The Parenthood Drabbles

Innocence

In the style of Frederic and Annabeth Chase

"And with a great big thud, the cage bars blew away!" Frederic said. "And Daedalus and Icarus flew out of Midas' prison, leaving the evil villain behind."

Annabeth's face was mesmerised by the story.

"So after that Daedalus and his son found a new home?" Annabeth asked before Frederic could finish the story.

Actually Icarus disobeyed his father, flew too close to the sun, melted the wax that was holding his wings together, and plummeted to his death, drowning in the sea unless he died on impact.

"Yes," Frederic told his daughter. Her bright eyes glittered even more brightly and her smile brightened. She was missing three teeth. That was the kind of face you could lie to if it meant keeping it that way.

"Good!" She said. "Yeay! And they lived happily ever after?"

"Of course." Frederic nodded.

She didn't need to know all of the things that would stop her eyes from glittering just yet. Later, he promised, but not yet.

*

"And so after he tamed Pegasus and killed the Chimaera, Bellerophon just flew up to Olympus?" Annabeth asked, her habit of finishing stories before she heard the ending kicking in once again. "And then the gods had a party or something."

Actually they were all really kind of insulted, so they sent a bee to sting Pegasus so that Bellerophon would get butted off and he'd fall down. He lived his life blind, crippled and miserable.

Annabeth was hugging her knees and swinging back and forth in her pajamas Her blond curls were combed as best as they could both manage to comb them and her grey eyes were interested, bright and hopeful.

"Yes," Frederic said. "And, umm, they even put him in the stars, as a constellation." She had learned that word last Saturday.

"Where in the stars, daddy?" Annabeth asked.

"Well, let's go put your coat on go look in the sky. I'll show you Pegasus." Frederic said.

*

"And with one strong swing of his sword, as powerful as a galloping horse, Theseus cut off the Minotaur's head!" Frederic said.

Annabeth looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Wow," she breathed, her eyes full of admiration. Maybe it was in her blood. Maybe one day Annabeth would behead a monster with a swipe of a sword. Oh dear God- no, he couldn't think about that just yet.

"Pretty cool, eh? But after Theseus defeated the Minotaur, he still had to escape the labyrinth."

"So he used Ariadne's string!" Annabeth cried. "I understand!"

"Very good, you clever little girl." He said tapping her nose.

"So Ariadne and Theseus got married once he got out of the labyrinth, right?"

Eh... not exactly.

Ariadne ran away with the Athenian and while they were at sea he abandoned her on a dessert island, where she may or may not have been pregnant. Also there was the no-black-sails thing that led to his father's suicide...

"Yes," Frederic smiled. "All of the gods showed at the ceremony, and showered the happy couple with gifts."

"And they all lived happily ever after," Annabeth concluded, nodding.

"Exactly," Frederic said.

*

"And that's when Bellerophon got in the stars," Annabeth said, cutting into her sister Scarlett's story.

"What?" Edmund asked kindly.

"Well," Annabeth said. "The story finishes that when Bellerophon rides up to Olympus on Pegasus, the gods are so proud of him that they put him in the stars."

The children of Athena all looked at each other.

"No, sweetheart, that's not exactly what happened. You don't understand."

"Yes I do!" Annabeth cried.

"Sweetheart, the gods were mad that Bellerophon tried to ride up to Olympus. They were mad that he tried to make himself as important as a god. They sent a bee to sting Pegasus so he toppled off. You might have heard one of the quack versions of the myth."

Annabeth thought about that as she tapped her crayon to her notepad, thinking of what was right to put in a letter to her father.

For the longest time she'd been angry at him for that reason on top of all the other ones. He'd lied to her about myths- that was like telling a kid that her great-grandmother was Madonna and that America had been colonised by Martians. That was her heritage that he'd tinkered and distorted.

But now... Well, she'd just been on a quest. The real world was hard, and not everyone could handle it. Like Luke had never been able to handle his quest, but Percy looked okay and relaxed and cool about his. Maybe... Maybe her father had told her the softened versions of myths on purpose. Because when she was a child she was still soft and she liked her stories to have Walt Disney endings, not to be Greek tragedies. He had wanted to share her heritage with her without breaking or hurting her. He'd been protecting her innocence by keeping murder and rape and gore out of her ears.

Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all. Maybe she should be thankful and touched, not angry. Maybe there were little reasons like that for everything- that he tried not to make a big deal out of the monsters even when she came home panicked, that he had tried to be so cautious and shy while explaining about the monsters to his wife and that the explanation hadn't worked... He had good intentions. He tried to make it work, but Annabeth had heard that an invention usually had seven prototypes before it succeeded. He'd been raising his first child -a demigod at that- alone.

Her letter was written and sent to him before she knew it.