The Parenthood Drabbles

Names

In the style of Sally and Percy Jackson

"Mom, it's me." Percy called stepping into the apartment.

"I'm in the living room," she called. She heard him shuffling in the front door, taking off his coat and kicking off his winter boots. He was smiling when he popped into the living room.

"Hey," he said.

"Good evening, sweetheart." Sally said holding out her arms. He gave her a hug before sitting down, his cheeks rosy with the cold.

"How are you?" She asked him, knowing that there was something going on if he'd crossed the cold, busy holiday-time New York City to see her on a Friday night, leaving Annabeth home alone.

"I'm okay," he said.

"And Annabeth?" She inquired.

"She's okay." Percy said. "Tired and grumpy about something that happened at work, but okay."

"It's not easy being pregnant Percy; don't be too hard on her."

"I know, I'm not," Percy said. "It's just..."

"What was the fight about?" Sally asked with a sigh. Percy frowned, incredulous. "Sweetheart, you've been going out with her for ages and you've known her for even longer. I can tell, by this point. I think the doorman can tell."

Percy crossed his arms over his stomach.

"She doesn't want to pick out a name."

"What?" Sally frowned.

"She wants me to do it," Percy shrugged. "I think she feels bad about having asked for 'Luke' or 'Lucy' to be a middle name. I told her not to, but you know Annabeth."

"Okay," Sally said.

"The thing is, I have no clue whatsoever. But I think it's really important that the name fits."

Sally closed the book she'd been reading and slid it onto the coffee table. "What would give you that idea?"

"Well, names are important," Percy shrugged. "You named me Perseus because you wanted me to have a happily-ever-after despite everything. I survived two wars, married my high school sweetheart and we're about to have a baby. I'm getting that picture perfect finish. It just... karma and stuff."

"Okay," Sally said still unsure. "Well, I wanted you to survive as a demigod. What do you want for your son or daughter?"

Some things would never feel casual saying, and one of them was 'your son or daughter' to her own son. Percy was going to be a father. It was blue waffles and passing seventh grade all over again; little miracles.

Percy starred at his hands.

"Should I have given this much thought before?" Percy asked, looking concerned.

Sally smiled.

"Not necessarily," she said soothingly. He was a bundle of nerves on legs recently. "Just think now, Percy."

He starred at his hands.

"I want her to be safe," Percy said. "And I want her to feel safe and comfortable and happy- and loved. Yeah- safe and happy and loved." He looked up like 'is this right?' "But her name doesn't have to mean loved. We'll love her anyways."

"Alright," Sally said reaching out for the iPad -her birthday present from Paul. "I'll look up happy."

"Let's see. In English there's Caroline, and Edith -no, never mind, Edith is happy warfare. Felicity, Glad, Letitia, Lesha... In French you've got Carole, Carolina, Felicia. Nara in Gaelic, Agalia and Chara in Greek, Luana in Hawaiian. Aida and Allegra in Italian, Beatrice, Felicity, Hilary and Joy in Latin."

Percy's face wasn't impressed.

"We can look up something else," Sally said. "You talked about 'loved'."

"Yeah, that sounds good." Percy nodded.

Amy, Charity, Cherise, Darlene and its million variations, Davine, Mandy, Aimee, Minna, Theophilia, Vida, Vidette, Cara, Carina, Venus, Shahnza, Mila, Asta, Freya, Amada, Carina- the list never ended, but nothing sounded good to him.

"Do you want something from the myths?" Sally asked.

"Nope, no myths. No myths until we have to." Percy said.

Sally smiled. "You know, there are some names that don't have anything bad associated to them. Or spin-off names. Like Helena or Elena instead of Helen. Or ways to hint at mythology- I bet Annabeth would love it if your daughter was named Olivia, for her mother and the olive tree. And Olivia Jackson sounds cute."

"Yeah, but that'll piss off dad."

"Someone is always going to be mad on Olympus, Percy." Sally said. "And I would be surprised if he cared."

They sat in the living room and looked things up and thought and anagrammed for hours and hours.

Percy decided that he should go home to Annabeth and that the letters were swimming around his vision irreversibly at around ten.

"Thanks mom, not everyone would've sat down for that long." Percy said hugging her on his way out.

"Oh, it's nothing." Sally said returning his squeeze. "I'd have sat down for three hours more if you'd have needed me to."

"Thanks mom, you're gold." Percy said kissing her on the cheek before heading back into the cold.

*

Sarah Lucy Jackson was born in February, on the 12th.

It wasn't a suggestion that Sally had ever heard of before, but she thought the name sounded cute and told Percy so. He told her that she'd given him the idea, and to look it up once she got home- which she did. So she found a site called Think Baby Names which told her this:

Sally \s(al)-ly\ as a girl's name is pronounced SAL-ee. It is of English origin. Variant of Sarah (Hebrew) "princess".