A/N: It has been a while since this was suggested and I apologize profoundly for taking such a long, long time.

May Castellans' house looked exactly the same like when I was there last time, which was at least two years ago. I waited a moment before knocking on the door.

'Luke?'

She sounded the same as well. I swallowed. 'Hello. It is me, Nico. Can I come in?'

'Are you a friend of Luke?'

'Eh… yes.'

'Come then!'

I pushed open the door (which wasn't even locked). I walked through the hallway, into May's kitchen.

It was just like I remembered. Sort of cozy, sort of rustic, with a blocked kitchen counter and a brown table. And there was May, buzzing around, with cookie batter, peanut butter, a baking plate and red kool-aid on the counter in front of her

She turned around. 'Luke?'

'I am Nico,' I said again. 'I know Luke, though. He'll be here soon.' I felt a pang of guilt at that lie, but it was too late to take back. Perhaps she'd forget it.

'Of course, of course, he'll be here soon!' She picked up a bit of cookie batter and began to roll it into a ball.

I took a step forward. 'Can I help?'

'Of course!' She pushed the bowl to the left, in such a way that it almost fell of the counter. I ducked to catch it. 'Eh, thanks.'

I got some dough out of the bowl. Had she been baking cookies every single day since the war? Then it was a miracle that she did not burn down the house. It did not seem like there were many neighbours around. Had she been here all alone, all this time?

'Luke loves cookies,' May babbled. 'Cookies, peanut butter and kool-aid. Do you like those too?'

I nodded, while I rolled a few dough balls and flattened them on the baking plate. 'Yes, I love those very much. Have you ever tasted peanut butter cookies?'

'Yes, I made those a few times too, with Jenny's recipe.' Jenny's recipe?

May giggled. 'You know, Jenny says I should not be baking cookies without her, but I knew Luke would be coming, so I began anyway. And look, you're here and he'll be coming soon!'

'Oh yes! You felt that right!' Sounds like I came just in time.

Something beeped. 'Oh, that is the oven! They should go in!' She picked up the oven sheet, even though there was a lot of dough left.

'Oh, shall I do it?'

She looked at me. 'But you're a guest, silly!'

'Yes, but maybe we can see if Luke can taste it? That someone else put them into the oven?'

She giggled again. 'Oh yes, Let's.'

I put the cookies into the oven, while May sat down at the dinner table. 'Alright! Now we wait!' She sighed. 'I have to wait for Luke too, sometimes. But oh well, that's what kids do, right? They stop needing you.' She formed circles on the table with her finger 'That's how life goes.'

'Yes, yes. He is over at my house sometimes. We bake cookies too.'

'Oh, you must bring along some of your cookies sometime!'

I nodded, in a way that didn't confirm much. 'Eh, what did you do yesterday…' My voice ebbed away when I saw Mays' depressed expression. 'Hey…'

'He is never coming back,' she said, with a small voice. Her mood had changed in the wink of an eye.

'Eh…'

'He'll never come back,' she repeated. A tear rolled down her cheek. 'My boy! He is gone!' She turned to me, with a panicked expression in her eyes. I backed away. 'He was too young!' She wailed.

I needed to get out. But I couldn't leave her like this. 'Eh…'

'May?' I looked around. A woman walked into the room. 'May? What's wrong... Hey! Who are you?' She angrily pointed at me.

May got up. The tears were rolling down her cheeks now. 'Luke is never coming back,' she cried.

The woman hugged her. 'May, can you tell me who this boy is?' she asked. 'Did he hurt you?'

'No, no, he is just Luke's friend. He helped me with the cookies,' she mumbled.

'Come, let's get you settled,' the woman told May. She took me in from head to toe. Then, she looked at the oven. 'You? Whoever you are, take care of the oven. Can you do that?' I quickly nodded. 'Good. And if I noticed that there is even a cent missing, or that you so much touched a hair on Mays' head, you won't get out of here in one piece!' The woman walked out of the room, with the wailing May in her arms.

I took the cookies out of the oven and even went the extra mile and cleaned up all the foodstuffs on the counter. After that, I walked into the hallway. 'Eh… ma'am?'

'In here,' she called out.

I pushed open a different door. The woman was sitting on the couch, with a sleeping May next to her. She nodded towards a chair. 'Sit down.'

'Okay.' I sat down. 'Eh… sorry. I am Nico di Angelo, and I… I used to know Luke and May, let me put it that way. Luke and I weren't exactly friends…'

The woman relaxed a little. 'Alright. Then I know who's side you were on during the Titan war.'

'Eh… yes. Well, I did know about May, as I said, and I knew she wasn't in a good place mentally. I wondered whether anyone had helped her after the wars, so I decided to take a look.'

The woman slowly nodded. 'I guess you thought no-one did anything to help her?'

'Well, yes.' There was no point lying about it.

She shook her hair over her shoulder. 'I mustn't have been a very good look when she was baking cookies all by herself. I am Jenny, I am a daughter of Hebe and I live with May. Not by accident, however. Hermes said I could live in this house in exchange for taking care of her. Keep her company, make sure she takes her medicine, make sure she doesn't set her house on fire, stuff like that.'

'Yes.'

'I was just out for fresh air for a moment when you came, but most of the time I am here. I keep May company and I work a bit in the evenings, when she's asleep. That is my life, and I must say it could have been way worse.'

'Ah.'

'Don't look so shocked, Nico.' She took a look at May. 'She told me you weren't the one who asked her to make cookies, so I am not blaming you, or anything. Anyway, I wouldn't eat them if she made them by herself. She tends to forget an ingredient, or two.'

'I'll keep that in mind.' I was quiet for a few seconds. 'I have a question.'

'You can ask it.'

'Is the oracle still in her head?'

Jenny slowly shook her head. 'No. She hasn't done any, eh, predictions, by lack of a better term, since there came a new oracle.' She sighed. 'And I think it's better that way. It means she has a little more rest.'

I stared at the table. 'Yes.' I sniffed. 'Why didn't anyone try to cure her?'

Jenny raised an eyebrow. 'Cure her?'

'Maybe that is not the right way to put it. Why didn't Hermes send someone who can fix this madness, or at least someone who has knowledge of medicine? Did no-one try anything?'

Jenny shrugged. 'Not as far as I know, but I must say, I don't know much. Hermes provides me with an okay life and I don't ask questions. May needs care and that's it.' She was silent for a few seconds, before giving me a sly, sarcastic smile. 'However, if you want to ask Hermes, I won't hold you back. As long as you don't say that I encouraged you.'

We heard May sigh. 'Jenny?'

'Yes, May?'

'Should we bake some cookies?'

Jenny helped her sit up. 'Yes, we can bake some cookies. I bought apples, we can make oatmeal cookies with those.'

'Oh!' Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it... 'Luke will love them!'

I stared at the floor. Jenny looked at May. 'Why don't you go ahead and grab the apples?'

'Oh, what a wonderful idea! We should get out some Kool-aid, too, Luke loves kool-aid…' They stood up, while May babbled on about whatever came to her mind. She didn't even seem to notice me anymore.

Jenny stood in the doorway, so that she could see May in the kitchen without her hearing us. 'I think you had good intentions, but perhaps you shouldn't come again.'

'I know that,' I muttered. I shouldn't have come in the first place.

She sighed, before she walked further into the kitchen. 'Go,' she told me, 'I have to make sure she doesn't hurt herself.'

'Thanks,' I mouthed back. I waited until she was in the kitchen. Then I got up and got out of the house.

A/N: someone, somewhere suggested I do a chapter about May. Here it is. I hope I delivered, and to whoever that was: Thanks for suggesting and thanks for being so patient, if you are still there.

The next chapter will say more about this, when Nico talks about it.