"I thought about May Castellan, alone in her kitchen, baking cookies and making sandwiches for a son who would never come home."

- Percy Jackson, The Last Olympian

A battle raged on Olympus. Kronos struck Annabeth's face, and she slid backwards.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the kitchen still smelled like burning things and mildew. May Castellan put another tray of cookies into the oven. Her son would come home soon, and he would be hungry. He had said he would be back for lunch. She hadn't seen him since he had asked for her blessing, but he would be home soon. Mrs. Medusa said so.

As she was about to turn the oven on, May suddenly fell over. Her son! There he was! Something was wrong, though. What was it?

His eyes, his beautiful blue eyes had turned gold! Just like the child in black had said. Her poor son... his fate... he was going to hurt those children! No, that was silly. Luke wouldn't hurt anyone. He had left to protect May! He was a good boy, but he had done something very wrong... oh. She had fallen.

She stood and turned the oven to five hundred degrees. Normally, she would have one of the monsters out front bake them, but there were no monsters out front today. There hadn't been since Luke left. So she used the oven instead, turning up the heat to compensate for the lack of fire breath.

The timer, as usual, was at seventeen minutes. It stayed there all the time! So convenient. She never had to reset it. It didn't make any noise, either! That was good, too. A lot of noise hurt May's ears. It made smells instead. May could tell when the cookies were done because of the burning smell the timer made. It was a very useful timer.

May blinked. What was she doing? Something had happened. Had her son come home? She rushed to the door. No. Not yet. Someone else was there. It was Hermes! She opened the door as fast as she could, but Hermes flew away.

"Hermes!" she called, anguished. He didn't come back.

She sighed and went back to her kitchen. Her kitchen wasn't there now. It was the sixth hundredth floor of the Empire State building. She had been there with Hermes and Luke on the way to her special job! It hadn't worked out, but it was still nice to see Olympus. That must be where Hermes had gone! Perhaps he had had to deliver a message. He was the god of messengers, you know.

And there was the boy she had mistaken for Luke! Silly her. That wasn't Luke. He had blond hair and blue eyes. This boy had black hair and green eyes. He looked angry. He was looking at... Luke! Luke was standing over his friend with the gray eyes. My! How she had grown! She was so big now! But she looked hurt and sad.

"Family, Luke," she said, "you promised."

Luke's eyes were gold, as May had seen earlier. But now they turned blue again! Her son was back! His fate wasn't terrible anymore! "Promise," he said.

Olympus turned back into the kitchen. Luke was back! She was so excited. Then that something happened again, so she went to the door. Luke still wasn't there. No one else was there. Then it happened again! It was starting to get annoying. It happened twice more! It was like there were voices in her head, two more than usual, one telling her Luke was a good boy and was on his way home, another saying he had made a wrong choice that had consumed him, and they were arguing. Arguing was bad. People got hurt when they argued, so she told the voices to stop. And they did.

She saw Luke again. His lips were bright red and were moving, but she couldn't hear any sound. It was like watching a silent film until Luke closed his eyes. Then she saw the gods. There was Hermes! And Poseidon. Apart from Hermes, he was her favorite. So kind and respectful. She had only met him once, but he was good.

"Percy, what... what is this?" he said to the boy with black hair.

The boy stood and said, "We need a shroud. A shroud for the son of Hermes." Then May was back in her kitchen.

All the voices were suddenly gone. It felt odd to hear only herself. Goodness! The kitchen table was overrun with moldy sandwiches in plastic bags and trays of burnt cookies. There were so many! Her son wouldn't need that many when he... came...

He wasn't coming home.

May fell to her knees. Sobs racked her body. Her beautiful Luke wasn't coming home. Ever. He was dead, like the Oracle at Camp Half-Blood. Only he didn't have a spirit inside of him. He was dead.

She didn't know how long she sat there weeping. She fell asleep. She dreamed she was in a green valley. She had loved to picnic here before she had a child to raise. Luke sat next to her, the scar gone from his face, his eyes a beautiful blue.

"Luke!" she exclaimed. "But... but you died."

"Yeah," Luke admitted. "But I died a hero. I'm going to be reborn, try for the Isles of the Blest. Maybe you'll see me."

"Really?" May asked.

Luke smiled. "Really. I have to go now. The judges are waiting." He kissed her on the cheek. "Bye, Mom."

"Bye, Luke. See you later."

May woke and went to her room. By some miracle, she got most of her hair to lie flat. She changed out of her smelly clothes and went for a walk.

One of the girls she used to babysit, Evelyn, was walking down the street with a man around her age. "Hello, Mrs. Castellan," she said. "Has your son come home yet?" May realized that on the rare occasions she went out, everyone who had asked this had been making fun of her.

"No," she said. "He – he died. But I'll see him soon. How have you been?"

"Just fine, thank you," Evelyn said. May could see she was surprised. "I'm pregnant."

"That's wonderful!" May said. "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Not yet. We're going to name it Amanda if it's a girl. Do you have any ideas for if it's a boy?"

May grinned. Not her crazy-lady grin, but a real smile. "How about Luke?"

It's really short, I know. But I was in bed this morning, reading The Last Olympian, and the sentence at the top literally made me cry. Please review.