Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Meeting the Parents

Moving day. One of the nice things about being a demigod, was that we could just send all of their stuff by Hermes Express. Saves a lot on moving trucks and regular delivery services.

We had to go back on the plane which was still as bad as it had been the first time, but it seemed to pass a lot faster than the first time. We arrived back in Manhattan by early afternoon. When we got to their new house in Greenwich Village, the boxes were already sitting in each room so it was just a matter of decorating and unpacking everything. Many paint fights ensured between Andee and I, only to be stopped every time when Val caught us. Once all the furniture was put in to make the house functional, Andee and I had more time just to hang out.

"We should go to your place tomorrow," Andee said as we were getting ready for bed. "I want to meet your mom officially, and I think it would be good for you to see her and spend time with her before everything goes down."

"I'd like that," I said with a smile.

So the next morning, we grabbed some quick breakfast and a taxi, and headed over to my house by the Queensboro Bridge. It was much simpler than Andee's house, but I loved it. It was home.

"Oh gods, I'm nervous," Andee said in the passenger seat. "Do I look pale?"

"You always look pale," I said.

"Rude."

"Why are you nervous?" I asked. "We're just going to see my mom – and meet Paul. I love you, and I know they'll feel the same."

"But what if they don't?" Andee asked. "I mean, I'm not the most lovable person. I can be a really crappy person."

"You are not a crappy person."

"But I can be!"

I reached over and squeezed her hand. "They will love you."

We pulled up to my house and I parked, and opened the door for Andee and helped her out.

"Do I look okay?" Andee asked.

"Andee, you look gorgeous," I said. She was wearing a plain blue dress with her gold sandals. I smiled at the blue dress – normally she'd wear gold, so I felt like it was because of me. And she sure looked good in it. "Relax, Glow Worm, okay?"

"I don't think I know what that word means."

I kissed the top of her head and led her up to the apartment. I pulled out my keys and unlocked the door. "Mom, I'm home! And I brought someone for you to re-meet!"

"Percy!" My mom practically ran towards me and threw her arms around me in a tight hug. Every bit of tension in my body disappeared as I returned my mom's hug, squeezing her tight. My mom was my best friend and she had sacrificed so much to make sure I was happy and well. I don't think I would ever be able to repay her and I just loved her so much. "I missed you!"

"It's only been a few weeks," I said with a smile. "But I missed you too."

She pulled away to look at me and smiled. "You are just so handsome."

"Mom," I said, my face getting warm.

"I know, I know," she said. "Andee! It's good to see you again!"

"You too, Ms. Jackson – I mean, Sally," Andee said.

"Andee and I are actually together now," I said, smiling at Andee. "As in, she's my girlfriend. Don't know how or why, but she is."

"Oh shut up," Andee said. "You're amazing."

"I was wondering how long it would take," my mom said. "You two had such a strong energy between you that day. Come here, Andee, I want to give you a hug."

"Okay," Andee said happily, rushing over to hug my mom. "I love your son. He's so cute and funny and wonderful and you did a really good job with him."

"Thank you, I definitely tried," she said with a smile.

"And it's not Stockholm Syndrome or anything like that, because I know the first time we met I said he was kidnapping me, which he was, but like…it's not that. Why would I even say that? Oh my gods, I'm terrible at this. Percy is just really really wonderful and I really really love him."

"I know, sweetie."

"I'm sorry, I'm so nervous. I've never met anyone's parents before – I mean, I've only really dated once before, but like, I really want you to like me."

"Andee, I like you. You can relax, trust me, I'm not like that," my mom said. "Come on, let's go to the kitchen – Paul is making lunch."

"Oh gods, I forgot I have to meet another person," Andee said quietly, panic-stricken.

"Andee," I said, laughing as I wrapped my arms around her from behind. "It's fine, you're fine, everything's fine. Relax, love."

"I'm trying," she said, as I led her into the kitchen. Paul was just bringing plates over to the table with different kinds of sliced meats, cheese, some other sandwich toppings, potato salad and fruit salad.

My mom and Paul had met in a writing class when my mom went back to college to work on a degree. He was a high school English teacher, and he was really cool. He treated my mom so well and was in a completely different league than Smelly Gabe. They were just dating at the moment, but he had already moved in with us and I knew they would end up getting married at some point. I already called him my step-dad when I talked about him.

"Paul, this is my girlfriend, Andee," I introduced.

Paul's eyes lit up. "Girlfriend! That's fantastic – it's nice to meet you, Andee," Paul said, shaking Andee's hand.

"It's nice to meet you too," Andee said, smiling.

"Come on, let's all eat – I'm sure Sally also wants to get to know you better," Paul said, motioning to the table. We all sat down and Andee sat between me and my mom. My mom and Paul asked her all sorts of questions about her and her life, and she seemed happy to answer. She started asking questions back, all about them and what they did for a living, and unfortunately, about what I was like growing up. Her feet rubbed against my legs under the table, and my hand never left her knee.

When we were done eating, Andee offered to help clean up but my mom and Paul refused, and told us to just go hang out. So I led Andee up to my bedroom (with strict instructions to keep the door open) and she looked around, running her hands over everything like she had in my cabin. "This room is very you." She stopped at my desk. "Oh my gods," she said, looking at the pictures on the wall above it. "Look at you! You're such a baby!" she said, looking at a picture from my first year at camp with Annabeth and Grover. "I can't believe you used to be shorter than Annabeth! You've grown so much!"

"People tend to do that," I said.

"I wouldn't know," she said seriously, making me laugh.

"You're the cutest, you know that?" I asked and she smiled, giving me a kiss.

"I don't actually, because you're the cutest," Andee said, grinning and pulling me down on the bed. I immediately pulled her on to my lap and she wrapped her arms around my neck. "I need to confess something. I should have told you sooner, but it just…well, it's really personal and you probably didn't want me to know it. But seeing your mom and Paul reminded me of it, and it's something I really need to get off my chest."

"What is it?"

"When I healed you, back on the boat, I saw…I saw some of your memories. It's something that just happens with healing – it always happens. And I know it's an invasion of privacy and I don't like that it happens, but it does."

"So what did you see?"

She looked at me nervously and looked away from me. "I saw this man beating you – and you must've been young because you were pretty small – and he just kept hitting you. And then your mom came in and pulled him off of you and out of your room, and once the door closed you could hear him hurting your mom but at that age you didn't know that was the sound. And I just felt so much fear and so much anger and so much sadness. And I saw the scars on your mom's arms when we met, and I've seen a couple scars on you that I know aren't from our kind of fights, and I just…that was the stepdad you mentioned, wasn't it?" I nodded and grimaced. "I just – I didn't want to know something so personal about you that you hadn't told me yourself. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"It's okay," I said. "My mom married a guy named Gabe because his smell disguised my demigod smell, which you already know." She nodded. "He was an alcoholic jerk who treated my mom and I like garbage, and my mom only stayed with him to protect me. I didn't know he had been hitting my mom until after my first quest. I thought he had just been hitting me, which was naïve."

"Oh Percy," Andee said softly, her forehead resting against mine. "I'm so, so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about. It happened and it is what it is," I said. "Mom pretty much killed him though, so that's a pretty good end to the story."

"What?"

"I tried to send the gods Medusa's head in spite and they sent it back, and mom just happened to leave the box out where Gabe would find it and investigate it," I said. "And then she sold her first and last critically acclaimed sculpture."

Andee was silent, looking at me in shock before saying, "Your mom is a bad-ass."

I laughed. "You've got that right."

"Does Paul know?" she asked.

"I gave him a good warning," I said for her to smile. "But he treats her like gold, so he's good in my books."

"That's all anyone can really ask for," she said. "I'm glad I met you, because you treat me like gold as well. And I love you so much. You are so strong, loyal, kind and accepting, and you really are something special. I've never met someone like you before." I just held her tightly, nuzzling my face into her neck and hair. "And thank you for trusting me enough to tell me all that. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I was in your head."

"You can go in my head whenever you want," I said with a smile. "Thank you for caring. That's something…well, it's something relatively new."

"Always," Andee whispered. "Always, always, always." We ended up lying down in my bed, cuddling in comfortable silence. I held onto her waist, my hand just underneath her shirt, and my other hand stroking her hair. She had her arms wrapped around me, one hand lightly trailing up and down my chest.

"It's a little surreal, having you here," I said and she looked up at me. "In my bedroom, at home. I just never thought I'd get to experience this – bringing a girlfriend home, having her in my room, all that."

"I'm glad it's me who gets to do the honor," Andee said, pecking me on the nose. I brought her lips to mine for a deeper kiss and she turned her body so she could face me and get closer.

"Never going to get sick of that," I mumbled against her lips.

"Good, because it's going to happen a lot," she said.

"That is some of the best news I've heard in a long time."

She laughed and kissed me again.

We spent the next few days with my mom and Paul, just hanging around the house watching movies, I brought Andee to the nearby basketball court and schooled her in basketball, and then to the skate park where I attempted to show her how to skateboard. There was just a lot of laughing and grabbing onto me.

Unfortunately, with every day that passed, the tension grew thicker and thicker. It was like even the mortals knew something big was about to happen.

"I need to give you something," Andee blurted out as we walked along the private stretch of beach on the South Shore where Paul had taken me a few times to teach me how to drive.

"Okay," I said slowly. She wasn't holding anything so I didn't know how she was going to give me something.

"We both know what's coming –"

"It's not for sure."

"I've seen it, my brothers have seen it…it's going to happen Percy, it's just a matter of time and I want to be prepared," Andee said calmly, holding my hands tightly. "When you get back to camp, there will be an envelope waiting for you. It has my name on it and if you find or see me after he takes control of me, I want you to give it back to me."

"What's in it?" I asked.

"Stuff," Andee said vaguely. "You can't open it though – I have to be the only person to open it so I know it's real. I'm just hoping that it might bring me back and this was the only way I could think of."

A large shadow passed over Andee and when I looked up, I saw a huge black form swooping down and landing in front of us.

Hey boss! a voice in my head said. I was just about to ask Blackjack what he was doing here when I saw Beckendorf on his back. It was time.