Chapter 1. Of children and happy parents
"You have a girl, Mr Jackson", said the nurse and smiled at me. "Now you may come in and see your wife".
Those were the words which immediately calmed me down. But why? Because when two demigods have a child, it is really dangerous for all of them, but most importantly - for the mother. During pregnancy she has to be twice as careful and very, very relaxed, because otherwise something bad will happen to the baby. And when those demigods live in the mortal world, being relaxed is not easy. But… We manage. Because we are part of the Seven, and under protection of The Dome - magic border around our house and surroundings. No one can see it or feel it, but The Dome is quite powerful. Even the gods always have to ask permission to enter our house, otherwise something's going to happen to them. I don't know exactly what, because no one tried.
Anyway, let's talk about my beautiful wife, who now is holding a tiny bundle in her arms. Even though this is our second child (first one is in Camp now), I'm quite nervous to hold her. Being a half-blood, reckless sometimes, always ADHD, it's not easy to sit still and hold a baby. But, as I already said, I manage.
"Were you scared?" asks Annabeth, looking at me with those intense grey eyes that intimidate me even after fourteen years that we've known each other.
"A bit, yeah. You know, it is really hard not to be scared, when your wife and your best friend are giving birth at the same time!" I answer, trying to keep my voice calm. No need to worry Annie… No news from Graces, I really hope nothing bad happened...
"Oh gods, Piper…" she whispers, "Do you know anything about them?"
An SMS interrupts me even before I open my mouth. Instead of it, I open the message.
'Beat my selfie, Jackson! — Grace
And a photo of Jason, Piper and a blue bundle of blankets in my cousin's wife's arms. Relief floods my body. They are alright.
"By the way, I do", I tell Annabeth, now sounding really cheeky. "They have a boy, and we have to take the most beautiful and perfect selfie our world has ever seen, because…"
"I am tired of all this stuff, Percy. Promise me this photo will be the last one of this kind", she answers. I eagerly promise, not quite paying attention to the words, and turn on the camera on my phone.
'Definitely did, bro' — Jackson
When we came home three days later, in the evening after our awesome dinner in the Italian restaurant across the street, I was surprised (not really) to see Nico in our kitchen. Sometime after the Giant War we actually became friends again, so now he visits us quite often. Sometimes by himself, sometimes with Will and Maria, their daughter. I don't even want to know how she was born, don't ask me. Actually, I've seen her just a couple of times, because when Nico and Will got together, they decided to move to Venice. Maria has dark hair and dark brown eyes, but she has Will's powers and behaves like him, mostly. I think now she's about four years old.
Anyway, again, the son of Hades was sitting in our kitchen and eating pasta with cheese. This also did not surprise me, because Nico had to gain some weight, so Will made him promise to eat wherever and whenever he has the chance. So, here he is, obviously enjoying our food.
"Nico! I'm so glad to see you!" exclaimed Annabeth. "How are you? How's Maria?"
"Oh. Hi, guys. I thought you will return later, but it's even more convenient for all of us now," he answered. "We are fine, thank you. Although Maria really misses Sam, so I guess this week we'll come to Camp. Because I am tired of her whining and crying. So much like her dad! But that's not what I came here for. I heard about your addition to your famiy, and I'm here to warn you." Nico scratched the back of his head. "Your daughter is the reincarnation of Bianca."
"Uh… Oh. Oh! Di immortales, how could this happen? Your sister - she, she chose rebirth even before the Giant War! How can she now be here, with us, as a newborn baby?" I actually couldn't wrap my mind about this fact. If she is now our daughter, then does it make Nico our nephew? Or a son? Or doesn't?
"I don't know, Percy," he sighed. "But what I do know is that in the future your daughter may follow my sister's steps. So I would strongly recommend you take special care of her, so that your daughter's fate is different from Bianca's."
"We will," reassured my wife. "And… Wait. Actually, we wanted to name her after your sister, like, to honour or something like that. Will the name affect her life?"
Nico looked surprised. "Names are powerful, we all know that. But-" he stopped, trying to find words. Obviously, he was not ready for this. "That- that would be really nice of you. Although you will have to be careful and watch out for her, I think… It may affect her life, but not change it. It will be completely your daughter's decision to… Yeah."
"That's great! Thanks for the warning. We will remember it," said Annabeth.
"Nah, thank you! It's really… I don't know. Just thanks. For her. For Bianca." Nico shrugged. "Also thanks for the pasta, it was really tasty. But now I have to go. See you later!" And with that, he was gone.
I realised just now that we haven't moved since we entered our house. Annie must be tired, holding the baby- Bianca — I correct myself — without even sitting down. I cautiously take my daughter from Annabeth's arms and go to Bianca's new bedroom. I put her in a crib, kiss her forehead and whisper, "You are safe, dear. We love you."
With that, I walk out of the room, silently close the door and go to the bathroom near our bedroom, which is next door to our daughter's.
In our house there are four bedrooms: our, Bianca and Luke's, guest bedroom and another one, which sometimes is guests' and sometimes mine. You know, when I make Annie really angry. Each bedroom has its own bathroom. Then there is a small kitchen with a table for eight people. If you come in, you definitely will know that an architect lives here. Everything is done so accurately, so perfect, that you can't stop looking around. That's what happened to me when I first came in, actually. And on the outside… You'd better see that. It's a house that can't be described with regular words, especially by me. The leading colours are white and light sea-green. But our bedroom is painted light grey. I don't mind, because it looks amazing. And the bed also. It's a large bed with simple white pillows and blankets, but the person sitting on the bed looks gorgeous. Annabeth is reading a book about baby care (again), wearing just underwear and my shirt. As silently as I can, I walk to my side of the bed, lay down, cover myself and…
Start to tickle my wife under the covers. She jumps and then laughs, trying to escape from my arms, but fails. I am merciless. I don't stop until she begs me to let her go, then raise my arms, and she scoots closer to me and hugs me. I put my arms around her and cover Annie with another blanket. Then I command, "Lights off". The room goes dark. I close my eyes and, before drifting to sleep, hear Annabeth say "I love you".
Same day, another house, another family
"Hey, mum! Johnny is crying again! What do I have to do?" screamed a little brunette girl with blue eyes. She wore light blue pyjamas with little snowflakes. The girl was standing outside her bedroom, which was also blue.
"What did you do to make him cry?" asked a feminine voice from somewhere downstairs.
"Nothing!" the girl screamed again. "I was almost asleep when he started."
"Okay, I'm coming. Just don't yell, you are scaring him!" the voice said.
Then there were footsteps, and a woman came into the bedroom. She took a small boy from his crib and began to sing a lullaby to him. When the boy fell asleep, the woman put him back and kissed his cheek. After that she turned to her daughter.
"Now you can go back to sleep now, Emmy. Come here, I'll sing to you too", the woman said.
The girl ran to her bed and climbed on it. She snuggled in her blankets and looked at her mother pleadingly.
"Will dad say goodnight to me, mummy?" she asked.
"He is very tired, darling. And besides, your dad already told you goodnight", answered her mum. "Now, sleep".
The woman sang another lullaby for her children and silently walked out of their room, closing the door behind her. She went downstairs.
Their house looked very different from their friends'. It had two floors. On the ground floor was a kitchen, a dining room and a living room. Upstairs were three bedrooms with the same amount of bathrooms. Here the leading colours were light blue, white and mint green.
"Jase, are you finished?" the woman asked.
"Um... No. I don't even know when I will be. It's just so complicated! I wish I had my mouth shut then. Maybe things would've been different now...", answered Jason. "Just give me a couple more... minutes... hours?"
"Oh, come on! I have a present for you! Come here, you can finish it tomorrow, when your head is clearer. Hey, stop!" Piper shut the lid of her husband's laptop. "Now, do you want me to use charmspeak on you?"
"No! No, thank you. I'm going, see? Here", with that, the son of Jupiter lifted his wife in his arms and went upstairs.
"Stop! Jason, put me down! Please...", Mrs Grace said between laughs.
"Hush, don't wake your children up", warned her husband. "Don't even start with all those Lion King quotes! Why can't you use Marvel? There are lots of awesome dialogues which you can use. So why Disney?"
"Because, as you said, my daughter is six. She is too young to watch movies with superheroes. And besides, she has two of them as her parents. Even though she doesn't know that yet...", giggled Piper, hiding her face in her husband's neck. However, she stopped when she felt him shift his arms under her, and then the daughter of Aphrodite was flying. Not for long, unfortunately. Because two seconds later she landed face-first on the bed.
"Oh, come on! Did you have to do this?" she asked, trying to hide her smile.
"I didn't have to", Jason climbed on the bed and lay beside his wife. "I just wanted to", he smiled widely, hugging Piper from behind and kissing her neck. "Now, what was the present that you wanted to give me?"
In the room across the corridor Emily wasn't sleeping. She drew her little brother in her diary and then tried to write something about him. Emmy was really determined and she wanted to go to school very much, so she decided to prepare herself and learned how to read and write earlier than most children did. And when she could write properly, Emmy decided to become a writer when she grows up. So now, here she was, writing about her brother in her diary.
'Hello again, dear diary. I was busy so I didn't write in you. But now I have a little brother! His names Johnathan, Johnny for short. He has some light-light hair and awesome blue eyes, like my dad! He is really tiny, but I hope that he grows up. My parents say that he will. And Johnny looks like daddy, so I look like mum, almost. I have long dark (a little bit) hair like mummy does, and also blue eyes, but they change color when I'm sad or angry or happy... So my eyes are in the middle between mums and dads, in colour. But you know that? O K.
About tomorrow:
We will go to camp! And finally I'll meet Luke and his little sister.
Luke is the son of uncle Percy and auntie Annabeth. He has almost black hair and grey eyes and he is very clever. I really want to be friends with him... And I want that Johnny is friends with his sister! They look the same, dad showed me her picture. I want us four to be together forever!
Or five. Or even six! Maybe Maria will come also. She likes it there in camp. And, of course, Sammy.
Samantha Zhang is the daughter of aunt Hazel and uncle Frank and uncle Leo. She has brown eyes and curly long brown hair and more parents than I do. But I don't mind, that's cool!
Sorry, but now I want to sleep.
Goodbye, diary. Have a good night!
So, hello again, guys. I wasn't satisfied with my first work, so this is my re-writing. More words, more plot. More grammar?
Also, please, I need to know what you think about this chapter.
can you please review?
But, you know, please don't be rude. English is my second language, so this came out worse than I planned, but still...