Chapter Text
If you know Annabeth Chase, always - and I mean seriously, always - trust her judgement.
When she tells you that the Greek mythology class that Percy wants you to take with him will be lame and a waste of time, listen to her. It'll actually be pretty interesting, but it's going to be the source of a lot of problems in your life. You'll learn that your best friend has a lot of weird and incredibly specific hang-ups about the way that the gods are portrayed in classic literature. If you're like me and know absolutely nothing about mythology going into the class, then it's not going to be the easy A that Percy promised, because he's going to have to help you with your homework, and he speaks with absolute authority on all this stuff without ever citing a single source. But worst of all, if you take this class, then when you meet a cute guy named Apollo, you'll think his name is really cool and you'll want to know more about him.
And when Annabeth tells you to completely ignore that cute guy named Apollo and shut him down if he starts to flirt with you, please, for the love of Olympus, please trust her judgement. Otherwise your life might turn out like mine.
If you're like me and you decide to completely ignore all of Annabeth's good advice, for no reason other than you thought she couldn't possibly be right about everything, then at least take some advice from me and come clean to your friends about it immediately. Don't wait for monsters to attack you in a Starbucks like I did.
I was completely stunned when the barista turned around and had feathers instead of hair. Her nose wasn't just beak-like, it was an actual beak. She set my drink down on the counter.
"De-caf esssssssspresso for Gwen," she said in a raspy voice. She screeched like a hawk, leaping onto the counter, and Annabeth grabbed my wrist and hauled me right out of there.
"Run for the apartment!" she said, stopping and letting go of me. She was turning to go back into the cafe.
"You can't go back in there!" I called, taking a step toward her. She turned back at me with a glare.
"Just run!"
Trust Annabeth's judgement, said the voice in my head that I used to not listen to. Well, I'd seen where ignoring that voice got me, so this time I decided to listen to it. I forced my legs to run, but hardly a few steps later I heard glass shattering, and I couldn't help but look over my shoulder.
Annabeth was holding a dagger and shield - what the fuck? - and standing her ground against the massive creature. It looked like a harpy from that mythology class I took with Percy, but that couldn't be right...could it? My blood ran cold when I realized that the harpy's piercing gaze was on me.
"Out of my way!" it screeched, swiping at Annabeth with a long clawed arm. The sound of its voice startled me back into action, and I turned away from the fight and began to sprint again.
No matter how fast I ran, it seemed like I could still hear the sounds of the fight behind me. I didn't dare look over my shoulder again; it felt like my brain was trying to protect me from the incomprehension of seeing a harpy in real life. I finally got to the door of the apartment building, fumbling with my key because my hands were shaking so badly. When I got the door open, I heard Annabeth's voice behind me.
"Gwen! Hold the door!" she called. I turned and saw her sprinting down the block, the harpy hot on her heels. Just as she got to the stoop, she turned suddenly and quickly swiped upward with her dagger in one smooth motion. It caught the harpy under the chin, and it screeched and reeled backwards. She ran up the stoop, taking the steps two at a time, and pushed me inside the building, closing the heavy metal door tight behind her.
She urged me towards the stairs. Now more than ever, I hated living on the fourth floor of a walk-up. We sprinted up the stairs together until we reached our floor. I doubled over, panting, as soon as we brust through the stairwell door, and Annabeth had to come back and grab my wrist to drag me into our apartment. Thank the gods it was a weekend that Percy was visiting, because he sprang up off the couch before the door had time to slam shut behind us.
"What's going on?" he asked, digging into his pocket for something.
"Harpy - " Annabeth gasped, pointing out the window behind Percy, where I could see the harpy had scaled up the side of our building. If that thing broke our window, we were going to have to pay to replace the glass. I thought I was gonna pass out. "I don't get it! She wants Gwen!"
Percy glanced at me briefly before producing a pen from his pocket. He uncapped it, and suddenly he was holding a sword, sharp and gleaming. The harpy's sharp talons scraped against the window. Percy and Annabeth sidled up to either side of the window, meeting eyes and nodding, before Annabeth threw open the window and let the harpy climb in.
Between Percy and Annabeth, it didn't take long to defeat the harpy. With one final screech, it started to fade away. Eventually, all that was left of it were some feathers scattered on the floor and the scratches on our window, which Annabeth was closing. I stood stock-still with my back pressed against the front door, heart still pounding in my ears. Annabeth tucked away her dagger, and I lost sight of her shield. Percy placed a pen cap on his sword, and all of a sudden it was a pen again, being stuffed back in his pocket. Annabeth crossed the room to me.
"Hey," she said gently, "are you alright?"
My brain was racing with thoughts, so many so fast that I couldn't comprehend it. The only thing that managed to get its way out of my mouth was, "What do you mean she wanted me?"
Annabeth looked over her shoulder at Percy, who was watching us with an expression that was equal parts shocked and grave. She lead me to sit on the sofa, gently sqeezing my trembling hands once I was sitting. Once I was settled, she and Percy sat across from me on the coffee table.
"Gwen," she began carefully, "that was a harpy."
"Like..." I gulped. "Like from our class."
"Exactly," Percy said. Unbidden, my mind flashed back to half a year ago, in this same living room. Apollo, that's a cool name. Like from Greek mythology, right? The cute guy sitting on the sofa had flashed me a big grin. Exactly.
"I thought that it wanted me, but when I took off in the other direction, it went after you instead." Annabeth said. I shook my head, trying to slow down my brain and process each piece of information one at a time.
“Why would it want me?"
"Gwen," Percy said slowly, like he was piecing things together in his brain. "How long were you in foster care?"
"As long as I can remember," I frowned. "Why?"
"Percy," said Annabeth quietly, "you don't think...?"
"And you never knew your parents?" he continued. I shrugged.
"No. I think I was, like, three when I got put into the system." I fidgeted in my seat. "I don't really get what this has to do with whatever the hell just happened."
"Gwen -" Percy started, but Annabeth abruptly interrupted.
“Let's not get too hasty," she said to him, and then turned back to me. "Gwen, has anything like this ever happened to you before?"
"No!" I sputtered. "I definitely would've remembered if it had! Why do you say that like it's happened to you?!"
Percy and Annabeth shared a look, one that said that they were sharing a thought that I wasn't in on. One that kind of said, it's definitely happened to both of us. A lot.
"Okay," Annabeth said placatingly, leaning forward to place another calming hand over mine. "That's good,"
"Well if she's not one of us," Percy said pointedly, sounding doubtful, "then what else could it be? You guys have lived together for over a year, so even if she has your scent on her, why would that only matter now? It's been months since Apollo came to visit you guys, so it can't be his scent; it would have faded by now."
"Wait a second," I said. "Apollo? Does he have something to do with all this?"
"Probably not," Percy shrugged. His face was still twisted in confusion.
"Only probably?" I asked quietly. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know the answer to that question. I'm still not sure what made the pieces fall together, creating a picture that I couldn't understand. Maybe it was the secrecy surrounding the first time I'd met him, lounging comfortably on our couch pretending that Percy and Annabeth weren’t mincing words around me. Maybe it was the complete out-of-the-blue coincidence of seeing him again that summer, when he'd reappeared right as I'd wished for someone to be with so I wasn't alone. It had seemed to good to be true. I felt a nasty churning in my stomach the more I thought about it. Annabeth frowned at me.
"Where is this line of questioning coming from?"
I sighed, wringing my hands nervously. "You remember when you told me not to let him flirt with me?"
Her face fell. "Oh no."
"Uh...yeah."
"I don't get it," Percy frowned. "You flirted with Apollo and now you have a harpy after you? That sounds like something he'd do if you rejected him, not if you went along with it."
"No." I shook my head. "I, um. We did more than flirt."
Percy's eyes bugged out of his head. "Did you -?! You had sex with Apollo?!"
I groaned, throwing my head back and covering my face.
"Wait, so...it was that bad that he's sending harpies after you?"
"Percy," Annabeth said sharply. I heard a soft thump that might've been her whacking him on the back of the head. I wanted to dissolve into thin air. I wanted to single-handedly invent time travel so I could go back in time and prevent myself from ever ignoring Annabeth's advice. And if that happened to rip a hole in the space-time continuum and destroy all of reality, then maybe it was for the best.
"Gwen..." Annabeth hesitated. "Please don't tel me what I think you're about to tell me."
I sighed and slumped in my seat, defeated.
"Yeah. I'm pregnant."
"Oh, shit." Percy's jaw went slack.
Annabeth buried her face in her hands. "Oh gods."
"I'm sorry," I said, and I'm still not sure what I was apologizing for. It was a lot, and I was overwhelmed.
"We're not angry," Percy said calmly. "Just disappointed."
I huffed out a half-hearted laugh.
Annabeth suddenly grabbed her dagger and stood up. I startled.
"This isn't something I thought I was going to do today," she muttered to herself, moving around the sofa. "But I already killed a harpy, so why not?"
"W-where are you going?" I asked.
"I'm gonna go kill Apollo for not listening to me," she said casually. I gulped.
"Annabeth," Percy sighed, standing to follow her. "You can't go marching up to Olympus with your dagger." Thank goodness that Percy was here to be calm and reasonable. He pulled his pen from his pocket and held it out to her. Wait a second - Olympus? "Here, take Riptide. It's heavier."
What?!
"Wait a second," I said, shooting to my feet. "You guys know something that I don't, and I think you should tell me."
Annabeth sighed, looking between Percy and me.
"You're right," she relented, motioning towards the sofa. "Let's sit back down. This is going to be a long story."
And that was when they told me all the things that you probably already know - the Greek gods were real, and one had knocked me up. Both Percy and Annabeth were the result of similar unions between the gods and mortals, and this kind of monster fighting was apparently just another facet of every day life for them. It was a lot to take in.
I had known them for three years. Three entire years where this was apparently just something that happened to them occasionally, and I had no clue. Their summer camp was a summer camp for demigods, and the other camp friends that they'd introduced me to were also demigods - with the exception of Rachel, who was a mortal like me, but also an oracle, whatever the hell that meant. They quieted when they were done, watching me carefully. I stayed quiet for a few minutes, trying to sort out all of my thoughts. This had a lot of implications for my future, a future that I hadn't even decided what to do about yet. All these thoughts were so heavy and hard to wade through. I sighed and shook my head.
"This all would've been nice to know, like, four months ago."
Percy chuckled quietly, but Annabeth bristled.
“Well, I did tell you -"
"Annabeth," I stopped her. "I literally have the consequence of not listening to you living inside of my body. I could do without the 'I told you so.'"
“Fine," she said. "Spare me the gross details, but...where exactly did you find time to do the nasty with a Greek god?"
“Well," I shifted in my seat. "You know how over the summer, my foster parents wanted me to come with them on vacation? To try and mend our relationship, or whatever."
"Yeah," Percy said. "Hey - how did that go?"
“We still have some communication problems, but now that we've acknowledged the issue, there's -"
"Sorry," Annabeth cut in, "I really do wanna hear how things are with you and your foster parents, but..."
"Right," I said, shaking my head. "No, it's fine. Um. Well, we went up to Cape Cod. Before we got things sorted out, I was pretty much spending all my time at the beach. Like, literally from when the sun came up to until I could barely stay awake long enough to drag myself home. I would go out every day, moping and pitying myself, and wishing I wasn't alone. And then, I ran into him on the beach one day. He was just as nice and charming as that time when he was here. He could tell I was pissed, and he let me vent. He was...pretty thoughtful, actually."
Percy and Annabeth gave me matching looks of confusion.
"Weird," Annabeth said.
"Wait, so did your foster parents meet him when you brought him home?" Percy asked. I felt my face burn, and I averted my gaze.
“Uh. I never took him home with me. We only hung out at the beach."
It was quiet for a second.
"Oh."
“Okay," Annabeth said, standing. "I've heard enough. I'm glad he was nice to you, Gwen, but I'm still going to kick his ass."
“One last thing,” I said, hands twisting in my lap. “So...my baby is going to be a demigod. And the monsters can tell, that’s why they’re after me?”
Percy grimaced. “We think so.”
“You think so?” I shifted. “This isn’t...normal, is it?”
“No,” Annabeth said, crossing her arms. “That’s why we need to take you to Camp Half-Blood.”