AN: thanks for reading! I don't own PJO or HoO.
***CENTRAL PARK, NYC, MIDNIGHT***
"Felix!" Zig wrapped me in a bear hug. I felt Sanya's arms around my waist as well. I grinned and told them I was fine and they were smothering me and all that, but secretly? I was really really glad to see them. I hadn't realized how much I missed them. I bit my lip so I didn't cry.
"I was worried you wouldn't be able to sneak out." Sanya said, hugging my legs tighter. I pulled free from Zig, leaned down, and scooped her up into my arms and onto my back.
"Don't be silly! Nobody can stop me. I'm the luckster, remember 'lil girl?" Sanya giggled and nodded.
"But did they follow you? Are they coming? C'mon, Felix, what's going on?" Zig asked, dark eyes worried and prying into my thoughts.
"I don't think they followed me." I reassured him, and Sanya's death grip on my neck loosened a little. She leaned her tiny blond head into my shoulder happily. Sanya was such a cute kid. "I snuck out okay. A couple of kids overheard us IMing, but I got past them. Other then that, it was-"
"Wait." Zig went pale. "They heard the IM? Then don't they know this is where we're meeting?" I realized he was right. Gods, why hadn't I thought of that? They could be here any minute.
"Hey! Put your hands up!" There was a shout behind us. I whipped around. A cop was there, gun pointed at us. Three more cop cars were pulling up. "You are under arrest for the murder of Danny White! Put your weapons down and your hands up!" Sanya whimpered. Zig set his switchblade down on the ground. I set down Sanya, who put up her hands with Zig, and pulled off the shotgun, setting it down carefully on the ground. I put down both swords and the dagger, as well. "Now turn around, slowly! We're going to handcuff you!" I glanced at the others and slowly turned around, and more policemen hurried up, roughly handcuffing us.
This was bad.
***NYCPD HOLDING CELL***
I sat in a holding cell in the police headquarters, my hands cuffed together in my lap and staring at the door. It was locked from the outside, I had checked, and guarded. Zig and Sanya were somewhere else. I was the only one under real arrest. The other two were being ID'd so that they could be sent back. Sanya, to her mom. Zig-I didn't know. He had no family. Other then Sanya and I.
I was miserable. The demigods at camp half blood must have called the police to bring us down. Now I was going to go to jail for killing Danny, because they couldn't try a dead drakon, could they?
The door of my cell opened, and I walked out. Two guards led me to a room with a glass divider down the middle. There was a desk in the middle, cut in half by the glass, with a chair on one side and a chair on the other side. There was a small hole cut in the glass so you could talk to someone on the other side. A visiting room. Probably the demigods from camp half-blood here to gloat at their victory.
But when the door opened, it wasn't the demigods from camp.
It was dad.
His dark brown eyes were tired, with bags under them. His face was lined with worry. His whole body sagged, like life had finally beaten him down. His sandy blond hair, once the same color as mine, was growing in gray, the way his beard was. He looked so old. So sad. I knew it was my fault. I tried to remember that I was mad at him. But it was hard.
"Felix." He said. I didn't respond. My eyes were fixed on dad, and he was staring at me as well. I realized that just as much as he had changed to me, I must seem so different to him. My hair was longer and uneven since I had Zig cut it, and my hoodie was dirty and patched, and my jeans were grass-stained and my sneakers were too small and scuffed. But this was who I was. He had better just deal.
Suddenly all the anger just flowed out of me. I just couldn't be mad anymore. I had spent so long being angry at my parents I had almost forgotten about my mother's letter, and the way dad's eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. Or when dad had taught me how to ride a bike, and how he always used to tell me that mom would come home one day, and that she never wanted to go.
I started to cry, and I pressed one hand against the glass, like maybe it would break. Dad was crying, too, and smiling, and he pressed his hand against the glass as well.
"Dad." I said.
"Felix." He smiled at me, and suddenly I felt warm inside. "Felix, I know that you didn't do what the police said you did. I know you, you never would have. The gods send me a message. They'll get you out of here."
"What about my friends? Zig, the son of Alastor, and Sanya the daughter of Morpheus? Can you get them out, too?" Dad's eyes fixed on the wall behind me.
"Felix…"
"Dad, they're innocent, too!"
"Sanya's mother is here to take her home. Poor woman's been worried sick about her daughter for months." Dad glared at me reproachfully, like that was my fault, and just like that the moment was broken. I took my hand down. Old dad was back, the dad that was never there and never listened. "Zig's wanted on several petty theft charges, and then they're going to send him into the foster system to find a family to take him in, so he can have a good home."
"No!" I cursed, and dad winced a little. "Sanya hates her mom, you can't send her away with her! She's just a kid, she needs me and Zig! And Zig won't go to a good home! The foster system sucks, you can't this!"
"Honey-"
"Don't do that, dad! You can't send my friends away, you can't! And what are you going to do with me, huh? What's your brilliant plan for me?" I was crying now, but with anger not sadness. That felt better.
"You're coming home. We'll work this out, honey, your mother's back now, we can-"
"I can't just go home!" I screamed. "I can't! I'm not the kid you know anymore, dad! I'm a different person now and I can't just be happy to sit at home and go to school and be-be normal! You don't understand!"
"This argument is over, young lady." Dad's jaw was set. "And we'll have to have even stricter rules after this. Do you have any idea how worried I've been?"
"Dad!"
"Don't interrupt-"
"Shut up!" I screamed. He looked like he'd been slapped. "Just shut up! I'm not going with you! I'd rather go to prison! And you can't send away Zig and Sanya, you can't seperate us! Dad, please!"
There was a buzzer. The guards led me out of the room. "Time's up." I sucked in ragged breaths to stop crying. I was going to hold myself together.
I sat in my cell for another hour, until the door swung open again and I was led back into the visiting room. This time it really was Chiron, a lady I didn't know but looked suspiciously like Annabeth, a guy in a loud shirt holding a diet coke can, and a guy in a suit with a lightning-bolt shaped tie pin, and little umbrellas on the tie.
"Hi." I said. Luckily I didn't look like I had been crying. "Who the hell are you guys?" Chiron winced, making me wonder who these people were even more.
"I am Zeus, lord of the sky." The guy in the tie said. I gulped.
"I am Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, and Annabeth's mother."
"Annabeth's mom?" A tiny smile twitched onto the goddess's face.
"Yes, Annabeth is my daughter."
"I-I'm D-Dionysus." The man in the loud shirt hiccuped. I think he might've been drunk. "We're here to talk to you, Faith."
"My names not-"
"Ignore him." Athena cut in. "You're under arrest by the mortal police for murder. We'll get you out of jail, and free your friends, if you promise to be trained at camp with them. Ziggy and Sanya have already agreed to this deal, so it's in your best interest to agree as well."
"Felix," Chiron murmured. "You don't want to turn this down. Come to camp with the others."
If Zig and Sanya had already agreed, the deal was set. I didn't hesitate. "Okay." I said. "I'll go to camp with you." Zeus turned and nodded to the guards on their side of the glass barrier. The door on their side banged open, and Zig came in, leading Sanya by the hand. "Guys!"
"Felix! We're going to summer camp!" Sanya grinned, and so did Zig, but his smile was forced and he kept a death grip on Sanya's hand, eyes fixed on the gods.
"That's right, kid." I smiled at her through the glass. "We're headed to summer camp."
Zig just rolled his eyes.
AN: thanks for reading, everybody! See you next time! Please review and follow/favorite!
