Annabeth:
"Are you two coming back tomorrow?" Sarah's little voice asked us both, making both Percy and I stop in our tracks. I let a smile play across my lips. For the first time in the last two hours, I didn't look at Percy to see what he was doing. I just let my ankles twirl myself around on the slippery, linoleum floor to face Sarah.
She was sitting up straight in the bed, holding the notebook that she had been showing us her drawings only a few minutes ago. Sarah wasn't in the accident with Jill and Eric. Instead, she had been with her aunt who had come to visit in Westchester. Sarah was here because she was so shocked when she found out that she fell down some stairs and hurt her head. They transferred her here so she could be near her father, who had survived for a while. Jill died on impact, but Eric was on life support for a while. Everyone knew that he wasn't going to make it, and his sister took him off life support yesterday. Sarah knows her parents are dead, which hasn't been good on her.
"Of course, Sarah," I couldn't imagine not coming back.
Today was the first time that I really met her, which made me want to cry. She took a liking to Percy immediately, and he fell in love with her the moment he saw her. She was okay with me at first, but something stirred in her later. Once she started talking to me, she couldn't stop, and I didn't want her to, like ever, which was really scaring the hell out of me.
Usually, I just want someone to shut up. I know how that sounds, and I'm not just being a bitch. I don't know why, but I don't like sitting around listening to stupid stories that I don't care about. I get small talk, but the thing is that, unless I really care about someone, I don't care. I don't want to hear the story about how they just named their new cat after a cat that their grandmother used to have when they were five before her sister moved in that was allergic to cats. Actually, I don't know anyone who really cares about those stories.
But, as I sat here, I wanted to hear about why her favorite stuffed animal was names Bea, or why she hated pink with all of her being, or why, instead of the usual ballet, she is taking swimming lessons. It was amazing to talk to her. It wasn't like I was talking to a six year old, but I felt like I was talking to a combination of Percy, me, Sally, and Malcolm. And, when I got a little tired of talking to the Percy side, the me comes into play. I don't think I have ever seen Percy smile that much, and I do mean ever. I would have been insulted any other time, but it was it freakin daughter. So, no offense taken.
I smiled warmly at Sarah, which somehow lightened Sarah's mood.
"I promise we will, Sweetie," I told her, watching as she approvingly lit up.
"Bye, Percy," she told him, and I think her 'cutie-pie' voice made him want to swoop him in his arms and kiss her forehead while she laughed like a maniac.
Like he used to do with me…
I shook that off as he told her goodbye as well, and the nurse warned us that we really had to leave. So, Percy and I did as she said. I let the clack of my heels against the floor become the only thing to calm me through the awkward moment. I slid up my purse on the black cardigan that went over the dress of the same color. Percy ran his hands through his black hair as if it would give him strength to do something. My heart began to pray that it involved swooping me away to kiss me like when we were younger, but my head told me it would be something like 'See you tomorrow'.
"I'm proud of you," Percy closed his eyes like he just couldn't find the right words, "She's going to love you, Annabeth."
I let myself smile a little bit, and I looked down for a moment, not sure what to tell to him. I was proud of him, but I also knew that he was going to be able to do this in a snap. He was just meant to be a dad, and anyone-or should I say everyone- can see it.
"She already loves you," I nudged him, and he let himself smile. Percy looked like he was about to say 'you're wrong', but he just let himself laugh a little.
"Well, I love her, too," Percy looked down while he smiled, which should have made me uncomfortable, but I definitely wasn't. So, I took it as that moment to tell him something I wanted to tell him for the last few days-more like years.
"I really am sorry, Percy," my throat involuntarily closed as I tried to choke back a sob. I used to think I did the right thing for Sarah until Jill and Eric died, leaving me to realize just how much I loved Sarah. I used to think that I wasn't meant to start a family. I didn't know my own mother. So, how did I plan to become a mother myself?
I could tell Percy felt awkward about this all. This would always be a sore subject for the two of us. I put our daughter up for adoption when I knew he wanted to raise her. The worst part is that I knew for a fact that he was right. We could have pulled it off. I managed to become valedictorian even though I had just had a baby earlier in that year. Percy and I could have made the Boston-NYC thing work, and I know we both could have raised little Sarah. It would have been hard, but we easily could do it. My mom, who would be reluctant, would eventually help me. She'd be a bitch to Percy, but she'd willingly help me and Sarah.
I bit my tongue and began to hope that the sound of my heels would make me feel better, like it had earlier, but it just made me feel unconfident in my ability to keep myself from falling and in need of a drink. So, I tried not to listen to it. The only thing I concentrated on was the uncomfortable silence between Percy and I.
"You were right, Annabeth. I really wasn't ready to be a dad," Percy tried, but, by the way I looked at him, he could tell I wouldn't believe that if he tattooed it on my forehead. There was no way in hell that I would ever belief that he couldn't be a dad, especially when he was basically begging him to let him be.
I wanted to say something, but I really couldn't think of anything I could say. Even being a total bitch to him would have been better than how I was just walking down a hallway without saying anything because I thought I was going to throw up. Percy took a deep breath, probably knowing we would never be able to talk about how what happened with us and Sarah.
"Let's go get a drink," Percy smirked.
And for like the first time in the last few minutes, I smiled and nodded.
"Come on, Father Dearest," I let myself blush as I took his hand and started to pull him off.
This was only the second time I had touched him in seven years. I took his hand after being stunned last night, but this, in my mind, was the first time I really touched him. I felt the familiar tingles from holding his hand, but it didn't bring a smile like it usually did. Instead, it reminded me of how he wasn't feeling it and he probably never would again. I was stuck feeling like this while he had moved on, gotten married, gotten divorced, and found a life here. To me, he'll be that guy I've loved since I was a kid, and he will see me as the girl who put his daughter up for adoption.
xxxxxxxxx
I woke up to the sound of my cell phone blasting the beginning to 'Rock Your Body'. For a moment or two, I tried to pretend that I didn't hear it and force myself back to sleep.
Last night went just how I thought it would, even though it wasn't how I hoped it would. Percy and I went to a bar, got a drink, and talked for a little bit. We never got under the surface. Everything we said was either about work or Sarah. By the time we left the bar, the night was about as young as Sarah. We only had two drinks each. So, I caught a cab home, and he went god-knows-where. The only time he touched me out of the entire time was when I hugged him goodbye, and that was just about it.
When I got home, I checked my messages, where I found out that my brother was going to take hour off the next day to take his wife to the doctor. I ordered Chinese and ended up watching Letters to Juliet for the millionth time while I worked on some blueprints.
I used to love my life alone. I really did. I could come in whenever the hell I wanted, and I could do just about anything I wanted. But, at about this moment, I realized that I came in early. I didn't really want much. Ordering out every night just didn't fit me anymore, which made me miss Percy and Sarah more.
So, finally getting completely bored last night, I started working on Sarah's room. I ended up using post its and a million drawings until I could finally see a layout that could work, if she wanted us. Sarah could easily go to live with her aunt in Tennessee if she wanted. She liked us, but she also knew that we-well, me- put her up for adoption. Sarah could resent us- okay, fine, me- and not chose us, and that scared me. So, I tried not to think about it, but, when I stared up at the ceiling, trying to go to sleep at midnight, it was all I could think about.
I rolled over in the thousand-count sheets and looked at the Droid X sitting on the nightstand, ringing off the hook. Foggily, I grabbed the phone from the charger and pressed it to my ear.
"Hello?"
"I've been trying to get in touch with you forever. You stood up Mark a few days ago. What happened?" the redhead on the other line sounded as if it were ten am-not five. I wanted to hang up and smother myself with a pillow, but I simply sat up in the bed, expecting a lecture in my near future.
"Good morning to you, too, Rachel," I smirked as I stood up, ignoring how my body was begging me to go straight back to bed.
"Annie, I know you say you're fine, but I think you and Mark could work out really well," Rachel ignored my first comment and went on about Mark, again. She knew him through some charity they both worked for. He worked at the same level she did and was awesome from what I heard. The last time she came over here she showed me a picture, and I have to admit he's cute. Over the last few weeks, she's told me how great I would be with him until I finally snapped and said I'd meet him. Even without knowing him, I already know his entire life story.
His dad left when he was four years old, and his mom was a chef. His uncle, George, became like a father to him, and his mom married some guy when Mark was seven. They had a son, Walter. They found out that Walter had cancer when Mark was twenty-two, and he has spent the last seven years of his life working for charities.
And if I know Rachel, she probably told him my life story, which means there is a man in New York City, other than Percy, who knows that I never knew my mom until I was about sixteen and I had a very bad relationship with my dad until I was about thirteen. Maybe he knows even more.
"Something came up," I put Rachel on speaker as I made my way to the kitchen. The last time I had really made a meal in here was about a year ago before I went on a diet. I was a size six when I got pregnant with Sarah, and, after she was born, I tried my hardest to get back there. For five years or so, I did that successfully, but, right after my sister-in-law decided to make me take a cooking class with her, I started gaining it back. When I realized I was a size ten instead of size six, I basically banned myself from cooking, or at least the Italian cooking that Malcolm's wife taught me from her grandmother.
"Something came up? Something always comes up. You have only been on about four of the many blind dates I have set you up for!" Rachel started to rant, and I took that as a good time to bite into a blueberry muffin, "Unless you suddenly heard from your daughter or Percy showed back up in your life, you have no excuse."
I could tell she was joking, but I wanted to congratulate her for being spot on. I hadn't had time to tell Rachel about what happened with Sarah yet. So, I just sat there, not knowing what to say.
"Oh my gods! Sarah?" Rachel shrieked like she might faint. I pulled myself up to sit on the countertop and pulled the phone back to my ear, turning off the speaker.
"Her adopted parents died a few days ago, and it was apparently left in the will that Percy and I be tracked down to get custody of Sarah," I didn't mean to sound like a schoolgirl only a few moments away from Summer Vacation starting, but I did. Sue me.
I thought I messed up with Sarah years ago, but I'm getting a second chance, which is like the best blessing from the gods I could ever get. Sure, I'm probably still going to pray to Aphrodite that I could get Percy back, too, but that is beside the point.
"Percy? You're going to be raising your daughter with Percy and you didn't tell me?" Rachel yelled again but I don't think this one was out of happiness this time.
"Sorry, I've just been pretty busy," I told her even though I knew that wouldn't cut it for her. She would want me to be in a coma if I didn't tell her. I reached beside me and started up the coffee machine as I awaited her response.
"I'll deal with you not telling me later, but what's up with you and Baby Daddy?"
"Don't call him that," I quickly interjected, but she probably just shrugged it off, probably about to call him that again.
"Okay, fine, what is going on with you and your daughter's father?"
I wished I could have told her that something was between us right now, but that would be a lie. He didn't care anymore, which made me want to hit my head against something. I bit into the blueberry muffin again as if the sudden sugar would give me the power to not want to throw something when I answered the question.
"Nothing," I let the sorrow fill my voice.
Rachel seemed to be caught off guard by that statement. I had sworn for years that I was over him, and she probably thought that I would keep saying that. But I was tired of lying all the time. Who the hell was I even trying to fool? Everyone knew I hadn't gotten over him. So, why try to say I have?
"So, how's Sarah?" Rachel quickly changed the subject, which I was really thankful for.
"She's great."
Sarah:
"Sarah?" a voice broke me out of my deep sleep. I had been sleeping more than usual recently. The nurse says my body needs sleep to heal itself, but I know it's because my parents just died. I groaned before finally opening my eyes to see a woman at the hospital door.
"Celia," I smiled as I started to sit up in bed. With the obvious approval from my smile, Celia proceeded to walk closer to me and sit in the chair beside my bed. Before I looked at her, I quickly checked the clock beside me.
Ten AM.
Annabeth and Percy wouldn't be here for a long time, and my aunt was going to be in Westchester all day, preparing for the funeral. My eyes watered at the thought that my parents would be buried tomorrow, but I shook it off for the sake of Celia.
I had met her a few times when I was younger. I only saw her a few times, but that started to grow when my parents told me I was adopted last year when I started to notice that I looked nothing like any of my family. Celia was the woman who helped my parents adopt me, and she's been like an Aunt to me.
"Hey, Cutie, how ya' holding up?" Celia smiled at me, which seemed foreign to the looks my aunt had been giving me. She just looks at me like 'You poor kid', and there are times when she thinks I'm not looking where she looks as if I caused her sister's death. My parents had been driving home to Westchester to make my end of the summer swim class, and I guess she blames that for their death. It's not like I wanted my parents to die. I didn't mean for all of this.
"I could be worse," I shrugged, not looking away from her.
"So, do you like Percy and Annabeth?" Celia smile grew, and I knew that this was going to count as more than just small talk.
"They're my parents, aren't they?"
Celia looked at me with surprise. It wasn't that hard to figure out. I look exactly like Annabeth and partially like Percy. I'm just like both of them personality-wise, and Percy's fatherly look was more fatherly than Eric could ever manage.
"How did you know, Sarah?"
I shrugged, not really wanting to explain it. I really just knew. No one had to tell me, and I didn't even need to see how they acted like my parents. I guess the truth is that I wanted them to be my parents. I didn't want the stupid teenagers who had a child at Prom or anything. I wanted them, which felt kind of weird. I loved my parents, but they didn't get me. My mom wanted me to do ballet, and, when I said no, my dad signed me up for something tomboyish like soccer. It took me almost a year to get my mom to repaint my pink room, and the only way I got that was because I said that it reminded me of Pepto Bismal and it made me want to throw up. I could see that Annabeth hated pink and wouldn't dare paint a room for me like that, and I knew Percy would ask what I wanted to do, not just signing me up for something. I know that sounds petty as my parents just died, but still.
"I guessed," I smirked, making Celia shake her head as if to say 'Definitely Annabeth's kid', which kind of creeped me out.
"So, what does this all mean? Them showing up and everything?" I asked, toying with my locket.
"Well, that's all working out still. I was about to ask you if you wanted to stay with them or if you want to go live with your Aunt Renee in Tennessee," Celia smiled at me.
I pulled on my locket a little harder. I knew I loved Percy and Annabeth and that we would get along really well, but I didn't really know them. I knew Aunt Renee, even if I didn't really like her that much. I used to fly up to see her with my mom every summer, and my twin cousins, George and James, weren't that bad. But I knew if I said no to my birth parents, I would regret it. Every time something went wrong with my aunt, I would be wondering what would be going on if I had just stayed with Percy and Annabeth.
"I want to go with Percy and Annabeth."
Annabeth:
I sat in my office, picking at a box of sweet and sour chicken as I looked over the blueprints of Olympus one more time. I finished it last year, but, sometimes, I need to look at it to get some inspiration. Well, that and Poseidon wants me to rebuild that game room that got destroyed.
I made a little change to Poseidon's game room when I heard my personal cell phone ring. Because it wasn't 'Rock Your Body', I knew it wasn't Rachel, and I didn't know of anyone else who would be calling me at this time. So, I pulled my phone out and pressed the send button.
"Hello?"
"Annabeth, it's Celia Smith," I could hear the happiness in her voice. I instantly dropped the chicken I had shish-kabobbed (What? You know I suck at spelling) back into the box and sat up straighter to answer the phone.
"Oh," I didn't know what to say other than to be that weird shocked and anxious thing, "Uh, hey."
"I spoke Sarah today, and we had a conversation where she said that she wants to live with you and Percy," Celia seemed unfazed than how awkward I had sounded earlier. I was about to scream 'Yes!' when I thought of something.
"So, she knows that Percy and I are her parents?" I asked, sounded like a giddy school girl.
"I was going to have you and Percy tell her, but she actually guessed," Celia told me, and the only thought I could register in my mind was: "Definitely My Kid".
"Oh my God," I smiled, holding a hand over my mouth wondering why I was smiling.
"I contacted her aunt, who was her second choice, to all this, and she wants to meet up with you and Percy before this deal goes through. I need to meet with you and Percy later today to set a hearing date which will need to be within the next few weeks. By then, you both need to have a possible school for her, a place for her to stay at your home, and so on," Celia proceeded to give me a speech she had probably told a million people, but I didn't mind. Instead, I hung on every word she told me and couldn't hide a smile.
This time I was going to make it up to Sarah….and maybe even Percy.