(I had a cute/sad Percabeth scene pop into my head so I thought I would share it. It will probably go in a book at some point but I don't have any idea where it would fit as of right now. The first swim lesson is from the PJO show at the beginning of Episode 4.)
"Oh Percy, you were so cute," I cooed as I flipped through the pictures. Sally had pictures of him doing all sorts of things and even though most of them were a little blurry because, and I quote, 'he never, ever sat still' the ones that weren't were adorable.
"Mom, why?" Percy whined as she showed me a couple pictures of Percy in the bath.
"Bath time was always such a nightmare," Sally explained. "When he was really little sometimes he would just not get wet or move the water out of the bath." I was giggling so much I was having a hard time breathing and Percy was extremely red.
"Then when he got a little older he would just whine about it and then 'accidentally' get the water everywhere. I wished I had a hose to just spray him down outside or something."
Most of the pictures Sally had were of Percy with some kind of water, a fountain, pool, lake and a lot on the ocean. Eventually I found the pictures of his first swim lesson and Sally explained how terrified he had been. There were a bunch of pictures of little Percy clinging to the edge of the pool or his mom as they tried to convince him to let go.
"It was so hard to teach him because he didn't want to let go but I also couldn't show him or tell him that he would be protected by his dad," Sally said happily as I turned the page. Next were a bunch of pictures of a graduation ceremony from when Percy was seven.
"That was the only year he got through without getting expelled," Sally explained. As I flipped through them, you could see the progression of Percy knocking over a candle and then a few more, accidentally setting the entire auditorium on fire.
"See, no monsters necessary, he's always been a natural at destruction," she said proudly and Percy groaned. "Luckily no one got hurt but he wasn't allowed to go back because the building burned down."
"Did he ever tell you about being a guinea pig?" I asked and she shook her head. I told her about how cute he had been and how adorably embarrassed he had looked when I finally managed to get him back into human form again.
"Why?" Percy complained loudly before suggesting, "Maybe I could tell some stories too."
We both looked at him expectantly for a moment as he tried to find a story. "That time you could have just answered the Sphinx's questions but almost got us killed because they weren't riddles and you didn't think they were hard enough."
"I was right though, she's the sphinx, riddles are her whole thing," I shot back and Sally laughed.
"What about when you were a kid?" she asked me. "Does your dad have any pictures of you as a child?"
"Oh, um, not really. My ... my dad didn't really take any and he didn't keep any that someone else took. The only pictures he has from when I was a kid were from his wedding."
"Well those are probably pretty cute, were you in the wedding?" Sally asked and I thought about lying and just agreeing with her. But I figured that would probably backfire eventually, I was planning on being part of this family for a long time after all.
"I was the flower girl but the pictures are not cute," I explained. "I ... I was kind of covered in blood and monster dust by the time we took most of the pictures and I didn't smile for any of them. They tried to fix it but ... well they didn't have me in most of the pictures and the ones I'm in aren't cute."
I wasn't overly upset about explaining that part of my life to Sally but the fun atmosphere we had been enjoying evaporated. Percy put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head.
"I'm sorry honey," Sally said, looking a little uncomfortable for bringing it up.
"It's alright, I mean if the wedding hadn't been a disaster Percy would probably still be a guinea pig," I said and explained how that had helped me break free of the enchantment and remember what I needed to do.
"Hold up?" Sally said as I finished the story with almost getting eaten because of dumb wedding shoes.
"Mom," Percy warned and I realized we are about to see The Jacksons want to Kill my Dad pt 2: Sally's Turn.
"I'm sorry and of course if you don't want to talk about it you don't have to, but I just can't understand how any father would act like that," she said, getting that same righteous anger in her eyes that I see all the time in Percy. It actually makes me smile and I rubbed his leg while he squeezed my shoulders.
"Yeah, my dad doesn't believe it either anymore. He actually keeps those photos to remind himself what a dick he was. He says it's a good way to confirm for himself that he won't go back to being that way," I told them.
"Wait, so does your dad have, like a picture of you in a dress, covered in blood and monster dust standing next to him on his wedding day just like, framed on his desk or something?" Percy asked and I giggled.
"Kind of, yeah but he isn't standing next to me, it was more of a group shot," I explained. Percy nodded thoughtfully while Sally looked vaguely horrified.
"How are you laughing about this? And Percy, how are you okay with this?"
"See, I told you that was the right reaction," Percy said to me and I rolled my eyes. Then he turned to his mom and said, "Frederick Chase has been on thin ice in my book since we started dating and she told me everything, but Annabeth convinced me that as long as it is stuff that happened in the past, I can't just go murder him ... Now if he does something like that again ... well we hope it won't come to that because then I might actually deserve to be on a most wanted list."
Sally considered what her son had said for a moment and I was reminded that they weren't joking around. I mean Gabe was an abusive asshole and they totally got away with murdering him so ...
"I suppose that's reasonable," Sally admitted, "but you almost got eaten at the wedding, in front of a bunch of guests, someone had to be concerned, right?"
"Well, the guests only saw a giant sea lion, so to them it just came across as a little kid not understanding how wild animals work ... they all kind of just laughed it off and continued with the wedding. My aunt was worried but she kept me safe then and while my dad was on his honeymoon so it all worked out, plus she taught me how to use a crossbow."
We briefly discussed the ethics of teaching a five-year-old how to use a crossbow but it eased the tension and we went back to enjoying all of Percy's cute childhood pictures.