So this is a really fast update. But, this afternoon I had a burst of inspiration and typed away. Now, I just had to post it.


"Tristan! Son, your sister is here to pick you up!" Percy shouted up the stairs. "Oh, and your mom is here too." Percy sort of just stated the second part at a moderate volume. It was the game of how to piss her off. Percy turned around to face his daughter. "So, how are you two getting to Central Park?" He asked seeming a bit skeptical of it.

"Mom is going to get a cab for us. We'll be going by ourselves." Melanie lied coolly. Not all of it was a lie, she figured. Her mom was getting a cab to drop them at Central Park. But, they wouldn't be by themselves. That was the catch.

"Oh, ok. Do you think that's ok with the press and all snooping around?" Percy asked. His daughter knew pretty well the dangers of how publicity could be bad. But, publicity is publicity and there is nothing you can really do about it.

"I told Tristan on the phone to bring his hoody. I have mine in the car." Melanie assured her father trying to look around him to the stairs. Percy contained his worry as he turned to talk to his ex-wife. They walked into the kitchen and started their conversation.

Meanwhile, upstairs Tristan was digging through his toy box trying to find his hoody. He had always had his hoody near him and the day he needed it he couldn't find it. He got to the bottom of the box with no triumph so he moved onto his dresser. He opened the shirt drawer and he smacked his forehead. The hoody had been right there the whole time. He grabbed it and his D.S. Light and took off for the stairs. He would need the D.S. if his sister decided to have a more private conversation with Logan.

Tristan could see his sister at the bottom of the stairs. He let out a shrill over her name and jumped at her. Melanie caught him easily in her arms. There was a silent moment of pure bliss as he expressed how much she missed her with that one hug.

"Melanie, does dad know that we're going to Lo—,"

"No," Melanie put her index finger to her lips signaling him to stay quiet. A honk sounded outside the house and Melanie looked back through the window. "That's the cab. Come on." She pulled the door open and pushed him out. "Mom, Perseus! We're leaving!" She left and closed the door behind her.

In the kitchen, Percy was trying to ignore the Perseus comment. But, he couldn't. "When did she start calling me Perseus?" He demanded.

"I don't know. Can we get back to our conversation Percy?" Annabeth asked trying to make sure she didn't get blamed for the whole 'Perseus' ordeal. "The Paparazzi are going to be hunting us. We're the game and this is open season Percy. We have to do something with the kids."

"What do you mean? They're our kids. They can learn to live with the camera goons." 'Camera goons' was Percy's favorite term for the people that followed stars. Annabeth had learned to deal with the cameras and her ex's general hate for the business she had entered herself in. But, the kids were safe ground, and neither Percy nor Annabeth wanted to give that up.

"I don't want them to Percy. It's too much. It will ruin their childhood. We need to send them away until this settles down. Can you at least consider it?" Annabeth asked putting her hand atop his. She turned bright red and then quickly removed her hand from his.

"Nine years and you still blush at the slightest touch." Percy smiled looking down at his lonely hand on the kitchen counter. It had been sitting there for a while now and where her hand had been it seemed abnormally cold. Annabeth wouldn't look him in the eyes when he picked his head back up to look at her. She looked almost ashamed.

It's over. She reminded herself. You're the one who walked out. Annabeth shook her head and then look up at him. He looked like he was sorry. That stupid smirk, she thought seeing the upturned corners of his mouth. Annabeth had memories of when he would wear the smirk after he pinned her to the ground during a sword fight. That moment when he knew he would win and took her down. Annabeth's sword would go flying and clatter against the ground. She would end up on the ground with him looming over her with a blade at her neck. Her heart would race to a frantic speed as he leaned down and… Stop! Annabeth scolded herself. She hoped to every god there was that he couldn't see the fear of her feelings on her face.

She's thinking about me. Percy thought seeing the color linger under her skin. An image came to mind of her lying underneath him with that same color in her cheeks. She had swollen lips from the night before and a certain glow to her skin. The sun had begun to peak over the horizon. Percy often had thoughts like this. The kind of thoughts where he couple remember the good times with the woman in front of him. He never stopped loving her. Yet, he gave up on trying to get her back. It wasn't worth it. She was engaged. She was essentially untouchable.

Hope still lives.

He used to think those words meant something. He used to think that there was always a sign of hope. Correction, the old Percy Jackson thought that. The new Percy Jackson was born the day her last foot crossed over that threshold and left his life. The Percy Jackson that had lived through a titan war had died when his daughter had slammed the door to cry in her own pity. He died when his son began to cry that night in confusion of the commotion around him. So young, their son had grown-up in a house of split hate and love.

"I guess I'll be leaving." Annabeth sighed and turned away from him. Percy felt his chest close around the hole it had formed creating a sharp pain in his chest. For a moment he reached out, but he let his hand drop to his side. Annabeth had caught the motion and turned around. "I'll see you…when we meet again." She gave a weak, halfhearted smile and turned away grabbing her phone off the kitchen table and heading into the foyer.

Percy followed after her and watched her walk away again. She opened the door taking a deep breath. She pulled the sunglasses off the top of her head and stepped into the sunlight. Percy watched that second foot cross the threshold. She was leaving him again. Though this time it didn't hurt as much, it still made his chest ache. She smiled and waved getting into her car. Until we meet again… A simultaneous thought that neither of them would ever say aloud to one another for fear of being hurt again. "Goodbye…" Percy whispered into the air as a slight breeze came and took the words into the air to never be heard.

During this, Melanie and Tristan Jackson were headed across town to meet Logan at Central Park. They had wanted to stay at Central Park for the day, but with the new buzz on family secrets for the Jacksons it would be too hard to stick around in public for an extended period of time. It would be dangerous for them as well.

They were talking back and forth about their experiences with the opposite parent for the beginning of the two weeks they would have to spend with their designated. Then, at the end of the two weeks, they would switch again. It was something that Tristan had grown into. Melanie had learned to live with it. Sometimes Melanie would wonder what it was like to have grown up with two parents in separate houses and not know the loves that they had shared as one family before. Logan often wondered what sort of love could have lasted between two people that fought so much.

It was incomprehensible for the nine year old. He had never seen them hug or smile at each other except for the rare occasion. Fighting was what he heard. There was nothing more than that. Constant aggression with only word between the two was what he experienced. Once, he had even seen his father raise a hand to his mother. Luckily for his sake, his father didn't hit her. He simply pulled his fingers into a clenched fist and then let it drop to his side before turning away from the fight all together.

"Melanie…?" Tristan wanted to know something. A question he usually wouldn't ask arose in his mind, and he just had to ask. It was like a physical need to ask this one question.

"Yes Tristan?" Melanie said calmly watched as the driver peaked back at her through the rearview. She glared at him through the reflective glass and he responded with keeping his eyes on the road instead of on her.

"Why do Mommy and Daddy fight?" He had sounded so pitiful when he spoke those words. Any being within the vicinity of planet earth would have pitied his poor state as if he were some sort of beaten puppy.

"Well…Mom and Dad have," she paused briefly choosing her words carefully before she spoke so as not to upset her little brother, "creative differences."

"Creative differences, what are those?" Tristan asked in a perplexed tone. It was so cute how one minute he could be such a helpless little boy and then another moment later he could be a 'Curious George.'

"It means they don't agree on most things." Melanie shrugged and shot a glare once more to the driver who simply shrugged it off this time and continued to stare at her.

"They don't agree on all things Melanie." With that Melanie laughed a ruffled his hair. The cab stopped and the man told them this was there stop. Quickly, they gathered their things from the back and slid off the seat.

"Hold on Tristan. I have to pay the driver." Melanie called after him and he froze turning on his heels to watch her. She fiddled with her wallet and then stuck it into her pocket again. She slammed close the back door of the cab and leaned down next to the driver's door.

"Your mom already prepaid, Little Lady." The driver reminded her. He had that awful smell to him that made it bad to be in any sort of proximity to him. His teeth weren't white, and he had that certain look to his eyes that made Melanie feel like his eyes were roving her body.

"I know." She assured him cleaning out from under one of her finger nails. "Now, do see that little boy over there?" Melanie asked with a deadly sort of serenity she had learned from hanging out with her uncle, Nico. The cab driver nodded. "Do you see an older boy walking up to him?" Logan had showed up and was walking up to Tristan. The cab driver nodded nervously this time as Logan hugged Tristan his arms flexing into huge muscles. "That's my boyfriend. Don't think for a second he'll like you to the slightest bit. All I have to do is say you touched me or said something. Just once…and then you don't come to work for the next shift." Melanie gave a demonic wink and then pushed off the door and walked over to Logan and Tristan.

The cab driver loosened his collar as if it was type and then put the car in gear. As he pulled away he dabbed the sweat from his brow. Never had such a lowly man been talked to in such a manor. He would never look at another young, fine customer the way he had looked at her. Never again would it happen for the fear of large boyfriends.

Back at the park:

"Hey Baby…" Logan opened his steel arms to her and welcomed her in with a huge hug. Her sweet smell filled his senses as she curled into his warm embrace. Tristan made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded disgusting. It probably was.

"Get a room." Tristan suggested sticking his tongue out. Logan loosened his grip and turned to look at Tristan. Melanie giggled and looked over at her little brother as well.

"Fine," Logan held up his hands. "I'll leave the runt here, and I'll only take my girl back to my apartment."

"No! You have to take me too!" Tristan begged running up to Logan. "I won't bug you guys. We can wrestle! I'll let you win! Just take me with you."

"You'll let me win… I might actually have a chance." Logan chuckled. "Fine, come on." He gripped Melanie's hand and began to walk over to the street. "The car is this way."


I like that ending. Because right when you expect the next sentence it stops. This chapter is one of my favorites.

Sincerely,

wisegirlindisguise