Ismene and Antigone Carter

How to Pronounce Antigone and Ismene
Antigone: An-tig-oh-knee
Ismene: Is-may-knee

Disclaimer: See chapter one

Thank you PowerofWords12 for being an awesome beta reader.

Dionysus never realized that he would have gotten himself into the same predicament as that of almost a year ago. He was very lucky. Lucky that Ariadne didn't hold the grudges that Hera did. Dionysus shuddered as he thought of how Ariadne would react to his children if she had been like Hera. Of course, he had already seen Hera's wrath... In fact, he had lived through it. The first few years of his life were far worse than living in Hades. Hera killed his mother and attempted to kill him too. The first feeling that the young god had known was fear. Hera was lucky that Dionysus hadn't gone insane from all of her
attempts of taking his life.

Anyway, Dionysus was going to Kearney hospital in Broadway New York, room 212 on the second floor to visit his "girlfriend" Anastasia Carter. This time he planned on getting to the hospital during visiting hours. After telling Chiron that he wasn't going to be at camp for most of the day, he left.

Dionysus walked into the hospital with a slight feeling of regret. He knew that his current "girlfriend" knew almost nothing about his true identity. Sure, he had gotten her a new house and had prepared brand new bank accounts and trust funds for his unborn children. However, he knew that the gifts would never be sufficient in helping the Broadway actress watch over her half-blood twins but he hoped it was enough.

He approached the visitor's desk. It had a 'back in five minutes please wait in the lobby' sign on the desk. Dionysus ignored the sign, added his name to the visitors list, and took a badge. He walked to the elevator and waited for it to arrive. The elevator arrived and the doors opened with a bell like ding. Dionysus stepped in and clicked the '2' button. The doors closed and the elevator rose up. The doors opened with another ding. Dionysus
stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hall to room 212.

He walked into the room, noting that the door was wide open. Dionysus almost bumped into a nurse.

"Sorry." He grunted.

"Ana." he said when he saw Anastasia sitting up in the hospital bed. She was holding a little girl in her arms. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright, I bit tired I suppose." She answered. "The girls are okay as well."

"Girls?" Dionysus asked, thinking that he had misheard.

"Yes girls." Anastasia answered. "This is Antigone." She said and nodded towards the bundle in her arms. "Ismene is alright, she's in the ICU at the moment though. The nurses think that she has pneumonia."

"They can find illnesses so early into their lives?" Obviously medicine and hospitals had come a long way from the skills of thirty years ago.

"Apparently they can." She said with a sigh. "I hope that Ismene is okay though. I don't see how I'll be able to take care of the two of them if each of them is going to get sick at different times. They'll keep catching whatever illness the other has from each other and I'll have to ru-" Anastasia's ranting got cut off when Dionysus lightly kissed her lips and ran his fingers through her short dirty blond hair.

"They'll be fine." Dionysus said after their lips separated.

"How can you be sure?" Her blue eyes were etched with worry.

"Just trust me, I know."

"If you say so." The two were silent for a moment. Dionysus gazed down at the beautiful baby. She had sandy brown hair and a face that sort of mimicked his facial features. He wondered if he'd be able to meet her twin.

"Are Ismene and Antigone identical twins?" Dionysus asked in a casual tone as he continued to look at his daughter.

"Yes, they are, but Ismene is smaller than Antigone."

"Will she always be?"

"The doctors say that they'll be around the same height when they're older."

"That's good."

The entrance of a nurse interrupted the couple's musings. They both looked at the door. The nurse walked into the room. Dionysus recognized her as the one that he had almost knocked over earlier. Another nurse trailed behind her with a crib. Dionysus and Anastasia looked at the nurses.

"Ms. Carter, we have great news." She said.

"You do?" Asked Ana. Her eyes traveled from the baby in her arms to the baby in the crib.

"Ismene is perfectly fine." Dionysus and Anastasia sighed in relief.

"It turns out that she does not have pneumonia. There was simply some fluid left in her lungs, a side effect from being the last child born of multiple births."

"Both girls should be fine for now but we're planning on keeping them in the hospital for another week; to monitor how they're doing." Anastasia simply nodded her head in agreement.

"Will you be keeping Antigone and Ismene in the NICU or will my daughters be in the same room as me?" She asked after a short moment of silence.

"That's up to you." The first nurse said. "We can keep the girls in this room if you'd like... We'd just need to transport them back and fourth from the NICU."

"I'd like to keep them in the same room as me."

"Alright then." The other nurse said. She took Antigone from Anastasia
and placed the baby in her crib. "We'll just set up the cribs and leave you and your guest alone. If you need anything, you know how to call us."

The two nurses carefully connected Ismene and Antigone's cribs to the heart rate monitor and a few other monitors.

"The monitors are set up to let us know if the babies' heart rates rapidly drop." The first nurse said. "If the pulse gets too low, we'll know and we will come to take care of both girls. We'll leave you now." With that, both nurses left the room.

Dionysus walked over to Ismene's crib. Anastasia was right. Both girls looked exactly the same. If it hadn't been for their different colored outfits and nameplates, Dionysus never would have known who was who.

"She's beautiful." He said. "They have your nose."

The last comment caused Anastasia to laugh.

"My nose?" She asked. "I think they look like you. Both girls have the same shade of hair as you. Their faces look like they are the same shape as yours..."

"But they have your nose." Dionysus said as he walked back to Anastasia. Anastasia smiled in response.

"Ana, I have something to tell you." Dionysus began. He had prepared the speech for a few weeks but he still had problems with coming out and telling Anastasia that her life was about to change forever.

"You do?"

"Well you see," Dionysus sighed. "I guess I should come out and say it. I'm a Greek god... I lied when I said that my parents are obsessed with Greek mythology. I live on Olympus with the other eleven major gods and goddesses. Your daughters are half bloods, demigod daughters of Dionysus. It is vital that you do not tell them about me until you feel it is necessary. I would recommend that you wait until they are ten or eleven. The moment that they find out who their godly parent is will be the day that the monsters may or may not attack. You will never see the monsters because the mist that protects us immortals is too strong. Do you have any questions?"

"You're a Greek god?" Was the first question that came out of Anastasia's mouth. Dionysus nodded his head. "B-but I thought that Greek mythology was just a myth."

"We have been around for thousands of years. They don't call gods immortal for no reason." Dionysus said. "Our existence moves with the Western Civilization. Olympus is currently here in New York, on top of the Empire State Building to be exact. The myths are as real as ever. Just about every single god and monster that was ever mentioned in mythology still exists today..."

"Will my children be in danger?"

"At the moment, no…" He murmured. Anastasia appeared to be taking the news fairly well he noted. She didn't seem shocked or anything. "But when they get older, quite possibly."

"Possibly?"

"When the girls find out who their godly parent is, their scent will change. Monsters are able to sniff out half bloods and when they find one their first instinct is to attack. Luckily for the twins, I'm not considered a threat." Dionysus said with distaste. "Monsters feel that the drunken idiot is too stupid to fight back. Since Antigone and Ismene are my daughters, the monsters will hopefully ignore them."

Anastasia was staring at Dionysus. She realized that her mouth was wide open and slowly closed it.

"I want you to protect them." She said.

"I'll do my best to protect them." Dionysus promised. He would do just about anything to make sure that his children would not get hurt.

"How can I be sure?"

"When the time comes, Antigone and Ismene will need to go to Camp Half- Blood. It's a camp where demigods will receive proper training that will help them survive in both the mortal and immortal world. I promise that I will send satyrs, half goat, half human creatures, to help the girls get to camp safely." He paused for a few seconds. "The camp is located in Long Island. It serves as a summer camp and a year round camp. Some demigods come for the summer and others stay year round. Most campers arrive between the ages of ten to thirteen but we have a few kids who are younger then that. Since I am the camp director for the next century, the girls will eventually meet me."

Anastasia did not respond. She was busy thinking about her current predicament. The father of her children happened to be one of the Greek gods. Since Dionysus is a god, she would have to raise the two girls by herself.

"You are going to leave me... aren't you?" Anastasia asked in an almost whisper.

"Unfortunately, I have to. My father will be extremely mad at me if he finds out that I have not been at Camp Half-Blood for a while. Anastasia, I love you and I'm sorry that I put you in such a dilemma..." Dionysus leaned forward and kissed Anastasia one last
time before he approached the cribs that held his daughters.

"I love you Antigone." He said and lightly kissed the baby's forehead. "I love you Ismene." He said and kissed her forehead as well.

Dionysus approached the door at the end of the room. He turned around one last time and looked at Anastasia. "I love you." He said in a just
audible whisper.

A/N: I understand that Dionysus seems a bit out of character but I can't picture him sitting in a hospital room going "GRRR! You had my kids... I'm going to turn you into a shrub!" I picture him as a caring and kind father.