Percy Jackson

My parents pulled me into the most desperate hug I'd ever received.

"You're... You're alive," Gabe said aloud as we dispersed from the hug. Mom took a step back, allowing room since she did see me what would've been this morning (gods, it's been a long day), but Gabe only moved an arms length away. He cupped my face with his right hand, his left hand on my arm. "you're here, you're home, you're alive.... Are you okay? I know that you're like, safe, because the police let you go but are... Are you okay? Where are your friends? Are they okay? One of them was your roommate from Yancy, wasn't it? Is he doing okay?"

And although the millions of questions did leave me slightly overwhelmed, I couldn't help but smile as I myself realized something that I'd only had an inkling about the last time I saw my dad.

"You're sober."

The comment confused him.

"Wh... Yeah, it's been almost two weeks, why?"

So I was right. I thought to myself. Us vanishing would either make him go off the deep end or it would force him to sober up.

I wondered if Eddy had anything to do with it.

Seeing Gabe, seeing my dad, sober for the first time in multiple years made me want to cry out of sheer relief. So I did the thing that I hoped he wouldn't find to be weird or too much since I'm not a little kid anymore, and I pulled my dad back into a hug.

"Just... Cuz." I insisted, feeling him chuckle. "I missed you. I'm proud of you."

He gave me a squeeze.

"Thank you, kiddo," Gabe said before I let him go. "And I'm sorry for everything that happened while I was drinking. That obviously doesn't change what happened, but you still deserved an apology. But enough about me: are you okay? When the cops called to say you were missing... Who was the kidnapper? Was it somebody we knew?"

"Was... No, it wasn't." I promised my stepdad. "I wasn't kidnapped, actually. We only met the person they labelled as the kidnapper, Ares, in Denver when he offered us a ride if we got something for him that his girlfriend forgot. He got us our ride to Vegas and then he basically framed me for a crime I didn't commit and that's what happened in LA. Just confronting him.'

"Confronting... Did he give you a last name? If he framed you for something..."

Sighing, I looked over to Mom, who I'm assuming was going to tell Gabe about my father tonight.

Maybe even during the meal it seemed like she was in the middle of cooking.

"I think you might want to sit down, Dad," I told him. "Mom and I have a lot to catch you up on."

"Wh—" confused, Gabe followed directions as he sat down on the couch, followed by me as Mom said she'd be right back, the food should almost be done. "What's going on? I mean I know you just back from... A cross country trip? If you weren't kidnapped, what...?"

Looking down, I took a breath.

"I met my bio dad," I broke the news to Gabe, who looked... Almost saddened by the news and I think I knew why.

For my whole life, Gabe has been my dad and I've said that a lot. He was the one who raised me, and he was the one who was there to watch me grow up and support me as I grew up.

As I am growing up still. I'm still a kid.

But when he started drinking, when his friend died and 9/11 happened and Mom miscarried all very close together, I think he became as lot more envious of Poseidon than he ever had been before he started drinking and he started to worry that be wouldn't be enough for either my mom or I and that we'd leave him for my bio dad. I can't count the number of times I heard "if he wasn't dead..." from Gabe in the last three or four years.

Then Mom and I vanished for two weeks, and he sobers up, but maybe it's too late.

Because I know who my bio dad is now.

Gabe's expression only dropped for a moment, but it was enough for me to know that he was afraid that this was a permanent goodbye.

"You... You did?" He asked as Mom walked in and set down a platter of food for us to eat from on the coffee table. He feigned a smile before looking to mom. To his wife. "That's... Great. Did you know that he was alive still? You weren't with... Were you?"

Because he's sober, but he's had almost 4 years worth of anxiety and envy built up inside of him that he bottled up, and I don't blame him for asking Mom that knowing that those thoughts have been in the back of his mind for years.

"Me? Sweetie, no," Mom reassured him, placing her hand on top of his and squeezing. "I was the one that was actually kidnapped and held for ransom. Not by Percy's father. I haven't seen him since he dropped by Montauk like.... That was the last time you went with, so six years ago? And before then, I hadn't seen him since he left. I knew he was alive, but it wasn't because we were in contact— he would've paid child support if that were the case— but just because of who he is."

"You were kidnapped?" I could not only see, but hear my dad's stress levels rising as he learned things. "Is that why the car... What? By who? Are you sure you're okay?"

Letting out a chuckle, Mom gave his hand another squeeze. Gabe looked at the their hands before looking back to Mom. She smiled.

"I'm okay, Gabe, I promise." She told him. "All things considered, it could've been a lot worse. I was given food and water. Like, a normal amount of food and water. The room was nice, even if I had to sleep on a floor. It was still stressful, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't harmed."

"You're sure? Because we can bring you to a doctor or a therapist if you want to see one."

"I'm okay, sweetheart," mom repeated, taking a fry to eat. "I should've talked to you about Percy's biological father years ago, probably when he came to Montauk if we're being honest, but I just... I was selfish and I wasn't ready to let Percy go yet and I knew that telling you would speed the process up so I... Never did. I'm sorry."

"Letting him go?" But nothing either of us were saying seemed to soothe Gabe's anxiety.

My dad looked back at me as an idea started to swirl in the back of his mind.

"Are you not staying?"

"I'll..." I lost my voice when he looked at me in the same way he looked at Mom when she miscarried.

Like he didn't know if he should cry or not. Looking almost lost. Confused.

And seeing him like that made me decide what i was going to do very quickly.

"I'll be back at the end of summer," I promised my dad, which seemed to surprise Mom. "I'm not... I'm not staying with him. I'm at a summer camp full of kids who are... Like me."

"Like you? That's good, right?"

I took a breath, filtering my response to that last question.

"Yeah," I confirmed, not wanting to worry him any worse. "It is good. It's safe, up on the Northern tip of Long Island. It's a summer camp full of other kids like me— demigods. Some younger, but mostly older."

"Demigods?"

"Demigods."

"In... What do you mean by that? In what sense"

Mom and I had a whole debate in about 3 seconds before she decided that, as the person who fucked the man, she could tell Gabe.

"The literal one," Mom told her husband, who didn't even seem to know how to process that (which, fair. Me, too, honestly. I'm just rolling with the punches if we're being honest). "The person Percy ran into in Denver and LA was Ares— the god of war. I was kidnapped by Hades— the god of the Underworld. That happened because Zeus— king of the gods, accused Percy of stealing from him back in December."

"Even though I didn't even know he existed in December." I added.

"This is true." Mom went on. "And he blamed Percy because Zeus and Percy's father, Poseidon— god of the Sea, fight a lot. Gods can't directly take from each other, so they usually get their kids to do it."

"Except that it ended up being Ares and somebody else who did it," I filled in for the both of them. "we don't know who the demigod was that did it yet, or why they did it because Ares acted as a cover, it wasnt his idea. Ares framed me after I left on a quest to retrieve the thing from who I thought had it— Hades. I assumed that he'd have it since he'd taken Mom. When I returned the thing, I met Zeus and Poseidon and..."

"You met him?" Both of my parents asked in unison.

I sighed.

"I met him." I confirmed. "Trust me, if I was leaving to stay with him, I wouldn't do it. I was in the same room as him for like 20 minutes and in that span of time he managed to both call me a wrongdoing, say that he was sorry that I was born, snd then insist that he was proud of me and wanted to be there for me as a kid as kid that chsnged the fact that he wasn't there and that he evidently isn't going to be around still because gods arent supposed to have personal contact with their kids, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, regardless of how true it is."

"That's what he said when he left," Mom confirmed for me. "It was pretty new— they passed some law about it like four or five months before you were born, which was when I saw him for the last time. We... Shared words about that."

"Shared words?" Gabe asked.

"I cussed him and all of the gods out," Mom clarified, which means that my annoyance and lack of patience with them must be genetic. "And then I did it again when he came to Montauk because he didn't want to see Percy yet, nor did he want to respect our marriage. He didn't get far, obviously, but he tried."

Taking this all in, Gabe looked at Mom and you know what, when you don't know personally, it's a fair question:

"You turned down a god?"

Mom just rolled her eyes and placed a kiss on Gabe's temple.

That kiss was the first real show of affection (besides the fact that she was holding his hand) that I'd seen between my parents in at least two years.

The first real something that meant anything in two plus years.

And sure, as their kid, it meant a lot to me to see my parents still be affectionate even after everything we've gone through both in the short and long term. It was like a little symbol of hope that things would be okay when I got back in August.

But I don't think it meant nearly as much to me as it did to Gabe, who looked to Mom after she gave him a kiss like he was astounded by the fact that she would still do that. It seemed to shock him.

"And I would do it again."

The rest of lunch went pretty well. I translated the news' story into what actually happened, leaving out some details i either wasn't ready to talk about or one that really weren't that important for how much they'd make my parents worry. After lunch, I was able to actually pack a small bag of my stuff to bring with to camp (including my skateboard) and my parents walked me to the station so that way they could say goodbye.

It wasn't an easy goodbye. I won't lie, I felt bad leaving Gabe and Mom, but watching them hold hands again as we walked to the station reminded me that it'd be okay because at least they have each other.

Plus, we can write.

We will write.

"Love you, sweetie," Mom said as she gave me a hug. "tell Grover and any other friends you make— and you better make others— that they're welcome any time."

"We could throw a big birthday party when you get home to meet them all!" Gabe agreed, joining the hug. "But no partner before the end of summer, you're still too young, you hear me?"

I couldn't help but smile.

"Loud and clear, Dad. Loud and clear."