Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or Heroes of Olympus. All rights go to Mr. Rick Riordan.

If Sally Jackson has figured out one thing in the past five years, it's that she is always the last to know. She isn't bitter about that though; sometimes, she admits, it's a blessing. Sally knows that if she had known the danger that her son was in, well she wouldn't have been sitting quietly at home, that's for sure.

The first time, she knew that he was in danger. Chiron had told her that he had been on a quest, and that he had thought her dead. She also knew that he was safe now, but that didn't keep her from worrying. She had even seen him for Zeus' sake, but that didn't stop her from freaking out. She knew the myths, she knew the sad truth about a hero's fate, and she had been told over and over that her son was no different. Knowing all that however, didn't stop her from rushing to him when he came through the door, for the second time that is, and demanding to know if he was alright.

Spying the bandage on his hand, Sally quickly led her son to a chair, and then continued her questions. What had happened to his hand? Who had he been on the quest with him? Was he okay?

Being Percy, he grinned and answered her questions as fast as she asked them. He had been bitten by a scorpion (No mom, it wasn't a poisonous one. What? No, I'm not lying. Okay, fine. Maybe it was a little poisonous. But that's not the point, I'm fine now.), he had been on the quest with Grover, and a daughter of Athena named Annabeth, and yeah, he was fine.

Demanding to know what had happened; Sally quickly asked what she had been wondering for the past few weeks. What in the world had happened on the quest? Her son sighed, before beginning the tale.

"Well you see mom, someone had taken Zeus' lightning bolt, and for some reason, he thought it was me…"

The second time Percy was in danger, Sally had no idea. She had sent him off to school, just like any other day, and had then gotten ready for work. Truthfully, she wasn't surprised when the school called that afternoon. Shaking her head in exasperation, Sally apologized quickly to the school, and hung up the phone. By now, she had gotten used to her son running off, but after a few days, she got worried.

In fact, she didn't hear any news about her son until about a week later. Even then, it was Chiron who finally told her what had happened. There had been yet another quest apparently, and it seemed that her son had saved the camp.

"Your son is a hero," Chiron had told her, and Sally had grinned, because she had known it all along. Even as she smiled, the unspoken ending to the centaur's statement rang out in her head, "and a hero's fate is never anything but tragic."

Sally didn't begin to except her son's fate until the winter after his second quest. At first, she had been unwilling to drive her son and his friends to meet up with Grover. After all, what kind of mother would knowingly drive her son into danger? But eventually, she gave in to her son's plea.

When she next spoke to Percy, he was, for lack of a better word, panicking. Annabeth was gone, she learned, and her son wasn't being permitted to go on the quest to find her. On top of all of that, the goddess Artemis was missing as well, and there was a monster out there who could destroy life as she knew it.

Later, Sally would realize that she should have done the opposite of what she would do next. After all, wasn't her son in the safest position possible right now? He was protected by the camp's boundaries, and to top it all off, her son, her only son, was no longer the prophecy child. But Sally knew that safe as he may be, he wasn't happy.

At that moment, she knew that she was going to have to do what she had told herself that she would never do. She was going to tell her son to leave her, leave the safety of camp, and try to find his best friend. She was going to encourage him to break the rules, to risk his life yet again, and strangely, she was alright with that.

Percy came back from his third quest, well, different. In some ways, he stayed the same. He still told bad jokes to make her laugh, and he was still just as reckless as he was before. But now, the demigod was more focused. He seemed a little more serious, a little stronger, and a little sadder. It was almost as if he had seen what life was really like, and had realized just how easily it could end. In some ways, this made Sally sad. Her sweet, oblivious son was growing up. And there was nothing she could do to stop him.

The third summer, it seemed that things were finally turning around for Sally. She had met Paul, who not only loved her, but seemed to care about Percy as well. Her son was finally figuring a few things out, and was going on a date (It's NOT a date mom!) with Annabeth after his freshmen orientation at the school Paul worked at.

Half of Sally expected the frantic phone call from Paul. Of course the band room had blown up, this was Percy, wasn't it? And of course her son was on a quest. That was what he did.

With three quests under her belt, Sally knew the drill. She would sit worried on the couch in her free time, but she would always remind herself that Percy would be fine. Nothing could have prepared her for that Iris message from a distraught Annabeth, telling her that her son may very well be dead.

This was Percy, her son. He couldn't have died! After all he had been through; surely he had just stopped somewhere, and would be back tomorrow, right? But the days came and went, and Sally found herself losing hope. When Chiron gently told her that they were going to burn his shroud, she sobbed. Her baby boy wasn't, couldn't be dead! He was out there, she knew it! But the facts were staring the young mother in the face, and she had to resign herself to the fact that she would never see her son again.

It was promptly after her resignation that Sally Jackson was startled back into reality by the shimmering form of the very person whose death she was starting to accept. Her son was alive!

He had done it. Her son had saved her, saved everybody, saved the world! And to top it all off, he had lived to tell the tale! Sally was ecstatic, almost wishing that she could show all of those teachers who had looked at her with sympathy, telling her that her son would amount to nothing in the world, that the boy who they had proclaimed a failure, had just saved all of their lives!

And Zeus knows, Sally was ready for the happy-ever-after that she knew that her family deserved.

Numb with shock, Sally gaped at the glimmering form of her son's girl friend in front of her.

"What?" Sally asked softly. "What did you say?"

"He's gone."

A/N: Happy birthday Percy! I can't believe he's eighteen today, unless you see things from Uncle Rick's POV, then he's still sixteen. Anyway, I feel like Sally doesn't get enough love! After all, she's the reason that we have Percy in the first place!

Please let me know if you liked it!

-wombat-of-awesomeness