Home
A/N: I felt like crying writing this. R&R!
Percy stood in front of the door with no idea of what to say.
He had been gone for a year. Nothing but a 10-second voicemail four months ago. No prior notice, no goodbye, absolutely nothing.
The War was won a day ago. There was little celebration, really, everyone was too busy cleaning the mess of war, burning the bodies, feeling the grief. The very next day he had walked home, thinking what to say, but he was still at a total loss of words.
He had found his keys in Cabin Three.
But it felt like he had lost the right to just come in and hey Mom, I'm home!"
After ten minutes, he knocked.
It was his mother who opened the door.
When she looked at him up and down, Percy was afraid she wouldn't recognize him. Her eyes looked so confused until realization and shock and relief and anger and happiness downed on her all at once. Then, tentatively, she approached him, because Is this another hallucination? Would it turn into mist as soon as she touched him? Would he disappear again?
He hugged her back, tightly, because what if this is just another dream? After everything, could this be true? There was dampness, but he didn't know or care if it was his or hers.
There was something out of place, though.
He pulled back, and looked at Sally, just to make sure it was Sally, and sure it was her mother in all her motherly glory, but her stomach was swollen.
Ugh… What?
Oh!
There was so much shock in his eyes. But as he looked her mother smiling and crying and trembling, his shock changed into happiness because it is real. He is here.
Percy didn't even notice that he had crouched down and put a hand on his mother's stomach. Barely touching it. He could feel The Little Thing, floating in there, and he immediately knew it was a girl.
Something bloomed in his chest. It was astonishing, how could someone love another being so much after only a minute?
Looking back at his mother, he gulped.
"Mom, I-
"Later", she interrupted him, "I just want to enjoy that you are home".
Home. It's good to be home.