A/N hey hey everyone!

Who's up for chapter 4?

*holds up sing saying: me! Me!*

Alright! Let's get on with it!

Disclaimer: for some very obvious reasons, I am not Rick Riordan and can therefor not claim anything but the plot.

Piper's POV

The doorbell rang. Piper put down the puzzle piece she had in her hand. It was a grotesquely cut piece of cardboard with had be industrially painted so that once assembled, it made a picture of a princess. In her end of day fatigue, Piper couldn't make out which princess it was, but she supposed it didn't really matter. Piper really couldn't understand the point of it but as long as it made Rose happy, she would buy it and watch her assemble it and break it down as many times as necessary.

She groaned slightly and pulled her weary body from her comfortable seat and trudged over to the door. Her pains were quickly rewarded when she saw who was at the front door.

"Piper! So good to see you again." Her blond best friend pulled her into a crushing hug. It was the sort of hug that Piper really needed right now and she suddenly felt a lot better. When Rose saw her godmother, she immediately dropped whatever she had been doing and rushed over to join the embrace, funnily enough, the princess was Cinderella, meeting her dear godmother. The two women laughed.

"You say that every time."

"More importantly, I say it because it's true."

"Funny thing is, I almost forget about Macaroni Monday."

"Yay Macaroni Monday!" Shrieked a little voice beneath them. Rose had stars in her eyes. This was probably one of the best times of the week for her, and Piper wholeheartedly agreed. Seeing Annabeth was always a bright side. She didn't know how the other woman did it, but Annabeth always, always had exactly the right thing to say at exactly the right moment.

"Forget Macaroni Monday? How could one possibly do that? Macaroni Monday is when I get to see my favourite little Rose." Annabeth picked up the giggling girl and proceeded to tickle her, augmenting the volume of the said giggles. She was as full of happiness as is a ballon full of air about to pop.

Macaroni Monday was a tradition the girls had started when Piper lived with Annabeth, four years ago. The rule was simple, every Monday, the two of them went and ate macaroni. It could be homemade as well as in a restaurant but it was an absolute necessity. It also allowed time for the friends to get together and talk. Nowadays, the three of them went together, girl time being an essential part to their daily routine, and one time in the week when Piper could be something than else than a mom, even if it only was for an hour and a half.

Annabeth put Rose down and she ran into her bedroom, probably to get the latest drawing she had made and to give it to her beloved Godmother. Annabeth never left without being gifted with the most exquisite creation of the week, which ranged from felt tip drawings to ghastly wooden projects covered in glue, much like her calendar. Annabeth always graciously accepted the present, no matter how many times she had already had exactly the same thing.

"Annabeth, it was your turn to bring the macaroni, right?"

They hadn't eaten macaroni in a restaurant for so long now, because Monday nights were not the time to be dining out late. What generally happened was that one of them brought the good and they ate it in Piper's apartment. They would've gone to Annabeth's place, but since she lived with Percy and Piper was trying to avoid her old life, they never went there. And frankly, it was great for both of them, the task of bringing Rose somewhere else was always extremely worrying for Piper, who definitely was an overprotective mother goose.

"Annabeth, Annabeth. Will you look at my drawing? I made it at the restaurant today?"

Piper took the box of instant pasta of her friend and began to prepare dinner, while Annabeth was forced into another session of intent drawing observation. Her mother casually glanced at the table and saw it was still the same awful drawing. The one where Rose had drawn her family.

She filled a pot with water and turned the gas up, trying to forget what was going on next to her. The steam quickly began to rise, much like the foggiest in her thoughts and confusion popped in both the water and her mind. Being tired on a Monday night wasn't exactly the best way to start he week.

"And this is my daddy."

"Your daddy. Do you know him?"

"No, but I tried to give this drawing to a really nice man today, but that just made mom cry a lot."

"She didn't want you to give the drawing?"

"No, I think she just didn't like the man. But he was very nice."

Annabeth stared at her friend. Piper quickly ducked behind her bangs trying to avoid her friend's questioning eyes.

"Piper..."

"Not now ok?" And she shot a glance in Rose's direction before returning to her meal preparing.

The dinner went fine. Rose's constant drone allowed the others to forget that Piper had burnt the macaroni, thing that rarely happened, only when she was really tired or distraught. Tonight seemed to be both. Piper pretended everything was okay for her daughter's sake and ignored Annabeth's worried glances. When all was eaten and the dishes were done, Rose was getting sleepy, rubbing her eyes.

"Come on darling. It's time to go to bed." She cradled her daughter in her arms and began to walk over to her bedroom.

"Can Annabeth read me a story?"

"Sorry darling, it's getting very late and you have to sleep a lot if you want to be ready to go to the restaurant tomorrow."

"Oh, okay." Piper pulled back the covers on her daughter's bed. They were a simple pink colour with no elaborate kitschy designs. Rose yawned and turned to face her.

"Who was the man, mommy?"

"I'll tell you one day, okay darling."

Annabeth came in and kissed the little girl goodnight. Meanwhile, Piper switched on the lamplight, basking the room in a sweet silver colour with star designs lighting up the roof. As the two women left the room, she slowly hummed Summertime and Rose fell asleep, a look of serene peace on her face.

"Aren't they always sweeter when they sleep?"

Annabeth chuckled, "Of course, as sweet as sugar. No one knows they will give you diabetes. Now come on."

She grabbed her friend by the arm and dragged her back into the kitchen, sat her on a chair and then proceeded to open the cupboard in the search of two wine glasses. This was how Macaroni Monday always ended, red wine and girl talk until one of them decided it was rather late and the other one should be getting home.

Annabeth uncorked the bottle, poured two glasses and then looked intently at her friend.

"Now, spill."

"I saw him again."

Annabeth's eyes widened. They were so huge Piper now felt uncomfortable. She dunked the entire content of her glass and waited for Annabeth's reaction.

"What! Where? Why? How? When?"

"Oh, it was horrible Annabeth. I didn't know what to do. It was in the restaurant. He was there. And there was Percy, Leo and Frank.

"So that's why he was acting weird tonight," Annabeth muttered under her breath before crushing her friend into a hug. "Don't worry Pipes, you can still ignore him, you don't have to see him again. I'll talk to him; make it very clear he should never try to contact you again."

Annabeth, had chosen a very different path from Piper. She had embraced the whole Demi-god part of her life. She was still friends with everyone from the crew. She was actually still going out with Percy. Piper guessed that if you came out of Tartarus with a guy, you just never let go of him. The match-maker part inside her knew that the two of them were eventually going to get married. Annabeth was so lucky in her eyes, she still went to camp and trained the young ones, she still had all her friends, and she had a fabulous boyfriend, a successful career in architecture… Piper wasn't jealous, quite the opposite, she was constantly elated for her friend, but sometimes she wondered if she could have lived that sort of life too.

"You're too kind Annabeth, but it just isn't possible."

"Why not?" A look from Piper gave her the answer and her caring smile faltered.

"Oh…"

"Rose has a right to know her father I suppose; it is written in the law about Children's rights."

"So you will have to meet him again."

"What am I going to do?" Piper wailed, looking back at that, she thought she sounded pathetically childish. What a great example for her child, if even her mother wasn't able to be a responsible adult what was little Rose going to be?, "I don't even know where to get his number."

"What are friends for except helping to annoy your ex? I have his number you idiot!" She said with a laugh. "As for what you're going to do… Drink some more wine and watch Bridget Jones' diary for the third time this month?"

Piper giggled and agreed to the plan. Annabeth always knew how to cheer her up, so they jumped into her sofa, turned on the television and talked until the movie was over, probably not listening to one word that the actors spoke.

Later on, when Piper was in her bed, a huge part of the dread had been lifted off of her shoulders, but she knew that the next day was going to be difficult considering what she was going to have to do. She drifted off into an uneasy sleep, pledged by dreams of monsters she had not had in a very long time…

Jason's POV

Jason was dreaming. Well, not quite, he was having a nightmare, but the verb to nightmare had not yet been invented and so he was dreaming, with all of its flowery, summery, full of unicorns and just generally happy connotations. Unfortunately, his dream couldn't have been farther than that.

Once again, he was in the play-ground watching the little girl play. But he now knew it wasn't just any little girl anymore, it was his little girl, his daughter, Rose. She was humming quietly to herself, piling sand upon sand in a makeshift sandcastle when suddenly the sky turned black. The previous sunny sky turned to storm in a blink of an eye. Jason normally relished storms, but this one made the hair at the back of his neck raise and his stomach twist with dread. He already knew what was going to happen, a unknown monster was going to jump out of the neighbouring forest and attack the little girl. But this time, the usual worry was doubled, no, tripled. This was his daughter out there, and no one should have been allowed to harm her.

The dreaded part came and out creeped the monster from the shadows. Strangely, it wasn't just a dark looming figure, something or someone was taking shape before his eyes. Jason expected to be snapped back to reality any moment now, but nothing happened the dream just went on and on.

The creature that emerged from the dark was actually a woman. Or something similar to a woman. She was so pale she looked like a ghost, the top half of her body only covered with a white cloth. The lower half of her body bore nothing human, it was a massive green snake's tail, the scales gleaming and the end of the tail slithering to cool around her body.

"Rose?" She whispered in an eerie high-pitched voice. "Rose, have you been a good girl?"

The sound of her voice was absolutely petrifying. It made his bones freeze and his ears sing in agony. When he looked at her face, he was overcome with violent nausea. There was nothing were there should have been eyes. Only bloody red empty orbits.

Jason woke up. His hair was sticking to his forehead and the sheets felt as though they had had a vacation in a tropical country. He checked his alarm clock and saw that it was only 6:30. He got up and went over to his bathroom to take a shower, but couldn't shrug off the uneasy feeling the dream had left him.

The warm water soaked through his skin and relaxed his muscles. The burning sensation of water against skin distracted him from the dream he was trying to forget. He knew it was a bad idea to ignore a Demi-God dream but he just couldn't take it. There was way too much going on in his life right now.

As he tugged a pair of pants on, he thought about the discoveries he had made online the night before. Piper had opened her restaurant 3 years ago and it had immediately become a success amongst the twenty year old population in New York, as organic gluten-free food was the fashion. Jason knew that Piper had opened the restaurant according to what she believed and not to follow the trend.

He found it funny that she had chosen to name it "Cornucopia". She might have tried to ignore her past life, but it came running after her and must've been lodged in a deep secret corner of her mind. That cornucopia had been really useful ten years ago, to come to think about it. It was the beginning of their relationship, one that had been founded on a lie. They had tried to fix that, but he supposed it just hadn't been enough.

Well, it had been enough for certain things, he thought to himself as he buttered a piece of toast. Enough for them to create life. Jason was a father. He had never considered having any children before, and the fact that one had been forced upon him had awoken something deep inside of him. A weird feeling that told him he had to care and protect the child no matter what. It changed the way he looked at things, and suddenly he worried about Rose's safety. The dream he had been having sure wasn't a good premonition. He had to do something about it. But first he had to meet the girl, his girl. Gods dammit, he just couldn't get the idea wrapped around his mind. It was so completely unexpected.

He remembered when Frank and Hazel had first become parents, 4 years ago. Come to think of it, Rose and the boy were probably the same age now, though he couldn't be sure. Little Timothy had literally been their only subject of conversation for months and it was hard to talk to Frank without him mentioning the last thing Timmy had done. Well, Jason had always kind of expected that on Frank's behalf, he made such a great dad. They both were so protective, and it was normal, considering the boy had both the blood of Pluto and Mars running in his veins. They had considered moving to Camp Jupiter altogether for his safety but chose to remain in New Orleans for job reasons.

That made him wonder, Rose also had the blood, or rather the ichor of two major gods, who knew how much of a prey she was to monsters? And to think that the girl had never been to camp, she probably didn't even know her heritage... Though it was probably better that way, worry churned in his stomach. One thing was sure he had to met her.

He trudged to work once again, stuck in a repetitive loop that was most unexciting and ding a job that was more than boring. But today was going to be different, tonight after work he was going to try to meet Piper, the woman he had loved for so long, and probably still did, no matter how broken his heart had been.

The weather forecast was most unexceptional as another mostly cloudy day announced itself. Some sun in the south, colder weather in the north, everything was following the normal temperatures for the seasons. Clearly the gods must've been at piece. After the seven had defeated Gaea and the Giants, there wren't that many major threats anymore, so the gods were free to have a little fun and return to their bad habits of frolicking amongst mortals, augmenting the number of young Demi-gods considerably. Since the gods now had to claim their children before they were 12, a lot of them came in when they were even younger. Camp had never been quite such a full space. It also didn't help that Percy was trying to identify a large number of the minor gods. A ton of new cabins had to be built at camp-half blood. Maybe it was better when there was a war going on...

Despite all of this godly meddling, Jupiter almost never visited his son. Not that it particularly bothered Jason, he had been absent from all of his childhood and had abandoned him and Thalia, but he thought that maybe he could've put an effort into it, or suggested Jason took a job at camp...

Finally, the end of the day arrived after painstakingly long hours of worried anticipation. He rushed out of the office, only stopping once to say goodbye to Linda.

"Better already Mr Grace?" She asked seductively. When had her lips gotten so pretty?

"Oh quite. Thank you for asking." Had her eyes always been that blue?

"Oh your welcome. Goodbye!" And her hair looked so- Jason shrugged off the weird thoughts he had been having and remembered he had to go and find Piper. In the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Linda scowl and mutter something like: "next time will be the right." He ignored it, thinking Linda must not have been well today.

Off he navigated into the streets, turning regularly after a block or so. Somehow he knew his way, despite only doing it twice. Things that happen in dramatic moments tend to mark you.

Suddenly, he bumped into someone. There had been a lot of bumping into people lately, Jason must've been tired. Unfortunately, this time, the person toppled over and fell. He had not quite expected that. It was getting dark and Jason couldn't see who it was and he put out his hand to help the person up, regretting he had been the one to push them into a pile of soggy leaves.

In the light of the street lamps, he saw who it was.

"Piper."

"Jason."

"We need to talk." They said at the same time. An unexpected smile be can to etch itself on the corners of Piper's mouth. She was dressed in a long black felt coat, a green knitted scarf carefully wrapped around her throat. A brown dress peeked out of the coat and then came of pair of grey tights and finally some black knee high boots. Suddenly, a shadow came across her face and the smile disappeared below the same scowl that he had seen yesterday.

"Exactly. Now come, I need to get Rose, I left her with the chef to come and find you."

"You came to find me?"

"Wipe that grin off your face and come on!" She huffed.

And with those words, she grabbed his wrists and dragged him across New York so that they could have a conversation. One of Jason's wishes was finally becoming true.

A/N yay! One more chapter!

Thanks to everyone who's read reviewed favourited or followed. It means a lot to me!

See you soon,

Butterflies765