Epilogue
Five Years Later


Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.


"Momma! Daddy's home!" James says, running into the kitchen and looking up at me.

Five years have gone by since Nico and I got married. We had waited a year until we decided to have James. We had wanted to move out of our tiny apartment and find a house before we added another person into the mix.

I smile down at him and he grabs my hand with his small, pudgy four year old hand. As he drags me out of the kitchen and into the living room, I hear the front door close.

Nico walks in, hanging up his leather jacket and putting his sword up out of reach of James' small hands. He turns around just as James lets go of my hand, rushing up to him and jumping into his arms.

"Hey, buddy!" Nico says, a bright smile on his face.

He starts to tickle James and he begins to wiggle around in his arms.

"Daddy, stop! Stop!" James squeals, laughing.

Nico sets him down and he runs to his room to play with his toys.

I walk over to him and he wraps him arms around me. I bury my head into his chest. He smelled like the usual musty dampness of the Underworld, along with Old Spice and freshly fallen rain.

"How was work today?" I mumble into his shirt.

"Long, as usual. Several of the damned spirits decided to cause a full-on riot in Punishment. I had to help the Furies get that under control." he says, resting his head on top of mine.

"Sounds like so much fun." I say.

"Oh yea, definitely." he says, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Anything else happen?" I ask.

"I had to run a few errands for Hades up to the surface, but besides that, not really." he says.

"So how's little miss Adrienne today?" he asks, kneeling down and placing his hands on my bumped stomach.

"She's fine. Started kicking again today while I was in the middle of teaching a class up at the studio." I say, chuckling.

"Oh, yea?" he asks, looking up at me and smirking.

I nod and say, "Yea. And for some unknown reason, I decided to announce that to the whole class and they all dropped what they were doing and placed their hands on my stomach to feel her."

"Muddy stomach?" he asks.

"You know it." I say, nodding.

"So what's for dinner?" he asks.

"I was just starting to make tacos when you got here." I say, waddling back into the kitchen with him.

"I'll finish cooking. Go on and rest." he says, kissing my forehead.


As soon as I sat down in the big comfy chair in the living room, Adrienne started kicking again. I chuckle, placing my hands on my stomach. She'd be coming soon, any day now actually.

James walks in carrying his toy bow and arrows.

"James, come here." I say.

He drops his bow and arrows on the floor and runs over to me, then hops up onto the ottoman by my feet. I take his small hands and place them on my stomach.

He sits there for a second, looking at my stomach in wonder. Suddenly, he looks up at me, alarm on his face.

"Momma! Tere's somethin' in your tummy!" he says.

I laugh and say, "That's your sister, James."

His leaf green eyes grow huge. "You eated her?!" he shrieks.

"No, no. I didn't eat-Oh." I say.

"Momma? What's wrong, momma?" he asks, little creases forming on his forehead.

"Nico!" I shout.

He rushes out of the kitchen, wearing my black and red polka-dotted apron.

"What?" he asks, a panicked expression on his face.

"It's time." I say, sitting up and getting out of the chair.

"Oh fu-" he starts to say, but I give him a warning look.

We had agreed to try and not curse in front of James when mom had called one day and told us he had been going around the house the whole day dropping his toys down the stairs and then saying "Godsdammit."

"Fudge. Let me call your mom and she can meet us up at the hospital and take James." he says, taking out his phone.

"James, come on. Help me get some things." I say, taking his hand.

"Momma, are you gonna be otay?" he asks.

"I'll be fine, James." I say.

We walk down the hallway and to his room. I grab his little backpack that I had packed last week, just for this occasion.

"Grab a couple of toys, James. You're staying with Noni and Papa tonight." I say.

He smiles and picks up a couple of his cars and then drops them into the backpack.

"Is that all?" I ask, surprised. Usually he would have wanted to bring every single toy he has.

"Noni gotsted me some toys." he says, giving me a sly grin.

"Ooh. I see." I say, shaking my head and smiling.

My mom and Lucas adored spoiling James since he was the only current grandchild. John and his wife, Atala, have been married for a year, but she doesn't want to have children quite yet.

We walk out of his room and Nico was standing in the living room, practically bouncing up and down with anticipation waiting for us.

"Ready?" he asks.

"As I'll ever be." I say.

"Let's do this." he says, smiling.

"Well, if I recall from the last time, I was doing all the work." I say.

"Oh, you know what I mean." he says.


As I walk into the house, holding Adrienne in my arms, I let the warm air envelope me. It was freezing outside and it just started snowing when we pulled into the garage.

James runs straight to his room to play with his neglected toys that haven't been touched in a week.

It felt nice being home for the first time in a week. There had been some minor complications with Adrienne and the doctor had wanted to keep both of us at the hospital, just to be sure we were okay before we came home.

"Ugh. Nico, did you leave the taco meat in the kitchen?" I ask, smelling something awful.

"Ah, man." he says, covering his eyes with his hand.

"I'll go take care of that." he says, heading into the kitchen.

I chuckle and walk into the living room. I sit down in the big chair and look down at Adrienne. Before we know it, both she and James will be going to camp. It never ceased to amaze me that James was already four.

I brush some of her dark hair to the side and she opens her dark brown eyes and looks at me in wonder. I lean my head back and look up at the light blue ceiling. It felt good to be home again.

A/N:

And there you go. Was that a fitting ending? Sweet and just adorable? I want to thank you all for sticking with me throughout this series, it's been a joy talking to you guys and hearing your feedback on the chapters. I also want to thank Star Holder Commander, once again, for letting me use Walker in this story. I feel that he really tied things together and supplied that missing piece of the story.

Now, I've been writing on Keegan's story and it's going to be an interesting one, I'll tell ya that. But, when I start posting it on Tuesday probably, you guys will probably want to read it because there'll be something at the end of it that ties into the trilogy.

Speaking of the trilogy, I'm really liking the way it's panning out. I think you guys are really going to enjoy reading it, or at least, I hope you will...

So yesterday started out well. I went to lunch with my sister (the non-annoying one) and my aunt and uncle. My uncle and I rode this awesome, wooden roller coaster and it was, well, awesome! He's actually not supposed to ride them because he had a liver transplant a few years back and his doctor told him not to ride them, but he just blew him off and rides them anyway.

But anyway, yesterday afternoon and evening weren't all that great. As I told you guys in the A/N of 50, I had to eat dinner with my other sister and her family. Ugh. Just think about what happened this summer and jam it all into like 3 or 4 hours.

It was really awful because my brain just decided to make me have a panic attack during all this and it was a really bad one. I could hear and feel my heart beating, and that was really scary. And the trick I learned to help me control them wasn't working at all. The trick is that I snap a rubber band against my wrist and it sorta brings me back down to Earth and calms down. That usually works, but it wasn't last night.

So, I Kiked my Welsh friend (a die hard GD fan, like myself) and he basically just told me to get a hold of myself and calm down. Talking to him helped a lot and I got myself under control again. All I really wanted to do was curl up in a ball in my room and blast my music. Of course, I couldn't do that, so that's why I started talking to him.

Today was, by far, much better than yesterday. I went to eat lunch with my brother and his family and then we went to the aquarium and we had a lot of fun :)

I'm ready to be home though. I miss sleeping in my own bed and not being awoken by my dad's snoring at 3 in the morning.

M/A:

Today's just gonna be all about Green Day because just-yes.

One of my most favoritest songs off of their album "21st Century Breakdown" is "East Jesus Nowhere." The beat and the lyrics and just everything about it is just so fucking awesome and just-oh man.

"'Raise your hands now to testify
Your confession will be crucified'"

These lyrics are probably my favorite ones throughout the whole song. Just like, wow. It, I guess you could say, "speaks" to me. They're saying, a lot of people want you to confess to something you've done that was really bad, and if you do that, those same people are going to pick you apart because the thing you confessed to, was too bad for their taste.

That's why I'm always really afraid to fess up to something that I've done, even if it wasn't bad, just weird. I'm terrified I'll be picked apart and made fun of, be looked upon as a total outcast because of something I did.

XOXO,

Mrs-diAngelo25