The midnight visits didn't stop and more than a time or two Sally tiptoed down the hallway to catch a glimpse of her son and the child of Hades in his room. Percy had stopped closing the door all the way and she was able to glimpse the two boys in the midst of conversations or video games or watching movies and sometimes curling up to sleep. Sally had wondered a time or two if spying on her son made her a terrible parent but the scale was sort of skewed given his paternal side. Moms are supposed to check on their kids… Sally had reasoned but it had quickly been followed by, but moms are also supposed to kick out midnight suitors climbing in their son's window even if said son is too blind to realize the other is also a teenage boy and most definitely interested. It was quickly dismissed for the other laundry list of don'ts that Sally was probably guilty of after not kicking said boy out. Like letting Percy sleep with a sword under the pillow. Or keep a pet monster. Or fight monsters for that matter. Or go on quests. Or leave him at home with an abusive drunk. Or send him to that stupid-fucking-camp. Sally had done her best with what she had every time.

But there must have been small miracles in the world because Percy had turned out alright… and he was oblivious to the way the other teenager looked at him. Sally had already had the talk with her son, Percy red-tinged and unable to meet her eyes while they discussed the in's and out's of sex, consent and safety. He'd stammered for her to stop and scrambled the room the second it was over. Because they weren't there yet but oh how quickly that can change , she had mused cackling. So she probably wasn't supposed to get a bit of a kick out of the whole thing but she was liberal and there was nothing wrong with what happened between two consenting adults… or young adults in this case. But we didn't exactly coverthese sorts of bases… can't even imagine how that talk is going to go. But then she'd wondered about Nico and in the absence of a mortal mother she couldn't exactly picture the king of the Underworld sitting down with his eldest son, whipping out some sort of oblong fruit or vegetable and demonstrating the correct application of a condom. Did he even know? Sally was entirely unclear on the matter.

Yup. There's not exactly a What to Expect When You're Expecting demigod baby edition. I'm sure I've broken every golden rule any of those parental-fad books has been written in the past twenty years. And there's absolutely no guidance on raising a teenage demigod. Like a lot of things over the years her attitude had been well fuck it because what else was she supposed to do? There wasn't exactly a social network where demigod parents could share tips, tricks, and bewares. On second thought, maybe she should start one. She laughed as the keys stuck in the door; it always jammed when it was humid, the wood swelling and protesting as she tried to shimmy it open. It might have been a funny thought but the kick to her gut had Sally rubbing her hand over her swollen belly and cooing to the small child that they would be inside soon. "If you think you're baking, mommy is roasting," she mumbled to her bump as the door finally opened.

Sally toed her shoes off by the door and hung her keys. The brownstone was quiet except for music floating from her son's room. Paul had something-or-other at the high school meaning he wouldn't be home for a few hours yet. It had been fairly quiet for a Friday afternoon and with her ankles thick as tree trunks and feet swollen, her angel of a boss (gods bless that woman) had agreed that Sally could leave early leaving the afternoon free for her to spend time with Percy. Paul and Sally had been so relieved when he'd returned, when he'd come back after the war, that they'd gotten a little carried away with the celebratory drinks and one thing led to another and that safe sex talk she'd had with her son? Hadn't been even a glimmer of a thought in their mind. Then he'd been gone, off to save the son of Hades though Percy was still broken and battered himself. A few weeks later and surprise! It hadn't been planned but Sally was excited nonetheless. Still, she could only imagine how it looked when he'd returned home a few months ago and his mother was pregnant by her new husband. Like we were planning for worst-case-scenario. It wasn't something he would think, Sally hoped, but she still looked forward to having the afternoon to spend together just the two of them. Like old times.Except with a little money to actually do things.

Sally knew that he missed camp. That her son missed his friends. That as excited as he was to find out that he was going to be a big brother there were also times when the blank look in his eyes left her unsure what to say and that broke her heart. They needed some time. Mother and son. Sally set her purse and phone down on the table not expecting to be home long. After she had popped her head into Percy's room to see where he'd like to go for dinner, her treat, she'd quickly change from her work clothes to something more comfortable and they'd be on their way. Huh, that's new.The song drifting along the hallway wasn't one that she recognised but Percy also didn't make a habit of listening to music.

In hindsight, that should have been her first clue.

The second was that for the first time since he'd been back, his bedroom door was closed. And he hadn't taken to closing the door to his room since he'd been back (something about being trapped and small spaces and darkness; she'd wanted to press but the look in his eyes had asked her not to so she didn't).

Sally gave a quick rap on the back of the door before turning the handle and pushing the door to her son's room open.

"Percy, baby, I'm-" the sentence was half out of her lips as she stepped into his bedroom only to pause mid-stride somewhere half-in-half-out. With her fingers still curled around the doorknob she watched in amusement as the son of Hades flew across the room like he'd had wings. If Percy had been oblivious to Nico's feelings towards him or towards his feelings towards Nico, well, one of them had clearly taken the plunge if the way the son of Hades had been straddling her son half a second ago was any indication. Their clothes were on thankfully because she didn't need an eye full of that but if their flushed faces and kiss bruised lips were any indication they'd been going at it for awhile.

"Oh, Nico. I didn't realise you were here." Sally greeted with a smile without so much as letting a flicker of surprise flick across her face. She might as well have walked in on the two of them playing video games or binging her emergency supply of pregnancy ben and jerry's in the fridge.

Okay, so maybe not the ice cream. There might be some blood shed but honestly, Sal, you should have taken Gave and his deadbeat poker buddies. No one has a poker face like this lady.

"S-Sally… I-I…" Nico stuttered as the blush crept up his neck towards his hairline save for the silver of the scar running down his face. He'd probably pulled his wavy locks into a messy knot at the back of his head so it didn't interfere with their lip-locking. Unfortunately, it only accentuated his growing embarrassment. The poor boy didn't know where to look or how to hold himself, pressed against the wall.

"Hey mom." Percy offered unhelpfully smiling as he stayed sprawled out on the bed with one arm under his head looking like the cat who caught the canary, while the canary, a very flustered son of Hades, shot a glare Sally would have sworn could have smote a lesser being's soul straight to the fields of punishment. Good, Percy needs someone who's going to keep him in check. Sally nearly choked on her own laughter because she might not be the world's greatest mom but she also knew that a single misstep would set things askew for the two teenagers. And Lord knows they could both use a little fucking light in their lives.

"My boss let me go early so I was thinking about grabbing a bite to eat for dinner. What do you say the two of you pick someplace, huh? Give me ten minutes to change out of my work clothes and we can head out." Sally began to leave, pulling the door behind her but popped her head in adding before she went, "my treat! Okay, ten minutes. Don't keep a pregnant lady waiting." Sally smiled again and shut the door behind her.

She didn't miss the way the son of Hades immediately groaned in embarrassment or how her son laughed. It had been too long since she'd heard anything ring as free or joyous from him, even if it was in the fuck my mom cockblocked me sort of way. For a moment, Sally paused outside the door leaning against it, silent, because if she wasn't above checking in on them in the middle of the night she wasn't above eavesdropping on them after finding her son with his arms firmly pinned over his head and the son of Hades straddling him.

"She didn't say anything!" Nico whisper-shouted and sounded almost hopeful.

"She didn't."

"And she invited me to come to dinner with you…"

That hope clearly gave way to shock.

"She did."

"Do you think she sa-"

And circled right back around hope once more. Poor boy.

"Saw which part? You pinning my hands over my head while we were dry-"

"-Percy!" He groaned.

"Or you flying across the room?"

"She surprised me!"

"You might have cat like reflexes, Nico, but even cats don't move that fast unless they're guilty. People who weren't doing what we were doing would not have looked nearly as horrified as you did."

"Oh my gods," Nico sighed and from the muffled tone, Sally presumed it was from behind his hands.

Way to let a boy down, Perce.

Sally couldn't stay any longer otherwise she would have burst out laughing so just as Estelle starting kicking again, she fled to the comfort of the room she shared with her second husband so she could change. When it was safe she closed the door to her en-suit and with extra walls between them she let out a relieved laugh. They would be okay. Both of them. They'd be happy and they'd heal and they'd figure it out, however impossible it was. Because Percy had laughed and he'd smiled and he hadn't done that in she couldn't remember how long. And it was because of Nico. Sally allowed herself another moment to feel relief before her mind wandered.

It hasn't been going on for long. I would have noticed one of these nights. It must be a new thing. She selected a change of clothes from her closet after her umpteenth bathroom break of the day ( maternity pants be damned, jeggings are a more acceptable and less ugly alternative ) before beginning what was the increasingly laborious effort of changing.

Looks like I'll be having that chat a lot sooner than I thought. But that would happen later. In the meantime, she had two teenage boys to entertain and a hungry baby to feed. Those were her priorities and she was sticking to them. Comfier clothes on, a brush through her hair, and blessed slip on stretchy ballet flats ( praise whatever divine being created these ) and Sally made her way back to the front door. Nico was fidgeting and looking absolutely anywhere that wasn't directly at Sally or her son, while Percy was bemusedly watching Nico fail to watch either of them. When her son met her eyes he gave her a smile and a half shrug as if to say oops without pretending to feel sorry. Again, not too sure that's the best way to raise a kid but hey we have honesty and I'll take that any day. Like most things in her life, she was making it up as she went along.

"Come on, boys. I'm starving. Where are we headed?" She asked as she herded them out the door, grabbing her purse and locking up on the way.

- break -

Percy had filled the silence well enough for Nico until the other teenager got over the horror of being walked in by his whatever-Percy-was's mother. Not that the other had ever been particularly outspoken but while her son had been missing, before Nico had stopped appearing, they formed a sort of bond in their weekly dinners together comforting one another about her son missing. She had known it then, though he'd been younger ( however in the hell that works ) then and perhaps not terribly conscious or accepting of his own feelings. Sally had never said anything, but took comfort that while Chiron and the others weren't terribly surprised or bothered that they'd lost another camper- yes, another, because it wasn't a terribly uncommon thing in their world- Nico wouldn't stop looking and neither would Sally.

A few happy meals and milkshakes later and Hades son must have realised that there was no trap, Sally was not waiting for him to say or do the wrong thing. As embarrassing as it might have been to have the mother of your whatever-Percy-was-to-him walk in on you, it was fairly PG 13. Not that Sally would have banished Nico if there had been less clothes involved (she probably wouldn't have been able to hold in the laughter at that point, gods knew she deserved sainthood for the level of chill-poker-face she maintained throughout the whole thing). Although Sally had planned on some time bonding with Percy just the two of them- no offense to Paul but soon there would be hardly any time for just her and her first born with the baby on the way- having Nico along was just as good.

Percy hardly stopped smiling or laughing the whole time. Whatever ghosts lingered, they were safely tucked away in their graves for the time being. It was the closest to pre-Juno Percy and while she knew that that part of her son was gone, grown up and more banged up from what he'd been through and what he'd seen (just like everyone else grows up only a million times more harsh) there was a part of her heart that healed that little bit more getting to see it one more time.

"I can't believe you'd never dunked your fries in your milkshake before." The demigod was gobsmacked that Nico had never tried such a combination as they entered the brownstone once more. Sally locked the door behind them as they kicked off their shoes and hung up their coats.

"But why ?" He asked and from the wide eyed expression he was still no less mortified than when he'd seen Sally remove the lid to her chocolate milkshake and dunk one extra-salted fry into the no-one-could-actually-assume-it-was-really-frozen-dairy drink.

"Why not?" Sally laughed as she hung up her purse. "If you think that's disgusting, you don't want to hear about any of the cravings I had while I was pregnant with this one," She elbowed Percy. "Fries in milkshake are nothing." From Nico's expression it was clear that he wasn't entirely convinced.

"I think you're going to have to explain." Percy goaded as he hopped up and down on one foot and then the next, removing his shoes and dropping them by the front door. It wasn't laid out tidy, side by side like Nico's battered doc martens but it had only taken eighteen-and-a-half years to get to this stage.

The hallway light was already on signalling that Paul was already home. Sally had text him while they were out so he wouldn't worry about where the two of them had got off to if they were back a little late- not something she would worry about so much if the whole could-be-attacked-and-eaten-by-monsters or abducted-by-a-god ( again! ) weren't probably causes for a missing mother and child in their world. Family members going missing two times in a year seemed a little far-fetched for odds but then her son had been part of two prophecies and more quests to stop the world from ending in the past seven years so it was more likely occurrence than getting struck by lightning.

Sally arched an eyebrow and flashed a smile. "Let's see," she mused. "Sweet tarts on pepperoni pizza bagels… the blue ones, of course. That was a frequent favourite. And I remember on one particularly ravenous weekend sitting there with a jar of sour pickles, grape jelly, hostess cupcakes and ranch dressing. I'll leave that to your imaginations."

Percy snorted and Nico laughed. "No way."

They stood in the hallway for another second and she let herself watch Percy watch Nico, the way her son leaned into him and how the other didn't quite pull him closer but his body made room for him, that's the only way she could think to word it to herself. Nico, who always appeared so closed and so cautious, never with a smile on his face, looked up from under dark lashes and dark hair and catching Percy looking at him offered a questioning grin which grew the longer Percy held his gaze.

Conveniently, their slow pace had them stood outside of Percy's bedroom. The door was still ajar from when they'd left earlier and her son didn't hesitate to reach inside and switch the overhead light on (the lamp stayed on because he didn't like it dark, not fully, not even after half a year). Nico hesitated and looked from the room to Percy and then to Sally with growing panic before back to Percy.

That's your cue, Sally.

"Well, boys, it was lovely getting to spend the evening with you. I'm exhausted, though. Think I'm going to head to bed for the night." Lifting her arm, Sally didn't have to say a thing for her son to wrap his arms around her and kiss her cheek with a 'night mom' and a 'love you'. When Percy pulled back she kept her arms opened and motioned with one hand. For a moment Nico looked perplexed but slowly took a step forward and wrapped his arms gingerly around her, cautious of her growing bump but he melted like butter against her and she gave a gentle rub to his back. She thought maybe she was the start of a blush creeping up his cheeks as he pulled back. "You boys have fun, okay? Just do me a favour and keep it down. Sleep deprived Sally Blofis is not an experience either of you want in the morning."

"We'll be quiet. Night mom."

Sally flashed them another smile and turned down the hallway but she only needed to make it a few steps for her son's bedroom door to shut behind her with the two of them disappeared inside. For a moment she debated continuing to check on Paul and see how his day was but gave into her curiosity. Retracing her steps like she wasn't smuggling a small melon under her top and cankles with significantly less mobility than her pre-baby-body was near impossible but it was New York and the general background noise covered most of her missteps. Maybe letting Nico stay the night without saying anything was another example of bad parenting, but Sally knew that she'd rather be a bad but supportive parent than someone her son and Nico wouldn't come and talk to when they needed.

"Here, these should fit you." She heard Percy ask from the other side of the door but after a handful of seconds there was no response. For a moment, Sally thought it might have been too muffled or too quiet for her to pick up until she heard her son continue. "What?"

"Your mom's letting me stay?"

"Yeah."

"But she… she saw us. She saw me on top of you and… she hasn't said anything." There was some mix of wonder and confusion in total turmoil and it wasn't hard to understand why. He lost his mother as a boy. His father is a god. His sister died. Camp lost him. Who knows who raised him but I've got money that says it was mostly himself. Sally knew that look, could recognise it in others just as she'd seen it in the mirror. There was a creak, Percy getting up from his bed as he walked over to the other boy.

"My mom wants us to be happy, Nico, the both of us."

"Us." The word sounded both sweet and foreign from his lips, half whispered and maybe a little hopeful.

"Yeah. She cares about you, Nico. And when Sally Blofis cares about you, you're part of the family."

"I kept you from her." The words were half choked, like the boy was struggling just to say them.

"You didn't."

"If she found out that I knew you were at Camp Jupiter and I didn't tell her-"

"You did what you had to do to keep everyone safe. To keep me safe. She'd understand why you couldn't tell her. And afterward… you found the doors of death as penance. Hephaestus' forge, Nico, you fell into Tartarus for me. You're the reason that I made it back to her. She would understand and even if she didn't, Nico, she would forgive you."

Sally's heart hammered in her chest and her hand lifted to her mouth to stop a gasp with the threatening tug of her lungs. Nico said nothing and she leaned against the door blinking back tears. Where grief should have resided there was only gratitude.

"So when I say you're part of this family, no matter what, I mean it. My mom wants you to be happy." Sally's heart melted just as much as it sang. She might not be getting any mother of the year trophies or parenting prizes but her son knew that she loved him and that more than anything else in the world she wished for his happiness. Whatever anyone else said, her boy had grown up into the kind of man she'd always known he could be.

A few quiet sniffles from the other side of the door and a half laugh- the creaky kind, the one that she had learned was Nico's earlier that day- sounded and it ended in a sigh. "Yeah, okay." Nico accepted Percy's comfort.

"Go on, take these. They might be a little big but they should fit you." Came Percy's voice as he presumably offered Nico something to sleep in once more.

"I don't think I'm going to need them."

Sally's eyes widened and she kept her hand over her mouth where it'd kept her grin hidden only moments after it had hid the wall of emotions that had hit her at hearing that Nico had found Percy before she had known. Whatever the reason- probably something to do with his godly side… I swear to god I am going to ring Poseidon's neck if he knew. - Percy was here. He was here and he was okay. And the tone of Nico's voice had the very pregnant mother waddle/sneaking down the corridor and shutting the door to the bedroom behind her in a hushed hurry.

Paul grinned up from where he lay in bed, papers spread across his lap with the television on in the background.

"Hey, how was dinner?"

"Good. The boys wanted McDonald's."

Before she could share that she'd found Percy and Nico together, there was a thump against the wall only faint and while her husband hadn't noticed, he reached for the remote to turn down the volume or maybe to turn the television off altogether. Sally swore she had never even in her pre-pregnancy days moved as quickly as she did then. Wrestling the remote she cranked up the volume and laughed at Paul's expression.

"I don't think anything on the news is that interesting."

"Percy has company." Give Paul some obscure text and being the scholar he was, he could ascertain ten different meanings from what wasn't said as well as he could what was said. "I think it's better if we sleep with the TV on."

But interpersonally, anything more subtle than a brick to the side of the face was lost on her husband. Apparently Percy and he had that in common. Paul sat there blinking as if waiting for her to continue with a hint of I-think-she's-off-her-rocker-but-it's-never-a-good-idea-to-say-that-to-a-pregnant-woman look about him. Even with the television on she caught the louder knock of her son's bed against the wall and Paul, who might need glasses but had ears like a hawk, cocked his head and opened his mouth to ask what that was.

Sally fell to the bed laughing so hard tears slipped down the sides of her face, she grabbed the remote and turned the volume up higher. A hundred emotions coursed through her: love, relief, joy, wonder at the baby growing inside her, gratitude. At eighteen years old, an orphaned and unwed mother-to-be, she would never have imagined being where she was now laying in bed next to the love of her life, pregnant with her second child, and pretending she didn't know what was probably happening in her son's room. Through the laughter, she reached over and took Paul's hand and pressed his fingers to her lips.

"I think he's going to be okay."

Paul smiled at Sally and kissed her softly. "How could he not be with you fighting in his corner?" When he pulled back she returned her husband's smile and laced their fingers together. "Now what do you say we turn the TV off and go to bed?"

"Oh trust me," she smirked, "if you want to get any sleep tonight, I think we're going to have to leave it on."

Paul looked at her in question and Sally dissolved into laughter once more.