Hey guys!

I know I promised last chapter that this update would be posted quicker, and I am so, so sorry that it wasn't. The past few wweks have been busy with finals and work and I just did not have the time or the motivation to work on it. However, the semester is now over and I found the time today to whip up this not-so-little update for you all!

Overall, I can't say the contents are ll that exciting, however there is some plot building and some other important stuff that we will see more of in chapters to come. I hope you enjoy and thank you so much for putting up with me. I truly love you all.


There aren't many places equipped to handle twenty-plus half-blood families that (a) remain in one piece after we've all left and (b) don't attract every monster in the immediate vicinity. That second requirement really knocks a lot of venues out of the running and that was why Frank and Hazel's fifteenth wedding anniversary party was being held in one of the celebration halls in New Rome.

Outside of the camps' yearly peace celebrations, it was rare for all of our half-blood friends to be together in one place. Even then, not everyone, ourselves included, always attended for one reason or another. So I'd been looking forward to this party for weeks now.

The call from Nico had come two months ago and served as maybe one of the greatest evidences of just how far the son of Hades had come since I'd first met him. Fifteen years, he and Will had decided, was an accomplishment worth celebrating and the two, hopefully with help from Reyna, were throwing a party for the Zhangs. The fact that it was six months early only contributed to the surprise. Nico, who had once been reserved and antisocial to the point of depression, invited us to California for it and offered to Shadow Travel us over there himself. Which was exactly what he had done. The morning of the party, my family met him and Will outside Camp Half-Blood, where he'd brought us all across the country between one blink and the next. Cross-country Shadow Travel, he said, took hardly anything out of him anymore, and sure enough; he didn't even sway as we appeared outside the Caldecott Tunnel—the entrance to the Roman camp—seconds later.

Carly, who had never experienced Nico's preferred method of travel before, stumbled and nearly fell. Will, beside her, placed steadying hands atop her shoulders before I could. "Whoa," he said, "You okay, kiddo?" Carly, wide-eyed, only nodded. Will grinned. "Don't worry. The first time Nico did that with me, I almost lost my lunch." She gave a laugh. Nico, behind them, smirked fondly at the recollection.

We walked as a group through the tunnel and into the hidden entrance to the camp. The two guards on duty smiled and quickly stepped aside for us to pass. The waters of the Little Tiber could be heard before we reached it. A bridge had been constructed across it in recent years, preventing the need for any Moses-like action on my part for everyone to stay dry. Carly took in everything with interest. She'd been to New Rome a few times, but not in recent years and never seeing it the way she was now. We'd spent years doing all we could to shield her, and both boys before her, from the truth of our lives, and while I didn't regret one minute of it, having all three of them in the loop made life incredibly easier—and more fun. They all got to share in our experiences now, and we no longer had to fear unexpected aspects of our lives popping up and blowing our so carefully constructed cover—which was good, as there's been a good deal of such things happening recently.

Not two weeks after the empousa incident, Tyson had showed up on our doorstep out of the blue and spent three days with us, on break from his work in the underwater forges. All three, of course, already knew their uncle and had since they were babies, though Carly had never seen him clearly through the Mist before. She'd started slightly at the sight of the Cyclops, and then stared wide-eyed before recovering. She had, of course, known what to expect, but seeing a monster in person, even one as sweet as my half-brother, is not really something one can prepare fully for. Tyson, thankfully, noticed nothing and his visit passed without incident.

Two days later, I took all three kids to the beach a few miles outside the borders of Camp Half-Blood. Carly wanted to see if she could learn to manipulate water like her brothers, and seawater seemed the easiest choice for her. Annabeth hadn't liked the idea, insisting I not let her get her hopes up in case she wasn't didn't possess the talent, but Carly had been insistent and, eventually, she had grudgingly allowed it.

We spent over an hour standing just out of the water's reach, encouraging her to focus and learn to feel the sea. Logan and Nicky alternated between assisting with my lesson and playfully antagonizing each other with random jets of saltwater to the head until a battle broke out between them. While both had grown very skilled in manipulating water, neither had quite gotten the hang of willing himself dry yet, and I'd had a feeling my own intervention would be necessary to save the car's leather seats.

Eventually, Carly, slightly disappointed, gave up and contented herself with watching the boys' war with consideration, as if calculating each move they made. I was about to reign them in and deem it time to go when a familiar voice sounded from behind me, from where I knew no one had been seconds before.

We turned to find my dad standing in the surf beside us, grinning. He'd wanted to properly meet his granddaughter, now that she knew everything. The boys had both interacted with him a few years earlier while at camp. I'd only found out after the fact.

Carly had stared, wide-eyed, but had taken it all in stride. If she'd had to meet any god face-to-face, Poseidon was a fairly safe place to start. He'd always been cooler than most of the others, even if he wasn't winning any father of the year awards. She got over her surprise quickly and, after introductions, had asked him, "How come I don't have powers like Logan and Nicky?"

Poseidon only smiled. "Who ever said you don't? Not everyone, Nicholas included, learns to use his or her talent immediately. And even if you never have the ability your brothers do to control water, who ever said that means you aren't powerful? Look at your mom. Her talents lie in other places, but she is far from powerless." I'd smiled my agreement at that. Carly had looked slightly put out, but nodded, and while she'd been quiet as I'd dried the boys' clothes and loaded the three of them in the car, I thought she seemed slightly more at ease with the events of the afternoon than she had before. The subject hadn't been brought up again in the week since.

We walked into Camp Jupiter now, where Roman half-blood campers were involved in various training exercises and activities. Prior to the Giant War, Roman campers had largely remained at Camp Jupiter throughout the year, unlike Camp Half-Blood where many went home for the school year. In recent years though, more and more half-bloods, Hannah included, spent time at home during school months, so the barracks and the Field of Mars seemed less crowded than they usually were when I visited.

Overall, the Roman camp hadn't changed much since I'd first come here at sixteen, though Greek campers were obviously far better received than we'd initially been. And to the right of us as we approached the Pomerian Line and the entrance to New Rome, Temple Hill could be seen, it's temples and alters sparkling in the late spring sun. In keeping with his promise to Kymopoleia during the quest to Greece, Jason had ensured that she, along with all other minor gods and goddesses, was represented at both camps and respected along with the others. The Pontifex Maximus had also followed through with his promise of pantheon action figures. Even as we walked to the Roman town's border, I saw a young boy holding his mother's hand and gripping what looked like an Apollo figurine in the other. For extra credit, Jason had even sold the idea to a local mortal toy store, which had begun manufacturing and selling the action figures to the public just last year. He didn't do anything halfway, apparently, and they were surprisingly popular.

Terminus Reticulus, the ever-present figurehead of New Rome's borders and also the Roman god of boundaries, greeted us at the entrance. "Weapons in the bin!" he ordered, eyeing all of us, "I don't care how popular you all think you are, the rules still apply to you. In the bin. All of them. Don't think I won't know if you forget something. You too, boys," he said to Logan and Nicky, and then turned to Carly. "You seem clean, my dear," he said and then turned judging eyes on me again. "You let your little girl walk around out there with no weapon, Percy Jackson? How irresponsible. She could be attacked!"

"We're working on it," I informed the statue, and indeed, I had asked the Hephaestus cabin about a weapon for Carly to use, similar to the twin swords the boys carried. In the mean time, she didn't go anywhere by herself anyway and had not been training at camp long enough yet to know how to use a blade effectively.

Terminus hummed and then said, "Fine. You're all free to pass. Tuck your shirts in and, by Jupiter's beard, brush your hair!" This last comment seemed directed specifically at Nicky, who seemed to have inherited the worst of my unruly hair. Annabeth reached forward to smooth it down for him and shot the god an unappreciative glare. Nicky turned his own incredulous look on the statue before following his brother inside the borders. "He's fun as ever," I muttered.

Nico, walking beside me, snorted. "Always is."

We bumped into Aaron, Reyna's husband, on the way to the designated celebration hall. The party wasn't set to start for several hours yet, but Reyna, Aaron, and their son, Jacob all still lived in New Rome, though she had stepped down from her Praetor position shortly after Jacob was born, and had offered to help set everything up today.

The majority of the guests coming were from New Rome or the surrounding area. Frank and Hazel were far from strangers at Camp Half-Blood, but the majority of their close friends remained Roman, as they were. The Graces would be here, of course, though they'd conveniently already been in California, visiting Piper's father, who still did not, by some act of the gods, know about his daughter's half-blood status. They would be arriving later, along with the Valdez's, who were flying in from Texas for the occasion. The rest of the guest list remained predominantly Roman. The invitations had told everyone to arrive at two. The surprise would take place around three, when Frank and Hazel were set to arrive. It was just after ten now.

We had plenty of time. Hopefully.


I wasn't surprised to find that Reyna, unofficially running the show, had everything under control and coming together before we even arrived at the hall where the party was to take place. She and Nico had become good friends since their trek across the world during the war, bringing the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood, and together, they made a formidable pair.

Reyna was as Roman as they came. She organized everyone into groups and put us all to work setting up tables, decorating, picking up the goodies waiting at New Rome's bakery, and coordinating with the caterer, among other things. Unsurprisingly, everything was ready ahead of schedule and the last hour before the party started was spent catching up and waiting for guests to arrive. Leo, Calypso, and the girls were the first to walk in, having come from the airport. Reyna had assigned Will to pick them up and had lent him her car to do it. The Graces had arrived early as well, and with a little under thirty minutes until two, I stood beside Jason on one side of the room, watching the younger kids run around in a game of hide-and-seek. The older ones, like the adults, had broken into groups and sat chatting amongst themselves. Annabeth, across the room, stood talking with Calypso and Nico; Piper, Reyna, Will, Leo, and Aaron a few feet from them.

I took one look at the son of Jupiter and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "You look like you could use a drink."

Jason just sighed and shook his head. "It's been a long week."

"Everything okay with Piper's dad?"

He gave the slightest of pauses before replying, "Yeah. He's fine. His fiancée is just… interesting."

"I didn't know he was engaged."

Jason snorted. "Neither did we."

"Oh," I replied, glancing at Piper, who seemed stressed, even as she laughed at something Leo said.

"Yeah, Piper's not thrilled, to say the least. But Tristan seems happy." He shrugged, his eyes still on his wife across the room.

I studied him for a second. "Is, uh, everything else alright?" He seemed… off somehow.

He took a long breath and looked briefly at me before turning away again. "I don't know how you do it," he said quietly.

"Do what?"

"You and Annabeth. You just… You're, like, the definition of love. Like the amazing power couple we all secretly hope to be but don't quite manage."

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Jason shook his head. "Nothing… Piper and I have just been fighting a lot lately." He paused, and then shook his head. "Never mind. You shouldn't need to worry about it."

I only raised an eyebrow. "You think Annabeth and I don't fight?"

He actually snorted now. "Oh, I know you fight. You just…" He hesitated, and then went on, "You just never seem to lose that spark, you know? Even after however many years it's been now. It's always obvious how much you love each other, no matter what."

I had not been expecting anything like this and I honestly wasn't sure what to say now. "Are you saying you don't love Piper like that?" I asked after a pause.

"I do," he said miserably, "But lately I've been wondering more than I probably should if the same is true of her."

I stared at him for a second, floundering. "It's been that bad?" I asked.

He sighed. "She seems… different all of a sudden. I don't know. She starts fights over nothing; yells at me for the smallest things. I don't know what changed. She just doesn't seem happy anymore, and it scares me."

I considered that for a long moment, unable to meet his eyes. "What can I do?" I asked at last.

He shrugged. "Nothing you can do, man. Thanks for listening though."

"'Course," I said. "If you need anything…" Jason nodded his understanding.

"Thank you. I just want to enjoy the party and not worry about it right now. For Frank and Hazel." He met my eyes at last, the smallest of smiles playing at the edges of his lips, "I might take you up on that drink though."

I smirked. "You know where to find me."


"Alright, everyone. If I could have your attention please!" Will called, quieting the crowded room. He held up his cell phone. "Nico's on his way over with Frank and Hazel now. They'll be walking in in about two minutes. So if everyone could please be quiet and move out of sight from the door, we're going to turn down the lights." He smirked. "When they come on again, you know what to do." There was some chuckling and exciting murmurs as the many guests that had arrived over the past half hour moved to do as Will asked. Once everyone was settled out of immediate sight, he did, in fact, turn off the lights and the waiting began. I stood beside Annabeth and couldn't help the anticipatory grin on my face. The only other surprise party I'd been to was the one my mom threw for Paul's fiftieth birthday, and that had been years ago. Personally, I wasn't sure how I'd feel if given one myself. Part of me worried I might accidentally hurt someone out of instinct. Hopefully that didn't happen today. Our friends would be unarmed but that didn't mean they were not still dangerous.

It wasn't long before we heard voices outside, growing louder as their owners grew nearer. "I promise we can go as soon as I grab it. It's in here." Nico's voice, playing along with the ruse.

The plan, he'd explained earlier, was to lead Frank and Hazel to the party under the guise of retrieving a jacket he'd accidentally left behind earlier in the day. As far as they knew, Nico, in California for the weekend, was treating his sister and brother-in-law to dinner in town that night, though obviously they would not be making it that far. Their kids, Emily and Sammy, were supposedly under the care of Will for a few hours. They, of course, were already here with everyone else and were beyond excited at the prospect of surprising their parents.

Hazel replied now, the question plain in her voice. "What were you doing in here earlier?"

"I had a meeting. The Senate House was being used and this was closer than walking all the way back to the principia." The lie rolled off Nico's tongue with ease and I didn't know whether to be impressed or concerned that he could so easily do so, even to the people he knew best.

They appeared in the doorway before either Zhang had a chance to reply, and Nico reached out and flipped the lights on. The resounding cry of "SURPRISE!" that resulted was instantaneous and Frank and Hazel both flew about a foot in the air, reaching for weapons they did not carry before they realized what was happening. Both relaxed and laughed along with their friends then, looking embarrassed. Emily and Sammy ran up to greet them. Hazel turned to her laughing brother and shoved him. Nico stumbled half a step and laughed harder. Frank glanced around, smiling and clearly fighting the color rising to his cheeks.

"You guys!" Hazel cried a moment later, noticing us; the Valdez's, and the Graces beside us—friends who had traveled a long way to attend today. She rushed forward to greet us. "What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to surprise you," Piper said with a smile.

"And clearly it worked," laughed Leo from beside me.

"You all didn't have to come all the way here for this," Hazel said as Frank joined her, grinning ear to ear.

"Yes, we did," grinned Annabeth, "Like we would miss it."

"Any reason to get together is a good one," Piper agreed.

"It's good to see you guys," Frank had to admit. He smiled wider as he added, "You're all just fair-game for the future now." Everyone laughed.

With so many people here for them, Frank and Hazel could not stay very long without seeing to the rest of their friends, and after a few minutes they did leave to greet the others. With the guests of honor present, the food tables were open and I wasn't the only one who moved now to get in line for it. Leo wound up beside me and I asked about the garage he and Calypso had opened up in Texas so many years ago now. The son of Hephaestus grinned. "It's good. We actually just hired another mechanic to help out. It was getting to be too much for one person, even with Calypso technically running most of it behind the scenes."

"That's never a bad thing."

He smiled wider. "No, it's not."

"How are the girls?"

"They're great. They're finishing third grade next month." He shook his head. "That's hard to believe. But they're doing good. They haven't grown out of the boys have cooties phase yet, thank gods, so life's easy. Though I'm told that day is coming."

I made a face, my eyes unconsciously finding Carly in the crowd. "Don't remind me."

Leo laughed. "How're your kids?

"They're good," I told him.

"Is Nick still having trouble in school? I remember Calypso mentioning he was a while back."

I nodded. "Yeah, he had a hard time for a while but he's actually been doing really well this year."

"What changed?"

"Well, a girl his age moved in next door last year and they became good friends. I think she had a lot to do with it. They compete with each other like you wouldn't believe but it helps both of them, I think."

"Is that the same girl who showed up at the peace celebration last summer? The Roman?"

"That's her."

Leo stared at me, fighting a smile. "You know, what you just described sounds a lot like two demigods I know."

I breathed a laugh. "Yeah, I know."

Leo laughed himself and grabbed a paper plate as we reached the table. I followed suit and moved along its length, loading my own plate with food.

We sat at a table with the Graces and the Arellano-Messers. Leo waited for the rest of his family before they moved to the table beside ours, close enough to still talk with us all. Conversation was light for a while as everyone ate and laughed. It was Annabeth, of course, who noticed anything was wrong.

"Are you okay, Logan?" she asked, eyeing the teenager. He was the only legacy seated with us. The rest of the kids were off at another table, apparently enjoying the chance to see each other. Now that I thought about it, it was odd that Logan wasn't with them. Not to mention the fact, I noticed now, that he'd hardly touched his food.

Logan nodded from beside her. "Why aren't you eating?" she pressed quietly. "Do you feel okay?" He shrugged a half-hearted shoulder. Looking concerned, she lifted a hand to his forehead and then met my eyes. "Does he feel warm to you?" she asked.

I reached forward and laid the back of my own hand on his head. Logan allowed it. He did feel warm. Not overly so, but probably a low-grade fever. I nodded. "Have you felt sick all day?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "No. Just the last hour or so."

Annabeth sighed. "Why didn't you say anything?"

He shrugged miserably. "I didn't want to leave."

"Well, honey, if you're sick, you shouldn't stay. Especially if you have a fever."

"But, Mom—" he started to protest, but Annabeth shut him down with a look.

He looked down but didn't protest, either because he knew he'd lost or because he really didn't feel well at all—probably both. Annabeth glanced at me. "Do you want to go with him to my dad's or should I?" We'd planned to spend the rest of the weekend with the Chases before heading home again. I hoped Logan wouldn't be sick the whole time.

"I'll do it," I told her, moving to stand, "Are you okay to bring Nick and Carly back?"

She nodded. "We'll grab a ride with someone."

"We can drop them off on our way," Piper said, having watched our exchange. Beside her, Jason nodded agreement.

"Thanks, guys," I told them, stepping to Logan, "Come on, bud." He stood and allowed himself to be guided from the table.

Nico intercepted us in between saying goodbye to Frank and Hazel and heading for the door. "I heard you're heading to Annabeth's dad's," he said, "Want a lift there?"

"Are you offering?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Sure. I'll be gone five minutes, tops."

I smiled. "I'm not about to say no. Thanks."

"No problem," he grinned before catching Will's eyes across the room. The son of Apollo nodded and Nico turned back to us. "Ready?"

Annabeth had called ahead for us and Theresa Chase was waiting with a thermometer and medicine when we got there. She confirmed Logan did, in fact, have a low fever, and, after giving him the medication, sent him up to bed with the promise of chicken soup for dinner. It seemed all grandmothers were good at fussing over their grandkids. And Logan, though he'd been disappointed at leaving the party early, seemed glad at the prospect of sleep and medicine.

I offered to help with the soup she'd promised and Theresa pulled a few carrots from the refrigerator and handed me a knife and cutting board, pointing to an open spot of counter. I set to work on the task, peeling and chopping them, and after a minute of quiet work, looked over at my mother-in-law. "Thank you," I told her. I wasn't talking about her acceptance of my help.

Theresa smiled down at the chicken she sliced and met my eyes. It was a distinctly motherly expression I saw there when she answered. "Anytime."


Thanks for reading! And I promise it will not be another month before you hear from me again - for real this time. Feel free to review and let me know your thoughts. And don't forget, ideas are always appreciated!