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Leo wasn’t sure exactly what turn his life was going to take now that he graduated college with a bachelors in mechanical engineering at the age of 20—all his AP and dual enrollment classes in high school having finally paid off—but he was content for now to just continue working at the local mechanic shop he’d been using to help pay for his degree the last three years until he got on his feet. That was until his father showed up at Waystation, with a small baby bundled in a pink swaddle that seemed a bit too hot for the sweltering June heat.
“Dad?” Leo’s younger brother, Harley, who was sitting on the couch with his adoptive younger sister, Georgina, as they played a board game on the floor of the living room.
Leo looked up from where he and Jo were coding a robot in the corner of the room to see that, yes, his and Harley’s biological father was indeed in the room, and holding an infant.
“Lord Hephaestus,” Jo said quickly, bowing slightly. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
Hephaestus awkwardly walked forward, carefully maneuvering his cane so that he wouldn’t drop the child, so that Jo could see the baby. With the intense speed of a caregiver, Jo had Waystation conjure a sink and quickly washed her hands and had the baby in her arms faster than Leo could process what was going on.
Leo could see small spokes of dark hair, curled flat against the baby’s ear, that was half covered by her little hat. Leo remembered vaguely when his youngest cousin was brought back from the hospital when he was seven, and he and his mami went to visit; she had a similar hat.
Jo immediately cradled the infant in her arms, rocking back and forth slightly.
Georgina nearly knocked over the parcheesi board as she stood up to walk closer to their mom. “Who’s that?” she asked, clearly aiming the question at Hephaestus.
“My daughter,” Hephaestus said. And wow, Leo could never get used to how many siblings he had, and that he was twenty, almost twenty-one years older than this one. “Her mother died in childbirth.”
“Oh, poor thing.” He hadn’t realized Emmie had entered the room, along with his sister, Nyssa, until she talked. She went over to her wife and helped guide Jo to a sitting position.
Leo immediately felt a kinship with this little girl, a strong connection with their similar backgrounds—deceased mothers. He quickly began to scrub away the dirt and grease from his hands in the same sink Jo had.
“How old is she?” Harley asked, moving to stand next to Georgie.
“Two days,” Hephaestus said, sitting on one of the couches after quickly disabling a net from Britomartus. “Just got released from the hospital this morning. She was born on the 26th.”
“What’s her name?” Nyssa asked.
Leo made his way next to his mothers and held out his arms, “Can I?”
Leo had a bucketful of experience holding children from his time volunteering at foster care centers, so the baby laid naturally in his arms, her head against his chest.
Maybe it was because she was his half-sister, but something felt different in his heart this time.
“To answer your earlier question, Nyssa,” Hephaestus said, “Her mother told me that she planned the first name to be Madalena before she passed.”
Baby Madalena cooed and shifted slightly, opening her eyes to reveal a light brown, the same color as Leo’s. Leo subconsciously held her a little tighter.
Georgina made her way closer, crouching down so she was equal height to where Leo sat, which was difficult because she, at twelve, was already taller than Leo was, at twenty. “Hey, Madalena,” she whispered, “I’m Georgie.”
“She doesn’t understand you,” Harley said.
Georgie looked over her shoulder. “I don’t care, Har.”
“So,” Emmie began, her voice light, “You want us to take her in.”
“If you could,” Hephaestus grumbled. His fingers drummed against his cane the same way Leo’s drummed against the baby’s side. It was honestly surprising how calm she was, given the fact that she was awake and so young. “She’s too young for Camp Half-Blood, and you’ve done a great job caring for Leo, Nyssa, and Harley.”
There was a pause, and Leo could sense the reason for the hesitation—Emmie and Jo were getting older, and caring for an infant was no easy task.
“I’ll adopt her,” Leo said, before the words caught up with him.
The only sound in the room was Madalena’s soft breaths as she fell back to sleep.
“Leo,” Emmie said softly, “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Of course I do,” Leo tucked a small curl behind her ear. “I’ve been volunteering at the Foster Care Home since I was sixteen, and while I usually do shop classes for the older kids, I’ve been on infant duty before.”
“Helping a child out is much different than raising them,” Hephaestus said.
“Like you know anything about raising kids,” Leo grumbled under his breath. Georgina gave him a strange look, though Leo was sure she was the only one to hear him.
“Besides,” Leo added, “Mom, Mamma, no offence, but you’re both getting older, and caring for a child isn’t easy.”
“So, you want to do it yourself?” Nyssa exclaimed. “Leo, you’re not even twenty-one yet!”
“I turn twenty-one in two weeks, relax,” Leo dismissed. “Besides, loads of people have kids at my age. Harley, wasn’t your biological mother twenty?”
Harley shifted, “Yeah, but you don’t want to be like my bio mother. She was shitty.”
“Harley!” Jo scolded.
“Okay, not the best example,” Leo admitted. “But Ms. Jackson also had Percy at around my age, and she’s the best mom ever, barring my three amazing mothers, of course, so it works out sometimes.”
“Leo,” Jo said softly, putting a hand on Leo’s shoulder, “I get your hearts in the right place, but raising a baby is really difficult. You’re a twenty-year-old single man. It will be a lot to handle.”
“But, I’m the best person to raise her,” Leo insisted. “Think about it: I’m young enough that I can chase her around when she’s older, and definitely energetic enough. I finished my degree last month, have a job with health insurance and a stable income, and I even accumulated all of my sick days because of my awesome demigodish immune system and have enough vacation days I could take a month off as a pseudo-paternity leave. I’ll call Robert soon and get that settled.”
“And when you’re back to work?”
“Day care exists,” Leo pointed out. “Or, if you’re so set on helping, you guys can watch her without having the responsibility of being her full-time caretaker.”
“You thought about this a lot,” Hephaestus said.
“Well,” Leo tapped against Madalena’s hip softly, rocking her. “I’ve had these vague idea in the back of my head that I wanted to foster or adopt a kid one day, since I realized a few years ago that romance and—” he glanced at Georgie and Harley, who were whispering amongst themselves as they glanced at the baby, “other activities weren’t going to be on the table for me. And besides, I love volunteering at the foster care center, but I wouldn’t wish that upon any kid. If I could save her the trauma of the system, then I will.”
Hephaestus stood up, his cane clanking on the ground. “I can get you all the stuff you could possibly need,” he said, before snapping his left figure, and, as stated, literally everything baby—from a bassinet to onesies to diapers to formula to burp cloths to binkies—spread across the Waystation living room.
“You’re a good kid, Leo,” Emmie whispered. “Jo and I will help you as much as we can.”
“Of course,” Jo added.
“Georgie and I can help too!” Harley jumped in. “Some kids in our class recently did a babysitting course and were talking about it. Georgie and I can become babysitters too!”
The thought of the thirteen and twelve-year-olds with the tendency to draw pessimistic pictures and transform them into concerning bots was honestly a bit scary, but Leo appreciated the sentiment. “Thanks, you two.”
“I’ll be the coolest aunt,” Nyssa grinned.
Georgina whipped around. “No, I will be!”
Leo chuckled, looking down at the baby who started to wake again, about to scrunch her nose and begin to cry. “You’ll both be amazing tias,” he smiled, just as the wailing began, that signature newborn cry. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a mija to feed.”