Julie stares at the dark brown patch on the concrete steps before her.
The city really needs to rent a power-washer. Bloodstains are a real mood killer for a day spent at the library.
"This is where it happened?" Annabeth asks softly.
A heavy sigh leaves Julie's lungs. She nods. "Yup. Knife to the gut. Right in front of his ten year old. Nothing like watching your dad get carved like a jack-o-lantern to really make a kid's childhood."
Annabeth gives her a horrified look. Juliette grins and snorts.
"I'm kidding! Well, not really, that did happen," She shrugs. "But, the kid's eleven now! Who amongst us demigods wasn't thoroughly traumatized by that age? I'm sure she'll turn out just fine."
"Like you did?" Annabeth asks bemusedly, arms crossed.
Julie beams at her. "Exactly!"
She turns back to the place it happened, though, and the smile slips from her lips.
Julie's funny (Well, she thinks so, anyway). And, enough shitty things have happened to her in life that adding one more heartbreak to the pile isn't much other than another punchline to throw around. That doesn't mean Phil wasn't important to her, though.
She hands her crutches off to her friend and lowers herself to the stairs so she can scoot up closer. Julie lays her hand against the stain. The place where her father took his final breaths.
She doesn't understand what happened. She doesn't really understand who Phil was. Honestly, not much in her really cares. But, he helped her once. He was kind. Whatever went down between him and Julie's mother, Phil didn't deserve the end that he got.
Annabeth approaches slowly and gently sets down the bundle of purple asters she and Julie picked out at the store. She lays a hand on Juliette's shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze. "You okay?"
The younger girl takes a deep breath. "Yeah. I'm good."
Closing her eyes, Juliette says goodbye to the mental image of her father's face. She holds up a hand for Annabeth to help her up.
"Now, let's get researching. I've got to figure out who's going around stabbing local plant enthusiasts."
"I hate to say it, Julie, but I don't know if we're going to find anything," Annabeth sighs, setting down what's probably the fiftieth file on a Philip McCaffery they've found. "Are you sure he lived here?"
Juliette groans. "No! I mean, I know he spent time here. This is where Meg went missing, and it's where he died, so it must have some significance."
"Do you know who her godly parent is?" asks Annabeth.
Julie huffs. "No."
"Okay, well," The older girl frowns. "Since he's not in any university yearbooks even, we don't have anything to go off of except his name. And, that's not yielding anything. I'm not sure what else there is to look for."
Panic seizes Juliette. She taps her fingers frantically on the table. "No. This cannot be a dead end. Meg is out there, and I have to find her."
"I get that, Julie," Annabeth insists. "But, maybe we're going about this the wrong way."
Julie huffs and drops her chin tiredly onto the stack of phonebooks in front of her. "Well, what do you suggest?"
Annabeth bites her lip. She suddenly looks nervous, glancing away to look out the window. The spike of discomfort Julie feels makes her lift her head.
"You have an idea," She states. "Tell me."
Annabeth cringes. "You aren't going to like it."
"Annabeth, right now, I have an eleven year old sister who, if she's even alive still, is currently being held captive by the man who murdered our father," Julie reminds her friend. "Anything you have. Anything at all. Please, tell me."
The blonde across the table sighs and starts stacking books back up to return to the shelves. "Well, if we can't find her through your dad...Maybe you should talk to your mom."
Mini heart attack. Right in the middle of the library. Thanks, Annabeth.
"Are you serious?"
"Well, she's the only other person we know has met him, right?" She defends. "If anyone would know how to find Meg, it's probably her."
Julie shakes her head incredulously. "Did you miss the last six years of my life? Where she made it very very clear that she does not want to hear from me?"
"If I thought there was any other option, you know I wouldn't suggest it," says Annabeth. She stands to drop the books into a return bin and sighs sympathetically. "I know it's a long shot. But, you may as well try."
Julie's shoulders drop. She finds herself picking at the wood grain of the table, peeling part of it up with her lavender polished nails.
"She'll never answer me," She mumbles.
Annabeth purses her lips. "Then, it'll be like it never happened, right?"
Julie frowns.
Yeah. She guesses being ignored would be no different than usual.
"Let's go home," She suggests.
Annabeth smiles weakly and nods. "Yeah. I'm sorry we didn't find anything."
Julie shrugs. "It's fine. At least we did a little sight seeing. Got to visit where he bit it."
"...Sometimes, I seriously worry about you."
"I could probably put that on a t-shirt. 'Visit where they Bit It.' I should tell Nico that one later. He'll think that's funny."
"Unfortunately, I think you're right."
Julie feels like a baby deer.
"Just go slowly. It's like you're completely learning how to walk again. If you rush it, you'll just hurt yourself."
"I'm not rushing it."
"Okay, well just-"
"Oh my gods, Annabeth, I hear you. I'm going slow," She snaps frustratedly. Percy snickers when his girlfriend pouts and crosses her arms at Juliette's tone. Julie is too busy staring down at her new bronze foot and trying not to fall over to care.
"It's probably better if you look up," Jason suggests, walking backwards with his hands out and ready to stabilize her if need be. "It could make it easier to balance."
Nervously, Juliette tries to do just that. Almost immediately after meeting her boyfriend's eyes, though, she forgets that her right ankle can't bend and trips herself. She falls forward and definitely would have eaten shit if not for Jason catching her at the last second.
Julie shouts in frustration. "This is impossible!"
"It's only been two days," Jason reminds her. "You just need to practice."
"I am practicing!"
"You'll get it," He insists.
Swallowing back the angry tears doesn't go super well. Julie lets her legs turn to jelly, and Jason takes the hint to sweep her up like a damsel. He's gotten fairly used to her dramatics by now.
"We should probably take a break," He chuckles. Juliette just grumbles her assent, and Percy and Annabeth hop up from sitting on the porch of Cabin 1.
"We've got to head out, anyway. I've got summer work to finish for calc, and Wise Girl here is gonna help me do it," grins Percy.
Annabeth frowns, but lets him pull her away by her hand. "She is?"
"If she does, she'll be eating her favorite cheesecake from that deli uptown."
"She is."
Percy fist pumps in triumph and turns back to where Jason is just casually standing there with a glowering Juliette wrapped around him like a monkey. "We'll see you guys later. Or whenever we next need to show up for help with some dumb request from a god. Love you, Jules."
"Good luck, Julie," Annabeth adds. "Let me know if you find anything out."
Julie nods and mumbles her replies to them both. The couple turns to head towards the barrier, hand in hand.
They're on their way to study and eat cheesecake. Like normal teenagers.
Julie really wants to be happy for them, so she chastises herself for the stab of envy in her gut.
"Hey, I want to show you something. Can we go inside for a second?" Jason asks softly.
Julie turns her head to look at him. With her arms around his shoulders, held close to his chest, she has a front row seat to every detail of his sharply angled face. The way the sun is shining on the cut of his jaw is very distracting.
"You could literally throw me into a volcano, and I'd say thank you. As long as you kissed me first."
Jason bursts out a laugh, turning to carry her up the steps into Cabin 1. "Yes works too. You're the strangest person I know."
"What happened to 'one of a kind'?" She scoffs. Jason is shaking his head, but there's a smile pulling at his face. It makes her feel triumphant.
"There's no one like you, Rosa. Don't worry about that," He assures.
Julie hides her flushed face in his neck, which is probably silly seeing as she started this flirting. Jason uses the winds to open the door for them and strides inside.
This might be rude since it's technically her boyfriend's only home, but Juliette hates Cabin 1.
She sees the vision. The building itself is fine. It's a huge white marble temple with columns along the entryway. The doors are hulking in size, pure Celestial Bronze and decorated with lightning bolts taller than she is. Inside, enchanted mosaics line the walls, giving the room the illusion of being surrounded by constant thunderstorms.
All of that's very pretty. What gets her is the 50 foot statue of Zeus sitting right in the middle of it all.
Oh, and the lack of furniture. Julie had been commissioned to help Jason move some extra furniture from the Iris cabin in shortly after their quest to find Hera. Thanks to that, there's now a twin bed, a small desk, and a dresser that are all decorated with rainbows and clouds. Julie's been on Jason's case for weeks about letting her come in and help him make the space something that he actually likes, but he never seems to have the time.
He's been very busy lately. She hasn't gotten to see him nearly as much as usual.
"I feel like a bride," She giggles as they cross the threshold.
Jason grins mischievously and spins a sudden pirouette, making her screech and cling to him tighter. "Don't give me any ideas, Mrs. Grace."
She laughs loudly at that, shaking her head and grimacing. "Oh, Hades no. I am not giving up my cool self-picked last name. No way. Besides, Jason Aster has a much better ring to it than Juliette Grace."
"I could live with being your Mrs. Aster," He jokes with a smirk, setting her down carefully on the bed. "Maybe we ought to get through high school at least, though."
Before he can pull all the way back, Julie snags the front of his shirt and tugs him closer. His hands land on either side of her hips as he leans over her, their noses pressed side to side and lips hardly a breath apart. She smiles at him, brushing her other hand up his side and biting her lip when she feels him suck in a sharp breath.
"Party pooper," She teases.
From the glaze over his eyes, it's entirely possible Jason didn't even notice her speaking. Instead of responding, he presses his mouth to hers in a deep kiss.
Oh, gosh...A very deep kiss.
Julie can't even keep up with him. One of his hands tugs her in by her waist, the other coming to cup the back of her head, tilting her face to give him better access to her lips. This is different from every kiss they've shared so far. There's heat to it. An intensity that makes Julie's brain start going fuzzy like an out of range walkie talkie.
Fireworks explode across Julie's skin. She feels the tip of his tongue swipe across her lips, and a sound she's never made before comes gasping from her without her permission. Jason swallows it. He moves his hand down to run across her cheek. Then, he grips the base of her jaw, holding it between his thumb and forefinger as he disconnects their lips and pulls back to look at her.
Julie doesn't even remember what day it is.
Her mouth is still in the position his lips left it in, slightly parted and pulsing with her own erratic heartbeat. Her brain feels empty of everything except the minty taste of Jason's tongue.
Judging by the smug smile that greets her once Juliette can start registering the world around her again, Jason is very pleased with this outcome. He presses another softer kiss to her lips, and his hand trails down from her jaw to brush the hair off of her shoulder, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. Then, he moves away from the bed and makes his way to the desk.
Juliette gapes at him.
"Wha-...What was that for?!" She chokes, still wide eyed. Her whole body feels like it's burning.
Jason shuffles around some papers on his desk and looks back at her innocently. "What do you mean?"
She sputters. Jason just shrugs and smiles.
"You looked pretty," He says simply.
Something in Juliette melts. She shakes her head at him, laughing breathlessly to herself as he gathers up a few notebooks and pencils. The statue of Zeus behind him catches her eye, and she looks up at it with a funny smile.
That guy has no idea what an incredible thing he did when he made Jason Grace. There's no one on this planet who's better.
Said boy comes back over to hop onto the bed beside Julie. Between them, he spreads out a few open notebooks and one large book of graphing paper. He looks at her and nods down at them. Julie feels the beginnings of nervousness twitch against her skin. She looks at what he's brought to her.
All across the notebooks, scrawled in shockingly good handwriting for a dude - let alone a demigod - are pages and pages of notes. Each set is sectioned off, dedicated to a minor god, and a corresponding sketch aligns with them on the graphing paper. She sees Kymopoleia, Hecate, Aeolus, even Thanatos. More names must be filling the rest of the notebook. And the sketches...
The sketches are incredible.
Lost for words, Juliette traces her fingers over the storm clouds on the entryway to the shrine of Kymopoleia. "Jason..."
"This is what I wanted to show you. It's what I've been working on all month - why I've been cooped up in here so much," He explains.
Julie looks up at him, still unable to express the emotions raging through her. Jason's nervousness flares, and he leans in to flip through the notebook for her.
"See, I've got some notes on what information I could find in the books from the Big House. Of course, I wouldn't want to actually build any of these without consulting the god themself first. Some of them might be a little difficult to contact," He stops at one page with a drawing of a black marble wishing well. "Like Charon, for example. I don't really feel like dying to talk to him. Maybe Nico could help me get an audience."
She nods, still flabbergasted. Jason worries at his scar and shifts.
"Do you think this is a good start? Should I change anything? You're better at making things look good than I am. The last thing I'd want is to accidentally offend a god by building them an ugly shrine-"
"Jason," Julie interrupts his rambling. She takes his hands and beams at him. "This is amazing."
He goes starry eyed, blinking at her with childlike wonder. "Really?"
"Yes!" She laughs. Julie picks up the graphing book, flipping through it excitedly. "These are incredible! Do you really think you could get Reyna to build them? Like, these would be in New Rome one day?!"
Jason grins and shrugs. "Last we talked about it, she was interested. She said Temple Hill is 'too barren.'"
Juliette sets down the notebook and flings herself at him, squeezing him into a hug so tight she knocks the wind out of the guy. "Holy crap, Jason! That's so fucking cool! Have you shown these to Annabeth yet?"
Jason hugs her back and laughs. "No, just you."
Giddiness bubbles up Julie's chest. She pulls back and plants a ginormous smooch on his cheek. "I'm honored. Thank you for showing me. They're amazing."
"Thank you," He says sheepishly, completely red and grinning down at his papers. He flips through a few more pages. The gentleness he's handling the notebooks with makes Julie's heart want to explode with fondness.
She leans back in and changes the graphing book to a blank page. "So, how do you want to arrange them? On the hill."
Jason looks at her in surprise. "You really want to hear about it?"
She shoves a pencil into his hand and drops the book in his lap. "Unless you've got something better to do, Mr. Architect."
The smile that grows across his cheeks is maybe the largest Juliette has ever seen. On, like, anyone. Which is why she's surprised when he sets the pencil and notebook back down onto the bed.
"I can think of something," He says. Julie raises an eyebrow in confusion.
Jason pulls her into his lap, and she isn't confused for long.
Julie isn't sure why this is the place she chose to do this at. It's not any kind of shrine to her mother's domain or anything. When Juliette thought of places love might be felt strongest, though...This one came to mind first.
Nervously, hesitantly, Julie hobbles on her crutches up to the Door of Orpheus and runs the flat of her palm across the rocks concealing it.
Gods, she doesn't want to do this. But, Annabeth's right. Aphrodite might be her only shot.
Fuck it.
"Hey, Mom?" She calls out.
The chirping of the birds in the trees echoes down through Central Park. Julie looks around, taking in the autumn colors starting to bloom in the leaves.
She lets out a tense breath. "I know I said I wouldn't bother you anymore, so I'll try to be quick. I'm, um..." Hopefully, this doesn't get her smote. "Looking for dad. I know you guys didn't really get along, or at least I assume you didn't since I, you know, exist."
Why is she reminding Aphrodite of this right now? Gods, Julie would be a terrible lawyer.
"Anyway, I need to find him. Or, I guess, his daughter actually. Meg. Since he's...dead."
Very eloquent. 10/10 phrasing on that one, Julie.
"I was just hoping you might have some information for me. Anything that might help me get her out of trouble. Please."
The park is still quiet aside from the calls of the birds and the wind rustling the foliage.
An offering. Right.
Julie sits herself down on the crunchy grass and digs out the box of tea cakes from her messenger bag. She stopped to get them from a bakery earlier. They're strawberry and lemon flavored. Those are the only ones she saw Venus eat that day in Charleston.
Julie sets the box on the dirt and pulls out her lighter.
"I just need to find her, Mom. Please."
Juliette sets the box alight and sits back as she watches the cookies burn.
It takes about ten minutes for the box to just be smoldering ash. Ten minutes of silence. Bitter disappointment is sitting like a stone in Julie's stomach.
She shakes her head and pushes herself back upright.
What a stupid idea. Like Aphrodite would ever bother to help her. How many times does Julie need to fall on her face before she learns to stop taking trust falls.
She scatters the ashes angrily with the base of her crutch, pushing down the golf ball of anger clogging her throat. With a roll of her eyes, Juliette starts hobbling back to the street.
She makes it about ten yards before being smacked in the face by a leaf.
It's one of those experiences like when you've had a bad day and then your sleeve gets caught in the door handle, and you absolutely lose your mind. Julie rips the leaf out of her eyes and prepares to start shredding it into confetti.
She freezes before she manages to.
The leaf, way too bright a green for this time in the season, has a message on it. A message that Juliette can only assume is for her.
Spelled out in the veins on the underside of the leaf is one word.
Nero.
"YOU'RE PREGNANT?!"
"Shhh!" Sally exclaims, motioning frantically at the snoring Percy and Annabeth on the living room couch.
Julie tries slapping a hand over her mouth to keep quiet, but she's bouncing up and down in her chair and squealing around her zipped lips.
"I'm going to tell them tonight at dinner," explains Sally with an excited smile. "I just wanted to let you know now so you don't interrogate me for being nervous."
"This is so exciting!" Julie whisper yells. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
"It's too early to know, honey."
"When will it sprout?"
"You mean when am I due?" Sally laughs, letting Julie take her hands over the counter and swing them back and forth cheerfully. "Not until March. We have a ways to go."
"Oh my gods, but there's so much to do! Don't you dare go buying baby clothes! I have a sewing machine and an army of siblings that can make cuter things than you could ever find at a Babies R Us," threatens Juliette.
Her stepmom shakes her head in amusement. "Don't go picking out fabrics yet. Once we get a little closer, we can talk about what we'll need for them."
Juliette is about to vibrate right out of her seat from pure excitement. Is she crying? Why is she about to cry? Gods, she's so happy! BABIES!
"How am I supposed to sit through this dinner without giving anything away?!" She asks desperately. "I'm going to be smiling like an idiot!"
"Oh, yes, that would be very uncommon for you."
Julie drops her hands irritably. "Are you going to be this mean to the baby too?"
Sally snorts and goes back to stirring the enchilada sauce. "With siblings like you and Percy in their life, I think this kid is going to grow up stronger than anyone. They'll be able to handle a little sass."
Emotion surges through Julie. Siblings. For real. Juliette's family just keeps on growing.
"With you and Paul as parents, that kid is going to be unstoppable," She says softly.
Sally smiles at her and sets down the spoon. She comes around the counter to wrap Juliette into a warm embrace.
"You know...I am so glad you agreed to come stay with us that winter. Have I ever told you that?" Sally asks. Julie just grins and burrows further into the hug. Sally runs a hand through her hair and chuckles. "Boy or girl doesn't matter to me. I've already got one of each to be proud of."
A kiss is dropped onto the top of Julie's head.
And, she didn't even have to burn teacakes in a park to get it.
That's what motherhood is really about.
Gods...Whoever this kid ends up being...They're going to grow up more loved than anyone else on this planet.
"Hey, Paul?"
Paul Blofis looks up impatiently from the lesson he's planning. The day before the first day of school is always unbearably stressful - this year especially, since he's spent the last month helping Sally call just about every public school in the state of New York to try and find one that would be willing to take Percy for his senior year. They managed it, finally, but now Paul is totally swamped.
When he sees it's his stepdaughter in the doorway of his classroom, though, that impatience instantly dies.
"Hey, kid," He greets, shutting his laptop to give her his full attention. "What are you doing here?"
Julie's cheeks turn a bit purple. She shuffles back and forth on her hot pink crutches and looks down at the tiles of the school floor. "I came to talk to Coach Terrance. He, uh, wanted my opinion on who should take over cheer captain for me since...you know."
Yeah. Paul knows.
He tries not to glance down at Juliette's battle injury. He and Sally have had countless conversations about how she deals with watching new scars appear on her son with every passing summer. His wife tried to ready him to see it happen too.
Apparently there's nothing you can do to prepare yourself for watching your children suffer. Adoptive or not.
"I see," He nods. "Who did you pick?"
She laughs a little and gives him a half smile. "Jessica. She's the only one who ever actually looks happy out there. Can't pick a captain who's gonna bum out everyone in the stands."
"Happiness does seem like a cheerleading prerequisite," agrees Paul. He leans onto his elbows when she just chuckles and nods, red rimmed eyes on the blue metal doorframe. "Did you need something from me?" He asks.
Juliette takes a deep breath. Then, she nods. "Yeah, I wanted to ask you something. You taught history for a bit, right?"
Paul hesitates. "Well, yes," He lowers his voice. "Mortal history, though. I don't know how much help I'd be if you needed something...alternative."
"No, I know," She says. "It's about Rome. About one of the emperors."
Paul studies the girl. When she set off on that ship in June, she was about four inches shorter and so bubbly she practically trailed pixie dust in her wake. Now, she's closer to grown. She's taller than he is and carrying a weight no sixteen year old should ever have to bear. Gone are the butterfly hairclips and flowers painted into her makeup. Her hair is usually loose now. Her face is more natural.
Some could say it's because she's growing up.
Paul feels like he's watching a childhood die.
He gets up from his desk to pull a chair out for her, and she hobbles over to sit down. Paul returns to his seat and crosses his arms. "Okay. Which emperor are we talking about?"
She purses her lips. "Nero."
Oh. Lovely.
Paul nods. "Okay, well to start, Emperor Nero took power when he was only 17. That was particularly young. He was actually known to be one of the kindest emperors for the first few years of his reign."
Unlike how Paul is used to seeing her in class, Juliette is listening attentively. "But...?"
"But, then he ended up putting his own mother to death. And, following her, his first wife. The power got to him, and he started to abuse it."
Juliette stares at him strangely. Like she's putting something together in her mind. Paul decides to pause in case she's planning on giving him some kind of idea of what she's asking all this for.
"Abuse it how?" She asks quietly.
"Well, he's best known for beginning the persecution of Christians in Roman tradition," Paul recounts. "And, the amount he spent building himself golden palaces put the empire in enormous debt. Eventually, the senate was tired of him running Rome into the ground, so he fled the country before they could have him killed."
Her face looks thoughtful. It really shouldn't be making Paul feel so much dread.
"Where did he go? How did he die?"
Paul hesitates.
"Well...Reports sort of conflict on that," He says, squinting in an attempt to remember if anyone ever actually found the answer. "Some believe that he killed himself during a revolution in Gaul. Some say he was captured and executed."
"Is there any record of that?"
"I don't know off the top of my head. I'd have to look into it."
Juliette lets out a long breath. Her hands come up over her face, raking through her long hair in exhaustion. "Right. Okay," She rests her chin in her palm and peers at Paul with sad, mascaraed green eyes. "Is there...anything else that you know?"
About Nero?
Paul adjusts his glasses and shakes his head. "No, unfortunately. You've pretty much tapped out what I know about him. If you want a 60 minute lecture on the layout of Roman villas, I could offer you that."
She grimaces at him, and Paul laughs.
"Or not. Fair enough."
With a dramatic sigh, Julie gets back up and onto her crutches. "Oh, well. Thanks, Paul. This was helpful. Saved me having to, like, read about it."
He shakes his head. "You know, the Public Library actually would be a good place to start. If reading isn't completely out of the question."
Juliette's face spasms. She looks sad, but what comes out of her is a laugh. Before he can comment, though, that sparkly smile is gleaming at him again.
"I guess I can consider it," She agrees with a chuckle.
The clicking of her crutches as she heads for the hallway feels like someone is taking an icepick to Paul's heart. Before she can completely disappear through the doorway, he calls back out.
"You know, the cheer team is going to be lost without you. Maybe you should talk to Coach Terrance about a manager position, or something."
Julie smiles at him. It seems almost like the indulgent look a parent gives a daydreaming child.
"Good idea," She says softly. Then, she nods towards the direction of the parking lot. "Piper and Drew are in the car. I'll see you at dinner Saturday."
"See you then."
Paul watches the girl hurry outside to her sisters, still stewing in dread and bouncing what scraps of Roman history he knows around in his head.
It isn't often that Percy or Juliette asks for help with their demigod duties. He wishes he could have given her more to go on.
Paul looks down at the lesson he was planning and makes a decision. It's the first day of school. None of his students will be paying attention, anyway.
He opens his laptop back up and starts a deep dive on Ancient Roman history.