Annabeth:
"Gummy worm, Mommy?" Sarah held out a bag of sour gummy worms, and I almost said yes.
But then I thought back to the wedding dress in my luggage.
"I'm good, Sarah, thanks though."
Sarah shrugged as she bit into another gummy worm, and I glanced down at my carry-one, where I had bags and bags of the sugary treat.
Most of the wedding party was flying straight on to Hawaii, but we had gone to San Francisco to see my parents for the night to help break-up the flight for Sarah's sake. Sarah loved to once again see her uncles, Bobby and Matthew. And seeing his little niece was probably the best consolation we could have given Matthew to make the flight from England to San Fran worth it.
Then I glanced at the engagement ring.
It seemed to be shining even brighter in the airport, and it was so beautiful. When Percy had proposed, I never really looked at the ring, but I couldn't stop looking at it now.
The tear-drop shaped diamond was so clear, so perfect. And the diamonds surrounding it were the same. It fit me perfectly, personality and size wise. Percy had undoubtedly picked out the perfect ring. But I loved Percy, amazing ring or not.
I just happen to like the ring there too.
But I couldn't help but worry.
Percy and I didn't have a normal life. So, some spats were understandable. But our relationship had held more than just little fights.
Let's ignore the obvious (Sarah!), and head for the other stuff.
Like me just leaving him in a parking lot. Never responding to his calls, even if he was the father of my child. Telling him to go to hell more times than I'd care to admit. Moving into a new dorm room so he couldn't find me if he tried.
Finally getting him back in my life and barely doing anything about it. Dating my daughter's Swim Coach!
And this is barely breaking into the list.
Could we handle "Forever and Always" or were we waiting to become "The Way I Loved You"? (A/N: Why not bring some Taylor Swift in the story?)
Could we really make this work, beyond the honeymoon phase? When life kicks in?
And he starts asking for another child.
I looked down to my stomach.
I wasn't sure I wanted another child. I wasn't even sure I could carry one after the rough birth with Sarah.
And, what if I didn't want another child? What if I decided not to have any?
Percy would say he understood, of course. And I'd probably even believe him for a while. He might even mean it. We'd move one, raise Sarah. But, one day, when things are reaching the rough phase that everyone gets to, will that come back to haunt me? Will we be able to handle this?
"You okay, Mommy?"
I looked to a wide-eyed Sarah.
"Oh yeah," I lied, "I'm just thinking, Sarah."
As if on cue, the flight attendant called our flight.
Percy,
"You nervous?" Grover asked as he sat his bag down on the hotel bed.
Nervous.
I was nervous about meetings at work.
I was nervous about having to see Annabeth's ex, Ryan, when I took Sarah to school on parents day.
I was nervous when I saw Athena when she and Annabeth and Sarah went to dinner.
Nervous didn't cover right now.
What did cover it?
Frightened.
Maybe.
But it was all I could think of.
"A little," I lied, but my hands were shaking as I ruffled my hair.
"Dude, clam down," Frank laughed as he collapsed on the other bed.
"It's not bad, being married. I love Juniper, just like you love Annabeth. Everything will be fine, Percy. It's natural to be scared," Grover barely glanced at me as he went to put his toothbrush to the bathroom.
"But you guys have basically been married since you were fifteen!" Frank yelled to the bathroom as he powered up his phone again.
"I agree with Frank!" I yelled as I laid down on Grover's bed, covering my face with my hands.
"Oh, and you and Hazel aren't still like that?" Grover laughed as he began to unpack his bag, which Juniper had carefully organized like only a mother could.
"Shut up," Frank growled, like only a son of Mars could.
"What's up with you two? I thought you were talking about marriage," I asked as I began to sit up.
"We are," Frank shrugged.
"And?" Grover laughed.
"And we're talking about it," Frank typed away on his phone.
"Juniper and I talked about marriage for like two days before we got engaged. And Percy and Annabeth talked about marriage for like a month before he proposed. You've been talking about it for almost a year," Grover sat at the foot of his bed, shoving my feet off the bed.
"You guys got engaged when we were eighteen," I pointed out.
"But we didn't get married until we were twenty-seven."
"You proposed when you were eighteen? I was still trying to help Hazel into the time when I was eighteen. Marriage was so out of the question," Frank pressed something on his phone and set it down on the nightstand.
"Yeah," Grover shrugged.
"Hey, how is Juniper? I've barely heard from her since Tyler," I smiled the thought of their son, their adorable little son, who was my godson. Tyler was awesome. If not for just how adorable he was, it was from the fact that he reminded me of a Christmas Decoration with his slightly green tint to his skin and red hair.
"She's pregnant."
Frank and I both sat up to stare at him.
"She's pregnant?"
Grover smiled.
"We found out last week. I wanted to tell everyone together, but…" Grover shrugged.
"Congrats," Frank smiled, but I suddenly noticed that he was the only one without children.
"It's your turn, both of you," Grover playfully shoved me.
"Hey, if I can talk Annabeth into it, I'm right there with you."
"Annabeth doesn't want any more kids?" Frank asked, clearly surprised.
"She hasn't said that, but…" I trialed off, and they all nodded.
Annabeth had never told me that she didn't want to have more children, but she had never said that she did. Ever since I first brought it up, she had avoided my question. That day when we were babysitting Steven was the only day I got a real answer from, or close enough to an answer. She had reminded me of monsters, our busy jobs, and our seven year old daughter to raise. But, about a month ago, I finally got an "I don't know", which was a big breakthrough.
Grover simply nodded, and Frank opened his mouth to say something when someone knocked on the door.
"I got it," I quickly got up before we could get back on the subject of Annabeth not wanting any more children.
"And we're here!" Jason came in and headed towards Frank, who he knew the best out of the other groomsmen.
"Chiron," I smiled to the man in the wheelchair.
He looked like he had when I had first met him, I'm pretty sure he was even wearing the same sweater. I had already seen my dad today, meeting me in Hawaii like how Athena had met Annabeth. But it didn't feel as great as seeing Chiron.
In a way, I had two dads.
I was close with Paul and all, but he was a Step-Dad, not quite a dad.
Chiron was a dad, someone I trusted more than anyone in the world, even my own father.
"Perce," Chiron smiled as I came down to hug him.
I had offered Chiron to be my best man, but he wouldn't accept it. He had been my first best man, and he said something to the effect that it would be bad luck for him to be in the wedding.
But Grover was happy to take his spot.
"How are you feeling? Nervous?"
"Yeah," I smiled at Chiron, "But excited, I guess."
"Now, Percy, I need you to warn you something," Chiron began, and I couldn't help but smile.
"What, Chiron?"
"This is the last wedding I am going to come to for you, kiddo," he laughed loudly.
"Good, cause this is going to be my last wedding, too, Old Man."
Sarah,
"Hey, Kiddo," some woman smiled, Thalia I think.
She was beautiful, I had to admit. Her hair was pitch black like my dad's, and it was the same length of Aunt Calli, going to the top of her shoulder. She seemed to have been cleaned up, but I could still see the jagged ends on her hair and the scars.
"I'm Thalia," she set out her hand for me to shake it, and I timidly did so.
When we got to Hawaii, I went to go see Atty *Athena* at the beach. When we got back to the room, suddenly people just started showing up, coming and going to say hello to my mom.
Aunt Calli, without adorable Amanda.
Aunt Rachel.
My grandfather and grandmother. *Susan and Frederick*
Grandmama *Sally*
Some pretty woman who everyone called Hazel.
And Thalia.
"I've heard a lot about you, you know. I hear you like the ocean," Thalia seemed to be good with kids, but, with everyone staring at me, I felt like I was on display in a museum.
Come see Sarah Jackson, the daughter of Annabeth and Percy! Come one, come all!
"Yeah," I smiled.
"You know, your dad helped me a million times with the ocean. I could never figure it out," Thalia smiled, and I continued to stare, trying to find something to say.
But my brainpower was spent.
Honestly, I was surprised that I hadn't run out of things before now. I had been ambushed by family members, bridesmaid, and even some well-meaning room service guys. But it was tiring, and I had already run out of my comfort food, sour gummy worms, almost an hour ago.
"Thalia, I think I found a good dress for you," Aunt Calli quickly scurried to Thalia, and Thalia excused herself from me to go to the group of girls.
From what I had overheard, Thalia had been in my dad's wedding, the first one with Calli.
They didn't seem to really like each other, but they didn't hate each other, which was saying something since Aunt Rachel and Aunt Calli seemed like they were just waiting for someone to look away so that they could kill each other. And Thalia had saved someone's life by offering to bunk with Calli instead of Rachel.
But they were pretending to be fine around my mom.
Everyone had huddled around my mom.
I didn't know what they were really talking about.
The subjects seemed to change every few seconds.
It went from some guy named Frank to Jason. Then it changed to two girls named Reyna and Piper, who were both my mom's friends, and who couldn't make it to the wedding sadly since I had a feeling I would like Piper. Then they started talking about Rome, which didn't see to make much sense. It shifted to how cute my dad had been when he was a teenager, and how happy they were that he didn't really like to wear shirts much back then, and how handsome he was now.
When they started talking about my dad shirtless, I kind of tuned out, and I went back to staring at my dress.
When my mom had picked up from the hanger, I never would of thought that it would be the dress that I liked. I preferred the puffy one with all of the tool and the ballerina skirt that I had picked up, but I decided to try it on for my mom's sake.
When I tried on the sea-foam green dress, I instantly fell in love with it.
Immediately, I worried that my mom would think it was too grown up for me, and she did. But, since I loved it so much, she agreed to just fix it up.
The dress was a silky against my skin. The top was kind of like a wrap dress, without any sleeves. The straps were like triangles, thin and twisting around to go down my back. It went down to my feet, where I would be wearing a pair of perfect green Greek sandals. The dress fit me well, but it was also loose enough for my mom to be fine with it.
"What do you think, Sarah?" my mom snapped me out of my trance.
I looked up to see my mom with her arm around Thalia, and Thalia smiled at me in her dress.
"You look great!" I smiled, meaning it. I probably would have said it anyway, but she did look great.
The dress had undoubtedly been from Aunt Calli by the way it was made, and I was surprised that it suited Thalia, since it was Calli.
But she looked amazing.
The dress had come from Calli's time with Percy since it was so Greek.
It plunged low, but, since Thalia was so tall, it didn't matter. It was sort of a circle when it came to the neckline, and the black color offset Thalia's olive skin. It was simple as it almost to her feet, showing her heels though. The belt was a bunch of black ribbons, wrapped around her thin waist, and it distracted from the scars on her arms.
"Thanks, Sarah! And you're going to look great in that!" she pointed towards my dress hanging up.
I smiled.
Maybe this Thalia girl wasn't bad.
Maybe a little too strong.
But I liked her.
Annabeth:
I snuggled up closer to Percy and listened.
I could hear his heartbeat, and he could probably hear mine. I could hear the waves breaking outside, and I could hear the fan that Sarah had put on because it was so hot.
I waited to hear her breathing even, to hear her finally fall asleep.
I was about to fall asleep from waiting when Percy whispered something in my ear.
"She's asleep."
I nodded, and I closed my eyes tightly.
"Are you scared?"
"About the wedding?"
"It's two days away. Already. It feels like you just proposed yesterday," I whispered faintly.
"I know."
"Percy," I hesitated for a long time before finally finishing the sentence, "You can tell me the truth about how you feel. You don't have to lie to calm me down. I can handle the truth."
I desperately wanted to know that I wasn't the only one freaking out.
"I'm scared, Annabeth," he held me tighter as if to tell me that he wasn't saying he didn't love me.
"I am, too. I don't think I could handle losing you, and…" I trailed off, not wanting to bring up a baby.
"I know, Annabeth," he began to stroke my hair.
"I love you, Percy," I forced myself not to cry.
"I love you, too, Annabeth."
"Enough to handle being married to me? You know how I can be."
"Enough to handle being married to you, Annabeth," he smiled as he kissed the top of my head.
"I love you enough, too."
Percy smiled into my hair and tightened his grip even more on me, and I closed my eyes, about to fall asleep, when Percy spoke up again.
"Enough for Jason to lead the bachelor party tomorrow."
I looked up to him.
"Jason?"
"He elected himself in charge," Percy shrugged like it made a difference.
My bachelorette party wasn't much of a bachelorette party.
I had Thalia, an Artemis Hunger, for one thing. Then I had a fellow mom, Calli. Rachel, who had to remain pure like Thalia. And I had Hazel, who would be the picture in 'Antonym of Party Girl' in the dictionary.
And I would be subpicture in the 'Antonym of Party Girl'
So, we were all going to the beach and sitting around with a few bottles of random alcohol and talking for most of the night.
I don't know what I expected for Percy. But I had assumed that our seven daughter would be having more wild fun with us by having the pillow fight with Sally, who was babysitting her tomorrow night and then flying her home the day after the wedding while Percy and I spent our honeymoon here.
"What are you guys going to do?" I almost laughed, though I still managed to be quiet enough not to wake Sarah.
"I'm too scared to ask," Percy laughed.
I smiled and closed my eyes for a while before opening them again.
"Alright, you can have Jason plan your bachelor party. But I get to pick up Sarah from Sally and have her sleep in here."
Percy stared at me for a while.
"I thought we agreed that we both couldn't have Sarah sleep with us, so neither should."
"We also agreed that Grover, who has basically been married since he was eighteen, was planning your bachelor party."
Percy stared at me for a long while, as if deciding if it was a good deal or not.
"Fine, but only because I'm too scared to tell Jason otherwise."
I smiled as I leaned down to kiss him.
"That's my Seaweed Brain."