A/N: I just wanted to thank everyone for their kind words. I absolutely love writing this story and have found myself writing it faster due to all the wonderful reviews and favourites/alerts its received. Thank you so much!
Also, as a little side note - In case you haven't noticed, it's rather Travis-centric. I have tried to put bits and pieces of Katie's feelings in here, but I'm better at focusing on one character. So sorry about that. And Katie isn't supposed to sound like a horrid person, and it kind of seems that way, and I apologize for that. But it's sort of the way it supposed to sound in regards to this story.
Aaaand. I just want to dedicate this whole story to one of my best friends, my big brother Gerardo. I have no idea where I would be without you, and all who read any of my stories should be thanking him too, as he is the one who I bounce my ideas off and he improves all of them. Bro, you give me inspiration and I love you :3
Disclaimer: The day I own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, along with any associated characters is the day I announce my hatred for the All Blacks and my love for Justin Bieber. So never.
Part Three – The Baby
After their major fight or the 'debate' as Travis internally referred to it as, Katie and he had stopped talking to each other. They were over now after all, just like she said they would be if he wanted to keep the baby. Now, Connor was the poor soul being the messenger for the used-to-be couple. Through Connor, they had discussed what they were going to do. Katie had decided she wanted nothing to do with a certain Travis Stoll to the extent that they didn't see each other nor communicate until the baby came. After she and the baby were out of hospital, they'd sign papers and Travis was a father. Although he was sorely tempted to go and see her, he knew it wasn't a wise decision. Instead, he had focused all his efforts on finding the appropriate gear for the new baby and of course, the all important means of pay.
Initiative was something that Travis hardly ever used. In fact, this was the rare times he was doing something voluntarily for somebody else. In a sense, he had become a changed man. In a rather uncharacteristic re-evaluation of himself, Travis had realized that he was no longer the care-free teenager he once was. Sure, he still enjoyed horror movies, loved to prank and probably going to be a pain in the rear for the rest of his life, but he was different. Somehow in the past few months, Travis had grown a conscience and a heart. He now not only thought of himself, but the baby that was about to come. Every decision he made he actually started thinking about the consequences.
Whether that was a good thing, however, was what Travis was still yet to decide.
He had talked to Chiron about his current situation, although leaving out details. Even though he was heartbroken and angry at Katie, he didn't want to bad mouth her in any way. It was another thing that had changed; he had started to become slightly sympathetic. He was not the only person to notice the differences about himself. Connor and Chiron had privately discussed what had happened to the eldest Stoll, wondering whether the change was going to last. Chiron offered to give him his pay check a few months in advance and Travis was extremely grateful. That meant it was a bit less pressure to find a job as soon as he could. Sure, he was looking everywhere he could, but there were not many places that accepted teenagers with no high school diplomas.
Connor Stoll had also played a massive part. He absolutely hated kids. He hated that they cried all the time, and they pooped in little bags that they were supposed to clean up. Connor couldn't stand that they all dribbled and couldn't tell him exactly what was wrong so he had to play the guessing game, which he was usually wrong. He hated how everyone, especially girls would coo at how cute babies were, when Connor couldn't see what was so cute about little things with not enough hair. But he loved his brother more, so he told his brother that he would let Travis and the baby stay at the apartment. The younger Stoll had a feeling, however, that he may just regret it.
Travis had even started reading, which was a surprise to every single person that had ever known him. He had never finished a book in his entire life, but he was determined to read every single parenting guide that the local library had to offer. He had even gotten himself his own library card. He picked a few of the parenting books that looked attractive to his eye and began to sift through them as quickly as he could. The eldest Stoll was going to need every bit of help he could get.
Being a son of Hermes and just a Stoll and male in general, Travis' room always looked like a complete pigsty. It took Travis four afternoons to clean his room and throw all the junk out. He sold a whole bunch of his old clothes and games to the younger campers, delightfully taking the money and putting it towards his baby fund. When Connor walked into his older brother's room once he had finished cleaning it, he was amazed. You could actually see the carpet, which was now clutter free. Travis got rid of old clothes he stopped wearing, games and other bits of useless things he had stored up in the past. All there was in the room was a single bed, two drawers, a bedside table and there was a corner cleared for the baby.
His half-brother Chris gave Travis a few necessities that a baby would find useful, such as a cot, baby formula and bottles and nappies. Travis had never been so grateful. Chris and Clarisse had their first child a few years ago and just had the old equipment lying around in the garage and were glad to put it to some use. Chris and Travis were out at the Rodriguez household, clearing out part of the garage so Travis could grab the cot.
"Trav, I've gotta question," Chris started as he sorted through the pile of useless trash that he and Clarisse never bothered to get rid of.
"Yeah?" the eldest Stoll replied nonchalantly. Since the debate, he had mostly kept to himself. The only thing on Travis' mind now was keeping that baby and doing his very best to provide for it. One thing that hadn't changed about him was that he was one-track minded. If he wanted something, he was going to do everything in his power and then some, to make sure it happened.
"Why are you doing this?" Chris asked. It was the question that everyone wanted to know the answer to, but all had been afraid to ask. Chris was Clarisse's husband after all, so he figured if he could handle his wife when she was moody, pms-ing and pregnant, he could handle his half-brother's temper.
Travis said nothing for a second, sitting up in surprise. He had thought about this many times, rendering him sleepless most nights for the past nine or so months. Travis himself didn't even know why he was doing this. There were some nights when he had seriously wanted to reconsider what he was doing. For goodness sakes', this was a child he was thinking about keeping. No, that he was planning on keeping. It was no easy decision and he knew for a fact that being a father was going to take so much more than just responsibility and money. It was going to take patience, kindness, gentleness, care and most importantly, it was going to need love. All of these were aspects were things Travis had never been particularly good at. So why was he trying now? He couldn't help but ask himself.
Because it's your child Travis, the little voice in his head told him. He sighed, running a hand through his unruly locks. Sometimes that stupid voice really didn't help.
"Well…" Travis started, glancing at his elder half-brother. To be perfectly honest, the eldest Stoll could not put his feelings into words. He was never good at that in the first place, but trying to word this seemed impossible.
"No words to explain it?" Chris guessed, chuckling slightly. His younger half-brother couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. At least someone kind of understood him, he thought. It was a great comfort, especially when he couldn't understand what he was doing himself.
Even with all these things sorted out, Travis still didn't have a job. Even though he loved camp, he needed a secure job that would earn him enough money so he could look after himself, and the baby of course. There was still no luck so one day Travis had decided to go for a run to get his mind off everything. He used to go for a run at least once a week with Katie, but since they had broken up, he hadn't done it since. There was still a little pang of guilt, not to mention pain, which hit Travis whenever he thought about the beautiful girl that was carrying his child, but had also broken his heart.
It was suffice to say that Travis was completely out of it when he crashed into Malcolm Ryder. Literally. The eldest Stoll was going for a run around his neighborhood as he had planned, doing everything he could to rid his mind of thoughts about Katie Gardner. It was turning out to be almost impossible as everything he thought about somehow led him back to the daughter of Demeter. Travis had been so focused on trying to forget, he hadn't realized that someone was heading his way.
Oof!
"Watch it," Travis looked down at the person he had crashed into, surprised to see that he actually looked familiar. The guy stood up, brushing off his clothes. He looked like one of those intelligent kinds, wearing straight legged black jeans, a white polo and cream colored vest. His hair was a dark blonde, almost brown mop that was styled slightly in the front so it was sticking up. His eyes were a sharp grey and were rather piercing. Travis couldn't quite place who it was, but it was definitely someone that he knew.
"Travis?" The familiar stranger asked as he dusted off his jeans, looking at Travis in awe. It took the eldest Stoll a few seconds to recognize who he was standing in front of.
"Malcolm?" He asked, not bothering to hold back his surprise. Suddenly, he felt very self conscious. It was what always happened when he was around one of the Athena kids. They had this unspoken sense of power about them, always making Travis feel uncomfortable. He was immediately very aware that he was merely dressed in a white Adidas shirt, black rugby shorts with tattered and worn out running sneakers and that his hair was just piled on top of his head in a sweaty mop.
"Hey man, long time no see. I heard about you and Katie…" Malcolm trailed off for a second, looking a little uncomfortable for a second. He was quick to recover and continued speaking. "How are you holding up?"
"Yeah, I'm getting there. Looking for a job," he replied, feeling slightly uneasy. It wasn't that Malcolm was a mean guy, in fact he turned out to be a pretty good mate in Travis' opinion, but the pair hadn't talked in about two years when Malcolm left to go to university. Malcolm rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to figure out how he was going to word what he was to say next.
"About that actually…" Malcolm trailed off for a second. "Chiron was talking to me the other day and I was wondering if you wanted a job." Travis stood there for a second, stunned at what his old friend had just said. It took him a few moments to actually process what Malcolm had said, the words running through his head over and over like a broken record. He did everything he could to keep his jaw from colliding with the concrete.
"What?" Was the only intelligent reply Travis could come up with. Malcolm couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle.
"I should probably explain. I own an engineering company, well co-own. We need a few more electrical engineers and I know you are good with things like that. We offer training courses and they only last two years. After that, you have a job with us," Malcolm explained. Travis was doing his best to restrain himself from hugging the guy and jumping up and down like some crazy obsessed teenage pop-star fan. Instead, he nodded eagerly, thanking Malcolm profusely. In his mind, he thanked every single God he could name, thankful that his life was finally starting to turn around for the better.
The news of the baby came sooner than Travis had ever expected. He nearly wet his pants when Connor had told him that Katie had given birth to a beautiful baby girl. The elder Stoll had done everything in his power to try and be there with Katie as she delivered, but Katie wasn't having it. Instead, she bought along her best friends, some girls from her cabin back at camp to join her. When Travis had asked about whether he was allowed to come beforehand, Katie had rather firmly (not to mention slightly rudely) that if he even came to the hospital the same day she was giving birth, she was going to file a restraining order against him. Part of him thought that it was just her baby mood swings she had been having way too many of, but by the distressed and dark look that was set in Katie's eyes, he knew that she would do what she had promised. So even though it was killing him, Travis had stayed in the apartment and merely waited for his younger brother to give him the news.
He could remember exactly what he was doing and what he was thinking about when Connor had rushed through the door. It had been a particularly rough day for the eldest Stoll and all he wanted to do was have a long shower, eat like a horse and go to sleep. Travis had been up at camp since five am in the morning, helping Percy and Chris train a bunch of newbie campers. He was definitely not a morning person and he found himself consuming large amounts of caffeine before the sun had even risen. By the time lunch time had rolled around, it was suffice to say that Travis was completely knackered, not to mention grumpy. He was quick to stomach the food he had been given and headed off to the amphitheater to teach a bunch of preteens how to sword fight.
When he reached the area, he couldn't believe his luck (or his lack of). Travis was stuck with the Aphrodite girls, who barely knew how to hold a sword properly, let alone fight with one. They hated sword fighting and complained every two seconds, until Travis had threatened to cut their tongues. After that, they were quick to shut up. He was also stuck teaching a few of Demeter's children. Sighing, he wondered if the Gods were punishing him. There was a low grumble from the sky and he couldn't help but roll his eyes. One of the Demeter girls had eyed Travis with spite.
"You're the boy who knocked up our old counselor, aren't you?" she sneered, jutting her chin out as she spoke. Travis restrained the urge to give the girl a mighty good punch in the face as he calmly spoke.
"I did not 'knock her up.' She got pregnant. It takes two to tango," he replied, raising an eyebrow at the outspoken girl. In some ways, she looked similar to a particular beauty he still couldn't get off his mind, with the same dark hair that reached past her shoulders and the same sun kissed skin which was the result of many days out in the gardens. This little girl, however, was a snobby little cow and Travis would gladly have gotten rid of her. She was already doing his head in as flashbacks of him and Katie were replaying in his mind.
Before he could head home after his tiring day, he had to go to the stores to pick up some baby supplies. With the help of Chiron, Annabeth, Chris and Connor's girlfriend, Chelsea, he had bought more things that his baby was going to need. This included things such as: pacifiers, some unisex clothes and toys, 'baby butt cleaner' as he liked to call it and other whatnot. Some of it he wasn't sure was going to actually come in handy, but he trusted Annabeth and Chelsea knew what they were thinking when they bought teethers and cute quilt blankets, so he let it be.
By the time he got home, Travis Stoll was completely and utter knackered. He was in no mood to talk to anyone and all he wanted was the comfort of his bed. He started to heat up last night's leftovers, which was beef stew with mashed potatoes when Connor burst through the door, looking frazzled, excited and completely freaked out all at the same time.
"Travis! Travis!" He called out, his voice unusually high pitched as he searched the area for his older brother.
"What do you want Connor?" Travis groaned as he leant over the kitchen counter, letting his brother know where he was.
"Katie's given birth!" It took every cell in Travis' being to not pass out.
A week after the news, there was a small knock on the Stoll's apartment door. Travis, who had been busy filling out application forms for his new job was quick to answer the door. He had been waiting everyday for Katie to come with his daughter, but so far there had been nothing yet, except for forms to fill out. Travis had been given a stack of legal documents that he needed to sign and things he needed to fill out to prove that he was going to be a fit father. It was probably the quickest, yet most careful thing that Travis had filled out in his entire existence.
"Hey Travis," he heard a small voice say as he swung open the front door. Travis gulped loudly, doing his best not to gasp. Sure, he had been dreaming of this moment for the past few months, but having Katie Gardner stand right there, in the flesh, with a baby car-seat to her side had made everything feel so real. The eldest Stoll wanted to puke, but he maintained what he hoped was what looked like confidence as he glanced down at his ex-girlfriend. Although she looked paler than usual and the shine was out of her beautiful eyes, she still looked amazing. Her dark hair was pulled into a tight bun and she was wearing khaki shorts and a green printed shirt.
"Hey Katie," he greeted in a non-committal tone. He turned his gaze from his ex-girlfriend to the baby who was beside her. As soon as he saw her, he could feel his eyes start to water. The baby was absolutely, without a doubt, the most gorgeous thing Travis had ever landed his gaze on. Sure, he had known a few stunning girls throughout his years, dating most of them, but this was so much different. Knowing that this baby was going to be forever his filled the teenager with absolutely euphoria.
The baby was fast asleep at that moment, so Travis couldn't see the color of her eyes. Her hair was dark and curly, just like his own and was in an adorable pile on top of her head. She looked so fragile, so precious and it just filled Travis' heart with complete joy. She had a light tan to her skin already, her fists bunched together as she slept soundly.
"Here she is," Katie broke the silence as she handed the car-seat over to her ex-boyfriend, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to show. She couldn't believe that she was actually going to give her own baby away to one of the most irresponsible (but also irresistible) person she had ever met.
"Thanks, does she have a name?" Travis asked as he gratefully took the baby, his gaze not once leaving her.
"Not yet, I thought you should decide that. You have file the birth certificate once you figure it out," Katie told him, doing her best to clear her tone out of emotion. He finally looked up at her and as his deep brown eyes gazed into her own emerald orbs, she knew she was going to start to breakdown if she didn't leave. "I'll see you later," she mumbled quickly as she ran off as fast as she could, trying to rid herself of the tears. Part of Travis was tempted to chase after her, to beg her to come back, but he knew it was going to be of no use. Katie had made her choice and now it was his job to look after this baby.
By the end of the day, Travis still had no name for the baby. She had been pretty well behaved so far, sleeping for most of the day, but needing to be fed at least once every two hours. He had changed about six nappies in twelve hours, but she was sleeping again. Travis had laid his baby girl in the second-hand cot, careful to not wake her up as he pulled one of the quilt blankets over her small body.
"Beautiful girl," He heard a familiar voice comment behind him. Travis was quick to whirl around to see who was in the apartment, considering Connor and Chelsea had gone out for the night. He was worried that it was going to be some kind of monster out for revenge, or even worse, Demeter. But he was in luck as he saw his own father staring at him. Hermes always looked the same whenever Travis had seen him (not that he had very many times), with his salt and pepper hair, tall stature and his staff with two snakes entwined around it.
"D-dad?" Travis muttered intelligently. He could count the number of times he had ever properly talked to his dad with one hand and usually, when he came it was a sign that something bad was going to happen and Hermes was just going to warn his son. The only time Travis had ever remembered Hermes coming to talk to him, just to talk, was just after they had found out Luke was a traitor. The eldest Stoll thought that it was just because his dad was feeling guilty and wanted to reassure his sons that he did love them, in case they decided to join their evil step-brother.
"Still as bright as ever," Hermes commented good-naturedly. "You don't have a name for her yet, do you?" It was supposed to come out as a question, but the way he had said it made it sound like a statement. Travis, still in slight awe that he was standing with his father, had merely nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I mean, a few names have come to mind, but they aren't…" Travis trailed off for a second, trying to figure out what word would express how he was feeling. "…right." Hermes nodded, as if he understood what his son was feeling.
"What about Althea?" Hermes suggested, looking down at the sleeping baby. She certainly looked a bit like her mother, but she also looked a lot like her father. Hermes, being a God and all and being able to see in the future, knew that this girl was destined for great things.
"Althea," Travis repeated, liking the way the name sounded. "But why?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow as he glanced at his father. He was used to everything having some sort of catch, especially when it came to the Gods. Hermes shrugged.
"Althea means one who brings healing, Travis. Just look at what you've done for her, how you've changed as a person, for the better and all the things you've accomplished. I'd say it's a rather fitting name," he explained. Travis let those thoughts sink in, finding himself agreeing with every single word.
"Althea," he repeated once more, glancing down at the beautiful baby that was indeed his. "I like it."
Sorry the ending is kind of lame. Please review and let me know what you think :)