A/N: Here's the next chapter! Maybe one more later tonight? ;)
-Apollo-
I had spent the last twenty-four hours checking every single place I could think of. Every place she had ever mentioned, every haunt I knew she attended often, was checked and double checked. Artemis had sent the Hunter's out looking for her, while she had come with me. We had to be discreet as possible. All the gods were playing their games, and I had to be sure to win.
A twig crack from behind me, and my sister and I both turned towards the sound with our bows notched and ready. Dionysus held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"I found her," he explained. "She's in Manhattan."
"How?" I questioned. He just smiled slightly.
"You'll just have to see. Athena is meeting us there."
I nodded my head, and we took our immortal forms. We reappeared in downtown Manhattan, in front of a bar I had heard of before.
"Addie's in the Vine?" Artemis asked uncertainly.
"Something is blocking me out, and I could only assume its her," Athena speculated as she appeared beside us. I walked towards the door, the others following me.
I stepped inside, pausing briefly. There was no one inside of the bar that I could see, but I could hear a voice talking from the end of the bar.
"He's always been such a prick," Addie commented. Her voice sounded weird through.
"You're telling me," a voice responded. Athena shut the door behind her, enchanting it so no one could get in. At the sound, Cyrus shot up from behind the bar, looking at the four of us nervously. He stood beside the bar, pawing the ground in agitation.
"My Lords and Ladies, w-what an honor to have you here. What can I d-do for you this evening?"
"I think you know why we are here," Dionysus challenged.
"I'm not here!" Addie whispered harshly from behind the bar. Cyrus glanced down, then back at us. "Aw, shit I said that out loud, didn't I?" Cyrus nodded his head, and Addie groaned.
"Addie, we just want to talk," I started.
She shot up from behind the bar, a dagger in one hand a bottle of wine in the other. She actually looked stunning. The dress she was wearing was white and gold, and it flattered her figure. Her waves hung around her cheeks, which were beautifully blushed. Her eyes sparkled with her anger, and she actually looked like an immortal to me then.
"Well, I don't want to talk," she said, tilting up the bottle to drain it. She finished it, and tossed it behind her. It crashed to the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces, but Addie did not even seem fazed. "I want to forget, so unless you are here to have a drink and not talk to me about how you lied to me for the past 2,000 years, I'm out. Ka-peesh?" she added with a flourish of her dagger. Her words were slightly slurred, and I realized why her cheeks were so rosy.
Addie was drunk.
Dionysus walked forward sitting down on one of the bar stools.
"I'll bite," he said easily.
"That's the spirit!" she said sarcastically from the end of the bar. "Cyrus, another bottle please! I'm still coherent."
"Allow me," Dionysus offered. He stood, moving towards Addie. She narrowed her eyes at him, but he just sat beside her. A glass and bottle appeared in his hands. He uncorked the bottle, meeting Addie's gaze.
"I'm not going to zap you. I'm wasting good wine on you, you know," he said as he started pouring her a glass. "Tell me when."
Addie rolled her eyes. "If you were going to kill me, you all would have already done it. I am in no fit state to do anything about it, and I promise you, death is welcome at this point." The glass was over the half-way point.
"How much have you had to drink, Addie?" I asked, concern and irritation in my voice. She was just watching Dionysus fill the glass, which had began to spill over. Dionysus just smiled and snapped his fingers, making the glass bigger. I knew that they got along pretty well, obviously better than I thought. How stupid was she for getting this drunk in Manhattan!? I could see Olympus from here! She had to have a death wish.
"That's good!" she snapped playfully. She snatched the bottle out of Dionysus's hands, draining its remaining contents. I hear Artemis snort behind me, and I turned to glare at her. She shrugged unapologetically. She looked like she was trying not to laugh at Addie's antics, and if I hadn't been so worried about her, I probably would have done the same thing.
"How much, Addie?" I asked again. She threw the second bottle with the first, laughing when it shattered.
"Enough. I'm a big girl, I know how to handle my wine," Addie assured me with a glare. "I'm just choosing to ignore it. Taking advantage of my free will and all while I can," she stated coldly. She raised her eyebrows at me, and guilt pooled in my stomach. She might be drunk, but she was still angry. I turned towards Artemis and Athena.
"What are we going to do?"
"I think we should have a drink," Athena stated. "Maybe she'll open up."
"I agree. Whether we get to talk to her about it or not, at least it will be entertaining," Artemis grinned.
"And we can keep her out of trouble," Athena added, a little more serious. I nodded my head, and we all sat down at a table beside the bar. Cyrus brought us our favorites, and we sat and waited.
Eventually, we had taken over the small bar. I'll admit, I drank more than I should have, and I was feeling just a little buzzed from the alcohol. Addie was lying on her back across the bar. She had a bottle in her hand, which was dangling beside her. She had stayed pretty quiet most of the time, as we all had. There was a tension in the room, but I understood it.
"You know, I would have thought at least Hera would have answered." My head snapped back up, as did the others. Addie pulled herself into a sitting position, taking another swing of the wine. Her eyes were glazed, from alcohol or something else, I wasn't sure. "She is the goddess of marriage, but I guess because it was her son, she just didn't give a damn. Nothing new there," she said with a flourish of her hands. "'Marriage is an institution, Euadne, and as the goddess of marriage, I am use to perseverance!'" Addie stated in a dead on impersonation of Hera. I couldn't help but snort in my drink. My half siblings were all children of another woman by Zeus, so she didn't exactly care for us. I didn't like Hera one bit. She always looked at us like we were below her. I didn't know anyone besides us ever realized it, but it seemed Addie could relate to that.
"Do that again," Artemis laughed. Addie smiled and cleared her throat theatrically.
"Artemis, it is not very polite to snort at the dinner table. I swear, did your mother ever teach you any sort of manners? If you were my children," she finished with a dramatic huff. "Keep your bow off the table! We were not raised in the woods, we are civilized gods!" We all began laughing, because it was so perfect. She had the same facial expressions, the same body language. She could've been Hera's double.
"Bravo," Dionysus stated, tipping his glass in Addie's direction. He was the only one not drinking, which I could imagine he was quite upset about. I had a feeling he was letting Addie have all the fun for him. "About time someone made fun of her."
"She's quite the hypocrite, isn't she? Always boasting about family and the sanctity of marriage! I was attempting to stay faithful in my marriage, and what did I get?" She let out a harsh laugh and got up. "I got the most messed up life ever." Addie seemed a little unsteady on her feet, swaying just a little. She headed towards the jute box. "Moral of the story, ladies and gentlemen, is that being a good person gets you absolutely nowhere."
"That's not true," Artemis countered while she ran her fingers around the rim of her glass. "Not always."
"No, not always," Addie mused, a frown marring her face. "It's not the good or bad guys who usually win. It's the ones in the middle. They are neither good nor evil, just a mixture of both." Her back was to us, but I could see everything in the reflection on the glass. For just a second, I saw how much pain she was in. Tears threatened her eyes, and her whole frame shook. Her hands gripped the side of the jukebox, and she held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut. I wanted to protect her, to wrap my arms around her and make it all go away. I knew she would punch me if I tried. An instrumental piece began playing, and Addie slung herself around. Her eyes were still closed, but she seemed to be in better control.
"I miss this kind of music," she whispered as the soft sounds of a trombone filled the air. I recognized the piece. It was from the 1920s I think, Rhapsody in Blue. She sat down in a nearby chair and began spinning herself in circles. I was actually kind of impressed that she managed to continue drinking and not spill anything.
"What kind do you like?" Artemis asked her.
"She likes instrumentals, especially piano ones, and Frank Sinatra," I replied without thinking.
Addie stopped spinning. She looked at me weird, like she was both uncomfortable and pleased at the same time. Our eyes locked and for a second, I thought she might just start yelling at me. Addie looked unstable, like she was seconds away from self-destruction. The others looked in my direction, too, and Artemis kicked my shin under the table. I had to be more careful. Not that I didn't trust Athena and Dionysus, but no one needed to know about Addie and me.
"That's right," she muttered, finally looking down at the floor.
"I am the god of music," I said with a small smile. She looked back up, a small smile of her own playing on her lips.
"Doesn't always mean good music," she shuddered. "Blue grass is awful. And Hephaestus listens to that crap all the time! Sounds like dogs dying."
"You are hilariously honest when you are drunk," Athena laughed, while shaking her head.
"I've been told I have zero filter," Addie giggled. "Des got me drunk one time, and he said it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. Tiberius was so angry at him. He slipped the liquor into my drink without me noticing, the little schist. He takes after his father. Do you remember when I got in trouble for knocking over Demeter's statue in the Northern Court?"
"Didn't you have to clean out the stables at Geryon's farm for that?"
"Yep, which was absolutely disgusting. I didn't do it. I mean, I did, but Hermes told me to do it," she explained as she started to spin once again. "He said he'd help me hide Aphrodite's make-up if I did it."
"That was you?" Artemis asked, a shocked smile on her face.
"Mmhmm," Addie sung distractedly. "S'bout time she got some payback. Why can't some people just have an easy love life? Does it always have to end in a tragedy? Like Percy and Annabeth! Those are two that 'serve to be happy. She makes it hard on purpose, and enough is 'nough. Just because she cheats on her husband all the time with that piece of s-schist doesn't mean she has to make the rest of us miserable."
It was silent for a beat, and I saw Athena's "thinking" look. She turned towards Addie, who had stopped spinning once more.
"Uh, Addie? What did you mean when you said that stuff to Ares? What exactly did he make you do?" Athena asked. I could hear it in her voice, how she cared for Addie. I fixed my gaze on Addie, and I couldn't pull my eyes from her. Whenever Addie was confronted with this issue, she just wanted to avoid it. Addie just kind of froze, and she looked ready to bolt, just as I suspected. Her eyes darted to the door, and her fingers curled into her palms, like she was itching for her daggers. I knew how she felt about this subject. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A war was waging itself in her mind, and when she opened her eyes back up, her gaze darkened.
"What do you think he did?" she dragged out, her voice full of steel. Her speech was really starting to slur at this point. "Do you know why my brother took me into the legion? W-why I married Tiberius a year 'fore I was meant to?" We were all silent because we knew the answer. She had tried to avoid Mars. We had all just chosen to ignore it. We had enough to deal with back then, and we just assumed it was part of the plan to set her up. Nothing could have actually happened.
No one even thought of her that way once she came to Olympus, or so we had thought. But that was a lie too, I suppose. Addie was a beautiful girl. Anyone, mortal or immortal, could see that. We just assumed those that were on the council knew better. Who would dare try to anger Poseidon or test the maiden goddesses that way? Truth was, we didn't care. Addie was just another mortal that had to be taken care of, a loose end that needed to be tied. None of us really even noticed her for the longest time. Even now, some of us still treated her like a mere slave. I didn't even notice Addie until it was too late for me to stop it. And I should have. We all should have.
How often had we acted like that? I would never admit it out loud, but we had all done it, Addie wasn't the first one. I cared about what I did, sure, but I never really thought about the things we do to mortals. What did it matter, their lives were short anyways? They wouldn't be around in fifty years. I had never really put myself on the other side of things.
We should have realized what kind of person Addie was from the start. After you did take notice of Addie, it was hard to look away. She had talked of good, evil, and those in the middle, and Addie was the epitome of a good person. Sure, she had a little temper problem, but she usually kept that under control. When she did lose it, it was warranted. We had all slowly begun to see what kind of person she was, how caring and kind she was. Maybe if it had not been during the cross over, we would have seen it earlier. We would have had clearer heads to work with, and we could have chosen to answer her prayers and not curse her. I could see the other's thought processes move, putting the pieces together. No one said anything, no one except Addie.
"I hate him," she whispered, her voice frighteningly clear. Dionysus made another bottle appear and filled a glass. He handed it to Addie, and she looked at him questioningly.
"You need it," he said simply, his voice just a tad gruff. She fell back in her chair before taking a huge gulp from it.
"Thanks," she said. "I don't think you're all bad, y'know."
We all looked at her in astonishment. She was quickly draining the glass, and I was pretty sure she was at or near blacked out.
"I mean, don't get me wrong, you've done some pretty fucked up things, but there is good 'side there somewhere. I've seen you do somethin' just for the sake of being nice, not because you were bored or wanted it for 'self or whatever. Doesn't change that I'm still infuriatingly angry at you, but," she said as she tapped her head, "that thought is up here," she sighed.
She stood but lost her balance and immediately hit the floor. The glass and the meager contents that were left shattered beside her. She just laid on the ground, giggling feebly to herself.
"Go home, Addie! You're drunk!" she laughed. Artemis snorted into her hands, and Dionysus was fighting laughing.
"Every winter solstice, I'm getting you wasted. I'll make sure no one kills you," Dionysus reassured her.
"It'd be lika roast!" she cheered.
"Ok, that's it. I'm taking her home," I said getting up. "She's going to feel bad enough in the morning."
"We can't take her to Olympus," Athena cautioned.
"I'll take her to my place in Atlanta and keep her safe," I avowed.
"I can drive, easier to spot your chariot," Artemis offered. I nodded my head, thankful for my sister. I knew she was doing this to help me.
"We need to get back to Olympus," he suggested to Athena. She nodded her head, and helped me get Addie up from the ground. She stumbled slightly, and I wrapped my arm around her waist. Dionysus handed me a vile, which I stuck it in my pocket. I knew it was a hangover cure, which he was very apt at making. "We'll keep an ear out for the others, keep you informed. When she becomes coherent, tell Addie I'm sorry… I was mortal once; I should've known better."
I realized Addie was leaning against me, her head resting against my shoulder. I picked her up in my arms. She felt light as a feather and just as breakable. Addie might be two thousand years old, but in that moment I realized how fragile her life was. She had been lucky to last this long. I didn't want anything to happen to her, and I didn't want to see her get hurt.
Artemis had gone outside to summon her sleigh, and I called out to Cyrus.
"Y-yes, my lord?" he stammered as he came around the corner.
"I think it would be best if you didn't mention this to anyone, Cyrus."
"Of course, Lord Apollo," Cyrus conceded. "She's a good person," he added quietly.
"Yes, yes she is."
So, we get to see Addie in rare form. How do you think she's going to feel when she sobers up?
Tell me what you think! :D