PRAISE THE LORD I MANAGED TO DO IT!

Well, He did it, but at least it got done! :D (By this, I mean there's only one POV throughout the whole chapter. :) )

So, as usual (and I'm sure every one of you knew this) forget what I said last chapter. Time is a smidge important, but not as much as I had expected it to be.

Hayway, hope you enjoy! One more after this, a short, final farewell.

PEACE LOVE AND GOD BLESS HUNNIE BUNNIES3

~;D Future

8: 30 PM

Same Day

Hayley's POV:

The kids had slept all of five minutes before they were up partying again. Hallie was in amazement that I wasn't sending her off to bed, and she kept looking at me sideways every time she turned around, as if expecting me to do it.

I just laughed as they twirled and spun and acted goofy, while I tried to get some reading done. Reading had never really been something I enjoyed, that is, until I read Pride and Prejudice one fall at the university. I was now in journalism, a dying art it seems, with a minor in psychology. I was working right then on my degree in the cinematic arts.

Mom always said that with knowledge, one can accomplish anything they set their minds to.

I believed her.

"Hey'ah, Mommy," Hallie said, coming to stand in front of me.

"Hey'ah Hayley," Luke wasn't far behind her.

I could see them trying to hide their little smirks, so I stuck my nose up over my novel and looked at them. "What is it, you two Billy goats?"

Hallie laughed. "Mommy we ain't no Billy goats!"

"We aren't." Dear Lord I was turning into my mother.

"We ain't no,"

"Bite that tongue," I warned, "or I'll send you both to school tomorrow and we can forget about visiting Pops."

That was the only thing any of us could think to call Dad when Hallie and Luke were in the same room. Pops. Pops.

We could've been more creative, but now it was just habit.

"You mean Daddy," Luke said, right as Hallie said, "You mean Grandpa."

"Na-uh. Daddy," Luke said, glaring and putting his hands on his hips like he always saw Mom do. I bit back a laugh.

"No, Grandpa."

"Daddy,"

"Grandpa,"

"Daddy."

"Grandpa."

"Dah-dee."

"Gran-paw."

"Pops!" I threw in there just to throw them off.

Luke tsked. "No, Hayley, it's not pops. It's Daddy, and his real name is Seaweed Brain."

At that, I couldn't help but laugh so hard that I snorted.

"Wha-what?" Luke giggled.

"Nothing, nothing," I fanned him off and reopened my book.

A few minutes later they came back, crawling up next to me on the couch and breathing over my shoulder.

"Yes?" I finally asked, setting it back down in my lap.

"Hayley," Luke started.

"We was thinkin', Mommy…"

"Ooh, how scary!" I smiled and kissed her, pulling her into my lap.

"And we're hungry," Luke continued.

"So will ya make us some pancakes?"

I sighed playfully and rolled my eyes. "What is it with you kids and pancakes?"

"It's the only thing our Mommy can cook," Luke said expertly. "Duh."

I laughed again, this time planting a kiss on the side of Luke's head. "Fine, fine. At this rate, I'm going to have to go buy some more Bisquik."

"I want the real stuff, Mommy," Hallie said, pulling herself into a chair. Luke climbed up beside her. "Not that biscuit."

"Bisquik,"

She gave me a dumbfound stare. "That's what I saids, Mommy. Biscuit." She only messed up said because I'd corrected her on it so many times. She was me made over.

To be honest? That scared me. I grew hateful and cold in my older years, which is how Eris took me over, and we still weren't sure, even after so many years, if she was gone completely. She could still attack any of us, and the last person I'd wish that upon was my own daughter. I could still remember the chill that was sent down my spine, the grogginess, every single movement that I couldn't control. It was frightening. The only thing I'd wanted to do was snuggle up with a blanket and a stuffed animal and sleep it all away. Sadly, her spell wasn't that strong, and I was awake for most of it. In some ways I was glad that I had, but in others…

I stirred the ingredients, trying hard not to recall those times, when she did things that just made me want to curl my fists. Like the fight with Ellie, or before then, when she was with my brother. When she was with Carter…

"Mommy you're burning the pancakes!" Hallie screeched at me, and I quickly flipped it to the other side.

"You okay, Hayley?" Luke was looking at me worriedly, and I nodded absently.

I didn't know why I hadn't snapped like I did when she'd gone after Ellie. Maybe it was because I didn't have feelings for Carter at that moment. Maybe it was because I wasn't thinking straight with her spell. Maybe…

I had no justifications for it. How could I?

The way she had treated him made me want to spit in her eyes. It took me months, years to open up about it. I think it was the evening he proposed, and I slightly mentioned the affair (and by this, I mean I asked him outright) over dinner. He had gulped hard and told me it was nothing, that he knew it hadn't meant anything, that it was just a shadow that'd overcome me.

Still, I couldn't shake it. I still haven't.

"MOMMY!" Hallie said loudly, steering my attention away from my thoughts and to her.

"Wh – yes, sweetheart?" I almost snapped at her. I saw the fear glowing in her eyes as she gulped down a drink of milk from her cup (Sippy, Dora the Explorer).

"Can I have the seer-up, please?"

I didn't bother to correct her that time, handing her the bottle of syrup and once again becoming mesmerized in my own thoughts.

"Hey, Hayley!"

Eris shot my body in the voice's direction, and when I could see through the fogginess, I realized who it was. Carter.

"Ahh," she cooed. "Carter Sunny Stoll."

He skittered to a stop in front of me, his cheeks growing hot. Even under his expert tan, you could see the red that outlined his eyes.

"I just wanted to see if you – "

"Why would I?" she snapped, sending chills down my spine. My voice, it sounded so hateful. So ungrateful.

He tilted his head to the side and held up a flyer, "Well, it's just, Uncle Carter and CJ, Ellie, and I have been planning this special prank on the entire camp and since Ellie couldn't find you she sent me out to scout. Something about her, having a previous affair to get to? Would you like to – "

"No!" she growled. "I wouldn't ever even dream of it, boy. I have far better important things to do than hang around the likes of you, especially if you have a crush on me. That's just stupid, much like you are." She shoved him in the chest. My own chest clenched in fear and anger. He fell to the ground, his face awestruck.

"Hayley, I…"

"Get lost!"

"But Hayley – "

"I said beat it, twerp!" She kicked some dust in his face.

Carter had always been a bit of a softy, not that it was a bad thing. He was still extremely strong and could control his emotions well. Right then, though, tears brimmed in his eyes. He quickly swiped them away and stood, staring at my back as Eris sauntered us away, almost mockingly.

"Tee-hanks for the food, Mommy!" Hallie smiled and scampered off from her chair, already drifting back into her world of creations on the art table.

"You know he was hurt, right, Hayley?" Luke said.

As I had gotten older, I'd lost my ability to read minds. I was probably about thirteen when it stopped, and only when he said that did I realize he must be able to do it, too. I had never thought of the possibility that another one of us could have it, too. Chelsea and Audrick might have had it, but I hadn't even noticed.

In addition, Luke was a smart kid. Often times at night he would sneak by Mom and Dad's door, lean against the wall and listen as they discussed what was going on in the outside world. There was talk about grades plummeting, cuts being made, architecture firms that were going obsolete, rises to the top and how much coffee they'd managed to ensue upon in one days' time. Dad won most of the time, except on those weekend occasions when Mom had to go to the office or check up on something or do computer work.

"I would have been too…" I trailed off. Alright, booger. Are you reading minds?

"Depends. What's a mind?"

"Your brain," I answered. "Other people's thoughts besides your own?"

"Oh, yes," he nodded eagerly. "The answer is yes then."

"It's not the kind of hurt you're thinkin', though," he continued on, trailing off. It was more than hurt in the heart or in the head, it was a different kind of hurt. A sick hurt."

Now that intrigued me. "What kind of hurt, Lukey?"

"The kind that has something called a tree split."

"A tree split? Oh, a transplant!"

"That's what I said, tree split."

"What was tree split, oh wise Lukas Jackson?"

"It was ah sidney."

"A kidney?" I scrunched my eyebrows together.

"Yeah," he nodded, cutting off another sliver of pancake and sticking it into his mouth. "It was Aunt Ellie's sidney. She was an organ owner."

"Donor, and I knew that. I just didn't think…when did this happen?"

"About a month later, maybe a little less. Uncle Carter was taken to the hos-sickle, aunt Ellie went with him, and they did a tree split and he was all better." He gulped his milk, then stood from the chair and ran to the table with Hallie, helping her with a drawing she was working on.

I gulped hard and shakily sat down.

She'd hurt him more than I thought.

About an hour later, we were all sitting on the couch, Finding Nemo, my personal favorite, playing on the flatscreen, when my phone vibrated. Luke was asleep on my lap, and Hallie was leaning back on me, sitting on my opposite thigh.

"Hello?" I asked quietly, ruffling Luke's hair.

"Hayley," Carter breathed, relieved.

"What's up?"

"He's – "

"Better?" I asked with a twinge of guilt and fear.

"Better," he confirmed. "When can you be down here?"

"Ten minutes, four if traffic is lite."

"Not too fast, okay? We want Hallie to see her sixth birthday and the twins to see their first."

"Yeah, yeah."

"See you soon."

"I love you," I told him, so desperately trying to proclaim my regret and keep it secret at the same time.

"I love you, too."

I hung up the phone, and told Hallie to grab her shoes.

"Where're we goin', Mommy?" Hallie asked as I carried Luke on my hip with one arm and held her hand with the other.

"We're gonna go visit Grandpa at the hospital," I told her calmly.

"He's better?" She was smiling wide and bouncing; I guess she'd heard Travis and Katie talking about it over the phone.

"He's doing great, sweetie. Hop up in your car seat and strap in, okay?" She nodded and did as I told her, while I took Luke around to the other side and strapped him in his.

I got in the car and drove silently to the hospital, though Hallie did hum along with my old Johnny Cash CD in the back seat.

Oh, you thought I'd gotten rid of it?

Fat chance.

We walked through the hospital doors, now doing the opposite of what we were doing at the house. Hallie was in my arms and I was holding a tight grip on Luke's hand. I was nervous.

I was scared.

"Perseus Jackson, please," I told the receptionist, and she took a few solitary moments to type so slowly on the keyboard that I was close to just finding my own way back there.

"Room three seventy two," she said quietly, and I nodded my thanks, dashing back there, even as she called "Miss!" constantly behind me, trying to get me to stop. I wasn't listening.

I opened the door, laughing and shaking and smiling and crying all at the same time. All of the emotions I'd been keeping in just suddenly evaporated into thin air and it wouldn't stop. One glance and I knew everyone else was feeling the same way.

Dad smiled. "Maybe I should have a heart attack more often. All of this attention is great."

I laughed that nervous laugh that people did when they were relieved. "Don't you dare," I warned. "I can't help but feel like this is my fault," I told them honestly.

He frowned. "Ah, come on, Starfish. It wasn't your fault. Things happen. It was just in the Great Plan that Jamie's always talking about."

All of us gasped at this, face palming mentally.

"The baby!" we said in unison.

Awkward silence soon came upon as everyone, even Dad, leaned towards the doorway. A few seconds later, he smirked, "Well, since I can't go see my new granddaughter, perhaps you'd all like to go for me…?"

"You sure?" Mom said. "We won't mind staying…"

He shrugged. "Go on. Give them both a kiss for me. You can send Audrick in to keep me company." He smiled wholeheartedly. "Go on, now."

Dad waved us all off, and we rolled our eyes at him.

As everyone filed out, I grabbed Carter by the arm at the doorway.

"Can we talk for a second?"

He scrunched his eyebrows as Dad and I do when we're worried or confused. "Yeah?"

I glanced back and forth, suddenly feeling like everyone was staring at us. "Let's go someplace private. I'm thinking supply closet."

"It's high school all over again," he laughed, and I punched his arm. So, yeah, he was two years younger, and during lunch we would meet in the supply closet and eat lunch and just hang out, maybe kiss a little. All of you are so dirty minded.

"Dad can hear you," I hissed playfully, pulling him into the nearest supply closet, where we found a neat collection of toilet paper and medications.

"Well, if you end up getting sick in here, we have a plentiful supply of bedpans," he observed.

"Transplant," I said the word simply, nonchalantly, hoping he wouldn't catch it.

I should've known better. "What transplant? Are you okay? Hallie? The babies? Who needs a transplant?"

"According to my little brother – the smallest one – you did."

"My liver's fine now, Hayley. It was just a small puncture wound. Everything's better now."

My mind was swimming. "Liver?" I eyed him carefully. "I thought it was a kidney…"

"Oh, that one, too. Eris did more damage than we realized. My liver didn't start acting up until a couple of months after Ellie died. That was almost two years later."

"And you didn't tell me?" No, I didn't say it like some dramatic General Hospital scene. It was just a general question.

"Well, you would've worried, like you're doing now," he paused to smirk at me. "And you would've been – God I hate to say this – a little overbearing. It would've been sweet and I would've loved the attention, especially from someone as gorgeous as you are, but it would've been too much. Everything's fine now. Everything's fine."

"I don't like how you keep repeating that. Carter, there was more to that email, wasn't there?"

He shrugged. "Agh. Um, I don't know, Hales. They think – note the word think – that maybe, just maybe, my body is rejecting the liver."

I closed my eyes. "It's been years – "

"It could still reject it, whether a day from the operation to twenty years later." He interjected, cutting me off.

"But, but…"

"Look, everything's fine. Fine. I'm not going to die. You know I'm too hard headed to let myself." He grinned at me, that sneaky, I'm going to steal your wallet grin that he'd inherited from his father.

"What about medicine? Isn't there some kind of medicine that helps the body to not reject it or something?"

I wasn't a medical whiz, okay? I was smart, but not that smart.

"There is. But like the idiot I am, I decided I didn't need it anymore. I haven't been on it for the past two years."

"So that explains those pill bottles in the bathroom. And here I thought you were taking steroids. Why did you stop?"

"It wasn't in the budget at the time, with you still in school, our small salaries, the mortgage, Hallie. It just wasn't, and it isn't, a priorty, especially now with the twins." Carter cupped a protective hand on my stomach. I shook my head.

"Carter Sunny Stoll, you need that medicine!"

"No, I don't. It's not a priorty, didn't you hear me?"

"Yes, I heard you! But it is! We won't be able to survive if you die. I mean, if you thought Hallie was expensive, just imagine how much Pip and Pop are going to be." I sighed. "Please. For me? Come on, if it was something that I needed you would force me to get it."

He growled inwardly, groaning outwardly. "Fine. Maybe. I don't know. If I get the promotion at work, then I'll continue to take the medicine. If I don't, we're going to huff it, okay? We can do this."

"Everything's fine, right?"

"Everything's fine. Everything's fine."

"You know, with all of your body parts acting up, Hallie might actually have a firm way into college," I joked, elbowing him as we walked out of the supply closet, earning a few stares from the doctors and nurses. I made a crazy face them, and a few whispered among their selves about how I needed to be in the psych ward.

"No I don't, I'm completely healthy! I got out of the asylum almost a month ago!" I laughed as they all scampered away.

Carter chortled. "Calm yourself, Moonlight."

"Moonlight. Percival. Athene. Poseidon. Sunny. Erin. Callie. Artemis. No, our middle names aren't strange at all." I smiled.

"The only one that's normal is Grace," he shrugged and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "I like it that way."

"Makes us unique. We are that."

We walked into Jamie's room, stopping abruptly once we were through the door.

"What happened?"

Jamie smiled wholeheartedly, though once could tell just how bone tired she was. I knew how she felt. Childbirth wasn't a game, that's for sure.

"They took Kennedy to say hi to Mr. Jackson."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Honey, you married his son and carried his grandchild. I think you can call him Percy now. He'd probably even accept Seaweed Brain from you."

She shrugged. "I just don't know. It's not how I am." She stretched and yawned, running a hand through her now shoulder length hair. She often complained about how she wished it were longer, but she still kept a smile on her face and thanked God for the hair she did have, that she was alive.

"Tell my husband to come back when you get to the room, will you?" she asked quietly. I nodded and, like any other previously suffering parent, I kissed her on the forehead.

"Of course, sweetie."

Maybe I'd grown soft too.

Carter nodded his goodbye, both of us now making the small trek back to Dad's room. When we got inside, I didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

This was us.

My entire family, all together in one room, all smiling and cheerful even on the bleakest of days. It was picture perfect.

Dad cradled Kennedy in his arms, and he bit his lip to keep from crying. Kennedy was beautiful, as gorgeous as her mother. Mom sat next to him, her legs crossed, her head on his shoulder. They were perfect together. Audrick had left, and came back not a moment later with Jamie, now seated in a wheelchair, insisting that she could walk but Audrick not having any part of it. I knew they would argue about that later. Tommy and Chelsea, my, what a couple they were. From what I understood, (Aphrodite and I had chats from time to time) they were in for it worse than my parents were. They still had some battles to get through, but I knew they'd be able to handle it. They were tough. Luke sat on Mom's lap, staring at Kennedy, and Hallie got the special place next to Dad where Carter stood, gesturing me over.

Slowly, I walked and stood next to them, taking Hallie from Carter, Carter wrapping a protective arm around me.

I've always said how we would never be perfect.

I was right.

I always knew we'd be unsure of things to come.

I was sort of right. I was sure of one.

Life as their kids wasn't an easy task, not by any means. It came with risks of danger, risks of love, and risks of all heck breaking loose.

As a nurse came in to check Dad's vitals, I tossed a camera into her hands. Debbie, that's what Mom had said her name was, seemed to understand, and she took the camera, lined it up the way it was supposed to be, and said, "Smile."

The camera clicked, and sure, I'm sure Hallie had blinked or Luke was moving. Maybe Carter had sneezed and my hair hadn't been brushed. Maybe Chelsea was exhausted, and Jamie's eyes were red. I didn't care.

We were a family. We were perfect, in our own, special way.