Forget What We're Told

Piper

"How are you feeling?" Piper asks, glancing at Rachel from the driver's seat of Reyna's SUV.

Reyna had insisted they take it with them to Berkeley as the frame was specially designed to repel monsters. Even though it's been so long since Piper has even seen a monster, she still feels better driving a souped up badass-mobile. Eyes back on the road, Piper slows her speed. The traffic onto Route 24 is backed up.

Rachel heaves a sigh as Piper slows the car to a crawl. "I'm not sure."

Piper drums her fingers on the steering wheel. "I hate driving in California. I wonder what's causing this jam."

She's making small talk and she knows it. It's weird though, like a disconnect falling between herself and Rachel. Rachel hasn't had an 'oracle event' like this morning in so long, Piper isn't quite sure how to deal with it anymore.

She thinks back to the first time she and Rachel had met, the day Hera took over Rachel's body, her hands gripping Piper's shoulders like steel clamps. Even after the ambrosia had healed the bruises, she could feel Rachel's grip as if it was imprinted bone deep. She shudders, then tries to shake off the memory. Thinking about the past isn't going to make the awkwardness between them any easier to bridge.

Rachel's phone buzzes as traffic starts moving sluggishly forward again. Piper has to force herself to focus on the road, and on not rear-ending the car in front of her as Rachel takes the call. Piper tries not to eavesdrop, but the one-sided conversation is hard to ignore.

"Yeah, hi."

"You too."

"It's all fine."

"No. I've told you already I'm dating Reyna. There won't be any meeting of boys."

"Honestly, I don't give a rat's ass. Yes. You can tell mom those exact words."

"Right, whatever."

"Not interested."

"I'm sorry you feel that way. But if you could hear what you sound like from my ears, you'd realize that I feel entirely justified in my response and I have no guilt at all for how it makes you feel."

Piper shifts, her cheeks heating up from secondary embarrassment for her friend. She doesn't know exactly what the conversation is about, but based on how it started, she can guess Rachel's family doesn't approve of how she's living her life.

Rachel puts her phone in her lap and stares out the passenger window as the tension between them seems to condense even further. Piper's skin crawls, her body hair standing on end, her heart pumping faster and harder. She hates feeling this way, especially not knowing why. There has to be a way to cut the tension. She's just got to be brave and find it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asks, her eyes tightening at the corners at how cliche that came out sounding. But seriously, what's she supposed to say? When Rachel doesn't answer, she decides to just barrel on through. Normally, Rachel is the one that doesn't ever shut up, that talks at Piper when Piper is feeling quiet until something she says lights the flame of conversation and Piper winds up spilling her guts and feeling so much better afterward. "My relationship with my dad isn't great either."

Rachel chuckles and the tension does seem to lift a little, though Piper keeps her eyes on the road.

"I'm sorry. I know you're probably feeling all this weirdness coming off me. I know it's not fair. I just needed a minute to let it sink in. Sorta digest what he just said, you know?"

Piper nods, relaxing her grip on the steering wheel. Her fingers are stiff from holding on so tightly. "Absolutely," she says.

Rachel is quiet for a couple of minutes and the state of the traffic starts wearing on Piper's nerves.

"It's like a parking lot," Rachel observes. "The highway. The way our country moved to individualism in the last century, the way they promoted car culture and called it freeing really was a method of cutting people off from each other. It's like what they tout as freedom and the 'American Dream' is really just how they disenfranchised the collective voice of the people, how now we've been shuttered into a position that's easy to control, and because they focus on hopes and dreams, reality isn't even noticed by the majority of people. This traffic jam, it's what happens when you throw a wrench into the machine we've become. And there's no changing it, not without a mass upheaval, and that can't happen because we've been rendered silent. A mass of individuals who no longer speak to each other, that don't cross the lines we've been boxed into and are taught to just accept it and focus on the dream."

"Umm," Piper says. "Yeah. That doesn't help the weirdness at all."

Rachel chuckles again. It sounds more like she's laughing at finding herself in a dead end than because she finds anything humorous.

"My father is one of the few who has access to the big picture in this country, and instead of doing something proactive to change the system, to actually improve the state of things, he continues to perpetuate the mistakes that got us here in the first place. Like, he's so blinded by his own inflated words and hopes, he actually believes he's doing good. He has no idea what it's like to be on the other side of the decisions he makes. I hate it."

Piper's heart aches thinking about her own father. He also has a lot of money, and is in a position he could reach a lot of people, but coming from the very 'other side' Rachel's talking about, he's already given up his voice and instead lives as if in a dream. He chooses all the roles that will make money, but not create waves, not stand for a larger message and he turns down the roles where he might be able to take a stand, to be a voice for the native people that still live under the thumb of centuries old oppression.

"I can't even tell my father the truth about who my mother is. I can't have a conversation with him that is more than surface deep." The words just fall out and Piper doesn't try to stop them.

She can feel Rachel looking at her, but as traffic is still moving forward what feels like inches at a time, Piper can't meet her eyes.

"It's hard too, because I know he's got a huge heart, a lot of love and hurt, and deep down he has the blood of a warrior, but fear keeps him frozen. It's a lot like you said, like people stuck in the system, shuffled along according to somebody else's big picture: if he rocks the boat, everything he's worked for – to get us off the res, to provide me with the education he had to fight to get, to just be accepted into the mainstream as if he belongs – it's all conditional. One misstep and he could lose it all. This is the legacy of western civilization, living in the mire left over from our parents' and grandparents' greed and fear."

"Wait, why can't you tell him about your mother? You mean he doesn't realize … Oh gods. He doesn't know? Piper, I'm sorry."

Piper's face grows hot, like her sinuses are reacting to allergy season. She blinks, surprised to find tears on her eyelashes. "No …" she pauses. "Well, I was going to say it's fine, but it really isn't fine at all. It's just, why haven't we ever talked about our daddy issues before? We've been living in the same apartment for over a year."

Rachel nods, taking a deep breath as if she's bracing herself. "Maybe it just wasn't the right time. I don't know about you, but just saying this much now has pretty much dissolved the tension."

Piper grins and traffic starts picking up again. They're only a couple of miles from the Caldecott Tunnel. "Yeah. I think we should talk about it more when we're not stuck in traffic."

Rachel hums and picks up her phone again. "Definitely. Reyna should get in on the conversation too. I think we all have daddy issues." There's a lull in the conversation while Rachel sends a text, probably to tell Reyna to send somebody out to meet them, and then she speaks again, so quiet Piper almost misses it. "Apollo too."

Piper pulls off the highway and takes the side road straight into the Mist hiding the entrance to Camp Jupiter from the mortal world. Rachel doesn't elaborate and Piper doesn't push the issue, but the idea of the gods themselves dealing similarly with mistakes from their own forbears doesn't offer much comfort or hope. She gets why people seem to want to ignore what is and turn their attention to hoping for better, but the truth is that nothing gets better if you ignore the faults in reality.

XxxX

Reyna meets them outside the tunnel leading to the Little Tiber and Piper smiles watching her embrace Rachel after being apart for so long. It's beyond cool to see Reyna in love. The brightness in her face, the way her eyes light up and how she smiles without even realizing it is a huge change from how guarded and serious she was when Piper had first met her.

Rachel turns and slips her arm around Reyna's waist, Reyna's arm settling across her shoulders, and then winks at Piper and jerks her head, encouraging her to follow them through the tunnel.

"Reyna?" a voice Piper hasn't heard in too long echoes in the darkness. Piper's heart leaps in her chest, her breathing speeding up. "Do you see them yet?"

"Jason!" Piper exclaims and picks up her pace as they round a corner and light from the end of the tunnel floods the floor. He waits at the entrance, looking perfect and handsome as ever, his blond hair grown out a little longer, his eyes sparkling.

Reyna and Rachel turn sideways so Piper can pass them and Jason hugs her tightly when she flings herself into his arms.

"It's so good to hug you again," he murmurs against her cheek and she realizes her feet aren't touching the ground.

She doesn't even care that her face gets hot or that anybody who passes can see them, she holds on tight and inhales Jason's scent as if she's never smelled anything so good.

Reyna calls out from some distance away. She and Rachel must have continued on to the bridge. "The Senate is in session now, and I think Frank and Hazel will be busy with the legion until late tonight. We'll all catch up in the morning."

Jason lifts his head and sets Piper back on her feet, but doesn't release his hold on her. "Thanks, Reyna! See you then."

Piper looks up at him, watching the funny little smirk thing he does when he flirts. "You want to tell me about all you've been up to the past few months? Show me some new temples?"

He shakes his head, his gaze serious and fixed on her eyes. He leans in close enough to kiss, but doesn't. "I want to take you back to my room and get reacquainted. What do you think? We've got until tomorrow morning?"

Piper does not need any more convincing.