Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Welcome back!

This chapter is pretty heavy, just fyi. I don't think that there is anything too triggering in it, but Percy understandably has depression, and it may be a little jarring to read. So, just something to keep in mind.

I am excited about the next chapter! The title should tell you why, if you know your stuff 'n all ;)

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until then,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 107: When Bedrest Isn't Such A Good Idea~

We had a funeral ceremony the next night for all the bodies. There were more of them than I'd ever seen, and it was something that I never wanted to see again.

Lee was wrapped in a golden shroud without any decoration, as was another Apollo camper who'd died. Castor Boivin, son of Dionysus, had gone down fighting an enemy half-blood, and he was wrapped in a deep purple shroud embroidered with grapevines. He'd been seventeen years old, older than I'd thought. Just a little older than me. His twin brother, Pollux, tried to say a few words, but he choked up and just took the torch. He lit the funeral pyre in the middle of the amphitheater, and within seconds the row of shrouds was engulfed in fire, sending smoke and sparks up to the stars.

Silena wasn't much better off than him. Her own half-sister, Laurel Bellamy, had succumbed to her own injuries during the night. She cried into Alabaster's shoulder. Annabeth had lost two campers from her cabin, and Travis and Connor had lost three from theirs. Pretty much the only populated cabins to make it out unscathed were mine and Katie's.

Also included in the row of burial shrouds besides Daedalus, who had apparently bequeathed to me Mrs. O'Leary before he'd died (and I had no idea just what the hell I was going to do with her like I had with Bob, when she was bigger than a tank. It wasn't like I could fit her into my house. But that was neither here nor there for the time being) were various demigods from the other side.

It hadn't been a popular idea at first, when I'd suggested it. "They're half-bloods, like us," I'd said. "They chose a different side, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve a proper burial ceremony."

"Of course you would say that," Michael Yew, the new head for Cabin Seven, had said with a glare. He didn't look much like most of his half-siblings; he had black hair and dark brown eyes, and was rather short. Shorter than almost every other camper, even. "You've been fucking their leader all this time! You're knocked up with his kids!"

Several of the other campers who had been present at the time, because this had been more of a town hall meeting in the arena rather than a meeting for only the camp counselors, had agreed with him.

Then, to my surprise, the first person to agree with me hadn't been Silena, Katie, Callie, Alabaster, Travis, Connor, Annabeth, or even Bianca, but Clarisse. "Percy's right. The Titans wouldn't give us proper burial ceremonies, but we have to be better than them," she'd said, her arms crossed. "No, wearebetter than them. We're going to give these demigods the burial ceremony that they deserve, and then we're going to kick the Titans' asses and make them wish they'd never tried to reclaim their power."

"Here, here," Travis had said. Connor had nodded along with him.

The other camp counselors besides Michael, including Beckendorf, had agreed after them, and that had turned the tides, at least enough where the burial shrouds were concerned. Most of the rest of the campers had changed their minds. Michael had seethed.

When it came to the matter of anything else I had to say, or just me in general, however, a lot of the campers shared in his upset. They didn't really say too much more than he had that first day, and they didn't exactly get too much of a chance to afterwards. But I knew; I could see the glares they sent up towards my room at the Big House every chance they got, whenever I looked through the window.

I had been placed on bedrest by Will, who had basically taken over my care, as much as a thirteen-year-old kid could. Besides my friends, Chiron, and Mr. D, he was one of the only people that I saw. I was under strict orders to only get out of bed when I had to go to the bathroom and/or move around to keep the blood in my legs going, and a dryad always brought me my meals. The tree nymphs were always kind when they came up, gossiping with me and giving me their equivalent of old wives' tales.

Will had told me that I could've gone back to my parents' house, if I wanted, but I wasn't ready to...not yet. Because while I wanted to see my mom, how badly I wanted to see my mom, the idea of going back to my room or the nursery that Jean had allowed us to convert the fifth bedroom of the house to (it had previously been his office, not his study; that was a different room), of seeing the cribs and baby clothes and other things that Luke and I had picked out...

I knew I couldn't do it right now.

Particularly with the new deadline that was hanging over my head.

Mr. D was the one to inform me, not one of my patrons or Despoina, though I felt their presences with me a lot, could feel their hands in my hair and hear their voices in the breeze whenever I opened the window; they must've gathered that I wasn't really willing to talk with them due to how much pain I was in, Rhea especially.

She'd promised me that no "severe harm" would come to me or my children on this quest. And yeah, I suppose she had been telling the truth – physically. Nevertheless, it still felt like she'd lied.

Anyways, the wine god had come back, informed the camp that many of the minor gods had officially defected to Kronos' side, restored Chris Rodriguez's sanity, and then had found me.

"Peter Johnson," he said. "You are a sight for sore eyes."

I looked away from the view that the windows offered of the strawberry fields, blinking, my arms wrapped around my stomach instinctively. "Mr. D," I said. I didn't have it in me to give him the usual banter, so I kept it simple: "Hello."

Mr. D regarded me, his purple eyes shrewd. "We have had many betrayals over the past few years," he began. "For a time, I thought you would've turned out to be one of them. Chiron may not have known, but I did. You demigods are never as good at hiding things as you think you are. I say this as a former one myself."

"Uh, thanks," I answered.

"Yet you went on this most recent quest, at the risk of your own life and that of your children, and you helped save this camp."

"It was a group effort."

He shrugged. "Regardless, I suppose it was mildly competent, what you did. Enough so that it caused my dear old father to think for the first time in I don't know how long." Thunder boomed in the distance. Dionysus ignored it. "He wanted me to take you up to Olympus right away upon coming back to camp, so that the Olympian Council could decide your fate. He is not pleased that you are with that Castellan boy's brats, much less that one of them is a legacy of his own father. But even without Aunt Demeter's meddling as your patron goddess, he's decided the convening of the Council on this matter can wait until after you've given birth."

I stared at him. "Am I supposed to be happy about that?"

Against my expectations, I thought I might've seen Mr. D smile. It was a "blink and you miss it" sort of thing. "What is that saying you mortals nowadays have? Ah, yes. 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.'" He went to leave the room.

"Mr. D," I said. He paused. I cleared my throat. "I'm sorry about Castor."

Maybe it wasn't the best idea of mine to say that. The god did not turn around; his back was facing me. "I will let you get away with that," he said. "Just this once."

And then he was gone.

Logically, I knew that he was right about Zeus, and I knew that Luke Jr. and Rose coming back to the past was proof that we would come out alright from the Olympian Council meeting in the end.

Except, between the loss of Luke, the death of Lee, and everything else, it was hard for me to be completely sure about it. My doubts crept into my brain like all the creepy and horrible things rushing out of Pandora's jar after she'd opened it, and I couldn't do anything to shake them. I couldn't practice my swordsmanship on a bunch of dummies, or punch one until my knuckles bled. I couldn't spar with Clarisse, or distract myself with my friends outside of when they visited me, even though they did their best to ensure at least one of them was with me at all times.

The only thing I could do was think: about the worst possible scenarios of that Council meeting, each and every single way I had gone wrong with Luke and the demigods who had died over the past several months, what Kronos was doing while in possession of Luke's body, and how much I wanted him back, how much I was going to need him when I gave birth but I knew he wasn't going to be there, as I looked out through those stupid windows.

Things changed somewhat, against my wishes, starting in the third week of July, on Thursday, when I was playing Uno with some of my friends.

"Draw four," Chris said smugly, putting the card down onto the pile. "Also, the color is blue."

He had that signature, mischievous grin of a child of Hermes, and he was acting like it, too, with only three cards left in his hand. It was nice to see, after how I'd seen him in the basement of the Big House, when Clarisse had been trying to help him. They were dating now, I think. Or maybe not; it wasn't exactly clear to me.

But like Alabaster, he'd officially come back over to the side of the gods, renouncing the Titans. He'd made a public apology in front of the entire camp, and plenty more to individual people – I'd been one of them. "Percy, you have no idea how sorry I am," he'd said, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "I mean, for everything. For what's happened to Luke, for ditching you that first summer...I know I gave you an apology back then for that last one, but you deserve another one for it now."

He wasn't exactly sure how he had gone insane; Mr. D had said something about permanently blocking his memories of the Labyrinth, because if he remembered them, then he'd go crazy all over again. He wasn't exactly entirely happy about it, as it meant that he couldn't remember how that demigod, Mary, who had apparently been a daughter of Ares, too, had died. But it wasn't like he wanted to be insane, either.

Chris and Clarisse had had their own, private burial shroud burning for Mary, though. As a way to ensure she wasn't forgotten.

"Damn you," Ethan muttered as he drew four cards. Unlike Alabaster and Chris, since he'd said that he wasn't going to fight for the gods or the Titans, he was basically on probation at camp. He wasn't allowed to have any weapons, or step foot in the arena, or participate in Capture the Flag. He was, theoretically, allowed to leave the camp, but he'd been warned that, if he did without permission, even to go see his father, he wouldn't be welcomed back. Ever.

So, he was staying.

And maybe I was using that as an additional reason for why I was as well. It wasn't like I wanted him to break his promise to Luke, the fact that it hadn't been made on the River Styx aside.

I threw a blue card down onto the pile. After me was Silena, and then Alabaster, and then it went back to Chris. Everybody else was busy; Silena, really, should've been busy, but she'd shirked her duties for the afternoon onto Drew, who'd begrudgingly accepted it.

"Are you okay, Percy?" Alabaster asked once he'd put another card down. Red, this time. Ethan had been lucky enough to switch it because his red card had had the same number as the blue one on top of the pile.

I was getting pretty tired of having to respond to that question, and all of its variants. I'd done it so many times over the past three weeks, I'd lost count of how many exactly. "Fine," I said anyways. I'd figured out it was better to humor my friends than it was to avoid answering them. "Why?"

"Well, you've kind of been rubbing at your stomach a lot today..."

"I'm pregnant," I said blandly. "Am I not supposed to?"

He scowled. "I meant'a lot'as in more than you usually do, genius."

...My hand paused as my brain caught onto the fact that I was currently doing what he said I was.

Okay, so maybe he had a point.

"It's just Braxton Hicks contractions," I tried to defend myself.

Alabaster wasn't impressed. "Is that what Will told you?"

"They don't feel like they did before."

The son of Hecate stood up. "Okay, I'm going to go get Will."

"Wait, no – " I said, but it was a futile effort. Frustrated, I put my cards down on the nightstand of my bed. Tears were burning in my eyes. "Oh, come on! All I wanted to do was play a game!"

"He's just worried about you, Percy," Silena said gently, her visage guilty. "We all pretty much are."

I didn't dignify her with a response.

My friends shuffled out of the room when Will came in, Ethan and Chris with promises to come back later. He checked my heart rate, took my blood pressure, and every other thing he did during his daily (or more) visits up here. He asked me a few questions and did an ultrasound, only to shake his head. "You are having real contractions, I think," he said. "Just very early ones. That's why they feel different."

He gave me some more of Daedalus' medicine.

It wasn't the only time that he had to.

Six days later, my contractions started up again, and then a third time six days after that, and then a fourth timefourdays after that. This last time, Will was the most visibly upset I'd ever seen him outside of the burial shroud ceremony for Lee, their half-brother, and the other demigods who had died in the battle. "This isn't working anymore," he announced.

"But the contractions are stopping every time," I said. "That's good, right? Even if we wind up having to do it every couple of days..."

"No, I meant this," Will said, waving his hand. "You having your bedrest here."

I froze.

Will's eyes softened. "Look, Percy...I'm – I'm only thirteen. I'm not a doctor. I'm not Lee. I'm a son of Apollo, like him, and I've been trying to read up on as much as I can to help you...but I don't have a whole lot of experience and knowledge here. But you were relatively fine for most of July. I think, if all the activity you had on the quest was the only thing shaking you up, you wouldn't have had that much of a break. So...maybe being at camp right now isn't the best thing for you."

My mouth went dry. "You're suggesting that...I go home?"

"Just for a while," he said. "You're currently, like, twenty-nine, thirty-ish weeks. If it doesn't work out, if it's worse for you to be there than here, you'll have time to come back."

"But..." I floundered for words. "What if I need Daedalus' medicine again?"

"I'll still be checking in on you every day," Will said. "I asked Bianca and Nico if they'd be willing to go with you to your and Silena's house, and Silena if your parents would be fine with it. They each said yes. That way, they can come and get me both the same time each day and if, or when, there's an emergency. No IM's needed."

"That doesn't sound very fair to them."

He rolled his eyes. "It's not about being fair, it's about what's best foryou. Believe me, I get why you don't want to do this. You don't want to go back to your house. Probably because, even with the war that's going on, you thought that Luke was going to be there with you, too, right? At least part of the time, until shit really hit the fan?"

Silence.

"At least think about it, okay?" Will said. "Do me that, as a favor."

I thought about it. Thinking about it didn't change my mind. I stillreallydidn't want to go back home.

But then the decision was made for me a couple of days later, when I got out of the bathroom connected to my room in the Big House, and saw Callie, Katie, and Silena going through my drawers, some bags from the Cabin Ten closet on my bed. "What are you guys doing?" I asked.

"Packing for you," Callie huffed. "What does it look like?"

I frowned. "I'm not going back home."

"Yeah, you are," she replied, then sniffed. "Consider this an intervention, if you must. But you're going, one way or the other."

"Please, Percy," Silena added before I could even begin to argue. "You need this."

"Travis and I are coming with you, too, not just the di Angelo's," Katie said, swiping some of her hair out of her face. "I asked your mom myself. She said she and Jean were happy to accommodate us."

"But where are you guys even going tosleep?" I said. "I mean, with the nursery – "

"That's for us to worry about," Katie told me. "Not you."

They were my half-sister, stepsister through my dad, and probable future stepsister through my mom. I could argue with them all I wanted to, yet it was clear even to me that I wasn't going to win.

"For what it's worth," Ethan said a while later, "I think it's a good idea."

I glared at him. "What happened to 'protecting me?'"

"That includes from yourself – "

I sighed. "Of course it does."

" – Which I think this qualifies as being, with your current mood."

"Gee, thanks," I said, only to flinch back. Sam Pollock had said those words before he'd died.

My mom was happy to see me, and I supposed that had to count for something. "Oh, Percy," she said, coming over to help me out of Silena's car and give me one of her hugs. She pressed a kiss into my hair. "Oh, I'm so happy to see you!"

"Hi, Mom," I croaked out. My tears fell into her hair.

She didn't mind. "Let's get you inside, okay? Let's get inside."

Jean gave me a smile when we got over the threshold of the front door. It didn't reach his eyes. "Hello, Percy."

"Hi, Jean."

"Welcome back."

"Thanks."

And maybe it was helpful, being back at home; I don't know. The door to the nursery remained closed at all times so I didn't have to see it, even though I of course didn't get out of my bed, much less my room, that much. My friends – Silena, Travis, Katie, Bianca, and Nico – spent even more time with me than they had back at camp, since they didn't have much better things to do; Travis, Katie, Bianca, and Nico were staying in a tent in the backyard, magicked by Alabaster and Lou Ellen to be much bigger on the inside than it was supposed to, like those ones in Harry Potter.

More importantly, my contractions did give me a bit more of a reprieve, with Will only having to come to the house to give me more of Daedalus' medication on the 17th, the day before my birthday.

But I didn't feel much different, despite the change in scenery, so whether it helped or not, I can't really say for sure.

For my birthday, Jean and Travis helped me down to the living room, where I laid on the couch for the celebrations. Besides the decorations, which everybody had gonewaytoo overboard on, things had been kept fairly simple. We were having grilled burgers and chips, my mom had made a homemade blue birthday cake (which Travis, Connor, Bianca, and Nico were surprised at; Silena, Katie, Callie, and Alabaster were used to it, though), and there were some movies going on in the background.

"Happy birthday, to you," everybody sang. "Happy birthday, to you. Happy birthday, dear Percy. Happy birthday, to you..."

"And many more!"Travis and Connor sang in unison. Purposefully off-key.

Katie swatted Travis on the arm for it.

I did my best to smile, knowing that I probably wasn't really succeeding, and blew out my candles. My friends, my mom, and Jean cheered.

Not a moment sooner, the doorbell rang.

My mom frowned. "Who could that be?"

She left the living room and went into the foyer to open the front door. Still, we all heard her gasp, and we saw the reason why when she returned with three other people – or gods, should I say.

It was my dad, Demeter, and Despoina. My dad was wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and Birkenstocks, like he usually does. His black beard was neatly trimmed and his sea green eyes twinkled. He wore a battered cap decorated with fishing lures. It said NEPTUNE'S LUCKY FISHING HAT.

Demeter was wearing a dark green summer's dress and brown sandals, as she had the first time that I'd met her. Despoina was also wearing a summer's dress, but one much more befitting of a teenager; it was turquoise, which palm tree prints on it, making it obvious she was the child of our dad and her mom, my patron goddess.

"Percy!" Despoina squealed, rushing over to me, arms outstretched.

"Father?" Callie, meanwhile, said. I knew this wasn't her first time meeting him – she'd met him at least one time before, without me. Which was good. I knew I got to see more of him and the gods in general than most half-bloods did. But I knew it most likely had to be kind of awkward for her.

Poseidon beamed at her. "Hello, Callie."

"We hope you don't mind," Demeter said. She nodded at her mortal daughter. "Hello, Katie."

"Hi, Mom," Katie said faintly.

"We brought gifts!" Despoina exclaimed.

Demeter sighed. "Yes."

"We couldn't miss Percy's seventeenth birthday," Poseidon said. He turned to my mom. "Sally...ah, do you mind if I could have a moment alone with him?"

My mom was flabbergasted. "In here?"

"Outside," Demeter said. "He needs the fresh air."

Once my dad and I were outside on the back porch, and I was situated on one of the lounge chairs, the smile he'd been giving faded.

"Are you alright, my boy?" he asked.

I picked at a loose thread on the lounge chair. "Do you want an honest answer?"

"That's what I thought," Poseidon said with a wry chuckle. "I have heard many stories, including from Demeter. But I wanted to hear it directly from you. Tell me everything."

"About what just happened?" I said. "Or what all did since I became pregnant? Or...what?"

"Whatever you see fit," he answered me. "Although, you will probably have to repeat much of it, if you do tell me everything now."

Nodding, I decided to just keep it to the most recent stuff. It was kind of disconcerting, because the entire time, Poseidon listened so intently. His eyes never left my face. His expression didn't change the whole time I talked. When I was done, he nodded slowly.

"So, Kronos is indeed back. It will not be long before full war is upon us."

"But what about Luke?" I asked. "Dad, I saw that he took – he took his body back over. He can't be gone. I can't lose him."

"I do not know, Percy. It is most disturbing. I have never heard of a god doing this before," Poseidon said. "But you must have hope. We will figure something out."

"But what about after that?" I said. "Before, I thought that he – we'd get out of this alright in the end, if we won. That you guys wouldn't go too harsh on him. But now..."

It had quickly become one of my deepest fears. One I hadn't admitted to anyone else.

"Remember what your children said, Percy. That is the only advice I can give, besides keeping your hope." His eyes flicked down to my stomach. His smile returned. "I will take my share of the blame in not telling you before that this was possible, and I am sorry that I was not there with Demeter and Despoina when you found out like I should have been, like a mortal father would have been. But Iamhappy for you. It is not often that my sons have been able to have children of their own."

"Yeah, not gonna lie, I'm still fairly pissed about both of those things, but...I wouldn't have had it another way," I said. "Not up until recently, anyways. I love Luke. I'll always love him. No matter what."

Poseidon nodded once more. "I understand. Unfortunately, I must tell you that I may not be able to help you for the rest of the war as much as I have, as lackluster as I know that is. The battle you and your friends have begun to fight first came to me. In fact, I cannot stay long. Even now, the ocean is at war with itself because of the old gods. It is all I can do to keep hurricanes and typhoons from destroying your surface world, the fighting is so intense."

"You have help, though, right?"

He chuckled. "I have my second wife, Amphitrite, and our children, and their children, and several more deities. Do not worry yet, especially with how you will be needed here. Which reminds me..." He brought out a sand dollar and pressed it into my hand. "I am giving one to Callie today, too; I hope you don't mind. But this is your birthday present from me. Spend it wisely."

"Uh, spend a sand dollar?"

"Oh, yes. In my day, you could buy quite a lot with a sand dollar. I think you will find it still buys a lot, if used in the right situation."

"What situation?"

"When the time comes," Poseidon said, "I think you'll know."

I closed my hand around the sand dollar, but something was really bothering me. Again, not something I had spoken about with anyone since it'd happened.

"Dad," I said, "when I was in the maze, I met Antaeus. He said...well, he said he was your favorite son. He decorated his arena with skulls and – "

"He dedicated them to me," Poseidon supplied. "And you are wondering how someone could do something so horrible in my name."

"...Yeah, I guess."

Poseidon put his weathered hand on my shoulder. "Percy, lesser beings do many horrible things in the name of the gods, as you have already partially found out. That does not mean we gods approve. The way our sons and daughters act in our names...well, it usually says more about them than it does about us. I have had many favorite children over the years, but Antaeus is not one of them, not like you and Callie."

I blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Come on," he said. "Let us get you back inside."

Word Count: 4,656

Next Chapter Title: My Half-Sister Lends A Hand