Death's Daughter (fem oc x annabeth chase)

The Chimera

Walter sat beside Mara, keeping watch while the two slept in their compartment. He opened his pocket flap, pulling out an old pocket watch—a picture of a beautiful woman was placed neatly into the crevice.

He stared at it sadly, tracing the photo.

"She's pretty," Mara observes and Walter shuts the watch, putting it back in his pocket. "Who is that?"

"A friend," Walter answered and Mara tilted her head.

"What's her name?" Mara asks awkwardly and Walter cleared his throat.

"Her name is, uh—Ella," Walter reveals, rubbing his brow, "Ella Harrison. I went to high school with her."

"Was she your sweetheart?" Mara could tell that this was a touchy subject and she felt bad, but surprisingly Walter grabbed and opened the pocket watch again. As if he had decided that he was ready to talk about it.

"Not exactly...After high school, I started college with Ella. We were going to major in philosophy and travel the world together. As friends...I never had the courage to tell her the truth and when I decided that I would, the world plunged into war and I was drafted. My father was a naval officer and I wanted to be with him. So I went to the Recruit Training in Chicago at the height of the war. Ella stayed behind and worked as a secretary to her family's law firm."

"Did she know that you—"

"No," Walter said and even through his ghostly features Mara could tell this was troubling, "My father had died of old age and the rest of my family fled to another country in fear that the axis powers would find them. So, they could not track me down. I was buried in the National Cemetery in Los Angeles. The only reason I have a name there is because one of my fellow peers felt bad and reported my death so it could be logged."

"Isn't the whole point of being in the military to work as a team?"

"That whole lesson was thrown out the window when it was my turn to be saved," Walter said, "But I I would do it all over again even if I knew how it all ends for me."

"I'm—" Mara stammered with her words. She didn't know what to say.

Walter sighed, his eyes distant. "Ella wrote me letters every week, but I never got to read them. They probably arrived after I was already gone."

"Do you regret not telling her?" Mara asked.

"Every day," Walter admitted. "But I didn't want her to worry. I wanted her to live her life without my fate hanging over her."

He smiled faintly, "I visited her once...She was playing bingo in a senior center with a volunteer. I wanted to tell her that I was there but I thought I may give her a heart attack if I did. I sat and watched her for hours. She was just as beautiful as all those years ago. But she never had any visitors—only the teenager or volunteer, whatever she was. And I, uh, was about to leave when a young man came in through the door. He looked like her in every light and his name was Steven."

"Like you," Mara said with a smile.

Walter nodded, his expression softening. "He was her grandson. It was comforting to see that she had family, that she wasn't alone."

Mara listened intently, her eyes filled with empathy.

"Is she still alive?" Mara asks and Walter turns to her. "I don't mean to sound dull but is she well?"

Walter chuckles, "Yes...losing her memory quite a bit but she's still there.."

Mara smiled as Declan began to stir awake. He sits up and wipes his eyes. "What'd I miss?"