On the worst days of quests, Percy always secretly looked forward to going home. When he was hurt or hungry or tired, he couldn't help but miss it; their little apartment at the knife edge of Hell's Kitchen felt like the safest place in the world.
He had his own bedroom, and it wasn't clean, but everything in it belonged to him. It had an attached bathroom, one he shared with his mother, whose room was attached on the other side. He could hear her get up and walk around when she went to the bathroom at night, and she was always knew when he was awake late. The door had a lock, a chain, and a deadbolt, and there was a baseball bat right next to it, within easy reach. There was a stash of easy snacks in the bottom drawer in the kitchen, and another in his closet.
It didn't look anything like where they'd lived with Smelly Gabe. The walls were painted soft blue, and there was art on the walls, kitschy stuff Sally had picked up at indie places. None of the furniture matched, and they had rips in the upholstery. Most of it just smelled like Sally's favorite air freshener. Some of it, like his mom's favorite chair, smelled like her.
After the awful week he'd had away from home, he was relieved to be heading back so soon. He missed his mother, and he was certain she'd know how to make him feel better about Nico and Bianca and Zoë.
If he was lucky, he could even forget about the end of the world for a while. Athena's warning snapped at his heels, and he felt antsy and unhappy.
Too impatient to wait in the elevator, he raced up the stairs, and then slowed down as he approached the apartment door, frowning. There was a raised voice on the other side – a guy Percy didn't recognize, shouting. His heart picked up in his chest, and he scowled, speeding up again. Panic and rage tangled together.
"-lied to me, Sally! He lied to me for years, I can't- God, I just want to-! How does he think I'm supposed to trust him now? How could I ever trust him again?"
Who was yelling? Who the fuck was yelling at his mom?
Fumbling in his haste, Percy forced his way through the door and turned to take in the whole of the room.
His mom was in the living room, standing across from a man Percy didn't recognize – blond, round-cheeked, flushed with obvious rage and wild eyes, pacing across the room. His whole body was taut and aggressive. Sally was tracking him with just her eyes, lips pressed tight together. She looked pale.
Percy moved.
In a second, he'd placed himself between Sally and the stranger. Sally gasped, but he didn't look back, instead facing the stranger defiantly. He could feel his heartbeat pounding, his body already bracing to protect his mom no matter what he had to do.
"Get away from my mom," Percy snapped, his voice strung thin like an overwound guitar string. His fists clenched so hard his nails dug into his palms. He was pretty sure he was shaking.
Looking startled, the man took two steps back, hands raising as if in surrender. It didn't help. "Shit, you're right, that was out of line-"
"No, get out!" Percy shouted, fueled by an awful sucking feeling in his chest. The man hesitated, and Percy snarled at him, a loud whine ringing in his ears. "Out!"
At least two faucets snapped on, and the room trembled faintly. The pipes wheezed with strain. Percy kept his eyes on the stranger, adrenaline flooding him like he'd come face to face with the Minotaur again.
No one touched his mom.
"You should go, Foggy, I promise to call you when I can," Sally said hastily, and then her hand was on Percy's arm and she was gently turning him to face her, Percy going along with it without thinking. "Everything is okay, Percy, I promise, you don't need to be worried. Have you been traveling long, do you want something to eat?"
The stranger looked hesitant, looking between Percy and Sally for a long moment, but Sally made a slight gesture toward the door, and the man exhaled, took a half-step back, and then stormed briskly out.
Percy looked up just as the door shut behind the man, and only relaxed a little. He looked back at Sally, wary resentment still chewing on his lungs. He was breathing hard. "Who was that?"
He winced at the pained look on Sally's face – he hadn't meant to ignore her. He felt jittery, like there was static running up and down his bones.
There weren't supposed to be men in this apartment. Just him and his mom.
She didn't look hurt. But his mom was good at hiding it. It wasn't much comfort.
"That was Foggy Nelson," Sally said. She steered him toward the couch, and he let himself be pulled down to sit on it. "I- well, we've been seeing each other for a while, but I was hoping to introduce him under... better circumstances."
"Better circumstances," Percy echoed flatly, glancing at the door again. He couldn't make himself relax, some part of him still convinced that he'd narrowly prevented disaster. The rest of him was still tangled in the disaster lurking in his future.
"I wanted to give you time to get used to the idea first," Sally murmured, reaching up to brush his hair out of his face. "After Gabe, I'm sure you're not exactly excited by the idea of another man in our life. I was hoping to make it easy on you."
Percy looked away sharply.
They... hadn't really talked about Smelly Gabe. As if once Sally had sold his statue, they'd both decided it had never happened. Percy preferred it that way. The stinky old slimeball didn't deserve to be remembered. But sometimes he was there anyway, whenever Percy's nose caught a stench that was just the right shade of rotten.
"Whatever," Percy muttered, scuffing the floor with his dirty shoes. And then, unable to help himself, "That guy seemed like a dick. He was yelling at you."
"I've never seen him like that," Sally sighed, glancing at the door with clear concern. "It wasn't about me, Percy - he and his best friend had a falling-out. I wasn't able to glean much more than that, I'm afraid."
His mom was the sweetest in the world, and it didn't deserve her and it never, ever treated her right. It made Percy's heart clench painfully, so tight he felt briefly sick with it. "You wouldn't stay with him if he hurt you. Right?"
"He wouldn't get the time of day," Sally promised softly, reaching out to squeeze Percy's hand. "Honest, Percy. I wasn't even frightened. Foggy is a very gentle man."
It wasn't completely true; his mother had been a little too still while Foggy paced. But his mom wouldn't lie to him either, not about this. Percy scowled, rubbed his arm roughly, and looked at the door again. He still felt unsettled, and he didn't know how far Foggy would have gone. He didn't want him here; this apartment was for Percy and his mom.
Sally exhaled again, soft and unhappy, with too much weight in the air between them. She reached up and ran her fingers through Percy's hair, and Percy tilted his head into her hand without thinking.
"You've gotten gray," Sally murmured teasingly, tugging at a lock. Percy managed half a laugh and a tired smile.
"I held up the sky for a while," he said. "It was pretty heavy."
Pride gleamed in Sally's eyes, and it made Percy feel warm. "You'll have to tell me all about it."
Percy nodded without hesitation. "It's been a hell of a week," he said, more honestly than he'd meant. The weight of it seemed to bear down on him, especially the meeting with the Olympians at the end, and he gave in to the urge to tuck himself against Sally's side, pressing his cheek to her shoulder. "Mom? Is that guy gonna be over a lot?"
Sally squeezed his hand. "Not until you get used to him, sweetheart. Foggy and I can meet elsewhere for a while."
Percy bit his tongue, and then said, "You don't have to." He could deal with yelling if it made his mom happy.
"I want you to feel safe at home," Sally said firmly. "That's more important."
Gods, Percy loved his mom. His chest loosened. "Okay. Cool."
He got up, locked the door, and pulled the chain. He lingered there for a few moments, staring at the doorknob. It occurred to him that he probably wouldn't get another chance like this for a while, where he could ask this without upsetting Sally more than he had to.
"Mom? Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course, sweetie."
Percy took a breath, then turned to face his mom. It was the least she deserved.
"Did you know Gabe was hitting me?" he asked. "I won't be mad if you say yes. Talons hurt a lot more than fists."
Maybe it shouldn't matter anymore, in the light of everything that had happened in the last couple years. Compared to Luke, compared to Kronos, Smelly Gabe was nothing. But the thought had been bothering him since he finally understood why Sally really stayed with Gabe.
As a kid, he'd always assumed that Sally didn't know. With childish logic, he'd figured that Gabe had to be important to Sally somehow, for her to put up with how he treated her. And he'd assumed that Sally would leave if she knew. But he hadn't wanted to be the reason she gave up whatever was so important to her about Gabe. So he'd kept it a secret.
But if the price for leaving was Percy's life, there would have been damn near nothing Gabe could do to make Sally leave. And now Percy couldn't seem to shake the beaten little boy in the back of his head, the one that hated angry voices and accusations.
Sally flinched, and a haunted shadow passed briefly behind her eyes, which never left his. She clasped her hands together tightly, and despite himself, Percy felt a little bad for asking. He'd missed all the signs that his mom was getting hurt, back then. But Sally never seemed to miss anything.
He wondered if he'd know if Sally was being hit again, and tried not to panic.
"Yes, I knew," she said at last, quietly. Though it had been a year and a half since Gabe had disappeared, she looked guilty. "I wasn't sure how much. But I knew."
For no particular reason, Percy nodded. He felt wrung out, almost sore after the non-confrontation; that was probably because of the shitty week. "Wasn't a lot."
"I'm sorry, Percy," Sally added, concerned eyes on him. Just that melted half the tension away, a familiar warmth and softness that had never let him down. "I know this wasn't what you needed when you came home. Why don't you sit back down and tell me what you got up to over the last week? I'm sure it was incredible."
Percy smiled despite himself, relaxing almost completely. Right; with the door shut and locked, it was just him and his mother in the apartment, the way it was supposed to be. He left the door, crossed the room, and sat down beside her, tugging his feet up to the cushion.
"We found Nico and Bianca alright," he said, low and rough at first, and only slowly gaining momentum as Sally nodded encouragingly. "One of the teachers was a manticore though, and took them out back-"
Percy was lucky; he'd missed the last week of school instead of the first week of winter break, which would've been the shit icing on top of the rotten cake. So he didn't have to go back to school for another two weeks, and he got to spend the whole time with his mom.
It'd be his second really good Christmas to date.
He slept through most of his first day back, because it turned out that quests were exhausting, especially one-week-whirlwind quests. The second, he and his mom sat in the living room, ate junk food, and watched zombie movies. On the third day, Sally told Percy that she was going to bring lunch for Foggy and his coworkers, and she gently invited Percy to come along.
"We can leave the moment you say so," Sally promised him, running her fingers through his hair. "But we aren't likely to be interrupting anything either."
Percy didn't really want to, but he knew that was his own stubbornness speaking. To be honest, there probably wasn't much any mortal could do to hurt him anymore- or his mother, when Percy was standing right there. Anyway, his mom wanted him to try to give this guy a chance.
Percy would always try, for Sally.
So he tagged along after her, fidgeting with Riptide on their way into the building. It was an old, rickety place, and Sally seemed to know her way around well. It was a few turns to get to the office labeled 'Nclzen and Murbuck' – or something - where Sally knocked twice on the door before letting herself in. Percy edged in after her, uncomfortable, and immediately retreated to a corner.
"Sally!" a blonde woman exclaimed, looking relieved. "I'm so glad you came, Foggy's going to be thrilled- did you bring food?" She didn't wait for an answer before raising her voice to call, "Foggy! Your girlfriend brought us lunch again! Matt, stop sulking in your office!"
Foggy was the first to emerge from one of the side doors, peeking inside cautiously. Percy grudgingly admitted that he looked less intimidating outside of the apartment, when Percy was expecting him – he wasn't particularly large, and he looked soft. Friendly. Then again, he wasn't angry right now; people looked different when they were angry.
Besides that, Percy was pretty sure he was at least a decade younger than Sally, maybe more. His suit fit awkwardly, though barely enough so for Percy to notice. He seemed delighted to see Sally, but he met Percy's eyes by accident and jumped about a foot.
"Sally!" Foggy said after a moment, giving Sally an awkward grin. "Sally, beautiful, delightful to see you here as always, and also pretty good to see that I haven't scared your son too badly to come within ten feet of me, hi, Percy."
Percy mumbled something and fidgeted harder, gaze locked to the floor. He thought about the Ophiotaurus, swimming around in his bubble of water on Olympus. The other door opened, drawing his attention, and a man in sunglasses emerged.
"Hello, Mrs. Jackson," he said politely. "I'm sorry I left Foggy in such a state the other day. I didn't mean to make anything difficult for either of you."
"Well, neither Percy nor I are known for our good luck," Sally said with a touch of humor, and then went to set a Tupperware of food down at each desk, earning the sounds of joy such a gesture deserved. "Did everything work out alright? I've never seen you so worked up."
Foggy's smile turned strained. Percy looked away quickly, shuffling over to sit in the corner closer to the other man's desk. "Ah, well, I'm not sure I've ever been that worked up. We're still working on it." Sally made a soft, sympathetic sound, and Foggy cleared his throat, gaze locking onto Percy. Percy's heart skipped a beat, to his own ire. "That wasn't exactly the first impression I was hoping to make, let me tell you- you're, what, a year and a half off that horrible, uh, kidnapping? Thing? Incident?"
Ridiculously, it took Percy a moment to remember what Foggy was talking about. Eventually he recalled the final story that the Mist had drawn up for his first disastrous quest. Unusual, for someone to remember that. "Yeah," he said.
"I know that whole thing made Sally nervous, I'm sure it did you too," Foggy said, and he was still looking at Percy. Percy fidgeted with Riptide. "So, uh, let me assure you that I hold no ill will, and even if I did I'm pretty sure I'm strong enough to pick up, like, maybe a really big puppy. On a good day, if I'm feeling tough."
Percy didn't smile. "Sure," he muttered.
Foggy cleared his throat while Sally went to sit beside Percy, where they opened the last two Tupperware to eat their share of the meal. "What's this anyway? Ah, it's fried rice! Blue fried rice! My favorite! All fried rice should be blue."
"I'm still not sure if you're messing with me," the sunglasses-wearing man said – only then did Percy notice the white-tipped cane leaning against the wall.
"He's really not," the blonde woman said. "It's actually adorable."
"Thank you," Sally said cheerfully.
"The really impressive thing is that Matt likes it," Foggy said. Percy was pretty sure he was just chattering nervously now, and he kept glancing at Percy, which made Percy tense despite himself, tapping Riptide faster against his palm. The stupidest of residual reflexes – he had real monsters to worry about. "Matt is picky as all get-out."
"I can tell that Mrs. Jackson takes a lot of care with her food," Matt said mildly.
"Please, call me Sally," Sally said to Matt, and then, to Percy, "And that's Karen, they hired her just a few weeks ago."
Percy nodded silently, and pulled his legs up to plant his feet on the edge of the seat while he ate. Karen's face had a sallow, faintly afraid glaze to it, and all three of them looked tired, with a heavy, awkward atmosphere filling the room. But they cheered up while they ate; it was hard to be upset when you were eating rice dyed bright blue.
"What did you do to it?" Karen asked Sally, holding a forkful up for inspection. Sally smiled.
"I boiled red cabbage in the water before I did the rice," she said. "I have a lot of practice experimenting with ways to turn food blue."
"Which she did to piss off her ex-husband," Foggy added, unexpected pride and delight in his voice. "Isn't it great?"
Sally's eyes sparkled with amusement. "Even I enjoy a little pettiness now and again."
Percy got distracted after that, looking around the office with some curiosity. There were a couple of printers, big and bulky, and a whole lot of file cabinets, a shelf of books, the three desks and a door to something like an interrogation room- but it was Matt's desk that was really interesting. It was all covered in plain-looking papers, but looking closer, Percy could see a bunch of bumps on them.
"Those are braille, right?" he asked, before he could think better of it, accidentally cutting across something Foggy was saying. Matt shifted back a little, angling more toward him, raising his eyebrows.
"The papers on my desk?" Matt asked, not seeming bothered by Percy's nosiness.
Percy nodded, then remembered himself. "Yeah."
"They're braille, yes," Matt said. "Why do you ask?"
Percy shrugged. "Can you still learn braille if you can see?"
Matt tilted his head. Foggy had fallen silent, watching them talk and making Percy uncomfortably self-conscious. "I don't see why not, but learning it isn't easy and the books are pretty expensive, so there's not a lot of reason to. Why?"
"I'm dyslexic," Percy explained, rocked in place a little, and then continued, "Like, really dyslexic, I can't even read a road sign most days. But I figure, the letters can't crawl around the page if I'm not looking at anything to read them, right?"
Matt chuckled. "I sure hope not. Do you have trouble focusing on audiobooks?"
Percy nodded, shifting a little to orient himself toward Matt without thinking. "Yeah, but it's easier than reading. Audiobooks are kind of a pain to get, though, so I don't usually bother." Other things to worry about, and all.
"The school should be helping you, if it's interfering with your progress," Matt told him. Percy snorted. As if any school counselor gave him a second glance after seeing his record.
"They don't care," he said. "They all know I'll get myself expelled by the end of the year anyway, and I'm dumb too, so helping me is a waste of time."
"That's illegal," Matt said, frowning. "If you'd like, Foggy or I can help you talk to them. If you really have that much trouble, you should have an IEP or a 504."
The offer made Percy's stomach twist strangely. "I don't know what those are."
"Types of disability accommodation plans," Matt said, and offered Percy a fleeting, rueful smile. "I'm pretty familiar with them myself. But the general idea is to keep disabilities, including learning disabilities like dyslexia, from ruining your chance at an education."
Percy looked up at his mom, who usually knew this sort of stuff before he did, but she looked faintly lost too. Foggy noticed almost immediately.
"Oh, shit," Foggy said. "You were working two jobs for most of Percy's childhood, weren't you? And I went to college with Matt, he had to jump through a whole damn obstacle course to get his accommodations sometimes."
Percy bristled. "Mom was perfect," he snapped. "It wasn't her fault she had to spend all her time just looking for schools that would take me."
Foggy raised his hands in clear surrender, looking alarmed. "Whoa, whoa, that's not what I'm saying- or, uh, I mean, that is what I'm saying, not-"
"It's fine, Percy," Sally interrupted, smiling ruefully at Percy. "It's true. I probably would've been able to advocate for you with the school counselors if I'd had more time. Luck just wasn't on our side."
"Is it ever?" Percy muttered, but the fight went out of him, and he relaxed.
"Where are you going now?" Matt asked.
"...Centerside," Percy said after a moment. "Couple blocks outside Hell's Kitchen, in one of the neighborhoods that didn't take damage in 2012."
"Alright," Matt said. "Sally, if you give Foggy and I a week or two to catch up on the educational parts of the ADA, we could help you put something together."
Sally's breath caught, and Percy knew instantly that his school performance had still been bothering her. She looked too hopeful about the idea of him doing better to mind as little as she said she did. "Would you? That would be great, please, I've never been able to get through very much of it at all."
"Yeah, that's lawyer talk for you," Foggy said. "Don't worry, Sally, we're experts at that."
"Literally," Karen murmured with half a smile.
Sally looked at Percy, and despite his own reservations, Percy felt himself give way immediately under her hopeful look. It was the least he could do for her, he figured.
"Alright," he said. "I guess we can try."