"What do you want this time?" Luke asked as Hermes walked into the room.
"Can't I just want to spend time with my favorite son?" Hermes retorted.
"It's a little late for that," Luke told the god coldly.
"I'm sorry I could not be there for you and your mother, but the ancient laws…"
"Damn the ancient laws!" Luke interrupted, "You don't know what I've been through because you weren't there! You weren't there for the episodes! You weren't there for the long nights in the cold when she couldn't hold a job to pay the electricity bill! You didn't even come to say hi until I was fourteen and you wanted me to go off to that stupid camp!" By this time, Luke was fuming.
"That night I told you to go to camp, I was actually checking up on your mother," Hermes told the young man.
"That still doesn't mean you actually cared," Luke sneered.
Hermes sighed. "I always cared."
"Prove it then."
"Why do you think your mother's house was never foreclosed even though she hasn't payed the mortgage since you were eight? Who do you think made sure you weren't caught when you stole food and the supplies you needed to make it on your own when you and your friends were on the run? I was responsible," Hermes practically thundered.
"You mean… You did…" Luke stammered.
"Yeas, son, it was me," Hermes told his son.
"You mean it was all for nothing?" Luke was holding barely constrained tears in his eyes now, "You mean all that work, all that fighting was for nothing. You mean we can't go home, we can't pursue our dreams, we can't even decide to go sit in the strawberry patches all because I didn't see you? Did we do all that fighting just because Zeus wouldn't let you send a note?"
"Yes son, I don't like it any more than you…"
"You lie!" he shrieked before running off.
"…Do." That's just what I need. My terrorist son is freaking out because all that he did is for nothing, and now he's running lose on Olympus. I better go find him, Hermes thought.
"This is going to be a long day," Hermes muttered to himself before he jogged out of his palace in search of Luke.
oO0Oo
Hermes found Luke sitting under a pretty oak tree in one of Olympus' many parks. He was sitting against the trunk, just breathing like all he wanted to do was to stay calm and keep his composure for anyone who passed him by.
"You okay?" Hermes asked his son as he sat down next to him.
"It's just a lot for me to take in, mentally. For most of my life, I've pictured you as some uncaring, omnipotent, being. To find out that you do care, and the war; all the pain and suffering and death I've caused, it was just too much," Luke said.
"You've always been my favorite. I loved your mother very much, and loved you in term. That doesn't mean I don't love your brothers or sisters.
"Your mother tried to take the spirit of Delphi, after you were born. It had always inhibited clear-sighted, virgin women. Not only had no mother ever tried to take the spirit, the spirit itself had been staying in the same, decomposing body for about twenty or thirty years. It's hard to keep track of exact years when your immortal. In retrospect, it probably had a curse on it, resulting in your mother's insanity," Hermes gushed out to his son, hoping that it would be enough to start repairing the damage.
Luke just sighed wearily.
"I almost forgot! I have a message from that old daughter of Athena friend of yours, Annabeth," Hermes leaned in real close to his son and continued in a whisper. "She said to meet you at the Budget Inn on the corner of East Third Street and First Avenue. She said it was of the utmost importance to end Zeus' contemptible treatment of half-bloods."
Luke just stared at his Olympian father, amazed.
A/N: This started as a character development chapter post chapter 3, but took a life of it's own, becoming chapter 3 and turning the original chapter 3 into chapter 4. Since I don't live in New York City, can any readers who live there point out any inaccuracy.