Wooo! Skippy had her birthday, yesterday, so happy belated birthday, Skippy! :D

*whispers* you're getting so old….

…

We waited several long moments before a voice spoke up from the mist-generated rainbow. Nothing appeared when the voice spoke, and it only succeeded in settling dread into my stomach.

"We're sorry," a female voice, one I assumed to be Iris, spoke from the rainbow. "But the person you are trying to contact is unavailable at this time. Please try contacting them again at another time, say a different person you wish to speak to, or stay on hold until the person you were initially trying to contact is available."

I gave Danny a look, and I could see him biting his lip, holding back his questions and clearly afraid of the answers he would possibly receive to them. So I took the initiative and spoke up instead, directing my words to Iris.

"Is Adam Rivera alive?"

There was another pause before Iris spoke again. "I'm sorry. I am not authorized to tell of the existence of any particular being. Please be sure to try to contact someone you know is still on the surface and not residing in the Underworld."

I grit my teeth and clenched my fists. "That's bull. Is the freaking hippocampus Adam Rivera, father of Daniel Rivera, who is right here with me, still alive?"

Iris didn't miss a beat this time. "I'm sorry, but I'm not authorized to allow anyone to contact a monster. Please try again with a different name."

Gods. And this was why I had never Iris Messaged anybody before, besides the fact that I didn't know anybody outside of camp. But Iris was really starting to piss me off, and Danny could see this. He came away from his spot from behind the door and stood behind my, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me close. He grabbed one of my clenched fists with his own hand and rubbed the top of mine soothingly, helping to calm me down a little, but not entirely. Once again Danny noticed, and he duck his head down to my ear.

"It's okay, love," he murmured into my ear, tickling me with his breath, but I was too furious to squirm or giggle at the tickle. He rubbed his nose against my cheek, helping calm me down a little more at the simple display of affection. "You tried, and I couldn't be more grateful for you doing so in order to make me happy. But you've done all you can. There's nothing more to do. He just… he won't be able to come, if he is still alive."

The sadness that he was trying to hide in his voice killed me, and at that moment I wanted nothing more than to cry. Danny didn't understand how important this was to me. I didn't have anybody that would want to attend our wedding. My entire family was dead. I'd never be able to see them again until I died, too. If there was even a sliver of a chance that Danny's dad was still alive…

Stubbornness was quick to cut the line-up of my emotions and welcome itself to the front. I wasn't going to give up reaching Danny's dad that easily. You would need to kill me before I gave up, and even then I probably wouldn't. You'd probably need to toss me into the cellar without windows and chain the door after making sure the cellar was completely empty. I'd probably still find a way to pursue my stubborn ambitions, though, so you'd have to be real clever to stop me.

I quickly searched my mind for something to help give me some leverage on Iris, something that could help persuade her into connecting us with Adam Rivera if he was still alive. Which he was. I knew he was. I could tell by the way Iris had spoken the first time. He was unavailable at this time, which meant he was alive. Unavailable wasn't a term Iris used when speaking about a dead person. I knew that much after having had to use her message system once before on a quest. I had been trying to contact Zavid, and Iris had said he was "unavailable at the moment". I had tried to contact him again an hour later, and he answered then. So I knew Adam was still alive. It was just a matter of getting Iris to connect us to him.

Danny saw my look of concentration, and he wrapped his arms tighter around me. "Love, please. It's okay. I don't need to see him again."

"Yes, you do, Danny." I argued, and suddenly, I had it. I had a way to get Iris to connect us with Adam Rivera. All women had a soft spot for it. I knew personally that they did, being one myself. I wasn't sure if Iris was one of the few it didn't effect, but it was worth a shot.

As I had said earlier, I had wanted nothing more than to cry. Well, despite that feeling being gone, my tears were still fighting against their barrier. All I had to do was blink rapidly a few times, and before I knew it, I had tears streaming down my face, and, since it seemed nothing was escaping Danny that day, my fiancé was soon quickly trying to wipe them away.

"Oh, please, love," he begged me, wiping away my tears as I waited for the right time to start sobbing. "Please. D-don't cry. It's okay. Please. Stop crying. You know how much it hurts me to see you cry."

I thought then was a more than perfect time to start sobbing, so I did. "I-I-I-I'm sorry. I-I-I j-just r-r-really wanted h-him to b-b-be there, a-a-and n-now h-he c-can't beca-because I-Iri-Iris isn't l-letting u-us ta-talk to hi-him." I cried.

Danny bit his lip. "Love, it's okay. He doesn't need to be th-"

"Yes he does!" I may or may not have over-dramatized my shout, but neither Danny nor Iris seemed to notice it as I continued to sniff and cry my fake tears. "W-w-we o-only get m-m-married o-once, Da-Danny," I cried. "I-it's n-not the same wh-wh-when we re-renew our vows. I-i-it just is-isn't! H-he n-needs to be th-there wh-when we get m-married."

At this point, I wasn't entirely sure if my tears were still fake. I think I was actually crying, now, because I really did want Danny's dad to be there when we got married. It was true what I had said, in my opinion. It wasn't the same when we renewed our vows. We could wear whatever we wanted then. I'd only get to blow all my money on a beautiful white dress- a color I didn't much like, but Danny said I looked good in- once. I mean, I wouldn't be blowing all of my money on the dress. I had enough money in my families savings account, as well as the inheritance money given to me that I had put in that account, with enough interest over the years since they had all died, that I could buy us a house, a car, probably a couple pets, and enough furniture to furnish the house so we were comfortable in one sitting without getting a job. Probably not that much furniture, like maybe just a bed, a couch, a table to eat at, and a few other things. But I could still buy that, as well as the dress for our wedding. But how often would I be wearing that dress? Not very often, considering I don't like wearing dresses, and I don't appreciate wearing white. I'd probably only wear it the first time to try it on, and take it off immediately after. Then the second time would be for the wedding, which I'd take it off immediately after, too. I mean, I'm going to be honest here. I'm a rather messy person. I'd probably end up getting the white dress stained with spaghetti sauce or something, even if it wasn't even there at the wedding. That's just how talented I am. I'd also be afraid of getting a bloody nose, something I commonly get, while I was wearing the dress, and I don't know how kindly they'd treat me if I tried to return it with a blood stain that would probably cover the entire chest area of the white wedding dress.

Woah. Got way off topic there. Alright… Let's just continue where we left off, why don't we? What Danny said in response to my words…

The half-hippocampus who had recently become my fiancé let out a high-pitched whimper, clearly unsure of what to do about my tears. He danced on his feet behind me, removing his arms from around my waist as he tried to figure out what to say to get me to stop crying my not-so-fake-anymore tears. Iris beat him to the cut, however, finally speaking after her long silence.

"This man with you… he is the monsters son?" She asked, keeping her voice just as level and robotic sounding as before.

I nodded, lifting my hands to wipe at my tears since Danny was no longer doing so, still half-dancing behind me as he tried to figure out what to do, though his movements weren't so frantic once Iris started talking. I sniffed and intentionally moved my left hand as I wiped my tears away so that the two rings, one the promise and the other our engagement ring, glinted in the light so that Iris could see them, if she even saw the people on the sides of the rainbow when talking to them.

"I see, I see…" She was no longer keeping up the robotic tone, sounding thoughtful as she spoke now. "And… you two are to be wedded soon, I presume?"

Good, good… We were getting somewhere with her, finally. Either she had taken notice to the rings, or she had been listening when I had mentioned the wedding. Either way, she had been paying attention, and with a bit of convincing and sad sob-stories from me, she might finally let us talk to Adam.

Again, I nodded, still sniffing. "Y-yes. W-we are."

"How… peculiar…. A demigod…. And a monster offspring…"

I felt a little agitated at that, the way she called us peculiar, and I couldn't help but to get defensive on the matter. "I-it m-may be p-pecul-peculiar, b-but I-I l-love Danny, a-and I couldn't h-h-have asked f-for any-anyone better to-to fall in l-love w-with th-than h-him."

I may have sapped that up a bit too much, no doubt thanks to my annoyingly corny romantic flare, but Danny seemed to like it. His arms returned to be around me, making me jump in surprise, and he began nuzzling my cheek again, no longer dancing behind me and panicking on words he couldn't figure out to say in order to get me to stop crying. I couldn't help but to smile softly at that, and I lowered my hands to rest lightly on his arms. I saw Danny smile out of the corner of my eye, and he removed an arm from around me to lightly take up one of my hands in his.

I still wasn't sure if Iris was watching us, but she must have been, because after a while of Danny nuzzling my cheek and giving it a few kisses, she sighed. "Very well," the rainbow goddess said. "I shall connect you to this…. Adam."

I couldn't help but to grin at that. Danny froze in his nuzzling, much to my dismay, to look at the rainbow with shock. I lifted one of my hands and wiped at my tears, brushing the remaining ones away from my face.

"Th-thank you, I-Iris. Th-this means a-a lot to m-me."

I couldn't believe it, but the goddess scoffed at me. "Yeah, yeah. Just don't tell anyone I'm doing this. I don't know how many calls monsters are going to start trying to make…"

"But Adam is going to be an acceptation, right?" I asked hopefully. "He'll be allowed to contact us whenever, right? We don't always have to be the ones to contact him?"

Iris was silent for a while before speaking again. "… We'll see."

I was confused on what she meant by that, and Danny appeared to be confused as well. But neither of us got the chance to ask her about it, because the rainbow suddenly morphed itself into a scene with a man at his desk, working on some papers and muttering a few things.

I blinked when I saw him. If I hadn't known any better with Danny standing right behind me, I would have sworn that the man in front of us in the rainbow was him, if you took away the concentration crease that seemed to be etched permanently onto his forehead, and the missing chin stubble, and the clear height difference between them, even with the man sitting down. He appeared to be in his late forties, though with monsters, including hippocampi, it was hard to tell just how old they really were. He had dark brown hair, and I'm pretty sure he had the same deep blue eyes as Danny did. Unlike Danny, there wasn't a single hair on his face, clean shaven to perfection. I couldn't believe it, but even sitting down, he looked taller than Danny was, and Danny was pretty tall, almost a foot taller than me. It amazed me to think that there could possibly be someone alive taller than Danny, even though Cyril- ah… the bad memories…- even though that brute bad been almost three feet taller than the six-foot-five half-hippocampus.

I blinked again when it processed that Adam was a man. I pointed to the rainbow and gave Danny a questioning look. He noticed my questioning look, and dipped his head down so he could whisper in my ear.

"He can change forms, like the gods can." He whispered. "Between hippocampus and human."

That immediately shut down the weird images of a hippocampus and a human woman going at it, much to my relief. "Oh, okay. That makes more sense." Much more sense on how Danny was conceived….

Danny chuckled and nuzzled my cheek, though his chuckle was soft so as to not alert his father that we were waiting for him to notice us. I smiled softly at his affection towards me, and eyed Adam a bit more. They really did look similar, so similar that they could easily pass off as identical twins with a major height difference.

I felt a sneeze building up, and I took a few quick breaths as it built up. Danny seemed to panic, clearly not ready for any noise to indicate that we were there, but before he could help me prevent it, my annoying squeak- sneeze escaped me.

Adam seemed to be startled out of his concentration when I sneezed, and his head shot up, looking frantically around the room he was in. His eyes passed over us once before they quickly shot back over. Despite Danny's now quickening breath as he brought me closer to his body until I was pressed up against him, I couldn't help but to try and see what color Adam's eyes were for sure, not feeling the same panic as he was. They were a deep blue, like Danny's, but they seemed to be a bit deeper, somehow. Almost black, with a bit of green. They were quite interesting to look at…

"Um… May I help you?"

Adam's deep voice startled me out of the strange trance his eyes had put me in. I hadn't realized I was on edge, and I jumped. Danny let out a yelp of surprise and probably pain when the top of my head hit against his lower jaw, probably taking his current status of "so-nervous-I-need-to-bite-my-tongue" into a literal tongue-bite and most likely a tongue-bleed accompanying the bite.

I quickly turned around to face Danny, bringing my hands up to his face and momentarily forgetting about Adam as I half-forced Danny to turn his head every which way to investigate any possible damage he may have received when I had jumped. "Oh my gods. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to. Are you okay?"

He rubbed his chin tenderly, seeming to have forgotten about Adam at the moment, too. "Yeah… yeah. I'm fine. It's okay, love. I know you didn't mean to." He made a face before turning to the sink and spitting out a little bit of saliva and blood. "Gross."

I couldn't help but to laugh a little, relieved I hadn't hurt him too badly when I jumped.

I turned around when Adam cleared his throat behind me. Once he had my attention again, he raised an eyebrow at us. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure who either of you two are, and I see that this is an Iris Message, so one of you clearly knows who I am, and I don't take too kindly to that. Mind telling me who you are?"

I blinked at his words. I guess the saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" didn't much apply to Danny and Adam. When I had first talked to Danny and had known his name through eaves-dropping and had spoken to him the first time by calling him his name, he had been super peppy and upbeat about it, not at all like the semi-hostile Adam Rivera before us.

I glanced over my shoulder at Danny, who had his brows furrowed in a similar way as Adam's brows were. I looked back at the Iris Message. "I'm sorry, Mister Rivera. I'm Ty Winters, the only known daughter of Hypnos here at Camp Phoenix. And… I think you already know who this is, if you just took a longer look at him." I gestured to Danny, who was still spitting a little bit of blood into the sink and checking his tongue in the mirror, sticking it out so he could look at it better than if he kept it in his mouth.

Adam narrowed his perplexing blue eyes and looked at Danny suspiciously. Danny froze in his tongue-checking after a few seconds of being stared down intently by his father, and he turned around, facing him, his own deep blue eyes wide. I watched Adam blink once Danny was looking at him, and the full-hippocampus' eyes widened to be giant almost-black saucers. My eyes darted back to Danny, making me feel like I was watching some show on television as he lifted a hand and gave his father a nervous smile and wave before spitting into the sink once more.

"…Daniel?" Adam asked in disbelief after a while. I couldn't help my sigh of relief when Adam recognized him. Danny's father glanced at me when he heard my sigh, but his attention quickly returned to Danny.

Danny was looking at me, unsure of what to say or do. I remained silent, waiting for him to figure it out himself. After a couple of moments, Danny gave up on looking for my help, and spoke for himself. "Hey… dad."

"I… I don't understand. I saw him take you. I saw Damainos take you away…." He blinked before shaking his head. "Where is he now? Where are you? Are you safe? Oh god…. I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you better…"

Danny appeared to feel bombarded by Adam's questions, and he kept stammering out words that really had no relevance to the questions he had been asked. I waited a couple of seconds, but when Danny seemed to still be unable to ground himself and form proper words, I took the initiative.

"I'm not sure where Damianos is, Mister Rivera," I told Danny's father. I tried not to shrink back when his gaze landed on me. Though it was now soft since he knew who we were now, and fatherly when he glanced at Danny, as well as other emotions I couldn't decipher, I still had a hard time under his gaze while I was speaking to him. I never was good at talking to adults, or I guess people older than me. I guess I wasn't good at talking to people in general. Danny was the only person I could have a solid conversation with without feeling uncomfortable. But I forced myself to not shrink back so I didn't make Adam feel like I was intimidated by him.

"I… We're at Camp Phoenix, i-in Oregon. Danny's s-"

"Isn't that the demigod camp?" Adam interrupted. He realized he had interrupted me, and he blinked. "Sorry… Um… Proceed, please…. Ty, was it?"

I swallowed thickly and nodded, still unnerved speaking directly to him, even if it wasn't exactly direct and face-to-face in person. "Yeah… Yeah, I'm Ty. And… yes, it is the demigod camp in Oregon. Danny and the other twelve half-monsters arrived here last year, though he's the only one still at this camp. He helped protect the camp against them… That's why he's still here. Zavid, our camp director, let him stay, and only him, because he was the only one who fought for the camp. He warned him, too. He warned Zavid that Cyril was planning to attack, and he became a hero. He saved mine and everybody else's lives at this camp by doing so. It was during the school year, and the camp was already adjusting to its lower numbers after most of everybody left for school. We would have had no chance of surviving if Danny hadn't warned him. I mean, I didn't fight. I was hurt from events that had occurred before hand. I wouldn't have even been able to fight, anyways. I'm such a wimp… I don't know how to fight, even though I've been at this camp for twelve years. I couldn't possibly bring myse-"

"Love, Ty." Danny murmured, resting a hand on my arm. "You're doing it again."

I blinked. "Doing what again?" I asked him before what he meant by "it" clicked in. I felt horrified that I had begun to ramble, and I quickly started to sputter apologies. "Oh my gods. I'm so sorry, Adam. I didn't mean to ramble! I just do that when I'm nervous. I get nervous really easily. Oh my gods. I'm starting to ramble again. I'm so sorry." I groaned and buried my face in my hands, wincing when both Danny and Adam started to laugh in amusement. I sent Danny a menacing glare, but it only made him laugh harder.

After a couple of moments, Adam was able to get a hold of himself, though Danny was still chuckling in the background. "Ah…" Danny's father said. "It's quite alright, Ty."

Danny only chuckled in his agreement. I gave my new fiancé a gentle nudge with my hip to get him to stop laughing at me, and he wrapped his arms around me, bringing me close to him to kiss my cheek, and keeping me close after he had done so. I smiled widely when he kissed my cheek, and I leaned half of my weight against Danny, comfortable in his arms. I glanced at Adam, and saw he had an eyebrow raised at us. I quickly averted my gaze, feeling myself turn a little red and trying to hide that fact in Danny's shirt.

"I take it you two are a… ah… thing?" Adam asked hesitantly. Both Danny and I nodded in response. I tried to speak up, but I was too embarrassed being caught by an adult, so Danny beat me to the chase.

"That's… uh… actually why we called you. We… well…" He gave my cheek another small kiss. "Ty and I are engaged, and she wanted you there at our wedding."

Adam blinked. "Really?" He asked, his voice betraying his shocked expression. He sounded… disappointed. Not disappointed to the fact that we were getting married. He seemed excited by that. I guess it was more of disappointment to how their lives had turned out. I could see it, in his eyes. The lingering sadness he had missing eleven years of his son's life. I could tell it hurt him. I'm sure it would hurt me. If I had missed any number of years of my son or daughters lives- if we ever chose to have kids- I'd be devastated. I probably wouldn't even feel like they needed me anymore, and I could tell Adam was struggling with that now. He wanted to have watched his son grow up, to be there to teach Danny how to ride a bike, or watch football, or do some other parent-child things with Danny. But he had only gotten seven years to do that before Danny was taken away from him, and it hurt him, no doubt. I realized then, looking at Adam after Danny had given him the news of our engagement, how much it could hurt being a parent. You never knew when something unexpected like Cyril's father coming and taking your child away could happen. You never knew just how fast they would grow up and start pushing you away, saying that they didn't need you anymore and were ready to face the world on their own. And that hurt Adam, making me wish that I was able to turn back time to allow them those eleven years they had missed together, while still having Danny end up at Camp Phoenix last year when they did.

Danny didn't seem to notice Adam's hidden expression, because he nodded, smiling softly. "Yeah. She cried over it and everything." He chuckled softly and gave me a light squeeze. I squeaked when he did that, like I always did when I was squeezed, and he chuckled.

"Did she?" Adam asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "But you know nothing about me. Why would you want me there at the wedding?"

"Danny still loves you. He misses you, too. He's even had nightmares about the day he was taken away from you. If you mean that much to him to be haunting your dreams, and to make him cry when he thought you were dead, then… I think I know enough about you to know for sure that I want you at our wedding."

Adam smiled warmly at that, but I wasn't done talking.

"Plus," I continued," you guys haven't seen each other in eleven years. Coming up on twelve, I think. I don't know. But it's been a long time. I lost my family around Christmas twelve years ago. I know what it feels like for Danny, losing all you had. And for you. I'm more than positive you didn't know what to do with him missing. And for twelve or something years at that, too. You two deserve to see each other again. You two actually have the option of seeing each other again. I don't. And family means so much to me… I feel that the two of you should take the gift presented to you now, and get to know each other. Ignore the twelve years that you two missed. They don't matter, and I know they weren't exactly note-worthy for Danny, either. Just use the time you two have now, and… well… use it." I shrugged.

Adam was still smiling warmly at me when I finished. He was silent for a while, seemingly gathering his words before he spoke. "… Thank you, Ty. That… that means a lot, you doing that for us."

I smiled widely at that, but before I got a chance to respond, the one-minute warning chime went off from the rainbow on both ends.

Danny furrowed his brows at the noise and started looking around as both Adam and I began looking frantic. "What's that noise?" Danny asked.

"One minute left to talk to him," I spewed before turning to Adam. "Okay… Um… We need your phone number, because Iris might not let us message you again. It took a lot of convincing for her to do so this time. And… um…"

"Address?" Adam offered hopefully. "You're going to visit before the wedding, right?"

I glanced at Danny, and saw him nodding, looking saddened that he only had a minute left with his father. I turned back to Adam and nodded as well. "Y-yes. We're going to visit before the wedding."

That made Adam grin, and he began to list off some numbers to me. I repeated them silently in my head until he was done, and then proceeded to repeat them back to him. Adam nodded when I repeated the m successfully.

"Yes. Thank you again, Ty, for doing this for us. I'm looking forward to meeting you two in person. It's a huge relief knowing you're alive and well, Danny, and I hope to see you again soon."

Danny smiled warmly at that. "You will, father. Maybe in a month?"

Adam smiled. "I'd enjoy that, yes." He said. The Iris Message turned red, and Adam sighed. "I'll see you two then." He said before getting up and waving a hand through his end of the connection, making his office room turn back into the rainbow it originally was on our side of the message. After a few moments, the rainbow disappeared, and the water turned itself off, no longer creating the mist, and when I tried to turn it back on, it wouldn't budge, a clear sign from Iris that she didn't want us making any more calls for the time being.

I let out a squeak when Danny suddenly squeezed me to his body tightly. "Thank you so much, love," he murmured, giving my neck a small kiss. "Gods. Thank you so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, s-"

"Okay, okay!" I laughed. "I get it." I turned around in his arms. "'You have saved our lives. We are truly grateful.'" I joked, quoting the aliens from Toy Story. Danny grinned when I quoted it, understanding for once a quote I have made, since we had watched the movie together last week.

"So now you're comparing me to a toy?"

"Pft. No. I'm comparing you to aliens. There's a difference, you know. Comparing you to a toy… blech. So many inappropriate things can be taken from that." I made a face.

Danny tilted his head, not understanding. "What do you mean by that, love?"

I waved my hand. "Doesn't matter." I said, poking his cheek. "We should get going to bed." I poked his cheek again and grinned when it squished beneath my finger. Danny chuckled at my grin, and nodded, scooping me up into his arms and causing me to yelp.

"Then bed we shall go, my love." He murmured, giving my lips a small kiss before carrying me off to our bed.

…

LONG CHAPTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR