Bonds

Sally Learns That History Repeats Itself

"Hey there, champ!" Vincent cried the moment he walked into the bar and spotted the six-month-old. The mohawked man ran up to the bar, his black combat boot scuffing floor, and tickled the baby with one hand until the bar was filled with the sounds of a giggling child and the flatulence of old drunks. "Score any numbers for me today? Any real lookers?"

"Ma! Ma!" Percy cried enthusiastically. The baby was in his sticker-covered carrier (the band stickers may in fact being the only thing keeping the secondhand seat together) on the corner of the bar, making him always within his mother's sight. He was too young to truly start speaking, but he had learned that if he said that particular syllable he received a lot more attention.

"Really?!" Vincent smirked as he ran one hand through his heavily product covered black hair. "Think I got a chance?"

"You'll have a chance when hell freezes over," Sally grinned as she placed a glass down in front of her friend. "And even then-" she unbuckled her son and lifted him to his shoulder. The squirming baby immediately grabbing a fistful of her hair and shoving it in his mouth. "-it's less than one percent."

"Soooo, you're saying I have a chance?" Vincent grinned as he took a sip of his beer.

She rolled her eyes and tilted his glass back, spilling most of its contents on his chest. "Technically yes," she huffed in amusement.

While the last year had been the longest and most stressful of her nineteen-year life, she could argue that it was one of the best. There was always a struggle for money and keeping food on the table for Percy and herself, but her friends (it was funny how many boxes of diapers and formula just fell out the backs of trucks) and a few weekend shifts as a waitress always managed to provide just enough. There were still days when she couldn't look Percy in the eye because of how much he looked like his father, but they were becoming less frequent; Percy developing his own personality more-and-more every day that was nothing like his father's. She still had to deal with the occasional rowdy customer, but between Vinny's self-defense lessons, the overprotective regulars, and the .44 under the counter, there wasn't much she couldn't handle. And as for her personal life, the mohawked idiot before her was good with Percy and incredibly patient with her. He understood that she wasn't ready to date anyone yet, but that didn't stop him from teasing her. In a weird way, it was drawing her out of her shell.

"I would say that was a waste of good beer, but that was lite," the young man grinned as he set the glass on the counter; beer dripping onto the floor.

"It's about to turn and Kris told me to push it," she shrugged, only to immediately wince when Percy yanked on her hair. "Also, it was free. Doesn't that automatically make it good?"

"It makes it tolerable at best," Vincent laughed as he sat down on stool across from her. "But more importantly, how was your guys' day? Champ say anything new?"

"Percy's still stuck on 'ma'," Sally answered, before pressing a quick kiss on her son's cheek. Making the baby boy squeal in delight. "Kinda wish he could get to 'mom' soon. Ma sounds like he's in the mob or in a biker gang."

"And what's wrong with that?" The leather coat clad man huffed.

Sally rolled her eyes. Ninety percent of her new friends were criminals in some shape or form (mostly theft and smuggling cigarettes across state lines), and it did help her and Percy survive, but she didn't want her son to grow up to be like them. His life was going to be hard enough being a demigod. He didn't need to worry about being on the wrong side of the law as well.

"It was a pretty slow day," she shrugged, ignoring Vincent's question. "Merle stumbled in here the second we opened and watched Sesame Street with Percy. They both passed out around the time Ernie started singing the rubber duck song, both falling asleep for radically different reasons."