Disclaimer:

I do not own the PJO characters.

Once we all reached Sally's apartment door, I took a deep breath and stepped up to the door. I knocked and it opened shortly after. "I'm here to pick up my sister," I said.

She dropped the plate she has been holding. Tears came to her eyes as her mouth fell open. She reached for me and brought me into a hug. "Hi Sally," I mumbled.

She pushed my back and held onto my shoulders. "You haven't grown at all, what happened?" She asked.

"Long story short, I was stuck in a giant block of ice for five years before Damian here," I pointed to Damian, "saved me."

She walked out the door and brought Damian in for a hug too. "Thank you so much for bringing Trish back," Sally said.

Once she pulled back, she turned to me and said, "Come in, Coral will be more than excited to see you."

Once we were all in the apartment Sally closed the door behind us. She led us to the living room. "Coral!" She yelled, "someone's here to see you!"

I gasped as I saw two skinny little girls come running down the hallway playing with toy planes and making airplane noises with their mouths and laughing.

The one with bright purple eyes stopped in her tracks as she saw us standing there. I felt warm tears start to stream down my face as the two of us stared at each other.

"T-Trish," She mumbled. "TRISH!" She then yelled and ran to me. I knelt so I could hold her in my arms.

Once we were done hugging and crying into each other's shoulders I backed up a bit, still kneeling.

"Y-you're so big," I said, looking her up and down.

"You're back," She mumbled.

"I-I am so sorry Coral," I said.

"For what?" She asked, "You didn't want to leave me, you had to. I knew you'd be back, Nico said so."

"B-but I missed seeing you grow up, how can you forgive me?" I said, putting my head down, "I promised your father I would look after you."

She looked up at me. "But you did Trish. You did look after me. I remember that day over and over and over again. Every day, I'm reminded of that day. At first, I was mad at you for handing me to Nico. Then I remembered your face, the sadness and the grief in your face made me realize that if you hadn't, I'd have the same fate as you, and you wanted me to live my best life, so I did. I did it for you, Trish."

I completely broke down after that. She had been so… forgiving, how could I make it up to her? I couldn't. I hugged her tightly as I felt a warm hand on my back. I could tell it was Damian's.

Once I had calmed down enough for me to stand up on my own, Sally took me to the couch to show me something.

"To be honest," Sally said, "I didn't think you were still alive, but Coral has faith, so she made me take many photos of her for you when you came back."

She handed me an album as I sat down and Coral sat on my lap. I couldn't help but tear up as I looked through the photos. There were pictures from her third birthday, fourth birthday, fifth, sixth, and seventh. There were photos of her first day of school, her first best friends, her first everything. I missed most of the important firsts in her life. Her first time in time square, her first haircut, her first full book she read.

"Thank you," I whispered with small streams of tears falling down my face. I didn't know who I was thanking, if it was my God, if it was Sally for taking care of Coral, if it was Coral for believing in me, or even Damian for bringing me home.

I closed the album and looked to Sally, "Thank you for keeping these, they mean a lot."

"No problem," she said with a smile, "So, where are you off to next?"

"Well I wanted to go see Jamie," I replied.

She looked at me with pity. "Did they not tell you?" She asked.

"Oh, no they told me, but I'm sort of favorited by Hades," I smiled.

"Well then, I won't keep you waiting," Sally said, standing up, "You are always allowed over here."

"Before I leave, even though I don't want to do this, can you watch Coral for just a little while longer? I'd hate to leave her but I want her to stay here while I visit Jamie," I asked.

"No problem, I watched her for five years, what's another hour? Plus we can get her all packed to go back to camp," Sally said.

I crept down to Coral. "Coral, I know I just got back, but if you want, you may stay with Sally. I don't want you to leave your school if you like it-," Coral cut me off.

"No way would I want to stay here. I'm going back to Camp when you get back from visiting Jamie," she smiled. Thank goodness, I really didn't want Coral to stay here, I just wanted to make her feel like she had a choice in the matter.

"What are you waiting for!" Travis yelled, "Let's go see Jamie!"

"Wait what?" I said, "Sorry, but I only wanted Damian to come."

"Why?" The Stoll's pouted.

"I'll only be gone half an hour, an hour at the most, stay here or go back to Camp but you're not coming with."

I watched as Nico tossed Will the keys to the van so he could take the Stoll's back to Camp. "Ready to go?" Nico asked Damian and me.

"Maybe?" I said but it came out as a question.

"Good," Nico smiled. Damian just seemed annoyed and didn't say anything.

Nico reached grabbed our arms and we plunged into darkness.

Thanks for reading! I should be posting at least one more chapter today. Also this chapter pulled on my heart string a bit and couldn't help but tear up a bit, so if you did as well, don't worry :D

-Lou Ellen and Sydney