Chapter 25: I Crash a Party

STILL ANNABETH

When they all got home from Olympus, the seven were still in awe as they discussed their new powers. They quickly sat down to their first lunch of ambrosia and nectar (the new transformation had left them starving) and Annabeth didn't miss regular food at all. As always, the ambrosia tasted like her best memories and whatever she was craving at the moment.

"So... the God of Humor?" Calypso asked, smirking as the nine filled her in on everything that had happened on Olympus.

"Yes ma'am," Leo said through a mouthful of ambrosia. "You know, I thought I would miss food, but this stuff's even better," he added.

"Are you happy with being the Goddess of Natural Beauty?" Hazel asked Piper hesitantly. "I know you didn't really want to be anything relating to looks."

"Actually, I think it's pretty cool. I'm like the Goddess of Beauty without all of the perfect hair and fashion and makeup and stuff," she replied.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to go change," Annabeth said as she finished her meal. She was the Goddess of Strategy after all, and her long white chiton didn't seem like the most practical thing to wear.

Annabeth stood, shocked, staring at the mirror as she took off the chiton. She could've sworn her stomach hadn't been anywhere near that big this morning. Thinking she was just imagining things, letting her fear of giving birth get to her, she ignored it as she finished changing and went back downstairs.

***

The next day began oddly or Annabeth. For one thing, she wasn't feeling well, which didn't seem right considering she was a goddess. Morning sickness hadn't bothered her a lot throughout any of her pregnancy, so it didn't make any sense why it suddenly would. She had even slept the night before, though she wasn't sure if it was actually necessary.

When Annabeth went down for breakfast, Piper was acting strangely giddy, all cheerful and overly happy, and she kept glancing at Annabeth's stomach out of the corner of eye. And then there was Percy, who was trying to convince her to go into the city with him.

"Percy, I told you, I really don't feel good!" Annabeth said, wondering what was up with them all as Piper and Leo joined in on the coaxing. It was unlike her husband to try and force her to do something she didn't want to. Usually, he would have taken her hand and gently agreed to stay home with her. Instead, he looked back at her with a strained expression on his face.

"We could just go to the lake if you want, and sit down. I just... want to tell you something," he added.

"You can't tell me here?" Annabeth tried desperately.

"I... It's just-"

"Fine! We'll go! But not because I want to," Annabeth resigned in annoyance.

As they left the house, Annabeth kept her eyes on the ground.

"Annabeth, what's wrong?" Percy asked softly.

"I told you, I don't feel good! I don't know why you're trying to make me go out, but it's not like you."

"I'm sorry, Annabeth, I just... well, you'll see later," Percy apologized, and he sounded sincere.

"Whatever," Annabeth sighed and they continued down streets of Demigod City until they made it to the old lake at Camp Halfblood and sat down by the water.

***

A few hours later, while Annabeth was napping on a bench next to Percy, he woke her up and suggested they head home. Still not feeling great, she gladly agreed as he helped her up.

When they finally arrived back home, Percy knocked on the door. She looked at him strangely. They never knocked; it was their own house.

All of Annabeth's curiousity was explained when the door burst open to a crowd of people yelling, "Surprise!"

***

Everyone was there: all of her friends (including Rachel and Nico), her half-siblings from the Athena cabin, her dad and stepfamily, Percy's parents and his cyclops half-brother Tyson, some other adults that Annabeth guessed were the rest of the seven's parents, Alice (the daughter of Hecate that had saved her from Eirene's power while she was still mortal), the now-mortal Eirene herself, even the nymph Denalia that had been their tour guide to Olympus all those months ago when Annabeth and Percy had gone to Olympus looking for Eirene.

Percy explained that it was a party for all for all of the demigods-turned-gods with an emphasis on her since it doubled as a baby shower, and that Chiron had made a special allowance to let their mortal parents in.

They insisted that Annabeth open her presents first, and there were a lot of them. It seemed almost every guest had brought something, but her favorites were probably a cute baby dress with peace signs on it from Piper and a blue cradle with a seascape painted on it that Percy had made with a little help from Leo.

She was enjoying the presents and party so much that she almost forgot about how she was feeling.

Until the contractions started.

At first she passed them off as nothing. She knew that there were contractions that women sometimes got that didn't mean anything, and she was only about five months pregnant.

Still, her stomach showed otherwise, so she kept her attention on her body as she tried to pretend like nothing was wrong.

She admired her new presents, talked with her parents and Percy's, and tried to enjoy the party as much as she could, but her mind wouldn't leave the contractions.

Especially as they started to become closer and more painful.

Eventually they were so bad that she had to stand and breath through them, and it was getting hard keeping it to herself.

She quickly excused herself and rushed to the bathroom with a particularly bad one, and stood there panting when it was over. She splashed water on herself, trying to decide what to do. Should she tell someone? Percy? A doctor?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a trickle; her water had broken.

"Crap," she closed her eyes, starting to panic.

She changed quickly, grabbing her hospital bag while she was at it.

"Percy," she whispered urgently after she finally found her husband in the crowded room.

"Hmm?" he asked but his eyes widened when he saw her panicked expression. She motioned him into the empty hall and he followed quickly, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"Are you okay?" he asked in concern.

"Percy, I... I think I'm going into labor," Annabeth admitted, biting her lip.

Percy reacted just as she expected. "What? But... you'r only... five months... it shouldn't be... time yet?"

"I know, Percy, but my water broke," Annabeth explained, trying to stay calm.

"Oh... right. Yeah, we better get to the hospital."

"Yeah, that'd probably be good."

"Um, can you walk or..." Percy trailed off.

"I'll be fine," Annabeth said firmly.

"Of course," Percy muttered absentmindedly. He led her out the back door, away from the party, so no one would even notice they had left. "I wish we could just teleport or something. I mean, we're gods, aren't we?"

"Yeah, it's too bad they didn't teach us that in Godship 101," Annabeth muttered sarcastically.

"Sorry," Percy murmured.

"It's fine." She smiled and took Percy's hand. She was going to need him to get through this.

* * *

"The baby will be coming soon," Will Solace said urgently. "I'll be right back." He rushed out of the room, allowing Annabeth to change into her hospital gown.

 After Percy and Annabeth arrived at the hospital, the mother-to-be had quickly explained her symptoms and she'd been admitted to a room. To her enormous relief, Will Solace was on-call and ready to help her deliver the baby.

"We better tell the others," Percy muttered, using his new powers to summon a slash of water into the air. He tossed a drachma into the mist and an image of the party they'd just left unfolded before them.

Jason was the first to notice the Iris message. "What's wrong?" he asked urgently, rushing towards the picture.  

Piper appeared behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders. "Are you in the hospital?" she asked, squinting.

Before either Percy or Annabeth had the chance to answer, the others had noticed the Iris message and crowded around Jason and Piper, muttering and wondering what was wrong.

"I'm in labor," Annabeth finally said with a dry smile hands on her stomach.

"Oh honey," Annabeth's father exclaimed awkwardly. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

Percy ended the message with a swipe of his hand as Will came rushing back into the room with supplies a few other doctors.

Annabeth groaned. The pain was worsening, the contractions lengthening. She'd tried to prepare herself for the pain of giving birth, but she knew that she'd been secretly expecting to escape the pain now that she was a goddess.

She was vaguely aware of Will as he came to her bedside, checking her over. She was vaguely aware of the few machines that were beeping and the concerned look on her husband's face, but Will's words brought her back to reality.

"Annabeth? You're about to give birth."

***

This was it. 

She was about to have a baby. 

Annabeth was about to be a mother, about to bring a child into the world.

Percy took her hand, and she arranged herself into position. Another contraction came and she tried to breath, in, out, in out, squeezing Percy's hand so hard she almost felt bad. Almost. He didn't have to go through this.

"Would you like to be numbed?" Will asked her.

"YES!" She shouted, a little too loudly as the contraction continued. "I mean, yes, that'd be nice." She panted.

She'd expected something like an epidural; but then, her parenting books had never covered this kind of healing. 

Will placed his hands on Annabeth's stomach, closing his eyes in a look of concentration. Slowly but surely, the pain faded away until all that was left was dull echo of the painful contractions she'd been experiencing. She breathed deep sigh of relief.

Will smiled. "Don't get too relaxed. You still have a baby to birth."

"Right," Annabeth muttered.

"I'm going to need you to push on the count of three," Will said. "One-"

She gripped Percy's hand tighter.

"Two-"

She took a deep breath.

"Three."

And then she pushed.

* *  *

Fifteen minutes later, the most beautiful little angel Annabeth had ever seen was placed gently in her arms. She was small, she was crying, she was still a little bloody, but Annabeth couldn't think of anything she wanted more right in that moment.

The birth had gone well, but having a baby too a toll even on an immortal's body. After hearing that everything had gone well but she wouldn't be home for a few hours, Annabeth's party crowded into hospital room. Part of her had been looking forward to some much-deserved peace and quiet, but another party was ecstatic to have so many people she loved surrounding her.

Everyone was congratulating her, admiring the baby as the adults shared parenting tips. Annabeth knew she should be annoyed, or tired, or something, but instead she was completely content a she lay there, watching her family and friends carefully passing the baby around, talking and laughing. She felt great, and everyone was in a good mood.

After a little while, Percy took Serenity and fed her a few mouthfuls of the ambrosia injected with Eirene's power, and when the baby glowed a warm golden light for a few seconds, Annabeth knew it had worked. Eirene especially seemed to be taking a liking to her little heir, playing with her and smiling at her and telling her what a great goddess she would become.

At one point, Athena herself stopped by for a few minutes to congratulate Annabeth and explain that when she had taken in the power of becoming a god, the force of it had grown her baby to full size right then. Poseidon dropped in later to congratulate the two as well.

Leo disappeared for a few minutes around suppertime and came back with all of the party's snacks and drinks, a large jug of nectar and a huge tray of ambrosia squares and brought them right into the hopsital room so everyone could eat.

Once everyone had taken their share of food, Piper stood up on a chair and grabbed a spoon, clanking it against her glass to get the party's attention. Everyone went silent, and she cleared her throat, smiling broadly with Jason standing right below her.

"Jason and I have an announcement to make," she said, sending a loving smile down at him. "I'm pregnant!" she practically squealed.

While everyone rushed forward to congratulate Piper, Annabeth smiled down at the warm little bundle in her arms.

She didn't know if it was the fact that she had finally given birth, or the beauty of her baby girl, or the infectious good mood of the party, or the powers of the new Goddess of Peace, but as Annabeth lay there with Percy, listening to the laughing and talking of all her friends and family, Piper and Hazel's excited squeals and the giggles of her own little angel, Annabeth had decided that she had never felt better in her life. She knew that she had picked the right name for her baby girl, because that's exactly what she was feeling right now:

Serenity.

And it couldn't be better.

****

Well guys... that's it! That's the end! I can't believe that I am actually finished with this. Of course, I will be writing a sequel :) I have the description posted already if you'd like to take a look.

Thanks to everyone who has stuck with this book through all of the long gaps in updates, and all of the supportive comments that have honestly been the sole reason that I've completed this book. I never thought a book I wrote would become this popular, so thank you guys! I know that all sounded corny, but it's true. :D

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this book & the ending, and if you did, be sure to check out the sequel when I get it posted! It's called Jiper's Child.

I love all of y'all, and I really enjoyed writing this, so thank you one more time. :)

Have a nice day!