A/N: Sorry! This is just an update when I notices some slight mistakes. Hope you all like it anyways!
"Is this necessary? "
"Yes, very necessary."
"But this necessary?"
"Yes, this necessary."
"I don't get it," Annabeth harrumphed. She rose from the couch, putting a hand on her back to support her rounding stomach, and walked, or waddled, to the kitchen island. She grabbed a bag of chips and started munching.
"Why does it have to be Hera? Why couldn't it be, oh I don't know, Artemis? Hestia? Or my mother maybe?" ranted Annabeth, all the while munching and leaving crumbs on the floor.
"You should probably stop talking while you're eating, honey," Percy replied, sweeping up the crumbs under the island, followed by a yelp of surprise as Annabeth whacked him on the head. "I can do what I want, I'm pregnant," Annabeth said indignantly. "And can we get back onto the subject? Why do we have to give our baby to a delusional and obviously biased goddess to be raised? Why can't we raise our kid ourselves? We are capable of it."
"It not about being capable or not," Percy replied, with a little resignation in his tone. "We are dangerous to be around a kid, Annabeth. Monsters, all the things we've done and all the enemies we've made, you know it's sure to attract revenge. And my fatal flaw is personal loyalty, what better way to take me down than to take down my family? That's why we need to hide our kid, Annabeth, from everyone."
A long moment went on without any sound from either.
"And, I only chose Hera because you said there would be less suspicions if she took the baby in to Olympus," Percy rationalized.
"Never thought I'd hear you say sensible things, seaweed brain," grumbled Annabeth, knowing inside that he was right. Well, technically, she's right.
Annabeth opened her mouth to say something else, but couldn't seem to get it out. Percy, still busy cleaning, didn't see the suspicious action, turned around and said, "Look, I didn't mean to sound so gloomy and pessimistic. Of course, I want to raise our child. We, as demigods, understand most of what living in the moment stood for. By leaving our baby in the hands of others is the last thing anybody would expect us to do. I mean, we've kept the pregnancy hidden so far. But all I can think about is how I want to play with her and teach her and I can't wait for her to finally get here," Percy knelt in front of Annabeth and took both her hands delicately into his, excitement clearly in his eyes, "You've been doing so good Annabeth, and we're going to be parents soon, can you believe that?"
Annabeth stared at him open mouthed, slightly stunned by the sudden change in demeanor and the glistening of the sea green in his eyes. She shook herself out of the stunned stupor and looked out the clear glass paneled window across the kitchen in the living room, "Sometimes it's difficult to imagine if we would ever get here, but here we are. It's kinda amazing isn't it?" Annabeth's answering smile was radiant with the special glow that only came with the joy of being a mother.
They had learned that they were pregnant only three months ago, right after they returned from Hawaii on a celebratory graduation trip, which was hijacked by the Minotaur. That's another story for another time. Annabeth had felt weaker than she ever had; excluding the times she'd been stabbed with poisonous dagger or when she'd been forced to hold up the sky or any other times she'd been on life threatening situations. The Apollo cabin had been thrown in a loop when they examined Annabeth for any sickness, because they can't find any, only mild sickness and lightheadedness, before Chiron was called in.
"Ah, can everyone else give us a minute alone?" Chiron stayed by the infirmary bed as everyone else left the room, leaving Percy and Annabeth to stare worriedly at their teacher.
Chiron cleared his throat uncomfortably, before saying, "I would suggest you to make an appointment with a nearby clinic or a hospital -"
"Wait, hold up," Percy interrupted. "When have we ever gone to a clinic or a hospital for anything? Is it very serious?" Percy's agitated tone prompted Chiron response faster than ever to dispel any unnecessary stress. "No, nothing to that degree, just that I thought you kids might be happy to get a little surprise."
"Well, if there's any surprise, can it just come from you? Because that's less threatening than all the other 'surprises' we've faced," Annabeth piped up weakly from her fetal position on her bed.
"How do you put this lightly...?" Chiron hesitated, scratching his beard thoughtfully. He cleared his throat and said ceremoniously, "Well then, Congratulations to the both of you, Annabeth appears to be pregnant, not ill."
He was greeted with wide eyes and mouths hanging open.
"Well, I still suggest you to visit a hospital in the near future to check on the little one," Chiron said as he stood to his full form and turned to leave. "And I'll keep this quiet if I were you, don't want any monsters to be alert of a vulnerable situation, eh?"
Annabeth still remembered how shocked she was, but at the same time, a small burst of happiness grew inside her until it radiated out to the surface. She was going to be a mother! It wasn't always a thought she was fond of, being surrounded by kids with broken families and having to deal with that issue herself, added with the burden that comes with being a demigod. But as she grew up, she realized that she can't help but imagine a little person with Percy's green eyes and her blonde hair, or maybe a little girl who looked just like her or a little boy with raven hair playing happily by the seashore. It turned into something she yearned to have, a future with Percy and maybe a family that she'll be proud of.
But as she thought of the situation, she's still very young, at the age of twenty-one, to be a mother, and she realizes that she doesn't know anything about being a mother in the first place. Having an almost non-existent mother figure in her life certainly doesn't help when one's a goddess of war and wisdom while the other she hated with a passion back when she was a child. As fast as the joy came, panic threatened and she started doubting and questioning herself if she was fit to be a mother to someone, be responsible for a person's … everything!
Annabeth was slowly getting used to the idea as the months go by, now, at twenty weeks along, she's calmer and much more comfortable with the prospect of being a mother, with a very excited and supportive Percy by her side. He, on the other hand, seemed to have no struggle with the surprise pregnancy and it had been two months ago when Chiron's advice was brought up.
"You know, we should probably tell our parents, about the baby," Percy said nonchalantly as they walked hand in hand from the hospital after their first appointment with Dr. Stevens, a son of Apollo and trusted friend of theirs. Annabeth thought about it for a while. "Didn't Chiron say something about keeping it under wraps for some reason?"
"Oh yea, because we have lots of people trying to kill us and hunt us down. Good point, we should probably just keep it between us, Chiron and the doc for now," Percy nodded, agreeing with his thoughts.
"What about when the baby's here? How can we keep him or her safe?" Annabeth wondered out loud.
"We could always ask for baby sitters right? I mean ones that we're sure that are not monsters and will not turn into one. Or maybe, we can just not tell anyone that we have a kid, ever," said Percy.
"Right…" Annabeth said reluctantly. "We're not going to ignore that we have a kid, but what we can do is limit the people we tell, and I like the idea of a baby sitter, just that it's a bit far-fetched, because how can we make sure that this person can't be threatened by monsters? All our friends are ruled out by being demigods and virtually attacked every day, and I don't actually know if anybody from our world is safe to be around children."
"How about my mum? She could do it," Percy suggested. Annabeth shook her head, "It's too obvious, and our baby might attract a lot of monsters too, what with us being demigods and our parents being powerful gods."
And as they discussed and worried, the conclusion came to them about two days ago, when they thought about how it would be like to grow up around Olympus like all the gods did. And came the idea for their baby to grow up there, with all the deities protecting him or her, the chances of a monster even being in Olympus is absurd. It's the perfect idea, except of who would be the one to watch over and cover their child's identity. That had led to the current conversation between the famous couple.
"But we won't get to do much of the parenting and we'll barely see her." Annabeth complained. Their baby is not even here yet, and they're talking about giving her away to someone else, not that they would go visit her, just that they have to be extra careful until he or she is deemed capable of defending from attacks. "And…" she hesitated. Annabeth casted her eyes on to the floor. "And I have something to tell you," she breathed out the words, so silently they were said.
"What is it?" Percy's eyes searched those stormy grey ones as he patiently waits for a response. Used to these rare hormones induced emotional moments, Percy knows better than to tease Annabeth about being hormonal.
"Um, well," Annabeth fidgeted uncomfortably, "I overheard some dryads talking about a prophecy?" she trailed off uncertainly. After a bit of waiting, Percy urged Annabeth to continue, sensing the weight of the implications. "What prophecy?" Annabeth looked at him and sighed, knowing there's no way to stop him from worrying even more after learning of this supposed "prophecy". After all, they had bad experience with prophecies. "It was made when Rachel was alone on her cave, the dryads nearby heard bits of it, but nothing very solid, just something about another apocalypse that needs demigods fighting and-"
Percy's groan interrupted Annabeth. "Another war? When do we get a break? And don't Rachel's prophecies happen to people whom it concerns?"
Annabeth shrugged in response, "Well, yeah they do, but there's something else, about the world ending-" "-Oh boy" "-and a child being hidden."
Annabeth nodded at Percy's surprised expression, showing him the uncanny coincidence between that tidbit of information with the situation of their unborn child.
After a solid five minutes, as Annabeth will always exaggerate from then on, before Percy spoke, "You know, all that you just said pointed to and away from the plan."
Annabeth could only nod at that statement with a "What else do you expect" expression and went back to her bag of nachos and leaving crumbs on the perfectly clean floor again.
While the two chat on and talk about what was to come, far away, an unknown force cackles and laughs.
"Oh, you can't hide forever, and when its time, I'll come for you."