Annabeth and the Nine Step Career Plan

Step 9

Fruition

"Just to make sure I've got this whole thing right, you're telling me that the Greek gods—"

"And Roman," Rose adds, helpfully.

Dennis pauses. "Yes, and Roman. You're saying that they're all... real."

Annabeth and Percy fidget in their chairs. They have been to Dennis's house before, have sat at this exact dining table before, but that time, they had been role-playing court testimony scenes, not dropping life-altering information. Back then, Annabeth had been the prosecutor. This time, she feels like the witness, her entire life story laid bare.

It's been almost a week since the trial, Annabeth and Percy deciding to make the house call now, as opposed to spilling the beans at the after party so that everything was a little calmer. Now that Annabeth has moved out and back into the Jackson-Blofis apartment for the remainder of the summer, and Dennis has returned to his quiet life in the suburbs, his daughter and grandchildren visiting again from their own place thirty minutes away, the timing has proven to be perfect. The lack of an extraneous peanut gallery (Leo) had definitely not also been taken into account.

Over the course of the last hour, they've given Dennis a little more exposition than necessary about their hidden world and gone on several tangents about the complexities of demigod life, but Annabeth sees now that it may have been a little too much information for an initial discussion. It's quite fortunate the two adults in the room have summed it up nicely into a single sentence. Annabeth still thinks they should start to put together an orientation film catered toward parents and other mortal family members despite Chiron's hesitations. (He still refuses to share what went so wrong during the creation of the first one.)

Percy scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. "Um, yeah. Pretty much."

"Your father is Poseidon, and your mother is Athena?"

Dennis looks between Annabeth and Percy a few times, as if ensuring that's the story they both would like to stick with. Annabeth nods.

From the Bryants' living room, Ethan jumps out from behind the couch and lets out a playful snarl and a "Boo!", making Clara giggle at his antics. Estelle, on the other hand, impishly bares her teeth and sits on him. Maybe Percy has been letting her watch one too many of their spars.

Dennis and Rose both ignore the horseplay and continue staring back at them from across the dining table. The man's jaw is twitching like he's still trying to figure out if they're being serious, while his daughter just looks plain thoughtful.

"We could prove it?" Annabeth offers, because that's usually what comes next in this sort of thing, and gestures to the glass of water before her, "Percy, could you—"

Suddenly, Dennis makes eye contact with her.

"Goddess of wisdom, and what was it, battle strategy?" he asks.

Again, Annabeth nods.

He huffs, shifting his weight to the back of his chair and letting his arms rest comfortably on the table.

"Then I believe the last two months is all the proof I need."

Annabeth's face suddenly feels very, very warm. Percy props an elbow onto the placemat before him and turns his face to look at her dopily.

"That's my wise girl," he grins proudly, green eyes flashing with a look that makes her blush deepen just a little.

Annabeth's lips twist, trying to keep the embarrassed smile off of her face. She tries to school her expression, but every single muscle twitches upwards, refusing to come down.