Chapter Summary: After Percy and Annabeth's children find out about the...fantastical parts of their lives, Charlie shuts himself in his room. Percy goes to talk to him.


Percy opened the door to his sons' bedroom. Charlie was sitting on his bed, deep in thought, his expression identical to Annabeth's.

"Hey, dude," Percy said, moving into the room. Charlie glanced at him, expression weary and irritated. He sighed, crossing over to his eldest son's bed. He shouldn't have expected anything else. And, if he was being honest, he probably deserved it. He had lied to his kids their whole lives.

"I'm sorry, kiddo." Percy said quietly. Charlie's head snapped up, eyes blazing.

"So it's for my own good? You were going to tell me?" Gods, it hurt his heart to hear his son so upset. He was usually so happy-go-lucky. Just like I was, Percy thought bitterly. Then my world turned upside-down. Great, now all he wanted to do was hold Charlie close, like when he was two and had a nightmare.

"I wanted to keep you safe. The world is scary, and -" Percy put a hand on Charlie's shoulder. "Sometimes knowledge isn't good for you."

"Maybe I should be allowed to know who I am." Charlie said.

"You absolutely should," Percy said, looking him in the eyes. "But it's more complicated than that. We didn't want you to be scared. Maybe it was selfish, but we just wanted you to have a happy childhood. To feel normal, which is something your mom and I never had. We didn't want your life to be filled with fear and things you didn't understand."

The two Jackson boys sat in silence for a while, looking out at the twilight sky until Charlie broke it.

"It is scary, Dad," He said, almost in tears. "Earlier at the beach I was more scared than I've been in my entire life. I didn't know what was happening, you got hurt, and -" He finally broke down. He buried himself in his father's chest, crying. Percy let him. As much as he wanted to take away his son's pain, the most he could do was be there for him. Something he'd promised to do from the moment he found out Charlie existed. And, by the gods, he would do it.


Hello all! I'm sorry I've been so quiet, but life got in the way, and writing fell to the wayside (aka, I started school again...two months ago). This is my first published Percy Jackson fanfic, so I hope you like Percy's characterization. Ideally, this will be a combination of Percy and Annabeth's perspectives, but I'm a sucker for Percy-centic stuff.