The Goddess Begins - PsychoLynx (2024)

Chapter 1: My Wife Burns Through My Turnout Gear

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The gunshot seemed to last in his ears forever, echoing through the corridors of his mind and shutting off more and more parts of himself until all that remained was tunnel vision directed towards Athena

He exited the truck and grabbed the fire ax from the Charlie side of the truck, giving his team no orders as he made his way in. Whatever happened next, they wouldn’t need to see it. He would save Athena or…

Well, he already had 148 lives on his head. If that number became 149 tonight, at least he knew he wasn’t forgivable to start with.

He flashed his light down the corridors until he caught sight of a form.

He jumped over Jeffrey in his B-line for his wife, throwing aside his ax before he knelt beside his wife. “‘Thena, I’m here. I got you.”

“Shot with my own gun,” Athena grimaced, crimson hand on her diaphragm. “About to be the department joke.”

Bobby teared up, the sight of his wife forcing him to return to himself, to be there for her. He’d seen people like this after crashes and understood where the bullet hit. She needed him right now, just like with Marcy had.

“Don’t worry about that, Athena,” he said through teary eyes “They know better.”

She laughed softly until it turned into a cough. Athena smiled, blood pecking out between her teeth like plaque.

“You’re one of the best things to happen to me, Bobby,” she murmured.

His heart raced as he shook his head. His mind screamed at her to refute it, to tell her he was too late and beg for forgiveness. Instead, he stayed silent and pressed his hand to her face, pushing his love out through the thick material of his turnout gear glove.

“You gotta get away,” she breathed out.

“No, no–”

“You can’t be here for this.”

This, he thought Can’t be here to watch the second love of his life die.

He shook his head. “I’m not leaving you.”

Athena’s eyes lifted as much as they could as she turned her head into his hand. The crimson on her teeth had vanished, and some light from somewhere was hitting her teeth and giving them a golden tint.

“You’re still in your gear,” Athena said weakly “That’s good. You’re gonna…need…”

Athena trailed off with a sigh, her body still.

Bobby felt a familiar chasm open in his chest and up his throat before escaping in a primal scream of grief.

He looked back down at Athena and nearly flinched out of his skin.

A tendril of golden light was forcing its way out of her wound, slipping out and growing in size and brightness until–

Bobby barely got his eyes closed before the golden light engulfed the world. He lifted his arms to try and shield himself to no avail. He could almost swear the light was beaming straight through his arms to burn his eyes.

To burn his brain.

And all at once, it was gone.

Athena’s eyes shot open. Her strangled gasp broke through the quiet, becoming the new sound lasting forever in his mind.

Bobby watched as Athena sat up and took a few deep breaths, transfixed on the rise and fall of her chest, the movement of her muscles as they brought her upright, the gold light rushing around and illuminating her veins like an anatomy of the soul.

He reached out and cupped her face, felt the warmth of her skin against his fingers.

Tabitha, Lazarus, Athena.

Athena was alive.

She gave him an almost embarrassed smile he’d never seen on her before.

“Hi, Bobby.”

He chuckled. “Hi.”

They met in the middle for a kiss, and, for a moment, all was right in the world again.

Athena pulled up for air and gently wrapped her fingers around his wrist.

He flinched. Athena’s attention shot towards where she touched.

“Your arm,” Athena gasped.

Bobby looked down at his arm to see a superficial burn. He said, mind floating in some distant place. “You got shot and you’re worried about my arm.”

“This will not be an easy explanation,” Athena said.

“I’m a firefighter; we get burns sometimes.”

“Bobby,” she snapped. “I burned through your suit.”

This seemed to snap Bobby back to reality. He looked down at his arm to find that it wasn’t just his arm. Behind him in a pile stood the remains of his turnout gear, the front half completely burned away completely at the light.

A pit formed in his stomach as he remembered there was someone else in the hall.

…

Bobby took a deep breath as he turned back to his wife. It wasn’t like the singed form belonged to a good person.

He turned his focus back to Athena. “You’re okay.”

She smiled wanly. “Yes, I’m okay.”

“It’s–” he almost said it was a miracle. He may have been religious, but that didn’t mean he saw what he really saw. “What happened?”

Athena put her hands on his husband’s shoulders and looked like she was about to say something before the sound of backup approaching echoed through the halls.

She looked to the ground. “There are some things we need to discuss when we get home.”

Bobby saw her on the ground when he stormed in there, arm contorted and eye swollen shut as she laid in a glowing pool.

A pool of her glowing blood.

And at the end of it all…a clean bill of health and mandatory psychological leave. He was sure he heard his wife die over the phone, and all that entire ordeal amounted to was essentially a month of paid leave for Athena to go stir crazy.

According to the doctor, his burns were more concerning than Athena’s physical state.

Bobby exited the passenger side of the car and entered the house on autopilot, plopping down onto the living room sofa

“Athena what was that?” he said, voice steady only through years of practice in crisis.

Athena sighed as she sat down in the chair adjacent to her husband. “That was me.”

“That was you?” he repeated. “What does that even mean?”

“It means that I haven’t been entirely honest with you,” she said. “It’s not something a regular person can absorb very well, and I never thought it would matter. Now that it does…I guess there’s no avoiding it.”

Bobby glanced up at his wife. It was the face of a man in crisis, and she knew that her words, however necessary they may be, would only sink him deeper into the crisis, but she would help him through it in whatever way she could.

This would not be the night she and Bobby lost each other.

“There’s no easy way to say it, but…I’m a god.”

Bobby stared at her. “And we’re sure the CAT scan didn’t show anything.”

Athena groaned and rolled her eyes. “Come on, Bobby, you just saw me explode into golden light. What explanation do you have?”

Bobby hesitated. “I don’t know.”

She nodded.

“I just,” Bobby ran a hand through his hair. “How is this possible?”

“I was created from divine light, then I created a mortal body.”

“Don’t say that like it’s a logical series of events,” Bobby said. “I–Athena you–I’m Catholic.”

“You can still be Catholic,” she said, leaning forward to rub Bobby’s arm.

“How?” he snapped “If you’re…” Bobby shifted uncomfortably, unable to bring himself to say it “Then how cant,” he pointed up at the sky.

Athena laughed the same way she would if he was nervously talking about Buck or something at work. “I’m not Big G, I’m a little g. Technically, I’m not even that, most of my power is off in Mount Olympus so I don’t hurt anybody during a routine traffic stop.”

“And that’s–that’s just a thing you do. Just pop down and live a human lifetime?”

“No, usually we pop down, see a show, eat–”

“So Earth’s your Vegas?”

“No, Vegas is our Vegas–you just haven’t seen the real Vegas yet. I’ll take you, just not to the Lotus Casino. A bad lot runs it.”

Athena glanced at Bobby and saw she was only making him more lost.

She sighed and leaned forward. “The gods of the ancient world–Greek, Roman, Norse, Etruscan–aren't as cut and dry as the religions nowadays. The Greek Athena became the Roman Minerva. After the war in Olympus, I decided to take a step back, to exist among humans and learn on the streets what I could not learn from merely observing in Olympus.”

Bobby stared. There was a bit of fear in his eyes, but it seemed to be general world-shattering terror rather than anything directed towards her, and he was processing what he was hearing much better than most people do, at least. “Who are you?”

“I’m Athena Grant-Nash,” she said simply.

“But you’re also…” he took a shaky breath “A divine being.”

Athena got up and moved to sit beside her husband. “I am Athena Grant-Nash, but before that, I came down here in a form known as Athena Polias–Athena, protector of the city–and I chose to be an officer to uphold that role. From my point of view, there’s no different between being Athena Polias and being Athena Grant-Nash, or Athena Philopolæmikós, Athena Oplokharís, Vasíleia, Voulaia, Sóhteira, or any number of other epithets.”

She looked over at Bobby again, he was breathing heavily now, the weight of all she said likely not even reaching him fully. She reached out to rub his back but he gave no response.

She would have to make sure he didn’t drink tonight.

“I think that’s enough for tonight,” she said “I don’t want to dump this all on you at once.”

“Athena,” he whispered. “You’re a goddess, Athena. You’re the goddess Athena.”

She smiled. “And I am also Athena Grant-Nash, Bobby. Don’t you forget that.”

Chapter 2: My Wife Teaches Me How (Demigod) Babies Are Made

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When Athena woke in the morning, reached over to her husband’s side of the bed, and didn’t feel him there, the entire world felt wrong.

She sighed and tossed herself out of bed to look for Bobby. Bobby wasn’t one to run from conversations, so she didn’t have to worry about him bolting, but that didn’t mean things would be any easier this morning than last night.

She rounded the stairs into the living room and caught Bobby reading his laptop on the porch. She sighed and slipped into the kitchen, glancing over to see if he’d noticed her every few seconds as she grabbed a mug and stole her portion of their daily pot of coffee. Some raspberry scones he’d made earlier that week sat in an open tupperware beside the pot, and Athena smiled.

Even after the revelation of last night, Bobby was still Bobby, showing his love through food no matter what state he was in.

She slipped her way through the open sliding door and read over his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Athena said as she saw a statue (a poor likeness of herself) on the screen of Bobby’s laptop. He was reading Wikipedia of all things.

“Just a bit of research,” he said without looking up.

“You know that that isn’t accurate.” she said as she rounded his chair and leaned into his peripherals.

“Oh I know,” he craned his head back and lifted himself from his chair a bit to kiss Athena on the chin “It says you’re a virgin goddess.”

She laughed mischievously as she sat on the deck chair catercorner to him, holding her favorite mug in both hands so that it half hid her face. “Back then, Virgin, meant ‘belonging to no man.’”

“Oh, well, I can see why you waited until the twentieth century to get married then.”

Athena shoved his arm before returning her hand to her coffee mug.

Bobby sighed as he took in the sight of his wife. He knew there was something special about her the moment they met. He wasn’t bold enough to say it was love at first sight; he was a broken man who just passed the buck (or, more accurately, the razor wielding chicken known as Maurice) to her, but even in those few moments, Athena had proven herself to be quite a figure.

The revelation that the Greek gods were real was earth shattering, he’ll never try to deny that. Maybe he was taking things too well, or maybe he just found a strange comfort–a strange sense–in Athena being more than human. He worried about her entering the line of fire everyday the same way she worried about him and his job. When he heard the gunshot, he thought he lost his entire world again.

But he didn’t. She was safe. If his world was going to come crashing down last night, he was glad it was because Athena was an ineffable being and not because she was dead.

“Oh, don’t give me that look,” she teased.

“I wasn’t giving you a look,” he said “Just thinking.”

“Anything interesting?”

“You’ve been around since the dawn of time–”

“You’re thinking of the Titans, I’m only about six thousand years old; don’t make me sound like an old woman.”

Bobby put his hands up. “Okay, you’ve been around longer than human civilization. Seen billions of people be born, live, and die…and I’m one of the two people you’ve chosen to spend your life with.”

Athena was silent.

“Unless you want to tell me I’m actually husband number three.”

Athena thought for a moment, debating on what to share. “There have been others, but I wouldn’t even call them boyfriends.”

Bobby eyed her.

Athena scoffed. “It was purely intellectual. I’m the Goddess of Wisdom. Sometimes a professor or philosopher or whatever would catch my eye, I would form a connection and…consort our minds.”

“Consort your minds,” Bobby said with a grin. “I can’t even begin to guess what that means.”

“It means, in retrospect, I should have known I was marrying a gay man right off the bat,” she grimaced. “I thought he was fine with the arrangement because the kids he received were created already potty trained.”

“Okay, putting a pin in the implication you made the kids as fully formed humans–”

“I wouldn’t call a toddler a fully formed human.”

Bobby stared for a moment. “Actually no, I have more questions about that than my other thing. Are May and Harry adopted?”

She shook her head. “I’m a god, Bobby. I popped out of Zeus’s head, Aphrodite came out of a clamshell, Pegasus burst from the neck of Medusa, and with May and Bobby, after the whole ‘finding the right father’ stage was done. I reached out to him,” Athena grabbed Bobby’s hand in hers, holding it in a way that reminded him of a referee declaring a victor to the crowd. “I held his hand, and he told me all the dreams he had for his children, for his family. He told me he wanted a daughter. He dreamed of a fighter like me, with a heart that always needed to help those around her, but not so badly that she would lose herself in other people’s worries. Then he gave her a name,” she smiled warmly at the memory “Then I opened myself up to let out my divine light, and she was between us. I kissed her forehead so he could have my wisdom, and…we were parents.”

“And for Harry?”

Athena shrugged. “I don’t remember. He’s the second kid; the expectations are lower.”

Bobby nodded. “That sounds like what you tell a kid when they ask where babies come from.”

Athena scoffed and pulled her hand away.

“What?”

“It was a transcendent moment, Bobby. Theophania! Not some…”

She trailed off as she heard Bobby laughing.

“The Hell are you laughing about?”

“I’m not laughing,” he said through his laughter “This is hysteria.”

Athena rolled her eyes.

“Athena,” he leaned forward, finally giving up and setting the laptop aside. “You gotta understand. There are days when I doubt every decision I’ve ever made. Days where I search for answers and wonder how the world got as insane as it did. Last night, my beautiful wife gave me answers to questions I did not ask. And today…my wife is casually dropping the bomb that I was her first time.”

Athena scoffed. “That’s what this is about?”

He laughed harder.

Athena sighed, grabbed her coffee from the table and slumped back in the deck chair. “When we were dating, all I could think about was how stoic, how composed you were, and now, gods, I might as well have married a teenage boy.”

Bobby laughed harder.

“You know, a few thousand years ago, that would have made you a king.”

“Hm?” Bobby grabbed her hand. She let him do so but didn’t reciprocate. “If I’m a king, does that make you my queen?”

Athena looked at her husband with a stoic face. “I don’t know. Does it?”

“Tell me, how do you say queen in Ancient Greek?”

Athena upturned her lips in an almost catlike way. “Vasíleia.”

“Vasaleia,” he repeated like it was a sacred thing.

“Vas-íl-ei-a,” she enunciated “It’s a ‘i’ not an ‘a’ in the middle.”

“Well, Vasíleia Athena,” Bobby said as he rose up and straight in for a kiss “I think”--he punctuated every few words with another kiss–”That that–might be–the least farfetched thing you’ve said to me.” He gave her one last kiss before planting himself back down.

“Oh no,” Athena got up and sat on the armrest of his chair, letting a leg hang over his lap. “You can’t get away from me that easily.”

“Don’t I know it,” he said with a smile as he looked up at his wife. The way the sun caught her eyes so that they gleamed like gemstones. Were there brown gemstones? He didn’t know. Maybe whoever created the universe chose not to make any to ensure Athena’s eyes remained incomparable.

“Though, if we’re being exact. I am Athena Vasíleia.”

“Athena Vasíleia.” Bobby said.

Athena seemed to almost glow at his words. Like his words alone were worship. She sighed deeply as weight lifted from her shoulders. “It’s been so long since anybody called me that.” she smiled down like she was worshiping him back. “And I don’t think I want anybody else to call me that again.”

Chapter 3: Buck Suddenly Makes a Lot More Sense

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The department had offered him time off. Abstractly, Bobby knew that he should take time off, process the fact that, even though she was fine, he did see his wife bleed out before him. No one expected him to be back at work.

Except Athena. Athena would have finished her shift that night, sent Bobby to work on the blackout catastrophes again, and continued on with life as normal had Elaine let her.

Because she was fine, and Bobby was fine, everything was fine.

“Having trouble choosing a coffee cup?”

Bobby snapped his head over to find Buck squirting the cooktop with a spray bottle and idly swiping.

“What?”

Buck eyed him. “You’ve been staring at the open cabinet for the past ten minutes.”

Bobby looked at the rack of mugs, grabbed one, and laughed. “Just got caught in my own head then.”

“I get that,” Buck said “I mean, I thought I heard Athena die on the line. I can only imagine how you feel.”

“She’s okay, though,” Bobby said.

“Yeah, but with that pool of blood she was in,” Buck puffed out a breath. “If she wasn’t leaning up and talking to you, I’d assume she actually had been shot.”

“Well, she wasn’t.” Bobby shut the door and turned away from Buck as he emptied the coffee pot into whatever mug he’d grabbed.

Buck sighed. “So we’re not going to talk about her?”

“Nope.”

…

“Athena told you she was that Athena, didn’t she?”

Bobby recoiled and attempted to blink an explanation into existence. He turned to Buck to find him staring at Bobby, dead serious. “You knew?”

“Not at first, but yeah. I don’t think there was a big reveal or anything, I just kind of saw her one day and went ‘Oh, wait, you’re a god.’”

Bobby nodded. “But how did you know?”

Buck shrugged “Half-blood thing, I guess.”

“Half-blood thing?” Bobby said, now completely lost.

“Honestly, Cap,” Buck said with his signature grin “Look me in the eyes and tell me I don’t have ADHD–you’ve seen me go ‘full Buck’ and rush in without thinking and hyperfocus on building codes as Fire Marshall Buck. I’m just happy I lucked out on the dyslexia.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Buck glanced over at Bobby before slowly setting down his spray bottle and rag.

“And what’s a half-blood?”

Buck stared at him. “A demigod.”

Bobby raised a brow.

“Like your step-kids.”

“Talk to me like I’m an idiot, Buck.”

“Oh sh*t…” Buck eyes widened. “I, uh, well, a half-blood is someone whose parent is…divine.

“Buck,” Bobby stopped himself. For all he knew, asking what he was about to ask was some kind of taboo. “Are you…not fully human.”

“Okay, wow, don’t have to phrase it like that, but yeah. I’m half human, half Greek god. It happens sometimes. Almost all half-bloods have ADHD and/or dyslexia. Our minds are hardwired for battlefield responses and the Greek alphabet. It comes across as ADHD and dyslexia, but it also means that we’re super good in high stress situations.”

Bobby grinned. “Like firefighting?”

“Exactly! Situations where we either have to think on our feet or not think.”

Bobby paused for a moment, quirked a brow, then sipped his coffee. It actually made a lot of sense.

Buck got back to wiping down the cookstop as he spoke. “Thought I was Aphrodite’s kid for, like, ever, then 2008 rolled around, the gods have to claim their kids, and a wheel covered in numbers just starts spinning above my head. Took me weeks of googling to figure out what that meant. Turns out, it was a Wheel of Fortune wheel, and my Mom’s name is Tyche.”

“Tyche?” Bobby said “I don’t think I know that one.”

“Not surprised,” Buck shrugged, and put the cleaner back in the cabinet under the cooktop. “She’s tutelary.”

“Don’t know that word either.”

“Tutelary. Like a household god. You aren’t going to bother the Big Twelve with petty things like protecting the house the same way you aren’t going to call up the CEO to lodge your complaint. Anyway, she's the goddess of fate and luck and all that.”

“Goddess of luck?”

“It’s more complicated than that, but yeah, goddess of luck.”

Bobby spoke, but Buck could tell that he was processing aloud more than anything. “So the reason why you managed to survive getting crushed by a fire truck, swept away in a tsunami, and a pulmonary embolism.”

“I also choked on bread and had to have a tracheotomy done on me while on a date once.”

“And you’re just fine because–”

“Mama knows her kid’s an idiot,” Buck said before whipping his keys out of his pocket to reveal a flask keychain that couldn’t have been more than an ounce. “I keep nectar on me and take it like a shot first chance I get.”

Bobby leaned back and stared at Buck open mouthed. “It was literally divine intervention that you survived all that.”

“I wouldn’t say that. It just wasn’t my fate to die any of those times.”

Bobby nodded and made his way over to the high stool beside the island, sitting there contemplatively for a moment. Buck gave him until he could pull a mug from the cabinet and fill it with the last of the coffee before he interrupted his train of thought.”

“Gods, Bobby, if you were thinking any louder I could hear you.”

“If the goddess of fate is your mom…you could decide who lives or dies, could you?”

“No,” Buck said too quickly “No. Shooting that idea down right now. I don’t decide fate. My mom, doesn’t decide fate. Fate just happens. There are prophecies out there that could kill gods beyond anybody’s control. My mom sees it, maybe influences it some, but that’s it. Like–like how Chimney got rebar through his skull. That couldn’t be stopped, but I prayed to my mom to make sure that it didn’t blow a chunk out of his frontal lobe and completely change his personality.”

Bobby sputtered “I–well, that was nice of you.”

“Yes, it was, and I will never get a thank you from Chimney for it.” Buck sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I just…I got a lot of slack about it growing up. I grew up with a woman who blamed me for things that happened before I was even born.”

Bobby gaped. “Maddie?”

“What? No. Maddie basically raised me; I can do no wrong in her eyes.”

Buck stopped fidgeting with his hair and stared off into the middle distance glossy eyed.

“I’m here if you need to talk, Buck.” Bobby said.

Buck snickered. “Came up here to see how you’re doing. My how the turntables.”

“You don’t–”

“It’s fine, Bobby. I, uh, I had a brother who died of cancer before I was born. The day came that the doctor sat them down and told them they would have to discuss whether he would die there or at home…I don’t know, my parents' marriage was falling apart at that point.”

“Death of a child tends to do that to a couple.”

“Didn’t help that my mom–well, adoptive mom–completely disregarded my dad in every way and started clearing out his room before he was even dead so as to ‘not be reminded of her grief’--again, kid’s still alive and she’s written him off entirely–despite the fact that my dad wants to keep his room preserved.” he shrugged “Long story short. He storms off, gets drunk, then gets lucky with the goddess of luck. Anyway, Mom won in the end: the ‘replacement kid’ and ‘new thing to hold over my dad’s head’ bundle.” Buck scrunched his face and pitched his tone up “‘Why didn’t you ask her to fix our child instead of just making a new one? Was Daniel not good enough for you, Phillip?’”

“That’s…you should never have dad to deal with that.”

“It’s not as bad as I make it sound.” Buck was silent for a moment, a somber look in his eyes as a lifetime Bobby could not imagine flashed before his eyes. Then, before Bobby could comment, the nonchalant mask was back on. “Besides, I do change fate. I pull people out of burning buildings all day. As far as those people are concerned, I’m divine intervention.” a beat “Do me a favor: if you ever meet my mom–Margaret, not Tyche–don’t tell her I told you any of this. She thinks it’s a family secret.”

“Scout’s honor,” Bobby said, taking a sip of his coffee before continuing. “I know it probably isn’t my place to say, but I honestly don’t know what I would do in your mom’s situation.”

Buck gave Bobby a side eye.

“I mean, I’ve only ever been with Marcy and Athena, so I’ve never had to think about having a surprise child show up at my door, but there was a couple in the church Marcy and I went to that had a kid from his teens pop up as an adult. She at least really emphasized the whole ‘no sex before marriage’ thing. Felt betrayed by the whole thing.”

“They worked it out though, right?”

Bobby eyed Buck. Buck swore internally. He definitely sounded too invested in this story just then.

“They ended up leaving the congregation.” Bobby said slowly “I don’t actually know what happened to them.”

Buck looked around the kitchen then fixed his eyes on the coffee maker. When was the last time someone had cleaned the inside of the coffee maker? Were you supposed to clean the inside of the coffee maker? He should clean it just to be safe.

“Athena and Michael did, though. In their own way.”

“They’re divorced.”

“I said in their own way,” Bobby lifted a placating hand, even though Buck wasn’t looking “When Michael first brought around his boyfriend to introduce him to the family, Athena snapped that, if he left her for a woman and not a man, no one would expect her to smile and welcome her into her home with open arms.”

Buck was so focused on wiping down that part of the coffee maker where you put the water in with diluted vinegar that he didn’t register what he was saying.

“The Gods aren’t big on the ‘sanctity of marriage’ thing. I honestly can’t think of a single married couple in that pantheon who has sex with each other more than other people. Look at Zeus! That dude’s my grandpa, and with the number of kids he has, I would be afraid to date anybody if not for the fact the Gods are just beings of light without DNA.”

Buck waited for Bobby to give some comment about how terrible it was that they cheated so flippantly or maybe question the ‘no DNA’ thing, but nothing came. Buck turned around to find Bobby staring into his coffee.

“But not Athena,” Buck doubled back “She loves you.”

“Loved me enough to hide her true self from me.” Bobby muttered.

“Hey, the Athena you know is the real Athena.”

“Yeah, she talked about how there are many sides and forms and epithets for her, but…maybe this is just the universe punishing me for never telling her all about anything before her.”

Buck nodded. “I gotta admit, that is an ancient Greek level of poetic, but I doubt that. I mean, I’m a half-blood, and I didn’t know about the gods or even Daniel until Maddie went against our parents and told me.”

Buck turned around, ripped off another paper towel, and got back to cleaning the coffee maker. “Anyway, you don’t need my family drama right now. Focus on yourself, or Athena. If you need family drama, there’s plenty on Mount Olympus.”

Bobby nodded. As rare as it was to say, Buck was right. He was a man of extremes, either focusing so deeply on his problems that he spiraled into depression or substance abuse or focusing on helping other people’s problems until he lost himself. He needed to focus on himself and his home life and take what Athena told him as she became willing to share it.

“I’m rushing back,” Bobby said.

“Yeah,” Buck half smiled. “I know I’m the last guy who should be telling you you’re rushing back given the whole thing with the blood thinners, but consider finishing the shift and taking even a week to just be with Athena.”

Bobby took a sip of his coffee when something Athena said that morning drifted into his mind.

“Oh my god.”

Buck snapped around to find Bobby staring at him in shock.

“Athena’s your aunt!”

Buck froze.

“She told me this morning that she popped out of Zeus’s head. You said Zeus was your grandfather.”

Buck crossed his arms, leaned back on the counter and thought for a moment. For a moment there, he was worried that Bobby would start asking if Athena had other kids.

“Huh.”--he smiled broadly– “I guess you’re right. Aunt Athena,” He grabbed a paper towel and returned to cleaning the coffee maker “Neat.”

“And Athena’s my wife.”

“I trust you have the paperwork.”

“So I’m your uncle.”

Buck locked eyes with Bobby. There was a solid ten seconds where neither of them had any clue how to process this information, let alone react to it.

Then the bell rang.

“Thank you, Mom,” Buck said under his breath as he rounded the counter. No serious conversations could happen after the bell.

He clapped Bobby on the shoulder on their way to the rig. “Hey! If you’re my uncle, that means I can get some nepotism. Right?”

“Or maybe I need to be even harder on you so I don’t get accused of favoritism.”

“Ouch,” Buck put his hand on his chest “Talk like that and I’m telling Aunt Athena.”

Chapter 4: I Learn About My Wife's Secret Camp Children

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Bobby scanned the contents of the fridge, dissecting everything he made the past few days into their components in an attempt to create a recipe that would keep him from having to go to the grocery store for another day. He could turn yesterday’s grilled chicken into a pot pie, but that was a pit more work than he was in the mood for. He could reuse the pasta with a different sauce. Or maybe Athena had an idea.

He paused.

Should he learn how to make Greek food? Did Athena like Greek food, or would she have burned out on it over the past six thousand years?

“Hey, Bobby.”

Bobby flinched to find his step-daughter opening and closing the cabinets beside him.

“May! I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Yeah, you seemed awful focused on something.”

He sighed and closed the fridge. “Yeah, that’s been happening a lot lately.”

“Mom told us about what happened.” May said cautiously. “How are you processing things?”

Bobby rubbed his face. “Honestly, the more I process, the worse things are.”

“How so?”

“Well, I’ll be going about my business like just now, and then it hits all at once that you’re half god. You’re a demigod! I have been sitting down for dinner with deities none the wiser for years.”

May laughed as she unscrewed a bottle of what looked like vanilla and sniffed. “Just try to remember we’re all the same people when you’re spiraling.”

Bobby stared for a moment as May grabbed a bottle of oil and gave another sniff.

“I’m sorry, what are you doing?”

“Hm?” she perked up, as though Bobby interrupted her doing her homework or watching tv. “Oh, I’m trying to see where Mom hid the nectar–it’s god food.”

“Good food?”

“Like ambrosia.”

Bobby thought of the strange fruit and jello salad his grandmother would make when they visited growing up. Of it’s slimy texture and the way it never sat well in his stomach.

“I think you and I have very different definitions of ‘god food.’”

“Yeah, well,” May climbed onto the countertop to access the cabinet above the fridge where the average American family would’ve kept their alcohol. “You’re allowed to hate nectar and ambrosia. It’ll kill you.”

“What.”

“It’ll burn a mortal from the inside out,” she said as she rummaged past the seldom used specialty making utensils above the fridge. She twisted her torso for a better angle.

Bobby’s blood ran cold as he saw almost the entirety of her back was dark red.

“Oh my god, your back!”

May craned her neck left and right to try and see what Bobby saw before sighing as she realized it was just the stain.

“That’s blood.”

“Okay,” she clapped her hands together, still standing on the counter. “Didn’t want you to freak out…but I got hit by a car earlier.”

“May–I’m calling 9-1-1.”

He reached for his phone to find his pocket empty.

“Bobby.”

He scanned the area for where he put it.

“Bobby! Breath.”

“May! You just told me you got hit by a car!”

“Yes, and I drank the nectar Mom gave me and am fine now, but I need just a little bit extra before I tell Mom or else she’s going to flip out and forbid me from walking on my own ever again.”

Bobby leaned against the counter, feelings of anger and relief pulling him apart.

“What has my life become?”

May didn’t look up but instead pulled out a bottle of what Bobby, under other circ*mstances, would have immediately guessed was amber moonshine. She took a sniff, smiled, and took a swig, sighing in relief.

“So if I drank that, I would die?”

“Let’s not focus on that,” May said, placing the bottle back where it came from and climbing down from the counter.

“There’s another thing. If I weren’t two years sober, or I had a bad day, then there’s a chance I could’ve been burned from the inside out when I drank that.”

May paused. “Oh…”

“Yeah.”

May crossed the kitchen and gave Bobby a hug. Bobby, a bit surprised, put his arms around May and tried his best to focus on gesture over everything else in his mind.

“You’re going to get through this. You’re part of this family, and this family is all about overcoming things. We pulled through when my dad came out, when we were profiled by that officer, when Harry almost had to repeat kindergarten due to dyslexia issues. We figure things out. Together.”

Bobby pulled away to look at May. May was expecting a kind smile at her support, but instead, Bobby just seemed baffled.

“Harry’s dyslexic?”

May blinked. “Yeah.”

Bobby nodded slightly before mumbling. “Another thing I didn’t know.”

“Bobby–”

Bobby turned and made his way to the table, plopping down at the table and leaning his face into his hands.

“Bobby–”

“I help him with his homework!” Bobby yelled. “I should have known that at least.”

May rubbed Bobby’s back as she spoke. “Okay. That’s on us. We definitely should have told you. Harry’s dyslexic. Most half-bloods are.”

“And ADHD,” Bobby said, remembering what Buck had told him. “There’s just so much I don’t know.”

“But you’re learning,” May reassured. “Listen, this family isn’t used to volunteering information. It isn’t your fault.”

“I just feel like I’m left out of the loop on over half of your lives. I mean, would you guys have told me had I not seen it myself?”

May was quiet for a long time before sighing. “We discussed it. Several times actually. We decided that…we were going to see how you settled into things before we told you.”

Bobby gaped. “Like, if the marriage was going to last?”

“No! No! Not like that. We just needed to know what you could handle before we thrust it on you. Okay? Mom told me that there were some things about you that you would likely never tell us about; we’re the same.”

Bobby looked up at May. Though it wasn’t nearly as dramatic, he could see a bit of that unearthly golden glow in her smile.

“Can I ask you something, May?”

“Nothing too personal.”

“Are…” Bobby took a deep breath. He was about to ask if half-bloods were secretly everywhere, but there were so many ways to dodge that question or only tell a half truth on the excuse of ‘easing him into things.’ “How much have I missed?”

May thought for a moment. “I don’t know. You can’t see through the Mist that covers all the gods and centaurs and non-mortal things of the world, so I don’t know what you haven’t seen. But the fact of the matter is that I miss things. I could be going to school with a cyclops without noticing because it may be my world…but it isn’t my world.”

May was avoiding Bobby’s eyes now. He reached out to rub her arm as she sat down beside him, a look akin to grief in her eyes.

“Mom never tried to hide this stuff from Harry and me, but she also never tried to immerse us in her world. We live normal lives, go to normal schools, normal camp.” She nearly growled out the word ‘camp’ “I for one would have loved to get the full half-blood experience, but I get where mom is coming from. We would have a target on our backs the moment they learned about our…family situation.”

Bobby nodded in understanding. “Well, your dad is living his truth now–”

“What?” May snapped a look at Bobby “No, I’m talking about Mom.”

“...But isn’t she what makes you a half-blood?”

“Yeah, but she raised us.”

Bobby stared at May, not quite tracking what she was saying.

May sighed. “When it comes to the Greek Gods, they generally have a pump and dump policy: pump out a kid, dump it on the mortal–but Mom stayed. She raised us, undeniably loves us, and, when most people there have met their godly parent maybe once or twice, they don’t usually respond well.”

“The green eyed monster,” Bobby said.

“I wish they gave it a chance, though,” May trailed off, eyes glossing over “I would’ve liked to meet my siblings.”

Bobby sucked in a breath. May froze as she realized what she said.

“Your what?”

May forced herself to face Bobby. His eyes were the size of saucers, and he looked on the brink of a panic attack.

“Bobby–”

“Your what!”

May flinched.

“How many–”

“I–” May choked on her words, frozen in her chair.

Bobby shot back to reality. He knew who he became when he was angry, not the ‘mad and disappointed’ schick that he would give the kids when they were in trouble, but raw, unfiltered rage. The rage that made him slam Buck against the wall when he touched his journal and grab an ax to kill Jeffrey with. He experienced it a lot in the years since the incident that took his family and worked hard to ensure that the people he loved never saw it again. Now, seeing the girl he had come to see as a daughter frozen in the kitchen, eyes fixed on him like he was a stranger–an intruder in her own home–he remembered why.

He got up and pulled her close, head resting against his chest as his hand cupped her head like he was supporting a baby. “I’m sorry. That…this isn’t about you. It isn’t even about your mom. I just…please tell me how may.”

May gulped.

“Nevermind, I’ll–I have some paperwork I need to do for the department.” Bobby pulled away and made for his room “I’m sorry about all of this.”

He barely made it two steps before May spoke.

“I don’t know.”

Bobby turned to May.

“I don’t know how many she has. It’s always when she mentions her, but I know there’s one named Annabeth.”

Bobby stood there, lips parted, unsure of what to do with himself.

“I don’t know what happened to her, but it can’t have been good.”

In the end, they just ordered takeout. May was going to the movies with some friends, and they decided to try a Greek place he found on yelp.

He didn’t much care for Greek food, he discovered. Too many olives.

“You know,” Athena crooned as she speared her salad. “May won’t be back until after 10. We have plenty of time to turn this into a date night.”

“Hm?” Bobby perked up. “Oh. Sorry, I’m just not feeling it tonight.”

“Everything good?” Athena said. “You’ve been off all evening.”

“Yeah, I’m just–” Bobby stopped himself. This wasn’t something that was going to go away, but he also wasn’t sure if this was a reality he was ready to face.

He took a steadying breath, straightened up, and gave his wife a pleading look. “Who’s Annabeth?”

Athena’s breath hitched.

“Athena–”

“Who gave you that name?” She said with infinite calm that hid an eldritch fury.

“It doesn’t matter–”

“It matters.” Athena said, tears boiling in her eyes.

“Athena, if you want to be angry, be angry at me.”

“I will be,” Athena said. “I don’t like being attacked like this.”

“Attacked,” Bobby snapped, though it was more reaction than actual anger. “Athena. You asked me a question. I asked you a question. What’s the harm in me asking if you have other half-blood kids?”

“You didn’t ask me if I had other half-blood kids,” Athena said. “You asked about a person.”

“So what if I did?” Bobby said. “If you have kids beyond May and Bobby, I should be hearing it from you.”

Athena scowled.

“Don’t give me that look.”

“I will give you whatever look I want,” Athena said “I am trying to be open with you. I am trying to ease you into things. You want me to dump the past six thousand years on you? Fine. Here it is: I’ve had other kids. A lot of other kids. Enough to fill a summer camp cabin. And I was a sh*t mom to all of them.”

“Athena—“

“No, no, no,” Athena held up a finger and forced a smile “You wanted the truth and here it is. I’m a sh*t mom. I don’t know my kids' birthdays. I don’t know their interests. Sometimes I’ll forget their names and call them matia mu or some other Greek pet name to try and cover my ass. And every time,”—Athena choked up, refusing to look her husband in the eye— “And every time I’m there to see a milestone for May and Harry, I remember how badly I messed up.”

Bobby reached out to touch his wife, but before he could, she was out of the chair, out of the house, out of his reach.

Chapter 5: I Realize I Miss a LOT of What's Happening Around Me

Chapter Text

Bobby knew he messed up. He didn’t know exactly how he messed up, but he knew that what he thought would be poking a bruise was something closer to rubbing salt in a decades old wound.

He heard a knock at the door and shot up from the kitchen table. He hadn’t locked the door behind Athena–hadn’t moved from the kitchen table except to silently clean up–but Athena had no way of knowing that.

He opened the door.

His heart sank. “Hey, Michael.”

Michael smiled awkwardly. “Sorry about knocking. I didn’t want you to think I was Athena coming in, but I now see–”

“Just come on in.” Bobby stepped aside to allow Michael into the house. “I assume May told you about my little freakout?”

Michael did a double take halfway down the stairs. “You mean you’re completely valid panic at discovering Athena has children she never told you about–and not in the anonymous donor way?”

“Thank you,” Bobby flicked his hand for emphasis before making his way around to plop down on the couch. Just a few days ago, he’d received the news that his wife was not what he thought she was but still found a way to accept that she was still the woman he fell in love with despite his world crashing down.

Now, his world was crashing down, and the woman he married was not beside him anymore.

Bobby rubbed his hand against his forehead. “Where am I supposed to go from here, Michael?”

Michael sighed as he lowered himself onto the couch beside him. “I’ll be honest, Bobby, when it became clear that our marriage was over and Athena would find someone else, I had this whole rundown of everything I wish I knew before marrying and starting a family with Athena.”

Bobby waited for him to continue before saying. “So lay it on me?”

Michael chuckled. “One problem with that: the first step was getting the guy drunk first.”

“This isn’t funny, Michael.”

“I’m not trying to make it funny. Bobby,”–he put his hand on Bobby’s back– “Did I ever tell you the story of me coming out to Athena?”

“I don’t think it’s ever come up.”

“In a nutshell, I told her there was something we needed to discuss, I sat down privately, and I told her that I was gay…and she turned me into a bird.”

Bobby recoiled a bit and stared at Michael. There was no way he heard that right.

“Apparently, that used to be her go to solution for everything. Openly insulting her? Bird. Need to get away from your family? Bird. Being at a bar but don’t want to be?—“

“Bird.” They said together.

“Why birds?” Bobby said, and part of him was shocked that he was asking a ‘why’ question and not a ‘how’ question.

“She doesn’t want to accidentally invent something worse than spiders.” Michael shifted and refocused himself. “My point is. I’m not a bird anymore because, after she calmed down, she realized she overreacted and changed me back to have a civil conversation.”

Bobby nodded. He was right; he knew that, but it was hard to accept that Athena just needed some time alone while still on the receiving end.

“Was it at least fun to fly?” Bobby said, hoping after you said it that Michael understood it was a joke and not a genuine question.

Michael grimaced. “I couldn’t figure it out.”

Bobby was silent for a moment, looking from wall to table and catching photos of the family he stumbled into.

“Whatcha thinking, Bobby?”

Bobby took a moment to find the right words before realizing there was no gentle way to put it. “Why me?” he said “Not in the ‘what did I do to deserve this’ way, but why me. She is a goddess. The Goddess of wisdom. There are billions of people out there, and millions are smarter or–”

“I’m gonna stop you right there,” Michael said. “She isn’t the goddess of smarts, she's the goddess of wisdom. Big brain means big ego, and big ego means hubris and stupid decisions. You, Bobby,, you're a regular guy. You aren’t a genius, you can’t see through the Mist like me–”

“At least I’m better at pep talks than you.”

Michael scowled for a moment before returning to his usual demeanor. “My point is that you are completely ordinary–and you wooed Athena! You wooed her because of who you are, not what you could bring to the table. You and Athena aren’t just allies but partners, and that means incurring Athena’s wrath once won’t tear you apart, even if it doesn’t feel that way right now.”

Bobby gave Michael a half smile. “Doesn’t mean I don’t feel like crap for how I handled it.”

Michael rubbed his back. “Well, I’m still on your side in this, so if she wants to smite you, we can get smited together.”

Bobby smiled nervously. “She doesn’t actually smite people though, right?”

“What? Of course not…that I know of.”

Bobby sucked in a breath through his nose.

Michael laughed. “Seriously, Bobby, unless you suddenly wake up a spider, you have no need to fear Athena.”

After living in L.A. for nearly five years, Bobby had come to realize a paradox that, despite the travel being a neverending crawl, the wrecks always seemed to occur from high speeds.

He was just happy it wasn’t a saws and jaws wreck today.

Because Athena was the officer responding, and there was no way he could compartmentalize well enough to handle a life-or-death scenario after last night.

He felt Eddie’s presence beside him before he spoke. One person in the car with only minor injuries meant Eddie could step away and look busy, and some awful part of Bobby wished there was someone else in that car right now.

“Now, I get you two are always professional at a scene, but it seems like–”

“I’m giving her her space,” Bobby said. “I know we pry into each other’s lives a lot at this firehouse, but I need to ask that we drop this.”

Eddie pressed his lips together and nodded a minute.

Bobby leered. “Spit it out.”

“No, no. It’s just…you and Athena are one of the healthier couples around here. It just has me thinking that this situation is…pretty Greek to me.”

Bobby raised a brow. “Greek to you?”

“You know, something I don’t understand.”

Bobby scrutinized Eddie. “That’s an unusual phrasing. Do you have something you want to ask me directly?”

Bobby and Eddie eyed each other, seeing who would bite.

“Do you…know?”

Bobby groaned. “Let me guess, you’re a half-blood, too?”

“Me? No, just a regular human–well, regular human who can see through the Mist,” Eddie crossed his arms and clicked his tongue. “But Christopher is.”

Bobby perked up. “Really?”

Eddie looked incredulous. “You can accept the idea of half-bloods, but not that my son is one?”

“I’m not saying that. It's just…unexpected.”

“Because you’re expecting Hercules,” Eddie scowled.

Bobby felt panic rush into him. “I just meant—“

“Don’t,” Eddie put out his hand “You didn’t know, but the gods, monsters, demigods, they’re like people. Hephaestus, god of the forge, can’t use his left arm, Polyphemus can’t see, and Christopher–”

“I’m not talking about his CP! I’m talking about the fact I met Shannon and missed not one but two goddesses waltzing into my firehouse.”

Eddie went red. “Oh.” Eddie shifted, trying his best to recover. “Shannon was a Nymph. They’re more like spirits than gods, but she was a Nymph living in the Rio Grande River.” Eddie said as he secured the hatch beside the truck. “It’s actually how Christopher managed to survive being separated from Buck in the tsunami. Polluted seawater isn’t ideal, but he can breathe it in a pinch.”

“Did I miss gills on your son, too?”

“No. I’ll be honest. I don’t know how it works. It’s a dice roll of what abilities a half-blood child will have when a nymph is involved–I’m just happy he ain’t a cyclops.”

“Was that an option?”

Eddie stared into the middle distance. “So many things are options.”

Bobby, sensing a sore spot, chose not to pry any further.

Bobby rubbed his face. “I don’t know, Eddie–”

“Cap.”

“I feel like I only know the Athena she wants me to see.”

When Eddie said nothing, Bobby looked up to find Eddie was standing rigid, staring at something just beyond him.

No, someone.

Bobby turned around to find Athena standing behind him, stone faced.

“I’ll give you two a moment,” Eddie said, walking away before he was even finished speaking.

“Hi,” Bobby said, the chasm between them as solid and real as concrete.

“Hi,” Athena said. The sun hitting her still made her glow, but it did nothing to cancel out the weariness she wore.

“I shouldn’t have sprung that on you.”

Athena shook her head. “You didn’t spring it on me. They may call me the goddess of wisdom, but I tend to lack tact when it comes to issues with my family.”

“Glad to see I didn’t marry the goddess of digging your heels into the sand, or worse, the goddess of indifference.”

Athena sighed. “I will let you make that joke once.”

“‘Thena,” Bobby put his hand on his wife’s shoulder. “I’m trying.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I just…It’s like you said. You should’ve heard it from me. I’ve just…I’ve been struggling, Bobby.”

Bobby tried to keep his face neutral.

“I know. I’m not the one who learned he married a goddess, but I am still trying to keep my world from crashing down. I’m still going to work, worried that I’ll come home to find you hate me–”

“I could never hate you.” Bobby said. It was an automatic response, but he still meant it.

Athena chuckled. “You say that now, but you’re right, Bobby. You only know the me that I’ve shown you these past few years.”

“That’s not what I meant–”

“You don’t,” Athena said, a watery smile to match her wet eyes. “You don’t.” She sighed and attempted to compose herself again. “I’ve been so worried about easing you into things, and it’s not just because I’m worried you won’t take it well. I’ve been afraid of how you’d react to this since the moment I realized I love you. That fear didn’t serve me. All it did was ensure that I didn’t get to tell you about what I am on my terms, but Pandora’s Box is open now, and I have to come to terms with the changes this brings as much as you do.”

Bobby didn’t know what to say, so he pulled his wife closer to him, letting his arms become an armor around her.

“Will you come home tonight?” Bobby said. It was a genuine question as much as an invitation, an apology, an absolution.

Athena sighed into him, and Bobby was half sure she was going to cry. “I’d like that.”

Bobby couldn’t remember Athena actually being nervous. Afraid, yes, he’d seen Athena put on a mask of professionalism that never quite hid the terror in her eyes at a missing child case, but Athena looked less like she was preparing herself for a conversation and more like she was preparing for an unexpected public speaking assignment.

“Before we start, I need to grab something.”

Bobby sat down on the couch as Athena went into the bedroom and came out with a solid black jar too big to carry with one hand. Bobby had found it once while cleaning up and, recognizing the shape, let it be.

“Is that an urn?” Bobby said.

Athena sat down and placed the ceramic vessel on her lap. “No, it’s called a pyxis, but I can see how you would think that with the shape.”

With a hollow pop, she removed the lid, and gold bloomed through the matte black to depict a warrior woman, complete with a great helm, holding hands with a small child with its own help. She and the child both faced each other, fingers of their free hand touching their foreheads, in mirror images of each other.

Bobby swore under his breath.

“You okay, Hun?” she said, placing the lid safely on the couch beside her.

“I thought that was your mom,” Bobby said.

“I don’t have a mom.” Athena said.

“I know that now,” Bobby said, vaguely remembering what she’d said about popping out of her father’s head as an adult. “But it isn’t an urn, then what is it?”

“I suppose you would call this a baby box,” Athena said, reaching in and pulling out a few photos. “I had to ask around and reverse engineer it–talking to her father and reaching out to some camp counselors and all–but I think I did pretty decently, all things considered.”

Athena handed the top photo to Bobby.

Bobby looked at the first photo to find a middle aged black gentleman (and with his well groomed hair and professional attire, the only word for him was gentleman) keeping a toddler upright behind a chalkboard sign that said “Welcome to the Family.”

He remembered taking Brooke and Bobby Jr both to JCPenney's to get a similar portrait done, but those photos left the world when they did.

“So this is her.”

Athena nodded gently. “Annabeth Chase, the last child of Athena Voulaia, and first big regret of Athena Grant.”

Chapter 6: I Learn My Wife's Biggest Regret

Chapter Text

“Before I tell you about her, I need to tell you why I came to L.A.” She handed Bobby another photo depicting a group of kids in bright orange T-shirts that read with ‘Camp Half-Blood’ written on them. It didn’t take long for Bobby to recognize Annabeth to the side, one arm around a brunette boy and the other around a kid with uncomfortable looking furry pants.
“I came down here after the war in an attempt to better understand the world we nearly destroyed, the people in it.”
“Which war?” Bobby said. His first thought was the Trojan War, but Athena had said that coming to earth to live as a human was a recent choice.
“The Second Titanomachy—I mean Titan War,” Athena swallowed dryly before saying “When it started is a bit fuzzy. Sometime in 2004 until August 18th, 2008,”
“Not trying to minimize what happened, but I think I would have noticed a war.”
“You wouldn’t have. The Mist surrounding the, for lack of a better term, magical world is strong. You’d be shocked by how many Satyrs you walk past everyday.”
Athena reached back into the pot and handed him a candid of Annabeth in helm leaning over a map. “She’s captaining a capture the flag team in that one,” Athena said sadly. “She always made me proud with her strategies—had a new one every other time, it seemed.”
Bobby took a deep breath. “This war that you mentioned…did you lose her?”
“She didn’t die, but yes.” Athena kept her hands on either side of the jar for a moment, eyes glossing over as she stared straight ahead. “Or maybe I lost her long before that.”
Bobby reached out and effleuraged soft circles on her back.
“Gods,” Athena put her head in her hands. “I’m not just a wisdom goddess, Bobby; I’m a war goddess. I thought things would be fine, but war now is so different than it was back then. When I was formed, war was about safety, glory, securing a better future. Now it’s about blowing people up so some board member can sell more bombs and buy another yacht. If a teenager is fighting, it isn’t because he’d already been considered a man for years.”
“Okay, so there was a war. You came down to fight it and decided to stay?” Bobby said, encouraging his wife (or perhaps sharing what he hoped she would say).
“No,” Athena began to tear up. “I was in Olympus with the other gods while it was happening.”
“Powerlessness,” Bobby said. “Just like me listening to–”
“Nothing like that, Bobby,” she said “You felt powerless because you couldn’t be there to keep me safe. Me, I felt strong and proud because I was sequestered away from the carnage happening in my name.” she swallowed hard. “I looked down on it, and it was only after years on earth that I realized what I saw.”
A single tear ran down Athena’s cheek. She heard Bobby moving towards her and half expected him to wipe it away. Instead, he moved the pot to the table and pulled her close, letting her cry in a way he never could have on Olympus.
“I’m a war goddess, Bobby, but what I saw—gods, they were children. Every soldier fighting and dying were our sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, fighting our progenitor Kronos for us. And you want to know what I only now realize is the worst part?” she looked over at Bobby “I could only remember one or two of their names.”
Bobby sucked in a breath.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Athena said as she rose and made her way to escape “I shouldn’t be telling you any of this.”
“Athena–”
Bobby grabbed her arm. She knew she could pull away easily, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“I was a different person before I met you, too, Athena. You talk about the suffering you caused from your apathy and negligence. Well, pot meet kettle; I killed 148 people, and I saw my kids suffer and die because of my own actions, too.”
Bobby stared at Athena. She was facing away, and he could only imagine what was going on inside her mind.
“I was proud of her.” she said eventually, refusing to look at Bobby “I thought that would be enough but…I guess I wasn’t so wise back then.”
“Does she know you’re here? On,” Bobby hesitated, realizing how strange his life had become “Earth.”
She nodded. “I never told her, but Chiron’s looking after her. He keeps the kids in the loop about their parents.”
“You ever reach out?”
“We didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms.”
“If you didn’t plan on reaching out, then why did you come here?”
Athena shrugged. “To get away from it all, I suppose.”
Bobby shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like the Athena I know.”
Athena remained silent.
Bobby stopped the gentle rubbing of her back. “Whatever the reason, I’m glad you're here. We don’t need to talk about anything else tonight.”
Athena reached into the urn and pulled out a photo of a vast strawberry field. She lingered on it for a moment before turning to face him.
“I never had a mother, Bobby,” she murmured. “I thought I could learn to be a good one here. But motherhood isn’t a skill like needlework or carpentry. You can work to prove yourself every day and still be shunned for what you did when you didn’t know any better.”
“You’re a great mother, Athena. May and Harry are living proof of that.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “I love you.”
Bobby pulled Athena close to kiss her hair. “I love you, too, ‘Thena.”

“9-1-1. What’s your emergency?”
“I’m in Griffith Park, and I just found a baby.”

Bobby watched from a distance as Hen did a checkup on the baby keeping a bright smile and a silly voice so that every action seemed more like playtime than an assessment. From what they could tell, the kid was around two months old and had only been there for twenty or thirty minutes, but he knew how quickly things could happen.
It only took a minute, and his mother had left every passerby with a hundred opportunities for someone worse than a mother out on a jog.
Even then, leaving a baby in the direct California sun…they were lucky they weren’t dealing with sunburns or heat stroke.
Or worse.
“Captain Nash.”
Bobby turned around and saw his wife sauntering up wearing her aviator glasses.
“Sergeant Grant,” he said. “Any leads?”
She shook her head. “No cameras, slow day. No one saw anybody coming or doing. Honestly, we’re lucky that woman came by for a second lap. Otherwise it could have been hours before someone came to this part of the park.”
“You taking her back to the station?”
She shook her head. “We’re trying to find a car seat.”
“So this kid is going to be waiting with us for longer than it was on the park bench?”
“Sounds about right,” Athena said with a smile.
“Speaking of which.”
Both Bobby and Athena turned to find Hen approaching them.
“As much as I love this little girl,” Hen said, holding the baby sideways in one arm so that its head was in the crook of her elbow. “It is just too soon after Nia to take in a baby girl.”
Bobby nodded. He remembered Hen coming into the station and asking them all to be character witnesses so she could get her foster parent license, the excitement when she asked for the day off to get Nia settled in, and the raw devastation she failed to hide the day after they said goodbye.
He didn’t blame her for steering clear.
“Could one of you actually take her for a bit?” Hen said.
Athena gestured with both arms at Bobby and Hen, misinterpreting the action, moved to place the baby in her open arms.
Athena stiffened and stepped backwards.
Hen eyed Athena. “Everything good, Athena?”
Athena nodded and crossed her arms. “I’m okay, I just wasn’t expecting it.”
“Okay…are you expecting it now?”
“I think Bobby should take the first shift here.”
Bobby and Hen glanced at each other.
“Fine!” Athena snapped. “I’ve never held a baby before. You happy?”
“What?” Hen’s voice went high. “No, you held Denny.”
Athena pursed her lips.
Hen’s eyes widened. “You never held Denny.”
Bobby stared at his wife. “How have you never held a baby?”
“Not exactly a lot of opportunities to hold a baby in my line of work.”
“And you created your kids as toddlers,” Hen said, like it was common knowledge.
“You knew?”
“Bobby,” Hen sighed. “Athena tells me everything. She tried to make me immortal once so she would always have someone to talk to.”
“Oh my god,” Bobby snapped, “was everyone but me aware of Athena’s godhood?”
“Chimney doesn’t know.” Hen said. “Which is precisely why it’s still a secret.”
Bobby sighed and rubbed his brow.
“Come in 727-L-30,” came a voice over the radio.
Athena pressed the side of her radio and spoke into her shoulder. “This is 727-L-30.”
“We have found a car seat and will have an officer to you 20 for handoff of child.”
“Acknowledged.” Athena said. She smiled smugly and put her hands on her hips. “Seems I go yet another day without holding a baby.”
“You’re absolutely right, ‘Thena,” Bobby said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. “We shouldn’t pressure you into doing anything you don’t want to do, including holding a baby.”
“Oh no,” Athena attempted to escape Bobby’s hold, but Bobby clamped down tighter. Hen, reading Bobby’s mind, pressed the child to Athena’s chest and used her free arm to wrestle Athena’s left arm around the baby.
“I will drop it. I will drop it.”
Bobby wasn’t sure if it was a threat or a genuine fear.
He let go and swiftly adjusted himself so that one arm wrapped around Athena and landed on the baby, just in case Athena was being serious.
In the end, Athena wasn’t holding the baby so much as having her arm forcibly wrapped around and held in place by Hen while her husband served as a safety net..
“It’s easier than holding an attack chicken,” Bobby said, trying for humor but falling flat.
Athena remained stiffly in place.
Bobby kept his hand in place and rounded around Athena, keeping his eyes studied on her in case she moved away from the tangle of limbs.
“‘Thena?” Bobby said, blood running cold as he suddenly remembered the photo of little Annabeth last night.
Bobby couldn’t see what was going on in her eyes behind the aviator glasses, but when she spoke, her voice was hoarse.
“I hate you both.”

Athena tried turning over to see if laying on her back had become any more comfortable since the last time she tried the position.
She’d been on earth in a human form for over a decade, but some nights she would lay down and her limbs would be foreign and one part would be freezing while another was sweating and she would just have to wonder what Prometheus was thinking when he designed these things.
(Seriously, she could bear with him and agree to breathe life into the things back when she thought they would be just like any other animal, but if she knew she would be living in one of these bodies and dealing with the consequences of them receiving fire, she would have at least redesigned the spine.)
She paused and sighed and rolled over. Her mind wouldn’t let her sleep tonight, and she knew it had nothing to do with the travesty that was the human body.
“You awake, Hon?” she said gently.
“Close enough,” he replied, making no attempt to roll to face her.
“I was just laying awake thinking.” Athena reached across the bed to put her hand on her husband’s bicep. “You know…we could–”
“I’m tired tonight, Athena,” Bobby groaned, “Wake me up early if you’re still in the mood.”
“No, not that…” she trailed off, taking her hand away. “It was just a silly thought. Goodnight, Bobby.”
She moved to lay on her back again, returning to her cloud of thoughts for only a minute before Bobby rolled onto his back and craned his neck to face her, even though neither could see each other in the dark.
“Everything okay, ‘Thena?”
“I was just laying here, and I remembered I forgot to tell you something important.”
“Is it life or death?” he said.
“Well, potentially the life part.”
There was a moment of silence before she felt the bed shift. Light shot through darkness as Athena squinted and raised her hand in an attempt to shield her eyes.
Bobby seemed to be fully awake now.
“I shouldn’t have brought this up tonight,” she said.
“What’s going on?” he said, voice dripping with concern.
“I’m not dying, I just…” she leaned up in bed. “I’ve been thinking about that baby from earlier today.”
Bobby nodded. “I’ve been thinking about her, too.”
“You have?” Athena perked up.
“I’m thinking about all the things that could have gone wrong had someone not realized quickly.” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I should just be happy she didn’t throw the poor girl down a pipe.”
The memory of responding to that call flashed in her mind briefly before she pushed it away to focus again. “It just made me wonder if you want to have kids again.”
Bobby eyed Athena “I have kids: May and Harry.”
Athena smiled. “I’m a goddess, Bobby. I could have another baby if you wanted it.”
Bobby sucked in a breath. Athena’s eyes weren’t quite adjusted to the light yet, but she could see his eyes go wide.
“I shouldn’t have sprung this on you this late at night.” Athena said again.
“No, I–” Bobby puffed out a breath. “I’m too old to handle a baby.”
“Harry and May came about as toddlers, remember? If I try hard, I could even make them a little carbon copy of you. We could tell people it’s a cousin’s kid we’ve taken in or something.”
Bobby was silent for a long time.
“Tell me what you’re thinking?”
Bobby remained silent.
“Whatever it is–”
“Are you sure this isn’t about Annabeth?”
Athena flinched. “What?”
“I didn’t think before I made you hold it–”
“No,” Athena shot up in bed and threw back the covers. “I’m not doing this–”
“‘Thena!” Bobby snapped.
Athena snapped around “Don’t you dare!”
Bobby’s visage remained perfectly calm, the same as it did in any other stressful situation. “Do you want another kid?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”
Bobby raised a brow. “Did you talk to May and Harry?”
Athena scoffed. “Didn’t talk to May before creating Harry. You know what? Maybe I should? Consult May and Harry and Michael and the entire firehouse while we’re at it. Let everyone weigh in.”
“Athena,” he said calmly. “Do you want another kid? Yes or no.”
Athena clenched her teeth. “I don’t know! I’m just bringing it up for you to know. Okay?”
Bobby remained quiet and stared at Athena.
She groaned and put her face into her hands.
“Athena, I’m not going to decide tonight whether or not I want to have kids again, but I think you just decided it’s time to try and reach out to Annabeth.”

Chapter 7: I Learn a New Use For a Sprinkler Head, or Athena Smites Our Unexpected Guest

Chapter Text

Bobby groaned as he lifted himself upright in bed and forced his back straight, feeling the 24 hour shift in his bones. He hadn’t been sleeping well since the big reveal a week ago.

That interruption hadn’t exactly helped.

He let his mind wander as he put on some actual clothes. Did he remember what Athena had said right? He was sure that Athena would try to reach out to Annabeth. Maybe not immediately, but eventually, and that would add a new member of the family.

And then there was that other thing.

Bobby barely noticed the shirt fall off the hanger. He bent over to grab it, feeling the wear and tear of his physical job in his lower back.

He sighed. No matter how sharp his mind may be, sometimes it felt like his body was looking for a new excuse to give up.

He rose and slipped on the polo. He had May and Harry and, in a way, Buck, his family would be growing with Annabeth. He already had more than he ever could have hoped for after the fire.

He slipped through the living room into the kitchen to start making breakfast. He saw Athena was at the table and could feel the focus coming off of her. He got to work pulling out eggs and some vegetables he’d diced earlier in the week to get to work with omelets.

He started the burner to preheat the pan and glanced over to find his wife turning a golden coin over in her hands in a fidget.

“Everything good?”

Athena nodded. “I told myself that I would call her in the morning, and all I can think is that I still have a few hours left of the morning.”

Bobby put down the pan, turned off the fire, and made his way to sit beside his wife.

“I can’t imagine this is easy for you, but isn’t it better to try than to always wonder?”

Athena nodded quietly.

“I’m gonna call her, would you be offscreen for me?”

“Of course.”

Athena rose and made her way to the backyard.

“Where you going?”

Athena turned around and grinned. “I’m a goddess, Bobby. You didn’t think I would just whip out a phone and call her, did you?”

Interest piqued, Bobby made his way behind his wife and watched as she, coin sticking out from between her knuckles, unwrapped the garden hose from the wall and switched the head’s setting to mist before forcing the stiffened valve to twist. Athena moved the head of the hose to and fro, filling the yard with mist.

“What are you—“

“Ah, ah, ah,” she held out a finger of the hand holding the coin. “I got it.”

Bobby looked over. It just looked like regular mist. Nothing special aside from the refracting rainbow.

Athena tossed the coin into the mist.

“Iris,” she announced “Goddess of the Rainbow. Accept my offering, and connect me with my daughter Annabeth at Camp Half-Blood.”

Bobby watched as the mist became opaque before morphing to show a young woman, maybe in her late twenties, wearing a bright orange t-shirt that said ‘Camp Half-Blood’ as she directed some middle schoolers in some activity.

“—just practice, so no headshots.” She said to the group.

“Ms. Chase,” a low voice came from offscreen. “I believe you have a call.”

Annabeth turned to her side to what Bobby assumed was an image of Athena. Now that he could get a good look at her face, he could see that, all thought the weave may have made her face appear thinner, she was the spitting image of her mother, complete with a scrutinizing expression.

“Perhaps we should give Ms. Chase some privacy.”

Bobby heard some shuffling and hooves clopping on the other side of the line and then silence.

“Hello?” Annabeth said uncertainly.

Athena smiled. “Hi, Honey.”

“Is something wrong?” Athena said.

“No, no—“

“Are you lying?”

Athena’s smile stiffened. “Nothing’s wrong, and that’s the truth. I just wanted to call my daughter, know how she’s doing.”

Annabeth nodded. “Somebody’s there with you, aren’t they?”

“Well, yes, um.” Athena gestured for Bobby to come closer, and Bobby was thankful that he decided to change out of his pajamas before breakfast today. “This is your stepdad, Bobby.”

“Hey, I’m Bobby,” he said, and he knew it sounded stupid at the moment it came out of his mouth. “Nice to meet you.”

He reached out his hand to shake and Annabeth stared at it then her mother. “He’s new to this, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“He make you reach out?”

“I encouraged her,” Bobby said “She decided on her own. I’m just her emotional support.”

Annabeth scoffed. “So what is this about, really?”

“I just wanted to reach out. Catch up. Reconnect.”

Annabeth started, unsure of what to do with that.

“Maybe we could fly to you, or you could fly to us—we’re willing to pay for the trip.”

Annabeth thought for a moment. “I’m busy here. Summer season and all. Maybe in a few weeks we can talk about this again.”

Some kind of horn sounded in the background. Annabeth looked to her side for a moment then back at the image. “I really do need to go.”

Annabeth moved to swing at the image.

“I love you,” Athena blurted out.

“Yeah, tha–” Annabeth aborted the motion, taken aback for a moment as she registered what Athena had said.

She finished her swipe, and the mist dissipated.

Athena put her face in her hands and cried.

Bobby had worked in a firehouse long enough to know that there was a direct correlation between firefighter boredom levels and firehouse cleanliness and, as they approached hour twenty of an unusually qui—slow shift, Bobby couldn’t help but notice exactly how bored Buck was.

Bobby whistled as he scanned the room. Buck perked up from buffing an already immaculate back bumper.

“I don’t think we’ve had it this clean since we got a new probie.”

“Don’t mean to brag,” Buck said with a smirk “But I think the word you’re looking for is spotless.”

“Mm,” Bobby co*cked his head. “I dunno, that looks like a spot.”

Buck followed Bobby’s gaze to a little black spot on the floor. Without another word, he flicked the rag he was holding and went to wipe it up.

The spot scurried a few feet away.

Buck rose. “See, bugs don’t count. Spotless.”

“Spiders are arachnids but–”

A bang echoed through the firehouse. Buck and Bobby’s heads snapped up to find Athena looming over the side of the landing, fists white knuckled as her eyes burned with righteous fury.

“What did you just say?”

“Just a spider,” Bobby held his hands out to calm Athena, “Could you bring a cup we could catch it under?”

“Oh I’ll bring something for that bitch,” she growled as she turned around. “I’m grabbing a boot.”

“‘Thena, I just cleaned.” Buck said, exasperated.

Athena emerged from the bottom of the stairs and went straight for the locker room to grab the first boot she saw. “You’ll be cleaning up something far worse if you try to stop me.”

“Everything okay?” Buck and Bobby turned to find Hen and Chimney had paused their ambulance resupply to investigate.

“There’s a spider,” Buck said.

Hen hissed. “This ain’t gonna be pretty.”

Chim chuckled “Fearless Athena have arachnophobia or something?”

Athena emerged holding a thick black fire boot. “I don’t fear spiders; spiders fear me.”

“That’s my boot,” Chimney said.

“Commandeered for official police business.” She growled as she lined up the shot.

“Athena, we cannot do this again,” Hen said.

“What happened last time?” Chim asked.

“Doesn’t concern you” she snapped at her friend before turning her attention back to the coin sized creature. “You come to the place my husband works and sleeps and think I wouldn’t notice? I am no fool, esý aphòdeuma. I am Athena, and you can weave your web of machinations for a thousand years but know that you will always be eight steps behind.”

The spider scurried towards her.

The sound of the boot slamming Athena’s divine fury into the spider rang out through the firehouse.

Athena rose but left the boot on the floor. “Keep it there. Let it be a warning to any who seeks to tread on the sacred domain of my one consort and equal.”

“Athena,” Hen said, her smile fading into something between confusion and concern. “I think you may be projecting.”

The spider emerged from between a groove in the sole unharmed. Without hesitation, Athena dropped to the floor with a battle cry and slammed her fist to the epoxy floor, smiting the creature under her fist.

“Oh god!” Buck yelled.

“The only god here right now is me.”

Hen sighed. “Athena, you gotta talk to someone about your thing with spiders.”

“She knows what she did and I am justified.”

“I know a bartender who would disagree.”

Athena glared. “It was a very realistic tattoo.”

There was a moment of silence where everyone was too afraid to move out of fear they’d slip up and spark Athena to redirect her rage.

“Buck, Honey,” she said, deceptively calm. “You said this place was spotless?”

“Yeah…”

“You dust for cobwebs?”

Buck gulped. “Yeah.”

Athena looked at him with a sweet smile before she rose. “You did a good job. Sorry about making a mess on the floor.”

Buck let out a breath. “It’s okay. I can just wipe it up.”

“Hey?”

All turned to find the new probie, Ravi, had entered the scene.

“What was that noise?”

Buck pointed at the splatter on the floor. “Athena found a spider.”

“Oh,” he said, not fully getting it. “I’m glad it wasn’t anything big.”

“You okay?” Bobby said.

“Yeah, I just got a bit startled at the sound since it’s been so quiet.”