The Gift of the Lethe

Confusion on the Waves

Pallas glances up at a knock against the apartment's door, a short, loud rap. Athena shifts against her side, lifting her head from where it had been resting against Pallas's shoulder. Pallas gives her a small smile.

"Can I go get that?"

Athena's brow furrows in confusion. "I don't see why you couldn't."

Pallas just shrugs. "You looked comfy."

Athena snorts and points toward the door. With a laugh of her own, Pallas walks over to the door and makes to pull it open. Just before she can, Annabeth pokes her head out of the room and mouths 'Good to come out now?' Pallas nods. While Annabeth and her father move to the main sitting room, Pallas pulls open the front door to find her other father. He gives her a warm smile.

"Nadia, may I come in?"

Pallas wordlessly steps aside and Poseidon moves in, pulling one hand from behind his back. She stares down at what he's holding out to her, a navy blue plush owl. She opens her mouth to question, but he seems to take note of her confusion.

"It's your stuffed owl, Thee. I thought you might want something from your childhood to help you acclimate."

After a moment of silence, Pallas takes the owl from him, her cheeks burning. She can feel Athena's eyes burning into her back, she knows that Athena heard. Poseidon frowns.

"Nadia, are you alright? You're turning red."

She mumbles, "Pallas, please. I'd like to be called Pallas."

"Your middle name? Why?"

Pallas grimaces. "I don't want to have this conversation again. Let's go sit."

Poseidon gives her a quizzical expression but follows her towards the sitting area. As she passes the dining table, she grabs a chair from in front of it and carries it with her, setting it down beside the couch. She retakes her seat beside Athena and spares a moment to send a smile towards Annabeth, who has sat on Athena's other side after she scooted down toward the middle of the couch. Poseidon frowns at Athena.

"Are you here to talk to Annabeth?"

Athena gives him a sly smile. "She asked me here, yes. But not to talk to her."

Pallas's gaze sweeps around the room and notices that Triton is absent. With a huff, she stands and goes to the bedroom to drag him out after depositing the stuffed owl into Athena's lap. He is sitting on the bed, staring at the spear resting against the wall. Pallas narrows her eyes at him.

"Please don't tell me that you're brooding again."

Triton shakes his head. "No, I was just thinking."

Pallas raises an eyebrow at this but instead of commenting, she changes the subject. "Well, your father is here and if I'm explaining the whole me being me thing again, then you're helping or at least there for support because I am exhausted."

He nods after a moment. "Alright."

When Triton follows Pallas into the main room, she has to restrain a laugh at Poseidon's double-take of confusion. Poseidon stars at them for a long moment as Pallas retakes her seat once again and Triton takes the second chair from the table and places it beside his father's.

"Does someone want to tell me what is going on here?"

Pallas grumbles in Greek. "I'm not talking in English this time. The language makes no sense."

Athena snorts from beside her and mutters, "I quite agree."

Poseidon raises an eyebrow. "Still waiting on that explanation."

With a soft huff of laughter, Pallas begins. "I'm not just choosing to go by Pallas. I am actually Pallas."

"You aren't making this any easier to understand."

Pallas groans. "In the simplest possible terms, I am their Pallas!" She points to both Athena and Triton. "I got my memories back. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I am not just Nadia. I am Pallas. Nadia was me when I had no memories."

Athena nudges Pallas. "Now that everything is concisely covered . . ." She holds up the stuffed owl. "Thee?"

Pallas flushes. "Shut up."

"Oh no, you're explaining this."

"I don't remember what I was doing at two years old!"

Poseidon cuts in. "But I do." He grins at Athena. "Once she got that owl, I think she almost never let it out of her sight. We assumed that she named it Thee because she never said anything but Thee when referring to it, but . . ."

Athena gives Pallas a soft smile. "You were trying to say my name, weren't you?"

Pallas' cheeks burn and she is glad when Poseidon continues. "She would go around shoving it in everyone's face and saying 'Thee.'"

Triton snorts. "I remember that."

Poseidon grins. "She would also repeatedly show me a triton shell of her mother's saying 'Papa.' I thought she was trying to give it to me, but in hindsight- Oh, and this shell was bigger than her head. I still don't know how she got to it on some occasions."

Pallas hides her face in Athena's shoulder, muttering, "I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

Athena laughs, the sound bright and warm. "No, you're not."

When the front door makes a clicking sound, Pallas raises her head to see it swing open, revealing Percy on the other side of it with grocery bags lying at his feet. He stares at all of them with an incredulous look on his face.

"Why are there three gods in my house?!"

Pallas bends over her knee, cackling with laughter. After a moment the rest of them join in and she can even hear Percy's own laughter.

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This was a VERY fun chapter to write.

What did you think of the family teasing? Did Pallas leave anything out explaining things to Poseidon? What did you think of Percy's reaction upon arriving home? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out