I had half of this chapter done and saved on my flash drive, but then the stupid thing broke. So now I have to start it over again. Ugh.
ARTEMIS'S POV
They started to take sides before Hermes was awake. It had already been three weeks, and I had secretly gone to see my daughter every night. But I refused to name her until Hermes was there to help. The burns were slowly beginning to heal, and the shattered bones were healing up nicely, according to Apollo. Currently I was sitting in the throne room, while everyone was arguing over what the fate of my child should be.
As promised, Aphrodite was on my side, along with Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter. Athena, Zeus, Hades, Persephone, Dionysus, most of the minor gods, were all against her living. Apollo was currently with Hermes and Hades was judging some of the dead. So both 'teams' were down a person.
"It was born by breaking an oath! We can't allow it to live!" Zeus insisted.
"Like you haven't broken an oath before!" Hera snapped back.
"That was different."
"How? You went out and had TWO kids with a mortal AFTER the oath to not have anymore children!"
"So?"
"Artemis only had one, and she kept her oath so much longer then you did!"
I blocked out the rest of their argument. I had gotten used to doing that with Hermes. When he starts telling a story, sometimes he just doesn't know when to shut up. But I snapped back when I heard them turn their attention back to my daughter.
"Kill her now! Save time!" Dionysus exclaimed.
"You wouldn't like it if Caster or Pollex were killed!" I argued against him.
"See? She's defending her baby! She wanted one! She wanted to break her oath!" Dionysus pointed a finger at her.
"Lots of people don't want kids, but then have one and love it!" Demeter snapped.
"Or she may even only care about this for Hermes's sake! He hasn't had kids or even looked at a mortal girl since Luke's death!" Hestia added. I hadn't even really thought of that. Perhaps his sanity did relay on this child. At least for a while, it would.
"Kill it!"
"Let it live!"
"Let it die!"
"It's done no wrong!"
"It's the result of a broken oath! It should die!"
"You should die!"
"Im immortal!"
"The child will be too!"
"Kill it now, and it won't! It hasn't had the food of the gods yet!"
"Leave it be! It's only a child!"
"Let is die now! It will be less painful then killing it later!"
"Kill her now, and it'll be the end of Hermes!"
"Who needs the annoying idiot? Kill it!"
"Without Hermes thieves would go out of control, liars would be lying twice as much, and the Fates know what else will happen! Leave the child alone!
"Kill it!"
They all started to yell at each other. Until I had enough of all the yelling for today.
"SHUT UP!" I yelled over them. They shut up. Shocker.
"If you kill her, you'll also being killing Hermes at the same time. That means Iris will have to do all the deliveries, and no one can travel as fast as he can. No mail will be delivered on time, things will be lost, and travelers –including demigods- will fail a lot more on quests. So you kill one, and you kill lots of others. The soldiers fighting across seas. They can't travel back home safely without Hermes. But if you let her live, Hermes will still be sane and not give up his immortality, and not as many will die." I pointed out as calmly as I can. It wasn't very easy.
"She does have a good point…" Athena muttered quietly, but it was so quiet in the room, that a mortal could've heard a pin drop.
"But it's still an illegal child-" Zeus was cut off.
"So are Thalia, Jason, and Percy. But they were all aloud to live." Hera pointed out.
"And the three of them became heroes to be remembered. Maybe this child is like that." Poseidon added. Zeus grinded his teeth, a bad habit that formed over the years.
"This will not end without punishment!" he snapped.
"You already burned him, left him in waking-death with almost every bone in his body, destroied his birthplace, and now you want to kill his daughter. Isn't that punishment enough?" Aphrodite said.
"And Artemis is feeling guilty because this whole thing. Let them raise the child, and if it turns out a bad idea, we can lock it in Tartarus." Apollo yawned, walking into the room.
"And where have you been?" Athena asked. Im surprised that she hadn't realized that he wasn't here earlier.
"I was trying to find out how long it would be before Hermes wakes up, and trying to heal some of the burns and broken bones. Some of the bones are completely shattered." He sighed tiredly, and flopped onto his throne. I know he's mad at Hermes, but he's been trying his best, though he keeps telling me the only reason he's helping Hermes is because he feels bad for causing Zeus to know.
"Did you find out how long he'll be gone?" I asked him.
"No. I can't tell." He sighed again.
The arguing continued on for hours.
"Why don't we all just take a break for now? And think things over?" Hestia suggested.
"Yes. Dismissed." Zeus said, before blasting off in a bolt of lightning. Everyone else left, wanting to get away from the others. Apollo and I went back to sit with Hermes.
It was around midnight when things started to get a little better. I was about to go to Camp Half-Blood to check on my daughter, when I heard a groan from next to me, and looked over to see Hermes turn his head. His eyes were still closed, and his body was still limp, broken, and burned, but he was waking up.
"Hermes?" I whispered. Apollo had fallen asleep a little ways away, and as much as I was still mad at him, he needed his sleep. Hermes stirred again, his hands twitching the slightest bit. A few minutes later, his eyes fluttered open.
"How do you feel?" I asked quietly. It took him a while to respond. I don't even know if he recognized me. But his mouth twitched after a few minutes, and he slowly managed to answer.
"W…..where's….the…baby?" he croaked.
"She's fine. I brought her to Chiron in Camp Half Blood until its safe for her. How do you feel?"
He blinked slowly, and sighed tiredly.
"Hurt." He rasped.
"Hurt like pain? Or feelings?" I knew that in the state he was in, just waking up after waking-death, he would be confused, and slow to answer at first, before his talking became normal.
"Both…" he stiffly moved his arm and ran his fingers down my arm. His touch sent shivers through me. The tips of his fingers were burned, and the dead skin was only started to peal off.
"How? Can you explain?" the more I can get him to talk, the quicker he'll be back to normal. Or, as normal as he could get. Everyone knows he's not normal in the slightest bit.
"Family…..wants daughter…..dead. She did….nothing wrong. It….wasn't her….fault that she….was born." He answered, his voice becoming a little closer to normal.
"Yes, it isn't her fault. What about the pain?"
"Burns…..aches…." he groaned.
"Do you want lotion rubbed on your feet?"
"Yes please…"
I nodded, and walked over to the table where Apollo was keeping the burn cream. When I started to rub it onto his feet, I realized something. Willow had told me that he was so picky with his feet; only certain nymphs were allowed to rub them. Only the ones he trusted with his very immortality. The fact that he trusted me enough to rub his feet almost brought tears to my eyes. I had thought about telling Zeus that Hermes had forced me into this whole mess. And yet Hermes trusted me with his feet. Wow, I just realized how stupid that sounds. Trust me with his feet?
Sigh. At least I know his feet aren't like other feet. He takes care of his feet the way Aphrodite takes care of her hair. It has to be perfect all the time, taken care of, no even the smallest mistake.
"What do you remember from that day?" I asked him.
"You clawed my arms…..and…..and I never….got to hold….her. Apollo told Zeus….she was born….you took the baby…and Aphrodite went with you to…where ever Maia was. I stayed…..and Zeus didn't listen to….the story. He was…..mad and shot me….with his Master Bolt….and destroyed…..my birthplace….he tried to kill our baby."
I hadn't realized that he never did get to hold his daughter yet. When she was born, he had to wash the ichor off his arms, and then Apollo came and we were out of time.
"You'll hold her soon. I promise."
