A Town Called Elysium

Chapter 3

Author: Carla, aka cali-chan
Rating: PG-13.
Genre: Family, friendship, drama, romance, probably some humor because "oh, small town charm" and on top of that, these characters are all sassmasters (that's why we love 'em).
Pairings: All the canon pairings (...eventually).
Canon/timeline: AU, inspired by the TV show Everwood (why yes, I find connections to my fandoms everywhere. It's a gift).

Disclaimer: I only hid Percy in my closet for a couple of nights. It's not kidnapping if I sent him back, right? (AKA: PJO/HoO don't belong to me, they're all RR's).

Summary: When circumstances force Percy's family to move to a quaint town in the mountains, he puts the blame for his frustrations straight on his absentee father's shoulders. But as they slowly acclimate to small town living, they begin to form new friendships and relationships, demonstrating that sometimes it takes a place with heart like Elysium, Colorado to show a person what living really is. Inspired by the TV show Everwood.

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You should see the other guy only really worked when the other guy was actually around, Percy mused as he sat, bored out of his skull, on a bench outside the vice-principal's office.

Soon after the group had arrived there and their parents had been called, Clarisse's biker dad had parked his Harley outside the office and, not even bothering to get off the bike or come into the building, had demanded Mr. Brunner tell him (through the window) what his daughter had done to get herself in trouble, barking out a loud laugh and a "that's my girl!" when Mr. Brunner explained she'd been fighting on school grounds. After snapping at Clarisse to "get a move on, we've got monster truck tickets!" father and daughter rode away on the Harley, leaving Mr. Brunner muttering to himself about irresponsible adults. The two minions had been picked up by their respective parents soon after.

And so Percy was left waiting with Annabeth and the two Graces, with no one to point the finger at when his own mother arrived to give him the lecture of a lifetime. Jason was sitting beside him on the bench, looking equally glum and nursing a large bruise on his jaw to match Percy's black eye. Annabeth and Thalia were standing on the opposite side of the secretary's desk, at some points discussing something heatedly in a low tone and at others simply keeping silent. Thalia didn't show any visible signs of having been in a fight, other than a small cut on her forehead which had been quickly patched up by the school nurse. Annabeth looked just like she did every other day.

He had been humming under his breath that Katy Perry song that Tyson had been singing all morning— because it was stuck in his head and he needed to find some way to pass the time— when Jason nudged him with his elbow. "Hey, Jackson." Percy lazily turned to look at the blond. "Listen, I... I just wanted to say I'm sorry. When I went looking for you earlier, I really was only trying to help. I didn't know any of this would happen."

Percy gave the boy's words some thought. While Thalia had made no secret of the fact that she didn't like him very much, Jason did seem sincere. And they'd helped him when Clarisse showed up, so he figured that counted enough to make them even. It's not like it was Jason's fault that Annabeth had a boyfriend, anyway (unless he was the boyfriend— oh shit, wait, was he the boyfriend?), so it didn't feel like he had a legitimate reason to be mad. At him, anyway.

"...Are you the boyfriend?" Okay, he just had to make sure.

Jason blinked, like such a thing had never even occurred to him. "What? No, no. She's like a second sister to me." It was his expression more than his words that convinced Percy— he seemed so genuinely befuddled by the mere idea. "So, uh, are we cool?"

Percy responded with a one-shoulder shrug. "No worries, man. We're cool."

"Awesome." Jason started to smile and then cringed, apparently remembering a little too late that his bruised jaw was still tender. "Hey, we should hang out sometime. I could introduce you to some people," he suggested eagerly.

"Yeah, sure," Percy conceded. So long as said hangout did not include Jason's sister and his "second sister," he was all up for it. He was just about to make a comment about it when his summoned parent walked through the door of the office— except it wasn't the parent he'd been expecting. "What are you doing here?" he blurted out.

Poseidon's eyes zeroed in on his son with some relief. "Percy! Are you okay? What happened? Your mother's going out of her mind with worry..."

Already starting to feel tense— this was the second time Poseidon dropped in on him unexpectedly at his school, and that was two times too many as far as Percy was concerned— he stood up from the bench, picking up his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. "If she was so worried, maybe she should've come get me herself," he muttered, keenly aware that all three of his classmates AND the secretary had their attention fixed on their exchange.

"She can't leave Tyson by himself and you know that," Poseidon replied, moving closer so that he could take a look at Percy's eye. "And this would've only made her even more worried— have you been fighting?"

"Wow, you think? I'm glad your medical degree is useful for something."

"Son, we've talked about you getting into fights at school—"

"Look, can you just sign me out already? I don't think any of these people are interested in all the self-righteous lectures you've given me through the years," Percy signaled around them.

Understanding dawned in Poseidon's eyes when he saw the four pairs of eyes hanging onto their every word. "Right. But we'll talk about this on the way home," he sentenced, promptly turning to the secretary to ask for the paperwork he needed to sign in order to get Percy home.

About a minute later, as the secretary was explaining to him how this incident could be registered on Percy's record, a woman walked in, catching everyone's attention. She had long, loosely curly hair and she was wearing a very business-like, gray pantsuit. "I'm sorry, I got a call saying something happened with my kids..." she started, but her voice trailed when she saw the girls standing by the secretary's desk. "Annabeth!" Even though her hair was dark, Percy need only take one look at her eyes to know who she was.

"Mom," Annabeth started, looking uncomfortable. "I can explain..."

"All you three had better tell me exactly what is happening here," the woman replied, her tone very no-nonsense. "Never, in all your years of schooling, have I ever received a disciplinary call for any of you, and now all of a sudden the school calls to tell me you all were caught in the middle of a fistfight? What is going on? Oh, excuse me—" she said, when she bumped into Poseidon in her eagerness to reach her daughter.

"Minerva Chase?" Poseidon inquired, looking at the woman intently, as if he wasn't sure if he had the right person. When she turned around, though, recognition was clear in his expression. "It is you! Wow, small world, isn't it?" he added with a bright grin.

The woman did not reciprocate the sentiment; after her initial shock at her name being called unexpectedly, she fixed her gaze on the man, a flicker of recognition giving way to a deep frown. "Oh, I should've known!" she groaned out loud. She shook her head. "As soon as I heard that your... progeny was moving to Elysium I just knew, I knew it was going to be nothing but trouble."

Percy frowned in confusion. "Wait. Do you two know each other?" He didn't think his father even knew of the existence of Elysium before that fateful day he randomly found it on a map, let alone knew someone who lived there. And she knew they were father and son. How could she know that?

"Oh," Thalia interjected from the side of the room, "did we forget to mention that your father and Annabeth's mother are mortal enemies? Oops," she added, not sounding terribly sorry.

He turned to look at Annabeth, but she avoided his gaze. Then he turned to Poseidon for an explanation, but his father was too busy trying to placate the older woman. "Listen, I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding," Poseidon continued speaking with what Percy knew he thought to be a charming smile on his lips. From Minerva's expression, she clearly was thinking of a more scathing adjective for it. "Someone said the wrong thing, fists started flying... kids will be kids. They'll all be best friends again in no time, am I right?"

"You're wrong, but then again, that's hardly surprising," Minerva retorted and damn, if she wasn't glaring at him just as darkly as she was at his father, he might actually like the woman. Anyone who could burn Poseidon like that was awesome in his book. "Now, I would appreciate you keeping your brats away from my daughter and my wards from now on, unless you want your stay in Elysium to be a very difficult one." She hastily grabbed the sheets of paper the secretary had put down on the desk just a few seconds previous. "I'll fax these in from home. Let's go, you three."

She stalked out of the office like she owned the place. Thalia swung the strap of her messenger bag across her torso and walked out of the room without a word. Jason stood up from the bench, carrying his own bag in his hand, and muttered a "good luck" at Percy as he walked by him. Annabeth hung back for a bit longer. Percy stared at her as if daring her to explain all of this, but she only guiltily held his gaze for a couple of seconds before looking down at the ground and following Jason out the door.

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"...And I get it if you have to fight to defend yourself, but sooner or later you're gonna have to come up with a better strategy to avoid getting into these messes, because you can't just keep moving from school to school every year. Eventually they just won't take you!"

Poseidon had been lecturing him since the moment they got in the car until the moment they stopped in front of the house. Not that Percy was at all surprised; the man did love the sound of his own voice. It wasn't anything he hadn't heard from his mother a thousand times through the years, and it only made him angrier that Poseidon was bringing up these arguments eleven years too late, so he tuned him out before he got too into his tirade.

In fact, it was only the sudden silence at the end of his "fatherly speech" that made Percy realize they'd arrived. "What?" he asked, noticing that Poseidon was looking at him like he was expecting an answer to a question. He just didn't know what the question was.

"So?" Poseidon prompted. "What do you have to say for yourself? If you're going to go in there and explain to your mother what happened, you'd better sound contrite about it."

"Guess I can't, 'cause I don't know what 'contrite' means," Percy muttered, flippantly. His jaw clenched as he glared back at the older man.

Poseidon let out a sigh of pure suffering, which only made Percy want to roll his eyes. "You know, when you guys moved out here I thought you'd change. Smaller town, smaller school— I thought you'd finally stop it with the fighting and the smart mouth."

Percy scoffed. "You thought I'd change? This is all your fault!" He angrily pulled on the handle to open the car door, muttering "asshole" under his breath.

Poseidon clearly heard him, though, and threw the driver's side door open so he could walk around the back of the car. "You can't talk to me like that, I'm your father!"

Now Percy did roll his eyes. "Sure you are, when there's something in it for you!" He threw the strap of his bag over his shoulder and stomped his way to the curb, so he was facing the man directly. "You lie to my mom to get her to sleep with you, then you ignore us for twelve years, you run around thinking you're some kinda player, and when your awful wife finally reads you the riot act, your best idea is to send us away from our home like we have something to be ashamed of, when we did nothing wrong. And I'm the one that needs to change?"

"What is going on here?" Sally must've heard their raised voices all the way to the living room, because she peeked out the front door of the house, a concerned expression on her face.

"Everything I've done in the past few years has been trying to give you and your mother a better life, but you obviously can't appreciate a good thing when you see it," Poseidon replied as he clicked the car alarm on, throwing some of that flippancy back to Percy. Unfortunately, that "smart mouth" he alluded to earlier was something he'd inherited from him.

"How is completely messing up our lives something good?" Percy was on a roll. "You only get away with all this bullshit because Mom is too nice to tell you what we're really thinking, and that is that you have no place in this family! We don't need you or want you around!"

"Percy!" Sally exclaimed, admonishing, as she made her way out of the house to the two arguing men. "Do not speak to your father that way!"

"No, no, let him get it out," Poseidon prompted, now visibly angry. "Don't hold back, Percy, why don't you tell me how you really feel!" he added, challenging.

Percy didn't back down for a second. "Oh yeah, I'll tell you how I really feel: I hate you!" Not even his mother's shocked expression was enough to chastise him. Mad as hell, he turned on his heel and trampled through the snowy yard toward the side of the house, where his bike was parked.

"Yeah, well I hate you too, you little ingrate!" Poseidon sniped at his retreating back.

"Poseidon!" Sally turned to the older man, scandalized. She didn't have enough time to chastise him any further, though, as she turned her attention back on Percy, who was pulling out his bicycle. "Percy, what are you doing— you just got here!"

"I'm not staying here while he is," Percy shot back, taking his time to get on the bike without his bag falling off his shoulders. "I'll be back later," he threw over his shoulder as he pedaled away down the street.

"Would you just come back here so we can talk about this?" he heard Sally try again, but he was already far enough away that he could pretend not to have heard her.

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Watching her son disgruntledly pedal away from her for the second time that week, Sally sighed. She turned to Poseidon. "What just happened?"

"Your son is being a brat, that's what happened," Poseidon retorted, almost in a growl, pointing with a stretched arm in the direction Percy had left in, as if saying "Exhibit A."

"He's being a brat? You just told him you hated him!" Sally retorted, incredulously. She knew Poseidon understood very little about parenting— years of attempting to co-parent to various degrees of success had taught her that— but she had figured he at least knew the main cardinal rule: never ever even imply that you don't love your children.

"He'll get over it eventually," he waved her off, throwing her own advice back at her as he walked around her in a rush to get to the other side of the car.

"He's a teenager; they don't just 'get over' things like these, and you should know that better than anyone," she admitted, feeling like she was tipping somewhere between angry and worried. Percy was a good kid, and usually when he was given enough time he'd calm down enough to make peace about most things, but this was pushing it.

She knew Poseidon's relationship with his own father was rocky at best. The man had been psychologically and physically abusive and Sally suspected that a lot of Poseidon's most difficult attributes could be directly traced to that. At the same time, she could see that he wanted to be a better father to Percy and Tyson than his own father had been to him; they'd talked about it several times over the years, and she believed him. And while he hadn't been the greatest father ever, he'd never given her any reason to think that he might repeat his father's pattern. But this might be too much to come back from. She hated to bring up that card, but it had to be done.

Clearly understanding what she was suggesting, he stopped and frowned, almost as if he was offended. "Sometimes you have to be tough on them. Discipline them," he insisted, as if that was a good enough reason for his appalling behavior.

"Yes, within reason!" she replied, hands extended at her sides as if for emphasis. "You're supposed to be the adult here! You should know where to draw the line."

He scoffed. "You coddle him too much!" Shaking his head, he turned around and kept his stride toward the driver's side of the car.

Seeing him open the door and sit on the driver's seat, she went into high alert. "What are you doing?"

"Going back to my hotel," he snapped back at her, like the answer was obvious.

Sally wished him leaving at a time like this was some kind of uncharacteristic behavior, but if there was one thing Poseidon did well, it was run away from his problems. "You can't leave. You need to be here so you and Percy can talk about this."

"We both know he won't come near the house if he sees me parked here, and quite frankly, I'm already getting sick of the lecture," he was once again dismissive of her concerns. He buckled his seat belt and moved to put the key in the ignition. "I'll be in Denver if you need me."

"You can't just go! You have to apologize—" She was cut off by the sound of the car door slamming closed and the ignition starting. "Poseidon!" She tried again, but he was already speeding down the street.

With a huff of frustration, she turned to go back to her house. As she took a step onto the sidewalk, she noticed her neighbor— Mr. Blofis, was it?— was standing on his porch, and had probably witnessed the entire miserable encounter. "Nothing but love in the Jackson household, as you can see," she tried to joke with a feeble smile, wrapping her arms around herself as it hit her that she had once again walked out of her house without a decent jacket.

Mr. Blofis' smile was just as uncomfortable as expected in this situation. "Would you like some coffee? I just brewed a pot," he offered. She wasn't sure if that was just a deflection or if he was giving her an out from this surely awkward circumstance. "I could take a cup to your house so you wouldn't have to leave your son by himself, too," he added, pointing toward her house, where (she only just noticed) Tyson was standing under the door frame, peeking out at her worriedly.

Not wanting to seem rude— but in a hurry to run home and reassure her youngest that everything was okay despite all the yelling— she nodded. "I think I'll take that cup. Give me five minutes, maybe?"

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After explaining to Tyson that no, his father and brother didn't hate each other, and once they both came back home for dinner they would sit down and talk it out and be happy again, Sally and Mr. Blofis— "Just call me Paul, please"— finally sat down at the kitchen table. Sally procured some cinnamon cookies she had baked that morning, and Paul poured two cups of hot coffee from a thermos.

As she picked hers up, she took a moment to bask in the warm scent of the drink. "The only way this could be better for me right now," she started, with a sigh, "is if it were spiked."

Her neighbor chuckled. "Not without the kiddo noticing, I'm afraid," he said, signaling with his head toward the living room, where Tyson was in plain sight, working on some homework with a pinched expression which meant he was obviously trying very hard not to count with his fingers.

She laughed lightly, as well. She was glad Tyson had taken her explanation well; she didn't know how she would handle it if she had to deal with not two, but three agitated men at the same time. "Thanks," she told Paul, signaling to the coffee cup in her hands. "And I'm so sorry you had to hear that a while ago. They don't usually argue like that... well, not that loudly, at least."

Paul was just taking a sip of his coffee, so it took him a few seconds to reply. "Really, there's no need to apologize. I know very well how it is with parents and children sometimes. Parenting is a hard job, and the kicker is that kids don't come to realize that until they're already grown and away from their parents."

"Too true." It almost sounded like he was talking from experience, and it made Sally realize that she didn't even know if her new neighbor had a family. She'd seen him come and go, exchanging light pleasantries whenever he saw her, but as far as she could remember, she wasn't aware of anyone else coming in or out of the house. "I'm sorry, I never thought to ask— do you have children, as well?"

"Hmm?" Paul said distractedly as he picked up a cookie. "Oh, no, no kids. I'm a bachelor, still, and I spend far too much time grading papers to have much of a regular social life, I'm afraid," he added with a chuckle that was half amused, half self-deprecating. She could relate; she spent way too much time taking care of her kids to even consider dating.

He took a bite of his cookie and took a moment to swallow before speaking again. "I always had a rocky relationship with my mother, though. It wasn't until after college, and just a few years before she died, that we started to get along better." He looked down at what was left of the cookie in his hand. "These are excellent, by the way."

"Thank you," Sally replied, always grateful when people liked her baking. "And I'm sorry about your mother, as well." She knew very well how it felt to lose a parent; she'd lost three.

"You don't have to be," he retorted, picking up another cookie. He really did seem to like them. "It's been... nine, ten years since she passed? It's been a while."

There was silence for a few moments while they both chewed on their cookies and drank their coffee. They could hear Tyson muttering to himself from the living room. It was only a couple minutes later that Sally gave into the need she felt to clarify what caused the incident that afternoon. "Poseidon... he really does love the boys, you know?"

Paul paused in his movement to bring his cup to his lips, looking at Sally over the rim of the cup for a split second. "It's not my place to judge," he assured her before taking a sip of the warm beverage.

"I know," Sally insisted, "and I appreciate it. I just don't want anyone to get the wrong impression." He seemed to recognize that she wanted to talk about this to someone. He set his cup down on the table and leaned more comfortably against the backrest of his chair, his expression encouraging her to vent if she needed to.

It took her a couple heartbeats, but she started again. "He wasn't ready to be a parent. Neither was I— Percy was very much a surprise. But I don't think Poseidon had ever really even contemplated the possibility of having kids," she concluded, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Do you know what the formen magnus [1] is?" she asked after a pause, squinting her eyes a little. She didn't have to be a betting woman to know that it was probably the oddest question the small-town English teacher had ever been asked in his life.

As expected, Paul's response was a blink and a frown. "Um, I'm afraid I don't?" he replied, sounding like he was unsure whether not knowing was a good thing or a bad thing in this case.

Sally laughed. "Don't worry, I don't either. I don't even know if I'm saying it correctly," she added, somewhat sheepish. "But Poseidon can talk about it for an hour if you give him the chance. He lives and breathes that kind of stuff. The man is the smartest person I've ever known, and he's made it to the top of his field. A veritable celebrity." She shook her head. "But when it comes to this parenting thing... it just doesn't come naturally to him." She looked down at her cup, contemplative.

"A lot of people simply don't have that instinct," Paul interjected, something Sally had come to know was very much true.

She nodded. "And he didn't have a good example himself, either. Sometimes I feel like he thinks if he gets too close to the boys, he might, I don't know, mess them up for life." She finished that sentence with a sigh. "So he gives them what he thinks he can give them... money."

"...And Percy doesn't take that very well, I gather," Paul guessed where she was going with this.

She shook her head, acknowledging that his assessment was correct. "It's probably my fault." It came out as a bit of a frustrated groan. "For years he offered to help us out financially, and I wouldn't accept it. Kept telling him I'd rather Percy have a father than a trust fund."

"That's not a bad philosophy," Paul conceded. She knew she hadn't exactly explained their family dynamics and why Poseidon didn't live with them, but Paul seemed to be following along well enough, even without the details.

"Yes, but then we adopted Tyson, and with his special needs... I couldn't handle it all on my own anymore, so I accepted his offer." She pursed her lips. "Percy saw it as selling out. Thinks he only does it to assuage his conscience."

"Sometimes kids simply can't understand the complexity of certain situations," Paul stated, in a serious tone she assumed was his "teacher" voice. "If his father really does love them, as you say, then I'm sure with time Percy will come to see that."

"I don't know," she retorted with a resigned shake of her head. "Maybe he has a point."

"What do you mean?" Paul asked, proceeding to drink the last few drops of his coffee.

Sally held onto her cup a little bit tighter. She couldn't believe she was saying all of this to someone she barely knew, but Paul had lent her an ear so far, and seemed pretty understanding about it. "Sometimes I wonder if I let him in for the boys, or if I did it because it's convenient for me."

It was a hard truth for her to cop to, and Paul seemed to take it with the seriousness it deserved. He set his cup down again and thought for a while, apparently measuring what to say.

Finally, he spoke, "'She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall, the family will to function would be gone'," he quoted [2], nodding his head periodically as if to give the words rhythm. Yes, very "English teacher" of him.

Sally couldn't help the smile that started spreading on her lips. "Is that... Steinbeck?" she asked, unsure if she had gotten the reference right.

To her delight, he nodded his head. "The Grapes of Wrath." He reciprocated her smile. "You're a reader?"

"Not so much lately," she admitted with a dismissive wave of her hand. She hadn't read a book that wasn't a study guide for Tyson in a long while. "But when I was younger, yes. I wanted to study English in college, but unfortunately I never got the chance."

"Well, it's never too late," he commented, then hurried to get up when he saw Sally move to pick up the table. "Please, let me," he offered, taking the two plates and one cup off her hands.

She signaled him to put everything down in the sink and insisted on giving his now empty thermos a quick rinse. "Don't be so hard on yourself," he told her as she lined everything up in the dishwasher. She looked at him curiously, not fully understanding where that came from. "The quote," he reminded her, and it finally clicked in her mind. "It's not selfish to want to make your life easier. You're a mother. What affects you, also affects your children."

He offered her a smile, which she returned in kind. He was probably right. And when put in the words of literary giants, everything seemed to make more sense.

She knew the fear that she was making a mistake was something that would never really go away; it was a parent's prerogative to always second-guess themselves when it came to major decisions in their children's lives. But here is where those decisions had led them— to a small mountain town in rural Colorado, of all places— and she could only hope this move would bring them all closer together, even if it didn't feel that way at the moment.

"How did you fix things?" she asked out of the blue as they stood in the foyer, Paul putting his coat on in order to go back to his house. He paused in his movements, throwing her a confused look. "With your mother," she elaborated.

"Ah," he finally understood her meaning. "Well, she got sick," he revealed as he adjusted his collar. "Lung cancer. Her smoking caught up with her." He left the coat unbuttoned, and she fought the urge to fix it up for him— the mother in her, she figured. She wouldn't let her kids outside without them being completely bundled up, even if they were just walking next door.

"I had to come back to Elysium to take care of her. That was her house, actually," he signaled toward the window with a nod of his head, in the direction his house would be. "Spending time here with her after many years of being away made me realize that many of the things we clashed about before, the things that made me run off to the city without looking back, were actually things we had in common. Things got much easier between us after I understood that."

He took his glasses off and fit them snuggly in one of the inside pockets of his coat, explaining with a chuckle that he didn't want them to get fogged up the moment she opened the door. She watched him get ready, thinking about his words. "So you think it's possible, then, that even if a parent and child don't get along, they might not be so different after all?" She opened the door to let him out.

Sticking his hands in his coat pockets, he took a step to walk out into the porch, but stopped at the doorframe to look back at Sally, who was leaning against the edge of the open door. "In my experience, if a parent and a child don't get along, it's because they're exactly the same." With a nod of his head, he walked out of the house. "Thanks for the cookies. I'll see you around."

She gave him a small wave as he turned at the curb, and then she closed the door to shield herself from the cold, feeling much more optimistic than she had been an hour ago.

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Percy ended up spending the night at Grover's. His mother wasn't terribly happy about it, and he had to learn the hard way of the Underwoods' love of reed pipes (he would never see Nirvana the same way again), but at least he was good and away from Poseidon for the time being.

He sat with Grover and his girlfriend during lunch again and tried not to think about the previous day at all, but he couldn't keep his eyes from periodically straying to the back of the cafeteria, to the table where the Grace siblings and Annabeth sat huddled together. Jason and Thalia were talking, the boy explaining something that made his sister repeatedly roll her eyes. Annabeth was resting her head against her hand, moving her food on her plate from side to side distractedly.

"What's the story with those three?" The question was out of his lips before he even realized he was speaking. Grover and Juniper paused their eating to look in the direction he was looking. "Are they, like, actually attached at the hip?"

"Erm, yeah, pretty much," Grover started. The trio at the back of the cafeteria didn't seem aware that someone was looking at them, but Percy was still paranoid that Annabeth would somehow feel his eyes on her, so he urged his two friends to stop staring. "They were friends since they were kids, and now they live together, so they're pretty much like siblings."

Percy made a face. "What? How does that even work?"

"Well, Annabeth's mother was close with Thalia's dad," Grover explained. "They were friends from high school, I think. So the families were always close. Thalia's mom... died..." Grover looked a little uncomfortable mentioning that detail, for some reason. "She died when we were in elementary. And then their father had to move to Los Angeles for work, but Jason and Thalia wanted to stay here, so I guess they arranged things so Annabeth's mom would be their legal guardian. They've been living together since then."

"But then Annabeth's mother became a Senator," Juniper added, as an extra piece of info. She'd tried to deny it a couple of times in the short time they'd known each other, but Percy could tell that she was a bit of a gossip. "She spends most of her time in Denver and D.C. So now the three of them live with Annabeth's dad most of the year."

"Her parents are divorced?" Percy asked, trying to make a mental chart of this entire situation. The lines were already starting to cross in his mind.

"Yep," Juniper nodded. "They split up when we were just little kids, but my mother says it was a bit of a scandal. Not many divorces in Elysium, as you might imagine. Of course, nobody actually talks about it in front of Miranda Chase— she's kind of intimidating, even back when she wasn't a Senator."

"Annabeth's dad is a History professor at A&M," Grover explained, seeming a bit anxious to get off the more gossipy parts of the story. "He got married again, and they had twin boys." At Percy's look of disbelief (five kids? Five?), he mumbled, "Their house is really big," and went back to eating his carnitas.

"That sounds like something out of Dynasty." [3] At Grover's and Juniper's looks of confusion, he explained. "My mom likes watching really old TV shows sometimes." They went back to eating lunch in relative silence, but Percy couldn't help but look in Annabeth's direction from time to time.

Once, he found her looking right back at him.

When he saw her get up and start walking in his direction, he jumped to his feet. "I gotta go. See you guys later," he muttered, waving distractedly at Grover when he asked if he could have the rest of his food. He rushed to get out of the cafeteria before Annabeth could catch up to him.

"Percy, wait!"

He didn't slow his stride, but she caught up to him anyway, in the hallway just past the cafeteria doors. "I have nothing to say to you," he warned without looking at her.

"Then don't say anything," she offered. "I just need you to listen."

That finally got him to stop, just short of going through the door that led to the next hall. He stopped so abruptly, she almost barreled right into him. Why should he give her anything she needs? He didn't owe her anything. "Why, so you can keep lying to me?" he said, turning to her with a glare.

She took a breath before speaking. "Technically, I didn't lie— I just wasn't completely forthcoming about certain things."

"Certain things like the boyfriend you never mentioned?" he retorted, eyebrows so high they almost got lost under his unruly, dark fringe.

She bit her lower lip. "Yes." Angry at her admission, he made to leave again, and she rushed to add an explanation. "I was going to tell you! I wanted you to meet him, I just didn't know how to broach the subject from the get-go."

"Right, but not telling me about him makes me so much more eager to be buddies with him," he retorted, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"It's not what you think at all," she hurried to add. "Look, he's in Denver. About three hours away by bus. If we leave now, we'll make it back by dinnertime and we might manage not to get in trouble with our parents." She said all of this like it made complete sense. Guess what: it didn't.

Now, Percy wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was pretty sure it wasn't just him being dumb this time. "Seriously?" he shot back, looking at her in complete befuddlement. Surely any second now she'd scream "Psych!" and admit that she was just pulling his leg.

But she never did. She just stared at him with her big gray eyes, begging him without words to give her a chance. "Please, I know if you come with me, you'll understand." Her hands tightened around the strap of her book bag. "And if you still hate me after this, I'll stay away from you forever. You'll never have to talk to me again, I swear."

He felt himself start to give in, and he scolded himself mentally for being such a sucker. But she seemed so earnest, almost desperate for him to say yes, he really couldn't help it. He caved. "...Fine. But you're paying my fare. After yesterday, I'm pretty sure I'm not getting an allowance this week."

Together they walked a couple blocks to the Greyhound station. They didn't talk much, and the silence was tense. It was going to be a long three hours to Denver.

.

.

.

Of all the places he expected Annabeth to take him to, a hospital hadn't even made the list. And yet, there Percy was, staring through a window at a young man lying prone and still on a hospital bed, all sorts of tubes and cables jabbed into him, tethering his life to a series of monitors and tanks and IV bags that made the scene look like something out of a horror movie.

"So... this is who I wanted you to meet," Annabeth started, leaning against the opposite wall and looking everywhere but at him. She also didn't seem inclined to look at the boy on the bed, either. "Percy Jackson, meet Luke Castellan. My boyfriend."

Percy swept his gaze between her and the inside of the hospital room, not yet understanding what was happening. But she continued speaking, so he stayed quiet. "I've known Luke my whole life. He grew up down the street from Thalia, Jason and me, and we always hung out together. He and Thalia were always getting into messes, and leaving Jason and me to bail them out of trouble." She tried to smile as she remembered their childhood days, but was only able to get the corners of her mouth crinkled up, just barely.

"Everybody likes Luke. He's got a charisma to him, he's a natural leader. I always had kind of a crush on him, but I thought he always saw me as a little sister. When he told me he liked me, I was over the moon. He was my first boyfriend. My first kiss." She hugged herself, and Percy wasn't sure if that was because it was cold in the hallway they were standing in, or if it was because she needed a hug. Either way, there wasn't much he could do about it, given that he was supposed to be angry at her.

Except he wasn't sure he was angry at her anymore.

"Last fourth of July, he and Thalia decided to swipe Luke's dad's new truck and take it for a joyride. Jason and I had already been grounded one time too many that summer, so we refused to get involved in any more of their hijinks. They went alone. Luke was driving. They pushed it too far, and on a curve, the truck flipped over several times. Thalia was thrown from the car. She managed to call 911 but Luke was already unconscious when the ambulance got there." She pursed her lips. "He hasn't woken up ever since."

She looked at him for a moment and he could see that her eyes were full of tears. She dropped her gaze after a heartbeat. "His parents have taken the case to doctor after doctor, but every single one told them it was hopeless. I think they've given up on him, by now, but I haven't. So when I heard my mother ranting that your family was moving to Elysium, I thought, well, if anyone could help Luke it would be Poseidon Irving, right?"

The pieces of this whole mess finally started falling together for Percy, and he didn't know how to feel. On the one hand, he felt used. Had she only attempted to befriend him so he would get his father to help her boyfriend? That sounded so... underhanded. Everything in him rejected that notion.

She let out a pained sigh. "I didn't mean to hurt you, Percy. I really do like you, and I was going to tell you about this eventually, I just... didn't know how." She looked down at her shoes and discreetly wiped a tear off her cheek, and Percy had never felt more conflicted in his life.

Because now when he looked at her, he could feel the desperation rolling out of her in waves. She obviously really cared about this Luke guy. So could he blame her, really, for reaching out for every glimmer of hope that came her way, no matter how much of a stretch it was? He didn't know that he would've done otherwise if he were in her place. It might be worth being a little underhanded if it meant he could save someone he loved.

She didn't ask him to do anything, and he didn't offer to do anything. And the ride back to Elysium was just as silent and painful as the ride from there had been, except a little sadder.

They split up at the bike rack at the entrance of the school. Annabeth parted ways with a quiet "I'll see you in class." Percy wasn't entirely sure what to make of that. She had offered, before they went to Denver that afternoon, that if he didn't want to talk to her again after this, he didn't have to. But he wasn't sure what he wanted yet. He had to think about... everything.

He went inside the main school building to get his books. After he got his things from his locker, he hurried his step so he could leave— he was already late for dinner and his mother would not appreciate him skipping it two days in a row— but before he could make his way out, the notice board near the main entrance caught his eye. It was where the school board and faculty posted the latest news, warnings, notices, and sign-up sheets for extracurriculars.

There was one more thing he needed to do before he went home.

.

.

.

Sally hadn't seen her eldest son in over a full day now, and she thought his return home deserved commemoration despite the circumstances that led to it, so she decided that night that she was going to make fried chicken for dinner, from scratch. Tyson helped her make the biscuits, and everything was almost ready to eat. Now they were only waiting for Percy to arrive.

"I'm going to need some serving bowls," she told her youngest as she pulled the biscuits out of the oven. "Can you please go get some from the boxes in the basement?"

"I'll get 'em!" Tyson exclaimed, always eager to help.

"Get me two large ones and a smaller one for the gravy— and don't run when you're carrying them!" she warned him as he rushed off toward the back of the house to fulfill this critical mission.

As she was lifting the biscuits off the baking sheet with a spatula, she caught sight of Percy through the living room windows, parking his bike by the side of the house. He didn't seem angry anymore. She smiled. Looking at Percy never failed to remind her of Poseidon; her son was the spitting image of his father when he was younger, when they first fell in love.

"I wish we could just run away," she said as she cuddled up to Poseidon's side, taking in the view of the glimmering ocean as the moon rose over Montauk. The weekend was coming to a close, and she didn't want it to end. It had been the most magical weekend of her life. "I wish we could go where nobody knows us and just... be together. Just like this."

"That sounds nice," Poseidon mumbled sleepily, pausing only to press a kiss on the crown of her head. "Where would we go?"

"Hmmm, let me think..." She closed her eyes for a moment, letting her mind's eye and the warmth of her lover's body take her to a beautiful place. "Oh, I know," she said when it came to her, sitting up so she could look at him directly. "Elysium, Colorado."

He made a face, and she laughed. "Colorado? It can't be somewhere closer to the coast?" He pointed in the direction of the waves, where they lapped at the shore just a few feet away from them.

"Nope," she shook her head playfully and leaned in to kiss the tip of his nose, just because his grumpy expression was so adorable. He'd lived in New York his whole life, and to him, feeling the presence of the ocean nearby was as much a fact of life as the necessity of eating and breathing.

"It's this small town in rural Colorado, nestled in the Rockies," she described. "When I was a kid, before my parents died, we took a train trip across the country. We had to stop in Elysium for a day because there was a snowstorm." She cozied up to his side again, and he wrapped his arm around her without a thought. "I didn't even mind. It was the most beautiful place I've ever seen."

"More beautiful than this?" Once again he pointed to their view of the beach.

"It's a different kind of beauty," she clarified. "Being surrounded by the mountains like that... it puts into perspective how insignificant we are. It really makes you recognize the important things in life." She sighed, content. "I always thought if I ever had a family, if I had to raise children, I'd like to do it there. Maybe this was just me because I was an impressionable kid, but there was a sense of safety, of tranquility there that I haven't really felt anywhere else."

They were quiet for a minute, Sally lost in her memories and Poseidon mulling over her words. Finally, as he moved lightly so that they would be sitting in a more comfortable position, he spoke. "I don't suppose this place is also a major center for neurosurgery?" Sally laughed, but offered him no sympathy. "Fine. We'll go there someday."

"Promise?" she nuzzled his cheek with the tip of her nose.

"Promise."

"Mom? I got the bowls."

Tyson's voice snapped Sally out of her reverie. "Oh. Yes, yes, bring them here. Percy's home now, so we'll be eating soon." The boy put the bowls he was carrying down on the kitchen island so that she could plate the food. "Hey, sweetheart, come here," she stopped him before he could turn around to go and greet his brother. As he came closer, she wrapped him up in a hug. "You know I love you, right? I love you so much."

She felt Tyson nod against the side of her head. "I know. I love you, too, Momma." She kissed his temple and with one last squeeze, let him out of her arms around the same time Percy came into the living room and dumped his bag on the couch.

"Go wash your hands, dinner's almost ready," she pointed out to him, stepping forward to greet him, while Tyson started putting the biscuits in one of the bowls he'd brought. "Did you have a good night at Grover's?"

"It was... musical," Percy grumbled as he oh-so-unwillingly submitted to his mother's welcome kiss.

"Everything went well at school?" she inquired further as she took some cutlery out of a drawer to set the table. Tyson was now plating the fried chicken in another bowl. She told him to leave the mac 'n cheese casserole in the oven; she would bring it over to the table herself. She didn't want him burning himself by accident.

"Well, turns out the girl I like is in love with a dude in a coma, but no biggie," Percy replied as he let himself fall into one of the kitchen table chairs.

Both Sally and Tyson stopped abruptly what they were doing to stare at Percy in shock. "I... don't even know what to say to that," she admitted out loud. It sounded like the plot of a (bad) soap opera.

"Like a sugar coma?" Tyson asked a second later, confused about the term.

Percy did not respond to either. "Also, I signed up for the swim team," he declared, almost like an afterthought.

"Percy, that's great!" she exclaimed, dropping the cutlery on the table so she could go and give him a big hug. She took this as a positive sign; if Percy was swimming again, doing what he loved, maybe this was a hint that things were going back to normal, that they were going to be okay.

"Well, it's a good thing I made fried chicken to celebrate, then," she said as she let go of him. "But don't think this lets you off the hook about yesterday, young man," she tried her best to turn her ear-to-ear smile into a serious expression, but couldn't quite pull it off. "You'll have to talk things out with your father and apologize. You both said a lot of things you didn't mean, and that's not okay."

"I meant some of them," the teen muttered under his breath.

"Percy."

"Fine, fine, I'll apologize next time I see him," he conceded reluctantly.

That was good enough for Sally. "Great. Now go wash your hands. I made blue cupcakes for dessert." That was incentive enough to get him off the chair and to the kitchen sink, while Tyson asked what felt like a hundred and one questions about comas that they both tried to steer him away from. No need to speak of sad topics for the night.

It was their first not-really-celebratory celebratory dinner in their new home, and she meant for them to enjoy it, as a family. There would be time for all of that later.

.

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Author's notes!—

[1] The foramen magnum is the hole in the back of the skull through which the spinal cord passes to exit the cranium. And yes, Sally was saying it wrong.

[2] Like Paul explained, this is a quote from John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.

[3] For all of you young'uns out there who might not recognize this one, Dynasty was a famous soap opera that ran on ABC from 1981 to 1989. It was about this huge oil tycoon and his family, and all the intrigue and scandal you'd imagine would come out of a soap opera of this kind. It was the main competitor to CBS' Dallas, which I believe got a TV remake not too long ago?

And so, we've come to the end of the first "episode" of Elysium. I've already watched the second episode of Everwood but haven't started writing yet, so I can't give you an ETA of the next chapter. I hope you'll stick with me even if I can't promise speedy updates anymore— but hey, be sure to follow either me or my profile so you don't miss when I finally get around to uploading the next one! You can also follow me on Tumblr (girls-are-weird), where I will be dropping snippets and excerpts as I go along.

In the meantime, please do let me know what you thought of this chapter and if you're liking this story so far. I love your reviews and will reply ASAP if you send me a question or a comment. :) Thanks for the support, guys. See you when I see you!