Papa found Aurora a day later, in Venezuela. He brought her home, and she seemed fine enough. A little groggy.

Dad still gave her a full check up before releasing her to Ana who then tortured Aurora by hugging her constantly and not letting her twin out of her sight.

Aurora ended up accidentally giving Anastasia a black eye while trying to get free to use the bathroom.

Papa had just shook his head and collapsed on the couch, turning up the volume on the cartoon Declan was watching.

Thankfully, the next day was Saturday.

Echo was the first one up, as usual. She brushed her teeth, combed her hair, then went to her fathers' room and knocked softly, when there wasn't an answer, she went in and woke her Papa. "Hey, it's Saturday." She told him as he gave her that same zombie look.

He nodded, "Be out in a couple minutes."

She nodded and when he dropped back onto the pillow, she grabbed his alarm clock and set it for five minutes before heading out and getting out the ingredients for their traditional Saturday breakfast of omelets with ham, cheese, and hash-browns. Hers and Dad's would also have onions.

Papa came out with a slight glare, "How do we always manage the same routine every Saturday? You'd think I'd be used to the alarm going off after you've tried waking me once, but I'm always alarmed." He pulled her into a hug, sort of leaning on her for a bit as he continued to wake up. "You look so much like your Dad."

Every Saturday.

Echo grinned and squeezed her Papa, but said something she had never said before, "Yeah, but I didn't get any of his gifts." She pulled away and started cracking eggs.

Her Papa didn't move.

She glanced over and saw that his face was troubled, worried, as he gazed at her, suddenly awake.

"Echo…"

"Relax Papa. Abilities aren't everything. I'm still a sweet girl and whoever I end up with will be a lucky person. I'm beautiful and don't I forget it." She continued cracking eggs. Normally the words meant something to her. What was so different about today?

Papa turned her toward him, searching her face, still worried. He shook his head, "Wash your hands, I'll put the eggs back in the fridge. Go wait for me on the couch."

She blinked, worried that this was going to turn into one of those lectures that made her cry and wish she had never spoken. Or that was super awkward, like when she started her first period. She washed her hands and went into the living room to sit on the couch.

Papa came in and went right to the bookshelf, "How much have we told you about your birth?"

"Um, you hired a surrogate, a half-blood. She gave birth to me and gave me to you and Dad. Aunt Meggie."

He sighed, grabbing the photo album off the top shelf. "I wish everything had been that simple." He muttered.

Wait, it was THE photo album. The one with pictures of their surrogate mother. The one they never brought out.

"Her name at the time was Megara Payne. She was my age, twenty-three, when we met. Through Cassie, when she was pregnant with James." Papa started, sitting and wrapping an arm around her. "Your Dad and I couldn't adopt because I have a record. Life of a halfblood, you know. Anyways, Megara was our last hope for kids. And she said she would do it." He opened the photo album to the first page, which had a picture of Aunt Meggie, grinning at the camera, probably close to six months pregnant. Echo felt a couple vague memories trying to resurface, but she also couldn't help but notice the similarities between herself and the woman in the picture. Like Echo's nose, and face shape. But mostly Echo could see the twins, especially Anastasia with her paler blonde hair and paler blue eyes.

"This was when she was about four months pregnant with the twins." Papa said softly, sighing, "But you were the first were so excited for you." He flipped the page to a picture of her fathers with Aunt Meggie, holding a sign that said "It's a girl!" Aunt Meggie had shorter hair in this one, a pixie cut, and wasn't nearly as pregnant as she had been in the first photo. There were other photos on these pages as well. Echo had a vague feeling that her Fathers had become very close friends with Megara. Especially her Papa, since he was in so many photos with her.

"She was like another sister to me. And she died. Has four kids for us, one for her husband and…died." Papa sounded torn.

Echo wasn't sure what all this had to do with her, but she wasn't about to stop him from talking about something she had wondered about for at least two years. This was her mother…

"She ended up living with us for about six months because her apartment building had a fire. We took care of her, and tried to make her comfortable and everything because she was carrying you. She was giving us you. She taught me how to cook better, and we talked about books and life. She had been through so much, and she was still such a good person." He flipped the page, pointing to one of Aunt Meggie holding a baby. "She picked out your middle name, you know."

"Is…that me?" There was another with her, the baby, and both men. They were all grinning, well, except for the baby.

"Yeah, you were the light of our lives." Papa rested his head on top of hers. "I was so excited to be having a little girl, and Echo…you surpassed my fondest dreams. I used to imagine having our little girl running up to Will when he got home, grinning and hugging him tightly. Him teaching her how to play piano. Me teaching her Italian."

Those were all things that had she surpassed his dreams?

"But I never thought about how you would interact with your siblings. You're such a blessing for me and your father. Watching out for them, helping us with them, helping them with homework…you have one of the kindest hearts I've ever come across, and I've come across my fair share. I still can't believe I had a hand in raising you." He chuckled, pointing to a picture of her sitting at the Piano with her Dad, which was next to a picture of her and her Papa covered in flour and grinning on the floor, both of which sat in a frame on the entertainment center. "You're special, Echo. You were our first miracle. And I think you'll do amazing things, and that you'll help a lot of people. Because you are kind, caring, compassionate, gentle, and you can brighten any day." He kissed her temple.

She smiled and cuddled up to her Papa.

Dad came in and sat on her other side, "It is that day, isn't it." He said softly, looking at the photo album.

Echo looked up at him as he shifted so that he was holding her as well. "What day?"

He smiled at her, and brushed her cheek, "Almost thirteen years ago. The day we found out we would be getting you. It was one of the best days of my life."

"Our life." Papa corrected, giving Dad a soft glare.

Dad just grinned at him, "You brought new life to us, before you were even born. Your Papa was getting bored with me."

Papa rolled his eyes, "Right, that's why we were—"

Dad cleared his throat, "Age appropriate conversation, Nico."

Papa shook his head at Dad, "I was not getting bored with you. I was worried about you. Your Dad was moping for weeks before he finally told me that he wanted kids. The day before I met Megara, actually. And the day before we signed a contract making her our surrogate."

Echo shook her head, "That's crazy, you met her and signed a contract for her to be your surrogate on the same day? What if she had turned out to be some sort of—"

"She wasn't." Dad interrupted, taking her hand, "You're right, it was crazy. But Megara was Cassie's midwife at the time. Cassie knew her pretty well. And…"

"We were desperate. It was the only path open to us, it wasn't as if we paid her a ton of money. Honestly, she was a godsend. And we found out later that Leo knew of her, and that she had been Annabeth's midwife when she was pregnant with Nolan. The only other people she had been a surrogate for were close friends. But she went to camp. She was a daughter of Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth and midwifery. It…was fate." Papa gently stroked Echo's cheek. He then flipped the page.

"So…there are other kids out there that she was the mother of?"

Dad laughed softly, "Yeah, your siblings and Riley Stoll. The others were a little different."

"Something I don't want to know about?" Echo made a face,realizing it must be one of those adult things that she was better off not being weirded out about.

Her fathers nodded.

"Okay, moving on…didn't it…bug her? Giving us to you?"

Papa nodded slowly, "Yes and no. She was sad, but she had known that should would be. And we had dinner with her almost every Thursday, so she could see all of you growing. But she couldn't have a hand in raising you guys."

"Why?" Echo frowned at the picture of Aunt Meggie with her and all of her siblings, even a little baby Declan.

"Because she had been told that she would be able to have kids of her own, but that she would never raise them. She would die." Papa said, his voice sounded fragile. Raw.

"But…Riley…"

"She died a couple weeks after Riley's first birthday. They were passing through Ohio on their way to Minnesota for his business trip, they stopped for the night. She went to a convenience store and…" Papa's voice broke, and his eyes closed.

"A trucker fell asleep at the wheel, plowed into the store. Last thing she did was push a kid out of harms way." Dad finished, flipping the page. A wedding photo of Megara and Travis with Echo as their flower girl. Echo was probably two.

But her head was reeling. "That's…how exactly…"

Dad looked at her, probably wondering how she would take it. "She was hit hard enough that her rib-cage was died quickly."

Echo didn't believe his last sentence. She had a bad memory resurfacing, a bad dream. Going to her fathers, terrified. Then a scream ripping through the house and all of them sleeping in their fathers' bed. "I…I had a dream about it…didn't I?"

Papa squeezed her, "I think told me the next morning that you had a nightmare that Meg had been hurt and that you couldn't help her."

She didn't know why she could remember that dream, but she did. "She…couldn't breath…"

Dad sighed, "No. And it was hard, trying to figure out what to tell you all. How to act around Travis. The funeral…that was killer." He shook his head.

Papa nodded slowly, "Especially since the morning after we found out…I looked at Ana and all of the similarities just jumped right out at me. I was afraid of taking her around Travis. Still am, even though he's made it clear that he's happy that there are other kids out there who share her traits."

"Why did you let us forget her?"

"We make mistakes, little didn't know what we were doing or how to do it. We were just happy when the tears stopped. We were in pain." Dad ran a hand over her hair. "Besides, have you ever tried explaining surrogate mothers to a six year old? It's not easy. That's why your Papa was supposed to tell you when you started learning about that stuff."

"Right, what are you going to do this mother's day when Aurora and Anastasia and Declan all ask why they don't have a mother since…you know, we're going to a mothers day party at the Jacksons…in like, a week?" Echo asked, folding her arms. Normally the twins would ask about mothers when their school did a project. They understood that they didn't really have one, but every year the questioning got more intense. And they were in fifth grade. That was when Echo learned about the reproductive system. In fact, they usually saved that for the week before mother's day.

"Oh crabcakes, I signed the permission slips for them to be in the health class." Dad said, meeting Nico's gaze. "You actually going to take care of it this time, or are we going to get called to the school again because one of our kids had an "How do I exist?" moment?"

Papa groaned, "Oh this sucks. This sucks bad." He continued on in Italian, with a few swear words mixed in.

"I think papa forgets that he taught us Italian."

Dad nodded, "He does."

Papa swore more.

"Now, seriously, about breakfast…" Dad started.

Echo nodded, "I'll get him on it. You should go check on Declan."

Dad grinned at her, and kissed her forehead before hopping up and giving Papa a kiss on the cheek, "You're the one who wanted them to learn another language."

"I'm going to wipe that grin off your face, Sunshine." Papa said through gritted teeth.

Dad just laughed.

Echo pulled at her Papa's hand, "Come on, Omelets. We're running out of time before the first of the demons awaken."

That brought a smile back to her Papa's face. He set the photo album aside (Echo made a mental note to nab that and hide it in her room so she could look at it more carefully) and followed her into the kitchen to make breakfast.

AN: Seriously, you have no idea how hard I had to try not to cry while writing this. I love Meg. That's why she's only dead in this series. Currently. Anyway, thanks everyone for the likes and reviews, you make my days! More Solangelo cuteness ahead, because we are doing the whole Saturday and this only goes to 8:30 a.m.