"Ooh, make it stop!" Louisa waved her hands wildly, glaring at Annabeth like: 'what the hell do you expect me to do?!' Annabeth just glared back, but was distracted by another contraction. Louisa looked at her watch. The next contraction was ten minutes later. She waved at Leo and pointed at the door. Leo stared at her in confusion. "Sh-she wants you… to go and… and get help…" Annabeth said through gritted teeth.

"Oh…" Leo said, understanding dawning on him. "On it." He jumped up and ran out (first collecting his trainers from next door).

Percy was holding Annabeth's hand and was talking to her reassuringly. He was not expecting the smack upside the head from Louisa.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Louisa gestured violently at Annabeth with both hands, implying the obvious. "Well, I'm sorry; it's what we had to do." Louisa kicked him lightly before signalling for him to close his eyes. Percy just looked at her blankly. Annabeth translated. Percy obeyed, covering his eyes with his free hand.

When Louisa hit him around the head again, he looked, noticing Louisa had offered Annabeth some decency, covering the mom-to-be with a blanket covering her swollen stomach and below. Louisa tapped her watch and pointed at Annabeth as she suffered another contraction. Percy timed the contractions, noticing the next was roughly eight minutes later.

In that time, Louisa had gathered towels and a bowl of lukewarm water as well as some scissors; a new clean cleaning cloth; a diaper, a jumpsuit and a small, royal purple blanket for the baby.

"You're… you're never organised." Annabeth joked feebly. Louisa just waved her hands in the air and walked out. "Oy!" Louisa returned a minute later, smiling cheekily. "Of all the girls, you had to be my best friend." Louisa gave a sarcastic, two-fingered salute.

Ten minutes later, Leo had returned.

"Oh good." He said, breathing a sigh of relief that the baby hadn't been born yet. He waved the paramedics and the midwife in before moving to stand next to Louisa. "OK?" She nodded and pointed at her brother. He looked pale and sickly; worried about Annabeth, obviously, but probably frightened of the whole birth idea. "I just need a picture of his face and then I could do so much bribing and blackmail with that." Louisa gave a nod of agreement. Leo pointed at them both. "Great minds think alike, huh?" An amused smile passed over her lips and she gave a slight nod. "I'm detecting slight disagreement."

"Just pity." Annabeth spoke up.

"Aren't you supposed to be giving birth? Ooh! Five bucks if it's a girl!" Louisa gave another nod while Percy glared at them. Louisa spread her arms, looking at him defiantly in a silent 'bring it'. Percy just shook his head and looked back at Annabeth.

It was another hour before she was told to start pushing. Leo stood awkwardly with Louisa, trying to look at anything but the screaming and cursing Annabeth at that point. Louisa was watching him with a sarcastic and amused look.

Leo started fiddling with bits of technology and wires he had found in his pockets. Louisa watched his work curiously. She wasn't sure what he doing and it looked complicated, but she was amazed at how quickly and calmly he was working. Not that she would tell him that or his ego would hit the roof (and she really didn't want that).

"Just get it out!" Annabeth screamed at some point. Louisa checked her watch and realised ten minutes had passed, just her watching Leo work. Sometimes, she really hated ADHD.

Twenty minutes passed, Annabeth painting the fairly bland walls with colourful curses and agonised cries, until she finally pushed out the baby.

The silent baby.

Percy cradled the exhausted Annabeth, who was muttering something that sounded like 'never again'.

Louisa shoved forward as soon as the paramedics cut the cord. They were checking the infant's airways.

She took the baby from them, holding it gently on its front and supporting its head. She patted its back firmly, but without hurting it. The baby choked and coughed up blood, wailing suddenly. Annabeth and Percy looked relived, while the paramedics looked astonished. It wasn't everyday somebody did their job for them.

Louisa checked before returning the baby. Then she turned to Leo, holding her hand out with a sarcastic smirk.

"Are you kidding me?" Leo muttered, reaching into his pocket and retrieving his wallet. He counted out five bucks and handed the money over. "Damn you." He grumbled. Louisa just smiled sweetly, pointedly folding the money neatly and slowly to prove her point. She tucked it in her pocket, stuck her tongue out at him before turning smoothly on the spot and moving to kneel next to her friend. Leo offered to make the paramedics a cup of tea, which they seemed happy about.

"He needs a name." Annabeth decided. The baby was clean and mewling in her arms, dressed in the diaper and jumpsuit Louisa had prepared earlier, the purple blanket wrapped around him. She looked up at Percy. "What'd you think?"

"Let Lou decide. She saved him." Louisa pointed at Percy, but looked at Annabeth.

"Percy Junior?" Louisa nodded. Percy shook his head and Louisa pulled a sulky face. Annabeth laughed softly at her friend. "Um..." Annabeth looked at Percy again.

"Leo's a good name!" Leo called from the kitchen.

"Shut up, Leo!" Percy called back, smiling.

"Just 'cos you can't stand the sheer awesome!" Leo shot back happily. Percy rolled his eyes. He noticed Annabeth was passing the infant over to him.

The baby squirmed as it was transferred from one parent to the other. He opened his eyes and stared up at Percy.

"He's got your eyes, Wise-girl." Annabeth sat up straighter and had a look, smiling.

"He looks like you though."

"Good choice." Annabeth smacked his leg. "Lou, can you run Annabeth a bath?" Louisa nodded, got up and left. "Thanks!" Percy called after her.

When Louisa returned five minutes later, the new parents had decided a name- Tobias.

"And no, not Toby for short." Annabeth told Leo as he opened his mouth to say something. Leo closed his mouth and stayed quiet, smiling sweetly.

Louisa stayed long enough to help get Annabeth cleaned up while Leo insisted that Percy picked 'Leo' as Tobias's middle name- Percy was having none of it.

Fifteen minutes later, Louisa dragged Leo out and back to their apartment.

"But I wanna stay there!" Leo protested childishly. She glanced at him before rolling her eyes. "Whoa, how did you-?" Leo checked his pockets. She smirked, holding up his key card. Leo looked her up and down. "You're not like the Stoll brothers, are you?" Her smirk faded, replaced with confusion. "Oh, they live a couple of blocks down- they can pickpocket someone blindfolded and you wouldn't notice until you looked for that something." She looked amused. "Don't go and find them, missy, I'm warning you." Leo prodded her in the chest lightly and jokingly. She raised her eyebrows, a quiet 'and what will you do about it?' Leo just smiled and waved her inside. "I want a coffee and a sandwich. Hop to it, woman!" She glowered at him, stubbornly sitting on the sofa and folding her arms. She went on to ignore him for ten minutes before he apologized and asked if she was hungry and wanted a coffee.

A month had passed. Leo and Louisa went to see their nephew every day and Louisa insisted on buying him various presents. Annabeth and Percy didn't mind, but they were running out of room.

It was all going nicely- Leo trying to get Louisa to talk, or at least say his name, but he constantly reminded her of their deal, which probably kept her quiet. But she had let him hug her without pushing him away and that was nice. Once she even returned the hug- Leo made the point of an overenthusiastic ecstatic feeling, squealing: "Ooh, I've got to put this in my diary!" before skipping (yes, skipping) to his room. He returned to find Louisa laughing. She was actually laughing.

"So, you do love me." Leo smiled. She just rolled her eyes, but she had a genuine smile about her, one Leo had only seen in the photos of her treasured album.

But then it went wrong.

They had been walking about, looking for something to do when Leo was attacked.

No, it wasn't Louisa for getting her own back on the toy snake in her bed (something she had not been happy about at all- Leo quickly learnt that rubber snakes could become dangerous weapons in her hands).

Leo didn't understand at first, blood running down from the deep graze on his forehead from where somebody had tackled him and he had hit his head. There was a dull thud and Leo looked up, dazed, to see Louisa roundhouse kick someone away.

She helped him to his feet, gently feeling his injury. He winced, but promised he was OK, offering a sheepish smile. A glint of silver caught his eye and the attacker ran at them.

Leo stepped in front of Louisa, the knife buried up to the hilt in his stomach.

He looked at the attacker- blonde hair, blue eyes, male. The attacker grinned evilly at him, twisting the blade. Leo cried out in pain before he was thrown aside. He remembered pain in his stomach and his head and then everything else was fuzzy and dark…

Woo!

Uh, I mean, bad Art. Shouldn't be writing mean chapters…