Work Text:
-Two Years Later-
Percy and Annabeth left Caitlyn Chase with her grandparents while they headed to their social worker’s office.
They’d gotten a call a while before saying that they were being considered as potential parents for a toddler. They told themselves that surely no small child could be as much of a menace as Estelle, and that at least was a comfort.
It was intimidating, sure, but it’d always been part of the plan. It was funny how some things followed the plan so neatly and some things went completely haywire. And by funny she meant godsdamn annoying.
Their social worker, a black woman in her forties with endless patience for children and none for adults, scrolled on her IPad and sighed.
‘I’ll be level with you two. This has been a fucking nightmare.’
Were adoption places meant to be more formal? Probably. But her and Percy operated in the lovely limbo of immortals screwing around so literally nothing operated normally.
‘We’ve had satyrs and fauns looking into every foster home and orphanage they can get their hooves near-‘ Lorna continued, ‘but they’re not perfect. Sometimes, they miss kids.’
She slid her tablet towards them.
‘Like this girl here. Her name’s Harper, she’s two, and she wasn’t even considered.’
‘Why not?’
Lorna rubbed between her eyebrows. ‘Because the absolute dunderhead we had looking into that home forgot that the gods like to go on vacation every now and then. They assumed that only ‘Americans’ could be demigods, and to the best of our knowledge, she was born in Vietnam.’
Annabeth finally found a picture in the pdf. She had a round face, two tiny pigtails, and a big, goofy grin that endeared her to them immediately.
‘Her whole history’s an enigma. She was literally left on a doorstep, and the rest of it is guesswork and assumptions.’
She didn’t even need to look at her boyfriend to guess what he was thinking. Another kid dumped on a doorstep.
Lorna continued, ‘Anyway, we figured it out eventually.’
‘Smell?’
‘That, and ‘strange occurrences’, whatever that means.’
‘Oh yeah,’ Percy said, ‘I had tons of weird shit going on when I was little. Think my mom aged ten years in ten months.’
That got him a small smile. It made Lorna look less like a headmaster and more like a teacher. Then she deflated.
‘Gods, I hate how convoluted this is. So many gods couldn’t keep it in their pants or learn what the hell a condom was. If I could, I’d sit every single god, goddess, or other down for a good old-fashioned sex ed course. But noOoo. We just get tips from homes that suddenly have wheat growing from their pipes and have to figure out which one of the horde needs an extra close eye.’
Annabeth had to ask. ‘Hang on, this programmes super new, right?’
Lorna nodded. ‘Your girl was one of the first we found a home for.’
‘If you don’t mind me asking,’ Percy said, finally looking up from the pdf he was struggling to read, ‘What took so long?’
‘Good question.’ Lorna’s face darkened. ‘Lack of interest before now, and no-one wanted to put in the time, effort, and money it takes to run something like this.’
‘So what changed?’ He asked.
She leaned forward. ‘I don’t suppose I need to explain the Titan War to you?’
‘We were pretty close to the action.’ Annabeth said.
Lorna exhaled through her nose. ‘From what I understand, you crazy kids were the action. Still, there was a whole lotta shit going on behind the scenes. Namely-’
Annabeth braced herself. She always did when she sensed Luke was about to come up.
‘Every kid that wound up in that ‘army’ fell through the cracks first. There were runaways, migrants, queer kids who’d been kicked out, orphans, everything. I was their social worker, talked to a lot of them afterwards, tried to find somewhere for them to go. More often than not, they didn’t have anywhere to go to begin with. So they dropped off the map, went haywire, lost the run of themselves- whatever you wanna call it, the result was the same. The Titan army offered them a place to stay and a false sense of power. It was the gods’ fault they were there. They were bruised but not beaten, so why shouldn’t they fight back? Why shouldn’t they pick up a sword and learn to use it? And the Titan army had been so good to them, hadn’t it? Didn’t they want to pay them back?’
She felt sick. Her ‘big brother’ had taken her off the streets, found her somewhere to stay, made her feel safe- And that’s exactly what he’d done for the rest of them. But their journeys didn’t end at Half-Blood Hill.
More often than not, they ended up as anonymous piles of ash in an urn.
‘You get the picture. And you understand why we can’t let that happen again. I’ve read too many goddamn incident reports.’
They nodded solemnly.
After that, the meeting went smoothly. They could meet Harper, and there would be a lot of thought about how she’d get on with Caitlyn Chase. In theory, bringing two vulnerable kids into a safe home was a good idea. In practice, though, it could set both of them back.
Harper had been abandoned once, they were determined not to do it again.
-
Something weighed on Percy on the drive home and later that night.
-
‘Tough first day? I’m Luke.’
Percy quickly blinked tears out of his eyes. ‘All this time I thought my dad was some deadbeat, turns out-!’
‘He’s a deadbeat god! I get how you feel. Look, the gods are busy- They have a lot of kids and they don’t always care.’
Luke looked at him sympathetically. Not pityingly, the way Chiron had.
He filled him in on how the gods worked, and comforted him.
He led him to the Hermes cabin, (the only home he had left now,) and said;
‘If you need a friend to help figure it out-‘
And Percy needed a friend. Desperately.
-
That night, Percy and Annabeth were staying up for a movie night. Caitlyn was dead to the world, so maybe they’d get some peace.
Since coaching Estelle in fibre arts, Annabeth had picked some up herself. These days, Caitlyn sported hand-knitted sweaters, (Percy’s favourite was the one with the starfish on the elbows,) and a properly bedazzled stroller.
So now she was knitting away on some crazy intricate lace pattern that she made look easy.
‘I like having something to do with my hands while I’m thinking.’ She said, ‘It’s a calming activity.’
Bonus point for the calming activity leading to adorable sweaters.
‘I can tell you’re thinking.’ Annabeth told him.
‘Hm?’ He said, barely looking at the tv screen. They were meant to be catching up on a crime drama that was so-bad-it’s-good.
‘Your eyebrows are scrunched. What’s up?’
‘… What Lorna said. About the half-bloods who joined Krono’s army.’
‘And you’re thinking that it so easily could’ve been you.’
‘Remember that documentary we watched about cults? And how they pick people?’
‘Last Saturday? Yep.’
‘Well, I’m thinking Luke did basically the same thing. People down on their luck or vulnerable or hurting- like I was. I didn’t have a home or anything. Like hell I was going back to Gabe, if he’d even have taken me- and other than that?’
He picked at the threads of his jeans. He hadn’t bothered changing into his pajamas.
‘If my mom hadn’t survived, I’d either have stayed in camp or tried my luck on the streets. Grieving, angry demigod desperate for somewhere to go? Yeah, I’d have been easy pickings, alright. And half the kids in Krono’s army ended up dead.’
Annabeth sighed. ‘I was thinking the same, honestly. He saved me from the streets. He told me we were family. If he’d had a little longer to convince me, if I had been a tiny bit less sure about camp, if anything-‘
He squeezed her hand.
‘You might’ve been dragged in, but I would’ve been second-in-command.’ She finished.
Annabeth pulled him in for a hug and forehead kiss.
‘Things are different now.’ She said, but it sounded more like a question.
‘They have to be. We’ve got a kid to worry about.’
‘And maybe another one coming.’
‘Harper Jackson. Has a nice ring to it.’
‘I can’t wait. If they called us to say she’s ready to go right this second, I’d be on my way there.’
He laughed. ‘You’re cute when you’re broody.’
‘Oh, shaddap.’ But she leaned in to kiss him.
Their moment was interrupted by an indignant babble from the crib next to the bed.
Percy groaned. ‘I think her majesty requires our attention.’
‘Looks like it. She’ll be old enough for her own room soon.’
‘Nooo. She’s so cute and tiny right now, she’s not allowed to grow up.’
‘Now who’s slushy about babies?’
‘Me, but you knew that already.’ He paused. ‘… Do you ever wish she’d stay small forever? Like, I’d always be able to pick her up and make her feel better. She’s gonna have to face a whole world, ‘Beth.’
She squeezed his hand. ‘It’ll be different for her. She won’t have to deal with what we dealt with.’
He nodded and scooped up their daughter.
She’d never slip through the cracks, not while they were alive.