!”
“That baby didn’t just come from nowhere Percy,” Annabeth spat. “So what? You’ve been meeting her behind my back? Is this how you’ve been passing your classes? Why you haven’t wanted my help? Is Athena helping you?”
“How could you even ask that?” Percy felt like he was pleading with her as she drove daggers into his heart.
“I don’t know Percy, maybe the baby in your arms?” Annabeth yelled as she gestured angrily at him.
“I haven’t even seen Athena since the battle with Gaia,” Percy told her. “I don’t-”
The baby in his arms gave a harsh scream of her own, cutting him off as she began to cry.
“Shh,” Percy soothed her as he raised her upright and bounced her, trying to get her to calm back down.
“I can’t even look at you,” Annabeth snapped.
She stormed past him, back down the entryway. He let her go, frozen in place by his panic at her anger. He heard the front door slam, and flinched, pulling the infant in his arms closer.
Her crying was still going, but now that the room had quieted, she was quickly calming down. Percy was also calming down, but that didn’t mean his thoughts weren’t racing.
Percy had helped care for Estelle, but he knew he hadn’t really done all that much. He knew how to change a diaper. He knew the basic outline of a baby’s schedule, but it was supposed to change, right? And he didn’t have anything. He needed to get everything. He didn’t know how he was going to afford it all.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to have nine months to prepare. To buy all of the things, to read all of the books, to rub Annabeth’s stomach and sore feat and talk to their unborn child.
He needed help. He wanted his crazy smart girlfriend with her lists and her plans and her near encyclopedic knowledge of everything. His girlfriend, who was so mad she had left the house, and who knew when she would return.
Percy fished out his phone. A luxury that he couldn’t even take with him outside of New Rome, but one he was especially glad for now.
“Come on,” Percy muttered as he listened to the phone ring and continued to bounce the now happy newborn.
“Hello?” the groggy voice answered.
“Nico,” Percy sighed in relief.
“Percy?” Nico asked, his confusion clear. “What are you doing calling? It’s the dead of night.”
Percy looked at the oven to see it was nine, making it one in the morning in New York. “I know its late,” Percy lied. “I need your help.”
“Anything,” Nico agreed instantly sounding more alert.
“I need you to pick someone up.”
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“Percy?” the familiar voice of his mother called from the entryway.
“Mom,” Percy sighed, not even caring that Nico had once again shadow-traveled directly into his house.
She bustled into the kitchen, a look of concern on her face and Nico right behind her. She froze, seeing him with the baby in his arms, the child he didn’t know how to explain. The baby who had black hair and grey eyes.
“Ummm,” Percy hummed, trying his best to think of anything he could say to explain this situation that he was still coming to terms with himself. “Surprise?”
“Perseus Achilles Jackson,” his mom practically growled as he hands went to her hips. “You better have a good explanation for this.”
“I don’t know,” Percy said, and he hadn’t realized how emotional he was feeling, but his voice cracked, and his eyes burned as he admitted it. His heart was pounding too fast and it was hard to breathe. “She just floated down in a golden basket. Annabeth left. I don’t know what to do. I don’t have anything! I don’t have diapers, I don’t have a crib, I don’t have any clothes for her. Oh gods, what is she going to eat? I don’t have boobs! I can’t make milk. What if-”
“Percy!” his mom’s call managed to cut through the panicky haze as she squeezed his shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“There was a note,” Percy whispered, looking into his mom’s blue eyes. He clutched at the girl in his arms like she was the only thing keeping him from slipping back into his panic. Her weight helped to ground him. “It said she was my daughter. But that’s not possible.”
“You know that’s how it works Percy,” Nico said, and Percy flinched, only now remembering that he was here. “Athena’s children are delivered to the mortal that inspired them by Boreas in a golden basket.”
“But Athena hates me,” Percy reminded them with a shake of his head.
“Hate and love aren’t as far apart as some people think,” his mom told him, her voice still soft and kind and everything he needed. “You stay here with the little one, me and Nico will go get some basic necessities. Then we can talk some more. Okay?”
All Percy could do was nod, new tears burning in his eyes at the sense of relief that spread through his chest.
“We’ll be back soon.”
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Annabeth looked out over the hills and scowled. Every time she thought about what had happened, she was overwhelmed by all of the emotions that burned through her, but if she couldn’t think through it, how was she supposed to deal with it? Maybe she could think around it?
Anger. She knew she felt royally pissed off. At Percy, at her mom, at the little grey eyed girl that ruined everything.
Pain. She was hurt. She hurt so badly that she wanted to collapse in on herself and sob. Which just served to add a new person she was angry at. Herself. Angry that she was too weak, too emotional, and too vulnerable.
Betrayed. She trusted Percy more with her life, and he had hurt her deeper than she had ever thought possible. Hurt her like Luke had. Like her father had. Like every man in her life had. But she was betrayed by Athena too. Her own mother. Talk about adding insult to injury.
Jealous. She hated it. She hated that she was jealous, but she saw that little grey eyed girl, with Percy’s black hair and adorable little nose. It was like she came straight from her dreams of the future, but she wasn’t hers. She was literally her sister. The jealousy made her feel sick to her stomach. It made the hurt worse. It made her even angrier.
Maybe she should just leave. She had all the credits she needed. The extra semester was just to stay with Percy. She already had a job lined up in New York. Maybe they’d let her start early?
Annabeth knew better than to make a decision while emotional though. She couldn’t commit without thinking this through.
She glared at the hills of Rome. “Why?” she asked, her voice full of venom. “How could they?”
Did they? A little voice asked in her mind, but she squished it down.
Of course they did. How else could there be a daughter? It didn’t matter to her that he didn’t sleep with her. If he cheated on her emotionally or mentally, it was all the same.
He had said he hadn’t seen her since the battle with Gaia. That was nearly six years ago, back when they were sixteen. She couldn’t have been from then. Was Percy lying? He had seemed confused, and as much as she liked to make fun of him for being a seaweed brain, but he wasn’t stupid. He was smart, and clever, and quick. Yet he’d seemed to be struggling with it as much as she had.
Annabeth sighed, the anger still there, but shame burning alongside it now.
Had she overreacted? No. No, that wasn’t what was wrong. It was upsetting and it was okay to be upset, but did she take it out on the wrong person? Yes. She could see that now.
She got up, dusting off her jeans. The sky was already burning red and orange as Apollo drove the sun chariot down to his palace in the west. She didn’t make it back to their house until the sky was dark and the stars shined.
She stopped at the door and took a deep breath. She tried the nob and found it unlocked. She hadn’t locked it when she left, and it seemed Percy hadn’t bothered either. She opened the door, but knocked on the door frame as she stepped through.
“Percy?” she called hesitantly.
The house was quiet and dark. That worried her worse than anything. Had he left to? What would she do then?
Her fears were assuaged as she walked into the living room to find Percy sleeping on the couch, the little pink bundle still held close in his arms. Annabeth couldn’t help but smile at him. He was going to be such a wonderful dad. That had never been in doubt for her. Seeing him there with his daughter, even though it still sent a stab of pain through her heart, she was filled with a happy warmth that had been missing since she had left.
Sighing at herself she went and sank into the couch, scooting close to Percy just as she always did when they sat here. She looked at the baby and looked at her once again. Her eyes were closed as she slept, long delicate lashes standing out against the pale skin of her face. She had Percy’s black hair, but beyond that she couldn’t see much of him in her face beyond that. She was still too young, probably only born today.
Annabeth felt shame burn hot through her. All the anger she’d felt at this little baby was washed away as she realized how innocent this little girl was. Then it burned through a second time, hotter and more intense than the first as she remembered the story of her own delivery.
The way her father and stepmother had treated her had been horrible. She remembered yelling about how she hadn’t asked to be sent to him. She had just been a baby. Their attitude had been what had driven her to run away at seven.
Yes, she was upset that this baby had come, but she resolved right then and there that she would never treat this baby any different.
“Hey,” Percy’s soft voice broke her out of her retrospection.
Annabeth looked up in surprise, looking into Percy’s sea green eyes that were filled with hope and fear.
“Hey,” she whispered back, raising a hand to put reassuringly on his chest.
“You came back,” he pointed out.
“Of course,” she assured him. Even if it had passed her mind to go, she never could have just left him. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Percy told her. “But we’ll figure it out together, right?”
“Always.”