Chapter Text
Jason feels frantic as he runs down the hallway. He strains his ears to follow the sound of Esperanza’s cries.
“Papa! Daddy! Help!” Her voice echoes down the hallway, Jason feels frantic and he runs faster.
“Anza? Lia?” His voice echoes down the hallway, making it sound discombobulated as it jumps against the concrete walls.
There are no doors down here. The walls are smooth concrete rather than cinder block bricks like he had seen in his dream. He feels himself getting turned around, the familiar feeling of panic making his knees feel weaker than they had a few seconds ago.
He pictures his daughters; Anza with her dark curls and Leo-like smile, the way she begs for him to play princesses, the way she argues with her whole heart and Jason caves almost every time, Lia and her baby giggles, her devilish smile when Leo thinks she’s going to take her first steps and she doesn’t, the way she has her big sister wrapped around her fingers. Jason never could have dreamed he'd have this happiness. He never really thought he was deserving of it. His friends really deserved it, Frank and Hazel deserved their twins, Percy and Annabeth deserved all of their brilliant children, Piper deserved to have a million nieces and nephews to dote on (Jason can’t wait until she and Shel have their own kids), Nico and Will haven’t talked about kids but Jason knows they’d be brilliant parents, Leo…
Leo deserved this family more than anyone, in Jason’s strong (albeit biased) opinion. Leo, who had a mom who loved him with every breath she had, deserved to teach his kids how to fix things and come up with silly nicknames for them and read them bedtime stories using every silly voice he had. When they had discussed baby names, Jason had suggested his late mother-in-law’s and Leo had originally refused, but when Esperanza was born with curly hair and dark eyes and looked every bit like his husband Jason had asked again and Leo had burst into tears, nodding. Jason wishes Leo could talk to his mom one more time to tell her about his family. So Esperanza Sr. could take him in her arms and reassure him that he’s a great father and that he’s always going to be enough as long as he’s there.
Leo had insisted that it was only fair that since their firstborn was named after his mom, that they come up with a name that honored Jason’s childhood, one spent in New Rome. Jason had pushed back much like Leo had three years before. Leo had pored over Latin girl names and had compiled a list. Aurelia was the first name that caught his attention and when Aurelia had been born with a head full of blonde hair, Leo had insisted and the name felt right.
He can’t lose them, any of them.
“Esperanza?! Aurelia?!” He yells. He runs until the walls look familiar and he can hear the sound of car horns. It looks like his dream. He opens the doors at random, running onto the next room before that door closes.
The last door on this hallway swings opened with a bang.
“Daddy! Oomph -” His lovely, lovely daughters’ eyes are wide with fear as she calls for him and Medea slaps her hand over her mouth. Her fingertips strays to the sword at her side and Jason takes several steps back, hands automatically raising in the air.
“Please, please. Stop.” He begs. Esperanza squirms and Medea tightens her grip. Medea is glaring at Jason, dark eyes flashing with anger. Jason looks down at his daughter. “Esperanza, stop moving.” For maybe the first time in her life, Esperanza obeys the first time she’s told. She stops moving, dark eyes full of tears. Jason stares at her, this doesn’t feel real.
Lucky for Jason, war instincts never really fade. The flash of a blade catches his eye and he retrieves his gladius as the metal collides. It hurts his ears, rattles his jaw, burns his hands that have become accustomed to tea parties and tucking curly-headed girls into bed. He grits his teeth, widening his stance to block Medea’s attack.
Medea howls with all the anger in her and tries to attack him again. He focuses on defense while she's choses offense. He realizes too late that her goal is to get him far from the door. He swings, missing her by what must be centimeters.
“You won’t win this, Jason. I won’t feel this loss again.”
Jason doesn’t really think she’s talking to him .
Jason knows he’s a diplomat. He knows he should wait until Leo and Thalia find them and she’s outnumbered. He knows he should talk his way out of this.
He can’t. This woman wants to kill his children, wants to kill him.
With a yell, he rushes forward, slashing her arm. She screams so loudly that he has to pull back, he stumbles, his ears ringing. “You will not win this time!”
“Did Jason ever win?” Jason asks as their swords clash together. “You killed his kids. How could you?!”
“He wasn’t the man I married.”
“Your kids didn’t deserve that.” Jason’s voice cracks. “How old were they? The same age as mine? My girls still believe that kisses make everything better and that they’re going to be princesses when they grow up. Your kids did nothing wrong, don’t hurt mine because of your mistakes.”
Medea falters for a moment, eyes wide with tears. Jason takes the opportunity to swing, she ducks, kicking a heel out from under her and kicking him in the knee. He’s glad he was bracing for a different attack because he would for sure be on the ground if not. “I. Don’t. Care.” She grunts, flailing her sword at him. He parries, mostly trying to focus on not getting a finger cut off by her erratic techniques.
Jason takes advantage of this, he ducks, lower than she anticipates and manages to dive for her legs. He tackles her to the ground. She snarls and kicks him, he falls, grunting as his gladius flies across the room.
“Jason!” Leo yells. Jason has never been so glad to see his husband. “Jason back up!”
Jason obeys. He trusts Leo but also doesn't want to get in the middle of whatever he's planning to do.
Leo pulls out a bottle of glowing purple liquid bubbling from his belt. Medea wails as the bottle flies through the air and hits on the shoulder and shatters. Jason watches in horror as it eats away at her flesh. She whimpers and Jason backs up, swaying slightly on his feet. Leo rushes to his side. Thalia stands over Medea. Leo almost looks apologetic as Medea begs for mercy.
"Did that poison touch you?" Leo asks desperately, he looks Jason over several times.
Jason shakes his head, patting himself over for injuries. "No, no, I'm good." His knee aches but he's fine.
Or he's fine for about five seconds until his knee actually gives out and he stumbles. Leo grabs him, helping him balance on his other leg. "It's okay, it's okay, baby."
"The girls." Jason says, he spins around. "I saw them. They're alive, they're okay."
Leo looks like the world has been lifted from his shoulders.
"Where?" Leo asks. Jason looks around, Medea succeeded in disorienting him. But after a moment of searching, he notices there's a trail of blood from where he had sliced her arm and he points down the hallway.
Leo is running before Jason can even take another breath. Jason moves slower, Leo finds the door and tries to tug it open. It's locked.
"Papa!" Esperanza and Aurelia cry in unison. Leo looks like he might pass out.
"Hi, mis amores. It's okay, we're here. Just hang on." He turns his head away, tears in his eyes that he quickly wipes away. He tries to mess with the lock, pulls out a few tools and tinkers with it. Nothing happens. He pulls a tiny screwdriver and tries to unscrew the entire knob.
Immediately something that's easiest described as panic but is a deeper, instinctive feeling. He pulls away, trying to decipher what the hell is going on. He puts a hand on the lock, trying to figure out what's wrong. It's like a thousand alarms are going off in his head. He pulls his hand away.
"Jas, I don't know what to do."
"Huh? Is it locked?" Jason looks like he's going to bodyslam the door and Leo frantically smacks his arm out to stop Jason.
"It's rigged to explode." Leo chokes out. Jason freezes.
“What?”
“If we touch it, or– or mess with it, it's going to explode.” Leo whispers, like talking too loudly is going to set off the mechanism. He looks at it, careful not to touch. “It's not made very well.” Leo muses, he tries to peer through the small glass window in the door at the other side, that's where the real machinery is. It's a crude machine, Leo thinks he could have made that in middle school if you have the right materials. The problem is that he doesn't have access to that side of the door and there's no way in hell he's going to talk Esperanza through dismantling it.
Jason looks desperate. Leo thinks that the fight took it out of him more than he wants to admit. Leo squeezes his eyes shut, trying to come up with a solution. He's not the best teacher, never has been. Him trying to explain dismantling an explosive to anyone would be a disaster, trying to explain it to a four year old would be impossible.
Aurelia stares at him through the window, her big brown eyes are teary, breaks his heart even more than he thought was possible at this point. “We're here, Lia. It's okay, sweet girl. Hang on.”
Aurelia blinks at him, sniffling. She takes a shaky step. He hears Jason gasp.
“Look at her, Leo.”
“I have eyes, Jason.” Leo retorts, still trying to do some mental math.
“Leo, look.” Jason grips his arm. Leo refocuses on his daughter. There's a glowing hammer above her head. She takes a few toddling steps to the door.
Leo watches in awe. When the Greek demigods had started having families, they had discussed the logistics of whether those gods would be able to claim the kids as far as abilities went. They hadn’t had a chance to actually see. Turns out, it can happen.
Aurelia gets to the door and stops.
“Lia, don't touch that.” He warns, the warmth of the moment turning to fear in his throat, making him feel like he's going to choke on it.
She stares at the door, before reaching up and smacking the makeshift lock. If he wasn't so panicked, he would laugh. She's definitely just copying what she's seen Leo do when a piece of machinery doesn't work the way he wants.
It sparks and Leo covers his face in anticipation. They lose anyways.
Nothing happens for a moment, then, almost comically, the lock slowly falls off. It doesn't explode. It doesn't even do anything dramatic. The door falls open and Leo finds himself holding his older daughter in nanosecond.
“Papa!” She bursts into tears, burying her face in his shoulder. He clings to her, pressing a million kisses into her hair and face.
“I've got you. You're safe.” The words are a reminder to himself as much as it's for her.
Jason is doing the same thing to Aurelia, who giggles and rests her blonde curls on his shoulder. Esperanza suddenly remembers that she has two parents and removes her snotty nose from Leo's shoulder.
“Daddy!”
They exchange kids. Leo grins at Aurelia and spins her around. “My new favorite Hephaestus kiddo.” He tells her. She claps her hands together.
“Yay!”
“Exactly.”
How Thalia manages to guide them back to the real world is a mystery. Leo doesn't even notice until they’re piled in the car and she’s driving.
They get back home before noon. Leo presses the door opened, ushering in the girls. They desperately need food and baths. Leo is a little surprised to smell food and even more surprised to see enough food to feed a small army on the table.
“There's my favorite girls!”
Piper emerges from the kitchen, Esperanza squeals and detaches herself from Jason's neck. She wraps Piper in the tightest hug a four year old can give.
Aurelia soon follows suit and Leo clasps Jason's hand in his and watches Piper interact with their girls. He's not surprised to see she brought gifts, though the food might be better received because Esperanza and Aurelia eat a whole plate each.
As they eat, Piper shows off her gifts. There's a book about princesses for Esperanza and another stuffed animal for Aurelia. Esperanza drags her sister over to the couch to “read” it, which in this case means pointing at the pictures.
As the girls settle on the couch, Piper turns to them, eyes soft. “How are you?” She asks them.
Leo gives her a genuine smile. “Never better.” He breathes. And it's true. His girls are safe and his best friend is here and his husband's hand is in his.
Her eyes flicker to Jason, who hasn't taken his eyes off the girls.
“Jas?”
“I'm good, great.” He answers blankly. Piper nods, squeezing his other hand.
“It's okay if you're not.” She says softly. Leo has flashbacks to the Argo II, when Jason always pretended to be fine and dandy until he was near a panic attack.
“I'm– I'm so glad they're back.” Jason says. Leo hums in agreement. “I just keep thinking about what-ifs and–”
Before he even knows what he's doing, Leo wraps his arms tightly around Jason. “Hey, hey, baby. It's okay. Look at them, they're okay.”
Jason nods, burying his face into the top of Leo's head. He sniffles and Leo pulls back almost instantly.
“Jason, I love you across the world and down to Tartarus and back. If you get snot in my hair, I'm going to hand you divorce papers.”
Jason laughs weakly, wiping at his face. Piper snorts and pats Jason's arm.
“We brought you some food. Have a good day with your girls. I'll be back tomorrow morning.”
“You could stay and eat with us.” Leo suggests. Piper smiles and shakes her head.
“You'll be alright. I promised Hazel I would stop by for coffee.” She kisses their cheeks.
“Pipes…” Jason calls out. She turns.
“Please don't bring back another set of toys in the morning.” He teases.
She grins brightly. “It's my auntie rights. I do what I want.”
Jason doesn't argue, instead he just nods and rolls his eyes.
When Piper leaves, Leo looks over at the table. He's not hungry.
“Daddy, read this book to us!”
Jason turns to the girls. “What do you say?”
“Puh-lease.” Aurelia says.
Jason joins the two on the couch. He drags Leo with him and they find themselves pressed so close together, kids on top of them and beside them and between them because their girls can't stop moving for two seconds.
Esperanza falls asleep before Jason is ten pages in. She's slumped against his shoulder. Aurelia is not much different, her eyelids flutter as she fights sleep against Leo's chest.
“How does it feel? To be the best dad ever?” Leo whispers. Jason's cheeks flush and he looks at Leo.
“I don't know, how does it feel?”
Leo hums and looks down at his daughter. His daughter has the same gifts as him, which saved her life. How many times had his own gifts almost gotten him killed.
“It's pretty good.” He admits. “You avoided the question, Mr. Grace-Valdez.”
“My apologies, Mr. Grace-Valdez. It feels like home.”
Leo nods in agreement.