Percy

I know what I want now, though. When I got down here and... And I was waiting to get into Elysium, I had some time here. Actually I never got into Elysium. But seeing Nico like that... Watching him refuse to eat.

I want him to be happy. To get the happiness that he deserved more than anything in the world. I don't. But he does.

Nico was in his room as I had suspected. Staring at a photo. Of him, Bianca, and myself at camp.

He just looked numb. Like there was nothing left to him. It was gone. I took that with me, apparently.

Hazel was... I didn't think it would be like this. I thought he'd be happy I was gone. He always seemed to hate me before. This was weird from him. For him to care about me. To mourn my death.

Hades did tell me he was re one who held me as I died, though. That was all Nico. And I just... I still don't remember anything he said.

I slowly knocked on the door. It was partially open. That's how I saw everything.

"Go away, Dad." Hades has been bugging him lately. I noticed that.

"I'm not your Dad." I responded. "What do I do? I was told to like make you happy. I'm not sure how that works."

Nico's head snapped over and he looked at me and he didn't know what to do. He froze where he was. so I did the first thing I thought he might want despite hating them. Or more need it.

I hugged him. And when I did that, he clung on like he was never letting go.

"How's everyone holding up?" I asked the son of Hades as it was pretty obvious how he was doing. "Your dad kind of filled me in on what's going on with you."

"Yeah," he remarked, his voice a little raw or scratchy. "I've been better. The others, I don't know. When Will took you, you were already dead. They didn't know that. Leo, Piper, Frank, and Hazel went with Will. Jason stuck around with me and I kind of freaked out and shadow travelled down here. So I haven't been there. I don't know how they're doing."

I shrugged.

"Sounds about right." I reasoned, waiting for the yelling and lecturing I'm bound to get from everyone. "Um, why were you in my cabin, though?"

"Annabeth was training, upset." Nico explained to me, as we both know she'll do that when she's upset. "So Clarisse kind of like calmed her down and she said you guys broke up. I figured that as Clarisse calmed Annabeth down I'd make sure you were fine. And I mean... You weren't."

"Oh, yeah," I recalled that fight, rubbing my neck. "That was uh... It was out of nowhere, she started to just like freak out on me and we broke up. I was planning on killing myself either way. In a relationship with her or not."

"You—" that seemed to throw him through a loop. "You planned to kill yourself?"

I gave him a sorry face.

"Most people that commit suicide do." I told him, now feeling worse. "If it makes you feel any better, I've held it off for like two years. I was going to die when I was 16. And then Luke died. And then there was war and like it never happened. So yeah. I didn't think that you of all people would act... That you'd like starve yourself. Had I realized that I might have not..."

"Who told you I starved myself?"

"Well," I started off. "One, I could plainly see you not eat for a day and a half while I was waiting. Your dad told me. And your skin also gives it away that you're not doing well."

Sally

To have Patrick, Pandora, and Penelope back was weird. They had all been dead as of ten years ago. A freak car accident. Pandora and Percy lived. But Pandora ended up with something they didn't catch and died a month later. Percy was the only one that lived. Gabe actually beat Pandora to death. That was when he started to get abusive. After Patrick and Penelope died.

Percy became depressed when he turned 8 and never shook it. And we still can't afford therapy for him.

But they came back home. Somebody gave us a miracle of reviving them.

"Mom!" They all yelled as they ran up and hugged me. None of them were anywhere near Percy's build now. They were average. Pandora had a little more muscle, but he is as a kid, too. She loved sports more than any of her siblings. Percy swam. Penelope did more of the whole book club sort of stuff. Patrick was into drawing and painting. Pandora did soccer, softball, basketball, and gymnastics.

It was intense, yeah. She was a really busy kid.

But we had all sat down and I assured them Percy was alive. He just wasn't at home right now.

I was about to catch them up when Percy got home. Didn't say a word. Put something on the counter and went to his room. It's not normal he comes home in the summer. Meaning he'd probably have to just pack and leave. That's what normally happened. It's June. June 23. He's been gone for two weeks or so.

Curious, I got up and looked at what he put on the counter. It was an envelope with my name on it. Or not my name, sorry. It said the mortal parent or Perseus Jackson. But that's me.

"What the...?" I questioned, opening it up. It came from Camp Half-Blood. And there was a lot of papers stapled together. But one loose from the others. A letter.

"What is it?" Pandora asked as I started to skim it before reading it out loud.

"Dear Sally," I read out loud, almost lost as I read this. "After much consideration and debate within our council and campers, it has been decided. Perseus Jackson will not longer be able to attend Camp Half-Blood. After the incident that is explained in the other papers as of June 15, 2011, we can't let Percy stay here. He is too mentally and emotionally unstable for us to keep him here for the remainder of the summer. Thank you for letting him come here, and we hope he gets better. Yours truly, the Council or Camp Half-Blood."

I looked over that a few more times, just kind of confused. Because they knew he had anxiety. He had depression. Chiron told me that was okay, they'd word with it. At the first sign of anything he was getting the help he needed.

So what happened?

I started to read through these papers and they described a death. There was a report filed that Percy died a week ago. He killed himself. Nobody claimed to of picked up on or notice anything wrong with Percy. Ever.

Hades filed the revival report. Bringing my son back. And because he wrote down Poseidon's and my children, I got all four of them. Not just Percy. But I also got Percy.

And that wasn't his first... He's tried before, yeah. But that was... Years ago. Not long after his siblings all died and he was new to that. Now it's been ten years. His grief, to me, seemed gone. It was purely depression now.

Or maybe he was over the grief years ago and his depression was just that bad. I don't know. I'd have to talk to him when he wasn't as upset as he seemed waking in here. He finally got his wish. He died. Percy didn't want to come back after that.

And of course, it killed me to know that. But that's how he's been for most of his life. I hate to say it. It's the truth, though. Percy has tried everything. From hanging, to overdosing, to getting in a car crash after he got his license, to trying to drown himself. And what actually killed him: cutting himself up so much he bled to death.

I gave Percy about fifteen minutes to calm down before getting his door lock. We don't use it often. But when he's like this... You can't be too safe.

"Percy," I said as I lightly knocked on the door, careful. "Honey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

It was short, quick, and strained. It was also a lie. I could tell that much about my son. To know when he's lying like that.

"Are you sure?"

"Mhmm."

"Are you lying to me?"

He didn't answer that.

"Percy—"

"Please, Mom." Percy asked me, trying to be nice about it. "Just leave me alone for a while. Fill out the paperwork or something. I just... Not right now."

I left him alone for just a little bit. He didn't seem to bad. Just down.

His siblings on the other hand, didn't.