Hello! I am here with another update (finally). I was looking over the stats for this fic and I am honestly so ashamed it's been active for so long and I have been so bad about updating it. However, I finally got around to finishing this chapter, which I started easily over a year ago and forgot about half a dozen times, instead of studying for end-of-rotation exams like I should be. I have roughly mapped out my plans for finishing this story and I am thinking there will be maybe 2-3 more chapters for me to wrap it up the way I want to. I know, I know, you're probably rolling your eyes because with my track record recently, it will be 2-3 years before its done, but I PROMISE I am going to get them done for you. I know there are still those of you out there who follow this story and I will not abandon it! Thank you so much for your patience (and long-suffering). You all are truly wonderful. Enjoy!


The first day of the summer session at Camp Half-Blood was one of mixed emotions.

We feared it would be a hard summer for Logan, navigating his new disability in the face of so many fellow campers who did not face the same challenges and who could never hope to truly understand what he was going through. It was hard not to worry that it would not go well and the repercussions would be ugly for him. The stakes felt very high. But he left home early that morning determined to make the most of it.

It was an important next step toward moving forward from his injury.


I wasn't sure if he knew Grover had been giving us updates. I wasn't entirely sure the satyr wasn't neglecting his Lord of the Wild duties to stay at home and keep tabs on him for us, but I didn't ask. Maybe it was a bit overprotective, but Logan had come such a long way from that sad, bitter shell he'd occupied for so long after the quest and I knew Annabeth and I weren't alone in our concern.

According to Grover, Chiron had taken to working with him one-on-one the past few weeks, trying to figure out what could be done to provide him the best defense with his current circumstances. And Madison, of course, continued her biweekly sessions with him there at camp. This schedule ultimately led to our oldest spending a large part of his day separated from the rest of the campers, but I thought maybe that was better initially anyway. I knew he was embarrassed about his disability, even if camp was maybe the one place he could be most proud of it, as everyone there knew, at least in general, what he'd really undergone to end up the way he was.

He would get there one day. But for now, I thought maybe it was better for him to ease back into camp relationships the way he had with his school friends.

The word from Grover was generally positive regarding his training. He'd been working a lot on archery and target practice with knives and various other throwing weapons, working out different means of defending himself from a distance. Though even without the ability for footwork, Logan's sword skills were apparently still very much intact, if only the opponent didn't move around very much. Which at least made for a good backup plan, I supposed. Still, unrealistic as it surely was, I prayed things would somehow never come to that, that the monsters would just stay away.

Other than that, Grover reported, somewhat disappointedly, Logan was quiet. Gone, apparently, was the confident teenage legacy who drew everyone's love and attention and was consistently made captain of his Capture the Flag team. He kept mostly to himself now, as far from the spotlight as he could get. I didn't think he'd ever necessarily sought it out before but had simply found himself thrust there. Now he actively avoided it. Though from the satyr's report, his fellow campers still loved and respected him, just from a distance. No one seemed to know quite what to make of the change in him.

"He talks to Nick and Carly, mostly," the satyr reported one afternoon, sitting with us in the living room, "And Madison when she's free. Sometimes Izzy will sit with him when they're not around. Or Jade, and even she was hesitant at first. Other campers will greet him in passing and then he'll talk to them for a minute, but he doesn't really seem comfortable with anyone else." He glanced down at the floor, sadness in his eyes, "Not like he used to, you know?"

Annabeth sighed. "I don't think he knows what to do with their sympathy." Our eyes met as she continued, "As someone with her own hubris issue, I can understand that."

"He's so much like you," I said absently. But I couldn't imagine being so much in the spotlight for something like that either, and I was certainly no stranger to attention, both good and bad.

"Hopefully not that much like me."

I couldn't blame the other campers for their wariness either. They may have been half-bloods and legacies, but they were still only kids, most of whom had barely seen any real action outside of Capture the Flag at camp. And I was grateful for that; it was what we'd fought so long and hard for, to ensure those kids a safe and happy life. But that meant they hadn't seen many serious injuries first-hand, and even less death. They hadn't had much reason to know how to respond to it until now.

None of that was Logan's fault though and I hoped his condition wouldn't always be the elephant in the room. Camp was supposed to be a safe place. It was my favorite place to be for so long, and I hated the idea of one more thing being taken from him.

Grover spoke up again now. "I think he's doing pretty okay, considering where he was a few months ago. I know stuff like this can take a while. It's just hard to watch firsthand. I can't even imagine what it was like for you guys, having to see it every day for as long as you have."

"He's a hero," I said now, trying to keep the inevitable bitterness in my tone to a minimum. "It's a risk we all take." We'd all grieved with Logan. And I'd spent many a night cursing the gods for allowing this to happen to him after everything we'd done for them. But at the end of the day, he was alive and Nicky was too, and while it was an absolutely horrible situation and I would trade places with him in a heartbeat if I could, I was working on being grateful that, at least, it hadn't been worse. If Logan hadn't taken that sword for his brother… Well, I didn't want to think about that.

"I know," Grover answered now, his voice heavier with emotion than it had been a moment ago. "You'd think after all this time I'd be more used to that. But," he shook his head, "well, you know I love that kid like my own. I love all three of 'em like my own."

I grabbed his shoulder. "We know, man."


The summer continued on and was surprisingly uneventful as we fell back into the regular schedule we kept when the kids weren't around. I took Ollie running most mornings before heading into work. Annabeth and I carpooled into the city together most days and I dropped her off at her firm before heading across town to the aquarium. We ate dinner together each night. Our evenings were occupied with movies or Netflix shows (which I think sometimes served more as background noise than anything else in our unusually quiet house), or even the occasional sparring match to keep our skills up to par. We spent Sundays with my parents. Annabeth sketched. Sometimes friends IM'ed or the Chases, now fully settled into their new home, visited. We looked forward to letters from the kids.

Dare I say, life was almost boring.

The reports from Grover turned somewhat optimistic. Logan had settled in and appeared gradually more comfortable. There seemed to be a growing, if unspoken, agreement among the campers to include him in as much as they could. So he found himself participating in more and more camp activities and interacting with fellow campers outside his family every day. And he seemed better for it.

Hearing this was a relief because, really, things could have gone either way for him this summer, and though neither of us had really voiced our concerns, Annabeth and I had both feared it would send him backsliding to that dark place once more. Camp participation was vital, but it would be make or break for him.

"A couple Hermes campers recruited him to be on their team for the canoe race on Tuesday," Grover reported with a grin, "I think everyone was tired of him and Nicky wiping the floor with them. And of course Logan is too nice to say no. Secretly, I think he enjoyed competing against his brother for once."

"Who won?" Annabeth asked, smiling.

"I think Nicky, Caleb, and Carly did, technically. But it was almost too close to call. Everyone knows powers aren't supposed to be used during the races, but you know how it is. There's a reason your boys always win." He gave a wry smile.

"Why do you think I always wanted Percy on my team?" asked Annabeth sweetly.

I smirked. "You mean it wasn't for my charming good looks?"

"Please, we're both way too competitive for that to matter." A pause, then a smirk. "But they didn't hurt."

Grover laughed.


The Friday before the end of the camp session and the annual peace celebration, taking place at Camp Half-Blood this year, I came home from work at half-past four to find Annabeth had beaten me home. Most days while the kids were away, we rode into the city together, but I'd had a dentist appointment this morning and had gone in late. Even with this, she virtually never got off before me and I was immediately suspicious when she met me at the door wearing a dress that was definitely not professional enough for work and which she definitely had not had on when I'd seen her off that morning.

"You're home early," I commented with raised eyebrows as I shut the door behind me. She didn't respond except to catch the collar of my monogrammed work polo and pull me close. Then she kissed me, which I was definitely not complaining about, but I'll admit that after eighteen years of marriage, while I was perfectly content with the level of intimacy that existed between us, I had grown accustomed to slightly less enthusiastic greetings than I'd once gotten.

That didn't stop me from eagerly accepting her advances. It was at least a solid minute or two before I reluctantly allowed her to pull back. "You should go change," she said matter-of-factly, "We're going out."

I blinked, taking note again of her nice clothes. "We are?" Admittedly, my thoughts had since taken off in a slightly different direction.

"Yes," she informed me. "I'm taking you out for your birthday."

"You're a few days early." It was only the fifteenth, three days before my fortieth birthday. Which was a weird thought because I was pretty sure forty meant I was officially old. My kids would say so, anyway.

Annabeth shrugged in reply, unbothered. "It's going to be a busy weekend. I thought we could celebrate tonight."

I won't lie, I would have been perfectly content to celebrate with her at home, but I supposed we'd had our share of nights in together this summer and it might be nice to go out. It was a busy season at work for both of us and in most cases, once the work day ended, neither of us wanted to go anywhere. "Where are we going?" I asked.

She smirked. "That is for me to know and you to find out, mister."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

She hummed her assent. "But seriously, go change. And maybe shower quickly too." She wrinkled her nose playfully, "You smell like fish, Seaweed Brain."

"Occupational hazard," I remarked lightly, but stepped away from her now to finally acknowledge a not-so-patiently-waiting Ollie with a few pats on the head before moving toward the stairs to follow her orders. Because she was probably right, and Annabeth tended to get what she wanted from me either way.

Fifteen minutes later, I walked back downstairs with my hair still damp, but dressed in a nice pair of jeans and a button-down. I found Annabeth at the kitchen table sorting through mail. She looked up when I walked in. I stopped before her and held my arms out from my sides. "Am I acceptable now, Mrs. Jackson?" I asked playfully.

She rolled her eyes but smiled. "You'll do."

A twenty minute drive later, Annabeth pulled the car into the parking lot of one of my favorite restaurants outside the city, where, she informed me, we had a 5:30 reservation.

I'll admit, I was feeling pretty happy and relaxed as I walked with her through the building in the direction the hostess indicated, so I was not at all expecting the small crowd standing around a table in the private back room of the restaurant or the cry of, "Surprise!" that greeted us as we entered.

I blinked around at the faces of my friends, then at my wife beside me and, shocked, laughed, "What?"

Annabeth smiled sweetly. "Happy birthday, Seaweed Brain."

I blinked, a smile still playing at my lips. "You planned this?"

She shrugged wryly. "They were all coming for the celebration tomorrow anyway. I just asked them to come a day earlier."

I grinned, looking around at the faces of our gathered friends who all moved toward us now, victorious smiles all around. I couldn't remember the last time such a large group of us had been all together outside camp.

The Zhangs reached me first and Hazel enveloped me in a tight hug. "Happy birthday!" I thanked her and moved to hug Frank as well. Nico and Will followed behind them.

Leo clapped me on the back. "I've gotta know," he grinned, "Were you surprised?"

I laughed. "I didn't suspect a thing." I caught Annabeth's satisfied smirk from the corner of my eye as she talked with Reyna.

"That's what I'm talking about! Happy birthday, man." Beside him, Calypso rolled her eyes goodnaturedly and moved around her husband to hug me in greeting.

"Good to see you," I said.

She smiled. "You too! It's been a long time. And happy birthday!"

"Thanks."

I said hello to the Graces next, then Reyna, who hugged me and told me Aaron sent his regrets but their sitter had canceled at the last minute and someone had to keep an eye on 10-year old Jacob.

"You could have brought him," I told her.

She smiled. "It's okay. I won't say I'm not looking forward to a night off."

I chuckled. "Fair enough."

Rachel was the last to reach me. She wrapped me in a tight hug and exclaimed "Happy birthday, Percy!"

"Thank you!" I answered, "What are you doing here? I thought you were in Spain." She'd been out of the country for several months now on a self-guided European art tour. Which seemed insane to me, but also like such a 'Rachel' thing to do.

"I got back last night! And good timing too, I'd already booked the flight when Annabeth called and invited me to come tonight."

"You have to see her pictures of Valencia. They're amazing!" Piper put in from my other side before grinning at the redheaded Oracle. "I'm so jealous."

During this exchange, a portion of the group had found their way back to their seats at the table. Belatedly, I noticed the server waiting awkwardly to the side. "I want to hear all about it," I promised as we moved to follow the rest of our friends to our seats.

There was a short lull in the conversation as the server finished taking drink orders and I caught Annabeth's gaze from where she sat diagonal to me with Reyna on her right and Leo on her left. She wore a content, if not a little self-satisfied smile and I knew she was proud at having pulled off her surprise.

I shook my head a little, looking around at the group of adult half-bloods and Rachel, who was far from a normal mortal herself, all sitting together at the table. If someone had told me at fifteen that such a simple thing would one day be possible, I never would have believed them. Even after so much time had passed, I still found myself so swed by it all. "I can't believe you're all here," I said, grinning. I met Annabeth's eyes across from me. "I can't believe you did this." I couldn't decide if I was slightly embarrassed, but I was definitely touched and happy they had all come.

"Are you kidding?" Hazel asked, "We were so excited!" There was general assent amongst the group at that.

"Plus, we were going to be in town for tomorrow anyway," Reyna of all people put in with a smirk, "You're not that special."

I snorted. "Well, in that case, thanks for deigning to come." There were a few appreciative laughs as scattered conversations started up on either side of me. I grinned across the table at my former fellow praetor, who rolled her eyes amiably, and then settled in to listen to Leo's detailed description of the upgrades he planned to add to Festus - who by this point was basically an entirely different metal dragon from the one I'd first met at seventeen, he'd been updated so many times - when they returned to Texas.

At one point the conversation turned to Logan, as it was bound to. Will was the one to ask, on the premise of medical interest, but I could tell several of our friends present were wondering the same thing. Which was fair, as some of them hadn't seen him since the early days of his injury. And I would have wanted to know if I'd been in their position too. Annabeth answered and explained that he was at camp and recounted the newest update from Grover, that as far as any of us knew, he was doing well enough under the circumstances.

Jason, seated beside Piper, nodded. "I had a meeting at camp the other week and I saw him briefly. He was with a girl from the Apollo cabin, I think. He looked good." He met my eyes and then Annabeth's. His own were gentle. "It was nice to see him smiling."

I thought that was just about the most encouraging thing anyone could have said.

The topic shifted from there to lighter things. I don't think anyone wanted to dwell on what had been such a difficult subject for our family for so long. But talking about it didn't bring the same sadness that it had in the past. Logan was moving forward, thank the gods. In a way, we all were.

That alone made for a pretty great birthday present.

The time flew by and before any of us really seemed to notice, dinner, then dessert (complete with a particularly embarrassing rendition of the 'Happy Birthday' song) was finished and it was getting late. Conversation wound down and overall I was feeling grateful and content, and loved by our incredible friends. Jason and Piper were the first to announce their departure. They had a babysitter to relieve.

"Chloe's teething," the latter explained with a subtle weariness. "I wouldn't be surprised if she's already awake again."

"I don't miss those days," Frank said with a shake of his head.

Jason mimicked the action. "It seemed easier ten years ago." But there was love mingling with the exhaustion in his gaze.

I believed it. I loved my children dearly, but I couldn't imagine having another one. Not now. That was a great time, but our current stage of life was beautiful and wonderful in an entirely different way. There were challenges, sure, but we were not exactly strangers to those. I wouldn't have traded it for the world.

A minute later, they had gone. Will had an early shift at the hospital the next morning, but swore he was going to try and catch the end of the camp celebration, so he and Nico followed a few minutes behind them, and Reyna after them. The rest of us lingered for a while and I got the impression that they wanted to make the time together last just as much as I did. With the physical distance between us and our busy lives, we simply did not see each other often enough. We might have been descended from the gods, but our lives were largely mundane these days compared to the initial years of our friendship. Which was just the way I wanted it, but a lack of wars and world-ending prophecies did make for less frequent get-togethers.

Another forty minutes passed before we decided to let the poor server off the hook and allow them to clean the table. We made our way outside. Leo and Calypso decided to call it a night and Rachel followed suit, claiming she had a lot of unpacking to do before tomorrow. Which left Frank and Hazel alone standing with us. We waved to the Oracle as she pulled away, and then turned back to one another. Annabeth and Hazel, who had been debating the merits of Frosted Sage versus Arctic Sunrise as a new wall color for the Zhang's living room, continued their conversation without pause, complete with the color squares Hazel produced from her purse. She wanted to repaint now that the kids were older and no longer liable to run around with open markers or sticky fingers. Frank, apparently, deemed himself unqualified to make decisions regarding interior design and liked them both, so his wife had turned to Annabeth, who admittedly did seem like the better choice between them. Arctic Sunrise was apparently the winner.

A few minutes passed before Hazel checked the time. "I guess we should get going," she said without much conviction.

"Where are you staying?" I asked.

"Jones Street, a few exits up," Frank answered, nodding vaguely in the direction of the highway. I knew the area, it was about fifteen minutes away, heading in the direction of camp. They'd probably gone for something pretty central to that and the restaurant for tonight.

It was only half past eight. But it was getting pretty dark and it did look like it might rain. I thought Hazel might have a point. We'd been here for hours after all.

In the end, the Zhangs did not end up going back to their hotel. Instead, they wound up at our house and stayed for almost two hours. We'd discussed the idea of an impromptu movie night, but ended up seated around the kitchen table the whole time instead, discussing the woes of raising teenagers and Hazel's recent decision to run a half-marathon over a glass of wine while Ollie took turns receiving attention from everyone present.


"Guess I missed my opportunity last month," I pointed out, leaning against the door jam of our master bathroom in my pajama pants while Annabeth finished brushing her teeth.

I couldn't decide if I wasn't slightly disappointed by that fact. Her birthday was a month before mine. It had involved a night out with both sets of parents and an unexpected visit from Thalia, who at this point could have easily passed for one of our children to anyone looking in. We'd had fun, but it had not been a big affair. Not like tonight.

She rinsed her mouth out and dried her face with a towel before responding easily. "Guess you did." She did not sound at all disappointed.

"I'll get you one day," I promised lightly, moving past her to grab my own toothbrush off the sink.

"We'll see." She sounded doubtful as she left the room and headed toward our waiting bed. "It's kind of hard to surprise someone who's expecting it."

"Then I'll do it when you aren't expecting it," I argued with a grin before turning the faucet on.

I could almost feel the eye roll cast my way in response.


We left camp the next night after the campfire with our three kids - plus Hannah - in tow. Nicky, who had grown about a foot since we dropped him off in June, seemed oblivious to our presence with Hannah there, even after spending a good portion of the celebration together. Carly babbled excitedly on about the new skills she'd picked up since their last letter: a new disarming technique, a hand-to-hand takedown she'd apparently brought Nicky to the ground with (he latter broke away from his conversation with Hannah long enough to throw in a "You got lucky one time!"), and javelin throwing. I listened as she chattered, but I couldn't help but cast occasional glances at Logan, who wheeled himself along beside her as we walked to the waiting vehicle. If he noticed, he didn't say anything.

He didn't say much, but he cracked a smile at Nicky's defensiveness and seemed amused by Carly's endless excitement. I thought something seemed different about him. He was calmer somehow, almost content. It wasn't an external thing, but like something had fallen into place for him during his time here. I dared hope maybe his time here this summer, hesitant as we'd all been about it, had been a healing experience for him after all.

And he had seemed pretty at-home at camp from what I'd seen tonight. He'd chatted with friends, laughed, and joined in with the campfire songs. He maybe didn't quite command an audience the way he'd always been so naturally inclined to do, but he seemed to fit in easily, comfortably. He'd sought out several campers to say goodbye before leaving for the summer. He'd waved goodbye to Madison on our way out - good to see they hadn't killed each other these past couple months. He'd thanked Chiron for all his help, echoing the thanks Annabeth and I had sought him out earlier in the night to convey ourselves.

Mostly, he just seemed like Logan. Like how he'd been before everything. And maybe I shouldn't have worried, but the wave of emotion that thought brought was almost enough to bring me to my knees right there.

He was okay.

We were okay. All of us.

It had been a very long, very hard year. Our entire family had been affected by the ramifications of that gods-forsaken quest last summer. We all bore new scars. And while I still would have given anything for things to have gone differently, we'd walked the hard road together as a family.

And maybe, just maybe, we had finally made it to the other side.


Thanks for reading!