Chapter 17

Herry's day had been long and infuriating. He was tired and grumpy and just wanted to go home, get this gods forsaken day over with so he could go eat something. He might not have been so irritable if he had actually got to have his lunch on his lunchtime detention. Opal had a habit of sneaking up on him, the tiny little mouse never made a sound with her footsteps. With his head muddled in irritation his mind wasn't were it should have been. He nearly whacked his head off the ceiling when he felt the tug on his sleeve.

"Umm," Opal was fast to snatch her hand back. She opened her mouth to apologize for startling him, but instead shook it off and reached into her bag for a piece of paper, crumpling it as she pulled it from her book, "Thought you might want to see this."

"What is it?" he asked as he plucked it from her fingers. She didn't have to answer, he sighed out a curse and handed the evaluation form back, the D was definitely on him, "I'm sorry."

"No worries," she said, "It was kind of funny. I didn't know you had it in you."

"Yeah, I'm not usually like that," he said.

"Yeah, I know, but he was being an ass," she said, offering him a cheery smile that somehow made him forget how grumpy he had been a moment before.

"I know right?" he said and breathed out a laugh, "You're sure you're not mad about the mark?"

"Doesn't really matter," she said as she shrugged, she reached into her locker for the lyre and handed it back to him, "Thank you so much for getting it for me, I really appreciate you giving me the chance to play one."

"Yeah, no problem," he said as he tucked it into his duffle. He smirked at how formal she became. Their mark didn't even seem to register on her, playing interesting instruments, that was really were her priorities lie. He gave her a quick goodbye before he turned to head off down the hallway, which she returned in good nature. His conscious started to prick at him as he strolled away. He stopped in the middle of the hall, gnawing on his lip for a moment before he turned back and called her name.

"Mmm?" she looked over, her bag propped up on her knee, resting against the edge of her locker.

"Try to have a good night," he said, and scoffed as he looked to the ceiling. That sounded awesome.

"Sure," she said and nodded slowly, narrowing her eyes in his direction, "I'll try."

"See you tomorrow," he sighed, mentally kicking himself. He should have just kept his mouth shut and kept walking.

Opal hesitated in the threshold of the front door, her breath catching in her lungs. She could hear the argument waging in the kitchen, it was not a very accustomed noise to be found in her home. As she listened she slipped off her sandals, careful to keep them from scraping on the wooden floorboards, and nudged them under the shoe rack beside the door. On tiptoes she slunk over to the kitchen, keeping the bottom of her jeans from brushing the floor. Using the wall dividing the room form the landing to conceal herself she listened. It wasn't long until she had gathered what the issue was and she darted into the kitchen to interrupt.

"What? You almost drowned?" she said, tears beginning their threatening glisten.

"Chickadee," John turned to look at her, startled by her sudden appearance, "No, I didn't come anywhere close to drowning, I'm fine."

"John, take a leave," Ophelia said, pulling his attention back to their discussion.

"I can't, I'm the captain, Dove those men depend on me," he was collected, but the irritation was starting to rub trough on his voice.

"Dad," Opal said, rushing over to him, latching her arms around his waist like a toddler, "I love you."

"I love you too," he said, a smile placing itself on his face without him noticing. He hugged her back and patted her curls. With his hands on her shoulders he pulled her away, still keeping a firm grip on her upper arms he said, "I'm fine, it was just a little storm. Storms come up on the water all the time."

She nodded, looking up to him with blue eyes wide and watery.

"Good," he smacked her arms with his hands and looked back to his wife, "What do you say we start some dinner."

"I still don't feel good about this," Ophelia shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Oh," he melted, a broad smile plastering itself across his scruffy face. He took a step over to his wife to gather her up in his arms, cradling her close to his chest he said, "I'm not going anywhere for a long time." She nodded, her temple rubbing against his shoulder. Gently he tugged her back, cupping her face in both of his hands and set a soft kiss on her lips. She gripped his wrists tight as she returned it. He sent her a small smile when he pulled back, flicking away the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs.

"I love you John," she said on a shallow whisper.

"You too," he said and straightened, turning to the fridge he plucked out the thawed chicken he had set out the night before. Ophelia sucked in a deep breath and rubbed her eyes on the cuffs of her sleeves before she came over to help; taking up the knife her husband passed her.

Opal took in a slow and even breath as she shook out her hands by her side, clearing her throat she asked, "Vegetables?"

"On the table Chickadee," John looked over his shoulder and pointed with his knife to the green onions freshly pulled from the garden. She nodded and scooped up the bundle to wash in the sink, rinsing off the rich soil that was still clinging to their roots.

A door rattling slam pulled a squeak from Opal's lungs, she dropped the onions involuntarily under the stream of water from the tap. Looking over to the kitchen door she found Percival standing firmly in the threshold, fists clenched at his sides, eyebrows knitted together as he picked at his teeth with the tip of his tongue.

"John," he said, voice propelled with a deep bellow.

The man put his knife on the wooden cutting board and turned to look over in inquiry.

"What happened?"

"My boat just got stuck in a storm, it wasn't as big of a deal as everyone is making it out to be," he said.

"Did you see anything?" Percival said, watching him through sharp eyes.

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly, nudging his daughter away from the sink to wash his hands thoroughly, removing his wedding band to pinch between his teeth as he did so.

"Anything out of the ordinary?" he said, "I saw your boat John, that wasn't lightning, whatever made that hole came from underneath."

"I don't know what I saw, I can't seem to remember," he shrugged and pouted out his bottom lip, "The crew seems to think its lightning."

"But you don't," the older man stated.

"I don't know what else it would be," he looked back to the chicken chopped into little cubes on the wooden board and scooped it up to dump into a pan sizzling with orange juice and soya sauce. Percival took in a deep breath, his formidable stance in the doorway shifting away like a landslide, rubbing at his lips with his fingers he padded over to the kitchen table to take a seat. Leaning back against the wall he kicked out his booted feet to cross at the ankle. He sucked at his cheeks, further deepening the hollows there. Draped in the chair he looked like a rattlesnake waiting to strike. The moment he got John away from his family he would grill him further.

Odie looked like a hunchback sitting at the kitchen table, leaning over a silver box blinking with lights and swirling with probes, a magnifying glass hooked onto the rim of his glasses. With screwdriver poised in hand he rotated his wrist like a wizard, creating magic through his meticulous tweaking. It was far from an uncommon scene to walk in on at the brownstone, but nonetheless Jay pulled out a chair beside him to inquire on the young genius' project.

"Jay," Odie said, jerking his hand back from the contraption, turning to face his friend a wide smile flashed his bright teeth, "This is the answer to all of our problems."

Jay sent him an inquiring look, reaching out to flick the magnifying glass away from the lens of Odie's glasses. He preferred to converse with his friend when both eyes appeared the same size.

"This is how we're going to beat Cronus," he smirked, "I've been testing it out with Hermes. See you just flip this switch to activate it and then any portal within a certain radius will go straight to Cronus' cell in Tartarus."

"Ha," Jay leaned back to chuckle, "so when Cronus goes to run away like he always does he'll transport himself right back to his old cell."

"Yep," Odie said with a smug grin, "I know, I'm a genius, you don't need to tell me."

"When can we use it?"

"Well, that certain radius, I can't get a fix on it," Odie said, "it keeps fluctuating, so I just need that to stabilize and it will be good to go."

"So when will it be finished?"

"I'm hoping I can work out the calculations and input them within the next week," he said, "but pretty cool eh?"

"Yeah, it is," Jay said, tossing out his hands as he laughed, "Oh, I have so much planning to do now." He jolted up from his chair and ran up the stairs to his cave, footsteps falling heavy on the floorboards as he took the steps two at a time.