A/N Hello lovelies!

Thank you everyone for ridding and following. To all those who have reviewed, I'm glad you like the story!

Well, this was a difficult chapter to write, but I've got some great ideas for what's going to follow.

The translation of this story should be coming soon, hopefully before the end of August!

Anyway, enough talking and now chapter 3!

Disclaimer: as always, unless something really weird happens, I do not own anything except the plot, the rest belongs to Rick Riordan.

Piper's POV

Piper couldn't breathe.

Jason. In front of her very eyes. At one of her tables. In her restaurant.

In front of her… their… daughter.

She couldn't speak either. Everything was jumbled in her mind. How? Why? Who? The questions kept coming. That entire she had lived with him and after him came speeding back into her mind, slamming into her brain, making her dizzy and her eyes water.

The moment when she came back to her senses and was de-paralysed, she grabbed her daughter and rushed back into the kitchen where she forced her to sit down and ordered Henri not to let her wander off, in any situation, or else he was fired. The chef looked at her with questioning eyes but Piper couldn't see him. She couldn't see anything actually. Her eyes were flooded with tears.

Before anyone could say a word, or comment the boss' unusual reaction, Piper had already barged though the kitchen door and into her desk. After slamming the door shut, Piper moaned and let herself fall down, her back pressed against the door, crying every drop of water her body had ever contained.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! How could she have ever thought she would never have to meet him again? Why did she even pick New York as the adequate city to raise her daughter? She should have known he would eventually bump into her. Or the other way round. New York was a huge city. Probably one the hugest but still, it was a small world, and after 4 years of successful avoidance, the inevitable had come.

The memories had come flooding back. She remembered that day, the one where everything crumbled before her eyes.

She had gone to fetch him from the party, another one, just like all the one's before. She always came before they ended, just like a mother comes to fetch a child that has been naughty from a birthday party. One more party, one more and then she would start reprimanding him for his toxic ways.

When she had got there, she had known something was off. He wasn't lying dead drunk in one of the obscure corners of the room like every other time. Recognising one of his detestable friends, she had inquired to know where her boyfriend had disappeared. When the answer was upstairs, she immediately knew something was off. Jason never went upstairs.

She climbed the steps one by one, dread weighing her down. She saw the only room which had been opened. She pushed the door. And there he was. Naked, in her devilish half-sister's arm. It had been the same feeling as today. The sentiment of being incapable of doing anything else. She ran out of the room, out of the house, into the car. She drove away.

Once in the apartment, she had packed up everything during the night, ignoring Jason's calls when he had come knocking at the door. And in the morning all, was done. She called Annabeth and then stayed in her best friend's apartment.

Annabeth had helped her. She had given her a home when she needed it; support when her life had come crumbling down and she had kept her secret.

During the month or so that followed, Piper barely lived. She went to her lessons everyday, praying she wouldn't bump into the hated cheater, but he seemed to have disappeared from campus much to her relief. Her mother had come and visited but her help was pointless. The goddess of love was incapable of tending to her daughter's heart-break and had returned to being the silly absent mother she usually was.

And then, when there seemed to her that there would be not tomorrow, that despite all of her best friend's efforts, a world without Jason was pointless, something unexpected had happened. A ray of sun appeared in her never ending rain clouds.

She had realised that her period was late. And it dawned on her that there was a chance… Just a chance that not all was lost. The pregnancy test confirmed it.

Piper took it as a message from the gods to continue living. She had too. She had something to love and protect. It became her reason to live. The baby growing inside her reminded her that life was a constant cycle, and that this child was the beginning born from the end of something else.

She could also hide the other part of the child forever.

And so the unquenchable sorrow inside of her turned to hatred. She began eating normally again. She began studying normally again. She aced her exams. Everything went better. She did it all for the unborn child. When her birth came in the sweltering month of august, Piper had turned the page of the book of her life forever, and was more than glad to do so.

Until now.

There was a small knock on her door. Fearing the man she hated the most, she braced herself for the worst, but when a tiny little body slipped through, she was instantly relieved. Rose drew her mother into a tight hug and Piper clung to her as though she was never going to let go.

"Mommy," the little girl whispered. "Be strong."

The words deeply touched Piper. This was probably the best wisdom she had ever heard, and it had come out of the mouth a little four-year-old girl. Her daughter.

But she was right. She couldn't do like last time. She couldn't abandon everything, move home, change job, and make herself another personality. No, she had a child and that tied her down. She would have to go and face him.

But not just him, she realised. With him came so many other things. The whole part of her life which she had tried to forget, she was going to have to be a Demi-god again. Rose too was going to have to take up that role in her life. Piper had been hoping to protect her from it a little longer, until she was 12 maybe, but that just wasn't going to be possible anymore.

So she grabbed her courage with both hands, calmed the stormy ocean inside of her and stood up, her daughter in her arms.

"Rose, my darling. Mommy has to go and speak to someone. Now will you be a good girl and go do your colourings next to Henri?"

"But mommy, I left my best drawing next to the man over there."

"Don't worry. I'll get it for you." She replied quietly.

The two of them quietly returned to the kitchen. Piper placed her daughter on her chair for the fifth time that day, stuck a crayon in one hand and paper in the other and prepared to confront Rose's father. But not after she had checked her puffy red eyes in her mirror.

Jason's POV

Piper in front of him.

His Piper. In front of him.

The moment he had wished for, for so many years had finally arrived. And all he could do was stare. Even when she rushed out of the terrace and disappeared gods know where he was still there, as if struck by lightning.

Leo, Percy and Frank disappeared, as though they had never been there in the first place. Everything was Piper. It had always been Piper. Nothing else in the world was more important than Piper.

The shock of seeing her again slowly evaporated, but not entirely, just like salt water, which dries, but leaves the cling of salt to freshen wounds. It was replaced by the pain. The pain of what he had done to her, of what she might have lived through, and also, quite selfishly, the pain he had brought upon himself.

But, then, something else, another question grew in his mind; who was that girl? The adorable little blond that had left her drawing, which was still in his hands. Don't be foolish, said a voice at the back of his head, you know exactly who she is. The hair, the eyes, everything about the girl was familiar. But he just couldn't believe it.

Suddenly, his friends snapped him out of his daze.

"Jason. Jason!"

Someone was calling his name and the return to reality was excruciating.

"I..."

It was most unexpected, but at that moment, Piper was before him again, this time a look of steel in her eyes, yielding no emotion, and completely denoted of anything about recognising the group.

"I'm sorry for that sirs. A little issue with my daughter," she said sternly, "now, if I could have your orders that would be great."

"Piper..." Jason's voice failed him in the time he needed it the most.

"If I could recommend the quinoa salad, it really is quite delicious."

"Hey Beauty Queen! We'd thought you'd disappeared from the surface of the earth!" Jason had completely forgotten Leo was there too and stared amazed at him.

"I'm afraid I do not go by that name anymore, so if you would be so kind as to tell me your orders and get this over with." There was so much ice in her voice it surprised him. Where was the warmth in her voice, the one which comforted everyone when felling low?

"Piper, how are you? Hazel misses you so much, she would be so happy to see you again-" began Frank.

"I have left behind my last life. As well as anything, or anyone, that went with it. It is just too difficult to live with." She stated. "Now, if you do not wish to order anything, I would ask you to leave. Thank you very much."

"But you can't just escape that life Piper." Percy had been the one to speak. It was as though everyone could talk except him. "I tried to do it, but being, you know what, you just can't escape."

"Well, I have managed so far. And I find that certain you-know-what's as you say are just not worthy of trust. It really is better if I stay away. Now goodbye." And with those curt words, she left them.

The four of them stared after her as she left, so shocked by their brief encounter.

Eventually, another waitress came to take their orders, but Jason's appetite had disappeared, just like the sun, and it was getting colder by the minute, numbing his bones. Also, he had to get back to work, his lunch break was almost over. It took a lot of strength of will to get back to work, his mind kept wandering off and whatever he wrote seemed to be nonsense. The words were swimming in front of his eyes, playing water polo or something like that. He already had dyslexia, but this was just worse. There was no possible way he could work, he decided after having confused the numbers 60 and 70 for the fifth time in the last paragraph he had written.

He went down to the secretary to warn that he felt sick and was going home. Linda stopped him on his way out.

"Mr Grace, there was a package delivery for you."

A package delivery, at his work place. It was quite unusual and Jason immediately worried about what it could be.

"Thank you very much Linda. I'm going home today. I'm not feeling very well. Could you note that somewhere please."

"Of course, I mean, it is my job. Can I get you anything. I have some aspirin in my purse if you would like." She suggested, in a little high-pitched voice which made him uncomfortable.

"No thank you, I'll just take the package."

She handed it over and saw a note attached to it, it read:

Darling brother,

I found this on one of my hunts. It bears the symbol of Jupiter on it and I thought you might like it.

Also, I sent this to your office because the shipping was free.

Love,

Thalia

The box was rather small, it was the sort of one that could contain a book. The box rattled when he shook it and he saw that it was labelled AMAZON. This explained why the shipping was free. He and his sister were still rather close and met at camp over the summer. Artemis always lent (with some difficulty) some of her hunters to help in training the young Demi-gods (though no one was a fool, and they all new that they were also trying to recruit, as always).

The fact he had received a parcel, took his mind of Piper for a while. He returned to his apartment where he opened the box. Inside was a beautiful dagger. A pretty little silver thing than shined in the sunlight. Thalia had been right and he saw the oddly shaped 4 with it's upper left branch curling into a two, engraved on the hilt of the dagger. An intricate design of silver strings were twisted around the place where you held the dagger. The blade was sharp and looked freshly polished. Jason took it in his hand and felt that it was perfectly balanced, but not the weapon for him. It was destined for someone else. He carefully placed it on a shelf near his television, waiting for the owner to come and claim it.

He went into his kitchen which was a small thing at the back of his living room, complete with an oven, a microwave, a stove, a fridge, and most importantly, a sink with it's usual pile of drachmas toppling over next to it. They were still as useful for any conversation. Leo had been working on a phone that could work on Demi-gods, most of them used it now, but nothing is perfect, and they were thoroughly recommended not to use it except in emergency situations that concerned the normal mortal lives they tried to lead. The only thing that Leo had invented that was practical in Jason's life and that actually worked, was the Olympian laptop.

The device successfully did everything like a normal laptop, without warning every monster in a 10 km radius that a Demi-God was in the area. These were extremely practical, and Jason, as well as almost the entire mythological population could now access the Internet. The laptops had had an enormous success and Leo was now quite rich off of his invention.

He grabbed something to clear his head and headed into his bedroom and opened his laptop. He had to find out more about her, he had to know everything that had happened to her ever since she'd left. This was definitely the best way. He needed to see her again, that he knew.

And there was also something else. Rather, someone else.

Rose.

A/N. So that's chapter 3!

Chapter 4 should be out by sometime next week.

If you have any ideas/opinions/comments I would love to hear them!

Thank you once again,

Butterflies765