Chapter 6! This is probably one of my favorite chapter because I love the family and the ending. I did cry, though. I'm still struggling not to sob as I edit this.
Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews last chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
WARNINGS: NOTHING EXCEPT FOR AN EXTREMELY SAD ENDING THAT WILL TUG AT YOUR HEART STRINGS!
The screen came to life and displayed a brick house with an overgrown lawn.
Leo clung to Martin as he rang the doorbell.
"Leo, it's okay. I have a good feeling about this," Martin reassured him, staring down at Leo in pity.
The door opened, and a tall, burly man with a broad smile answered the door. He was wearing a gray muscle shirt and dark blue jeans; his brown hair was buzzed down to the scalp, and his blue eyes twinkled with happiness.
"I'm Steven Geran. Please, call me Steve," he said. "You must be Leo."
Leo nodded, hesitantly.
Steve held out his hand, making sure to do it slowly in order to avoid startling the abused child.
Leo reached out his own and shook the man's.
"Come on in," Steve said, stepping aside and gesturing them through the door.
Martin and Leo stepped inside, and Martin knelt in front of Leo.
"Leo, I think this is the one," Martin said. "These people are genuinely good people; they're not liars. I promise you. I'll be back in two weeks, and you can tell me how you're holding up, okay?"
Leo nodded. "Thank you, Martin."
Martin nodded. "Take good care of him, Mr. Geran."
Steve nodded. "We will."
Martin left with one last glance at Leo, and the door shut behind him.
Leo's hands trembled as he stared at the floor.
"Come on. I need to introduce you to my family," Steve smiled.
Leo looked up in shock. He'd obviously been expecting a loud, angry bellow or maybe even to be struck.
"Come along," Steve said, leading Leo into the kitchen.
"I like him," Percy muttered.
There were four people there. A red haired woman stood at the sink, doing the dishes; twin girls with crimson hair and blue eyes played Go Fish at the table; a black haired boy was pouring some juice into a cup.
"Hello, everyone. This is Leo," Steve announced. "Leo, this is my wife, Caroline."
"Nice to meet you, Leo," the woman called, drying her hand on a towel.
"These are our twins, Sara and Kara," Steve said, gesturing to the red haired girls.
"I'm Kara," the one on the left said.
"No, I'm Kara!" The other disagreed.
"It's the Stoll brothers all over again," Percy groaned.
"I am so glad Travis grew that extra inch, or we'd never be able to tell them apart," Annabeth said.
Piper chuckled. "And they're not twins?"
Percy shook his head. "Nope, Travis is a year older. The fact that they look so much alike is a strange phenomenon."
Annabeth gasped. "Percy just used a big word!"
Percy laughed. "Well, I do have daily vocabulary lessons with you."
"Don't worry, they do this all the time," Steve whispered to Leo. "They answer to both names, and even we don't know which is which, so don't sweat it."
Leo nodded. "Do all twins do this?"
Steve barked a laugh, making Leo jump.
"I think so," Steve chuckled. "Anyway, this is the other child we're fostering, David."
The black haired boy waved, knocking over his cup of juice.
Everyone laughed as David fumbled to right the cup, watching apple juice drip off of the counter.
Leo smiled and grabbed a wash cloth to help clean it up.
"If you can't tell, I'm the klutz," David chuckled. "By the way, you never saw that."
"Oh, no," Leo said. "I didn't see a thing."
"But we did!" Kara/Sara yelled.
"Yeah, and I saw you completely wipe out on your skateboard," David replied without looking up.
The girl blushed. "Touché."
BARK!
A thin dog with light brown fur bounded into the kitchen and started licking Leo's face.
Leo yelped and fell backwards as the dog tackled him.
"And that's our dog, Sandy!" Steve chortled as Leo got over his shock and started laughing.
"He likes you!" David yelled. "Lucky. That dog won't even let me pet it."
"Dogs are good judges of character, David," one of the girls mocked.
"You take that back!" David shouted.
"No!"
"Fine, I challenge you to a game of Legos!"
"NO!" The parents yelled.
"What's a game of Legos?" Leo asked as Sandy finally got off of his chest and he was able to stand.
"A game of Legos is an intense building contest. Mom and dad are the judges," one of the twins explained. "Sometimes we even bring the neighbors in to judge. Anyway, whoever builds the better fortress with Legos gets three things. One, you get the losers' deserts for an entire week. Two, the losers have to do the winner's chores for two weeks. Three, the losers do the winner's homework in their worst subject for three weeks."
"Worst subject?" Leo asked.
"Yeah. If I win, they do my science homework. If Kara wins, we do her history. If David wins, we do his math."
Leo smirked. "I want in on this. Be prepared because you will be doing my English homework."
"Don't get too cocky!" Kara called. "I always win."
"That'll make my victory all that more sweeter," Leo said with a raised eyebrow.
"Leo is so going to win," Jason stated and everyone else nodded.
"Are you two losers going to keep trash talking each other, or are going to build?" David called.
The three children ran for the hallway, Leo following behind.
Steve and Caroline exchange a glance, like here we go again, before following.
The image fast forwarded to display a room with two beds, both with clean white sheets and one with blue blankets. The other had orange blankets.
In the center were two Lego fortresses.
One would come to the waist of six foot tall person and was almost completely blue. There was a door (which really opened, as one of the twins demonstrated); there were six windows and a little Lego man on top of the wall.
"I like that one," Percy said, pointing to the blue one.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course you would."
Percy elbowed her, playfully. "This is why I like blue food more than you."
The other was almost entirely orange with a doorway and a ceiling with a small, rectangular gap between the wall and the rest of the ceiling. The twin that had built it stuck her fingers in the small gap and pulled up, like opening a trap door, to reveal an elaborate inside with furniture and Lego people and much more.
The image changed to a room with a single bed with a green comforter.
This fortress looked like a simple work building that came to the shoulders of Steve. Near the top, David had somehow arranged the Legos so that two letters were spelled in the empty spaces. DE. David's initials, probably.
The image changed to a room with a single bed with a red comforter.
This fortress was, to put it lightly, AWESOME!
It was taller than Steve (who was at least 6'2), complete with towers and opening doors. There was a 'mote'; it was a small gap between the fortress and a separate square of Legos. Leo held a Lego helicopter and tossed it into the air, watching the propellers spin. It stayed in the air for a moment before landing gracefully on the ceiling.
And it was made entirely out of Legos!
Leo stood over his creation with a smug grin.
David exchanged a glance with the twins.
"We'd better start on his English homework," David said.
The twins nodded.
"That was awesome," Frank said, simply.
"I knew I was a great builder, but wow," Piper said.
"Well, he did build a helicopter out of pipe cleaners," Jason pointed out.
Piper nodded. "Good point."
The image changed to a swimming pool.
"Come on, Leo!" Sara called. "We know you can't swim. We'll stay in the shallow end."
Leo, sitting on the edge of the pool in his swim trunks and a shirt, shook his head.
The twins turned to David and nodded.
David swam over and pulled himself up beside Leo.
"Leo," David said, slowly. "We know you were abused."
Leo didn't meet his eyes.
"I was, too."
Leo looked up in shock.
David sighed. "My mom. My dad started drinking when I was three. Around the time I was five, he walked out the door and didn't come back. My mom went off the deep end after that. She... she came after me with a belt."
David paused before meeting Leo's eyes.
"I was six," he stated. "She beat me three times before I told a teacher. She was mad at me for never turning in my homework, and I couldn't take it anymore. I started crying, begging her not to tell my mom. I don't even remember exactly what I said, but I must've said something about the abuse because I was taken out of my home and the next day, I was sent here. I lucked out with this foster home and so did you. Leo, when you are under this roof and when you are not, you will always be family. Nothing will change that. They didn't judge me for my scars when I first got here. They won't judge you for yours."
Leo hesitated before he finally grabbed the edge of his shirt and took it off.
Leo was covered in scars and faded bruises. Some cuts were scabbed over, and his back was littered with scars from Teresa. Leo's ribs stood out, prominently.
Piper sobbed. Hazel vomited into the trash can. Frank had to look away. Annabeth choked back tears. Percy and Jason clenched their fists and did everything they could to stop themselves from tracking down Teresa and Sir right at that moment.
David didn't look surprised or disgusted or angry. In fact, he smiled, sadly.
"Okay. Let's have some fun," David laughed before he leaned over and whispered something into Leo's ear.
The image fast forwarded. The twins were still in the pool, tossing a beach ball back and forth, but Leo and David had disappeared.
"Where did they go?" One of the twins (Kara, maybe?) called to the other.
The other shrugged. "I don't-"
"Cannonball!"
Leo and David leaped into the pool, splashing the girls with several gallons of water.
"You jerks!" Sara yelled.
"We are jerks, aren't we?" Leo called.
"We're going to get you! Think fast!" Kara cried, chucking the ball at Leo's face.
With the reflexes of a ninja, Leo batted the ball aside and accidently hit David.
"Dude, not cool."
The last thing the six heard was the laughter of four happy children before the screen shut off.
"That was sweet," Annabeth smiled.
Piper chuckled. "Yeah."
"Wait a minute."
Everyone turned to Frank.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if Leo wasn't taken out of the foster home, he ran away. Why? He looked so happy."
Silence reigned.
The screen flickered on to give them the answer.
Black letters scrawled across the screen.
Two weeks later...
"Hey, Leo," Kara called, running up to him.
Leo turned. "Yeah?"
"Sara and I have volleyball, and David's sick. You gonna be okay walking home alone?"
Leo laughed. "Kara, I'm ten, not two."
Kara chuckled. "Well, you know, we worry about you. And don't worry, we did it with David, too."
Leo nodded. "I'll be fine, Kara, but I'd better start walking. David's probably very bored right now."
Kara giggled. "Probably? Don't you mean definitely?"
Leo laughed before waving goodbye and starting to walk down the sidewalk and away from his school.
"Hello," a voice said, and Leo looked up.
It was a teenage girl and a beautiful one. She wore a crimson shirt that showed way too much cleavage and a white skirt that was way too short.
"Uh, hi," Leo stammered. "I'd love to chat, but I have to get home."
He obviously had the same feeling the other six were having: something was wrong.
"Come on. Stay for a while," the girl grinned.
"No, thanks," Leo said, trying to step around the girl.
"A handsome boy like you shouldn't be walking home alone," she smiled.
"Uh, I'm ten, and you're at least sixteen, so... that isn't going to work," Leo told her before making a break for it.
The girl lashed out at the speed of light and yanked Leo backward, tossing him to the ground with unnatural strength.
When Leo glanced up, he paled.
The girl was no longer a girl. She had one donkey leg and one bronze leg; her hair was flaming, and her teeth were sharp and pointy. Her eyes glinted red in the sunlight.
"Empousa," Percy whispered.
Leo screamed and tried to run, but he didn't make it very far before the empousa dived.
Leo closed his eyes and waited for death, but it didn't come.
A blonde teenager leaped in front of Leo and stabbed the monster through the neck, turning it to dust.
Leo scooted back as the boy turned around, trying to get away from the sword in the boy's hand.
Annabeth and Percy gasped.
"What is it?" Piper asked in worry
"Luke," Annabeth murmured.
The boy was, indeed, a sixteen year Luke Castellon. His face lacked the scar, but his blue eyes and blonde hair and his elfish features marked him as the boy that would grow up to host Kronos and then become a hero of Olympus.
"W-What?" Leo stuttered.
"Kid, run," Luke snapped. "If you stay in one place for too long, those things and much worse will come for you. Head for New York and don't look back."
Luke turned and ran down the sidewalk, not even glancing over his shoulder.
"What just happened?" Jason asked.
"Luke was given his quest a few weeks before his seventeenth birthday," Annabeth whispered, her voice hoarse with emotion. "He must've been on his way to California."
Percy put an arm around her to comfort her.
The image resumed.
Leo, his face white with fear, scrambled through the window of the Gerans' house.
He slung his backpack off of his shoulder and started tossing clothes and personal items and anything that would fit into his backpack.
Leo sighed and scribbled down something on a piece of notebook paper before leaving the room.
Leo opened the door to David's room, and he smiled at his brother.
David certainly looked sick. He was pale and his eyes were glazed over with fever.
"Hey, Dave," Leo whispered.
David smiled. "Hey, Leo. What's up?"
"The sky?" Leo joked. "David, I love you. You're the best brother I could ever ask for."
David smiled. "Love you, too."
"Get some rest, hermano."
The translation scrawled across the screen: brother
Leo walked out of the room and found Caroline and Steve in the kitchen.
"Hey, Leo," Steve said, sipping from his water bottle.
Leo surprised everyone in that kitchen, including himself, when he hugged the life out of Steve.
Steve patted Leo on the back.
"Steve, you're like the father I never had," Leo murmured.
Steve smiled. "That's good because you and David are like the sons I've never had."
Leo embraced Caroline.
"I love both of you," Leo said. "I should've said that sooner."
Caroline grinned. "I love you like my own child, Leo."
"I better go do my English," Leo said, releasing Caroline. "The twins are busy, and David's too sick to do it for me."
"You shouldn't be swapping homework anyway!" Caroline laughed as Leo walked back down the hall.
Leo opened the door to his room and picked up his backpack before climbing out the window.
The screen changed to display the note Leo had written.
I love you guys. I really do, and I want to stay so badly, but I want to protect you even more. Trouble follows me everywhere I go. I killed my own mother, even if it was an accident. I'm scared I'll screw up and hurt you. I love you enough to let you go. I hope you can understand.
Who knows? Maybe we'll meet again someday. Just not someday soon.
Not one of the six demigods had dry eyes.
The image changed to display Leo's room, and Caroline was sitting on Leo's bed, the note clenched in her hands.
Not Leo's memory was scribbled across the top of the screen.
Caroline sobbed, and her tears dripped onto the note.
Steve walked in, and he sat beside her, slinging an arm across her shoulders.
"I want to know if he's safe," Caroline choked out. "I want to know if he's eating. I want to know if he's warm."
Steve buried his face in her hair, but he couldn't hide his own tears.
Caroline smoothed her thumb over a single sentence on the paper.
Who knows? Maybe we'll meet again someday. Just not someday soon.
Did anyone else cry?
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Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for reading!