Author's Note: This next one is my take on the three days Nico promised to spend in the infirmary. This takes place after Nico admits to having liked Percy. Leo still kinda exploded and isn't back yet but he will be fear not. It may end up as a multiple chapter one. There will be a lot of Reyna being an overprotective sibling plus caring Will. This takes place before the previous chapter. I own nothing.
Three Days Part 1
Will shook her head as she looked down at the clipboard in her hands. The name at the top read Nicolla Di Angelo, Will hadn't known that her full name was Nicolla. Apparently the only person who had known in this day and age had been Bianca. A lot of the page remained blank, mostly the medical history section. From what she'd managed to get out of the daughter of Hades she was from the 1930's. It would be nearly impossible to get ahold of any preexisting medical records that might possibly still exist for her. Will would just have to start from scratch. Will was honestly kind of surprised that Nico had agreed to set foot inside the infirmary, let alone stay but the blonde wasn't complaining. Nico was dangerously malnourished to the point where Will swore she could see the smaller girl's ribs even through that horrible monstrosity of a Hawaiian shirt she had yet to change out of. Not to mention that whole nearly melting into a shadow thing.
"Kayla can you do me a favor and see if you can find some scrubs for our intensive care patient? If I have to keep looking at that Hawaiian monstrosity my eyes will start to bleed." Kayla nodded grinning slightly.
"Anything to make your favorite patient more comfortable." Will stuck out her tongue and went to check on Katie Gardener who'd shattered her wrist during the battle. Will was actually pretty glad for the presence of the Romans now that they had calmed down from that whole kill the Greeks thing. They had brought several healers of their own and that helped take some of the pressure off of the Apollo cabin though they were all still working themselves to the bone.
"The ambrosia's helping quite a bit. It doesn't even hurt anymore." Will nodded and was about to reply when Austin came skidding into the room completely out of breath.
"Will. Intensive care. Emergency. Losing her." Will was out the door before Austin could gasp out another word. She barreled past a worried looking group of demigods Austin hot on her heels. She didn't notice Persephone Jackson or Arthur Chase with twin looks of horror on their faces nor Nico's roman sister Hazel Levesque sobbing in the arms of the new Praetor Frank Zhang. No, all Will noticed was the shadows actively seeping out from under the closed door. Will wasted no time, she shoved the door open with her shoulder and raced inside slightly slowed by the shadows that seemed to nip at her heels but she didn't care. What she cared about was the demigod currently melting into a puddle of shadows on the bed. Three Apollo kids, Kayla, Hannah, and Clark, were already there chanting Apollo hymns and trying to save the rapidly fading daughter of Hades with no luck. Will shoved her way through the shadows as Hannah and Clark pulled their hands away with twin Greek curses. Barely registering the frost coating her sibling's fingers Will placed her hands over Nico's nearly translucent chest right over her heart. She began to chant even as the cold seeped into her skin. Steam rose as Will began to glow dimly and the shadows retreated from the daughter of Apollo. Will didn't notice the passage of time, she just focused on the girl in front of her. She wasn't going to die, not on Will's watch.
Finally, five agonizing minutes later Nico was solid again. But Will could feel no heartbeat under her fingers and shut up her siblings cheering with barked orders.
"Kayla get the defibrillator! Clark run for nectar. Austin get OR prepped in case we have to go in. Hannah get that door shut!" Her siblings scrambled to comply.
Persephone 'Percy' Jackson was sobbing, not that the others were doing much better. Hazel was a mess in Frank's arms, Jason was cradling Piper as tears streamed down both their faces. Reyna sat on the bench outside Nico's room face stoic. They had just lost Leo they couldn't lose Nico too. It was just then that Drew Tanaka decided to walk by. The members of the seven, now six, were rapidly becoming celebrities around both camps. But Drew had never liked Percy or Arthur and Piper had taken her place of power in the Aphrodite cabin and any chance she'd had with Jason.
"Well, well, look at this. The Heroes of Olympus standing around sobbing. Who died this time?" Frank, who wasn't good with sarcasm especially when Hazel was upset muttered.
"Nico isn't doing well." Drew raised a perfect eyebrow.
"That creepy Hades kid? Good riddance she…" But Drew got no father. Hazel, Percy, and Jason had both lunged for her but to the surprise of all of the gathered demigods Reyna got there first. She decked Drew in the face laying the other girl out on the floor with what was clearly a shattered nose.
"Say another word against her and I will kill you. No one insults my friend and gets away with it!" Drew scrambled to her feet and ran. Hazel turned to Reyna.
"Thank you Praetor." Reyna gave her a tight worried smile.
"A sister of Nico's is a sister of mine. And please call me Reyna." Hazel nodded and gave her a watery smile. The group spun at the sound of someone clearing their throat behind them. Will was leaning in the finally open doorway, Kayla smiled tiredly at the group and slipped past her sister to go see to other things in the infirmary followed closely by Hannah and Clark. As soon as they were alone Will smiled tiredly.
"Know that as a doctor I can't approve of breaking someone's nose but I silently applaud you. Now on to much more important matters. Nico is stable." The cheering was almost deafening. Will had to let out a low sonic whistle to get them to quiet down.
"Nico is stable but it was a very close thing. I'm not going to lie to you we very nearly lost her a few times." Hazel's hands flew to her mouth as fresh tears built in her eyes. Will was in full doctor mode, like she'd been when Arthur had taken the knife for Percy during the battle of Manhattan.
"We managed to stop her from fading but the strain on her body was almost too much. She went into cardiac arrest and we had to restart her heart twice. She's doing a bit better but she's got assistance breathing and an IV in at the moment. She's also going to have an Apollo kid in the room at all times for the next few days in case she starts to fade again. Austin is going to take first shift but may contact me if he needs help, there's drachma and a fountain in the corner. You can come in to see her but she's asleep and I'd like to keep it that way for the next few days if we can. Gods know she needs the rest." Will stepped aside and let the group pile into the small room. Hazel rushed to Nico's side and gently took her hand. Will turned to Reyna.
"You're the one who was with her transporting the Athena Parthenos, Reyna right?" Reyna nodded.
"I need to know if there are any injuries she didn't have a chance to tell me about." Will was very worried about this as she hadn't actually had much of a chance to talk to Nico since Octavian's unintentional suicide. They had exchanged a few words outside the infirmary after Nico had finished talking to Percy but Nico had passed out a few minutes later, staying awake only long enough to answer a few questions and make it to the bed in intensive care. Reyna nodded looking over at Nico worry in her eyes.
"Yes there is at least one that I'm aware of. We were in a fight with a pack of werewolves while we were in Portugal. Lycaon the first werewolf scratched her, across her biceps. I stitched them up as best I could but they wouldn't heal. Whenever Hedge tried using his nature magic they would just get worse." Will nodded running a hand through her bangs. She peeled off the gloves she was wearing and switched them out for a new set.
"Yeah werewolf scratches can be tricky. She didn't get bit did she?" There was terror in Will's eyes but her voice remained level and calm. Reyna shook her head.
"Thank the gods no. It was really close though." Will nodded and quick stepped over to the door and waved Austin down as he passed in the hallway.
"Get me a suture kit, I'm going to up her nectar intake .2cc's. We'll have to cut it off a bit early to compensate. And send Hannah to find Lou Ellen. Tell her I need books on Lycaon and werewolves in general. If she doesn't have any talk to Mitchel from Athena, he should have something. I'll take over first watch. Make sure Clark and Hannah get treated for the frostbite on their fingers." Austin nodded and raced off. He came back moments later with a small white kit and a fresh box of gloves. Will set up a metal tray of equipment. Kayla knocked at the door her almost white blonde pink streaked hair pulled back out of her face.
"Need any help in here?" Austin dodged past her to carry out Will's requests. Will nodded at her sister her short crop of golden hair bouncing slightly.
"Yeah actually. Can you cut the sleeves off Nico's shirt? I doubt she'll miss that monstrosity and if she does I'll get her a new one myself." Kayla nodded and grabbed a large pair of scissors out of one of the cabinets and made her way around the knot of demigods. She carefully cut off Nico's sleeves revealing gashes that curved up her biceps almost to her shoulders. Hazel screamed and fainted in Frank's arms. She wasn't normally squeamish but this was different.
Not only was this her sister but the cuts were a deep unhealthy purple with green rimmed yellow puss oozing out of several of them. Kayla rushed to help Frank with Hazel while Will rushed to treat Nico. Only Reyna noticed the slight shaking in Will's hands as she began to treat the gruesome gashes. It was a long slow process.
Will spent three hours working to clean the infection from Nico's left arm before silently stretching, changing her equipment and gloves and silently setting to work on the right arm which was just as bad. By the time she was done only Reyna was left in the room and night had fallen. Will looked around, a touch confused.
"They left nearly two hours ago. Chiron said something about curfew. I don't have a cabin so I'm staying in the big house. I said I'd rather stay here with Nico when he asked if I needed a room." She wasn't asking Will if she could stay she was telling the healer that she was staying. Will nodded her eyes a bit bleary. Reyna was watching the bed like a hawk. Most wouldn't be able to but Will could read her expression like an open book.
"You didn't fail her you know. Werewolf scratches are tricky. I've honestly never seen anyone survive a werewolf attack until now." Reyna smiled slightly.
"I am glad Camp Half Blood has such skilled healers. There's quite a lot that the Roman children of Apollo could learn from you." Will blushed a dark red as she took off her gloves. Someone knocked on the door and Austin stuck his head in the room.
"Sorry to interrupt. I'm here to take next watch." Will shook her head.
"You look exhausted Austin, go get some sleep, I got this." Austin nodded.
"Kayla's on watch for the infirmary tonight. Lacey from Aphrodite volunteered to help her out." Will nodded.
"Let Kayla know where I'll be then go get some sleep. It's too late to go back to the cabin tonight. There's a spare mattress in my office. It should be unlocked." Austin nodded rubbing his eyes.
"You sure? You've been up for quite a while?" Will nodded.
"I'm sure. Go get some sleep, cabin counselors orders." Austin grinned slightly.
"I knew you'd abuse that power sooner or later." Will smiled.
"Only to help my siblings." Austin shook his head and left. Reyna nodded at the blonde as she began to check over Nico's vitals again. Soon they were sitting in silence. Reyna was watching Will but the daughter of Apollo didn't notice, she was too busy watching Nico. She seemed to be unable to sit still. She checked the clock above the door and turned back to Nico carefully removing the IV needle from her arm.
"I hate to do it but any more nectar could be fatal and I'm not going to risk it." Reyna nodded.
"You care about her a lot don't you?" Will kept her eyes fixed on her work as she nodded.
"I was under the impression that Nico didn't have any friends at Camp Half Blood." Will picked up Nico's chart, making a few notes near the middle.
"The thing about Nico, as I'm sure you've discovered for yourself, is that she's really hard to get close to. I met her briefly before she disappeared from camp the first time." Reyna raised an eyebrow.
"First time?" Will nodded still focused on Nico's chart.
"Yeah. She was around ten when she first came to camp. Her sister joined the hunters of Artemis but they wouldn't let her join. I don't know why, probably because her father didn't want Artemis to take both of his children. Anyway Bianca went on a quest with another hunter, a satyr named Grover, and Percy and well she didn't come back. Percy took Nico out to explain what had happened and Nico never came back. No one heard from her for about six months. Most hoped she'd died. Better that than brainwashed into Kronos's army. Of course none of knew at the time whose kid she was." Will clipped the board back to the end of the bed.
"She was a really sweet kid back then, kinda nerdy with a million questions. But she was only here for about a week. I didn't get the chance to really get to know her. She was a bit shy." Reyna smiled trying to imagine this side of Nico.
"Next time I saw her was mid battle." Reyna nodded.
"The battle of Manhattan right?" Will shook her head.
"No, the battle of the labyrinth." Will fidgeted with a bead on the necklace she wore.
"She showed up and honestly we wouldn't have won that battle without her. She summoned a few legions of the undead and nearly died doing it. Then after the battle she disappeared again before I could talk to her." Reyna glanced at Nico.
"She'd have been about eleven right? A touch shorter than she is now, less skinny, dancing skeletons t-shirt?" Will finally met Reyna's eyes, a confused look on her face as she nodded.
"Yeah. How did you know?" Reyna took Nico's right arm and turned it gently so her right forearm was facing up. A tattoo was burned into her skin there, a strange trident like symbol with an orb instead of a middle prong set above the letters SPQR and three horizontal black lines.
"That's when she showed up at Camp Jupiter." Will's eyebrows nearly disappeared into her wavy blonde hair.
"I mean I knew she knew about both camps but I didn't think she'd joined the legion." Reyna shrugged gently laying Nico's arm back down and tucking it under the blankets.
"She resisted heavily when she first showed up, especially after she met Jason. Disappeared for a few weeks but showed back up saying that her father wanted her to join the legion and act as his ambassador so her joining the legion was very conditional. But one of the traditions she couldn't talk herself out of was getting the tattoo. It's an easy way to distinguish friend from foe." Will nodded and continued.
"Then she showed up again at the end of the battle of Manhattan. She'd somehow managed to convinced her father to come help. We'd have all died in that last offence if they hadn't shown up. It was the most badass thing I'd ever seen. She just walked through the enemy line radiating death, forced them back. After that Percy made the deal with the gods that all the gods and goddesses be recognized here at camp. That included Hades. There wasn't a cabin for him before. Nico built her own cabin but she didn't stay long. Some of the other campers weren't accepting of her. The whole death thing scared them. I was busy trying to adjust to being councilor for my cabin and running a post war infirmary so I didn't get the chance to get to know her before she left again. I wanted to but something always got in the way, like we weren't supposed to get close until now." Reyna nodded. It made some sense in an odd way. If Nico had gotten too close to Will before she might not have left Camp Half Blood to begin with and would never have made her way to Camp Jupiter much less bring Hazel there. The seven had clicked easily enough but Nico had been instrumental in bringing them together. Will absently ran a hand through her hair again.
"Can't believe no one noticed the tattoo before though." Reyna shrugged.
"She normally wears that long sleeved jacket. It was destroyed in the battle with Lycaon." Will nodded and pulled on a new pair of gloves before checking Nico's wounds again and frowning. She peeled off her gloves and stood behind the head of the bed. Reyna raised an eyebrow at the blonde.
"Healing magic works best when there's tactile contact, you know skin to skin. And I just realized how awkward that sounds." She blushed lightly as she gently laid her hands over the cuts and began to chant a hymn to Apollo. Reyna watched with curiosity as the daughter of Apollo began to glow dimly. She stayed like that for a good ten minutes before the glow faded and Will carefully lifted her hands. The jagged edges of the wounds were softer and they were definitely smaller though scar tissue appeared to have replaced the once blemish free skin of Nico's bicep where the wound had extended nearly to her shoulders. They weren't completely healed but they were well on their way. Will smiled tiredly.
"Good. I wasn't sure that would help." Will wobbled as she stepped out from behind the head of the bed and Reyna caught her as she stumbled.
"Are you alright?" Will nodded.
"Yeah. Just tired. I haven't tried that one before. My brother Michael Yew taught me that one but told me that he never used it. Said it was draining. He wasn't wrong." Reyna guided Will to the bed next to Nico's. Will shook her head.
"I shouldn't be sleeping. I need to keep an eye on Nico." Reyna smiled.
"I'll keep an eye on her and wake you up if anything changes."
"Promise?" Reyna nodded.
"I swear it." Will flopped her head on the pillow facing Nico.
"Good. Don't want to lose her again." Reyna's smile grew as she pulled the covers over the exhausted child of Apollo.