Chapter Text
Percy was sitting with his mom, when she got a call they were not expecting.
A government number on a line they knew.
Someone in foster care.
Immediately they both froze. But after a few rings she picked up hesitantly. He was sitting close enough that he heard the conversation.
“Hello, have I reached Sally Jackson?”
“Yes.”
“I'm Chiron. I would like to discuss a possible family placement. Referred by your son's cousin in New York City, named Thalia Grace.”
She blinked.
“Family placement…as in…my house?”
“Yes. You were licensed to take kinship placements in New York, correct?” he asked like he clearly knew the answer.
“Y-yes. I adopted my son's half brother less than a year ago.”
“Yes, okay. I'd like to discuss, if you are willing, the possibility of fostering Thalia's younger brother, Jason.”
She blinked.
She looked at Percy.
He met eyes with her and she was frozen.
“What's going on?” He mouthed.
“Um, what is the basics of his case?” she asked awkwardly.
“This is Jason's second time in foster care. His mother lost custody of him shortly after his birth, as you may know from interactions with his sister. He has until recently been living with his father. He has just turned 15. But his father is in the New York prison system now.”
“For an extended period of time?”
“Yes.”
She gulped.
They both got this immediately.
If she said yes. This was…for life. He was here for life.
Percy walked into the next room and motioned for Paul. He walked back to hear her clarifying that she was grabbing her husband.
Percy left. He cuddled up with Tyson and Estelle.
He wondered, as they spoke to Chiron for a long time, if he'd suddenly have another hurt little sibling. Only one much closer in age. He wondered where he would sleep.
The only room left up to code was his own…
His mom called Percy into the room after a few minutes. They were still on the phone. She looked at him and spoke. She had put it on speaker.
“I-I want to ask my teenage son for permission first. Since the only space left is in his room.”
Paul looked at him.
“We are prepared to take your cousin here, but we want to make sure you're comfortable with him joining you in your room. Chiron was going to tell you a little about his behavior.”
With the distant sounds of The Little Mermaid making their way in from the next room over, Chiron discussed a bit about him. He was prone to sensory overload and he needed time alone frequently. Percy just inferred that he had been severely neglected as an infant based on that statement despite Thalia never talking about this brother as more than a long lost memory. Chiron said he needed a lot of support in school due to disabilities. He also was prone to hitting things, not people, when he was mad. He'd broken two hands on doors and cut his hand on a mirror since entering the system again. They had healed, but it was a behavior that Percy deserved to know about before living in a close environment with him, as it could put prior survivors of abuse on edge.
Somehow he fucking knew that about Percy. Had he looked through their paperwork and application again?
After a few seconds of thought, Percy said.
“I'm not gonna leave him in the system for that. Bring him here, please.”
The guy seemed to breathe the biggest sigh of relief.
“I will be over with him tomorrow. We're coming from New York City. I can look up your husband's background check and fingerprints from his work as a teacher hopefully if he fills out the form. Excellent coincidence. But I will also need you and your teenage son to fill out a new background check form when I arrive. No fingerprints since you already did that. But background checks expire.”
Everyone confirmed they'd be able to do that.
They arranged the room.
They quickly got clean sheets on the old bunk bed. They'd gotten a twin over a full bunk bed when Tyson had joined their family. But, now that Tyson and Estelle were in the same room (since they had much closer bedtimes), Percy had just been using the bottom bunk by himself with no one else in the room.
But, that night and the next morning, they got his room ready for a brother to arrive.
Because basically…that's what was happening.
He wasn't going home. His home was gone. This was home now.
When Jason arrived in his case worker's car, Sally opened the door with a smile. Chiron walked up carrying one of his bags and a thin manilla envelope.
He handed it directly to Percy and looked at Paul.
“Please fill this out. Sally, you will also need to fill one out before I leave.”
Percy got it done in a couple minutes with Paul's help since he was so used to the form. Meanwhile mom showed Jason around. The bouncing preschooler and chatty elementary schooler were both under foot. Sort of being wrangled by a combination of mom and, surprisingly, Chiron. He was good with kids, even ones as energetic as Estelle and Tyson. A shock with the people Percy had seen in attachment to the system.
Chiron smiled as they walked out with a little list clenched tightly in Jason's hands. He handed it to Mom and she looked at it. Chiron explained.
“Jason has a lot of sensory specific eating concerns. He came up with his list of safe foods for transitional periods. All are pretty simple to make and he knows how to make most of them himself if you provide the ingredients. He enjoys making his own food.”
“Sounds good. Do you want to see what off the list is in the kitchen and what we need to buy?”
Jason nodded.
He might have been three years younger than Percy, but he was taller than Percy by at least an inch and just as bulked out. He was gonna be a huge guy. Percy suddenly got why he'd been told the (rather personal) info on his behaviors.
Because yeah…that might be genuinely scary if it happened.
Chiron stayed for a while. To introduce Jason. He had clearly been his case worker for a while. He'd been in the system a while before they'd gotten to this point. It seemed like the father's prison sentence was a recent development. As Jason went to grab earplugs from his stuff before heading to the store, Chiron spoke as he was heading out.
“I just wanted to say, because I know this is a big transition for him and he will likely be too overwhelmed to express it. He was very happy to have you say yes. He was excited to come here. He also is easily overwhelmed by transitions. Please keep that initial reaction in mind even when he might have trouble this first month or two.”
Mom smiled.
“Thank you.”
He nodded and headed out at past 5 o'clock. He probably wouldn't get back to even just the suburbs for hours. Let alone Manhattan or anything. Percy had never met a really dedicated one of those caseworkers. That guy. He was obviously invested in the kids.
Jason came out with a little container housing his reusable earplugs. They smiled at him.
“So, just you and Percy, right? I usually don't take the littles to the store unless absolutely necessary…”
He nodded.
“We also wanted to pick up a set of sheets that you liked too. What's your favorite color?”
“P-purple.”
Mom smiled.
“We've got three purple twin sheet sets because of Estelle’s former obsession with the color and the old potty training phase. We're set on that.”
He smiled a very little smile.
“I promise I'll corral any drama over the bed color from the silly little sis.” Percy said.
They grabbed what he needed at the store. Things like his favorite bread, some flavors of jam that they would write his name on, a popular brand of seed butter (because he didn't like peanut butter with a passion), a couple very specific types of cheese, and a ton of yogurt cups from a special yogurt brand. It was that fluffy stuff with the hard to peel off foil lid that Percy sort of didn't qualify as yogurt from all of his time buying cheap snacks and going to food pantries as a kid, but it was Jason's safe snack. Jason went to bed early after dinner. Percy did too to be respectful. He didn't want to sneak in and wake him up. They'd hung up a little blanket on the bottom bunk to cover the light from his phone.
Jason was out like a light the second his head hit the pillow though. Like he was too exhausted to toss and turn. Emotionally and physically.