Percy

I grabbed the cap and put it on. I didn't really understand why Annabeth was doing this, but the past four years had taught me to trust her plans. She was about to ring on the door when my mom came around the corner, carrying a bag of groceries. It took her a few seconds to notice Annabeth. "Oh, uh, hi. I wasn't expecting you here." "Well, the war is over, Dirtface is dead, and I thought I'd visit you. I also brought some ambrosia, after my attempts at finding Percy used up everything you had" "Oh, thanks. Speaking of search attempts, what about Percy? Have you found him? Is he okay?" I decided to, for once, ignore Annabeth's plan. Well, she did tell me to reveal myself eventually, so I wasn't really ignoring it. I slowly took off the cap.

"Don't worry Mom, I'm here. With all my memories" I walked up to her and hugged her just long enough to make Annabeth jealous. "Turns out I won't have to live with just one child" Annabeth and I looked at her equally confused. "I'm pregnant" She explained. "Third month" 'And I won't have just one small child in my life' I thought. 'If Annabeth becoming a first grader develops into something regular' but of course I didn't say that.

I helped her carry the groceries into the apartment. Paul came around the corner and saw us. "Ah, my favorite stepson is alive and well. And there comes my favorite potential future step daughter in law" This was the second time today that Annabeth/ her family were called my in laws. It seemed like everyone was just waiting for us to get married. Of course, I wanted it too, but like, I'm not even seventeen. "Well, it might happen at some point. The biggest problem is that Hera, the goddess of marriage kinda hates us. Maybe we can get Chione to kidnap her again." "That'd be great. And I think this time, forge and dove shall protect the cage. I've heard Leo is quite good at trapping goddesses."

"I'm sure you two will find a way. I mean, he returned me from literal death. Nothing is getting in the way of Perseus Jackson. So, what happened to you since December?"

I began my story. "It started on December 13th. I think. I went to bed like normal and when I woke up, it was months later and I was in California. Of, course, at that time, I didn't know any of these things. I didn't even know my name. But I knew her name..." I looked at Annabeth " ...her face and that I loved her. And that I liked blue food. I wonder when exactly that was" "18th of April" Annabeth instantly said. "Grover felt it when you woke up. That's how I know" "And then she started searching again. The Hypnos children showed her how to reach you in your dreams. I guess it's safer than going out alone. Honestly, once I knew that Hera was responsible for this, I was worried about Annabeth more than I was about Percy. She may hate you two, but she wouldn't let Percy die. Fred must have been so worried as well. Does he even know you're back?" "I don't see how he would. Maybe we can Iris message him. Percy?" I summoned water to create a rainbow and Annabeth tossed a drachma into it. "Frederick Chase, San Francisco" the rainbow opened to show Annabeth's dad sitting on the edge of his bed. He looked up at us. "Sally, why are you calling? It's 6:30 here." "Sorry, I always forget about the time difference. But I've got news for you." "Is it about Annabeth? Do you know where she is? Is she okay?" Before mom had time to answer, the person in question leaned into her father's field of view. "Don't worry, I'm here. And to answer your second question, I am mostly okay. At least physically. Mentally, I'm not really okay, but that's not news, is it?

"I've heard you've been through some pretty bad stuff. And I didn't even believe you. About the spiders. I'm sorry about that." "Dad, you literally got on a plane solo'ed the army of Kronos to save me. I think that more than makes up for it." He looked relieved to see that his daughter had forgiven him. "Okay, Percy just told me about how he woke up. What happened next?"

I told them how I woke up at the wolf house, trained with Lupa and eventually reached Camp Jupiter. "Mom, please don't freak out, it wasn't my choice" I took of my jacket and rolled up my sleeve, revealing the tattoo on my left arm. "How dare you get a-" "Like I said, no choice. It was part of joining Camp Jupiter. The only alternative would have been to try and survive on my own, which is not a very good idea, especially not for a child of the big three at 16 years old. I only survived the trip because I had the curse of Achilles" "wouldn't that still have protected you?" "No, I lost it when crossing the little Tiber, before finding out I'd have to get this Tattoo. Oh, and it's magical, so you can't get rid of it"

I told them about my quest with Frank and Hazel, how I drank the gorgon's blood ("don't worry mom, I knew what I was doing"), how we rescued Thanatos, about the battle back at camp Jupiter and how The Argo two arrived. At this point, I would have passed the metaphorical mike to Annabeth to tell her side to the story, but she had been here in NYC or with her dad most of the time, so Sally, Paul and Frederick already knew. She had also told me on the Argo II and in Tartarus to help against- 'don't think about it' I told myself. I could already sense those memories creeping closer.

Instead, we told them about everything that happened after Annabeth (And the rest of the Argo II crew) had arrived at Camp Jupiter. And when I say we told, I mean I told and Annabeth corrected. If she had been the one talking, the conversation would have been long enough for several books. I wonder what they would be called. "Annabeth Chase and the no longer missing boyfriend" "Annabeth Chase and the mark of Athena" "Annabeth Chase and the hard-to-find exit" "Annabeth Chase and the battle against Dirtface". People would probably even buy them. Luckily, Annabeth did not tell the story. I explained how we had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and our various quests in Rome. Annabeth did end up telling our parents about her own quest. She had just explained how she had weaved a bridge when Sally interrupted her. "That sounds like a really clever idea, but why didn't you just do this?" She sat down on the edge of the table and pushed herself along with her hands. "That seems like it'd be much faster." "I guess I was so focused on finding the intended solution that I didn't think to find the easiest. Also, my brain was a tiny bit fixated on weaving at the time, because, you know, I was about to face the weaver, or it's because my mom's also the goddess of crafts. Whatever the case, just pushing myself like you just did would have been a lot smarter." She face palmed. That was probably the first time she ever did that. At least for her own stupidity. I had gotten plenty of face palms from her "It might have been slow, but it worked and I wasn't exactly in a rush. When I reached the other side, I used a torch to…" She proceeded to tell us about her plan to trap Arachne, which had of course worked, and how the Argo II had come to the rescue. "The explosion created a bunch of holes that led straight to Tar… Tarta… Basically to hell." All parents were quite surprised by Annabeth being unable to say Tartarus, but they didn't know what had happened to us. In fact, Annabeth seemed unable to continue talking at all. Understandable, this was only minutes away from themost traumatic experience of her life. "Do you want me to continue?" I asked Annabeth. She simply nodded "The good news is, Arachne felt into one of the holes, the bad news is that Annabeth was pulled in by Arachne's web. I caught her, but I got pulled in as well. I caught myself on a ledge, but I knew I couldn't pull us up, so I let go." Silence. Paul was the first to speak. "So, did I get this right? You two fell into Tartarus?" Annabeth shuddered from just hearing the name. "Yes, we did. But one thing that Percy somewhat forgot to mention is that he had a choice. He could have let me go and pulled himself up, and I told him to do so, but he fell with me instead" " I see, you have picked the right boyfriend. You know, I've spent months with Athena, and of course I read stories about her, and I can assure you, not approving of Percy is one of the dumbest things she has ever done."

"Agreed" Paul said. "So, can we go back the part where you fell into hell?" "Yeah, we were in there." Annabeth explained. "Then we escaped. If you want more information, go ask Piper or something, I've told her everything and I'm not going to talk about it again. Just know that basically everything down there was constantly trying to kill us, like, even more than usually, and that was very traumatic" I could tell how hard it was for her to talk about it, even just listening wasn't exactly enjoyable. Instead, we told our parents about everything that happened after the house of Hades. "It all went well, but then one of us randomly started bleeding out of an unspecified hole, which woke up Gaia." That statement at least earned me a "Well played, seaweed brain" before Annabeth resolved the situation: "I know what this sounds like, but it was actually Percy. He got a nosebleed. My blood was only spilled because a giant sliced my leg."

"Ok, Percy ruined everything, what's next?" "Well, Gaia woke up and that's when the gods finally decided to show up. We killed some Giants together and Zeus yeeted our ship to Camp half blood. The ship shattered on the way and Festus, the dragon, somehow appeared from the rubble. When we arrived, Jason, Piper, Festus and Leo worked together to kill Dirtface. I think what actually killed her was the imperial gold projectile that Octavian shot at her. Unfortunately, Leo didn't make it. Nico says he felt him die." "Well, sometimes a sacrifice is necessary." Sally told us "I experienced that myself. In fact, I was the sacrifice." A moment of silence. Then, the oven started beeping "Ok, who wants blue cookies? Sorry Fred, I'll make sure Annabeth brings you a batch next time she visits." I turned on the kitchen faucet and used the water to turn off the alarm and open the oven. However, when I tried to grab the cookie tray, it slipped off the water column that was holding it. It was like the water had been covered with soap, which is probably the least sensical thing I said today. I stood up to get the tray by hand while Annabeth started giving a lecture on the leidenfrost effect. I didn't understand all of it, but it had something to do with water vapor creating pressure and also cooling the surrounding material.

Paul asked: "so, if I were to make my hands really wet, I should be safe to touch any hot surfaces, at least for a fraction of a second, right?" "Correct, I wouldn't try it though." "Is that how I survived mount St. Helens? By boiling away the ocean water I summoned with my powers?" "Could be. Given the Explosion that happened, there was definitely a lot of boiling involved." "wait wait wait" Frederick interrupted. You mean the eruption in 2008?" "Yup, that one. That was me" "So, my daughter is dating a guy who created an explosion several hundred times stronger than the fat man? Maybe Athena was right…"

"Nope, I'm still the best boyfriend. I'll just try to, err, not explode her body. Is that okay with everyone? Or do you have more requirements? I'm guessing the usual 'If you hurt her, I'll kill you' applies." "I think that's enough. And the rest will be taken care of by the fact that you love her way too much to do her anything bad. And yes, that rule applies. Except that, if you hurt my daughter, she will be perfectly able to kill you herself." I interpreted that as 'I fully approve of your relationship'. One person less to worry about. That only left two goddesses.

We continued talking for a while, sharing the funniest moments from the last months (My favorite was when Frank had turned into an iguana to escape the Chinese finger trap). I also wanted to tell them about what had happened the last two days, but I decided that it should be Annabeth's choice to start that topic, which she didn't. Like I said, her choice. She already trusted me with it, which was more than enough (But then again, after yesterday evening, she didn't really have a choice.)

After a while, we decided to head back to camp. No need to create another missing hero panic. We left the apartment, got onto Mrs. O'Leary (who was currently inspected our trash)'s back and disappeared into the shadows.