Disclaimer: All belongs to the amazing Rick Riordan. I should have known better and not read The Lost Hero just yet. Now I'll have to wait a whole year for The Son of Neptune!

Given a Destiny

"Can I play with your firebolt?"

"No."

"Even if I say please?"

"No."

"Even if I say pretty please?"

He smiled at her stubbornness. "Sorry but no."

Thalia pouted but she did not insist more. Instead, she went to peer in the baby's cot – something she did every few minutes to make sure that the baby was still there, still sleeping, although she loved it more when he was awake and she could give him a finger and let him pull her hair. She would grow out of it when he became strong enough to cause her pain. For now, she was content and she did not pursue her plea.

If only her mother were that easy.

"Good morning," the woman said from the door case, as if his thoughts had summoned her – which, of course, they might have done. "Thalia, the nanny said – " Then she saw him and lost any interest in the children. "Jupiter!" she gasped. Her hand went instinctively to her hair which was immaculate. She was as beautiful as ever, although her eyes were slightly bloodshot from a hangover. "You came!"

He almost wished he hadn't. Sure, she was beautiful, but she was too clingy and needy and he just knew that she would say –

"Will you take me to Olympus?"

Here we go again. "No mortal is allowed to visit Mount Olympus, Mary Lee," he said. "You know this."

"But I am not any mortal," she challenged. "I am the mother of your children and I – "

"There have been many women who were mothers of my children," Jupiter said, "and they knew better than ask such a thing."

She looked heartbroken. "You don't care about me at all," she said accusingly, although her voice was whiny. "Do you remember that night when you took me to Vegas? When you made the sky sing for me?"

Jupiter almost sighed. Thalia hesitated, then she took Jason from the cot and carried him outside, murmuring to soothe him when he started whimpering.

Their mother produced almost the same sound, although it was followed by an angry flash in her gorgeous black eyes. "You promised," she spat.

"I did?" He could not have made such a foolish promise, could he? He could not have sworn it on Styx?

"You said I was your mortal love!" She actually stomped her foot on the Persian rug. "It is because of her, I know it is!"

"Mary Lee." His voice had a warning note. "Be careful with what you speak."

"No! I don't believe it! The Lord of the sky lets his haughty jealous wife command him! What will happen to you and me? You want to give up on the pleasures that I gave you night after night? She cannot make love to you as I can!"

"Juno is my queen, Mary Lee," he said firmly and stood up. What had made him come back to her at all? He looked at her, as gorgeous as ever, and he felt no spark, no attraction. She was just an irritating demanding woman who expected too much – the first in his millennia of experience. She had the nerve to make demands of him! No respect! No gratitude for being chosen! And she was stupid enough to insult Juno – she was practically begging for his wife unleashing her rage upon her. He was tired. He had not come here to have an angry fit – he had enough of these at home. At least Juno knew her duties. He shuddered at the thought of being married to someone like Mary Lee.

She suddenly threw herself at him and pressed harder against his muscled body. "Then make me forever young," she pleaded. "Forever beautiful. You can do this for me, can't you? Don't you remember how you told me you could drawn into my eyes? How you could suffocate in the waves of my hair?"

Jupiter tuned her off. Really, couldn't she just shut up? A god didn't need to be reminded how foolishly he had behaved! Had he really said all that rubbish? Very likely! But she was not supposed to remember it, let alone cite it!

"Take me to Olympus."

"No."

"We can make it secretly, when she isn't there – " Mary Lee looked suddenly excited. "You could make love to me in her bedchamber! Me, in the queen of the heaven's bed, can you imagine it?"

He could. He actually cringed, which she took as a sign of passion. She drew his face down to her lips but he turned his head aside. "This is going too far," he said. "You're loosing your grip of the reality."

She bristled. "Are you telling me I'm insane?"

"I won't come again in the near future," he said.

She blanched with horror. "No!"

"You have to control yourself, Mary Lee. You have to be strong for the children."

She laughed hysterically. "Oh as of you care! You'd rather let them die than risk annoying that she-wolf of yours –" She clung to him. "You cannot leave me!"

He shook her hands off. "I'll take care that you live well, Mary Lee. And you show respect to my wife. No matter what you think, she's the queen of Olympus."

She howled with rage and grief and fled the room, slamming the door angrily.

"Well," Juno said, her voice amused, "that was quite interesting."

She had appeared near the window, resplendent in her white robe, a crown shining in her long black hair. And in her arms, peacefully sleeping, lay…

Juno could not keep her smile off. Her husband, curse him, had been punished for his infidelity more than enough already. Funny, it was his mistress that had done Juno's job for her.

Jupiter looked warily at her and the baby in her arms. She could see him looking around for snakes or falling rocks – anything that might harm his son. She had proven a cruel enemy for his children.

She went to the cot without hurrying and placed the infant there. As she started withdrawing her hands, he suddenly woke up and fumbled for her hand, as if he sensed that he was about to be left by a superior being and did not like it at all. She smiled. Maybe this little hero wasn't as stupid as that blasted mother of his.

"Don't worry," she drawled, "I wouldn't harm the children. They are punished enough with that mother of theirs already."

"What are you doing here?"

"I was – curious," she answered slowly. 'I suppose I wanted to see whether it's true. And it is." Her eyes flashed. "Two children by this – woman, Jupiter? From her, of all women? At least Alcmene was worthy! And – Greek and Roman? You decided to mess things further, as if we weren't in a big enough mess already?" She was getting angrier with each word. Infidelity she could accept – she had no other choice. But this? Jupiter was challenging the fates themselves! Two children who were so vastly different born in the same family? She did not know what that might lead to – for the world, for the gods – and she did not care to find out. "What were you thinking?"

He did not say anything. Naturally! What could he say? Roman and Greek demigods were kept apart for a reason and it had something to do with killing each other, destroying various states in the process! And now he had come and fathered a Greek one and a Roman one with the same woman? Madness! Maybe he did need another reminder to be responsible? Maybe it was time to overthrow him again, just for a while? The problem was, there was no god dumb enough to want the throne of Olympus right now. No one wanted to inherit the responsibility about the upcoming Titan war – thanks to Jupiter, they now had not one but two children of the Big Three handy for the prophecy. That was, if they did not kill each other first, being natural enemies.

Bloody Jupiter, he had thrown them into this mess!

"I named him Jason."

She blinked. "What?"

"I named him Jason, after the first Jason. Your Jason."

She looked at him uncertainly. "Is that – a peace offering?"

He looked confused. "Yes," he finally said. "Yes, I think it is."

Her mind was working busily. She saw Jason, Theseus, Heracles – all of them heroes. So mighty, so powerful. So world changing. And then she knew.

"It is not enough," she said.

"What?"

"I want you to give me his life."

'Juno – "

'No, no, it isn't like this," she interrupted him impatiently. Having once taken her decision, she could not wait to put her plan in motion. She had responsibilities – to her family, to Olympus, to the Western civilization. She was the queen of – everything. She even had the obligation to save Jupiter from the consequences of his own mistakes.

She was the goddess of marriage, after all.

"I want to protect him, look out for him," she said.

"You do?" Of course, he did not believe her. No wonder, given their past history.

Juno nodded, once.

"Give him into my service," she said. "He will be my champion."