I may have overdone it (just a bit)
Synopsis: Sally just knew things had gone sideways when she entered her apartment and was confronted by the sight of her newborn son cradled in the arms of her sheepish lover. "What did you do?" "So...funny story...I may have overdone it...just a bit...Umm surprise?".
Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Rating: T
Genre: Humor, Family
Language: English
Crossover: no
Category: Books
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Sally didn't completely know why she agreed to her lover's slightly harebrained plan. But it must have had something to do with his cute pout and enthralling sea green baby seal gaze, or maybe his stubborn insistence and persistence in trying to convince her that he should be the male seahorse in their relationship and the one to bear their child.
He suggested it so brazenly too, over lunch, dropping it into the conversation casually as if merely discussing the weather, and not suggesting the fact that they should remove the child from her belly and place it into his own, like it was a normal everyday thing that parents do. Just take it out of the mother and put it in the father, just because the father thinks he's not contributing enough with the child's care and wants to be the pregnant one in the relationship.
Bullshit.
These types of interactions are what frequently reminds Sally of the fact that she is in fact dating a god, straight off of the frequently bizzare and sometimes downright weird world that is Greek mythology.
She stared at him uncomprehendingly, at first, disbelieving as to what she was hearing, as Poseidon continued to prattle on, oblivious to the fact that Sally's brain had practically screeched into a halt.
"What?"
Poseidon stopped laying out his fully well-planned speech of convincing Sally to let him nurture their child while he was only a few weeks old, not even a month, in the womb, and raise him until he was ready to be born; to look at her questioningly, not understanding what she was asking. 'What what?' he blinked almost owlishly. Is she asking about the process of child transfer? Or did she not catch what he said? Should he say his speech again? Does he need to explain more?
Sally felt the sudden tingling rise of her usually calm temper as her lover had the gall to look as if she was the slow, crazy one, and what he suggested was perfectly sane and reasonable… and it probably was... to him.
"What exactly do you mean?" Sally asked slowly, taking in a deep breath, desperately trying not to lose her cool and slam her lunch into Poseidon's confused face, which was usually endearing, but currently infuriating. She would usually calm down immediately after a few deep breaths... or at least calm enough to rationally reason with him. But her pregnancy, she found, had made her patience to deal with his nonsense, virtually nonexistent.
Poseidon was still completely oblivious to the fact that his lover was very very close to launching herself across the table to strangle him.
How he managed to millenia without being murdered by anyone was a mystery to her, though that probably has something to do with him being a god and therefore immortal. Had he been mortal, Sally was pretty sure that he probably would have been killed by someone out of anger long before.
Meanwhile, Poseidon was relieved that Sally seemed to take his suggestion well. Was that a twitch he saw in her left eye? 'Never mind that, it was probably nothing,' he thought to himself as he once more opened his mouth, proud of his well thought off plan.
"Well you see, I thought, since you already get to raise him and all that, I should get to raise him and spend time with him while he is still a fetus. My brother wrote nothing in the laws about gods not being allowed to spend time with our children before they were born." said her lover enthusiastically, not sensing the ticking time-bomb that was her temper. Unknowingly, and therefore, happily digging his own grave.
'Of course there was nothing in the laws about that, you dingus. How do you think goddesses carry their demigod children?' Sally inwardly thought seething, but more importantly, "You are planning to take my baby away from me?" she angrily spitted out.
"Oh, uh...yeah?" replied Poseidon, still oblivious of her and further digging into his own grave. He thought he sensed a strong malicious intent in their relative vicinity, but there weren't any monsters near them, he observed after a quick scan of their surroundings. 'Odd,' he thought, 'Where could it be coming from?', but then simply brushed it off.
"You intend to rob me of my motherhood?" she practically hissed.
Poseidon finally took note of her barely concealed anger. 'Oh, that's where.' he realized, rising to his feet in a panic, intent on calming his pregnant lover, but it was too late, he already couldn't climb his way out of the deep hole he suddenly found himself in. "No! Wait! I meant-"
"POSEEIIIDDOOON! When I get my hands on-"
Poseidon didn't wait for her to finish and hurriedly flashed back to Atlantis. Which was probably the smartest thing that he had done that day.
…
He tried once more, a few days later, when Sally had finally fully calmed down and was making her dinner. Which, in hindsight, was probably not a good idea, but he wasn't the god of wisdom for a reason.
He quickly flashed away after Sally angrily threw the knife she was using to chop her carrots directly at his face.
...
He tried again a few days after that.
...
And again.
...
And again.
...
And again.
But, Sally wouldn't even allow him to broach the topic.
...
And again.
...
Then, finally…
"Why do you even want to carry him?" Sally asked one afternoon a few months later whilst sitting at the beach just outside the seaside cabin that she frequents in Montauk, watching as the sun set, its last rays reflected beautifully at the sea, painting a magnificent scene of yellows, oranges, pinks, and blues. She returned to the beach, taking a short break from work and night school. Poseidon, sitting beside her, immediately brightened before dimming as Sally turned to shoot him a glare.
"Well I just thought it would help you more," he said rubbing the back of his head, "it certainly helped that it would also allow me to at least spend some time in his presence even if he wouldn't remember it. Since, as you know, I am forbidden to even go near him because of my brother's stupid law."
"Help me?" she asked, scrunching her brow.
"Well since you insist on working and studying at the same time despite being pregnant, instead of just relaxing. I just thought it would make it easier for you."
"Baby things are very expensive. How else would I be able to afford to buy all of them plus pay my rent if I just completely lay off from work? And studying would allow me to get better jobs to provide for him more." she said defensively. "Hey! I said I could take care of it but you refused to let me." Poseidon frowned at her.
All Sally saw was a disgruntled pout. "I told you, I couldn't just rely on a god to solve my problems by magically conjuring a solution or making the problems go away. For life to mean something, I should find my own way of living it."
Sally sighed. Rubbing the now visible bump in her belly. Was it selfish for her to want to keep her child with her?
Poseidon's offer circled her head no matter how hard she tried keeping it away. Does it make her a terrible mother? She would sometimes wonder, to even consider the idea of letting someone else carry her own baby, the little life that she should be nurturing, the tiny being that was hers to bear after months of lovingly sheltering him in her womb. 'But, he is his father,' a traitorous voice in her head would whisper, 'he has the same equal amount of right as you do to carry the small being, to spend time with him, to feel him grow, to nurture him, to show him love before he has to leave. Who knows if he would even be able to meet their baby afterwards? What if his brothers forbid him to do so, fearing his influence over his demigod child, fearing that he might turn him against them? For her it had always been certain that she would be able to raise her son to be with him and watch him grow, but for him… it was even uncertain to tell if he would be able to meet their son in person.' Sally thought sadly.
She knew of Zeus' paranoia especially towards his two brothers. Poseidon rants about it often enough. Watching his pleading gaze, she sighed as she made her decision. She just hoped that she wasn't making the wrong choice and that her son wouldn't hate her for it, and that their connection as mother and child wouldn't wane because she didn't carry him full term and instead gave that responsibility to his father.
"...Fine."
"What?" Poseidon looked at her, disbelieving at what he heard. "I said fine, I'll let you carry him." Sally said, smiling as his face immediately split into an incredibly wide grin.
"Really?"
"Really." She confirmed, then laughing out loud as Poseidon excitedly lifted her into the air and twirled around in joy. "But I still get to name him." she said once she had been finally put down.
…
She just knew that something was bound to go wrong along the way, especially as Poseidon was really known to be the most nurturing and child-friendly of the Olympians… quite the opposite actually. But, she knew that he genuinely loved all his children, so she had hopes.
After assuring her that no gods would notice that he was in fact carrying a child and that he has a foolproof way of concealing his assured pregnancy, they went on with the baby transfer.
When he first did the magic switching thing via laying his palm onto her belly bump and another on his own belly, hands glowing, she first panicked as while her own belly flattened, his didn't seem to grow.
"What happened?" she essentially shrieked, fearing something may have gone wrong and that he might have accidentally vanished their child instead. Poseidon had to spend a few moments calming down her hysterics, saying that it's all fine, that their son was safely in a magically womb-like bubble within. But his birth would be delayed a few months as his son would need time to settle in his new environment. Instead of around May, he would now be born around mid-August.
Sally was just relieved that her son was fine.
As she went back to the city, she rarely saw her now pregnant lover as hiding his presence was more difficult so far from his domain. By the sea, they could mask his presence on land as an extension of his power over the oceans. But the presence of the seas, often so far inland and in the middle of the city? That sends off a big red flag to the other gods. It would bring on so much unwanted attention to them, making their relationship be known, and endanger the life of their son.
They decided to play it safe.
Instead of Poseidon visiting Sally to let her see how well their son was growing, Sally would instead be the one who would visit the beach whenever she could, which was sadly not as often as she would have liked. With her juggling 2, occasionally even 3, jobs in order to afford all the things she and her son would need once he was born; while also taking night class in order to be able to graduate high school and work in jobs that have a higher pay to afford a bigger apartment in a better and safer neighborhood for them both, attempting to give her son a better life and education than she had, Sally could rarely visit Montauk over the weekends. Thankfully, Poseidon would frequently leave some various hints of updates of their son's continuous growth wherever she could see them.
Everything went well without any major hiccups on both their ends...or so she thought.
…
Sally just knew things had gone sideways when she entered her apartment on the evening of August 18, and was confronted by the sight of her newborn son cradled in the arms of her very suspiciously sheepish lover.
"What did you do?" She asked worried, immediately coming over to check out and coo over their incredibly adorable son, heart already bursting with love for the infant. Poseidon carefully passed him over to her.
"So...funny story...I may have overdone it...just a bit...Umm surprise?" he shifted on his feet.
"Overdone it?" Sally raised her brow, inwardly dreading what he could've possibly have meant. With practiced calm reserved for dealing with Poseidon's shenanigans which she knew could sometimes be downright strange even for greek god standards, she began inspecting her son, praying to all the gods that Poseidon didn't accidentally give him ten eyes, a dozen webbed feet, and tentacles for arms, or maybe even worse. She didn't really mind if her son did, she would love him just the same, though it would be quite a bit harder to explain to him just why he looked different from the other kids when he finally became old enough to question it. Seeing that her sleeping son was completely fine, she turned to look at a still sheepish Poseidon uncomfortably shifting from side to side with a nervous smile.
Cradling him closer, she smiled as her son scrunched up his small face before also snuggling deeper into her arms and going back into a peaceful sleep, Sally could already see just how much he would resemble his father. "Perseus," she said softly, kissing her son's forehead.
"Pardon?"
"Perseus." she smiled at the feeling of rightness she felt by saying it, "That would be his name. Perseus Achilles Jackson."
"..." Poseidon sputtered with a betrayed look on his face, "Perseus? After my brother's son?"
"Perseus." Sally said firmly, glaring at him, "After the only hero who lived a good long life and had a happy ending."
Poseidon decided not to argue more, knowing that he was probably already in trouble with her, and wouldn't want to aggravate her more considering the overdoing thing. He winced, how would he know this would happen? He would very much want to just move on from that fact and change the subject, but he knew it was inevitable and important for Sally to know it too, so he braced himself to discuss it with her.
"So...Perseus," he winced a little at the name of his brother's child, but at Sally's look decided to carry on, "Well… he might not be… exactly as mortal as we thought he'd be."
Clutching her son even more, though carefully and not enough to hurt, Sally indicated Poseidon to continue. "...What do you know about the myth of Dionysus?"
In a flash, Sally immediately caught on to what he might be implying, "Are you saying that my son might be born as a god?"
"Yes. Well, he's still mortal now, though more godly compared to a normal demigod. A god born in a mortal body." he explained.
"But, how?" Sally wondered. "I'm completely mortal. Is this a side effect of transferring him to you as a fetus? I recall something similar happening, of your brother sewing Dionysus into his thigh after accidentally incinerating Semele."
Poseidon thought for a moment. "Not exactly, some other gods have also done it, though rarely. Aside from Dionysus, all others were born completely mortal."
"Something to do with you being one of the big three?" Sally mused thoughtfully, thinking of various reasons as to why her son might be born a god.
"I don't think it has something to do with that either, but maybe." Poseidon shifted guiltily once more, which Sally caught.
"...Poseidon, is there something you're not telling me? Do you know why Percy is more godly than usual?" Sally asked him, suspicious. "Did you do something?"
"No- Yes- I didn't mean to… Maybe?" He gave her a guilty grin.
Sally heaved a sigh, gently rocking Percy in her arms, "Poseidon, what did you do?"
"Well…"
…
Poseidon was just about to flash out the throne room of Mt. Olympus just after their annual winter solstice meeting, intent on returning to Atlantis, when he was stopped by Apollo staring suspiciously at his rounded belly.
"Heya uncle P," he casually greeted, "what's up?" flashing him a blinding smile.
"...I was returning to Atlantis."
"Oh cool! I meant the belly thing. You usually walk around with a flat stomach unlike D over there," he said gesturing to where Dionysus was sitting boredly sporting a pot belly holding the newest release of a wine magazine. "Trying a new style?" he asked, wiggling his brows.
"Something like that." Poseidon said, trying not to sweat.
"...Right...You do realize that I'm the god of medicine and truth don't you?"
"Good for you then." Poseidon replied, really sweating inwardly by now and scrambling to find a believable excuse. "I'm- um-" spotting Dionysus' wine magazine once more, he got an idea. "There's been a lot of parties under the sea lately, yeah, lots of drinking. I've been drinking so much lately that I reckon I would win any drinking contest right now." Poseidon said, proud of his excuse.
Apollo didn't look convinced. "Drinking? Underwater?"
"Yeah, nectar." Poseidon said thinking quickly, "You could drink nectar underwater."
"With who? The fishes?"
"Oh you know, my wife, children...Other sea deities."
"Let me get this straight, you were having lots of wild parties and nectar drinking contests with your wife and children in Atlantis." Apollo said with a look on his face.
"And other sea deities."
"...with other sea deities."
Poseidon heard a snort coming from behind a pillar but decidedly paid it no mind, as Apollo was still looking at him unconvinced, before suddenly snapping back into his usual cheery persona. "Alright."
For a second, Poseidon couldn't believe what he heard, "Alright?"
"Yeah, uncle P! I'm just a bit offended that I didn't get invited but this means I'm free to drop by from time to time right?"
"Of course no-"
"Unless, of course, you're hiding something."
"Sure, you could drop by whenever." Poseidon abruptly changed his answer, trying to appear nonchalant.
"Awesome, I'll definitely be dropping by sometime." Apollo replied with a wide grin. "Now how 'bout let's put you netar drinking thing to a test, I heard sea creatures are pretty light weight, so why not have a contest here and now with D over there. Yo! Big D! You up for it?"
…
"So we had a nectar drinking contest."
"And you think drinking copious amounts of nectar could have been the reason why Percy has been turned more god-like?" Sally thought it over. There was still something missing. After all goddesses probably still drank nectar while pregnant, though not to the amount that her lover had drunk, and their babies seem to have no added effects compared to those demigods that were born by a mortal parent who couldn't consume the godly drink. So there must be something else aside from it.
"Did you win?" Sally teased him, seeing the morose expression he had while recounting the tale.
"Barely." Poseidon made a face. "Dionysus could really drink, apparently that was not just limited to wine. If he hadn't been as unpracticed as he was then with drinking with his restrictions, I'm not entirely sure if I would have even stood a chance."
Sally gave a soft laugh and kissed him on the cheek, "He is essentially the god of drinking, dear. The fact that you were able to beat him is already a miracle, even as unpracticed as he was." Poseidon smiled and kissed her back, also smiling and gently helping her support their son's head. "Though," Sally paused with a thought, "Didn't you tell me that you had a foolproof way of concealing the fact that you're pregnant? Poseidon, please tell me you didn't walk around in an obviously pregnant state."
"Err…" Poseidon couldn't look at her.
Sally decided to drop it for now. Incredibly glad that they still haven't been blasted into pieces with Poseidon's horrible pregnancy hiding skills.
"Could you think of anything else that might have caused Percy's mortal god status?"
Poseidon went through his memory of the past few months thoughtfully, "I don't think s-" before his eyes went wide. "The apple pie!"
"What apple pie?" Sally asked, confused.
"Juno was celebrating a few months back, something about championing a new mortal hero, sired by my brother's Roman form," his form flickered into Neptune for a moment, before settling back into his standard Greek form. "The child is yet to be born but my brother has already consequently given his wife dictation over the child's life in order to appease her," he explained. "To celebrate she plucked a few golden apples," At this, Sally's eye also went wide with realization, "from her gardens and gave them to Hestia to make and distribute some apple pie for us in the winter solstice meeting."
"Where you drank a lot of nectar afterwards," Sally finished his trail of thought, "No wonder Percy is…"
"Indeed." Poseidon agreed, "No wonder. I had forgotten at the time, with my excitement over Hestia's baking and the golden apples which my sister rarely shares with the rest of us, the possessive cow," Sally snorted at this, "that Percy also consumes whatever I eat, with that and the added nectar, it is actually a marvel that he is still born mortal instead of being a full-on god. It might be because he was first conceived as mortal, or the fates might have had something to do with it."
"You think he might be the child of the prophecy?" Sally gasped.
"It is indeed possible, though my brother already has a daughter a few years older than him, one could never know with the fates, only time will tell." Poseidon said, a dark look replacing his usually calm laid back attitude.
"At least we don't have to worry about him dying at a young age." Sally smiled weakly at her son, already worried about the possible heavy burden that he might need to carry, attempting to look at the bright side of things. "What does it mean for him to be a god born in a mortal body? Will he just suddenly fully transform into a full god when he comes of age?"
"That's difficult to tell," Poseidon shook his head, "He could burn out of his mortal shell at a young age or when he has already become old. It all depends on him subconsciously realizing and forming a connection with his domains, as we are completely unsure of what they are. Only he would be able to ascertain them for sure. To do so, he would have to go through a journey of discovering just who he really is, just like Dionysus had done, when he roamed around Europe and Asia to discover his place in this world. His instincts will guide him when the time comes. But, there might also be another factor that could instantly change him," Poseidon said uncomfortably at Sally's questioning look and the possibility of the other thing happening to his son. "If Percy were to fall in battle while he was still mortal," he said slowly as Sally paled, "his godly side would take over, instantly burning away his remaining mortality. But hopefully he wouldn't need to experience the feeling of dying in order to make his full transformation as a god."
Sally winced at that possibility but nodded in understanding, "But what about the monsters? What about his demigod scent? Please tell me the monsters would avoid him because he's not really a demigod." she asked, concerned.
Poseidon donned an unreadable expression, "That would also be hard to tell, some monsters might smell his scent and classify him as a young minor god, therefore avoiding him, but there would be some others who would smell him and sense him as an incredibly powerful demigod and go after him."
Sally took in a sharp breath, her son would still be in danger. Slowly but surely, a plan started to form in her head. She would definitely find some way to conceal Percy's scent and keep him safe.
But for now, she smiled at her lovely bundle of joy and kissed him on the head once more. There might be some unplanned outcomes to her and Poseidon's decisions, but she was just gonna roll with the consequences. And of course…
"Poseidon, dear, you'll have to be the one to explain to him how he came to be when he's older."