A/N: If you recognize it, it's not mine. Simple as that.
Chapter 24
Perci POV
I sighed heavily as I flopped back down onto the bed in the room Esme had decided to let Paul and I use. When Triton had dropped me off and left to deliver the message to our father, I had been stunned to see Bella pregnant, and looking so ill. Nico had more color than Bella did at the moment, and to be honest, it scared me, despite the fact that I wasn't too fond of her. Upon my arrival and telling the Cullen's what Paul had requested, Carlisle had politely, yet urgently asked me if I knew of anything like this happening before, becoming crestfallen when I had answered in the negative. When Paul had shown up and explained the full situation, I couldn't blame him for wanting me away from Sam, especially after Paul had voiced his thoughts on what Sam would think of any children we had.
When Paul had come into the room to cuddle himself calm, I had been unable to think of anything to help us that wouldn't cost us big time. I would have attempted to put up a water defense, but the river that ran by the Cullen house only ran along one way. The ability to come up with strategies like Annabeth that Athena had gifted me was coming up blank on defenses to create around the property that wouldn't be problematic for those inside the defense. After a few hours of Paul and I both attempting to come up with something that would be good, he'd had to take his turn running perimeter. A sudden knock on the door drew me out of my thoughts, as Esme poked her head in the semi-open door.
"I've made some dinner if you would like some. It's soup, since Bella's unable to hold much down, but it's something to eat at least." She said, and I nodded.
"Sure, thanks. You made enough for the others, right? I still haven't come up with a way to keep Sam's pack from entering Forks, much less your property, and I don't want to run the risk of sending someone to the diner and into an ambush." I said, standing up to follow her back down to the second floor.
"There's plenty, I assure you. Do you really think Sam would do that? Ambush the others, that is?" She asked, making me shrug.
"I don't know. I've been their strategic adviser/strategist for a while, with calls to Annabeth every now and then for training strategy advice. I don't know how Sam made plans before Paul imprinted on me, I've never asked, and they never offered up the information. It's something I'm kicking myself for right now, believe me, but I honestly don't know if ambushing the others is something Sam would think up. Now that I know he's willing to kill a human to get rid of something he has no idea is a real threat or not, I wouldn't put it past him though." I told her, ignoring the looks of alarm from Ed-weird and Carlisle as Esme lead me past them and into the kitchen to scoop some chicken noodle soup into a bowl.
"Looks good, and smells great too." I told her, before motioning out to the living room, silently asking if I could eat it out there. Smiling at the nod, I carried my bowl out into the living room and sat down on the chair Paul had sat in earlier, dragging an end table in front of me to rest the bowl on. Focusing on the soup in front of me, I tried to detect with my powers if there was anything that could kill me in it, and sighed with relief when I couldn't detect anything.
"What was that about?" Emmett asked, and I noticed a few of the Cullen's giving me curious glances. I shrugged, picking up the spoon and scooping some of the soup into my mouth. When I finished with the first bite, I smiled, glad that there was nothing hiding from my power.
"Since vampires were created by two Greek gods, you guys are technically Greek monsters. I learned my lesson on accepting food from Greek monsters when I was twelve and nearly killed by Medusa. She fed us enchanted food, meant to lull Annabeth, Grover, and I into a state of contentment to turn us to stone. Luckily, Grover didn't eat anything, and Annabeth snapped out of it in time, otherwise, since it was my first quest, I would have gotten us all killed. I killed Medusa, but I don't take food from people I don't know or trust anymore because of that." I said, scooping some more into my mouth.
"You were checking for enchantments." Carlisle said, picking up on it quickly, making me shrug again with a small nod.
"And poisons, if I'm being honest. Poisons have a different feel to them than most liquids, so I would have detected it immediately after I reached out to sense the soup with my powers. When I didn't feel foggy-minded after the first bite, I knew that there were no enchantments either. It's nothing personal, but I was just being cautious." I said. Fortunately, Esme didn't seem offended once I explained, and once I finished, I took some bowls of soup out to Jacob and Leah, Seth and Paul running the perimeter.
"I know you don't trust the Cullen's but I just ate some, and it was fine. You need your strength, Leah." I told the she-wolf when she just looked at the bowl I held out to her, while Jacob was already slurping his down. When she remained skeptical, I rolled my eyes, before speaking.
"I swear on the Styx it won't hurt you, Leah." I said, a quick clap of thunder sealing the oath. Once she heard the boom, she accepted the bowl.
"Bring the dishes back in, or leave them on the porch, someone will get them when you're done. I'm going to go draw more blanks on how to cover our asses." I said, heading back inside to the sound of snickering behind me.
"What was that thunder? There's no storms for a while." Jasper asked, maintaining a distance from me. I guessed that Ares had not been shy about who told him where Jasper was.
"Me, making an oath on the River Styx, the river in the Underworld. Leah trusts you guys about as much as Paul does, so I had to assure her that the soup was safe." I said casually, heading to the stairs.
"If anyone needs me, I'll be upstairs, cursing about not being able to come up with anything to cover the pack's furry asses." I said, knowing that everyone heard me as I went up to the room Esme had given me.
Days later, I still hadn't come up with anything, and Bella was now unable to keep anything down for longer than five minutes. Paul and Jacob were inside, while Seth and Leah took patrol, the arrangement having been made to have two wolves inside, two outside, though Leah never set foot inside the house.
"Have you come up with anything, Perci?" Jacob asked, earning a scowl and a groan from me, before I dropped my head back into Paul's chest since I was sitting on his lap again.
"Nothing. I've even IM'ed Annabeth and Athena, and they drew blanks as well once I told them of the limited defense beyond the trees. I've even asked her if she had heard of anything like this mess, and she had nothing. It was both amusing and irritating." I said, waving a hand toward Bella in reference to the mess, earning a growl from Edward. It didn't last long before he was distracted by Bella lurching forward as quickly as she could looking like she had swallowed a beach ball, while being skin and bones. The trash can was held in front of her, only for nothing to come up. Looks like she had reached the point where she had nothing left to puke, including stomach acid apparently. Unfortunately, one mental snide comment from Jacob later, and they were actually suggesting Bella drink blood to satisfy the kid she had in her.
"Yeah, nope. It's one thing to know vampires drink blood, that's why I call them leeches, I am not watching a human do it, screw that." Paul said, gently lifting me off his lap to stand up.
"I don't think I want to watch that either. I've seen far too much bloodshed, and the knowledge that you're about to drink human blood? No thanks, let's go cuddle and draw more blanks, shall we, Paul?" I asked, holding out my hand for him.
"Let's go." He said, all but dragging me up the stairs as Carlisle came in with a white cup with a lid and straw.
"That was gross." He said once the door to our temporary room was shut.
"No joke, I get that kid is half vampire, and so it needs blood apparently, but I can't watch a human drink human blood." I said, shuddering, making him chuckle lightly, before sobering.
"Any news on what Sam's pack is doing? I know you've got them being watched." He asked, sitting down on the bed. Letting out a sigh as I ran a hand through my hair, I joined him, shaking my head.
"Not really. They've figured out that I have them named as enemies to Atlantis, since the only member of the pack or imprint that can go in the water without getting their feet yanked out from under them is Claire. But other than that, no news to give. Birds would make excellent spies, but they're under uncle Zeus' domain, so I can't talk to them. Grover can't do anything without just cause, and there's no Nymphs on La Push, since it's tribal land. Basically, we've got nothing on them that we can use, and it's pissing me off." I said, slumping against him.
"I won't lie, it's pretty shitty not to know what's going on, but it's nothing we can't handle. We can get through this, Princess, and hopefully, we won't have to hurt anybody to do it." He said, making me sigh. I hoped he was right.
A few more days passed since the discovery that Bella could keep blood down -gag-, as well as the unfortunate discovery that while Bella got stronger, so did the kid, who broke a couple of her ribs. Somehow, the same day that Carlisle had announced he might not be able to save Bella if she had the kid, Ed-weird confused quite a few of us by hopping on the parent train. I had been with Paul by the river when that happened, so all the two of us knew was that it involved him being able to read the kid's mind. It was only a day or two after that, that Carlisle decided that Bella could deliver any day, and had informed everyone that he needed to hunt.
"Well, how is that going to work? The treaty is void in Sam's mind, they'll kill you the second they see you." I said, staring at him like he was nuts.
"Do you have any alternatives?" Jacob asked, looking at me. I thought for a minute before groaning.
"I have one, but there's no guarantee it would get here before the week is out." I said, earning a raised eyebrow from Carlisle.
"What is it?" He asked, curiosity showing in his eyes, black as they were.
"Artemis. She and her hunters eat fresh game. I could see if she's close enough to get some blood from her if she's got any, but there's no promises that she's even close enough to get here in a timely fashion. She never leaves her hunters alone unless Zeus asks her to, and he wouldn't do it for this." I told them, making him sigh.
"Then we have to go out, tonight if possible." He said, making Jacob argue this time, using the same, 'treaty is void in Sam's mind' argument. However, it was Esme's argument that Bella was family, and so she was worth the risk that won him over, asking Paul to come with to have his pack all present as a distraction.
"Who will guard Bella?" Esme asked after hearing the plan, and voicing that Emmett would go with her and Carlisle.
"I will. Celestial bronze works on them, found that out by accident when Embry got too close while I was practicing with Riptide and cut him." I said, much to the apparent surprise of Jacob, though I didn't know why he was so surprised. Maybe he thought I'd want to stick with Paul.
"Alright then, be ready to leave in twenty minutes, we'll go distract Sam's pack." He said, walking outside to inform Seth and Leah. Paul gave me a quick kiss before walking after him, while I went up to the room to grab my bracelet/knives Tyson made me, and Riptide, since I wore my hair clip/trident every day. Twenty minutes later, Carlisle, Esme, and Emmett were dressed and ready for a hunt.
"Thank you for protecting Bella." Esme whispered to me, a bit pointlessly since everyone in the house heard her anyway, on the way out.
"No problem, she's still family. Just try to hurry, I think Tyche has a grudge against Bella for some reason, so it would be just Bella's luck to go into labor while you're gone." I said, only half joking. They nodded, seeming to sense the serious part of that statement and ran out the door, leaving me to head back upstairs.
"Don't do anything stupid, will you? They just left to hunt, and your luck is shit, so don't do anything stupid, that might result in you going into labor." I told Bella, plopping down in a chair, earning an eye roll from her.
"My luck is bad, but I doubt it's that bad." She said, causing me to groan and face palm.
"Bella, I will literally give you a pearl worth a thousand dollars if you did not just jinx it. If you did, then the first thing I do once it's safe to do so is slap you. Deal?" I asked, giving her a look.
"Deal, I guess." She said, and I got up to watch the windows, searching for my wolf in case he came back while Bella talked with Rosalie and Alice. After a few minutes, the four wolves came back, and I ran down to greet Paul, throwing myself into his arms once he was close enough.
"How did it go? Did you trick them long enough for the Cullen's to get past?" I asked, checking him for injury.
"It went okay. All Jacob told Seth and Leah was that we were going to talk to the others, then blind sided them by saying he wanted Sam to take the three of us back with the promise to never lay a harmful hand on you, while he finished it. We were busted almost immediately after that, but we got out just fine, and so did the Cullen's I believe." He said, setting me down and walking up the stairs, me trailing behind.
"That's good, but Jacob really should have warned Seth and Leah first." I said, shaking my head.
"I think he wanted genuine reactions. I'm so good at being pissed off, it wasn't that hard to fake, but Seth and Leah needed more genuine reactions to be good distractions." He said, as we reached the second floor just in time to see Bella go down, a look of agony on her face.
"Help me get her to the delivery room, now!" Edward yelled, picking up Bella's suddenly twitchy body as gently as possible with the aid of Alice and Rosalie, before flitting off to the room Carlisle had set up for the delivery. I stood frozen as she disappeared from view before groaning and running that direction myself, Paul right behind me. Bella was in a form of labor, just great. I fucking hate being right about these things.