Percy's friends made their first visit later that day: Annabeth and Grover and, to Percy's surprise, Thalia, who were all chatting by the creek when he left the art greenhouse. He grinned, waving to catch their attention, and broke away from the other patients to jog over.

"Hey," he said cheerfully, glancing them over. Annabeth had brought her backpack, Grover was chewing on a tin can, and Thalia's Mace cannister was hanging off of her hip. "Thought you weren't coming 'til tomorrow."

"You thought wrong, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek as he flopped down. "Chiron called and asked if we could come early, so Letitia gave us a little slack. What've you been up to?"

"So much fucking talking about feelings," Percy complained, leaning back on his hands. "I didn't think it would be that bad, you know how my mom is, but by the gods. We spend like four hours a day talking about feelings."

"Sorry, what were you expecting again?" Grover teased. Percy rolled his eyes.

"Don't even get me started. At least one of those hours was all about how I feel about therapy. What a pain in the ass."

He expected Thalia to chime in, but she was uncharacteristically subdued. He looked over his shoulder and found her frowning at the water, rolling her bracelet around her fingers. She caught his eye and crossed her arms defensively, but the faintly unsettled look didn't leave her eyes.

"...Is it helping?" she asked at last, trying for disinterested and missing by inches.

The silence was immediate and kind of stifling, and Percy's light mood faded. He shifted his weight to turn toward her.

"Hey, Thalia?" he said, completely disregarding the question. "How come what I said freaked you out so much?"

Thalia gave him a vicious scowl, looking sullen enough to compete with Nico.

"You're an idiot," she snapped. "But you're mine and suicide would be a really stupid way for you to die. I'd never forgive you."

Percy managed half a laugh, soft and breathless, and gave in. "We're working on stuff, I guess. What I've learned so far is that I'm a lot more fucked up than I thought I was, mostly from that human garbage bag."

"Gods, it would actually be worth going back to the Underworld just to make sure that man dies again," Grover muttered. Percy nodded.

"Human garbage bag?" Thalia asked, raising an eyebrow. Percy winced.

"Uh, my first stepfather," Percy said, without looking at her. "I had one before Paul. I... don't like talking about him."

"Oh," Thalia said. She had almost the same expression Annabeth had worn when Percy first properly explained Gabe to her. Once people met Percy's mom, they usually assumed that was the end-all be-all of his home life. "I didn't know that."

Percy smiled, a little wry. "Yeah, I like it better when people think I grew up with just my mom," he admitted. "But that was how Mom kept the monsters off my back when I was little. Smelly Gabe." Thalia snorted, and Percy grinned back. "Yeah, he smelled like a sweaty ballsack with fungus growing in, probably because that's what he was. But he, uh..."

His voice failed him, just like it had with Raine, and he scowled and cracked his neck uncomfortably, one way and then the other.

"I don't tell people this," he said stiffly, without looking at any of them. He grabbed Riptide and twirled it around his fingers, listening to the murmur of the creek. For him, at least, it was easy to make out even past the sound of his voice. "Haven't even actually told Annabeth and Grover before, but..."

His throat closed again. Gods damn it.

"You know we're with you," Annabeth said, somehow perfect as always, and Percy took a breath.

"Gabe... hit... me and Mom," he forced out, and it wasn't until after he spoke that he realized he'd closed his eyes. A vein threatened to burst in his temple, and for some reason, his heart was pounding, some sickening combination of hatred and adrenaline. "I'm not saying I was beaten or anything, 'cause I wasn't, but. That happened."

"Oh my gods," Thalia said, and then, "Where is he, I'm going to fucking murder him."

Percy smiled without opening his eyes, and leaned in instinctively when Annabeth shifted to be closer to him. "Too late. After our first quest, I gave Mom Medusa's head and she used it on him. Good fucking riddance."

"I knew I loved Sally for a reason," Thalia said, with vicious satisfaction.

"How old were you?" Annabeth asked, with deadly, quiet calm.

"Pretty young," Percy said, relieved to find it was easier to breathe now that the words were out. "You know me, I was one of those really annoying toddlers that ran around screaming their little heads off. I would've hit me."

"That's not funny," Annabeth said tightly. Percy sighed.

"No, it's not," he admitted, and rolled his shoulders. "Anyway, I've literally always fucking hated him, so I'd've thought I didn't care enough for him to do real damage, but apparently that's not how it works."

"Unfortunately," Thalia snorted, scowling down at her bracelet.

"Percy," Grover said, nervously enough that Percy felt the tug of it through the empathy bond, "when you say he didn't beat you..."

There was a tenor to Grover's emotions that told Percy that Grover would drop it immediately if Percy asked. But it was Grover. Grover, as far as Percy was concerned, was special.

"He'd hit me like, once or twice, usually," Percy clarified. "To make me do things. Give him gambling money, or prove how fucking stupid I am." He cracked his knuckles. Talking about Gabe was starting to make him want to hit something. "Depended on how cooperative I was feeling."

The last sentence came out with more venom than he'd summoned up in years. His friends, after all, knew exactly how harshly that grated against Percy's personality.

"You're never cooperative," Annabeth said, feelings all tangled up until her voice pulled tight again. Percy snorted.

"When you're that small and a grown man hits you, it really doesn't matter how rebellious you are," he said bitterly. He'd thought it before, but the fact that it actually came out of his mouth alerted him to just how dark his mood had become, and the creek was starting to churn and splash. "Shit. Sorry. It's been a lot of talking about feelings and memories this week."

Annabeth nudged him. "Hey, you never talk about yourself like this. I think you're overdue your turn."

"Huh. I never thought about it like that." Still, Percy did his best to shake the mood off. "How's the camp been doing? Is everything still alright?"

Annabeth flicked him fondly. "You've only been gone a week, Seaweed Brain. It usually takes at least two for them to start pining."

Percy flushed, but managed to flash her a grin instead of deflecting. "It was a tough summer," he said, with too much honesty. "I just worry."

"Hey," Thalia said abruptly. She was still frowning down at her bracelet, rolling it over and over like it held the secrets of the universe. "No joke answers this time. Do we need to stop teasing you about being stupid?"

It occurred to Percy, for the first time, just how seriously Thalia had taken him. Chiron was right; he'd really, really scared her.

He had to swallow before he could force himself to answer honestly, but he was proud of himself for managing it. "Yeah, you do," he said firmly. "Pretty much anything else is fair game, but that's below the belt. Hell, that's not even just Gabe. People still write slurs on my locker sometimes."

He didn't care how true it was. It was mean.

"It always seemed funny," Thalia said quietly. "You know you're one of the smartest people I know, right? Right up there with Annabeth."

Okay, that was it. It just wasn't okay for Thalia to be this vulnerable. He spun around to face her, and Grover, bless him, tugged Annabeth back a little to give them space. Thalia scowled at the ground.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Percy said, just as soft. "Chiron's right, I probably wouldn't have done anything. Mr. D came to my cabin to tell me that Dad and Zeus were still fighting about me, like, the day before you visited, so I was thinking about it more than usual." He shrugged. "I figured if anyone got it, you would."

Thalia met his eyes. "I do. That's why it scared me."

Percy understood immediately, and without another thought, he scooted closer and hugged her tightly, one-armed. She returned it, quick but tight, and seemed more relaxed when they both let go.

"Don't worry, I figured out it was a stupid idea when everyone started freaking out," Percy said ruefully. "Leilani, uh, one of the other patients here, she was admitted for suicidal ideation too. She said that therapy helped her take a big knot of trauma and problems and chop it into a bunch of fun-size ones. I'm looking forward to that."

"Leilani, huh?" Thalia said, seizing on the topic shift with some relief. "How many other patients are there here?"

"Seven," Percy said, "and one of them's clearsighted, I'll have to introduce you later."

Sally's death-grip hug on Saturday was not a surprise. Paul's, on the other hand, kind of was.

"Sorry," Percy apologized again, squeezing his mom as she went in for the second. "I really didn't mean to scare anyone."

She pressed a kiss to his hair and then loosened her grip, not quite letting go. "I know, sweetheart, don't apologize. You're okay and that's what matters most. Are you going to introduce us?"

Despite the clear worry in her eyes, Sally's smile was as steady and as comforting as ever, a glimmer of warmth in her eyes that never seemed to leave. Percy wished desperately, not for the first time, that he wasn't so hard on her.

"Are we going to walk in and find everyone gushing about you already?" Paul teased gently, falling in step as Percy steered them toward the main building. "You've had almost a week, I think that's enough time for you to work."

Percy turned pink and scratched the back of his head, then shook it. "I don't know, it's been a weird week. Maybe once I'm further along and less of a downer."

"You've never been a downer in your life," Paul said firmly. He really was the partner Sally should have had all along.

"I told my friends about Gabe yesterday," Percy said, looking away from both adults to fiddle with Riptide. "I mean- Annabeth and Grover knew most of it already. But. They didn't know he hit me."

It was getting easier to say with practice, but it still made him scowl at his pen.

"You opened up to them," Sally said, squeezing Percy's wrist reassuringly. "That's a good thing. I'm sure they were grateful."

"They were," Percy admitted. It was still kind of a weird thought. "Thalia was thrilled to hear what happened to him."

"I thought he disappeared," Paul frowned. Sally hid a smile and Percy muffled a snicker, and Paul's eyebrows rose. "Oh, that's code for something mythological, isn't it?"

Percy looked at Sally and Sally gave him a nod, so Percy grinned.

"I met Medusa on my first quest," Percy said, not a little bit smug. "Really scary at the time, but in hindsight, literally the best thing that's ever happened to me. Anyway, when I got home, the box I'd put Medusa's head in was sitting on my bed." He nodded at Sally. "I gave it to Mom."

Paul blinked, connected the dots, and then gave Sally a look of flat, blatant admiration. Sally smiled cheerfully.

"Dear God, I love you," Paul said fervently. Sally's smile softened, and she kissed him on the cheek.

"Selling that statue gave me the funds to go to college and get a new apartment," Sally said, deceptively light. "I was rather satisfied with that conclusion to our... arrangement."

It was on that note that they arrived at Raine's office. Percy knocked on the door and waited for an answer before heading in, holding the door for Paul and Sally. By the time he let it shut, Sally had already gone to Raine and was holding out her hand.

"Hello, my name is Sally, I'm Percy's mother," Sally said, shaking Raine's hand as the other accepted it. "And this is my husband Paul. Thank you for everything you're doing for Percy."

"It's my pleasure," Raine assured her, giving Percy a brief but warm smile as Percy sat on a table and fidgeted. "I understand you're clearsighted but your husband isn't, correct? I'm clearsighted as well."

"Thank goodness, I can only imagine how complicated this would be if you weren't," Sally sighed, both her and Paul sitting in chairs across from Raine. "I wanted to ask, is there anything I can do to help?"

Raine gave her a small warm smile even as Percy winced. "You've already been doing wonderfully – he tells me he calls you every day, and that you've been enormously supportive. We're still just beginning to scratch the surface, though, so if something comes up, I may ask you to come in for a few sessions of family therapy."

"What, no!" Percy protested, kicking his feet. "Mom and I are fine, you don't need to bother her about coming in extra." Sally just looked at him, and he winced again, dropping his gaze. "Seriously, I'm okay. You don't need to worry about it."

Sally sighed, and his gaze shot back up to hers, anxious. She looked tired, but of course, not frustrated. She never looked frustrated with him.

"You mean the world to me, Percy," she said gently, with an aching sort of sincerity. "And I truly believe that you won't hurt yourself. But you felt like you wanted to- like you should. I never want you to feel that way. I never want you to think that you don't matter."

For the first time, Percy started to understand why his friends were so upset.

"Oh," Percy said, almost meekly. "Okay."

Sally gave him a warm smile, and then looked at Raine. "I'd like to ask how it's going, but I'm not sure how much you can tell me."

"Percy is incredibly openhearted and honest, which is going to serve him well here," Raine assured her. "He's clearly coming in with more emotional skills than most of our patients. I see no reason why he wouldn't continue making progress until his release."

"Yesterday we talked about how much my emotional skills suck," Percy pointed out before he could stop himself. Raine gave him a rueful smile.

"May I speak openly around your parents?" she asked. Startled to have been asked at all, Percy nodded, and Raine continued, "You're missing critical social skills that would help you seek support, and many emotional ones that would help you process your stress in healthy ways. But you're able to speak thoughtfully about your feelings, which most children and especially boys your age struggle with, and you're open to feedback. That's often one of the most difficult parts of therapy."

"Oh," Percy said quietly, oddly flustered. Both Sally and Paul looked oddly proud. "Thanks?"

Raine's eyes glimmered with amusement. "Do you think you could summarize for your mother what we've worked on so far?"

"Uh." Percy fidgeted, frowned, and thought about it for a minute. "Well, both the first individual and group sessions were just kind of like, getting used to each other. Then you and I talked about, like, what therapy is and how to ask for help- that was the emotional skill we were talking about sucking." He directed the last words to his mom, who looked sympathetic. "And in group therapy we talked about school- oh, that reminds me. Mom, was there a CPS investigation when I was in fifth grade? Like, at the start of the school year?"

Paul looked startled, but Sally grimaced and nodded.

"After that incident on your first day," she agreed. She even looked guilty, for some reason. "I... convinced Gabriel to take a boys' weekend while it was happening. I don't think the social workers were fooled, but they didn't have enough evidence to pursue the issue."

"I don't remember that at all," Percy admitted. "Anyway, I told that story about that teacher calling me illiterate in group therapy, and stuff like that."

"Two-thirds of your teachers should be ashamed of themselves," Paul said crossly. Percy flashed him a smile. Maybe it shouldn't warm him every time Paul got annoyed about something an old teacher of Percy's had done, but he couldn't help it.

"And we also talked about, like, body image, but that didn't have a lot to do with me 'cause I haven't worried about that much in a few years," Percy continued, thinking hard, "And on Friday we did self-esteem stuff. Cassia said every Friday is just for that." He smiled a little. "That was actually a good story – it was a written assignment and I was kinda too tired to even try..." He reached up and scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Sorry. But Cassia came over and she wasn't even mad, she just asked why I wasn't doing anything. And I whined about being dyslexic and she let me do a presentation instead."

"She did exactly what every one of your teachers should have done for you," Paul said, and Percy let himself smile again, shy and pleased.

"It was really nice of her," Percy said wistfully. "And Raine said we'd be working on more self-worth stuff for the next week or two, and we'd see where to go from there."

"That sounds like a wonderful plan," Sally said, with no small amount of relief.

They talked for a little while longer, and eventually left Raine's office so that Percy could show them the stuff he'd set out in the art room. He still wasn't exactly a skilled artist, but he was getting better, probably because he was enjoying himself so much.

Along with the blue wedding day picture, he'd now made a picture of himself and Tyson at their father's sea forge, and Nico visiting on his birthday, and his dip into the Styx. He was trying to work himself up to the gods offering him immortality, how small he'd felt then, but he didn't tell them that.

"I kind of stopped bothering to design them like beads," he admitted to his parents, looking down at the lineup of messy, crude paintings – though he'd switched from his fingers to a brush when he'd started on the River Styx. "But even just picking out things I would make beads for has been pretty fun. And Lucas says it helps me process or whatever."

"Art always does," Sally said, smiling at the paintings like she wanted to hang them on the fridge. "I didn't know you liked painting, sweetheart."

"Me either," Percy laughed, easily accepting Sally's fond kiss on the hair.

"Oh! That's, um, th-that's Percy. He got here on Tuesday, h-he's really nice. I guess- those are his parents? Um, probably?"

Percy looked over his shoulder. Elliot was wavering by the door to the art greenhouse with two women. Percy grinned and waved.

"Hey, come in," Percy called out. "Parents or guardians? You never told me."

"Uh-uh-um, g-guardians," Elliot said, stepping inside to make room for them. He gave Percy a nervous smile. "Y-you?"

"My mom and my good stepfather," Percy said. Elliot nodded in comprehension.

"R-right, double, double bastard." He flinched and covered his mouth. "Sorry!"

"That's literally how I introduced myself," Percy pointed out, grinning reassuringly. Sally muffled a giggle behind him. "What were you gonna show them? You've been coloring mandalas, right? I've seen some of them, they look really cool."

Elliot gave him a brief, bright smile, but shook his head. "I, I've been working on something e-else too," he said, going over the storage cubbies. "W-when no one, no one else is in here."

Percy couldn't see it from here and he didn't want to get in the way, but it had both Elliot's guardians cooing proudly until Elliot was blushing and pleased.

"Elliot," Percy explained to his parents, now that Elliot was busy. "He's really nervous around people, but he's cool. Quick to back people up when they're upset." One of the women with Elliot ruffled his hair, and Elliot flashed a grin at her. Percy smiled to himself. "He told me he's only been here about two weeks already, so he'll be here most of the time that I am."

"I knew you'd be making friends already," Paul told him, and Percy preened.

"Hey, Elliot, have you seen Alfie?" Percy called over, when there seemed to be an opening in the conversation. Elliot looked over, surprised.

"I saw him skipping rope on the blacktop, why?"

"That secret 'military program' we mentioned," Percy said, making Elliot snicker quietly. Percy grinned back, waved, and started leading the way out.

"Military program?" Sally asked, sounding amused. Percy shrugged sheepishly.

"Alfie let it slip that we had something in common," Percy said. "It was the first thing I thought of that would kinda pass as legit. I mean, it was immediately obvious we were lying, but they stopped asking after that."

"Huh," Paul said thoughtfully. "I'll have to remember that one."

Alfie was still there when they reached the blacktop, all of his focus on the rhythm; he was pretty good. Percy circled around and waved to catch his attention from a safe distance, and Alfie startled, tripped, and caught himself, looking flustered.

"Percy, what's up?" he asked, and then started again. "Oh, is that your mom and- stepfather, right?"

Percy gave him a pleased smile. "Yeah. I mentioned my mom is clearsighted, right? I thought you might like to talk to her." He looked up at Sally, a little sheepish. "I mean, I didn't think you'd mind."

Sally gave him an affectionate look and nodded. "Of course not."

So the settled on one edge of the blacktop, sitting down to talk while Percy kept an eye on their surroundings, more out of habit than anything.

"Had you ever spoken to a demigod before my son?" Sally asked Alfie kindly.

Alfie fidgeted, rubbing so hard on the hem of his t-shirt that it frayed. "Uh, n-no. Well, Ms. Osborne, I guess. But it was a satyr that directed me here."

"Oh, satyrs are the sweetest little things," Sally said. "Did they happen to tell you why they go to schools-"

While Sally and Alfie talked, Paul moved closer to Percy, catching his attention. Percy cocked his head in silent question, and Paul contemplated him for a moment- long enough for Percy to start tapping his knee anxiously.

"Family counseling would probably be good for both of you, you know," Paul said at last, soft and sympathetic. Percy stiffened. "Your mom still feels guilty for putting you through so much to keep you close when you were young."

"I wouldn't have picked differently," Percy said without looking at him. "Mom means the world to me."

"Of course, I would never suggest otherwise," Paul assured him. "But it might do both of you good to have some mediated conversation about it. Even if there's nothing really wrong, you'll both feel better if you get everything out in the open."

"I don't want to," Percy said tightly, and then turned that over and groaned quietly. "Gods, that means I have to, don't I?"

"You don't have to do anything," Paul said, reaching over to squeeze Percy's hand. "But I think it would be good for both of you."

"...I'll think about it."