He knew he shouldn't really be up and about yet but this had to be done. Sally had waited long enough and it wouldn't get any easier if he waited to tell her.
Slowly, Nico made his way up to the apartment where she and Paul lived, he had been there a few times but this would be the first time he had been there without Percy. At this thought he slowly down even until he was practically still. He tried to tell himself that he was just still suffering from the after-effects of his imprisonment (which he was) but in reality it was the weight of his own trepidation that stilled his feet.
What made it worse was that he had actually volunteered to do this. It just hadn't seemed right to let anyone else go.
He had reached the door. Steeling himself with a deep breath which he would deny taking later he knocked on the door.
Almost immediately it was flung open and Sally Jackson stood there with a wild halo of curls around her head and a hopeful look in her lined eyes. The lines worried Nico. He couldn't remember seeing them before Percy had left.
The hopeful look dimmed slightly as she saw Nico there instead of Percy, whom there was no doubt she had been waiting for, but a small smile graced her lips nonetheless.
"Nico, come in." Nico stepped through the door feeling worse with every step he took inside. He shouldn't be welcome here and after he had said his piece he knew he wouldn't be.
He was ushered into the kitchen where he was all but pushed into a chair while Sally busied herself with pouring him a cup of coffee from the pot. He observed her while she had her back turned and what he saw made him feel no better. She looked more fragile than he could ever remember seeing her. Her cheekbones were more prominent that he would have liked to see and there was a slight but undeniable tremor to her hands. It wasn't surprising, he summarised, worry would do that to a person.
He waited until she was seated before he finally worked himself to say what he had to say.
"Is he okay?" Sally's quiet question took him by surprise but she simply carried on regardless of what he had planned to tell her, "When you knocked I thought you might be him… after that phone call I was so sure he would come back…" Her voice tailed off as she stared at Nico from across the kitchen table. The words stuck in his throat and Nico found himself quite unable to say anything at all. To his shock and slight dismay on how much harder this would make things Sally reached across the table between them and grasped onto Nico's hand. Her skin felt cold to him; a fact that worried him more than normal. "Tell me he's okay."
Nico tried to extract his hand gently from hers but she only clutched it tighter. The lump in his throat grew, "I'm sorry." He croaked. He wished there was more he could say but words had, not for the first time, failed him.
"What do you mean?" She asked, panic creeping into her voice, "Where is he? What happened? Why-"
"There was quest that, well… didn't go according to plan. I can't tell you all of it," Nico swallowed to try and work his way around the lump that now seemed to be trying to choke down his words. He knew that there was nothing actually stopping him telling Sally the long and arduous story apart from his own weakness. He couldn't relive that memory. Not now. Not yet.
"But it was at the end. Annabeth had sent…a monster to the depths of Tartarus… you know what that is?"
Sally waved her hand impatiently which Nico gathered that she must have known what it meant. He was glad that he didn't have to explain that to her at least.
"Anyway, the monster caught her on the way down," Nico ploughed on despite the shaking hand that Sally had raised to cover her mouth and steadfastly ignored the tears that glistened in her eyes. "She was holding on but barely-"
"Percy grabbed her didn't he?" She murmured. Nico nodded miserably not surprised that she had made that leap. It was just so Percy to jump in and try to save the day. It was so stupidly heroic that it made him want to scream.
"They both" Nico's voice cracked on the last word but he cleared his throat and blundered on, "They both fell." Nico averted his eyes so as not to see the tears that fell down Percy's mother's face.
Percy's mother. And here he was explaining that her only child was stranded in the deepest pits of hell.
He figured that he might as well inform her properly, "It was my fault." He said bluntly as she looked up in shock. "I was captured and Percy was the one who came to save me. If I hadn't been there he would've gotten to Annabeth sooner."
Sally didn't look she had heard him as she continued to stare into his face, "Are they…can they come back?"
Nico forced himself to look her in the eye. It was the least she deserved and he was not surprised to see his own pain reflected back at him. "We're going to try but even if we do… there are things in there no one's meant to see. When…if they come back, they won't be the same. They can't be."
Sally didn't reply. Nico wondered if there even was a reply for what he had just said.
There was a beat of silence that demanded to be filled.
Instead of speaking Sally stood up and walked around to him. She took him by the arm and made him stand. Dully, he registered that this is how he thought it would play out in the end. He should count himself lucky that she was only going to throw him out of her flat and not try and run him through with a kitchen knife. He wasn't sure if he could defend himself from it that at the moment. He wasn't sure if he would.
Therefore when two thin but surprisingly strong arms wrapped around him and a face buried into his shoulder he was at a complete loss at what to do. Tentatively, he raised his own arms and placed them on her back. He was no good at this; he had no practice.
Then the sobs began. He held her the best he could as sobs wracked Sally's small frame. Words turned to ash in his mouth but he knew they would not help. The only person who could stop this was literally being fighting his way through hell, but until he got back (and it was there and then Nico resolved that he would personally drag Percy out of hell itself if he needed to) he would just have to do the best he could.
The very best, because the woman who had been put through so much deserved no less.
….
A/N- Sorry for the wait! Thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it! If you did (or didn't) please leave a review to let me know what you think J
VE
