Percy Jackson Fanfics

the fire inside you (can't be contained)

Title: the fire inside you (can't be contained)
Author: Word_Addict
Site: Archive of Our Own
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16272395

________________________

I'm a lion, I'm a tiger
I'm a caged bird, I'm on fire

- Rachel Platten, "Lone Ranger"

When Sally starts her sentence with, "my ex-husband," at the kitchen table one night, Paul feels his heart break a little. He's seen the scars on Percy's arms that look a little too much like cigarette burns, and he opens his mouth to reassure her.

Before he can, Sally looked up from the papers scattered in front of her and fixes him with a look. It's a look that he would swear she would never be capable of, and yet there it is. The promise of anger, quick and painful is in her eyes. "If you ever touch Percy or I like he did," she says with finality, her words falling like stones in the silence, "you will regret it."

Paul doesn't speak for a long moment and when he finally exhales in agreement, Sally smiles a little and the mood lifts. He tells her later, that he admires her for it, for the strength it must have taken for her to say it. She smiles again and doesn't say anything.

-

When Paul finally understands the sort of life Percy leads, he's more excited than frightened. All the myths he's read and heard about come to mind and he spends several hours quizzing Sally on which ones are real and which ones aren't.

"Sirens?" he asks.

"I think Percy talked about them once," Sally says, with a chuckle that implies there's a story behind her answer.

"Harpies?"

"Yes."

"Medusa?"

Sally's quiet for a long minute. Paul almost wonders if she'll ever answer him before she nods once, slowly. "Yes," she says, staring past him into old memories. "Yes, she's real."

Paul doesn't ask her about Medusa. He's seen the scars by now that dot her back, the same round burn marks that are on Percy's arms. He's started to understand why she hates this story of a victimized woman caught between powers she can't control or understand.

-

When Percy comes home for a weekend visit, he suggests they visit the art gallery at Tahoe. Paul doesn't understand at first why a shadow of anger crosses Sally's face, but she agrees.

They arrive, and the first exhibit is statuary. They pass the usual figures of women and men, some animals, before arriving at the second to last piece.

It's a table with a lone figure sitting at it, and, at first, Paul doesn't see it. The figure is an ugly man, balding, and he looks afraid, like his last minutes were ones of terror.

Both Sally and Percy smile at the statue, their faces like storm clouds, and his skin starts to creep as he understands. "Yes, she's real," from Sally, and the time Percy had mentioned how 'Ugly Gabe' had left when he was twelve in an ominous, almost warning, tone.

It hits him almost like one of Zeus' lightning bolts as he reads the plaque on the bottom of the statue. Medusa isn't someone Sally was afraid of, but instead a powerful inspiration. He looks to his wife and step-son again and realizes. Percy Jackson may be the son of Poseidon, but Sally Jackson is a woman who has stood up to gods and monsters and won.