Chapter 3

PERCY POV

(A/N Probably should have been doing this earlier, anything you recognise, belongs to someone else *cough* Ricktroll Riordan *cough*)

Percy should've realised that the birth of his child wasn't going to happen smoothly. Of course Hera would find some way to mess with Annabeth in pregnancy. First there had been the multiple false alarms (annoying Will to no end, after being woken in the middle of the night several times over). Then when it actually came to it, nothing was happening. Annabeth had been sweating, groaning and cursing Hera to Tartarus and back for almost 20 hours, and still nothing. Will was severely worried about Annabeth and the baby's health, but of course this was just the beginnings of the complications. He was at Annabeth's bedside, his knuckles being squeezed so hard they were turning numb, when someone familiar crashed through the door.

"Hey Prissy, what're you doing in the infirmary, you got hit too hard-oh gods." All of Clarisse's good humour evaporated as she moved up to the bedside. "What happened to you, Owl-head? You look like you've been run over by a semi-truck." She glared at Percy. "I swear Perseus, if you were the cause of this-"

"Good to see you too Clarisse." Even after being in constant pain for almost a full day, Annabeth's glare was as steely as ever. "Percy was the cause of this, in a roundabout way, however he was not the reason that I have been in labour for twenty £#&*ing hours. That honour most likely belongs to her supreme Bovine-ness." If looks could kill, Hera would have toppled from Olympus, Annabeth stared at the ceiling so hard.

"Ah."

Shrewd as ever, Clarisse. Shrewd as ever, Percy thought to himself.

"What if it's something to do with Eileithyia?" Another voice entered the room. Chris Rodruiguez, Son of Hebe, was standing by the door.

"Don't you think we already know that?" Will got up and looked angrily at Chris. The first thing I did after getting Annabeth settled was to pray to her. After Annabeth passed the ten-hour mark, I got Meg to bring me her sacred flowers. I've sacrificed a snowdrop to Eileithyia every hour that passed after-"

"Whoa, whoa." Chris tried to placate the angry son of Apollo. "I didn't mean anything like you're not doing the rites correctly. I meant what if something is up with the actual goddess."

"Hera. She's Eileithyia's mother, and other gods have power over their children. She's had it in for Annabeth ever since that summer with the Labyrinth." Percy knew with horrible certainty this was the case. He fingered his third camp bead, which featured a maze design. "And it's not impossible from a historical standpoint. Hera forbid Eileithyia from letting Heracles be born until his cousin Eurystheus was born first."

"Why Percy, you've remembered something." Annabeth gave him an appraising look.

"Shut up Wise Girl, I only remember because I was looking through myths about childbirth. Please don't ask me to remember any more long names."

A worried look came over Chris's face. "But if that's true, then we'd need to have a quest to find her. That could take days."

"No." Percy's heart started beating faster. Annabeth in pain for days? No, this can't happen. I won't let it happen. "Annabeth can't be put through that kind of torture!"

"She won't have to." Meg McCaffrey appeared next to Chris. "Percy, you and Will stay with Annabeth. Chris, Clarisse, I need you to come help me find the Apollo campers. We're gonna need music."

"Oh yeah?" Clarisse sneered. "What are we going to need them for?"

Percy, catching onto Meg's plan, shot her a look. You want to explain, or should I? Meg shrugged, and turned to Clarisse. "To summon their dad. It's time for me to call in an old friend."

(A/N Whew, sorry for the short chapter, next one is around 1.5k words tho, so stay tuned.)