fic: A Baby Story [PG-13, Percy/Annabeth, PJO, 2/3]
Title: A Baby Story
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Percy/Annabeth, Rachel and Nico
Summary: The birth of Percy and Annabeth’s first child goes just the way one would expect it to - that is, not at all like it's supposed and not at all easy. That’s sort of what happens when you mess with the patroness of childbirth. Futurefic.
Notes: This is actually going to be three parts now because my brain cannot stop thinking of things to write for this fic. I suppose it could've stayed two parts, but I liked the last section too much to add more on to it. ;)
A Baby Story
Part Two
The ridiculousness of this statement momentarily distracted Annabeth from her labor pains, and she stared at Nico, hoping he knew that joking with her right now would only serve to get him gruesomely murdered.
“What? Nico, be serious.”
“Oh, I am totally serious, Annabeth,” Nico said in that tense, I’m-not-going-to-panic-nope-totally-not-panicking voice of his. “One hundred and a million percent serious.”
“You are shitting me,” Rachel added, leaving Annabeth’s side and moving toward the front window. She pulled back the curtain to glance outside; a second later, she dropped the fabric back down and turned around, her face white. “Zeus’s balls, there’s a fucking dragon in the driveway.”
“I told you!”
“Don’t you start with that, di Angelo, or I swear - ”
A deep, unearthly roar cut Rachel off, and the floor and walls of the cabin rumbled from the force of it, the deep vibrations causing dust to shake from the ceiling. All three of them clapped their hands over their ears, waiting for the sound to die out, and stared at each other with barely contained horror.
This could not be happening, Annabeth though distantly, not to her, not now, not when the mythological world and its various dangers had otherwise ignored her for the last nine months.
But there was no denying it - there was some kind of monster outside the cabin and if they didn’t do something about it, she was going to be in serious trouble.
For the thousandth time today, she cursed her stupid belly and the extraordinary pains her baby was putting her through. What was she supposed to do in a crisis like this when she could barely get up without doubling over in agony? Fighting monsters was what she was good at, not staying on the sidelines! She was going to murder Percy when he got back for leaving her like this and then murder him again for putting her in this condition! Of all the useless people she had to attach herself to for the rest of life, she had to pick an unreliable son of Poseidon. He’d probably done this on pur -
Stop it, she told herself, taking a deep breath, and then another.
She could not distress herself with melodramatic untruths. If she had to deliver the baby on the kitchen floor, then dammit, she would pull herself together and deliver the baby on the kitchen floor, Percy or no Percy.
She would not panic.
And just when she thought she’d calmed herself down reasonably well, the height of another contraction hit her and she doubled over in pain. She let out a desperate, animalistic noise, and hoped the other two hadn’t heard it.
She needn’t have worried about that, as Nico and Rachel were too busy arguing with each other to pay much attention to the laboring pregnant woman.
“Fuck, what are we going to do?”
“What do you mean, what are we going to do? You’re going to go outside and kick its ass, and then we’re going to the hospital!”
“You expect me to fight that thing? Did you see the size of it? It’s practically a city block long!”
“Do you see any other options here? You’re a son of Hades; if anyone can handle it, it’s you. Besides, you’re the only demigod we have that isn’t currently in labor!”
Both Nico and Rachel glanced over at Annabeth then, who was huffing and puffing through her latest contraction. She glared at the two of them as they stared at her contemplatively, but was too out of breath to say anything about it.
“Can you shadow travel her to the hospital?”
“Not while she’s in this condition; it’d probably... well, the end result wouldn’t be good, I’ll say that much,” Nico said grimly. “But I could go get Percy, and we - ”
“You are not leaving us here with a giant monster outside!” Rachel said fiercely, jabbing a finger into his chest. “We’re sticking together - ”
“Until you throw me to the damn drakon!”
“The drakon will be the least of your worries if you don’t - ”
“I CAN’T CONCENTRATE ON MY BREATHING WITH YOU TWO YELLING AT EACH OTHER,” Annabeth shouted, shocking the two of them with her ferocity.
It took her a few moments to regain her breath, but her outburst attracted the attention of the drakon, which roared again and slammed some part of its body into the ground, causing the cabinets in the kitchen to burst open and dishes to crash to the floor. The sofa underneath her slid back a few feet and she cried out as the vibrations sent jolts of pain up her back.
That, at least, seemed to put some steel back in Nico’s spine. He pulled a lighter of his back pocket and flipped the top open, unleashing his long, nightmare black sword. Annabeth shivered instinctively at the sight and moved to the far end of the couch, trying to get as far away from it as possible. She did not want that thing near her or her unborn child.
“See if you can’t get a signal with this thing or try IMing Percy while I’m out there,” Nico said to Rachel, tossing her his phone. “I’ll try and draw it away from the cabin, but there might be other monsters out there - ”
“Oh that makes me feel so much better, thank you. What are we supposed to do, lock ourselves in the bathroom?”
Nico made an impatient, frustrated gesture at her. “I don’t know! You’re the Oracle - do what feels right!” Then he turned to Annabeth, softening the disgruntled look on his face. “Just... stay safe, okay? Both of you.”
Annabeth nodded, biting her lip to keep another cry from escaping her, and Nico disappeared into the shadows. Moments later, there was another roar from outside and the ground rumbled again, a signal that the demigod had begun his battle with the drakon.
“Okay, no panicking, no panicking,” Rachel muttered to herself, looking over at Annabeth with wide eyes. “Can you make it back to the bathroom?”
“I - I’ll need help,” she replied. “The contractions... seem to be coming faster now.”
“Right,” Rachel said, dialing 911 and putting the phone under her ear. She walked over to the couch and helped Annabeth to her feet. The muscles in Annabeth’s legs felt like jelly and she gripped her friend’s arm, hoping she wouldn’t lose her balance and send both of them tumbling to the floor. “I can’t believe this is happening. Of course a monster would show up right when you’re about to give birth. Isn’t there some kind of mythological precedence for this?”
Rachel was babbling, as she tended to do when she was nervous, but Annabeth barely listened to her as they hobbled back down the hallway. She was starting to feel an intense, burning sensation between her legs and she knew that could not be good.
“There is a myth like this, right?” Rachel continued. “‘Cause I swear I’ve heard Apollo grumble about a snake chasing pregnant women before… unless that was some complicated metaphor for his dick and spreading his immortal seed, which I totally wouldn’t put past him."
“Python. That’s what you mean. Python chased his mom Leto around before she…” Annabeth replied shakily, pausing to lean against the wall as another contraction began, “b-before she gave birth to him and Artemis."
"Sheesh. No wonder he’s got issues. Who does that to a pregnant woman?"
A name flashed across Annabeth’s mind like a lighting bolt, and in an instant, she knew why her labor was so swift and horrible, why Percy was missing and everything was going so, so wrong. And she knew exactly who had sent the monster outside.
Hera.
Annabeth hadn’t heard much from her immortal nemesis in the last few years, probably due to the part she played in saving the world from Gaia and following Hera’s messed up plans. She’d find small cow pies in her path from time-to-time, so she knew the goddess still had it out for her, and Hera’s influence over the realm of marriage was on the unspoken reasons she and Percy had decided to hold off tying the knot for a while.
But Hera also was the patroness of childbirth and protector of laboring women. Cross her, and you’d be lucky if all she did was put you through a difficult, three day labor. The worst offenders managed to lose their babies and then hemorrhage to death while giving birth to a stillborn. Being on Hera’s bad side while pregnant was definitely not a good idea.
Annabeth had made a sacrifice to Artemis on her due date as a precaution for the baby, but she’d completely forgotten about Hera and it appeared (and felt) as though the goddess was taking the slight personally.
“That heinous bitch,” Annabeth snarled, forgetting her pain for a moment and pushing herself off from the wall, intending to march straight up to Olympus and kick Hera’s immortal ass, drakon outside be damned. But the intensity of her contraction ratched sharply up, cutting through her rage, and Annabeth slid down to the floor, moaning in agony. “I hate her. I hate this. I hate everything.”
“Her? Who are you talking about?”
“Hera!” she said, beginning to cry again. “Hera’s behind this!”
Rachel’s eyes went wide as she kneeled beside Annabeth, still clutching the phone in her hand. “Holy shit. You mean... that thing in the driveway, that’s the Python out there?”
Annabeth nodded, unable to speak through her tears. By sending Python, Hera was condemning Annabeth’s unborn baby to a horrible fate. Annabeth wasn’t a goddess - she couldn’t run from island to island until she found a safe spot to give birth. She didn’t have those options, and Hera knew that.
Hera knew that she was going to lose her baby.
“Rachel,” she sobbed desperately, clawing at her best friend’s arm. The cabin shook again as Python let out another roar from outside. “She’s going to take the baby away. I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this!”
“Annabeth. Annabeth,” Rachel said sternly, giving her shake. “You have got to focus. You can - ”
“No, no, no! Not without Percy. I can’t do this without him!”
She was delirious with anxiety and pain, beyond caring how she was acting and what she looked like. Most laboring women believed they couldn’t progress with labor at some point, she knew, but Annabeth had reached the absolute breaking point. Most laboring women didn’t have to deal with a missing husband, vengeful goddess and a giant monster in addition to their labor pains.
She might’ve lost it completely and truly doomed herself if Rachel hadn’t been at her side.
“Listen to me, Annabeth,” the other woman said, her voice dropping into a deep, multilayered tone Annabeth’s instincts recognized immediately. Through her tears, she noticed Rachel’s eyes had the slight, neon green Oracle glow to them. “You and the baby are going to be fine. You can do this - your body knows how to do it, you just have to trust yourself. Don’t worry about the stupid snake. Nico is handling it, and as much as I give him shit, he is just as good as Percy at killing horrible things and he’ll die before he lets anything happen to us.”
If - if the Oracle knew the baby would be safe...
Annabeth’s chest heaved and her arms quivered, but she let Rachel’s words wash over her, remembering her mantra from just a few moments ago.
She would not panic.
“So, c’mon,” Rachel said, gently prying Annabeth’s hands off her arms and taking them in hers. “Let’s get you some place comfortable, and get this baby delivered, okay?”
This was not how this was supposed to go.
She was supposed to be in the hospital with her doctor and pain medication and an entire support team of professionals at her side, not with just an Oracle with an art degree while a battle raged outside. She was supposed to be calm and have hours to adjust to the changes, not terrified and barely comprehending what was happening. Percy was supposed to be with her, whispering stupid jokes in her ears and having his hand crushed as she went through contractions, not off doing who knows what at camp.
This was not how she had wanted to bring her baby into the world, in a haze of misery and fear, but she was going to do it anyway.
She would have to trust her body - her cumbersome, traitor of a body - and let it do what came naturally. And that would be the hardest thing for her to accept.
Annabeth took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pushed herself off the ground.
-
The next half-hour of Annabeth’s life was a complete and utter blur, and she would only ever remember quick flashes of it.
She remembered Rachel filling the bathtub as she screamed through another contraction on the toilet, the lights flickering ominously above them as the cabin shuddered, and then later the relief that flowed through her once she was in the warm water and the pressure on her back receded slightly.
Rachel had been on the phone a lot, cursing under her breath and constantly redialing, finally giving a whoop of success toward the end when she managed to get through to the EMTs and get them rolling toward the cabin.
“I got rid of the - holy fuck, I did not need to see that!” Nico had said when he appeared in the bathroom at an inopportune moment, covered in monster gore and his eyes going comically wide with terror when he saw what was happening the bathtub. Annabeth and Rachel both screamed for him to get out, and he did so with incredible speed.
The urge to push became overwhelming shortly after that, and Annabeth gave over to her instincts, bearing down with all her might, clutching the edge of the bathtub with white knuckled fingers.
One
two
three times -
-
She will remember this part for the rest of her life.
-
He is small and purple red, with tufts of wet blond hair and beautiful, strong lungs filled with sharp, shivery first cries.
There are ten toes and ten fingers, and a set of wide, trusting blue eyes that are seeing her from the outside for the first time.
He is here, he is perfect, and he is hers.
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Percy/Annabeth, Rachel and Nico
Summary: The birth of Percy and Annabeth’s first child goes just the way one would expect it to - that is, not at all like it's supposed and not at all easy. That’s sort of what happens when you mess with the patroness of childbirth. Futurefic.
Notes: This is actually going to be three parts now because my brain cannot stop thinking of things to write for this fic. I suppose it could've stayed two parts, but I liked the last section too much to add more on to it. ;)
A Baby Story
Part Two
The ridiculousness of this statement momentarily distracted Annabeth from her labor pains, and she stared at Nico, hoping he knew that joking with her right now would only serve to get him gruesomely murdered.
“What? Nico, be serious.”
“Oh, I am totally serious, Annabeth,” Nico said in that tense, I’m-not-going-to-panic-nope-totally-not-panicking voice of his. “One hundred and a million percent serious.”
“You are shitting me,” Rachel added, leaving Annabeth’s side and moving toward the front window. She pulled back the curtain to glance outside; a second later, she dropped the fabric back down and turned around, her face white. “Zeus’s balls, there’s a fucking dragon in the driveway.”
“I told you!”
“Don’t you start with that, di Angelo, or I swear - ”
A deep, unearthly roar cut Rachel off, and the floor and walls of the cabin rumbled from the force of it, the deep vibrations causing dust to shake from the ceiling. All three of them clapped their hands over their ears, waiting for the sound to die out, and stared at each other with barely contained horror.
This could not be happening, Annabeth though distantly, not to her, not now, not when the mythological world and its various dangers had otherwise ignored her for the last nine months.
But there was no denying it - there was some kind of monster outside the cabin and if they didn’t do something about it, she was going to be in serious trouble.
For the thousandth time today, she cursed her stupid belly and the extraordinary pains her baby was putting her through. What was she supposed to do in a crisis like this when she could barely get up without doubling over in agony? Fighting monsters was what she was good at, not staying on the sidelines! She was going to murder Percy when he got back for leaving her like this and then murder him again for putting her in this condition! Of all the useless people she had to attach herself to for the rest of life, she had to pick an unreliable son of Poseidon. He’d probably done this on pur -
Stop it, she told herself, taking a deep breath, and then another.
She could not distress herself with melodramatic untruths. If she had to deliver the baby on the kitchen floor, then dammit, she would pull herself together and deliver the baby on the kitchen floor, Percy or no Percy.
She would not panic.
And just when she thought she’d calmed herself down reasonably well, the height of another contraction hit her and she doubled over in pain. She let out a desperate, animalistic noise, and hoped the other two hadn’t heard it.
She needn’t have worried about that, as Nico and Rachel were too busy arguing with each other to pay much attention to the laboring pregnant woman.
“Fuck, what are we going to do?”
“What do you mean, what are we going to do? You’re going to go outside and kick its ass, and then we’re going to the hospital!”
“You expect me to fight that thing? Did you see the size of it? It’s practically a city block long!”
“Do you see any other options here? You’re a son of Hades; if anyone can handle it, it’s you. Besides, you’re the only demigod we have that isn’t currently in labor!”
Both Nico and Rachel glanced over at Annabeth then, who was huffing and puffing through her latest contraction. She glared at the two of them as they stared at her contemplatively, but was too out of breath to say anything about it.
“Can you shadow travel her to the hospital?”
“Not while she’s in this condition; it’d probably... well, the end result wouldn’t be good, I’ll say that much,” Nico said grimly. “But I could go get Percy, and we - ”
“You are not leaving us here with a giant monster outside!” Rachel said fiercely, jabbing a finger into his chest. “We’re sticking together - ”
“Until you throw me to the damn drakon!”
“The drakon will be the least of your worries if you don’t - ”
“I CAN’T CONCENTRATE ON MY BREATHING WITH YOU TWO YELLING AT EACH OTHER,” Annabeth shouted, shocking the two of them with her ferocity.
It took her a few moments to regain her breath, but her outburst attracted the attention of the drakon, which roared again and slammed some part of its body into the ground, causing the cabinets in the kitchen to burst open and dishes to crash to the floor. The sofa underneath her slid back a few feet and she cried out as the vibrations sent jolts of pain up her back.
That, at least, seemed to put some steel back in Nico’s spine. He pulled a lighter of his back pocket and flipped the top open, unleashing his long, nightmare black sword. Annabeth shivered instinctively at the sight and moved to the far end of the couch, trying to get as far away from it as possible. She did not want that thing near her or her unborn child.
“See if you can’t get a signal with this thing or try IMing Percy while I’m out there,” Nico said to Rachel, tossing her his phone. “I’ll try and draw it away from the cabin, but there might be other monsters out there - ”
“Oh that makes me feel so much better, thank you. What are we supposed to do, lock ourselves in the bathroom?”
Nico made an impatient, frustrated gesture at her. “I don’t know! You’re the Oracle - do what feels right!” Then he turned to Annabeth, softening the disgruntled look on his face. “Just... stay safe, okay? Both of you.”
Annabeth nodded, biting her lip to keep another cry from escaping her, and Nico disappeared into the shadows. Moments later, there was another roar from outside and the ground rumbled again, a signal that the demigod had begun his battle with the drakon.
“Okay, no panicking, no panicking,” Rachel muttered to herself, looking over at Annabeth with wide eyes. “Can you make it back to the bathroom?”
“I - I’ll need help,” she replied. “The contractions... seem to be coming faster now.”
“Right,” Rachel said, dialing 911 and putting the phone under her ear. She walked over to the couch and helped Annabeth to her feet. The muscles in Annabeth’s legs felt like jelly and she gripped her friend’s arm, hoping she wouldn’t lose her balance and send both of them tumbling to the floor. “I can’t believe this is happening. Of course a monster would show up right when you’re about to give birth. Isn’t there some kind of mythological precedence for this?”
Rachel was babbling, as she tended to do when she was nervous, but Annabeth barely listened to her as they hobbled back down the hallway. She was starting to feel an intense, burning sensation between her legs and she knew that could not be good.
“There is a myth like this, right?” Rachel continued. “‘Cause I swear I’ve heard Apollo grumble about a snake chasing pregnant women before… unless that was some complicated metaphor for his dick and spreading his immortal seed, which I totally wouldn’t put past him."
“Python. That’s what you mean. Python chased his mom Leto around before she…” Annabeth replied shakily, pausing to lean against the wall as another contraction began, “b-before she gave birth to him and Artemis."
"Sheesh. No wonder he’s got issues. Who does that to a pregnant woman?"
A name flashed across Annabeth’s mind like a lighting bolt, and in an instant, she knew why her labor was so swift and horrible, why Percy was missing and everything was going so, so wrong. And she knew exactly who had sent the monster outside.
Hera.
Annabeth hadn’t heard much from her immortal nemesis in the last few years, probably due to the part she played in saving the world from Gaia and following Hera’s messed up plans. She’d find small cow pies in her path from time-to-time, so she knew the goddess still had it out for her, and Hera’s influence over the realm of marriage was on the unspoken reasons she and Percy had decided to hold off tying the knot for a while.
But Hera also was the patroness of childbirth and protector of laboring women. Cross her, and you’d be lucky if all she did was put you through a difficult, three day labor. The worst offenders managed to lose their babies and then hemorrhage to death while giving birth to a stillborn. Being on Hera’s bad side while pregnant was definitely not a good idea.
Annabeth had made a sacrifice to Artemis on her due date as a precaution for the baby, but she’d completely forgotten about Hera and it appeared (and felt) as though the goddess was taking the slight personally.
“That heinous bitch,” Annabeth snarled, forgetting her pain for a moment and pushing herself off from the wall, intending to march straight up to Olympus and kick Hera’s immortal ass, drakon outside be damned. But the intensity of her contraction ratched sharply up, cutting through her rage, and Annabeth slid down to the floor, moaning in agony. “I hate her. I hate this. I hate everything.”
“Her? Who are you talking about?”
“Hera!” she said, beginning to cry again. “Hera’s behind this!”
Rachel’s eyes went wide as she kneeled beside Annabeth, still clutching the phone in her hand. “Holy shit. You mean... that thing in the driveway, that’s the Python out there?”
Annabeth nodded, unable to speak through her tears. By sending Python, Hera was condemning Annabeth’s unborn baby to a horrible fate. Annabeth wasn’t a goddess - she couldn’t run from island to island until she found a safe spot to give birth. She didn’t have those options, and Hera knew that.
Hera knew that she was going to lose her baby.
“Rachel,” she sobbed desperately, clawing at her best friend’s arm. The cabin shook again as Python let out another roar from outside. “She’s going to take the baby away. I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this!”
“Annabeth. Annabeth,” Rachel said sternly, giving her shake. “You have got to focus. You can - ”
“No, no, no! Not without Percy. I can’t do this without him!”
She was delirious with anxiety and pain, beyond caring how she was acting and what she looked like. Most laboring women believed they couldn’t progress with labor at some point, she knew, but Annabeth had reached the absolute breaking point. Most laboring women didn’t have to deal with a missing husband, vengeful goddess and a giant monster in addition to their labor pains.
She might’ve lost it completely and truly doomed herself if Rachel hadn’t been at her side.
“Listen to me, Annabeth,” the other woman said, her voice dropping into a deep, multilayered tone Annabeth’s instincts recognized immediately. Through her tears, she noticed Rachel’s eyes had the slight, neon green Oracle glow to them. “You and the baby are going to be fine. You can do this - your body knows how to do it, you just have to trust yourself. Don’t worry about the stupid snake. Nico is handling it, and as much as I give him shit, he is just as good as Percy at killing horrible things and he’ll die before he lets anything happen to us.”
If - if the Oracle knew the baby would be safe...
Annabeth’s chest heaved and her arms quivered, but she let Rachel’s words wash over her, remembering her mantra from just a few moments ago.
She would not panic.
“So, c’mon,” Rachel said, gently prying Annabeth’s hands off her arms and taking them in hers. “Let’s get you some place comfortable, and get this baby delivered, okay?”
This was not how this was supposed to go.
She was supposed to be in the hospital with her doctor and pain medication and an entire support team of professionals at her side, not with just an Oracle with an art degree while a battle raged outside. She was supposed to be calm and have hours to adjust to the changes, not terrified and barely comprehending what was happening. Percy was supposed to be with her, whispering stupid jokes in her ears and having his hand crushed as she went through contractions, not off doing who knows what at camp.
This was not how she had wanted to bring her baby into the world, in a haze of misery and fear, but she was going to do it anyway.
She would have to trust her body - her cumbersome, traitor of a body - and let it do what came naturally. And that would be the hardest thing for her to accept.
Annabeth took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pushed herself off the ground.
-
The next half-hour of Annabeth’s life was a complete and utter blur, and she would only ever remember quick flashes of it.
She remembered Rachel filling the bathtub as she screamed through another contraction on the toilet, the lights flickering ominously above them as the cabin shuddered, and then later the relief that flowed through her once she was in the warm water and the pressure on her back receded slightly.
Rachel had been on the phone a lot, cursing under her breath and constantly redialing, finally giving a whoop of success toward the end when she managed to get through to the EMTs and get them rolling toward the cabin.
“I got rid of the - holy fuck, I did not need to see that!” Nico had said when he appeared in the bathroom at an inopportune moment, covered in monster gore and his eyes going comically wide with terror when he saw what was happening the bathtub. Annabeth and Rachel both screamed for him to get out, and he did so with incredible speed.
The urge to push became overwhelming shortly after that, and Annabeth gave over to her instincts, bearing down with all her might, clutching the edge of the bathtub with white knuckled fingers.
One
two
three times -
-
She will remember this part for the rest of her life.
-
He is small and purple red, with tufts of wet blond hair and beautiful, strong lungs filled with sharp, shivery first cries.
There are ten toes and ten fingers, and a set of wide, trusting blue eyes that are seeing her from the outside for the first time.
He is here, he is perfect, and he is hers.