memory (hiatus)

Chapter 28: Do you want some lip gloss?

Aphrodite sighed. "Mostly presents."

Well, that didn't give her much to work with. But, well, Piper didn't really want to fix their relationship... but, well, maybe it would help get them out of there. And that meant she had to ask the hard questions. 

"Why did you leave us.." Piper didn't want to lose, but here she was saying it. "...Mom."

Aphrodite tucked a strand of hair behind her perfectly shaped ear. "I wanted to stay, believe me. Well, Olympians aren't meant to start families."

Piper didn't get that. "Why?"

"The world we live in is too dangerous for kids to be involved in," Aphrodite said. "Too many shady things happening, too much money in our pockets to not be targeted. I mean, look what happened here!"

Piper supposed that was kind of true. "But what about Percy and Annabeth? Thalia and Jason? They came so much earlier than I did."

"Percy and Annabeth were special cases, in a way, and they got involved when they were younger."

"Special cases?"

"Annabeth ran away, and her father called us for help, so we sent Grover, and actually, they turned out mostly fine."

"Mostly?" Annabeth was her best friend... had Piper not realized any trauma?

"Well, Thalia ran away a few times when she came here, and Luke was just making his way, so they banded together, and eventually Grover found them." 

Ah, right. Piper kind of remembered Annabeth telling her that a long time ago. Probably something she'd forgotten. "What about Percy?"

"Percy and his mom managed for a while, but after an attack on Percy, his mom sent him here, and Grover helped him over too," her mom said. Wow, it was weird to think of her that way.

"Well, what about Thalia and Jason, oh, and also Leo?" Piper said. She'd forgotten about Leo. 

"Leo's mom died, and Thalia and Jason's mom wasn't stable."

What was it with moms?

"Well, their mom still isn't stable," Piper said. She'd seen how much their mom was affecting Jason. 

"She's still alive?" her mom said. 

Oh right, her mom had been kidnapped before they'd found her. And somehow, Piper still hadn't told her. "Yeah, we found her."

Piper looked at the sheets, anything to get away from those probing eyes. She felt like a kid again, caught with her hand in the cookie jar. 

"Wow," her mom eventually said. Yeah, no, Aphrodite. She'd refer to her as Aphrodite still in her head. 

"There's a lot of things I haven't told you," Piper said. 

Aphrodite leaned back. "Well, no time like the present."

And so, the rest of the day was spent, having an actual maternal relationship in her life. They talked about everything, from everything they'd learned(wow, you kids are crazy!) and the tiniest about her fake dating situation(oh, honey).

So, by the time Dakota came, Piper was not expecting anything like this. She expected the mostly cheerful boy drinking Kool-aid, not the broken boy with shadows under his eyes and bruises on his knuckles. 

"Dakota? Are you okay?" Piper said. 

Dakota ignored her. He didn't say a word until at least an hour and a half had gone by. Then, he spoke.

Dakota sighed. "I'm going to regret this.... but here."

He looked at the hallway, where his new partner had yet to come back from the bathroom, then shoved his phone through the bars. Piper caught it out of reflex.