In which Percy is recovering even if there are speed bumps, and also, Estelle is adorable.
Replies:
Undeath9087: Percy wanted to try and go back to normal- which in retrospect wasn't the best idea but she's learning lol. And yeah there's a few timeskips, I won't lie. I may go back some day and do a series of oneshots for stuff that happened in between them or after but that is for the future. I love this fic and it's so important to me but I won't deny feeling a little burned out with it so yeah.
Kryptonwrites: That's probably not gonna happen lol, but I do have some vague ideas for little stuff I might write in this universe in the future, for now I'm somewhat burned out lol.

Percy groaned, pressing her face into her pillow as if she was going to try and suffocate herself, wrapping her arms around it and using it to muffle her shriek.

"Date go badly?" the voice came from her doorway, and Percy only lifted her head very slightly.

"I don't even know why I bother." she squeezed the pillow tighter. "It's fucking pointless-"

"Language Percy. There are little ears." which made Percy pause and lift her head, turning it so that her gaze could focus on- her eyes widened very slightly and she let herself smile as Estelle pulled away from Sally, letting go of their mothers hand to shoot towards the bed.

"Percy 'kay?" her little voice was worried, and Percy sat up properly, holding out her arms.

"Better now that you're here 'Telle." she scooped the two year old up into her arms, hugging her close and kissing her baby sister on the top of her head, the little girl smiling brightly. "You make everything better." She turned her gaze to her mom when she moved into the room and perched on the edge of the bed.

"So, the date?"

"Was terrible." Percy let out a huff, blowing her hair out of her face and pressing her face into the top of Estelle's head, letting soft dark curls tickle her nose. "She'd heard about me before asking me out- had a savior complex." she let out a huff.

"Oh Percy." Sally reached out and gently squeezed Percy's shoulder. "What happened?"

"She kept talking about how brave I am and how I could tell her anything in confidence and how she would 'stick by me'" she scoffed. "She seemed pretty put out when I told her that I've been in therapy for the past two years and I'm actually doing better now." it had been hard. Very hard, but she really was. The nightmares were less frequent and she had coping methods that she'd worked out with Mr. D. to calm herself after the worst of them. She had routines for dealing with anything that made her anxious- something which she'd noticed four months after settling back into real life.

She had methods to deal with her anger issues- which worked nine times out of ten, and she always managed to stop herself from doing anything too horrific when she did lose her temper.

Sure there were still days when she didn't want to get out of bed, days when the slightest thing going wrong set her off. But she was recovering. She'd even confronted the fact that her relationship with Annabeth and Rachel hadn't been perfect- oh they'd been really good partners to her, but she'd latched onto them in a way that hadn't been healthy, using them as an anchor to ground herself- and in the end using the idea of them being together to mask the fact that she wasn't better by a long shot.

Thinking about them didn't even hurt too much anymore, just a faint dull ache. She'd even seen them recently- during a visit to camp when Annabeth had been telling Chiron about New Rome- where she'd decided to attend university- though from what Percy had heard she was also attending classes at the University of California Berkley as was Rachel- though she was also the camps new Augur, working closely with Frank and Reyna.

Percy was happy for them, as far as she could tell they were both happy, and while it had been awkward and they hadn't really talked much there hadn't really been any bad feeling between them, though Rachel had told Percy she was glad that the daughter of Poseidon was working on herself- since she'd just walked out of a therapy session with Chiron.

And Annabeth had told her she hoped that Percy had realised that she didn't need to constantly be a martyr, that her escaping the underworld didn't mean that she was obligated to risk her life every five minutes. Which hadn't exactly been nice to hear but it had been a fair point.

So yeah, awkward but there hadn't been any angry words, there was no bitterness, just a certain sadness and tension that was to be expected.

And in a sense it had even given Percy a small sense of closure- enough that she'd decided that she might as well agree to try dating again. It had been almost two years since the break up, since all of the traumatic shit that haunted her past had happened. It felt like it was time for her to at least give moving on a chance. Maybe it hadn't been fair? Percy knew her bar was pretty damn high possibly unfairly so.

After all there weren't many people who could match up to Annabeth and Rachel.

But- was it really that bad for Percy to have a high bar? Mr. D had helped her realise that her self sabotage of her first relationship had been a mix of her lack of self worth- caused by the damage Alabaster had done, the fear of what she was capable of and how she might hurt them- again caused by Alabaster, and a desire to shield herself from the inevitable pain that kept being inflicted upon her.

He'd also made the point that it would be healthy for her to try and form other relationships- to go on dates even if nothing came of it. She didn't have to actually do more than one date, it was taking that step.

And she was trying- but all six of her recent dates had been disasters in one way or another.

"Well you're doing really well trying." Sally was trying to hide her smile. "I'm proud of you sweetheart. Really. I know you've not had much luck but that's not why you should try. You have a whole life to live Percy. You need to at least try to live it."

"I am mom." Percy shifted Estelle so that the girl was perched on her knee, feet kicking. "I promise."

"Good." Sally gave a wry smile, reaching out and brushing Estelle's hair out of her face. "I'm proud of all my babies of course but- I'm especially proud of you lately."

"Well of course." Percy's lips twitched, "I bet you didn't think I'd ever actually graduate high school let alone get into college-"

"Percy 'mart!" Estelle crowed proudly, patting Percy's cheek- clearly repeating something she'd heard someone else say when they'd been talking about her plans to attend college- she'd be living at home of course, but she could easily get to campus to attend her classes and her mom had agreed to support her through her studies- she'd already said she'd support all of her kids, and Luke had already taken her up on her offer, as had Ethan and Leo.

Luke was doing a bachelors degree in social work- he was half way through and doing incredibly well all things considered.

Leo was was going to be doing robotics courses- which Percy had no doubt he'd ace in record time.

Ethan had decided to study law- he liked the idea of justice and he hoped to specialise in helping people get second chances if they deserved them.

And Percy had spent a lot of time considering her options- she'd considered doing something ocean themed- marine biology would be a fairly easy study for her and she knew she'd enjoy it.

But deep down she knew what she was going to do with her second chance.

She wanted to help people- not just by beating up terrifying monsters, but she wanted to help people in the way Mr. D had helped her. Which was why she was going to study counselling and psychology and she wanted to become a therapist.

Mr. D. had actually looked touched for perhaps three seconds when she'd told him that before he'd hidden his reaction and brushed it off.

Chiron had hugged her and told her how proud he was of her. It was a nice feeling she had to admit. She was looking towards the future. Sure she had no solid plans other than getting her masters degrees and getting qualified- she didn't know what she'd do after- though Chiron had implied that perhaps it would be a good idea for the Camp to have a therapist-even suggesting that they could look into the camps budget to sort out a pay cheque for her if it was something she was interested in.

Truthfully Percy wasn't sure if she was interested in it or not but it was an option.

Her future was wide open for now. Maybe she'd travel after college, see some more of the world- and actually get a chance to explore it in a way she didn't during quests to save the world.

She was drawn from her thoughts by her moms voice. "That's right Estelle-" Sally's smile was proud, "Your big sisters very smart." she brushed Percy's curls out of her face, her expression soft, "You'll help a lot of people sweetheart."

"I hope so." Percy let out a little huff before pausing, "Do you know what time Luke and Thalia are due home? Last time I called Luke he said it was today right?"

"I believe so." Sally rolled her eyes, "But you know how they are- they like doing their trip down memory lane but they do tend to get side-tracked."

"It is kinda romantic." Percy hummed, "I mean, I get it- it's when they first bonded it makes sense that they like going on the road trip. I was just hoping to talk to Thalia about our Dam trip."

"You're still planning on doing that?" Sally's voice was curious, "I wasn't sure if everyone had agreed."

"Well, Thalia does plan on bringing Luke with us, and Bianca's bringing Reyna too if we actually do go but yet, I think so."

"What about Annabeth and Rachel?" Sally's voice was gentle, "I know that you said the whole point was for everyone who was there last time you visited to go-"

"It'll be fine. Thalia's been in contact with both of them about it and I'm pretty sure they've said they're up for going. It might be a little awkward but I dunno-" Percy shrugged, "Maybe it'd be good for us. We need to be able to spend time around each other our social circles are way too close not to. And it'd be nice if we could be friends again." sure Percy was fairly certain that she'd always be a little bit in love with the two other girls but it wasn't as though she was going to let that stop her from being friends with them. She knew how to keep healthy boundaries- she'd spend entire therapy sessions dedicated to personal boundaries.

"'Stelle come!" Estelle pouted, her big green eyes wide as she reached up and grabbed at Percy's hair, tugging hard.

And truly it was a testament to how far Percy had come that she just laughed, gently grabbing her sisters fist and uncurling tightly furled fingers. There was no instinctive panic, no flashbacks to Alabaster, just Percy sat on her bed with her little sister in her arms and her mom watching with that fond smile on her lips.

"Sorry 'Stelle, tell you what, you might not be able to come to the Hoover Damn with us, but-" she poked the little girls nose, "If mommy says yes you and I could go on a magical trip of our own-"

"Trip!" Estelle squealed the word, turning her head to look at Sally, "Trip mommy? 'Stelle and Percy?"

"Hmmm, how can mommy say no to that?" Sally gave Percy a look, "Not too many treats though."

"Uh huh." Percy's grin was devilish as she stood up, hoisting Estelle up so that she was on her hip, "Estelle do you hear mommy?"

"Nope." Estelle trilled the word, a grin on her lips- as if she though she was in on some joke.

"There's my girl." Percy gave a little high five, "See ya mom."

"Oh off with you both." Sally laughed, "Be good."