I don't own PJO.

As soon as he heard the sobbing Poseidon looked up from his place on the floor. Through his own wet eyes he could see Athena sitting up on her bed crying heavily. "Don't…please don't," he whispered gently. "Oh Thee, please don't."

The tears falling down her face slowed and got caught in her eyelashes. "I'm such a screw up" she whispered when she found her voice again.

"No you're not," he said. "It was my mistake. I should never have…"

"No!" She interrupted. "It's entirely my fault!" Poseidon sat down gently on the edge of the bed next to her. "I threw away everything! I threw away my title as a maiden goddess; my family ties, do you really think I'll ever be able to look them in the eye again?"

Poseidon grabbed her and pulled her against his chest. "Shh."

She sobbed into his shoulder. "I betrayed my father's trust. Artemis, she…oh my gods; she's my sister! She looked up to me. I promised we'd be in this together! How do I always end up hurting the ones that I love?" Athena sniffled. "Do the fates hate me?"

"How could anyone hate you?" he asked gently into her hair.

"Nothing ever goes right for me." Athena sighed, tears being replaced with anger. "My best friend died at my hands; you know how hard it is to look yourself in the mirror when that happens."

Poseidon sighed. "It's not your fault. Your father's to blame."

"That's not what you said, when it happened. You yelled at me for days!" She steeled herself. "You broke my heart. But I grew up, took that stupid oath, and moved on." She looked directly at Poseidon now. "Then they had to go and break the stupid air conditioner on Olympus. And I couldn't woman up, face my fears, and help Hephaestus."

"It's stupid that Olympus needs an air conditioner anyway," he said trying to help. Though he was curious about what Athena meant by face her fears.

Athena shook her head. "That's not the point. The point is, it shouldn't have broken. So we shouldn't have been running around Olympus in skimpy summer clothes. And us goddesses shouldn't have gotten into an argument about what to watch on TV. You shouldn't have had to step in and issue that stupid challenge of yours." She sighed, "And I wouldn't have had to win. And my plan wouldn't have worked to well. And I never would have acted on those stupid, dormant feelings that I've been suppressing for thousands of years; the ones I never should have had in the first place."

Poseidon was surprised and the sudden rise in her voice, but he didn't stop her. He had learnt it was better to let her get all her emotions out. Sure enough when she was done, she fell back into him exhaustedly. "You know, my back's still scratched up."

She raised her eyebrow. "I didn't think I really got you that badly."

"You didn't, but I've been purposefully keeping it from going back to normal. I just wanted proof that I wasn't crazy."

Athena shook her head. "I'm not so sure about not being crazy," he laughed, "but I think we have enough proof that it actually happened."

"May I?" She nodded. Poseidon lifted her shirt up a bit and ghosted a kiss over her stomach. "Hey, buddy. It's your daddy talking, but if you're anything like your mother you've already figured that out. Now we don't know much about you though. Forgive our relatives; they can be real pains sometimes."

Athena leaned back against her pillow as Poseidon started telling the baby about everything he could think of. At least he did until her stomach growled lightly. "Now I have to go raid the kitchen and find your mother some food."

"You don't have to; let me, I'm not an invalid."

He put up his hand. "You are on bed rest. Don't even think of getting up yet." He disappeared out the door without another word.

Fifteen minutes, Athena had been staring at the clock for fifteen minutes. She swore this man was going to drive her completely crazy one day.

Creak.

She turned to the door to see a very annoyed looking teenage sea god. "I seem to have picked up a straggler."

Behind him she saw a very short, petulant girl who she recognized immediately. "Elle?"

Said demigod pushed right past Poseidon to get to her mother. "Really?" she asked. "I leave you alone for what, a half an hour? And you faint, and wind up pregnant? I mean c'mon really?"

"Love you too," Athena said from her position on the bed.

Elle didn't deign her mother a response. "Not to mention the fact that Bozo the clown here stole Rose's food and she won't stop complaining."

"I thought it was Percy's!" he complained. "How was I supposed to know it was hers?"

"Plus Rose just about attacked Hades thinking he was Nico, who's in Camp Jupiter which she isn't due to go to or another week. So right now she's really hyper and the only thing that calms her down is sugar, and she's all out!"

"Dear?" Athena asked.

Her daughter shook her head. "Just, stressed and thinking I need new friends." She glared at the sea god. "Feed my starving mother would you."

As Athena tucked into her meal of brisket, grapes, rolls, boiled potatoes, and chicken salad, Elle looked at the pair of them and tried to choose her next words carefully. "So, you got my mother pregnant." Poseidon arched his eyebrow. "Well, what's your relationship status?"

Athena virtually choked on her grape. "What?"

"Well, think of me as your PR person. Everyone knows you're pregnant and that 'Dylan' here got you pregnant. Will it look better to have had a one-night stand or be in a secret dating relationship that's forced to go public?"

"We never," Poseidon started. "I don't know what we are."

Athena had to agree. "We've been avoiding the conversation since you know…happened."

"Well, my suggestion to you is to date or at least act like you're dating." Elle sighed. "People are already using the s and w words to describe you, Mom. We want to cut down on that as much as possible."

Poseidon grimaced. "Who's saying that?"

"You can't kill them all," the demigod scoffed. "Believe me I've tried."

"So, we tell them we're dating?" Athena asked.

Her daughter nodded. "Yeah, if you've told them no earlier just make up an excuse, like you didn't want your mother to find out or you liked the privacy secrecy allowed you two. Anything like that really."

Elle headed for the door. "By the way, Apollo says you're fit to go back to the cabin tonight, but if you want the Big House has extra rooms."

She thanked her daughter and stared at Poseidon. Once Elle had left, the goddess cleared her throat. "So we're dating."

"Yeah, that. Um, where do we draw the lines?"

She thought a moments. "Kisses on the cheek I think, we'll just say we don't like PDA."

He nodded in agreement. "You want me to walk you down?"

"Yes thank you." They walk together and the murmurs grow in strength. The entire forest is talking, Athena knows it. Why is everyone so preoccupied with a pregnant demigod? She thought. If it was like this now, wait until they found out she was actually Athena. The thought actually scared her.

When they got down to the cabins, they saw something strange on Cabin Six's doorstep. It was that stupid son of Ares again, accosting Elle. His smiled grew when he saw Athena. "Oh look, it's the Athena cabin's little slut! When can I get an appointment for a ride?"

Punch!

A/N:

Well who do you think punched him? To tell you the truth I don't know yet.

I'm so tempted to write a one-shot about the bet I mentioned earlier in the chapter. It looks so hilarious in my head.

I think Poseidon's taking this rather well don't you? I think he's secretly thrilled about it.

I also really want to write a one-shot where Percy and Annabeth both go to Goode and they have a joint Parent Teacher Conference, but Poseidon and Athena end up going as the parents. The only problem is I can't decide whether they should be together or not in it.

Also if you don't know why Athena's scared of Hephaestus, then look for it in my story Love Quest or Google myths involving both of them.