Hey guys! I am seriously so sorry for the wait. I honestly had no idea it had been so long - things have been crazy. But I'm on spring break this coming week and I'm hoping to have some time to get some serious writing done. I won't make any promises because I've been seriously awful lately, but I promise I will try!

I tried to give you guys some fluff in this chapter since we haven't had too much of it lately. I'm not sure how well that particular goal worked out but it was fun to write all the same. Enjoy!


It was a surreal thing pulling into the driveway after dropping the kids—all three of them—off at camp for the summer. It was strange to think it would be just Annabeth and me for the next two months. The idea hadn't quite sunk in.

It was the first Saturday of the kids' summer vacation and we'd been up early to get everyone and everything ready for them to go. Annabeth and I had always gone together to drop the boys at Half-Blood Hill and she'd had every intention of coming along today until the early, urgent call had come in from the firm about the mistake someone had made with the design that was due for a client today and which she now had to fix. She'd been livid, to say the least, but there'd been no way around it. I'd brought the kids alone.

I shifted into park and got out now. The morning was slightly cool for late June but the sun was out and it was not at all uncomfortable. Walking to the front door, the idea of a kid-free summer with Annabeth crossed my mind again. It was an enticing concept, I had to admit, and I was excited. Though I had no doubt the novelty would fade some once missing them really set in, as it always did, and the quiet of the house grew loud.

Pushing that thought aside, I unlocked the door and walked inside. Ollie, ever the enthusiastic greeter, waited for me, tail wagging. I smiled and scratched behind his ears. "Hey, boy," I told him and called, "Annabeth?"

"In here," she said in reply, her voice sounding from the office. I moved toward it, Ollie at my heels. The door was open—a good sign.

I peered in from the hallway. "How's it going?"

She closed an open file before her and looked up. "I just e-mailed the new plans over," she answered dully, "Someone needs to do something about that intern before he makes a mistake we don't catch and it comes back to bite us."

I pushed off from the doorframe now and walked into the room, stopping behind her and setting my hands on her stiff shoulders. She relaxed under my touch and leaned back as I massaged them. "How did the kids do this morning?" she asked.

"They were fine," I told her easily, "I could hardly get a goodbye from the boys before they took off." Nothing new, really.

"And Carly?" I knew she'd been worried about missing out on today because of her especially.

"She did pretty well," I said, "Got a little clingy when I was getting ready to leave but Leo and Calypso showed up with the twins and she was fine once she saw them."

"So she wasn't upset?"

"She was okay," I assured her.

"That's good." She sighed. "I wish I could have gone."

"I know." I kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry."

She just shook her head and then turned slightly to look up at me. "You saw Leo and Calypso? How are they doing?"

"Good. They said business has been picking up again. And they got a cat apparently."

She gave a surprised laugh. "Really? How'd that happen?"

I grinned. "The girls wanted one and Leo's a pushover." She laughed.

"Were the Graces there?"

"The kids were," I answered. "I think Nico Shadow travelled them over with Em and Sammy."

Annabeth nodded. "I need to call Piper sometime."

"I saw Grover and Juniper though. And Jade. I told them we need to have them over for dinner one night."

"Gods, yes we do," she agreed. "It's been forever."

I smiled. "I think Juniper said she'd IM."

"Good."

I hummed agreement and brushed a loose strand of hair from her shoulder, still slightly damp from being thrown up straight out of the shower. "So is everything fixed for that client now?" I asked, "Are you free?"

She smirked. "Yeah."

I grinned. "Want to get lunch?"

"Where?"

"I don't know. Somewhere nice."

Her smile grew and turned playful. "You mean I get to go out with you in the middle of the day and not have to worry about being back at work in an hour or have kids tagging along?"

"I know it's quite a concept," I joked.

Still smiling, she stood up. "How about you feed Ollie and find some place for us to go and I'll go change into some real clothes."

I looked over her ensemble of sweat pants and a T-shirt that might have once been mine and smirked. "Why? If anyone can pull that look off, it's you."

She snorted. "Go feed the dog, Seaweed Brain."


No lunch date would be complete without a trip to the store for shampoo and toilet paper to finish it off. "Just think," Annabeth said wistfully, smirking slightly as she maneuvered the shopping cart out of the health and beauty aisle, "You won't have to pretend to like broccoli for the kids' sake for two whole months."

"Who says I don't like broccoli?" I countered.

She just looked at me. "Are you telling me that you suddenly do?"

"No, I'm telling you that I don't think I've ever come out and actually said I don't."

"You didn't have to; I can read you like a book."

I fought a smile. "Is that why you never made it until the kids came along?"

She grinned. "I needed them to not inherit bad eating habits."

I made a face. "Gee, thanks." She laughed, heading for the checkout now.

"It's going to be weird," she said after a pause, "Having such a quiet house all summer."

"Like when we first got married all over again," I added.

She shook her head, getting in line behind an elderly man buying an impressively large amount of tuna fish. "I'm not even sure I know what that's like anymore."

"I remember a few aspects that I wouldn't mind repeating," I told her with a grin, earning myself a smack in the arm while she rolled her eyes at me.

"Percy!" she scolded, drawing the cashier's attention, but I could see the smile she tried to hide.

I gave her my best innocent expression as I loaded our purchases onto the conveyor belt. "What? I was talking about game night with Jason and Piper," I murmured, "What were you thinking of?" She laughed rolled her eyes at me again.

The man in front of us paid and left and we moved up to the register. "Hi, how are you?" the cashier, a broad redhead, greeted, her eyes moving between us and lingering on me.

"We're fine, how are you?" Annabeth asked in turn from beside me, her brow rising slightly as she watched the woman. The cashier did not answer; I doubted she'd even heard her. I glanced between my wife and the woman who, for some reason, seemed oddly familiar, and was about to say something when Annabeth beat me to it. "Can he help you?" she asked.

The woman blinked and seemed to remember she was supposed to be working. She shook her head slightly and reached for the bottle of shampoo waiting on the belt beside her. "No, I'm sorry, I…" She looked between us again. "Did you…" her eyes fell on me again, "Your name is Percy?"

I blinked in surprise before remembering Annabeth had just said that. "Uh, yeah," I said dumbly. "Why?"

"Percy… Jackson?" she asked slowly. My eyebrows rose slightly now and I thoroughly studied the woman. She was probably around my age, with red hair and a somewhat squished-looking nose that might have been cute on a smaller figure. I supposed she wasn't horrible looking but she was far from my type. She still seemed strangely familiar but I'd gotten very good over the years at seeing around tricks of the Mist and she was clearly mortal. A mortal who obviously knew me somehow.

"Yes…" I answered slowly, looking at her nametag now, I added, "Do I know you?" I had to stare at the tag for a second before I could make out the name written there. I managed to decipher it in the same moment she began to speak and my stomach lurched a bit.

"I'm Nancy," the cashier said, "Nancy Bobofit from Yancy Academy." I saw Annabeth straighten from the corner of my eye. Clearly she recognized that name too. Nancy, apparently oblivious, went on, "Wow, I can't believe it's you. What are the odds?" Apparently not poor enough.

"Yeah," I said awkwardly, trying for a smile that hopefully didn't make me look constipated.

"Does she belong to you?" she asked, looking at Annabeth who, I could tell, was trying very hard not to raise an eyebrow at her once more.

"Yeah," I answered, "This is my wife, Annabeth." I refrained from mentioning that she belonged wholly to herself and simply gave me the right to occasional visitation.

Nancy smiled at her. "It's nice to meet you," she said.

"Likewise," Annabeth replied somewhat awkwardly. Nancy looked back at me.

"So you're not in the city anymore."

"Um, no. We live up the road."

"Oh, that's great," She replied, "My fiancé and I moved about fifteen minutes west last year." I nodded. She looked like she'd say more but a family had lined up behind us and seemed to be growing irritated with the wait. Reluctantly, my childhood bully eyed them and then returned to scanning our waiting items. "It's gonna be $34.72," she said. I pulled out my wallet and paid while Annabeth took the bags from her. "It was good seeing you again," Nancy said when we were ready to go, "You guys have a good one."

"You too," I said and gave her a small smile before turning with Annabeth for the exit.

It was a quiet walk to the car, a stunned silence sort of quiet. I was waiting on Annabeth to dig the keys from her purse when a voice sounded from behind us, calling my name. Withholding a sigh of resignation, I turned to find Nancy rushing toward us. "Hey, glad I could catch you," she said. I only looked at her, waiting. She met my eyes and continued. "I just want to apologize to you," she said, "I was absolutely awful to you in school, and I was awful to your friend… Gerald?"

"Grover," I corrected.

"That's it. Anyway, you didn't deserve the way I treated you and I want you to know you were completely justified in pushing me into the fountain that day. I wish I could say I learned my lesson then but I was a horrible person for a long time, and, I don't know, I just never really forgot you. And I want you to know I'm really sorry."

I blinked. "Wow. Well thanks, Nancy."

She nodded uncomfortably. "No hard feelings?"

I smirked. "No. It was a long time ago."

She nodded again and managed a small smile. "Alright." She glanced behind her. "I really have to get back but it was really great bumping into you. Maybe I'll see you around."

"Yeah, maybe," I allowed.

"Bye," she said with a smile and turned away. I watched her go in silence, Annabeth beside me.

"Are you okay?" she asked after a second.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said and looked at her. "I'm just… I don't know, shocked I guess."

"She made your life really miserable, didn't she?"

I shrugged, taking the keys from her and unlocking the car myself. "A lot of people did back then but I think it's safe to say I've had worse."

"Doesn't mean it didn't bother you at the time," Annabeth said reasonably, coming up beside me and placing our purchases in the trunk.

"Sure it did," I said easily, "There was a time when I definitely hated her. But I think later on I just pitied her." I had. The day I realized how much bigger my role in the world was, I'd let go of everything I'd ever held against any of the jerks I dealt with in school. Because at the end of the day, they were all just helpless mortals whose lives, along with those of the rest of the word, fell on me and a handful of other kids to save. And at that point, they were just a bunch of miserable people who took out their own problems on others, and it was sad, and I was nothing like that, and I had bigger fish to fry. It had been quite the epiphany and I'd been better for it.

She nodded, pulling the now empty shopping cart away. "Well, she seems like a halfway decent person now at least."

"Yeah, she does," I agreed.

"Not that I'd want to have her over for dinner or anything."

"Oh, gods no."

She chuckled. "Just making sure."

We were maybe a minute into the car ride home when Annabeth, smirking, said, "So you pushed a bully into a fountain in middle school. How have I gone this long without knowing that?"

I fought against my own smile. "I didn't push her into a fountain. The fountain pulled her in and she deserved it."

She laughed. "Oh, I see."


We ate dinner that night, just the two of us, together in the living room in front of a movie neither one of us was really watching because we were without kids and because we could. We'd written a letter to the three of them after coming back which would be mailed out to camp first thing Monday morning and had settled in for a quiet night. I'd been twirling a strand of Annabeth's hair around my finger with one hand and feeding Ollie scraps from my plate with the other when she laughed suddenly. To the dog's dismay, I turned away from him and looked at her, eyebrows narrowed in question. "What's so funny?" I asked.

She shook her head, still smiling. "Nothing. I was just thinking of Nancy's face earlier when she realized who you were." Her smile grew wider as she continued; "She was probably trying to reconcile you as a grown, handsome adult with the scrawny twelve-year old she knew you as." She laughed a bit toward the end of her sentence. "I was just thinking her thoughts probably would have been pretty funny."

"Hey, listen," I told her in mock seriousness, "I looked perfectly fine as a twelve-year old, thank you very much."

She laughed again, "Percy, you were one of the tiniest, weakest-looking twelve year olds I've ever seen. Look at Nicky, he manages well but he looks just like you did."

"So what you're saying is puberty did me a few favors."

"Well," she said enticingly, shifting now to face me and wrap her arms around my neck. "Lets just say you definitely grew into the whole 'son of a Greek god' thing pretty well."

I chuckled. "Oh really?"

"Mhmm," she hummed.

"I guess that's good news for Nicky then."

Annabeth exhaled something between a laugh and a sigh half an inch from my lips. "Don't ruin it, Seaweed Brain," she said.

Her lips connected with mine before I could laugh and the rest is history.


Thanks for reading!