Chapter Text

CHAPTER 1: 

“Everything is going to be okay.” Percy whispered as he squeezed her hand. He had his signature soft smile, the one that made Annabeth want to believe him beyond what her overly rational mind said. But even the comfort his smile brought struggled to fight against her own anxiety. It had festered for days and their arrival didn’t help. 

Annabeth wanted to solely blame it on how tired she was from the long drive; despite the frequent stops, the drive had been exhausting. She was glad to be done with it and finally be in California. Leaving New York so close to Christmas had been in and of itself a terrible idea. Driving across the country was tiring every other time they’d done it, but making the drive while 6 months pregnant had not been one of her finest ideas. 

And she once again had no one to blame but herself for that choice. Or lack of, whichever. She was upset and regretted ever trying to be the bigger person. 

Percy walked beside her, his hand letting go of hers only for it to move to her lower back. She was sure this wasn’t one of her finest decisions. And, while Percy pointed that out, he also knew she had to try and had opted to keep her calm and lead them how she wanted. 

She offered him a small nod, straightened her back, made sure her oversized jacket covered her, and knocked. She could hear voices on the other side of the door and could swear she could smell food, but that may have been her imagination, or her stomach begging. 

It wasn’t long before the door pulled open. It was her half-brother Matthew, who was now taller than her, his hair a shaggy mess. He was wearing a random T-shirt with his school’s name on it and jeans but had no shoes. He was a stark contrast to her, who despite the lack of comfort had felt it necessary to look more put together.

“Hi Matthew,” Annabeth smiled.

She liked Matthew; while they had never been close, time had once helped her relationship with her half-brothers. Of course, that had easily slipped through her fingers, but she wasn’t going to dwell on that. The twins were twenty-two, and last she heard, close to finishing their undergrad degrees. Years ago, the awkwardness she used to feel around them had been all gone, but now, despite the smile on his face, she felt it once more. 

“Hey guys! How was the drive?”

Matthew stepped back to allow them in. The house looked the same as she remembered it, with small seasonal changes, including an oversized Christmas tree. Other than that, the place was almost a museum. There was a single picture of all five of them. A moment frozen in time; in it she was roughly fourteen, while the twins had been seven. The years since made the image a jarring reminder that her place had been momentary - staged. 

Percy’s voice brought her back as he closed the door behind them and leaned back against her.  “Hey, Matthew. It was good, when’d you get in?” 

“Drove up last week.” Matthew responded easily enough, but she could see the politeness in his words.

“Nice!” Small talk was never something she enjoyed, but Percy never dwelled on it. 

“Hey Matt, did you - Oh, hey Annabeth, Percy!” Bobby called from the top of the stairs. 

Throughout the years, the boys’ personalities shifted in their own directions, making it easier to tell them apart. While Matthew could happily sit in silence with her when she visited, Bobby was on the move, always itching for something. 

“Hey Bobby.” He, unlike Matthew, was dressed in a hooded sweater but was wearing shorts. His hair was much shorter, and his shoulders seemed much wider than his brother’s. 

“Hey man. ” 

It wasn’t long before her other half-brother was barreling down towards them and reached for to give them an awkward one armed side hug. She forced herself to smile. She was glad that despite the years since she last saw him, Bobby was still acting like himself, but she was aware enough to know that what she knew of him was minimal. So, she inched away, hoping to not linger. 

Luckily, her amazing husband moved himself closer to her half brother. Which led to Bobby mainly hugging Percy but he didn’t seem to care much either. The gesture was quick. 

“Dad said you two were coming to spend Christmas with us, but I didn’t really believe him.” Bobby said his comment with his usual offhanded nonchalance, but it still made her tense.

“After day three of driving, we were making it, one way or another,” Percy joked, but she could feel his hand find its way back to her lower back. 

She was grateful for the way he managed to ease some of the tensions with her family. Percy just had a way of molding families in place; she wasn’t even sure if he fully understood it, but she had watched him do it throughout the last sixteen years of their lives. 

Even then, she was only back because of him and their baby. 

Their baby. They were months away from becoming someone’s parents. She didn’t know if she would be really good at it, and that was terrifying, but she had no doubt Percy would excel at it. And she knew because of that alone, their baby would never feel the emptiness she did walking into her father’s house. 

She felt the familiar pressure on her chest. She looked away to catch her breath and slow her breathing, she blamed her hormones. She tried to force her thoughts on the horrible nutcracker decoration on the mantle, it looked terrifying. 

Luckily, she was able to control her emotions by the time Bobby spoke up as he led them towards the nearby living room. “How long did you take this time?” 

“We made a trip out of it this time,” She said, choosing to omit how Percy had been an overprotective mother hen and had enforced the sleep-in-a-regular-bed rule on her, which limited their driving time. “Been driving for five days.” 

“Oh man, that sounds terrible in holiday traffic.”

“Yeah, we’re a bit tired.” As they trekked toward the living room after him, she tried to look around and see if she heard her father. But there was only the sound of a ticking clock, no paper rustling, no other steps, just echoed emptiness. 

“Do you need help with any bags? If not, Mom has cleaned out your room, Annabeth. She was busy getting it ready yesterday.” 

She offered a small smile towards Matthew. Her half-brothers genuinely seemed content enough to have her crash their holiday plans, even when it had been years since she joined them. Not since she was a kid returning to them after years of running away to camp. Even then, the holidays were just a glorified dinner. 

When Annabeth and Percy started college in New Rome, they both ached for the familiarity of New York, and with every break, they braved the traffic to go back. Every holiday was spent with friends, Sally, Estelle, and Paul. 

Once they graduated, she was accepted into Columbia for her masters, and they moved back to New York. When she completed her degree she was lucky to get a job at an architecture firm in the city. Throughout her time studying and living there her visits to her father’s house became even less frequent. She called, she emailed, and she had always tried to visit at least once a year, during those first four years. 

The last time she had visited was a little over two years before, when she came to tell her father she was planning on marrying Percy. It had been a great visit, it had been one of her fondest memories of her family. But the memory was later tainted. 

She disappointed her father. They fought. Everyone threw kindling on the flames. And quicker than she realized years had passed them by.  

The calls during those two years were quarterly, at best, the emails just superficial contact, and every forced invitation sent to her, she responded with the same ‘busy’ declined reply. But now, here she was, facing them all once more because she wanted to prove to herself that she could. Because she knew that not telling them about the baby would be the final nail in the coffin. 

She had spent days wondering how she would deliver the news. And now, nothing was exactly as she planned. Her father wasn’t even there. While her brothers seemed happy to see her, she wondered how long that would last. How could it all shift as soon as her dad or Helen joined in? She knew well enough where she stood in their family.  

“Where are Helen and Dad?” She asked, looking at Matthew, hoping he knew her well enough to understand her tone was past the introduction pleasantries.  

Percy understood, she felt him straighten up and inch closer to her. 

“Dad forgot something at the university, or wanted to take something - not sure, wasn’t paying attention. But he’s out,” Bobby drawled as he threw himself on the two seater couch. 

“And mom went to the store for what she called, some ‘emergency wrapping paper’,” Matthew finished off as he took a seat in one of the arm chairs. 

This left the larger couch for Percy and Annabeth and she was grateful for the distance, even when it rubbed at her like armor on a healing wound. Neither made a move for the empty couch, though.

“So, we’re on our own for lunch. I was just asking Matt if he wanted to order a pizza.”  Bobby was on his cell phone, likely already on some app, ready to order, whether any of them wanted some or not. 

She turned to Percy, and he smiled at her, and that was enough to reassure her. It was, after all, why they came. “Pizza sounds great. Just make sure to get enough.” She said as she let Percy help her take off her baggy jacket. 

Matthew laughed, his eyes only on Bobby as he reached for his brother’s phone. “No New York pizza supremacy debate, this time?” 

“Not needed, we settled that already.” Percy piped in as they walked closer to her oblivious brothers. 

It took a second, but she saw the moment Bobby noticed, and watched as it took another moment for him to process it. He looked confused for a second before his jaw dropped. “Wait - are you- is that…?”

His tone was enough for Matthew to look up and see exactly what had left Bobby confused. He understood much quicker, “You’re pregnant?” 

“Yeah, so make sure you order enough pizza.” She smiled, hoping the anxiety she felt wouldn’t leak through her no-nonsense voice. 

“Trust me, you don’t want to see that,” Percy joked as he sat next to her. He played the calmness well, it always soothed her. But she knew Percy was also running through scenarios in his mind. 

Luckily, neither had to wait long.

“Woah!” 

“Uh, congrats, you two.” 

Her brothers were taken aback but were really smiling. They weren't the polite smiles they sometimes shared, they were the smiles they gave when they watched a movie they enjoyed or when they used to tell her about some high school thing they did; they were real. For a moment, Annabeth allowed her shoulders to relax, just a bit. She knew her half brothers ranked as the easier of the four reactions, but she had still worried. 

It seemed she hadn’t needed to. Matthew and Bobby didn’t rush to hug her and Percy, like Sally and Paul had, nor how their friends had, but that wasn’t the type of relationship they had. In their own way, they seemed happy for them, and she had to accept that as a win. 

She could feel the sting in her eyes, but she desperately fought it away. She was just so tired from the long days of travel and the anxiety of the visit, but she was glad it was going well. 

She hated to admit it, but it was on her to make this move otherwise she wasn’t sure if there would have ever been a way back for her in their family. And Annabeth knew she could handle that, but then she thought of all the ways she didn’t want to handle her father’s family - she wanted to have something more. If not for her, then for her child. Either way it went, her child would never come to an empty house, worried there wasn’t a place for them. 

“The surprise holiday visit makes sense now. Guessing Dad doesn’t know?” 

She tried to see if it was a reproach, but she couldn’t see any. She had heard it  from them both before, or read it, since theirs had only ever been over texts, but now, Bobby sounded so accepting that she couldn’t tell. 

“Not yet, figured it would be better to tell him in person.” 

They both were silent, as they offered small nods, as if they were the ones walking on thin ice waiting for the floor to crumple again. 

One of the bright sides of not having a close relationship with her half-brothers turned out to be how easily they took major news. That she and Percy were having a baby had landed in the ‘cool’ category, and after accepting her words, pizza took priority and ended any other discussions. There were no million questions about her, her time away, or the pregnancy, just questions about toppings. 

So, after offering to pay, which they brushed off, stating it was on their dad’s account, Percy and Annabeth had excused themselves to freshen up while they waited. Percy had carried their bags upstairs while she showered and proceeded to lie in bed waiting for lunch to arrive. She knew she should have felt better;  she was halfway through the list of people she had to tell, after all, and their reactions were good - great, considering. 

But a part of her had hoped, for a second, to feel different. It was stupid, she knew that, but she couldn’t help but dwell in everything it wasn’t. There had been no big crying moment filled with love and hugs and happy yelps like there had been at the Jackson-Blofis apartment; there hadn’t even been the happy screams and hugs when they told all their demigod friends. 

But it was another blonde brother she kept thinking of. 

Malcolm, who was working as an assistant professor at NYU in their Hellenic Studies program. They were never super close, but she still considered him one of her closest siblings; she even had him over for dinner every once in a while. A couple months back, she had surprised him with lunch and told him the news, and he had broken into the biggest smile and all but launched himself at her while giving her a kiss on the cheek. 

“I’m going to be an uncle!” He had said as he hugged her. It had been the most she saw Malcolm react in years. He usually tried to be so collected, and it had made her realize how lucky she was to have him in her life. Even before her trip, he had dropped off an elaborate blanket he had woven for the baby. 

It was blue with golden trimmings and had small seahorses and owls adorning it. It had made her cry when she opened it; the time he devoted to her. The details incorporated not just their parentage but also Percy’s. He had been a bit awkward when she teared up, but his joy was clear. 

She knew it was unfair to compare her siblings, after all Malcolm and Annabeth had grown up together; he knew her much better than her half-brothers. She knew it was silly. However, the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if, perhaps, she should’ve just called instead of forcing herself and Percy to drive over. 

Maybe there was nothing left of what she was trying to salvage in the first place. 

“You know, I can hear you thinking all the way across the hall,” Percy said as he came back in. Despite the shower and the smell of shampoo, his hair was dry; just Seaweed Brain perks.

“Malcolm took it better.” 

“Yeah, well, you basically raised Malcolm.” Percy shifted onto the bed so he was lower than her, closer to the bump in her stomach. He loved being close to her and the baby. “Besides, I think they took it well.” 

“They did.” Well, it hadn’t been bad, so it was good, right?

“It’s okay to want this to be different.”

Percy was right; she knew it logically, but she also hated it. 

She shouldn’t be wishing for something so naive. She wasn’t a little girl listening to sirens project her deepest childish desires. The reality was, she wasn’t close to her mortal family, and she shouldn’t have expected the news to change that. She should’ve been rejoicing that, after her time away, again, they still welcomed her back. 

“I love you, Wise Girl. And I love you, Little Carrot.” She rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. 

Percy had “discovered” a pregnancy book that Sally had bought years before that compared the baby weekly to a new fruit or vegetable. So every week, Percy had decided to refer to the baby as such. 

“We love you, too, Seaweed Brain.” 

“Now, why don’t we go downstairs? I swear I heard the door as I was coming in.” 

“And you didn’t tell me?” Annabeth jumped, well, rolled as best as she could; her center of gravity had shifted. “What if they ate all the pizza?” 

“Annabeth, they ordered enough to feed half of Camp Half Blood.” 

“And they’re freakishly tall boys, I know your kind,” She snapped back as Percy laughed, but quickly moved to follow her down. 

She didn’t run, that would’ve been ridiculous, but she did walk with a purpose. She tried to smell and see if her traitorous brothers had forgotten to get her. But she couldn’t smell anything. She could, however, hear rustling. 

There was a single second between her realizing who it was and seeing her. Helen.

She was there, carrying a box of wrapping paper and bows. She jumped at seeing them there as well. “Annabeth! Percy. I just saw your car, the boys said you were -“ 

She saw it in slow motion, the moment she stopped mid-sentence. Her stepmother was staring at her midsection.