A Magical Summer

Nightmares

A/N This chapter will be changing POVs and will be a bit longer than the previous two chapters. The 'cousins' will meet in next chapter but there was a couple of points I needed to make first. Enjoy :)

Percy's POV

After a blissful sleep in our hotel room I woke up feeling refreshed.

Ha. That's a funny joke. After a restless sleep filled with nightmares of Tartarus I woke up shaking. Mom didn't know that I still got these dreams; it had been months, almost a year since I got back. But Paul knew. He saw me wake up just a couple weeks ago, at around 2 AM shaking as I went to splash water on my face. After a few more nights of the same thing Paul knew what was up and helped bring me back to reality. I don't wake up screaming anymore, and the nightmares aren't as frequent, but they are just as bad.

   Shaking, I walked to the sink in the hotel room and splashed water on my face. This woke me up a bit and I looked around.  Mom was asleep- I guessed that she couldn't sleep on the plane either. Paul was getting up, book in hand, he must of been experiencing jet lag and couldn't fall asleep. I was still shaking and my vision was fading in and out. I was going to pass out. Paul realized my predicament and walked towards me; he wrapped me into a half-hug and steered me into an armchair. 

  "Percy, look at me," Paul directed, his voice full of worry as I struggled to avoid falling back into the memory.

Paul's POV

"Perce, you have to look at me," I commanded a second time as I went to grab a glass of water. "Drink this," I said pushing the glass into his hands.

   Percy was looking at me, though his eyes were half glazed over, as he drank the water. I wondered if I should wake Sally, she might be able to help more than I could, but I quickly thought better of it. This nightmare was worse than Percy's usual ones and Sally didn't even know those still happened, yet. It wouldn't help Percy to have her panicking too. Before he could fall back into the memory again I shook Percy's shoulder. That was a mistake. 

   He flinched back violently, almost falling out of the chair in the process. Moments like these are when I thanked the gods that Percy's ex-stepfather and Sally's ex-husband, Gabe, was a statue. Sally told me what he was like to her, but neither of us knew for certain how he treated Percy. Percy might of planed on telling Sally, one day, but I doubted he would tell me. Even my knowledge of the continued nightmares was a pure accident on Percy's part, though it is a mistake that I was glad he made.

   I took a step backwards to give him some space before he started hyperventilating. When Percy was almost breathing normally again I sat next to him. I tried to get him to finish his glass of water but he pushed it away, instead trying to give me a (rather shaky) hug. I was shocked at this sudden demonstration of affection but I pulled him into a hug.

"I l-love y-you dad," Percy stammered, softly.

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Sally's POV

   I woke up at around 8:00 AM and almost burst out laughing at the scene in front of me.

Paul and Percy were both still sleeping-- in one of the large arm chairs. Percy was practicality in Paul's lap (which looked odd as Percy was almost fully grown) and was leaning on Paul with his arms wrapped loosely around him. Paul was hugging Percy back and had a sleepy smile on his face. I settled for smiling at them.

After getting up and running the drowsiness out of my eyes I walked over and tapped Paul lightly on the shoulder. He awoke with a start, but still had that soft smile on his face as he looked at me and then at Percy. Paul whispered something into Percy's ear and shook his shoulder. Percy awoke groggily and fell off the chair onto the floor. Paul and I both laughed at his ungraceful start of the day as he stood up.

"Good morning Mom, D-- I mean Paul" he said quickly," I'm, err going to take a shower if that's okay with you." Paul and I both nodded and Percy grabbed some clothes and rushed to the bathroom.

  "Well you know how Percy used to get nightmares about Tartarus?" He trailed off and I just nodded, unsure about where this was going, "Well, don't freak out, but he still gets them. Has been for weeks. He didn't want you to know, but I found out weeks ago. Sometimes he needs help getting through the flashbacks-" He trailed off again looking awkward and-- a bit guiltily. 

   I was annoyed, at both of them. We were a family. Why didn't Percy tell me about his continued nightmares? I assumed they ended but I should've looked into it. Why didn't Paul tell me either? But then I smiled. It was nice that Percy could rely on Paul to help him with something like this.

"Anyways," Paul continued, jerking me out of my thoughts, "Percy had a nightmare last night. It was worse than the usual ones," his voice cracked, and I was suddenly glad that if it couldn't be me helping Percy, that it was Paul.

"Percy was shaking and crying. I didn't really know what to do, but I helped him calm down," Paul was smiling now, though his voice was still filled with emotion,"He called me Dad."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" I wrapped Paul into a hug. I knew how he always wanted to be more than 'just the stepfather'. He wanted to be 'Dad' and as he felt the soft curve in my stomach, I was reminded that he would be in a couple months. But maybe he could be 'Dad' to Percy too.

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Percy's POV

After we all took our showers, brushed our teeth and got dressed (though apparently my camp half-blood t-shirt and shorts weren't really formal enough) we headed down for breakfast.

I was really confused. Usually I felt miserable after a nightmare- especially when Annabeth wasn't there, gods I missed her. But this morning I felt surprisingly well rested. Then I thought back to last night. I had needed Paul to help me deal with the nightmare- and I broke down. I think I said that I loved him; but Paul already knew that (right?). I think I also called him 'Dad'. I flushed a little, that was embarrassing.

"Perce?" Paul said, sounding concerned. I had barley eaten my breakfast. Whoops.

"Ah! Sorry, ADHD," I answered, vaguely, shrugging off his concern. I had to avoid looking in my mom's eyes, though. She would know something was up, and I couldn't ruin today for her. We were meeting her family.

"Hurry up boys," Mom ordered fondly,"The Uber is coming in twenty minutes."