OPHELIA DIDN'T LIKE CEMETERIES. As a medium, graveyards were a breeding ground for migraines and annoying spirits asking for favors. Ever since her mother's curse had become hers to bear, she'd made it a point to stay away from them whenever she could.
But, sometimes, she had to make an exception.
There was a faint autumn chill in the air as she bent down, placing the bouquet of white carnations at the base of the gravestone. She rose just as slowly, her eyes tracing the stone's engraving with a heavy heart.
LOVING SON, BROTHER, AND BOYFRIEND
MORS VINCIT OMNIA
She stood there, frozen in the moment, unable to speak. There were no words left that she hadn't already said a hundred times. Every variation of I miss you and I wish it hadn't turned out like this and come back had slipped out of her mouth at one point or another.
"I can't believe how long it's been," her friend murmured. "Sometimes it feels like I just saw him yesterday."
Ophelia swallowed against the tightness in her throat. No matter how many years passed, she felt the same. She could still see him in her mind, his face frozen in youth. No matter how long it had been, the wound still felt fresh.
"I miss him," Ophelia whispered. "Every day."
"Me too," her friend sighed. "But at least he's at peace. That's all we can hope for."
Ophelia nodded.
The pair stood there for a long, lingering moment, letting the breeze wash over them.
Finally, Ophelia pressed her fingers to her mouth, then to the stone, murmuring a whispered prayer for eternal peace before turning away.
When they got back to the house, the faintest smell of something burning greeted them. Ophelia's lips quirked up in an amused smile as she followed her friend toward the kitchen.
"Mama!"
As soon as the two women stepped foot in the kitchen, a tiny body launched itself at them.
Gianna's solemn expression brightened into an infections grin as she caught her daughter in her arms, lifting her up in the air. "Well, hello to you, too, Hannah."
"Did your friend like the picture I drew him?" the five-year-old asked, dark brown eyes wide with hope.
"He loved it," Gianna said. "You'll have to draw him another one when I go next time."
"Okay!" Hannah agreed happily. "I'll draw him a penguin next time! Or a hippo!"
Ophelia's smile grew. "He'd love that, Han."
The kid grinned like she'd just won first place at an art show.
An arm wrapped around Ophelia's waist, and she didn't have to look to know who it belonged to.
"Hi."
"Hi yourself," Ophelia said, turning her head to kiss Jason's cheek.
"How was the cemetery?"
Ophelia shrugged, leaning into his warmth. "As gloomy and depressing as ever. I'm sure Matt appreciates us brightening the place up with Hannah's drawings and the flowers."
"You okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah," she whispered. "I'm okay." She turned her attention back toward the kitchen. "Why does it smell like smoke in here?"
"That would be Scott," Jason said, nodding at the culprit.
Hannah giggled. "Daddy burned the pasta!"
"Oh, honey," Gianna said, covering her mouth as she tried not to laugh at her husband's expense.
"Gods, how did you manage to burn pasta?" Ophelia asked, not bothering to hide her amusement. One of the highlights of visiting New Rome was making fun of her sort-of brother-in-law. "It's pasta."
"He forgot to add it to water," Jason said, showing no mercy.
"Honey," Gianna said again.
"In my defense, Grace here was supposed to be supervising the operation, but he got distracted by Frozen on the TV," Scott said.
"It was Let it Go, was I just supposed to ignore it?"
"Yeah, Daddy, you can't ignore Elsa!" Hannah added.
Ophelia snorted. "At least tell me someone ordered take-out, because I'm starving."
"Pizza's on its way," Scott sighed. "It'll probably get here before the burning pasta smell clears out."
"You're lucky you're handsome," Gianna teased, kissing him on the cheek.
Hannah tugged on her mother's arm. "Mama, can I go to the park with Aunt Phee and Uncle Jason? Please, please, please?" She jutted her bottom lip out for added effect.
"You can ask them after we eat lunch," Gianna said. "But we have to eat first. Now, why don't you let Daddy help you wash your hands?"
"Okay!" Hannah exclaimed, grabbing Scott's hand. "Come on, Daddy!"
They two went off toward the bathroom just as the doorbell rang, and Jason went to the door to get the pizza.
"So," Gianna said, grabbing five plates from the cabinet as Ophelia got glasses out. "Any idea when you and Jason'll get a Hannah of your own?"
"Hannah's one of a kind," Ophelia said. "But honestly? I'm not sure. We both want kids, but I'm a little worried about my curse."
"You're worried it'll pass onto your kid?"
"Yeah," Ophelia sighed. "I've learned to live with it by now, but it's still not something I want my kid to have to deal with."
Gianna set the table, Ophelia following with the glasses and pitcher of iced tea. "What about adoption?"
"We're talking about it," Ophelia said. "It's just a long process. Even if we start now, it'll be a few years before we can actually adopt. Plus, I'm not sure I want to bring a mortal kid into this life, and there's not exactly an orphanage that's exclusively for demigods anywhere."
"Well, whenever it happens, I know you two are going to be great parents," Gianna told her. "Hannah adores you both."
"That's 'cause we're the fun aunt and uncle," Ophelia pointed out. "That's different from being parents."
"True, but at least you have some experience under your belt," Gianna said. "Plus, Hannah can play big sister whenever you come to visit."
Ophelia smiled. "She'll love that."
Jason returned with the pizza, and Scott and Hannah returned from the bathroom. The five sat down to a pleasant lunch, and after, Hannah dragged Jason and Ophelia by their hands to the park a few blocks away.
The sun was well past the horizon and the stars were out in full-force by the time they returned home.
❖
Peace hadn't come easily for Ophelia and Jason, but it came all the same.
Six months after Gaea's defeat, Leo showed up to Camp Half-Blood with a Titaness and a still-intact Festus. Ophelia, Piper, and Jason had been away at boarding school—public school wasn't really an option when Piper was the only one with a living mortal parent and a home outside of the two camps—but they'd gotten back to Camp Half-Blood in time for Piper to almost strangle Leo back to death.
And just like that, the four were reunited, and Jason's vision of senior prom came true—only with Leo taking Calypso instead of Buford (though they still included him in the pictures, obviously). It had been a fun night full of dancing, screaming song lyrics, getting milkshakes at one in the morning, and fighting a Hydra in their formal wear (as it turned out, stilettoes made excellent impromptu weapons).
Apollo had been punished by Zeus for his role in the Second Great Prophecy (Ophelia would've pointed out the hypocrisy a hundred times if it wouldn't have gotten her struck down by her boyfriend's dad). Luckily, Apollo's tenure as a mortal teenager was relatively short-lived, and the war that followed (because of course there was another war) had spared the Eight of the Prophecy.
It seemed the Fates did understand the concept of mercy.
After three wars, high school was a blur of foreign normalcy and only the occasional monster attack. Ophelia and her friends graduated and moved onto New Rome for college, finding well-needed solace in the monster-free campus.
True to his word, Jason proposed six years (to the day, because he was that much of a sap) after their conversation on the Argo II, and they were married in a relatively small ceremony. Piper and Annabeth planned the whole thing, with significant help from Hera, of all people. It was only Piper's charmspeak that led to Annabeth and Hera's survival throughout the process.
To Jason and Ophelia's utter relief, Hera had even blessed their marriage. They both hoped that meant she wouldn't be meddling in their lives any time soon.
(Wishful thinking, of course).
Hera wasn't the only god in attendance, though—far from it. Hermes had come, along with Aphrodite, who took a little too much credit for the union. but alas. Zeus hadn't come (because why would the king of the gods deign to go to his hero son's wedding?), but his gift—a paid-off mortgage—was a delightful surprise.
Minor gods came, too—gods Jason had brought recognition to over the years, some for the first time in millennia. Hymenaois, the god of marriage ceremonies, oversaw theirs himself. Thalia—the Charitie, not Jason sister (although the latter was also in attendance)—had provided a luxurious banquet for the reception, since luxurious banquets were kind of her thing.
A year after the wedding, they adopted a dog from the animal shelter, who finally put their backyard to use. Two months later, they returned and adopted a cat. Caesar and Kali acted like they hated each other, but Ophelia always caught napping together, so she knew they were faking for the drama.
And now, ten years after Gaea went back to sleep—permanently—Ophelia and Jason enjoyed yet another morning of well-earned peace.
Jason was in the process of sketching out the bare bones of a temple design for his latest project—the first of his final batch of shrines for the minor gods. High school and college had slowed his progress a little, but now that he was focusing on his honoring-the-gods project full-time, he'd quickly caught up.
There were dozens of shrines and temples at Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood by now, honoring even the most obscure gods. There were special gardens, too, for agricultural deities who preferred natural shrines over marble buildings.
Jason had even grudgingly organized a small plot of land in Camp Jupiter for growing sacred crops to please Triptolemus, who'd luckily forgotten all about his marriage proposal by the time Ophelia saw him again.
Camp Half-Blood had over fifty cabins now—one for every god with demigod children. For the gods who didn't have mortal children, Jason built them temples or shrines (or commissioned the occasional set of trading cards).
Even Cupid had gotten a shrine at both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter (he had no living demigod children, which was surprising, seeing as he was the god of lust—Ophelia supposed he was too busy outing innocent demigods to go around having affairs with mortals). And if Ophelia's half-siblings vandalized that one even more than they vandalized the others... well, Ophelia wasn't a snitch.
"Did you know Iphigenia is a goddess?" Jason asked. "Most of her myths just say she was Agamemnon's mortal daughter who he sacrificed to win back Artemis's favor during the Trojan War. Some of them said Artemis saved her, but I've only found one that tells the real story."
Ophelia shrugged, taking a sip of her hot chocolate—she'd never gotten a taste for coffee, even in her twenties. She supposed it was for the best. "I'm not surprised. The stories have been passed down by word of mouth—makes sense they wouldn't have all the details."
Jason hummed in agreement. "Still," he said. "Goddess of sacrifice. That's a big deal."
"Better make the temple nice," Ophelia told him.
Jason looked up at her, his blue eyes glistening with amusement. "They're all nice."
"What about Orcus's?"
Jason opened his mouth to argue, but he faltered. Finally, he mumbled, "That's how he wanted it."
Ophelia laughed. The god of punishment's temple at Camp Half-Blood was perfect for the god—a punishment to the eyes and the nose. Most campers knew to steer clear of it if they valued their nose hairs.
Under the table, Caesar whimpered pitifully, clearly looking for sympathy table scrapes.
"Your bowl is full of food, Caesar, you don't need to beg," Ophelia said, nudging Caesar's side with his sock-clad foot. The oversized puppy sniffed at her foot curiously, then laid his head back down and whimpered again.
Ophelia rolled her eyes. "He gets that from you," she told Jason.
Behind her, she heard something slide across the kitchen counter, then the unmistakable sound of glass hitting the ground and shattering on the floor.
Jason looked over her shoulder with a smirk. "And she gets that from you."
Ophelia groaned, looking back to see Kali staring balefully at the couple from her spot on the counter.
"Seriously?" Ophelia asked.
Kali meowed in response.
Jason laughed as Ophelia stood from the table to get the broom.
Once Kali's mess was cleaned up, they left for the grocery store, because this was their life now—semi-annoying and fully-adorable pets, weekly grocery trips, waving at neighbors from the driveway. After years of nothing but war and fighting and near-death experiences, they'd found a beautiful sliver of peace, and Ophelia wouldn't trade it for all the immortal glory in the world.
❖
When they returned, their arms full of groceries, Ophelia went in ahead as Jason stopped to get the mail. Caesar and Kali were on her in a second, the former barking excitedly and the latter meowing incessantly.
"Whoa, guys, we were barely gone an hour," Ophelia said, setting the groceries on the breakfast bar to catch Kali when she jumped into her arms—she was part Savannah, so it was a routine thing.
Kali butted her head against Ophelia's chin and meowed again. Caesar barked, his tail wagging so furiously Ophelia could feel the wind on her leg. He nudged the back of her leg, like he was trying to herd her into the kitchen.
"If another snake got in the house, I'm keeping it," Ophelia said. Apparently being a child of Mercury meant snakes liked her, so it wasn't uncommon for one to get into the house on occasion. Usually that wasn't a problem, since Caesar was too scared of them to get anywhere near them, and Kali was too scary for the snakes to get anywhere near her.
But, as it turned out, it wasn't a snake Caesar and Kali were freaking out about.
It was a baby.
Ophelia almost dropped Kali in her shock. Before she could actually drop the cat, she set her down, staring at the bassinet that she was almost positive hadn't been there when they left for the store, as well as the tiny newborn that definitely hadn't been there.
Ophelia heard Jason walk through the front door, no doubt sorting through the mail as he gently kicked the door shut behind him—she knew his routine by heart.
"Hey, Jase?" she called.
"Yeah?" Jason called back from the entry room.
"Any idea why there's a baby in our kitchen?"
There was a pause, then she heard his footsteps moving toward the kitchen. "Okay, usually I get your jokes, but I have no idea—" His voice faltered as he reached the breakfast bar and spotted the new piece of furniture and the infant laying inside of it. "That's a baby."
Ophelia finally looked away from the bassinet, turning to look at her husband with a blank look. "Really? I hadn't noticed."
Jason's brow furrowed as he moved to stand beside her, trying to get a better look at the bassinet. "You... you don't think it's a monster, do you?"
The idea seemed ridiculous, but then, again, nothing was truly off-limits to monsters. Even human serial killers sometimes used babies' cries to lure in their victims. What was to stop a monster from doing something similar?
"I don't know," Ophelia admitted. "I hope not." Their weapons were upstairs in their bedroom, so if it was a monster, they'd need to move quick.
The baby in the bassinet opened their eyes, warm brown like coffee with a splash of creamer. The faint sunlight that filtered in through the blinds on the window above the table turned one of the baby's eyes amber.
Against her better judgment, Ophelia stepped closer to the bassinet, Jason right beside her. They slowly moved to stand on either side of the bassinet, looking down at the baby, half-waiting for it to turn into a hideous monster.
Then the baby started to cry, and all fear of it being a monster melted in an instant.
"Oh, hey, hey," Jason murmured, reaching into the bassinet and scooping the baby up. He rocked them gently, their cries growing a little quieter at the motion. "Hey, it's okay."
"How do you think they got in here?" Ophelia asked in a whisper, letting the baby wrap a tiny fist around her finger. "The doors were locked. It doesn't look like anyone broke in. And who would? This is the opposite of a robbery."
"I don't know," Jason admitted softly, cradling the baby. "Maybe—"
"Hello, my heroes!"
Ophelia whirled around in an instant, snatching the closest thing—the vase on the kitchen table—and wielding it as a weapon, planting herself in front of Jason and the baby. It happened so fast, she didn't even have time to process the familiarity of the voice itself until she was already braced to fight.
She blinked. "Juno?"
The goddess stood next to their refrigerator, looking as regal as ever in her pure white toga and goat-skin cloak. At Ophelia's feet, Kali hissed at the goddess, who looked down at the cat in distain.
"You can't pop up on someone holding a baby!" Jason whispered harshly. "I could've dropped them!"
"I'm a goddess, Jason, I would have caught her," Juno said, waving a hand dismissively. "I see you've met little Amelia."
Ophelia set down the vase, keeping one eye on the goddess as she returned most of her attention back to the baby. "Amelia?"
Juno hummed affirmatively. "She was born a few days ago to the muse Clio," she told them. "Her mortal father, unfortunately, was in a car accident a few months ago, and he has no mortal relatives fit to take the baby in. Normally, she would be placed in the care of his home state, but I had a better idea."
Ophelia had a healthy level of suspicion when it came to Juno's ideas—stemming from the goddess's idea of wiping Jason's and Ophelia's memories and plopping them on a school field trip to the Grand Canyon, jump-starting the whole Eight of the Prophecy and Second Giant War fiasco that had all but consumed their teenage years.
"What idea was that?" Jason asked, his eyes holding as much suspicion as Ophelia felt.
"I understand you've discussed having children, but you have certain... reservations," Juno said. "But I know that you both want a family, and Amelia here needs a family, now, too. Clio is all for the idea—she's quite a fan of yours, Jason, since you decided to study history."
Jason looked at Ophelia, then back at the goddess. "You want us to... adopt her?" he asked. "Isn't that kind of sudden?"
"Yes," Juno admitted. "But... well, I cannot think of a better couple to raise the little one. You both understand the impact parents have on their children, better than most. I truly believe you would make excellent parents—and that is just what Amelia needs."
Ophelia met Jason's eyes. It was so sudden, so spur-of-the-moment and unconventional—any sane person would hesitate, would ask for just a moment to consider it. But Ophelia looked at her husband, and she knew neither of them needed that moment.
Besides—when was the life of a demigod anything but unconventional?
Ophelia looked down at the infant in Jason's arms. Wide brown eyes looked up at her, reaching out. She was so tiny, so new and innocent and perfect. There was an undeniable warmth in Ophelia's chest at the sight of her, eyes full of trust. It extinguished the fear and apprehensive like a breath against a burning candle.
"She is yours, if you accept," Juno said softly.
Ophelia looked back at Jason, meeting his eyes.
"We do," they said in sync.
When Ophelia looked back at the goddess, there was a genuine smile on her face—not a common look, but not unheard of, either.
"Excellent," Juno said. She waved a hand through the air, and a manila folder appeared on the kitchen table. "Here are all of the legal papers—I had Jupiter draw them up, so everything is order. Including her birth certificate: Amelia June Grace-Imai."
Ophelia raised an eyebrow. "'June'?"
"Well, Juno doesn't flow as nicely with Amelia," the goddess said matter-of-factly.
"'Course it doesn't," Jason deadpanned.
"Well!" Juno said. "I will leave you here with your new little one." She snapped her fingers. "Her nursery is set up, though Mercury has insisted on delivering some of the necessities himself so he can meet his new granddaughter." She sighed happily. "Until we meet again, my heroes!"
Then the goddess dissolved into mist, and Ophelia and Jason were left alone with their daughter.
Their daughter. Ophelia almost couldn't believe it.
"I always thought Percy and Annabeth would be the first out of us to have kids," Jason mused. "Percy's gonna be pissed we beat them."
Ophelia rolled her eyes with a smile. "It isn't a competition."
"It's a little bit of a competition," Jason said, making a funny face at Amelia. "And we won."
Ophelia laughed, gently taking the baby into her own arms. Amelia stared up at her with wonder in her eyes, grasping at Ophelia's hair with her tiny hands.
"Welcome to the world, Ames," Ophelia whispered. "It's gonna be a wild ride—but we'll help you through it. Every step of the way." She looked at Jason, smiling at his lovestruck face. "Ready to take the perilous journey of parenthood?"
Jason smiled down at the baby—their baby—and then kissed Ophelia softly. "Where you go, I go."
"Forever," Ophelia whispered.
❖
... y'all didn't really think i was gonna kill my boy off, did you? idgaf what rick says, the burning maze didn't happen if i didn't read it 😤
and so we have reached the end of ophelia and jason's story. i'm currently crying as i write this author's note because i'm a sentimental bitch. when is started this story, i didn't really think anyone would read it, and now this story has over 100k reads and 7k votes. i'm so so grateful you guys have been as invested in ophelia's story as i've been, she's been one of my all-time favorite OCs to write about.
i'm currently working on a prequel, which will be called... *drumroll* HOW WE BEGAN. i'll post an update when i publish that story, which will probably be within the next month or so (finals start next week, so once that's out of the way, i'll have more free time to write).
thank you all for reading and enjoying ophelia's story. i love y'all <3