“You jumped?” Danny said, his hands gripping the steering wheel a bit tighter.

“Mhmm.” Elena grinned proudly from the passenger seat.

Danny hadn’t seen his daughter Elena in two months— though it felt like longer. 

He'd been so excited to hear all about her time at summer camp as he drove her home, he just hadn’t thought it would be so anxiety-producing.

He was getting vertigo just thinking about it. “And you said there was no net at the bottom, right monkey?”

“Right Danno.” Elena nodded.

“Just the harness you were wearing.”

“Mhmm.”

“Wow that’s- that’s- that’s a little dangerous huh?”

Elena shrugged. “A little. But Kai said it’s important to face our fears.”

Danny readjusted his fingers on the wheel, forcing himself to loosen his grip. “What else did you do at camp?”

“Oh,” Elena jumped in her seat, “Kai taught us how to gut a boar!”

Danny barely had time to blink before Elena was already moving on to the next thing.

“And we also,” she mimed shooting a bow and arrow, “shwoo,” she said, releasing her imaginary arrow.

Danny was still processing gutting a boar.

“And knives!” Elena said.

Danny blinked, boar forgotten. “Knives what?”

“We learned how to throw them!”

Danny blinked some more, sure that he'd heard wrong.

“One more time, monkey. You learned how to throw what?”

“Knives!” Elena said excitedly, her dark curls bouncing on her shoulders as she stabbed and cut the air in front of her with an invisible knife. Then she added, “just like Annabeth!”

Danny opened his mouth then closed it again.

He blinked some more.

Then he looked at his daughter, still making stabbing and throwing gestures.

“What kind of a madman teaches kids how to throw knives?” Danny said, unable to help himself.

“Chiron does,” Elena answered thoughtfully.

“That’s-that’s different,” Danny said, thinking his daughter's favorite book series didn’t count as a prime example. “Or what, is this Kai a centaur too?”

“No,” Elena laughed, with an obviously not look on her face, “he’s a seal. So he knows what he’s doing.”

She thumbed the beaded necklace she’d made at camp, it had been the first thing she showed her dad when he picked her up.

She held it out again to show her dad the seal charm she’d put on it. 

See, her eyes said.

Danny’s brain was close to overloading.

“What? A seal? Is he full seal, or half seal?” He said, shifting in his seat as the car came to a stop at a red light. “Does he clap for treats too?” He started clapping his hands in front of him and tried his best to imitate seal sounds. “Like that? Does he do that?”

Elena held on to her stomach as laughter escaped out of her, making Danny laugh too.

“No," she finally said. "Like a Navy SEAL, military. He’s got all the special training Danno. He knows what he’s doing.”

Danny scrunched his brows. “What does that have to do with being a camp director and dealing with kids? He's been trained to—” He stopped before he could say kill.

The light turned green and he began driving again.

“His training dealt more with how to beat your opponent,” Danny said, “no matter what. His being a Seal does not make anything better. That doesn’t mean he has previous experience with children, just adults!”

He wasn’t sure what made him more upset, the fact that this Kai guy had put his daughter in dangerous situations, or that fact that he’d justified it to them with being a Navy Seal.

Both.

“Okay,” Danny said, nodding as he pulled out of his lane to make a u-turn.

“Danno,” Elena said, “what are you doing?”

“I’m gonna go talk to this seal camp director guy,” Danny said, needing to confront the lunatic in person.

"Okay, c'mon monkey,” Danny said as he parked the car, “you're gonna show me where this super Seal is."

"Daaad," Elena whined as she followed him out of the car.

"What are you gonna do?" She asked as she led the way to the main building, which looked more like a grand lakehouse settled in a forest than an office building.

"What am I gonna do? I'm just gonna have a nice little talk with this guy. Maybe tell him that a 9 year old—"

"Danno, Percy and Annabeth were practically my age when they went to go fight monsters," Elena said, trying once again to find common ground with her dad through the books they read together.

"Yeah,” Danny said, this time without missing a beat, “and I'd have this same conversation with Chiron and Mr.D if I could."

Elena pouted and followed her dad into the building.

”Elena!” The lady at the front desk said as they walked in, “everything okay?”

“Hi Malia!” Elena beamed, grin back on her face for a moment, then the pout returned, “yeah but my dad wants to talk to Kai for some reason.”

“For some very good reasons,” Danny corrected.

He left Elena talking with the camp counselor Malia in the lobby and followed the directions to Kai’s office.

“Danno,” Elena called out before he disappeared down the hallway, “be nice!”

"I'm always nice!” He replied with a grin.

Kai Kalani - Camp Director Danny read on the door as he knocked.

“Come in!” A voice yelled from inside.

“Hi," Danny said as he entered, trying to even out his voice, hoping to at least somewhat keep his promise to Elena. "My name's Danny Arturo, I just picked up Elena.”

“Danno!” The grin on Kai’s face was instant, forming dimples on his freckled cheeks as he stood from his desk to greet Danny. “Come on in! El’s talked a lot about you!”

Danny's brows furrowed instantly.

“It’s Danny actually.” He gritted as he shook Kai’s hand.

“Oh, sorry, it’s just..." Kai shrugged as he sat back down in his chair, his dark reddish-brown curls bouncing on his forehead, "that’s what Elena called you.” 

He motioned for Danny to sit in the chair across from him.

Danny glanced at it with disregard. He crossed his arms and looked back at Kai. “Doesn’t mean you can call me Danno."

“Oh," Kai said, his eyes darting back and forth between Danny and the chair he was refusing to sit in. "Sorry..." he shrugged again as he looked back up Danny, "I just think it’s cute, is all.”

“I—" Danny froze, not having expected that answer. He blinked a few times. "It's—That's—yeah, well you-you don't need to think anything about that!”

“Okay then, Danny.” Kai smirked despite himself, “Is there something I can help you with?”

That seemed to bring Danny back to reality.

“I-ye-yes" Danny said, refocusing his brain, "actually there is Mr. SuperSeal!” He air quoted SuperSeal.