Sally Jackson woke in the middle of the night to a strange noise. She glanced at her husband still sound asleep, and looked around for a few more seconds until she realized it was that someone was leaving a message. She hated it when people called in the middle of the night as it usually meant trouble.
She walked to the kitchen to find the home phone and was shocked at the voice she heard. Was that really Percy? He could really be alive and calling her?
She never admitted it out loud and would deny it if asked but she was beginning to lose hope that she would ever see her son again. He was caught up in a dangerous world with monsters. He was a hero, which was great for mortal world and the Greeks, but horrible for her. Heros always died in the Greek tragedies and she could not bear the thought of her son dying.
The voice on the answering machine made her feel guilty for doubting her son. However, happiness quickly overwhelmed any other emotion. She yelled for Paul to come into the kitchen and waited impatiently for him to arrive, not wanting to listen to the message alone.
"What?" Paul asked and in response Sally pushed the replay button on the answering machine.
Mom. Hey, I'm alive. Hera put me to sleep for a while, and then she took my memory, and...Anyway, I'm okay. I'm sorry. I'm on a quest...I'll make it home. I promise. Love you.
Sally's happiness slowly faded as she absorbed the meaning of the message. Put to sleep, took his memory? What the heck was happening? The message more questions than answers but it did answer the most important ones. Percy was alive, apparently remembered them now and had promised to come home. Sally tried to hold on to these facts and she turned to hug Paul, who just stood there looking a little shocked. Having only known about the crazy life the Jacksons lived and all their godly connections for about a year, the information was harder to absorb. But he seemed to remember the important part too and his eyes searched for Sally, stopping when he caught her glance.
"Hey" he whispered " Your kid is one of the toughest kids I have ever met and I know he keeps his promises. If he says he is coming back, then he will be back."
His heart broke a little when he saw the sadness and the hope swirling in her eyes. She wanted to believe Percy was coming home, but was afraid that the hope would hurt too much. She could not deal with believing he was fine, only to learn of his death later.
They walked back to their room and sat on the bed. Neither was sure what to do, so they just sat there and watched the sun slowly creep up the walls. A new day was being born, but for them the routine was the same. Sally got up and went to work, constantly worried about Percy, praying he was alright and waiting for Annabeth to come and tell her what was going on. Paul went to his job and wished he had had more time to get to know Percy before he disappeared. Sally clearly loved for son, his stepson, and Paul was starting to think of him as theirs not just hers. He desperately hoped Percy would come home and they could be a family together. He could not take the sadness in his wife's demeanor.
They waited to hear from Percy again, but he never came home and he never called again. The weeks dragged on and Paul wasn't sure which was worse: the waiting or the not knowing.
Finally after weeks had passed, Sally felt as if she would explode if she did not receive information soon. Just when she was about to go crazy with worry, Percy called again.
"Hey Mom", he said so casually, as if they were not the words Sally had not been waiting to hear for almost a year.
"Where are you? What happened? Are you trying to drive me up a wall? Do you know how long I have been waiting to hear from you?''.
Percy felt a wave of emotion flood him as he heard his mother frantically asking him questions. He had waited so long to talk to her and he thought about seeing her again between getting attacked by monsters and being terrified of getting his friends killed.
"Mom, I am okay. I promise. Can you meet me at Camp Half-Blood? I know you want to know what is happening, but this is not an over the phone conservation. Please just get here as soon as you can''.
Sally heard her son's voice crack and she ran for her room, grabbing her keys and wallet. She raced out the door, screaming into the phone "Percy I am coming. See you in a few hours. I love you so much".
She ran to her car and listened to Percy tell her he loved her too and could not wait to see her and Paul.
The doors of Paul's office building almost burst off the hinges as Sally burst through and run up to Paul's office. He was presenting a proposal to his bosses, but she hardly noticed.
"Percy called" she yelled at the top of her lungs, startling everyone on the floor. "We are going to meet him at…". She just managed to contain herself, before she revealed the existence of Greek gods to everyone Paul worked with. Paul stood and practically run from the room, yelling back to his bosses, " I am taking that vacation time now."
They must have broken every speed law in the country, but they managed to reach Camp Half-Blood in just over two hours without getting pulled over. The whole ride, Sally felt like she was living in a dream. Paul kept squeezing her hand, as if to reassure her, she was in fact awake.
The car pulled up to the bottom of the hill,where they leapt out and slammed the doors shut, at this point not really caring if they had to replace the lock later. They raced up the hill.
After all the partying and after everyone had cleaned up defeating Gaea, Percy called his mom. He still had to attend funerals and decide where he would live, but he needed to let his mom know he was alive. On the phone, it had been hard not to break down, hearing her voice and being reminded of the good times, when she could make the monsters under his bed disappear and when her blue candy could fix any problem.
He gathered Annabeth and on his way out of camp, he told the rest of the seven where he was going. To his surprise, they all followed, seeming to want to meet more of his family. Then he remembered; not many of them had a mortal family left. Hazel's mom had given her life to stop Gaea from rising 70 years ago. Frank's mom had given her life to save her fellow soldiers. Jason's mom had abandoned him, before losing her mind. Piper's dad was alive, but ignorant to the life she lived, not remembering that his daughter was a Greek hero. Leo's mom had died in a fire...just like him. Percy swallowed hard as he realized he could never introduce his mom to their funny, dependable ship captain, the supreme commander of the Argo II.
He was strangely honored that, despite their family situations, the Seven was still eager to meet his. He felt lucky that even though the Gods seemed to love ruining his life, he still had most of the important people in his life. He would never stop missing Leo and they would all feel guilty about the way he died, but he had Annabeth, who he was so in love with it scared him. He had his mom, who dedicated her whole life to caring for him and taught him never to let the dark side of life get him down. He had Paul, who took care of his mom and was the type of man she deserved. He had his crew from the Argo II, who, let's face it, would follow him anywhere, because he trusted them and they trusted him. They had survived a war together, heck, they had survived multiple wars together .They had taken down Gaea, they fought monsters, they kept going after all the odds told them to stop. They were just as much as his family as his blood relatives.
Knowing his mom and Paul would not be allowed inside the gate, Percy and his friends sat slightly outside the gate and waited for them to show up.
He knew he had to tell her about everything that happened, one because he had been gone for almost a year and she deserved to know and two because she could help him process and realize it was not his fault.
The hill got steeper as they climbed, but they continued to run up. At the top, Sally stopped short, a little surprised at she saw. She saw 4 other teeenagres she did not know with Annabeth and Percy, her son, sitting on the ground talking quietly between each other. They were clearly waiting for them.
As she got close, she noticed Percy looked a little different. He had the same green eyes, as bright as they had been the day he was born, but they had a hint of pain in them. His shoulders were hunched forward like he was carrying too much weight. He looks so grow up she thought, knowing that no matter what happened to him, she would still picture him as a toddler learning to walk, as a kid on the swings, as a preteen fighting with Gabe, as the middle school student who worked on his grades only because he knew she would want him to.
But underneath the sadness, she sensed a maturity, one that only came with facing difficult situations and making hard choices and fighting for your goals. He was an adult, with all the responsibility to go along with the title.
Paul watched Sally for a second then stopped to look at Percy too. He had not known Percy long, but he knew the kid had grown up since he had last seen him.
"Finally" came a shout through the trees. "You took long enough to get here. Seriously we have been waiting here for about….". Here he was cut off by Sally rushing up to him and grabbing him in a bone crushing hug. The hug lasted a couple minutes, long enough for the rest of the group to start glancing at each other and wondering what to do. The crew had never seen this side of Percy, who had always been determined and focused, never letting anything get him down. He teased Annabeth constantly and generally helped keep spirits up.
They eventually broke apart and Percy wiped his eyes and stuck out his hand to Paul, who grabbed him in a much shorter hug, then shook his shoulders.
"It is good to see you…" Sally started, "But who are all these people?"
Percy laughed, the smile returning to his eyes. "This is Jason, who is dating Piper. Jason was a leader at the Roman Camp and Piper didn't know she was a demigod, until Jason turned up on her school bus, not remembering who he was."
Sally held up her hand and looked back at the couple standing slightly behind Annabeth. They are cute together, but what is this business about both Percy and Jason losing their memories?
Percy moved on, introducing the next couple. "This is Hazel and Frank, also from the Roman Camp. They were the first people I met after the gryphons started trying to kill me."
"Trying to kill you?" Sally asked, not liking the sound of that.
"Yea Mom apparently demigods smell great to monsters" he said, getting a short laugh of the group. The crew especially thinking about when two monsters had been the least of their problems.
"So…" Sally started and faded off not knowing where to start asking questions.
"This is mostly Hera's fault" stated Annabeth, sounding colder and angrier than Sally had ever heard her.
"She felt the need to grab Percy and Jason, wipe their memories and drop them off at the other's camps. Apparently, just telling the Greek and Romans they needed to work together to defend Gaea wasn't dramatic enough."
Knowing Annabeth could talk for hours, Percy stopped her saying "So yea then I went to Alaska with Hazel and Frank to save the legion's eagle so we could fight the army invading their camp. I drown a bunch of ghosts, but freaked out Hazel and Frank because they didn't know I could breath underwater. Oh by the way, Frank and I are distant relatives on Poseidon's side."
All this information barely made sense to Paul. All the words individually he understood, but in that order, Paul felt like he was reading Chinese. Since when does Percy breath underwater and talk about monster attacks with such a casual tone? There was a lot more to Percy than Paul originally thought.
"So, we dredged up weapons from Alaska after we located the eagle and we rode Hazel's magic horse back to Camp Jupiter, met Tyson and Ella, the harpy, and defended the army of giants. During the battle I was made praetor".
"Which lead to slight problems when I came back to camp... Well for about 10 minutes because we had to leave again because Leo... "
He glanced at the others, unsure how to explain Leo.
Finally Annabeth said "Leo was the kid who build the Argo II, the battleship we rode on our second quest to save the world". She paused. "Leo, we think, died in the battle to defend Gaea here at Camp Half-Blood. "He was so close to the explosion, but Hazel says his spirit feels strange, as if it is not completely gone, so…".
The crew remained silent, hoping that Leo was alive, but knowing realistically, he was probably dead.
"Anyway", Percy moved on "After Annabeth and I fell into...Tartarus..., the rest of the crew fought their way through the House of Hades and rescued us".
"Tartarus? Isn't that where the Underworld rose from?"
"Yes...It a dark place, designed to kill you, but it sure takes its time…"
Percy and Annabeth looked at each other and Percy grabbed her hand. They did not expand on the comment. The crew realized they were not yet ready to talk about it; all they had heard so far was what Annabeth and Percy blurted out at the picnic with Renya.
Well, if I went through something worse than Hell and the Underworld, I would not waste any of my time above ground thinking about that place.
Sally and Paul noticed the pause and did not press the issue, but Sally's worry grew deeper.
"So after we escaped from… there… we traveled back to Camp Half-Blood and fought Gaea. "Apparently to rise she needed our blood to "water the ancient stones". Percy said making air quotes with his hands " And, yes, she is as creepy as she sounds".
Sally decide to change the subject. "So you are going back to school, right?"
"Mom" Percy groaned.
"Well are you?"
"Yes. Annabeth and I are going to finish high school in San Francisco".
"Any plans on consulting your mother before deciding where you are going?" asked Sally.
Percy looked slightly guilty, but replied "Nope".
Sally instead of yelling, just smiled. Her son was finally back. Her worry could decrease from atmospherically high to just regular worry. They could get back to their somewhat normal life, as normal as you can get when your son's father is a Greek God. She actually did not care where he went to school. Heck she would move all the way across the country, if meant she could keep an eye on Percy. But he seemed to be doing okay. She kept smiling, and watched her son talk with his friends and hold his girlfriend's hand, seeing the new confidence in his shoulders but still seeing the mischievous eyes of a seven year old, trying to steal blue cookies before they cooled.