Disclaimer: I own nothing!
PS- the drag queen olympics are real, look it up. drag queens make the world go round, bless them all.
viii: two
"Hey Te- Teresa, what's wrong?" Nico asked, tensing up like a guitar string as soon as he realised his daughter was crying.
"Papa," Teresa said. "Papa, you won't believe it..."
"Okay, okay- deep breaths kiddo," Nico said. "Try me. What's going on?"
Teresa calmed down on the other end. It took a long time, and even if it hadn't, it would have freaked Nico out a bit. Teresa Solace was not one for jitters. She had nerves of steel, a stomach that could digest nails, a legendarily small amount of patience, and this uncanny ability to win any kind of fight involving words, but she was a mess now.
"Papa, I have a sister," Teresa said. "And not- not just other children of Athena. But I have a sister that's my sister, Papa."
Nico had trouble following. "Okay. You mean, a biological sister? Both parents?"
"I think so," Teresa said. "We both do. We're both around twelve- she doesn't know her birthday because she was raised in a foster family, and we look alike, Dad. It's crazy. She's Persian too. We both have a bent little finger, when we clasp our hands we put the right thumb over the left, we love sour foods- those are all genetic traits, Papa!"
"Okay, okay, calm down," Nico said. "Deep breaths, Tessa. Deep breaths. What's this girl's name?"
"She goes by Roshanak," Teresa said. "Papa, I swear she's my sister. Papa, I feel it."
"I believe you Tessa, I believe you," Nico said. He did, he just wasn't sure what that meant exactly. "Have you tried praying to your mother? Asking for council?"
"I did," Teresa said. "Radio silence, for the both of us."
"Tessa, it's August," Nico said. "You didn't call us earlier?"
"We… we wanted to be sure," Teresa said. "But now it's August and we don't have anymore proof, we just feel it in our guts- and now we're running out of time before we have to- we have to- be separated…"
"Teresa, calm down," Nico said. "We're going to think of something."
"Chiron just said to tell you that he sent a picture of us together to your email," Teresa said. "Can you look at it?"
"Of course, baby girl," Nico said punching buttons and clicking his away across his computer screen. He found the email, downloaded the image and… shit. The picture was taken of two girls dressed in black and standing in front of the central hearth. Not only were they the same size, but they both had the same thick hair, the same narrow eye shape, the exact same nose, their eyeliner and pink lipgloss matched… And most importantly, they both had the look to them that meant that they could fuck you up. This was a scary look on tween girls, but Nico believed it. Roshanak looked exactly like his daughter. With a quick glance he'd assume it was her- if not for the fact that she wasn't wearing earrings like Tess always did. And more than that, there was something insanely complicit in the way they stood together, with Tessa's head cocked to the side and Roshanak leaning into her…
"You do look like sisters," Nico said.
"Chiron wouldn't let me call if this wasn't legitimate," Teresa said. "Papa, please. I'm freaking out. I don't want to lose her."
"Okay, okay," Nico said. "Calm down. Your dad should be home in an hour or two, and he has a couple of days off. We'll try to fly over or I'll shadow-travel us or something and we can meet you both and Chiron, okay?"
"Okay," Teresa said. "Dad took time off? Did you two have plans?"
"No," Nico lied. "Nothing more important than this, anyways." Amsterdam's not going anywhere, is it? Will can go see the Drag Queen Olympics another year.
Teresa took a deep breath. "Thank you, Papa. I've been a wreck."
"Don't worry about it," Nico said. "We'll be there as soon as possible."
"I just… I don't understand it. You and Dad always said that my mother delivered me straight to your house."
"Right," Nico said. He could remember the heart attack Lady Athena had given him, showing up in the dead of night with a nine-month-old child in her arms- telling him she needed to be taken from her father, a scientist gone mad, without losing a proper home.
"So why would she have separated us?" Teresa said. "Why did she do that? How did she decide which one of us should grow with you and which one should be raised in the system?"
"I can't explain the gods, baby," Nico said. "Maybe it was to protect you."
"I'm stronger with her," Teresa said. She spoke calmly now; these were rational declarations. "It's true, Papa. We see the flaws in each others' plans. We're having less nightmares this summer. We correct each others' maths. We beat Chiron at chess when we played together."
"Wow," Nico agreed. That right there was child of Athena goals. "I'm excited to meet her."
"I told her you guys were great," Teresa said. "She already likes Cata a lot, and she's as in love with Franca as the entire world is. Daniel she thinks is too much of a flirt, but that's okay- we all think that."
Nico laughed.
"I really want her to come back to Boston in the fall," Teresa said. "I know it's more complicated than that, especially since the New York Child Services are still looking for her, but it wouldn't feel right. It's like… it would be like taking Dad away from you. You can't do it alone when you find someone perfect for you. She's my sister, how can someone be more perfect?"
Nico leaned back in his seat and blatantly lied to his daughter. "The front door just opened. I'll go talk to Dad, we'll be on our way, okay?"
"Okay," Tessa said. "Love you."
"Love you too," Nico said. He hung up the phone and took a deep breath. He pulled his top drawer open and pulled out a picture of Bianca and him, black and white, taken in Washington D.C.,1940. He didn't have a ton of more recent pictures of Bianca. This was an accidental find, as he roamed Hades' palace (and yes, okay, technically a theft). But he loved this picture more than he could love a high-definition, coloured one. They looked happy and they looked like kids and they were goofing off for whichever parent was taking the picture in the frame. They looked like a family. Like two people who should have grown up and grown old together so much, they had been tied together by blood.
He looked at the picture for a long, long time until the front door actually did open, and Will called out his usual, 'Hey babe I'm home'.
"Will," Nico said getting up. "Will, Amsterdam's on hold. We have to go Camp."
