Edited 11/14/18

Holy shit! Word count is 2168! That's the longest chapter so far in this book!

We arrived at Sky Zone in Houston in a mere ten minutes, it was just a matter of getting to the portal. It turns out we were the last of the Squad to show up. Nico walked over holding Maria's hand.

"Hey guys!" He said. "Everyone's over here." He led the way to an area with a couple tables reserved for us. In truth, this isn't just a random meet up. It's actually a joint birthday party for Ariana, Sammy, and Riley. Ariana and Sammy have already turned four, but Riley's third birthday isn't until the 27th. It's April 15th, two days after Sam's birthday.

When we arrived, Milo, Sam, and Riley were already jumping around. Maria was with Nico and Rosalie was sitting with Leo. Emily was bouncing on Frank's knee while Will, Calypso, Jason, Reyna, and Piper(who was holding Malia) were deep in conversation.

Luke and Ari ran off to jump and I pushed the stroller with the twins over to the table. "Hey, Perce! How's it going?" Jason asked. "Oh pretty good," I answered.

I glanced down at the stroller and Ethan was sleeping. Bianca just stared wide eyed at everything around her. Ariana ran back from the trampolines and grabbed Bee's arm. "C'mon!" She screeched and off they went.

Leo looked wistfully at the trampolines. "Hey," Calypso said, putting her hand on Leo's arm. "We came to let the kids have some fun."

Five minutes later...

I sat with Calypso, Piper, and the twins and Emily. Everyone else had abandoned the table. Calypso let out a sigh of disappointment upon seeing Leo execute a backflip into the foam pit.

That's right, the fun outing for the kids had turned into a free for all for everyone. Heck, even Reyna was jumping around. Her and Jason were playing jumping leapfrog over the kids.

Hazel and Frank were having a hay day jumping into the foam pit with Leo, and Will and Nico were having an intense basketball match. Nico somehow knew how to get maximum lift when jumping for a dunk. It's hilarious because he's quite a bit shorter than Will.

I had a two year old Emily bouncing on my lap and the six month old twins were sitting peacefully in their stroller. Piper was sitting with a one month old Malia and Calypso with a two year old Rosalie.

After a few more minutes, I realized that the main trampoline area was occupied by only the adults. Where had the kids gone? Then I heard crying and looked to the dodgeball area. Riley was crying after Milo nailed him in the face.

Jason went to go retrieve his crying son when his face lit up. He whirled around and yelled, "Oh my gods dodgeball!" "Hell yeah!" Leo answered with glee.

Jason kisses Riley atop the head and left him to jump with the other kids before racing to the dodgeball trampolines. Jason and Reyna were team captains.

Jason started by picking Frank and Reyna then picked Nico. "Shit," Jason muttered. He looked around the remaining demigods and chose Leo. Reyna confidently chose Hazel. Jason finished with Will. "We need another player. Hey guys! Reyna needs another player," he yelled at us. Calypso and Piper both shrugged their shoulders, pointing out the babies they were both holding. I set Emily in a high chair and stood up.

"Percy," Reyna crossed her arms and smiled, "welcome to the team." "Shit shit shit," Jason yelled, "why do you get all the good people!"

"Excuse you," Leo said. "You forget I'm a son of Apollo," Will shook his head. Frank just stood to the side, laughing at his team mates. He'd long gotten used to their antics.

I made my way to Team Reyna and rolled up my sleeves to my forearms, exposing my tattoos. Hazel highfived me and then stuck her tongue out at Jason. We are very mature for adults aren't we?

And thus the game began. Nico started with nailing Will in the face. Jason swore revenge and chucked one at Nico, who easily dodged. Reyna, meanwhile, sent one low that knocked him off his feet. Two down, two to go.

It was Leo and Frank I was worried about. Frank cracked his knuckles and picked up a ball. He sent it flying and Reyna had no time to move. It caught her in the gut.

"Woman down! Woman down!" Hazel yelled. She skidded to Reyna's side. "Reyna, it's gonna be okay. Just hang in there."

"No," Reyna answered, "keep going Hazel. You gotta win. For-for me." And with that Reyna "died" and walked off to the others who were out. Hazel screamed in rage and picked up a dodgeball. Frank's eyes were the size of dinner plates. "Would you kill me, my love?" He asked. "For Wakanda?" Hazel asked, quoting Black Panther. "Without question." And she through the ball.

He was too paralyzed with fear to get out of the way. The ball hit him straight in the chest.

Now it was just Leo against Nico, Hazel, and I. Leo smirked. He took up two dodgeballs and chucked one at Hazel. She shrieked and leaped aside-just as Leo through the other one at Nico. Nico was too distracted with Hazel leaping at him that he never saw the second ball coming. He flashed a middle finger and sulked off to the losers squad.

I realized I really hadn't done anything this entire game so I grabbed a ball and through it at Leo. It sailed right at him...and he waited for it. He caught it and his team screamed in cheer. Will ran back onto the playing field and grabbed a ball.

Dammit, even teams. Will lobbed a ball at Hazel, and it hit true. "Percy!" She yelled(she is quite the actress, wow), "finish this!"

I turned back to Leo and Will, holding two balls in my hands, both of them holding one, and suddenly I wasn't there. I was in my apartment, the day Annabeth was taken from me.

There were three that day, but only two monsters stood in front of me now. The dodgeballs turned into daggers in my hand. The monsters smiled maliciously at me. They were going to take Annabeth. I couldn't let that happen.

I growled, a sneer settling on my face. The monsters faltered, taking a step back. "Percy, you okay?" The one on the right asked.

I answered by winding up to throw. The monster yelped, but I threw that dagger as hard as I could. It sunk into the one on the right and it burst into golden dust.

For a split second I snapped out of it and saw Leo hit the wall tramps. Hard.

The taller monster stepped forward with his arms raised. "Percy. Are you okay?" He spoke slowly, trying to get through to me. I hefted the dagger, but the monster knocked it out of my hand. I raised my hand, but he grabbed my wrists. "Jason help me," he yelled.

The third monster came into view and I lunged, breaking out of the tall monsters hold and tackling the third to the ground. "Percy!" He yelled, "Snap out of it!"

I felt arms grab me from behind and I grew frantic. But then I heard Hazel's voice, telling me to calm down. I blinked a few times and found myself back in SkyZone. Looking around I saw Leo staring with wide eyes from where he'd hit the wall. Will sat on the trampoline and Jason lay flat on his back.

Hazel was trying to hold me in a hug and Frank, Nico, and Reyna knelt near me. "Dude, what-what was that?" Jason asked. I felt tears welling up in my eyes and I broke away from Hazel and backed myself into the wall.

"I'm sorry," I whispered meekly. What had I done? That's the first time I'd freaked out like that since her death. And it scared me. It scared me how blindsided I'd been, focusing on the flashback and not on what I was doing to my friends. What if I'd killed someone?

"Hey, it's okay," Will said, scooting closer to me. "I'm sorry," I said again, louder. "Does this-what did you see?" Hazel asked me. "You should really get away from me," I reasoned, trying to get them to listen. Didn't they know I was dangerous? Everyone I love gets hurt.

"Percy, we're not leaving you. We would never leave you. We're a family. Now can you tell us what just happened? What did you see?" Jason asked.

I twisted the ring on my necklace. A tear escaped my eye and I wiped it away, looking down. "That day in January," I said, " when they took her."

Hazel rubbed my back. "It was so real. I knew only one thing. I had to kill the monsters that were going to take her away from me."

Leo stalked over and plopped down in front of me. "No hard feelings okay? It's alright Percy." We shook on it and he pulled me up.

"How about we head over to my place. I could use a drink," Leo suggested and Reyna nodded along. "I like that idea."

We made our way to the Valdez household and that's where we stayed until late that night. I guess we just needed that quality time that comes with being with your closest friends.

It was Leo who brought up the diaper changing competition. "I'm getting up there," he said, "Annabeth still holds the record, but I'm getting up there."

"Oh yeah?" I challenged. I was pretty sure I was the only one who hadn't had anything to drink yet. But of course, being half-bloods with a higher metabolism than humans, it takes a lot to get us drunk.

"I bet I can change both the twins' diapers in under a minute." Jason whistled. "Alright, getting out the timer."

Calypso helped me get the the twins situated on the table with the diapers and wipes. I got in my diaper changing stance and Jason yelled, "Go!"

I started with Bianca, unbuckling her onesie. The new diaper was on in thirteen seconds. I flew over to Ethan and changed his dirty diaper, this one smelly(that must be bonus points, right?) and changed that one as well.

I re-buttoned the onesie and jumped back. "Done!" I yelled. Jason clicked the timer and stared at it in absolute disbelief. "Less then a minute? Dude, you made less then thirty seconds! This reads fucking 27 seconds! What the Hades!"

I think it's safe to say I was treated like a king the rest of the night.

I decided it was fairly late and went to put the babies down for the night. Leo said I could lay them down on their bed for the time being. When I got back down the stairs, Will and Reyna were facing off in an intense drinking game.

Judging by the empty shot glasses, they'd been going for awhile. Reyna still looked as sober as when she started. Will...not so much. But he was still going, so I admire him for that.

They went another round before Nico stepped in and called it quits. I silently thanked him. Will looked like he would fall right out of his chair if they went for another.

About an hour later, about half the kids were sleeping either in bedrooms or on the couch. Leo and Calypso had mysteriously disappeared *wink wink* and Jason excused himself to use the bathroom.

Two minutes later he came back. "Why is Will crying on the bathroom floor?" He asked.

Nico barely batted an eye. "He's drunk."

"Okay and?" Jason asked.

"He heard that I was married." Nico supplied.

"He's married to you though," Jason was clearly puzzled.

"He forgot," Nico said bluntly, as if this cleared everything up.

Piper chuckled, then started laughing. Soon everyone joined in. It was the best night I'd had in awhile.

Luke came up the stairs, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Can we go home, Daddy? I'm tired." He reaches his hands up to me and I picked him up. He fell asleep almost instantly in my arms.

"I think we better head out," I said. Hazel and Frank went upstairs to get the twins and carried them out to the car. I leaned over the couch and scooped Ariana into my arms. "Thanks everyone. This was really fun. Tell Leo thanks for having us when you see him."

While I buckled Luke into his car seat, Frank took Ari from me and buckled her in as well. The twins were already strapped in.

"See you guys," I said, giving them hugs. "See you Percy," Hazel said, and they walked back into the house. I drove us to the portal and then back to our apartment. I allowed myself to smile some more in memory of tonight. If only Annabeth were here.