A/N: I've changed my mind. Again. It's going to be a five-shot now :3 I think it's final. I sure hope so, but you never know with me. Thank you to everyone whose read, reviewed, favourited, alerted or a mixture of all. It truly means a lot.

I made myself a twitter, so you wanna follow me, please do! I'll be tweeting (once I get the hang of how it all works) about when I'm posting stories, any new ideas, any changes to stories and life in general. /#!/KiwiDaydreamer

Disclaimer: Kudos to the cool kid who owns Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Wait...that's not me...

Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?

- Cicero

Part Four: The heart to heart

After Travis had finished his story, it was suffice to say that Althea Stoll was at a loss for words. She just stared at her dad as if he was completely different person. It had never crossed her mind that all of this had happened, although to be perfectly honest, she didn't like to think about her mother at all. Sure, when she was younger she had always wondered where her mom was and what had happened between the two of them, but as she got older, her perspective changed. Althea started to notice the hurt expression her father seemed to wear whenever Katie was mentioned, so she eventually stopped asking. It was hard at first, but she got used to it. It was almost as if she purposefully forgot about her mother, just so she didn't have to think about her.

It physically hurt Althea to think about mothers. Whenever mothers' day came around and all the ads on television were advertising all the things you could buy from your mom because 'she totally deserved it,' Althea was quick to change the channel or just turn the TV set off. She knew three things about her mom before her dad had told her that story. One was that her name was Katie, two, she was a daughter of Demeter and three, she was a camper. Althea wouldn't be lying if she said she had created a version of her mom in her head.

The Katie that she had made up was a sweet, beautiful woman with kind green eyes and dark hair like Althea's. She was scared of the dark, loved sour candy and gardening. The Katie she had imagined loved drama shows such as Brothers and Sisters, although she tried to deny it. The Katie she had made up had a good and selfless reason as to why she left Travis and Althea. Hearing her dad's story had crushed every single dream and image that Althea had about her mother.

"Al?" Travis asked a few minutes later, slightly worried that his daughter hadn't said anything in reply. There was a small part of him that was regretting ever opening his mouth, but he knew that she deserved to know. Althea was old enough to understand. At least Travis hoped so.

"Yeah?" she asked, doing her best to make sure she sounded more confident than she felt. The uncharacteristic quietness etched in his daughter's voice almost broke his heart and he was immediately regretting his choice.

"Is everything okay?" He blurted out the words before he thought about what he was saying. Suddenly, he felt so stupid. Why on earth had he said something as inconsiderate and stupid, when it was obvious that she was not okay? Travis inwardly face-palmed himself as he waited for his daughter to reply with something sarcastic and witty. But when no words came out of her mouth, Travis started to panic.

"Yeah," Althea couldn't really think of anything to say. She didn't make eye contact with her dad, afraid that if she did, she would burst into tears. Because quite honestly, that was all she wanted to do. There was a voice in her head trying to tell her that everything her dad had said was a big fat lie and she would wake up from the nightmare that was forming in front of her very eyes, but she couldn't deny it. Her mother had left her, and she had done so willingly. The mere thought broke Althea's heart and she swore she could feel her heart ripping into small pieces. Why hadn't she been good enough for her mom? Why hadn't her mom even bothered to try loving her? Was she really just an inconvenience?

Althea started to wonder whether she was an inconvenience for her father as well. He had said so himself that he was the reason she had turned his life around. But what if he hadn't wanted to grow up and mature like he had? What if it was all her fault that Travis wasn't living it up big? Travis had mentioned that Katie had broken up with him, just because he wanted to keep Althea. The sudden thought hit the young girl like a freight train and she struggled to breathe.

It was her fault her parents had broken up.

It was still rather obvious that Travis had some kind of attraction towards her mother. The way his eyes had glazed over whenever he said her name, mixed with the hurt from her betrayal pretty much said it all. Althea couldn't believe it. It was all her fault. Before she could even understand what was going on, a few tears fell down her sleek tanned cheek.

Travis glanced at his daughter, who was staring at the carpeted floor as if she had never laid eyes on such thing before. The silence was unnerving. He tried to think of what was possibly running through Althea's mind, but he couldn't come up with anything. As soon as he saw the first tear roll down her cheek, Travis felt crushed. He hadn't felt this way ever since Katie had broken up with him. It was as if someone had literally ripped his heart right out of his chest with a chainsaw, cut it up using broken scissors and then shoved it back like it was turkey stuffing.

He was going through a whirlwind of emotions. The biggest and most obvious one was pain. He wasn't feeling pained just for himself, but for his daughter. The realization just hit him that he had basically told her that her mother was some heartless, cruel, selfish soul. Which definitely wasn't the case. Even to this day, fifteen years after Katie Gardner shattered his heart and left him in pieces, he still couldn't place any blame on her. He didn't detest her, in fact, he pretty much still was completely and totally head over heels in love with her. (Not that he was ever going to admit that.)

Travis had tried to rationalize with himself. She was just doing what was best for her. That was the thing about Katie, she was extremely driven. When she wanted something, she was going to everything possible to get the said something. It was one of the very many things that Travis had admired about her. He knew how much that exchange meant to her. She did extra projects, wrote millions of essays and pretty much worked her butt off to get that exchange and it was suffice to say that she completely deserved that. After all the hard work she had put into it, it would be a shame to see it go to waste.

There was always a small part of Travis that wondered why she hadn't stayed. They had been working on their relationship for long time, two whole years. Travis had done his best to impress her parents and he was extremely pleased when Mr. Gardner had approved of him. It had not been an easy task, so say the least, but Travis knew that if it was for him and Katie, all the pain was worth it. The couple had to overcome so many challenges and so many differences, but she threw it all away in one night. That was the thing that had torn Travis up. Two years he had been telling her he loved her and she had said she loved him, but he had started to wonder if it was sincere love.

Once Althea had started to grow into the beautiful young girl she was now, Travis had made a decision to stop. To stop falling for Katie, to stop thinking about her, to stop loving her. The first two were extremely hard for him, but he managed to somehow to do it. The third one, well, he didn't think he was ever going to stop. But Althea was his life now and as far as he was concerned, she was his number one girl.

"Come here baby," he murmured in what he hoped was a soothing tone, as he reached over to his daughter to pull her into a hug.

It could be said that Althea was a girly-girl. She liked doing her hair up in many different styles, keeping up with the latest trend in fashion, wearing heels and makeup, but one thing Althea Anastasia Stoll did not do was cry. She did not blub over sad movies, over boys, over injuries, over nothing. Travis could remember the last time she had cried, when she was nine years old and her cousin Lysander had to be taken to hospital after getting tackled in a soccer game.

"Go Lysander go!" Althea cheered her favorite cousin on as the black and white ball made contact with his orange soccer boot. Lysander grinned at the sound of her encouragement, kicking the ball towards one of his team members. It was a typical Saturday for the Stoll families. Althea and Lysander were both part of soccer teams at their school and Saturday meant soccer day.

Travis and Connor would always glance at each other with grins on their faces as their children ran around in blue and white striped shirts and blue shorts, chasing after a ball. It was always a joyous experience for the whole family and was even a bonding time of sorts. After both Althea and Lysander had finished their games, depending on the weather, Connor would take them to the best ice-cream parlor in town and if it was raining and cold, Travis would drive to the candy shop a few blocks away from the soccer field.

Suddenly, a scream of pain was heard as Lysander hit the dewed grass, tears streaming down his face while he grabbed his shoulder with agony etched on his young features. One of the members on the other team, a boy of much larger frame, both height and weight wise, had run into the young Stoll, sending him to the ground, his shoulder dislocating and his arm snapping with a resounding crunch.

"Lysander!" Althea screamed as she tried to make her way to him. Already, Connor was by his sons' side, muttering and cursing in Ancient Greek while Chelsea called an ambulance. Travis was quick to grab his daughter's hand as she half dragged him to where her cousin lay.

Even though Lysander was the one who was hit and in the most obvious pain, Althea felt like she was hurting too. There was this sick feeling in her stomach and seeing her cousin's arm bent in such an odd angle made her want to empty the contents of her stomach. The tears were evident on her face as they kept rolling down her cheeks like a waterfall. She didn't bother to brush them away as she looked at her dad with the most helpless expression on her face.

"It's going to okay Al. Lysander is going to be okay," he murmured, both to himself and to his daughter as he wiped her tears away with a stroke of his thumb. For his baby girl's sake, he hoped that he was right.

Lysander had been fine, just like Travis had predicted. He had a dislocated shoulder and fractured a part of his bone in his arm and snapping another part, having to wear a cast for seven weeks with a sling, but he lived.

Althea flinched a little as her dad's arms wrapped around her, slightly startled by the sudden contact. She was quick to loosen up as she buried her head into his chest. Travis smelt like African axe, with a mixture of cinnamon and freshly toasted bread and burnt copper all rolled into one. It smelt so Travis that Althea couldn't help but smile into her dad's black printed t-shirt. She wrapped her arms around her father's waist and felt her tears begin to dampen Travis' shirt, but he couldn't care less.

Travis could barely remember the last time he held Althea so close. They had always had an extremely close relationship. After all, it was just the two of them, but since Althea turned thirteen, things had started to change a bit. Instead of going to her dad for advice, she would go to her Aunty Chelsea or to her friends. Travis did his best to be understanding, up to the point where he was sort of glad that Althea went to Chelsea for things 'feminine' related. But there were times that Travis missed having his daughter go to him for hugs instead of Iris messaging Jess Rodriguez, heading over to the other Stoll house or even worse, talking to Thad about stuff.

"I'm sorry," was the muffled words that came out of Althea's mind. The tone of her voice sounded so genuine and innocent, that Travis was confused for a second.

"What in Hades are you apologizing for?" he asked, looking down at her. Althea lifted her head off her dad's chest, but refused to meet his eye.

"I-it's my fault you and mom broke up," Althea replied, struggling to even speak. She sniffed, hating the predicament she was in. Just like her mother, she hated any showing any sign of weakness. It was the reason she didn't like to cry, because it was a sign that she was weak. She hated feeling weak. It made her feel stupid and useless.

The elder Stoll had his daughter's words rushing through his mind over and over again, like some broken record. It's my fault that you and mom broke up. He was truly astonished that she even thought such things like that.

"Oh no Al," he gushed quickly, pulling his daughter closer and resting his head on top of hers, holding her as she sobbed. By then, she couldn't help it. She felt a whirlwind of emotions. Betrayal was one of the many. How could her own mother do this to her? Mothers were supposed to be there for their children, to love and protect them. Katie was supposed to be the one who Althea could talk to about school problems, Thad and just life in general. She was the one who was supposed to teach her how to put make-up on, go shopping with and just be a mother. Why hadn't she? She also felt incredibly guilty. As she had just previously voiced, she was the reason that her parents had broken up. It was all her fault.

"What are you talking about dad? If it wasn't for me, you two would still be together," she replied bitterly. The words stunned Travis. He never thought that she was going to react like this. Hades, to be honest, he didn't quite know how she was going to react.

He let go of Althea for a second, before one of his hands grabbed her chin.

"Look at me Al," he said, his tone strangely soft. He was surprised that he could even speak in such a voice. Growing up in the Hermes cabin, which happened to be the busiest and fullest, not to mention messiest cabin throughout the whole camp, Travis had quickly learnt the lesson of hardening up. Nobody in the cabin would complain or moan about their lives, it was just the way that Luke ran the place. Even when the younger ones were injured, they would go to the infirmary or the Apollo cabin without shedding a single tear, knowing that Luke would be angry if they cried. They were taught that was crying was stupid and wasn't worth it. Nobody knew the first thing about being sympathetic, simply because that just wasn't the way they were taught to live. The first time anyone had expressed some kind of emotional pain was when they had found out Luke was a traitor, but even then, they kept their feelings to themselves.

If Travis was being honest, he had no idea how to comfort anyone, and he hated doing so with a passion. He didn't like crying, as it involved emotions and generally telling the truth, two things that a Stoll was never good with dealing with. The first time he had ever properly comforted someone was his own brother during the second Titan war when Connor had been stabbed in the side by one of the traitorous demigods. It was honestly one of the most terrifying experiences for the both of the Stolls and Travis had been so scared that he was going to be losing the only real family he had. Truth be told, half the reason he had been consoling his bleeding brother was because he was also trying to console himself.

When he got together with Katie, he learnt how to deal with emotions. Well, sort of. He knew what made her happy, which were those totally sappy lines, romantic walks on the beach and cute 'I love you' messages that even him blush just by sending them. He learnt what made her angry, things like pranks on her cabin, Mondays and a whole bunch of other things that Travis learnt she got ticked due to experience. Even then, he didn't like to deal with her when she was upset and usually resorted to an awkward pat on the back. That would make Katie angry and she'd end up screaming at him, until he finally got a bit of sense and reached over and kissed her, just to make her shut up.

Yet, when it came to Althea, it was a totally different story. Ever since she was younger, Travis was the only person who knew how to cheer her up whenever she was feeling down. Usually, it required a trip to the candy store or the ice-cream place (Because really, who doesn't like ice-cream and candy?) while she was still a child. When she had gotten a bit older, Travis learnt that she felt better after a bit of retail therapy, or talking to her friends for a few hours. So he let her.

Althea refused to meet her father's eyes. She had just managed to stop the flow of tears and was scared that if she looked at her dad, she would start bawling again. And she definitely did not want that.

"Althea," he said his tone slightly firmer as he pulled her chin towards his face, so she had no choice but to look at him. She did so rather reluctantly as her watery emerald orbs met with his sad, chocolate brown ones.

"What?" she mumbled.

"Listen to me and listen to me good," he started. Travis paused for a second, trying to find the right words. It took a little while, but he somehow found them. He hoped. "You are not the reason your mother and I broke up. It was a decision that we both chose to make." Althea was quiet for a moment.

"Yeah, but if I wasn't born you and m-" she began, but Travis was quick to cut her off.

"Stop with the 'buts.' We could go on about the 'buts' and 'what ifs' for the rest of eternity, but they don't matter. What matters is the choice that we made, I made. I chose to have you Althea. And if I could go back and chose again, I would pick exactly the same thing," he said, quite surprised that he made such a comment. But when he thought about it, it was true. Okay, so he didn't have a wife, or a mansion with a pool, or even his dream car. But he had so much more. He still had his brother, and he had a good job. Most of all, he had his daughter. The most beautiful and amazing girl that he could have ever imagined and he loved her more than anything.

"Really?" she couldn't help but ask. By the look in his eyes when he had told the story, she knew that he was still in love with Katie. Why in Hades would he not want her back?

"Really Althea, I mean every word I say," he murmured. He was tempted to add an 'I love you' to the end of it, but when she reached over and wrapped her arms around his middle, he knew that he didn't have to. She already knew that, but he wanted to be certain. Travis was slightly taken aback at the gesture, as it was something that she hadn't done in a while. He quickly recovered, putting his arms around his daughter. "I love you Althea, more than you'll ever know," he added, just for good measure. He sure as heck didn't say it often, but he definitely meant it. Travis had never been so sure of something in his entire life.

"I love you too daddy," Althea replied, a small smile appearing on her face. Travis hugged her tighter, his lips resting on the crown of her dark wavy hair. Sure, it wasn't the way he had expected his life to go, but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

A/N: Too sappy? Too out of character? Didn't make sense? You liked it? I am many things, but not a mind reader. Please let me know what you think! :)