THREE MORE PARTS TO THIS GUYS! CALM DOWN! :D I promise, we'll see what's going on with Tomsea, with Jamick, with Hayley and all the others. I promise. ;)

I just don't know what I'd do with a sequel (in answer to a few other reviews). It'd be exactly like this, not really anything exciting...I think I'm going to end it here. Sorry, guys. But I think you will all be satisfied by the ending. :)

Love, Peace, and God bless,

~Hannah

Following Day

12 PM

Percy's POV:

"What time is Hayley coming over?"

Annabeth bit an apple, thinking it over in her head. "Four I think," she replied. I took a moment to study her, hoping it would bring me out of my funk. I'd felt jumpy and shaky all day; I'd woken up in a cold sweat; my heart was thumping erratically, and a small pain throbbed in my chest.

She was still as gorgeous as the day she'd spoon fed me popcorn-pudding. Her blonde girls, though now thick with grey (she was turning fifty in a few months time), hung down her shoulders. Ever since Luke had been born, she'd rarely pulled her hair up. It just wasn't worth it anymore, she told me. I didn't think that, but I wasn't going to force her. Luke's birth had been complicated, to say the least, and even five years later she's still exhausted from it.

"MOOMMMYY! DAAADDDYYY!"

Speak of the devil, I thought, leaning down instinctively and scooping the five year old into my arms.

"What's up, pal?"

"D'ere's a spider in the baf'room, Daddy! A spider in the baf'room! Kill it, kill w'it Daddy!"

I smiled and rolled my eyes. He and Chelsea both had this irrational fear of spiders.

Honestly? I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Okay, okay," I set him back on the ground. "Take me to this nasty, mean spider."

"You got it, Daddy! You got it!" He ran back up the stairs before I could move two feet. I gave Annabeth a wild look, and she laughed at me.

"Do you remember when we had that much energy?"

"And a race to the sandbox branded who you were for life? Where girls went to college to get more knowledge and boys went to Jupiter to get more stupider? Yeah, I think I remember that."

"Ha-ha," she put down her book and leaned up so I could kiss her, and like any good husband I did.

Going for a run up the stairs, I was soon taken down from my pedestal. The moment I jumped the first two, my heart contorted like someone tied a knot around it. I grabbed the railing and dug my nails into it, using my other hand to press into that side of my chest.

I glanced around, hoping Annabeth hadn't noticed, but as I assumed she was lost in her novel.

I stood there for a few moments, trying to catch my breath. I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up. "DAADDDYY! Are you comin' or what?"

I swallowed the bile and put a tight smile on my face. "On my way, Luke!" I walked up the stairs slowly, still holding onto the rails for dear life.

3:15 PM

"I'm home!" twenty-two year old Chelsea yelled, coming in the door. She collapsed next to me on the couch and took her hair down, running her fingers through it.

"Rough day?" I mused. After lunch I'd started to feel a little better, but I wasn't great. Nausea still floated in my stomach, and I found it hard to swallow.

She groaned. "The worst. Mr. Pooper-goober, whatever his name is, said that we could use owls as our project. Our photography projects. I got a C- just because I used one of them, and it was an accidental photo I took for my own pleasure." She sighed again, closed her eyes. "Who knew photography class would be this hard?"

I shrugged. "It'll be worth it someday, kiddo. I promise." A small part of me still wondered if he'd done it yet. He'd asked me a couple of days ago, said he'd do it over dinner or maybe at a movie or something like that. But had he?

The he I'm referring to would be Tommy Rodriguez.

They weren't the best couple in the world, not by a long shot. They often argued and they broke up several times during their high school years. When they were together, they knew who they were. Chelsea was happy, which was something I seldom saw from this daughter.

I kept trying to get a look at her hand, but she would move it every time I got close to seeing.

Finally, I said, "Where's the ring?"

She seemed taken by surprise, though not the unexpected kind. Thought out. "What ring?"

I smiled faintly. "Let me see."

It was beautiful, for what Tommy could afford. He went into the engineering business. A small diamond perched on the top of it, though it couldn't have been but half a karat.

"It's not much, Daddy, but it's still perfect."

I nodded, and suddenly another spark of pain traveled through me. It shocked me so much I couldn't breathe for a few seconds.

Chelsea gave me a worried look. "Dad, you okay?"

I coughed, bobbing my head up and down. "Yeah, Seashell. I'm fine." I gave an award winning smile that not even Annabeth could have deduced. She grinned.

"I better go let Mom know before you do. She'll kill me if I don't act like I told her, first."

"Wanna bet?" I stood, and she was laughing before we started running and yelling, "Annabeth!" and "Mom!" I kept waiting for that startle, but apparently the pain had gone away completely. I felt completely normal.

Weird, I though as we both came dashing into Annabeth and mine's room.

"Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth!"

"Mom, Mom, Mom!"

"Annabeth!"

"Mom!"

"Look at this Annabeth, Chelsea is - !"

"Mom I'm engaged!"

I looked at her. "I call it, I told her."

"No! I did!"

"But I got here first and said her name."

"I said engaged!"

"I said Chelsea is."

"Well…I'm the one getting married! It's mine!"

"Mine."

"Mine."

"Mine."

"Pfft, in your dreams, Dad!"

"Guys?"

"Seems like I've got some pretty sweet dreams."

"I got here and told her first!"

"It's a useless fight, Seashell. I did."

"No, I did!"

"No, I did!"

"I did!"

"I did!"

"GUYS!"

We both silenced and turned our heads to Annabeth, whose cheeks were in a flurry. "Luke is taking a nap," she said slowly. "And I'd prefer him to not be woken up?"

"Sorry," we mumbled. "But just tell me," I continued, smirking. "Which one of us got it?"

She grinned, looked us both up and down.

"I did," she opened her book and went back to reading, leaving us both there in a stump.

"You did?" Chelsea asked. "Mom, you're crazy."

"No, I'm not," she placed her book back down and smiled. "I knew he was going to propose to you three nights ago. I saw the ring yesterday. I win, you two loose, now please go open the door for Jamie before she breaks the doorbell."

Only then did that ringing noise occur to me. I gazed out the window, and I could see Jamie and Audrick arguing about it like they always did. She'd lived her for years, many of them, but she had always used the doorbell.

Sometimes I just didn't get the girl.

Other times, I really didn't get her.

I still loved her, though, which I guess is all that counts.

"I got it," I said, walking towards the door. "Oh, and by the way, Chelsea…I still won." I ran back downstairs before she could answer back, thrusting the door wide open.

And, as usual, the first thing I saw on Jamie was her baby bump.

Being a grandfather was still new to me, especially since my first was as old as my youngest. Still, I couldn't wait for that thrill again, to hear the sound of a newborn baby's cry. She was nine months along, only a week or so out from the due date.

She smiled at me. "Mr. Jackson."

"Percy," we had this fight every now and then (and by that I mean on a practical daily bases), and usually she won just by continuing to call me Mr. Jackson no matter how many times I told her not to.

"Mr. Jackson," she nodded again and walked inside, rubbing her stomach and biting her lip. "Where's Mrs. Jackson?"

"Upstairs reading her novel," I said plaintively, soon grinning at my son.

"What's up, Dad?" he asked, pulling me into a man hug. I'll tell you, it never gets old, this Dad-and-son bond we had. The best of bros, the coolest of friends, and yet he still respected me with an air of authority.

"Trying to keep a holt of Luke," I said, pulling back. He'd reached my height now, and his hair was just like mine (except in color).

"How bad is it, honestly?" Audrick was more nervous about his child than I had been, and you can ask anyone, I was super nervous, almost worse than when I couldn't find Annabeth during that winter so many years ago, or when she hurt her arm when we were fighting Kronos.

I smirked softly. "Oh, it's awful," I exaggerated. "He's like a mini-tornado in the middle of a hurricane. Can't let your eyes off of him or let him loose for one second. If you do – "

Audrick placed a tense hand on my shoulder. "Seriously." I could tell by the look in his eye he was really scared of this whole thing. I almost laughed, but decided against it. He would take it to heart faster than Chelsea or Hayley or even Luke would.

I walked him over the couch, catching a glimpse of Jamie as she made her way up the steps like I had earlier. My heart started pounding again just by the thought of it.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Honestly? It's exhausting. You come home and all you want to do is lay down and rest, but the baby is screaming and you can't because you just have this feeling in your heart that if you do you'll lose all connection with the baby, not to mention your wife is just so tired from doing it all day long. She won't ask you to help, sometimes even try to stop you from doing anything, but you just have to shove past her and do it. She'll get mad, my fling some comments out there about how you're doing it wrong, yada-yada, but in the end she'll thank you endlessly, thank God for sending you to her. She'll kiss you, and you'll just now that that's where you're meant to be. Then you'll come home the next day and do it all over again. You'll get in a rut. Sometimes you'll feel down and depressed. Lord forbid you have a girl. They wrap you around their finger so tight you just know that you won't be able to get out of anything she asks you for. She'll always be your baby, no matter how old she gets or you get, and if you have a son, man, are those some of the hardest kids to potty train."

He bit back a laugh, while I just laughed out loud.

"You know why you do it, though? Why you go through all the poopy diapers and the up-all-nights and late-to-works?"

He shook his head.

"Because it's the ultimate sacrifice of love. Nothing good can happen unless you have it. Nothing can happen, period. You have to have that love. It's the only way to make it through."

I patted him on the back hardily, then stood and stretched, glancing at my watch. "Your sister's going to be here in about fif – " my heart skipped a beat, and I was struck still, like a deer caught in the headlights. "Fifteen minutes," I gulped hard, but I couldn't swallow the ever abounding feeling.

"You okay, Dad?" Audrick was starting to stand up but I waved him down.

"Just thirsty," I explained, not even thinking about how I could have pulled the water to me, but instead having to jerk myself into the kitchen, holding on to the island for dear life. The pain was back, worse than ever, and for a moment I thought about how I might have just found the one thing that hurt more than labor pains.

I sat down at the island and down a few glasses of water. Things were swimming and I was pouring sweat. Audrick had forgotten about me as his wife and Annabeth and Chelsea and Luke all came back downstairs. The doorbell was ringing; had it already been fifteen minutes?

Before I knew it, everyone was gathered around the island, and Hayley looked at me with a large smile. I did one back, though it was in vain.

"Daddy," Hayley smiled and held Carter's hand tight.

Right then, my chest felt tight, too.

"We need to tell you something, Mr. Jackson," Carter continued, his smile matching, if not wider, to Hayley's.

I suddenly couldn't breathe.

"So, guys, we've known this for a couple of months now," I couldn't breathe, "but, I'm three months pregnant."

"Oh, congratulations!" Annabeth smiled and reached across the table, hugging my son-in-law and Hayley. But I still couldn't concentrate, and now sounds and movements were mixing together in a blur. My chest was hurting like crazy.

"We're so happy for you, Hales," Audrick smiled, holding Jamie's hand tenderly. Tommy walked in right then.

"You ready, Chelse?"

"Yeah, just give me a minute." She walked over and kissed the side of my head, though I wouldn't have felt it anyway. Things were vibrating and dancing and doing three sixties like my dyslexia. Everything was pounding like a speaker, every word, every motion.

"And it's twins," Hayley continued.

Right then, I collapsed out of my chair, my chest killing me, feeling like someone was stabbing my heart constantly and a noose was tied around my neck. Black lined the edges of my vision, and I caught some glances and noises, worried faces and a 911 call.

"Percy?" Annabeth was on top of me, staring into my face. I wanted to say something, to tell her I was going to be okay. But I couldn't. "Percy, you're gonna be fine. I promise."

She kissed me softly, and I started rolling, I guess in that time I had been put on a gurney.

Everything dissolved until there was nothing left but me, and darkness.

I've never done a scene like this before (you'll find out what it is next chapter, though it's obvious), but my mom experienced one a couple of years back. I was just guessing at how it would work for guys (since sometimes the symptoms can differentinate between male and females).

See ya'll next chapter. :)

REMEMBER - TWO TO THREE MORE PARTS LEFT. Promise.

Peace, Love, and God bless,

~Future