That Thursday, Percy picked the gang of kids up in the family van. The group used to walk to the Jackson house but, as the Jackson's school friends found, Percy and Annabeth were much more protective of their kids now. When they got to the house, Annabeth was waiting outside with Oscar and Adora.

She smiled and kissed Percy on the cheek as he approached. "Welcome home. Hazel had the twins today, I told Frank we'd come up to visit tomorrow. Casey, would you like to come or go to school? I'm not sure if you have any quizzes or something you'd need to make up," Annabeth said.

"I'll come." Casey walked right past them and into the house.

"Come on inside, I made snacks," Annabeth motioned the rest of the group inside.

"I need to call Frank and Hazel! Omg, Annabeth they used to be little babies and now they have little babies!" Percy gushed.

Annabeth rolled their eyes. "This isn't the first time they've had a kid, you know."

"Yes but stiiillll!"

Annabeth handed Percy his son and took Adora's hand to lead her into the house. "I can't believe Casey invited people over," she said.

Percy shrugged. "I don't know, maybe she's just trying to keep things from changing. You know how she hates change. These kids used to come over all the time last year. Or maybe she's trying to make friends!"

Annabeth scoffed. "Casey, trying to make friends? Sure. Now, let's go inside and try to act like normal people."

This time, it was Percy's time to scoff, "Us, normal people? Sure." Annabeth laughed and punched his arm, which he then slung around her shoulders. Percy kissed Annabeth's temple and they finally went inside. Jared was sitting on the loveseat pigging out on the sandwiches Annabeth had made.

"You're the best Mrs. Jackson, please never change," he said through a mouth full of food. Casey rolled her eyes and sunk into the couch cushions, pulling out a book and ignoring everybody.

"So, what should we start with?" Asher asked.

The collectively groaned and shivered away from her. "Video games?" Harris suggested. Casey snorted, then hid her face behind her book.

"How about world history?" Jared suggested playfully. Asher nodded in agreement and dropped a notebook and stack of papers onto the table. Percy and Annabeth went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Things went smoothly for most of the night. Casey even set down her book and helped the group study; they even shared a few laughs over the night and threw popcorn at each other. But of course, things couldn't be perfect.

Annabeth got a call. Not an Iris Message, a phone call. Casey dropped her popcorn with a concerned look. Percy also looked up and took a step towards his wife.

"Hello? Yes, this is her." Annabeth held a finger up towards Percy and glanced at Casey before stepping outside. The house was silent until she stepped inside with a solemn look.

"What happened?" Casey asked. Percy set his hand on her waist with a concerned expression.

Annabeth glanced at the mortals in the room with a sigh. They might as well know; this information would mean more to them than it would to the Jacksons. "The police have officially closed Jason's case," she said.

Jase's friends each took an audible gasp, simultaneously remembering their missing friend. Casey took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It's not like they would have found anything anyway," she spat. Rose stood up but she knew not to approach her friend.

"Casey!" Percy boomed, sending a pointed look towards her friends.

"It's true! We all know it! You and Mom have already given up on him, why shouldn't the rest of us? Hades himself said he's dead!"

Percy wanted to yell at his daughter. He wanted to tell her to go to her room as if she were a toddler all over again. But Casey was mourning, so Percy chided himself for responding to that with anger. His gaze softened.

"Come with me. Let's talk," he said. Casey was surprised by his calm demeanor. Percy had been so angry lately, so short tempered when it came to the kids. But if he could step up and be nice then so could Casey. She tossed her book to the side and stood up, marching after her father.

Percy lead her to Jase's room. Casey didn't understand why this conversation needed to take place in her brother's room but she was too overwhelmed to argue about it. Patting the mattress beside him, Percy sat down. His daughter crumpled into a heap beside him.

"Your mother and I have not given up on Jason. We won't give up on him until we 100% definitive proof that he's gone for good. Hades said there was something funny about the death, so we're not taking that as proof. We listened to you when you said you had that vision thing too. We aren't just going to pretend he never existed and move on," Percy explained.

"But then why aren't you doing anything?!" Casey exploded. "You act like his name is forbidden, but if you haven't given up then why don't we talk about him? Why aren't we out there looking, or interrogating monsters or something?"

Percy sighed and looked around the room. He picked the alarm clock off of the bedside table. "He's been gone for over six months now. The first time his alarm clock went off I had to come in here and turn it off. I had to wonder if we were ever going to have to clean out this room. Pack up all of his stuff into cardboard boxes. Unenroll him from school, cancel his insurance."

Casey felt her heart leap into her throat at the thought. "Then why haven't you?" she asked weakly.

Percy stood up and walked around, letting his fingers skim over the bookshelf and the closet door. "Because I still can't help but home hope that he's going to be back here someday. I have dreams at night where I'm sitting in bed and can hear Jase upstairs, banging his hip on the closet door and jumping around the room. I remember listening to your and his block tower falling down when you two were still little. He was so upset. He actually cried. I ran up the stairs so fast; I was worried that one of you had gotten hurt," he paused, taking a moment to gaze at a few scratches on the wall where the block tower had landed all those years ago.

"Did we? Get hurt, I mean."

Percy shook his head. "No, nothing like that. Jase was just upset that his tower had fallen. You two had spent hours working on that thing, you were so proud. You looked so freaked out when he started crying, so I pulled him aside. I explained to him why he didn't have to cry over it. Some things aren't worth crying over, I told him. There are days when you lose things, but that doesn't mean you have to cry. Because you can always rebuild, you can always move on."

"But I can't move on!" Casey insisted.

"That's exactly what Jase said. But I pointed out that you were already starting over. I said that sometimes you can pretend to move on so somebody else can. I didn't want him to make you upset. Telling him that may have been one of the worst things I've done to him. From then on, he never told you when he was upset. He always told you everything was fine, pretended he wasn't upset. I tried to convince him that wasn't what I meant, but he just smiled and said he knew," Percy said. He finally put the alarm clock down. "I don't want you and your siblings living in a world of memories. I want you kids to be able to move on eventually. Jase's friends don't know where is his or what happened. They can't understand exactly what's happening in our lives right now. But they're still reaching out, because that's what Jase would have done. They knew how he cared for you, they knew how he always covered up and pretended everything was fine when it came to you. Everybody knew how protective he was of you. Do you remember when you visited his highschool with your class last year and some random kid said something about your butt?"

Casey frowned. "What? No, that didn't happen," she said.

Percy smiled and shook his head. "Some guy said something stupid, then said he was going to try to get your number. Jase found out, nearly scared the guy half to death. Told him never to say another word about his sister. He was so protective of you. Everybody who knew him knew how much he loved you."

Casey was crying now. Just barely; strings of tears tracking down her cheeks and onto the floor in messy blotches. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked.

Percy hugged her close and kissed the top of her head, rocking slightly as if to cradle her. "Because you are so important, Casey. Nothing is going to happen to Jason Jackson's little sister, not as long as he can help it. He would fight Tartarus himself blindfolded and hands tied behind his back if it meant being able to come home to you. That vision you had, maybe it was him. Maybe he's still alive, trying to send a message to you because keeping you safe has always been what he did best. Don't be too hopeful, kiddo, but don't give up hope either."

Casey smiled and leaned into her dad's side. She looked around the room as well, taking in every little detail of it. The idea of it being all boxed up was haunting.