Also, I start school tomorrow. The only bright side of it will be that I start school on the same day as Hogwarts. So expect either a ridiculous amount of notifications as I try to avoid work, or a slow funk. I promise that this story will continue updating on Mondays though- pinky promise. Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below.

What about Angels

Chapter XIV

A Tired, Tired Woman

Maggie was in a show with preschool today, and she'd (of course) invited all the aunts and uncles. Though Percy and Annabeth had told Travis and Connor to stay away, Reyna, Hazel, Jason and Seb were attending. Reyna was getting dressed, which she still insisted to do herself though she was slow and every movement looked like a chore. However Piper, Seb and Jason had gotten her to agree to the wheelchair for this expedition, so it was all about the small victories. Piper was keeping Reyna company until her shift at the restaurant. She still spent her weekends waiting tables to finish up paying for her tuition and besides, when was extra cash not a good thing?

"I need your help," Reyna said. She was bending down to put on shoes.

"I've got it," Piper said getting up and kneeling in front of her.

"No," Reyna said. "Not with the shoes."

Piper got up and slowly sat down in the visitor's chair. Something about Reyna, despite years of retirement from both the military and the legion, still gave her the tone of voice that made people sit down and listen up when she talked business. Reyna starred her down until she'd stayed put.

"I need you to tell Jason to give it up."

"Give what up?"

"This crazy idea he has that he can save my life," Reyna said.

"You know I can't do that."

"And why not?" Reyna asked. "Jason always listened to me. We always had a partnership, but we're on polar opposite ends right now. It's strange and I don't know what to do about it, so I'm improvising. We've never fought about something so big, and right now he's not taking me seriously because he thinks I'm trying to save his skinny ass- which I am. You, on the other hand, you can talk some sense into him. Charmspeak if you must, I don't care. He just needs to stop."

"Reyna, I can't do that," Piper said.

"Why not?" Reyna asked. "You want him alive, don't you?"

"I want you alive too."

"Not in the same way," Reyna asked. "Not for the same reason."

"I love you too," Piper said. "That's not fair, you know. Asking me which love is more important. Why do you think I've stayed out of this so far? Because I don't have a good answer myself, and I don't want to put words in anybody's mouths- with or without magic. I can't make Jason do anything, then his life isn't his anymore."

"That's not the reason I was talking about," Reyna asked. "At the restaurant the other day, during girl's night... You didn't have your stuffed squash, that's what you always have there."

"Maybe I wanted to try something new," Piper said. But she knew exactly where Reyna was going with this and she was starting to panic. But not the usual panic that Piper could deal with, no. This was new, because Piper had never dealt with it before, she'd never done this before, and so she dealt with it like a child under Reyna's unforgiving gaze. "That's such a small thing, you're being ridiculous."

"Annabeth was having oysters and I thought you were going to be sick at the smell," Reyna said. "You had a cashew-mushroom pâté, you hate mushrooms. And you didn't drink like we did. You didn't even have coffee."

"You weren't supposed to be drinking with your medication either," Piper said.

"Piper, don't make this about me," Reyna said. "You're pregnant, aren't you?"

Piper dug her nails in her thighs.

"You are," Reyna said. She smiled a bit, and Piper smiled too. She hadn't actually told anybody yet and boom, Reyna was the first to know. Hearing it aloud was both exciting and horrifying and thrilling and devastating. "How long?"

"Four months," Piper said. Her hand was resting on her stomach, she hadn't even thought about it. She wasn't showing yet, but it wouldn't take long.

"Four months?" Reyna echoed.

"It took me forever to realise," Piper said. "I guess with work, and… and general incredulity… A little more and I'd have ended up on TLC, I know, don't make fun of me."

"I wasn't going to. This is so great! Congratulations," Reyna said holding out her arms. Piper obliged and hugged Reyna, who squeezed just as hard as Piper did. That was a first, she hadn't had the strength for that in a while. Her hair still smelled like its usual grapefruit and vanilla and gardenia, which reassured Piper a bit. It made Reyna seem like she was doing better than she was, like maybe this was just another day, like maybe she was excited.

"Do you know the sex yet?" Reyna asked.

Piper shook her head. "I went alone for the first ultrasound, I… I was kind of startled, to be honest. I really didn't think it was true, I thought there was some kind of problem with the test or maybe I'd peed on the stick the wrong way if that's even possible. I didn't want to find out right away, I wanted to tell Jason first."

"And since he's entertaining his stupid plan to save my life, Jason has no idea does he?" Reyna asked.

Piper froze.

"I was going to tell him, but then Seb called and said you were coming to New York, that it was an emergency," Piper said. "We were so worried about you, it wasn't a good time."

"Well you can stop worrying," Reyna said. "My fate is sealed. Tell Jason you're pregnant."

"Reyna…" Piper said. "I…"

"Are you trying to tell me that you won't do it? Piper, that's ridiculous," Reyna said. "Not telling him at this point… You know like I do how he feels about his father and how his mother was. Jason would shoot himself if he did anything wrong as a father, he's said it since he was thirteen. You can't let him make that mistake inadvertently to try and help me."

"I can't make his decisions for him," Piper said. "Like I said, I can't make him do anything."

"He won't even have a decision to make once he finds out about the baby," Reyna said.

"I don't want my name stamped across the reason he'd spend the rest of his life guilty if he doesn't go through with this," Piper said.

"So you want his name stamped across the birth certificate of a kid with no dad?" Reyna asked.

"That's not fair!" Piper said.

"I know it isn't, but I'm a tired, tired woman and nobody's letting me rest," Reyna snapped right back. "So I'm going to have to hit under the belt. Fuck. Do you know how hard it is to accept the fact that you're going to die? And not just in the demigod way, but in a real actual way? In a counting-down-the-ways-according-to-medical-protocol way? I'm trying to be playful and I'm trying to make jokes and I'm trying to keep everyone else from coming down with me, but this isn't easy for me either. I always thought I'd die quickly. That it would come on as nearly a surprise in a fight. Not like this. But this is what it is, and this is what I have to accept, and believe it or not I have- no thanks to anybody else who's still pretending that things are going to be okay. But let me get this straight Piper, if I don't die and Jason does, I'll be so guilty I won't even live the life he'll have bought for me. He cares too much, but you? You've got an extra piece on the board, you know that you're going to have to put up with a survivor either way, and I think we can see eye-to-eye about this. So we now have one option. You tell him about the baby, or I will- so we can settle this once and for all."