( chapter thirty-five )

in which nia goes home

NIA GRIPPED THE SLIP OF PAPER, her hands shaking as she stood in front of the townhouse.

"Here it is," she muttered. "124 West 132nd Street."

This was getting ridiculous. Why couldn't she just go inside?

Percy, Annabeth, Naomi, Grover, the whole of Apollo cabin, and just about everyone else who gave two shits about Nia had offered to come with her, but she had declined to all of them.

This was something that she had to do alone.

Anyways, how hard could it be? In the years since she had last seen her mother, Nia had done so much, much more than what should've been possible for her a kid her age, even by demigod standards. She wasn't the same seven-year-old kid anymore.

Finally, before she lost her nerve, Nia took a deep breath, raised a trembling finger, and rang the doorbell. Immediately, she got nervous. What if this was a mistake? What if she had been wrong to come here? What if--

The huge oak doors suddenly opened and there was a young woman with caramel-colored skin and dark brown hair in a bun opened the door. She was dressed in a black pencil skirt and a white blouse, like she had just finished with a business meeting.

Nia's breath caught. Julia Cortez...

The woman looked at Nia with a smile. "Hi, can I help you?"

"Uh, yes," Nia bit her lip. "I'm looking for Diana Kamaria. I believe that this her home. Are... Are you Julia Cortez?"

"Oh, yes... Yes, I am." Julia stood up a bit straighter. "Who wants to know?"

Nia took a deep breath. "I'm Nia... Diana's daughter."

Julia's eyes widened in surprise and recognition. Immediately, she opened the door even wider and stood aside. "Oh! Nia! Please -- come in, come in."

Glancing around the street, Nia quickly nodded and stepped inside.

THE TOWNHOUSE WAS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.

Mahogany staircases, floor-to-ceiling windows, and exposed brick. It was two hundred million dollars worth of fantastic real estate. Any real estate agent with half a brain would burst into tears.

"Sorry; it's a bit of a mess," Julia said, trying to clean up the house as she led Nia through.

"Oh, that's OK," Nia said, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Their entire home was worth more than everything she owned and herself. "So, uh... Where's my mom?"

"She, um, is picking up my kids from school. They should all be back soon." Julia set down a tray of mugs, a pitcher, and a plate of cookies. "Are... Are you hungry or thirsty? I'm making fajitas for dinner--"

Even though the thought of fajitas made Nia's mouth water, she shook her head. "Oh, no, no, it's fine, I'm fine. Thank you, though... Uh..."

Julia waved her hand. "Oh, um, you can just call me Julia."

Nia nodded. "Thank you, Julia." The silence was practically deafening. The two just sat there for a bit before Nia just spat it out: "So you're dating my mom?"

Julia hesitated before nodding. "I know it's a little hard to process--"

"Oh, no," Nia shook her head. "I know my mom's gay."

Julia visibly relaxed. "Oh, good. I mean, it's good that--"

"I get it," Nia smiled weakly. "Really."

Julia bit her lip, then said, "I know that it's not my place, but I... I hope you know that your mother loves you. Very, very much."

Nia nodded and smiled tightly. "I know. Thank you."

Suddenly, the front door opened and Nia heard voices coming from the main hallway.

"--and we watched Harry Potter in class!" an excited boy's voice finished saying.

"Did you now?" A very familiar woman's voice said. Nia's heart leaped up to her throat. "Did you like the movie?"

"Uh-huh!" another child's voice, this one a girl. "There was a lot of magic and potions and spells!"

"That's good, sweetheart. Maybe we can watch more Harry Potter for movie night. Julia? Babe? We're home!"

"Hi, honey!" Julia called out. "Someone's here to see you!"

"Oh, really? Who--" Diana stepped into the living room and froze at the sight of Nia. "Nia?" she whispered, as if she was afraid speaking too loud might scare her daughter off again.

"Hi, Mom," Nia swallowed. "Long time no see?"

Diana let out a little breathless laugh. Then she stepped closer, approaching her daughter. "What are you... How... When...?"

"Hi!" the little boy suddenly said. "I'm Isaac! What's your name?"

Nia tore her eyes away from her mother to look at the kid. "Uh... hi! My name's Nia."

Isaac's eyes widened. "Nia?"

Isabel took over then, bounding in circles around Nia. "I'm Isabel! So you're the girl Mama told us about? The one who ran away to go on adventures?"

Nia looked over at her mother, who was blushing slightly. "Um, yes. Yes, I am."

"That's so cool!"

"What were your adventures like?" 

"Did you have anyone with you?"

"Do you fight any monsters like Harry Potter did?"

The twins' questions came so fast, Nia barely had time to answer one before they moved on to another. She had to admit that she did enjoy the questions -- the five-year-old twins were pretty cute. At least until their last one:

"So are you coming home now?"

Nia hesitated before responding. She looked up at Julia and Diana, who were watching Nia, Isabel, and Isaac with smiles, at least until Isabel asked that question.

"Um..." Julia bit her lip. "Isaac, Isabel, vayamos a la otra habitación." (Isaac, Isabel, let's go to the other room.)

Shrugging, the twins bounded out of the living room and into the kitchen, chattering about their day with each other and their mother.

"I'll leave you two alone to talk." Julia smiled at Diana and Nia, kissed Diana's cheek, then left the sitting room.

The two were silent for a little while, tentatively sipping water and occasionally taking a cookie from the tray.

"I--"

"You--"

Both of them laughed softly. Diana said, "You go first, then."

"Um..." Nia tried not to panic. "It's a really nice house. Quite a step up from our ratty apartment complex."

A small smile came across Diana's lips and she shrugged. "Ah, well. Isaac is really the one with the eye for interior design."

Nia nodded and fell silent, twiddling her thumbs.

"Can..." Diana trailed off. "Can I ask you something?"

Nia shrugged and nodded.

"Why did you decide to come and see me?"

Nia swallowed hard. "I didn't want to come." She watched her mother's face fall ever so slightly, so she quickly backtracked: "At first. But some friend of mine... They died a couple of days ago. One's... One's father killed her. And I got hurt, badly hurt." Nia carefully lifted up her sweater to show her mother the fading scar across her abdomen.

Diana's mouth dropped open in horror and rage. "Nia, your friend's father did this!?!"

"Um..." Nia winced. "Yeah."

"I should go up there and give him a piece of my--"

"Mom! You don't have to worry about him. He's somewhere where he won't be able to hurt me anymore; I promise."

Slowly, Diana relaxed. "Well... Alright... If you're sure."

Nia breathed, thankful that her somehow still overprotective mother wasn't going to go storming up to Mount Olympus. "But, Mom, my point is... What if I had died and... and the last time that we had ever spoken to each other was that day?"

Diana inhaled sharply and looked away. It suddenly occurred to Nia that as hard as this was for her, it was probably just as hard -- if not harder -- for her mother.

"Nia, I... I have to tell you something. Something about that day."

Nia raised an eyebrow and set down her glass. "What is it?"

"One... One night while you were asleep, an old woman knocked on the door. I can't remember much about what she said exactly, but she pretty much told me that I had to get you to leave me. Said that it was the only way to 'ensure that you would be one of her heroes'. So, naturally, I told her to fuck off--"

"Language, Mom," Nia reprimanded her mother playfully, but at the same time, she was thinking hard. Since her mother didn't have clear sight, Nia wasn't surprised that she didn't know who was really at the door. But it also meant that she couldn't figure out who really was there.

"Oh hush, you," Diana smiled back. "Anyways, I realized later that she must be from... the demigod world, but I didn't pay much attention to it until that day and you told me about the one-eyed man and that awful boy from your old school. And then something inside of me just snapped. I... I realized that the only way for you to survive would be to let you go. I had to listen to that old woman."

"You... You told me that you didn't believe me about Dylan," Nia said stupidly. "Or the one-eyed man."

"Of course I did," Diana sighed. "But I don't have clear sight so I can't recognize monsters that well, if at all. It would've been so much harder to protect you. And the only way to get you to run was... was to..." Diana stopped speaking, choking up.

"Gods, Mom..." Nia swallowed hard. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were seven, Nia. It's my job as your mother to keep you safe. I hoped that if I could get you to run away on your own, you would be able to figure out how to survive and make it to that camp that your mother told me about. And after you got a little older, I hoped that you would come back and I could explain everything. But so much had happened that day that made me so mad and... and I took it all out on you. I took it too far. I never should've done it in the first place. I was just so alone back then; I-I didn't know what else to do."

Nia gaped at her mother. All this time she had thought that her mother had hated her and didn't want her around... only to find out that the entire time, Diana had been told that she had to. Nia's mother had been trying to protect her. "But, Mom, I'm still a half-blood. My life was always going to be dangerous, is always going to be dangerous."

"That doesn't matter. I wanted to protect you," Diana choked out, tears forming. "But instead I just pushed you away for good."

Nia shook her head. "No, you didn't. I'm here now, aren't I?"

After a moment of just studying Nia, Diana smiled sadly. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised. You've always had a sort of fire in you. A sort of spark. It's because of that that I knew you'd be alright, even with everything that I said. To tell you the truth, I don't know where you got it from."

"I do." Nia clutched her mug in a death-grip. "I got it from you, Mama." And after hearing that story, after knowing all that her mother went through alone, she meant it.

The two of them stared at each other for a bit longer, then Diana reached over to Nia and pulled her daughter into a hug. After a few seconds, Nia hugged her back.

Diana started sobbing fat, ugly tears. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so, sorry."

"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay," Nia whispered back, burying her face in her mother's shoulder.

And the two just sat there in each other's arms.

"SO, COULD YOU STAY FOR DINNER?" Diana asked, a breathless smile painted on her lips.

Nia blinked in surprise. "Can I?"

"Of course, dear," Julia smiled. "You are always welcome here."

Nia bit her lip in regret. "I would stay; I want to, but I have to get back to camp. People are going to worry."

"Oh, alright," Diana sagged a little. "Well, will you come back to visit?"

Nia's eyes widened. "If... If you want me to."

"I do; we do," Diana said. "Um... there's something else, but..."

"Oh, for Christ's sake," Julia rolled her eyes. "Just ask her, Diana!"

Nia turned back to her mother and arched an eyebrow. "Ask me what?"

"Thanks for that, babe," Diana muttered to Julia. Then she turned back to Nia, took a deep breath, and asked nervously, "Would... Would you want to live here again? Just for the school year."

Nia blinked in disbelief. "What?" 

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Diana was quick to say. "If you'd rather stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round then that's absolutely fine with me. I just... I want to know you again."

Nia hesitated before responding. "I don't want to lead monsters here, not to you two or the twins--"

"Nia," Julia cut her off. "Do you want to stay here?"

Nia stared at her mother and Julia a little bit longer. Then answered: "Yes."

"Alright, then it's settled," Julia nodded with a tone of finality.

"Woo-hoo!" Isaac and Isabel both ran over to Diana, Julia, and Nia and started whooping and hollering. "Nia's staying!"

And for the first time in a long time, Nia laughed along with her family.

alright everybody! this is the second-to-last official chapter! all we have left is the epilogue, a few bonus chapters, and that'll be it for bullseye!

*cries*

and that ending was kind of cheesy, i admit, but nia deserves it, okay? let her have this one thing!

honestly, diana kamaria ( the first )'s redemption has been a long time coming. a quick explanation though, if you want it:

nia's mother was pretty young when she first met artemis. i mean, she was a vet and had a stable income and everything, but she was still just a black woman in her early-twenties trying to make ends meet

diana didn't — and still doesn't — have a very good relationship with her family. she's an only child and her parents are cold and calculating — everything she wanted to get away from when she a kid. 

she constantly had to rely on herself, since her parents didn't give her the love and support that all children need and deserve to have. hell, they hadn't even bothered to come to her graduation — high school or college. ( needless to say, diana doesn't have a very good relationship with her parents )

her one good break was meeting artemis. their relationship was brief, but amazing. they, of course, met because diana helped artemis heal a deer and things were history from there. bada-bing, bada-boom, bob's your uncle, diana 'nia' kamaria was a person

of course, artemis paid dearly for breaking her oath, but, as she's said to nia before, she doesn't regret a single part of it. but she's still a goddess and she couldn't stay with diana and nia

diana, on the other hand, was left with a new baby, a whole lot of confusion, and most of all, she was completely and utterly alone. she was overwhelmed and underappreciated as a black single mother with a demigod daughter that had a penchant for trouble. she had to pay the bills, deal with the scary fact that her child was a half-blood ( which meant never-ending monsters and constantly having to move schools ), and just try to keep her head above water, with no one to turn to for help or support.

in conclusion, should diana have tried to figure out another way? yes. but she's also a person. and people make mistakes — that's just the way it works

so, even if you think what diana did to a seven-year-old nia is complete and utter bullshit and that this entire backstory makes no sense, i hope that i've shed some more light on what went on behind the scenes

talk soon!

-icedcoffeemug