"Mama! Mama's home!"

"Hi Baby!" Annabeth beamed, scooping up the tiny child once he got within arms reach and planting a big kiss on his cheek. He was a beautiful child, Fredrick realized, getting a good look at him in Annabeth's arms. The boy couldn't be more then two with wavy locks of rich, chestnut brown hair and Annabeth's startling grey eyes. He grinned at them, a carefree, innocent, but crooked grin that Fredrick some how knew was full of trouble. Annabeth brushed the hair off his forehead, "Dad, Lilian, this is my son Lucas. Luca, can you say hi to Gramps and Nana Lilly?"

"Hi..." Luca, as Annabeth had called him, grinned a little and buried his face in his mother's shoulder like perhaps he was suddenly feeling a little shy.

Fredrick wondered for a heartbreaking moment if his grandson had ever actually met him before. He was about to ask his daughter when a tall, lanky blonde man came down the hall with two small children bouncing at his heels. The first girl was around Luca's age, with dark hair and eyes and tan skin that suggested Spanish decent. The second girl, with her pale skin, blondish hair and sharp blue-grey eyes, was maybe six months younger and a lot less sure on her feet. The man smiled at them and immediately Fredrick recognized his eyes, exactly the same piercing grey as Annabeth's, "You're late."

"Yeah, I know, I had a situation." Annabeth nodded to her father and step mother, "Dad, Lilian, this is Malcolm, my little brother. On Mom's side obviously."

"Little brother." Malcolm scoffed, picking up the blonde girl as she started pulling on the hem of his shirt, "Six months. You've got six months on me and I've got four inches on you."

"Don't be bitter, Mal, it's a bad impression to make on the children." Annabeth teasingly scolded, then nodded to the two little girls, the dark one and then the blonde one, "Dad, these are my nieces, Kamila and Autumn. I trust Luca was good for you?"

"Oh he was great." Malcolm chuckled, "Autumn did a little hair pulling at one point, but we're working on using our words, aren't we?"

Autumn scowled and didn't respond, causing Annabeth to laugh, "Good luck with that, she takes after her mother. They both do."

"Ah yes, me and my strong willed warrior girls. Sometimes I curse my good taste." He rolled his eyes, "So are you home now? 'Cause I get the feeling everyone's getting close to wanting lunch and I'm supposed to meet Reyna and Lou Ellen in town for a family lunch."

"Oh yeah, go ahead, go." She waved him off, "I'm not parading these two around town any more than I have to anyways."

Malcolm nodded, frowning slightly, "Yeah, I was going to ask..."

"Don't even right now." Annabeth shook her head, "I'll tell you when I figure it out. Something to do with Apollo."

"Right, enough said. Uh, Zoey's in the pen." Malcolm nodded, taking Kamila's hand, "Alright girls, let's go. Moms are probably waiting."

Annabeth stood at the door and waved good-bye before turning back to her father and step mother. Fredrick had a curious look on his face, "Those girls don't look anything alike."

"Well, they have different mothers." Annabeth explained, "Malcolm's in a polygamist marriage, he has two wives. Reyna and Lou Ellen."

Lilian wrinkled up her nose, "That's-"

"A different and interesting take on the classic family dynamic that you hadn't considered before?" Annabeth finished for her, an edge of warning in her voice. "It works for them."

"Well that's great then." Fredrick cut in, not eager to see a fight break out, especially because grown up Annabeth towered over Lilian and looked like she could go ten rounds with a bear without breaking a sweat, while Lilian was... soft.

"Good." She smiled, readjusting Luca, who had settled against her chest, sucking his thumb. Kicking off her sneakers, which didn't make her any less tall, she made her way down the hall into a broad, well lit kitchen area attached to a sunken living room. The whole house seemed to have a very bright, open design with high ceilings, stone floors and a very Mediterranean feel. The kitchen featured a set of open french doors that opened onto a large back porch with a spacious lawn and pool area just beyond. The whole place felt like a perfect blend of modern comfort in a traditional Greek or Roman villa. To Fredrick and Lilian, the whole place felt above their pay grade, but Annabeth and Luca seemed perfectly comfortable. Annabeth plopped her son down in a high chair at the bar counter in the kitchen with a coloring book and some crayons and, motioning for them to stay put, descended into the living room where they could see a playpen set up behind the couch. One grandchild had been quite something for Fredrick to wrap his head around so he wasn't sure how to feel when Annabeth retrieved the baby. Suddenly it was clear why Annabeth was on leave from work, the child couldn't have been more then two months old and already sporting some adorable sandy blonde curls.

"Oh... there's two." Lilian said, a little dumbfounded as apparently she hadn't been expecting that either.

"Zoey was in Mama's tummy." Luca told her excitedly, "Daddy says when she was tiny he pushed her in Mama's belly button."

"That's right." Annabeth chuckled at her son, "Because Daddy is a doofus who doesn't want you to know where babies actually come from."

"Zoey and Lucas." Fredrick smiled, "Nice names."

"Thanks, Luca was named after a friend of mine. A friend who actually is the reason I survived after leaving home." She admitted, then offered Zoey to her father, "Hold her? I'm going to make some pasta."

"Oh, uh, sure." He awkwardly took the baby from her. Zoey was a fairly docile child, it seemed, she just stared up at him with the biggest green eyes he'd ever seen.

"Zoey was named after a hunter of Artemis who helped rescue me on a quest once." She continued, grabbing a pot from the cupboard and filling it with water, "I never knew her, but my husband and my best friend, Thalia both did. They say she was brave."

"She died?" Lilian looked taken aback and perhaps like Annabeth had just justified her concern for herself and her children over the past few years.

"Well, I'm not in the habit of naming my children after people who are still alive." She shrugged, leaning against the counter while she waited for the water to boil, "That just gets confusing."

"So then... your friend, Lucas...?" Fredrick frowned.

"Luke was complicated. He made some bad choices." She shrugged, turning to the stove so she didn't have to look at anyone, taking the chance to dump a box of KD into the pot. There was a reason they never called their son Luke, what happened would probably never not hurt her. "He, uh, he broke a promise to me. Hurt me. But he was a hero in the end."

That was meant to be the end of the conversation, but Lilian didn't quite seem to get that, "He must have meant a lot to you. What happened-"

"He killed himself, okay?" Annabeth snapped, causing Luca to look from his coloring, eyes round with distress, while Zoey began to cry. Annabeth softened immediately upon seeing her children upset, offering Luca a reassuring smile and retrieving the baby from her father, "I don't want to talk about Luke. Like I said, it's complicated."

"Wow, so Frank wasn't messing with me, huh?" Percy's entrance broke the tension in the room, causing Fredrick and Lilian to jump slightly, having not heard him come in.

"Daddy!" Luca squealed as Percy made his way over to the bar and ruffled his hair.

"Hey Buddy." He grinned at his son, then nodded to his wife, mildly concerned by the atmosphere he'd walked into, "You okay?"

"Fine." She shrugged, "We were just chatting about Luke."

"Oh..." He set his lips in a grim line, then glanced at Zoey, who was wailing, "Do you want me to take her?"

Annabeth shook her head, "No, she's hungry. I'm going to... can you finish the pasta?"

"Of course." He nodded, moving to the stove as she retreated into the living room and through an open arch at the far end that lead into a hallway, disappearing from sight. He smiled awkwardly at Lilian and Fredrick, rocking back on his heels, "She's, uh, breast feeding."

"Right." Lilian nodded, uncomfortably, "That's... that's good for her."

There was an awkward pause, disturbed only be the sound of Luca scribbling, then Percy stuck out his hand to Fredrick, "Uh, I'm Percy. Annabeth's husband."

"Right. Right." Fredrick nodded, shaking his hand, "I'm Fredrick, this is Lilian."

"We've met, actually." Percy informed him, "A few of times."

"Right." Fredrick smiled awkwardly, attempting to break the ice, "I guess it's a little late to do the Dad Talk, huh?"

Percy managed a laugh, "Yeah... just a little."