Hey, guys! I am so so so so so so sorry for how long it took me to write this chapter. Between school and work and just overall business, it's been a struggle to find the time and motivation to write. I know there was more than a little concern that I was abandoning this story. I'm not! I promise I will see it through to its end. It just might take a while at times. Thank you for your patience!

With that being said, I'll let you get reading. This update is long and hopefully worth the wait. Enjoy!


Carly started asking questions from almost the minute she woke up the next morning and had kept up a constant stream of them basically since, about all the smaller things she'd been too overwhelmed to ask the night before. How did my sword work? How did monsters know how to find half-bloods? What did ADHD have to do with anything? She asked about camp, the prophecies, the Oracle. She asked how it was possible that Thalia had become immortal if she'd once been like the rest of us. She asked why Rachel wasn't immortal if the Oracle she housed within her was. How did the Mist work? What made Grandma special that she could see through it and others couldn't? How did Grandpa manage to kill an empousa during the war if he couldn't see it? If the gods were all related, did that mean their children all were too?

And then there was, of course, my personal favorite: If the Olympians were immortal, super powerful gods, why did they need their kids to fix all their problems for them? Annabeth and I had just looked at each other and laughed before informing her that that was a good question and one that we still had yet to figure out ourselves.

The interrogation continued right up until we crested the top of Half-Blood Hill and she broke off mid-sentence to take in the entirety of Camp Half-Blood sprawling before her.

Spring was well underway in New York now and the weather was cool but not uncomfortable as the sun shone down on the place, as familiar to me as my own house. Many of the campers who normally went home for the school year had apparently, like our boys, returned for spring break. The place was more crowded than it normally was during the year as orange-clad half-bloods moved about below us; some playing volleyball, others carrying weapons toward the arena. Children of Demeter moved within the strawberry fields, readying them for the summer harvest. The lake glittered in the April sunlight, a single canoe on its surface held the only campers brave enough to brave the brisk water. Beyond it, the climbing wall spewed lava. Nearby, a familiar-looking half-blood landed his Pegasus outside the stables, caught sight of us, and waved. Annabeth and I returned the gesture. Carly, caught up in everything else, missed the whole exchange.

After several seconds of silence in which she gaped with wide green eyes, she managed a weak, "Whoa."

I grinned and looked down at her. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"This is camp?" she demanded.

"Yup." She stared down at it for another second, her eyes sparkling.

"Do you want to go down?" Annabeth asked, smiling.

"Yes!" she said quickly. Excitement oozed out of her every pore but she waited for us to lead the way down the hill.

In the years following the Titan and Giant wars, it had been nearly impossible for Annabeth and me to do anything at camp without being watched incessantly by younger, hero-worshipping half-bloods who'd been too new to camp to know us, rather than the celebrities the stories circulating around had made us into. It hadn't been too long after that school and work and life had made our attendance at camp events irregular at best, and, despite our efforts, the pedestal we were placed on never really went away.

By now though, the half-bloods who had been campers when we had, even those far younger than us, were all adults themselves, having and sending their own kids to Camp Half-Blood. We were no longer immediately recognized on sight unless someone took it upon themselves to call attention to us. But most who knew us knew how ardently we opposed such behavior so it rarely happened. As the attention died down more and more over the years, I'd grown increasingly grateful. It was a bigger blessing than I was willing to admit, our restored anonymity, for the boys and now Carly as much as for Annabeth and me.

We did receive numerous smiles and waves from familiar faces as we made our way down the hill, but no one flocked to us, no one ogled, and no one, thank the gods, asked for autographs—it had happened more than I wanted to admit and it had never grown any less mortifying.

A blond camper in an orange shirt caught sight of us on his way out of the arts and crafts building. Smile spreading across his face, Caleb Grace, Jason and Piper's eleven-year old son, ran over to greet us. He came up slightly short when he grew close and noticed Carly. Our families interacted enough that the young Graces were well aware that the youngest Jackson had still been in the dark. Carly offered her cousin a small wave. Caleb looked from her to Annabeth and me, the question plain in his multicolored eyes—so much like his mother's. Annabeth's nod must have been answer enough because he smiled then and looked back at Carly. "How'd you find out?" he asked.

"A monster got in the house," Carly replied with surprising nonchalance considering the state she'd been in when it had actually happened.

"Whoa," Caleb said with interest, looking between us now, "What happened?"

"Mom killed it," she answered him before either of us could, "How did you find out?"

He grinned. "When I was eight, I was snooping around my dad's office when I wasn't supposed to and accidentally found his sword." I'd heard the story firsthand from Jason when it had initially happened, but the recount still brought a smile to my face. Caleb grinned himself, "Yeah, I got in a lot of trouble, but they had to tell me the truth after that." Carly giggled.

I shook my head, still smirking. "Caleb, do you know where Chiron is?"

"I think he's teaching class still. He's probably almost done though." He looked between us, "Is Carly gonna stay at camp?"

"That's up to her," Annabeth replied, with a glance at our daughter who looked between us herself and then shrugged.

He nodded, understanding, and did not pressure her. "Are you gonna be here for a while?" he asked us.

"Probably at least through lunch," Annabeth replied.

"Cool," Caleb said with a smile as a fellow camper called his name from the edge of the nearby volleyball courts, drawing his attention away.

"Go have fun," Annabeth told him, smiling. "We'll see you later."

"Okay," he answered, already moving, before pausing and looking back, "Want to meet some of my friends?" he asked of Carly, who still stood close beside her mother. She looked immediately unsure.

"Um…" she said noncommittally. I took pity on her.

"Maybe in a little while, alright, bud?" I said for her, "We're going to go find Chiron and show her around a little bit."

Caleb nodded like that was a reasonable plan. "Okay. See you later!" He lifted a hand in a wave and then turned for the courts and the waiting campers once more. I watched him go for a second before looking back to Annabeth and Carly. The latter was again glancing around the camp in interest.

"Alright," I said, drawing her attention again. I pointed. "So this is the arts and crafts building. They have all kinds of stuff to do in there. And that's the Big House. Chiron's office is in there, and the infirmary. Important meetings always happen in there."

"You met mom in there," Carly said with a smile, piecing together the details from the stories we'd told her.

I smiled and met Annabeth's sparkling eyes before looking back at Carly again. "Yeah, I did." Officially anyway. I'd first seen her on the edge of consciousness at the foot of Half-Blood Hill, but formal introductions hadn't occurred until days later.

Carly looked past the arts and crafts building now, to the cabins, as mismatched as always, beyond. "What are those?" she asked.

"The cabins," Annabeth answered, smiling. "Come on," she said before the nine-year old got the chance to ask and led her further into camp.

Campers' schedules kept them busy for the majority of the morning, so the cabins were mostly empty save for the occasional half-blood running back to gather armor or books he or she had left behind. Carly looked with interest at each of the cabins and went inside Athena's when given the chance. Cabin Six, diligent as its occupants were, was empty, but we found Cole, my sixteen-year old half-brother, rushing out the door of Cabin Three as we approached, hair rumpled and still strapping half his armor crookedly on—after oversleeping, we'd learn later. He froze and seemed to forget about his lateness when he saw us though. He grinned, immediately recognizing his niece, though he'd never formally met her. "You finally told her!"

"Didn't really have much choice," I offered, but Cole paid me little attention, looking instead at Carly.

He introduced himself and then smiled at her. "Molly's gonna be stoked to have another Poseidon girl around here." Molly, fifteen, was the only current female occupant of Cabin Three. She and ten-year old Tucker were year-round campers. Cole, as far as I knew, still lived with his mom in Connecticut during school months, though he tended to jump back and forth from year to year.

While Poseidon had been adding siblings here and there over the twenty-three years since the Titan War, our numbers were still far lower than most of the other cabins. It was a fact I honestly could only be grateful for. To the best of my knowledge, I had five younger siblings currently. Jake and Hannah, both now in their early twenties, were in college and weren't much better in their camp attendance than Annabeth and I had been at their age. They were around occasionally during the summer and that was about it.

Carly, for her part, looked only mildly shell-shocked. We'd told her this morning over breakfast about Cole and his siblings—my siblings, but meeting everyone and seeing everything in person was undoubtedly a lot to take in. She offered an uncertain smile at Cole.

"She could decide to stay in the Athena cabin, you know," Annabeth put in from beside her with an easy smile.

"But why would she want to," Cole retorted with a playful grin, "when Poseidon is so much cooler?"

I almost choked on the laugh I held back. Annabeth's eyebrows rose, but amusement sparkled in her gray eyes. "Aren't you late for a sword class?" she asked him sweetly, ever the tolerant sister-in-law.

Cole, apparently, had forgotten as much. His eyes widened now and he started to swear in Ancient Greek before his eyes fell on the nine-year old in his midst and he caught himself. "Shoot!" he amended instead, already moving, "Yes. I've gotta go!" He left without another word, sprinting for the arena.

We watched him go before Carly turned and stepped forward, peering inside Cabin Three, the door to which was still thrown wide. The sun shone through the open window and the walls sparkled in its light. "It's pretty," she murmured, "This is where Logan and Nicky stay?"

"Yup," I told her, "But you can stay wherever you want."

"How come they like this cabin better?"

"It's less crowded than Mom's old one," I said with a shrug, "And it's more waterproof."

"Why's that matter?" she asked.

"Because with water powers, stuff sometimes gets wet when you don't mean for it to."

She looked a bit confused. "But then… do Logan and Nicky have water power too?"

I nodded. "Didn't I tell you that?"

She shook her head. Maybe it hadn't come up. With everything we'd been over, the details were beginning to blur together. "How come I don't?" Carly pressed, looking to Annabeth now in slight disappointment.

"Maybe you do and don't know it yet," she offered sensibly, "Nicky's didn't work until last winter. But even if you don't, it doesn't matter. Not all half-bloods have powers like that. I don't." She shrugged. "It doesn't mean you're any less talented than they are."

"Yeah, your mom usually still beats me when we spar," I offered ruefully. Annabeth smirked and I knew I was never going to live that down.

Carly didn't look entirely convinced of this, but she asked, "What's a spar?"

"Sparring," Annabeth clarified, "Practice fighting."

"Oh. Do you do that a lot?"

We exchanged easy glances overtop her head. "Not as often as we used to," I said, "But sometimes."

"Can I watch next time?"

Another exchanged glance. I fought a smirk. "We'll see," Annabeth told her, her own lips twitching slightly at the corners. "For now, let's go see if Chiron's done teaching, okay?"

Carly nodded and moved to follow her mother from the cabin.

Campers were streaming from the arena as we walked past, suggesting class had just ended and Cole had been very late indeed. We paused, waiting for the crowd to dissipate before continuing on. A people few offered smiles and waved greetings, but we were largely ignored. Until two familiar-looking teenage boys emerged toward the end of the throng. Cody Rodriguez and Logan walked out together, swords sheathed at their sides as they talked.

Cody, Chris and Clarisse's younger son, noticed us first. He prodded Logan lightly with an elbow and nodded toward us, offering a wave, which we returned. We stood close enough that I could read the expressions on Logan's face. Confusion at first, and then his eyes fell on Carly and widened. "No way," he mouthed, a smile crossing his lips. And then he was running over. "No way!" he said louder and then grabbed his sister under her arms and spun her in a circle. "How'd you find out?" he asked, apparently delighted, looking away from Carly and at Annabeth and me for the first time.

"An empousa got in the house," Annabeth explained, "And she saw everything."

"No way," Logan said a third time, glancing at his sister and back again, "Really? When?"

"Yesterday," Carly answered.

"Was everyone okay?"

"Mommy got her arm cut bad," Carly continued, seeming pleased to know something her brother did not, "But then Grandma healed it. With…" she glanced behind her at us and then looked at Logan again, "with god food."

The fifteen-year old nodded. "So you know everything?" He directed the question at her but asked it of all of us.

"As much as we've been able to tell her between last night and this morning," I answered him.

"So we don't have to keep secrets anymore." It wasn't exactly a question, but I nodded anyway. Beside me, Annabeth mimicked the action. "Thank gods," Logan sighed. "Did you see Chiron yet?"

"We're headed that way now," I said, "He's been teaching since we got here."

The teenager nodded and glanced distantly toward the far off archery field. From our current position, it was hard to tell whether Chiron's class was winding down yet. "He should be done soon," Logan offered, "I'm pretty sure Nicky's in that class. And he's usually done by ten-thirty. We were gonna go to the climbing wall after he got out."

His hand bumped the top of the sheath still strapped to his waist and he glanced down as if just remembering it was there. Casually, without seeming to think about it, he drew his sword out and pressed the small button built into the edge of the hilt that had the blade collapsing back into the thin bronze bracelet, the twin to his brother's, which he slipped onto his wrist. Carly watched the whole thing with wide eyes. Logan noticed her gaze and grinned, unstrapping the now empty sheath from his side. He no longer needed it with class over. "Cool, huh?" he asked her. She nodded.

"Once you decide what type of weapon you like best, we'll get you one like that too," I promised her.

She smiled, her green eyes bright. She looked at Logan again. "Can I go climbing with you?"

"You can try, I guess," he answered her, pointing behind us at the climbing wall, currently turned up to one of the higher levels; lava poured in torrents down its sides. Carly looked where he pointed and her jaw fell open.

"You climb that?" she demanded of her brother, "Are you crazy?"

Annabeth, beside me, gave a surprised laugh. "We would turn the lava off for you, honey." Carly didn't look all that mollified.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Logan offered with a grin. She just eyed him.

Trying to hide my smile, I looked at Annabeth. "Should we head to Chiron?" She nodded.

"If you see Nicky, tell him to meet me at the wall," Logan requested, unfastening the strap of his armor. "I'm going to put this stuff away."

"We will," Annabeth promised, "See you at lunch."

He nodded. With a last smile at his little sister, he said, "Have fun," and then walked off toward the cabins.

Chiron's class was just finishing up when we reached the archery field. All around, campers unslung quivers from their shoulders and moved to retrieve the results of wayward shots. Nicky was, in fact, in this class. His back was to us as he dug arrows out of his target. Most had fallen within the second to last ring of the circle, but a lucky few had landed nearer to the bulls-eye. He wasn't a spectacular shot, but he was way better than I'd been at his age. When he'd maneuvered the last arrow free of the wood, he turned and then did a double take. His eyes widened as he took in Carly's presence here.

He approached us, depositing his retrieved arrows in one of the bins on the way. "You told her?" he asked, a smile playing around the edges of his lips. We nodded and then proceeded to give him the same recount we'd given everyone else.

"It got in the house? That's never happened before, has it?" He looked worried.

"Not at our house," Annabeth said, "But it happens sometimes."

"It happened more than once when I was a kid," I added, though with the amount of ancient evils I'd had on my tail back then, that wasn't exactly surprising.

"Nowhere is completely safe," Annabeth finished.

"Except camp," Nicky countered.

"Except camp," she agreed.

The twelve-year old still looked slightly unsure, but he looked away. "Hey," I said, "It's alright, champ. We—Mom took care of it," I amended, "Everybody's okay."

Nicky nodded again, slightly more believable now, and then looked at Carly. "So," he said, "Do you like it here so far?"

She gave a slow nod. "It's… there's—a lot," she decided.

"Yeah," he agreed. "It's not bad though. I didn't really like it at first, but it really is fun here. And we learn a lot of cool stuff. You'll see." He offered her an encouraging smile, which she hesitantly returned. I risked a glance at Annabeth and found a small, proud smirk on her face as well.

"Well, this is a surprise," a familiar voice said from beside us a moment later. I turned to see Chiron closing the distance to us. He stopped and smiled warmly at Carly. "Am I to assume this one is ready to join the ranks of her brothers here at last?"

Carly just stared at Chiron with wide eyes. And with good reason. No amount of explanation could do the Centaur justice the way really seeing him could. Chiron, for his part, just smiled down at her. "Hello, my dear."

She offered him a small smile. "Hi."

"I'm sure you already know, but I'm Chiron. I'm the activities director here." She nodded. Chiron's smile didn't falter. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pleased to finally see you here again. The last time, you were just a baby."

"I was?" Carly asked, speaking up for the first time. She looked between the Centaur, Annabeth and me, the question plain in her green eyes.

"We brought you here," Annabeth said, nodding, "Your brothers too. After you were born we brought each of you to meet Chiron, and everyone here."

Carly nodded slowly and didn't seem to know what to say. Chiron saved her to trouble by speaking up himself, asking how she'd come to learn the truth. We told the story yet again. When we finished, the Centaur just nodded, looking thoughtful. "Well, I guess you won't be needing the regular orientation video, will you?"

I couldn't escape the laugh that burst from my mouth at that.

Carly wasn't a very shy child by nature and after a few minutes, she'd warmed up to Chiron enough to be comfortable. After Nicky had left to meet Logan as promised, the Centaur gave her an official tour of camp, covering all the places we'd yet to show her ourselves. We ran into a few more familiar faces, including Lilly Stoll and Aspen Underwood, the latter of whom gave us all hugs and informed us he would tell his parents we were here so they could see us before we left. At a little past eleven, Chiron left us at the climbing wall, regrettably informing us he had to check on a few things before lunch, but insisting he would see us later. Carly thanked him with a smile before turning her attention to the climbing wall, one side of which Logan and Nicky were taking turns scaling as it shook and dislodged boulders, spewing lava all the while. Both were pretty adept at it. Carly looked amazed, if not the slightest bit concerned for her brothers.

"Is that really lava?" she asked at one point, just before Nicky's grip on one of the footholds slipped and he swung flat against the wall, yelling in surprise as his T-shirt caught on fire. Carly gasped in horror, her question effectively answered, but Logan was already there, directing a wave of water from the canoe lake and sending it crashing down atop his brother—far more water than was necessary, really, and a fact that was surely not lost to Logan, who grinned playfully up at his now thoroughly drenched little brother, but it did the job.

The display of Logan's power only gave Carly another reason to gape openly. I swallowed my smile.

Once Nicky was back safely on the ground, wet hair plastered to his face and a good portion of the back of his T-shirt burned away, I looked down at Carly. "You sure you don't want to give the wall a try?" I asked, allowing only the slightest of grins. The glare my daughter gave me in reply was so terrifyingly like her mother's, I didn't ask again.

It was the beginning of a whole new chapter, for Carly and for all of us. And despite the sensory overload she was surely feeling right now, from the force behind that single look, I had a feeling my little girl was going to be just fine.


Thanks for reading! I promise I will try to be faster with the next update!