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: Shorter chapter today, but that's how it goes. We needed to officially wrap up BotL and the next chapter is starting something else...any guesses what? :P

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until the next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 110: Jig Of Life Pt. 4~

Most of the Olympians and Hades left quickly after that, disappearing one-by-one, but in such a way that they wouldn't kill me or my kids.

I rushed over to them immediately. My legs were shaky from being not even twenty-four hours postpartum and the adrenaline running through my veins. I almost tripped, which undoubtedly would've resulted in me falling flat on my face.

"Careful," Rhea advised as she helped me remain on my feet, having re-sized herself as soon as Zeus had finished speaking.

"Milady," I said. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

Her sea green eyes were bright. "You are my champion. It is my duty to protect you. But, if you are referring to the other thing that I have done recently...it is the least that I could do."

I knew that she was referring to Luke, and I nodded, my throat tightening. Along with that recognition had come the reminder that she'd probably had some idea of what was going to happen to him when she'd told me I would have to go on Annabeth's quest, and she hadn't mentioned it to me.

While I did want to ask her why, however, I had much more important matters to attend to.

"Please, let me hold them," I said to Hestia.

"You do not need to ask me for my permission," she said as the bubble over their bassinet fell away with a wave of her hands. "They are yours."

Luke Jr. and Rose were fast asleep, but they started to wake up quickly as I picked them up. I could tell that they wanted to nurse, yet I wasn't sure if that was the best idea here. I had no clue if a mortal had breastfed in the Olympian throne room before, or how long ago it had been if one had; I didn't want to be the first, either in a long time or at all.

Rhea wrapped her arm around me. "I will take you back."

"Get some rest, Percy," my dad said. He was one of the only two Olympians left – the other two, of course, being Demeter and Hermes.

"I will," I said. "Err...bye, Dad. Bye, milady Demeter, and Lord Hermes."

They said their goodbyes as well, and then Rhea, I, and my kids were gone.

Will was in my room when we appeared there, as was my mom. I gaped at him. "Gods, Will. What happened?"

He looked like he'd been through it. Even with what I'm sure was the help of ambrosia and nectar, his face was pale in the sort of way that could only signify a loss of blood. There was a pair of crutches right next my desk chair, which he was sitting down in, and he had bandages in a variety of places.

"Don't worry about it," he said. He got to his feet, though it caused him to grimace. "Lady Rhea."

"Please, you do not have to do that," she said.

He sat back down without any complaint.

"Lady Rhea," my mom said with a slight curtsy. That was like my mom, defying what she'd been told to do. I'd learned it from her.

"Hello, Sally Jackson," Rhea replied, her lips curving. Back to me, "I will be taking my leave now, Percy. But if you need anything, do not hesitate to ask."

"O – of course."

She disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving the faint smell of silver fir, her sacred tree, in her wake.

"Let me hold at least one of my grandbabies," my mom requested. I gave her Luke Jr., putting Rose in her bassinet. "I take it that the Council meeting went well?"

"I don't think Zeus is happy, but yeah. Most of them voted to keep us alive," I told her. "I take it that it's time for our check-ups?"

"If you don't mind," Will said.

I was hungry – starving, really. Breastfeeding with only having yoghurt for breakfast apparently took a lot out of you – but I knew I was going to have to wait. "They're hungry, but otherwise, no."

"It'll be quick," he promised.

He took their measurements first, and he was fast about it, doing Rose first before handing her off to me, and then taking Luke Jr. from my mom. Neither of my babies weighed more than four pounds, and they were only about eighteen inches long each. Will not as concerned about this as he would've been, since I guess my mom had already briefed him about them being blessed by Artemis.

"They're basically full-term babies," he explained. "Just in teeny-tiny bodies."

After he finished with them, while they were nursing, he did a quick check of me. It was uncomfortable for both of us, and I could see the sheer relief on his face when he was done. Clear as day, it was obvious that he hadn't really wanted to take on the role that Lee had been supposed to during my labor. Which was fair. He was only thirteen.

More importantly, if given the choice between him and Artemis, a Goddess of Childbirth, as my midwife, it was Artemis every day, no questions asked.

"You're all fine," he said. "I don't see any issues."

"Thanks, Will," I responded.

"No problem. If you need me, call me. Now, I'm going to go back to camp and sleep for a solid eight hours."

Eight hours of sleep, uninterrupted. Already, I was jealous. I'd started to not be getting that before because of how big my belly had been and the incessant urge to pee, and I knew it was definitely out the window for the foreseeable future.

"See you, Will. Take care."

"Thanks. You, too."

Travis, Bianca, and Nico left later that day, although Katie stuck around for a few more. Callie was there on the 23rd and she spent some time with me after Will had left, and she came by again on Sunday. After that, though, she waited to come by a third time until the afternoon of Wednesday, her first day back at Goode High School, to give me some privacy.

Our school knew that I probably wasn't going to be back until after winter break, and they really weren't happy about it. Yet, while they had suggested to my mom that maybe some sort of homeschooling program would be better for me, there wasn't too much they could do. I still had valid doctor's (read: Will's) notes, I was actually excelling at school when I was able to go at my own pace and not what was demanded in the classroom every day, and the manipulation of the Mist was picking up any and all of the slack of those two.

Soon enough, once Katie was gone (no offense to her), I found myself settling into a routine. It wasn't a routine without bumps in the road, nor was it the routine that I had expected to have. I had expected that Luke would've been around, that we would've been doing this together as much as we would've been able to, and that I wouldn't have been doing this (relatively speaking, because make no mistakes, I recognized the importance and value of my support system) on my own.

But, I made deal with it. There was no choice for me not to. I wasn't the only person relying on me anymore.

Before I knew it, in fact, six and a half weeks had passed, and it was the second Wednesday of October. I was the only one at home, besides my kids, that particularly afternoon, because Silena was at school, my mom was at work, and Jean was at a commission meeting or whatever it's called for one of his next paintings.

I was in the living room with Luke Jr. and Rose, watching them laying on their play mat. Since they were full-term babies in terms of development, they were reaching the milestones of lifting their heads during tummy-time and giving me their first smiles. My heart had almost melted, the first time the latter had happened.

Probably not to your surprise, I was pretty tired, and so at some point while watching them, I fell asleep. Perhaps more surprising, because I hadn't had any of them for a while, potentially because I'd been too exhausted from taking care of two newborns, or because whoever was in charge of them had decided to give me a reprieve for once, I had a dream during that nap.

I was back at Drífa's turf house in Iceland, but it was different this time. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew that some time had passed – years' worth.

There was a girl playing not too far away from the turf house. She looked a lot like Drífa, with the same blonde hair. Her eyes were mostly ocean blue, too, but they had some golden flecks in them, just like my daughter's, Rose's. She looked like she was around six years old.

I wasn't quite sure of what she was doing in terms of playing. As I watched, however, I realized that she wasn't playing at all.

She was practicing.

After a few more minutes, she achieved her goal. With her face scrunched up, her eyes shut tight, a pair of golden bracelets appeared on her wrists. They multiplied, going down her arms as they hummed. And then –

– She appeared more than twenty feet away, like teleportation, but not.

I'd never seen how the "rewinding time" effect looked to an outside observer.

It was kind of freaky.

The girl turned around with a wide and toothy smile. She ran forwards. "Mamma! Mamma! Did you see?"

I turned around. Behind me was Drífa Seimsdóttir, standing in the doorway to the turf house. She looked like how my mom had looked when I was a kid: still young and beautiful, but also older than her years than she should've been. There were crows feet around her eyes. "Yes, I saw, Lilja. You did well."

"Just like Daddy, right?"

"Yes, you are just like your father," Drífa murmured. "Come here, you have a spot of dirt on your nose."

"Mamma..."

"Come here, Lilja."

With a huff, Lilja did as she was told. Drífa took a handkerchief from out of her dress' right pocket and went to work at trying to get the dirt off of Lilja's nose. It didn't immediately come off, making her tsk under her breath.

Finally, after some more effort, she smiled. "There you are."

"Mamma?"

"Yes, Lilja?"

"Why did Daddy leave?"

If I'd actually been in my own body while I was here, my breath would've caught in my throat.

How many times had I asked my mother that question, or at least thought about doing it? How many times had I wanted the real answer, not just the one that she always gave me?

Drífa's eyes turned sad, just like my mom's had. Déjà vu. "Your father left because he wanted to keep us safe," she said. "He wanted to make sure that nothing bad would happen to us."

Lilja pondered this. "Why?"

"Because...he wanted to protect us from some people that he thought were bad."

"Are they bad?"

"No, I don't think so," Drífa said. She hummed. "I think they have their reasons for what they do, and I know your father doesn't like those reasons. But sometimes, things are more complicated. They can't easily be separated into 'good' or 'bad.' Do you understand?"

"I think so," Lilja said. Her face scrunched up. She stared down at her shoes. "So...that means Daddy isn't bad, too, right?"

"Oh, Lilja," Drífa sighed. She crouched down, so she was eye-level with her daughter. She tilted up her chin, smiling when they locked eyes, and tucked a stray lock of hair away from her face. "I will not lie to you: your father did what many will say were bad things, a long time ago. Long before you were born. But that does not make him a bad person, either."

"Why not?" Lilja's voice was small.

"Because he was willing to repent. He was willing to admit that he had been wrong, even though that did not change the consequences of his actions. And he was willing to leave to protect you, even though...even though that would mean..."

Drífa's eyes glazed over with tears. Her hands began to shake.

The mother and daughter were silent for several seconds.

At last, Lilja said, "Mamma...can I have some cookies?"

Drífa laughed brokenly. "Of course, sweetheart. Let's go inside."

As they went in the house, I could see a storm cloud brewing in the distance – the kind with thunder and lightning. Somehow, I knew that it wasn't a threat, not this time. It wouldn't be until Lilja was much older.

But like a ringing in my ears, I could hear her screaming, "Mamma! Mamma!" over and over again.

I woke up to somebody knocking at the door.

I sat up, rubbing at my eyes. A quick glance down at the play mat informed me that Luke Jr. and Rose had also started to take their naps. I knew that I probably shouldn't let them lay down there for too much longer, but I figured I should probably answer the door first.

My hand wrapped around Riptide as I went to the door. I didn't think that somebody truly intending harm would do something like knock, and then wait for there to be a response; I knew I couldn't be too sure, though.

I blinked in surprise when I looked through the peephole prior to opening the door. "Bianca?"

"Hey, Percy," the daughter of Hades said. "Can I come in?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." I moved aside for her to walk in. "What's up?"

"Oh, not much," she commented, with a forced nonchalance.

"You and Annabeth are going to the same boarding school now, right?"

"Yeah," she said. She was a lot more jittery than what she was trying to let on; it was unlike her. Usually, the one of the di Angelo siblings who was always bouncing on their feet was Nico, although he'd started to settle down some. He'd begun to wear all-black clothing, too, so I was suspicious he was starting his goth phase or something.

I remembered my mom's emphasis on the importance of manners when it came to visitors. "Can I get you something to drink? We have Coke, Dr. Pepper, orange juice, apple juice, coffee, wa – "

"No, I'm good. Thanks."

"Alright. Just let me get the twins in their bassinets, and then we can talk. Although – " I laughed nervously " – I may have to feed them while we do, depending on how long this takes."

"No worries." Bianca peered down my kids as she sat on the couch. "They've gotten big."

"Yeah. Six and a half weeks now."

We made a bit more small talk, discussing this and that, and then I sat down on the other end of the couch, absentmindedly scratching at an itch at the back of my neck, where my hair line started. "So, uh, what do you want to talk about?"

Bianca crossed her legs. She held her hands in her lap. "Annabeth and I have been doing some research," she said. "Into how Kronos was able to inhabit Luke's body."

I appreciated her for not beating around the bush any more than she already had as she'd let me get settled.

Even so, my whole body stiffened. "Really?"

"You know that Luke had to have...prepared his body for it," Bianca stated slowly. She looked back at my kids, and her face flitted through so many expressions, I couldn't even begin to place them. "He couldn't just take in Kronos' essence. If he did, he would've..."

"Spontaneously combusted." That was the phrase she was trying to avoid saying.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah, I know. So, what did you find out?"

"Do you know the story of Achilles?" she asked.

"Son of Thetis and the mortal Peleus, who the dragon at camp was named after," I answered. "Fought in the Trojan War. He got mad that Agamemnon took his concubine, Briseis – " yeah, I know guys, hella gross " – so he refused to fight. His...friend, Patroclus, decided to wear his armor and pretend to be him 'cause the Greeks were losing, and Hector killed him. So Achilles went on a rampage, killed Hector, and dragged his body around Troy a bunch of times, until he was killed by Paris. Right?"

"Right," Bianca replied. "But do you know what his mom did with him when he was a toddler? Do you know how Paris killed him?"

It was on the tip of my tongue. "Uh..."

"Thetis knew her son's destiny if he went off to war, even when he was just a baby. She didn't want him to die; she thought she could make him escape his destiny," Bianca informed me. "So, she took him down to the Underworld. It was her right, as a goddess. She dipped him in the River Styx. As a result, he became invulnerable throughout most of his body. But not all. She was interrupted by Zagreus, my half-sibling, who stopped her and drove her out of the Underworld before she could finish. As a result, the only part of Achilles' body that wasn't invulnerable was – "

"His heel," I breathed. "So, you – what, you think that Luke made himself invulnerable with the River Styx?"

It would explain some things, even though I hadn't noticed any difference in his skin or anything since whenever he had done it, if he had. But then again, maybe I wouldn't've.

"Yes, Annabeth and I think so." Bianca shifted uncomfortably. "We...also think something else."

"What?"

"You're going to be the one to go up against Kronos, one-on-one," Bianca said. "You're going to be the one who saves Luke. I mean – we're still trying to figure out a way to save him, Annabeth and me, but when we do, or somebody else does, you're going to be the one to use the method. It's your destiny, as the Child of the Great Prophecy."

I nodded uncertainly. I wasn't quite sure where she was going with this.

"But when you do, you're going to need every advantage at your disposal possible. And that's why..." Bianca's eyes hardened. She became determined. "We think you should take a dip in the River Styx, too."

Word Count: 3,078

Next Chapter Title: Winter Break, Interrupted Yet Again