Chapter Text
"Sally sweetheart, please come inside."
Paul said softly as he wrapped a weighted blanket around Sally's delicate frame. But Sally didn't move or make a sound as she simply continued to stare out into the horizon, where the full moon met the sea. The sweet light casting a white glow to the dark ocean. The wind blew with a cool breeze, pushing the loose curls that had come undone from her half hearted braid into a reluctant dance.
"Just a bit more."
Sally all but whispered as the waves of Montauk lapped at her toes, drowning out her voice while the piercing cold water was the only thing keeping her grounded to reality.
"Hun, you've been out here for hours. It can't be good for a pregnant women to be standing in the cold for so long."
Paul whispered back just as delicately as he wrapped his arms around her and gently laid both hands on the slight bump of her rounded belly. Sally wanted to smile, to place her hands on top of his and rejoice in their recent discovery. But she couldn't, the over whelming pain, stress and anxiety was clouding her mind and senses. The world was too dark even for her starlight to brighten. Annabeth had disappeared off to find and bring Percy home, but Sally couldn't help but feel like something had gone horribly wrong. There was throbbing ache in her heart and mind that kept screaming at her that her son was in trouble and needed her help.
He needed her love and comfort, but her being so inadequate to provide either was dragging her into a zombie like state. Sally was many things, but a coward was not one of those things. She knew that she needed to face the gut wrenching questions she has avoided being answered all day. Where was her son? Was he alive? Because the fulfilling pull that the ocean had whenever she needed to feel Percy's presence was fading.
"I will not loose a child just to gain another."
"Sally-"
"I won't. So please, just a bit more time."
She all but pleaded, desperation and pain tainting her words so much that Paul had no choice but to give in. He released her and stepped back.
"Ok. But just five more minuets or I'm coming back out here and throwing you over my shoulder to bring you inside, Fred Flintstone style."
A faint smile played at her lips. Of course Paul would be the one to bypass her frozen emotional state to pull her smile back.
"I promise."
Confident in her word, Paul simply turned and trudged back to their cabin. When Sally was certain she heard their door shut, she reached up and pushed the blanket off her shoulders.
"Please be here."
Sally pleaded to the ocean as she put one foot in front of the other until she was knee deep into the tide. Sally bent down and let her finger tips float and flutter along with the rhythm of the ocean. Nothing. Sally's blood ran cold and her mind went blank, the chill of the water and fall weather having nothing to do with it. Nothing, she felt absolutely nothing. Where was the beat of the sea that had began in her core the moment when she first brought Percy to the beach. She was always able to feel it, even when Percy was off on some quest, the sea never failed to mimic his heart beat, as if it was reassuring her that her son still breathed. But now, there was nothing. Sally couldn't with stand the giant wave of mind numbing agony that slammed into her, making her collapse to her knees and belt out her despair.
"NOOOOOOOO! No! Please! You're here! You're ok! YOU HAVE TO BE! I CAN'T FEEL YOU!
Sally all but wailed as she slammed her hands into the water again and again as she felt the waves dowse her entire body, as if reprimanding a child for throwing a tantrum.
"My Perseus...my baby...I can't feel you."
Sally whimpered as she shoved her head into her hands and continued to sob. Drowning in her sorrows, Sally will never take into consideration or even remember all that she missed in that moment. She didn't notice that the ocean itself had completely stilled, no longer thrashing her body around or the fact that the sea creatures had stoped in their tracks and simply bowed where they were to their lord's grieving mother. A group of sea nymphs mournfully swished their tales as as they pulled each other into a group hug, the pain in Sally's voice bringing tears to their own eyes.
And yet, she missed the most important detail of all, that just a couple of feet away down the beach, stood a man in the tide wearing a dark black suite. His hair and beard were neatly trimmed, he stood up right with a righteous power oozing off him in waves but his demeanor was just as somber or even more so than Sally's. His callous hands seemed to have a white knuckled grip on what looked like a fishing pole, yet that did not stop him from lifting his hand and commanding the ocean to semi engulf Sally in a comforting embrace. And it didn't take a genius to guess what he murmured.
"I'm sorry."
Sally would never remember any of this, but as Paul stepped away from the window to give the grieving parents their moment of intimacy, he knew for certainty that he would.