No hero is above fear.

Annabeth comforted herself by slipping into her favorite pajama pants and an orange camp shirt.

When Percy knocked, she wished suddenly that her favorite pajamas were cute shorts or something. Not owl-printed fuzzy jammy pants.

But she opened the door to him before she could consider her wardrobe.

"Hey," Percy said. He also looked washed, his hair dry and going in a bunch of different directions. He had put on his purple SPQR shirt and just plain sweats. It would have made her feel better if they had sharks or fish on them.

"Hey," she said, trying to carefully rearrange her hair, but not sure how.

"I want to show you something," he said.

Percy held out his hand to her. She blinked. She took it. He blushed. She kept holding it.

~

Annabeth was trying to play it cool, but she was very aware that she didn't have a bra on, and Percy was leading her somewhere, somewhere that wasn't his bedroom, and everyone else was asleep, and he wasn't saying, anything except --

"This is my favorite part of the ship," Percy said. "Pegasus stables. Of course, the pegasi prefer the open skies."

"So why build it?" Annabeth asked looking around at the clean and not unpleasant spelling Pegasus space.

"I need somewhere to go where people won't find me," Percy said.

"And you don't think anyone would think to look for a son of Neptune in the stables?" Annabeth asked.

"They haven't so far," he said. He'd set up a picnic blanket for them in the middle of a large glass floor. "Come on," he said, trying to pull her towards it.

"So you can see the Pegasi coming in?" She asked, gesturing to the glass.

"Yeah, they open for them too," Percy said, pointing to the hinges.

"And what if they open on us?" Annabeth asked, sitting down on the blanket, trying to look ... sultry? Appealing? Not like she'd just crawled through Tartarus?

"Well, I guess we'd plunge to our death?" Percy said.

"We have to start thinking of better date ideas," she joked. And then she went red.

"I was hoping we could not think of Tartarus as our first date, maybe," Percy said. "Maybe we could think of this?"

Annabeth's heart pounded. Maybe she was supposed to be chill, play "hard to get" or something. That's what the Aphrodite girls would do, wasn't it?

But she wasn't an Aphrodite girl. She wasn't chill. She wasn't cool.

And, she realized, Percy wasn't either. He'd risked everything for her, this boy she hardly knew. He could have climbed out of the pit and left her to die, but he hadn't. And he was looking at her now. He'd led her here. He wasn't cool, or chill, or laid back about her.

Annabeth decided, for once in her life, not to make a plan, not to think it through. She pulled Percy in by the front of his shirt and kissed him hard.

He was a much better kisser than she was, she realized with some shame. She hadn't exactly kissed a lot of people. Clarisse once, Jason here and there with little enthusiasm. But Percy had kissed people. He knew how to move his mouth, how to touch her hair, and how to gently lean her back onto the blanket.

Annabeth felt his hand on her side, and then it was under her shirt. And then she was so aware that she didn't have a bra on. With a sudden surprise she realized he wanted to have sex with her. And then, with less surprise, she realized she wanted to have sex with him. Her body seemed to call out to his with a warm fuzziness she'd felt before, but never like this. It had never had such a clear, concrete direction. She'd never been so sure of what she needed to make it grow and then erupt.

Annabeth pulled him in closer, shifting her hips until he was laying between her legs. She'd barely ever kissed someone. She'd never gotten around to have sex. But she wanted to. She knew the mechanics, she knew the basics, she knew --

"Do you have a condom?" Annabeth asked.

Percy flushed. "Oh, um, no," he confessed. "I know they're on board, but I'd have to go to first aid."

Annabeth looked at him a little confused. "You don't want to --?" She tried not to feel totally rejected, but it was hard not to.

"I mean, you're hot, but," Annabeth frowned, already not liking where this was going, "am I allowed to?"

"Allowed to?" Annabeth asked, her voice a little louder than she meant it to be. "If I tell you you can, then yes, you're allowed. That's how consent works."

"I know that," Percy said, pushing off of her and sitting up on the other side of the blanket. "I just mean, aren't you a virgin?"

Annabeth went red. "What makes you think I'm a virgin?"

Percy was just as red as she was. "I mean, aren't kids of Minerva --"

"Athena!"

"Athena! Supposed to stay virgins?" Percy asked her.

"Who the hell told you that?" Annabeth asked.

"Leo!" Percy said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I don't know him that well, but I can tell you that he's full of shit. No, we don't need to stay virgins."

"Okay, I'm sorry," Percy said.

There was a long, horrible pause.

"I'm sorry," Percy said again, "if I offended you."

"It's okay. I'm sorry for yelling." She rubbed her face with her hands until she saw little floaties in her eyes. "It's just. ... Is it ... that obvious?" Annabeth asked, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Is what obvious?" Percy asked.

"That I'm a virgin?" Annabeth asked back, her voice low, her eyes on the blanket, not on him for once.

"No," he promised quickly, "and anyway, it's not like that's a bad thing."

"You're just saying that to be nice," Annabeth protested. "You've probably had sex with dozens of girls," she said, or mumbled, really.

Percy rubbed the back of his neck, sheepishly. I knew it, Annabeth thought. Maybe it was for the best that they didn't have sex or kiss anymore.

"I haven't," he said suddenly. "I mean, I'm a virgin too."

Annabeth stared at him in disbelief. "But you're the son of Neptune. New Rome adores you."

"Yeah, sure, people have been trying to sleep with me since I was thirteen, doesn't mean I just let them," Percy said. "No one ever wants me because they like me, they want me because I'm powerful."

"Oh," Annabeth said, a heavy sense of guilt settling over her. She couldn't meet his eyes, and fixated instead on a loose threat on the blanket, which she started to pull at. "I'm sorry. That I assumed. I ... just thought ..." she didn't know what she thought. "I'm sorry if that's what you think I was --"

"I don't," Percy said. "I wouldn't have brought you here if I didn't want to ... I mean, I didn't think we'd have sex, obviously, but --"

"But if we could, you'd --?"

"If you wanted to, yeah."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Look, we're equals, right?" Percy asked. Annabeth didn't move. "We are," he decided for her. "The gods decided that we were. They switched us, not me and Grace, not you and Reyna, you and me. And you know we're equals. You know you're just - if not more - powerful than I am. Look at what you've done!" He gestured around the stables, as if she had something to do with this space in particular. "I just feel like ... when I look at you, I see someone who ..."

Percy trailed off, so Annabeth picked up, pulling the tread out of the blanket and dropping it.

"I understand you," she promised. Annabeth reached across and grabbed his hand. "I do, I really do, Percy. What you've done, what you've done for me, no one's ever done something like that before. I wouldn't be alive without you. You're not like anyone else, you're ... you're ..." she met his eyes. They were so green, almost inhuman, uncanny, divine. "How mad would you be if I kissed you right now?" Annabeth asked.

"Not mad at all," he promised.

So she did. Annabeth adjusted to be on her knees and leaned into him again, slower this time. She did her best to study how his mouth moved on hers, and then she tried to mimic it. Percy was polite and didn't do anything too advanced like add tongue, but he did bite her lower lip, which made her groan. Her groan made him groan, and then she started to giggle.

"I might be a virgin, but I'm pretty sure it's not a good sign when the girl laughs," Percy said.

"It is," Annabeth said, running her hands through his hair and then smiling at the way rogue curls popped right back into place. "You make me really happy, Percy," she said.

"I hope when this is all over, if we survive, that we can ... stay in touch," Percy said. His hands were on her hips, and Annabeth let him guide her back down to kiss him again.

"I'm sure we can," Annabeth said. "Do you think we'll cause some cross-camp trouble?"

"Thought that's what the Parthenos was for? Camp solidarity?" Percy said.

"Good point. I didn't save a statue of my mom just to stay a virgin forever," Annabeth teased.

She hoped he'd laugh at her joke, but Percy was red again, but not with embarrassment.

"You know there are other things we can do that won't get you pregnant," he pointed out.

Annabeth kissed him again.

In the end, she couldn't exactly get off, and he got off a little too fast, but they enjoyed the experience all the same. Annabeth was ashamed at how clingy she felt after. She held onto him, him in the little spoon position, content to never let him go.

Sophia pouted but nodded, understanding the basics of boundaries at least. Nella seemed unbothered by the lack of access to her dad, and mostly just wanted uppies. Annabeth did her best. Nella was a few months past her second birthday, but still she was a skinny little thing who clung to her blankie with an iron fist. Despite how small Nella still was, with Annabeth's ever-growing belly (her largest yet by a margin), it wasn't that easy.

"Come on," Annabeth said. "Lets get some cloths on and take Max outside."

The walk with Max only ate up about fifteen minutes of their morning. Annabeth was hoping to milk it more, but the girls were hungry and starting to get cranky. They dropped Max off upstairs before heading out to find a good breakfast.

The Greek diner around the corner knew them.

"Ah! Where is husband?" Vikki, the old woman who still owned the restaurant, despite developers' pleas for her to sell, asked after seeing Annabeth walk in with a girl holding either hand.

"Daddy's sleeping," Sophia said.

"Lazy man," Vikki joked with her, before grabbing a high chair for Nella. She got the family settled at a booth, crayons and paper place-mats for both girls to keep the busy, and the one cup of full-caf black tea Annabeth was permitted.

Starving and in the mood for just about everything, Annabeth ordered French Toast with whip cream and strawberries, with a side of bacon, extra crispy. Sophia got pancakes, and Nella picked a waffle. Annabeth insisted they each also get a side of fruit, so that they might eat something resembling a vitamin.

Not long after Vikki brought them their drinks, Sophia tried to help Nella draw a flower. Nella perceived this not as the big sister kindness Sophia had intended, but an encroachment on her territory akin to an act of war. Nella grabbed the place-mat off the table, crumbling the corner up in her baby first and screaming. Annabeth barely had time to save her orange juice from going everywhere. The crayons were not so lucky, clattering to the ground around them as Nella scream-cried.

Red-faced and doing her best, Annabeth offered apologetic glances to the other diners, while Sophia hastily tried to defend herself.

"You're not in trouble," Annabeth told Sophia. "Can you build me a jelly tower while I calm down your sister?" Sophia nodded, and set to her task, stacking likely-ancient packets of Smuckers jellies one on top of the other.

Nella was still crying and flailing her little arms, kicking her feet under the table too. If Percy were here, he'd probably find a way to distract her out of the tantrum, to tickle her or do some kind of funny bit. But whenever Annabeth tried to mimic him, she was told she "wasn't doing it right."

So, instead, she settled for doing what she thought might work.

"Nelly belly," she said in her soft bedtime voice. She started tracing her finger over Nella's face the way she did at bedtime. Nella stopped screaming, although she was still making her unsteady little breathing noises. "Do you want to sit with Mommy and tell me what's wrong?" Annabeth offered.

Nella reached out her arms, and Annabeth managed to get her out of the high chair and into her lap. Annabeth kept tracing her face.

"Do you want your juice?" Annabeth offered. Nella shook her head, fingers in her mouth. "Okay, we don't have to have it right now. Can you tell me why you're sad?"

Nella started to babble, but Annabeth got the gist -- she didn't want Sophia to draw on her place-mat and now her place-mat was all crumpled and ruined.

"I didn't ruin it!" Sophia said in defense of herself.

"Sophia was trying to show you how she draws flowers, but you didn't like her drawing on your paper, did you?" Nella shook her head. "Next time, we can ask before drawing on each other's papers?" Nella and Sophia nodded in agreement. Annabeth didn't really expect the two-year-old to remember to ask, but she hoped Sophia was old enough to remember. "Nella can you say 'thank you for trying to help me, but please ask before you draw on my paper?'"

Nella managed to get some jumbled words out.

"Good girl. And can you tell Sophia you're sorry for yelling at her?"

Nella offered a weak: "Sorry."

"It's okay," Sophia promised. "Sorry you crumpled up your paper."

Annabeth glanced down to the floor, where the half-wrecked remains of the place-mat were still resting.

"Maybe if you ask nicely, Ms. Vikki will bring you a new one," Annabeth said.

But when Vikki came back, this time with plates of food, Nella was too shy to asked. Annabeth asked for another one for Nella, who spent the rest of breakfast coloring, eating four grapes and quarter of the waffle. But she at least didn't scream anymore.

At the end of the meal (which Annabeth basically devoured), Nella showed Annabeth what she'd spent the morning drawing. It was a little blob person laying down on a line.

"Daddy," she said, pointing to the blob.

"It's beautiful. Should we bring it home for him?" Annabeth offered. Nella nodded. "What about you, love bug, are we taking your picture home?" Sophia nodded and scooted the paper out from under her plate.

Annabeth slipped them both in the to-go bag that had Percy's own pancake stack, two order of home fries, and two sides of bacon (she'd placed an order for one of each, and then decided they sounded too good to not get some of her own).

"Daddy might still be asleep, so we need to be quiet, okay?" Annabeth said, unlocking their front door. It was barely nine in the morning. She'd bet anything he wasn't out of bed yet.

The girls took this instruction seriously and tiptoed inside. Annabeth set them up with a Sponge Bob marathon upon Sophia's request. Percy believed in the grand tradition of Saturday Morning cartoons, and the Sponge was a house favorite. Annabeth rolled out a big sheet of white paper for the girls to color on while they watched, asking first if they were happy sharing or if she needed to split it down the middle. This they were happy to share. Annabeth couldn't wait to see how long that lasted.

She sat herself down on the couch with her potatoes and bacon, and big mug of decaf coffee, and enjoyed the Bubble Bowl.

Sophia made it three episodes before she realized she still hadn't seen her dad yet that morning.

"Is he ever going to wake up?" She asked. Behind her, Nella nodded, as if to say seriously Mom, we're worried about him.

"He will wake up, he's just tired. He works really hard, we should let him sleep sometimes," Annabeth said.

Sophia put on her best pleading face, which Annabeth was usually completely vulnerable to. "But please! I miss him!"

Annabeth inhaled. "How about we do one more Sponge Bob episode, and then I'll go see if he wants to wake up. But it's up to him if he does or not."

Sophia nodded, happy with that arrangement.

~

Percy had been drifting in and out of sleep for over an hour. He kept thinking about getting up, but then ... no one was bothering him, no one needed him, and his bed was so, so comfy.

He did have to get up at some point, he figured. Annabeth opened the door quietly and stepped in, a mug of coffee in her hands.

"Is that my beautiful wife?" Percy asked, reaching towards her.

Annabeth smiled and put the coffee down on the nightstand. "Sure is. How'd you sleep?" She asked, sitting next to him on the bed and running a hand through his hair.

"Amazing," Percy said. "Thanks for giving me the morning off."

Annabeth leaned forward to kiss him. "You deserve it. There's food for you too. We went to the diner."

He was hungry. He usually ate before school, and on his free period which was about 11:30 in the morning. But he wasn't quite ready to get out of bed.

"I'll gt up in a minute," he promised, resting a hand on her belly. "How are my girls doing this morning?"

"This one's eating me out of house and home," Annabeth said, looking at the bump. "The other two are dying to see you."

People often asked them if they were trying for a boy or wished they were having a boy. They were always honest: no, we don't care, as long as it's happy and healthy. But if Percy was really, really honest ... he loved his girls, his collection of tiny Annabeth's. A third girl sounded pretty perfect to him, and he had secretly been hoping for another one.

Percy was glad Annabeth was finally having an easy pregnancy. Sophia and Nella had made her so sick for months all Percy could do was hold the emptied contents of her tote bag while Annabeth threw up into it on the subway.

"Sorry," she'd said to him, looking green and miserable.

Percy rubbed her back. "I meant it when I said sickness and health, better or worse." Before Annabeth could respond, she was sick again.

Annabeth actually seemed to be enjoying this pregnancy. It wasn't a secret that this was he least favorite part: "I have so much to protect, but I'm physically unable to," she'd said, near tears in a panic when she was still pregnant with Sophia

"I'll protect you," Percy promised, "that's what I'm here for."

This time, she was just a beautiful as she always was, but happier, more relaxed. Percy kept rubbing her bump, obsessed with it, obsessed with his wife, before reaching up for Annabeth face.

Percy stole a few more kisses. The only thing that could have made his morning better would have been Annabeth sharing it all with him.

"Alright, send in the clowns," Percy said.

Annabeth barely turned towards the door before saying: "Okay, Sophia, you can come in."

Their bedroom door opened, and Sophia rushed in, Nella toddling behind her. Sophia jumped into Percy's arms and he dragged her onto the bed.

"We're you a good girl for Mommy this morning?" Percy asked her. Sophia nodded. Percy tossed her onto the bed and started to tickle her. "Were you?" He asked over and over as she laughed and laughed.

Nella was saying something to Annabeth quietly. "Yeah, let's go get it," Annabeth said. The two left and came back a minute later with a familiar green place-mat from the diner. "Nella made this for you," Annabeth said as Nella handed him the paper.

Percy looked and saw a blob laying down with it's eyes shut.

"Daddy!" Nella explained.

"But what's that thing?" Sophia asked.

Annabeth set the pregnancy test on the counter to pull her pants back on. "A pregnancy test," she explained, "to see if I'm going to have another baby." She started washing her hands, taking an extra long time to try and set the best example she could. But Sophia turned the water off with her demigod instincts, giggling at the prank she pulled. When Annabeth reached to turn it back on, Sophia did it herself. "If you break another sink, you're telling the handy man what happened," Annabeth said.

The handy man was a son of Hephaestus who didn't appreciate the impressive quality of Sophia's Poseidon legacy abilities. The entire building was demigod safe -- protected by the same magic that protected camp -- but it wasn't demigod proof. A few minor weapons malfunctions in the downstairs training gym were proof of that.

Sophia took the threat of the handyman seriously, and stopped messing with the water.

"How does it work?" She asked.

"If a mommy is going to have a baby, she has special hormones in her body," Annabeth said, picking up Sophia and plopping her on the counter. Sophia faced the mirror, her legs criss-cross-apple-sauce. Her hair, as usual, was a tangled disaster that Annabeth got to work on, picking apart knots with a fine tooth comb. "The test can tell if those hormones are in the mommy by testing her pee."

"Ew," Sophia said.

"Yeah, it's pretty gross," Annabeth agreed. "But it'll tell us if we're going to have another baby or not."

"Will you be upset if it says no?" Sophia asked.

Annabeth shrugged. "Yeah, but we just keep trying," Annabeth said, "like we do with everything we want really bad." Annabeth started to braid her daughter's blonde curls so that they would hopefully stay reasonable for Sally.

"Well, I hope it's positive!" Sophia announced.

Ananbeth smiled. "You don't have enough sisters yet?"

"Nope!"

Annabeth was almost surprised by this attitude. Sophia and Nella were known to have pretty rough fights with each other, and all Olivia did, according to Nella, was poop.

"It could be a brother," Annabeth added. "How would you feel about a baby boy?"

"What would we even do with a boy?" Sophia asked.

"Same thing we do with girls. Love him, support him, play with him --"

"It's a girl," Sophia decided.

"It might not be anything this time," Annabeth reminded her.

"Well, what does the test say?" Sophia asked, reaching for the test, before Annabeth stopped her.

"Mommy peed on that," she reminded Sophia, tying off the end of her braid. "We need to wait a few more minutes." She put Sophia back on her feet. "Can you tell Daddy to come in here?"

Sophia nodded and ran out.

Annabeth and Percy had checked every pregnancy test together. If this one was positive, she wouldn't want Percy to miss the moment.

Sophia dragged him in a few seconds later.

"She told me you peed on something in here that I have to see," Percy said.

"In front of Nanny Sally?" Annabeth asked, looking at Sophia, who giggled, understanding that she'd done something to embarrass her mother, intentional or not.

"Big time," Percy said.

Sally would probably guess what it was, but they weren't really in the business of hiding these things from her anymore. When they were trying for Sophia, the idea of telling Sally your baby boy is fucking me bareback every night by way of "we're trying for a baby" humiliated her so much that Annabeth refused to let Percy mention babies to Sally until they were pregnant. It was Nella, their "we were obviously raw dogging on vacation" baby, who pretty much ended all of that shame.

Percy picked Sophia up so she could see. "If it's positive," Annabeth said, "there will be two lines like this" Annabeth crossed her two pointer fingers, "and if it's negative, it'll just be one line."

Sophia nodded.

Annabeth picked up the test.

One line.

"Aw," Annabeth said, a little deflated. She wasn't even really dejected about the negative test. It just would have been such a cute moment with Sophia there.

She felt her daughters hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Mommy. We just keep trying."

"That's right," Percy said, kissing Sophia's cheek, before sending her back out into the living room. Annabeth dropped the test into the trash.

"Well, we'll just keep trying," Annabeth said, pulling Percy into her by his shirt.

"Good," he said between kisses, "because I have a surprise for you."

~

The surprise was a nice lunch at a kid unfriendly restaurant, a bottle of wine she adored, and then an afternoon hotel rental, where they could have real, fun sex, not "keep your voice down, we live with three toddlers!" sex.

(It didn't take long for Annabeth to notice that hotel staff suspected both of them of conducting extramarital affairs. That was probably the main demographic who used these short stays anyway. For fun on their way out, she asked Percy, loudly, within ear shot of the nosy desk clerk, if he'd made up his mind about divorcing his wife. Percy, in on the plan, upped the tension by saying, "you know I can't, not when she's pregnant." The desk clerk couldn't hide her shock and surprise. Annabeth was glad they could add some entertainment to her day.)

By the time their temporary stay was up, Annabeth was flushed with satisfaction and starving. And then Percy announced another, fancier meal.

Back on the street, on their way to the next restaurant, Percy pulled her in close, off to the side of the sidewalk. He brought his face in close to hers, but he didn't kiss her yet.

"I'd never divorce my wife, by the way," he said, "she's the love of my life, you know."

Annabeth smiled and draped her arms over his shoulders. "Good, because my husband is the love of mine."

They kissed indulgently on the sidewalk, until someone shouted something at the from a passing car. Percy flipped them off, but they just kept driving, and she and him just kept walking the other way.

By the time they got home, it was past their girls' bed time, she was a little drunk, and absolutely ready to crawl back into bed with Percy.

"I needed that," Percy confessed as they stumbled back home. "Maybe we should take a real vacation soon. Just you and me, before the next baby."

Annabeth smiled. "Your spring break?" She suggested. "Somewhere warm, on the ocean?"