Thanks For Being The Nanny

Ten Years Later

"Adam!" I hear the shrieking right as two small body's ram into me as I stepped through the door. Kaiya and Charleigh. They were adopted four years ago when I was thirteen and my twin brothers were six. Leigh was four at the time and Kai was three.

Initially, the plan was to only adopt Charleigh but the courts didn't want to split the sisters apart and that is how we—my brothers and I, that is— got stuck with these two rug rats for sisters. We were so excited to get new siblings and when they first got here they were shy and quiet; the perfect little angels. We loved them. Then after their first year, the little angles became the little devils.

At first it was small things, like taking our shoes or clothes and writing all over them with pink markers or going through our stuff then it escalated to flooding the bathroom to causing our dog to puke everywhere after feeding him nothing but marshmallows all day, and to shaving off half of the twin's eyebrows (mine would have been shaven as well had I not been sleeping over at a friend's house). Although they never blamed it on us and almost always got in trouble somehow, the twins and I always got clean up duty. All in all we still loved them, even if we're stuck cleaning up their messes for the rest of their lives.

"How are my two favorite rug rats?" I kneel down to return their hug.

They giggled and took my hands to drag me into the living room, "We gave Mrs. O'Leary a makeover!"

That they did, somehow they got a hold of either dad's or I's shaver and shaved off all her hair, managed to dye her a bright blue, and to top it all off they painted her nails a hot pink color. I ran a hand through my hair and looked down at them.

If you didn't know they were related you wouldn't be able to see a resemblance. They looked like total opposites; Kai had dark brown eyes whereas Leigh had hazel—almost golden—colored eyes, not a single similar facial feature. They only things they had in common were their curly hair, their perennial tan, and their smile.

"Did you guys to this all by yourself or did Theo and Nes help you with this?" I asked warily.

"Nes and Theo shaved her. We did all the rest!" Kai beamed at me proudly and Leigh nodded in excitement.

"Where are they?"

"Daddy just got back from taking them to swim practice. He's in the kitchen with mommy." Leigh blinked up at me with her doe like eyes.

"Well, I'm going to go talk to dad. I think you should let Mrs. O'Leary be for the rest of today. She's had enough makeover for today." I tell them as I pet our dog on the head and she gives me a grateful lick on the palm of my hand. I make my way to the kitchen. It's oddly quiet; it always is whenever the twins aren't home. Although the girls are always getting into stuff, they're quiet about it and that's how they never get caught until they're finished doing whatever it is they're doing.

"Well, the twins shaved Mrs. O'Leary and the girls—oh my gods! Really?!" I cover my eyes once I realize what I've walked in on. My dad is standing in between Annabeth's legs as she sits on the islands' counter both sans shirts.

"Adam! What are you doing home?!"Annabeth exclaimed and hops off the counter as dad bends down to pick up what I hope is their shirts.

"You guys do know that Kaiya and Charleigh are in the other room right?" I frown and shake my head, trying not stop replaying what I just walked in on. It wasn't every day you walk in on your dad and stepmother. Ugh.

"You know what? I don't even want to know. Dad, can some of my friends and I go up to the cabin for the weekend?" I asked after we stood in an unbearable awkward silence for a minute.

"What friends?" Annabeth asked.

I rolled my eyes and suppressed my glare, "A couple of guys from the swim team."

"That didn't answer my question, Adam." She sighed and leaned against the island.

"What does it matter? I asked dad, not you. You don't get a say in this." I couldn't suppress my glare any longer. Why couldn't she just say yes? I was sick of her being so overbearing.

"Adam." Dad's voice held an edge to it. "After what you just said, no you definitely cannot use the cabin this weekend."

"Seriously dad? Come on. We wanted to go up there and study for finals." I groan.

"Well, you should have thought about that before you disrespected your mother." He glared and placed a hand on Annabeth's back.

"Percy—," She started but I cut her off before she could say anything else, "Would you stop calling her that? She's not my mother. She's just an overbearing pain in my ass."

Annabeth sucked in a breath and gripped the edge of the counter. It was silent as my father stared at me in shock and Annabeth looked anywhere but at me. After a few more minutes of silence Annabeth turned around and broke it, speaking lowly to my father with her head bowed, "I told you this would happen one day and I can't take this anymore. He's been disrespecting me for far too long. "

"Annabeth, come on. He's seventeen. You remember how you and Susan were when you were seventeen." Dad tried to reason.

"I am nothing like Susan." Annabeth lifts her to glare at him. "Either you talk some sense into him or have his bags packed by the time I get back, I mean it Perseus."

She never called dad by his full name unless she was really angry. She walked out of the room without so much as a glance in my direction. We could hear her telling the girls to go put their shoes on and asking who was in the mood for ice cream. Dad, who had his back turned to me, didn't say anything even after we heard the front door slam shut.

Not being able to withstand the silence any longer I broke it, "Dad…"

"Don't. What you said was crossing the line, Adam. A line that was thin enough to begin with." He yells as he turns to stare at me, anger evident in his gaze. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

When I didn't say anything he continued talking, "Answer me, Adam! What's going on? Annabeth has done nothing but love you from the first time she met you. She doesn't deserve your disrespecting smartass comments."

All I could get out was, "Is she serious about kicking me out?"

"Yes. She's had enough of your attitude. She may not be your mother but she is my wife and if you want to stay in this house you better start respecting her. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Gods, I don't get you Adam." Dad looks at me; his anger fading away into sadness. "You used to have no problem calling Annabeth your mom. We let you choose whether or not you wanted to call her that, you know. And when you did she was so happy, both of us were."

"I…I don't know what to tell you dad. I just don't feel that way anymore. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to Annabeth. You have no idea how much you've really hurt her."

Sitting in my room, I thought about all my father had said; about my relationship with Annabeth. I hadn't realized how far this estrangement from her had gotten. I never wanted to become one of those stereotypical teenagers that hate their stepparents; I just wanted to distance myself.

A few months before the adoption of Kai and Leigh was finalized, I developed this fear —now that I look back I realize how irrational it was—that one day Annabeth would not love me anymore, that she'd forget about me now that she'd have to raise the the girls as well as the twins. I knew this was a stupid reason to distance myself from her but I told myself that it'd be best if I were the one to pull away before she could; that way I wouldn't be hurt. However, even with this reason, I couldn't find it in myself to do it.

I didn't really start distancing myself until a few months later, the morning after we found out my godfather, Uncle Grover, had died in an airplane crash. Dad took it pretty hard and the night he found out, he had come home drunk; thankfully I was the only one still up, the girls and twins had been put to bed already.

.~.

"Are you almost done, Adam? You really need to get to bed. It's almost twelve in the morning." Mom asked as she sat down beside me at the kitchen table. I was trying to work on this English project I had due the following week.

"Yeah, mom. Sorry for doing this so late…I just couldn't sleep knowing…" My voice cracked and I pushed back from the table. Aunt Juniper had called this morning to tell us about Uncle Grover and it had haunted me the rest of the day, making it the worse Friday I've ever had. Knowing we'd never get to go on another of our fishing trips we had once a month or see him around the house, just made this unbearable and when mom had offered for me to stay home I almost said yes. I didn't though because I knew I'd just spend the whole time locked up in my room reminiscing which wouldn't do me any good.

"Oh, sweetheart, it's going to be okay." She started to rub my back, soothingly. Before I could respond, a slam came from the front of the house.

"I think your father's home. You finish up and I'll go see how he's doing, okay?" Mom placed a kiss on my forehead before she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. I finished my paper fifteen minutes later and mom hadn't come back; they must have went to bed already. Turning off all the lights in the kitchen I made my way through the living room to get to the stairs.

"I can't believe you, Percy. He may have been your best friend but he wouldn't have wanted you to go off and grieve like this! We don't just have Adam anymore Percy! We have four other children to think about now; you can't just come home drunk in the middle of the night!" Mom was talking heatedly to dad, who was slumped against the wall barley paying mom any attention; his eyes drifted past mom to me where I was standing in the doorway.

"Adam." Dad murmured before he turned his head and puked. Mom spun around without a word, took me by the shoulders and led me upstairs to my room; the whole time I could hear dad dry heaving on the floor.

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked before she could leave the room. She turned around and I could tell she exhausted. Today had taken a toll on her; this morning's phone call, telling us that Uncle Grover was gone, helping Aunt Juniper start planning the funeral, and, now, dad coming home drunk. It was just too much for her.

"Don't worry about him. He's going to go stay with your Aunt Thalia and Uncle Porter for the night, okay? I'm sorry you had to see your father like that." She turned around to leave again; she stood there for a minute before saying without turning around. "I love you, Adam. No matter what happens."

"I love you too, Mom." That was the last time I called her mom; the last time I told her I loved her.

.~.

The next morning I was up before all my siblings as usual and I was heading down to the kitchen to make me a bowl of cereal. I was just outside the kitchen doorway when I heard the voices of my mom, Aunt Thalia, Uncle Porter, and Uncle Robin.

"I don't mean to sound crass but don't you think you're overreacting Annabeth?" Uncle Robin asked. "I mean, you're talking about divorcing him for coming home drunk one time."

"It's not just the one time, Robin. Every time we have a major fight he gets drunk but he's known better than to come home when he's like that. He usually spends the night at Grover's or the office." Mom sighs, wrapping her hands around the coffee mug in front of him. "And I was fine with that, as long as the kids didn't see him like that."

"And have they?" Aunt Thalia sits down next to mom.

"Yes. When Adam was six, right after Poseidon died; you guys know what I'm talking about, you've heard the story before." Mom leaned her elbows on the table and covers her face with her hands; she took a deep breath before she continued, "Then again when Percy and I had a fight about eight months after the twins came home and he came home drunk. It was the middle of the day and the twins were playing on the floor. He tripped over one of their toys and almost landed on Theo."

"Jesus." Uncle Porter breathed.

"I told him that if he was going to drink then he couldn't come around the kids when he was drunk and if he didI would leave. He stopped drinking for a while but when he did he'd always crash at Grover's." Mom uncovered her face; her gray eyes were red as if she'd been crying all night.

"When was the third time?" Uncle Robin asked.

"Last night. Adam was up, working on a paper for school because he couldn't sleep. When Percy got home, I went to check on him and found him wasted sitting against the wall in the living room. The next thing I knew Adam was behind me and Percy was puking." Mom took a breath. "It wasn't as bad as the first two times but I just can't have that happened again. I don't want that kind of influence on my kids."

"It's already becoming a repeat of Poseidon's death." Aunt Thalia puts her arm around mom.

"It is, isn't it? But this time we don't just have Adam to worry about we have four more kids. The girls are just now getting comfortable around us." Mom leaned into Aunt Thalia's embrace.

"Annabeth, I understand you want to do what's best for the kids but please talk things out with him at least. He knows he screwed up. He's so afraid you're going to leave him and take the kids." Uncle Porter begged.

"I don't know, Porter. What else can we say to each other? We've talked about this and I've told him over and over that I'll leave him if I think it's best for the kids an—," Mom protested.

"Are you sure this is best for them?" Uncle Robin interrupted her. "Can you really take his kids from him? Him from the kids?"

"I could take Nes, Theo, Kai, and Leigh but not Adam..." I didn't hear anything else she said because I turned away and went back upstairs.

I had found my reason.

.~.

A few days after that overheard conversation, my parents dropped my siblings and me off at our grandparents for a weekend and I'm assuming they worked everything out that weekend seeing as they're still going strong.

Annabeth and I's relationship, however, went downhill after that. I knew I was overreacting and that there was an explanation for her words. I just didn't want to acknowledge it; I had finally found a reason to distance myself. I made myself think she didn't want me, didn't love me though I knew all along that she did. I created the very distance I was afraid of. I drove the wedge between us, the one I was so afraid would appear someday later in our lives; a wedge that, I see now, would have never happened. In that moment, I couldn't believe how stupid I've been.

I had to fix this and I had to fix it now.

Coming out of my room, I heard the familiar voices of my twin brothers downstairs. That meant mom was home. I made my way over to my parents' bedroom and knocked. There was no answer. I looked in all the other rooms upstairs to find them all empty.

"Nes! Theo!" I called as I went down the stairs.

"What?" they replied appearing at the bottom of the stairs. They were pretty tall for ten year olds, reaching up to my lower chest which on my six foot five stature was pretty tall. I'm pretty sure they'd be taller than me once they hit puberty.

The only reason Theo and Nes weren't completely identical is because of their hair and eye color. Nestor had dad's dark hair coloring and mom's grey eyes and Theo had mom's blonde hair and dad's green ones. The only thing they both seemed to get from mom was her curls seeing as they look exactly like me and dad when we were that age, just with different hair and different eyes.

"Adam? Yoo-hoo, Adam?" Nestor waved his hand in front of my face breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry. Where's mom?" I asked. Their eyebrows shot up at hearing me call Annabeth mom, the last time I did that was about four years ago.

"Mom?" Theo repeated flabbergasted.

"Yes, mom. Tall, curly blonde hair like yours, grey eyes like Nes', married to dad. That mom." I described. "Where is she?"

"On the patio with dad." Nestor finally managed to get out.

"Thanks." I ruffled their hair as I walked passed them and towards the patio door that was wide open. I could see the girls running around chasing a blue Mrs. O'Leary from the open doors. Stepping onto the patio, I made my way over to the porch swing that mom and dad were sitting on.

They were talking softly to each other as I came to stand beside them. Mom was leaning against dad who had his arm curled around her shoulders; he must've said something funny because mom started laughing. It was so easy to tell how in love they were. Anyone could tell just from the way dad smiled as she laughed or the way mom looked back at him, smiling softly.

Stopping in front of them, I cleared my throat. "Umm, Dad can I talk to mom alone, please?"

Shock flitted across their faces but they didn't say anything. Dad just nodded and pressed a kiss to mom's forehead before he stood. He gave me a small smile as he passed, rounding up the girls and heading back inside, closing the door behind them.

I sat down next to her on the porch swing. "Before I say anything else, I want to apologize. I'm sorry for everything. For what I said today, for how I acted today, and for how I've been acting these last few years." I took a breath before I continued. "And most of all I'm sorry I stopped calling you mom. I'm so sorry. I hope you can forgive me."

"You called me mom." The disbelief was evident in her tone.

"Yeah, I did." I replied sheepishly. "It felt good to say it. I missed saying it."

Mom laughed. "Why did you stop?"

"I overheard your conversation you had with Aunt Thalia, Uncle Porter, and Uncle Robin the morning after Uncle Grover's plane crash. I didn't hear all of it though."

"You must have heard me say I didn't want to take you, huh?" She asked and when I nodded she continued, "I only said that because you were thirteen and I knew that leaving would affect you more than it would the girls or the twins." She took a deep breath. "But, if we're being honest, I just didn't want to make you choose. I was afraid you wouldn't pick me because I wasn't really your mother and that would have broken my heart. There was, however, a time when I would have taken you, no questions asked."

"I would have picked you. I love dad but he wouldn't know what to do without you, none of us would." I leaned forward, putting my elbows on my knees. "So, if we're being honest then…there was another reason."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I was grasping for a reason to distance myself from you. I knew there was more to what you were saying but by then I was so afraid that you'd stop loving me. I was so afraid that there'd be an ocean between us one day that I put it there." I confessed; my throat felt like it was trying to close in on me.

"Oh, sweetheart. Come here." She opened her arms to me and I went. For the first time in four years I felt like I belonged, I felt at peace. We sat like that in silence for long time.

It was mom who finally broke our silence, "Adam, this is something your father and I haven't told you and your siblings. Hell, we haven't even told Thalia, Robin, or Porter. But anyway, when I was eight months pregnant with the twins we were in a car accident. You were too young to really understand what was happening so you thought I had went into labor. When I woke up from the surgery, the doctor told us I couldn't have kids anymore."

"What?" I always thought that they adopted Kaiya and Charleigh because they wanted to give foster kids a good home.

"I was so sad. I thought I'd never have any more children and we had wanted more. I wanted girls. I didn't want to live in another house of boys; I'd had enough of that growing up." She paused. I could see how hard this was for her to talk about so I tried to stop her. "Mom, you don't have to talk about this. I can tell this is hard for you."

"No. I need to say this. For both of our sakes." She watched me, seeing if I was ready and when she saw I relented she continued."It didn't dawn on me to adopt until I told your grandmother and she told me how grandpa Paul and her were having Rebecca. They were going to adopt. For a long time I was so ashamed I didn't think of it sooner. I was ashamed that I thought being biologically related to my kids mattered because I knew it didn't. I've always loved you like my own, Adam. Family isn't restricted by blood. It's restricted by whoever you choose to love. And I've chosen to love you, Charleigh, Kaiya, Theseus, Nestor, your father, and everyone else in our family."

"Thank you for choosing me." I smiled and said those three words I hadn't said in a very long time. "I love you, too."

"Please, sweetheart, you've had me wrapped around your pinky from the moment I met you. Nes and Theo may be my first born but you were my first child."

"I'm glad you became The Nanny." I smiled at her. She laughed at me but responded none the less.

"I'm glad I became The Nanny too, bud."

That's it. It's over. I hope you guys liked it! I can't believe it. After three years, in total, of working on The Nanny and The Beginning, I'm finally finished. I have to admit I never thought I'd finish it, especially those times when I absolutely did not want to write and it took me forever to update. Yeah, I know I said end of August but my beta decided to go on ahead and binge read instead of working on this chapter.

But, I can't thank you guys enough for all the support and the reviews and for just sticking with me. I want to dedicate this chapter to you guys. You guys really are the best which is why this is sad for me to say but…I believe The Beginning will be my last and final Percy Jackson and the Olympians story. Heck, it may be one of my last stories. I don't know. But for all of my Where Beauty Lies fans don't worry. I will be finishing it and updating soon, I just wanted to finish TB first since I was so close to doing so.

Again, thanks so much to all of you guys! I want to give special thanks to:

ThaliadaughterofZeus for all the help she's given me.

R0bster79 aka Batman's Sidekick (although he probably won't see this) for becoming my co-writer and beta for those few chapters, putting the story in the direction I needed and most importantly for becoming my friend ;)

CharminglyWitty for being my beta (even though she didn't beta this chapter) and for being my go to person whenever I needed it and for becoming my friend as well :)

If it wasn't for them and you guys, I don't know how I could have finished this story because believe me, there were times I just wanted to discontinue it. Thanks to all those who have stuck with me from The Nanny to The Beginning, it means a lot! Thanks again, I wish you all the best of luck!

Goodbye,

~booklover484 :D