Part One: Sea

Chapter II

Sally registered the smell of the ocean before she registered the presence of the man behind her. Like always, she felt the tingle of emotion fly from her heart to her stomach that indicated Poseidon's presence. This tingle only augmented in fervor when a small being, half Sally, and half Poseidon, took up residence in her belly eight months ago.

"Hello, love," Sally says, not turning around. Sally can hear the smile in his voice when he replies. "How'd you know I was here?"

"You're not exactly discreet," Sally responds, not wanting to tell him she can smell him. The two of them had been together - Sally did not dare to label their relationship with a title as menial as "dating", the word seemed too small and far too insignificant for what they had together - for almost a full year now. Long ago, she had learned to read the differences in his mood like one could read the mood of the ocean. Often these moods came with a slightly different smell and different energy. Today, he smelt of an ocean in tumult, all stinging ocean salt and raging waves.

The silence drags on and Sally waits for Poseidon to respond, him always having been the conversationalist. When an eternity that only lasts several seconds continues to fill the space between them, Sally puts her hand, dwarfed by his large cheek, to his face, forcing him to look at her.

"What's wrong?" She asks gently. Poseidon sighs, visibly distraught. He snakes his muscular arms, taut as steel rope, around Sally's waist, pressing their bodies as close together as the large lump that is their unborn child would allow.

"I have something to tell you. Something you aren't going to like." Poseidon says in a voice that sounds more like a groan than regular speech. Sally stiffens. She expected this. How could a god- a god- simply abandon his seat of power for any length of time to settle down with some mortal woman? Of course Poseidon would have to leave her. It would be useless to deny this eventuality any longer. The loneliness that had defined her life for so long had been held at bay with Poseidon but she knew it had to end eventually. But, at least, Sally would have one last thing from Poseidon to prevent their separation from hurting too badly, a parting gift: Percy.

Sally steels herself before squaring her shoulders, shaking herself from Poseidon's comforting grip. She grabs his shoulders and leads him over to a bench, sitting him down. Sally sits next to him, leaning towards him so their knees touch. She would be strong. She would not allow this news to break her.

"Well. Get on with it."

And he does. He reminds her of what he told her before their relationship became serious, that the other gods must not know of their affair, that it was forbidden. Then he tells her that the other gods have found out, discovered not only the affair but the child growing inside of Sally.

And that, worst of all, Percy would have to be taken from her. Poseidon's words ring in her ears, deafening her to the rest of his words. He was taking Percy away.

At this, every fear, everything wrong that has ever occurred in her life, seems insignificant, a tiny pebble next to the boulder of tragedy that is Poseidon's revelation. Sally feels as if she has been submerged in ice cold water; freezing from her head to toes and unable to breathe. This news was so much worse than what she had prepared herself for. She feels herself begin to break.

"No," Sally whispers, "No, no, no, no, no, no. How could this happen? How did they find out?"

Poseidon murmurs something unintelligible. "What?" Sally whispers urgently, desperate to find the reason for the blow that's tearing her life apart.

"It was my fault," Poseidon whispers in a voice almost too quiet to decipher.

"No. It can't be." Sally's mind hit a brick wall, an insurmountable obstacle that obstructs her ability to comprehend.

"It was my fault," Poseidon repeats in a whisper that sounds more like a groan. "I told Zeus about Hades' children. Hades retaliated. He already knew about you and about Zeus' forbidden child. We had to come to a compromise. We decided that we would have to remove our children from the mortal world for the protection of the entire world. You don't understand... The Prophecy. If it applies to any of the children sired by me or my brothers... it would be catastrophic."

"I don't understand. My child is being taken away from me because he could be the child of some prophecy?" Sally's voice rung shrill with anguish and anger. She forced herself to take several calming breaths, steeling her nerves and her voice. "No. No. I won't allow it. I'm not giving Percy up."

The look on Poseidon's face caused some of Sally's rock hard resolve to crumble. "What? What's that face?"

"You don't understand." Poseidon starts, seeming to have trouble forming any more words. "If you don't allow me to take Percy, my brothers will have both of you... disposed of." Any hope Sally had of recovering from this new development fell away. There was no way she would risk the life of her unborn child. Not for anything.

"Where are you taking him?" Sally asks, voice broken to match her heart, tears rolling steadily down her cheeks.

"Under the sea. With me. To Atlantis." Although his voice was quiet, sorrow radiated from his words like cold from a glacier, freezing her thoughts.

"What? What do you- what - How -how will he survive?" She blustered.

"Perceus will have powers beyond anything you can imagine. Going under the water will do nothing but help him develop, to grow stronger. My blood in his veins gives him more than the title of demigod. Perseus will be able to do what I can do. He will have the power to control the sea. That's what makes him so powerful, in part. The power possessed by the children of me and my brothers far surpasses that of other demigods. In the past, this has posed many problems."

The tension that resides in the silence between Sally and Poseidon is so thick it's almost palpable.

"How long?" Sally asks, her voice a sound of pain, her eyes a broken mirror, each shard a piece of what was once her heart. "How long do I have until you take my son from me?" She sees and revels in the pain that calling Percy my son causes him.

"As soon as he's born," Poseidon says quietly, his voice every bit as broken as Sally's.

"Will I get to see him again? Or you?" Sally questions, knowing the answer but having to ask regardless.

"No." At this, the first of many tears spills from Poseidon's deep, sea-colored eyes. Eyes that hold as much sorrow as Sally has ever seen. More sorrow than a mortal soul could ever hope to bear. But not more than Sally feels crushing her own soul. Drawing strength she did not know she possessed, Sally sucks in a breath of salty air and forces her breathing to steady. "Then we better make the most of our time together." She declares.

/

The month that followed was bittersweet. Both Poseidon and Sally tried to continue as they had before the revelation but found it nearly impossible to have even a simple conversation without it fading into an unpleasant silence, full of dread for what was soon to come.

Sally found herself debating whether she wanted her pregnancy to continue forever or if she wanted Percy to simply come out and end this unbearable waiting. But worrying over what Sally wanted was trivial; if what Sally wanted held any consequence she wouldn't be in this situation at all. When she finally felt her water break she was halfway frozen in crippling fear and halfway filled with relief; her waiting was finally over. Well not quite, she supposed. First, she would have to go through the process of giving birth. Thankfully, the whole process seemed to fly by, partially due to her mind moving a thousand miles a minute, trying to absorb every moment of her remaining time with her unborn son, which resulted in her being unable to absorb anything. Partially because of all the drugs.

When Percy was finally brought into the world, Sally was so exhausted she had forgotten the dread she had been dragging around with her since she learned that Percy would be taken from her. In the first moments Sally held the tiny baby in her arms, everything was right in the world.

Then the smell of the ocean came rushing into her nose and for the first time the scent made her sick to her stomach. He was here. It was time. Tears erupted unbidden from her eyes. Horrible, heaving, loud tears. Tears that ripped at her throat, seeming to tear it apart just as her heart was being torn apart.

Poseidon's hand came immediately to her cheek, as it so often had whenever Sally needed comfort. The thought that this hand would never again cup her face, that Poseidon's voice would never again whisper into her ear, telling her everything would be okay only brought more tears. Soon Percy joined in and the room was flooded with nurses aiming to stop the crying. Yet the nurses were unaware that the cause of the tears was beyond their abilities to fix. While they might be able to soothe their ward's physical ailments, the nurses would never be able to fix the real problem; they would never be able to heal the deep gash being torn in Sally's heart.

/

As soon as the doctor discharged Sally from the hospital, Poseidon brought her and their newly born son to the beach. Poseidon made sure that this was the same stretch of beach Sally and Poseidon first met on. Sally noticed this and yet another wave of tears erupted, but this time much less violently. Sally had already shed the tears of grief for the son she wouldn't get to raise, for the husband she didn't get to wed. These tears were soft, they were not tears of sorrow, but tears of remembrance. Tears marking the end of Sally's streak of luck she found that first day she walked along the beach.

Once the ground turned from solid, warm ground to wet, unstable sand, the small, broken family knew it was time to part ways.

Sally kissed the small head of her son one last time and handed him over to Poseidon before he could ask for him, saying in her own way that she was giving Percy to his father voluntarily rather than being forced to. Her own small act of defiance. The most she could do without risking the life of her son.

Poseidon leaned down, his rough, salty lips meeting Sally's soft ones, Percy cradled in between them, cooing softly.

"I love you so much. I will never forget you." Sally whispers to both Percy and Poseidon. "Make sure he knows. Tell him every day. His mother loves him so much."

"I will, I promise. I love you." In that moment, both Percy and Poseidon's eyes met hers. Four sea green eyes, both sets identical, meeting Sally's soft brown ones. "I will always love you."

The outline of Poseidon's back was blurred by tears as he receded into the waves. These tears were not soft. These tears were of sorrow.