Dinner was going a lot less awkward than my first dinner with the Chase family had gone. Alec immediately hit it off with Will and the two spent almost half an hour talking about his archery lessons. Nixon looked the happiest I'd ever seen him. The smile never left his face, and looking at him made me forget all about the stupid Avengers Initiative. Alec was telling jokes and stupid puns that nearly made me fall from my chair the entire meal. I already loved him; he appreciated the true greatness of puns and dad jokes and was on my side on almost everything. I could tell that Annabeth liked him too by the way she smiled and how her eyes twinkled when Alec's gaze met Nixon's. I missed seeing Nixon happy like this.

After Masia left, Nixon had a depressive period. Well, we all did but Nixon's was just a little more prominent than ours. Annabeth and I at least had each other, but Nixon's big sister had just walked out on him to join an immortal group of hunters. I didn't recognize the familiarity of the situation until Nico came to me in tears and begged me not to let her leave. Nico tried to convince her to stay, speaking from his own experience, but she couldn't be swayed. Nico didn't talk about Biana very often, so when he did you knew it was a very serious situation. He loved Masia as his own daughter and had been even more broken up than I was when she left. I think she reminded him of Bianca.

But again, Nico at least had Will to lean on. We were always there for Nixon, but we were only his parents, not Masia. We couldn't replace her, we didn't want to. Masia spoke to Nixon nearly every day and we knew she was, for the most part, safe, but there would always be a small tug at my heart, a worry that would never go away. Knowing every day that it could be your child's last is the second most terrifying thing that I've ever felt. The thing was, it wasn't even terror really. It was just a small fear in the back of my mind, but it was always there. There wasn't a second that went by that a little voice in my head wasn't questioning whether she was on or not she was ok. It was times like this when I was glad Apollo's attempt to recreate his twin's hunters with boys failed. Not even a week after my wedding to Annabeth, Apollo came down to ask me if I'd be the first to join his "pursuers." Like dude, really? He may or may not have forgotten about Annabeth. I swear, sometimes that dude is denser than I am.

...

Besides the offerings that I'd burned while I was cooking, we were just a normal family, having a normal dinner.

Well, until Piper Iris messaged me in the middle of dinner. Yeah, that kind of put a damper on the whole "normal dinner" thing. I mean, the mist usually hid these kinds of things from mortals like Alec so I wasn't worried, but it still kinda ruined my normal dinner.

"Percy! Sorry to call so late- wait, are Will and Nico there too? Perfect! Ok, so Annabeth called earlier about your little situation with the Avengers and said you guys need a place to meet up and plan. It just so happens that Dad's in Washington for a movie shoot so I've got the place to myself for two weeks. Well, Hedge is here but I'm sure he won't bother us too much," she said. I groaned and nodded, regretfully setting down my fork and answering her.

"Yeah yeah, that works. When do you want us over?" I asked. I heard a gasp from the other end of the table.

I think Aphrodite might still be pissed off that I forgot Annabeth's and my anniversary last month (yes, I know it's my birthday, don't remind me how much of an idiot I am,) because she was apparently doing everything she could to sabotage Nixon's relationship. In other words, the mist didn't work.I repeat: the mist didn't work.

How, may you ask, did I know this? Well, Alec's eyes were as big as cyclops eyes and he dropped his fork onto the floor, staring at the space in front of me where Piper's face appeared.

"Uh, Pipes, I'm going to need to call you later," without looked away from Alec, I swiped my hand through her head and the message disappeared.

"Wha-what, what was that?" Alec's stutter came back. Nixon looked at Annabeth and me helplessly. I didn't know what to do. Thankfully, Annabeth did. Annabeth always knew.

"Nixon, I think you and Alec should talk. Privately," she suggested. Nixon swallowed and he went pale. He nodded and slowly pulled out his chair and got up.

"Al, uh, can I talk to you?"

Alec looked wildly between Nixon and Annabeth, still stuttering nonsense. Finally, he stood and let Nixon pull him gently into the living room. I watched them intently, racking my mind for something, anything I could do or say that would help. I had nothing. Like usual

I couldn't hear them, but I could see Nixon talking slowly and awkwardly motioning with his arms as he spoke. Alec was frozen in place. His orange hair had fallen out of place and was in his eyes but he didn't fix it. Every once in awhile I could see his lips move as he spoke but for the most part, he stayed silent. Nixon looked like he was hyperventilating. Annabeth rested her hand on mine and gave me a look to leave them alone. Nobody at the table spoke. We were all too busy trying to decode how Nixon and Alec's conversation was going. Many minutes later and it seemed that Nixon had finally run out of things to say, only explaining himself with a few small extra details. How would I have told Annabeth about the gods if she had been mortal? She's smart enough that she probably would have figured it out anyway so I guess I wouldn't have that much of a problem.

Suddenly, Alec was wiping tears from his cheeks with his shirt sleeve and running from the house. Before I could react, he was out the front door and gone. Nixon was left in the living room, looking like somebody had just torn his heart from his chest. I quickly stood and rushed towards him.

"Nixon, what'd he say, are you ok?" I gently sat him down on the couch. Nixon stared at the floor blankly and shrugged.

"I don't know, dad. He just said he needed to sort this all out, then apologized and ran out the door. I just, I don't know," he whispered.

"Normal dinner" my fed-up-demigod-ass.

(Hey guys! I just began a new story on the next generation called "Saving the Seven" about what the seven's kids do to save their parents when they go missing, so check that out if it sounds interesting to you :) I update both books daily, although quite late most of then time. Thank you!)