Chapter Ten: Baby
At first Percy associated Annabeth's snippiness to what appeared to be just a really lousy case of PMS. Not that he would know a lot about that, with him being a guy and all, but he figured it was a reasonable explanation for her cranky, grouchier-than-usual behavior and odd food cravings.
Then she started getting sick. He would wake up in the middle of the night to find her retching in a very loud, slightly disgusting manner, and he'd get up to help her hold her hair back as she heaved into the toilet. She started acting a little loopy and having unbelievably rapid mood swings, but Percy figured that this was just a side effect from the asprin she'd been taking for the headaches she'd been getting lately. Medicine was bound to make anyone, even ultra-focused Annabeth, a little fuzzy around the edges.
And then one day he came home from work a little early to find Annabeth sitting cross-legged on the couch,clad in sweatpants, and watching TV while hungrily devouring a pint of ice cream. This occurrence was highly unusual for two reasons. One reason was that when Annabeth wasn't on Olympus overseeing construction of her designs, she was busy with her demanding job as an architect for a well-known company in New York City, and therefore wasn't home until much later. The other reason was that Annabeth could almost always be found either looking at designs on Daedulus's laptop or sketching out her own designs on paper. Tonight, however, the laptop was shut off and her papers and pencils lay in a neat, untouched pile on the coffee table. Percy couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her being even just a tad unproductive, and so this sudden change in Annabeth's normal routine was something that unnerved him.
He crept cautiously toward his wife, who had yet to acknowledge his appearance. "You're home early..." he began slowly.
She looked up at him then, and while her face was not unfriendly, it was impassive. Percy became nervous. Had he done something wrong? Had he forgotten something? Oh, gods, he'd accidentally left the toilet seat up again, hadn't he?
Annabeth set down the tub of ice cream on the coffee table, grabbed his hand, and wordlessly led him through the couple's bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom. Oh gods, he HAD left the toilet seat up. But Annabeth's attention seemed to be focused not on the offending toilet seat, but on three little blue strips sitting idly in the sink.
She jammed a finger at the blue strips. "Do you know what these mean?" she asked. Her tone was not accusatory or harsh, but oddly calm.
Percy threw a glance at the strips. "Should I know what they mean?" he said. Even as he spoke the words, a small, nagging suspicion grew in his clouded brain. Wait. Those kind of looked like...
"Pregnancy tests," Annabeth confirmed. "And they turn blue if they're positive." She stared at Percy, obviously waiting for him to put two and two together. Knowing Percy, it would probably take a while.
Percy opened his mouth, but no words came out. He spluttered a little. "Uh, and those...those are your pregnancy tests?"
Annabeth scoffed. "Of course not, Seaweed Brain! I simply felt the random urge to take home somebody's used pregnancy tests and lay them in my sink!" She rolled her eyes, to further emphasize the sarcasm of her last comment.
Percy, however, continued to be unable to grasp the situation fully. "So..." he said slowly. "Those are yours. And-"
"And I'm pregnant, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth smacked him on the arm, despite the fact that she knew it wouldn't hurt him. "There. Now you know. Now please have an appropriate reaction to this news instead of just standing there blubbering."
He glared at her. "I am not blubbering!"
"You are too! Don't deny it."
He scowled. After a few moments, he muttered, "I suppose this is the part where I pick you up, spin you around in a circle, and yell 'YAY, WE'RE HAVING A BABY!'."
"I think that would be correct, yes."
After a few moments of silence, Percy suddenly swooped Annabeth up in his arms, twirled her around, and loudly yelled, "YAY, WE'RE HAVING A BABY!"
"Very nice," said Annabeth, straightening her t-shirt after Percy had set her down. The corners of her lips twitched. "But before we continue celebrating this joyous occasion, I have to warn you about something."
Percy stared at his wife quizzically. "Warn me about what?"
She stepped closer to him, so her eyes were nearly level with his. Her luminous, multifaceted gray eyes bore into his vivid, lively sea greens. She started to speak, and her tone was serious. "I am warning you that the next nine months are probably going to be the most terrifying nine months you have ever had in your lifetime."
Percy stared at her. "Uh, not sure how to break this to you, but I'm not the one bearing a child and preparing to give birth."
"No," Annabeth agreed. "But you are sharing an apartment with someone bearing a child and preparing to give birth, and trust me, that may be even scarier."
Percy groaned. "I suppose it's no use to ask you to go easy on me?"
"Nope," Annabeth said brightly. "When we were sixteen, I told you I would never make things easy for you, and I'm planning on sticking to what I said." She gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Now let's go back to the living room. My ice cream is melting."
Nine horrifying, tantrum-filled, breakdown-inducing months later, it was time.
Annabeth had woken up just a few minutes before, and had managed to get a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast started. She wandered into the bathroom to freshen up a little, since she was feeling strangely woozy. Turning on the faucet, she bent over the sink to splash some water on her face.
And that was when she felt a sharp pain in her belly.
She gasped, straightening abruptly. She looked down at her protruding stomach, making sure that no strange alien creature had spontaneously burst out of it, like in that one movie she remembered seeing a few years before. What was it called again? Was it-
No. That was beside the point. The point was that whatever she had felt had hurt. Looking down again, she noted that the baby certainly seemed to be sitting lower than before. But her due date wasn't for another week or so. A week. Seven days. Well, that wasn't an extremely long expanse of time. It wouldn't be strange if a baby arrived only seven mere days before it was supposed to. So it was possible that maybe, just maybe...
Her eyes darted toward the bedroom. Percy was still asleep, snoring loudly and drooling slightly, as was his usual. Annabeth rolled her eyes. If the man became that exhausted simply from dealing with her, it would certainly be interesting to see exactly how well he could deal with the new baby.
Annabeth made her way to the bed. She reached out and poked her husband in the arm. "Percy," she whispered.
He didn't budge.
Annabeth nudged Percy with more force. "Percy," she hissed.
No response.
Sighing, Annabeth gently held her belly, then daintily leaned closer to Percy. Then, she proceeded to hit him in the arm so hard that he nearly fell off the bed. "PERSEUS JACKSON!" she screeched.
Percy's eyes shot open. He looked alarmed, and his hand flicked toward the bedside table, where he kept Riptide when he slept. Annabeth huffed. "Percy!" she yelled.
He looked at her. Then, slowly, his eyes scanned the room, searching for signs of any unusual activity. Finding none, he sighed and put a hand over his eyes. "Annabeth," he said. "What is it?"
She took a deep breath. "It's time," she said solemnly.
Percy, still in a sleep-induced stupor, yawned blearily and glanced in the direction of the alarm clock. "Time for what? Breakfast?"
Annabeth briefly considered slamming a frying pan against her husband's head, but decided against it, since it would probably just shatter against his thick skull. Instead, she took another deep,
calming breath, then yelled, "I AM ABOUT TO DELIVER OUR FIRST CHILD. So I suggest that you stop dilly-dallying and get me to a hospital before I explode."
A few seconds passed while Percy processed this new tidbit of information. Then he sat bolt upright in bed. "Oh my gods."
"'Oh my gods' is right!" Annabeth grimaced as another contraction racked through her abdomen. "Will you get up now, please?"
"Right, right." Percy shot out of bed, quickly grabbing a pair of jeans and a button-down shirt. He located the bag that Annabeth had prepared for this day, and hoisted it up. Taking Annabeth's hand, he half-carried her and half-led her to the door.
When they were out of the apartment and Percy was about to lock the door, Annabeth froze. "Wait!" she exclaimed.
He looked at her. "What?"
Annabeth broke free of Percy's grasp and managed to waddle back inside the apartment and into the kitchen, where she promptly turned off the stove and coffeemaker. She waddled back out to meet a slightly bewildered Percy. "I almost forgot to turn off the stove and coffeemaker," she murmured by way of explanation.
Percy led her to the car, grumbling, "Couldn't you have let me take care of that?"
Annabeth gripped her stomach in pain, but managed an eyeroll in his direction. "Of course not, Seaweed Brain. I know better than to trust you around electrical appliances."
With that, Percy loaded his wife in the car, jumped in the driver's seat, and sped off in the direction of the hospital.
He wasn't quite sure if this was real life.
He couldn't believe that not long from now, his best friend and wife, Annabeth, would be giving birth to his child. Their child.
Percy had a million emotions running through his brain, and a million reactions. His first instinct was to cower in a corner. His second instinct was to jump for joy. His third instinct was to burst into tears. However, Percy figured that neither of these options were particularly manly, so he decided to just stand there looking stunned, like he usually did in situations such as this.
He and Annabeth had certainly been an interesting sight as they burst through the hospital doors, him with his hastily buttoned, lopsided shirt, and her with her bulging belly and rapid breaths. Nurses had immediately converged on Annabeth and taken her to the labor and delivery section of the hospital.
In a daze, Percy followed a nurse into a room where he washed his hands and was outfitted with the standard hospital scrubs, so as to prevent the spread of infection and germs and bacteria or whatever the nurse said (he wasn't really listening). He then entered the room where his wife was situated on a bed, somehow already in a hospital gown. Nurses swarmed around her, hooking up an IV and examining her charts, and all that other stuff. Annabeth saw Percy and reached out with a slender hand. He took it, and she held it firmly. They exchanged a long glance.
"...so," he said.
"So," she said.
"We're going to have a baby."
"Yes, we are."
He examined her eyes. "Are you scared?"
She sighed. "No." She lowered her voice. "I mean, I'm nervous, I guess. Two demigods having a child...I don't think I've ever heard of something like that before. We don't know how powerful the baby will be."
"I'm sure it'll be fine. We have a few years to figure things out. But powerful or not, this is our...our kid, and we need to make sure we take care of it. Help it learn. Make him or her the best it can be."
She smiled up at him. "I love you, Seaweed Brain."
He offered her a dimpled grin. "I love you too, Wise Girl."
They stood there smiling at each other until Annabeth gasped and grabbed her stomach. The nurses gathered around her, hurling a barrage of questions at her. A nurse checked a few things out, then said, "She's about ready!"
The events that happened in the following minutes were...indescribable. Percy thought he might faint. He was happy, as one usually is when their first child is about to be born, but most of all he was grossed out. Sure, he'd seen his fair share of violence in his lifetime, but part of him would rather take a mouthful of monster dust rather than be privy to this. Percy swallowed, bravely warding off a wave of nausea at the same time. The only thing that kept him from collapsing on the floor was Annabeth's vicelike grip on his fingers. He squeezed her fingers back involuntarily.
And then it was over. Annabeth fell back on her pillow, exhausted, but soon started to crane her neck in an attempt to get a look at her new baby. A nurse handed her a bundle wrapped in a pink blanket. She smiled widely. "Congratulations. It's a girl."
If Annabeth or Percy had looked at the nurse a little closer, they might have realized it was the goddess Hera, but instead their eyes were fixed on the small being that now lay in Annabeth's arms. It had been bawling when it was born, but its sobs had been reduced to small, contented whimpers, as if it knew that it now lay in its mother's arms.
Percy and Annabeth gazed down with wonder at the baby. Around them, the room fell into a hushed, reverential silence. The nurses exchanged small grins. The birth of a healthy baby was always a miracle in itself, but there was something particularly striking about this one, something that no one could quite put their finger on...
The baby took a breath, its mouth twitching slightly. A grin slowly spread over Annabeth's features. "Did you see that?" she murmured. "Dimples. She has your dimples."
"But she has your hair," said Percy, stroking his wife's blonde curls with one hand and gently touching his child's fine hair with the other. "And I think she has your nose too. But I wonder whose eyes-" He stopped speaking as the baby moved, stretching and wriggling inside its blanket. Her eyelids twitched, then slowly opened.
Percy's breath hitched as he stared at the child. Her eyes were a bright, enchanting sea green.
His green.
Percy was suddenly overcome with a strong wave of emotion. This was truly his daughter. His child. The realization sprang on him so quickly, so suddenly, it almost overwhelmed him completely. He felt a sharp prickling from behind his eyeballs. Tears? No. No. Don't you dare cry, Percy, he chided himself. That is not manly at all. Just because you're a new father -
Whoa. I'm...I'm a father.
As this thought slowly but surely sunk into Percy's consciousness, Annabeth watched her husband with slight amusement. "Aww," she murmured. "You're crying."
"No I'm not," Percy said quickly. He averted his face toward the ceiling, wondering if his water powers would be effective on his tears and cause them to magically dry up.
"Yes you are!" Annabeth insisted. "Don't be ashamed. It's...it's cute, for lack of a better word."
"Cute?" Percy grumbled.
"It is! I mean, I've never seen you cry before." She laughed. "Oh goodness. Our baby doesn't even have a name yet, but she's already got you wrapped around her chubby little finger."
"Does not!"
"Does too. I saw the way you looked at her. You are going to spoil this little girl rotten."
"Yeah, well, we should probably go ahead and name her, right?" Percy grumbled, in a poorly disguised attempt to change the subject.
The couple stared down at their child, at her calm sleeping face, the pinkish, smooth skin, the slightly puckered lips. What would they name this gift, this blessing that they had received?
Annabeth spoke first. "You know how we were trying to think of names a few weeks ago? There was one that stuck out to me. And right now, it feels like it's the perfect name."
"What is it?" Percy asked.
"Celeste. It means 'divine', or 'of the gods'," Annabeth said softly. "I wouldn't deny that the fact that her being here, with all her fingers and toes, perfectly healthy...that's pretty divine. And she does have god blood on both sides of the family, so the 'of the gods' part makes sense." She smiled wryly. "What do you think?"
"I think..." A slow grin spread over Percy's face. "I think it's perfect."
Annabeth smiled slightly. "Well, I guess that's settled." She leaned down towards her baby's face, her blonde hair brushing against the child's forehead. "Hello Celeste," she whispered.
Percy leaned in closer, staring at his daughter's delicate profile. "Hello, Celeste," he repeated.
A/N: Wow, so it took me about 4 months to update. Ugh. Sorry guys. :( I know it sounds like the same tired old excuse, but life has just been getting in the way. Since the last time I updated, school has started, and I barely have time to myself anymore. Sophomore year hasn't been very nice to me. All I am these days is tired or exhausted or stressed to the point of tears, and my grades have been slipping. I'm finding it more difficult than usual to maintain an A, and obviously trying to keep up with all the tests and projects and speeches that have been piled on me is a bit more of a priority than my writing. Again, I'm sorry, but I'm sure a lot of you know how it is.
So, in case the 4-month wait for this chapter didn't tip you off, I'm going to be updating a lot less. I'll try to write whenever I have time, but honestly I really don't have a lot of time anymore. Rest assured though, I am not discontinuing the story. There will be more updates. When? I can't be sure. But they'll be here eventually.
Thank you guys so much for understanding. (: Love y'all!
-Alexa (:
PS: I may not be on here a lot, but chances are I'll be on Twitter or Tumblr quite a bit. Feel free to talk to me on there. (: