When Sally Jackson woke up that morning it was one just as any other. She pulled on her robe, put the bread in the toaster and started making the coffe. Then she'd go wake up Paul and they'd eat breakfast while trying to keep the conversation light. Not that he was much of a talker in the morning, the fact that he wasn't a mornign person always surprised her. He'd worked as a teacher for some time now and been going up the same time almost everyday for ten years but it still took him three coffe cups to wake him up fully in the morning. But she still enjoyed the company, however little it was. Because she didn't want to be alone at the moment, especially not in the quiet mornings... it gave her to much space to think. She preferred to keep herself busy, keep everything going.

Which was exactly what she had been doing for the last eight months and she'd almsot gotten used to it. She'd gotten used to survive day after day without knowing if her son was alive. It wasn't something new, he'd been through so many quests and they hadn't precisely been safe. But this? This was different, he'd just disappeared, in the middle of the night. Sally still remembered the exact conversation she'd had when Annabeth had called her-

"Paul," she called from the kitchen," time to go up!" She scanned the room for something that needed to be doen and was pleased when she saw the dirty dishes from last night. They were done after only a few minutes, which left Sally standing in the middle of the kitchen with her coffe mug without anything to do.

"Morning," she heard him grumble in his morning voice as he entered the room, sat down on the chair and stared at the coffe mug in front of him. "What's the clock?" he yawned.

Sally glanced at the phone. "Five past seven," she said as she sipped her coffe and clicked on the answering machine "I don't recognize the number," she murmured as she took another sip of her coffe. "Are you expecting a call?"

"Don't think so," he answered as he rubbed the sleep of his eyes.

With a shrug she clicked on the button and started to play the message. " Mom." Sally dropped her blue mug. Paul choked on his toast.

"Hey, I'm alive. Hera put me to sleep for a while, and then she took my memory, and…" he paused and she could feel her breathe did the same. Yeah,something was different this time. Memories? But he msut have gotten them back... he remembered their number...

"Anyway, I'm okay. I'm sorry. I'm on a quest—" He caught his breathe again and hesitated. She wanted to tell him that she could take it, he was on a quest. But he would come home. He always did.

"I'll make it home. I promise. Love you."

He even promised.