Travis Stoll (ft how I imagine the big house main floor when I write about where they are in it)

"Why do you think Mr. D wants to talk to us?" Annabeth asked as the two of us made our way to the Big House after lunch.

I shrugged.

"Maybe he wants to actually talk about the cabin idea- you do draw a lot of designs."

"But then why not invite Beckendorf? We'd need a builder from the Hephaestus cabin."

"Not if we're just talking about concepts and whateve. He'd probably come to the next meeting." I pointed out, hearing footsteps rapidly approach from behind me. "It could just be-"

"Travis! Travis! Travis!" A voice I already recognized as Nico di Angelo called out, running up to Annabeth and I, out of breath by the time he caught up to us. "Do you know where Chiron is? I have... I have a question."

"Uh, yeah, probably in the Big House," I told the new recruit, noticing something small in his hand- a photograph, maybe? It was hard to tell. "we're heading there to talk to Mr. D right now. We can see if he's there. If not, Mr. D will know where he is."

"Okay!"

As the three of us continued walking, Annabeth to my left, Nico to my right, the daughter of Athena took notice of what was in Nico's hands as well.

"Is that a photograph?" She asked.

He nodded his head.

Didn't say anything. Just nodded his head.

Giving him a moment to elaborate, we realized he had given his answer.

"What's the photo of?" I added on.

"Oh!" The son of Hades (I'm trying to not think about that too much) said, realizing that Annabeth wanted to know what when she asked. "It's um, it's me and my sister, Bianca, and our baby sister, Elena, and our Mama and Papa right before we left home to come to America."

And while his accent didn't make it all that surprising that Nico didn't grow up in the area, I had assumed he was just Italian-American.

"When did you come to America?"

He thought about it for a second, maybe doing the math in his head.

"Um... That's a hard question." Nico started, still thinking. "Like, it was um... I was 9 and I'm almost 11. It was summer."

"So a year and a half ago?"

He shrugged.

"Something like that, yeah."

"And your dad went with you guys?"

Looking down, the young demigod nodded his head.

"He didn't want to take the photo, but Mama insisted." Nico told me, looking down at it. I couldn't make out much of it, but I could see that it was black and white- maybe a vintage camera? "Papa always hated taking photos or being painted, but Mama always made him do it."

I smiled, even if it didn't reach my eyes.

I wish I had that kind of relationship with my dad. To know if he liked being in photos or not.

To not feel weird calling him Dad.

"Are your parents still together?" I questioned, because if they had three kids...

Again, he looked at the photo.

"Yes." He said, making me a lot more envious of his situation (though not of his sister leaving him for the hunt). "They're together."

I saw Annabeth's expression tighten.

Approaching the Big House, I wasn't able to ask Nico where they lived now before Chiron and Mr. D took note of us, the two of them sitting on the porch at the Big House.

"Aria, Telemon, you made it!" I don't think I've heard Mr. D butcher a name as badly as he did just then. "And you brought Nolan with you? Why?"

"I um... I'm here because I have a question for Chiron, sir. I don't want to interrupt you, sorry."

Mr. D brushed the kid off.

"Fine by me, bother the old horse all you want. Andrea, Trevor, inside."

Did he find out that I'm helping Luke and the gang now?

But Annabeths also here, so it can't be that.

Can it be?

Opening a Diet Coke (how Mr. D hasn't gotten cancer from the amount of carcinogens he consumes daily is a medical miracle), the camp director sat down on the arm chair underneath the guise of Seymour, giving us an odd look.

"What are you- sit down. Don't be complete idiots. You're not even in trouble."

"We're not?" Annabeth asked, hesitant in tone as we followed directions from the god, sitting on the couch perpendicular to him. "I mean, I haven't even been at camp long enough to be in trouble so yeah, but then why summon us, sir?"

"Because my job is more than just giving out consequences- even though that's fun to do." He responded, making me wonder if he somehow had an alcoholic Diet Coke based solely on his slight change in tone and posture. He set the can on the end table to the left of his chair, making me jump after this morning. "I have to make sure all you brats are safe, which means talking to you every once in a while. I already talked to Tay, but there's a few things I want to talk to you about, Annabelle, so I figured it wouldn't hurt if he heard some of it. It's nothing new to him."

"Okay?" Annabeth responded, audibly confused, as she should be.

"When was the last time you talked to Luke?" But I guess because he lived to go to college, Mr. D decided that he could use Luke's actual name. "You two were really close-have you talked to him since he left? Outside of the day he visited, of course."

The question seemed to catch Annabeth off guard.

"Have I... No, I haven't." She answered, looking down. "Well, we crossed paths early in in our quest, but Clarisse mentioned that. Those two days are the only time I've seen him."

There was a pause.

"I- I want to go visit him," the daughter of Athena seemed to say as if she needed a reason for not visiting Luke. "But living in California in the off season makes timing tricky and then in the summer I always think about going with Thalia, but I also know that those are their date nights and I don't want to invite myself to their date or interrupt their plans or just... Yeah. I haven't seen him or gotten to speak with him one on one. Why? Is he okay?"

Mr. D shrugged.

"I'm sure he's fine, I don't fucking know how he's doing, kid. I haven't talked to him either." The god responded, standing up to go grab something from the other side of the room- a mint maybe? Chiron and Mr. D always have little snacks right by the entrance to the Big House. "Either way, with Artemis missing, people like my father are suspecting that there's a team working together to make these things happen and that's it's not just one person anymore- if it ever was one person."

"What like, with the Bolt and the Tree?"

Mr. D nodded his head.

"Now, I now you're not the type to participate in that, which is why I said you aren't in trouble." The wine god elaborated as the cogs started to turn in her head. "But you know how Connor is- always insisting it was Luke, and while I don't believe he did, it's still my job to ask you if you've seen or spoken to him and noticed anything suspicious."

"If I've... Sir, you know that I would report anything suspicious and I would never... I'd never tarnish mine or my mother's image like that. To go against the gods in such a matter... I couldn't imagine it."

"I know you wouldn't." Mr. D repeated himself, turning to walk back towards us. "It's simply my job to ask. We believe there's a larger force helping the demigod, but without proof, we don't know. Have you-"

SLAM!

Barging through the front door, a man around Mr. D's (appeared) age bounded in, slamming the camp director against the wall before he had a chance to respond, holding him by the throat and knocking the wind out of him in the process.

"What did you say to him?" The man asked in a voice I almost couldn't hear- his rage calm. I felt a chill run down my back despite the fact that he didn't even know I was in the room. "What did you do to him?"

There was no response.

Being held by the throat, Mr. D couldn't breathe, much less speak. He opened his mouth, but the only thing that came out was a cough.

Realizing his hold was limiting the gods actions, the man loosened his grip and slammed Mr. D back against the wall when he tried to move away, holding him up so his feet weren't on the ground.

Being slammed against the wall on the other side of the desks from us for the second time is what seemed to break Mr. D's act- his eyes widened, fear seeming to set in.

Who could scare the god of insanity?

Furthermore, who was insane enough to physically challenge an Olympian? From what I could tell, this man might be a demigod (though most of them don't live that long), but he definitely wasn't divine, immortal, or a god. He was a little taller than Mr. D and just a little skinnier, but they had the same general build. He was wearing a winter coat, which insinuated that he came to camp recently from somewhere else.

I was sure that we'd never met before, but he still seemed familiar. Like I'd seen him in photos or perhaps saw him on Olympus on one of our field trips there. He also has the same nose as Mr. D, which seemed weird.

"I said," the man repeated himself, a murderous glare in his eyes. "What did you do to him?"

"I... I'm sure whatever he told you is a misunderstanding." The god defended himself. "You know how kids are- they overexaggerate stuff all-"

He tightened his grip on the camp directors throat, forcing silence out of him.

I leaned over to Annabeth, who looked almost as stunned as Mr. D did right now.

"Do you know who that is?"

Slowly, she nodded her head as the front door of the Big House swung open again, Nico di Angelo and Chiron standing in the doorway.

"Gabriel!" The centaur scolded, taking a step towards the two men. "What do you think you're-"

Mr. D put a hand out towards Chiron, effectively stopping him where he was.

"I can handle this, Chiron." He insisted, coughing from his limited oxygen intake. "Go finish your conversation with Nemo. I'll be okay."

Hesitantly, Chiron looked at the two of them, then looked back at the son of Hades and left the Big House, closing the door behind him.

"That's Gabe," Annabeth whispered to me, which I knew now. "Percy's step-dad."

She paused.

"He's also Mr. D's son."

Oh.

Oh.

Percy and Grover must've gone into the city to get his meds, and if something happened while he was at home...

Is he okay?

I don't know if his dad would come here like this if he was.

"Gabe, kiddo, I was just..." The god coughed, trying to excuse his actions. "I was just trying to do my job. How could I have known that he would react like that? It's not-"

"How could you have known that?" The demigod furiously asked, throwing his father to the ground. "How about when I called you to tell you that he was getting sent to rehab because he was hurting himself again. How about when I updated you at least twice a week while he was there, if not more? How about when I called you the day he was released not because he was ready to leave treatment, but because our insurance wouldn't approve another day and both you and his useless excuse of a sperm donor refused to help cover the cost for another week. How about when I called you because he insisted on going to help Grover recruit the two new demigods because he missed his boyfriend and his friends and I needed you to understand that he was still fragile. How could you have known? How COULDN'T you know?"

Taking a shaky breath, Mr. Jackson's expression shifted from pure rage to a mix of frustration and betrayal.

"I called you because I trusted you to look after my son in what's supposed to be his second home." The son of Dionysus continued, his fists clenched. "When Percy arrived at camp, I trusted you to care for him like you promised you would, but after this summer, it was foolish of me to believe that you had an ounce of empathy or care for any child, much less your own grandson."

There was a beat of silence, Mr. D slowly moving to stand.

"Gabe I... You have to believe me, I didn't mean to cause the kid any extra distress." The god of wine insisted, but it wasn't justifiable in his son's eyes (nor mine, if we're being honest). "I'm not sure what he's told you, but big things have been happening, and if we don't find out who did it-"

"You didn't mean to? You actively chose to ignore his well-being by trying to fear-monger information out of him, none of which is okay." Percy's dad continued, and as Mr. D tried to close in on him, the older demigod forced the god back against the wall, kneeing him in the cut before grabbing him by his jaw. "Guess what, old man? Your intentions mean nothing when your impact put my son's life into question."

"Oh, it did not-"

But Gabe wasn't hearing him out anymore.

"I spent my afternoon praying to any god besides you that Percy wasn't going to let himself go." Gabe informed his father. "That... That whatever was going on in his head, it wouldn't drive him to try to kill himself. I felt safe sending him here because of the improvements he made over the last three weeks, and in less than 72 from being released from in patient treatment- no, in less than 12 hours of coming to Camp Half-Blood, you single handedly derailed every bit of progress that he spent weeks trying to get. I don't care what your intention was- you will live with the consequence of your impact."

Mr. D pursed his lips, visibly anxious.

"Gabe, kiddo, you wouldn't make a villain of your dad now, would you?"

Mr. Jackson looked the god up and down, releasing his hold on him, causing another coughing fit from Mr. D.

"I don't see my father here. I only see a man with no room in his heart for anyone besides himself and the people who give him pleasure."

"Gabe-"

But he wasn't done talking.

"You will be responsible for every single bill and charge that comes from this." Mr. Jackson informed the man he just disowned. "And if I hear that you cause my son any more distress, I will ensure you recieve a punishment worse than anything Hades could dream up."

"But son," Mr. D begged, the look in his eyes becoming desperate. "Please, as your father, I'm telling you it doesn't have to-"

"Don't call me that." Gabe snapped. "I don't care who you are to me- you hurt my son. You risked putting his life into jeopardy over a job you claim to hate. You ignored his mental health and his well-being, and both of those things are inexcusable, and for that, you are less than nothing to me."

Gabe turned to leave, stopping only when his hand was on the door handle.

"This should go unsaid, but you are uninvited to any family event I am hosting," Mr. Jackson told him. "If I see you at the reception, or any family gathering, I will have you arrested and escorted out. You are to leave my family alone, and if you don't, I will tell your father that you are breaking the rules of your punishment."

He looked back at the god of madness and wine.

"Goodbye, Dionysus. I wish for us to never again cross paths, and hope that my brothers too see your black heart and choose freedom for themselves."

And just like that, he was gone, leaving Dionysus to stand near the entrance of the Big House, looking like a child who wasn't ready for his first day of school.

Moments later, Chiron broke the silence.

"Dionysus?" Hearing Chiron use Mr. D's full name was a slight shock to my system- he usually only uses it when the two of them are arguing or when things are serious. "Dio, darling, are you okay?"

Since when did Chiron call him Dio?

And despite the bruises forming around his neck and jaw, Mr. D shoved his companion off.

"I'm fine."

He obviously wasn't.

Annabeth leaned over to me.

"Let's give them some space," she suggested, an idea I was more than eager to agree with. "if whatever else he wanted to talk about was important, Mr. D can summon us after dinner."

Nodding my head, I carefully followed Annabeth out of the Big House, leaving through the side door that connects to the infirmary and orientation room.

The last we saw Chiron and Mr. D, the centaur was trying to comfort the god who refused to open his heart to the centaur.

•••
Sorry this took a million years I had to write the part where Gabe barges in and on (like 2/3 of the chapter) literally 3 times bc my app kept crashing