Chapter Text
Esther had just graduated from a top university and got a master's degree in business management and had managed to get a job at a company within her first month, yet life wasn’t going her way at all. She ended up losing her life in a car accident.
However did she imagine death and afterlife to be, it wasn’t how it happened to her. She woke up in a hospital room, and before she could consider the possibility that she had survived the crash, she realized she was in the maternity ward, judging by all the posters on the walls and the baby products on the couch next to her. Before she could start hyperventilating, a nurse came in holding with caution a tiny creature covered in a blue blanket.
The nurse had explained that post-labour, she (or rather the woman whose body she had stolen) had an extensive postpartum haemorrhage and that she had even flatlined for a few minutes. So Esther theorized that perhaps the mother had indeed died and that is how she found herself imposting on her body.
Yet, that was not what caught her attention the most; after being told she would need to stay for three more days, she was given her boy’s birth certificate and almost had a heart attack when she read ‘PERSEUS JACKSON, SON OF SALLY ANN JACKSON’. No father had been mentioned and Esther was scared she knew why that was the case.
During her hospital stay, she had tried to understand her situation, but none of her theories explained nor changed the fact that she had hijacked the body of a fictional woman whose son’s existence is forbidden, yet will survive and save the world thanks to his mother’s sacrifices.
A mother is the one role she can’t escape in this life. And that scared her the most, she had read the Percy Jackson books as a child, and while she loved the series, she did not remember all the details about them, but she tried convincing herself that she knew enough, and while she would steer away from changing some things, lest they backfire on her, she knew she could and would not, resort to a man like the Uglyiano canonical stepfather of Percy to protect him from monsters, for he was one himself. And while she will play at mother for the sake of the innocent bundle she found herself responsible for (not that she has much choice in the matter, Poseidon will send a tsunami or drown her in a bathtub, should she give his love child up) she found herself not willing to engage in any abusive relationship.
On her last day at the hospital, she had started planning on fleeing the hospital with her demi-god baby, as canon Sally had dropped out of high school to take care of her illing uncle, who left her with a lot of mortgage, and Esther had no idea on how to raise a newborn in the 90s in poverty. Thankfully, her worries were put to rest when a man, whom she knew was a banker just after giving him a two-second look, after all, she had spent half a decade dedicated to finances and business. He had come needing her signature for the generous deposits she had made: one was a trust fund for her son to use while the other was hers. The amount of zeros had made her inwardly smile, with that amount of money, she and Percy would lead comfortable lives, with no need to worry about anything financially related, which was a relief, as she now, could dedicate her attention to keeping her son safe from monsters.
Her hospital bills were paid by the same man who came to the bank with her money, and Esther could not help but wonder, did Poseidon also do the same in the books? If so, is that how Percy went to private schools every year? The body snatcher seriously doubted Sally could afford to pay his tuition with her salary from the candy shop.
As soon as she left the hospital doors, she opened her purse and checked her legal papers, she had her identity card and a driver's license, which were now joined by hospital papers and birth certificates.
Thankfully, they all stated her address which she asked the taxi driver to send her to, and paid with the twenty dollars bill she found in her bag. It was a small apartment, facing both the street and the alleyway, and had a few restaurants and convenience stores just a walk by, so Esther was grateful.
The fridge was full of food and milk for both mother and child, and the living room had a few toys and ‘how to raise a baby alone’ lying around.
Sally seemed to have moved into the master bedroom, which was her uncle’s, judging by the men’s clothing in the boxes at the corner, when she checked the other room, she was pleasantly surprised to find a fully furnished nursery. She could not help the guilt she felt, Sally had clearly been excited to become a mother, and Poseidon clearly cared for both her and his son, and yet now, thanks to her accidental body theft, Sally would never see her son grow up to be the hero she raised him to be.