Forgot to Say [Percy Jackson and the Olympians Fanfic]

Children Wait For the Day They Feel Good

Paul brought his baby girl home, and barely noticed the girl traveling by his side. Athena was strangely absent, and it was even stranger that he didn’t say anything about why some odd girl was suddenly following him.

He only brought his daughter into her new home and set her up in her nursery. He stared down at the baby, with the strange girl having actually followed him into the house and was now watching him from the door of the nursery.

He couldn’t do this.

Picking up the baby, he walked to his (his, just his, not his and Sally’s anymore) bedroom and crawled into bed with the baby, holding her close. He didn’t fall asleep, his eyes just wide open the entire time. The strange girl sat at the foot of his bed and watched over them.

When he next woke up, not even remembering when he’d been able to fall asleep in the first place, Paul realized that he no longer had his baby with him. Eyes widening, he shot up immediately and ran out of his bed and out of his room, jumping down the stairs and running into the scene of breakfast laid out on the table and that strange girl holding the baby and humming to her.

“Breakfast,” she said softly, looking up and watching him with solemn eyes.

He walked forward hesitantly and she handed the baby to him. He looked down to see Sally’s warm brown eyes looking up at him, and he broke down again, falling to his knees as he cried over the baby in his arms. He looked up at the strange girl.

“What do I do? I don’t know what to do anymore!”

She laid a comforting hand on his forehead.

“Be a good father. Be a good role model to her,” she murmured.

And then Artemis calmly took Paul by the elbow and led him back to his room, telling him to sleep as she gently took the baby from him.

“What do you want to name her?” she asked the quickly falling asleep Paul, brushing his hair back like he was a child.

“Rosemarie,” he said sleepily. “They always did love flowers and their sayings…Rosemarie for the flower of remembrance. Rosemarie Perseas Blofis…”

“Perseas sounds a little like Perseus, doesn’t it?” she smiled sadly, hiding the pain in her eyes.

He didn’t answer, already fast asleep.

“Rosemarie it is then,” she said softly, adjusting little Rosemarie in her arms securely.

Artemis quietly left the room, leaving it only a little ajar, and then walked back to the kitchen. She waved a hand and the food was gone, packed into the fridge for later. Instead, she moved to the living room and sat on the couch, rocking the baby slightly.

“Now this is a surprising difference, little sis,” Apollo snickered, appearing in the room and watching his twin play mommy. “It’s strange to see you acting all nurturing and being nice to a guy when you normally hate men.”