Keep in mind, I only edit what I write. If it was written by NBrokenShacklesN, it is in bold and is not edited by me, so if you find mistakes in the bolded area, ignore it. If you find a mistake in the writing that is not bolded, that is my own fault.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Anything in bold belongs to NBrokenShacklesN.

"After Benny had burst in, there was a moment of shocked silence, in which Leo's only thought was, oh schist! Then the moment was broken by the three adults following Benny. When they came into the room, both of Benny's parents stopped and stared at Leo, who cringed. He had hoped that they wouldn't recognize him. No such luck.

Liz hadn't seen the looks though, instead focusing on the collapsed chair. "Leo... How many times have we told you not to do that? You've only been here a week, and already have taken great delight in destroying the furniture!" Leo was about to retort when he noticed the glint in her eye...

"How can I help myself when the furniture takes great delight in destroying me?" Leo leant over and rubbed his back. "Ever heard of a cushion?"

Everyone couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"Leo ignored the giggle that Benny let out at that, grinning innocently at Liz, who threw her hands up in mock desperation. Just as Benny's mom opened her mouth, to ask Leo a question he probably wouldn't want to answer, there was an almighty crash from the dining room and a babble of voices started yelling.

Liz jumped, and then made for the door. She stopped as she reached it, and shot a glance back at the family and Leo. "I'm terribly sorry about this, but would you mind if I left you here for a bit, I'm sure Leo won't mind looking after you, and I need to go sort out the rabble." Here she directed a longsuffering glance to the door across the hall.

Leo frowned at that, no, he did not want to be left alone with these three; the questions would be very hard for him to answer. He took more offence at Liz's statement though. He gave a mock gasp, and held his hand to his chest. "Liz, you have wounded me... How dare you suggest that I am not part of the rabble? Why how very dare you! I will have you know, I am the rabblist rabbler that ever rabbled!"

"What does that even mean?" Percy asked in between hysterical laughter.

Leo shrugged. "I have no idea what it means or how I said it. That is a tongue twister. Rab…list… rabbler… rabbled," Leo said, slowly, seemingly tasting the words on his tongue "Try to say that ten times fast."

Leo hadn't meant that literally, but apparently, Travis and Connor took it that way and tried to do that.

After a few moments of watching the brothers stumble over the words, Carlos, an undetermined kid, interrupted them by grabbing the book from Connor and beginning to read before an irritated looking Katie actually tied their tongues into knots.

"Liz grinned sardonically, "Of course you are Valdez." Then she shut the door, and Leo was left with a family that was staring at him.

Leo sent a look to the closed door, if he bolted now he might make it... maybe... Benny's father seemed to catch his train of thought, and moved in front of the door. Maybe not then, the windows?

He was prevented from bolting however, when Benny came, and hugged his legs. Leo was so shocked, he sat down, thankful that there was a seat behind him, or that would have been really awkward."

"No, it would've been awkward if the chair broke," Jake said.

"Has that ever happened to you?" Leo asked.

"Maybe…"

"Benny seemed to take that as permission to clamber onto his lap. Leo sent a pleading look at Benny's mom, but she only grinned at him. Leo mentally groaned. Great, she had decided that as it kept Leo from attempting a dive out the window, Benny could stay where he was.

Benny looked up at Leo, and asked, "Will you be my big brother?"

Leo gave a shocked laugh. There were many reasons that he shouldn't be adopted by these guys. Mainly that, unlike most of his other foster families, these people, as far as he could judge, were good people. He didn't want them hurt when he inevitably ran away. Then they would be a target for monsters, or could get hurt if any monsters came to attack Leo. No, he defiantly couldn't be adopted by these guys. How on earth would he explain that without hurting Benny's feelings?

While he was thinking, he must have been wearing a shocked face, because Benny's mom (and he really needed to stop calling her that) had started talking. "Benny, you can't just say that."

"Why not, you said I could get a big brother, and I want Leo!"

"Because it's not fair to Leo. He might not want to be your big brother."

Benny turned big eyes back to Leo, and bit his lip, his eyes shimmering. "You don't want to be my big brother?"

Leo mentally groaned again. How come small children could always pull off that look? It was really irritating!"

Shane smirked before performing that same look.

"What do you want?" Leo asked with a sigh. "As long as it's not money because I do not have any."

Chortles rounded the room.

"Leo swore he heard a small giggle from the door, and glanced up, to see the tail of a Greek dress spin out of sight. Who?"

"Of course a monster has to ruin the good mood!" Apollo exclaimed.

"Leo turned back to Benny, who was now sniffling. He moved Benny off his lap and onto the floor, glancing at his parents, who weren't saying anything. Benny dad sent him thumbs up, and mouthed "going great." When Benny was on the floor, Leo knelt in front of him, realizing that this brought him to Benny's height. He hadn't realized how small he actually was at twelve."

"You are tiny," Nyssa told him.

"Well, get used to it. I don't grow much in the next few years. I'm barely 5'5 when I'm sixteen," Leo said, making his sister laugh.

"It's not that I don't like you Benny. But you remember the monster." Leo stopped until Benny nodded, and then continued "there are more monsters Benny, and they're mad at me, I don't want you or your family getting hurt because I'm living with you." He gave Benny a smile, a true smile, which he didn't do very often, and Benny smiled slowly back.

Leo stood up again, and guided Benny to the corner of the room, where there was a box of Lego. Benny was about four, he should be able to play with Lego without eating it, right?"

"Uh… unfortunately that's not always true," Percy murmured.

"You ate a Lego when you were four, didn't you?" Annabeth sighed.

"I was actually ten…"

Laughter boomed at that.

"Hey. It was not my finest moment, okay? But I learned my lesson! Now, that I think about, I never had surgery to remove that… does that mean it's still in there?" Percy asked in alarm as he poked his stomach.

"No, son," Poseidon rushed to say. "Did you take a shower afterward?"

"Yeah…"

"Then the water would've healed you, so don't panic," Poseidon chuckled.

"Okay, thank goodness. That would've been really hard to explain to a doctor," Percy sighed.

"He sat Benny down, and pulled out the Lego ship he had hidden. It was a mini version of the Argo two, with movable pieces. Benny's eyes got big as he looked at it, and he immediately pulled it toward him, and started moving around the blond Lego-man at the prow. Leo grinned as Benny stuck Jason headfirst through one of the doors on the deck, and then stood up, and headed back to where Benny's parents were now seated.

Leo took a seat on the couch opposite theirs, on the other side of the pool table, and looked to them expectantly, realizing that they probably had 101 questions for him.

Benny's mom was the first to speak, and she sat forward to do so, "Leo, I'm sure you realize we have a load of questions, but before we start, we had better introduce ourselves. My name's Jo, and this is Harvey."

Leo nodded at them, "Ok, bring on the interrogation."

Harvey chuckled at that, and looked at Jo, who seemed to be expecting a little more protest than Leo had given. Leo wasn't bothered, he knew he didn't have a chance of escaped anyway, might as well accept the interrogation. Harvey then spoke. "Leo, you said at the arch that both you and your father were a part of a terrorist fighting group. Could you elaborate on that?"

Leo sighed, grateful that the mist had done its job. "I can't say too much, because, it's meant to be a secret. Long story short, most of these robotic things... I just call them monsters, I find it easier. Most of the monsters just stay out of the way the majority of the time. The government's not that bother about them the majority of the time, since their very good at hiding, and trying to track them all down would cause a national upheaval..."

"Why fix what isn't broken."

"Pretty much. Every now and again, one will attack somewhere random, and one of my lot is brought in. We get rid of the problem. That's what happened at the arch."

Jo frowned at that, "Oh, your friend, at the arch, the one who fell, did he... Is he..."

"He's fine. He grabbed onto a ledge on the way down. I'm still not sure how he did that, but he managed it, and he's fine."

Harvey spoke again. "So, can you elaborate on your lot, or is that secret?"

"You two are taking this a whole lot better that I thought you would."

The two smiled, and Jo elaborated. "We saw that robotic... We saw the monster, and you saved our lives. We would likely have been dead otherwise. Once it almost kills you, it's hard not to believe in it."

"Fair enough. So, my lot... All I can say is it's a department, originally consisting of twelve monster hunters, and the rest of us are their kids, which was why it's a family business." Leo grinned at that, family business indeed, if you were a demigod, you had no choice but to fight monsters. Unless you chose to die instead.

"If it's a family business, then why are you in an orphanage?"

"It's dangerous, you saw Percy fall at the arch, my mom's dead, and dad's... Well, he was on a mission, and he hasn't come back. He's been declared MIA, so I was sent here. The government kindly provided me with a back story, so here I am."

Leo looked away from the two sympathetic grown-ups, mom was dead, and dad might as well be MIA, the amount of time he spent with his kids. He was over it anyway. With the future taken into account it had been 11 years since his moms death anyway, at least for him. So why could he feel tears in his eyes?"

Everyone tried to keep the sympathy off of their faces for Leo's sake.

"He saw Benny playing with the mini Argo two, he had found the piper modal, and was trying to make the two swordfight. Leo couldn't help but smile at the noises he was making. "Crash, I win, you girl!" "No, blond, I WILL WIN!" Such dramatic insults, girl and blond. Leo was sure the real Jason and Piper would be in stitches at the fight. Well, his Jason and Piper. His smile grew sadder as he looked away, the tears springing back into his eyes. His Jason and Piper were gone. For good. He would likely become friends with them again, but they might never again have the same friendship as they had before.

Piper would never cry on his shoulder after Jason's fall. Jason would never come to him and obsess over how he was going to have to try to convince the Romans not to fight with Greece. Those things wouldn't happen, and the loss hadn't struck him till now. That friendship- those moments, they would never happen, and only Leo would remember it being any other way.

Leo felt a hand on his shoulder, and someone wiping away the wetness on his cheeks. Why was he crying? No-one had died; he had no reason to cry, but if felt like Jason and piper had just died again, and this time his friendship, his memories had died too. Here... They had never really happened.

He was aware of arms wrapping around him, and a soft voice murmuring something. "...Alright Leo... It's ok..."

Leo grinned, and scrubbed of the tears, blinking again to get rid of them. He sent a grateful look at Jo, who withdrew, rubbing her own eyes, and Harvey removed the hand that had been on his shoulder. "So, Leo, you've told us that you are part of a hidden army, what's the reason you don't want us to adopt you?

Leo's indignation came back in a rush. "I don't want you hurt. If a monster attacks me, you could get hurt. I don't want to hurt your family."

"Leo, we've seen you fight, you could protect us, and the way we see it, you need a family. So why not us?"

Leo was warring with himself. He so wanted to be a part of this family, to fit somewhere other than camp, to look after a little brother without Beckendorf or Nyssa hovering over his shoulder, but he didn't want to hurt them, and what about camp... He had fought against Gaia and her giants; he could cope with whatever monster was idiot enough to attack him... So against his better judgement, Leo found himself grinning at Harvey and Jo.

"I can be a right menace you know.""

"YAY!" Shane squealed, making several people jump before they broke out into giggles. Shane blushed. "Um, I mean… YAY!" he yelled in a lower voice.

Not much dialogue in this chapter, but some hilarious moments (my favorite was the part with the story about Percy eating a Lego).

I'm sorry this chapter took so long, and I will try not to take so long next time. I will be focusing on my other stories A Parent's Love For Their Child and All That Matters, along with some prompts I'm doing, for the next few weeks, but I will try to update this as much as I can (I actually have some chapters done, so once I can edit them, I'll post them).

Thanks for reading!