Your reactions to the last chapter made me feel so good, even if that chapter was not a good situation for Leo. Yes, indeed: Poor Leo D:

Fair warning, the medical jargon in this story is complete and utter bullshit. I'm just writing what I think the Seven would do in this situation, seeing as NONE of them are children of Apollo. So, if you are a RL doctor and are yelling at me all like "WHAT!? Why would you do that!? Never do that! Why don't you do this (insert correct form of treatment here) instead!? You're an idiot author!"

I give. Zero shits. Because in my version of this world, this works! :I

Anyway...Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize as canon!

Four: The Realities We Must Face

*~Piper POV~*

Piper sat outside the infirmary with Percy. They both crouched against the wall, hugging each other. Piper couldn't be bothered that it wasn't her boyfriend hugging her. Having someone there to keep a hold of her made her feel a little better.

Key words: a little.

Piper wanted to jump off the ship and escape the horrible situation they were in.

Leo's screams echoed off the walls of the ship. It felt like the Argo II groaned and creaked in response to its commander's distress. Piper tried to shut out the screams by covering her ears, but her best friend's cries penetrated her eardrums and shot her through the brain. Percy looked like he wasn't faring much better.

He's gone through Tartarus, Piper thought. And yet he can't deal with Leo losing his arm like this…

Well, she wasn't one to talk. Every time she registered screaming Piper would start hyperventilating. Piper couldn't believe this was happening. She couldn't believe the next time she saw Leo, he would only have one arm!

"Stupid Nemesis," she mumbled. "Why couldn't she leave Leo alone? He needs his hands! He'll die without both of them!"

Percy hugged tighter. Piper appreciated it considerably. After a few more minutes, Leo's screaming had turned to a faint whimper, and in a few minutes it was nothing but a distant memory.

The demigods composed themselves and slowly peeked their heads inside. Annabeth, Jason and Hazel were covered in blood, Hazel the most. She didn't look very thrilled about it, either; she actually looked as if she was about to puke.

Jason was extremely pale, leaning up against the counter with his back to the crowd of demigods, his head bowed.

Annabeth was the only one doing something: she was dressing Leo's shoulder, cleaning it with bloodying rags and wrapping and re-wrapping the wound. After she wrapped the shoulder, Annabeth would rotate to the chest wound, applying pressure and keeping it clean as best she could. When she was semi-satisfied, Annabeth would rotate back to the shoulder and redress it.

Leo was breathing heavily, unconscious. His normally natural tan skin was almost Nico-level pale. He had lost so much blood. His unconscious face was contorted in agony, perspiration making his whole body glisten. Tear tracks stained his cheeks. And then of course there was his arm...

Leo's black arm—his severed, black arm, Piper realized with a jolt—was lying off to the side, near Jason on the counter. Jason kept glancing at it, shuddering. He was an ex-Praetor. A Roman son of Jupiter. And he was broken. Everybody has a breaking point, Piper assessed. And I think everyone in this room's was Leo losing his arm...

Suddenly, the arm began to glow. Jason stumbled away with wide eyes. Percy and Hazel gasped. Annabeth glanced up, but kept on with her job. Piper had never seen the girl so focused before, even when she was thinking up battle strategies. But then again, Piper'd never seen what was happening to Leo's arm before.

It lifted into the air and hovered about a foot off the counter. Then, in a flash of white light, it was gone. On the counter, in the exact spot the arm had been, lay a fortune cookie.

Hazel gasped when she saw it and asked Jason to toss it over. He did just that and went back to leaning on the counter. Hazel broke the cookie and read the contents out loud:

Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Valdez.

~Nemesis~

She threw the cookie onto the ground and smashed it, then ripped the slip of paper into tiny pieces. Hazel set her hand on Leo's head for a second before stomping out of the room with a murderous look in her eye.

Piper shuffled closer to the unconscious son of Hephaestus, trying not to look at the space where his arm should have been. She felt someone push her aside.

Percy had regained his composure, it seemed. While he took up Annabeth's job of wrapping the patient's shoulder, Annabeth began hooking Leo up to some IVs that led to hanging packets of blood and placed an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. The tubes on the mask were connected to a life support system underneath Leo's bed. It occurred to Piper that his breathing was getting shallower now that the arm had disappeared. She couldn't help but think that one of his lungs might have been punctured. She felt herself tense up.

"Leo," she whispered, taking his only hand in hers. It was clammy and cold. "Please stay with us…We need you. We all love you. Stay here. Stay…"

She never figured out if it was her (unintentional) charmspeak or the oxygen mask that had stabilized him. All she could see was his body relaxing slightly, his breath returning to a steady rhythm. Annabeth stuck another IV, this time leading to a completely different substance, in his arm and smiled gratefully at Piper.

Jason had gotten better as well, finally getting up the nerve to stand up straight and look at Leo. His eyes were clouded with pain as he looked at his best friend. After a couple minutes, Jason slowly walked over to Piper, kissed her, and stumbled out of the infirmary. Piper let him go; he needed some space. We all do…

"Te extraño…"

The whimper was so faint Piper almost missed it. She gripped Leo's hand tighter. Was he awake already?

"Te extraño," he whimpered again through the oxygen mask, slightly louder—just slightly. "Te extr-raño…T-te a-amo…"

Leo hadn't opened his eyes. He was deep in a coma yet he had spoken to them. Piper had no idea what he was saying, either. All she knew was that Leo spoke Spanish, sometimes switching from English to Spanish when he got scared or excited. It was a lot like his fire powers—sometimes fueled by pure emotions and lack of control. She had heard him on those nights in Bunker 9 (she had gone to check on him) speaking the second language in his sleep, having one-sided conversations.

Piper and Percy glanced at Annabeth. If anyone would know Spanish on the ship besides Leo, it would be her, right?

But the daughter of Athena shook her head. "No idea."

Percy nodded in understanding and continued to redress Leo's shoulder. This was about the sixth time he'd done it since taking up the job his girlfriend had started, and judging by the lack of blood pouring out this time, it would probably be the last time he'd do it for a while.

"Alright," Percy announced as he finished. His voice was shaking slightly. "We need to keep a steady eye on him until he wakes up. Annabeth, do we have plenty of ambrosia and nectar?"

"Yes we do," she answered.

"Did you give him some already?"

"Of course we did," Annabeth retorted. "As much as we could, y'know, after…"

Piper was grateful she let that hang. She unconsciously let her gaze drift over Leo's bandaged chest to his shoulder stump—gods that was painful to think about!

Annabeth blinked a few times and squared her shoulders. "So, now we need to set up a 'Leo watch'. I'll take the first watch, keep him stable. I may not be a child of Apollo, but I sure as Hades know how to take care of a patient. I hooked him up to the life support since one of his lungs was failing. The ambrosia's worked a little bit, but I think there's a too many big wounds for it to heal all at once. The lung is still critical, but at least now it can handle a steady, controlled flow of oxygen. Let's just be thankful he didn't drown in his own blood."

All three demigods shuddered.

"And, in case you're wondering, Piper…" Annabeth turned to look at Piper. "I just hooked Leo into some heavy sedatives. I read somewhere it can keep critical conditioned patients' functions at a minimum, and that helps the body out a lot. When he stabilizes, we can take him off the sedatives and he'll wake up—"

Piper didn't want to say it, but it had slipped. "What if he never wakes up?"

The room was silent, save for Leo's now minuscule, drugged breathing. Piper elaborated: "What if you take him off the sedatives and he just slips into a real coma? What if he doesn't stabilize and just…"

Annabeth held the daughter of Aphrodite's shoulders firmly. "Piper," she said in a calm, yet strained, voice. "Try to avoid those thoughts. He can and will wake up. He'll do it as soon as the sedatives wear off. He's Leo Valdez, Piper. He can survive this."

Piper wiped away a stray tear. "Let's hope so."

A/N: As I said, I am in NO WAY a doctor, so what I wrote is completely out my ass. Please don't judge that too harshly... :(

The Spanish will be explained in the next chapter, so don't freak out if you don't understand it (cause I know I wouldn't!).