It's been four months since I started this team, making it mid-May. Since then, we've managed to rescue twenty demigods. We're a pretty solid team now. I'm still technically in charge, but I've kind of divided the team into two groups. The first is headed by me. It consists of myself, Katie, and Amelia. Group two is led by Reyna and consists of her, Mike, Bobby, and Azrael. Reyna has kind of become my second-in-command. It makes sense really. She's had tons of experience leading an entire legion, so a small team of four shouldn't be a problem. Kat stays at the penthouse with whichever team is not on a mission, as well as Athena, who acts as mission control for the entire Unit.

I would lay down my life for any memeber of this team. No matter what.I will not allow the Preemptive Support Unit become another Chicago Incident. They're all very strong fighters, but I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to them. Because of that, I still take on some of the more delicate situations personally. none of the others know that I do this, except maybe Lady Athena. That's an interesting little door that's been ripped off it's hinges.

Actually, I'm just walking back from one of my solo missions. It was a daughter of Ares. Violent girl, but no match for the Nemean Lion. She'll fit right in with the Ares Cabin. I parked my motorcycle by driving through our magical, pocket dimension thingy and walked out of the garage and back into the real world. I didn't want them to know that I'd been out on a personal mission. As I walked over to our penthouse building, I hear a voice coming from behind me.

"Percy? Percy!"

I turn, only to be engulfed in a giant hug, nearly squeezing the air out of me.

"Mom?" I can't believe it. My mom is here.

"Hello again Percy." Paul says as I disentangle myself from my mother's hands.

"Hi Paul." I shake is hand.

"Where have you been?" My mom demands, "It's been over a year since we've heard from you.

I glance around nervously, "Can we not have this conversation out in the open air?"

Mom hesitates for a second, then nods her head when she realizes what I'm going to be talking about. Paul catches on as well.

"I'll drive." He says, tossing his key into the air.

It turns out Paul had gotten a new Prius, same color. I wasn't focused on that though. Instead, I spent the entire car ride to my mom's apartment look out the windows. My scent is a strong one. Add that to my tendency to have very, very bad luck, I was expecting an army of monsters to rise out of the asphalt and attack the car. Fortunately, my luck managed to hold out for once and we got to the apartment with out running into anything bad, embarassing, or mildly entertaining. We get out of the car, and Paul walks up and unlocks the door.

"Hannah?" He calls into the apartment.

A loud CRASH is heard, followed by the sounds of running feet as a girl, maybe fifteen years old rounds the corner. I instinctively pull out Riptide and almost uncap it when my mom puts a hand on my wrist and slowly guides Riptide back into my pocket.

"Mr. Blofis!" She says, hurridly blowing a strand of brown hair out of her face, "I didn't expect you to be back so soon."

"We ran into someone unexpected." He says apologetically, "I trust Lily has been doing well."

"Lily? Oh yes, right! I just put her to bed." She says hurridly.

"Thank you Hannah." My mom says as she rummages through her purse for a few moments, "And here is your usual pay."

My mom hands the girl a twenty dollar bill.

"Thank you Mrs. Blofis." She say, then notices me, "Um, whose that?"

I look at her suspiciously, "None of your business."

Something feels off about her. I'm not sure why, but it does. Over the past year, I've learned two important lessions. The first is to trust no one, unless I know for a fact who thay are. The second was to listen to my instincts, which were telling me that this girl is bad news.

"Be nice." My mom chides me, "This is my older son, Percy. You'll have to excuse him; he's had a rough life and hasn't been home in a long time."

I walk up to the girl and look her up and down. She's about a head shorter than me, with brown hair that goes down to about mid-back. Her brown eyes were looking at me in slight apprehension. Then, I suddenly snap my fingers in front of her face. She flinches and steps back slightly. A slight wind blows through the apartment and I forcefully pull any mist away from the girl's body. There is absolutely no change. She's mortal.

I step back and smile at her, "Sorry about that." I turn to mom and Paul, "She's clean."

"Ummm..." Hannah looks really uncertain now, "What was that about."

"Percy's got some weird quirks." Paul laughs, "Don't worry about it. Best you run home now. Remember, you have an essay due for my class tomorrow."

Her eyes widen and she runs out of the apartment, after a quick goodbye and thank you. I watch her leave. She may not be a monster, but I was picking up a weird vibe from her. I turn to see my mom and Paul looking at me.

"What was that about?" My mom demands.

"Sorry, but my instincts were going crazy, and I wanted to make sure she was who she said she was." I reply.

"I can see through the Mist." She reminds me.

"I know," I answer back, "but weird stuff has been going on, and I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"Why don't we go into the kitchen." Paul sugests, "We can sit down and talk."

I nod in agreement and follow my step-dad into the kitchen. The apartment hasn't changed much since I was last here. The big difference was all of the new baby stuff. The most blaringly obvious of these is the crib in the corner of the kitchen. My mom begins to boil tea as I walk over to the crib. I look in. Lying asleep, without a care in the world, was my little step-sister: Lily Blofis-Jackson. She was curled up, clutching a stuffed dolphin. A tuft of black hair could be seen in th center of her head. She looked so peaceful. She made this a normal family.

"This is Lily?" I ask, keeping my voice low, but she still wakes up.

Bright blue eyes stare up at me intelligently. I expect her to start crying, but instead she laughs and reaches her hands up towards me, one still keeping a death grip on the stuffed dolphin. I smile slightly and pick her up. She continues to laugh and begins to play with my Camp beads.

"She's never been a crier." My mom sets three cups of tea out on the table and sits down next to Paul, "Neither were you, if I remember correctly."

I sit down across form them, still holding Lily, "Hi Lily." I say the little girl, "I'm Percy, your big brother."

Paul smiles at the two of us, "You would've made a good older brother."

I shrug, "I had to go." I begin to tickle the bottom of Lily's foot, causing her to squeal with laughter.

"Why did you have to go?" My mom asks.

"There were a number of reasons." I say, "But the main one was Lily."

Paul opens his mouth to reply but I raise my hand to stop him. Lily grabs my thumb and begins to bend it downwards.

"Ow!" I say, glaring at Lily playfully, "I wanted to be around. I really did, but you all deserve a normal life. You've been stuck in my world for eighteen years mom. Paul, you were thrown in the deep end, literally finding out about everything in the middle of the world. I didn't want Lily to have to deal with all the trouble that I would bring around. Besides, I'm eighteen and have problem of my own to deal with. You don't desrve to have to deal with them."

"We can help Percy." Mom says, "Don't push us away."

I shake my head, "Something bad happens to everyone I get close to. I learned that after Chicago."

"Chicago?" Paul asks, "What happened in Chicago?"

I pause, about to come up with sort of not so clever life, when my mom glares at me, "Perseus, don't you dare lie to me."

I sigh, then tell them about the Chicago Incident. How the young demigods were being held, and how I was told to lead a large rescue operation. I told them how everyone died. I remember each death so vividly. They're in my dreams. If I'm not having one of those annoying 'demigod dreams', then I'm dreaming of their deaths. I told mom and Paul everything. I did try to brush over the deaths, but it's dificult to do that, not when that's the whole point of the story.

"And then Annabeth." I choke up. It's still hard to talk about that at all.

Mom places a hand on top of mine, "You don't have to go any farther." Her eyes are full of sadness and understanding.

I nod and contunue my story. I talk about rescuing the young demigods and bringing them to camp. I show them the notebook. Thankfully, there are no names on the Urgent page. If there was one, I'd have to go. As I was talking, Lily fell asleep in my arms, breathing deeply and releasing litle puffs of air as she breathed out. This whole time, never once did she let go of that little stuffed dolphin. Eventually, I got to more recent developments, and began talking about 'my' team, the PSU. I told them who was on the team, leaving out Athena and little Katherine. I also didn't metion where we were based, because that would get a little awkward.

When I finish my story, the two of them just stare at me, openmouthed.

"That is one heck of a story." Paul says.

"Yeah..." I rub the back of my neck, "On the topic of my team, I should probably be heading back. I'm surprised that no monsters attacked us, given how long I've been away from a shielded location."

"Oh no Percy." My mom says, "You must stay for dinner, at the least."

"Yes." Paul agrees, "Your team will manage on its own."

I look between my mom and Paul. Both of them have eager and hopeful faces. I then look down at peaceful Lily, sleeping without a care in the world. After a second's thought, I make up my mind.

"Alright." I say, "But let me contact my team first. They need to know where I am."

Mom nods, and I exit the kitchen and enter the living room. Sighing, I pull out a flask of water and unstopper it. I then delicately manipulate the water unil a rainbow forms in the air. Fishing in my pockets for a drachma, I try to decide who exactly to contact. I finally find on and flick it through the rainbow.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Reyna, at the base."

The rainbow shimmers and changes to show the Big Room. As of right now, it seems like Reyna is the only one there. She's currently disembowling a set of targets with her sword.

"Reyna!" I call out.

She stumbles and turns, "Percy! Where have you been?"

"Sorry." I reply, "I went out for a walk and stumbled into my mom and step-dad."

"I'm going to assume that that's where you are now?"

"Yup." I reply, feeling like a little kid telling his parents where he is.

She sighs, "Alright, I'll call Bobby, Amelia, and Azrael back. I had them looking for you."

"What?" I wasn't sure I heard that last part correctly.

"We didn't know if you'd been captured, or worse." She replied.

I merely raise an eyebrow, "I think I can handle myself."

"You can." She replies, "But we're a team, and a team looks out for it's members."

"Alright, alright." I hold my hands up in surrender, "You can call off the hunting dogs now. I'm all good."

She laughs, "Ok, I'll see you later then."

"Yeah, later." I swipe my hand through the rainbow, cutting the connection.

"Is everything good there?" I turn to see my mom standing in the doorframe.

"Yeah." I force a smile, "I'll help you out in the kitchen."

It felt nice to have dinner with my family. The roast beef was delicious, but that's all we had. I was in charge of the corn, and I thought I could speed up the process by using my powers to boil the water. A quick tip, never boil water too fast. It never turns out good. Anyway, the four of us sat around the table, making small chat. Well, three of us made small chat, Lily just kind of made random noises, but it felt like she was a part of the conversation. All too soon, dinner was done. I walked my dishes over to the sink, and began helping my mom with the dishes.

"Percy." She says suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"You talked a lot about what happened, but I don't know how it affected you. You didn't say anything about what you felt."

"What's there to say?" I ask, "I've been doing my job. These little pipsqueaks desrve to live, not have their life cut short. It's going to be a tough life, but it's better than what the monsters will do to them."

We fall into a comfortable silence until we finish the dishes.

"Thank you for the dinner." I say, "And sorry for the corn. Apparently, cooking is not one of my skills."

Paul laughs, "Don't worry about it."

"Well, I should be going now." I say uncertainly, then begin walking towards the door.

"Hold on a second champ." Paul comes over to me, holding his keys, I'll give you a ride back to your place."

"You don't have to do that." I protest.

"But I want to. Now come on." He begins walking out the door.

"Percy." I stop when I hear my mom's voice, but I don't turn, "Just... be safe okay? And stop by from time to time. Please? Lily could use an older brother."

"Yeah, sure mom." I say, then follow Paul out of the door.

Finally! I finally updated this story. This was a touchy-feely chapter that just kind of seemed necessary, but don't worry. The action will pick up from here on out, and it'll start to really speed up. Just hold on while I update my other stories.
Keep being awesome,
Leonidas_son_of_Nike