Aurora and Anastasia's birthday was right around the bend, which meant one of the dreaded shopping trips with Echo's fathers to help them shop for Ana. Aurora was easy to shop for, her and Papa connected over a lot of things. She had a lot of his old t-shirts that she wore, ones from when he and Dad first started dating. Dad had said she could wear them as long as she wore some bright colored stuff with them as well. Her favorite pairing was a pair of mint-green skinny jeans with those black t-shirts.

Gareth was staying with the girls while they went shopping, since the girls were a little too young to be alone themselves, but old enough that they didn't want an adult watching them. Plus, Gareth was back especially for their birthday and had brought a new movie.

Echo played the piano while she waited for her fathers to finally be ready to leave, she knew they were talking over ideas about what to get the girls. But they would get ideas, actually follow those ideas for Aurora, and then throw out the ideas for Ana and end up spending the rest of the day following Echo and carefully picking things out. Half of those things were Echo's half-baked guesses, and would get returned, but her fathers usually had no idea what to get Ana.

"You're crazy!" Papa came out, shaking his head.

Echo paused, her fingers poised above the keys.

"Am not! I like it, and you know that you look good with it." Dad was laughing, "Now, relax, we need to get to the mall. Echo's been waiting for three songs, and two verses of Radioactive, which is impressive on the piano." He gave her a thumbs up.

Echo smiled, waiting for her Papa to grab the keys. They wouldn't be leaving until he did.

Papa sighed, "Are you sure I don't look ridiculous?" He looked in the mirror. He had grown something of a beard, very short, very clean. He looked good with it.

"I like it, Papa." She said, going back to playing the piano.

Aurora and Anastasia chimed their agreements.

Gareth came back in from the kitchen, "You look awesome, Mr. Solace." He agreed.

Papa nodded slowly.

Dad was leaning against the couch, "Come on, Ghost boy, I think you look handsome, the girls think you look good, even Gareth thinks you look good. Come on, we have a day of torture ahead of us."

Aurora snickered.

"Yeah, yeah, sunshine. Keep your pants on." Papa grumbled, but he also had turned a little red. "And don't call me ghost boy."

"You sure you want me to keep my pants on."

"Ew!" Aurora hid underneath a blanket.

Papa turned completely red, "You have no filter."

"Haven't ever needed one." Dad kissed Papa, his hands on Papa's hips.

Papa pulled away, "We need to go shopping." He grabbed the keys.

Echo spun away from the piano keys and grabbed her purse, "I'm ready when you two goofs are."

Dad and Papa looked over at her, a strange look on their faces.

"What?" She asked, shifting.

"You sounded like Meg just there." Papa smiled.

She smiled back, "Well, I am her daughter, right?"

Dad put an arm around her, "Yeah, you are. Let's get to the mall. We have frustration waiting for us."

Echo smiled at them. They seemed to like that she had some of her mother in here, it was kind of nice to see.

They bickered lovingly on the drive, leaving Echo to go over the list she had in her head of present ideas. She played with her earrings, thinking about what her fathers had promised to do in July. Papa was going to take her to camp, just her and him and only for two weeks.

Dad was going to be switching to a family practice, saying he needed a quieter life. Plus, of the two doctors in town, one had died, and the second had been trying to retire. Westfield was a small town, they needed at least one doctor. Dad had looked relieved just by the thought of going to something quieter. With more certain hours. He would still be working with the hospital, but he had decided that he couldn't handle being a trauma surgeon anymore. She knew that he had given a lot of careful thought to this decision. She also knew that there had been a lot of people who had begged him to continue on as a trauma surgeon.

Papa had carefully explained everything, telling them that it wouldn't involve moving.

But also that there was going to be a private school opening, part boarding school, with programs specialized for kids with ADHD, Dyslexia and a myriad of other learning disorders. Travis had designed the program, and Percy was going to be the English teacher. Papa was going to teach the art class. Evangeline Temple was going to make it safe for demigods. Malcolm Pace had been approached to teach the science classes. It was being built, and would be open in the fall. They already had eighty students, some of which were from Rome, others from Camp, and a lot of Echo's friends, her parents' friends kids. Melina, Nolan, Gareth, everyone else.

It was exciting. She couldn't wait for fall, and she was super excited for a school without Ross. Where she could see her friends every day.

It would be epic.

She just had to get through the rest of summer, figure out why she kept dreaming of the Phoenix, and get through shopping today. She had told her parents about her dream, and they hadn't seemed to have any clue either. Papa told her to pay attention, that it would become clearer with time.

She hoped he was right. She was getting a little sick of the bird appearing. She would dream of a different location each night, most she didn't recognize anymore. A forest, a desert, a river, different towns…and she was always running in these dreams. There were other people with her, she was taking care of someone and another person was helping her. Then she would turn to look for their next destination and the Phoenix would be there, blinding her and waking her up.

Nolan had said he hadn't had any further dreams since Hawaii. Said it must have been a coincidence that he dreamed with her.

She hoped that her dreams were just that, dreams.