Hi, everyone! SO sorry for the long wait for this update. I know I promised it forever ago.

This chapter is formatted more like CME was. I can't decide whether I like it or if it's too scatterbrained, but it's all I've got for the time being, and I did want to include Annabeth's side of the family. Let me know what you think!


"She's gorgeous, guys," Annabeth said, cradling her niece, Ava, in her arms. Bobby, who stood beside me, and his wife, Brianna, smiled on proudly.

We were in California, at Annabeth's parents' house. Bobby and his family had stopped by to see us and allow us to meet their newest addition. Their older daughter, Olivia, just shy of four years old, played outside with Carly on the back porch.

The yearly peace celebration the Greeks and Romans participated in each year was set to take place at Camp Jupiter in two days' time and Frederick and Theresa had invited us to stay with them for a few days beforehand. They had been in New York at the beginning of the summer for a conference but it was nice to see them again so soon. Normally, far more time passed between visits.

We'd flown in from New York late the previous night and were spending the days before the celebration in San Francisco. Many of Camp Half-Blood's campers were travelling to California as well but we'd picked Logan and Nicky up early and brought them down with us so the Chases could see them. Matthew, Bobby's twin, and his fiancée, Liz, were joining us later for dinner.

Liz didn't know about half-bloods and Brianna had only just found out for herself about a year ago. The twins were fully mortal and, as such, their significant others were as well. It made for an interesting situation at times, but with Carly still very much in the dark about her godly heritage, it wasn't normally too difficult to keep things on the D.L. Once all of our kids knew, it might get more complicated. For now, though, it was mostly fine.

Mostly, because of the empousa attack the last time we'd been in town that had led to Brianna's learning the truth in the first place. That had been a difficult conversation, but she'd taken it pretty well.

Annabeth, seated on the couch next to her sister-in-law, tore her eyes away from the newborn now and smiled up at me. She loved babies. She had been adamant for some time now though that we would not be having any more, and after what happened after Carly's birth, that was pretty okay with me. Instead, with her brothers now at childbearing age, she was content to spoil theirs. I smiled back.

"Does she sleep well?" she asked, turning back again.

"Actually, yeah. She's really good," answered Brianna, "Better than Liv was at her age."

"But Liv was an awful sleeper," Bobby put in with a smirk.

"Well, yeah," his wife laughed. She looked between us and then shook her head, sighing. "I don't know how you guys do it with three. Having two kids is exhausting."

"Going from one to two is harder than from two to three," Annabeth said understandingly. I nodded. "You get used to it."

The back door sliding open sounded from the next room. Any response Brianna may have had to Annabeth's words was cut short when, a few seconds later, Carly appeared, running into the living room and up to me with tears in her green eyes. "Daddy!" she sobbed, and holding her right hand out, "Daddy, I got a splinter! Get it out! It hurts!"

"Okay, okay. Calm down," I said, taking her hand in mine to examine the splinter of wood imbedded in the skin of her pinky.

"It's a splinter," she insisted tearfully.

"Yeah, it is. It's okay." I stood up, "Come on. We'll go ask Grandma for some tweezers and take it out."

"But it'll hurt."

"Maybe, but it will hurt more if you leave it in," I said reasonably.

She considered that, and then looked to Annabeth for confirmation of this. She nodded. "Okay," Carly said hesitantly.

"It'll be okay," I promised, taking her uninjured hand in mine. Gods know, at six years old there's nothing worse than a splinter.


"So," Frederick asked, standing a little to my left as I threw a baseball back and forth with Logan in the yard, "How're the boys doing with camp?" He'd wandered out to watch a few minutes ago, and it was just the three of us.

I caught the ball out of the air and glanced sideways at him quickly before turning back and lobbing the ball to Logan again. It still took me by surprise sometimes to hear Annabeth's family discuss the half-blood aspects of our lives so casually now, when it had been such a sore point not all that long ago.

Logan caught the pitch beautifully. He'd shown a real interest in baseball over the past year and planned to try out for his school team in the coming year. He asked me to play catch with him at every opportunity and liked a challenge. He stood far enough away from us to be out of earshot.

"They're doing really well," I answered, "Unfortunately we've left them quite a legacy to live up to, but I think they handle it pretty well."

Frederick nodded. "And Carly?"

"We haven't told her yet. There've been a few close calls, but so far we haven't had to."

"She hasn't had any nightmares like Logan did, has she?"

"No, not so far. Nicky never did, so I'm hoping it's that way with her too."

"You don't want to tell her until you have to." It wasn't a question.

I nodded, throwing another pass at Logan, "It's more dangerous once they know."

"And she's your little girl," he supplied knowingly.

I smiled a little, Logan's pitch making contact with my glove, "Yeah," I admitted. The image of little Carly learning to fight with weapons and facing down monsters was not one I wanted to have to picture just yet. She was still very young. Logan had only learned at her age because we'd had no choice. I was personally hoping for a few more years of ignorance for her.

Our family wasn't the only one with kids not in the know, and the celebrations held every year between the camps had changed over the years to support this. We all did the best we could to keep the little ones safe and out of the loop as much as we could. So far, we'd been lucky.

Frederick looked thoughtful and was quiet for a moment. Logan sent another powerful throw my way. "Nice!" I called. He grinned.

"I don't think I've ever actually thanked you, Percy," Frederick said after I threw the ball back. It went a little long and bounced off the tip of Logan's glove. He trotted after it.

I looked at my father-in-law in confusion. "For what?"

Annabeth's father watched Logan retrieve the ball and wind up to throw it back. His eyes stayed focused there as he answered. "For taking care of Annabeth like you have." He looked at me now. "She's my little girl and I've always wanted the best for her. I regret the way I handled parenting when she was young, I didn't know how to deal with it all. But you've given her everything I've ever wanted for her, and in a way it's because of you that we have the relationship we do now. So thank you." In my shock at his unexpected words, I completely missed the baseball Logan threw back. It flew right past me.

"Dad!" he complained.

"Sorry!" I called, trotting over to where it landed in the grass and sending it back.

Frederick smirked in amusement as I returned to my original spot. "Sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to throw you off guard."

"No, it's okay. Um…" I caught Logan's ball again, "You're welcome." I threw it back, "But you can't really give me all the credit. Annabeth doesn't do anything she doesn't want to."

Frederick laughed. "That I know all too well."


Matthew and Liz arrived about an hour before dinner. Theresa cooked a huge meal, which Brianna had to leave halfway through to tend to a fussy baby—those were days I remembered well and was glad to be past. She returned a few minutes later with Ava cradled to her chest and quiet so long as she was held.

"Hey, Nick," Matthew said across the table to his nephew, "It's your birthday pretty soon, isn't it?"

Nicholas nodded. "On Wednesday. Dad's is on Tuesday."

"How old are you turning?" Liz asked from beside Matthew.

"Ten," he answered proudly.

"Wow," Matthew said, "You're getting old." He grinned and looked at me, "And you must be, what, fifty now?" he joked.

"Oh, thanks," I said.

"Daddy's not old!" Carly defended, and then looked at me like she couldn't process such a strange thought.

"Thank you, Peanut," I said emphatically.

"Well," Annabeth said lightly from beside me, "If thirty-seven's old, then we're old together." She looked at her bother, "But you're not that far behind."

"Please," said Theresa from the other end of the table, "None of you are old. If you're old, then I'm absolutely ancient, and I refuse to be ancient."

"So, Nicky," Brianna said, turning the conversation back to him, "Did you ask for anything cool for your birthday?"

Nicholas shrugged. "Yeah. A skateboard. I really want a puppy—"

"Me too!" cried Carly. Annabeth groaned. The kids had ganged up on us one by one on the puppy thing.

"—but Mom said no," he continued, unfazed by his sister's interruption.

Frederick looked at Annabeth curiously. "You don't want a dog?" he asked.

Annabeth looked back at her father with an expression that I easily read to mean she didn't want to have this conversation in front of our kids. Frederick seemed oblivious of this. "I don't know," she answered, "But if we did decide to get one—and we're not," she added quickly, glancing toward our listening children and back to her dad again, "I wouldn't get it as a birthday present for one kid and not the others. I break up enough arguments as it is." This got numerous chuckles from the parents around the table. She glanced back at Logan, Nicky, and Carly as she said it.

"That's wise," Frederick said with a thoughtful nod. Bobby chuckled. Frederick apparently missed the irony of his own comment. Liz looked at him, confused. No one elaborated. He added, "You wanted a puppy when you were little."

Annabeth smirked. "I was five, Dad."

"You were adamant too. I almost gave in until we found out about the twins." She nodded, apparently having nothing to say to this. Frederick meant only that getting a puppy when they were expecting two new babies wouldn't have been a good idea, but I knew her thoughts had gone elsewhere. She didn't need to say anything for me to know that.

Once the twins had come into the picture, the things Annabeth wanted and needed as a child had no longer been much of a priority to her father. Things were better and all was long forgiven now, but she still bore the scars of her hard upbringing. No amount of time or forgiveness would ever fully heal them.

"Did you ever get a dog?" Nicky piped up.

"No," Theresa answered. Carly looked distraught at that.

"Not for lack of trying though," said Matthew. Bobby grinned.

"So we're never gonna get a dog?" Carly asked sadly.

Annabeth sighed and cast an all-encompassing glare around the table at her family for bringing it up. "I don't know, Carly. Not right now."

"That's better than not at all," Logan spoke up hopefully.

"And that's as good as you're gonna get," she told him, "So drop it, okay?"

Liz, who had watched the entire exchange in rapt enthusiasm, chuckled and leaned back in her chair. She looked at Matthew, seated next to her. "I love your family."


"Survived the in-laws', I see," Leo grinned two days later when we arrived at Camp Jupiter's mess hall, where the celebratory feast was taking place. The boys were already gone, having run off with various friends. Carly was a table away, showing Emily Zhang the wildflowers she'd found next to the Caldecott Tunnel.

"We did," I grinned back, hugging Piper.

"And everyone who needs to be is still none-the-wiser?" Rachel asked, one arm still wrapped around Annabeth in greeting.

"I think so," I said.

Annabeth glanced at me and then smirked. "For now."


So it was kind of weird writing Matthew and Bobby as fully grown adults, as I've only ever written them as kids or teenagers. Still, it's a fun dynamic to write. And hopefully Frederick didn't seem OOC. I was trying for that unintentional obliviousness he seemed to have in the books without making him out to be a total idiot.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I promise to have the next chapter posted sooner than I did this one!