Praetor's legacy

Chapter 8

It had been a few weeks since his chat with Annabeth and Rachel. He had been trying really hard to avoid Annabeth, but sometimes he just couldn't get away from her. He had resulted to desperate measures. He had asked Leo to keep her busy with the ship, even if that meant making up problems. Fake problems such as the structuring over the girls' shared bedroom was weakening and that it would collapse on top of them while they were sleeping.

She argued that the structuring was perfectly fine, but Leo kept his promise to Percy and insisted that they needed more strength. Annabeth grudgingly added more supports to the structuring, which took a whole 2 weeks to do.

Percy, Hazel, and Frank were going to be leaving in a week to visit Camp Half-Blood, and Percy didn't know what to expect. He missed his Greek friends terribly, but if he left, he would have to leave behind Reyna, Aidan, and Gwen. Not to mention the Fifth Cohort, his new family, and all of the other friends that he had made during his time as praetor. Percy considered himself both Greek AND Roman now.

Also, Percy and Jason had still not decided over who would become praetor if both of them survived the Giant War against Gaea. Percy had sensed that Jason hated him. He thought it was somehow connected to Aidan, but he didn't understand why. Reyna always said that they were just friends, but seeing Jason's glare at them when they introduced Aidan made him believe otherwise. But he trusted Reyna, and didn't bring it up to her.

Percy and Reyna had been trying to spend more time with Aidan before the war started. Percy knew that he'd be leaving for war, and if he didn't come back, he wanted at least a few memories of his son before his death.

The Greeks and the Romans had grudgingly agreed that Annabeth was going to be the 7th member of the quest. Percy and Reyna agreed that Reyna staying was the best choice, since Aidan needed his mom for milk and other neccessities, and Rome needed at least one of the praetors to stay.

Percy had given Gwen the day off from being nanny, and had taken Aidan for the day. He was trying to teach Aidan how to say "Dada" before he had to leave for war, but all he said so far was a bunch of gibberish, much to the annoyance of Percy. Of course, he knew he shouldn't be annoyed, because Aidan was only a few weeks old, but still, he really wanted to teach his son how to say "Dada" before he was gone.

Reyna told him that he would get even more gray hair than he already has if he didn't stop worrying about it. He had to let Aidan mature and develop before he started teaching him how to say certain words.

Percy grudgingly agreed with her. His son was not stupid. No child of Reyna's was ever going to be stupid. Percy was the one being stupid right now. How dumb could he be, trying to teach his son how to speak at his young age?

And even though he knew it was stupid, he was not giving up.

"Annabeth," Percy called out. I know, not one of his best plans, but he was desperate.

She whipped her head around at his voice, "Percy? I thought you were busy today."

"Yeah, I was, but now I need your help."

She stepped closer. "Help with what exactly?"

He gulped at their close proximity. "I need help teaching Aidan how to say Dada. I've tried teaching him, but he just hasn't grasped the concept yet! Reyna's been trying too, but she hasn't been able to teach him either."