My favorite chapter so far. Hope you enjoy!
"Annabeth, can I come in?" Estelle whimpered.
"Of course Squirt, what's wrong?" Annabeth softly asked the clearly distraught child. She looked ashen and appeared to be wearing clothes she slept in. Her hair was a mess and her eyes red. She clutched her toy narwhal to her chest and tears were welling up in her eyes.
Estelle ran to the couch Annabeth was seated on and threw her arms around her, crying on her shoulder.
"Please don't be mad at me, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was a bad thing and… I'm so sorry, please don't hate me!" she wailed.
"What? I could never hate you Squirt, what put that idea in your head? I love you to the moon and back" Annabeth replied as she wrapped her arms around Estelle and pulled her onto her lap.
"Now your brother? Different story, but you don't need to worry about that, it took three years to get you back in my life and I am not going to let go of you again, ever, we will work something out, but that's for Percy and me to figure out and you don't need to worry about it and"
"Noooooo!" Estelle shouted, "It wasn't him, you shouldn't be mad at Percy, you promised to be nice to him, you promised me! It was me! I'm the one that, I just… I just wanted you to love him and for him to love you and for you to love me and be my mommy and have a little sister for me, well, Percy thinks you would rather have a little brother and that's okay but… It wasn't him it was me! You can't be mad at Percy, please forgive me! I'm so sorry!" Estelle babbled off at a mile a minute.
"What? Sister? Brother? What are you talking about?"
"I… I'm the one that put the potion in the drinks, not Percy, I got it at that toy store where I got Percabeth" Estelle sobbed as she held up her toy, almost gasping for breath now. "I just wanted you to be in love with each other and get married and"
"And have a little sister for you?" Annabeth grinned, having now figured out what had transpired, although it was too soon for her to figure out what to do about it. She knew she couldn't be mad at Estelle though, her intent was innocent, even if her delivery quite harmful in the short term,
"Uh huh." She nodded as the tears poured from her eyes.
"And Percy wants me to have a little brother for you instead?"
"That's what he said, yeah, but I think a sister would be okay too."
"And you gave us the love potion?" Annabeth asked as she wiped the little girl's nose with a tissue, then used a second one to dry the tears running down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry, I thought I was doing something good but Minerva said I might start a war, I didn't know it was a bad thing."
"What? War? You call Professor McGonagall 'Minerva' now?"
"She said it was okay, just not around other kids."
"I'm sure it is. That's the name she wants her friends to call her, just, not around other kids, okay? Like with me?" Annabeth asked, as she tried to parse her way through her confusion.
"Okay. So you're not mad?"
"I'm more confused than anything right now Squirt, why don't you take a deep breath, calm down and start at the beginning, and know I love you endlessly and there is nothing you can do to change that," Annabeth smiled as she hugged the crying child and gently rocked her back and forth.
Estelle started over, this time from when she got the potion at Diagon Alley, and made a little more sense; although Annabeth still had no idea what the whole 'have a brother or sister' thing was about.
"So, let me get this straight, you got the potion at Diagon Alley, after I told you no to love potions, and"
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know how bad it was, I thought I was helping," Estelle wept into Annabeth's shoulder.
"And you promise Percy didn't know anything about it?"
"No, he didn't. I would have told him but I knew he would say no too and"
"And that wasn't a clue to you not to do it?" Annabeth asked.
Estelle gasped as she answered, "No, I mean; yes, but I guess; I just wanted you to love each other like you used to and get married and be my mommy and"
"And you wanted me to have a little brother for you?"
"Sister, Percy wants a little brother. Do you hate me?"
"Stop that, I love you, always have, always will, no more of that. Your brother I'm pretty mad at though," Annabeth said, and as she did she failed to notice that Percy came through the flue behind her.
"No! Its not Percy's fault, its mine! If you're going to be mad at anyone, be mad at me, you're supposed to love Percy, you told me that, you promised!"
"That's different, and no, that's not why I'm mad."
"Why are you mad?" Estelle cried.
"How long has this been upsetting you?" Annabeth asked, dabbing away Estelle's latest tears with a fresh tissue.
"Since… since I woke up when you were fighting."
"I see. So for three days Percy knew my Squirt was upset and the only thing he told me was that you wanted to talk to me. And for three years he's been mad at me for something I didn't do, and let me suffer without you, and without him, and now I was mad at him for three days for something he didn't do, and I'm supposed to just look the other way? Which I will, but still, you know, totally not fair. Anyway, we will work it out, you're too precious to me to lose you again, ever, I don't care what I have to do for your butthead brother to keep you in my life."
"Percy's not a butthead!" Estelle giggled, her tummy finally relaxing from three days of angst driven knots.
"I kind of am," Percy said, finally announcing his presence and sitting beside them on the couch, "and you don't have to do anything Annabeth, I told Sweet Pea and I'll tell you now, I was wrong to keep you apart, I know you love each other and I know Estelle will always be safe and cared for with you, and I was wrong, and I'm sorry."
"Well… Fuck!" Annabeth muttered in disgust.
"Language!" Percy admonished with that stupid smirk Annabeth found so endearing.
"That's a bad word," Estelle added, now almost grinning.
"Well, lets see how you feel when you want to be mad but can't be. Ugh! You cast a good patronus by the way; that's kind of amazing, a little more practice and you'll have it down, so if you are upset about something ever again, or anything you want to talk about, just reach out, okay? You look like you haven't slept."
"She hasn't, she's barely eaten and" Percy started to say before Annabeth nearly lost it.
"And you didn't think that was worth mentioning?" Annabeth nearly yelled.
"I, well, I knew you would be back soon and when you found out what happened wouldn't be that upset so, you know."
"Gods Percy, you really are a butthead!" Annabeth exclaimed. "So Squirt, it's a half hour to lunch, you need to get cleaned up and ready, then I think a nap this afternoon, do you concur Percy?"
"Yeah, come on Estelle, Annabeth and I can talk later, lets get you in the shower. You know, the one I told you to take this morning?"
"You told her to take a shower and she didn't? Like I told her to not mess with love potions?"
"Yes, like I told her to wait in the apartment until I could explain things to you and she didn't."
"Yeah, about that Percy, what's this about me having a little brother for her? I need some info on that. Were you going to fill me in on that before hand? Maybe get my input?" Annabeth asked, smiling.
"Uh" Percy replied, surprised that had actually come up.
"Anyway, I know you don't do spankings, but that is seriously disobedient, and I do think some correction is in order," Annabeth said.
"I'm sorry, I don't want a spanking, and I won't do it again!"
"No, we don't do that" Percy said firmly. "After Smelly Gabe, well, you know, I just don't believe in that. It's not necessary."
"Oh of course not, I totally agree, plus there is really only one punishment that is appropriate."
"Ground her from TV and her laptop?" Percy asked.
"Certainly not, she needs that for school, the laptop at least, I can't imagine how messed up the library here is for research. No, I am the one that was most affected by her slipping us potions, and I think the only thing to do about it is…' Annabeth paused, grinning a grin that was either happy or frightening.
"Please, I don't need a spanking, I've learned not to, I'm sorry…"
"Percy, I will need your help. Its… Tickle time!" Annabeth laughed as she wiggled her fingers on Estelle's sides causing hysterics in the girl, with Percy soon joining in.
In a moment they were all laughing, while Estelle squirmed and laughed.
"No stop! I'm going to vomit!"
"How? You haven't eaten anything!" Percy laughed.
Estelle tried to tickle them back but after a moment both stopped and all were smiling.
"I think she's learned her lesson," Annabeth grinned.
"Yeah, next time I'll tickle you first!" Estelle laughed as she threw her arms around Annabeth and Percy.
"Good luck with that! We'll be watching out for it!" Percy replied.
"Hey Squirt, before you go, there is one other thing that just occurred to me that you should probably know," Annabeth said as she again pulled Estelle on to her lap and again lovingly wrapped her arms around the child.
"What's that?" Estelle asked.
"Well you know about Percy's father, and my mother; we aren't really like magicians and what they call muggles here. Love potions might work on them, depending on the brew, but they don't really work the same on people like your brother and me. Most potions do, but not love potions, and a few others, really with love potions it is because Aphrodite keeps that strictly under her control. They only work a little bit, and then give us a bad headache. For regular people they don't create actual love anyway, just brief infatuation. For divine born, it might create mild infatuation at best. It really just lowers our inhibitions on what we are feeling already. What that means is that if two people like us like each other already but didn't want anyone to know, they would be open about it and their friends could tell, but the only way you would see love, real love, is if they already loved each other and were suppressing it for some reason."
"She's right Estelle, they taught us that in potions class at Ilvermourny, the effects on divine born are different, much weaker, if it has any effect at all," Percy added.
"So… What's that mean though?" Estelle asked, her confusion showing.
"It means your butthead brother is totally busted," Annabeth said with no expression on her face, while staring at Percy and remembering why his sea green eyes were so intoxicating.
"Oh. Ohhhhhh!" Estelle grinned first at Annabeth, and then at Percy. "So what's next then? Are you going to marry him and have a little sister and"
"Uh, brother. And I think that is probably a little fast but let Annabeth and me worry about that." Percy replied.
"Yeah, that would be a bit sudden. You should probably ask me on a date first," Annabeth smirked.
"What are you doing tonight?" Percy asked.
"A sister would be better," Estelle grinned.
