Percy,

I rocked my baby as she drifted further and further into sleep.

My baby.

I had prepared for months, years really, for the fatherly love I would feel when I would hold my first daughter. I loved Sarah of course, but I had never gotten to hold her after she was born, not until she was already seven.

But nothing could prepare me for the feeling I felt when I held my new daughter, whatever her name was to be.

We had agreed on Olivia Athena Jackson.

But I wasn't exactly sure that Annabeth would still want to name her that.

I had to admit that I was a little shocked.

Since Sarah had been born to be basically a little clone of her mother, only with my hair and nose, I had expected that our new baby would be either look just like me or like Annabeth. But the little baby had become a mash-up of us both.

She had my nose, or what I thought was my nose for now. Her mother's perfectly sculpted lips. My height, even if she was a baby she was tall. Annabeth's high cheek-bones. My dimples, and Annabeth's blonde curls.

And then there were her eyes.

Her beautiful green eyes.

They weren't olive colored by a long shot.

They were the same dark sea green with navy blue flecks that I had.

But, in my opinion, they earned her the name Olive.

"Olive," I smiled as I ran my hand through her thick blonde curls, "I can't wait until your mom gets to meet you."

"Don't hold your breath."

I looked up, and the blonde in the hospital bed who was trying to sit up, though she was probably too tired to do so.

"You're awake."

"And I'm not pregnant apparently," she looked down at her abdomen, which was definitely smaller without her little daughter inside of it.

And then Annabeth looked to me, and her mouth went slack.

"Is-is that…?"

I nodded, and Annabeth smiled while I stood up, making sure not to wake the baby, and brought her to her mother.

A few stray tears fall from her grey eyes as I set the little girl in her arms, and she was quick to learn the protective way of holding her, which I had worried would take a while to teach her. But Annabeth was a natural.

And then the little girl's eyes fluttered open, and Annabeth gasped.

"She's beautiful," Annabeth laughed with joy, holding on to our daughter like only a mother can.

"Speaking of she, what do you want to name her? Still Olivia Athena Jackson?"

Annabeth seemed to think it over as our daughter wrapped her hand around her mother's pinky, giggling with joy.

"Sally," Annabeth's voice seemed to be off in her own world.

"What?"

"Sally. Sally Olivia Jackson," Annabeth smiled up at me, "We'll call her Olive."

"But why?"

"I don't know," Annabeth shrugged as she looked back at our daughter, "When Sarah was born, she had that bright determination that my grandmother had. And this baby just has that kind heart and sweetness to her. Like your mother."

I looked down at my daughter and saw the same thing that she was talking about.

"Are you sure?"

Annabeth smiled wide as she nodded.

"Alright then," I smiled, "Before we introduce little Sally Olivia Jackson to everyone, there's something I want to show you."

Annabeth knit her eyebrows in confusion, and Percy reached in his back pocket for his droid cell phone.

"I couldn't sleep last night, and Rachel wanted to do some painting," I smiled as I showed her the picture, and she gasped.

"You-!" Annabeth covered her mouth, unable to finish that, and I showed her the other pictures.

When I got home, Sarah was spending the night with her grandmother, and I couldn't even think of sleeping. Not when I had so much to do.

I had finished painting up the walls and sent a text to Rachel, asking her to come paint tomorrow after we met the new baby. To my surprise, just as I was settling in to bed, Rachel had showed up at my door at four in the morning to paint.

She had done everything Annabeth had briefed her on.

She had made the Olive tree, with Olive in the dark green. She had done the detailing to such an extent that not even the planner, Annabeth, could have imagined. And she had even stuck around to help me with putting the furniture together. But my mom and daughter had quickly kicked her out of placing things around the nursery when she had "done everything wrong, Daddy!"

But I had to admit that my thirty four hours without sleep was worth it.

"Sally finished the quilt!" Annabeth's eyes watered as she looked at the quilt with Olive spelled out in green.

"Sarah helped her finish it."

"She did?"

I nodded, and Annabeth continued to laugh with joy.

And, then as if on cue of me talking about her, Sarah ran in the hospital room.

"Mommy, you're awake!" Sarah smiled as she ran off to see her mother, and it took all of her restraint not to jump on the bed beside her mother.

"Sarah," Annabeth smiled happily, "I want you to meet your sister."

I moved so that Sarah could see her little sister, and she gasped as she looked down at the little girl. And I almost cried as Olive giggled happily at the sight of her older sister. It probably had something to do with the fact that she looked exactly like her mother. But I liked to think that it was something to show that the two little girls would get along.

"She's so pretty."

"She is," my mother smiled, stepping beside me as she set Annabeth's bag down on the floor, mesmerized by her new granddaughter.

"Her name is Sally Olivia Jackson," Annabeth smiled up at her mother-in-law, and I wrapped my arms around my mom's shoulder as she cried with joy.

"What are we going to call her?" Sarah asked, finally looking up from her sister.

"Olive."

Three Months Later…

It had taken three months for things to finally settle down.

For Christmas to pass.

For school to get started up again.

For work to get back in swing.

And for us to adjust to Olive.

It was weird with another baby.

Sure, we had known about her for over a year now.

But we hadn't been with her.

We hadn't learned our daughter.

Like how, when she can't sleep, she wants to listen to Calli's old CD of beach music.

Or how she loves it when she hears Percy's deep voice reads her a bedtime story.

Or how she gurgles happily every time I wrap her up in the quilt her grandmother and sister made her.

And we had even learned a few things about Sarah now that Olive was around.

Like how she loves to read to her little sister.

Or how she can calm her sister down just by talking to her (Thank the gods!)

Or that she was paying attention when we had told her what to do when taking care of her cousin and was constantly upstaging us when it came to taking care of Olive.

In the last few months we had learned all learned things about each other. And basically Sarah had been the only one we had learned good things about.

I downed the scorching hot coffee like it was cool water on a hot summer day.

A year ago, I would have gotten sick at that. But I had missed coffee so much that it didn't matter if it was boiling. I needed my caffeine. Especially with the sleepless nights and busy days that had consumed me for the last few months.

I quickly glanced at the clock.

9:03

On a Saturday.

I should have been buried underneath a comforter, finally getting some sleep. Saturday was the one and only day a week where Olive would sleep all through the night without as much as one scream. And that had quickly become the favorite day in our family.

But I wasn't.

Because today the swim team was starting up again, and Sarah had a big swim meet in two hours. And I had to get up and make sure that she had a good breakfast and was ready for it.

And she was probably getting back to sleep by now.

Lucky.

I poured myself another cup of coffee and mixed in some crème as I went up to my daughter's room.

"Sarah? Do you need me to braid your hair?" I pushed the door open, and she wasn't there, "Sarah?"

And then I heard giggling coming from the room next door.

I crossed the few feet to the other door and pushed it open to see my two daughters.

Neither seemed to notice me.

Instead, they played with the Leggos that I had thought I had kept out of Olive's room, though she seemed to be doing fine with them. In fact, they were building a house, actually they were building an exact replica of the Athena cabin right down to the columns built into the edge.

I couldn't help but smile as Sarah helped her little sister, who was actually a natural with them.

I knew I should have been quickly taking away the small pieces which a baby could choke on. But I couldn't get myself to end this.

Besides, Sarah would stop her anyway.

Since she was the only one who could sleep through Olive's sleepless nights, Sarah was usually the only one who could really function in the morning.

For the first time in months, it actually felt worth it to have gotten up in the morning. Just so I could see this.

"They do this every Sunday morning, you know."

I looked to my right, where Percy was holding a steaming cup of coffee and smiling at me.

"I didn't know that," I whispered back as Percy came to where we could both see the girls and they couldn't see us.

"For about a month now. I'm always the one who has to remind them about breakfast, so I saw them. It's adorable, huh?"

I nodded.

"It's an exact copy of the Athena cabin, you know."

"They didn't inherit that from me," Percy laughed, and I couldn't help but smile at him.

"Do you think they'll always get along this well?" I asked hopefully. I knew what torture I had put my father through by fighting with my half-brothers. And I didn't think I could handle that.

"I think so. Well, when they're teenagers, they'll probably fight. But I think they'll always love each other like this."

"I hope so. I couldn't handle them to have a relationship like what I had with my brothers."

"Me neither," Percy laughed as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and I leaned into him.

"Almost makes you want to have another, huh?"

"We can't."

"There is this thing called adoption."

I shrugged.

"Maybe."

Percy looked down at me in surprise.

"Maybe?"

"You don't want to?"

"No, I do. It's just, if I remember, it took me almost a year of dropping hints for you to agree to agree to little Olive. I'm pretty shocked."

"A. Those weren't hints. You were basically screaming it. B. Why did you ask if you expected me to say no?"

"I don't know," Percy shrugged, "I'm a Seaweed Brain, remember?"

I couldn't help but get on my tippy toes, since either I shrank or Percy grew (I'm hoping he grew) in the last month, and kiss him.

"Were you serious about adoption?" Percy asked, setting our foreheads together.

"Yeah, I was."

I spoke without hesitation.

Well, the hesitation came after I said it.

I had never thought about having another child. I had barely thought about getting a dog, much less another kid.

But yet I could feel that I wanted another one.

"Later though. When the girls are older."

"Agreed," Percy smiled, and he was leaning in to kiss me when my phone started to buzz in my pocket.

"The swim meet," I sighed, "It's time to take Sarah."

Percy kissed the top of my head.

"I'll take care of Olive."

I smiled thanks, and Percy went back to the bedroom to get dressed, and I thought about what I had just agreed to.

"Sarah? We need to get your stuff and get you to school," I came to the door, pretending that I hadn't seen her playing with her sister, and she kissed the top of Olive's head before jumping up to get her stuff.

Another baby.

I should have been panicking.

Were two not enough?

Three?

Could I even handle that?

But I was fine.

Maybe a boy this time.

"Ready, Mom?" Sarah snapped me out of my thoughts, and I quickly nodded, though I wasn't sure I had heard what she had even said.

"Yeah, let's go" I checked my back pocket to find my car keys, and I followed the fast little eight year old girl.

As we were getting into the elevator, Sarah's phone buzzed.

"How's Lyle?" I nudged her.

My daughter quickly turned to the shade of a strawberry.